CLICK for Babies: Period of PURPLE Crying Caps Donation Drive

As many of you may know, My wife and I are foster parents and have adopted 3 beautiful little girls from foster care in 2009. What you do not know is there were once 4 beautiful babies. The youngest of the 4 was shaken to death at the age of 2 months old, which is why my girls came into care. Kaydence spent 4 days on life support in NICU at our local hospital before the state had to make the decision to pull her off. She passed away 3/21/2009. Had she survived, she would have joined her sisters here at home with us. 

Why am I telling you this? Well, I have been shopping around for a worthy cause to take in hat donations for over the summer. Hippy Child Crochet is now supporting the Period of PURPLE Crying: Click for Babies Campaign to bring awareness to shaken baby syndrome and provide education to parents and caregivers of new infants. 

Until September 15, I will be accepting donations of purple (plain with no pompoms, straps, or buttons) infant hats, and purple yarn to make the hats. 2 of my three girls have begun loom knitting and will be helping me make the hats over the summer.

Email me at hippychildcrochet@gmail.com for a FREE infant hat pattern!

100% of the donations and proceeds will go to this cause! 

Enter the giveaway for participants of the drive 

Here.

You can mail hat or yarn donations to: (yarn donations will be used to make hats to donate, and is organized by me, not NCSBS)

Hippy Child Crochet

2620 Butlerhill Rd

Benton, LA 71006               

or hats only directly to Headquarters at:

National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome

1433 North Highway 89 Suite 110

Farmington, UT 84025

You can dontate monetarily through paypal to: Hippychildcrochet@gmail.com 
(This money will be used to buy yarn to make hats, and is organized by me, not NCSBS.. if you would like to donate straight to NCSBS, you can do so here:  www.dontshake.org )

I hope we can all work together to make this hat drive a great success! Please contact me with any questions you may have! I will be updating this with the current donation totals weekly, so keep chicking in to see how we are doing!

Check out the donations album Here

I am not affiliated in any means with the "Click for Babies" or "Period of Purple Crying" Non-Profits. I am only collecting donations to be sent to the main branch in Utah. 

This is in no way endorsed or affiliated with Facebook.

Current Totals as of 5/16/12:

Total hats: 25
Total $ to purchase yarn: $101

Contributers:

Hippy Child Crochet- $100 worth of purple yarn
Maggie Moody ($25 HCC Gift certificate) (translates to 5 hats)

Give oh Giveaway- $5 (1 hats)

The Green Dragonfly- $10 (2 hat)
Emily Davis & Kim Maggio- 3 skeins of purple yarn
Rachel Lofton- $11 (2 hats)
Angie Carman- $25 (5 hats)
Laura Bearden- $50 (10 hats)
Denise Duke- $10 (2 hats)

Pledges:

Sherry Metcalf

Tracy Omohundro 

Teresa Barber
Kathy Hignight
Heather Johnson
Faith's Yarn Works

Exciting new things to come!

You may have recently noticed that I have shut down my shop until April 16th. Here is a little explanation into why.

Most of you know that I LOVE doing craft shows.. especially modern one that focus on handmade "not your mamma's type crafts." I did the Texas Ave Makers Fair in November, and did so well and had so much fun that I immediately signed up for the next one on April 14th. I have also been offered the opportunity to be one of a handful of vendors at Easter on the Bayou, a local easter event hosted by Townsquare Media, which is one of the local radio station groups in my area. They are expecting around 8,000 people to attend that! I am also contemplating doing an Earth Day event at Chimp Haven.

As you could expect, I need time to create enough stock to be able to do these shows, and I wasn't getting that time while also taking orders online. I know that some of you are a little frustrated because you were planning on making orders soon, and I didnt give much notice to get your orders in. I apologize for that.

On a side note: Keep an eye out for new items that will be available when the shop reopens! one of the great things about doing shows is that I get time to work on new and exciting items to keep my shop fresh! Let me know what you think as I post all the new stuff as it gets finished! I love to hear from yall!

Official!

Ok, I bit the bullet and filed my LLC paperwork today! In a few weeks, I will be the proud owner of Hippy Child Crochet & Fiber Arts, LLC!!! I am so excited, but there is so much to worry about to make sure everything is filed right and legal! I have no clue what I am doing! Fortunately, my mom knows a CPA, and I have an appt to see him soon.

This is such an exciting time for me! If you asked me 10 years ago what I would be doing, I would have never imagined in a million years that owning a business would be it! I am proud of what I have achieved so far, but I know that I have a long and hard road ahead of me. Thanks to all of you for following me on that path!

Do Wha..?

Geeze, it has been a busy last couple of weeks! My birthday, Valentines Day, Jackie's Birthday, My mom was here from Philly for a week... and during it all, Jackie and I both got super sick, then two of the girls spent a day each on the couch because we thought THEY were getting sick. All of this put me WAY back on orders, and I have been rushing to catch up!

My drop spindle and roving wool came in on my birthday, too! I only had time to play with it a little, and made about a yard of about worsted size yarn. I can't wait to catch up so I can start playing around and get to know what I am doing. A little of my yarn is dyeable, so I get to try that too, although the colorful Cupcakes that I ordered should hold me down for a while!

On another note, the Texas Avenue Makers Fair will be on April 14th this Spring. I have already registered, and I look forward to meeting all of you local to the Shreveport/Bossier City area. :) For all of you not able to attend, I will post photos for you!

Until next time... :)

To Spin or Not to Spin...

My every day goal is to further my craft. I live to discover new and unique techniques.. things that can set me apart from everyone else.

 I have recently started with Tunisian (tun-ee-sh-ian) crochet. It is fun, sturdy, and easy to do in it's basic form, and can transform into open, lacy, beautiful work with just a little extra effort. I can't wait for my new books to get here so I can create! I have already raided  Hobby Lobby, and have TONS of lace weight, beautiful yarns sitting here waiting for inspiration to knock me upside the head.

The big question is, with this new area waiting to be explored, should I also start experimenting in spinning my own yarn? I have been browsing several shops that offer so many bright, squishy, wonderful yarns that literally make my mouth water, reminding me of cotton candy. I can't afford to pay $25.00 for just enough yarn to make one small hat, or 1/4th of a scarf. I am dying to work with this yarn, but I am sure my customers don't want to pay $40 for an infant hat.

The only solution to this problem is to do it myself! Am I ready for that? My yarn stash and work area already take up a significant portion of my living room... I don't know if Jackie will stand for a spinning wheel too! Who wants to donate to build onto my house? LOL. I really DO need more space, but the only option we have right now is to move two of the girls into the same bedroom and turn Rileigh's bedroom/playroom into my workroom, and right now, they all benefit from having separate rooms.

Another of the pressing concerns is where I would get the spinning wheel and other supplies I need. We live in a small town, and the nearest city only has 2 craft stores and 1 dedicated yarn shop. I have no clue about how to start up, or the cost of doing everything properly. I guess I really just need to do more research right now, and stick to what I know... Hopefully soon, though. Hopefully soon.

Behind the Scenes at Hippy Child Crochet

Hi Everyone! I thought it would be nice to have a little "get to know me" post to start us off. 


My name is Fawn, and I am a crochet-a-holic. I love working new patterns, new yarns, new textures, new stitches. I am a perfectionist. I refuse to give or sell anything to anyone that is not the absolute best that I have to offer. I have been known to go back several rows, or even take the whole thing apart and start over if I see something wrong, so you can rest assured that anything you purchase from me will be top-notch.

I learned to crochet at the age of 7 from my grandmother. She would teach me one stitch at a time and make me do it over an over and over until I could execute it perfectly 100 times before moving to the next lesson. It was a little difficult for me at first because I am left handed, but now, it makes my stitches unique and uniform. I didn't have much of an attention span for it, so I never really finished anything until college when I would make all of my Christmas presents because I was broke, just like any typical college student. :) I picked it up again when I became a stay at home mom, and decided to start selling my wares after visiting a local Maker's Fair in the spring of 2011. Business was slow at first, but I have been diligent and things are starting to pick up FAST! I am currently teaching myself Tunisian Crochet and Hairpin Lace techniques between orders, and I can't wait to be able to offer new, unique products to my customers!

My wife and I have been together for 5 years, and live in the small town in Northwest Louisiana that I grew up in (she is from Oklahoma) about 10 minutes from where I grew up. We have been foster parents for 4 years, and finalized the adoption on two of our three little girls last March. Our youngest's adoption is coming up soon! Alexis is 6, and is going to be just like me! She loves to read and cannot wait for me to teach her how to crochet! Jasmine is 5 and is a spunky little ball of fire. She has an opinion about everything and will most likely turn out to be the artist of the family or a fashion designer. Rileigh is 4 and is a very emotional, yet rough and tumble little girl. She is her Momma J's little girl with her big blue eyes and blond hair, and knows how to work everyone in the house to get just what she wants.

We are big animal lovers, and take in strays to find them new homes. Sometimes we just can't let them go! We have 4 cats, 3 of which were hand raised by us, 3 ferrets (they've a bad rap, but they are the BEST little critters) and a mutt the size of a small pony. That's A LOT of animals, I know, but we wouldn't have it any other way!

We try to participate in the local community, and to promote equal rights for everyone. Here is a little picture of the family in our local NOH8 campagin photoshoot. :)

From left to right: Jackie, Rileigh's arm (she can't be shown in press or advertisements until she is adopted) Jasmine, Me, and Alexis. 

Throw it all together and you have my every day life! I stay constantly busy, and most of the time my house is a wreck, but hey, it's a happy life, and that's what counts!

I hope you have enjoyed my little autobiography. :)