Bird Feature

My parrot mola ornament was featured today on the FoundHandmade blog.

Handmade Raffle for Trina

Trina is a woman I've never met in person, but I have met her mother, sister, brother-in-law, and niece. A sixteen-year breast cancer survivor, she was just diagnosed with cancer again and had to terminate her very wanted pregnancy.

Please go here for some AWESOME handmade prizes you could win by purchasing raffle tickets. Prizes include handmade jewelry, children's clothing, dolls, hair bows, furniture, a quilt, and more!

A Bit of Vintage

I love vintage stuff - One of my absolute favorite things to do is dig around at estate sales and thrift shops, looking for interesting treasures. Lately I've been looking for old books with old-fashioned illustrations, and I made all my Mother's Day cards using pictures from a 1950 kids' book, and old buttons.

I wondered how I could incorporate vintage into La Chapina while maintaining the Latin American theme of my shop. Then I found two old books that fit right in! One, from 1942, is a children's book about Peru. The other, from the 1950s, is a Mexican cookbook published by a company that made Mexican food products.

Recent Custom Orders

I've had quite a few custom orders recently - Here are two from last week. The first is a recycled huipil name piece, and the second is a pair of chunky double-stranded bracelets featuring Guatemalan beads and a phrase in Spanish that's an inside joke for the buyer and her friend.

Featured on FoundHandmade

One of my hand-sewn huipil art pieces was featured on FoundHandmade today in a blog post called "Not Your Grandmother's Embroidery". Lots of great colors and designs there!

One Year Blogiversary

Oops, I forgot my own "blogiversary"! I started this blog at the beginning of April 2008, so I'm now at a year and two weeks.

I've been featured in a few treasuries this month so to celebrate this anniversary I thought I'd share one here, which includes my tagua slice bracelet. Click here for the actual treasury page, which expires tomorrow.

Huipil Octopus

Etsy seller SewnNatural created a cute octopus using fabric from huipiles! She cut up a patchwork Guatemalan vest to make the little guy, and now she's been nominated in Etsy's Eco-Friendly item poll. You can vote for her here. She recently purchased some huipil fabric from me and I look forward to seeing what else she creates!

Free Shipping For a Limited Time!

I've got exactly 30 days til my one-year anniversary on Etsy. My goal is to hit 1000 sales by 12am on May 8... To help you help me, I'm offering free shipping on all orders to the US and Canada for a limited time!

http://lachapina.etsy.com

Simply pay for the items as normal, and I will refund all of your shipping costs through Paypal within 24 hours of payment.

Thanks!

Sewing DUH!

I bought my first sewing machine last summer and haven't used it too much. I was trying to learn from the manual, which is difficult, and I had the hardest time sewing in a straight line for the little purse I made.

I hadn't used the machine at all since coming back to the US, so I took it over to my friend's house for a sewing lesson over the weekend. The reason it was so hard to sew a straight line? I had never put the foot down! So the fabric was just going every which way, guided only by my hand.

Now it's a lot easier to sew straight :)

Giveaway!

Check out Sig's blog for a La Chapina giveaway: Your choice of any jewelry item in my shop valued at $14.50 or less! Lots of bracelets, earrings, and even some pendants to choose from!

Hurry - She'll be choosing a winner tomorrow (Friday) at 8pm Eastern :)

Easter Stuff

I love Easter - Springtime is by far my favorite time of year, and cute Easter stuff (and candy) combined with the longer days (more sunlight, yay!) and warmer weather make for a wonderful season.

I've enjoyed making some Easter and Springtime items for my Etsy shop...

Adoptive Moms in Business

La Chapina was featured on the Adoptive Moms in Business blog this week. If you are an adoptive mother with a business you'd like to talk about, feel free to contact the site and talk about listing your company in their directory!