The thing about rainbows is.. . .

The thing about rainbows is. . . do you know who made that rainbow?  The one you see plastered all over people's facebook pictures and on signs and even the White House, it's no longer white, it's now rainbow technicolor sparkly prettiness.  Do you realize that God made that rainbow?  Even more so do you remember WHY he sent the rainbow?  To promise Noah he'd never again JUDGE the entire world by flooding it with water.  And what were these people doing that angered him so?  Sin.  What does the bible say about same sex unions?  It's sin.  When we as a nation turn our back on God what can we expect him to do but turn his back on us?  It pains me to say this man PRAY HARDER.  We are in some serious trouble over here the more I read Revelation the more it makes sense and things are coming into place and it's really not going to be much longer now.  I don't say this to scare you or freak you out or anything but we are in big trouble right here in river city.  Forget about recycling.  Forget about global warming, none of it is going to matter.  It's scary how fast everything is coming to pass.  There's only a couple more things on that list that need to be done before he rolls away the sky like a  scroll and says "enough"   Are you ready?

 

Now people are all "don't judge" and it's sin just like any other sin and in that regard your right.  There is no one who is holy left here not even ONE.  But to anyone who thinks that Christians don't support them because we are judging them I just want to tell you this-  I don't support you not because I hate you, but because I love you.  I don't want you to sit there, living your life in sin, dying in your sin.  Because once you die, that's it.  It's too late to say "I'm sorry"  and you can't bank on having time on your death bed to at the very last second accept Jesus as your savior.  Jesus has called us to be perfect as he is perfect.  He has also called us to love one another in the lord for this is right.  So where true Christians are coming from is not from a place of hate but of love.  We love you.  We don't want you to die and go to hell on account of not knowing that what your doing is against God's plan for your life.  It's the tough love thing.  I've seen many cases of people feeling hate and judged where people aren't being hateful or pointing fingers at all and all I can say about that is if your feeling that way, odds are it's God pulling on your heart strings.  Do not harden your hearts.

God is a God of second chances.

Hey howdie hey kiddo's.  I know. . .it's been awhile. . . again.  Sorry.  But I really do have a good reason.  I got a job!  God is so good!  I pray all the time and not to say my prayers are not as effectual as others or anything but I have had some really hardcore servants of God praying for me lately and it's working!  I never ever thought I'd have the opportunity to design flowers again but here I am at this awesome shop, right down the street from my house designing flowers.  My all time favorite job!  Right now its just part time but I am hoping once the kids are in school I'll be able to be closer to full . . .  can't be totally full because they are only open 7 hours a day BONUS once the kids are in school I will only have to find some after care for like an hour.  So I am not looking at a crazy daycare bill.  No nights.  No Sundays.  I can't even tell you how happy I am you guys.  First day on the job a customer picked one of my arrangements out the cooler,  that felt good.  What felt even better was today I got to sit down with a bride and plan out her wedding flowers. (On my second day)  And I did it.  And I didn't mess anything up.  And she was super nice!  I hope she spreads the word and sends more brides my way because I love weddings and I don't have the kids every other Saturday anyways so I might as well be over there doing something fun and amazing instead of over here sitting on my butt crocheting or doing the dishes.  So not only am I super happy I get to do a job I love it also takes a good portion of the pressure I had off of me because things are changing once the boys go to full day school.  God is so good!  Do not for one second doubt it.  And the people I work for are Christians.  All very good things.

So be jealous :) Okay  not really jealous but I wish everyone had the opportunity to do things that they love for a living.   I may be cutting down the crochet stuff to mostly made to order things because I won't be having all the time in the world anymore to do this.  But rest assured if you need a dress or a shawl or scarf or hat or whatever I'm still your girl.  I must say the most amazing summer ever is off to a very very good start :) thanks for stopping by.

This Conversation Is Over - Alesana Lyrics

Less Than Jake: The Rest Of My Life [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

sometimes there's no one left to tell you the truth

An open letter to Less Than Jake

On my way to the show :)

Yep. . I am a old school hard core fan of the band.  I have seen them somewhere around 15 times.  Seen them on Saturday . .. just now coming down from that high.  It was really great show.  Even if it did rain a bit. . .we got to "Pick your self up and come in from the storm."  Best and weirdest part, it was in the sand.  I got to be totally up front for like 3 songs before the circle pit in the sand got too wild and I had to move or get sucked in.  Gotta love those hard core Chicago Circle pits.  I have been to shows in more than a few places, but only Chicago has those circle pits really going.  I was pretty surprised that they got it going in the sand like that just standing in the sand all day was a work out, never mind all the jumping and I wore flip flops. .  managed to get out without any broken toes.  Yay!

Waiting in the rain, in the sand, with the sissy for the jolly good show

They say you can't go home again, but seeing them again sure felt like it.  Especially since they played so many awesome old songs.  I did like their new album, I was so happy, See the Light?  I had been praying for their salvation for a good long time and when I heard the CD I was so happy because I thought they had come to Jesus, and there was going to be good music in heaven.  Then I did some research and found out they found budda or some junk.  And I haven't listened to that CD since.  But its not just Bible thumper's that don't like it my sister totally turned away from the faith and she's seen you all more than I have and she don't like it either.  Couldn't really get her to elaborate other than saying that it sucks and she don't like it.  Now I don't know how much success that CD is having but the fact that your not playing in Warped tour this year and instead are playing and weird little dives in the middle of nowhere's ville where you have to try and be PG13 because there is a bunch of apartments next door has me thinking maybe it's not doing so well.

Go back to your roots.  You still got all that talent and all that drive,  I'd like a new CD please.  Also I was quite amused that your not supposed to swear and yet you played Fuck Doug and you never ever play Fuck Doug.  Did you get fined?  Did the cops in boo foo Egypt arrest you??? That was a super long drive but I am glad I made it.  Thanks for the memories.  I really hope you all pick yourselves up and come in from the storm.

:) gotta love the horns 

my <3

My latest addiction

Yes I have realized I have a problem.  . too many ideas and not enough time in the day.  My latest tick I have been on are these super cool cotton boho retro festival tops.  I mean seriously the combinations are endless.  And I have a concert to go to Saturday . . . too many choices!  You can find all these and more at my stand alone site crochetbymel.com and then just click on the festival tops link on the top. . . so many!  These are just a few.

This Hot little number in Rasta Mix, I love the flirty little tassels don't you?

Ha ha!  My Rainbow Brite star light halter, Yep showing my age :) 

Go go gadget America!  Red white and blue stars and stripes represent

This one I made for my sister. . . she doesn't know yet but she's wearing it to the concert.

So far this is my favorite, I love the romantic lace coupled with the tassels and the beads, and baby blue to match my eyes.  . its either this or the brown one I am working on now.  ..decisions decisions :) 

Some of what's New!

Hey howdie hey look at this, two posts in one week?  Wow you guys must just be so thrilled.  Along with the new site came a smidge of new direction, I know that this ventures off in a whole different direction than the wedding dresses and fancy beautiful stuff like this:

Custom order done from Chi Krneta's wedding dress pattern that I fixed. .

But rest assured I will still be making all that pretty stuff if you just contact me on my stand alone at Crochetbymel.com  if you can dream it I can make it. . .granted that took over 2 months.  . lol 

But anyways this is one of my new festival tops

summer is here, why fight it?  These little tops are so cute and fun to wear.  You get to pick out your very own color and size. The way I set up the bottom string gives you great support, like I really couldn't believe the support was so good because lets face it, a girl needs some support.  Everyone is doing it, even people who probably shouldn't. . . like me. ha ha

Yep this is me.  modeling what my son refers to as "American boobs"  He's 5.  Every time he see's an American flag he has to point it out because well, isn't it one of the most beautiful things you've ever seen?  So when he saw this he said cool mom you got American boobs.  And I do.  And so can you!  Just head on over to Crochetbymel.com this size generally fits everyone but if your less than an A cup or grater than a D cup you should probably convo me for a custom made top so I'd be able to have it fit you better. 

Okay So I don't know what happened here its late and I am having technical difficulties seems like some of my pictures just magically disappeared.  . oh well I guess there's just more for me to write about soon :)

Never Forgetsy. . . the lessons we learn the hard way. . .

Well here's hoping that all the new handmade venue's never do forget Etsy.   I know it's been awhile since I actually wrote a post. .  sorry about that I have been busy busy busy.  The first thing I'd like to talk to you about that I am super excited about is that I have opened my very own webstore, where you don't have to sign up for anything and you can buy some products over there.  You can even contact me for custom orders an such over there. .  and I know I am not a web designer or anything and it needs some work but you can check it out here : Crochetbymel.com
Secondly (break out the party hats)  Whooo hoo!!!  I have finally got 100 sales on Etsy.  I thought it would never happen.  Surely I thought it would never happen once Etsy rolled out the IPO and cut ties with just about every social media platform I used to promote it.  You know they encourage you to promote your products on sites.  That's like an all day thing tweeting and pinning and saving on Wanelo and tumblr ( I still have little to no clue how that thing works) and g+ and then what happens?   You find out these sites are burying your posts hiding them in a little dark corner never to be seen again.  Still I managed to pull it out in the last hour.  Thank goodness!  So why would Etsy do this to their sweet little handmade artisans and crafters?  It's all about the $$$ see when you get a product selling on there all the sudden that product goes o the top of the list when someone searches for something like your item.  When there's tons of reseller's on there selling made in china. . . well than your posts get sent to the little far back corner as well. Because they want to make money.  Never mind that one fifth of all their money is OUR FEES.  So guess what?  Me and about every etsy seller I know .  . well scratch that all of them.. . . are stopping relisting stuff on Etsy.  Lets see if they miss their little 20 cents multiplied by hundreds of listings, multiplied by hundreds of sellers.  Since we are all selling less as well they are getting less selling fee's on top of that.  I guess they will just have to sell more stock to make up for all the shops leaving to go to Shopify or other platforms or just flat out giving up and they will sell a multitude of made in China. . . till everyone realizes they lost their handmade cred and then starts shopping on Amazon. . . yep that's right.  Amazon is going to open up a handmade market.  They already get a lot of traffic.  So it would be nice to be able to post stuff on there, not spend all day promoting it and get customers who actually want nice, handmade quality items.  Or you know, on my stand alone site where I don't have to worry about glitches or other issues or paying fee's. . .

Lastly I am having a contest to promote my new webstore and my new selection of fun festival tops.  You can enter it right here the lucky winner will get the festival top in their choice color and size.  FOR FREE.  I am one fifth the way to the goal, so if you know any fun loving girls please tell your friends.  It's pretty easy to enter if you have a wanelo account, if you don't you can always get one.

So lets not forget the lessons of Etsy.  Do not depend on a 3rd party for your business to thrive.  In the end all they care about is the bottom line.  Buyer beware on Etsy.  If it looks too good to be true it probably is.

I know I say this every time but I will try to be more "around" on here.  Maybe it will stick this time :)