3.16.2011

an etsy gem + a giveaway

it was really scary publishing yesterday's post. it's easy for me to be authentic when the topic is pregnancy gas, cellulite or how hot i think my husband is. not so easy when it's time to take a hard look at the dark and dingy corners of my heart. i was literally exhausted after writing it. so much so that i forgot to add the few pics we took. i may go back and add them for a visual later on. maybe.

so since that was an emotionally heavy kind of post, i want to make today's post all funsies and starshine. you GUYS i am so so so excited about this.

i was hunting on etsy (aka the playground of my wallet) for some cute crocheted hats for layla's upcoming pictures. there are TONS on there. but i wanted a specific style: the kind with the earflaps and the long pigtail looking strands hanging down. plus i wanted a flower and the ability to pick my own colors. control, much? yes please.

well for lots of the big, well-known shops, you are talking a good 25-30 bucks easily for one of these plus the turnaround time before shipping is usually at least a week because of the number of orders they receive. well through some clickety rabbit trail i followed while on this search i found crochetmelly.


this shop, run by the mommy, melanie, of an adoable little girl (the model of most of the hats) isn't the biggest, with only about 40 sales at the time, but i LOVED her styles and prices. but sometimes on etsy these kinds of stores are too good to be true and you get the runaround or a cruddy product in the end. no ma'am. she was SO responsive to my questions about style and color choices and assured me since she wasn't backed up with orders that my 2 hats would ship fast. i ordered on saturday night, ya'll. she lives and utah and i got the 2 custom-made-for-layla, completed hats to my georgia doorstep on TUESDAY! um, hello!?!

i was so incredibly impressed with her product, value, speed and customer service that i wrote her and begged to let me promote her shop here on the blog. not as a sponsorship, just as one seriously impressed customer using my meager podium to spread the word about an awesome craftswoman!

well she was totally on board and even offered some bigtime bonuses for all of us (tease...read to the end).

you may have already seen the earflap hat i picked for the first hat in a post last week. i had to get major color counseling help from raechel because melanie has color selection out the yin yang, which i LOVE, but of course i stink at putting cute combos together by myself and tend to way overthink things. but here are some more shots of that beauty on my beauty.

triple-deckered soft rose flower, solid cream hat and true gray trim. and lots of flash-lighting

a dainty little bomber pilot

hahahaha

now my second choice was actually this little teddy bear hat with a crocheted bow accent instead of a flower (i just asked if she could do it even though i didn't see the bow in her shop and she whipped it right up!). but it turned out to be too small for gigantor-layla's head so i picked another one. in the meantime she had added a new style to her shop that just makes me bonkers it's so genius so i had to switch styles:

so yes, it's an adorable navy blue beanie with a cute brown button accent. what's so special about that? well, what if i told you that 3 crocheted little flowers of YOUR choice come with it too?(baby not included with purchase...BYOB)

and then what if i told you that the button is the anchor that the flowers go on and they are totally interchangeable?!?!

and then i just straight lost my mind. a 4-in-1 custom crocheted hat for $17 and in my hands faster than believable?!?!

"omg. mom! the colors, the craftsmanship, the value! i can't believe it"

even judah wants to stop and smell these flowers. slightly creepy. i think he was going for a kiss

but wait, there's more. FOR Y'ALL!

"more?!?! how could it get any better?!?!"

melanie is giving away a hat of any style/color/size combo to one lucky winner of a giveaway. so if you have or are expecting a little one, or just know a kid with an adorable head, this is for you!!!

in addition EVERYONE gets 20% off their entire purchase in crochetmelly's etsy store from now until the end or march when you enter the code PUTAPUREDUKES at checkout. um, do the math on that! that is an amazing deal. layla still can't believe it:

it's true, little one!

yes, the weather is getting warmer, but new itty bitties need to wear hats even if they're born in the summertime, plus some places are so air conditioned in the summer months that they end up just as cold as winter babes would be outside!

or you could plan ahead for next fall and winter for your little one and order a size up for your kiddo.

and baby girls arent't the only ones that can play...melanie makes these for heads up to 10 years old! and she has colors and styles aplenty for the fellas too!

how to enter the giveaway:

one entry: leave a comment on this post with which item you love the most from the crochetmelly shop and who you'd love to see sporting it.

bonus entry: add her shop to your etsy favorites and tell me you did so in a SEPARATE comment

third possible entry: become a new follower of this blog (i had to get in on the action) and tell me you did so in another SEPARATE comment here.

so that's 3 possible entries total! i will close the comments on friday night 3/18 and announce the winner soon after. then everyone can stop holding their breath and go wild with the 20% off code PUTAPUREDUKES all the way until the end of the month!

just to reiterate, i wasn't given anything for doing this post, i am not bigtime enough for that. i just want everyone to have adorable, custom hand made stuff and to support awesome merchants like melanie. good luck!

40 comments:

  1. You know I like the newsboy style in either black or white and of course a cute little flower. Now my sister needs to have a girl.

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  2. Boo-Yah just added as a new favorite!

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  3. I love the one her daughter is wearing in the logo picture. brown and pink and I also totally love the one Layla has on. This is either going to my cousin or I'm going to Indian give it to layla.

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  4. I'm totally in love with the interchangeable-flower-beanie. So adorable. It's a tough call for me on whether to get it for Annabel, who's almost three, or to get a newborn size and gamble on the gender of my next little one (yet to be conceived). Hmm...

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  5. I really like the interchangeable beanie - but the flapper version. And I just might give it to Debra's Annabel.

    Thanks for putting Layla in cute hats!

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  6. LOVE the flower/button beanie. Totes adorbs (you love it). I am going to find out the gender of baby #2 in a few weeks, and I have a cutie patootie 16 month old girl, so I could go crazy with some matching hats for photos. I'm getting all sappy just thinking about it...

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  7. Just added her as a favorite...LOVE the stuff and LOVE the prices!

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  8. My fave thing are the beanie hats with the interchangable flowers!!! Of course I would love to see it on my big headed (99th percentile) toddler girl :)

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  9. AAAAAND i favorited her shop on esty. i want me some hats!

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  10. sooooooo difficult to figure out which one I want for Levi... true gray and black ear flap hat or brown beanie with sweat pea and cream stripes?? Who am I kidding... I'm a sucker for anything with sweat pea in the title. Love her prices and turn around- I waited 4 weeks for Levi's crochet bear hat!!

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  11. and she's now a favorite :)

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  12. Okay, GREAT find on this shop! And the interchangeable flowers are genius! I'm going to have to enter - my favorite hat is the one with the teddy bear ears. My nephew-on-the-way needs it. :)

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  13. Also, I follow your blog.

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  14. And, I've favorited her shop - because it's cool, no just because i get to enter a third time!

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  15. I love the brown teddy bear beanie (sans flower). Your post on Judah not being big on hat wearing has already got me preparing to keep hats on little Mr. Hamilton's head from day one. He will wear them & like them!

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  16. i created an etsy account, added crochetmelly as a favorite. ( i want a hat!!!)

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  17. Okay so i've read your blog during free time in the past, but now I'm a new official follower of your blog.

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  18. My favorite hat is the teddy bear beanie on Layla, but im dreaming of it in buttercup yellow with a brown button and the 3 flower colors being white, grape and brown. yummy hats. oh and i want the 5yr old size for my sophia princess and bella can wear it big. :)

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  19. boy's cobalt & dark country blue on EITHER of my gingers...YEEEEEEES, please!

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  20. just added her shop to my faves AND I'm actually going to keep it as a fave once the giveaway's over. Because I don't always. But this time, I am for real loving her shop!! So, win or lose, she stays.

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  21. I love the newsboy hats... but also the white and cranberry hat like Layla's. My little girl is supposed to arrive in about 8 weeks and I'd loooove to start snapping some pics of her in one of these hats! :)

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  22. I'm officially a follower now! I found your blog via Rachael @Finding My Feet. I LOVE your honesty. Especially yesterday's post - I've been there... a lot. Ministry definitely has a way of bringing out the extreme craptacularness in me!

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  23. Haha, whoa--I'm Shanna's sister and totally didn't know we were both reading your blog! I don't remember how I found your blog--it was a few weeks ago--and I'm not trying to be creepy, but I was disappointed when I saw you lived in Georgia and not near me in Pittsburgh because I find myself thinking that we should be best friends when I read your posts, especially the "not just surviving" post about sitting around with Judah at the beginning and watching loads of TV, wallowing in being jealous of people who looked like they had it all--and had all of it together. My daughter, Aniela, is 11 months, and I didn't get it until she was 6 months or so. And, further best friend material-love, love, love IKEA! We just got 2 dressers and the mess of hardware looked just like Layla's changing table's pile! And you're hilarious--I'm not really, I just like to pretend I am in my head. :) Aaaaaanyway--(nothing like a giveaway post to bring out the creepers stalking your blog!)--I checked out crochetmelly's etsy shop and LOVE the white lacy beanie with pizazz pink flower--a gray mist beanie with a purple flower would match Aniela's outfit for her 1st birthday party in a month! So cute! I was debating if I'd want to enter for one for my niece arriving in 8 weeks but Shanna's already entered for her!

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  24. Aaaand I'm no longer an anonymous follower of your blog--officially comin' out in public!

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  25. I love the infant teddy bear hats, but I love the newsboy hat with a flower just as much, so I can't choose!

    Thanks for this post! I <3 finding great vendors on Etsy!

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  26. I "heart" crochetmelly shop on Etsy, my Etsy name is KrisyLisa!

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  27. I love the lacy shells beanie with the interchangeable flowers. So cute!

    Had to come check you out because we share a last name. :)

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  28. Added crochetmelly to my Etsy favorites! (Okay, I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but in my 5 years of shopping on Etsy, only today did I realize I could list shops as favorites, and not just individual items. I think I need internet lessons.)

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  29. The true grey & black ear flap is perfect for this crazy cold weather AND... MY LITTLE MAN!!!!!!!

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  30. Oh I love the flapper hat with the 3 daisy-like flowers! My 7 yo would love it!
    Bakingmommy

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  31. I added crochetmelly to my easy favourites, after I figured out how to do that!
    Bakingmommy

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  32. I now follow your blog, which is very funny, and a very good read! Have fun sewing with Raechel, who is a good read too!
    Bakingmommy

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  33. totally love the brown earflap hat...and would need to take pictures of my new niece violet wearing it. I'd want a violet flower, though

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  34. added her to my etsy faves. oh and that was abby...not pete...talking about hats and niece violet. duh.

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  35. I've been at the beach, please forgive and accept my late entry... I must have the infant teddy bear beanie for my future nephew to be born in 2 weeks!!!!!

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  36. i like the white newsboy hat with the pink flower ... trendy i know, but i can't resist the cuteness! This would look cute on my niece!

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  37. also a favorite on etsy! hope i'm not too late!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  38. My comment didn't go through about favoriting crochetmelly's shop on etsy--but I did it!

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  39. I like the newsboy cap. I'm trying to decide if I think a boy could get away with wearing it, in which case it would be for my little one. Otherwise my sweet friend is pregnant with her 5th baby (I'm assuming it will be a girl).

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  40. 10 minutes to midnight... I figured out how to ADD crochetmelly to my favorites. Holy smokes, that took a long time to figure out!

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