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!