Monday, March 12, 2012

Meltdown Monday Giveaway

This giveaway is now closed.

Well, here I am at the end of my Monday and just now getting the chance to sit down and post this giveaway. Oy! Monday is cleaning day in our house and boy, am I ever tired? It went pretty smoothly, though, and meltdown free. I hope yours did, too.
This week our giveaway is coming from Rachel of Hugger Mugger for the second time. It's been July since we caught up with her so let's find out what's hoppin' with my sweet friend!
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What have you been up to since I interviewed you last July?

Too much, lol! We moved into a new house in August, I had our third child in December... it's been incredibly busy around here. Which is why, at the beginning of 2012, I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and totally changed the focus of my Etsy shop, Huggermugger.

Back in 2008 when I started the shop, I chose the name 'Huggermugger' because it means (among other things) "jumble," and I wanted to sell a veritable jumble of different things. I sold crocheted hats, journals, water bottle carriers... I've always loved making all kinds of different things, and I sort of wanted to do everything in my shop.

By the time my daughter was born at the end of last year, I realized that all the packaging and shipping just was going to be way too much hassle with three small people around. Over the past year, my original crochet patterns started selling more and more often. I realized that selling those would still be feasible, as sending a PDF file to someone's email address doesn't require any packaging or shipping. And I had plenty of ideas for new patterns that I had never gotten around to trying because I was busy making other kinds of things for my shop.

So I pulled everything but my patterns out of my shop. And an amazing thing happened: once my shop was focused on just patterns, my sales went up! And as I've worked on creating more crochet patterns, I've started getting more and more ideas for them. I've added 5 new patterns in 2 1/2 months, and have ideas for 6 or 7 more, which I'm gradually working up as I have time.

I now sell my patterns on Ravelry and Craftsy as well, also under the name Huggermugger, but Etsy remains my biggest venue so far.
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This pattern was inspired by my new baby getting interested in grabbing stuff and sticking her fingers through her crocheted blankets. You can make either a daisy or a sunflower from the pattern. Today I'm offering one already-made sunflower, made from 100% cotton yarn and stuffed with cotton as well. I'm also offering 1 copy of this pattern, as a PDF file that will be emailed to the winner.

OK, so to enter leave me a comment. You can let me know how your Monday is going or, better yet, tell me how you beat the dreadful Meltdown Monday or just say hi. Whatever.

For additional entries;
(leave a separate comment for each entry, if you don't, they count as one)
Tweet this (include @thiscosylife in your tweet)
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Follow Rachel's blog
Add her Etsy shop to your Etsy favorites
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I will randomly pick a winner on Sunday March 18 and announce here, on my blog. (Please, make sure I have a way to contact you!)

PS: If anyone is interested in participating in a Monday Meltdown giveaway, here on my blog, contact me here. Whether an item from your Etsy shop or just a little something you would like to give away to brighten someone's Monday, it's all good!