Sampler Bands

The  current challenge at Sprite Stitch has been renamed an "event," because there's not going to  be a winner. We are all submitting patterns for bands of a sampler. It's still not completely decided how the bands will be chosen, but when they are we'll have an awesome gaming sampler to stitch together at the same time- a stitch-a-long. I've never done one before, but I think it will be great fun. I have submitted two bands so far, both Pokemon. I'm not that pleased with them because they're not very creative. I want to come up with some exciting ideas. I'm a huge fan of blackwork, but I can't figure out how to translate that into a band yet. Or how to make a pattern of it, besides tediously adding line by line in KG Chart. Here are my two bands:

Anyone is welcome to use these, by the way. 

I'm also working hard to make items to sell on Etsy. A shop in my town has opened up that sells things from local Etsy members. I'm not completely sure that it's worth it, as they buy on wholesale, but either way I want to fill up my Etsy store with new items.

This isn't an "Etsy-worthy" photo, but here is a set of strawberry hairpins that I made:

I need to come up with some cute cards to put them on. I need some branding. I guess I even need a business name. All of the serious crafters that I met at a show last weekend had business cards and tags and seemed very professional. Fortunately, I am married to a graphic designer. I just need to get him to make me stuff! By the way, it's our anniversary this weekend. We will have been married for 5 years. It's also my birthday, and I'll be turning 32. 30 was fine, but it's all these numbers after 30 that I don't like.

So that's all my (mostly) crafting news for now. Thanks for reading.