Strikke Knits

YEAH! An IFEA Gold Pinnacle Award Winner!

2011-10-12T16:02:00.000-07:00

Congratulations on the St. Paul Winter Carnivals Gold Pinnacle Award at the IFEA convention in October!

Best New Other Product 2011!

Thank you for submitting my product and it was a pleasure making these for you!

Are American Consumers Being Insulted?

2011-09-14T22:21:00.000-07:00

This is what I make here in the USA in a small town in Minnesota. I have lost a customer this year due to price increases they decided that they were not going to sell my product because I had to increase my price to cover the cost of textiles, the profit margin for them is not enough and they thought thier customer would not pay a higher price for them. I still have customers who sell my mittens who have been long time customers and still are working with me. Thank you so much for supporting my products!
Now....

Why do I think American consumers are being insulted?

I think the end consumer is not getting the opportunity to make the choice, someone has decided that we the consumer would not purchase an American made product at a higher price. What is being "sold" to us daily through advertising is this: we should buy the cheapest item possible replace it a multitude of times because it has no value and we do not care about our belongings or how we spend our money.
Yet, we all want designer products that the TV stars wear at dime store prices... How insulting, and they are selling it hard to us daily. Can't we see we are missing the opportunity to enrich the very companies and people who are trying to make this a better place to live? Yes my company has been hit, and I am upset, there are many really great companies making wonderful things right here.
Let's be better than this, let's set an example. We are handing over money daily for products made overseas, at the cost of underpaid people working in dangerous conditions and ecologically ruined countries that we will be asked to support later through no fault but our own.

Better products and better jobs...please don't be insulted anymore, start asking for more US made products to choose from and understand what your dollar is going towards...
Your future.

I declare SICOVIT over! Thank you for your feet photos!

2011-02-28T14:48:00.000-08:00

TADA! Thank you all for supporting the little kids and sending me bunches of feet. We ended up with 15 pair of mittens!. Lots of fun pictures came accross and some very nice pedacures were well used.

They are on my Facebook page if you want to take a look.

So now...do I have to get you to put on your mittens in July for some Fall mittens??

THANK YOU, from Family Pathways of Washington County, Chisago County and the Refuge.

I hereby declare March SICOVIT month over!

The Business Mind of a Leaf Chaser

2011-01-30T21:58:00.000-08:00

This is me.
I'm in about 2nd or 3rd grade here and that is exactly how I have felt for years chasing leaves in my brain.
In 15 days I will 50 and I finally "get myself".
I'm a leaf chaser, a shinny object in the corner distraction follower. Not many girls in the 60's were thought of as "distracted" I wasn't unruly or disruptive at least I don't remember being called that? But I think teachers were baffled by it. I have always had a racing mind, an eye out the window, a pencil tap tap tapping in my hand. Working and reworking a problem, or waiting until the last minute to do my work because "there had to be a better way" and the finally having to make a decision and get it turned in.
Our dog Mable is a leaf chaser...throw the ball, she goes after it but then out of the corner of her eye she spies a tumbling leaf. The ultimate chase, the unpredictable tumbling, spinning, floating and the final WHAM of the paw on it; smell it decipher if it is edible then go "oh yeah I was chasing a ball!" She knows where the ball is, it fell, maybe it rolled a bit but it's not going any farther and she will get it and then bring it back...and I throw the damn ball, again.

How does this tie into my business mind? I love the chase, the twirling, spinning chase in my mind. I can design a project while your speaking to me about it, in vision the marketing plan before the pamphlets are printed...figure out how to sell a set of mittens for an event or group. I see a mistake is not a mistake, some of my best ideas were happy accidents because I got off track and came back to it and discovered my unconscious decision maker had made the decision. I work well under pressure, thrive on deadlines (a must have for me), seize marketing opportunities before I even realize I've done it.
this is my leaf. I love the leaf.
The flip side of all this? Here is my ball, I have an entire marketing plan in my head, the numbers on how much I need to do it, the list of groups, organizations, events and...in my head, unable to get it down on paper in a formal written plan. When I get to this point, There I am the pencil tapping, one eye out the window re worker, leaf chasing Mable. I am comfortable with the way I am, it's not a bad thing, it's also not a good thing. It doesn't mean that I am a poor business woman as I think that I have made some good decisions and set my goals on a steady path. There definately things I need to work on to be a better ball getter.
Just like Mable I know where the ball is, it might have rolled a bit under some papers, mixed into finishing an order, pushed aside by cold calling, but my spouse, friends even my banker know that in my own "leaf chasing way" I will bring back the damn ball, and I am pretty sure.
They will pick it up and throw it for me again.

Don't be afraid to be a leaf chaser. It's not the ball, sometimes it's the leaf on the way to the ball.

"The first step toward change is acceptance. Once you accept yourself, you open the door to change. That's all you have to do. Change is not something you do, it's something you allow."

-- Will Garcia

My thank you, what a year!

2010-12-01T21:10:00.000-08:00

Wow it has been quite the season...year for that matter! I am finally comming up for a little air as the Christmas Season has been pretty much delivered and is now being sold. We made over this Summer and Fall the amount of mittens that we made in the whole of last year (now I know why I'm tired!).
I was thinking about how this came about...hard work, marketing marketing marketing...endless hours on the computer marketing marketing marketing, long hours embroidering embroidering embroidering and a fantastic salesman who pushes me into the next bracket every year.

But most of all it is friends and family who have helped me get this far. I am lucky, very lucky to have a great network of supportive women friends and a husband who has litterally built me a working shop (the owe me factor huge in this house ;-))
And this lil cutie pie on the left, my mom.
Mom built a family business with our Dad while raising two teenagers and two little kids, she'll be 80 next year and she still gives me advice. She came for a month this summer and worked with me saving me HUGE money and it was fun to work with her. Now I know how hard it was to build that business (which by the way is still successful and still in the family!) and has watched struggle with growth with quiet reslove just letting me talk and vent. Every tuff issue I came up against she would say...tomorrow, deal with it and move on, tomorrow it will all look different and in five years you'll look back and laugh at what spazed you out today.
Thanks to my girlfriends they have been patient and have listened to me on the good days and the bad days they have been rootin for me all the way. Sometimes even kidnapping me for a day out of the shop. Each one of them strong, independent, creative and funny as heck. I hope that I support them as much as they have supported me.
Thanks to my workers, low pay, wierd hours, great music and sometimes some totally off the hook days. You gotta love what your doing to keep showing up wondering what your boss is going to do next (or maybe they just wanted to see "just how far will she go, till she cracks?")
Thanks to Miss Jodi my super knitter and my financial savior, she works very hard doing beautiful knitting for me and she lets me pay her in the Winter when money is better and time is on our side. We talk and discuss next years plan we move forward in our freindship and work relationship laughing and trading our funny life stories and bizzarre happenings in the work day.
Thanks to my family: Both of my brothers and my sister, all four of us have our own businesses (see what our parents started) We trade stories, support, skills, and we trade great times with our mom.
My kids: hard workers for others and for me, I know when I grow up I'll be all right because my kids turned out to be awesome adults, ask and they will come and help and they too are crazy funny (my side of the gene pool).
My husband, he's not a big talker, he's a big doer he is the calm balance in my crazy creative mind; throw it out there he will build it. On my worst day when I was at my wits end with no money left and materials that needed to be purchased he just said..."we can do this, I know it's hard now, but we can do this" we ate snak ramen like college kids and have stayed in endless weekends so far "we did this." Thanks Gary I love you.

A successful business starts at the very core with successful relationships, if the people surrounding you are supportive then I assure you, you will be successful. I look forward to next year, new adventures, new struggles and new ideas.

What do you believe in anymore?

2010-09-10T19:35:00.000-07:00

I believe that no matter how sucky it gets at times, that it will be worth every minute of it.

Entreprenueurs are people who are just crazy enough to think that they are made of steel.

WHY?

Because we believe that every day we can reinvent the wheel to make it better for someone else to gain mobility or apply this theory to whatever we are selling, making, creating. I think that most of us are trying to make a better life not only for ourselvs but as a means to help other people.

What do you make that helps someone else?

Here is one of mine For every pair I sell, $1.00 is donated back to the Susan G Koman Fund...and I gladly sell them wholesale to groups to sell at RETAIL so they can send DOUBLE the money back to the Koman Fund...Here is the funny twist, every year for the past 3 years I have submitted this mitten to the product offices in Texas to sell it in their web store.

Every year I have been sent a very nice rejection letter.

BUT YOU KNOW WHAT

over the 3 years my little company has sold over 500 pair at both RETAIL and WHOLESALE cost.

I am so happy that I can directly help without going through the big guys who might just eat up my dollar and turn it into only .50 cents.

I believe I am made of steel and I can help someone.

I believe in the higher powers, myself and the people who support me.

And this is all I need to focus on somedays to keep moving forward.

Never Ever Ever Give Up

2010-08-09T17:03:00.000-07:00

This month has started out tuff, only because I've made it that way and I needed to "get my head right" when you are in the infant stages of business it is oh so important to look for the little things that you need to move you forward. Here is my little thing:

We built our house 20 years ago this month and for years each spring I bought purple cone flowers and planted them. Every year they died I bought more and planted them in the tended plots and then to the open field each year with no luck. So I quit...I gave up...I threw in the towel. last Fall, I was at the big box store and saw this scraggly plant with it's lone dirty tab saying purple cone flower full sun loose soil. Ok what the heck, I planted it next to an old rusty horse trough (hotter than heck with that metal siding).

Spring came and it looked like weeds growing up there so I carefully mowed around it, left it alone, did not water it did not fuss over it, did not go out daily and check on it. Here are the results.

Nothing fancy, but it grew and that's my lesson that I am trying so hard to learn about being an business owner.

Never Ever Ever Give UP.

nothing fancy but it's growing!

Embroidering the Summer Away

2010-07-26T17:53:00.000-07:00

I made a of the things I need to do this summer.

It all started with this project.

I bought this fabric because it reminded me of the Bahamas...it sat on the counter for WEEKS and every time I walked by it I was reminded that I had not taken the time to create my little oasis and...I had not taken any time to enjoy the summer, it made me actually kind of angry, a selfish lil kid angry that basically is my own darn fault so now I'm peeved at myself.
So I took my Saturday and made the 2 hour, 20 minute project (you know a project you say "ohhhh golly jeeze that will only take me 20 minutes don cha know!" aaannnd it really is 2 hours) and then cleaned up, and went to the beach with my husband and some of friends. It was just what I needed and actually what the whole group needed we had a blast. This morning I had coffee out there in my "oasis" and made a list, a very good "to do" list. Here it is.

Ride bike past the cornfields

Swim in lakes and wear the dang swimsuit

Pick Cucumbers eat with tomatoes

Pick Raspberries eat while picking

Sew something fun to wear

take off on Sundays

Friends, call em

Drink wine in the garden

Don't worry I still am making mittens like crazy and the embroidery has not stopped...but it just feels better now.

Because this is coming sooner than I think.

So go, enjoy the summer and remember to have some fun!

Time moves forward and change is good!

2010-06-25T15:56:00.000-07:00

This little boy (our son) is the same man dancing with his new wife!
We move forward in our personal life just like we move forward in our business life. With the last child married and the mitten and hat business growing we needed to move to larger space for a better flow of work, and the Spring early booking sale being a great success; sealed the deal. After spending 16 hour days at the height of the mitten and holiday season in my shop, we decided to move the business to a space created by my very tired and supportive husband...our home! My cute little shop will be closed down and the embroidery customers I have will still get the same quality service, but alas the walk in business will not be happening for me. I'm going to miss it just like I miss the kids. Being in retail for over 20 years I really loved meeting people and their projects that came in the door, each one a nice gift of expressing my creativity. What I am really looking forward to is being able to add more fun creative items to my line and adding some new mitten designs. Although the thought of not getting up, going into town and getting to work will be odd at first, but I'm sure Miss Mable and my husband are going to love it! Does this mean I will have to start cooking again....yipes.

2010-04-21T16:27:00.001-07:00

Photo slideshow made with Smilebox

Dala horses & Kimchi...WHAT??? How does she think that stuff up?

2010-04-12T21:22:00.000-07:00

I just was asked this question on Monday "where on earth do you get these ideas from?" and how do they come about?
Inspiration comes in all forms to me sometimes it can literally pop into my head and I go straight at it, or a customer requests a particular image and my mind just goes through the roladex of images and ideas while they are talking to me, I jot them down then edit the ideas and then present them.
Now the Dala horse on the left is actually a planned idea from the fun I've had connecting with relatives in Norway (see my last blog) I wanted to make something in a traditional image (yes I KNOW this is Swedish) with a scandianavian flair to it. So I came up with Dala horse mitten images, the trick is in getting a design that looks good and stitches out in a reasonable time frame. Annnnnd you say Kimchi? What the heck? How does she go from Dala horses to Kimchi. You now feel my husbands pain (news flash, Taurus marries Aquarian and lives!)...when I present an idea to him I get the look from him that sums it up this way; "what does that have to do with the price of Monkeys?"

Sorry back to the Kimchi. It all started here, We started up the pond this weekend and the gold fish have survived the winter (accept the one sacraficed to the pump intake...yuck) and then I had installed the gadget / widget goldfish on my igoogle homepage today (they're kind of fun they swim around your mouse, I put them on the top left, Go play with them!) ...ok wait for it....then in my emailbox today were some photos sent from my daughter of her year of living in Korea with her husband GI JJ (that's him to the left you can tell by the hair cut) teaching English to kids.

How does this all tie in? TADA! I'll work on some Pagoda Ideas, Koi Fish ideas, cherry blossoms etc. then how does she sell these you ask? Just like the Dala horse I will find a salesman or a shop that sells gifts to that Market...I found a salesman who is a distributor of Scandinavian textiles and gifts, showed him the mitten sample and he will be selling them with his products. The Oriental idea???? I' check out some fish shops, the Como Japanese garden and their gift shop, or perhaps a large pet store...I'll find a way!

Take a look at the photos she sent and my inspiration to work off of. I'm happy to say my creative gene was passed on! Thanks Jess!

Knitted Mitten time!

2010-03-23T22:41:00.000-07:00

Now is the time to start thinking about knitted mittens! We knit the double layer mittens only in the summer months. You can place your orders from now until the 1st of June and then specify your Fall delivery date or dates, I'd be happy to inventory them for you and then send them out as needed. One mitten takes as long as a whole finished hat takes so we like to keep the popular knit hats in progress when hats are being knitted in the Fall & Winter. The mittens are beatiful and they tend to sell out quickly in the retail shops so think about the quantity you would need for an October to January season. Shoot me an email or give me a call and let's talk about getting you on the summer knitting list! I will have more photos coming of some of the beautiful knitted mittens we have worked on. Also watch for the scandinavian designs in the fleece mittens soon coming out.

Rainy Daze & Found Relatives

2010-03-13T09:07:00.000-08:00

One of the best things that I have found on the new way to communicate is finding relatives and friends long lost. It's been such a treat to go surfing on a a rainy day and find relatives in the "old country" and then seeing a foreign language pop up on your page. I cannot read the sqiggles, umlauts and long sounding lines over the a's but they all seem to come across as positive input into their lives. It is also a shock to see how much time has passed and remembering that one of my goals is to see Norway and the home that my Grandfather came from. Goals should be revisited on rainy days so you can remember just what you are striving for rather than just wandering about the house and wondering if you should repaint the living room LOL.

If you are wondering just where the name Strikke Knits came from it is from my Norwegian heritage, Strikke (pronounced Streeeke and roll the r please) is the word for Knit in Norwegian so yes my company name is technically Knit Knits and it's ok if you call and ask for Strike (like in bowling) Knits it happens often and I'm just glad you are calling.

I really like the scandinavian knitting patterns and my favorite is using the snowflake pattern somehow in my hats, when I have requests for knit hats and they do not have an image to put inside I usually suggest the snowflake, it's so happy feeling and so traditional.

This summer I will be working on knit hats and fleece mittens in Nordic influence designs with the Dala horse and knit patterns in the suggestion of the Dale sweaters that are so beautiful. Here is the cap that we are adding to the line this year with a traditional snowflake it has a cute little brim on it and it is has a double layer so no hair or earrings etc. get caught in the floats. It's just adorable on girls, we make them in solid patterns too.

This is our traditional earflap cap with the snowflake pattern inserted.

a traditional blue pattern for sweaters, I just love the metal clasps they use for the neckline...hummm I wonder how that would look to add to a cap?

BEER MITTENS!!!

2010-03-02T13:04:00.000-08:00

Doesn't that just make you want to SMILE!
BEER MITTENS naturally sounds like some fun. The mittens were made for the Newport Storm Brewing Company newports storm a really nice company with some great guys who look like they are having fun brewing beer in Rhode Island.
Mittens are the image of Winter fun, playing outdoors, grandmas warm mittens made especially for you, building snowmen, a cup of hot chocolate and standing around watching a good hockey game. This is one reason I love making mittens, each pair goes off on a new adventure with the buyer.
We do knitted mittens too, but only in the summer months as they take a lot of production time and we want to keep orders in the Fall in the 4-6 weeks delivery time for our ever popular knit caps.
I have been getting a lot of requests for a mitten like the red Canadian Olympic mittens, these mittens yes, are just beautiful and it is one of our favorite color combinations to work with. How the mittens are actually made is labor intensive: the mitten is first knittted on a flat machine and then each mitten has to be embroidered on the outside top of the hand with the rings and then on the back side on the palm with the leaf; this makes it a 4 hoop process (see blog: mittens like love come in pairs) Then put it all back together with a regular sewing machine and hand finish off closing the tops. We knit ours the same way, flat with hand finishing. Our fleece mittens can be embroidered on both the top and the inside and have a much faster production time and a much better price point and have a nice look to them. I've always thought that a nice paw print on the inside for the schools with animal mascots would be nice...just have to get a pair out there for you to take a look at.

Take a look at some Red and White inspiration of ours!

The language of embroidery files and the Bumblebee

2010-02-23T09:34:00.000-08:00

What is it exactly that has to be done to turn your logo into thread? The language of embroidery comes in many files unfortunately none of them talk in a standard computer language of Mac / PC which gets confusing after you think you have all of your art files ready to go to start your business running.

When you have recieved your logo from your graphic designer or best friend who is really good in Photo shop (or the program of thier choice) those files cannot be read by Embroidery houses, we have to turn that information into an understandable language or as I explain it....you have "English" and the embroidery machine speaks "French".
Embroidery files are in language formats of: CND, DST, EXP, and a whole nother story of WILCOM.
Each of these files have their pro's and con's for reproducing and that's REALLY deep and is the monkey factor (you will just start scratching yer head, heck if you are a roofer I don't need to know how they make every kind of shingle) we'll just skip that part... just ask your embroidery house to choose the best format for your design based on what you are putting the logo on and how big you want the logo.
Embroidery charges are based on how many stitches are involved in the design and on how large you want the image on your garment.
Mary Pokluda's Bumblebee logo http://www.bumblebeepa.com/ is a great logo to explain this, well designed and it translates to thread wonderfully it is 3.75" across and about 2.5" tall a great left crest logo size.
Here's how it breaks down:
Creation of the main file / set up: $45.00 (this is a one time creation fee)
Cost per stitch: $1.00 per 1000 stitch @ 6,500 stitches = $6.50
(embroidery houses have a minimum cost based on how many clothing items you are embroidering; ASK this question when placing your order)
every time a garment is embroidered is costs $6.50 per garment, of course large qantities are "quoted" to help out the customer. You are charged on the cost of the shirt plus the cost of the embroidery for a total of the finished garment (example: shirt $14.50, embroidery $6.50 TOTAL = $21.00 per shirt)

Tips for good results: when designing your logo or having it designed for you keep in mind everything that you see in ink needs to be in thread. When you have many color variations, shadings and fine details this refelcts on how it stitches onto fabric (sooo tell yer buddy to keep those shading boxes in control or the zillion colors inside of the text).
Bumblebee Personal Assistants is an example of a well designed logo that works in thread on the fabric. It looks great, we can change the colors to suit different color garments and we can increase the size a bit to put it on a jacket.

A Valentine Project: funny how some days you can just pull a project out of yer...head when you feel creative. Here is the project that I did this summer which would work great as a Valentine gift for a special friend.

ok, yes sometimes my mind does look like this

sew randomly in related colors

ink in many colors...randomly

add "stuff" in relation to your theme that you have made or found.

(the net is from orange bags, the buckle...a really bad fashion mistake)

put the tabs on it so they can hang it.

present with a card and some chocolate!

Just like Love, mittens come in pairs.

2010-02-17T08:19:00.000-08:00

One of the most frequent experience that comes up when customers place an order is the understanding that mittens need to have two images embroidered on the tops, a right hand and the left hand.

So...if you have ordered 24 pairs of mittens you are embroidering 48 total pieces / images. I do have panel programs that I send the tops to you but I really like to keep the embroidery in-house to save you cost, time and the "sticker shock" when they go to your embroiderer and are presented with an invoice with 48 images at 8,000 stitches each (this translates into $16.00 per pair in the embroidery world!). Most customers send me their embroidery files and I download the file to the embroidery machine and save you considerable cost. In my next post....the language of embroidery: it's written in English but translated to "Klingon" I will explain all the files and their formats to you and how it relates to your total cost for the finished product.

The mittens in the top image are part of my holiday set and the coffee shop Sacred Grounds http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sacred-Grounds-Espresso-Cafe/197858453384in our town of Stacy has them hanging around the gift shop, they've been popular along with the Shamrock mittens made for St. Patty's Day.

Just a note: I have bags of colorful fleece scraps that are just dying for a good project, Any ideas out there? I have tied a bunch up to make creepy dog toys for Miss Mable she just loves them she can pull on them for a great workout.

I throw them into the wash when they get that reaaaalllyyy special Mable spit all over them so they are really low maintenance and easy to take care of.

AAANNND were off!

2009-08-19T16:41:00.000-07:00

Raise some money for your favorite charity!

Things are booking up for September, luckily we are on top of it and will still meet the 6 week production on hats and 3 weeks on mittens.
I introduced a lower cost mitten this year and it is really taking off. It's the same mitten as my double cuff just in a single layer this keeps the cost down so a person can sell it at a better profit and provide their customer with a better fundraising margin.
I've been looking at what there is to offer for groups and schools etc. and there is just so much "stuff" that is "temporary" just things....bobbles, chachki's, plastic low end quality items.
Maybe the products were making are to long lasting LOL.
I'm looking forward to a great season and meeting some awesome groups who want to raise money for some great causes!

bluebird update

2009-03-24T15:51:00.001-07:00

So there has been more work than play happening and that's a good thing! Here is an update on Jeans art from her blog I have finally been able to go back to it. I went hog wild and stamped, inked, sewed and brushed it then imprinted text into the side panel. The orange flower at the top is still in the debate mode so it is not in its rightful "home" , it's painted silk then fused to pellam to make it stiff. I found some backing for this and will pull it all together and then mount the hanger for it. I have a show coming up in July and at this rate....it's going to be small LOL.

Good Luthers...Hat of the Week!

2009-03-18T10:56:00.000-07:00

Wow what a great year! We knitted nonstop all the way through to March...this order is our current end of the season order.

We LOVE when this kind of image is provided! These single image logos are such a treat to work with, they knit well and they really look sharp on the caps.

When considering you cap design for your group or organization if we can get a single color image from you, you will be pleased with the results.

Keep a watch out for our May emails with the sign up for early order placing with "perks" if you send me your email address I will be sure to include you in the Spring specials!

Boys who love Biker Chicks....

2009-03-03T16:21:00.000-08:00

Every body loves a good seat....and when you have a custom bike, not just ANY seat will do. I have been working with Ms. Tracy lately, she is one good "queen of the pull" and an awesome custom upholsterer she specializes in flames and flowers. You have to have tremendous upper body strength to stretch and pull these seats onto the forms and get them to look nice and snug.

The trick with embroidery...to much thread and it eats up the material, to little thread and it is wimpy and it does not hold up well with the constant wear of getting off getting back on. When embroidering on this type of material I usually end up running a few test runs and pulling them to see how the design holds with pressure and then run the hair dryer to see how much it distorts with the heat. Lots of work for just a one of a kind item.

But I love the look and the challenge! This one says "I love my Rosa" in Spanish hopefully she loves it too!

Hat of the week!

2009-03-02T15:10:00.001-08:00

Here is the hat of the week, ordered by

Custom Lettering of Hibbing, MN.

Occasionally we get a "head scratcher" and we have to take a two color logo and create it as a one color logo. In the world of knitting we work with basically a positive or negative image.

We do this to keep the material soft of hand and not so stiff that it is uncomfortable to wear and itchy.

The best way to keep the integrity of the logo is to incorporate the colors into the entire design of the cap by adding the other elements in the missing color. Here we chose to make the hockey sticks and the stripes in the red. They look beautiful and I think that the logo turned out great!

Just what do I do?

2009-02-28T11:50:00.000-08:00

This is what I do for a living...

And this is what I do for fun, the green and white piece is a work in progress I'll post the final result when it is finished (are they ever REALLY finished?)