Hi!  Welcome to my new little piece of internet real estate.  I’m still cleaning up old posts, so just overlook that for now…but I was itching to get back to blogging so here we are.   I’m sure a few of  you are curious about a few things so in this post I’ll try to answer those questions and then tomorrow…back to crafty fun!

Why the new blog?
I’ve know for a while that if I were ever going to seriously “blog” I would need to rename it.  While I loved my CraftySmurfette moniker (and still do), the name still contains a trademarked little cartoon creature.  As a personal blog it was fine, but even opening an Etsy store with that name seemed like a bad idea.  Right now my crafty little creations aren’t getting a lot of traffic, but they have started to grow a small bit which made me realize that now was better than later.  So…here we are:  a new blog, all the old posts, a backlog of posts to catch up on since I’ve been away, room to grow,  and most importantly a fun new name that is all me!

What’s up with that name anyway?
It was a childhood thing…my BFF from childhood and I used to spend summer days and Sunday afternoon at my grandparents farm.  We LOVED dill pickles, so as kids we would pack our picnic baskets with a jar of dill pickles, napkins, plates, forks, & 2 cans of Mt. Dew.  Basket in hand we would set off to find our picnic spot…far away from random chores my grandma could dream up.  My grandmother, however, thought we were crazy.  Why on earth would we want to pack just pickles when she had all sorts of fried foods ready for us?  Thus, our dill pickle picnics were born, and are still a running joke with my friend & mom. For example, it’s not odd for me to receive a jar of sliced dill pickles as part of a birthday gift.  Dill pickle picnics are one of my fondest childhood memories, so carefree and fun.   Memories of summer days full of endless creative adventure, friendship, and whimsy…don’t we all wish we could feel that type of joy again?  This is my attempt to bring some of those feelings back, well, that and my outlet for my crafty stress relief.  Plus given my love of mason jars, it just seemed perfect 🙂

Who made it look so cute?
The amazingly creative Joy of HowJoyful.  Seriously, she is possibly the most creative person I’ve ever known (in real life & online).  Want a blog template?  She can whip you up one in no time.  Need an ugly dress recreated?  She’ll whip it into something amazing.  Need a new camera case or teddy bear pattern?  She has tutorials on her blog to help you out.  I’m thinking she might be able to help us all achieve world peace as well.  Seriously, Joy is a pleasure to work with.  I’m in the “online” world professionally so I had quite a few ideas of how things need to look and act, Joy took it all in stride and created exactly what I was dreaming of in ways I hadn’t imagined.  If you need a new look, shoot her an email.  While you are checking out her blog go ahead and comment for your chance to win one of her handmade handbags.  Go ahead, it’s ok….

What will you post about?
I still plan to use this as my space to talk about all things crafty.  There will still be tutorials of projects I’ve completed, in addition I’ll be posting photos of other projects, reviews of crafty products I like, and other stuff as I think about it.  Suggestions are always welcome!  Talk to me, what would you like to see more of?

Will you post about anything other than crafts?
Yes & No.  No, not on this particular blog.  I’d like to keep it pretty craft focused…but…Yes, I’ve also decided I need a place to randomly blog about our life.  So, once I get everything cleaned up here on Dill Pickle Picnic, I’ll be adding a sub-blog “Dill Pickle Picnic at Home”.  There I’ll share photos from vacations, talk about shoes I’m in love with, and vent about things that annoy me.  I’ll still be blogging anonymously but I think it’s still possible to “get to know us” without knowing our last names & where we work.  Sound fair?

Speaking of crafts and since I read that all posts need photos 😉 How about a teaser of a project I’ll post about next week

I think that covers it all…now you tell me:  what would you like to see Dill Pickle Picnic become?  What would you like to see more of?  Less of?