Welcome to my blog!

Let me introduce myself:

My name is Maria. I've been crocheting every since my mom taught me at age 8. I really only started getting into crochet around the time my son was born in 2011, and I decided to start selling my work. Selling handmade items isn't as easy as it seems - there's a lot of factors that go into it, and it's super hard to find people who appreciate what "hand made" really is, and a lot of the time I was selling myself short. Previously known as "The Mad Hatter",  I've decided to venture off in a new direction and with a new name. I have a notebook full of ideas that continue to grow, and I want to make them come to life! I'm here in the blogging world to show YOU how to make these handmade creations! I know there are so many crafters out there that like to try to recreate something before they buy it, and I'm one of those crafters. I'm excited to enter this new realm of creating and teaching!

Blogging is a very new concept for me, but I hope to blossom and grow as time goes on! You're probably wondering.. what's up with the name? Maria's Blue Crayon. What?

Background information time:

Remember the days of AOL Instant Messenger (AKA "AIM" or "IM")? That was me. My screen name was: mariasbluecrayon. Actually, it was one of my screen names. My very first was sweetpea1822341 (and yes, those were the exact numbers). And I think we can all appreciate those numbers, because it was just so stinkin' hard to find a screen name that was not already taken!

Anyway, back to mariasbluecrayon. My sister helped me come up with the name years ago for AIM and it's perfect: easy to remember and no numbers. This came from the book "Harold and the Purple Crayon". If you're not familiar with the book, it's about a boy named Harold and he has this big ol' purple crayon that he takes with him one night, and basically draws and creates his own world using his imagination and his purple crayon. 

When I was thinking for a name for this blog, it was equally challenging to find a unique name that fit. I came to the conclusion that NOTHING I thought of was original and in this circumstance, it wasn't okay to slap a few numbers at the end of an already taken name. And when I say NOTHING, I really mean it. I thought for a whole two days, and every clever thing I could think of was already taken. My boyfriend and I joked about how it reminded us of finding that perfect, unused screen name years ago. And then it hit me. I already had that perfect "screen name". Maria's Blue Crayon. Why not? It's unique, and it fits.

So here I am with my blue crayon, ready to create what ever my imagination comes up with.