Origami Earrings... Etsy Product Review #4

I ordered these cute earrings off of etsy when they were on sale (always the bargin hunter, is me). They are very cute in person and will be great as a gift for my nine year old cousin Jessie. The shop is called Azure China and the crafter has a variety of paper and fabric items. The stars themselves are much sturdier than I would have guessed and do not appear to need any special or delicate handling. The little box they arrived in was cute - the shop owner had taken a regular white earring box and hand sewn fabric to the outside to make it decorative.

I may have to return to this store for a gift for another special girl in my life.

I just found the solution...

to the little problem I have about killing my potted plants: I really don't mean to, but with life speeding by too fast, I seem to forget to water my indoor plants - I've killed cacti (those don't even need water, do they?) and succulents.

These sweet little potted fabric plants are at a place called Jane Joss on etsy.

Beauty in a Kleenex box

Have you ever stopped and looked around your house to see what kind of stuff you just have that could be great with your crafts? This week I noticed my empty kleenex box... as I was cutting it apart to grab the "Box Tops for Education" piece, I started really looking at the design.

Now I have a stash of pieces to use as a base for tags or backgrounds for embelishments on cards or scrapbooks - and it didn't cost me anything but about 20 minutes of my time.

Have you found anything recently and were surprised by what you had?

Weaving a Magazine Coaster

Last week I was browsing the web for oragami patterns (I never actually end up where I am planning to go...) and came across a blog post on weaving coasters from magazine pages.

I decided to try it on one of the magazines I had lying around. It took me about 4 hours to get this far, but it felt nice - with unpacking boxes, yard work, building projects, etc, I haven't had a chance to really feel productive creatively.

Mine shows a lot more wear than the pictures on the other blog post, but I guess it is one of those practice makes perfect things...

To open a new store or not?

So, if you've ever looked at my stuff, you'd notice a large assortment of stuff... since everything interests me and I like to try everything. At what point do I make a new store?

That is my question.

I was thinking of a name: "Purple Fuzzy Feet" I haven't checked etsy to see if anyone has ever used it... and no, it doesn't mean anything. It popped into my head about 2 weeks ago and hasn't left.

Here's the stuff I am thinking of putting in it:

1. Vintage items - since about age 5, I've rescued vintage and antique items from family members and have accumulated much more than actually fits in my house
2. Fabric items - I have a thing for trivets, coasters, and aprons right now.
3. Papercrafts that don't match my sea shell theme (cards and journals)
4. 100% recycled to be sold in support of Carolina Animal Rescue and Adoption - Handpainted flower pots, gift tags, bottle cap pendants, etc.

Should I go with the new store or just keep adding to the one I have?

This week's favorite... a shirt I can definitely wear!

Today, while surfing etsy... I know, I have tons of other things on my plate that need to get done, but still manage to waste time doing nothing on etsy everyday... I came across this shirt that I could just see me wearing! It looks so soft, draping over curves - a kind of sexy, casual elegance - if that makes sense to anyone but me :P

It is from Sand Maiden on etsy.

What do you think of it?

Yes, honey, you can get it for me in black, iris, pewter, or periwinkle! I'll wash your car this weekend? And do the dishes for the rest of the summer?

My new sea shell necklace on etsy...

So I finally had time to get some new pictures taken... sometimes I think it takes me longer to get good pictures than it does to make anything anymore. :) And by "good," I only mean "not horrible."

Here is my green turban shell necklace:

The pendant is a green turban (also called a "turbo" by other conchology books) sea shell that has been attached to a gold plated bell cap. The rest of the necklace is made up with glass, gold plated, mother of pearl, and top shell beads.

And here is a pair of matching earrings using glass beads and gold plated filigree beads:


Soon, I'll be making some more earrings that match this necklace, so be sure to look for them in my shop.

Wildflower Soap... Etsy Product Review #3

I found this soap while participating in a Sneak Attack on etsy. The shop called Sunny Bubbles is actually run by a bunch of elementary school kids... well, actually they're the labor! Anyway, their products are all decently priced and all proceeds are donated to something that is always near and dear to my heart... the Oregon Humane Society.

The soap is a good size for a stocking stuffer gift and would fit in any of the soap dishes in my bathrooms. It has a light fruity/flowery smell that is pleasing and in no way overbearing.

Shipping was very fast.. I think I had this soap three business days after purchase and I was not expecting it near that fast (especially traveling from coast to coast). The soap was contained in a small plastic bag and wrapped in newspaper (it even looked like someone found a colorful ad and purposefully wrapped the soap up in the middle of it to look like it was actual wrapping paper) - everyone probably knows by now that I greatly appreciate the recycled wrappings more than anything else.

The sneak attack sold them out of inventory... but I'll be sure to look for more when school starts up again!

This week's favorite... I just love this skirt!

I don't know what it is, but over the past 18 months or so, I have been drawn to the color brown. My home is becoming a designers' worst nightmare... layering browns from that deep chocolate/almost black to a filmy cream-like hue. Maybe it is just a phase, but since I have found this skirt during my hours and hours of browsing on etsy, I have to go back and drool over it every day!

Be sure to visit Sandy and Taryn at Mythdemeanor and check out more of their stuff.

My Relaxation Space...

I'm so excited... I finally finished my "library." No, husband and I aren't really hoity-toity people, we just didn't want to buy another couch for our house and decided since we have hundreds of books that we would make a library out of the "formal" living room. Here's how it turned out:
It is so peaceful - I just keep sitting in the big, old over-stuffed chair (you only see a little bit of it in this picture) and staring at the shelves.

Of course I should be expanding my mind by reading, but hey, sometimes I just need some time with nothing at all... Now get the whip going because I need to get my crafting room settled down and organized. It's next on the agenda!

The Etsy forum aliens got me again!

So, like normal, I'm getting on the computer in the evening before bed... Just to check my shop and see what's in the forums for a couple of minutes.

I don't know what happens, but there I am lurking in some threads just reading and making comments on a few... next thing I know it is almost 1AM and I am still sitting at the barstool at my kitchen counter - back aching, butt asleep, eyes moving in slow motion...

The aliens always come and get me and put me back a couple hours later... I never know what actually happens when I'm gone.

I guess I need etsy to install a time on my username... after 1 hour of use, I need to be permanently blocked from all forums for at least 24 hours. Then maybe my sleep schedule will get into the correct mode and I'll be more productive here at home.

New Flower Pictures

This morning when I was out digging and working in my yard, I was looking around at how bright and beautiful all the flowers seemed to be. It is not like they were much different than any other day, but today everything just seemed brighter. I think I have a new idea for a line of art photograph notecards... I'd call it the "Color of Summer" collection :)

Here's the moss rose for you to see:

and here's a light pink geranium:

and here's a purple wave petunia:

and last, but not least, here's the zinnia:

I hope your gardens are all looking lovely, too!

Happy 4th of July!

To my family and friends...

Have a great day!

(I'm running late like normal and haven't even made the fruit salad that I am supposed to bring...)

So when do you have time to actually do your craft?

So you have to take pictures of all those items you made last year... you post them along with a description that is now taking you longer to create because you no longer think your descriptions are interesting.

You try to keep up with all of the blogs and forums you've registered to read and be a part of so that you can get exposure.

You go back to those articles about advertising.

You post your website on http://www.freecraftfair.com/.

You register and submit your website to http://www.aimsearchengine.com/.

You post a 30 day classified add at http://www.inetgiant.com/ and http://www.cmather.com/.

You add your website to search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx

You register with http://www.dmoz.com/.

You post your website at http://www.bust.com/ under their "Girl Wide Web."

You register your website on http://www.yaami.com/.

You add three more of your items to google base for a one month subscription and finally see the one item you added 2 weeks ago still has zero clicks...

No you wonder what is the point. You just spend five hours, your butt fell asleep, you've gotten a headache... and nothing to really show for it.

Creating an online store for your craft is supposed to give you another venue to sell and give you more "exposure" to a wider range of people. But then you come across all of the forums and advice that say you have to advertise, you have to create a blog, you get exposure through facebook and twitter....

My response is, so when do you have time to actually sit down and do your stuff? Me, since I started the esty shop.. I've started one new pendant... haven't finished it yet nor have I started any other crafts. I'm just too tired after all of this work on advertising. I think I just need to get back to what I had wanted to do to begin with - creating things.

Creating Banners for your store...

Wow... I almost gave up... I was about 5 seconds away from trying to post an alchemy request on etsy to find someone to make me a banner for my store and my blog. And that would have meant I would have to pay money for something I should be able to do on my own... But alas, I finally found something with which I can live.

So what, it doesn't look totally professional... but then I am not a computer design professional type anyway. So I say, "Good enough for me..." Let me know what you think! I just put the banner at the top of this blog and a similar one on my esty shop: http://www.shoredebris.etsy.com/

Truthfully though, if anyone has suggestions on how to do it better and can speak in non-computer layman's terms, I'd definitely listen :)

Sneak Attacks on Etsy

One of my first days looking around on etsy, I found an interesting group...

Sneakers Notorious on Etsy for Attacking with Kindness (Etsy Team S.N.E.A.K.)

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, they do an "Attack" on a new shop or a shop that donates to charity. So far I've only participated in two of the attacks because there was a week in there, where the stores they hosted did not have anything I could use... and there were two with really bad pictues and no profile or policies.... which definitely makes me a wary buyer. Although overall, I think it is a very good idea, and if I keep following... maybe all of my Christmas shopping will be done by August :P

You can read more about them on their blogs or catch them on an etsy thread...

http://etsyteamsneak.blogspot.com/
http://handmademovement.com/

Mom's New Work!

Do you ever go home and get completely surprised by what your mother has now created? Well, it should be no surprise to me... I grew up with most of my clothes being handmade; my mom has made pottery, comfortors, roman shades, oriental valance boxes, lamps out of vases and candlesticks, and just about everything you could think of.



But I've never seen her paint a picture. Here is a picture of her painting - a dog head triton sea shell (yes, we're all obsessed with shells):



The painting was acrylic on canvas and in a really neat and detailed wood frame. Maybe I was just so surprised by the creation because often times I think of us as craftspeople rather than artists?

Anyway, I like it so much that I've talked her into letting me share it with other people... I'm still working on whether to do prints with a matte finish or a glossy finish - but look for this guy soon on a set of notecards :)