And the little naughty elves came upon us

Jingle all the way

What a holiday season! My season started out with a break in to my place of work. Quite alarming to say the least. I am a preschool teacher and am in wonder as to what was in these bad guys head.( the children in my class called them bad guys) they were very neat bad guys really not doing too much physical damage but a lot of mental anguish. What a head trip. They threw, very careful not to get any on the carpet, a gallon of blue paint, they threw it onto the easel and then dumped the rest in the sink. Not getting any on the counter. Thank goodness they left our computers and boom box alone but they did take our dozen eggs, which were to be used to make green eggs. I was not happy about that! In all as you can see we were very lucky in that there were gallons of paint they could have flung all over our building, and many blocks, puzzles, and a variety of small pieces that could have been destroyed. We are blessed it took only a short time and a little elbow grease to get the room back in order. What this did do is made us realize how vulnerable we can be. That it took an open window for these bad guys to enter our world. It took a moment. We will recover. We have already put some safety measures in place, talked and talked. I am on winter break and hope by the time we return the safety measures that need to be put in place will be. Though the experience jarred me it has not made me scared or concerned. It will be a while I am sure before my brain files it away as an experience to remember and not one that is still raw and processing.
My holiday season did end with joy and lots of laughter. I had all of my children and grandchildren with me this year. Yes I did a happy dance. I served diner to 21 people, mostly family and a few friends who had no family around this season. In all I am starting the New Year with lightness in my heart and ready for what this new year will bring.
Happy Holidays!

Etsy Sampler Bag

Hi what a great and interesting night we had putting our etsy sampler bags together. A good time was had by all. We did a little crafting and talking. We ate, what is a get together without food and the evening ended with a splash! We put together two sampler bags with five artists represented in each bag. They would retail for 50.00 but we are getting in the holiday spirit and they will be only 25.00 each. If you go to my etsy store the etsyrain logo is the only thing listed along with the artist who are represented in the bag. Here is the place you get to find out what is in each bag. One is listed for now and the second one will be listed soon. you will need to check back to see what is revealed. Check out the links on my site one will take you there. Have a safe journey. This is a wonderful way to get at least 5 Christmas gifts crossed off the list, that is if you do not keep any for yourself. Please leave a comment under the picture and tell us what you think. Have a good one!
Sherrie

I am on a roll

I just finished a new design of my pop up Christmas tree card. I added a wire beaded tree topper on it. This card comes nicely packaged with a red envelope and a small gift tag.I sold out on these at my craft fair in Everett Wa. I am hoping they will do well on esty. I had a list of goals to complete today and I have completed all of it already. I am jumping up and down with joy. I have a day off all to myself and it is amazing what you can get accomplished. I am out of most of my candles so I poured tea lights with a new scent of Birthday cake. I am including these with my etsy sample bag of Birthday related cards and candles. I made two Christmas scents and poured two clear glass mugs with the scent of coffee with cream and sugar. It smells quite interesting in my house with all these scents swirling around. I have almost all of the items written up and pictures taken. I am going to put one or two on line starting tonight. I am not doing any more shows this year and so I am focusing on etsy. I say that and then I get discouraged but I am going to keep to my goal list. My grandson and daughter are arriving this week for 2 and half months and so I needed to get what I can done before the holiday rush and before I get distracted by my grandson.

Visions of what? Dancing where?

I started to write this blog and my computer froze up so I got wise and I wrote it on word and I will copy and paste it. I can be so slow sometimes. I have completed two art fairs and I have called it quits for the season. I have shocked my husband and my family. I love the craft shows, getting ready, designing the table, talking to the customers and the venders. I do well at these events. Much better than on etsy. I need to create more inventory and I do not have the energy to go crazy making more candles. I have decided to be selfish and think about me and only me. I believe we all need to do this from time to time and in the end it really isn’t selfish at all but a necessity of life. With the holidays approaching us I am already feeling the push and I do not like it. We have almost the entire month of Dec booked with one event or another and a few more who want us to put them on 0ur calendar. ENOUGH ALREADY. I stomp by feet and I say STOP!!!! I will not be attending the church recital and if you would like our company please stop by before Christmas, we would love to see you. Just call first to see if we are home. I am going to take time to cook, to bake, to sing off key, to reflect and to run in the rain with my grandkids. I am going to do one random act of kindness each week starting with thanksgiving weekend in honor of my son law and in memory of my father in law. I am making time to cut our tree to have our traditional toast to celebrate the things we are thankful for this year and to share the dreams I have for the coming year. I am taking time to mend a fence with my oldest son that was damaged in a horrible stormy misunderstanding. I am going to toast my son in law who will not be with us this holiday season because he is in Iraq. I am going to remember and mourn the passing of my father in law who had a courageous and long struggle with cancer. I am going to take time to reflect on a year that brought me great sorrow, happiness, struggles and joy. I am going to say no to the things that I feel obligated to do and I will say yes to the things that I want to do and that bring me joy. You can find me sitting quietly in front of my fireplace sipping a scotch on the rocks. Bring it on!

Here I sit silent and weary

Okay I try to be the optimist but today has challenged that. I found it a little hard to find something good.Okay there was one thing good and positive I got to go to work and did not have to sit at this horrible craft show. If it was not for the fact I did this craft show to be moral support for my mom I think I would have lost my hair. I got up at the crack of a bad word to help my mother set up for a two day craft show at her retirement complex. After I set up I still had to go to my real job. In the end that was a blessing. There was a total of 12 people who came through. AHHHHHHHHHH! And yes I will going back tomorrow because my mother has another engagement and I am to man the table. AHHHHHHHH. I hope you can hear that primal scream. I love my mom and this is her one show a year and she enjoys sitting and talking with her friends. I am there basically to unpack, fetch food and water and pack up. The vendors ( 9 in total) are nice. I did make a 5.00 sale before I had to go off to work. Okay you see now are two things that were positive. So maybe it wasn't a bad day after all. I spent the afternoon with my mom and had a nice meal with her. Tomorrow is another day by myself in a retirement community who know me as OH this is Joanie's oldest girl( as if I was 10)as they point at me and move on. I just hope no one pats me on the head! More to come as the saga continues.............

So here we are and it is Halloween

I am pretty much an empty nester. My husbands children are with us every other weekend. My children are grown up with a child each of their own. Here comes Halloween. Our Friends have past the lets dress up and party stage. Never thought I would get here. So do we just let Halloween pass us by. My children loved this day. They would decorate the yard and as they got older they became more resourceful. Making holes in the ground and buring themselves and then scaring the unsuspected trick or treater coming by. I still have the left over holes. A bottle of ketchup was a staple in our house. In any given day leading up to Halloween I could find my son or sons in some dead position with ketchup all over. Sadly the day my son really did cut his hand(not bad enough for stitches but he did a good job) I did not believe him. There were haunted houses, pumpkin farms and hot soup and bread. I have great memories. They have their own children now. I hope my grandchildren give their parents a few heart attacks as they gave me. This last Sunday was a beautiful day and not wanting to see it go to waste I talked my husband into going to the pumpkin farm. Yes without children. It seemed sacrilegious. We started out to find that perfect pumpkin and then reality set in. We really weren't going to carve a pumpkin. We both knew by the time we would get home we would have lost interest. We reminded each other how much we hated it when we had to finish the pumpkin's the girls started. So we changed our plans. We went searching for gourds. We found the most amazing and odd gourds. We had a wonderful afternoon. When we got home my husband made a great arrangement on our front porch. I smile when I see it. New traditions replacing the old. I still get to hand out the treats, my favorites are the body parts. This year it is rotten teeth. Got to go, the bell has rung and the bewitching hour is here. The fangs are in and my cackle at the ready. I open the door and the words of the day Trick Or Treat! Have a Happy Halloween!

Found it!

So I found my calendar and today's goals were to make some promos for our etsyrain group and and to give out when I am out and about.Promotion promotion! I will let you know if it works. I am giving out small cards with my etsy site and my blog address. It is a coupon kind of for a free card if they send me a convo or comment on my blog.Hmmm might work. I like the idea of a contest as well. I will have to pencil that in. Tip: Always pencil everything in, that way you are never committed to it and you can move it to another day. I also set a goal to read three blogs and leave a comment to help with more traffic to my site and to broaden my knowledge of who is selling out there. Maybe tonight. There are so many great artists! My other goal was to be in the forum in the am. I did do most of them and I still have some time but honestly I went to tea( 3 hours) with my mom. It was much more civil than working. Well so much for the calendar and now I seem to need a nap.

PS If anyone reads this please tell me how I link to your blogs! I am sure I can figure it out but it goes so much faster when I am told what to do at least in this venue:)

OMG Summer is almost over!

Summer for me is winding down and now the new challenge begins. I go back to work( which I am looking forward to, I miss it ) and I have to figure out how to keep the momentum I have started going with creating and etsy. I have set up a calender which of course I have now missed place with the goals I have and the design ideas I have. I thought this would be a great way to keep on task. It works at my job. the problem is I keep miss placing it. I have put out a bulletin in my home for a reward if someone finds it. So much for organization. I have no plan B so I must find that calendar. I am off on the hunt.

So how many carrots are in your basket? Tell me your story!

I have been thinking a lot about where do I go from here? What is it I want from this experience? I read a thread in the forum about who should be selling and who might want to bail. What are people thinking when they post items that just are not going to sell and nobody wants to buy low end crafts. Art has always been a personal interpretation for the buyer as well for the seller. Etsy is advertised as a one of a kind handmade sight. Hmmm who says my story is not a good enough reason to be there. We each need to know what it is we want from our venture. I already have heard a few stories all interesting and unique. Each one of us with a dream and craft that gives us pleasure. My story? I get great enjoyment from my crafts, I am very sensory motivated and so it needs to feel good against my fingers. I loose interest easily and so I will have two to three projects going at the same time. I started my business when I found myself off for the summer and I needed to do something with my time and I thought I could make a little money to finance my crafting addiction. I also wanted to learn more about the Internet and what it had to offer. This year I made a goal to really focus on my etsy business and to learn how to blog and navigate with less difficulty on line. All the while I continue to craft. I have not sold a thing this summer from my etsy store. I do have my cards in a shop in Florida and one now in Seattle. It makes me smile. I also have met a group of very nice people. I have stepped outside my comfort zone and pushed myself. I have done a street fair and look forward to a group fair in the fall. Wow all this from a hobby. I think my summer as been a success but if you just visited my shop on etsy you may have thought differently. My shop is a cover to a book that is very complex and has many chapters.

Do you have a story? Of course you do! Tell it here.

The Fair a Family afair!

I did it! I made it through the Fremont Fair and had a great time. I have done craft shows so it is not like it is new but I have never done it with a group of people I did not know. I at least paid for my space and made a few cents on top of it and met some great people. I so love my family who no matter what I make( or don't) support the fact that I like doing this. I do not think it was the intention of my husband to stay all day with our two daughters but that is what they did. There is a vibration, a feeling when you are there that you get no where else. When artist gather there is an energy. I think he liked the energy and the support that he was able to give me. In all it was a very nice day, sun and I got a little tan. I wasn't at home so I did not have to do house work or those other important(not) home life things we are suppose to do. Hmm maybe I am doing this to provide myself a good solid excuse to avoid those things I can not stand to do. Now I have another excuse besides lets go play. We haven;t played all week. The dishes will be there when we get back. Yes I may be on to something. Weekends fairs no housework. I am liking this. I what I did find amazing is how long it took all of us to get ready and the checking and rechecking that we did to make sure we were ready for our 2 x 2 space. Our booth looked good. Each of our own uniqueness represented in our small area. Each of us prideful of what we had to offer and of the work we had done. This is a group of very mixed and talented crafters. Not only in materials and whimsy but in age and experiences. I look forward in all I have to learn and in getting to know these artists as we journey through our experiences at etsy and beyond! The challenges I found was not knowing what to do. I found that I needed to be doing something, I did crochet for a while but I needed to mingle with the people. I handed out bags with goodies that gave me an excuse to talk to the crowds( Use that loosely). There was a huge crowd but it dwindled before it got down to us and the tree troll. In all a lot was learned, friends were being made and fun was had by all.

Getting ready for the fair

I am getting ready for a fair this weekend with some sellers I have not even met yet. I made a vow to push my comfort zone this summer and give my business my all and here I am doing it. I am also meeting 10 to 15 artist from Seattle for coffee. Yes I do not know a single soul. Way out of my comfort zone. I understand networking in the world is how small business works and so I will try my hand at it even though it makes my heart race. Back to the fair. I am so not organized and I have a hard time making a decision and keeping to it because there is always another way to do it or a prettier way to present it and the list goes on. I am second guessing my pricing and on and on and on. It is not like I have never done a craft show so you would think I would just let it flow. Oh no way! I am like a pilot at take off. Check and recheck and recheck and fret that I have missed something. It is my goodness only a Sunday market. I have a small space so then I have to decide what product I want to bring. Simple? Oh not for me. I think I will just bring everything I have. I do not have to decide and if I do not have enough space, it is limited, I will have to chose when I am there. I do not have a lot of product so it is not like packing the entire castle. It is two containers. And to think I am the CEO of my company. It is amazing I get anything done. Sadly my husband is inflicted with the same personality type. Goodness making decisions in our home is needless to say a lot of talk and very little action sometimes. There are lots of tips out there for fairs, make sure you have the basics, water, food(and in this order) snacks, very little cash to spend( you will not make a profit by spending it all at the fair, go with a budget) cash to make change, receipt book, great table set up and your product( oops maybe this should be after the food) and have a good time. It is a great opportunity if nothing else to get out of the house and meet some pretty darn nice people. Keep repeating step out of the box, step out of the box

Have a great day and keep crafting!

unfinished projects

Well I have completed an unfinished project I have stared at for a year. It is beautiful! It is made from homespun lion brand yarn. It is variegated in deep purples, maroons,blues greys. It is soft and cuddly and I am sure very warm. I think this is one trait of a crafter. It seems we have projects started but for what ever reason we stop the process and move on to something more exciting. Sometimes I am just bored with the process and sometimes I have found this new idea and can not wait to try it out. There is some satisfaction in the completion of a project. One less thing now that clutters my side of the bed. Hmmm I guess I need to be off to the craft store for more yarn!

Prideful to be a crafter

I have been with etsy for a year. I did not work my shop very much during the winter. It was hard to find time to craft and have a full time job and do the craft fairs on the weekends. Busy! I would like to be able to do just on line sales and drop the craft fair route. I struggle with how to advertise and get and keep my shop out there. I am joining and learning about blogging but I am not sure anyone is really interested in what I have to say or not. I truly love crafting, I am not an artist but a crafter and I take great pride in that. Crafting to me is a long tradition of skills that have been handed down from generation to generation. Crafting was a means to an end. you could not afford to buy so you learned how to make it yourself. I was very poor when my children were young. I learned how to cake decorate so my children would have birthday cakes like their friends. I ended up making a few bucks with my skill because all my children's Friends wanted the cake my kids had. HMMMM!I taught myself and have handed it down to my daughters how to crochet. I could not afford nice warm blankets and so made them. My children would not sleep with anything else. Each item my hands create be it cards or a 200.00 afghan it is crafted in love and a deepness in pride. traditions are important in the stability of our families and crafting comes from traditions from a long ways back. I encourage myself as well as others to keep their craft alive. I will continue to sell my wares in hopes that I find that customer that just needs what I have to offer.

Handed down from generation

It seems when you talk to crafters there is always a story surrounding their family. Crafting is handed down from generation to generation. My mom taught me how to crochet and find it a great stress relief and easy to take where ever I go. My own children only wanted to sleep on a hand crocheted quilt and not some scratchy blanket. My youngest carried his around till there was nothing left and when they left home they took them with. When my daughter married he husband felt left out because he did not have one of his own. I have taught my youngest step daughter and I have a variety of shapes around my house now. They do not seem to look like the pot holder or scarf but you know we all had to start somewhere. It gives her the same pleasure it gives me and that is quite satisfying to watch in your child. I have started to do some free form crocheting adding texture in my stitches. I am enjoying seeing what will happen and how this baby quilt will turn out. I will post it when I get done. So far it is very pretty.

Welcome!

I have just entered the world of blogging so please hold on, I have no clue as to what I am doing. If you stop by and have any suggestions please oh please leave them

I have a dream of having a successful card and gift shop on line. I am realizing how difficult it is. there are a lot of crafters out there and they do some beautiful work. I am off for the summer and decided I would learn as much as I can and get involved in as many groups that I can handle. Right now that is 3. I am on the hunt to learn about all I can bout blogging and how it can help create a customer base. I will write about my frustrations and my successes. I look forward to hearing from all of you and any information that is helpful will always be received with much a do.