I have a bridal shower at work tomorrow. I decoupaged a picture frame, the first time I've ever tried that. I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. I think I'll try another one and maybe list it.
This is the card that I made to go with the present. It's made from cardboard
I've decided to take the plunge and have a giveaway!
This giveaway is for 5 of my little mini thank you cards (with envelopes).
Here's what to do if you would like to enter:
1. Please visit my shop and pick the card you like the best.
2. Come back here and tell me which card you picked.
3. Make sure I have some way of contacting you!
This contest will run until midnight (PST) August 3. I'll have my daughter draw the entry out of a hat (or a bowl or a cup or....whatever I can find) on Aug 4 and will contact the winner. The winner will need to supply their shipping address to me by Aug 8. The cards will be of my choosing and you might not receive the cards pictured here since I keep adding to my stock of these all the time.
Thanks and good luck!
Make sure you check out the Bloggy Giveaways Carnival for more fabulous giveaways!
I've got a couple of new cards to list in the shop. I've been experimenting with the way I take the card photos and I think I like this.
I made a light box and tried photographing them with a white background but I just really didn't like the way the pictures turned out.
So, I tried again, using various pieces of scrapbook paper (goodness knows, I have enough to choose from!) and a patch of sunlight coming thru my craft room window.
A touch of editing in Photoshop and viola, bright, pretty pictures of my cards. I'm planning on reshooting some of my cards already listed because I want them to pop better in their pictures.
We have beautiful sunflowers growing in our front planter. We didn't plant them, I think the birds must have. This one is the size of a saucer plate. There is another plant with about 10 blooms on it that are just getting ready to open. So pretty, such unexpected sunshine.
It seems that whenever I start to get just a little down about having no sales in my shop, that's when a sale happens. I logged in last night to find that 2 of my Halloween cards had sold. Yay! Just when I was starting to think that maybe I was silly for having Halloween items in the shop in July. They are now winging their way across the country to a new home in Florida.
Hmm, get a little down, get a sale.....maybe I should be a little down all the time : )
Bye bye Monster Mash cards.
Look, even the monsters are doing the happy sales dance.
One of the members of my SDEC team is having a summer house cleaning sale to make way for her new fall line. Check out Devore Jones for some great deals on beautiful bags. How cute is the bag above!?! Click on it to make it yours.
This is an incredible video. It's the #1 video on YouTube right now and if you watch it, you'll see why. Oh and I checked it on Snopes. It's all real
My blog is back! And it's better than ever. In trying to find a fix for the blog of no personality, I found a template for 3 columns. I've been thinking about trying out 3 columns and since I figured I would have to redo everything anyway, I thought I'd give it a try.
In playing around with the 3c template, I clicked on something within the layout tab and viola! My blog was back! I was so happy!
I quickly made another copy of it and I copied the HTML for all of my widgets into a Word doc. Then I created a test blog so I could play around with the 3c template without screwing my original up again. Lo and behold, the 3c template worked and I've spent the evening rearranging all of my widgets.
I'm pretty sure I'm going to keep the 3c template, but just in case, I have a back up copy of my old template saved! Whew!
I'm not sure how I feel about this. MTV is planning on remaking The Rocky Horror Picture Show. No word yet on who will direct or star. They are hoping to have it out by Halloween 2009.
I don't know, why mess with perfection? I just can't see anyone else as Frank but Tim Curry. RHPS played a big part in my youth, as it did (and still does) for many people. I just don't know how I feel about a remake....
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/07/mtvs-rocky-horr.html
I tried making a change to the HTML of my template last night and it went all wonky on me. The change saved, even though I never hit save. Then my template reverted back to the template that I used when I first starting blogging.
The option to upload the copy of my old template that I saved right before making the change is non-existent. Oh so sad, I have my old blog saved but can't get it back. I miss all my widgets....
I'm still trying to figure it out and I'm hoping to get it back to normal tonight but until then, I'm stuck with this blog of no personality.
Oh so sad......
I've been having a really bad week. On Monday, I woke up at 4am with a blazing headache on the whole left side of my head. A hot shower, 4 motrin and an ice pack later, I was on the couch and just couldn't make myself get up to go to work. Luckily, I was able to work from home for half a day so it wasn't a whole lost day.
Yesterday, I was at work, sitting at my computer when all of a sudden, I had a blinding pain in my left shoulder, near my neck. I wasn't doing anything, not even typing so I have no idea what happened. One minute, I was fine and the next, I was in a lot of pain. I borrowed a microwave heat pack from one of the other girls at work and toughed it out all day, but I was totally miserable. It was hard driving home, since I couldn't turn my neck to the left. I had to turn my whole body if I needed to change lanes. It got really bad when I got home because I was moving more than I had all day. I scared my daughter at one point because I was just sobbing from the pain. My hubby rubbed my neck and shoulder off and on most of the night and I took a couple of really hot baths as well.
This morning I decided that my health was more important than going to work so I stayed home again today. I've got one of those sticky heat packs on my shoulder and a full tube of Bengay. Woo boy, I'm ready to par-tay!
I still have no idea what I did but I'm guessing it's all related since both the headache and the pulled muscle were on the left side. I'm not that old, why do I feel like I'm falling apart!?!
Except, we don't have one.
I hate putting laundry away. Hate it. With a passion. I don't mind doing the laundry, washing it but actually folding it and putting it away....Bah! So, the clean laundry ends up in the baskets on the floor. And then we have to dig thru it all week long to find clothes.
I hate cleaning the bathrooms only slightly more than folding laundry.
Yeah, that maid, if she ever shows up, she's outta here!
This week's featured Etsian is halfanacre. I first came across halfanacre in the forums and was intrigued by her avatar. I clicked into her shop and fell in love. Her pointy fish are fantastic and I've already promised myself one at some point. She also has a blog. It's brilliant and never fails to make me laugh. Here are some of my favorites from her shop.
I haven't done a card post in a while (too many other fun things to share!) so thought I'd do one tonight. These cards were a custom order for another artist on Etsy. I had so much fun making them, I just couldn't stop. I keep adding to the pile so I figured I would list them. They are perfect for saying thanks to customers.
I've come to think of them as my version of ACEOs/ATCs. And they are a great way to use up some of my scrap paper!
I am currently reading the final book of a trilogy about Peter Pan. The books are written by Dave Berry and Ridley Pearson. They tell the story of how Peter became Peter Pan, met Captain Hook and got Tinker Bell. They are fantastic books, I've loved every one. I'm a little sad since I'm almost finished with the last book of the series. I highly recommend them!
Click on the pictures to find the books on Amazon
I was lucky enough to snag a treasury in the Big House the other day. There were over 800 people watching the treasury as it got ready to drop below 333. Wow! The little box opened up, I pasted in my title, hit save and up popped the treasury screen....but with no boxes to enter item numbers.
Huh.
So I hit refresh....and lost my treasury. Poof! It was gone. I couldn't get back into it, kept getting an error message telling me to try back later. Me and those 800 other people? Yeah, we broke the treasury. It was down about 10 minutes and then, like magic, it was back.
I already had my poster sketch open so I quickly filled my treasury with green lovelies from the SDEC team. Whew!
Grandpa with his great grandson
On Wednesday, I posted on the Ehell forums about my neighbor. He smokes (which is completely his right). He also has a fan in his bedroom window that sucks the smoke out of his house and blows in directly into mine. If the fan is turned on and the windows on that side of the house are open, those rooms smell like smoke.
We have talked to him about it. The first time, the window was shut and the fan was turned off. Then he put up a bamboo shade, like one that you would put up to block the afternoon sun on your porch. He opened the window again and turned on the fan. 6 feet of thin bamboo shade did not stop the smoke from being blown into our house. We talked to him about it again. Again, he shut the window and turned off the fan. Until Wednesday morning when I awoke to the smell of his smoke coming in my window at 5am.
It's summer here right now and it's hot. We don't have AC nor can we afford to have it put in. We have several fans but we have to have the windows open in order to get some relief from the heat.
So, I posted on Ehell, looking for some suggestions, a little support, but mostly just to vent. And then I was attacked. At first, the answering posts were suggestions, to get a fan of our own for the window, to keep the windows shut, to put in AC. I said we would look into the fan option but the other suggestions really weren't an option.
Then I was told that another option was to move. No, that's really NOT an option. That seemed like a really silly thing to suggest but I didn't say that.
Posters started defending my neighbor, saying that he wasn't doing anything illegal, he had every right to smoke in his own home and that I was being unreasonable. I said yes, but what about my right to NOT have smoke in my own home. It was my own fault for not getting off my lazy butt and doing something on my end to stop the smoke from coming in. That I had nixed every idea given to me and that I was being completely unreasonable about the whole thing.
Ummm, ok.....
All of this took place in the space of 24 hours. I posted on Wednesday morning. By Thursday morning I was being told that I hadn't done anything and it was my own fault, I just needed to suck it up since I was unwilling to make any changes on my end. Unwilling???? I had barely had time to get home from work, make dinner for my kids and sleep but I was supposed to have already gone out and gotten a fan for the window, installed AC and apologized to my neighbor.
There were a few posters defending me and agreeing with me. They were passionate and vocal and I thank them for their posts. I got quite a few supportive private messages and that really helped.
In the end, there were a couple of posters who decided that they flat out didn't believe me. They didn't believe that the smoke was coming into my house and that I was....I don't really know. Making the whole thing up, I guess.
I finally had to post that I was done with the whole thread. That they could believe me or not, but why would I lie about it. What could I possibly gain by lying? Certainly not a whole lot of sympathy and understanding.
I did ask: what if the situations had been reversed. What if I was the smoker with the fan and my neighbor was the one who had the smoke blowing into his house. What if I had then come to the forum and said 'yeah, my neighbor told me this but I don't care, I'm going to do what I want cause it's my right and he can just suck it up.' I'm certain that if that had been the case, I would have been told that I was being rude and inconsiderate. I noticed that no one really had a response to that query.
I will point out that most of the posters who were defending my neighbor so vehemently were themselves smokers (many of them mentioned it within their posts). I guess that my post touched on some very sensitive nerves. I never once said that I expected my neighbor to give up smoking or to stop smoking in his home but a lot of the posters made it sound like that was what I was demanding.
I don't care if he smokes, he can smoke 10 packs a day if that's what he wants to do. What I do care about is that he is actively, knowingly blowing his smoke into my house. I don't want his secondhand smoke in my house, around my children. I don't think I'm being unreasonable. I don't think that just because you have the legal right to do something means that you can and should do it. All I've asked my neighbor to do is not turn on his fan. When the fan is not on, I never smell the smoke. A simple solution, I think. He is not using the fan for cooling, if he was it would be sucking air into his house, not blowing it out. We are going to try a fan in our own window. We're even thinking about planting something either in front of the window or along that side of the house entirely. Hopefully, one of those things will help and we will have a smoke free house again.
I'm not going to stop visiting the Ehell forums. No goodbye cruel forum posts for me. But, I will be thinking twice about posting my own personal problems for a while. And that's too bad.
Our first harvest from the garden this season. I weeded (which was really needed) and picked about a pounds worth of green beans.
I'm going to try and feature a different etsy seller each Sunday. I don't promise that I'll always remember but I'm going to give it a go....so without further ado, here's the first featured seller:
flickr game
I saw this game on a new blog I found (saburose) and it sounded like fun so I thought I’d give it a try
The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.
The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name
and here is what I found:
My answers:
1. Deanna 2.Mexican food 3.Patrick Henry (who knew there was a Patrick Henry Mall) 4. purple 5. Steven Tyler (one of many, he popped into my head first) 6. Coke 7. Venice 8. Brownie (apparently, the bats are brownies)
9. writer 10. my family 11. mom 12. Zo-Be Designs (which, of course, didn't come up so I had to settle for Zobe)
I mentioned Bertha, the Halloween bird the other day. I listed her yesterday.
We had a pretty quiet 4th of July. The kids played in the pool (ok, we all played in the pool) and we BBQ'd hot dogs and hamburgers. No fireworks, we just didn't feel like going anywhere.
It's hot. Really hot. 100* hot.
On the radio on Wednesday, the news was saying that over 1 million people were expected at the San Diego beaches this weekend. That's crazy! Too many people for me. We live about 40 minutes from the beach but we rarely go. I'm just not a beach person.
No other plans for the weekend. It's wonderful having 2 more days off!
I admit it, I watch a lot of TV. It makes me happy. I especially love all of the dance and singing shows.
This was a routine from the amazing Mia Michels from Wednesday's SYTYCD. The couple dancing it are Twitch and Kherington, one of my favorite couples this season.
It made me cry
At work today an idea for a card popped into my head. I quickly became obsessed with the idea and couldn't wait to get home to try it. Well, alright, I just couldn't wait to leave work, period.
Anyway....
I got home, played with the kids for a while and then was finally able to get into the craft room to try out my idea. I ended up with both kids in there with me. My daughter wanted to make a card as well, which mainly consists of her gluing things down to a bigger sheet of paper (she's 4) and my son (he's 14 months), well, he had a huge amount of fun opening up several containers of Halloween foam stickers and throwing them all over the floor. But, it kept him entertained and allowed me to work.
Luckily, my idea worked and a new card design was born.
This is Francine, she's quite proud of her feathers.
I ended up making 4 of the birds tonight. I'm really proud of them. I'll take pics of the other 3 tomorrow and try to get them listed tomorrow as well.
I also listed a couple more Halloween cards. I have a few more to do still, including a Halloween birdie, Bertha. Not sure where the names come from, they just pop into my head when I'm making the birds.
There's been a lot of talk on the etsy forums about when to start listing holiday items. The general consensus has been the sooner the better. So, I pulled out my Halloween papers the other night and got to work. It feels weird to be working on Halloween items when it's 100* outside but you've gotta stay ahead of the game
I love Halloween, it's right even with Christmas as my favorite holiday. We used to decorate a lot for Halloween. After my daughter was born, we kind of stopped. I think it was because she was born in late September and I just didn't feel up to it that first year. But then 1 year became 2 years and so on. Last Halloween was our first in our new house and we finally decided to get back into decorating. We pulled everything out and went to town. It was great. We also went to a carnival and real door to door trick or treating.
So, even though we'll be celebrating the 4th of July in just 2 days, I'm already looking forward to Halloween.
Boo!
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