A Great Thanksgiving

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving visit with my mom and brother and we got so much accomplished while they were here. It really was a great time and I'm so glad that they were able to make it out here on Tuesday night, even if it was a little later than planned. We needed every day that they were here.

My mom and I cooked Thanksgiving dinner and it was super yummy. We tried out a brined turkey recipe this year that we hadn't done before and it turned out really well. The turkey was very moist and the meat had a sweetness to it from the brine. We made mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, rolls, pumpkin pie, and peacan pie. Here's a quick picture of our spread and below that is the recipe for the turkey brine.

Brined Turkey Breast
16 cups of water
2 cups sugar
2 cups coarse salt
5 gloves of garlic, crushed
1 Tbsp pickling spices

Combine ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until sugar and salt dissolve. Cool to room temperature. Poor brine over breast and refrigerate, loosely covered, overnight.

We also worked on getting Noah's nursery put together and I think that it's looking great. We put up the border around the room and did it at a chairrail height. It helps to break up the whiteness of the walls. I figure this will be easier to remove from the walls than having to completely repaint when and if we move again. We also hung a curtain rod and put up the window vallences and I'm working on a project to hang above his crib that will have his name on it. We got all the bedding out and put in on the crib to see how everything looks together and it's super cute. I'll post pictures once I get the room finished.

My etsy shop has been quite busy lately and I have to say that I am very thankful for that. I'm quickly approaching the milestone of 200 sales and I'm hoping that I'll hit that before the end of the year. I would just be thrilled. Over the weekend I added a whole new line of Amy Butler tins into my store and I'm excited to see how people like them. Today is another busy day so I'd better be off and start working on my to-do list. Ah, the never ending list.

Busy Day

Today was an incredibly busy day for me. I was finishing up orders and packing things to be mailed all afternoon. I had two international orders so I had to actually go into the post office to mail them. I couldn't believe the line! It was out the door. People must be really on top of getting things mailed this year because it's not even Thanksgiving yet. When I left the line was just as long.

I saw a tweet this morning on twitter about a blog giving away a Kitchenaid stand mixer so I entered to win it and I thought that I'd pass along the link for anyone else who wants to enter. I'd love to have one of these. Hmm, maybe I shouldn't pass along the link because that just mean more competition, right? Click on the picture to go straight to the blog post.

And since I'm now into both advertising through Project Wonderful and having people advertise on my blog, I found this great post by fellow etsian Timothy Adam that gives a wonderful tutorial on how to run an ad campaign. It was very informative and so easy! So here's that link if you're interested: http://timothyadamdesigns.blogspot.com/2008/05/master-list-of-pw-ads-here-list-of.html

And finally, a few pictures of some custom tins that I did for someone through etsy. I love how they turned out and they have actually inspired me to do a whole line of tins with Amy Butler papers so stay tuned!

Where Did The Weekend Go?

This weekend has totally flown by. I can't believe that it's Sunday night already. Isaac had drill this weekend so we had to make the 2 hour trip to his drill site yesterday. I did a little scrapbook store shopping while he was working. I have about 4 pads of Amy Butler paper that I've had for months now and haven't done anything with. I came up with a pretty good idea on how to use up this paper and so I was hunting for matching cardstock. May I just say that she uses the most odd shades of colors in her prints. This was the second time that I had gone looking for matching cardstock and it was VERY difficult to find anything. I did come away with some that I think will go nicely though.

So we were pretty much gone all day yesterday and then today I am working on finishing up some custom orders and getting them ready to go in the mail tomorrow. When I have those finished I really want to start working on a new round on tins but instead I'm going to have to get together my baby shower invitee list with names and addresses and get it emailed to my aunt. My mom has been asking me if I have it done for the past three days now so I've got to get it finished.

Speaking of baby showers, it was suggested to me that I possibly have a virtual baby shower since most of our friends are spread out through different states and countries. I haven't looked into how this could be done but I'm wondering if anyone out there has either had a virtual baby shower or participated in one and how it worked. It would be awesome if our friends could participate in our baby shower.

Two quick baby finds that I'm loving right now. I found this monkey coat at Gymboree and I think Noah just has to have it. I didn't buy it when I saw it on Friday but I am going to go back and see if they still have it. It was on sale in the store so I think it was only like $25 which is a lot for a baby's coat but for the cuteness factor I'm going to have to give in!

I also found this pacifier that closes when it falls out of the baby's mouth. My mom had seen one or heard about them before and looked them up online. We thought that was the only place that you could get them but when I was in Motherhood Maternity the other day I saw that they had them. So I grabbed the only blue one they had (they had the Nemo one but Isaac didn't find it as cute as I did) and it was only $3.99. I didn't think that was such a bad price, especially if it keeps the pacifier from getting all yucky on the ground. I hope that Noah takes to this kind.

And lastly, a few new Pocket Albums in my shop.

Election Day

I feel like I was really busy today but at the same time I didn't get much accomplished. Don't you hate those kind of days? It's now 11:30pm and I'm feeling like I have to do 10 more things before I can go to bed! I hate that. Plus I'm feeling like a giant prego so that doesn't help matters.

I did manage to get a few things listed today in my shop. Another set of notecards, another Pocket Album, and a super cute snowman Christmas card. I also got a custom order today for some of the monogramed notecards so that was exciting. I'm not sure how she found my shop but she just signed up to etsy today and placed an order with me. I'm wondering if maybe she found me through one of my Project Wonderful ads. That would be awesome since they've only been up for like 2 days. I'll have to ask her.

What else did I do today...oh yeah, I heard of this new site called Lollishops.com and I heard that they were taking applications for shops on their site. They haven't launched the site as a selling venue yet but they launch the trial version on November 15th and then later in the month they are launching the full version. Anyway, the site is for super girly stuff, lots of victorian and cottage type things but they also have a section for bright colors. I applied to be put in the bright section, I know it's shocking, right? I didn't really think that I would get in because I read that a lot of people weren't getting in but amazingly within about 15 minutes of applying I was accepted. Yay! I was emailed more information about the site and I need to go check out what their fees are going to be. Wasn't I just saying yesterday that I wasn't going to set up on other sites and that I was just going to work on etsy for the time being? Oh well, I may give it a shot and see what happens. I hear that they've already got ads up on several internet sites and that they have a pretty big advertising budget so maybe it'll be a great second selling site for me.

Alright, housework is unfortunately calling my name. Gotta get those 10 things done before bedtime!

What A Day

Wow, I feel like I've been running, running, running today. I woke up late today because this daylight savings time has really thrown me off. I'm super tired very early and so by staying up until midnight, which is my norm, I actually feel like I've been up until 3 or 4am and then I can't wake up at my normal 7am. I didn't get up today until nearly 9!

I did a lot of research about how to better promote selling my handmade items and I learned quite a bit today. I have this fabulous friend Dotty who gave me a lot of valuable information. I was thinking about setting up shop on several other sites other than etsy but in the end I decided to stick with etsy and just try to promote the heck out of my shop. So I created an ad for Project Wonderful and I've got that ad on I think 5 or 6 blogs right now. I like that you can see how many clicks you get on your ad for how many views of the website. Plus it's pretty cheap advertising. I'm also going to purchase an ad space on another gal I know's blog. She seems to get a ton of traffic so I figure I'll try it for a month. I need to be more visible in this holiday shopping season.

I've added several new pocket albums to the shop and I'm also offering custom monogramed notecards again this year. They were a huge hit last year and they are such a great stocking stuffer or gift to get for the gals at the office. The price on them is just right for this kind of thing too. I have three colors listed right now and you just pick the monogram you want on them. You can also convo me if you want a different color that I don't have listed. I have about 60 different colors of cardstock so I'm sure I can fix you up!

I made old fashion bread pudding from Tastefully Simple tonight for my Bible study gals. Oh my gosh, it was so good. I did get a stomach ache from it though because I didn't eat dinner before I went to study so all I had to eat was bread pudding. Thus, the stomach ache. I'm hopefully going to get a little real food in me tonight while watching The Hills at 10pm. I know, it's a sick addiction, what can I say :)

Finally Some New Pocket Albums!

I finally finished some new pocket albums and I'm so excited to get them listed. This is the first one that I listed earlier this morning. I love this paper and the fact that the roses are dry embossed I think is just fabulous!

I have 7 more patterns to list and I'll be listing them over the course of the next three days. I found some really great papers a few weekends ago in Maryland and I've been working as quickly as possible to get them finished.

I'm also working on some Christmas cards for my shop. I was just going to make single cards originally but then I decided to do some sets. I have this set listed currently and I am working on finishing up another set or two tonight. This was just going to be a single card but after I finished it I loved the embossing and the overall look so much that I decided to do it as a set of four. I know that people don't always want to send hand-made cards to everyone on their list but I thought for four special people that would appreciate them, these cards would be spectacular.

A Dilemma

I'm sort of having a few dilemma's in my life as of late. I'm not sure what to do about a multitude of things and so, I've done nothing.

Dilemma #1: So we have little Noah on the way. Fantastic! But I'm becoming very concerned about what our financial situation will be once he gets here. I mean my husband has a descent paying job and we do fine with the money he makes with the two of us. I'm afraid, however, that once we throw an expensive baby into the mix things might get too tight. I don't want to go back to work full time because I don't want someone else raising my child 75% of the time. I feel strongly that my place is here with him and any other children that come along. However, I'm not sure what to do to contribute to our income. I've always worked and brought in money and I'm starting to feel like I don't contribute anything and just spend the money. Which brings me to my next dilemma.

Dilemma #2: Am I just kidding myself with my etsy shop? I've been on etsy for over a year now and I do love selling my things there. I really enjoy the fact that others love my work. I originally thought that I would be able to bring in a part-time income with this but I don't really think that's happening. I am really bad at keeping records like how much I'm spending vs how much I'm selling and knowing overall if I'm actually making any money. It has just been fun up until this point. But now I may need to take a serious look and I'm afraid of what I might find. I spend tons of money on supplies and I feel like I never use all of them. But I get tired of them or they become the "old" patterns and I want to run out and buy the "new" papers that have just come out. I know that the simple solution is to stop buying and just use up what I have, but something in me compells me to keep buying the new stuff. So the question has become, do I keep my shop open or do I just close? If I closed then I would certainly spend less money because I wouldn't be buying all these supplies. And I'd get to do my own scrapbooking that is seriously behind. I never scrapbook for myself. But I do love having my shop and going to craft shows. So I'm torn.

I could go on with a few more of my dilemmas but this is getting long so I'll stop for today. I did list two more tins in my shop this morning and I'm crossing my fingers that people are going to recover from the economy shock and start Christmas shopping soon.

Poni's Parlor

I'm so excited to know that my Pocket Albums have made their way into a gift shop called Poni's Parlor in New Hampshire! I sent my tins out to her last week and she put them out in her shop on Tuesday. She emailed me today to tell me that she has already sold one! Yay! It's so exciting to have my product in another state.

Alexandra's shop is so cute too. I love that she did everything in pink, black, and white. She also found amazing displays to showcase her artists' work. I know that there are several other etsian selling in her shop. The shop is located at 51 Main Street Meredith, NH if you're in the area and want to check it out.
These are my Pocket Albums on the white table.



I have to say that I was very nervous when she contacted me on etsy about renting space in her store. I had read lots of horror stories on etsy about people sending their product and never getting it back. It took me quite awhile to decide just to go for it. She didn't have the store open yet but from the information she did give me I felt like she was legit. I'm so excited to see how my product does in her store!