Super fast...

Just a quick one this morning. The other 2 cards that I made with that wonderful green paper are going to make their appearance! I will be listing them soon.

Night One

Here are some of the claims that we heard about foam mattresses:

• you will not toss and turn
• you will not be sore in the morning
• most likely, you will end up on your back in the morning, no matter which way you like to sleep
• when the other person in bed moves, you cannot feel them move
• and oh, the sleep you will get...so much more restful!

So here is what sums up Night #1 in our new foam mattress:

• ouch

I tossed and turned, even though it is extremely hard to do so...there are no springs you know, so nothing bounces you! I was on my back a lot of the night, at least every time I woke up I found myself there. I am somewhat sore- back and shoulder. One thing is for sure, I didn't feel my hubby moving around too much, and he mentioned that he did quite a bit of moving this morning.

Another thing we were told was to give it a good 2 weeks. And I will do just that!

Now on to my Etsy shop: Again I am just shocked! I got my 6 new hearts...got another sale. Unbelievable! I am pretty excited though! Yay for sales! Now I am off to wash sheets.

Busy week ahead

I am a cleaning freak today. I have family coming to stay at my house for the next week, and so I feel like I have to make sure everything gets super-cleaned...you know how that is? I have yet to hit my scrap table, and am dreading that the worst! I am always happy when it's clean, but the start the whole process is not fun.

We are celebrating my hubby's parents special anniversary, and the entire week is filled with activities! We will be taking a big family photo which should be fun. ;) Also on the agenda is a supper, time at the zoo, some of us are staying overnight at a hotel also. Looking forward to it!

I made a treasury this morning...take a look!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=20087

I also have been listed quite a few cards in the last couple of days...here is one of them-

I am still hoping to get in an hour or two somewhere and list a couple more this week! BUT, I have to apologize for the blogging...the posts might be few and far between for the next week!

New Avi & the Couch Situation

I decided to change my avatar on Etsy. I made a card the other day with the same little bird that was in my old avatar, so I updated! Take a look at the card that I used:

I have a question for you all- would you sacrifice comfort for style? We were looking at some couches the other day. I'm kindof thinking leather, so that's where we started. The thing is, I love the look of the big nail heads on the front of the couch. Then there was this other set that I sat in and actually said, "Oohhhh." It was so comfy! There isn't a nail head in sight.

Now, here is a fact that you have to know first- when we got married we bought a couch and love seat for very cheap at a furniture store auction. The store was going out of business, and was selling all their inventory. Here is the deal: We still have that set! And we have been married for 15 years! It is a good set because it has taken quite a bit of abuse over the years. It's just plain u-g-l-y. ;) So, as you can probably figure out, we will be having the new set for years and years...! Ach! What would you do?

Fun new cards!

I am super excited about the new cards that I made the other day! Like I said yesterday, I found this really cool paper in my stash, and just couldn't believe that I hadn't used it yet. I've been in a little rut lately for ideas, but with this paper, I climbed right out! The ideas kept flowing.

So now I had a dilemma...do I post them all in a row on Etsy, or do I space them out between other cards? I have decided to put them all on. I have done a "series" of cards before, so I am going to try it again.

I'll show you 2 today, and 2 tomorrow. Take a look...tell me what you think!

It's the green paper that really drew me. I love green, and with the accents of black, orange, and blue, I think they turned out awesome! The first card has the months of the year stamped on the front. If you are buying this for someone, you can circle the month that they were born in!

Ah Computers...

I think I should take a class or something! I really want to have to know-how to do things on the computer. For those of you who have read my blog before, you might have noticed that I changed the template to a 3 column one. This is not one of the options that Blogger gives, so I had to actually change the HTML! What a proud moment that was! Now I am attempting to add some shop ads on the left hand side. That is proving to be a challenge at the moment.

We did some mattress shopping last night. We went to one place, looked at about 4 mattresses, and bought one. Just like that! Who knew that within a week of "starting to look" we would have a mattress in our home?! Actually, it isn't coming until Monday, but it was in stock and ready to be delivered! So what kind did we get? We went with the foam kind. Yes, it was more spendy, but my DH was convinced that it would be best...we will see how we like it!

Other than that, I had a wonderful birthday. My hubby and I went out for supper after mattress shopping, and the food was excellent. It was nice to get away with just him for a night!

And for the newest card...take a look!

Also, I worked on some new cards yesterday, and I came up with some great ones I think! I found this too cool paper in my stash and went to town with it. I will be showing those tomorrow!

I finally made it!

I have exactly 70 items in my shop today! My goal was to get to 75, and obviously, I have not made that yet, but I'm getting there!

The newest for today is a birthday card. The paper that I used has great greens and blues. I matched it to a textured card stock and stamped that for a fun background. I also inked all the edges. I hate to say...'this is a guys card' so maybe I will say, this will work for a guy! Every time I do label a card "guy" then I have women telling me that they wouldn't mind getting this card too! So it's hard for me to label cards that way, at the same time, it's nice to have a selection of cards for men.

On that note...it's my birthday today! Gotta say that logging in to my Etsy was pretty fun- right at the top of the screen it says, "happy birthday twiddlestix!" My hubby is taking me out for supper tonight and then we are going mattress shopping. Pretty exiting, huh?! We have had the same mattress since we got married, and since hubby wakes up with a sore back every day, we decided that now is the time. We will see what we come up with. I'm a little worried...how will we know which one to pick? And how will we know if we will like it?!

It's amazing!

I finally took some photos! Yay! I listed 2 new cards today. One is for an Anniversary, and the other is a card that says 'missing u' on it. I actually made 2 of the anniversary one (almost identical anyway) and sent it to my sister and her hubby.

The missing u one I had sent to MocoMarket and after just a month or so there, it didn't sell. We will see how it goes on Etsy. I love the paper and I think the card is pretty neat!

Take a look at the clouds that I photographed the other day! It was a strange looking sky and perfectly calm out. As I was taking photos, the wind started whipping. Then came the downpour!

The Over-worked Razor Blade

That's right...I put that blade to work today. And now I have clean windows! For those of you who don't know, I live on a farm. And on this farm we have some...fly's. Millions of them. I also have company coming next week and so I thought I better get the fly s**t off my windows!

It's hot and muggy, but that's to be expected in the middle of July. Maybe I lost a pound or two going up and down that ladder and sweating all the way!

No new cards coming as of yet. I have a couple made, just have no gumption to take photos of them.

Ug

* 10 pounds of meatballs
* hamburger casserole
* 1 and a half tator tot casseroles
* 2 pounds of taco meat
* lasagne
* baked spaghetti
* 3 pounds of sausage for pizza
* 8 pounds (at least) of browned hamburger

That is all that I made yesterday after my DH came in the house at 7:45 saying, "Who left the door open to the freezer?"

At least I have meals for a long time.

The ice cream stuff all went into the trash, there are some meals that I will be having in the next day or 2. The rest seems ok. We have a whole drawer full of hamburger that really did well keeping themselves cold. The steaks are all in the back of the freezer so they were ok.

Another thing to be thankful for...I'm not pregnant! There would be no way that I would have been able to handle all that raw meat so early in the morning if I was!! ;)

What I have available

For those of you who might not have noticed that I have my own site at bigcartel, I wanted to show the cards that I have available there. There are only 5 cards there, because I am terrible at the "know-how" of marketing, and am not sure how to get the traffic going. If I want someday, I can upgrade and spend some moolah to get a bigger site. That is off in the future for the moment.

Take a look...you might see just what you wanted! The last card is the one that I just added to my etsy shop.

I was reading in another blog (clearpink) yesterday about another site that someone else sells their handmade items on. The name of the site is Trendy Shoppes. I just might have to take a good look at that site also.

Loss of creativity?

It's funny how it is. I feel out of it, don't feel like making any new cards. I feel like quiting for a month or so.

Then I had to make cards for a couple anniversaries and birthdays. That made me look at the paper stash and remember what cool papers I actually had! I made a few and was pretty excited about it. But then I hit a wall again.

Where is my creativity? I need to find it again. Maybe I should go shopping or something.

What I'd really like is a massage...;)

My Etsy shop is suffering because of it.

Heart to Sale Ratio

There was just a thread on Etsy talking about a shop's heart to sale ratio. I thought it was interesting so I tried it! What you have to do is take your number of hearts and divide that by number of sales. Turns out that I do not have that great of a ratio. Mine is 5.6. So for every 5.6 hearts, I get one sale.

Funny thing is, yesterday I got that .6 heart...(hehe) and yesterday I got another sale! Couldn't believe my eyes. When summer is over, I will be working on getting this ratio a little lower.

Here is my latest card for the shop: bright and fun

Musings

It's quiet here and I should be in bed, but yet here I sit. Every time I think about writing during the day, the computer is busy, or there are some other rather important things that should be done at the time. A mother is never bored! And a mother's work is never done.

I love to play in the dirt and grow flowers, and with that comes the weeds. Since we were gone this past week, the weeds decided to choke out the flowers! Besides that, we had this mysterious smell in our basement that we couldn't figure out. I did get the sleeping bags washed, and all of the towels, the whites are washed, but I have to admit that they are still in the dryer. Waiting. I do not look forward to folding them.

The smell thing is figured out. It seems as though we must have gotten too much rain lately, and in our storage room in the basement (which has a cement floor) there is some water. The thing is, we didn't see it at first because there is an old piece of carpet laying in there. That was the stench. Now for cleaning that out and dying up the place again...dehumidifier running 24/7.

As for Etsy...well, that has taken a back seat in the last few days. I feel as if I don't have enough time to run it well, although I did list another card today. I am hoping to "muddle" for a couple more weeks, and then take it over again with zeal. I love Etsy, and I love selling my cards there, and so there is no way I am giving that up! ;) I also love summer, and there are so many things that come along with that.

I will have to share with you my newest feedback! I am very excited for my Mom, who sold the second Doll sweater, and this customer loves it! Here is what she wrote:

Fantastic! Thanks so much. I have NEVER seen a better quality doll sweater. Julie doll is loving it.

Isn't that just the nicest feedback?! It just made my day...even though the praise isn't even for me! Thanks mom! ;)

Suntanned, and Glad to be back!

We had a great vacation! We were in South Dakota on the river at a State Park. We fished, tubed, and skied, and got way too much sun! We really did have super nice weather with only one night of rain. The rest of the time the sun was out and it was beautiful.

On the business side of things, I got back the cards that have not sold yet at the MocoMarket in WI that closed up. Out of the 19 that I sent there I sold 12. The thing is (I feel a little bad about saying this) she was charging $4.50 a card! In my opinion, that is way too much. I was told it was going to be closer to $3, so I could get 60% of that. I have to say that Meg is a super nice person, and I always liked working with her. I think what was happening was she was running out of money fast, and trying to keep her head above water. She wasn't that faithful sending out what exactly she sold, I just got the check in the mail.

I just hope that the people that bought my cards from her will take a look at the Etsy site if they want more, and buy directly from me. That part of my business is done with, and I have learned from it.

One other thing that makes me happy...I hit the 400 mark for hearts!! Can you believe it?! I was pretty excited to see that when I got home. It's amazing to me. I remember plainly checking the hearts faithfully when I first started and getting frustrated- was there no one who liked my items? I still do check my hearts quite often, I love seeing them! ;) Just checking today, and it looks like I have another one...401 and counting!

Vacation Time again!

I really shouldn't be here typing at the moment. I mean, where are my priorities?! I have to pack for a vacation but yet here I sit. ;) This is the kind of vacation that requires a lot of work. We are going to be staying in a sleeper cabin for the next week (leaving on Monday!) and so that means getting bedding, towels, pillows, food, and the clothing ready to go. No small feat, that is for sure.

I guess I will just use the excuse that I have to wait for the laundry to get done. And I will type fast.

Did you all have a great holiday (US people anyway?) We had a wonderful time, spending the day first of all at a parade, then with friends with tons of food of course. We saw fireworks on the 3rd.

My newest creation will probably not be in my shop for another week, but I am going to show it to you anyway. I used the same paper as I have before in other cards, just a new look. The color combination is wonderful! The orange paper with flowers is so fun, and it has been a long time favorite.

Have a great week...I will see you all soon!

July 4...is it really July already?!

Ready to celebrate the 4th?! We are going to see fireworks already tonight. I love fireworks! I absolutly have to see them every year! We live in a small town area so the shows are not as impressive as the big cities, but they still are a lot of fun to see.

My latest card features the same paper that I used for my give away. The papers are great, so why not use it up?! I'm against hording paper anymore remember?! It's still hard though, I want to save it for something special! So that makes this card special I guess! Take a look...my shop is getting somewhat full! I just made my 70th sale the other day, so I am on my way to 100!

I'm excited!

I applied to Trunkt, and as you can probably see from the sideboard, I was accepted! When I first started selling on Etsy I heard about it, but knew that my photos were far from acceptable, and I put it out of my mind. My friend Katelyn wrote about it in her blog, and that's what reminded me. Whenever I see the badge on the sideboard, I still shake my head...really?!

Come check out my newest card today too. I am adding a card that is different than my normal style. The leaves and the flower are stamped. And I didn't even use pattered paper! I keep delaying puting this in my shop because it's so different, I just wonder if people are going to like it. But today I am taking the plunge.