I’m Likin’…

• This looks interesting…Free Flash websites? Hmmm…Hafta look into that one.
• Anyone who designs logos is someone I would love to be.
• Looking for something to cook?
• Twitter me timber! I’m loving Tweeting lately! Follow my adventures!

Mistletoe and Summer Flowers

It’s crazy how, after a week of -40c weather, -10c feels so summery! “You know you’re Canadian when…”

I’m looking through Etsy today, trying to decide about a custom buckle from Fosterweld, browsing Gift Guides (and lusting over this summer floral picture by Get The Picture) and getting in the Christmas mood!

A few more things I need to do to get into the Christmas mood:

• Watch Love Actually
• Put on the Xmas tunes and wrap gifts
• Drink some mint hot chocolate
• Bake goodies!

Tonight my little sister is coming to sleep over. She’s 15 and I love it when she sleeps over and we can have a Girls Night. Chick flicks here we come!

Gimme Post

Click on pics!

Neena

Sometimes people make “cute” look so effortless! Jeeze…

Well peeps, it’s -40c here and ice fog is surrounding my work place so thickly, you can’t see anything. Why we are still open is beyond me. Seriously. What farmer in his right mind is going to be needing tractor parts in weather like this??

I should have phoned in and said my truck wouldn’t start. Dangit. Why didn’t I think of this earlier?

I’ll have new pictures of the kitchen this evening. You wouldn’t believe what we (aka: Hubby) has accomplished! I just about pee my pants every time I walk into the kitchen. I can’t believe it’s really mine, really just about finished and really so amazing. Wow. I seriously feel SO blessed!

She’s A Wife

I have no words.

My sis is married, and so stunning!

Tears.

So instead I’ll post my speech.

I have been writing this speech in my head since Sall and I were really little. Not only because I couldn’t wait for the day that she met the man that she would marry, but also because Sally has had so many blonde moments and I couldn’t wait to share them with everyone. She’s lucky that I lost the journal I was recording them in though…
 
Weirdly enough, just after I started writing this speech, I came across Sally and Bruce’s EHarmony ads and I thought it’d be great to read them. Here’s Salls:
 
“Pretty little Trolly Dolly looking for tough guy. Must have money and be willing to spend it (on me), cannot have the occupation of a farmer, cannot live in Dawson Creek, must have accent. I have big brown eyes, will woo you with baking and home made meals. Getting old at 24 so save me quickly”.
 
Bruce’s was kinda interesting:
 
“Cop man looking for maiden in distress. Loves long walks on the beach, chick flicks (such as Grays Anatomy) and playing scrabble. Willing to sell motorbike for huge engagement ring and use handcuffs when needed.”
 
For those of you that don’t know, I am the reason that Sally and Bruce met. :D Sally had it in her head that she wanted to move back to Australia, so I hatched a plan to make her stay in Canada. I forced her to sign up with EHarmony.
 
Via phone and emailing Sally and I went through the guys that were suggested for her, not really finding anything super interesting until we landed on Bruces’ profile. For some reason I had a feeling that this “Bruce” guy was the one for her.
 
After her first date with Bruce, Sally called me and told me all about it. Sall’s told me all about her other dates…even texted me while she’s in the middle of them…but this was different. With every other guy Sall has dated, she’s been unsure. She’s questioned every step, she’s worried, and her stomach has been in knots the whole time. But with Bruce it was comfortable from the start, Sally didn’t have any questions, she wasn’t uncomfortable during the date and she fully enjoyed herself and this meant alot! My plan had worked!
 
Bruce, I know that you are exactly what Sally needs for a husband. You’re calm, relaxed, and adventerous. You’re a born leader but in a gentle way and you obviously adore Sally to pieces.
 
Sally, I know that you’re going to make an amazing wife. You have the biggest heart, you take care of those around you, you cook a mean meal, you’re understanding and you’re generous.
 
Marriage is amazing guys, you’re going to love being married! If I could give you one piece of advice it would be to always listen. Truly listen to what your partner is saying, realize that what they’re saying is a real concern to them, listen to their venting, listen to their happyness, and listen to their worries.

I know you two are meant for each other, you compliment each other in every way.
 
Everyone please fill your cups. To the beautiful couple: to love, to happyness, and to PDA. To the new Robinsons!

And just like that, the kitchen flooring is in and the cupboards in all their pieces take over our space.

We’re almost there, home plate (ha! get it? kitche…plate…never mind. Unless you’re like me and have been eating off of styrofoam plates and plastic cutlery for months on end, you might not appreciate that comment. Who am I kidding? No one ever gets my ‘jokes’. Dangit! ) never seemed so close. But first, a break for a winter wedding.

Calgary is in the middle of a huge snow storm. One bigger than they’ve seen in years, or maybe it just seems like that. Our rehearsal was cancelled tonight because the pastor couldnt’ make it on the roads, families flights have been delayed and even calcelled….but we’re safe, warm and happy visiting in this hotel. Ok, we’ll maybe “happy visiting” isn’t the best way to describe it. But we are visiting. Gah, I wish that comment was a joke. Oh make me stop now. It’s late. I’m tired. I’ll stop.

I don’t know if this picture will do the roads and weather justice, but this is what we’re dealing with this weekend:

But it’s an adventure! I told my sis that we would have to have the wedding in a small street in the middle of the snow, like Pheobe on Friends. She didn’t laugh. Apparently that plan wasn’t an option.

Hopefully she’ll let me live through this weekend…

Help me.

Christmas isn’t even here yet and already I’m thinking of January birthday gifts! I just received this quilt in the mail (it only took a week!) for my Mom’s birthday. The three oldest kids in the fam are going in on buying it for her and we just know she’s going to die when she sees it!

Check out QuiltLover’s shop  for more absolutely amazing creations!

 

Final Stretch

Done and done! Well…the paint part. But it’s a huge step in the right direction. And, even better, the flooring is getting installed tomorrow. Wow, that’s going to change things! I can’t wait!

We’re just about there, only a few more weeks and we’ll have it all finished!

Trippin’

_H3T3702(BW)

Originally uploaded by Eventhestreets

I need to get away. My schedule is so full right now, and I’m not really complaining because it really is fun, but when this week is finished I need to get away.

It’s a good thing my sisters wedding is next week, at least we’ll be staying in a hotel and I won’t have to cook, or make the bed. And I’ll be able to soak in the hot tub in the evenings (hopefully…). Yes, it’s going to be busy getting ready for the wedding, but it’s also a different type of ‘busy’. I can’t wait!!

{Gimmie Post}

Click on the pics to go to the Etsy Shops!

 

 

Boast Blog

Hello Lovlies!

I have to post a Boast Blog…I’m so excited!…I’ve started my own Arbonne site! I’d love it if you would take a look at it and sign the guest book!

-Katie

Fever

I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s my sisters wedding coming up so quick (three weeks!!) or maybe I’m just dying for something pretty, but lately I’ve been having the Wedding Fever. Here’s a few more links I am falling in l.o.v.e with:

Connie Patterson

Snippet & Ink

Allyson Magda

Check out more pics like this one at Snippet & Ink.

 

Yippie Yi Yay

We’re finally getting to the part of our kitchen expansion that I can be more involved with (will I regret saying that? Most likely…): The decorating!

The walls are drywalled and ready to be mudded and taped, which means that painting will soon be upon us, and then installing the flooring. Since this also means that within a few weeks (cross your fingers) I’ll be hanging curtains and recovering our kitchen chairs, I’m looking for options.

I’ve always loved these colors together, and since I saw it in a couple weddings on the Style Me Pretty Blog, I’ve been wanting to incorporate the colors into my home. If I can’t get married again, why not use in the home decor? Haha!

I’m going to be talking with my interior design friend to see if these fabrics would look good with the wall color I’ve picked out, and what she thinks about having them all together. Maybe a bit much? What are your thoughts?

 

<3

• Sweet
• Love
• Heart
• Sigh

I’m in a wedding mood today. A pretty mood. A “I want to be wearing a dress” mood.

And it’s Friday. Thank God.

The Kitch-en

Hubby has thoughtfully designed a inset bookshelf in my kitchen, right above the small desk that will hold the phone and laptop. And, as fluke has it, a potlight is right above the shelf to add a homey and comfy glow. Love it!

I was thinking today, it would be cool to do some texture on the wall behind the desk and something creative with the inset shelf, to make it even more of a feature.

And somehow I found this link to doing wall stencils! I’m really loving on the look in the first video there. I think that might be the one.

And some cool brackets to finish off the shelf? Yep, I’m really loving this idea! I’m brilliant…

 

The dresses came in!!!

They’re two weeks early, which is fantastic! We couldnt’ believe it…And they fit perfectly, the quality is amazing. They are exactly what we thought they would be, which is really saying something when you’re ordering them from a web site and really have no idea what you’re getting.

But we’re so happy they’re in and that worry is off of our shoulders!

Don’t mind the green color in this photo, I think the olive background made it look “off”, but they’re really a deep forest green.

I highly recommend buying from Lightinthebox.com. Highly.

Oh, and yes, they’re a bit long, but we’ll be getting them hemmed. We ordered them with more length just in case…longer is better than shorter!

It’s My Party (and I’ll cry if I want to…)

And I’m asking for:

Fosterweld Belt (to go with my awesome belt buckle from last year!)

Napkins for my kitchen table when the kitchen is finally finished. This colour would be perrrrfect.

The spare room needs a color scheme, this might be it…LOVE this quilt!!

Quiet

 

I’ve been Christmas shopping on Etsy! I’m so proud of myself for starting shopping already! I have some fun DVD’s for the younger siblings, a necklace, this super cute hat, and the odd toy for the nieces. I’m so ahead of the game…and that’s very unusual for me.

I love buying gifts that actually mean something to the recipients, but usually I’m so late in buying the gift it turns into a game of “What’s left in the stores that they might like”.

I was on Etsy the other day and found this seriously funky hat (they’re so in style right now, I love it!) for one of my younger sisters. Tiss would look so adorable in it, but her personality is more “I’m here but don’t want anyone to notice”, so I’m not sure if she would get good use out of it. But Sally would be able to pull it off too, so it’s a toss-up.

Orrrr….maybe I’ll keep it for myself! Nah, I will give it as a gift, but I’m totally going back to get one for myself!

Visit SoftSpoken for more amazing knitted creations guys! If you’re looking for the girls (actually, there’s some guy stuff in the shop too!) it’s a great stop for fashionable knits.

 

Asterix

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aw, Asterix is 50! I loved reading these comics when I was little, and still love looking through them now. Great drawings and funny stories! I didn’t realize they were so old when I was reading them before…no wonder it’s been hard for me to buy some!

Solved

The Mystery of the Bridesmaid Dresses has been solved! We’ve found a super deal on bridesmaid dresses at Light In The Box.com. The reviews on the site seemed excellent and the dresses are exactly what my sister was looking for. Other than the color…we went with a dark green instead of the sage she was initially going for. But that’s ok! It’s going to go great with her decor and the winter feeling of the celebration.

I wish I could include a picture, but the photo isn’t saving properly. Click on the link  to see the exact dress.

The dresses will arrive two weeks before my sisters wedding, so if there’s any issues hopefully that will be enough time to make everything right.

Problem solved. Weight lifted. Phewf.

 

Towards Freedom

I’ve studied economics for more than two decades, and the best system I’ve ever seen for intellectual distribution is the   business—also known as one-toone marketing, network marketing, referral marketing or relationship marketing. This home-based business takes intellectual distribution to its pinnacle—creating wealth by helping others.

Paul Zane Pilzer

 

And you wonder why I’m working my Arbonne business so much? Click me and read the article.

If you are interested in Arbonne as a business, or even to try out our products, I would LOVE to send you a sample or more info on my business. Please let me know!

Dryer Settings

When I was little I read a quote from a Christian comedian that read:

“Normal” is just a setting on the dryer.

I remember my mom getting such a kick out of this saying, but I never understood it. The more I thought about it, the more confused I got.

Now that I’m all growed up, I get it. At least, I’m starting too.

No one…I repeat: NO ONE…is normal. I used to think that my family was at least “normal”. But that was before my mom started believing that the world was going to end soon, getting paranoid about world politics and how they’re taking our freedom away, and how even lighting candles in your home could symbolize “worshiping other idols”. Believing that my friends were “normal” also came before one of my friends left her husband after only 7 months of marriage, before I realized one of my friends is OCD and before another one of my friends told me she has an eating disorder.

Then I though, Ok, well at least the family I married into is normal. But that was right before my hubby’s uncle told us he was a closet alcoholic, we found out that his aunt was being abused, and I got sick to death of my hubby’s Grandma favoring him (if you think this is a good thing…it’s not). And who knows where Hubby and I fit into all this…

No one is normal. No one is plain jane. No one lives the straight and narrow, no matter how much they try. But that’s ok!

Last night Hubby and I talked. I asked him if he was happy with where we were, and he said he was. I’ve been struggling with “us” lately, I told him. And we chatted about why and what we could do to improve things. Life is always throwing us hoops to jump through, and you know what? That’s ok! It’s NORMAL to have problems, it’s NORMAL to struggle with life, it’s NORMAL to have life become a bumpy road!

I’ve discovered lately that life is not “normal”. Or at least, not what we have come to define “normal” as. The definition should be changed to

“Fights with spouse, yells at children, burns dinner, house is never clean, too busy to think, wrinkled laundry, late for soccer…”

And as much as I hate the “fights with spouse, yells at children” part, it’s part of how life goes and it’s after that point that makes life feel gooooood.

Wouldn’t it be just boring to be “normal“?

Sarcasm

I love it that a blog with a picture of a girl in a skimpy t-shirt has sent me over 40 views today. Hmm. What is that saying about my blog? Sigh. Guess I need to cut down on the sexy posts. Dangit.

Imagine…

…if your blog and twitter account was blogged about on CNN. Yeah, how nutzo would you get?? I would flip. Like, jump in the air, literally FLIP.

Heather Armstrong was blogged about on CNN because of her twitter account, I’m sure that just because of that she has like ten million more followers on both her blog and her twitter. Lucky bum. She’s definitely one of my new favorite reads and I’ll be heading over there daily for her sense of humor and real-life writing. And I quote:

So I reach over, fumble around until I find the bedside lamp, and then all four of us wince at the sudden glaring light. Some of us wince more loudly and agonizingly than others. I won’t name that someone, other than to say that if there were a prize for best impersonation of a hyena being gutted with a chainsaw, we’d have a winner.

You’re going over there now aren’t you? You can’t resist her writing, can you? Told ya.

CK Blog + GA

I’ve just installed Google Analytics in my new Tumblr blog, City Kat. If you’ve got time today, stop by the CK Blog so I can see if GA is working (:

Enjoy your Sunday!

Saturday Links

I’ve found a new fave blog.

Checked Apartment Therapy Lately?

I’ve always had a secret admiration for the Olsen girls.

Found

Looking through some WordPress blogs yesterday I found a link to a new blog platform called Tumblr. Well, it’s new to me. I’ve decided to try my new blog, City Kat, there for a while. I LOVE the theme I have on it now, it makes my story entries so much easier to read. And there are tons of other themes to pick from too, ones that are way more creative than the ones I’ve been finding for WordPress.com.

I love my WordPress blog, but I love the features that this Tumblr has so far. I dont’ like that you don’t have built in Stats, which is something I know I’m going to find a pain. You have to use Google Analytics, which I’ve never had much luck with. But I’ll get it worked out. 

My Kitty blog seems to be finding its flow. The first few blogs were kinda rough, not really a style that I liked. That always happens with all types of writing though, you have to find your style and sometimes it takes a little while. I’m on entry #12 and I think that I’ve found the writing style I like.

Go on over and take a look!

Check out this Etsy shop too! Love love love!

S.O.S

It’s my sisters wedding in just over a month. I’m the Maid of Honor, yay! Problem: We haven’t ordered or found our bridesmaid dresses. Yes, you heard right. No dresses for the maids.

We are waiting for color swatches from a site that has the exact dresses my sis is wanting for us, and it will take them a month to get us our dresses…once we order. But it’s cutting it close!

So I’m here at work, pretending to be busy, but really, I’m looking for sites that have dresses that might suit what we’re looking for. Forever 21, Anthropologie, Mod Retro, JCrew. I’ve found some options, mostly at JCrew, but they’re really expensive!

Our Wants:

1. Long
2. Flowy
3. $200ish (less is even better!)
4. Green (sage is perfect, but at this point, we’ll consider anything).

Any sites that we might find helpful? Any ideas?

Two-Timing Kitty

Luke sat in front of me like a tempting piece of chocolate. Something I wanted, so badly, something that tasted so good, but in the end wasn’t great for my health and something I knew I couldn’t resist.

Have you visited my other blog yet? I’m really having fun with it! I’ve created a character, Kitty, and each entry is like a (short) chapter in her story. I’m even ’staying in character’ when I answer the comments. It’s really fun! We’ll see where it goes…a book deal eventually? Hmm. Nice thoughts anyways (:

Finding New Loves

• Neither Snow
• Day Dream Lily
• Layers of Meaning
• Mer Mag

Just going through my blog roll and their favorites…I love doing that. Finding new blog loves and daily reads is so fun. Like a treasure box full of creative nick-nacks.

~Lovely~

My gosh people! I’m DYING for one of these quilts. Really, I’m a farm girl at heart. And mix “romantic” in there too, and seeing a quilt brings images of a wine and cheese picnic beside a slow flowing creek, willows flowing their long branches in the clear water. The sun is warm and bright, and the wine is making me sleepy.

…

Oh. Right, I’m writing a blog entry. Wow, I just got totally lost in that other world…

I was visiting Kid Stuff World, one of my lovely blog loves. Stacey rocks! But one of her blogs caught my attention with it’s beautiful, stunning and completely cozy picture of a quilt. The link lead here: Simplify: Feeling Lucky? 

You have to check out her store!

Gimme Post

I know I’ve blogged on Which Goose before, but can you blame me for wanting to feature her work again? My fave is this one, perfect for my sisters wedding with these dresses (in sage green with a white sash):

But it’s just not her style. Too bad. Maybe I can cry and get my way. Or show some cleavage. That always works with my husband.

Fall

Being fall, it means that all my favorite TV shows (all twentyfivemillion) are back on! Cheer!

And it also means, there’s new friggen shows on that I need to become addicted to. What? Self-control? Limitation? Um, no. I’ve never heard of those words!

As you can see I have a love/hate relationship with my TV.

This is my newest on my Fave List. Rachel Zoe, moody gay boy, bitchy assistant, celebrity clients, beautiful clothes. You really can’t get much better!

Thanksgiving Whites

Treasury by Monicaj.

I need to buy some headbands soon. They’re so cute! Oh, and see Mandizzle’s shop? Twice. Twice she’s been on Etsy’s front page Treasury!

Have you seen what Kitty is up to lately?

15

Fifteen more minutes and my Thanksgiving Long Weekend starts!

I’ve been bored stiff here at work today, looking through class=”mceItemHidden”> Etsy, WordPress blogs, writing in my other blog…Take a peek at this super cool way to make stair walking more fun!

I’ll be placing another huge order from the Arbonne party I did a couple days ago. We kept it open until more girls could place outside orders, and I’m sure glad we did! At least another $500 more in products to be ordered! My parties have been rocking lately!!

Ok, off to enjoy my Friday night! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Gobble gobble!

Updates!

So this is where we’re at with the house now! It’s really coming along, and we’re so excited! It’s all closed in, which is the most important part at this point. The cold Canadian winter is coming soon. And by ’soon’ I mean it snowed last night….

Soon we’ll be doing the electrical, insulation, drywalling….and the list continues.

It’s getting really stressful because the kitchen is torn up, there’s dust and dirt everywhere. Half my kitchen drawers and other storage are in the other room, stacked on top of each other. It’s making things challenging. But we’re trying to keep the end result in mind, the wonderful kitchen full of storage. And it’ll be here soon!

My hubby is doing so good, working so hard every night and hardly even taking weekends off. He’s amazing and I’m so lucky to be married to someone so hard working!

Two-Timer

I’m a two-timin’ blogger! I have two blogs going now…as if I don’t have enough to fill my time

I love to write though, and I started this little ditty of a blog for a fictional character, Kitty. I thought it would be a cool way to write a story.

See what you think!

Other than that, life has been busy with Arbonne…my business is growing like I didn’t think was possible! I’m SO excited to see it expanding and  growing into my goals. It’s really cool to know that soon I’ll be able to quit my day job (or at least replace my income)!

The house is coming along too, windows and doors are in, sub floor is layed, roof is fully finished. We’re working on the electrical now and then we’ll be on to insulation (which is important, considering we’ve already had a snowfall!) and drywalling. Woo!! Pictures to come, I promise!!

Making Memories from Memories

My Granddad passed away almost a year ago and although I hadn’t seen him many times, it was a hard experience for me. I had always felt a strong connection to him, I’m not sure what created that connection, but it was there and I loved him alot.

The only thing that I wanted of his when he passed was his hat. On one of the visits to England when I was a kid, I had worn the hat constantly. I love it. It represented England and my Granddad. Old school tweed, worn and aged. So on my trip to England this past summer with Hubby, I made sure I asked my Dad’s brothers if I could have it.

Yesterday a friend and I went out to do a photoshoot and I decided that the hat would be a perfect centrepiece to one of the shoots we had planned. I loved how they turned out! I love how they look so British, I know my Granddad would be so proud: “Oh Katie, would you look at that….”.

It’s Coming!

Our house renos are slowly coming! Yay!! Since this picture was taken a few days ago, the shingles were completed and today the whole (or moat, as we call it) around the addition was filled.

I know it’s not that pretty of a sight, but in my eyes, I can see the new siding, windows and doors, and the beautiful and huge kitchen I’ll have soon!

Flooring, cabinets and countertop are ordered. The Garden doors for the other side of the addition and the new door and windows are in! We’re SO excited that this is all coming together a nicely as it is. We’re not only feeling excited, we’re feeling blessed.

See that big window on the white part of the house? And the door beside it? My next project (maybe I’m thinking a bit too far ahead…) is to make that big window another set of Garden Doors and block up that existing door. But my hubby would die if I mentioned that while we’re still in the middle of these kitchen renos! Haha!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Blown Away

Well, by this time, if you’ve been reading my blog for even just a little bit, you might have figured out that I’m pretty darn passionate about my home business! Arbonne has given me more life, more energy, more options, more freedom, than anything else I have ever done before!

I just returned from a training conference for Arbonne in Vancouver and I’m raring to GO!!! You should have heard the stories down there! Arbonne hasn’t just changed my life, it’s changed SO many others!

Kate Martins is one girl that just blows me away. Like….seriously. This girl was working 6…SIX!!!…part time jobs to help keep her family afloat and they were still struggling to catch a break. She didn’t have any time for her two precious boys, and NO time for herself. She would wake up super early, start working her little buns off, gardening (they owned a green house business), baking (she owned a baking business), rushing around getting her families lunches together, doing laundry etc, she’d wake her family up, rush them to school,  rush to her part time job at the post office. She wouldn’t stop at lunch either, rushing to get work done. After work, she rushed to get back home, jumped on the tractor, and worked their greenhouse / garden business. She’d pick hundreds of buckets of strawberries for their business, all the while her sons begging to spend some time with her.

The bills kept mounting up, debt collectors calling, and no matter how hard this beautiful woman worked, they just weren’t getting ahead.

Until she found Arbonne.

When she heard the Arbonne business opportunity, she KNEW that it wasn’t something she could pass up. She jumped on it. And as she told her story in front of the thousands of women in Vancouver, she couldn’t hold back the tears. Arbonne saved her. Saved her family relationships, saved them from debt, saved them from turmoil. Arbonne gave her the opportunity to sell her other businesses and to have time with her children, something that she just didn’t have before. They just took their first EVER trip with the whole family this summer….in her BRAND NEW Mercedes (fully paid for by Arbonne!)!!!

If you’re interested in hearing more about this business, click here, and listen to this call. Take two minutes and sign up for a Whistle Tree account, it doesn’t cost anything, and it really only takes a minute or two.

Once you’ve listened, leave a comment on here with your email or a link to your blog, and I’ll contact you to see what you thought!

What if this is the chance you have for finally being FREE??

I love chocolate

I love France

I see pretty underpants.

Ambera = amazing artist!! Can’t you just see this picture in a museum with people studying the image, getting lost in the depth of it?

It’s My Friday

Saturdays are my Fridays. I have to work a half day, so when people say “Have a good weekend” on Friday, it really don’t mean anything to me.

They’re also the day that I ride my bike to work. This morning I wasn’t going to, we had been up late quadding in the dark with a bunch of friends, but the sun was shining and I thought I needed a challenge today, so I rode the bike. I work 5 minutes out of town so it’s a little bit of a ride, but going back home is the kicker. There’s a big hill near my house that is my nemesis. I have yet to ride up the entire hill, but today just might be the day.

Saturdays are always boring at work (it’s a good thing that it’s only a half day!) and so I logged onto Etsy and was confronted with this tornado of color: Click me. I wish I could do a screen shot of it, this Treasury is amazing. You’ll want to eat it up!

Have a good weekend!! I’m sure you’ll hear from me a little bit, I have pictures to post!

Oh, also, check these photos out! I love the one of the sunset.

House Renos

 

Well, it turns out that nagging your husband works….and then you suffer because of it, haha.

We’re finally getting going on our new kitchen! I’d been constantly presenting Hubby with ideas on a new kitchen, pictures, floor plans, color combos…the threat to never have children. Haha, just joking with that one. But the truth is, we wouldn’t have been able to have more than one child in this house if we didn’t do something about the kitchen.

So finally Hubby sees the light and we start demolishing our kitchen and boot room. Now, our bootroom is gone and our kitchen has shrunk, there’s mud and dust everywhere. There’s also been a few thunderstorms since we took the roof off, which means we’ve been getting up at 2:30am to make sure the tarp is secured. Fun times!

But if we keep focused on the end result, it’s all down hill from here!

The foundation is being poured this afternoon (it’s more advanced than this picture…), cabinets and counter-tops will be ordered this next week, as soon as I can make sure the drawers and cupboards are where I will find them handy.

I’ll be posting pictures of the cupboards, counter-tops and paint chips as soon as I can!

We’re on our way!

Like I said…

…Why me?

Last night, I went for a bike ride with one of my friends, Laura. We’ve been going for rides at least a couple times a week and both really really enjoy the work out and fresh air (how I’m going to live without my bike rides in the winter, I don’t know).

We’re riding along last night, going down one of the main streets in town, but it wasn’t too busy, so we were side by side, chatting about the latest story in our lives.

A siren went off behind us.

A police siren.

“Is that for us??” Yes, it was for us. Lights, siren, action. If only there was a camera involved.  The cop was really nice, apparently stopping us because we should be single file instead of side by side…but realllllly….how bored must he have been to stop two girls on peddle bikes?!

Yeah, we laughed so hard!!

And as my friends say “Only you Kate, only you”.

Why Meeeee??

My blog links are all messing up, I can’t go to Design Lovely or Erin Zam so far…why meeee?? Why me God? Whyyyy?

But really, why would they start messing up now? I haven’t even touched their links. Hmmm.

I’ll be bock. As Arnold says.

Monday Laxin’s

Lazy Mondays. Well, not for everyone, but for the summer season I have Sunday and Mondays’ off of work. It’s nice, Mondays’ no matter how many days you had off before, Monday’s are always tough.

So this morning as my hubby is leaving for work (late, because he’s self employed and can do that…lucky duck), I’m sitting on the couch, blogging, and watching Burn Before Reading. I knew I would love this movie, it looked like a goofy satirical movie…which I tend to like (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang…same thing, same type of humor, same unique story line. Love it!).

And then I’m looking through Etsy. And somehow, by going through my favorites and their favorites, I found this store: Ormolu. I love the details that are on Ormolu’s pieces, like these ones, or these.

The White Owl

I haven’t been visiting Etsy very often lately…partly because I’m slightly bitter at my non-success on that site, but also because I have tons on my plate at the moment (which may have something to do with my lack of success…).

Every time I do visit the Etsy site though, I’m reminded about the passion I have for creating. My eyes fill my brain with amazing inventions, creative conquests and brilliant ideas. And questions like “Why didn’t I think of that?!”.

The White Owl shopis now being featured as Etsy’s Featured Seller and it’s a perfect shop to be in that place. It’s a store you just have to take a look through, their pieces are so delicate and girlie. It’s captivating.

Summer Evening

Originally uploaded by Olivia Bee

I’m loving the colors of this photo, and the lighting behind her hair. It has such a typical summer evening feel to it. If only she was holding a piece of BBQ’d corn, then it really would be the perfect summer night (but would also look kinda weiiiird).

A friend and I are going to be doing a photoshoot pretty soon, we’re just finishing up all the final touches. We bought three summer dresses for the shoot, all for under $15, a large silk Peony, a blonde wig from Ebay (in a bob style), and we’re borrowing a pair of cowboy boots.

We’re going go do the shoot at my parents farm. I figure pictures by the horse, maybe in the woods with the goats, or in the chicken coop with a chicken under my arm, would be pretty cool. We’re also going to bring a picnic basket, quilt and wine glasses down to the woods and see what sort of fairy-tale / whimsical feel we can create down there. Should be interesting!

WP

Don’t you just love the look of the new WP main page? Maybe you’re not a WordPress user, but you should look at the new page. It’s modern, sleek, easy to search around and super attractive. Love those new pictures!

The new page has really helped me find new blogs, of all types, and I love the different reads.

• This morning there’s a photoblog entry from Anderson Cooper, not only the best looking man in the newscasting world (hubba hubba!) , but a guy who gets the right questions answered.
• Then there’s this artice about one night stands, something interesting to read anyways.
• And an article about Somalian refugees.

I often feel like I’m behind on the world’s happenings, but it’s articles like these that help me learn more about what’s going on in this universe. It takes me two minutes to read a quick article, and I feel better for it. That…and I get to swoon over Anderson Coopers picture.

Creating Yourself

I just saw a cool quote on M. Writes blog:

Life isn’t about finding yourself, it’s about creating yourself.

So true! Life isn’t about partying and thinking “Is this who I am? Does this suite me?”, it’s about living life and thinking “Is this how I want to be viewed? Is this the image that I want for myself?”.

I see so many kids (ha! ”Kids” my own age) that lived crazy lives when they were younger because they thought that was the way to find themselves.

I think more “kids” (hubby always laughs when I call our peers that) need to live by the saying above. There’d probably be way less issues in their life if they did.

Create what you want to be, create the person you want to become, create the image you want to portray. It’s easy to become that person you see walking down the street, the one you admire. It’s not cheating to strive to be more like them, it’s showing part of yourself. As long as you’re being true to yourself and your desires, you’re headed in the right direction.

A Tad Obsessed

You know how I love weddings…like looove weddings…So much so that I attack every bride I know and beg “Let me help with DECORATING!”. It’s sad.

So that’s why I still have “Style Me Pretty” as a blog favorite, because I can’t get enough of decorating and ideas and colors and dresses and flowers and…well, you get it.

This weeks Handmade Wedding article in Etsy’s Storque totally caters to my obsession.

And I L.O.V.E. this, it’s such a huge stamp and perfect for any sort of funky craft!

Cuteness Makes You Dance

Doesn’t this wedding just make you want to dance? Check out Style Me Pretty, one of my daily reads, as you probably know, for more pictures from this wedding. I just LOVE you last picture of the girls dresses and cowboy boots, too cute!

And those lanterns hanging from the trees?? Perfection. Love the finishing on the photos too. Lovely.

I keep thinking I need to quit the blog-life. Come on Kate, just do it, spare the readers some heartbreak and tell them you’re quitting…quit stringing them along! But then I read through my blog and other blogs on my Blog Roll and I…just…can’t! I can’t quit, I love blogging and love creating and I love sharing it all!

I know it’s a bit sporadic, but I’m here and I do care about my readers, and I am trying to be more consistent.

Thanks for being patient with me and still popping by for a read. I do appreciate it!

I’m busy reading through my Blog Roll today, Design Lovely, Esta Sketch, Darling Dexter…they’re all so beautiful and completely inspiring. I love them, they make my heart feel light and happy. Sappy, I know, but totally true.

 

Jersey, isn’t she getting BIG? Puppies always grow up too fast!

At a summer wedding with my girls.

 

Just a few of the things I’ve been up to in the past little while! More to come!

If you’re looking for a site that will woo you back into love, take a peek at this little ditty.

I’ve been searching for unique dresses for my sisters wedding…or any other special occasion…and I found this awesome site. All vintage dresses, all fun and unique. I’m not sure if this one will work for a winter wedding, but I’d love to get it just to wear out for dinner.

This and This

I was on Etsy for the first time in forever today and I found a few things that cought my eye (imagine that! This hardly ever happens on Etsy…wink):

• Love this Article
• These drawers
• Stickers for something at my sisters wedding
• For the bride

And before I spend my last penny, I need to stop looking…

Oh: A new fave blog!

Valleygirl Rant

In order to post this entry, I feel like I should be in high heels, and talk like a valley girl…but unfortunately I’m not. My co-workers wish I was, because talking like a valley girl in a John Deer Dealership would be pretty funny…

Ok. So there’s a couple of things!

The other day I was watching ET Canada and learned that they are casting for remakes of some older classics. Some of my faves. Like Footloose and Pretty Women. A very cool thought to know these are coming into the makes again! Priceless!! But…and a big but…I’m not going to be watching them. Why not? I’ll tell you why. Because instead of the beautiful Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, they’ve cast Jessica Simpson. And instead of Kevin Bacon, they’ve cast Chace what’s-his-ma-dingle. And there’s talk of Amanda Bynes poping in there somewhere…

It makes it so obvious that they’ve cast these movies for the tweens, teeny-boppers that wont’ appreciate the quality and classic-ness (new word) of the originals. And this ticks me off. They’re going to completely ruin these movies. They’re formulating them for quick cash and not quality. It makes me sick.

I didn’t realize before that I was so passionate about this type of thing…

Also. Lookit this jerk. Several people I’ve talked to are like “Well, Kate deserves it, have you seen the way he treats him??” Who cares, is my thought. What a complete jerk to go and start dating a 22 year old and leave his wife at home, not dating, still clinging to him, with the kids. Completely selfish. Wowsa.

And what’s the world coming to that adulterous jerks like this make the front page of the magazines? I realize there’s things going on in the background that we don’t see, but still, I can’t believe that he’s on the front page of People. Rude. Someone should smack him, not give him publicity.

Phewf. Just my thoughts…Maybe I need a zen moment…

Marie Antoinette

 

I went to the movie store the other day and saw that the new (ish) Marie Antoinette was on sale. So I bought it. It’s not the kind of movie that I normally like; the actors don’t have the proper accents, the music is modern…I love the era but with those other things added to it, it’s not “traditional” which is what I like. Besides that, Hubby pointed out that it’s a slow movie. But when I saw this movie a year or so ago, I completely fell in love.

It is a slower movie, but it really makes you feel like you’re apart of the livestyle and the everyday tid-bits of Marie and her friends. It’s so rich in color, the costumes are to die for and the food makes you drool!

I have to point out too that I watched this movie before we went to Versailles. Now that we’ve actually been there, I love Marie Antoinette even more! It makes the trip to Versailles and the Queens Hamlet come alive. 

One of the best parts of Versailles was the steps. A weird thing to be my favorite part…but it was so amazing walking up them and seeing how worn they were from the years of suffering under the heels of royalty. I kept thinking “Wow, they walked here, I’m walking exactly where Marie Antoinette walked!”.

I’ll have to post more pictures of the Queens Hamlet, Marie’s amazing little village behind her palace. It was surreal. But more about that later…

 

Who?

Ok. So hubby is away for the weekend, quadding with the boys…and I’m here watching chick flicks, eating chinese and chocolate icecream (not at the same time). Gash I love this showwwww! Samantha Who. It friggen crackssss me uuup! And yummy boys. Oh my gosh! Yummy. And Jersey seems to love it too. She’s sitting on the floor beside me, all perky ears (as much as Golden Retreivers can have perky ears).

Here’s a line from Sam Who: “Ooo! Our best friend, dates our boss and we start mentioning things we want and BOOM! We get those leather desk chairs that form to the shape of our butts!”. Ok, maybe it was a ‘gotta be there’ situation…

Guess what else I did tonight! I booked 4 Arbonne parties. Yep, that’s right F.O.U.R. And last night it was another 4. Filling up my July and hopefully finding chickies to train in the business!

Have a great weekend everyone!

I <3

• Beauty
• Design
• Ms. Zam Bam Thank You Mam
• Boys in Suspenders
• Weekends…

My ‘Why’

I just posted this entry on my Facebook page and thought it would be a good thing to post here too!

I have always been an entrepreneur, always trying business ideas no matter how big or small, and I’ve always known that owning my own business would be the only way I would really be happy about my job.

That’s why when Arbonne came along, I knew I had to jump on that train! The way that Jannah explained that she was able to take months off of work to be with her new baby, and STILL get paid a full wage, really made me realize that that’s what I wanted. Besides that, there was something about this business that I trusted and I felt clarity and a nudge towards it.

Something that Grandpa keeps reminding me about is that I’ll never be happy until I’m my own boss. And if you know me, you’ll know how true this really is! I’ve been working full time since I was 16 and I’ve had at least 15 jobs since then…some of them at the same time…(Let me just clarify that I’ve only been fired from one work place…the rest I left because I wasn’t happy for various reasons).

I want to be my own boss, I want to set my own work hours, I want to earn a wage that I’m worth!, I want to take holidays when I want, I want to sleep in, I don’t want to be blamed for someone else’s mistakes, I want to stay at home with my kids and still have a full time wage coming in. And you guessed it! Arbonne offers all of this and more!

What other job can you work at and say “My wage will never stop increasing!” or “Guess what, my boss is giving me a Mercedes!” or “I get paid for my co-workers work too!”, or even “I’m headed to Mexico for an all inclusive trip paid for by my company!” 

Everyone seems to think that there are very few people who actually succeed at businesses like these…but guess what! I know and my upline personally knows MANY women, in BC, in Alberta, in small towns and big cities, that are driving their Mercedes, earning huge cheques per month and going on trips with Arbonne!

If you want it, it’s there! You just have to push forward and take it for yourself, and that’s what I’m doing. Care to join me?

 

If you’re curious about Arbonne and the business, listen to this link by Becky Young. It’ll only take 25 minutes aprox and it’s SO interesting! If you want to go further from there, let me know! I’d love to answer any questions you have!

Summer Sunshine and Bike Riding

I love summer, what’s not to love? Sunny days, hot sun, fun food, gardening. It’s all bright and colorful and amazing!

I bought my first bike today. Well, not technically my first, I did have one when I was a kid, but never this nice and not since I was ten. So I’m considering it my first real bike. And besides that, my bike when I was a kid was too big for me. It had that horizontal bar just below the seat and I had to jump onto the seat and get going fast because my feet couldn’t touch the ground. I used to get off of the bike by peddling to a patch of grass and flying off the side. So no, I don’t consider that my bike because it was painful and wasn’t exactly FOR me, it came from convenience.

If that makes sense…

So this bike is truly mine, truly cute and truly cheap. $75. And it looks like brand spankin’ new!

One of my friends just moved into town from Latvia and I’m excited to go bike riding with her! We’ve been wanting to do some sort of exercising, but nothing quite seemed to fit either of our schedules, so this will be an affordable and fun way to be outside and get our exercise!

Today at lunch, I’ll be bringing the new puppy (isn’t she cuuuuute?), Jersey, down town to do some grocery shopping for my Hollywood Makeup Party (Arbonne!) tonight. It’s going to be FUN! These parties are always a blast, I can’t wait!! And of course there’ll be wine…wine and makeup, you can’t go wrong really!

My Faves…well…Some of Them

Summer Lovin

This summer is GLORIOUS! We have the best weather, especially for June! It’s just incredible. I’ve burnt like a crisp, I’m peeling like a snake, my garden is in, my flowers are flourishing, my new puppy is friggen adorable, my sleep is ruined.

Life. Is. Wonderful!

My blog, however…is suffering because of it. Sorry for my absence!

Since summer has arrived, I’ve been looking for  a new workout system. Pilates or Yoga? Bike riding or karate? It’s a toss up. Oh and throw Water Aerobic in there and it’s all messed up even more. I think I’m leaning towards Pilates with a side of bike riding in the evenings.

How is your summer going so far? I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment on an adventure you’ve had lately!

Ps: Lesson learned this summer: Use sun screen! Arbonnesun screen because it’s naturally based, no animal bi-products, no mineral oil and it targets the RIGHT UV rays…weirdly enough, some of them out there don’t even do that!

Read Beacuse You Love It

I have a love for books…a love I can’t explain. I try to explain it, and it all comes out muddled and gibbered up. So instead of trying to explain it, I just shut my mouth and go to a book shop to cater to my love.

 

And you know what they say: “When in Rome…visit your favorite book store”. But instead of Rome, it was Lewes England. When I visited Lewes last, I was 15. And I have been dying to visit again, not only to visit family but also to see my favorite sites. This book shop was on the very top of my list.

It was exactly how I remembered it! A small door to duck into, the smell of old books, piles of books on the floors and tables….it was heaven!

Until…the owner snapped at me for taking pictures inside the shop. Apparently there were signs all over, but I had no idea! I honestly didn’t see them. But just because they had been so weird taking pictures…I took another one. Ha!

Arundel Castle

Let me introduce you to Arundel Castle, the second biggest inhabited castle in England (the first being Windsor). And the coolest one I’ve seen to date…although “coolest” doesn’t seem like a good word to describe a castle.

Arundel is just a little ways from my Uncles house, where we were staying in England. AND one of the best parts about this castle (there were so many, but this was high on the list) is that the new film The Young Victoria was filmed there, or at least a bit of it.

The Duke and Duchess of Norfolk live in the Castle 6 months out of the year and the other six months, they open it up to the public. Although, I think that they are still there while it’s open to the public, they just don’t use the whole thing. We were able to meet their assistant butler, which was super interesting. He told us about their traditions at a formal dinner such as, how to eat a banana – slice both ends off, cut the top piece of banana peel off, and then cut little pieces of the banana and eat it with your fork. He also told us that it takes two days to set the table for a formal dinner, because of all the measuring and making sure everything is perfect (literally!).  

I loved all the little rooms and hallways through the castle, and could imagine the Dukes grandchildren just loving exploring the castle!

My absolute favorite thing about the Arundel castle was seeing Queen Mary of Scott’s ORIGINAL rosary, prayer book and pearly necklace! It was amazing to see it in person and know that Mary had held those beads and prayed over that little book. Apparently, a girl in the Norfolk’s family had been Mary’s Lady in Waiting and Queen Mary had passed these belongings off to her before she walked up to get beheaded.

Interesting stuff!

Hello!

Sigh.

Back home in Canada, from our EXCELLENT trip to England and Paris…I’m thoroughly refreshed with broadened horizons. But I still don’t want to be home!

Our trip was so incredible. We experienced so much and saw so much of the world. Our days were filled to the brim of sightseeing, and now that we’re home I just can’t believe that we got all that sightseeing in! We say Versailles, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, Buckingham Palace, spent two full days in London, visited family, went to the beach, hiked around the countryside, visited Stonehenge, the HMS Victory…the list goes on!

I’ll be updating the blog with more stories of our travels, and pictures of course!

It’s good to be back…

Etsy Lovins

Abby and Grr (cute name eh?) opened up in February of this year and are an adorable addition to Etsy. And they’ve already made it on the front page! Woo! Do your daily good deed and buy a pretty item from their shop!

Oh my gosh, my Europe trip is just about to start…I’m so excited I have butterflies, can’t sleep, can’t eat. It’s like falling in love all over again. This is the cure for the seven year itch. Just go traveling.

I can’t wait to get there and take tons of pictures, see my family and visit the crazy awesome sites! Wish me luck, see you on the other side!

Greetings and Flowers

My favorite item: Goldfish. Check out the sellers other funky item! (There’s more than one, but this one is cute).

1980

Just a quick post today…so much to do! Just thought you might enjoy what I’m listening to…

Just a note: If I’m absent from my blog a bit in the next few weeks, it’s not because I want to be it’s because I’m going to EUROPE! I’m going to be updating the blog as often as I can, but with visiting and sightseeing, it might be a bit tricky. But I do promise to update the blog with huge amounts of pictures when I get back!

The Style of Now

Good Morning America!

Miss Brache is one of the most outstanding shops on Etsy. In more ways than one. They stand out (get it, ‘outstanding’..ha!), they excellent quality, they’re unique. They’re ahead of the pack when it comes to style, not to the point where it’s strange, but the the perfect point of delicious in-style fashion. Her style reminds me of Katy Perry.

Miss Brache is the biache.

Phhh. I have a lame sense of humor I know…I see you rolling those eyes.

Kitchen Plans

So I have the day off work today…unexpectedly. It’s slowed down enough at the tax office that they don’t need me anymore, so I have the week off. I’ve told my new job that I’ll be free this week if they need me, but until they let me know if they do or not, I’m free!

I woke up at 5:30 this morning, not on purpose, but I did get up and got a lot done! It’s amazing what a couple more hours in the day will do for your housecleaning!

Right now I’m sitting on the couch, searching through Etsy, and watching Sara’s Cottage. Have you ever seen that show? It’s amazing. This interior designer is completely re-working a family cottage. And it’s making me drool. I’m going to copy her kitchen I’ve decided. It’s just perfect for the look I’m going for in our re-modeling this summer. Now, to just convince Hubby…

I need to reupholster the kitchen chairs so I’ll be keeping my eye out for some light green plaid or striped fabric. I think we’ll go for white rectangle tiles for the kitchen back splash, white and grey flecked counter-top, grey or light green cupboards (if I can find some that are affordable), and for flooring? Hmm…that’s something I have to think about yet.

Ps: Don’t you just LOVE this Treasury? The linen color is really getting me.

I’m Lovin

• I’m so hungry. And this looks delish. Dinner tonight? I think so!
• These might be the perfect gift for my mom-in-law.
• This cracks me up!
• I think I’m going to make some of these…

And now for a nap.

But not for real, because my boss wouldn’t be impressed.

I can wish. But not dream, because then I’d need to close my eyes and that would lead to some zzz’s.

Dear Friend

I was just over at M. Writes reading her most recent post…on writing of course. And of course I got inspired! (I always feel like getting inspired from another blog is cheating because I’m not being completely unique…)

Marta was saying that some of her most treasured belongings are her written notes, from her hubby or friends.

When I was a kid, my family moved from the big city to a small logging camp where we lived for 8 months until my Dad finished his job there. I left behind one of my best friends, Rose. We had been friends since grade three and the closest of friends. We saw each other every day at school, or called each other frequently, had sleep-overs, fought over nylons, cried with each other and laughed till we had tears streaming down our faces.

Rose and I, both being romantics, decided that while I was gone we would write each other letters. But when we learned that the logging camp was only accessible by float plane and the mail wouldn’t get out very often, we decided to write our letters in journals. I would start each entry as “Dear Rose” and she would start hers as “Dear Kate“. Then when we met months later, we would trade journals.

I still have the journals I filled up, some pages with pictures of our adventures, some with funny sketches and mostly with letters to my friend Rose. Years later, when I would pick up my journal, it was still hard to not write “Dear Rose” at the top of the entry.

Rose and I are still friends, we’ve been friends for almost 16 years (if I’m doing my math right…). Even though we’re far away from each other whenever we talk it’s like we were never apart. I’m hoping I get to see her after our trip to England next month…it’ll be a great reunion!

I’m going to write her right now and see if she’d want to start up the “Dear Rose” journals again…it might be neat to do since we’re in a totally different state of life than we were before.

~ So Sweet ~

So you know how I purchased a block picture from Skinny Swallow? Well, I got it in the mail yesterday and it came with a surprise! Another block! Yep, a second one for free. I love this shop, Michaela has a way of making her buyers feel so special and loved.

The block below is the free one that Michaela sent me, isn’t it beautiful? I think this one is going to go in my living room, maybe beside my antique books…or right next to my great-aunts tea cups.

This week is turning out to be a busy one! I decided to go for the next level in Arbonne at the last minute (late last week!) and I’ve been working hard at getting there! My goal is to hand out 20 samples in the next couple days, this way I’ll get new contacts and hopefully a few sales. I also have three parties this week (the second one is tonight!), so that’s keeping me on my toes!

But I’m going to do it! I’m going to make it to District and start reeling in the big bucks! Wish me luck!

Swoon

I’m totally swooning over these necklaces! I just found them on the front page of Etsy (Kangas, you lucky duck!) and I am just drooling (ha! I just about wrote ‘drooping’ there).

At the Christine Kangasstore, you can buy necklaces and matching earrings, they’re all so quaint and so “just plucked out of the garden” feeling. You’ll feel like a pixie or nymph wearing these incredible creations!

Just beautiful!

I Dream of Paris

 

I’m dreaming of Paris. A glass of wine and a plate of cheese, a baguette, in the evening. A cup of tea and croissants in the morning. The buzz of French accents surrounding us….and then a shock of reality when we realize we can’t speak French to our waiter.

Gotta go and get that French / English Dictionary…

Three Things

It’s Monday, and although it’s a day closer to my Europe get-away, it’s not a good Monday. BUT I was reading Three Beautiful Things, a blog on my blogroll, and I decided I needed to cheer myself up so here’s three things that I find GOOD today:

1. My fruit smoothy is delish!
2. It’s snowing and sunny at the same time…how weird (but cool looking!) is that?
3. My new purse that Mom bought me. Red plaid, black pleather. For our trip to England…it’s SUPER awesome! And weirdly enough, my Mom picked it out and I love it! (This doesn’t happen often).

There. Sigh. I actually do feel better already! Maybe I should try some more:

1. I’m running to get a Starbucks asap.
2. The NEW Arbonne catalogs came out and I’m browsing through one.
3. I’m placing a BIG Arbonne order tonight. Yay!
4. My hubby is super hot. And I get to kiss him all day ’cause we work in the same office.

Sigh. Yep, I feel good.

Maybe good enough for a cup of tea.

Then Starbucks.

It was the morning of Monday and all through the house, not a creature was happy, not even the mouse.

Mondays are never good. Not unless you’re on a holiday and realize you don’t have to go to work that day. Even with the new haircut (meaning, twenty less minutes spent getting ready in the morning = more time sleeping), work mornings aren’t the happiest of times for me. I need a holiday. Time away from the monotony of the 9-5 (or 8-5 in my case). Good thing it’s happening soon or I might have to scream.

When I’m having days like this, I watch other people who mess up. Bloopers, people! I’m not that mean!

And I’ve discovered that even without sound, it’s a funny thing to watch. Ah yes, I feel better already.

I am totally drooling over this Treasury by Marysgranddaughter! The colors are so light and airy, they make me want to bite into a Lemon Meringue pie.

This weekend is going to be a big one! I have an Arbonne meeting tonight at my house, a meeting with the Welcome Wagon girl (to learn how to make the WW packs up and deliver them) tomorrow morning, dinner with my parents on Saturday night. Sunday I’m going to the college because I had a chat with the art teacher there and he said he would teach me how to screen print! Woo!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Tea and PRC

I’m an avid tea drinker. I’m blessed with a British heritage, what can I say? When I saw Baris Gun Sahin on Etsy, I just new I had to feature them in the KJ Blog. I’m really liking the look of the green cups and blue pot together, not matchy-matchy and so cute together because they’re so different.

I’m a little bit behind the times, I just watched my recorded episode of Project Runway Canada…the final episode! It as a biggy, like real big. But like I said, I’m a bit slow, this episode aired like 2 weeks ago. Thank god for PVR! Check out the episode on Youtube!

Reno’s

Hubby and I are doing a ha-you-ge renovation to our house this summer. After our trip from England, we’ll start tearing down walls, reconstructing some of the rooms, extending the kitchen and dining room…it’s going to be construction kaos at our house!

I’ve been trying to get in the mind set of picking colors and decor ideas for the kitchen and can’t seem to find anything that Hubby and I agree on. Honestly, I just wish he would let me pick because I have good taste and I know he’d like what I would come up with anyways.

Here’s a couple pictures I found on House to Home, I’m really liking the colors they use and the overall style.

 

I especially love the colors in this last picture, the grey granite counter top and the inset beams.

We have a friend that just took training to create a granite look with concrete. You can use it as counter top or flooring (both would be cool!). I’m thinking I might get him to give me a price on our counter top…in just this look. The grey flecks. I like that. And I’ll have to talk to Hubby about the beams, I’ve always wanted those. We’ll see what he says.

The only problem I see with not only these pictures, but many others I’ve looked at: They don’t show the fridge! I know this sounds like a simple “problem”, but I have to completely shift the floor plan in our kitchen too, and I’m trying to think of where all the appliances should go! It’d be nice to have some help, Magazine People.

Just from seeing how much I like these two pictures, I think I’ve finally decided on white cupboards. Phewf. One decision down, ten million to go!

Just a Few

As you can see, we’re still not in the ‘green’ stage, but it’s coming! We saw a tinge of green on the trees on the drive home.

Just a note: After the first picture was taken, Cobie fell off of the log, 5 feet into a splash of water. She didn’t get hurt, but she enjoyed a quick swim! It doesn’t look like the log is that far off of the water, does it?

I can’t wait to go camping again!

A Girl’s Gotta Do…

Lookit what I’ve bought! This wall decal from Willow Creek Signs is going to look perfect on our new light pink wall in the bedroom. Right above the cream colored bed…I can’t wait to put it up!

Then, a couple inches above our bedside tables, we’re going to hang these little pictures by Skinny Swallow. I already have one that is similar colors, but a different photo, and this Lilly Pad picture is going to look adorable on the opposite side of the bed.

I can’t wait to get these items in the mail and to start decorating our room a bit more. Once their up, I’ll actually make the bed and take a picture to share here!

I might buy this one later on…for above the dresser. Or somewhere else…I just have to have it!

Another thing I have to have: This pattern. I need to clean out my sewing room and sew a couple tops for England! I’m still stuck on what shoes to bring there though! We’re going to be doing a lot of walking…but I still want to wear my flats and sandals! What to do? Hubby thinks I’m being silly, but a girl’s gotta think about these things!

Any advice?

Camping

Hubby and I went camping this weekend, and it was so refreshing to go out of town, escape the busy life and press the “restart” button.

Our camping spot is about 45 minutes out of town and pretty much in the middle of no-where. We love this spot, it’s surrounded by trees, beside a flowing river and really private (other camping spots are down the road, but no where near our spot). My favorite part of the weekend was when we were about to go into the camper for bed, the fire had dwindled down and it was near pitch-black. I looked up at the sky and the stars were so bright and so deep, it was hard to look away. Amazing!

Our dog had so much fun going for a run with the quad, swimming after beavers and wrestling with her friend Dom. She was finally out of energy by the time we got home…that never happens!

And today, real life continues…I’m at work, pretending to work, I had to wake up early, I need to book a hair trim, I’m making lists for Arbonne parties and orders, I’m trying not to think of England because we’re just that much closer (eek!!!)!

I’m being featured on Wunderbug this morning, on Courtney’s “My Story” entry. Take a peek!

Domesticated

Looking for something fantastic for dinner tonight? What about copying Ab Chao with chicken curry (I’m making it! I don’t care what Hubby says!), with these Cheese Puffs, and a tall glass of wine?

(Picture credited to Zupas)

Treasure the Hearts

My faves: Eco Chic dress, And Sometimes Y, Armour sans Anguish, Every Little Counts. I have to say though, all these items are super, but these are my faves.

It’s FRIDAY!

Don’t you wish we could Heart people’s Favorites on Etsy? If I could, I’d Heart Every Little Count’s Favorites. I don’t think there was an item in there that I didn’t like…

Twitter me timber! Come see who I’m following!

Susan Boyle – The Latest Wonder

Before you read this entry, go and watch this video and come on back.

 

I watched the video at lunch, after hearing a ton of twittering about it I just had to see what it was all about. As I was munching on popcorn and sipping my tea, I tried to hide my tears in the steam…but it didn’t work. Hubby took one look at me and I burst out in tears.

It wasn’t that this woman was so amazing (she’s good, really good!) but the story touched me.

My Grandma died three years ago, and her life dream was to be an opera singer. She was pretty bitter at the fact that she married a farmer and her passion for singing wasn’t able to be fulfilled. When I watched Susan Boyle preform, she reminded me so much of Grandma, her posture, her voice, that I could only imagine my Grandma being Ms. Boyle and finally accomplishing her life dream of being a singer.

When my Dad returns from England next week, I’m hoping to have pictures of my Granddad and Grandma which I’ll post here. They were a beautiful couple…

E Rosas Jewelry

I found this great shop on Etsy today, E Rosas Jewelry. I love the pictured necklace, but this one runs a close second. Oh and check out E Rosas’ Feature Artist article! I think my favorite line is “I walk Jeff and pick up his poop”…it made me laugh…I’m really hoping that Jeff is her dog *grin*.

Just a funny thought: Have you ever gotten a letter all in capslock and wanted to yell the whole thing out? Capslock makes the letter seem like the sender is yelling, doesn’t it? I got an email the other day that was like this and I burst out laughing, imagining myself reading the letter like it was presented…I have a weird sense of humor.

Opinion-ism

The other day, while browsing my Facebook friends and their recent FB activity, I came across one friend and her Note on the subject of Twilight. Her Note consisted of a highly debatable opinion of the movie stemming from a Christian standpoint and there were many (many!!) heated responses in reaction to her post.

Just the night before, I had watched this latest movie screen phenomenon called Twilight and was thoroughlyimpressed! It’s been ages since I felt that much emotion in a movie, that much romance, that much heart. It was pure bliss watching it! And so, since I had just watched it and this FB friend’s Note was criticizing the lack of discernment Christians had about this movie, I was offended. To me, it’s a movie. A very clean one, at that. There was nothing in it that struck my conscience, before or after watching it…and there still isn’t.

A movie is a movie. There’s the obvious exceptions, but really…a Blockbuster Movie is a movie. Just like Gladiator, I Am Sam, Elizabeth and many more great movies, it’s there for the viewers pleasure and is meant to pull on heart strings. For all movies that come out onto the big screen, their goal is to create the frenzy that Twilight created. They strive towards that type of viewer/actor connection. Just because they hit it on the head, doesn’t mean that it’s ‘wrong’ to watch. It means it’s a great movie!

I guess this was a bit of a rant…but my point is this: Each of us is going to take offence to things. My friend took offence to the movie, I took offence to her response to the movie. But neither of us were in the wrong, we were just feeling what our persons, our history and our upbringing had taught us to feel. It doesn’t make it wrong, it just makes it different.

This type of thought might not apply in every single situation (although some people don’t believe in a ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, I do) but in grey-areas or lenient areas, it does. Blogging being one of those areas too…We’re all entitled to our own opinion, but let’s be nice about it.

And if you notice someone being a bit harsh, or making statements you take offence to, just take a minute. Think:

“Is there a chance they might mean something else?”

Or maybe let it cross your mind: “What have they gone through to make them have this opinion?”. Give them the benefit of the doubt before posting a sharp comment or thinking badly about them.

Just my thoughts…

I love old pictures! Old pictures, history, facts and fiction, it’s all so exciting to me! And their clothes…their clothes are so fantastic!

I wish we had made it to England before my Granddad passed away, I was looking forward to asking him about his past adventures, his childhood and his experiences during World War II. My Dad is bringing back old pictures of Granddad and Grandma and their family and I hope to get copies of those great pictures. It’s not a replacement to the stories I was hoping to hear Granddad tell, but maybe they’re the next best thing.

When I see pictures like this I always wonder what came next. Where were they? Who was around? How did this scene play out? I imagine the story in my head like a movie.

This picture is of Hubby’s Grandma when she was a little one…kinda looks like she’s up to no good, doesn’t she? I love the lace detailing on the bottom of her skirt…and what is that chubby little hand holding onto?

I found this old picture (a reprint…but still, it was an original at some point…) and I think it’s beautiful!

Writing Prompt

Q:Do bloggers need a code of ethics?

The blogging world is overwhelmed with people getting their opinions out into the webosphere, everyone has their own way of communicating, their own ideas, their own guide to right and wrong. Should there be boundaries, or is this where “free speech” comes into play? And besides that, who would set these boundaries?

Honestly, my thought is that there should be one simple rule: “Treat others as you would want to be treated”. I really think that this covers it all. We wouldn’t want someone bashing our religion, so we don’t do that to another blogger or group of population. We also wouldn’t want someone looking into our Etsy shop and blogging about how they didn’t like itetc. The list could go on and on, but really, just like in real life, if we blog about others how we would want them to blog about us I feel that we’re in the clear.

My mind is questioning this though, asking “But what about debates, acting the Devil’s Advocate?”. So I say “Self, as long as you do just that, act as the DA and don’t bop the receiving person on the head, act maturely, spark a debate, bring interest, but act as the bigger person, it’s fine”.

Does this stop a blogger from outright saying something is wrong? Do they have to stick with “In My Opinion” statements or say “This may be right, it may be wrong…who really knows”? Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, not everyone is required to take that for fact. Go ahead and state that you feel something is wrong or right, but be nice about it!

It’s kinda like LIFE.

 

I’d love to know what your thoughts are on this! Do you agree with me? Dissagree? Tell me why!

My Shoes

…Are famous! Check out the Glue and Glitter blog too see what I’m wearing today!

Icecream and Treasuries

I’m totally in like with this Treasury! Aka Cinders created it and was a lucky girl and got it featured on the front page of Etsy! Wowsa! My favorite item? Why, thanks for asking! It’s the yellow pencil skirt, hands down. By Ureshii. Take a look at their shop, it’s like an icecream  store. So many flavors, so many yummy colors.

Beads!

Remember I said I was buying beads from Etsy? I got them! It’s always so fun getting packages in the mail (:

Here’s the shops I bought them from:

• Bead Supplies
• Santa Barbara Designs
• Bead Bead

I was out of town this weekend and hoping to find a bead store, but couldn’t…I need some more chain desperately but can’t find any in town…and it would take too long to get off of Etsy. I guess my beading will have to wait a little while.

And ohmygosh. You HAVE to see this site. The photos of Lauren and Adam are seriously to die for. I’ve decided that Hubby and I are going to do a photo shoot for our anniversary. He’s not going to be pleased, but I dont’ care. If they turn out even half as incredible as these, it’ll be worth it!

Nea’s

I’m a nerd. For one thing, last night we were watching TV and the  new Startrek trailer played and I said “Oh, that looks goood!”. And now today, I’m drooling over a pterodactyl necklace.

Neawear, I’m sure I’ve bragged about finding this Etsy shop on here before, but I found them again and had to show them off once more. I introduce to you: Neawear! Creative engineering in every single one of the items. You can tell there’s thought in all of them, in the colors used, the patterns, and the photography. It’s talent. Pure talent!

Take a ponder on Neawear’s Quit Your Day Job article in the Storque (weirdly enough, I hadn’t even seen this one yet until I checked out Neawear’s store and saw it linked in her Shop Announcements).

~Linkey Faves~

I haven’t done a Linky post lately so here it goes, double time.

New and Cute Blogs:

• Coco+Kelley
• Design Lovely
• My Spinning Wheels
• The City Sage
• The Red Otter Shop
• Kids and Other Pets

New Fave Etsy Shops:

• The Love Shop
• Paper Sprout
• Red Paper Record
• Melissa Beach Photography

Also, take a look into Attila Design to look at their whimsical bed!

M. Hmmmmmm

I love to write. If you haven’t seen that yet…I love it, I just never find time to do it, other than in the KJ Blog. So when I stumbled on M. Writes, I felt like I had found home. “Home” as in: a comfortable place that encourages me to do what I love. Write. Right.

So today, I’m making the time to do the Writers Group prompt. And just so you know what I’m talking about, I’m posting Marta’s questions and then my answers…just so it makes sense.

01. what accomplishments are you proud of? write about the times you put your best self into action.

There are so many things I’m proud of, it’s hard to find which one…or “ones”…that I should write about.

I’m proud of me knowing who I am and what I believe in.

I’m proud of finishing Grade 12 with more credits than I needed and working full time at the same time.

I’m proud that I found the right man, married him, and that I’m now in the process of becoming the controlling woman he calls “Wife”. Ha. Joking. I am proud that I found and married him though.

I’m proud of who God’s molded me into, as a woman, as a wife, as a friend, as a creative person.

02. make a list of your dreams. big ones and small ones. describe them in detail. line them up in the dugout, let them play ball.

1. Travel to England. This is one of my goals to accomplish before we start having kids. And guess what! It’s happening this Spring! Our families are super happy that we’re going…because they think that it means we’ll start having kids soon…
2. Climb the Eiffel Tower. I’ve always wanted to do this, ever since I was a kid. And I’m going to accomplish it this Spring! Woo!
3. Start Karate. I just have this urge to do Karate. It looks like a great work out and self defense is always good for us girls to learn. There’s a few excuses as to why I haven’t started yet, but really, they’re little and I should just do it.
4. Fully replace my income with Arbonne. I’m working on this one! It’s completely do-able. My upline and many girls I know have done this and a few of them even own their Mercedes too!
5. Work from home. I dont’ want to go back to work after we have kids, but I know that in the world we’re living in, it’s hard to live off of just one income. And because I don’t mind working, this is something I know I need to do.
6. Write a novel…or two…or three. I had started a couple stories that were working their way into novels, but I lost them. I need to start over again…time…give me time…
7. Have a successful blog. Really, there’s so many definitions to “successful”. My definition is that I would like to have 200 daily readers.
8. Have frequent sales in my Etsy store. This is one of my “work from home strategies”. It’s all in patience and determination and I’m slowly working towards this goal.
9. Be open minded.
10. Be happy. Attitude is everything. Focusing on happy things brings positive feelings, whether you start out feeling positive or not.
11. To make my husband happy.

03. your days are your sonnets. but are they really? are you living your dream or your nightmare? write down your daily routine. now write down your dream daily routine. how many items match up? are you being truly present in your daily life? are you simply going through the motions? list ways to create a more meaningful existence.

Daily Routine:

• Wake up at 7.
• Shower.
• Scarf down cereal or protein shake.
• Drive to work.
• Lunch Break.
• Drive home.
• Eat lunch.
• Drive to work.
• End of the day.
• Go to the gym / Go home to make dinner.
• Arbonne Party.

Dream Daily Routine:

• Wake up at 9.
• Make tea.
• Drink tea while blogging.
• Shower.
• Make lunch.
• Mail purchased Etsy items.
• Prepare Arbonne items for Party.
• Have coffee with potential Arbonne Consultant.
• Do Arbonne Party.
• Go home.
• Make popcorn.
• Watch Castle.
• Go to bed.

Yeah…so apparently I’m not present in real life. It’s not what I want to be doing at all, not what I should be doing. Not what I enjoy doing. So true. So true.

How to Create More Meaningful Existence:

- Work hard at Arbonne! Go for the Gold! My upline says that Arbonne is like College…only after 4 years you’ll be able to retire instead of just getting into the workforce. If I work as hard as I would in college, I’ll be more than on my way to success!

- Work hard at Etsy! Post items frequently, promote, create, just get out there! The more I put myself out there, the more I’m working towards a successful etsy shop!

- Make my husband work harder so I can stay at home NOW! Hehe.

MFH – May Find Helpful

Going through my Blog Roll and Daily Reads, I came to Make It and knew I had to share the links she had.

• Craftopolis- To see if your Etsy shop has been featured in a Treasury!
• Craft Cult - To see if your Etsy shop has been featured in the Storque, the Front Page or Gift Guides. You can even see how many hearts your shop or items have. Also, you can check out their Vault for Treasuries that have been featured on the Front Page.

These are just a couple helpful sites that all us Etsy sellers might find handy (:

 

I’m trying to find some new clothes to bring to England. Simple but fun pieces that will be easy to chuck on and not make me think too hard about what will go with it. That way, I figure, I’ll have more time for exploring!

This shirt is by Lamixx, a super awesome store that I’m drooling over.

{Laura Su}

I really beginning to love this style of art! It’s modern and unusual, but it looks pretty realistic at the same time. You can almost feel those soft wisps of hair and there’s emotion behind her eyes.

Laura Suis an Etsy artist (of course, what other type of artist do I ever feature here?) that’s new to my growing list of Hearted sellers. There’s a few more great pieces of work in her shop so check it out! Annnd, if you’re looking for even more Favorites, take a peek into her Hearted items.

My newest “I Want”.

Keep the Faith

It really frustrates me when people blow things completely out of proportion. They just love adding to stories to make them seem bigger than they are and more dramatic.

There’s seriously nothing more maddening to me.

Here’s an example.

My mom was telling me about this guy that a family friend was dating. This guy was apparently a bad influence on the girl, had long greasy hair, tattoos all over, piercings coming out of his yin-yang…you get the picture. He was not a decent guy. While my mom’s telling me this, she’s gasping and her eyes are wide. It’s a dramatic story. And of course I fell right into it. This girl was obviously not his type, what were they doing together?

Later on I find out exactly who the guy was, and it turns out, he’s one of my acquaintances. He’s super sweet, has medium to short hair, no tattoos, and his ears are pierced. (I’ve since learned to take my mom’s stories with a grain of salt).

With the world going down hill at the moment, I’m hearing so many stories that are made so much bigger than they need to be. I hear some people saying we need to start thinking about storing up food, that Obama is bringing the US into communism, that the world is going to end. Seriously.

Here’s what I think. Let the world do what it may. I’ll live my life one day at a time, deal with the challenges when they come, and that’s all that I can do. I refuse to panic. All I can do is trust that someone is looking out for me and use my common sense. Good grief, imagine if I started to panic now…while my life is still pretty easy?? I’d be a total wreck when it actually started to get tough!

I think the best way to prepare for the economy drama right now is to live life as it comes. Live sensibly, live smart. But don’t become fearful, don’t become paranoid. There’s a greater force then us out there, someone who can see the whole picture and has provided shelter even for the little sparrows.

By the way, I am in no way wanting to trivialize the hardships that some people are going through because of the economy now! I’m not saying that they are blowing their stories out of proportion, but that when it comes to “the world is ending”…well, you know what I mean.

Days End

I’ve posted some of Alicia Bock’s work here before, and when I saw this picture, I had to post it too.

1. Want.
2. Need.
3. Do.
4. Plan.

Sigh.

Monday Again…

This past weekend was a big one! We rushed towards Edmonton and camped in the car half way, driving the rest of the way on Friday. The plan was to spend the day (we had heard that it was a 3 hour wait) in the passport office and then drive home that afternoon. Lucky for us, we only waited 45 minutes in total. Once our paperwork went through, a HUGE burden was lifted off of my shoulders. SIGH OF RELIEF!

Now we can just enjoy the rest of the planning for our trip to England (and Paris!).

Sights to see:

• Stonehenge
• Castles (of course!)
• Tower of London
• British Museum
• Eiffel Tower
• Arch De Triumph

I’m really looking forward to all these sites, but also, just spending time with the family and relaxing at my Granddads farm is going to be a treat. There’s french doors leading onto a small stone deck and I can’t wait to sit there with a cup of tea and look out into the fields. It’s sad that Granddad won’t be there, and I’m sure it will be an emotional adjustment for me, but it’ll be nice to be back.

And my bookstore. Sigh. MY BOOKSTORE! My heart literally starts to beat faster when I think about it!

Ok. Stop daydreaming. Back to real life.

This weekend was very productive! I had an Arbonne party on Saturday afternoon which went great! One girl booked a party in a town five hours away so I’ll be going there this weekend. Totally out of my comfort zone, but I’m still excited!

Then sunday I filled my afternoon with Gocco’ing, which I’ll be sharing later and updating the shop with asap.

Happy Monday!

~heart~

I was looking through different Etsy sellers shops and their favorites and found these great items in Armour sans Anguish’s faves. They’re all so different, I loved the combination and had to share it here!

It was great discovering Armour’s shop too, this dress, is really amazing! The colors just seize you!

Anyone been on Etsy this morning? This shirt was featured on the front page Treasury and I knew I had to feature it today! Rainbow Swirlz is an uber cute Etsy shop…I’m in love with their great banner…and of course all their items in the shop. Yep, all of them! I’m SO going to be shopping in this store for my little sisters birthday, a perfect gift for a 15 year old I think.

Also, speaking of great things for teens, has anyone seen Twilight yet?? (What a dumb question, probably the majority of you have!) I saw it last night for the first time and it was AMAZING! I didn’t think I would like it, but it was great! I highly suggest it…even as a date movie…I think the guys would like it too!

See TWITTER for my quote of the day.

Golden Rectangle

I really wish I was getting married all over again…these invitations by Golden Rectangle on Etsy are SO fantastic! I love the bohemian feel to both of them, and there’s even more in the store that are different from these. The colors too…very old-school-become-new-again. Maybe what I need to do is become a hand writing addict and get my own stationary…as if I don’t have enough things to do!

This bottom one is my fave. I love the little birds and their branches, it’s so simple and cute!

The ‘Do!

Here’s the before picture, not great quality but it’s here:

And here’s the AFTER picture:

I showed my hairdresser what I wanted to do with my hair and she gasped “Are you sure??” Then her next question was “Did you just break up with someone?”. Ha!

I was so happy that I was able to donate my hair, two big piggy tails were cut off and hopefully someone will benefit from a nice wig! I told Hubby I was donating my hair and he said “I’ll take it, my wife’s going to need it soon”. He thought that was pretty funny.

It’s Coming

I promise, pictures of the new ‘do are coming soon! It’s a DRAMATIC change and I’m SO EXCITED!!

I’ll be posting pictures at lunch…while I work on our passport info…and eat…and call people about Arbonne orders…and deliver Arbonne orders…and book our Passport pictures…organize our overnight trip to Edmonton…Phewf. Life is full right now!

“I look good. I mean real good. Hey everyone, come and see how good I look!”. (A quote, from Ron Burgandy…not really what I think of myself. But I sure do think my shop looks nice!).

Book Worm

I was reading one of my Daily Reads tonight about her Saturday and she got me thinking about books. I could spend hours and hours in a book shop, browsing the shelves, reading a chapter here, a chapter there.

One of my favorite shops to visit in Edmonton or Calgary when we go to visit, is Chapters. I get so excited just seeing the store, and going through those big wooden doors make me grin like a school kid in a candy shop.

My dream book shop though, was in Lewes, England. When I was there last, about ten years ago (wow, that makes me feel OLD!), my Uncle took me on a tour of the town. We came to a corner in the street, at the top of a cobblestone alley where book shelves stood, stacked full of books, on either side of a sunken doorway. Of course I had to take a look. Inside, after my eyes adjusted to the lack of light, the walls were lined with tall shelves, all sagging from the weight of the antique books they held. There were tables in the middle of the store, stacked high with more books, and even more books stacked on the floor beside them.

I dont’ think that I’ve posted on here but: Hubby and I are planning a trip to Europe this spring! It’s a slightly “spur of the moment” trip, and it isn’t going to be as long as I had wanted, but it will be GREAT to see my family over there and experience the culture again. I’m so in love with England it’s not even funny! And we’ll also be taking a couple day trip to Paris while we’re over there, so I’m THRILLED to see the Eiffel Tower and have crepes and wine and cheese at a Parisian cafe. I’m such a romantic!

Spring Outfitting

I can’t wait to get my hair cut! Tuesday, it can’t come fast enough! I’m imagining this dress, with my new hair cut and this cute little flower. Both cutesy items from Etsy and perfect spring colors. You know what the best thing is about these two items? They’re both really well priced! Ok, well maybe that’s not the BEST thing…but it sure is nice.

By the way, the awful winter weather has subsided here in My Little Town and a spring breeze is rushing through, melting the snow away. Hubby keeps saying he thinks it’s spring, but I don’t have the courage to say that yet. This country always teases us.

If you like FaceBook’s status updates, you’ll love Twitter! Follow me!

Smeeta

Smeeta, Smeeta I love Smeeta. Talk about a colorful store! If you’re looking for a cute, bright and spring-ish fix, this is the shop to visit. These just make me smile.

~It Works~

First day, and already I’m seeing Twitter in action! I found this event from a Etsy seller I’m following on Twitter and I’m blogging about it, there: Twitter Works!

Here’s a SUPER great Etsy event that’s happening tonight, just go take a peek and see if you can be involved! It’s really easy and so much fun! Like a secret treasure hunt, or jumping out to scare someone and then laughing your head off at their frightened expression (Yes, I still do this and yes, I laugh SO hard!).

You always wonder about these different promotional sites. Do they really work? Is all the hype ligit? Will it work for me? Well, I figure, if it works for so many other people, it’s bound to start working for me at some point!

Twit-Tawooo!

I’ve been Twit-a-fied! I decided to set up a Twitter account yesterday and I’m having fun with it already! It’s going to be good updating it from the computer, but I’m really wanting an iphone now. You know, to do it in style.

If you’re on Twitter, come visit me! I’ll be updating daily with blog news and life updates!

Wowsah!

I had THE best night last night. It started off with cleaning the house, which wasn’t so great, but ended with a GREAT Arbonne party…I mean GREAT!

Oh, and I also watched part of Running In Heels, which is now added to my “Favorite Show” list (The Mentalist, Private Practice, Grey’s Anatomy, Castle, Project Runway, ANTM…How I find the time is beyond me!).

But back to the Arbonne Party.

I had a Spa Night with a girl and told her that if she brought a friend or two, I would give her a free Arbonne item. I got nervous when they hadn’t showed up on time, thinking that they weren’t coming at all, but they arrived and the party started. She had brought one friend and received the Sea Salt Hand Scrub, which is an AMAZING product (but what Arbonne products aren’t? ).

I started off by giving the girls their facial. A face scrub got things going and then a rich mask. We got our tea ready and headed to the living room where I had soft music playing. The girls applied the foot treatment, then sat back as I gave them a hand scrub and massage. With the candles flickering and the music playing in the background, they were almost napping.

By the time they were ready to leave, the girls had ordered almost $400 of product each! Within two hours I had made $200. Talk about a sweet job! I love pampering people and helping them feel relaxed and I earned quite a bit of money doing it, what better job could a girl have?

I have another party tonight and I’m hoping there will be a few girls there to give the spa treatment too. Then on Saturday I have a Tea and Cupcake Party happening at my house for a bunch of friends. I’m going to have my Arbonne products displayed and we’re all going to have a facial. It’s going to be FUN!

Linkey Loo

• I’m considering getting this hair cut. I’ve booked the appointment, but I might chicken out on such a short style…I’m getting something short for sure, but maybe not quite this short (:
• I want my own personalized stationary.
• Sears has the cutes dresses this Spring. I was just looking through their catalog as the car was warming up this morning (-15 again today!) and was super impressed! I’m interested in finding an Etsy seller that would make something similar for me.
• I’m about to go read this interview.
• I’m looking into doing the Welcome Wagonas a full time job when I’m done at my husbands office. Hopefully between that, Arbonne and Etsy, I’ll be able to work out of the house full time!
• I have two new favorite daily reads: Old But New  and Wunderbug.

Yellow Cake

Yellow Cakeis one of my FAVORITE shops on Etsy, gorgeous items, so unique. I just wish I had some money to spare and I’d grab up a few of their items! One day…

Check out YC’s great site, even if you just want to hear some great music…or their blog. Yellow Cake is participating in a “Project Runway” type contest tonight, I can’t wait to see how she does and what she creates!! (Check her blog for more info!).

I love this girls work! There’s something attractive to me about re-purposed clothing and the designers process is always interesting.

My dog is sitting beside me on the floor, nudging her ball towards me and watching it with begging eyes. She’s so weird. She’ll purposely roll it under our living room chairs and then look at us like “Please help. Please!”.

This weekend was so nice! Saturday afternoon I had an Arbonne party, a Spa Party, where I pampered the girls with a facial, foot treatment, hand scrub and massage. I love pampering people! One girl booked another party, so I can pamper her and her friends too. The guests were so relaxed they were saying they wanted a nap!

My Heart is Hollow

 

Last week I received a prize in the mail! This squiggly heart is from Bird From A Wire. I visited her blog a while back and entered a contest she was hosting and received one of the hearts she was giving out (: Yay! I love winning things!

Little Things

There’s little things that bother me

like a messy smile

or tiny trees.

There’s little things that bother me

like big numbers

or an old key.

The little things like

pizza sauce

or purple grapes.

Broken glass

or old tapes.

These little things

they take up space

fill my mind,

feel out of place.

These little things

I should discard.

Live my life

just play hard.

-By Me

Snowy Spring Time

Is there something wrong with these pictures?! Yesterday was the first day of SPRING! And my little, lovely, homey…freaking cold town…is in the middle of a blizzard.

I took Cobie out for a walk last night and decided to document the warm spring weather. It was a nice night though, as much as I would love green grass in replacement.

Sense of Humor

My husband has inherited his Dad and Grandpa’s sense of humor. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not…It’s a different sense of humor, they’ll crack jokes that aren’t really that funny but because they find themselves funny, you’ll laugh.

Here’s an example.

We’re sitting having coffee break today, and Grandpa, who’s name is Art, turns and says to me out of the blue, and with a little smirk on his face: “Some people study Art”.

Or here’s another one.

I told my husband he should go and by him self some new underwear (sorry, hope that’s not T.M.I) and he sighs and says “But I just bought socks!”.

See, it’s a weird sense of humor! I should have been more aware of what I was in for when I was dating my hubby.

These are the necklaces I was working on the night before last! Like I said, I’m so glad they turned out (: Here’s the shop that I bought more stuff from yesterday…I’m seriously so excited for it to arrive but I have a feeling that I’ll be waiting  a little while since the border is always holding things up a little too long. Oh well, all in due time.

I’m going to be adding some card packs to the shop soon…and making more on the Gocco too!

The jewellry I made last night turned out really well! I was really excited about the end result and ordered more necklace parts, beads and such this afternoon. I know this is going to be another hobby I’m going to fall in love with (:

Finally Doing it!

Well, I’ve found the needle nose pliers, which is hopefully the tool I need to make a necklace (who knows, but I’ll try it and see how it goes).

See the yellow beads? I made them! They turned out pretty good, they may need a varnish of some sort, another something I have to try out.

The hubby is working tonight so I’ll be busy watching a movie and trying out some jewelry making. Oh! And I bought a bunch of beads today off of Etsy. I love getting parcels in the mail (probably half the reason I order off of Etsy!) so I can’t wait till they arrive!

Spring

spring

Originally uploaded by mariehochhaus

I had to post this one too, amazing isn’t it?? I love the feel and the movement in it. The colors are perfect! I could look at this picture all day (:

inner torment

-

Originally uploaded by mariehochhaus

Love this photo!! Check out the rest of this artists work, some pretty amazing stuff!!

GG’s

I love the Gift Guides! I was checking them out this evening, as I was watching The Mentalist (awesome show!!). They’re a great way of finding new favorites.

Finding Deals

I went shopping while we were away for the weekend and found these great beads. Actually, they’re necklaces…but being an Etsy seller, I see what I could make out of them (: And to make them even better, they were on sale for $2.00 a necklace, ANNNND then Buy One Get One Free. Talk about a deal!

I’m going to be trying out jewelry making as soon as I can find those needle nose pliers…

Gimme

I want:

These shoes

This hair thingy

This sweater

This wall decal for our bedroom

And this one too

This journal is pretty cute

And this necklace.

Stay classy San Diego.

I love this necklace! The shape and size are so unique, and the print is just gorgeous! Check out LuluBug Jewelry for more funky work!

Well, today we leave on a short little road trip, for a family funeral unfortunately. It should be interesting. We were never very close to this family member, but it’s sad all the same that his wife has lost her husband and his son has lost his dad.

I woke up this morning excited, not about the funeral, but about life. It feels like something is about to happen…not sure what…but it’s exciting! Maybe it’s just that I have a few Arbonne parties booking for the end of this month.

I also have some Spa Events this month that I’m super excited about. I got the idea from an Arbonne Facebook Group and I’m really looking forward to doing it! I’m going to give the guests a mud mask, complete with cucumber eye coverings, hand scrubs and massages, and a foot treatment. I’m so excited!

Set Sail

I’ve always loved pirates and dream about being a she-pirate, sailing the seven seas for deadly treasury. These dreams stem from the stories my dad would tell us kids when we were little, pirate mice, badgers and foxes sword fighting and hunting for their booty.

I just LOVE this necklace by Flight Path Designs, perfect for a secret pirate wanna-be like meself. And to add to the awesomeness of this piece, it’s placed on leather…talk about a genuine feel. With a sequined fitted white top, black jeans and tall leather boots, you’ll live the pirate life inside and the gorgeous life on the outside.

White Winter

The white stuff is still flying up here in the north, -30 today…holy moly! There was an ad on TV tonight saying “There are places that have a wool sock season and a sandal season, and no season in between”…I think they were talking about my home town.

I love this treasury, made by Heidi Burton. As much as it reminds me of this darn winter, I still love the freshness of the white. Clean. Love it! My fave is the earrings by Betsy3.

Mini Me

I found this great site through another blog and think it’s the greatest!! The site is called Tilt Shift Maker and you upload a normal picture and adjust the depth of field to make it look like a miniature!

This is a picture I took of one of our quads, stuck in a “puddle” last summer…uploaded into TSM and made to look mini. Freakin’ cool, isn’t it?? Try it out!

Hmm

Originally uploaded by katelynjane.etsy

Well, I just realized that this bag is no longer in the shop! I’ll have to go through my inactive items and re-post it. I love this bag. It’s so functional and perky! The print is so fun and happy, it’s a feel good bag!

The red bag I made (in the post below) was made as a diaper bag / purse, and this one could be the same! It’s big enough for diapers, bottles, a wallet, keys, and some baby clothes. And it has two exterior pockets to help with organization.

Red White and Tan

I brought a few samples of fabric to a friend to see if any of them were something she wanted. She chose this one and I was so excited to get going on it. Even though I was busy renovating our bedroom this weekend, I just had to make time to create this bag. The friend who requested this bag is expecting a baby in June and wanted the purse to double as a diaper bag.

Instead of using nylon straps, I finally had a chance to use the rucksack-like ones I ordered off of ebay ages ago. I sewed the top centre of the straps into tighter sections, which made them easier to sit on shoulders.

Front Page

Check it out! One of my blogging friends made it onto the Etsy front page! Congrats Etsa Sketch!

Updating

I’ve been adding new items to the shop! These mugs were so much fun to make, I can’t wait to make more! I would have gone to get more mugs today, but we were busy painting our bedroom (yay!).

I’ve also been busy sewing another bag today! This one was ordered from a girl at my old job, so it won’t be going into the shop. It’s so good to be back in the sewing room! It’s been a while, and it feels good to be creating more bags. There WILL be more in the shop soon, it’s going to be hard to stop sewing now that I’ve started. I’ll be posting pictures of the new bag asap. I’m really impressed with how it’s turning it out!

Ready Made

Holy Moley. I’m going to be so addicted to this site, I can tell already! Talk about a great resource! One of my commenters yesterday (thanks Everydaycreate!) mentioned this site and of course I had to check it out…And because of that, I now have a list as long as my arm of things to make. Crafts for the bride I’m helping this summer, stuff for my craft room. Yep, it’s going to be an awesome site to have around.

Let Spring Come!

Love this Treasury West made by AMI Designs. It reminds me of spring, which I wish would just come already!

Well, it’s my last day of work at the radio station today. Thank goodness I’m outta here! It’s a complicated issue, but basically I’m working for two bosses and it makes for confusion! Not only that, but the communication in the station is nil and so they are always making our office work double time to pick up their slack. Frustration.

For the income tax season I’ll be working with my husband at his grandpa’s accounting office, but after that, the coast is clear. And I’m praying for creativity to fall into my lap! I need a fun job, and something that’s not too demanding.

No…I’m not picky…me? Noooo…

MV Knits

 

I keep watching this video over and over, the story is so beautiful…and the birth of the lamb just about brings me to tears!

The idea of CSA seems so sensible to me in this economy. I seriously think that now is the time to support the little guys. The Farmers Markets should be bustling now, the small businesses should be busy.

When I was little my Dad would read me the Beatrix Potter stories. The little mice in the books were always preparing for winter, gathering nuts and making their houses cozy for the cold seasons. I was about 5 at the time and I thought for sure that we, humans, had to do the same thing. I remember getting a panicked feeling when I realized our basement wasn’t filled with food. I asked my Dad why we weren’t stocking up for winter and he explained to me that it wasn’t necessary.

I’m getting that feeling again. How do we prepare for a recession? What do I do? How do I help my family get ready for potentially hard times? The biggest thing that I can do right now, I feel, is to support the little guys. Maybe this hits home a bit closer for me because my husband owns his own business…I just feel as though they are what is holding us up. They’re there for the long haul, as opposed to the big guys who are only in it for the payouts and not to keep their staff employed. Just my opinion (:

Check out the Stone Soup Challenge!

Letterpress

I have a question.

Does everyone who does Letterpress art on Etsy actually OWN a letterpress? They seem so big and expensive. Is there maybe somewhere that you can get your images letter-pressed for you? (Sorry, this is turning into a couple questions…).

I’m probably just jealous that I dont’ have one…

Outtake

Outtake

Originally uploaded by Necil Bug

I used to hate rats, they grossed me out…until I saw these pictures. This little guy is so adorable! He spoons with his teddies and can’t stand to be too far away from the owner when they’re outside. Adorable!!

About Me

Some random facts about me, just for fun:

1. My favorite movie is Moulin Rouge.
2. I am addicted to Vegemite…and I’m running out. I’ll need to order some from Australia soon.
3. My favorite book is The Thirteenth Tale.
4. I text my sister constantly. All day every day. It’s free though, so I’m not worried.
5. My biggest pet peeve is when people don’t use their signal lights.

Also, I’ve added some new blogs to the Blog Roll:

• Casey’s Musings
• Darling Dexter and
• Cicada Daydream
• Also, check out this blog about the Aussie fires that have been happening lately and the artists efforts to help the families.

SJP

*picture from MSN Fashionism

I love the Oscars and I was so glad that I got to see even a bit of them this year. I had an Arbonne party later that night, but I was able to watch the red carpet walk, which is what I like the most anyways.

There were so many stunning (that’s not even a big enough word to describe them) dresses this year, it was hard for me to pick my favorite. I looked through MSN Fashionism’s Oscar faves and I loved them all!! But Sarah Jessica Parker’s dress was the one I couldn’t get enough of. I just kept going back to it to stare. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

I love everything about it! The color is the ‘in’ color right now, the style is so old school and perfect, the belt and the layering and the detailing…it’s all breathtaking. Sigh.

I want it.

Her Shoes = My Shoes

Oh my gash.

I need these.

I have you ever watched In Her Shoes? Love love freaking love this movie. In it Cameron Diaz wears a pair of her sisters shoes that are just like these ones…although I’m sure in the movie, they’re Jimmy Choo or something else amazing.

I just found Forever 21 again. I had discovered it before but forgot about it in the meantime. And now that I’ve found it, I’m dying to buy boots and shoes, jeans and cartigans…The prices are really reasonable (or that’s my excuse anyways)!

She’s Baaaack!

Nie Nie is back!! I just visited her blog and was so happy to see that she’s back to blogging again! Wow, what a journey, what a strong woman, what a supportive family.

All the Luck

Some people have all the luck. Black Eyed Suzie is the lucky one this week. Not only does she have a Feature Sellerarticle, but Etsy has also put out a Handmade Portrait video of her creations. Lucky, like I said.

One thing I don’t get though, is why Etsy would feature items similar to the sellers…but NOT the sellers…in the pictures of “Related Items” under the article. In this case, the artist is a doll maker, so posting links / pictures to her dolls is awesome, but to other people’s dolls? Just doesn’t jive with me. Pictures, paintings, other items: sure, why not. But the competition? Nuh uh.

Just my thoughts…

Mother of Abraham!

Holy moley! I was just looking at my shop, curious as to how many views my items were getting. Since I renewed some of the bags, I wasn’t sure if the previous views would still be there, or if the amount of views would start a zero again.

My other bags had a good amount of views, between 200 and 300. Pretty good. Then I flicked onto this bagand was SHOCKED to see 941 views! WOWSA!

Going to renew it!

Christy DeKoning

Christy is an artist on Etsy that I got to know a while back…through blogging maybe? I’m not quite sure.

Her art work has always astounded me, and I’m pretty sure that it impresses anyone who takes a peek at it. I wish I had her talent! All of her work is great, but I’m always really impressed with the custom paintings she does. They would make an intense gift for a good friend, talk about blowing them out of the water!

Do you have a flickr account? Post your link here! I’d love to check out your pictures!

Today I spent some time making envelopes from colorful old file folders. I’ll be posting them and matching cards in the store soon. Tomorrow I’m planning on making more tags to post in the shop, and hopefully some Gocco items soon. I’ve decided to take a more all-around view in the shop, not just strictly bags. Who knows, maybe hand bound books will be in there soon!

Saturday

I love Mooka!  Especially those fizz bombs that look like eggs, so cute!

The weekend has begun and it’s not a restful one for me. Fun: yes. Restful: no. Last night was a party for my Mom-in-Law, visiting my parents this morning, another birthday party tonight. Church tomorrow morning and then an Arbonne party in the afternoon. A busy weekend, but a good one!

I’ve renewed some of the bags in the KJ Shop, make sure you jog by and check it out.

I’m also planning my next crafting experience: making necklaces. With my next paycheque from Arbonne, I’m going to splurge a bit and buy some jewellery making supplies. I’ve had my eye on some cute beads and funky techniques for a while and I think it’s time to try it out!

Have a fun weekend!

Pinks

Well, the week is finally over! It was a doozy. I had two Arbonne parties, which is always fun, and another one planned for this Sunday afternoon. I seriously love doing them! It’s so much fun getting together with girls, talking about makeup and making sales. I can’t wait until I can do Arbonne full time, with crafting on the side of course.

It would be so nice to work fully from the house instead of moving on to another job. Fill my time with Arbonne, Etsy and sporadic crafting urges. It would be so much fun!

Have you ever looked through the Gift Guideson Etsy? They’re a great resource for finding different gifts (go figure!) under different topics such as “Mom”, “Kids”, “Wedding”.

I found these earrings from Florabond in the Gift Guides and they’re so cute! If you’re looking for something springy to decorate your wardrobe with, these are awesome!

A World in A Bottle

Imagine this little world on your window sill, right above your crafting table. Even in the dreary winter, you can be encouraged by it’s color and inspired by the images it gives you. When you’re writing, you can think of the little people that might live inside it’s world, when you’re sewing, you might think of the fabric that might imitate it’s fields.

Made By Mavis makes these wonderful little lands, see her store for more creativity and be INSPIRED!

I was looking through Etsy yesterday, in search of invitations for a friends wedding. This awesome store poped out and I just had to share it! Earmark is really filled with great products, colorful and creative and so much fun to look through!

Give Me the Blues

Great Treasury! Made by The Silver Dog. Wicked name, hey? Love it!

New Faves

Just looking for some new favorite blogs. Here’s what I’ve found so far:

Non Pareil

Apt #34

Cute Overload

Ruby Press

This is Glamorous

Tiny K

And I saw this blog featured on a couple of blogs so I had to check it out! It’s in French, but the pictures are fab! Le Blog de Betty.

Voila!

.Love.

Just because Valentines Day is over, doesn’t mean that the gifts should stop!

Juicy Christiansis a great Etsy shop…seriously I’m so impressed. I especially love their necklace that reads “Be Still”. Sometimes I forget to do that, I rush around and live life and I forget to just Be Still and hear that still small voice. It would be a good reminder!

Check out their other awesome products! You’ll love them!

Uh Oh.

I’m getting into the crafty mood. It’s good, but it’s also an Uh Oh, because it’s going to cost money. It always does.

I’m thinking about bookbinding now. Like I’ve mentioned before I’ve always wanted to learn how to book bind, but never gotten around to it. Now’s my chance I’m thinking! Why? Well, I’ve quit my job…and I’m heading onto bigger and better things. I have a job set up for the income tax season as a receptionist for my hubby’s Grandpa (an accountant) but after that the coast is clear.

I applied for a job at the hospital, as a receptionist and found out yesterday that the job is “casual”. This actually suites me just fine. Not sure what the hubby thinks of it just yet. I love the thought of a couple weeks of work, then a week off…or so. That way I can focus on Arbonne and crafting and hopefully steer myself info full time work from the home. Exciting! Lets just see if it pans out…

But my first step in the crafting direction is to buy this book. Creative Bookbinding. A good start I think!

 

Check out this wicked awesome shop on Etsy….Unless Someone Like You…Scratch off Save the Dates, how on earth can you go wrong?! See what I mean, I NEED to get married again (to the same guy, don’t freak out)!

USLY also makes the invitations in the top picture. Seriously. They’re genious!

Cuteness

I just have to say that I love the look of my blog right now. The banner and that Treasury look so cute together. Yay for me (:

It’s a “Breeze”

 

This treasury is made by JooJoo. It’s a breath of fresh air isn’t it? A great bit of color in the middle of this winter.

Write Away

I’ve always loved writing. I used to write poems into the night, whether they made sense or not. Then came novel writing. I lept into two different novels, one fantasy novel and the other modern day romance (but nothing like Harlequin . Once I was sixty pages in to them both, my memory card broke and I lost everything I had worked on within the previous couple of months.

But before that happened, I was posting sections of my novels on Urbis, an amazing writing site. One this site, you post pieces of your writing, whatever style they might be, and other members critique them for you. You gain points for critiques you give, and spend those points to reveal critiques given to you.

If you’re interested in writing and wanting to grow and learn in that hobby, try this site out!! Look me up on there too and check out some my novels! “Katelynjane” of couse (:

Complex

I’ve realized that I’m a complex music lover. I really enjoy hard rock like Disturbed (although I hate this music video, the song is good), but then I love Celine Dion. Then there’s the folky girl in me who likes a good soft guitar music with a scratchy voice behind it…there’s just something calming about it!

 

When I heard that Mandy Moore was getting married to a Ryan Adams, I had to see who he was…and I was impressed! His music is actually great, a really original sound that I love. Calm and relaxing music. Enjoy!

Is it?

Well, Valentines Day is coming and I’m going to make it special for my hubby. Candles and wine…and other things…but we won’t get into that here (:

A new study shows that although people are slowing down on their Valentines budgets, they aren’t slowing down in the bedroom. The economy might be going down hill, but sex isn’t.

Hubby and I are going for Sushi and 10 pin bowling with our friends on Saturday. It’s going to be FUUUN!

Is the economy getting you to think twice about Valentines?

Elly Nelly

I wish it was Friday. I could hardly drag myself out of bed this morning, but the cold floor doesn’t help anything either…

This store is awesome! First of all…I love the sink in this picture and if we ever build a house, I’m definately putting one like this in my kitchen or mud room. But their product is great too! I’ve always wished that little people really exsisted (like the Borrowers) so this can keep my childish dreams alive!

Elly Nelly is full of super creative, fun and modern, wall decals. They’re a great way to affordably decorate your house…and all without banging nails into the walls!

As soon as I get up the gutz to repaint our living room, I’ll be putting one of these up on the main wall (:

The Pioneer Woman

 

I found this video on one of my fave blogs, Liberty Post, and HAD to share it with you! Such a great story and so inspiring! Check out Ree’s blog, A Pioneer Woman for amazing photography and great baking / cooking ideas. Seriously DELISH!

I’m super busy trying to organize parties for this week and the rest of February. A full month is what I’m looking for! This will help me earn more points to get to the next level in the company. Woo!

Arbonne is coming out with a new product this March. It’s called FC5, Fresh Cell 5, and has full cells from 5 different fruits and veggies. The cells are whole so no perservatives are needed, which is awesome! ANNND the packaging is enviomentally friendly…even the ink! We’re the fist company to ever come out with products like this (whole cells) AND Arbonne has pattented this type of product for the next three years.

Like I’ve been telling you: Arbonne is awesome!!

Dahl and Dane

I love this store!! Not only the items, but the way that it’s set up. The pictures are so cool, and the idea of the products are great. And what a great Valentines gift! “I Heart Nerds” would be  a good one for me considering my hubby is a computer tech :b Dahl and Dane is da’ bomb!

The New Kids

I’m adding to my Blog Roll and thought I would share the links here (:

• Brooklyn Bride
• Ritzy Bee Blog
• Sew Inspiring

Enjoy!

Tagged

So I was tagged. By Ulixis.

Link to the person who tagged you (Check)

Post the rules on your blog (Check)

Write six random things about yourself  (Working on it)

Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them (Doing it)

Let each person know they’ve been tagged (Gotcha)

1. I hate Matrimonial Square. I ate too much of it when I was younger and now the thought of it makes me want to spew.

2. I don’t like Obama. I wish I did, he seems like he would be a decent guy, but there’s just something about him that gives me the heebie-jeebies.

3. I wish The Borrowers were real! When I was little I thought they were…actually, I thought squirrels were human like too and I even set out a doll bed for one once.

4. I love Vegemite!!! I can’t get enough of the stuff. My hubby bought me a huge container of it from Australia a few months ago and I was SO HAPPPPY! We can’t get it in Canada anymore.

5. I can’t wait to quit my job. I’m bored at it now, and it’s super frustrating working with people who don’t want to do anything to further the business.

6. I have a huge love for popcorn. I love love LOVE it! Smothered in butter, with lots of salt. Popcorn and beer is a favorite treat of mine (:

Tagging:

1. Roska

2. Pulp Sushi

3. Esta Sketch

4. Sally Jane Vintage

5. Capree

6. Smitten Kitchen … A newby to me.

Now to go and tag everyone!…

Ps: I wish it was summer again…I miss the green grass and hot sun.

~ Love It ~

It’s almost Valentines! I’m like a little kid, I love getting gifts. Any excuse I have to get a present, I LOVE! You should see me at my birthday…

I love this store, Foster Weld. Remember how my hubby got me a buckle for me? I can’t get enough of it…or the new ones FW has in the shop. PERFECT for V-Day.

This is a new favorite store of mine…Verre Encore…beautiful beautiful BEAUTIFUL items! And of course the owners love story  featured on Etsy makes you love her even more (:

Get your guy to look at the KatelynJane Blog today and give him a hint at what you’d like for Valentines!

Lov-a-Lee

Ho Hum.

Diddely-dee.

Look at this hat

It’s really pretty.

And it’s on SALE! OOooo!

So last night was a busy one…actually yesterday as a whole was a busy one. Hubby was worried I wasn’t getting enough sleep so he told me to take the morning off of work and sleep in…not going to say no to that!! I didn’t get to work until 11:30 and it would have been perfect had I not woken up with a headache! Oh well.

Then at work I taught several students how to make lip gloss. It took up the whole afternoon, bringing me to 3:30 when I needed to leave work early for an Arbonne meeting in the next town.

A long drive to the Arbonne meeting, a GREAT meeting with Patrice Mattison. She’s so amazing! She’s an Arbonne trainer from the States who focuses on leveraging your time and communications with your clients / potential clients. It’s seriously incredible!

We drove up there with two of our Regional Presidents, IN A WHITE MERCEDES. I’m SO getting one of those!!!

If you’re interested in receiving some samples from me, let me know! Arbonne is an incredible company…if you’re trying to earn some extra money AND if you’re looking for high quality body care products!

Clean Yourself Up!

 

In this economy I think it’s super important to support the little businesses. Whether that’s Etsy or other types, I feel like it’s critical to support the little man.

That’s why I love Etsy! It’s such a great place for young businesses to build their foundations. It’s affordable, easy and caters to every kind of taste.

Sometimes it’s hard; you look at an item and think “well I could buy that at Wal Mart for so much cheaper!”, but really what you need to remind your self about is that that item (soap, hand cream, makeup etc) will last SO much longer being that it doesn’t have fillers like the big name brands. It’s definately worth the extra buck or two.

Check out Adoration Soap on Etsy! Seriously awesome products adorned with gold flakes or other decorative art, this soap (and scrubs and whipped soap) is a great gift or present for your own home.

Trace My Face

Well well! Look at that. I’m back two days in a row!

I’m tired and hungry but super happy! I had an Arbonne party last night that went really well. One girl signed up as a consultant and two girls bought $840.00 worth of products! There was a bit of confusion about the ordering buy we got it straightened out and it’s all good now.

My focus now is to book more parties. My goal is to book three parties a week in February. Hopefully that will get me to the next level in the company and I’ll be just that much closer to working full time with Arbonne and driving my Mercedes!

People keep asking if getting the Mercedes from Arbonne is actually a realistic goal. Um, yes!! I live in a smaller town (10-13,000 pop) but there’s three girls in my area already driving their Mercedes and working full time at the Arbonne business. It’s do able IF you’re willing to work to get there.

You always have to view it as doing work now for play later. It’s not hard work, it’s a matter of keeping those wheels turning. And it’s FUN! I get three nights a week with great girls, visiting, trying out cosmetics and eating great munchies! It just doesn’t get better than that!

I work full time too but weirdly enough, I haven’t viewed my Arbonne nights as being overwhelming or “work”…EVER! That says alot.

Back to Etsy: Don’t you just LOVE the picture above?? It’s from the Trace My Face shop, you’ve gotta check it out! It’s really a great store, full of fun items, all types of things to entertain you!

Luxe Deluxe

I’m so in love with this necklace!! It would look amazing with a black dress…maybe perfect for Valentines…hmmm…

This piece of beautiful creativity was made by Adrienne @ Luxe Deluxe. Go buy youself something pretty!

Well, it’s been forever since I’ve been back to my blog. Life is super busy, and just hasn’t left time for blogging lately. Hopefully I’ll be able to make more time now and then though and come back to visit my wonderful readers.

I’m keeping really busy with my Arbonne business, having tons of parties and tons of fun! This week I had four parties booked, two of them rebooked but that’s just peachey! I’m planning on bringing my business up to full time within the next few months, and it seems like it’s headed in that direction. Arbonne has come up with a new great compensation plan for us consultants and it’s rocketing us towards more income…who can complain??

I’ve mostly given up on my Etsy shop…although I do have several bags still available for now. I’m thinking of starting a new shop with smaller items, things that aren’t so costly to ship or make. I’ll be keeping you posted!

Also, thanks to my awesome readers! You guys have kept coming back, even if I haven’t been so faithful, and I really REALLY appreciate it!

Phewf!

That was a long break, wasn’t it? I haven’t been at the blog for a while, but I’m back and ready to get started again in 2009!

Let’s start with my first Hearted shop this year. It happens to be the Etsy Featured Seller, because that’s obviously a good way for stores to get noticed (:

Stepankais an awesome abstract shop full of porcelain treasures. Vases, mugs, wall decor…Stepanka is SO CUTE! I really think their items will suite everyone! I just love how clean the images are. They don’t seem cluttered or overused, they’re just…fresh.

I think I’m in love with this artists work…

I wish I was a kid again…

I want this picture. The pink one.

I love this blog theme.

I want summer back!

I need to go home and do some crafts.

I need gloves. My hands are freezing.

Too Cold

There’s some days that are just too cold. On these days, I question why I continue to live in Northern Canada. Also on these days, I question why I drive a diesel.

It’s -30c. today. My truck was frozen but still barely started. My hands are freezing and I’m wondering why I’m even working. Last week I laughed at a co-worker when he asked if we were having a “snow day” (in Canada?? Are you joking me??), but today I’m really seeing the sense in it. It’s too bloody cold to work!

The positive: It feels more like Christmas with the snow and frost.

Last night I baked two apple pies, put up my Christmas tree and watched Friends. Now my house finally looks like Christmas! I just can’t wait until my sister and I have a baking day! Then it will really feel like Christmas, gingerbread cookies smelling up the house, shortcake dipped in chocolate, coconut snowballs…it just “makes” it!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Bind Them Up

I’ve always wanted to learn how to book-bind. I remember, and I’ve probably already told me readers this once or twice, when I was little, going to a craft fair. One of the tables was handmade books and I was completely enthralled. I remember telling my mom how I would love to learn to do that and it hasn’t changed.

I’m completely addicted to journals, although I hardly write in them (the paper is so beautiful! Who would want to wreck it?).

I was looking through Etsy today and saw the Featured Artist mentioned one of their favorite sites was a forum about bookbinding. From there I found a link to some great YouTube videos! This one is so straightforward and explains every little step. I just watched all the 5 parts here at work!

You want to try it, don’t you? Me too!!

Before the Fire

My birthday was a couple weeks ago and OF COURSE I asked for a gift certificate to Chapters. It’s really just a given for me. The whole experience is a gift for me. The moment I walk into Chapters, I feel a weight taken off of my shoulders, I breathe easier, I fall in love.

Books, antiques and new, get me somehow. As soon as I see them I want to flip through them, smell their pages and take in their words.

We don’t have a Chapters in our town, so during our trip to Calgary and Edmonton, we enjoyed a couple trips to the store.

We stepped into the store, the big classically worn doors closing out the winter cold and the tables of colorful books inviting us in even further. I smiled and breathed in the relaxation that pounced on me.

First: to the discount tables. I’m a bargian shopper, so any novel that I can get at a discount is a double treat. But since I love books so much, it’s really not something I stress about too much.

Then: to the Fantasy section. I’ve been meaning to start reading the Robert Jordan fantasy novels since I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about the books…including my Dad-In-Laws opinion, which says a lot. I also picked up a novel about the beginnings of King Arthur by Jack Whyte. The author is actually from my province British Columbia.

Now: To Heather’s Picks. Heather reads tons of Chapters books and then reviews them or picks her favorites. I picked up a book “The Thirteenth Tale” and looked it over. I had seen it before and it looked interesting. I bought it.

Talk about AWESOME! It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten lost in a book. You know that feeling where you just can’t stop reading and even when you do, you want to go back to your book? This book does that. A total classic. Well written and a beautiful and twisting plot. Prepare to LOVE IT!

I finished the book last night, as I sat before our fireplace on my green velvet arm chair, and kept wishing it wouldn’t end. It’s really that good.

What I Need

I need something today.

A break. A sleep. A creative moment.

I need to sit in my office and work with crafting. I need to put on my MP3 and sing my guts out. I need to cuddle with my puppies. I need a good hot cup of tea and my book. I need a kiss.

I need my parents to get their relationship straight and for my dad to be happy again.

I need my sister and brother to move closer to me.

I need to paint my bedroom. I need a Sheltie. I need an Etsy shopping spree.

I need a visit with my mom in law.

I need a new kitchen. I need a trip to Europe to visit my Grandad before he passes away.

I need to work Arbonne full time.

Warm it Up

With love baby!

 

Just a clip I love (: Brandy has been one of my favorite artists since I was young. Great memories! Here’s one of her new songs.

Well, I’m back! Where was I? On a great long week in Calgary and Edmonton, visiting my sister, friends, shopping, eating Sushi and shopping my butt off. It was a great week off, sleep-in’s (kinda, I’m getting old and cant’ sleep past 9 now…) and a refreshing bit away from work.

I got so many new clothes and (YAY!!!) splurged on a bedroom set from IKEA. We’ve been married 3 years and haven’t ever done-up our room. So we finally bought a great bed frame, bed side tables, lamps, curtains, a new quilt and sheet set (Linen and Things is going out of business so I got a great deal). I also got a gift certificate for Pier One from my sister so I bought some colorful decorations for the bedside tables. We do need to paint the room yet, pale pink and green, but the cream colored bed and tables go perfectly. The curtains are a beautiful chocolate linen fabric, and the lamps are deep brown with cream shades. We stayed up until midnight setting everything up and it looks breathtaking. I love it. I couldnt’ stop looking around and grinning!

I also had an Arbonne Party while I was in Calgary. My sister booked it and it went really well! Four girls showed up, which is a great number, and I made the whole presentation without stumbling…although it’s ok if you do stumble. My sis and one of her friends bought a couple items so that was good. Since the warehouse that I order from is in Calgary, my sister received her order in four days. Crazy!

I’m in qualifications for District Manager (the second level in Arbonne) so I’m hoping to make quite a few sales this month and make it fully to that level. My Peel Party is tomorrow where I hope to make more sales and book more parties. Yay, cant’ wait!! We’re going to try out the Facial Peel and all of the RE9 set, and of course just visit and eat some Christmas munchies! Yum yum!

 

Christmas is almost here! Can you believe it?? I can’t. It came so fast…hopefully this year I can love every minute of it before it slips past us.

I have such a huge amount of family to buy for (7 siblings, mom, dad, inlaws and their children…which reminds me! Did I tell you I just became an aunty again?! My sister in law had her little Briea Lynae and she’s the most ADORABLE little newborn you’ve ever seen. I’m so proud!). Etsy as always is coming to the rescue! Last year I bought every single gift on Etsy, although hubby bought his boy gifts at Canadian Tire. It was a life saver not to have to leave the house or drive 2 hours to the city.

This year I have hubby’s mom and sister to buy for and while I was browsing through Etsy, these amazing post cards poped up. What a great stocking stuffer!! They’re colorful, which is what everyone needs in this dreary winter weather, and they’re just eye-catching!

Rolling

I’m on a roll! How many posts is this in a row? Yay for me!

SO last night was my first Arbonne Party by myself. My leader, Jannah, actually called before the event and said she wasn’t able to find a babysitter. I wasn’t too worried, by that time I had started to get confidant in the presentation process. I said I would be fine and Jannah stayed home with her little guy while I went to the party.

There were only three guests that showed up, and they were all my close friends, so the presentation wasn’t bad at all. Actually, I had a feeling since they were my friends, it might have been worse to try to present in front of the. With strangers, you can act. Friends know who you are what what you normally act like…But it was great! I told them at the beginning that I would be pretending they didn’t know me and I would be going ahead with the whole presentation. And I did. And it worked! I had my que-cards to follow and of course the catalog which is really like a magazine (full of info!).

And it was EASY!!

I read through my notes, added my own thoughts here and there and it went SO smoothly and I had a blast! The girls were all so attentive, although a couple of them had just been to Arbonne parties with other friends. And I was able to answer all of their questions, which was a big worry for me.

Phewf!

Today I met with a girl that is going to be doing the Arbonne Business and we went over her goals and the direction she wants to take with Arbonne. It was good!

Then Saturday I have another party which is going to be awesome. I’m really excited for it!

Self employment, anyone? An average of $140.00 a night, anyone?? Just ask me how!

Lights in the Dark

 

 

 

We have four channels on our TV. We refuse to get cable or satellite because it wastes our time…as much as it would be awesome to sit back with nachos and watch a game of hockey…

Anyways, one of our four channels is MTV. A lame-o channel with teeny-boper shows and indie music that usually sucks. But because we have nothing else to watch, it’s the channel we normally watch. And I have found two of my new favorite bands by watching this channel, so it can’t be that bad I guess.

Lights is the girl that’s in the movie above. She’s young, tiny, and very talented.

The Trews is the other new band. Awesome.

Well, I sew’d a bag last night…probably the best bag I’ve ever made (: I made the exact same style for myself a month ago or so, but this next one turned out so much better. Finished perfectly and I’m extremely happy with it! I just need to ad the vinyl handles now and then I need to start on another one just like it. Both of the bags are for girls I work with…so there’ll be three identical bags at work, but that’s what they wanted!

I have another Arbonne party tonight! I’ll be doing this one all by myself, although my leader (or “upline”) will still be there. Ahhh! I’m a bit scared!! It’s great because Arbonne really encourages their consultants to read off of q-cards, which will really help. And Jannah, my up-line girl, has come to every party I’ve hosted to help out and teach me how to do the presentation.

I really don’t know why I’m so nervous. It’s going to be a party with lots of girls I know, and I really have no trouble speaking to people, but still…the first time is always nerve wracking I think (:

Wish me luck!

Another

Just looking through YouTube, of course (: And I searched one of my childhood friends, Georgia Murray. Isn’t she amazing? Enjoy!

I Heart Etsy

Why? Because it’s awesome.

I got my second…actually, third! Wow I’m spoiled!…birthday gift my hubby bought for me and surprise surprise, it was from Etsy! Here’s a tip: If you would like something for Christmas from Etsy, heart it and then tell your family to look through your hearted items. Hubby looked through my hearted items and bought two of my FAVORITES from them.

The gift that came in the mail yesterday was a belt buckle from Foster Weld! The pink one at the bottom and it’s AWESOME!

Now I just need to buy the leatherto go with it (: Yay!

B-Day

It’s my birthday today, 25 and still kickin’. My hubby spoiled me by giving me money for a pair of boots, a necklace from Etsy (below) and another gift that will be coming in the mail in the next couple of days.

We made crepes this morning, stuffed with whipped cream and raspberry jam, and I relaxed with a cup of tea and my crepes and watched Grey’s Anatomy.

This afternoon I enjoyed tera-mesu hot chocolate with a big dollop of whipped cream in a new mug a friend had gotten me…and tonight my mom-in-law made us all a huge turkey dinner and birthday cake.

It was a great day. I feel extremely loved.

 

As you can tell from my harried hair in this picture, my life is B.U.S.Y! Last night I had my first Arbonne party, the first one other than my Business Launches that I held at my own home. It was good! I’m still in the training stages, my upline girl, Jannah, is still doing a lot of the party although I answer questions and finish the party up and tell how I got started with Arbonne. It’s so easy, if you can read…you can sell Arbonne! I have que-cards that I read off of, so it’s really simple!

I have four more parties this month and I’m planning on booking one more before I leave for Calgary. My goal is to have 2 – 3 parties a month because by doing this, I’ll be working full time at Arbonne in 6 months. Yay!! Being my boss is where I’m headed! WOO!

I’ve sold a few more bags too, which is really awesome!

And of course, there’s the puppies to take care of! They’re getting to be more work, but once they stop feeding off their mumma, it will be a bit easier.

My focus is shifting a bit, so I won’t be blogging as much for now. I’m not quitting though, I will be back as much as I can to post an entry.

Trew Trew

I’m busy at work interviewing the candidates for mayor and counselor here in my little town. In the meantime I’m listening to great music on line.

My Arbonne party is tonight! I have eight ladies confirmed to come, so hopefully it will be a successful party! I’m not even worried about sales, but I would LOVE to book a couple parties with my guests. Now hopefully my tiny living room will fit us all (:

Enjoy your Thursday! It’s the only one this week. Ha. Yeah, I’m funny.

~ Beauty ~

This store is unbelievable! You know when they say that photos are everything on Etsy? If that’s true (which I think it is!) this shop has it all. Each of their pictures are a work of art…I would frame them. Really. I would. I’m thinking a burnt orange color on a wall with several of these photos in a black frame. But that’s  not even what Gougo Loft is selling! It’s the clothes! And they’ve already captured you haven’t they?

Well, I’ve been working my little bum off sewing the past couple days. I’ve sold seven bags, three on the Internet and four to girls in town! SO EXCITING!! I’ve decided that all the money from these sales is going to go into Arbonne products, in order to build up my stock of testers. Arbonne has a great deal for new consultants called the RSVP. It stands for something…but I can’t remember what it is (: Anyhoo, if you spend $840 on products you’ll only have to pay $420. It’s an awesome way to build up stock and be able to try out products for yourself.

I also just placed a pretty big order for catalogs, order forms, and samples from Arbonne. I’m headed to Calgary at the end of the month to see my sister and take in an NHL game (my first LIVE game! I’m SOOOO EXCITED! I even know what I’m going to wear already!). While we’re there my sis is going to host an Arbonne party / girls night. Wine, pastries, and of course makeup! What more could a girl ask for?! It’s a great way for me to maybe sponsor new consultants in that area.

I’m also going to tell the girls that come to the party that if they want to book a party with me, I’ll drive down again in January and do a couple parties in one weekend. And if they decide to become a consultant, this is a good way for me to help them out, train them a bit and answer their questions. Not that I’m a pro or anything yet! Arbonne is so great though, it has amazing resources so sponsoring new consultants long distance isn’t difficult!

Anywayssss! I’m rambling on! Hope everyone is having a great week so far!

~Modish Marketplace~

 

I’m on Modish Marketplace! I bought a space on the Market a month ago or so and it’s up!

Feature Friday – Amazonika

I refuse to let winter get me down! I’m going to surround myself with color; flowers on the table, colorful clothes, colorful decorations. Amazonika is a great way to keep color in your life through the dreary winter months.

Amazonikahas prices that are too affordable to pass up, and products that will make you smile. Check out their beautiful shop on Etsy and stock up on great stocking-stuffers or a nice piece of jewelry for the Christmas party.

Paper and Thread

I’m in love with this Etsy store, Of Paper and Thread. The fabric in Danielle’s shop is all her own design (so awesome!) and I’m really loving the colors and prints. I also read Danielle’s blog and love all her entries, all about the her creative process and things she loves!

I Went Window Shopping

Wouldnt’ this shrug look great with a pink bridesmaid dress? Trendy Knitting

 

Tiana Nova Crochet makes these awesome earrings.

Whenever I see these flowers I drool. There`s something so beautiful and simple about them…

Gift From a Sparrow

 

 

A few Friday’s ago I featured Little Sparrows Nest, a super adorable Etsy shop filled with great photos. The owner of Little Sparrow was so pleased that I featured her, she sent me a free item! SO cool! I received it last week and I’m really impressed with the quality and the look of the item, it’s such a beautiful little piece of art. Once we start painting our bedroom the photo (which is mounted on a wooden block) will go up beside one of the bed side tables. I’m planning on purchasing this photo soon to go above the other table. It’s amazing how the colors match the paint I’ve picked out!

Thanks SO much Little Sparrow (:

My Life

I’ve been thinking lately that I’ve been neglecting my blog. My time is running thin these days! Let me tell you what it’s been filled up with!

The other day a girl came into work, she rents a room from us several times a month for her business. She hands me the catalog and says “Have you ever heard of Arbonne?”. Apparently this is what she sells…yes, I have heard of it, I tell her, but to be honest, it’s way to expensive for me. She goes on to tell me that I could save 35% on all their products if I sign up as a consultant. My eyebrows raise. Hmm. “But what is a consultant required to do?”. Nothing. An Arbonne consultant isn’t required to sell a certian amount of product, buy a cerian amount of product, hold any parties…they aren’t required to do anything! Now I’m interested.

On my trip down to Vernon last weekend I listened to an MP3 player with Arbonne information. Arbonne consultants telling their story, how to run an Arbonne business, what the products are made of…really everything about the company. I took the MP3 player from Jannah (the girl who told me about the company) thinking “I’m sure Arbonne is do-able…I’m just not sure if I can do it”. By the time I had finished the trip to and from Vernon, I had listened to 22 hours worth of Arbonne information (no joke!) and was completely convinced it was a company I wanted to work with.

I’m not trying to sell my readers on this company or it’s items, I’m just so excited about Arbonne I just had to share it with you!

I won’t be quitting with the job at the radio/entrepreneur centre as of yet, but I plan to make Arbonne my full time job within the next year. I know it’s going to take some work, but I am so pumped about it I know it’s going to work!

If you have any questions about Arbonne, it’s products, the job oppertunities (being your own boss!!) I would love to answer them for you! And I’ll of course be writing more about my experiences as they days go on.

Ps: Lookit my puppy! They’re getting so big!

Looking for GB’s

I’m living life on the wild side today…eating Rockets before 12. Halloween is coming, it’s an awful time. There’s too much candy around and somehow it gets into my mouth.

I’d love to do more Guest Blogging Posts! If you’re wanting a change on your blog, a post about something specific or something around a general theme, please email me: katelynjane.etsy@hotmail.com. I’d love to work with you to write something that works with your blog’s theme! You can also contact me through my Etsy shop.

Through Hoops

Check out these awesome hoop earrings from Excamation Point (!). Their stuff is really freaking cool…and Christmas is coming up fast, they might have something you’ll need!

Hearty Har Har

I’ve received just over 300 hearts!! Within the past few weeks I’ve been getting a couple new hearts a day which is super awesome, hopefully it will continue. I know it’s had a lot to do with me adding more items and renewing older ones, it shows that you CAN make yourself more visible on Etsy.

Feature Friday – Heart of Ireland

Imagine yourself sitting on the porch, the morning is crisp and you’re wrapped in your favorite afghan blanket. Your hands are holding a steamy cup of tea and just off in the distance, just past the porch railings, is the sounds of the day waking.

That great cup for tea is made from hand thrown stonewear and comes from the store Heart of Ireland on Etsy. It’s thick and well built and has a look to it that makes everyone ask where you got it.

That’s what Etsy is all about. Finding different and stunning items that make people stop and stare. It’s amazing what talent is on Etsy! Check out the Heart of Ireland shop and keep the romantic in you alive!

I’m Featured!

A fellow Etsy seller, Julie Christie, contacted me the other day to let me know I was in her Treasury! Thanks so much Julie (:  I really really love it that my bag was apart of this Treasury!

Little Cuties

 

Lookit what happened last Thursday! That’s why I haven’t been here on the blog as often as I wanted last week (: But I figure it’s a great excuse. Cobie, our German Shepherd, had 12 puppies! While I was gone for the weekend they grew so much, they’re all chubbier and moving around more. So freaking adorable!

Gone Fishin’

Good morning!

Sorry for being so absent from the blog! I took a spur of the moment trip to Vernon to visit my cousin and her new baby…but I’ll be back home and posting soon starting with the Feature Friday I missed because I was traveling.

Also, I have a great surprise so keep coming back to see what it will be!

-katelyn

Sigh

I know, I know! Enough screen shots already! I just wanted to share this one, maybe I’ll have it in a Treasury soon!

Work is getting to me…I’m really begging that I’ll have the opportunity to quit my job soon and work full-time with Etsy. I need to be my own boss. I won’t get into it, but if you have a boss, you know the issues that can come up. It’s gettin old. I’m just sayin’.

I wish I could stay home from work this afternoon!

Addictive Treasuries

I was going to work on another Poster Sketch this evening, but I couldn’t remember if I had posted this one before! I just love the colors and items in this Sketch! I’m working on a new one and of course will be trying to get it into a Treasury, so keep checking back!

Come and Get it!

The new bag is in the store and the new Zippies, Franke and Cass, will be up soon too! Come and get ‘em!

{ Ads }

 

Like I said, I’ve been working with Henry Rabbit to developed ads for the Kj Blog and my Etsy shop. I really am so pleased with how they turned out!!

The top one is for the blog, and the bottom one is for the shop (: I’ll be advertising on other blogs soon to prepare for the Christmas season and of COURSE I’ll be using these great ads!

Award Ceremony

  Thanks so much to Ulixis for awarding the Kj Blog with this award!! I really feel honored to be awarded this award! Thanks girl (:

I award this blog to:

• Stockton & Co.
• Twiddle Stix and
• A Cup of Jo

I love your blogs girls!! You totally deserve this award (:

Flickr: Aknacer’s Many Faces

The other day I emailed Aaron of Aknacer on flickr to see if he’d be interested in doing an interview for my blog. I was actually surprised at the speedy reply, but yep, he was interested! Make sure you check out his girlfriend’s flickr account too, RosieHardy.

Q: You’re an avid user of Flickr. How and why did you get started?

I first joined Flickr only to share some travel photos, but as my interest in photography grew i found Flickr to be a great social network to develop ideas and get feedback and support on photos. 

Q: How has Flickr benefited your photography and love for this art?

I started my 365 project because I saw some other people doing it on Flickr. Basically the idea is take a self portrait every day for a year. Some people go the simple route, and just do a snapshot most of the time, I wanted to create images that I could be proud of. The pressure to create something new and worth while every single day has made me devote quite a bit of my life to photography. I am spending anywhere between 3 and 9 hours every day creating the images you see on my stream.  Spending this much time on photography has really helped me to improve my skill, see what works, and what doesn’t.

Q: I’ve been following your Flickr Love Story with Rosie for a little while now, but many of my readers might not know what this is all about. Could you tell us a little bit about Rosie and you?

Rosie and I actually celebrated our 5 month anniversary today! Rosie lives in England and I live in the United States. She and I met through Flickr early on in our 365 project. It became very obvious from the begenning that we are very similar. The first thing I ever said to her was that I think we have the same brain. I believe that even more today. It is amazing how much you can tell about a person by what type of images they create.  Meeting my soulmate through Flickr couldn’t have been more perfect. We share all of the same passions in life but don’t necessarily compete for the same audience. We each create different types of images, and I think people are attracted to our images singularly as well as coupled.

Q: Where do you see Flickr taking you?

I am now working as a professional photographer and digital retoucher. When I first joined Flickr I had no plans of changing my entire life around for photography, but thanks in part to Rosie, Flickr, and all of our supporters I know now exactly what I want to do with my life and couldn’t be happier.

Q: What did you want to be when you grew up?

Good question, and the answer has probably changed more than I care to admit. I have gone through everything from Plastic Surgeon to ninja

Check out Rosie and Aaron’s blog! They have great tutorials, movies and pictures (:

Appreciate

I know I’ve been doing this a lot lately, but I really am so appreciative of the link love I’ve received this month! It’s so awesome that the Kj Blog is getting out there more and receiving love (:

Thanks so much to:

• Ismoyo
• Ulixis
• Twiddle Stix
• Liberty Post
• Megan
• Roska
• LF Jewelry Designs
• Lula Boutique
• Capree
• Corner Lot Creations

Wow, that was even more than I thought!! You guys are so awesome, thanks SO much for supporting the Kj Blog, showing some Link Love and having me guest blog on your site. I really really appreciate it!

                     

Ps: These great cards are from Big Yellow Dog. Check out their great Etsy shop!

Love This:

Pocket Pals!

A new Pocket Pal came into the world today! Check out Nelson on my other blog!

Goals

So this month has had it’s ups and downs.

In the middle of September, I made a goal to guest blog twice per month. I just about made that goal in September! Yay! I guest blogged at Twiddle Stix and Corner Lot Creations…although I was a bit slow in getting the post to Cherie at Corner Lot and it was posted today (October 1st). I’m still going to count the post as a September post though (because I’m the boss and I can .

For my weekly goals, last week was a bit short. The Kj Blog received 267 views last week, a shortfall from my  goal of 350, but I’m so excited about doing the Guest posts that I’m not too concerned (:

I’m still looking for a couple more Guest Posts to do for October! If you’re interested, please email me @ katelynjane.etsy@hotmail.com or convo me through my Etsy Shop and we’ll talk!

7 Things

I’ve been tagged by Miss Megan! I have to write seven random things about myself and then tag seven more people. Turns out SEVEN is my favorite number (I really have no idea why, it just has been since I was a kid…) and Megan is awesome, so I’m taking up this challenge. It’s hard you know, thinking of seven things.

1. I switched my favorite hockey team from Calgary Flames to the Vancouver Canucks for my hubby. He loves the Canucks and we can’t (won’t) watch and be faithful to two teams, so I switched. It was a hard decision. But at the time, the Canucks had Bertuzzi, so I wasn’t too upset
2. My homemade apple pies are world famous. Ok, maybe Province Famous (: I make awesome apple pies.
3. My dog’s pregnant! We were hoping to breed her with another purebred German Shepherd, but my parents Rough Collie (Lassie Collie) got to her first. Apparently the web site that told us dogs are only fertile for the first three days of their cycle is totally out to lunch. I love puppies!
4. Crap, I’m only on 4 and this is getting harder. Ok….I’m in the middle of writing a novel. I’ve been writing it for four years now (ashamed!) but I have an excuse for taking so long: I had “backed up” this novel (and another one I was working on at the time) on a memory stick and the memory stick broke. I lost all 60 pages of the novel and have had to start over from scratch. It’s a big job, but I think it’s better for it.
5. My favorite book series is The Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers. It’s amazing. I love Era novels and especially ones like this series that totally transport you in time. Love it!
6. I have one weakness: Popcorn. I could eat it all day every day. When we rent a movie, I make popcorn and usually it turns out to be enough for one big salad bowl full and another smaller bowl. Hubby gets the small bowl, I chow on the big one. He doesn’t mind. He likes to watch his weight. I just work it off the next day at the gym.
7. My birthday is coming up and I want a Sheltie (Shetland Sheepdog…like a lassie collie but mini) for it. I think I’d bawl my eyes out if I got one. I’ve wanted a Sheltie for SO long!

Now to tag:

1. Capree
2. Erin Zam
3. Elephantine
4. Sarah & Abraham
5. Sally Jane Vintage
6. The Smack Factor
7. Twiddle Stix

Blog Love

Just thought I’d send some link love to blog’s I’ve newly discovered or haven’t linked to lately (:

• Esta Sketch
• Little Brown Pen
• Danielle Miller
• Pulp Sushi
• Door Sixteen

                        

Looking for Recipes

Lately, I’ve been looking for recipes for diet shakes. You know, those drinks you mix up quickly and drink in replacement of lunch and of course they make you look all sexy and super slim right away (: I just want something that will make me feel full but not take up a lot of calories.

I found this site and I think, by adding some protein powder or psyllium husks to these (and yogurt, in replacement of whatever their “scoop” thingy is), you’d be able stay full and have a small snack out of it or meal.

I’m going to look into it more, to make sure I know the amount of calories I’ll be taking in, but it seems like a good idea so far (:

Ps: I’m totally not an expert on this, I’m just looking for a healthy way to cut down on my calories!

                  

Craft Fairs

I used to love going to craft fairs, especially around Christmas Time and this year I’m actually going to be participating in one myself. It’s a new experience and I hope to learn a lot from it, not only about how to prepare, but also about my products; What is popular and what receives a good response (or bad).

Tips are always helpful, you can never get enough advice! Here’s a new article from Etsy that is really great! Just from the top picture I have some new ideas on how to display my items and make creative things to attract customers.

Take a peek!

                          

Link Luv!

I love these entries! I think it’s because I appreciate it so much when other bloggers link to my blog, and I just love giving that back!

Here’s a few sites I’m in love with this week:

• Heart Handmade: There’s some great blogs linked on this site for the creative mind. Really interesting and cute stuff!!
• Of course I have to link Liberty Post, one of my fave blogs (:
• Damien from Post Cards from the Funny Farm and Damien at the Speed of Life has been a huge help with my other blog. Check out his blog, Speed of Life, for some great blogging tips.
• Check out these awesome boatson Etsy!
• And of take a peek into my other blog!

 

                                                

Goals – Phhhh!

Goals shmoles. Bah.

Last week (and this week so far) have been a bit of a bummer. Not that I don’t fully appreciate everyone’s visits and comments and love, I just wish my promoting had paid off a bit more.

Last Weeks Views: 273. 77 off of the goal of 350 views.

I really need to find another blogging site that I can promote my blog at. I’ve tried Entrecard and Blogcatalog and I do get a few views from them, but because I can’t put their avatar on this blog, I don’t think I’m getting quite the response that I couldbe getting. I need another site that I can go to, become involved in the community, make friends and post links. Preferably, without having to earn points and post an avatar on the blog.

I’m wondering if Urbis has anything for blogs…I’ll have to check that out.

For all those writers reading, Urbis is a GREAT resource for you! You post clips of a novel or short story you’re working, a screenplay or poem…anything that you’re writing…and other members critique you. This site does involve points too, but it’s so much “easier” (and constructive) to earn them.

Here’s hoping for next weeks views!

Guest Blogging

Just a plug for myself (: I’ve picked up one Guest Blog spot this month (I’ll be linking to it on Monday when it’s posted!) and I’m still hoping for another one!

If you think you’d like an extra entry on your blog, let me know! I’d love to write up something for you! We have a few more days in September and I’d like to have to Guest Blogs under my belt by the end of the month. Please contact me if you’re interested, either through my Etsy Shop or you can email me at katelynjane.etsy@hotmail.com.

Another one!

I’m on a roll!! I snatched up another Treasury last night, only this one is in the Main Treasury! Woohoo!!

Take a look!

I’ll be posting a Screen Shot of it at lunch (:

Creative WOWSA

I have a huge love for graffiti. Every summer / fall I head down to the train yard and take pictures of the amazing art on the normally ugly and plain train cars. My hubby doesn’t really ‘get’ my interest in this type of art, but that’s exactly what I think it is “Art”.

I would LOVE it if CN Rail would hire graffiti artists to decorate their cars. Trains are so boring, imagine if they were in full color? They sure would turn heads and CN would get tons of attention.

Another one of my graffiti dreams is to take a trip to several huge cities and get someone who knows the area to take me around to the best graffiti art. To build up my collection of photos of graffiti would really be awesome!

Take a look at this guy’s art work. CN? Would you like his resume?

Daily Reads

Every day I go through my blog roll. I try to pick out at least five blogs to visit and comment on, sometimes it only ends up being three or so, but even then, I count it as a positive.

Today I was going through it and saw the Nie Nie blog. I realized I hadn’t been there in a while and was curious how Nie was doing lately. For those of you who haven’t heard, Nie Nie and her hubby, Christian, were involved in a plane crash resulting in severe burns. 30% of Christians body was covered with burns, and Nie’s was 80% covered. They’re slowly making it through the healing process, and it’s going to take a while to get back into a “normal” life, but they’re making progress.

In the meantime, Nie’s sister is taking over her blog and re-publishing Nie’s entries from way back when. It’s so beautiful to see her blog continuing! During this transition, C Jane, Nie’s sister is also publishing stories in her own blog (as she did before) but this time, she’s including stories Nie’s recovery and the experiences of looking after Nie’s children.

It’s beautiful.

Gotcha!

I’ve got a Treasury West!!

I’ll add a screen shot when I get home, but I just couldn’t wait to post the link!

Also, have you checked out my new blog? It’s a controversial one, let me know your thoughts (:

A Bloggers Life

                                            

 

Every week I post an entry on my blogging goals. I’ve made several goals for this blog, some of them are short term, some long term, some written down, some still in my head. Each week I write an entry on the goals I’ve written down and share if I’ve reached those goals that week or if I’ve fallen short.

This last week I had a comment from Corner Lot Creations asking how they would go about trying to get more views. Instead of answering in another comment where only a few people would see, I decided to write a longer entry about the question.

I’d like to say first, that I’m not a Blogging Specialist. I’ve been blogging for a little while now (I should really look up that date again), but I’m no pro. Damien, from Postcards from the Funny Farm, has been awesome in answering any questions I have and giving advice. He’s been a lifesaver!

I actually asked Damien this exact question when I started reading his blog. Until that point I was taking my blogging seriously, but not sure what else I could be doing other than writing entries and hoping views / readers / comments would come rolling in. When I saw Damien’s post on HIS goals and how HE was reaching them, I asked how he went about it. Did he wait for people to ask him to to a guest post, or did he go out and ask them? How did he build up his readership? I really had no idea how to go about it!

Here’s what I’ve learned, not only from Damiens’ answer to my questions, but from trial and error:

1. Comment constantly on other blogs. I have a blog roll (which has disappeared since I changed the theme of this blog. It still can be found on my other blog though!) that I go through daily. I pick several blogs, and comment on them. It’s also important to find new blogs to comment on as well. Getting out there and reaching people who would normally not see your blog is important!
2. Write frequently. I used to just blog a couple times a week. Here and there, whenever I felt like it. Which is fine, I guess. But if you’re looking to expand your readership, build it up and continually get visitors, your best bet is to post AT LEAST once a day. This way your readers will know that they can come to your blog and get a fresh read all the time.
3. Sign up with blogging sites. I’ve joined Entrecard.com, blogcatalog.com and blogup and a couple more. I used to be nervous about signing up with sites like this, just because I wasn’t sure if they would suit my needs. But now I’ve realized that I need to just sign up with them, try it out for a while and then see if it’s working. If not, quit. If it is, I keep going.
4. Not only should you sign up with these sites, you should become part of their community. Comment in their forums, post your link where you’re allowed to, add friends and show them appreciation.
5. Post your link. As much as possible, without being spammy, post your blog link! Use it as your email signature, post it in forums asking for blogs links. I post my link in aprox. 7-10 Etsy forums daily. Just the ones asking for blog links, or sometimes after I sign off from a comment. I always get quite a few views from just doing this!

This is getting long, so I’ll tie it up.

Overall, I’ve seen that blogging is about networking. If you don’t let people know what you have to offer or how to find you, they won’t know those things.

My blog is still a work in progress. Slowly but surely it’s growing and even though it’s hard work, it’s worth every minute!

Screen Shot

                          

Ottobone, Beadyize, Tortillagirl, Allencompanyinc, Ecologicalartist, Terrygraziano, Weaselle, ao3Design, aprettyrock.

Before I even thought too much about it, I cropped the creator’s name out of this Treasury! If you’re know who it is, please let me know! I’d love to credit them and give their shop a bit more exposure!

There’s some awesome items here, I think my favorite is the shoes. SO cute!!

* NOTE: An awesome Etsy member just contacted me to let me know this WHOLE screen-shot had been published on Flickr too. The creators name is JennyBunny. Check out her cute store, full of awesome jewellery!

Goals

This past week’s of goal-meeting wasn’t that great. Like most of you know, my goal is to make 350 views per week (that’s 50 views per day). Last week, I made 276 views…not great…

I’ve always noticed that nearer to the end of the week, the KJ Blog doesn’t receive as many views and this was the case last week. I think it’s because people start realizing the weekend is coming and they need to get work done. The beginning of the week had been great, steady views which is always encouraging to see.

Seems like I need to find just one more site to promote my blog at.

I’ve also decided to make more goals for myself. But just one for so I don’t get overwhelmed:

1. 2 Guest Blog posts a month. So if you’re looking for a guest blogger, let me know!

There’ll be more goals coming up, like I said on my other blog…I’ve made a goal to make a goal (:

Take a Look!

I was just over at my personal domain (love saying that!) katelynjane.com. I’d love you to take a peek into the site and let me know what you think! I’ve changed the theme and added another post. There’ll be some changes going on there as the days and weeks go on, I’m needing to educate myself when it comes to that site and hope to have it in ship-shape condition soon!

Yay, my very own site!

Accepting the Challenge

 

Works crazy today. Like super crazy, super stressed, super everything. Things are coming unraveled all over. So it was time to take a coffee break and read through my blog roll. There’s several blogs that I automatically go to first. Tiny Fig is one of them. She linked to Always Amy’s blog who offered up this challenge to post this movie about Etsy. Just another way to get the message out about Etsy.

It’s hard for me not to accept a challenge (not that this one is hard!) so here’s the video!

And I’m hyped up on Tim Hortons. That’s why the fast sentances….I’m r-r-r-ready to t-take on the world! Anyone got running shoes, I need get rid of this energy. Got the twitches.

I’m Stobborn

You’d think after having such a sucky weekend, I’d be ready to quit sewing for a while. But I’m stubborn. When obstacles come into my way, I purse my lips and prove to myself that I can overcome them.

Goals:

• Fix the Sewing Machine
• Sew more bags
• Find a hanger (coat hanger??) for craft fairs

Tonight is a night for getting things done. I need to sew at least one bag, but I’m not sure that this is going to happen. Hubby and I have started coaching ball hockey again so our Monday nights are being taken up, but hopefully we can have a quick dinner and I can get a pattern cut out and started.

Something that I found super encouraging today was reading the “Quit Your Day Job” article on the Storque. Lillyella gives some great advice and really got me in the mood for success! She’s also made it to a Treasury!

Can I Just Say…

That I had a crap weekend. I did. It was awful, everything that could go wrong with my sewing did…I sewed a bag for my hubby’s Grandma and it has to have been the most frustrating thing I’ve ever sewn. The thread was constantly breaking, the pattern wasn’t matching up for some reason, the needle bent once and broke another time…the list goes on. I didn’t even take any pictures, as soon as it was done I gave it to her to get it out of my sight (:

The rest of the weekend didn’t go any better, nothing was going my way (not that I’m spoiled!) and by last night I felt completely unaccomplished and bored. I couldn’t wait to get back to work today!

At least that means that I’m enjoying a Monday at work though!

I’ll be posting more today, I just had to get this off my chest (:

More Projects

                                      

                              

I finished another bag last night (: I love this fabric and I’ve made the handles a little bit different again. I tied the knot on the rope handles inbetwene the lining and the outer shell so you can’t even see it. There’s also two zippered pockets on either side of the bag. The handle is long enough that you can wear it messenger style too!

                                     

Yippee!! It’s finally Saturday! More sewing for me (: I’m planning on getting up a bit early since Hubby will be getting up early too. That’ll give me a good head start on more bags and hopefully a chance to work on my other blog!

Treasury

Those of you who read my blog often probably already know that I just LOVE Treasuries…actually, what Etsy seller doesn’t? (:

The one on the front page right now is awesome, I think I’m in love with every item on it!

                           

There’s a couple reasons to get a Treasury: 1) To display your fave items and 2) To give yourself a bit more free exposure. This Treasury is made by Rosalera. From now on, whenever I display a Treasury, I’m going to link to the makers shop, just to give them a bit more exposure.

Feature Friday – Billy Sue Textiles

                          

Fall is definitely here, I’ve been looking through Etsy for warmer clothes. One thing I can’t seem to find is a knit boat-neck sweater but I DID find these great scarves! Scarves are always in, their styles constantly changing and Billy Sue has hit this style just right! I love love love them!! It’s time to get ready for fall and winter, take a peek through the Billy Sue shop for some great options!!

                          

Wake Up Call

It’s five in the evening and I still need a coffee to wake up! I guess that means it was a good weekend (:

                           

I think I’m going to have to try this coffee shop from Etsy…yep! Coffee from ETSY!! Awesome hey?? Imagine fresh ground coffee in the mornings…not Starbucks, not Tim Hortons but something fresh from a small company that works their butt off to get this stuff to us. Drink it in baby, literally (: The Roaster

                  

Camping and Wine

                                        

Have you ever noticed that weekends seem longer when you do something on Friday nights? This past Friday, hubby and I went camping, just the two of us to one of our favorite spots. We brought a bottle of wine, Yahtzee, white Cheddar pop corn and enjoyed the gorgeous view of the unending stars. I just love the top picture, it totally captures my kind of camping!

                                

                                

Today is another beautiful day so we’re heading out with some friends for a fire and hot dog roast. While us girls chat and enjoy the day, the boys will be filling our truck with more fire wood for the wood stove. Living in the cold cold north means you have to get a big head start on the snow.

More sewing this evening…I have a couple new bags cut out and ready to go and I think I’ll have a chance to finish both of them. Yet another twist as I find different styles I like. I’ll be posting pictures!

New Blogging Site

OK, so I hooked up with a new blogging promotional site today, just to see how it works for a while. See the widget to the left? If you click on the main part of the widget, you’ll be taken to another blog which (as far as I can see) is completely random. If you click on the bottom part of the blog, you’ll be taken to the BlogUpp! Site. There you can get a widget for your own blog (:

Not that I’m a know-it-all with this site yet, but I suggest getting one of these widget if you’re a blogger. It will help spread the word about other bloggers and in turn, your blog. Your widget will appear on other blogs and you’ll earn more views / readers.

I’ll let you know my thoughts on it as time passes.

Craftyness

Just visiting one of my daily reads, Make It,  and clicked on a link she shared to the blog Modish (another blog to DIE for!). They’re having a featured article called Crafty Marketing…you’ve gotta check it out!

New Items!!

I was busy updating my Etsy shop last night…The only bummer was that somehow I deleted one of my items this morning…Dang it! I clicked on it to edit it and then decided it was fine. I guess by not pressing the FINISH button I made it pop out of the shop. Oh well, I’ll just add it again this evening.

Lemon Shoulder Bag, Little Red Sailor Bag, and Plum Flowers (which already has 53 views!) are all up for sale in the shop! I’ll be adding the grey floral bag this afternoon as well as the Little Yellow Sailor Bag. And hopefully sewing another one tonight (:

We were planning on going camping this weekend but since the hubby’s quad is out of commission, we’ll probably stay home…and go to the Farmers Market (: I’m excited to go again since I haven’t been in a few weeks, but the thought of waking up so early doesn’t crank my tractor. I’ll get over it though

                              

NOTE: Thanks to Tany, the bag I thought I’d lost off of Etsy is now found (was blind but now I see…) and it’s up! Thanks Tany girl!

                         

Just a few items from my favorites (:

1Aeon, FosterWeld, I Heart Fink, Larime Looms, Amieking, Fuzzy Pear, Idea 2 Lifestyle, Joodito, Kateszabone, little paper bird, Old School Tools, Shezzy, Picky Picky, SL Dirks, Jengs Shop, KT Jean.

Phew, that took a while!

I Give Up

So I missed another Wedding Wednesday entry…I think I’m going to give this weekly article up. My life is just too busy now to keep up with extra crafty stuff! I’ll still do the odd craft here on the blog, maybe a video or two…but I can’t commit to doing a weekly Wedding Wednesday (:

Maybe when I start doing Etsy full time, I’ll have more time to do it again…

The Beauty of Flickr

Originally uploaded by Chrissie White

I love Flickr. I don’t upload near enough pictures on my account, but I love browsing through my contacts photos and being inspired by their creativity.

There’s so many different artists on flickr, some just casual, uploading pictures for family and friends to see; others more serious, honing their techniques and showing off their amazing tallent. Chrissy White is one of these great artists.

Chrissy is only 15….seriously…wow! This girls’ got tallent! Imagine where she’ll be in a couple years!

Support A Blogger in Need

One of my blogging friends, Stace at Kids Stuff World, emailed me the other day, asking if I would help support another blogger who was just in a horrible plane crash. Stacy wanted to know if I’d be willing for my Lotus Bag to go up in a auction where all the proceeds go to Nie Nie, the blogger in need. Of COURSE I was willing!

Head on over to Stacy’s great blog to bid on the bag or other items up for grabs! AUCTION HERE!

                             

Blogging on a Postcard

 

                            

This post is a guestblog Damien Riley from Postcards From the Funny Farm. Thanks Damien!

A blog can be a great way to network with other people.  It can also be a way to build an audience.  Both these blog traits can work to make you money if you are diligent.  If you are here at Katelyn’s blog I am sure you have some interest in the blogging life.  If not, this post might not apply to you.  Either way, I hope you’ll read along as I explain adding value to your blog experience.  Knowing how to tweak images in your theme as well as in your posts will make more valuable posts ergot a more valuable blog.

Putting pictures in your posts. Pictures are simply stored bits of information that are “decoded” by a browser for your readers.  If you see them as files and bits of code you may be able to understand how to wield them better in your posts.  While Blogger, WordPress, and most blogging platforms out there have instant insert options, these will sometimes malfunction so it pays to know the raw code of html image placement.  Below is the code for this small coffee cup image:
<img src=”http://damienriley.com/images/cafe.gif” alt=”" />
<img src=”http://damienriley.com/images/imgcode.png” alt=”" />
Excellent html image insertion and tweaking help can be found at this site.

Putting images in your theme. I love changing out images in themes.  You can make a theme look totally different and it doesn’t require much skill or background knowledge.  Basically, you just right click on any image in your theme.  Once you know the filename, save or ftp out the image(s) and either replace them with the same sized one you want or edit the one that is there.  In either case, save them and ftp them back into the images folder of your theme.  I recently wrote an advanced tutorial on how to make a descending sidebar picture continued from the header in the WordPress default theme. It’s actually a useless project, but I learned a ton.  Check it out.

Images can be frustrating.  They pixelate if the height and width are wrong and do other annoying stuff.  Don’t let these things get you down.  If you have to, bypass the native image insertion of your blogging software and use raw html like the basic starts above.  Also, have fun tweaking themes.  It shows your reader you value your blog when you tweak it a little (or a lot as the case MAY be).  I hope this helped someone out there starting.  Blogging is great.

Wedding Wednesday!

                  

I think that my favorite part of weddings is the invitations…Well actually, I love the whole event, but the invitations are so awesome (: There’s so many ways to have your invitations personalized, it’s not even funny, but if you’re wanting something really different you can always look on Etsy.

I personally LOVE this shop, Inky Livie. It’s so completely different than anything else I’ve seen. You really can’t find these kind of invitations in the everyday shop. And, I figure, by using these invitations you’re going to have more guests too…who wouldn’t want to see what the wedding looks like if these are just the invitations?!

You’ve just got to visit their shop to see the other styles…they’re amazing. Really.

                    

Ps: I just noticed the above invitation is for Meredith and Derek…off of Grey’s Anatomy perhaps?…I’m such a nerd.

Click Then Dance

I’ve been interviewed!! (: Check out Moxies’ blog to see her questions and then do the happy dance (:

                               

Feature Friday – Jengs Shop

                          

People are always saying that you should comment on other blogs…not only to be nice, but to also get your name out there a bit more. I just comment because I like to, and sure, it’s nice if I get a view and comment back, but it’s not really why I do it.

Here’s another reason why commenting on blogs is great: It might get you a Feature Friday in one!

I found Jengs Shopwhen I was browsing through Make It, one of my fave blogs. She had left a comment and for some reason or other, it intrigued me to look further. I clicked on the name and it brought their Etsy shop. And voila! Now they’re being featured in my Blog!!

Jengs Shop is filled with great art work, to frame, use as note books, gift cards…there’s also beautiful photography.  It’s the perfect affordable stop for unique gift items or something to frame.

                           

And the WINNER ISSSSS….

Drum roll please!!

Sygnet Creations!! Congrats on winning the headband from The Orange Plum!

                           

Bonus Day!

I’m giving a bonus day on the Giveaway!! Make sure you enter (:

Bag Party!

Well, last night my two guests arrived right on time (a huge feat for our little town). Unfortunately, I did something to my back so I was hunched over the whole evening, but they didn’t seem to mind at all as they oooh and aaaahhh over my bags. They just couldn’t get enough of them!

They each ended up buying a big KJ Bag and one of the ladies bought a Zippy too. It amazes me that I made $102.00 in less than 20 minutes!! But the best part for me is that they just loved my bags. It still blows me away that people adore something I made that much! I gave them a few business cards and they said they’ll be bragging about my bags to all their friends.

I told them to let me know if they ever wanted to have a little party with their girlfriends. Wouldn’t it be cool to have a regular home party with my bags? I’d just love it! To me, it’d be so much better than going to the Farmers Market. With a home party people come expecting to see one thing, instead of going to buy fresh veggies and then happening to look at my bags. It just seems like it’d be much easier to make a sale.

Yay for Etsy!!

                       

Goals

                                    

Another week has passed and life on the KJ Blog seems to be getting better!! Within the past week I featured blog entries on money managing techniquesfrom successful Etsy artists, as well as Blogging Techniques with opinions and comments from successful bloggers.

There’s a trend I’ve noticed: When I post entries on “How-To”, the views always shoot way up. I love reading them on other blogs, “how-to promote”, “how-to sell”…so I figured I would do more of that on my blog. Guess what, it up’ed my views with minimal promotions. A really cool thing to see!!

My views for this past week got up to 399 without me really trying that hard!

Goal for Blog:

• To have more “how-to” entries!

Ps: That lady is coming to the house tonight to look at my new bags…which reminds me I have yet to show you my newest rendition of the KJ Bag!!…hopefully I’ll make a sale or two! Cross your fingers (:

Wedding Wednesday: Dreaming

                                     

I was thinking the other day about what I would do if I was to get married again…to the same guy of course, just another wedding (I’ve been threatening this and I’m actually serious! . There’s so many options out there! I’d love to go with pale yellows and a sharp green, or a nautical blue with red accents…or with my choice below.

 

                                        

These flowers are from DK Designson Etsy. They’re totally up for doing custom designs, so I’d ask for this vase of flowers to be made into a bouquet. (I love dreaming!)

                                        

There’s so many options when it comes to wedding dresses, a huge assortment of dresses, colors and styles! I can’t decide if I’d like to go funky (I saw this poofy dress once that was calf length and had different colors of mesh under the top layer…SO cool!!) or classical. I like both styles…this dress is from Joan Shum Brides. I really really love it!!

                            

Bonziemade this shawl and it’s TO DIE FOR!! I just love Bonzie’s whole shop!

                                   

I couldn’t find quite what I was looking for in a bridesmaid dress so I googled my preferences and this is what I came up with…I love the style…maybe I’d have to order an extra dress just for me (:

Blogging Techniques 3

This blogging techniques entry is from Damien, from Post Cards from the Funny Farm, a mentor of mine in the blogging department. Damien was the blogger that encouraged me to look into getting my own domain and has mentored me through that process. Here’s the question I sent Damien: How did you start blogging and what promotions etc. have you done to get to where you are now? A: My first “touch” of a blog was through Blogger (also referred to as “blogspot” and now owned by Google).  I started a blog but had no idea what all the bells and whistles around me did.  I knew how to write though so I kept an online diary sending the link to family after I saw movies, went to events etc.  I started doing that in 1997.  After that I started a FORUM, which is kind of like a blog.  I used to chat on a local forum and the moderators got really Draconian so I decided to start my own (sorry for the long boring answer, I am almost finished).  In the time I was on the forum I learned a ton of html a little at a time: ie; How to make a signature photo appear etc.  This would later prove very important for me in blogging. The beginning of blogging for me was in December of 2006 when I started Postcards from the Funny Farm.  I could say a lot more that would probably help people starting but maybe you could interview me sometime    The promotions I have done to become an established and lucrative blogger are legion, but if I had to whittle it down to the I feel would most help a beginning blogger, I would say these (if you’re serious): Write for Blogcritics Hire a more established blogger to analyze your site and give you suggestions (I charge 5 bucks for a thorough list of suggestions) BTW, I’ve hired a few myself so this isn’t just lipservice. Advertise your blog through Entrecard Networking (free) Join BlogCatalog and particpate in the discussions often. Sign up at BlogRush and put a mutual networking widget in your blog. Ask other blogs to host a guestblog of yours (archive of mine for examples).  Return the favor.  Both benefit both times. Unlimited times. Okay, better stop now — doing all that will take you weeks.  Come over to my online diary if you have any more questions.

 

Thanks Damien!

I hope everyone got something out of this Blogging Techniques series! Thanks to all the bloggers that gave their opinion and advice!

Yanayanayana!

Supa Yana is the Etsy Feature Artisttoday…I “met” her via myspace way back when and have admired her work ever since. Actually, I guess you could say she was the artist that inspired me to pursue my love for sewing…I started off trying to make tops but when that didn’t go over so well, I started on my bags. I saw how she sold online and it really encouraged me to go after that resource.

Read it!

Blogging Techniques 2

                             

 

For a while now I’ve been reading a blog called Make It. Shannon, the author, writes several times a week on her business ideas, plans for the future, and different projects she has been working on. It’s fun to see her different strategies and to see her progress in her stationary business!

Here’s the question I posed to Shannon: How do you build your brand in blogging?
A: Establish a personal style. By this I mean a visual style for your blog (custom banner image, consistent photo size, etc.) and a personal point of view. The amazing thing about blogs is that they can be about whatever you want and it’s your personal space to do with it whatever you want. But I do recommend having a common thread running through most of your posts. So decide what you want your blog to be about and have that be the focus of most of your posts.

It’s really important to be consistent and regular with posting. The more the better, but I’d say 3 – 4 times a week is a good goal to shoot for. The more you write, the more readers will check in and as a result your audience will grow.

Photography is so important for blogs. I read several photo-only blogs, but I don’t read any text-only blogs. We’re not all professional photographers, but do your best to post the best photos you can. (If you’re pulling images from other sources online, make sure to give credit to the source.) If you do develop a signature photographic style (or a signature way of laying out photos gleaned from the web, i.e. in a photo collage) that’s another strong way to establish a blog identity.

Mostly, a blog is about expressing your opinions and interest with a group of like minded readers. Once you set up your own blog, you will naturally find yourself leaving comments on other blogs and getting the word out about your own. Blog readers and writers are extremely savvy and really respond to when people are genuine. So go ahead and express yourself, play nice with others, and your blog will grow in the most natural way, because it will be an extension of you.

YAY!

So the other day I logged onto Etsy to find I had a convo (message) from a new Etsy buyer. The title of it was “Missed you at the farmers market”….one of my buyers at the FM in town had contacted me (used my business card, YAY!) and was wondering if she could meet up with me and view some of my bags. Um YEAH! She called me today and she’ll be coming to my house (most likely with her sister) this coming Wednesday to view the new bags I’ve been making. Kinda like a home party, how cool is THAT?!

The reason she wants a bag is because she’ll be going to The Fringe in Edmonton. I’ve never heard of it but she went on to say that my bags would totally suite the style of this arts festival and that because her daughter works at The Fringe she’ll get some information about becoming a seller. Freaking awesome!! Goal for next summer: Attending The Fringe!

                                  

The Colors of Summer

                             

                             

                              

                             

                             

Cuteness

                               

Isn’t the OUCH bear cute?? He’s in one of my favorite stores Shuusei, on Etsy of course (: I just love his face and his beady little eyes.

Blogging Techniques

Doing the Business Techniques series (hopefully I’ll have more entries on that shortly!) really got me thinking about how much pieces of advice from successful individuals really is inspiring and helpful. I took a lot out of what the seller said about their money managing techniques. I decided to do something similar with Blogging Techniques.

I asked a couple of my favorite bloggers about their blogging techniques or advice on blogging and I’ll be posting their advice in a couple different entries.

My first question went out to Blaze who is both a fellow blogger and Etsy seller: How have you found success as a blogger?

Blaze answered:  I have found, through blogging for almost a year, that a lot of wonderful things come from blogging. I have found amazing friends, and a community that spans over seas and mountains. Not only have I found inspiring folks that are kindred spirits, I also have had a wonderful time inspiring new friends and building relationships over pretty things.

Here are a few things I’ve learned from others and from my own experience:

1.) Presentation matters. My favorite blogs to visit are always enchanting and aesthetically pleasing. I love when each post reflects the personality of the blogger, and favorite colors become very obvious. I love thinking about how each post will look with my header, so when a newcomer visits, they’ll see a balanced and pretty sight. It’s important to take extra time to take crisp photos, and write strategically to your goals. Every time before I hit “publish” I ask myself if my post is achieving my overall goal to inspire creativity, bring about old memories, and bring out the feminine, nostalgic, whimsy in all of us. Not to mention, feature all of my own artistic endeavors.

2.) Don’t apologize. A lot of times, I read about artists who are sorry or apologetic for their lack of posts, their artwork, or their shops. The best blogs I’ve found are confident and cheerful, seeming purposeful in all their activities. Of course, it’s important to explain long absences, but overall, it’s your blog. You don’t need to answer to anyone.

3.) Comment much. I LOVE commenting and receiving comments. That’s the whole purpose of blogging (at least to me!), and networking is super fun. I have slowly built up quite a few dear friends who check in regularly, and every once in a while I’ll comment on about 50 random blogs. That way, I’ll make a few new friends, who will hopefully become regular visitors. It also keeps expanding my circle, and a lot of doors have opened for me this way. My friends are a great source of encouragement and advice, and I don’t think I would enjoy blogging if it weren’t for them. Of course it goes both ways, and I love catching up with their doings as well. (There are even some people that I hope very much to meet someday!!)

I have learned to love my blog very much, and I think it’s a great way to make wonderful friendships, as well as a way to keep people interested in myself and my artwork. I recommend it very much.

Giveaway!

Lis, from the Orange Plum (blogger and Etsy seller!), and I have teamed up to do a Giveaway here on the KJ Blog!

To enter, check out her store and leave a link to your favorite item in your comment here on the blog! Next Wednesday, August 20th, I will randomly pick one of the commenters and they will win this great headband from Orange Plum!

                            

                             

Remember to leave your contact information, an email or your Etsy store link. If the winner doesn’t respond within two days, we’ll have to draw another name! Good luck!

Feature Wedding

Since today is Wedding Wednesday I thought I’d feature a wedding I took pictures of a couple summers ago. Just a few random shots, having fun with the camera.                         

                               

                               

                    

                   

Wedding Wednesday!

Wowsah! It’s been a busy couple weeks, but I feel like this week is back in control and smoothing itself out already. Can I hear an AMEN?

This weeks Wedding Wednesday really gets me excited. There’s so much potential…but I’ll get to that later. We’ll start with pictures first:

                        

I went down to Wal Mart and bought this vase for $3, the glue gun for $3, glue sticks for $3 and the hemp twine for $2.

                                    

I started by dabbing a dot of hot glue onto side of the vase at the very bottom. I didn’t cut the string into any length, but left it on the roll. I did unwrap a couple feet of it to give me some working room. At first I started glueing every single layer of string to the vase, but realized this wasn’t necessary. Instead I would put a spot of glue on the vase (about the size of half a dime) and quickly wrapped the string around the vase several times using the same dot of glue. I found with the one dot of glue, I could tack down aproximately four wraps of string.

                        

Once I had covered the vase with the right height of twine (it just depends on the look you’re wanting) I glued the last string on and cut it an inch and a half (aprox) longer. I tucked the end of the string into a couple layers so it would look more finished.

                                 

Voila! Here’s the final product! I’ll just be using this vase for around the house, but it would be perfect for centre pieces at your wedding, surrounded by either t-lights or mini versions of the vase (votive holders would look great!). You could scatter pebbles around the table, or fall colored leaves too.

Like I said before, there is so many options with this centre piece! You could spray paint soup tins with your selected color and then glue the hemp string to it. Line several of these tins in a line, fill them with pussy willows or twigs like I have and surround them with t-lights. You could use votive holders in this same fashion, like I mentioned before.

Why not switch it up a bit? Instead of putting the willow twigs IN the vase, hot glue them to the side, and set a candle inside.

This vase cost me $4 to make ($3 for the vase and half of the hemp string…although it wasn’t quite that much). Now that’s affordable!

The Newest Bag

                               

The newest addition to the KJ collection (: A woman at the Farmers Market last weekend told me her daughter in law loved browns and she was wanting a bag of mine for her. She was thinking brown floral, but since I already had this fabric I’m hoping it’s something she would like.

                            

I put button closures on the pockets, which I think adds a cute look.

                            

Annnnd! I added a zippered pocket on the inside of the bag, something I’m really proud about!! I’ve never done a zipper like this and I think it’s the perfect touch to the Kj Bags. I’ll be doing it in all of them from here on.

I have a few more dreams for my Kj Bags, such as adding adjustable straps and O rings at the base of the handles. I really have to think about things before I add them to my bags. I like to make sure they’ll look good and figure out the “how-to” in my head before I start trying.

I love this bag…I really wish I could keep it for myself!

Lookit!

                            

Look what I got in the mail! My grommet press!!! I can’t wait to use it on my bags, I have so many different ideas to get started on! Now just to order grommets…

Business Techniques #3

It’s so interesting to see how different sellers manage their profits! Everyone that I’ve talked to so far has a different technique and I’m learning a lot from their stories.

The next successful Etsy artist I chatted with was Kitty Cross Bones, you might remember her from her “Quit Your Day Job” article in the Storque…yeah. Lucky bum, hey? Here’s how this girly answered my question.

Q: What is your formula for your earnings? How do you work out how much to put back into the business and how much to save?

A: My earnings would be Sales – fees= net income – supplies = profit. I only put back into the biz when I run out of supplies so anything after that would be saved. I actually don’t have an exact formula as in depth as the other sellers on your blog. I don’t charge for my design or setup fees. Mainly the product would be calculated for parts+labor. Sometimes I work about 18hr days in the studio.

When I first started out selling, I was actually putting my personal savings into it from my day job (which I recently quit last year due to my Etsy success) I was in the hole, so to say, before biz started to pick up.

You asked how do I know how much money to spend on the biz and how much to save? So when I run out of supplies I will reorder them. I buy in bulk so the price is low and whatever is leftover after spending from supplies I put that into my savings account and then pay my credit card bills with it…

 

There’s so many different ways to manage your money! And it must be successful, Kitty’s quit her day job…and all the other successful Etsy Artists I’ve interviewed are super successfull too!

This series is really giving me food for thought. How should I manage my finances? What theory works best with my needs and wants? It’s a hard call, since I’m still just getting started, and it’s so great to have all this advice from sellers who have made it!

They keep coming…

                               

Nightmare

What’s a sewers worst nightmare? There could be several of them I guess, machine breaking, just about finished a project and you get a stain in the middle…guess what happened to me last night. My scissors broke, right in the middle of a project. Yeah, just snapped in half. SICK!

I was able to finish with the house scissors, but they were totally crap. Guess I have to spend some money today.

I can’t wait for my sister to come in a couple weeks. Not only am I super excited to see her…but she’s bringing me fabric!!! YAY!

Business Techniques #2

Yesterday I started posting the answer to a question I had posed to successful Etsy sellers. It’s so interesting seeing their different responses!

Here’s the second answer I have received to my question: Q: What is your formula for your earnings? How do you work out how much to put back into the business and how much to save? It’s from Savor, a company that has been on Etsy since October 2007 (almost one year!) and has sold over 5,500 items. With great packaging, affordable pricing and clear photography, it’s easy to see why Savor has been so successful!

When I price out my items, I include a labor figure. It’s an hourly wage, based on how many hours per month I work on Savor (currently full 40 hr weeks), and how much soap I can produce and sell in that time frame. If I can sell 300 soaps the labor takes a big chunk of the budget — if I can sell 600, it doesn’t hurt so much If I find I can suddenly make 800 sales (pick up a wholesale account, for example), I can theoretically increase my wage per hour. It may or may not be sustainable — I might make more per hour over the holiday season but then cut my wage during the summer.

My wage is moved from my business savings account twice monthly right now, so I get two paychecks, just like I do in my day job. Since we’re saving for a house, I move the wage from the biz account to our personal savings account.

After the wage has been paid, my next point is my tax burden. State income tax, Federal income tax, and one-half of the Self-Employment tax (there is an income threshold for that, I didn’t have to pay it last year as I didn’t make much profit, since I opened in Oct). This is saved in my biz savings acct.

My next item is CA state sales tax, which I also reserve in my biz savings acct.

Then we’ve got Etsy fees. Those I reserve in my Paypal account, since I pay my Etsy fees via Paypal debit card. Since Paypal fees are deducted immediately I don’t worry about them.

Then we’ve got bills: there is an overhead component in my item pricing, for three main bills — 20% of our rent, since that is what I deduct on taxes, our entire electric bill, and my mobile internet access bill.

Next consideration is raw materials for upcoming needs. I typically find I need to restock every two months. Restocking would include everything from soap raw materials to shipping supplies, from replacing broken equipment to office consumables like printer toner, paper, and shipping labels.

Then we get, finally, to improvements! Equipment upgrades, expanding into other products, etc. In a way, this is “whatever is left.”

I have an excel sheet where I track what I want. I want X oil from X company, it costs $X and this is what I want it for (christmas, whatever). When I get some cash, then I say, ok, I have $20, what do I want? What do I need? Oh boy, a mold just broke. Can’t get the new oil, have to get a mold first.

Or I might say, I have $20, I don’t really need anything now, so I will save it. Next month I’ll have $40, and be able to buy something more expensive that I need. So some months I spend a bit, some months I spend some and then save some for bigger purchases.

Also part of the consideration are some dues I have — flickr pro, liability insurance, business license, webhosting for my savorsoap.com site, international postage software.

Before any of this is the cost for shipping, when you have a $20 sale you’ll need to remember that maybe $5 of that is shipping cost.

I think that covers about everything.

Wow, that’s a lot to think about! Take it all in, read it again…there’s some really helpful stuff here!

                             

Business Techniques

I started a forum post on Etsy the other day, asking for suggestions for successful Etsy sellers. I got a huge response and it was really interesting looking through the shops that have made it big!

The reason for me looking for successful Etsy sellers was that I was looking for someone to answer a question I had. Since I’ve started making more money with my bags lately, I’ve been wondering how much of that I should be putting back into the business and how much I should be saving. I thought if I could ask someone who’s already established this question, it might help me out some! Better yet, why not get a few opinions and see which might suite me better.

I convo’d a few of the sellers suggested, some of them being sellers I had already been in contact with about featuring in the blog etc. Ahpeeleis one of these sellers, and seriously…I love these guys! Their shop is amazing, they are so helpful and nice…just friggen awesome. And they’ve hit the big times, it seems (congrats guys!!).

My question was: Q: What is your formula for your earnings? How do you work out how much to put back into the business and how much to save?

And they answered: it’s a good question
unfortunately we dont have an exact formula
for the first few years we put pretty much everything back into the business
except what we needed to eat and keep the lights on
we learned to live really cheap, take walks for fun, and cook all our food
it was a game to see how little money we could live on
then everything leftover we spent on tshirts and silkscreen stuff
it helps that we really love making stuff
so we dont miss the mall (we hate the mall)
though we are able to save some money now
we always have goals that we are saving for
the goals are the most important part i think
they give us direction and motivation.

Their answer doesn’t give any definite “You need to do this” stuff, but it’s awesome knowing that they started out counting their last pennies into the business and not actually making much for the first couple years. It’s really encouraging to know that it takes a while to get properly on your feet and profitable!

Also, have you read their Success Story? Just a bit more about their business and how they started…really interesting!!

 

I’ll be posting more of the answers I received to this question during the next couple days…hopefully you find them as helpful as I am!

                             

!!BIG!!

There’s going to be a BIG announcement here on the Kj Blog on Friday! Make sure you check in to see what it’s all about (: I’m pretty pumped!

                                    

Dear Liberty…

You featured my Etsy store and blog on your blog the other day and I just loved it! Thanks so much for thinking of me and linking to my stuff…I really can’t believe you think I’m “insanely talented”. That’s such a huge compliment!

To answer your question of how I achieve my photography: I have no idea! Really. I have this crap camera that hardly ever focuses properly, the lens doesn’t shut properly, it’s chipped and scratched and only cost $100.00 from WalMart. Half the time I have to take hundreds of photographs and still only end up with maaaaaybe one that will do. I guess if I was to say I had a “trick”, it’d be Picasa. It’s a photo altering and storage system that you can download for free and I use it to enhance my pictures, make them more sharp or add funky features to them. But it’s all the computer. Hopefully soon I’ll be getting a new camera, my hubby and I were just talking about getting it as a joint Christmas gift for ourselves…

Thanks for your advice, too! I’m trying to put into practice what you’ve said and hopefully my blog will become more successful because of it! Thanks (:

Inspiration!

It’s always great to hear about stories where a business has made it from the ground up. That’s why I just love reading the Quit Your Day Job articlesin the Etsy Storque, it’s so great hearing what they learned from the experience and how they got where they are. So inspiring!!

One of my favorite blogs posted a link to the Hello Lucky Blog the other day and on it was a movie of how Hello Lucky got started. If you’re trying to get your business started and into the big times, this is another movie to watch for a piece of Oomph (:

Feature…um…Tuesday

Well, because of my hugely hectic week last week I forgot my Feature Friday!! How terrible am I??

So here it is today with a beautiful shop, Liza Rietz. It was hard for me just to pick a couple pictures from Liza’s shop! I wanted to use the whole store, it’s so beautiful!

                     

                      

                                 

                        

Liza’s items are so classic and modern all rolled into one. They’re seriously timeless. If you’re looking for a beautifully unique item to wear, maybe to a wedding or a special party, or just something special for a first date, this is the place to shop.

So stunning!

Yay!!

One of my fave bloggers added a post about…ME! Awesome hey??

Thanks for the great advice and plug, Liberty, I really do appreciate it all!

Sorry for the dinky posts today, there’s more to come…bigger posts. I promise!

Holy Crap

I totally forgot about Feature Friday last week!

I’ll have to get on that for today…

Projects & Free Time

                           

I finally had some time to waste…doesn’t happen very much (: So I made a poster sketch! It’s not in any treasury yet, but it was fun to find orange and green items. And I love it.

I also made a new bag! A girl at work had ordered one for her sister, her only request that it look like my Hobo Bag. It’s completely different fabric, but has the same patches in the front and back. I also added closures (a button and elastic) which I think look pretty cute.

                            

                                     

Ze Market

So the Farmers Market.

It went better this week, much better than last…but still not as good as the first. That sounds down doesn’t it? I dont’ mean it, I actually had a great time and was completely satisfied with the amount of money I made. I also received a couple special orders, which was a bonus…and it just so happens that I have the right fabric at home to fill one of those orders. Simple! I sold $100 worth of bags, which I hope will be come a pretty standard amount.

I need to come up with a plan on how much money to put straight into savings and how much money to invest in new fabric and supplies. If anyone has any ideas or wants to share what they do, that’d be super interesting!

I was talking with more of the sellers at the Market, just chatting about business and their products. One of the sellers mentioned to me that she has more sales if she has more items. Pretty simple idea hey? I’m still learning about this stuff, that’s my excuse (: So my goal is to make a ton more bags for the next Market I go to, hopefully I’ll have a bunch more sales because of it.

Now to go and fill those orders…

One of Them

So I accomplished one of my goals this week…and hardly even that one. Oh well, I tried…I was just too tired.

Here’s some pictures of the new bags I’ve been busy making. Note the new style of pockets…not sure if I like this style. I’ve had a few comments that people think their items will fall out of them, but they’re actually really deep that I don’t think this will be an issue. Even so, I just got some supplies to make closures for the new pockets. I think I’ll still be focusing on the older style of pockets for a while. Let me know what you think though, I’d love your input!

 

 

                               

                               

                                  

                              

Screen Shots

For some reason I just love screen shots. Not sure why really, it might be the collection of similar but completely different items…common colors…yeah, not really sure! Here’s a fave of mine from the main page of Etsy.

                        

It was created by The Paira Birds, a SUPER fascinating store on Etsy with really intriguing art work.

Do you normally browse through the Treasuries? I don’t, I love them but I don’t take the time to browse through the lists of created ones. Every now and then, when I have a free couple of seconds, I look at one or two and leave my comments…but that’s not too often.

I really should look more though, because every time I do, I find something inspiring. Usually “inspiring” means “another project I’d like to try”, but that never hurt anyone, did it? (:

Speaking of inspiring: I’m going to have a big load of picture in the next couple days…not of my items but something else super beautiful I found last weekend. Wait for it!

Just a Tid Bit

So I was just looking through my blog stats to see who was visiting and where they were coming from. I Clicked on one of the links and it took me to YouTube (something to do with the link I posted yesterday…which if you haven’t checked it out yet, you really have to!). I saw a line of videos and decided to click on one…something about a lion.

Ok.

Seriously.

Click this and look!!

As a pet owner…it just about made me cry, it a really good way!

That just made my day.

Big Day

I’m so busy here at work today! We’re having a Fashion Stylist and Makeup Artist from NYC coming to give presentation this evening. It’s going to be a great event and hopefully packed! I’ve been decorating the conference room all morning, getting the tables ready and setting up the prizes.

I don’t think that I’ll have another chance to blog again today, so I’ll leave you with this cute little clip. Sorry it’s not a great post today, I wish I had more time to put an effort into it, but that’s just impossible today!

Farmers Market #2

Well, the trip to the Farmers Market this week was quite different than the last weekend…actually, it was the complete opposite. If It hadn’t been for my husbands Grandma coming around, I wouldn’t have sold a single thing! After all my preparation and getting up super early on Saturday, it was really dissapointing. It would have been even worse if I had been the only one that wasnt’ getting much response from buyers, but all the other stalls were saying it was a slow day for them as well.

I’ll be going back next weekend since several people mentioned they thought it would be a good week for sales. The Market will be having more live entertainment and refreshments since it will be BC’s 150th Birthday. It’s supposed to be a huge event so hopefully that will lead to more customers.

I was also talking to one of the other girls there and she mentioned a few craft fairs coming up that were known for being huge successes. I’ll be going to several of those this winter, I can’t wait! I’ve never been to a craft fair as a vendor before and I’m really excited to be involved a bit more!

Over all, the Farmers Market this week was a learning experience. I tried to stay positive, after all, it’s only my second one! And I will be going back, I realize it isn’t a reflection on my work…but it’s still a bit hard not to be discouraged.

                             

My New Fave

I know this is a bit off the “creativity” theme, but I just wanted to share it (: I’ve been missing Friends ever since it ended and haven’t been able to find a good show to replace it. I think I’ve found it! Now…to get cable…

Lists

There’s a thing I have with lists. I write tons of them! I just love lists! Writing down my goals for the day, either in my personal life or at work, really helps me accomplish the things I was wanting to do. It feels great to cross things off and move onto the next project.

                          

                                    

Todays list is for the Farmers Market (tomorrow!!). I have a ton of finishing up things to do this evening…sometimes I hate working a full time job as well as my crafting! As much as I really love my job, I wish I could just do crafting full time!

The two biggest things on my list to do is printing out business cards and sewing another Kj Bag. I finished two last night but I’d like another one done for tomorrow. I’ve decided not to worry too much about the Zippies, they just take a few minutes to do so they’re perfect for last minute stuff.

My hubby finally brought home a printer (he’s a computer tech, you’d think we’d have everything we needed in the computer department!) so I can print my cards off at home instead of going down to his office. This’ll save a bunch of time! I can’t wait until after this FM though, then I’ll to be able to afford the business cards I’ve purchased from Apples And Chalk Dust. Yay (*:

I’m still working on that “BIG PROJECT” and I’m hoping to reveal it SOON!! Keep checking back to stay updated!!

Busy Little Bee

                                      

                             

I was busy again last night, could have worked for several more hours, but I turned it in at 9:30. I made several more bundles of cards AND (!) the most exciting news is the above card. It’s my own art work (: YAY! I sat down and sketched it out, traced it with the carbon ink pen from my Gocco set, made a Gocco screen for it and printed several sets of cards from it! It’s going to be so exciting seeing if people respond to this design, I sure had fun making it but it’s all about what the customers think.

I stamped the back of every card with my KatelyJane stamp from Sweet Paperie and wrapped the bundle of six cards in a inch strip of paper, closing it with Glue Dots and stamping the KJ Stamp on it again.

I was also busy cutting out MORE Kj Bags and sewing them. We’re in a “not spending any money” mode right now, and I need liner for a couple of my bags…so I guess they’ll just have to wait. I’ll focus on what I have and do my Gocco art, and I should be good for the Farmers Market.

                                        

Wedding Wednesday – Favors

                         

I think the funnest thing about Weddings is the favors…and hardly any of the brides I’ve worked with have really paid these much attention! It’s so easy to make simple little things that make your guests see your appreciation for their support. Well, it’s easy to make things and also easy to buy things.

I remember when I was a kid, I used to love going to weddings because I wanted those candied almonds or pink and white mints. I was totally bummed when I was stuck with a book mark or something that wasn’t yummy! (:

Here’s some funky ideas to spice up the tables and make your guests talk about your wedding for years afterwards:

• Personally, I’m addicted to M&Ms. Or just chocolate for that matter, but M&Ms are amazing. Did you know you can get customized M&Ms? You can pick the color and put your initials on them, how cool is that?
• Why not put a splash of color on the tables? Jones Sodas offer customization (is that a word?) of their bottles! You can go with a toned down color like black or white or a bright color of red or blue… Either way, you’ll be able to have a picture of you and your lover, a funky saying and your choice of drink. All for your guests to enjoy at the wedding, or keep as a super cool remembrance of your wedding!
• If you’re having an oriental theme, custom fortune cookies might be a great gift for your guests. I have a twisted sense of humor so I like the thought of saying something like “Thanks…for nothin’” or “This is a fake wedding, we actually signed the certificate months ago”.
• My cousin made these great favors for her sisters wedding a couple years ago. There were containers of mints, pink green and white, beside these cute little bags and the guests just scooped the candies into their own bag. Cara made TONS of these bags, but if she can do it alone (and pregnant at the time!) it’s doable! She got the pattern for the bags by going to Michael’s and buying a prototype, tracing it and going from there. She bought a stamp with the bride and grooms initials and stamped every bag. Cute!

                         

• And what about personalized chocolate bars??

I used to think that the candy was the best part of a wedding, but now that I’ve helped plan a few I find the best part is how it gives an excuse to get together as a group. Whenever I help a bride out I always plan events with her and her bridesmaids. We all get together, put decorations together, make the centre pieces, decorate the hall and it really builds a deeper relationship between the bride and her girls. It also gives her a time to have a cup of tea and just have fun!

The biggest piece of advice I give brides is this: Just think, all you really need at the wedding is you, the groom and the certificate. Have fun in the process!

If you’re a bridesmaid, help the bride have fun, plan get togethers to accomplish the wedding planning, ask if there’s anything you can take over or be responsible for. If you’re a bride, learn to delegate and take a deep breath every now and then. This is your day, that means you should be having fun! Do whatever it takes to get rid of that stress and enjoy yourself! Even if that means dropping everything and having a bubble bath and a glass of wine.

I Love Etsy

I seriously love the story and passion behind Etsy…it’s so amazing knowing that every product I buy from the site is personally made and not something everyone else is going to have as well.

Contest!!

Ok, so I was cruising through some blogs…and found this amazing contestfor a super awesome quilt. Like so friggen cute it isnt’ even funny. The only problem is that the contest ends today! Make sure you pop over to the blog and enter your name in the comments to enter! It’s a great opportunity to win this beautiful creation!

Quick News

So I just found out that the business I’m working for owns a whole set of screenprinting contraptions! A drying machine, a four section press thingy, screens, paints, and a heat transfer station! YAY!! Guess who’ll be using this stuff soon! Me. And for free! How much better can it get?

Soon you’ll be seeing Kj Bags with funky images…so rad.

*Linky Lovey*

I think it’s time for another Link Love post. I love doing these…I always really appreciate it when people post my links and I love giving back to them and other bloggers / Etsy sellers.

• Don’t you just love the name Sally Jane? Funny, it’s a combination of my sisters name and mine…maybe that’s why I like it so much (: I’m not going to tell you what this girls all about. I want you to look and be fascinated! I’m evil, I know.
• Apparently, I’m into the “S” names today. I just added Sarah & Abrahams link to my blogroll. She’s cool, she’s awesome, she’s funky. Check ‘er out. She’s an Etsy seller and guess how many Hearts she has now? Oh wait. Yep, you gotta look at her blog to find out. Evil little me.
• I went back to visit my old blog the other day, to get some more links from the blogroll. And I fell in love again. With Style Me Pretty. Do you need a girly boost? Read this blog. You’ll melt.
• I’m sure I’ve given this girl some link love before, but I’m going to do it again! Shannon’s blog at Make It is so great, always a cool post on what she’s working on, her thoughts about business (on and off Etsy) and other creative and inspiring tiddle-bits. She’s a daily read for me.
• Also, check out this picture. For the princess in you.

Oh and by the way!! I have a big project I’m working on that I’ll hopefully have more organized by early this week…it’s a gooder! Make sure you check back!

The New Business Cards

Shannon’s so awesome! Look how she re-worked my business cards! I’ll be ordering a few after the Farmers Market next weekend and I can’t wait to have them in my hands…showing them off to everyone!

Goal #2: Accomplished

I had three goals this week:

1. To try a new modge podge technique
2. To sew several more Zippies and
3. To crochet a hat for my neice / nephew (not born yet!)

I’ve now accomplished my #1 and #2 goals! Yay! I posted an entry with pictures of my newest attempt at covering a journalwith modge podge (Goal #1) and here’s #2:

                           

                                   

                                    

                           

                           

                           

                           

Sigh. It feels good to get this list crossed off, even if it was small.

Etsy Buyers

I’ve had a few friends and new buyers on Etsy ask how the process goes…is buying off of Etsy easy? What do you have to do? Some buyers who have been on Etsy for a while don’t understand what all the fuss is about, but I totally understand the feeling of being slightly overwhelmed at the thought of buying something on a new-to-you site. Let me reassure you, buying on Etsy is as easy as changing your socks. Really! It’s totally self explanatory, as you buy a product it helps you though the steps one by one and really makes the process easy peasy pudding ‘n pie.

Etsy is an amazing site. I’m not just saying that because I sell there either, I really truly think that this site is like….awesome. It has so many options for keeping you entertained (what? Entertained while I’m working?…um…yeah), chat rooms, forums, The Storque, Treasuries to browse through or make, Showcases, Geolocator…the list goes ON and ON!

If you’re new to Etsy or are just finding out about it now (where have you been??) I suggest reading through this articlein The Storque, it explains what the different features of Etsy are. It’s a great first step to getting to know the site.

After that, just remember, you can’t break anything so fiddle around and try stuff out! Etsy is the crafters playground…only you can’t swing off of things.

Feature Friday – Bird Brain!

                         

                         

This weeks Feature is Bird Brain Creations. They’re new to Etsy (only 20 days!) and have already sold two items…something I think is a great start!

Bird Brain’s items are super fun, colorful and exotic. They’d make either a great gift or an item to tie in the decorations of your bathroom or kitchen sink.

There’s two things I love best about this store: 1) The awesome colors of the soaps and 2) their labeling. The tags are so natural looking, but also professional and modern. They’re simple too, which contrasts nicely with the bright and in-your-face items.

I can just tell, this is one of those Etsy companies that’s just going to make it big and make it big fast!

                         

Business Card Proof

I took my own advice (novel idea) and stopped in to Apples and Chalk Dust to get her to design a business card for me. I told her I liked swirls and the colors Pink and Slate Grey…this is what she came up with! What do you think? I haven’t ordered any just yet, I’d like to get some other opinions on them before I do.

I really like what she’s done here, leaving the fourth rounded corner is especially genius and I really love the font of “Katelyn Jane”.

Let me know what your thoughts are!

Guuuuesss Whaaat!

I have a Showcase today! Whoooohooo!

I Need Chocolate

                                

                                 

So guess what? I’ve already accomplished one of my goals this week! Whoopwhoop!

I had some help from the Etsians in the forums the other day, on how to make a modge podge project less wrinkled. Apparently, all you have to do is paint the item with water before you apply the MP. I actually found that watering down the MP before I applied it worked better, since the journal I was covering acted weird when the water was applied.

The end result is definately better than what I tried before, still not perfect, but I’ll be working on it until I perfect the skill (:

Oh, do ya like the rub-ons?

Apology!

I was just reminded to check my comment filter…and guess what I found! Some great comments that wern’t spam! Dang it!! I apologize if you commented here and didn’t get a response, I try to respond to all my commenters but I didn’t even realize these comments were made until today!

So sorry! ):

Decorating!

                     

We’re trying to get our act together and decorate our bedroom. We’ve been in our house now for three summers and of course, we’re leaving our own room as the last thing to decorate. I just don’t want to be like that! I’d like my room to be a quite get-away, a calming place to go and relax. Right now it’s a disaster!

I think I’m going to stick with lighter, toned down colors, a pale olive green sounds good. I need to get a new duvet cover (well, ok, I don’t…but it’s a really good excuse!) that would look good in the green color above. We have dark brown curtains already and we need to get new carpet, a cream colored burlap type.

I’m also planning on painting a small book shelf white and having a comphy chair in one of the corners.

I can’t wait to get started on this project (yes, another one to add to the list!!).

I’m Rich!!

That’s a lie. I’m not rich, I just have some money to spend and I’m gunna do it! I just bid on a grommet machine on Ebay that I hope will do the job, now I just need to buy a cutting die for it and I’ll be set for a little while.

I’m also considering buying

• a banner for my Market table and
• business cards

I just bought some gocco bulbsand I’m most likely going to buy some gocco fabric paint so I can print on my Zippies!

My goals for this week:

• Sew more Kj Bags and Zippies
• Crochet a baby hat for my newest niece or nephew (unborn as of yet)
• Try out the anti-wrinkle Modge Podge techniquethat Etsy sellers were helping me out with in the forums. I’m going to be trying to do another journal, we’ll see how it works. If it’s good, I might start to sell some in my Etsy store and at the Farmers Market.

                     

Gah, I’m so disappointed I won’t be able to go to the Market this weekend! I have to go out of town on a work trip…POO! But I guess that means I’ll have more time to update my stock, which is something I need to do pretty badly after this weekend. I also need to list more items in my Etsy store, stock is dwindling there as well.

The Market

For the first time on Saturday, I went to the Farmers Market here in town. I had to be there by 8am (on a Saturday, this just about killed me!), I grabbed a Tims coffee before I went and then drove to the parking lot where the Market is held. I set up my table and waited for the customers to start arriving.

I seriously had so much fun! There were so many people enjoying the hot day, everyone was so friendly, and there were so many great booths set up. I actually met another Etsy sellerthere too, from a town just north of us…the first Etsy seller that I’ve met! I really should have taken a picture of us…didn’t think of that.

                            

Financially, the day was a huge success…to me anyways. I’m not sure what the avarage Farmers Market booth would bring in, but I sold $190 of products! I was hoping for a minimun of two sales, and I ended up selling:

• 1 Kj Bag
• 5 Zippies and
• 3 Kitty Bags!

I’m hoping that this success isn’t just because I was a new and unique booth at the Farmers Market…I mean, that’s great, but I’d like these sales to continue even after people get used to seeing me there.

The most exciting part of the day was when a lady came up to me and asked “Are you Katelyn Jane?”. My eyes went wide…people are actually starting to know who I am! I’m getting famous (:

Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it to the Market next week, but I’m planning on making a ton of bags in the meantime and going again the week after next. I’ll be on my way to owning a grommit maker, a button maker and fixing up my craft studio in no time!

Spring Lambs

There’s something about sheep that really make me feel at home. It’s hard to explain, but seeing lambs play and ewes nurture their young, really just makes me feel…relaxed and comfortable. It’s the farm girl in me I guess (: My parents have several sheep, all with their own names and personalities. This spring they all had a set of twins, cute little babies, some with black faces, some with clean white wool. So beautiful!

I was searching in the Storque for a good article to read and saw they had a new Handmade Portrait video. I seriously love all these videos and this one was no exception. If you’re in need of a bit of inspiration, this is the video to watch!

Busy Creating

I’m headed off to the Farmers Market this morning, bright and early…eyes wide from the shock of being up already.

Hopefully I’ll have more pictures of the Market when I return, but until then, here’s some new Zippies I’ll be bringing along with me. I had hoped to have some other new little projects to bring, but I ran out of time. I’ll be working on them early next week…perhaps on Sunday if Hubby decides to go quadding with the boys (crossing fingers!).

                         

                          

                         

Feature Friday!

I decided to do a Feature Friday on a couple different store this week. The first store is Mokokokat, an uber (there’s that ‘new’ word again!) cool shop with cute little characters to be attached to key chains, zippers and anything else you fancy! Each character has it’s own personality and story, so make sure you check out Mokokokat’s store to have a smile over her descriptions (:  

 

                         

 

                         

                        

 

The second seller I’m featuring today is Numpty; an awesome shop filled with tiny nick-nacks, super colorful cufflinks, pastel hair barrets and other funky items. Really, the pictures say it all!

                       

                       

                       

Quick Reminder!

The Storque Showcase spots go on sale today at 12! They’re only $7.00!

Another Special Day

I’ve decided on having another event day here on the Kj Notebook. I already have Feature Fridays, which I personally love because it gives me an excuse to brag about Etsy and help other sellers along a little bit. But I’ve decided on doing Wedding Wednesdays. I love wedding decorating and this special day will give me an excuse to try out wedding crafts at home, post ideas for different wedding styles and…I’m hoping!…small videos demonstrating different crafting techniques.

I’m really looking forward to this project! I love coming up with unique and affordable wedding ideas and this is one way for me to do it and not have to wait for another bride to ask for my help (:

Make sure you check back next Wednesday for KJ’s first Wedding Wednesday entry!!

                            

Bright Orange and Blue

Like promised, here’s the newest of the Kj Bags. I couldn’t resist buying this orange fabric a couple weekends ago, it’s such an amazing color!! I’m really happy with how this bag came out! I’ll be bringing it to the Farmers Market this Saturday and hopefully it’ll sell. Although, if you’re looking at it now and wanting it, let me know and I’ll set up an Etsy item for it (:

                          

                          

                           

                           

                                  

                           

Speaking of the Farmers Market, I am for sure going this week. I was expecting it to start at 9am but apparently I have to be there by 8…choke!…oh well, it’ll be worth it. I love selling my items, having a coffee, surrounding myself with other crafters and like minds. I’m sure I’ll really enjoy myself! Of course I’ll be posting pictures so keep checking back!

{Goals: Week 4}

Goals goals goals. This past week was a disaster. I have an excuse though, I was traveling and so I only spent my time getting posts up and not promoting…but still, I was expecting better! My goal is to reach 50 views per day, which equals 350 views per week. I reached less than half of my goals this past week; 167 views. It really shows how much promoting, viewing and commenting on other blogs affects everything! I hope that one of these days I’ll be able to have 50 views without struggling for them (by that time, my goal will probably be 100 views and I’ll still be struggling for the last 50 views). It takes a lot of work to get to that point though, I realize that. It’s only been…well, I’m not sure of the exact date, but not yet a year that I’ve been blogging. And the first half of that I shouldn’t even count because I had no idea what I was doing or how to reach any goals of any sort.

Anyways! Thanks to everyone that stops by on a continual basis and to readers just popping in for the first time! I really appreciate your visits and your comments, it’s great to have your input!

Creating

Last night I spent the evening coming up with a pattern for a new bag I have in mind. It was harder than I thought! There’s still a ton of work to do on it, cutting out fabric, testing the pattern….and then I’m sure I’ll have to try it all over again several times before I perfect it. But the work is always worth it!

I’ve been thinking about buying a grommit press instead of the button maker I’ve talked about before. I really do want the button maker still, but it’d be great to add some grommits to my bags and try out some new handle styles with them. I’ll see how the Farmers Market on Saturday goes and go from there. If I sell more than I anticipated, maybe I’ll just wait even longer and get both contraptions. I’ll get both of them eventually, it’s just a matter of which one to buy first!

I’ve added some new bags to my Etsy store! Make sure you check them out! (:

                            

Etsy Love

I seriously love the Etsy shop. All of their items are so amazingly cute and awesome. And of courseit’s great to always promote Etsy and their wonderful site!!

              

              

              

                      

If you’re close to Brooklyn you have the amazing opportunity to buy their Lab packages which are basically a spot in one of their classes. Like, a pattern making class (gah! So want to go to this one), a Print Gocco class (which would pretty dang cool) and an Origami class. Seriously. I need to move to Brooklyn. Or my wee little town needs an Etsy lab.

Waiting

So most of you know I’ve been saving for a button maker for a little while now. I just want to try one! There’s so many cute things you can do with it, either to sell or just for myself. Mirrors, magnets, promo pins…the button maker would seriously be F.U.N.

Like I said the other night, I have exactly the right amount saved for the button maker itself, but then I’ll need a punch to cut out the images and, of course, I’ll need pin / magnet parts! So my question the other night was “Do I buy the button maker now, or wait until I have money for everything I need and buy it all at once?”.

My conclusion:

Buy it all at once. It only makes sense, and really, it’s not that much of a wait. Next weekend (not this one coming up) I’m going to be at the Farmers Market and hopefully I’ll make at least a couple sales, that will bring me much closer…and if I have to wait a couple weeks after that, so be it!

I’ve been looking on Ebay for a cheap  button maker and found one a bit better than the one at the official button maker stores. At the BE site, the button maker costs $360 includingthe punch (not including shipping). The size I’d like on Ebay is $288 (including shipping). This one also includes 500 button parts.

Hopefully in a couple of weeks I’ll be making my big purchase! The hubby has been asking if it’s going to be worth spending my money on this contraption, and even if I don’t make tons of money from it, I think it’s worth it because I’ve wanted a button machine for so long! Hopefully, by the time I actually have the money to spend, I can find a bargain!

                         

 

Have you?

Have you checked out the Etsy Featured Seller today? She’s has some really great advice for us Sellers, remember to check it out!

 

Ze Button Makar (just trust me, it`s French)

Do I or don`t I. I have exactly enough money for my button maker (AHH!!) but I`m weirdly nervous about actually making the purchase. I could just wait until I have enough money for all the parts and the cutter as well…or I could spend the amount I have now on only the maker. What to do, what to do.

Sorry, writing it out sometimes helps me make a decision (: I`ll decide tomorrow.

Going to make popcorn now and watch The Holiday!

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Goals: Week 3 & Link Love

Goals

Well, another week has passed and my goals need to be examined. My goal has been to reach 50 views a day here on the KJ Blog. I didn’t make my goal this past week (I received a total of 281 views) and I know it does have partly to do with my dedication to promoting myself; ambition was a bit lacking this past week. At the same time, there were days where I would promote my bum off and I still would only get 20 or so views! I know that summer is here, maybe bloggers (or non-bloggers) are enjoying the great outdoors instead of being glued to the computer screen (seriously, what kind of live do you have if you don’t check the net five times a day?? .

In all, I learned that I can only do so much, the views will rise and fall no matter what I do! But I’ll of course keep plugging away and promoting.

Link Love!

I’ve added a couple of blogs to my blogroll! I love finding new blogs to become addicted to (: It’s great reading new creative entries, everyone has something else to write about, something awesomely creative and inspiring. When I find a blog I might be interested in adding to my BR I always browse through the blog to see how frequently they post. If they post once a day, or close to it, I add them to my blog roll. It`s got to be a dang good blog for me to add it to my blog otherwise.

• Lotta Jansdotter (Lotta was on Etsy doing that great stencil movie)
• Elephantine Fun little stories, inspirational photos
• Designers Library

Also, tomorrow is FINALLY the day that Damien will announce the winner of his Amazing Visions contest. I can`t wait to see who he picked as a winner and runner-ups!

Weekend Splurges

                             

                              

I spent the morning on Saturday searching through a fabric store in a near city. I seriously could spend the whole day there just going through fabrics and of course spending a ton of money. This trip I gave myself $50 to spend…what I didn’t know was that the store was having a super awesome sale on (50-70% off all fabrics except quilting cottons!) so I really got my monies worth!

I ended up getting the fabric in the pictures above. I fell seriously in love with the orange fabric and just had to have a meter of that. I think I’ll make a big bag out of the blue and white fabric and line it with the orange. I cant’ wait to get going on it!

The top fabrics are for Pocket Pals and another little project I have up my sleeve.

I haven’t been able to work on my sewing this weekend yet because I did something to my back and have been walking around like a cripple for a couple of days. Today is much better, so I’m thinking this evening I’ll be cutting and sewing. Seriously can’t wait!

It’s a freaking hot day here so I’m out to get a tan, sip on my slurpie and visit with friends! Hope everyone is enjoying their days off!

Weekend Adventures

Who needs to work anyways? Because of the “long weekend” not being so “long” (Canada Day lands on a Tuesday this year! What’s up with that?!) I get Monday annnnd Tuesday off. Yep, so I’m not complaining. Then I work Wednesday and have Thursday / Friday off for a wedding. Heavy work load, as you can tell!

There’s a list of books I’ll be ordering in the near future. Everyone tells me to just go to the library, but when it comes to returning books / movies, I’m really awful at it and it ends up costing me as much to own in the end…so I just buy stuff.

• Hand Job (I was scarred to look this up on Chapters!)
• Lotta Prints (Is there anyone on Etsy that isn’t getting this book after seeing her HowTo movie?)
• Amigurumi
• In Stitches, Amy’s project and fabric are always inspiring!
• Warm Fuzzies, super fun looking book with great projects

It turns out that I can’t go to the Farmers Market this week, the people who run the organization wont be there and said to wait until next week to attend. That’s ok, it leaves me with less panic to get more bags sewn up. I’ll be going to “the city” (I feel like such a country hick when I say that!) this weekend to get more fabric. And since I have so many days off, I’ll be sewing my butt off and have a ton of them ready for next Saturday!

Have a great weekend!!

 

 

~Showcase~

                             

I had a comment from a reader about the Showcase spots that I mentioned earlier and thought I would expand on my answer in a post.

Blossoming Tree wrote:

Have you purchased a spot? If so how did that work for you? I thought about it but haven’t made a definite decision yet.

I personally think that Showcase spots are a great investment! I haven’t actually had a sale directly from the previous spots I’ve purchased in the Showcase, but I’ve gained a few hearts and views and I really consider these a long term investment. I’m constantly checking my Hearted stores for new items or going back to buy more products from them. I’ve heard from other sellers that they do the same thing, so Hearts are always a good thing!

I’ve purchased both a Main Showcase spot before (couple of them!) and a itemized Showcase spot. I would recommend the Main Showcase or the Travel Showcase (this is the other one displayed at the top of the Etsy home page, it changes as per season and special occasions such as Fathers Day). These Showcases are both really bold and in your face when you come to the Etsy home page and are sure to get more views from visitors than other smaller Showcases.

When I purchased a spot in the Bags and Purses Showcase, I didn’t notice any results at all. No more hearts, no more views. From my personal experience, I wouldn’t recommend these Showcases although I’m sure there are sellers who have had other experiences.

There’s also the Storque Showcase which I find secondary to the Main Showcase. Many Etsy buyers and sellers are constantly reading the Storque and that brings them to see this particular Showcase. Its’ not as great at the Main one, but still pretty good and worth the investment of $7.00.

Like I’ve said in other posts, promotion and getting out there is a must when it comes to selling on Etsy (or really any other site for that matter!). You need to let people know who you are and what you offer. Showcases are a great way to do this as buyers can click on an item and see several avatar sized pictures of your products. You want people to look and click! Getting Hearts is like handing out business cards, even if they dont’ buy right then, they know where to get ahold of you in the future!

Busy Busy

Well, this week has turned out to be a busy one! I’m getting ready for the Farmers Market coming up this Saturday and I just bought a Main Showcase spot on Etsy so I’ll need to fill the store a bit more. In the midst of all this, I’ve been bombarded by friends visits and family from out of town! Oh well, busy is a good thing.

I’ve also contacted Supermarket about getting my items on their site, I hope to hear back from them soon and hopefully it’ll be good news! I’m not sure what their standards are for products, but if they’re anything like Tunkt, they’re bar might be set pretty high.

I’ve also been making inquiries about ceramic transfers so I can start making my own little line of mugs, bowls and plates. I’m still just at the “getting quotes” stage, but it’s exciting! Even if I just make this project for gifts for friends and family, it’s going to be exciting to try out!

I’ll be posting more pictures and bags at my Etsy store soon, so make sure you check them out!

                                

 

Remember!

The Main Showcase spots go on sale this afternoon @ 12:00 EST. Make sure you try to get a spot!

My Name

I visited a blog today that had a post about the author searching her name in Etsy. I decided that was a pretty funky thing to do so I tried it and here’s what I came up with!

 Invitations by Nella Designs

 A journal by Katie Muth

 Cute buttons by Sakura Kitty

 

Craft Show!

Sorry I took so long to get back to you guys! I was super busy with the radio station today, I had to go out of town for some training…but I’m back now and in high gear for my Etsy store and blog! Yay!

Well, the craft fair happened on Saturday evening and it was great! I got their early and set up my table, waiting for the other girls that had said they would be setting up near me. I should have thought about where I set up more, I was at the end of one of the roads and near a couple food stands. Since I had gotten there early, I figured that there would be a ton more stands opening up around me…but there wasn’t. The oposite side of the road was completely empty and I heard from a few of the customers that they weren’t even going to come down to my end since they thought it was only food stands. Had I set up my table closer to the big intersection that was blocked off, I would have had many more viewers.

When I called the organizers on Thursday, they had a specific spot where I could set up my booth. I figured since they had this planned, there was a ton of booths that were already booked. Not true. The event was poorly advertised…if at all…and many people in town didn’t even know it was happening. I used to work at a shop just down the street from my booth and when I told them to come and see my stuff, they were like “why? What’s going on?”. Even businesses on the same block had no idea the event was happening. This was really dissapointing to me! Our town is so small, it’s easy to get the word out either by just word of mouth, posters, going on the radio…it’s so easy!

Even though the majority of the town had no idea this was evening happening annnd I was at the end of the road, I still had quite a few people who stopped by and looked at my bags. I sold three big bags and a small Zippie. Once I got to the event and saw that there wasn’t many people there, I honestly didn’t expect to sell what I did, so I was really pleased to make these sales!

I’m looking into the Farmers Market that happens every Saturday morning here. The sales and experience of dealing with the customers really encouraged me. I hope I can make as many sales on regular weekends, then I’d really have enough money for the button maker and the supplies to turn the shed into my craft workshop!

Always Something Else

There’s always something else you can do to promote or get your name out there! I just visited a blog and found this great site, which I know nothing about yet but it looks really cool! 

Have you joined IndiePublic yet? It’s another site to promote your Etsy items and it’s super cute and fun.

Anyways, off to call clients, write up radio ads and check out this new site. Busy day!!

Feature Friday

                                      

                                      

Ittttt’s Friday!! Another weekend is upon us and I’m just so excited for it! Not only because of my craft fair tomorrow, but also because some sleep will be in order (:

Being Friday, it’s also time for the Friday Feature of an Etsy store! This week it’s Danbury Lane, a store I fell in love with as soon as I saw this bright orange Tutu…I really need to splurge and get a few for my neice and little sisters. They’d look adorable running around the farm in this!

Make sure you take a peek into their store and check out their adorable items, they really get you in the mood for summer, seeing the kids playing outside and gardening.  If I had kids, they’d be wearing these items!

                                        

 

Last Minute Plans

I’m exhausted. Last night I was up until midnight sewing. I found out yesterday that there’s an open air market happening in town…tomorrow. I decided to go for it even though it’s verrry short notice, there’s still a few bags in my store I can take down and then I thought if I put the pedal to the metal I could sew some more. I’m only bringing a small, square card table, so I don’t need to worry about filling up a long one.

I found out about the market at 4 yesterday evening, emailed the coordinator and asked if registration was still being accepted, sprinted home and sewed up three big bags. I’m calling them “big bags” since they are a bit bigger than my Kiki Bags and I haven’t come up with a name for them yet. On top of this I cut out six Zippies which I was going to sew tonight and then get whatever I could get done on Saturday morning…but then I started thinking that I should have more big bags since they’ll bring in more money. The Zippies are just an “afterthought purchase” or something for the younger kids. So I’ll be sewing, hopefully, three more big bags tonight. That’ll bring my list to:

• Six Big Bags
• 10 Zippies
• 8 Kitty Bags
• 5 Sets of Tags
• Seven Boxes

Hopefully this is enough. If I happen to sell everything (pretty please!) I’ll just pack it up and go home early. If not, at least I’ll learn which of my items are more popular, which ones sell, and I’ll get input from the buyers as to what they’d like to see in the bags.

Cross your fingers! I’ll be posting more about my experience as well as pictures soon!

To have striven, to have made the effort, to have been true to certain ideals – this alone is worth the struggle. – William Penn

 

Sew What

I was just talking about this wasn’t I? Great minds think alike!

Tonight is sewing night! It’s official. I finally have a free night and the hubby is talking about going quadding with his buddy…so I can spend all evening in my craft room, mp3 player on, singing my guts out and cutting / sewing new bags! I’m so excited! I have a couple orders from girls around town and a few new fabrics to work with…I can’t wait to get them done!

The money I’m earning from these recent sales will be going towards a button maker. I’ve decided I want to try one out and since I’ve made a couple sales, I’m getting closer to having the money. Just another couple bags and it’s a go.

Thanks again to everyone who is taking a peek through my Selling on Etsy series! I’ve had great responses from that series and can’t wait to get started on the next one! If you have any suggestions let me know (: Thanks guys!

Oh, I had my first “insult comment” this morning…I guess that means I’m doing something right hey?

Selling on Etsy #6: Wrapping it Up

                                      

 

This is the final entry of the Selling on Etsy Series. Make sure you check out the other entries!

Laying Your Foundation

Applying it!

Promoting and

Still Promoting!

I’m just going to quickly focus on two points: Customer appreciation and packaging.

One thing I’ve learned from the successful sellers on Etsy is that you need to make a good impression on your buyers. This not only means making a good product but also means that when they receive your package in the mail, they’ll be impressed with the effort and care you sent it with. I love doing this! With each parcel I send out, I always include some treats, business cards and some Etsy pins. I wrap the parcel in tissue paper, maybe add a bow, and just make it a special package. I like to make the whole parcel a fun experience.

For one of my latest sales I placed the Kiki Bag in a gift bag, topped it with tissue paper and included some candy and business cards. This not only makes me feel good about sending the package but also makes the buyer feel like they made a professional purchase.

Make sure you check out this video for more Etsy shipping ideas!

Customer appreciation. This is huuuuge. Here’s a few ways I like to show my customers I appreciate them:

• Clear and enthusiastic convos. Every time I have a sale I convo the buyer, thank them for the sale and let them know when I will be shipping out their item. Sometimes, once it’s shipped, I convo them again just to let them know how many days it should take for the item to get to them. I ask them to let me know when they receive the item. If a couple weeks pass and I haven’t heard from them, I usually write again asking if they received the item.
• Like I said above, I like to show my appreciation for the sale by including a few extra treats in with the package.

From what I’ve heard, many of the top sellers on Etsy recommend these practices and have noticed that they create repeat buyers. I’m also hoping that because of these special touches the buyers will feel more appreciated and will tell their friends of their experince. Word of mouth is the best advertising!

Have fun! There’s tons of ways to show your appreciation and to package your gifts, try out a few things, ask other sellers what they do…just enjoy it!

Thanks for reading through this series! It’s the first one I’ve done here and I really enjoyed writing it! I hope you were able to get some ideas from my thoughts. Let me know what you thought and if you have any suggestions for my next series!

Five Minutes

It’s five minutes before quitting time and this is the first time I’ve sat down today. It’s been craaaaazzy! But that’s the way I like it (: I’ve been out selling ads like a mad woman and hopefully I’ll have some MULA to show for it soon!

Sorry for the delay on the next Selling on Etsy installment! I meant to get to it today but there wasn’t a moment to sit and type! Tomorrow, it will be up tomorrow!

For those of you who have been feeling insecure lately (blush – guilty!), take a look at this and start believing in yourself again (: You’re beautiful!

She’s Inspiration – Amazing Visions Contest

                                                               

This is my entry for Damien’s “Amazing Visions” contest over at Postcards from the Funny Farm! It’s not too late to enter so make sure you go over there and check it out!

When I think of “inspiration” I immediately think of crafting. Then my next thought is “Good grief Kate, think of real life“. I can’t. There’s so many people I like in history and currently in my life, but as much as they inspire me, it isn’t on the same level as the crafters I know.

To me, inspiration means “encouraging someone to pursue their loves”. I have many people that encourage me in my passions, but there’s few people that actually make me want to do better and pursue these things.

It’s weird because you’d think that the people closest to me would be the most influential, but it’s really a few bloggers I’ve come across that are. I read their entries, see their work and I just can’t wait to get into my craft room and start creating something. Anything!

Inspiration is a big thing. It encourages you, it enlightens you, it makes you believe in your projects and their direction.

a divine influence directly and immediately exerted upon the mind or soul.

-Dictionary.com

Yep, this is pretty much it. “A devine influence”.  Another quote comes to mind when I hear this:

I know the plans I have for you. Plans for you to prosper and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.

When I go through my friends’ blogs, read their plans and their crafting experiences, and then start applying it to my crafting life, I always come back to this last quote. “I’m going to prosper!”.

Inspiration is huge, it’s friends kind words, it’s sharing, it’s a helping hand. Both Make It and Posie Gets Cozy allows us into their world to be constantly inspired. They share ideas and encourage us in their success, both in sales and their creative spirits.

 

Your Escape

You know how I posted about My Escape yesterday…or was that this morning? I just found that Decor8 is hosting a contest for a “mood board“. Check out the blog for more details, but it looks like a ton of fun. June 23 is the deadline so hurry and get your boards in high gear! There’s so great prizes!! I’d love to enter my ideas for my craft room…now if only I can find the time…

Be Inspired

Wouldn’t you just love your kids to say this about you? I hope my kids love me this much. While you’re over there, watch her adorable video on being kind. It’s inspirational!

Selling on Etsy #5: Puttin’ Your Foot Down

                                

                                 Visit Sweet Paperie for personalized stamps! 

This is the 5th entry in the series Selling on Etsy. Make sure you check out the other posts:

1. Laying Your Foundation
2. Applying it!
3. Promoting and
4. Still Promoting!

Like I said before, when I signed up for Etsy I thought it’d be a walk in the park. I’d upload my items and watch the sales roll in. Wrong. Unfortunately, it’s not a “no-effort” deal. If it was, we’d all be rich.

So, I started listing more items. I read all the Storque articles on how to get more sales and I tried applying their advice to how I ran my store. Here’s a few of the tips I learned not only from Etsy, but from their top sellers:

• Re-list or list new items frequently. This doesn’t mean just one a day, this means several a day. This takes determination and a tad bit of money but try listing one new item a day and then re-listing a couple of your older ones.
• Comment in the forums often, answer questions whenever you can and just have fun with the other sellers!
• Update your store. Buy a funky banner, make sure your avatar is attractive and clickable, make sure your shop announcement is still relative.
• Make sure your photos are clear, not blurry and are well presented. Remember that this is the only impression your buyers have of the item. If the photos are messy, blurry, don’t have good lighting or show your messy house…chances are the sellers are going to be a bit turned off.
• Promote promote promote!

It’s all about putting your foot down and being persistent. Maybe that means having a daily Promotions Forum post saying “This is new in my store!” or making a habit of listing regularly. Just remember you have a right to make sales! Realize that and attack it full force!

Here’s a few more ways to get your name out there:

• Make a Treasury
• Buy a Showcase
• Submit an article to the Storque
• Take part in the Chat Rooms
• Join a team or
• Attend a Virtual Lab event

 The best part about Etsy is that all of their online promotional thingies are FUN! That, and Etsy is such a great community. Everyone is SO helpful and kind, it’s just such an encouraging place to hang!

                               
                   Promos In A Snap have everything you’ll want for promoting your Etsy store!

 

The Monsters are in Town!

                           

                            

 

The monster trucks are in town!! I usually don’t like these things because I’m not really a red-neck girl (: But I got to do a press release with the driver and take a few pictures…it was great! Because I’m “media” (haha, I can’t believe I’m the media!) I got two free tickets and the hubby and I will be going this week. I’m pretty excited!

Gah, I hate that picture of me. I really need to start going to the gym again. Tonight. It’s a must.

The Cutest Thing

So. I have this flickr thing to the left of the screen, right? And I saw a picture there I just had to click on today…seriously, I can’t stand rats but I’m starting to want one after seeing this girls pictures. SO CUTE!!!

The Nutshell

                                            

I received an email last week about this blog. The sender had a couple questions such as how I got started blogging and what my goals were. I always love to read about this type of info on other blogs I read, but I honestly never thought people would be interested in hearing my story…I guess I never thought of myself as being very successful at this blogging junk although I love every minute of it (which should be considered a success in itself!).

I started blogging on November 1, 2007 so it’s been seven months and fifteen days. I had been reading more and more blogs at that time (cold northern winters will make you do that) and decided after a few days to start my own. I had heard that they were a lot of work, but I’m a girl who loves a challenge, so I went for it. I decided that if it didn’t work I’d just quit. I’d try it out for a little while and then see how it went.

Blogging quickly became a routine and I’d casually enter a couple posts a week. I’d get a few responses, but nothing to write home about. I didn’t really try that hard to promote myself and, honestly, I didn’t know how to do this.

Soon after I stumbled across Post Cards from the Funny Farm, a blog with Inspiration as it’s general theme. Damien, the blogger, wrote a couple entries on how to promote your blog, how to get more readers and what sites to join to do this…I really took his advice to heart and started applying it to my blogging activity. I was really impressed when I asked him a question in a comment (the first day I found the blog) and he answered it by writing a blog entry about my question!

It’s only been just over seven months since I started this blog (actually, I started on Blogger, but that’s an entry to itself) and I think I’ve done pretty well for myself! I’m happy with the direction it’s taking. I’ve been moving with baby-steps and that’s all you can do, really.

Setting goals is always important but it’s something I’ve just started doing with my blog. Until now, I’ve been too nervous about failure to set goals. Here’s what my first goals are:

1. To receive 50 views daily (350 / week)
2. To focus on the theme “Creativity”

This past week this is how I attempted to achieve these goals:

1. I promoted my blog on Wriging.com, the Etsy forums, Fuelmyblog.com and other blogs and received a total of 453 views. This was also due to the fact that I asked Damien from Postcards to be a guest blogger and his readers came here to read his entry.
2. I started a series called Selling on Etsy as a way to kick of my official theme here, Creativity. I’ll be running more series’ about creativity, I am having so much fun with this current series and love how much I’m learning about it myself! I also started Feature Fridays as a way to showcase amazing Etsy artists and their work.

I have a huge goal for the future of this blog but I realize there’s a ton of work to do in the meantime. I’m nervous about sharing this goal with you because it’s a biggie, but I personally think that’s the way to make long term goals…set ‘em high but realize it’ll take some elbow grease to get there.

My long term biggest goal for this blog is to make it as big as Design * Sponge. Yep. That’s it. I can do that…right?

So that’s my story in a nutshell! If you have any questions or you’d like me to expand on any part of my experience, just let me know! I’d love to tell you more

 

Selling on Etsy #4: Still Promoting

                           

This is the fourth entry in the Selling on Etsy Series. Make sure you check out the other entries for more tips!

1. Laying Your Foundation
2. Apply it!
3. Promoting

What? Still chattin’ about Promoting? Yep, there’s so much to cover in this subject I decided to to another entry on it!

Last time we talked about how to promote your Etsy store. That article was about promotional items you can use to:

• Put in stores
• Give away with sales or
• Hand out at a Craft Fair

This entry will be about what you can DO to promote your Etsy store.

Promoting is all about getting out there and letting people know who you are and what you offer. It’s a huge part of every business but even more important if you’re selling on the net. Without promoting, you’re just letting people find their way to you…which can be near impossible considering how many stores there are on the net.

Here’s a few things you can do to promote:

• Join Crafters Community. It’s always good to promote yourself outside of Etsy. Yes, the majority of the sellers also buy off of Etsy, but it’s a great idea to get your name out past that site. There are so many more buyers other than on Etsy! It’s a great way to spread your name around!
• The Sampler. This site had the great idea of helping other crafters (record labels and zines too!) to get their name and products out into the world. You submit some of your items and they distribute them to different businesses and media. In exchange for your items, they will give you a discount on advertising on their site, a sampler and free promotion on their site (aka: pictures of your items and links to your store on their site). It’s worth checking out!
• Craftster is a great crafting community. It has chatting forums, picture posts and advertising spots. It’s a great site to get to know other crafting minds and see what they’ve been up to. Allllso, it’s a great place to let people know about your Etsy store (: Of course.
• Indie Public is a super cool site with discussion groups and forums. You can load pictures of your current projects and comment on other members pages and pictures. I love this site!
• Then there’s the well known Facebook, myspace and Flickr. All these sites are easy to navigate. You can join groups, create your own groups, add friends and upload pictures of your crafts. They are all excellent for networking and a great way to make new crafting friends.

I seriously suggest joining at least a couple of these sites. Join as many as you think you can keep faithfull to, and keep going back…daily if possible. If not, at least a couple times a week. People sometimes view promoting like this like a huge task. It’s not really! Just set aside 15 minutes a night or every second night and comment in a couple forum posts, write a quick journal entry (the online sort) and request a few friends. Remember that making and helping friends is the best way to make an impact. If you are constantly answering questions for people or helping them with ideas in the forums, you will create a name for yourself and slowly become an influential member of that site.

Another thing I love to do to find more ways to promote my Etsy store is read the Featured Seller interviews Etsy has on their home page. My favorite part of these interviews is how the sellers promote themselves and the advice they have for other sellers. It’s a great way to find out what successful sellers do!

Remember to check back tomorrow for the next Selling on Etsy installment!

You and the Tube

So I went to YouTube and was just lookin’ around…seeing what could amuse me. I saw this girl, sitting on her bedand it said something about her writing this song. Honestly, I thought it’d be some bad karaoke, but it was amazing! You really have to listen to this song! The funny thing is, she’s only playing a ukulele…so if I think she’s that good with just that tiny instrument…imagine how she could sound with a proper studio and musicians?? She’d be an instant star.

The reason I went to YouTube to begin with was because I wanted to post a link here for those of you wanting to learn crochet. I’m really no pro at crochet or anything, but I picked up the stuff I know from this lady. It’s “uber” helpful and really fun to learn!

Have a great weekend!!

Announcement!

I’ll be posting the next installment of the Selling on Etsy series on Monday, June 16. There will be more posts this weekend, so make sure you check in to see what’s new!

                              

Feature Friday!

 

 

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a little while will know I have a serious addiction to paper. Anything about paper, different types, different crafts, different ways to spruce it up…I’m enthralled with it. Like seriously. Don’t bring me into a craft store because I’ll be in there for years.

This addiction isn’t helped with the fact that Etsy has amazing stores all full of paper stuff. Like this week’s Feature. Look how cute those quote thingies are!!! Awwww! How can you resist? And then there’s the awesome numbered tags…and the cute little book…like really people! This is a serious addiction!

Check out Eve’s super cool shop! If you’re into scrapbooking, this is the place to get those unique items…if you’re not and just addicted to paper (ahemmm) it’s a place to check out too!     

Selling on Etsy #3: Promoting

                              

The above cards are original designs by Shannon Johnson for applesandchalkdust.etsy.com

This is the third of the Selling on Etsy series! Make sure you’ve checked out #1: Laying Your Foundation and #2: Apply it!

For me, promoting my Etsy store is the fun part…other than actually creating my products. There’s so many options and so many fun ways you can promote your store! Here’s some ideas I’ve come up with:

• Get custom made stickers and place them on suckers. You can either hand out the suckers when people ask about your products, send a few with sold items or ask stores to keep a cup of them on their counter.
• I love the thought of promo magnets. The idea that people are constantly looking at their fridge makes for such a perfect long lasting promo plan! I have a magnet that Traci Bunkerssent with my purchase of some of her stamps…I see that magnet every single day and every time I do, I think “I need to go look at her new items”. And because I see that magnet every day, I remembered her name off the top of my head. That’s a huge asset!
• Business cards, of course. You can get these as a template which you can print out yourself, pre-designed ones printed and sent to your doorstep, or sellers can work with you to design something completely custom. When you receive your cards, as business owners to set your cards on their front desk.

With any of these ideas, it’s always good to take a few tester products with you while you hand the promos out. This way, business owners (or managers) will see what exactly they are helping promote. Not only that, but they might become interested in one of your items and you might even make a few sales!

Lately, I’ve been using one of my bags as I do my errands around town or make business calls for the radio station. I’ve had so many compliments on the style the fabric, “ooo! Where did you get that?”. It’s been great to make connections about Etsy and my personal items even when that wasn’t even the purpose.

Always make sure you have some type of promo item with you when you go anywhere! When people ask about my bag, I hand them a card and let them know how easy it is to buy off of Etsy.

I used to visit Starbucks quite a bit (I had a gift certificate and had developed a lust for their Chai Tea!). I’d chat with the girls there while they made my coffee. I handed out several business cards and brought in samples of my work whenever they asked.

Remember, it’s always important to make friendly contact and let them know where to find you! Promotion is a huge part of selling on Etsy! If people don’t know about you…how will they find you? Don’t be afraid to go into stores and ask about them displaying your promos, the worst they can do is say “no”. And really, that’s not that bad!

                                

Screen Printing

Ever wonder how to screen print? No? I’m the only one? Damn, I knew it!! I’m alone and abandoned in this desolate world.

Ok, so if you already know how to do this watch it anyways. Dr. Matt is hilarious (: Didn’t know that Etsy had a YouTube group? I didn’t either until a little while ago. I’ve found their movies are really helpful and encourage different ways of creating! Also, their employee intro movies are pretty funny (:

I’ve never known how to do this, but it looks like a lot of fun so I think I’m needing to try!

 

Having Fun

This morning I woke up an hour early to a beautiful (!) sunny, warm day. Being the rep for a local radio station (through the entrepreneur centre) I had been asked to attend a Kiwanis Club meeting. Tim Hortons was super busy so I bi-passed the coffee and went straight to the meeting. Good thing too, they had great coffee and an omelet and sausage waiting for me. Yum!

The meeting was possibly the most off the wall thing I’ve ever attended. Just a bunch of really old guys a) trying to plan a party b) cracking seriously corney jokes and c) handing out scratch and win tickets. No joke. It was like I was sitting on a movie set where they exaggerated the antics of elderly people. Funny!! They’ve asked me to join the Club and I’m going to think about it! For one, they need fresh blood in there, and for another, they’re all so funny and sweet! It’d be a great way to rub shoulders with the elderly business men of our community, which means more ads for the radio station and great connections.

I’m listening to Celine Dion while I’m working today. It’s going to be a full and BEAUTIFUL day!

Make sure you check out the latest Featured Seller on etsy! I always find these articles really interesting, esspecially how they promote themselves and the advise they give to other sellers.

 

Selling on Etsy #2: Apply It!

                                        

This is the second of my Selling on Etsy series. In the first one we covered the very skeleton of your foundation, more of which we’ll cover in future entries.

I think that starting off on Etsy is like being a writer. Writing is hard, it takes lots of work and determination. A lot of editing is involved and criticism is needed. Why? Well, when I write, I look at my work as two things a) a creation I’m very proud of and b) what it’s meant to be, not what it actually is. I don’t want to change parts because they seem to be great to me, but another reader will tell me something else; it’s confusing, over descriptive and boring. He’ll also tell me that there are spelling mistakes. I didn’t notice the mistakes because I read those words as what I knew should be there.

This brings me to my next point. Getting a family member or close friend to critique your work, either the set up of your store or your products, isn’t the most productive thing you can do. Yes, you’d like to think that the friend would always be honest with you…but really, that doesn’t happen very often. And if it does, sometimes you won’t be receptive to it.

The best reviews / criticism you’ll find is in the Etsy forumsand, if you’re lucky, the store critique Etsy employees sometimes give. These people don’t know you and won’t feel the same connection to you as a family member or friend will. They’ll be honest, sometimes brutal (a good thing and a bad thing), because of this. For some, this can be hard to take. For others, it’s what they revel in. Although Etsy buyers and sellers seem to be honest with each other in the forums, they do it in a way that is (mostly) encouraging and understanding.

Here’s a quote from a great book I know:

Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like

In English please?

Pay attention to advice. Don’t just listen to it, nod your head, walk away and not think about it. Actually apply it to your life.    – Katelyn’s Translation

 You can get all the critiques you want. They don’t do any good unless you actually do something about it! Dive into your store with the thought that you need to impress your shoppers. Take new pictures, alter them if needed, buy or make a new banner, write a better description. Just pay attention to the suggestions and apply them to your Etsy store.

Here’s your challenge:

Start a forum thread to receive reviews of your store. See what people have to say. Take at least three of those suggestions and apply them to your store.

If you’re nervous about this (I was my first time!) ask people to go easy on you. They will! Etsy is full of very encouraging members, they love to help each other!

Darla

 

I just uploaded another Pocket Pal! Introducing: Darla!

                               

                              

 

Darla is a shy Pocket Pal. She just loves her new blue shoes! Check out more about her in my Etsy store.

 

 

 

Selling on Etsy #1: Laying Your Foundation

                                

“You have to start at the bottom”. Remember hearing that? When I was younger, my Dad repeated this to me constantly. I used to roll my eyes “I know, I knooooow”. But it’s true, you always have to start at the bottom, no matter what you’re doing.

Etsy is no different…no matter what I thought at the start (:

When I started selling, or even just thinking of selling, on Etsy, I imagined instant success. My goal was to earn at least (and I thought this was a good goal) $1,000.00 in the first half year in order for me to attend a writers conference. Yeah. Didn’t happen.

It’s not all about uploading your items and waiting for the sellers to come, it’s promotion, business cards, contests, posting in the forums, commenting on blogs and making them aware of your store. It’s all about getting out there!

So what does starting on the bottom mean for Etsy sellers?

• Opening up your store and getting input
• Applying that input to your items and store design
• Realizing that change is good and it’s needed!
• Making people aware of you and your store whether that be in the forums, through a blog, handing out business cards on the street, bragging about your experiences to a store clerk (this works!)

Those are just a few ways us Etsy sellers start from the bottom. Maybe I should stop saying that, maybe “starting from the bottom” comes across as a negative thing…and it’s really not! Imagine if we built a house without laying a foundation? It would crumble.

This entry is the start to a series I’m going to write on selling on Etsy! I’ll be posting one a day so make sure you check back!

Q: What are some ways you have laid your foundation for selling on Etsy?

Create Through Necessity

Hi! I’m guestblogging here today. Allow me to introduce myself: My name is Damien from Postcards from the Funny Farm. Many thanks to Katelyn for having me. I enjoy reading this blog and I think there are many things in store around here so make sure and bookmark her! Now onto my post on creativity …

To me, the truest examples of creativity are born out of practicality. For example, I didn’t have a speaker to play science videos in my classroom. I rigged up my guitar amplifier and it sounded nice and crisp. It was a bit piercing though since it is made for a guitar and not a VCR. This is where “necessity became the mother of invention.” I took a box and put the amplifier inside it. The sound was now perfect, like a movie theater. People come into my room all the time and see the cord coming out of the box and I always brag about how creativity met practicality.

If you’re trying to top something you saw a friend make or that you saw at a craft fair etc., STOP. You’re “trying” and that defeats creativity. You should be relaxing your mind and PLAYING. This is when the mind create things. If you really can’t let go of your urge to create something then start doing things around the house or at work that you need to get done but have been avoiding. Relax your mind and think about a quicker way to do them. You may come up with a device like my amp box, or you might just see things in a new way and see that for so long you have been “doing it wrong.” By living our lives noramlly, going about our regular duties and activities, we will inevitably find ways of doing them better and who knows … if the idea is catchy enough, you could make a million.

Looking for Funky Dishes?

My hubby always wants me to buy the plain old white dishes. He says they stack nicer in the dishwasher. I say, who cares? I want my home to be fun, bright and young feeling. I don’t want to be my parents just yet, and if this is one tiny way I hold off on that…so be it!

So when I was cruising through my blogroll this morning, linked into Ali’s scrapbooking blog (so amazing) and decided to click on one of the ads she has displayed. Check this FUNKY (do I say that too much?) site for dishes out!!

 

Guest Blogger!

                                   

Make sure to check in tomorrow, I have a guest blogger poping by and you’ll love what he has to say about creativity!

A Little Push

                                     

I think every seller, no matter what site or store they’re selling in, will reach a point of discouragement. Either the stock isn’t moving fast, they aren’t getting the compliments they had hoped for or stores just aren’t welcoming the items. Any which way, these are all a bit disheartening.

I’ve been at the point of quitting Etsy for a while now. Nothing is moving, no matter what I try. I’ve tried having different items, renewing them frequently, chatting in the chat rooms and forums constantly…you name it, I’ve tried it! I began to wonder if my product was just not attractive or practical.

Then this last week I suddenly sold a Kiki Bag, a Kitty Bag, Beaumont, and three sets of tags. Talk about rejuvenation! Once again I have a passion for my items, I’m convinced they will sell (even if it takes some alterations to my patterns), I’m sprucing up my store and I’m sewing new items.

For me, it’s not just selling my own items that helps me to feel encouraged about Etsy, it’s seeing the success of other sellers.

As I was flipping through the web-pages of The Storque, I came across one of my favorite articles. I just love reading the “Quit Your Day Job” entries!! It’s so exciting to see other sellers make it!

 

Asking for a Sign

                                 

So one of my sisters just finished her training as a flight attendant. Or “Trolly Dolly” as she likes to be referred to. Or “Cookie Pusher” as my father in law calls them. Whatever, as long as she’s wearing heels, she’s happy (:

Last night was her first flight. They got hit by lightening. No joke! She’s going to send me pictures, apparently it cracked the cockpit’s window!

Ok but to make things even funnier (!) she’s having issues with this guy she likes, she’s trying to figure out if she should settle in one place and start a relationship with him (she’s one of those “over thinkers”). As a good little Christian girl, I’m sure she’s asked for a ’sign’ about her relationship with this guy. So, I’m just imagining this in my head…but imagine asking God for a sign…and then getting hit by lightening.

I think that’s the sign

And The Children Surrounded Him

Have you ever sponsored a child? My hubby and I started sponsoring our first child this winter. A World Vision guy came to our door in -30 c. weather this winter and asked if we’d be interested. To give the poor guy a break from the cold, we invited him in and took a look through the pictures and info he presented to us, giving him a cookie to munch on while we did.

We browsed through the booklet of photos, ooo’ing and awww’ing over the cute little faces, until I came across a package of photos separated from the others. When I asked the guy what they were, he replied that most people wanted the cute young ones to sponsor. The pack was of children older than 12 years old. I immediately went through the pack of photos and picked a young boy out. Poor kids, they’re only 12, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t cute anymore or don’t need our help! I think I especially loved this age group because they reminded me of our ball-hockey team members.

One of my friends went to Africa a few years ago on a missions trip. Just her, not organized by her church or anything, she just wanted to do something to help someone. The orphanage that she went to was smaller, although there were still many children.

They stories this friend came back with were incredible. Like, us, living in cushy North America, have no idea what those children go through. Most, if not all of their parents had aids, most of the children were abandoned or abused or orphans. That, in itself, sound like other children on our childcare program. But then you start to get into the dirt, how the were abandoned and their personal stories.

One little boy had been found in the backyard of a bar (bar…not like the fancy ones we have here, probably not even half the image we have of a “bar”), living with the owners dogs, eating like them, sleeping like them etc. His mom had brought him to the bar because she wanted to confront his father, who was having an affair on her. While the mom confronted the husband, knives were pulled, words were screamed, and the mom left…without taking her child. The father left as well, if I remember correctly, he was arrested. The owner of the bar didn’t know what to do with this little boy and so threw him in with the dogs.

Who knows how long he kept the boy there, but by the time he was brought to the orphanage, the poor child was licking milk off the floor like a puppy and didn’t know how to behave like a little boy.

That just blows me away.

Like…seriously.

Wow.

So when the World Vision guy came to our door, after hearing these stories from my friend and knowing how life in a third world country is exactly how they portray it in those “corney” ads on TV, I just had to sponsor a child.

I watched a show the other day where a woman and her sons went to visit their sponsored child. The boy they sponsored lived with his brothers, both younger than him even though he was only 11. Their parents weren’t there, I believe they had died but don’t quote me on that. This 11 year old had to support his brothers, be their dad. When I think about that, I imagine my 11 year old brother trying to support, not only financially but emotionally, a couple siblings and I tear up. The strain of that must be huge. HUGE! These little boys had a bed of a tarp. A ripped tarp that they laid on the rocky ground and slept on. Can you imagine? Even when I used to go camping we’d bring a foamy, several sleeping bags and a pillow. We’d have a DRY tent, all the munchies we wanted…these kids had a leaky thatched roof and a tarp for a bed. And I’m thinking they don’t have M & M’s or Licorice to munch on or a light to read their favorite comic book.

Wow.

Blog Banner

As most of you have most likely noticed, I have a new blog banner! BettyBanner worked with me to create the perfect banner and I just love the end result! There were several versions that we went over, several things I requested changes on…but we finally got something we were both happy with.

I just loved how she was super patient with me as I kept requesting changes. She realized the process could take a while and that I needed to be 100% honest with her to get what I wanted. It’s hard to know what exactly someone wants while you’re communicating over the internet. It takes a lot of communication, trials, and more communication (:

So…what do ya think?

Make sure you check out the Betty Banner shop!

I tackled my Todo List this weekend, and almost got it all done. Yesterday we had guests over longer than I had planned so I wasn’t able to do some of the things I wanted, but still got most of them crossed off the list!

1) Take new photos of bags currently in store (Check out here and here too! They still need some work, I need new close-ups done, but this was as far as I could go for the time being)
2) Create new tags, Zippies and Pocket Pals (I cut them out and sewed on the button eyes while the guests were over…so they’re half done…)
3) Go on a camera adventure with Cobes (I’m dying to get more abandoned house / barn pictures)
4) Plant new flowers / herbs

I didn’t get to go for a hike or drive with Cobes, so that’s on this week’s list. She just loves exploring and while were driving on Saturday I found a ton of old sheds in the middle of fields, old barns and abandoned houses. Hopefully soon I’ll have a bunch more to post here and on Flickr!

Q: Did you get your Todo List done? What was your biggest accomplishment this weekend?

Beaumont’s Trip

Beaumont’s going for a trip! He was purchased from my shop and actually, as silly as it is, it’s kinda hard to give him up! He was my first Pocket Pal creation and I’m really proud of how he turned out. His color, fabric, expression…I just love him!

His new owner requested that he be sent with an ID tag…I went one step further and created a Passport for him. I seriously LOVE how it turned out! I’m going to be doing this for all of the Pocket Pals that are in my store.

Well, tomorrow is a new day (it’s just about here! I need to get to bed!) and I have a list of projects to do while Hubby is quading with the guys.

1) Take new photos of bags currently in store
2) Create new tags, Zippies and Pocket Pals
3) Go on a camera adventure with Cobes (I’m dying to get more abandoned house / barn pictures)
4) Plant new flowers / herbs

It’s going to be a full day! I just love having a Todo List, it really makes me feel accomplished when I cross things off. Not only that, but it helps me actually DO what I was wanting to do. Always a good thing!

I just had to

Ok, so I went onto this site and there was a link to this trailer…girls, you just have to watch it. Seriously. I’m going to love this movie I can just tell. There’s something about it that is so like women but so exadurated it’s hilarious!

Beauty In The Backyard

I’ve been using my Grandmas camera, a (swoon!) Canon eos20. I’m getting one. It’s just not an option. This camera is serously amazing! It takes the best photos with nothing but the click of the button demanded from you. And even then, I swear it’s so amazing it’d click it’s own button.

As you might have guessed, my Lilac tree has finally fully bloomed. It’s a good thing and a bad thing. I know that it won’t last too much longer, but I just LOVE having those pungent purple flowers glowing in my front yard!

On the other front, I’ve been busy sewing. I’ve made some alterations to the Kiki Bag, mostly for the purposes of my cousin’s diaper bag, but also because I think it had a lot of potential I need to tap into. There’s still some work to be done on it, but it’s exciting to see my original pattern take shape into something a bit evolved.

ALSO! SO EXCITING! I sold three bundles of my tags today, Beaumont is now headed to a new home AND two of my other bags sold…all in the past couple days! Talk about encouraging! I need to stock up the store again, hopefully this it’s on a roll!

 

That’s Girls For Ya

I was just thinking the other day of when my sister left for Australia. It was so hard to see her go and know that it just wasn’t for a two week trip. I had never lived a different town than her. We weren’t always close, we used to fight like crazy when we were kids, I used to scream “I must be adopted, my REAL sister wouldn’t treat me this way!” (apparently I was a drama queen).

But then we reached our later teens, boys came into the picture and we’d stay up late talking about so-and-so and how we were sure he liked me…or how that-guy had smiled at her.

Trips to Tim Hortons or shopping splurges were always on our list and we constantly phoned each other just to chat or vent about the latest event. We were pretty much attached at the hip.

I sent this movie to her when she arrived in Australia as a sad but halarious version of our goodbye…the movie was us exactly.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HqdcM-fbCto

 

Feature Friday!

Do you ever see things and think “Gah, why didn’t I think of that?”. Usually they’re brilliant ideas that you just know will be popular and fun, and they catch your eye right away.

For this Feature Friday, I noticed BurrowBurrow and was transfixed with their stuff as soon as I saw it. My first thought was “I wish I could do that!”, their creations are so amazing, fun, simple and attractive.

BurrowBurrow uses broken parts from electronics and machines to build their cute creations. They are seriously FUN looking…there’s just no other way to explain it! (Ok, there might be other ways to explain it, but “merriment, glee, gaiety and mirth” just didn’t seem to cut it!).

I think they’d be a super cute gift for a pencil-pusher in your life…how cute would these be on a desk? Instead of an apple, why not give one of these to a teacher for an “End of the Year” gift?

Random Shots

We went camping this past weekend and it was beautiful! Cobie, our pup, swam for the second time in her life and became quickly obsessed with it. She whined and moaned when we wouldn’t throw her stick into the water.

I got the second snap of a creek near my inlaws house…if you look closely in the middle of the picture (click on it to blow it up!), you’ll be able to see a Beaver just making his way into the water. He was right up on the bank but instead of just opening the window and taking a picture, I opened the car door and scared him away. He was HUGE!

The last picture is a shot of my neice’s eye…she’s so beautiful and has such stunning eyes, it’s no wonder she runs away when she sees I have the camera out. I just can’t stop taking pictures of her! “Nooo Kiki!” She says (:

The Night of Last

Doesn’t the title sound Shakespearean? I’m such a loser. Ok, anyways!

Last night I decided to FINALLY lock myself in my craft room, tidy up, cut out some bags and start sewing dangit! The problem with me is that there’s just so many things I could be doing, such as uploading Flickr pictures, writing friends on Facebook and of course blogging. I always start to do one of these things and then have to stop in the middle saying “Nope! Just drop this and GO TO THE SEWING ROOM!” So that’s what I did last night.

I’ve been promising my cousin a diaper bag for so long, I went down to Wal-Mart to find the perfect (perfect!) lining for the bag, put it through the wash, and started cutting out the shell of the bag. It’s going to be like my other Kiki Bags only with an adjustable length in the strap, zippered pockets inside and a divider inside. As well as the usual exterior pockets. I think I’m going to adjust the outside pockets, at least two of them, to fit bottles.

I’m using this fabric, by Amy Butler, with a matching green lining and the strip of color on the top of the pockets will be the matching yellow. It’s going to look amazing…I wish I could keep it!!

It sure is funny how much selling some bags really encourages me to keep going with Etsy and sewing. I sold another bag last night (two yesterday!) and it just got me excited about making my bags again! And it’s great having this one for my cousin to work on, especially because she wanted different things added to it. It helps me stretch out and try different things and I’ll then apply them to my Etsy store and other bags!

I’ve also decided that I need to retake some of my pictures. Most of the pictures were taken in the winter and so, because of the super cold Canadian weather!, I had to take them inside. The natural light and the backgrounds are so boring…they just aren’t great photos. This is going on my project list for the weekend.

You just gotta take a look at the cover for this book…would anyone actually wear this??

Heaven

 

I’ve been busy creating my own little heaven in our backyard. I just love summer because it makes our yard look so inviting and homey. We’re so blessed to have the house and yard we have and every summer I realize it even more!

Last year I started a few perenials in one of my raised flower beds. I planted foxgloves in memory of my Grandma who passed away a few years ago. She was British and foxgloves always reminded me of her. Unfortunatley, the dogs decided they like the flowers too and trampled them…this year only one of the plants returned.

So this year I’ve stocked up on more foxgloves, hollyhocks, larkspur, catmint, and spiked speedwell. I’ve put them all in one corner of my raised flower beds, hoping that they will all grow fully and survive the winter. My dream is for them to create an old English style bed. I really have no idea what I’m doing, but by reading the lables I think I’ve got it under control…hopefully they’ll work with me!

We’ve also put a fence around three of the raised beds so the dogs won’t have a chance of getting into the flowers.

This evening I went to Canadian Tire and bought two more shrubs. I’ve always wanted Hydrangea’s so I bought some white flower ones and will be planting them tomorrow night. I would plant them tonight, but I really need to get into my craft room, tidy up and get sewing a bag.

Speaking of bags! I sold one day on Etsy…the first one in FOREVER. I’m THIS close to giving up on that site, it seems like I try my hardest and don’t get much response. I don’t have a bitter attitude about it though, which is good. I just think it’s not what I need. But we’ll see, this sale gave me fresh hope!

Oh, look at the picture above! It’s my first Bleeding Heart flower! Aren’t they beatiful!

I wan’ it!

Just cruising through the net again…candy shopping. In “real life” it’s called window shopping…but what do you call it if it’s on the net?

I found this pair of adorable shoes, these capri’s, and this top.

Sigh. Summers here. Doncha just love it?!

                                 

Photography Love

                                 

There’s nothing like it. The sound of a camera clicking, capturing that moment in time; the brides happy expression, the swans on the lake, the pudgy baby fingers. I’m addicted to that sound and the feeling I get when I see the final result. I love it!

I was looking through my blogroll, which I’ve been trying to do more often, when I came to the Shutter Sisters blog. I was thinking to myself that it might be a good blog to contact for a guest feature, maybe I could share some of my photos with their readers and a quick thought…that plan is still in the works though. I clicked on their Click With Us page, thinking it might be a way to contact them but instead I found a cool page full of different contests or events they hold. If you’re into photography, it’s something to look into!

Of course, there’s always Flickr. I love uploading my pictures there and browsing through my contacts images. I’ve recently stumbled across Darien Chin’s photostream, Kevin McNeal’s. Both artists totally blow me away! 

                                       

Indiana Jones – Yay or Nay?

                              

I’ve read several reviews of this latest Indiana Jones movie and for the most part, they’re not positive.

Bad effects, lame acting, weak plot

But of course, in spite of the bleak outlook, I had to see the movie for myself. (I’m like that with people too, even if someone tells me something negative about someone, I just have to see it for myself before I judge them).

Hubby and I sat down with our popcorn, Pepsi and gummies and tried to ignore all the “tweens” around us, their cell phones lighting up every three seconds. I swear they each switched seats at least five times during the movie and didn’t stop talking enough to even see the opening scene. The young kid behind us kept asking his older brother what was going to happen next, even though the brother obviously hadn’t seen the movie before either. Even though they were talking (and gasping at the effects) at a level that was heard across the whole theatre, I thought they were pretty cute. Two little boys going to see the movie together, both still nervous at the ”scary” parts.

The movie got into full gear right off, it was engaging, humorous and the acting really wasn’t that bad…although it wasn’t amazing either. Honestly, I haven’t seen the other Indiana Jones movies, but I thought it was pretty decent given the rate of unbelievable stunts that IJ is known for.

I was impressed, like I always am, with Cate Blanchet’s acting. She’s amazing. She totally devotes herself to her characters and always stuns me.

I thought the movie could have used a few tweaks, like in the “romance” area which wasn’t really needed, I thought. But for the most part it was entertaining and worth seeing, if only for a chance to get out of the house and eat huge amounts of carbs (did you know one medium theatre popcorn, unbuttered, has aprox 650 carbs?? I just try not to think about it). 

Ok, and seriously…I had no idea Harrison Ford was so cuuute when he was younger! Like…wow! He’s not a bad looking guy now, but when he was younger…twit-twoooo!

Workin’ Out

While running, it is rude to count the people you pass out loud.

-Unknown

I love running…well, it’s not always restricted to running, it’s just working out in general. Last night I went for a sweaty ride on the bike, and then jumped over to the rowing machine. It feels great to flex those muscles and work up a sweat…as gross as that sounds!

One thing that I have to have for a good work out is fresh, upbeat music. My hubby thinks that this isn’t as important, and it might not be as important for him. But he doesn’t run. When you run it’s so easy to quit when it starts to get tough. It’s completely mental. If you can distract your mind and not focus on your pain and effort, you can run a whole lot further.

I’m always interested in what other people listen to when they’re working out. Not only is it interesting to know each persons different music taste, it’s also a great way to get ideas for new music on your ipod or MP3 player.

I just found this great article on different ideas for workout music. Well, it’s not the article that’s interesting, it’s the comments.

“When you put yourself on the line in a race and
expose yourself to the unknown, you learn things
about yourself that are very exciting.”
- Doris Brown Heritage
5 time World Cross-Country Champion

 Like I said in yesterdays post, goals are important! I actually haven’t set goals for my running lately and like a lot of other things, it’s on my “To Do” list.

I’ve been checking out different articles on how to build your endurance and how to run faster. It gets annoying reading some of these articles because it seems to be the same information, just worded differently, but this article has some great new info in it! I’ll have to start applying it when I go to the gym.

There’s a running club in town that I should look into joining. I see then when I drive to work in the mornings, all wearing matching coats with reflectors and running their little buns off. Sometimes you see a couple of them jogging at a slower pace, sometimes walking. It looks like a supportive group but still one that pushes you to improve (Goal #1: Join Running Club).

Q: How do you challenge yourself in your running routine?

Blogging 101

Ok, so I’m not an expert obviously, but I’m always looking up stuff to help me improve as a blogger. As I was researching it a bit today, I came across a couple places I wanted to share. If you’re looking for some articles or sites on blogging here’s a clickable list for ya!:

Postcards from the Funny Farm – Damien always has great articles on how to improve your blogging, writing or person in general. It’s always inspriring and challenging.

Skellie – Just found this great article on how to get more views and readers on your blog…it’s really helpful!

Wriging – A new site I just hooked up with to attract more readers and to just make more friends! Btw, the name is a combo of “Blogging” and “Writing”.

9Rules – A site run by the same guys as Wriging but apparently your blog needs to be approved by them before you join the site. The next “approval session” happens in August. I’m totally going for it! Read more in Damien’s interview with the big boss!

Pearsonified – A great blog I just found with super helpful tips on how to make your blog better, how to improve your writing and how to get more views.

I keep on promoting sites that advise how to get more views and comments, and honestly, at first that kinda thinking was making me feel bad! I felt greedy. But then I read this comment in Skelliewag’s Blog

Always focus on building your blog’s vital signs: your comments and subscriber count — the marks of popularity that people can actually see.

And this made me realize that wanting more views and comments isn’t about being greedy, it’s about seeing first hand the success of your blog. And of course there’s nothing wrong with that!

I’ll be making more posts like this as I keep researching. I really find it helpful to read what other people find helpful, tips and links, books and interviews.

Duped

So last night the hubby and I were duped. Like screwed out of money. Our grandparents live by this hotel, while we were visiting them last night a guy came over from the hotel and asked to borrow $50 to pay a cab driver to unlock his truck. He had a truly valid story, told us where he worked, what he did, how the economy was affecting his business. He came back after he phoned the cab company and said they would be another 30 minutes, did we mind waiting? He honestly seemed like a normal guy.

To be honest, I wouldn’t have handed him the money if it had been me…I didn’t feel 100% about it…but at the same time, I wasn’t totally against it.

Anyways…after an hour and a half waiting for him to come back with our money (why we didn’t just go with him or wait to pay him until the cab driver got there is something we didn’t think about at the time…dumb) we figured he wasn’t coming back.

Dang it anyways! Hubby says we’re the stupid ones, giving a guy we dont’ know our money and trusting he will actually pay us back. Isn’t that sad? We’re the dumb ones for trusting someone…for thinking the best of them…that just really makes me sad.

I’m not really the kind of person to be so naive, usually I can think level headed and be rational about things. Normally, we wouldn’t have given this guy our money so easily. But the one time we did, the one time we actually try to believe in someone…they screw us over.

Advertising & Goals

To be quite honest, my blog has been suffering lately. It’s my fault really, I haven’t been as diligent as I need to be in posting…and when I have posted lately, they haven’t been very meaning full. I’m working on it, and hopefully everything will improve soon!

I know it’s not all about my posts, although it is a huge part because who wants to read a blog that had either boring posts of doesn’t post much at all? But it also has to do with me getting out there, letting people know I’m here and making an effort to read and comment on other blogs (Goal #1).

I also want to start advertising a bit more. I’ve decided that I’m going to write a few bloggers and ask if they’d like to trade picture links (Goal #2). Also, Post Cards from the Funny Farm is hosting a cool writing contest and part of the prize is free ad widgets on the blog. A pretty cool idea and a great way to get free ad space (Goal #3).

Last night my Dad said something during a conversation that just hit me. “Life isn’t interesting unless you have goals”. I’ve always been the kinda girl that needs goals, which usually leads to a “To Do” list. I just never thought of it as making my life interesting. But it’s true, if I dont’ have a purpose driving me I feel aimless and uninterested. My ambition is gone. Once I have that “To Do” list built up a bit, I start to get motivated and excited to move towards my goals. Usually, I accomplish them and more.

So I’m setting goals for my blog. It’s about time! Their just little goals right now, but they’ll grow.

If you’re reading this and thinking you might be interested in trading picture links with me, let me know! I’d love to see your site and work with you to get some advertising out there! If you’re not sure how to do this, I can help

That ‘Tude

You know those people that just walk around with a grin on their face all the time? The ones that always play the “Glad Game” and are constantly thinking positively. Have you ever wondered how they live life like that?

There’s a lady that I work with now that is constantly smiling, she never has a bad day and is always saying positive things. She’s amazing. You just want to talk to her so her positivity rubs off on you!

Then there’s the other people I work with. They are always talking behind each others back, bringing down the boss and his ideas, tattling on each other and just plain being rude. I don’t know about you, but for me, that’s a huge turn off. It’s almost like every time I’m around them there’s a gnarley hand squeezing around my heart and putting me on edge.

It really dissapoints me to see people acting like this. It’s not helping the work enviroment at all and it really affects the employees; not only the ones talking down, but the others as well. It makes the work place uncomfortable, untrusting and uninspired. And worst of all, it can really make you think that your job sucks.

What would happen if we all stopped talking behind each others back? If we had an issue with someone, instead of talking about them with another girl-friend, we went to them and politely tried to work the issue out. What would happen if we just talked about the things we loved about the workplace and our boss? Gasp! Do you think we might start enjoying work?? Do you think, maybe…just maybe…we would start to believe that our job and effort counted for something?

Like some of you might know, I love to run. I love taking my dog out for a jog, running several blocks and pushing myself to go further. There’s just no feeling like it! I’m no pro, I can run for about half an hour straight. I have a friend who runs…like ACTUALLY runs…for two – three hours daily! But I’ve noticed that when I get on that treadmill or when my runners hit the road, if I have a negative attitude, I can never run as far as I want. If, on the other hand, I think positive, I encourage myself, I can run several miles more than I had planned. Really.

I was just reading on a website that house cleaners who were told their work was meeting the Surgeon Generals specifications had decreased blood pressure, body fat, weight to hip ratio and body mass index a month later. Not so for the house-cleaners who weren’t told this good news!

When you think positive and are given positive results, it affects everything! Your health, your surroundings, your performance.

“The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.”

 -Unknown

Feature Friday!

So before I get started on the Feature:

I’m busy. Like really really busy here at work…and I LOVE it!! This job is exactly what I needed and wanted. It’s weird, I wasn’t thinking that I’d like it this much but I totally do. Lately I’ve been trying to sell the radio “promos”. Like deals for grad or fathers day or aboriginal day coming up. It’s so much fun! I go all over town, hand out our printouts of the deals and tell the owners about them. I’ve only gotten one really negative response, although there have been “no’s”. Mostly though, it’s been very positive. I’ve actually sold about $9,000.00 worth of ads this week! I’m super excited!

Next week I’ll be out on the town selling too! I can’t wait!

Ook, for this Feature Friday I have a really super cool Etsy store  (aren’t they all??). I’ll just let you take a look at these pictures instead of preaching at you (:

Check out their Etsy store!!

The Coppers

So I know I just posted a quick little link yesterday, but I have a few I wanted to post today too. I DO have to get my butt in gear and do a decent post, but I’m so tired and it’s SO beautiful out! I will tonight if I can!

Ha! I dont’ have anything against cops (except that one that gave me a huge ticket a few months back! Grrrr!) but check this movie out!

And for a great laugh, one of my all time favorites!

Hope everyone is getting blessed with the amazing weather we’re having up here!

Quickie

Ew. Don’t be a perv. That’s totally not what I meant

This is just a QUICK POST (see!) for now, until I have more dirt.

Check this out to make you smile (:

DJ kj

Ok, so I’m not a DJ by any means, but I DID get the chance to go live with one of the DJ’s there in the studio! It was so exciting and, although I didn’t think that I’d like my voice, it really wasn’t bad at all! Actually, to tell you the truth, I loved it, the experience,…and I’d LOVE to have training or just practice to have more air time. I also read a quick “liner” (see, I’m already getting into the lingo ) about who I was and that I rep’d the station.

The DJ’s are going to be in my home town next week and they’re going to bring some more ad’s I can read. They’re also going to be working with some student who have an interest in radio. I can’t wait!

This is just a quick entry because hubby and I are going to head out to the movie pretty quick. Indiana Jones, the new one. Should be interesting. To be honest, I haven’t heard many good reviews about this movie, but I never judge something unless I’ve seen it for myself. I actually kinda like it when people bring my hopes down about movies. Then at least I haven’t got high expectations for it and I usually enjoy it much more.

Have you seen this music video yet? Take a look. The song is amazing!

Feature Friday!

I found this great Etsy store while I was cruising through the other day, trying to find a great site to feature this week. Wunjo Wear was exactly what I had in mind! I love the style of their clothes, the modern prints and great vibe. And…their prices are just right!

Fathers day is coming up! These T’s would be perfect gift for your Dad or Husband, with just enough funk to make them feel young and “hip” (do all parents say “hip”, or just mine? .

I’m preposting this as I’ll be out of town tomorrow (Friday). I can’t remember if I’ve told you guys about this before or not, but the entrepreneur centre has a contract with a local radio station. The boss from the station met with me and my boss the other day and said I had the “perfect” voice for radio (phhhhh!!!) and he wants to put me on air. Soooo, I’ll be at the radio station recording voice clips and ads and learning the ropes tomorrow. Sounds interesting and I’m always up for a chellenge!

I’ll let you know how it goes! Should be fun!

Summer Camping

So the camping was AMAZING this past weekend! Really really hot and since the Hubby wanted to use his new quad tires a bit more, us girls had tons of time to read…or walk around in our heels. The neice decided camping was a great time to play dressup, apply her makeup and play with her babies. So while she played or slept, her mom and I read with our feet in the cool river.

It was a lazy camping trip but such a great way to start the camping season and the warm weather!

This may sound strange, but my reading as really improved lately. I used to take aproximately six months to read a novel, I’d read a page or two here and there. But now it only takes me a couple of weeks, if that. This weekend I almost finished my Diana Gabaldon novel, which, by the way is amazing.

There seems to be a lot of sexuality in the books I’ve been reading lately…which isn’t really my taste, so I just skip over those parts. Sometimes it’s ok, but it depends on the depth the writer goes into. Ok, that’s an awkward subject! On to the next!

Q: What book are you reading now? What’s the next one on your list?

I have the second book in this Diana Gabaldon series to read but I’d also like to read an Egyptian book that I found (remember me saying I wanted to read one but couldn’t find ANY? Well…guess what. I found some! YAY!). The books called River God, by Wilbur Smith. I cheated and read the first couple pages already and the writing seems really good! I can’t wait to dive into that culture! I need all the ideas I can get for my own Egyptian novel!

Important People

I’ve decided my new job rocks. Why? Well, one of the many reasons is because I get to meet famous people!! Ok, not all the time, but yesterday I did…and it was awesome!

The US Ambassador came to visit our small town and because the entrepreneur centre where I work is also home to a local radio station, I was able to cover the event. Seeing that I had no idea who the Ambassador was, I really didn’t know which of the guys he was when he walked out of the room he had been in. Walking directly up to me he shook my hand and said “Hi, David Wilkens, and you are?”…oh, I guess that’s him! I thought (: I chatted a bit to him, his Chief of Administration and his wife. They are the most down to earth people, so kind and friendly. I was really impressed!

It didn’t even cross my mind at the time to get a private picture of Mr. Wilkens and I, I wish I had…maybe next time.

What impacted me the most from the Ambassador’s visit and his speech, was how he talked about the Canadian forces and how we need to be proud of the work they are doing along side the American soldiers. It’s so easy to get caught up in the question that’s going around lately “When will Canada bring our forces home?” and not think of the men over there. It’s so easy to get more concerned about the government and their actions to bringing our guys home and not think, or pray for, the actual men over there…fighting, suffering and distanced from their families.

I really hope that this job brings me into the path of many more people like the Ambassador. Famous or not, I love meeting people who have direction and a positive influence on those around them.

Drum Roll Pleaaaase!

And the WINNER ISSSSS!……..

A Little Moore!

Congrats girl! Here’s what your prizes are:

 

Of course I’ll be adding a few treats in as well, but these are the BIG KJ prizes! I hope you enjoy them! Please contact me via email with your info so I can send the prizes to you asap!

Thanks to everyone that participated, all your comment and views are very appreciated! I’ll be back later on with some pretty exciting news so keep your eyes glued to KJ! (:

 

Surprise Surprise!

So I said I had a surprise..and I betcha were thinking it was the winner of the contest…but that’s for tomorrow. As soon as I get my act together and take a photo of the prizes (:

Nope, the surprise today is your first intro to me. The real me. I write, you read, and you meet me…the writing me. But who is really behind those words? What kinda chicky really is KJ? (Whenever I say KJ, I always want to finish it off with LMNOP). Well, here’s a picture of me, not a true close up, but a shot of the hubby and I on our wedding day.

What I find really cool about these pictures is that they aren’t even the ones done by the photographer. My uncle took a camera and shot them for us and they turned out so much better than the photographers shots. Her shots were good too, just not as great as these ones.

Anyways, there I am, in person, the KJ behind the keyboard!

Just Do It!

We just got out of a staff meeting. Boy the girls here know how to talk. They talk about good things, but it seems as though we’re talking too much and not actually doing. I suppose the talking always leads to doing though.

Mostly we were talking about volunteering and how our entrepreneur centre can support and encourage volunteering. I love this idea and it gets me SUPER excited to talk about it and to be involved. We want to build a network for the volunteering community in our town; a base where people can come and find volunteering positions, chat with other volunteers…basically a social networking system for potential and current volunteers.

My biggest fave about this plan is building team work. I’m totally all about teams. I love the idea of working together towards the “greater good”! I love love love the idea of a group of people, all with the same goal in mind, working to make it succeed. It builds pride in your work and your efforts to see it become something, to see the end results. And besides, the in between parts are really fun too. Like the coffees with friends, brainstorming, meeting new people, presenting your ideas, putting those ideas into action. It’s all so exciting!

When people tell me they volunteer I’m like “Wow, they volunteer? That’s awesome”. My eyebrows raise and I think of how involved they are, how community minded, that they’re elite…it even crosses my mind that they must be one of those “green freaks” (“freaks” in every good sense of the word!). But then a shock runs through me as I remember I volunteer…I’ve been doing it for three years (or is it four?) straight now but it doesn’t even cross my mind that it’s volunteering. It’s just something I do constantly, part of my week.

When my hubby and I first got married we wanted to do something together. Our marriage counselor told us that finding something in common, a common activity (ahem…other than that!!) would build our marriage closer and help us get to know each other better. So the only logical thing to do was to volunteer at The Ark, a local Christian youth centre, as ball hockey coaches. We’ve been doing it ever since and it’s become part of our lives. When the season ends the manager of The Ark asks us if we’re going to be back next season and there’s no question in our mind if we will, it’s just natural to go back…it’d just be weird if we didn’t!

I don’t think enough people volunteer. They see it as a hassle, another commitment to fill their week and believe me I totally get that! Some nights it’s SO hard to drag myself to The Ark, to be positive with the kids. It’s hard work! But it’s so worth it. The kids always love to see us, they all have their own way of teasing us or their little stories they want to share with us. I think it’s the same way with all volunteer jobs, it’s hard to get there, it takes up our TV time or our visit with friends, but once we’re there, it’s very rewarding. In the end, even if it takes 15 years to see the results or the feedback, it makes us feel like better people.

Ok, I’ll stop ranting (: As you can see I’m pretty passionate about this and I could go on for years.

Hope you all had a great weekend! I got an awesome tan and just about finished reading my novel..that’s what I call a good weekend!

I have a surprise later on this afternoon, make sure you check in!

Have a Gooder!

 

I’m really excited about this greenery as you can tell! (My second post with GREEN pictures in it!) My sister in law and I are headed out to grocery shop for camping, M&M’s here I come! I seriously can’t go camping without those…and a good book just in case the boys decide to go quadding and leave us behind.

It’s supposed to be nice all weekend so hopefully I’ll get a touch of sun on these white cheeks!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! I’m hoping to have some good shots of camping this time, last time was a dud when it came to pictures as there was still snow and mud all around. Gross. This time it will hopefully be dry and green! Green green green!

Here’s a few things to keep you busy this weekend:

Jek In The Box
Rosie Hardy’s Flickr (she’s super creative!)
Posie Gets Cozie. Trust me, you’ll love her!

 

 

Friday Feature!

I’ve decided to feature a few favorite Etsy shops each Friday…hence the “Feature Friday” title (smart aren’t I?;). Here’s a few that I’ve found either under my favorites or just cruising through Etsy. Have fun!

Makool

Ben and Oliver

Bay Moon Studio

Thanks for all the entries on the Contest! Today is the last day to enter, so if you’re visiting, make sure you pop your name by commenting on the “Contest!” entry. I’ll be announcing the winner early next week as well as posting a picture of their prize!

Green Grass

 

Last night I tried to garden…I walked around the yard, hoping to find something to weed, something to get my hands dirty. Nothing. In our area, the veteran gardeners don’t suggest to plant your garden before the May Long weekend, so I can’t plant anything yet.

I ended up planting some Basil to grow in the house, grabbing my book and camera and laying on the grass for a while. Cobes thought I was playing, why else would I lay on the ground??, and would sporadically come and pounce on me or lick my face as she walked by. She finally settled down and chewed her twig while I relaxed, soaking up the sun and feeling the grass on my feet.

I’m so releived it summer! It feels so good to have the sun beating down and the yard looks so fresh and green and bright! I just can’t wait until after this weekend when I’ll plant my Foxgloves, Hollyhocks, Peonies, Lupins and hopefully a few Hydrangea trees (trees? or shrubs?).

The last picture of Cobie shows off her big ears…”Cobie – Bat Dog!”.

Q: What are your summer weekend plans?

She’s FAMOUS!

 

Remember back a few weeks ago (months, was it?) when I posted about camping? At that point I didn’t have my pictures off of the camera…and because of the new laptop I didn’t actually figure out how to transfer pictures from the camera to the LT until last night. I’m actually really technical, but I couldn’t find the camera cord for the longest time and then last night remembered that you can take the memory chip and plug it directly into the camera. Simple!

Anyways, that was a long way of saying “here are a couple pics from the camping trip!”. I’m so good with the words.

Camping again this long weekend! I actually can’t wait. The weather is supposed to be hot hot hot and the green is just starting to show in the woods, should be a good weekend. We were planning on going for two nights but now the hubby is thinking about taking a trip to Edmonton or Calgary to look at trucks…so it will probably end up being just one night.

One of my friends, Georgia Murray, now has her music available on itunes!! She also has a facebook fan page with more pictures and updates. Check ‘er out!

I still have to figure out how to center pictures on wordpress…it doesn’t work when I press “center” (the obvious choice!) when I upload a picture…hmmm.

I feel like I have no time lately! I’d love to read up in my Idiots Guide to Being an Entrepreneur, or some of these business magazines, but I have no time! Maybe one of these days we’ll slow down and I can relax!

Quick! Send it!

You know those emails that go around, those dumb forwards saying that if you send it to so many people good luck with befall you? There’s emails that go even further (further but still realistic in our super-charged technology-minded world) and say that if you forward the certain email, it will be tracked and you will earn money for every third (or so) recipient. I’ve had so many friends fall for these emails and send me copies…which I don’t forward because honestly, how can Microsoft seriously track my emails? And why would I even allow them to do that?

Anyways, here at work we have tons of magazines, a small library really, on business, technology and general money making. I was flipping through one of these mags this morning, Wired, and finally confirmed my beliefs! Jonathon Keats, the author, started researching this email trend when he received one of these emails from a trusted (and apparently brilliant) friend. He phoned the “authors” of the letter, emailed the recipiants of the letter to see if they ever received the so called prize.

His calls to the “originators” of this email proved to be fruitless as they were just people who’s name had been added to the letter after they sent it. Somehow, the system took their name (as it would with future names of senders) making them the “senders”, when really, they were just Joe-Blo’s like us, trying to see if they would earn money off of this email.

Finally, the author, Jonathon reached an internet archivist who claimed that he had one of the first emails of this kind. Martin Miller, the archivist, had received this email in 1997. The first name on the list of “originators” at that point was a Bryan Mack.

To make a long story short, Jonathon reached Bryan Mack and finally put the wondering to rest. This email, Mack said, had started on a whim. A thought, an “I wonder”, if he could create a better one that another hoax he had received. His plan had snowballed (ha! You could say that!) and continued much longer than he had planned. By the time he became worried that he would be accused of fraud, there was no worry, since his name had long been erased from the letter.

Innnnteresting! So it IS a hoax…I don’t have to keep an eye out for that missing cheque anymore. Wouldn’t it be nice to earn money just by sending our friends emails? We’d all be rich!!

In other news: I received the card I won over at Twiddlestix’s blog!! YAY!! It’s beautiful and SUCH good quality! Twiddles, you amaze me! Good work girl and thanks so much for making me your winner!

Also, the other day (ok, I always say that…but really it was like a month ago!) I received my stamp from Sweet Paperie, a GREAT Etsy shop! Check it out…my own name in ink! Yay!!

Busy Bee

I’ve been trying all day to write an entry, opening a New Post page and closing it again! I have a free moment here at work, so I open it…then I get busy, have to run, someone calls for help, and I have to close it again!

Tonight we’re having guests for dinner (spaghetti!) so I won’t have time to write an entry…but I’ll make it double good for tomorrow! I’ll try to rouse up some drama tonight so I have something spectacular to write about! (:

Thanks to everyone that has entered in the contest so far! There’s a lot of entries, I’m SO EXCITED! And still three more days to go!

It’s Beautiful!

                        

This weekend was beautiful, so sunny, so summer…it was perfect! We had a campfire, roasted wieners and marshmallows and didn’t even have to bundle up, we gardened and didn’t have to wear a sweater, we washed the cars and didn’t have to worry about the doors freezing shut.

Of course it was Mothers Day, so I went up to the local greenhouse to buy the moms a pot and some basil…and of course came back with things for me too! I needed to add to my foxglove collection so I purchased three more plants as well as three Hollyhock plants. I just discovered Hollyhocks and LOVE the British feel they’ll give to my garden (: Maybe I’ll add some Lupins in there as well. Annnd Grandma told me she has some Tulip bulbs she’d love to give me so those will be filling another flower bed.

I really need to buy a book on how to care for my plants. I was reading one at my mom-in-law’s last night and learned that Foxgloves and Hollyhocks love moist soil. Totally didn’t know that. It might come in handy to know these types of details…and perhaps my flowers will live longer…or actually live…

Also, I need to buy a fence or wire to go around my flower beds. At the moment my dog thinks that they are her walking path.

When I was younger (this is completely off of the above subject!) I read this book about an Egyptian slave girl. I loved it and have since been in love with the Egyptian culture and beliefs. But I can’t seem to find another novel that fills this need…I bought one in Chapters last time we were there and was not impressed at all. The concept of the book was cool, apparently translated directly from scrolls (not quite sure if this was part of the fiction or not…) but it wasn’t written well at all. I didn’t finish it.

Last night I turned on the TV and watched a show about a team of scientists finding Queen (King) Hatshepsut. SO INTERESTING!! And this show got me thinking. I love Egyptian history, I love writing, I can’t find a novel in this era that I like…why not write my own Egyptian novel?? I’m going to start with researching, reading historical textbooks and biographies and see where it gets me. I can’t commit to such a huge process right now, but it is a dream I’d like to start making reality soon.

Q: Do you have a favorite historical novel?

I Have a Thought

Actually, I have many, but according to Damien, our brains can only take in so many, so I’ll be withholding a few of the thoughts until later

Blogs are selfish. At least mine is, or has been lately, and that annoys me. Instead of writing “me me me”, I need to reach out more. I need to think “How can I help my reader? What can I say that they will be interested in?”. Unfortunately, lately it’s been more about what I need to vent, and I feel bad about that. It might have to do with the lack of writing time lately, most likely it does, but that’s no excuse. If I’m going to write, I need to focus on making it more meaningful and not just verbal diarrhea (I love that saying, don’t you??).

Also. I’ve been reading The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Being an Entrepreneur and the first ten pages are so fun. They’ve made me see that I am every bit an Entrepreneur and always have been…how that happened exactly, I’m not sure, but I swear it’s in my blood!

“Entrepreneurs are opportunists who seek out a problem or an unfulfilled need and find creative ways to solve the problem or satisfy the need”. -Idiots Guide to Being an Entrepreneur

And now apparently I’m an “idiot” since I had to read this “idiots guide” to realize this. Oh well, I’ve been called worse.

Maybe I’m strange, but I’ll be sitting on the toilet (sometimes I’ll just go there to do this) and be thinking of how I can improve my Etsy items, my store, my promotional ideas. I’ll think of what I can do, a book I can read, a course I can take, an event I can plan, someone I can ask for help…I’ll just sit there going from one idea to the next, never satisfied until I quench that fire, which always leads to another spark and flame. I’m constantly, CONSTANTLY, thinking of ideas to earn money, ways to improve where I’m at, business ideas to help my dad, things I can add to my Etsy store…

“To turn an idea into an opportunity, an entrepreneur has to apply experience, imagination, talent, energy, and cold hard cash until the idea takes root and attracts customers.” -Idiots Guide to Being an Entrepreneur

That’s the hard part, trying to apply everything until it actually takes. It’s a matter of having a good idea and marketing it to the right crowd…annnd marketing it until it’s noticed. The best part about it being your own business, idea or venture, is that it’s ok to make mistakes and matter of fact, that’s how you’re going to learn the best.

I know a lady who is always rolling her eyes at her husbands ventures. “I told him what’s wrong, but he doesn’t seem to get it”. People need to be able to figure things out for themselves. If someone tells you something, that’s great, but honestly, the problem isn’t going to hit home as much until you actually experience it yourself. Mistakes aren’t bad! They help engrain in your mind what is wrong, what will work and what doesn’t. That’s success! Knowing what not to do the next time is a huge step towards a winning venture.

I could go on, but I’ve run out of writing time! I’m glad to be back in the swing of things though! Have a great weekend guys! I’ll try to make more space to write this weekend, now that I’m not busy handing out resumes etc (: