Every so often I do a search for my stuff to see where it’s popping up at online. One place it’s popping up more often is Etsy Treasuries like this one.
I also seem to pop up on various live journal stuff a lot. Luckily I have yet to pop up on one of those “Fug the Etsy Product” lists.
Edited: April 30th, 2009
Alice went to pirateland after her trip to wonderland… okay, not really but that’s kind of how I feel after what I’ve been working on this weekend. I did either pirate skull and cross bones stuff or Alice in Wonderland stuff.
I’ve started slowly listing it in my etsy store. I don’t want to list all the stuff I did this weekend all at once and then have nothing to list tomorrow. I seem to do better at my store when I have a consistent flow of new products instead of doing a listing dump of 20 products all at once.
So first up. I found these great vintage glass bottles with plastic water tight stoppers. I’ve painted a variety of “drink me”s on the bottles and I’m labeling them in my store in such a way that you’ll get exactly the one pictured when you order. It’ll cut out conversations asking if a particular bottle can be purchased and will make the buying process easier I think.
I have about 12 of these in various styles that I’ll be listing. I also have some more Alice themed stuff I’m working on. Some is finished and i just need to procure a way to ship it (they’re oddly shaped) and some I need to work on a bit more before I put them in my store because their current form is not making me happy.
On to Pirate stuff. I have another “smoking is death” ashtray up in my store. This is probably my favorite ashtray so far. I ended up doing three of these this weekend but they’re all different styles of ashtray. One sold to a friend before I even got to list it.
I have some pirate plates I’ll be slowly listing as well as a pirate platter. I’m working on a new Horde platter that comes complete with some shot glasses that look like mana bottles. It’s so awesome I almost don’t want to list it… almost.
Edited: April 29th, 2009
I worked my tush off this weekend and I have a ton of stuff to put in my shop. I’m really happy with the way the new dishes turned out and I started taking photos of them today for listing purposes. Naturally this means that the camera battery died and I’m waiting for it to recharge. This means I had time to pull some photos of the camera (I’ve been slacking lately).
So I’ll post the photos that make me smile but have nothing to do with my shop update. First up? A photo of the flowers my dad and his Tammie sent me for my birthday. She picked out some really pretty golden roses for my golden birthday. Cody and I loved them so much we want to plant some in the yard at the new house.
Next up in a picture from my son’s sixth birthday. Wesley thought my tattoo was so super cool. Not only did someone get to draw on me in “forever ink,” I paid them to do it! He thought that was awesome and wants to be a tattoo artist now. His brother picked out a perfect gift for Wes: a faux tattoo sleeve. Wes and I compared tattoos and he wears his sleeve all the time now. It clashes a bit with the black vest and clip on tie he likes to wear, but the kid has his own style and I think it’s awesome.
This is a picture of Wes getting ready to blow out his candles on his boston creme pie cake. He’d originally wanted cheesecake, but decided on boston creme pie cake after seeing it in the store. Other things he wanted for his dinner? Salad with vegetarian chik patties and tea.
Hopefully the camera battery will charge quickly so I can share the latest disheware projects.
Edited: April 29th, 2009
We had the inspection done on the house last friday and it was actually a really neat process. The gentleman who inspected our house was awesome (the company is Higgens Home Inspection and his number is (660) 909-1820 btw in case you’re in the Warrensburg, Mo area and are looking for an inspector).
Mr. Higgens found a couple very minor things wrong with our house and he was incredibly thourough when looking through the place, so much so that it took almost 3 hours to do the inspection. We really got a lot of peace of mind from it though because the house is old (over 80 years) and there’s so much that *could* be wrong with it. It was nice to find out the list is minor.
So what’s wrong with the house? Only two things we’ll expect the seller to fix: A broken window and an outlet that doesn’t trip. The outlet is in the bathroom and they probably don’t even know it’s a safety hazard that needs to be replaced.
Other things wrong that we plan on doing ourselves:
ground cover is next to a basement window and this could rot the window. We need to dig it out and put a metal curved thing there to keep the ground cover back.
There’s a small tree growing right up next to the house that should be moved so that it doesn’t damage the foundation. We didn’t like the way the porch is shaped in order to have this tree grow there and planned on removing it anyway
Another HUGE tree has branches resting on the shingles and while this is not a safety issue, it can cause us to lose some of the roof when we have ice storms. The branches would get heavy with ice and all that ice would be resting on our roof. We don’t want to get rid of the tree because it’s old and pretty, but we will have someone come cut the branches that are next to the house.
Next up is a ceiling fan that has the fan part not working. We think this fan is yucky and would replace it anyway. It not working is just a reason to do so.
The vent above the stove tries to work, but doesn’t. We think it just needs to be cleaned… it’s ugly though so if it’s broken, we’re going to replace it right away. If it’s not broken, we’re still going to replace it with something nicer looking.
Everything major with the house is fine though and that was a huge weight off our minds. We even found out some neat things about the house while doing the inspection and we were able to bounce ideas off our inspector to find out if things we want to do are things we’re allowed to do.
So now I’m slowly picking out things we’re going to do to the house. I have a running list on the computer and a folder on firefox bookmarks that is housing all the ideas or products I find online that I’d like to add to the house. I can’t wait to do a play by play of the house and what we do.
Edited: April 27th, 2009
I’m curious if any of you (my assumed readers) have one of these? I have a folder on my computer with several subfolders that I store various pictures from around the web in. I usually just right click and save random photos of things I like, things that inspire me, etc. and I finally started going through those photos to see what types of things I like in a house.
I like nuetral colors with a pop of teal or red.
I like leather furniture
I like nonflowering plants in white or clear containers spread around the house
I like chalkboard painted items
I love silk curtains that go near the ceiling
I LOVE hardwood floors and no wall to wall carpet
I love old houses
I love veggie and herb gardens and tire swings
I like designated animal spots in the house
I like wide open kitchens with places for people to sit and talk to you, but not a full on table
I like a tea/coffee cabinet and a comfy chair to drink and read in
My idea file is several gigs worth of stuff and now that I know which house we’re getting, I’m cutting out the things that don’t mesh with what Cody and I see for our new home. It’s an older home and so we don’t want to get too out of character with the home, but we’re also not going to do it a traditional style.
I love the coverlet on this bed. I’d want it in a gray or teal because the rest of my masterbedroom is influenced by this room
I love the dark walls, the pop of wallpaper, the hanging lamps. I want a different style of lamp (one that doesn’t flair) and a leather headboard that we’ve already picked out.
I have some more photos in the bedroom file, but I’ve misfiled a couple of my favorites. I can’t wait to start picking and choosing parts of these photos to have it turn in to our perfect rooms.
Edited: April 22nd, 2009
We go in to the realtor’s office in about 30 min to sign the paperwork for the house. I get to move in to it June 5. The pile on the table is ever growing and every time I get overwhelmed, I go look at my happy place.
That’s the realtor website’s photo of my house. I don’t particularly like (for me) the colors of the inside (or that mustard yellow either for that matter), but my soon to be mine new to me 80+ year old house has lovely bones. We’ve already started planning out the colors we want and everything. I have some friends that are going to help us paint, plant a garden etc.
It is terribly exciting for me and my husband seems excited too. We’re going from base housing (which is approximately 1500 square feet or so they say) to 2700 square feet. I have room for my business area, he gets a dedicated home for his computer (the parlor to the master bedroom. yes, it has a parlor omg), our boys get their own rooms if they want them, the dogs get a big back yard to play in… We’re in the middle of down town and walking distance to the stuff we like to go to, we’re walking distance to the college Cody and I will be transfering to, walking distance to my sons’ schools…
After 8 years in base housing, we’ve figured out quite a bit of what we do like and what we don’t like in a house. This house fits most of the do likes and I can’t wait to move in to it. June 5! YAY! I can’t wait to share more photos of a house that fits my life style and my family and my stuff.
Edited: April 21st, 2009
We’re moving in a littler more than 40 days to our new (to us) home. The house itself is actually around 80 years old and it’s (mostly) beautiful. We love (almost) everything about it. I visit it’s realtor.com listing every so often (okay, a lot) and my husband now calls it my happy place.
I have plans for this house and I can’t wait to move to it. In the mean time, I’m getting ready for the basewide garage sale that takes place at the end of May. We’re doing a major purge before the move and it feels good. I thought I had kept our excess crap out really well, but apparently I was wrong. I have an entire dinning room table full of stuff that will be tagged and boxed tomorrow. We’re tagging as we box in order to make things easier when we do the garage sale. So tag, box, bring over to our friend’s house because we’re doing a joint sale with him.
My method for choosing stuff is really pretty simple: “Do I love this?” and “When did I last use this” oh and “Can I think of something I’ll use this for right now?” If the answers aren’t what I want them to be, it goes to the table. I have a bunch of dishes that we don’t use often, have multiples of, don’t love etc., toys the kids don’t use, random things I picked up at auctions and used for a while but no longer want… the list goes on and on.
In the process of doing this, I’ve also taken a good hard look at my craft stuff. I think it’s time to ditch the sewing machine. Sewing is something I would *love* to learn how to do but I suck at it. I can not even sew a good looking pillow. I’d rather just suck it up, admit I can’t do the craft, and pay someone else to do it for me because really I’m not saving any money doing it myself. I mess up the stuff so badly that I end up needing to do it again and by the time I have a semi presentable project, I could have saved money and time and frustration by paying someone else to do it. So all that sewing stuff is going as is any other craft project that I keep thinking I’ll do and then I don’t. I’m being brutal here folks, but I need to be. I have too many types of things I want to try and not enough time to try them. It’s time to be picky and be realistic about my crafting abilities. Fabric crafts just aren’t in the cards for me.
And when I waiver about getting rid of stuff, I tell myself how much nicer the new house will be when it’s just got the stuff I love in it and not the stuff I was to stubborn to let go.
Edited: April 20th, 2009
The shop of the week for the etsy twitter team is L’élephant Rose and she’s doing this great deal for customers. Free shipping on any US domestic orders and 50% off international shipping on orders placed this week. Use code “ETT” in message to seller to redeem.
I’m loving this awesome flower headband. 
If you want to read her full interview, check out the twitter team’s blog post on the official team blog.
Edited: April 17th, 2009
I’m continuing the zombie kick over in my etsy store. Because Zombies are just that cool. Well, until they try to eat your face off.
First up is the zombie collection. It includes TEN buttons for $22 (plus shipping) and is great if you love the zombie buttons and want to save a little cash. Colors vary from collection to collection, but all the pictured phrases are included in each purchase
I’m also adding the individual buttons to my store. New ones like “you can’t keep a good zombie down” are being added on a daily basis which is always fun.
Edited: April 17th, 2009
I have this friend that died almost six years ago now. We were friends since jr. high when she moved to my town. We had a period in high school where we weren’t talking because she was hanging out with some bad eggs that I wouldn’t hang out with too. So we didn’t talk for a little while, she ended up coming to her senses and we were best of friends again. She was a huge support system for me when I was young and pregnant and an even bigger support system for me after I had my son.
She was a huge part of my life even when we weren’t living near each other. We talked on the phone constantly and we were both trying to figure out how to do the living on our own thing without calling our mommies to help us figure out stuff. So we’d call each other and compare notes and what we were doing. She was my one friend that was close to the same stage in life as me at the time and it brought us even closer together.
Then she died from complications due to meningitis.
I talk to her mother still, every so often. I make it a point to go see her when I’m in town visiting my parents. She said something last year though that made me stop and think. She said it had been almost five years since Kyra’s death and she felt like Kyra’s friends didn’t remember her, that none of them still contact her parents. It made me stop and think that she was completely right. Although I do remember Kyra very vividly sometimes, I never tell her mother about those times. I thought how awful it must be to think that no one remembers the beautiful daughter that they raised.
I still dream about my friend often. It’ll be very realistic and we’ll both be the same age I am (which means she’s gotten older) and we’ll be doing normal stuff. I *always* wake up crying from these dreams and in past I would just try to ignore them until they quit happening. I told myself last year though that I wouldn’t do that anymore. Instead I’m sending her mother a card or flowers or something and letting her know I still remember her daughter. You know what’s weird though? When I do send her mom a note, the dreams seem to just go away. It almost feels like it’s Kyra pestering me to reach out to her mom. Silly huh?
So I just wrote this note that is in a funky purple envelope and the card has a picture (comic style) of red roses with some sparkles on them. It’s sitting here looking like something Kyra herself would have sent and it made me cry writing it. I laughed too though and the laughing is what makes it so worth having known her even though it was (and still is at times) so incredibly painful she’s gone.
And so I’m going to go drink a glass of really good wine, look through some photos and then let it go for a little while.
Edited: April 9th, 2009
