Wrapping up 2015!

Quite a bit has been going on here since my last post. We had to take our cat Sunshine to the vet over Thanksgiving weekend and again for another few days right before Christmas. He is recovering wonderfully and is pretty much back to normal now. All of my chickens have now molted except for one: Penelope. Christmas was a little lonely without the girls but we managed and Christmas dinner was sorta fubar'd but we made up for it the day after. LOL January looks like it will be busy and hopefully things can get back to normal come February.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and here's to a wonderful new year!! BRING ON 2016!!

Cards and Coloring

Yesterday I finished up my Christmas cards. I decided this year I'm only sending out 20 cards. Now that they are finished, I just need to get them addressed and mailed but it's still a little early to send them, of course. :b

I got up this morning and decided to go over to Staples to see about getting one of my new adult coloring books spiral bound. Well, they don't do that anymore...unless you cut the binding off yourself first. The woman at the counter told me that the cutting part was ruining their machine. I think they need to get a new machine. LOL I was reading online that you can heat the binding with a hairdryer and pull the pages off yourself but I'm just wondering if that is a risk I want to take. It would sure be nice to lay my book flat when I'm coloring!! =) I may give it a try, I may not. Why in the world do these books not already come spiral bound??? EVERYONE will want them to lay flat for coloring...duh.

I think today is just a coloring kind of day. Not feeling all that great. The other day I picked up some Staedler colored pencils at Michael's to try them out...ew, I don't like them at all (and will return them)! I don't like that they are triangle shaped and they sharpen funny. I think I will just stick with my 50ct. Crayolas. LOL They aren't fancy but the colors are bright and blend well. My coloring books are just for me anyway, right? hehe

eBay Junk!

Just a little rant. Why do eBay sellers insist on adding my email address to their mailing list (aka SPAM) without my permission? If I want to be on their mailing list I have the option to subscribe. eBay already has a system set up for this. It just irks me that I have to go through the trouble to unsubscribe because I was not asked if I would like to subscribe or not. I know it's a minor thing, but 100 pennies makes a dollar. I don't know how many lists I have had to unsubscribe myself from and my time is precious. I have better things to do with it. Bleh! Okay, I'm done. LOL

So today I go to check a tracking number for a set of stamps I purchased the other day from eBay. The tracking information says the package was delivered yesterday. Really? So I head out to the mailbox to check again because my husband had already checked the mail yesterday evening and he said there was no mail. I know my husband isn't blind...so when I get to the mailbox and see what I already knew I went over and knocked on my neighbor's door to see if maybe the package was accidently put in her mailbox. She says no but she also informs me that she saw our postal carrier take a small package to my door yesterday after he visited our mailboxes. So I go check around my front porch thinking maybe the wind blew it off the porch and into or behind my lavender bush. I look everywhere (even under the doormat)...no package. So I call the post office. The woman I spoke to said to call in the morning so I could speak to my carrier and find out if he remembers the delivery. So I plan on doing that. I also left the seller positive feedback because of course this is not her fault and the tracking says it was delivered...but this is not the end of my story. LOL

So, these photopolymer stamps I ordered are actually a replacement of the same stamps I bought the previous week from another eBay seller. The problem with the first order was that when I recieved the stamps they were gummy and one broke off when I went to peel it off the acetate. The seller was awesome and refunded me with no problems. Now I'm just wondering do I find another set to buy or am I not meant to own them??? LOL This has never happened to me and it's so weird that I should have problems with both purchases. I will update tomorrow after I speak with my carrier. =)

Bring on more rain!! My grass is just starting to turn green again!

UPDATE: My carrier told me that he left the package on my front porch. So, someone walked off with it. I hope they are enjoying my faerie stamps!! =/

It's Finally Raining!!

It's been raining here for the last FULL day! My lawn might even turn green in a couple weeks! YAY!!! :b

The last few weeks have been quite busy! I keep meaning to get on here and update but after I get all my tasks finished, I want to get off the computer and get other things done around the house. I'm working on cutting down my emails and stuff. It just takes up too much time of my day! One thing I have been working on too is switching to a new email address and that is always a LOT of work and time involved. I'm sure you have been there a time or two yourself.
So last month (October) we were getting our house ready to put on the market. We are anxious to get moved. It's just time to do it but now that it's fall and Thanksgiving and Christmas are upon us, it's a down time in the housing market and sadly we will have to wait until the spring to get our house listed at the price we need. =(

My best friend Rene came to visit mid-month and we had an absolute blast!! We spent a couple days shopping for papercrafting supplies at a couple 3 or 4 or was it 5 scrapbooking stores!?!?? LOL It was a lot of fun. We had been saving a couple card kits from Simon Says Stamp so we could work on them together and we did! We made a mess in my diningroom! This top picture is AFTER the clean up of a full day working on the SSS October kit. We made 10 cards each...you can sorta see them at the back of the table.

The bottom picture is after day 2 that we papercrafted all day with the SSS August kit. Rene actually took this picture because I forgot to get one before we cleaned up!! LOL She made another 10 cards and I made 11...so in all we made 41 different cards and still have supplies leftover to do quite a few more. Those SSS monthly kits are a lot of fun and the products included are fantastic!! My only complaint is that I wish SSS would include some envelopes!! hehe

We were going to catch a movie at the theatre while she was here but there was NOTHING playing that we wanted to see...so we opted for an Underworld marathon instead because you know how much we love our vampire movies. Team Selene!! :b After 6 days, it was really sad to see her go home. My siamese cat couldn't have been happier to have his house back to normal, though. LOL

So a few days after Rene left, my hubby had to leave for a week to Colorado Springs for some training for his job. I absolutely hated him being gone and it was so nice when he returned home!! =)

Yesterday, I mostly finished my daughter's Christmas cards. I just have a small embellishment to add to them and then get them packaged up and sent to her so she can get them filled out and sent off. After I get that done, I'm going to be working on another (because I already did one at the end of Sept.) small set of Christmas cards to put in my shop AND THEN I'll get my cards done up so I can get them ready to be mailed!!

So that's (most of) my updates for the last month or so -- except I forgot to mention that we will be downsizing our chicken population from 6 to 4. A family we know has agreed to take our two Ameraucanas, Charlotte and LadyHawke. I'm waiting for them to finish molting because change while molting is really hard on them. So that's it! =) Until next time...

Getting my groove [back] on...

For the last year or so I've been kinda feeling like I don't really fit in anywhere. I knew where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do but it felt really awkward trying to get going. I guess that is why I don't post to this blog that much. It just feels really strange to me. It partly has to do with how I feel about myself, too. It's sad but I have felt for a long time like I'm not good enough and people probably won't like my creations and I'll never sell anything in my shop...lol

So, since I have opened my Etsy shop it has been slow. I blame that on not putting myself out there via social media. Yes, I have Twitter and Pinterest and Instagram. Oh, and now I have Periscope -- which is pretty kewl, btw. It's fun popping into a scope and there is someone else crafting while I'm doing a little cardmaking of my own. =) Anyway...I just figured I could get my shop going if I'm really careful about my use of tags, descriptions and be the queen of my customer service and I think I'm doing pretty well. My shop was really starting to pick up and it seemed like I was getting a lot of sales. However, my sales have really slowed like molasses in winter but I blame Etsy and their category changes for that and it really got me down. Until I visited the forums a week or so ago to look for help in the matter I thought maybe I was doing something wrong or maybe I broke it!! Apparently, I'm not and I didn't. MANY sellers have been struggling since the category changes back in Feb/March.

Recently, I made some changes of my own. I purged a lot of crap I was not using and my dear sweet husband pointed out how I could save some valuable real estate in my craftroom and that has helped more than I could've imagined. Just a few small changes has put me back in the mood to be creative and do some stuff I have been putting off because I was just feeling so lousy about everything. I have made quite a few cards lately. I don't know if I will list them in my Etsy shop or try listing them in my shop on another website (not eBay, too many fees!). I may list them at both and pray I don't sell anything on both websites at the same time! o.0

I just kinda wanted to put this out there in case anyone was reading my blog and wondered why I keep slacking off on posting. =/ I was actually thinking about moving my blog back over to Blogger, too. I'm still sorta kicking that idea around. It would be nice to not be restricted by widgets/HTML/scripting because I'm not ready to pay for full Wordpress access. Hmmm...maybe I should try Tumblr?

P.S. Yes. I have Facebook, too but I can't stand it. I keep Facebook to stay in touch with a few friends and family (LOL sometimes I play Farm Town). ~8)

My Craftroom

Here is where I do all of my crafting. Well, it's actually where I make the biggest messes. :b

I have most of what I need within reach. You can barely see my heat gun hanging from the table. To my right (not pictured) I have my carousel with pens, rulers, tape runner, scissors, tweezers and whatever else I can fit in it. hehe

This is where I keep all of my whale tail punches, most of my woodblock stamps and my SU! ink pads.

I keep all of my SU! stamp sets here on this shelf. I have converted all of the wood block sets to cling, printed off covers for them and stored them in the DVD style cases. It's so easy to see what I'm looking for. I also have each set cataloged in a small binder. Also pictured is the two big cats my daughter Chelsea painted. At one time, they were displayed in our local art gallery. I kinda stole them from her with permission. hehe My room is adorned with art that both of my girls made through the years. I'm REALLY proud that they are both so talented when it comes to the arts. =)

I have another shelf with all my stamps that are stored in pockets for easy access. I still need to set up a filing system for them, but at least they are all put away nicely and I can still find what I'm looking for. My husband installed shelving in the double wide closet for even more storage and it's nice to not have a cluttered space to create in. Will take more pictures later of how I have other things organized. Just wanted to give everyone an idea what my room looks like. ~8)

Garden is planted!

I have been really bad about posting on my blog...nothing new about that, though. LOL So the last time I posted I had just received my MISTI. Yes, I still love it...don't know how I got along without it. :b

We finally got our garden planted. We got a late start as we had to come up with a gate system to keep our chickens out of the boxes and right after we came up with something that worked, the wind blew it down. Lucky for us, the chickens hadn't noticed it. HAHA Plan B...all fixed and a better solution. We planted tomatoes, (purple) bell peppers, sugar snap peas, chives, zucchini, cucumber, cantaloupe, sunflowers and radishes. Everything is sprouted that we planted from seed. The few things we bought all made it (except for one of the cucumbers) and are doing well. The tomatoes are already over a foot tall and trying to flower. I pulled off all the flowers day before yesterday. The little sunburst tomato plant that we bought and grew last year did not die over the winter. I had cut it all down when the weather started getting cold and just over a month ago it started coming back when it started warming up again. Yesterday I noticed one of the tomatoes has ripened. Imagine that! Oh, and we added an apricot tree to the backyard this year, too! =)

So we are already in the high 80s...crazy! What happened to winter cuz it never really happened!? =( We need rain!!

Sales in my shop have been pretty steady. I'm not rolling in the dough or anything but I'm making sales here and there. I have a bunch of stuff I need to get posted but I have been really lazy about getting it done. Mostly just busy with other things that need to be done right now. We took the cats to the vet on Monday. Baby has a cavity; Sunshine may have a skin tumor; both needed dewormed; both got upper respitory shots. Back in 3 weeks for 2nd set of upper resp. shots and rabies vaccination. The fun never ends! =)

The fantastic MISTI =)

I received my MISTI the other day and played around with it...HOLY SMOKES!!! It's so awesome!! I love it!! No, I mean I SERIOUSLY LOVE IT!! How did I go so long without it? Now I see what everyone has been talking about!! LOL It's great for everyday stamping. You just can't stamp wrong with it!! I won't be using my Stamp-a-ma-jig or my acrylic blocks as often as I used to, that's for sure!! =)

Well, I need to finish waking up and get a package from my shop ready to ship. Take care and have a beautiful day!!!

If you are interested in getting your own MISTI: My Sweet Petunia.

My Pink Floyd moment...

So this morning when I got up to let my chickens out..my rooster started chasing a couple of the girls around (this is routine) and I said to him "Hey rooster...leave them chicks alone". As soon as it came out of my mouth I realized what I said. LMAO I had my very own Pink Floyd moment. I giggled all the way back into the house. HAHA

I'm waiting ever so patiently for my MISTI (trying anyway!). My order is still being processed. I'm so excited, I almost pee myself everytime I think about it!!! =)

I am still working on getting my stamps reorganized into pockets. I am going to get the last of them finished up today and get the media shelf moved out of my craft room. It's literally standing in the middle of the room off to the side. LOL I've been moving some stuff around as well, still working on how I want the pockets organized. I have also been organizing my dies into the same pockets and remembered yesterday that I still have quite a few smaller dies stored in baseball card page protectors.  >.<

First, I have some dishes to do....

MISTI

I just ordered mine!!! Happy, happy early birthday to meeeee!  :D

MISTI (Most Incredible Stamp Tool Invented)

Daylight savings didn't save me anything. =/

Today has been kinda strange...was hard to get going because of the time change. I really hate daylight savings and wish they would do away with it. It's been really nice here in the 70's so hubby and I got some yard work done. We're getting the garden boxes prepped for planting. =) I love picking fresh veggies from the garden and last year we did our first canning. We plan on doing more this year. My celery I've been growing all winter is looking big and awesome! I know you can buy it cheap...but I was thinking that my chickens would like it. Well, it's the only thing that they've not gotten into and torn up so now it's all mine, mine, mine! HAHA We are also on a mission to get all of our patio plants out of pots and into the ground. Only a couple of them will stay in pots. I just want them all off my patio. My patio is always a mess...but I think it's just all the clutter! So off with the pots! =)

I'm working on a set of new cards. I'm using one of my favorite rubber stamps. It's a super cute fox that I picked up at Stamper's Corner in Elk Grove. I probably paid too much for it but I couldn't bear to put it back on the shelf. Total impulse buy, right? :b I have spent the last couple weeks reorganizing my rubber stamps into pockets. I wish I had done this from the beginning instead of fooling with the CD storage method. Thank you, Jennifer McQuire. =) I had to pick up a new bookshelf for the new storage, but I like it a lot better and now I can store some other stuff on the shelf that I couldn't fit on the media shelf with the CDs. Also a couple of the media shelves were stationary and that really bugged me.

Anyway, I didn't mean to write this long, I need to get my rear in gear and get started on my lasagna and deviled eggs. Will post again in a couple days. Take care!

Time flies when you're having fun or busy.

It has been a lonnnnnnnnng time since I posted! Well, let me get you caught up. I finished up my Christmas cards in November. I wanted to post a picture of them so badly but didn't want any recipients to see. I struggled quite a bit for a couple (couple? yeah right! LOL) weeks deciding how to make them this [last] year. What I really wanted to do was a shaker card but after making a few of them, I decided maybe not for Christmas. After a while I settled on making this one:

I made quite a few of them. The owls were a lot of work, but I enjoyed it immensely. I made over 100 of the owls -- that's a lot of owl parts!! =)

Thank you Darlene DeVries for the super cute card idea!!

Thanksgiving was really quiet at our house. Kids have moved away, some family couldn't make it, some had made other plans. However, it was nice to have Thanksgiving alone, just the two of us, hubby and I. :b

Around September, I had picked up this paper lantern die on clearance at Hobby Lobby. I used the leftover scraps to make the card so they were a cute match!! I gifted them both to my best friend for her birthday along with a couple more goodies. The rest of the year was pretty quiet...except for Wyatt's crowing. :b