Etsy Greetings Showcase

I haven't posted in a few days because I have been busy hanging out with my niece, Mea, and sister-in-law, Paige. Of course we had an amazing time with them. LB and Mea were so cute running around screaming and laughing. Their energy is definitely infectious. And then there's Paige. She is the most adorable pregnant woman around in her short shorts, tank tops and bikinis. She looks just like Paige with a ball on the front. This is probably due in large part to the fact that she is still Zumba-ing at eight months! She's apparently a legend at the local YMCA. Anyway, we were all having so much fun that I neglected the blog and my shop. Tomorrow I hope to blog more about the visit and post some cute pics of the girls. But, for now, on to the showcase.

Etsy Greetings Street Team Showcase

I created this showcase using the search term "etsygreetings." These are a few of my favorites, but there are many, many more out there worth viewing. If you search using either "etsygreetings" or "etsygreetingsteam," you will have hundreds, if not thousands, of choices.

Tweet - Tweet Little Felt Bird (Any Occasion Card)



I love all of the layers and textures in this card by Adore by Nat. And who could resist this lovely little bird?

Herb Notecards - Set of 4



These cards from winemakerssister have me drooling for the first harvest of herbs from my garden. What better way is there to send a greeting during these gorgeous summer months?

Vintage Humpty Dumpty Clown (Note Card)



This card from Kelly Bee's Place looks like a vintage upcycled piece, but is completely new and designed to appear vintage. I love this about it!

Goldfish Bubbles Blank Folded Note Card



Fubabee's goldfish card evokes a peaceful Japanese garden, while also giving one a sense of movement. This is a modern interpretation of a classic theme.

Projects

I have a lot of ongoing projects that I have been meaning to share with you. I don't have any updated pics of the house projects, but we are still in the middle of a playroom renovation (turning our old breakfast nook into LB's space), refinishing the stairs and putting up the reed fencing. I finished the herb garden, with the exception of the mulching. Once that is complete I will post pics of it. The perennial garden is looking awesome, if I do say so myself. The Bee Balm, Jacob's Ladder and Baby's Breath are all in bloom. I also have a new addition to the shade garden. I found an old ladder back chair with a cane seat that is coming apart on the curb in my neighborhood. I brought it home and put it in the fern garden. It has an old kettle with English Ivy growing out of it on the seat. I know this sounds ratty, but it really does look nice. I guess I'm going to have to take pictures to prove it. Anyway, that's what's going on with the house and yard.

Because I'm a glutton for punishment, I have many other crafty-type projects going on as well. I still haven't hemmed the dress I made for LB. She might grow out of it before I get around to this! There is also a patchwork skirt and coordinating halter top in the works for her. And then I bought some gorgeous fabric the other day to make yet another skirt for her. I wasn't planning to make another one, but I couldn't pass up this tree fabric that I found at Joann's. I haven't yet landed on a pattern, but I found several free ones online that are interesting and appear to be fairly straightforward. I randomly bought some additional fabric at the Nearly New Shop in the Highlands. Nearly New is a nicer thrift store that only accepts well cared for clothing and items for the home. I found some vintage dresses that I would have loved to purchase, a bed frame that was adorable, two modern armchairs and some wooden serving plates. Alas, as I am being financially responsible, I didn't buy any of them. I walked out of there with a 50 cent piece of fabric. It's roughly half of a yard and super cool. I don't yet know what I'll do with it, but isn't that the way it goes? I'm leaning toward a small purse with a cane handle, at the moment. So those are potential projects just barely in the works. I have actually been working on some things. I finished the bag for my mom, but I forgot to photograph it before giving it to her. It was made from the paisley fabric I posted a few days ago. She left for the beach this morning and I made the bag large enough to be a beach bag and stuffed a huge bright pink beach towel down in it. I'm still not done with the orange project, but I have started another one. I taught myself to make granny squares using a tutorial from Crochet Cabana. I'm planning to make an afghan from these yarns and, perhaps, a third. This is obviously my first one, so I'll let you know how tortuous the process is.

Then I've also been working on my cards for my shop. What I intended to be a paper goods shop has quickly turned into a card shop. I need to make some albums and embellishments. Anyway, here's a sneak peak at a couple of the new items. I'll be listing them this week. If you decide to buy one or both of them, I'll take 10% off of the price (before shipping). Just put "sneak peak" in the message to seller when you make the purchase.

Signing off...check back later this week for a new gift guide.

Little b Bunny Selected for Gift Guide

I was just selected for my first gift guide on etsy! I'm sooo excited! It's a Father's Day Weekend Deals theme. How cool is that? Here's the link: Gift Guide on Etsy.

And here is a screen shot of the page:

Etsy "Yart Sale" Gift Guide

The annual "Yart* Sale" on etsy began yesterday and goes through the 14th. For specifics on the sales, you can visit the Etsy Supplies Street Team's blog. It's basically a big yard sale for the art on etsy. Fun, huh? I think this would be a good time for a gift guide, don't you? This time I'm taking a different approach to the creation of the guide. Instead of doing all of the searching myself, I'm letting the sellers come to me. I put a post in the forums letting everyone know that I am looking for Yart items to feature. I'm going to let it go for a while and then I will choose those I want to include in the gift guide.

Oceanic Flower Necklace Crocheted in Cotton



All "Yart Sale" items in Fuzzy Lumpkin's Crochet Shop are already discounted 10% and include free shipping.

Gulf Breeze Vegan Soap



All of the soaps in the Solstice Scents Soap Shop are discounted through the end of the "Yart Sale."

Blank Hand-Stamped Red and White Flower Journal



All items purchased from Green Ribbon Gifts during the sale are shipped for free.

Stained Glass--Sunburst



All of Radiance Art's stained glass items are 20% during the sale.

Keep on Growing



Moon Through Fog has a section for the "Yart Sale" in her shop with marked down work. Items not on sale are eligible for free shipping and gift of an original drawing.


*Yard+Art=Yart

And a few of my own "Yart Sale" items:

Blooming Blue



Botanics Art Card Set



my DAD

In Progress

I have just not been motivated to blog for the past few days. I don't know what it is. You know how I love to talk! I guess a lot is going on, but nothing much is going on at the same time. So, I decided to share a few things that are "in progress." The first one is a little depressing and involves poop. Yes, I said it. Poop. While a few years ago this would have been an inappropriate subject for conversation, as soon as I became a mommy, poop suddenly figured large in my life. Well, for the past few months, it has taken an even larger portion of my time and thoughts. LB is having a lot of trouble doing it. At first we thought it was purely psychological. Her doctor recommended prune juice, graham crackers and then Miralax. They made her lose control of her bowels. We were left with no option but to use glycerin suppositories every three days. Yes, we've been doing this for a couple of months. It's terrible. She hates it and gets so upset and then it causes her a lot of pain to actually go. She always looks so betrayed. Well, the doctor is ready to take action. Tomorrow my baby girl has to have a barium enema. Yes, you read correctly. My two year-old has to go through this. Can you imagine? So I have begun to educate her on her digestive system. I know this sounds crazy, but it was my dad's idea. Take it up with him if you disagree. It does seem to be helping some. I explained how it all works and then we practice how she will lay on the table. At the very least, she will know what is happening when it starts. Hopefully, tomorrow we will have some answers.

Okay, now on to the happy stuff. I've been working on some sewing projects lately, but I can't show them all to you. I've been making some gifts and I don't want to give away the surprise. However, I can give you some peeks. In a week or so, I can give you a full look at what I have been working on. I'll also photograph some really cute fabric that I got to make a skirt for LB. I'm excited. It will be my first, so it should be interesting. I made both without patterns. I guess I sew like I cook, huh?

Finally, I have a progress report on Molly and her training. Having a puppy is sort of like having a newborn. Everyone has an opinion or advice. There are different schools of thought on raising and training a puppy. People can bristle if you don't agree with their method. We're taking a course at PetSmart with some success. Our trainer described her teaching style as comparable to the Waldorf style of teaching children. I thought this was amazing, as I am a proponent of such alternative forms. However, when my mother-in-law visited this weekend, she informed us that Molly was running the house and our lives. She made a few suggestions about teaching Molly that she is not the leader of the pack. So, we've settled on a combination of the two methods. This might sound contradictory, but I think it is really going to work for us. We've already seen some improvement in her behavior. She was already ringing a bell to go out, but now she isn't pulling as much when we walk her and isn't mouthing my hands and arms as often. She can also "sit" and "shake" and does fairly well with "take it, leave it." Now we're working on "stay," as we continue to work on the other skills. I included a cute picture of LB and Molly on our way to training. Check back tomorrow for a special feature!

Curated Treasury

Woohoo! I just curated my first Treasury on etsy! My theme/title is "A Sea of Blue" (what else, right?). You can check it out here: "A Sea of Blue." This is the most I could get into a screen shot, so go check out the full page.

It's Over.

Today is the last day of this month's challenge. Whew! I've been doing this for 17 days! I'm tired. I wanted to share some of the feedback that I received from some participants in the challenge:

"I am so grateful to be part of this challenge and send good luck to all of you..."

"I just again want to say it has been pure fun meeting you all in this challenge. I did not get any sales (yet) but I am happy to report that my best visitor day was on Friday with 35 visits. I know that sounds puny, but it is a lot better than the day of 0 visits before I started this challenge.It very difficult for a newbie....I am very appreciative of the exposure I have received.
I also think we are adding good karma to the world by encouraging the art of letter writing; we add beauty to the world with our creations...."

"Just wanted to quickly respond by saying that I'm finding that 10 days and 10 people is a little too much. I have many different types of things in my shop, so trying to stay in the paper/greetings posting that long is harder for me. I also tend to get bored with things quickly and am ready for it to be over after 7 days. I mean this in the nicest way. It has been a lot of fun and I appreciate your putting it together. I just feel ready to get on with my other listings/etc. It's starting to feel as though it is dragging on a bit. Of course, this may be because it is the end of the school year and there is already so much change going on here."

"I have really enjoyed the first 4 days of this challenge - what a neat way to get to know 9 of you better! Plus, it's always good to see the payoff of extra work in your shop (even if it is just hearts or views for now)."

"It has been a bit stressful trying to get it all posted everyday on top of everything else I have to do but I am enjoying it for the most part too. My favorite part has been getting to see all of your work and getting to know you all better as well."

"I've had 2 sales- one online and one off etsy from a friend. I know at least the off-etsy sale one was related to the extra promotion from Twitter and Facebooking each day about my listings."

I think that the response was positive overall. While it is tiring and stressful, there is also a payoff at the end. I, for one, am going to miss hearing from the challenge participants every day!

Here's my item for today:

Butterfly Notes (Set of 4 Thank You Cards)

Countdown

Tomorrow is the last day of the challenge. Today is the last day I will be featuring another participant, since we had ten people total. I've really enjoyed this challenge, but I am also exhausted. It takes more time than one would think to list items and then blog about them. Doing this every day eats up quite a bit of time (this is in addition to actually making and photographing the items). However, I'm definitely going to do it again. I feel it is totally worthwhile and also enables me to get to know other members of the street team. I'll be announcing the dates of the next challenge soon. Other members of the street team will be given the option to join the challenge before those of us who participated this time have a second go at it. I won't be participating this time around, but will be facilitating and blogging about it to try to send some traffic their way. I'm sure I'll be back with another challenge in July and, of course, will be listing items all throughout June as well.

Here's the item I just posted:

A Rich Man




Today I'm featuring The Paper Flower Shop, a seller of amazing crepe paper flowers and a variety of cute cards. I once saw a crafter on Martha Stewart's show who made all of her own wedding flowers from crepe paper. They were gorgeous, as are the ones in this shop! Here's the most recent listing from The Paper Flower Shop:

Mini Ribbon Tied Pastel Note Cards



And here's my current favorite:

Blue Beach Ball Baby Shower Invitations

Play.

LB got her kitchen! My Dad has been making this for her since before Christmas. He works ridiculously long work weeks and doesn't have much time to dedicate to projects such as this. B didn't know the difference. I think she was just happy to receive something so special. She keeps asking me if her Pawpaw Dan and Mawmaw Pam made this for her. They really did a beautiful job. There is a stainless steel sink, with working knobs, a stove with four eyes and knobs that turn, as well as one for the oven. Speaking of the oven, it has a window for viewing the contents, an oven rack and a pizza stone. There is a two-shelf cabinet under the sink and a shelf that runs across the top. Pegs on the top shelf hold pot holders and cups. There is also a small shelf for her salt and pepper and a clock with moveable hands. Every single piece of it was hand-crafted. Some of the knobs are even made from burled wood found on my grandparents' farm. How cool is that?

So the 10-day challenge is winding down. There has been a mostly positive response to the experience on the part of the participants, although there is some concern that it is too long. On the whole though, we have all enjoyed it, although we will also enjoy a break from the constant listing and blogging. So, without further ado, here is my listing for the day:

Sincerely Monogram A (Thank You Card Set)



Today I am featuring L Whelan designs, one of the challenge participants with an awesomely bright shop. I love her motto: "It's not perfect. It's perfectly handmade." Who wants perfect? That's what machines produce! Give me handmade any day. Lynn makes accessories and paper goods from Lily Pulitzer fabrics, giving her shop an extremely colorful palette. Here's her most recent listing:

Think Pink Card



And my current favorite:

Nautical Tags, Set of 2, Great For So Many Things