I've been Featured!!

The lovely Vanessa over at Designs by Vanessa has done a feature on me at her blog! Be sure to check it out and then go take a look at how talented she is in her etsy shop! She has some very beautiful jewlery.

Trying to improve

So, I have not been getting the sales for the amount of work I have been doing that I would hope to have gotten by now. It seems common sense that your photos are by far the most important thing to draw potential shoppers into investigate around your store. Photos are always so important but in this application, I suspect they are even MORE important!
I think my photos have been lacking interest. I don't think they have really been drawing in people. There is just so much competition out there that it's easy to get burried. I don't want to be one in a sea of many. I want to stand out! I have been revamping my products a little as well, jazzing them up with some embellies and getting more creative that way. There are mountains of plain little zippies out there but not too many that are embellished. I really enjoy doing the embellishment part. Right now I am just using ribbons, buttons and scraps of fabrics, but as I continue on, I am sure I will branch out.
Another improvement is the addition of labels! I really like the way they turned out! I ordered them from JennifersJewels
She was really great to deal with! She was great at listening to what it was that I wanted and she produced a great quality item.

So anyways, These are my new photos. I ended up not using a lightbox but just played around in the backyard. They may be a little bland, what do you think? I have been pondering the idea of using fun backgrounds but maybe that would just be a distraction? I am not sure. I do however, like the angles and how that worked out.
Head on over to my etsy

to check how they compared to my old photos. I would be grateful for any and all feedback and suggestions of improvments:)

I just couldn't wait!

I just couldn't wait (or risk the rain) to show you how the plate turned out once painted. It was super easy, accepting the paint very smoothly. I can see this as part of a very pretty afternoon tea set up, with pretty china teacups, tiny finger sandwiches and dainty iced cakes.
The occassion may even call for lace gloves and flowers in hats!
One lump or two, dear?

Thrifting adventures

I love looking through thrift shops and seeing what castoffs I can find to give new life to. I must admit though, I haven't been doing this very much for a while now. I just got overwhelmed with how much space and clutter it can produce. I just needed a bit of down time but I am starting to go on the hunt again! It is so satisfying if you can take something otherwise "ugly" and make it into something fun, useful or beautiful. This light jumped out at me like a lightening bolt. It is dusty and the wiring is old. But I just love the design on it! I am planning on taking it apart, rewiring it, painting it white, and replacing the chain. I may hang this up in my sewing room, or maybe in my bedroom.... even the living room could use a new light. I am planning on making it a plug in one instead of hard wired as I think this will give me more options as to where I put it. The design looks very graphic to me. I can hardly wait to see this one in action! Oh, I paid .75 cents for it!
This little painting jumped out at me too. I did have to dig through a slew of stuff to find it though. I am planning on taking the painting out, paint the frame white, distress it, and then replace the picture. I like the picture it came with, it is a soothing scene. This picture was 1.50
Now, this is something I have been looking for for quite a while! I have had visions of these embossed aluminum platters and tiered platters painted up in a light cotton candy pink for ages! I can remember when these used to be seen a plenty in the thrift shops but now, they are scarce. I snagged this one up right away, it is even nice and straight and in excellent condition. No dents or wiggles in it at all. For 2.50, I had no choise but to make it mine!
I imagine the embossing will really look pretty when it is all painted up. I started painting this one first this afternoon because I am most anxious about what it will look like. I have some pretty vintage table cloths too. I think this will call for an afternoon tea in the backyard when it is all done!
It is suposed to rain here tomarrow so taking a picture of it all set up in the backyard may prove difficult but I will try to get a pic of it as soon as I can to share how the project ended up going.

Wish me luck!

A little more of what has been keeping me busy

It was already a week ago, but we all gathered to celebrate a 50th birthday with a surprise party for this guy. Yep, he does look surprised doesn't he!? It was a really nice celebration, it was pretty neat how all these people managed to keep it a secret from him! He truly was surprised!
I just had to snap a picture of this car, look at it! It is beautiful! I love the character and flair in these old cars. This one has been lovingly restored to perfection. The owner of the car shared his album documenting the process of restoring this gem and some of the shows and awards it has won. I was tempted to ask him to move it out to the field so I could get some better pictures with a nicer background, but eh, that wouldnt be cool lol

This is one of my sisters horses. I just loved the way it looked there pondering life........ and laundry. We also went to see the tall ships that came into Maple Bay. There was 2 of them when we were there but the day before there was suposed to be 3. They were neat looking, but I had my fill of them very quickly. Not to mention that I forgot to check the settings on my camera for about 100 pics all of which were all washed out and had a blue cast. Pfft. All of them are trashed. Oh well. I wasn't emotionally attached to any of them. This was about the only one that had any salvagablity about it.
There have also been crafty and sewing adventures as well. I am just way behind on my pictures! They should follow soon:)

MIA

Oh my poor poor blog! It must think I don't love it anymore, I have neglected it so much! In my defence I have the weather though. It has been picture perfect around here. Just gorgeous! I have so much to share with you all too! It will take a few posts to get everything in but I will start off with my latest listings seeings as that is what I was just doing. Stayin with the flow, ya know?

I love scrapbooking. I really do. I love putting different textures, patterns and colours of papers together and then topping it off with some fun trinkets. I haven't used any of my scrapbooking stuff in way too long and I have been missing it a lot! To satisfy that scrapbooking monster in myself I decided to play around with these little pouches I have been making. Hhhmm, it seems as though I have uploaded these backwards, but oh well, we will take the reverse guided tour:)

This is some quilting cotton that I have had kicking around for ages, unsure what the heck to do with it although I love the yellow colour. Finally this fabric has found its purpose. It has a reason for being.
A few little scraps, some buttons and voila! a cute little one of a kind pouch. This one has the same linning inside as the scrap on the outside. I think this one will translate nicely into a greeting card. I think I will make one or a few this afternoon. It has a very free form flower made out of scraps. I just love using up scraps iin this way, it makes me feel so productive and green.

You can't see it in this picture here, but the linning sparkles. Yes, really, it sparkles! What girl doesnt love to have sparkles and glitz!?
Using a salvaged zipper is a rewarding endeavor. Mostly because in my experience, they are just a little cuter and all of the ones that I have found so far, have a nice smoothness to them that the newer ones just don't seem able to live up to. Not to mention some of the funnest colours too!

Been a while since I pulled out the lace bag, but oooooooooo love the way it looks!

kitschy? Kitschy? Kichtsy? How do you spell that word! I think this pouch fits that word though, what do you think?

This is the biggest ric rac I have ever seen! It is HUGE!
I have had an exciting week besides sewing! I won the friday freebie over at lemon tree studio's blog, I got to have fun with my camera to the tune of 500+ pictures! and It was our anniversary yesterday! Gee, and it's only Wednesday! After I go through all those pictures I will have some fun things to share.

An inspired moment!

Over at etsy, TallGiraffe invited everyone to follow along and clean up thier own work spaces. I followed along, and after not too long, I was very inspired to start cutting and sewing. After not too long, I ended up with these darling little wristlets. They are all listed in my etsy shop now, all ready to go to new homes:) I just adore this fabric! I want to get more and make myself a blouse out of it!

I really get a kick out of this fun playful print.

I think this one would lend itself to more formal occassions, nice to have something like this around the holidays (which will be here before we know it!)

I still have a couple more that I need to redo the pictures for. Hopefully tomarrow I will find the time to redo those pictures!

A little tour of where the magic happens, and the chaos reigns.

Ugh, the pictures are not in the right order. Oh well, it's a guided tour so no fear of getting lost. The room tends to be quite dark and craves good bright light! I am finding it hard to spread out in the room as its a little small and there is too many things going on.

First stop is the sewing machine table. This is actually the after picture. I just have to have certain things at my finger tips when I am sewing, sicsors, pin cushion (the red tomato) and an iron. I am crippled without my iron close by! The table is passed onto me from my mom as she was downsizing her own sewing area, as is the machine hiding behind the iron and at the left, forgot to get a picture of the serger. The chair was a freebie from the dump. It is a perfect chair! It has a wide seat (to accomoate MY wide seat;) it is fully adjustable with, cushie and my feet rest firmly on the floor! It is really stable too with 5 arm base. It is just nice basic grey too. Here is my make do cutting table. I have an antique sewing machine base that I really want a new top for. It is super heavy and stable, pretty and it can smoosh right up to the wall using that precious few inches from that step up wall. It has been kidnapped and held hostage in my daughters room though, she has had her keyboard on it. You can see my dogs "nest" over on the left on the floor.
Here is the table that should be in my room. It does need a slightly bigger table top, but I love how stable it is. The card table isnt too stable.
here is my one shelving unit in the room. I desperately need more! I have an old beat up dresser in the corner that I forgot to snap a picture of where there is more fabric in dwarers. This shelf also holds my photo albums and trims for scrapbooking. There is a roll of brown paper I use for making patterns and on the floor next to it, is some scrapbooking papers.
Oh, here is the before of my sewing table. Other things you cant see is a 'nest' of a blanket that is my dogs bed for when I am in there. He hates being in this room, I think cause the foor is cold, and he will whine and get under my feet if I don't have his nest set uplol what a pampered dog!
I think this room needs a serious cosmetic makeover. It isn't terribly messy in there, I didn't locate any lost articles or find any forgotten treasures, but it sure is ugly and boring in there! However, tidying up things, sweeping the floor and getting out the garbage inspired me to do a little creating and I got a couple of wristlets done up! I will share those in a bit. for now though, the bathroom is beginning to look like a science experiment gone wrong:-?

A little catching up!

Lately this is where you can find me. On the swing in the back yard. The hammok is where Tony hangs out. Usually they are not sandwiched together, I'm not sure which little elves were up in the night moving the lawn furniture around;) To repent for being so neglectful of my blog lately, I am going to share a great, easy, fast and tastey recipe. It doesnt really have a name. Noodle stirfry maybe? eh, maybe it doesnt need a name.
I start out with a couple of boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces, and a spicey sausage cut up too. I throw that into a pan with some onion and cook it all up.
Then I throw in an assortment of fresh veggies. Here I have mushrooms, assorted peppers and snap peas. You could really experiment with whichever veggies you have on hand. Fresh is best though.
Don't cook the veggies too long! Add about half a bottle of VH sweet and sour (or terriaky) sauce, then the real kicker is a good healthy 1/3 cup of sweet thai chilli sauce. This is a secret weapon that transforms any dish!
You can serve it over rice, but I love it over cooked noodles. Spaghetti noodles! This whole thing comes together in about 20 mins and doesnt heat up your whole kitchen!
Lest I lead you astray, I have not been in the kitchen the whole time I have been absent. We have been out enjoying the summer weather, getting friendly with the wild life!

More wild life around here than you can shake a stick at!
I promise to not neglect you so long again! That is if I can pull myself away from this gorgeous view long enough;)
Hope you are enjoying your summer!