Going out of business

I have been trying for 2 years now on Etsy to sell and make some money from my crafts. I don't think it's working. Going out of Etsy business sale going on now in my Etsy shop. HelloKnitty.etsy.com

Two things

Today I went to the M.I.C.E. craft show in Royal Oak. Met Killtaupe and firechicktick and so many others. After my sis, son and I went to lunch and the strangest thing happened. When the waitress came to clear our plates she said "what a good job you did". Like we are what, 5? We cleaned out plates, whoopee! She must have been channeling her kids or something.

Then, after lucking out getting a good parking spot at the mall sis was driving me home when the traffic started backing up. I said, must be an accident or something up ahead. She immediately turned on the all news station to see if we could find out how much of a backup there would be. About 2 clicks later, in the middle of 696, scattered all over the road we spotted the carnage. First all I saw was the white plastic bags from the store, then we started to spot the bodies, Mickey, Elmo, Teddy, they were all over the place. Oh the humanity, it was horrible. Just after we passed the scene of destruction, the radio announcer came on the air to tell us what had transpired. Seems someones shopping some how got scattered all over the highway and I woman had just called in to say she had run over Elmo, but he should be ok. We pretty much split a gut the rest of the way home.

BAD SANTA

I made this hat while dreaming of Billy Bob




I just noticed that I got tagged by http://sewnfreshdaily.blogspot.com/ . I didn't know what that was so I went to see her blog.

the rules: Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog. Share 7 random and or weird things about yourself. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

carless

I don't know how anyone would expect you to live in Michigan these days without a car. It was fine during the warmer months, I road my bike to the post office and the store once or twice and even the seven and a half miles to see my grandkids. But it is cold out there now. What's a girl to do?

Outside is great

Well, I was able to get out of the house today and I handed out promotional coupons in the front of my local JoAnn Fabric and Craft store. I got 15 dollars an hour for smiling and pointing the customers in the direction of the new card display. What fun. Who says theres no work in Michigan :)

I love the snow coming down in big flakes like this

I heard once that the definition of a fool is someone who repeats the same action over and over expecting a different result. I hate the fact that I have been made a fool of by one of my own family. I just kept trusting and trusting and I thought they would change but no. Now I have no job, no money and no car.

Stay or Go

I need a business plan if I am going to stay in Michigan. I need to figure out how I can make money without any capital and without a car. ENIGMA!

Adopt ME!!

I need to be adopted because my foster mommy is getting too attached and it is going to be so hard to let go of us. update, Saturday. Two of us are gone now

Halloween and Grandkids

I love making costumes for my grandkids. Chloe likes hers so much she wanted to wear it to bed.

After dinner surprise

Got home from a wonderful dinner with Dad and CJ and this was in the back yard.


Then got the chance to take Kassie her birthday gift, what great model attitude she has

Happy Birthday to Me!

52 years young and I don't feel a day over 48, LOL. I really can't take a day off though because I have so much packing to do. I know I keep waffling but I am still packing to go back to NYC by the first week of December. Re-listing a bunch of stuff on my Etsy hoping some will sell and help pay for the move. Dinner tonight with Dad and CJ, I think I want seafood.

To list or not to list

I am torn between listing everything I have and closing up shop so I can pack to move. It will be so much work to update photos and list newer items and then shipping if I sell. I need the money to move so I think I have to list. Oh the perils of being a "business owner".

Torn between two cities

What to do, what to do. I am being torn apart by wanting to stay near my family and going where I know I can get a job. All the lists of pros and cons are not helping this decision. Snipes (my sons cat) bit my leg again and I don't know how long it will be before he adjusts to this house or me. It seems that he is only happy when I am at his level. When I stand up, wham! he attacks my leg (owie).

It's not a dog eat dog world, it's a bug eat bug world

Sell it all

Well, I am cutting prices and trying to sell as much as I can right now in my Etsy store. First, to have some money to move and B, to not have to move so much inventory. Even at half off I haven't sold anything since I have been home from NYC. This is getting real discouraging.

Moving on up

Yep, I will be moving back to the Big Apple, land of opportunity. I already talked to a union rep and I get the impression that a job will be no problem. And the fact that I don't have a car will be a moot point. New York, New York, a hellava town. I might miss stuff like this though

Spending too much time in the forums on Etsy will make you forget you have food in the oven!

Friday Sept. 21st 2007 and every Sept. 21st is the United Nations International Day of Peace and Ceasefire. This year I was in NYC so...

Here is my story.

I made my flag to honor the International Day of Peace and I walked from 9th Ave and 45th street where I was staying to the United Nations building. Along the way I got many thumbs up and smiles from most of the people I passed. When I arrived at the UN building I did not see any signs that prohibited me from walking up and down in front of the building, which I did until some guards came and informed me I had to go across the street to demonstrate. One of the guards said to me "Peace, who cares about that?" and when I asked him if he knew that today was the United Nations, officially declared, Day of Peace and Ceasefire he replied that they had been briefed. This lead me to believe that he didn't know about it before he showed up for work that day. Many other people in the street asked me about it and I explained what the day meant to me. On two separate occasions someone started singing "All we are saying, is give Peace a chance"(by John Lennon). I watched two men walk by that had tags on indicating they also worked in the building and one said to the other "Oh yeah, it's Peace Day" in a tone of voice that was very dismissive. Just as I was about to leave the area and continue my walk around Times Square I met a woman who was kind enough to take the pictures you see on Flickr. She said she knew the creators of the movie that had inspired me to make my commitment on the website "Peace One Day" and carry my flag all around midtown Manhattan last Friday. Thank you Donna for the wonderful conversation we had. I hope to go back next year and do it all again.

Here I am with my Peace One Day flag outside the UN on the International Day of Peace. I almost got arrested for being peaceful, go figure.

Well, I'm back from my trip to the Big Apple. It was hard not to have a computer for 3 weeks. I have stories to tell and pics to up load. More later

I didn't realize it had been so long since I blogged. Time can certainly get away from you.

Well the sirens went off yesterday but we didn't get much storm damage. Friends and family across the area are safe as well. Mother nature can be a real bitch sometimes though as seen in the Fenton area. The storm damaged the local fire station and one of the schools. Only minor injuries were reported so my next thought was the kids thinking that they don't have to go to school next week and in my minds eye I could see them dancing in the street.

HelloKnitty in NYC

I get to go to the Big Apple next month and teach a class at the Etsy Labs on my techniques for reusing plastic grocery bags. Here is the link to the listing.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6762514

I hope anyone in the area who can come will check it out. I am excited to meet some of my fellow Etsians and see the Labs for the first time. It would be great to have a full class. Hope to see lots of you there.

More Wonderings

I am always wondering about something and today I began to wonder what I should do with all the stuff I didn't sell last winter. I listed some of my baby and toddler hats on my websites but if they didn't sell last year, why do I think that they will sell now? At the end of the season last year I gave away a lot of hats to a charity but I really need to sell some. What makes one item sell better than another? I have a bunch more hats and some scarfs and I know I shouldn't just make more like them if they are not going to sell. I need something new to give family for the holidays this year too. They all have more knitwear than they will ever wear as it is. Time to do some polls and some brainstorming.

I wonder...

Where is the line? I need to spend time on the computer to help sell my craft, but I need to make stuff to sell. I don't know where the line is when I spend too much time at the keyboard or not enough. I have one special order to do and I am trying to start making the stuff I want to push during the holiday season. I have some great ideas for my mitten pets but there are none as of yet to feed. I guess it is time to get back to work and stop drooling over that new avatar guy.

The Show

So here I am with Carlos Mencia and my Etsy dress I made special for the occasion. There are more pics on my flickr link. We had loads of fun, my son and I. Laughter truly is the best medicine.

Late night doings

This is what happens when you live Etsy day and night. I was up late last night trying to figure out what I am going to wear to the show. I wanted to advertise Etsy and this is what I came up with, after all it is a comedy show.

Karma keep it coming!

I can't believe it! No really, I can't believe that things are finally turning around for me. I have had 2 Etsy sales in a week after none since Jan. I made almost 200 dollars on eBay this month. I got featured on TalentDataBase and (drumroll please)............ today I won 2 backstage passes for the show I am taking my son to see this Saturday. I never win anything! I mean it, NEVER, ANYTHING!! I feel like singing that song from the Sound of Music, "I must have done something good". And Sponge Bob is in my head singing "Best Day Ever". Here is a link to the show we are going to see, I won the passes by putting them in my top 8 on myspace. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=89259281&MyToken=95e55bc9-254b-4ed1-b96e-467bbe19063a . These guys made me laugh during a very dark time in my life so even though they are controversial, I love 'em. I am so geeked right now I can't stand it. :) :) :)

You try to be so careful

Well, I got got. I ordered those "free" cards from VistaPrint and I didn't 'UNCHECK' the box where they take 14.95 out of your checking account each month. The super nice lady at my bank said she would take care of it, thank God, but now I see other charges I don't recognize on my online statement. I have to wait until they are posted before I can see where they came from. I am really hating technology today.

Fusing for fun and protest

So I decided to try to fuse some more plastic bags today and I came up with the concept of the "Messageboard" hand bag. I rearranged the letters from a 'malwart' bag and this is what I got.

recipe adventure

I was craving the cheesey garlic buttery thing you get at that seafood place so I decided to make my own. What I did - beat an egg, added some garlic powder, added about 1 cup of pancake mix, added water, added grated sharp cheddar, stirred it up good, put it in the sandwich cooker. That didn't taste too bad, refrigerated leftovers and went to bed. The next day I took them out of the frig and cut a slit into the triangle shaped biscut things and stuffed in more cheese and put them back in the sandwich cooker. Now they tasted really good.

First attempt at fusing

OK, spent most of last night trying to fuse plastic bags together like I saw them do in the Etsy video. I was hoping to add to my list of materials for my upcycle projects. What I ended up with was a kind of hybrid of 2 methods. I used the fused piece to be the stiffener in the bottom of this purse and for the bottom of a soap dish I am going to use to hold the soap I bought from smellygoodsoapy.etsy Oh, and here's a link to my treasury, hope you like it http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=3401

Another something to maintain

I found a new place to showcase my talents. It only took me about an hour or so typing and uploading to get this far.http://www.talentdatabase.com/channels/18-Unique/profiles/382901-HelloKnitty . Another etsy seller turned me on to this site. Thanks mLee for the link. Take a look if you like and let me know what you think. Peace and Love y'all.

I just got any email from them saying I am going to be a featured talent on my genre page, which is "Unique". Yay, my first feature, I just wish it was on Etsy :) I had posted a thread in the forums on Etsy asking for suggestions on what I could do to generate business and I have been spending hours and hours on the computer trying to network as was suggested, I guess it finally paid off.

I am really starting to miss my car!

Well, it's been weeks now with no car. I have 2 feet and I have a bike but sometimes you just want to get in a car, crank up the radio on the oldies station and drive. It is much more gratifying to resist that tempting midnight run to the store for ice cream if you could actually go and get the ice cream.

Starting to have fun

Ok, I am starting to have fun with this blogging. I found a new feature, the Poll, and added one just for the fun of it. I am going to do what I voted for now because it truly is a perfect summer day here in SE Michigan. Have a great day everyone.

In keeping with my ever expanding green lifestyle I went cleaning out closets and destashing some item I thought I would never use. Among the items now up for sale on Etsy and eBay are a book, magazines, clothes and sewing notions. Here is the rub, I listed a book on eBay and all of a sudden, chaos. I only want 5 bucks for the darn thing and someone ebaymails me that they want to pay 150. Well right off the scam alert bells started ringing in my head. After exhausting research, taking down the listing, putting it back up, ebaymailing, and half a migrain, I now believe I should have took the money and run. Yes there are similar books out there selling for much more than my reserve price but I did another search and if he is smart he can get it for half of what mine will cost him. I hate being new at something and losing. Makes me wonder if friday the 13th has anything to do with this. Later... I guess all the hard work payed off, the book sold for the price offered, thank to all those etsians who helped me with links.

Plastic Yarn

Trying to knit with the plastic yarn is hard to do in the summer. If your hands get the least bit sweaty, you have to put it down. Please check out some of my finished products in my Etsy shop. You can find the link to your left. Thanks for looking!

Ya gotta start somewhere!

It's not easy being green or trying to live a green life. I am going to try to relay what I am doing in my daily life to leave a small carbon footprint and maybe along the way, we will all learn something.