31 October 2009

Happy Halloween!...and Sale Continues....

Today's Sale -----> 10% off all purchases! Use code Birth09Sat in comments to seller in my Etsy shop!
A Halloween wish to all you Halloween'ers! Hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween. Now that the kids are older, they don't trick or treat anymore (darn...can't dig in the candy bag anymore!). Therefore, we usually celebrate Halloween with a scary movie at the theater. Tonight will be Saw 6, but we won't be dressing up this year at the theater as we usually do. This year, Jacy is Pyramid Head (took forever to make the head) and he doesn't want to wrangle with it at the theater, not that I blame him. I would have been easy...I wanted to be Flo from Progressive! I love Flo!


Pyramid Head -
Silent Hill

Tayelor is dressing up tonight as she is going to a Halloween party with her friends at the local coffee shop. She's being a Gothic Princess. I will have to post pictures early next week. Speaking of which, I am hoping to do my blog surfing on Monday and seeing lots of Halloween costume pictures!

Have a great evening!

30 October 2009

Birthday Sale Launches TODAY!!!

Today only...Free Shipping on ALL ORDERS no matter where they are going to!

Stay tuned tomorrow to see what tomorrow's sale is, or check out yesterday's post.

Help me launch off a great 42nd year!

29 October 2009

Birthday Sale!!!

Happy Birthday to me
On election day!
Happy Birthday to me...
Your chance to pick up a sale!

So, in honor of my upcoming birthday on November 3, I am launching a sale! But this isn't any ordinary sale, it's a progressive sale. This means that the closer to my birthday, the more you save:

Friday, October 30, 2009 --------> Free Shipping! Yeay!
Saturday, October 31, 2009------> 10% off everything
Sunday, November 1, 2009------> 15% off everything
Monday, November 2, 2009 -----> 20% off everything
Tuesday, November 3, 2009 -----> 25% off everything

Sale applies to my Etsy shop. Now is the time to get started on your Christmas shopping, or simply get something for yourself!

Oh, to take advantage of the sale, simply put this code in the message to seller when you check out: Birth09

Happy Shopping!

26 October 2009

It's Production Time....


I spent so much time in the studio today that I actually feel like a got a full day of work in. Of course, I didn't as I got elected to babysit....again. However, I did tell mom that I am not her backup babysitter any longer and that I don't care how emergent the emergency is, don't bother asking her father for me to babysit, because the answer is NO! I don't mean to be rude, I really don't. I have custom orders backing up, the big spring show I haven't even started preparing for and, let's see, Christmas around the corner...good enough excuse for me. I said that my boss (me) is an inch from firing me. Can't stand how people treat my business like a hobby. Wish the economy was a little better. I would rent an outside studio and then I could work out of the house to, you know, make it "official".

Anyway, my daughter Tayelor baked these yummy sugar cookies. I only wish the picture turned out better. Ah, the perils of taking photos at night. Too bad we were only allowed to have a couple. The rest followed her to school for her friends and herself. I told her she better watch it or the next time I bake cookies, she can only have a few! They were scrumptious, though. She used lemon extract instead of vanilla extract. She was so proud of herself!


Speaking of Tayelor, here she is (in the white dress). Her friend Cait in red is a rockabilly-chick. Cait is pretty much my second daughter. This works out real well as her mother and I are good friends. This was from their Homecoming dance last month. Sad thing is, I just took them off the camera. They did look great, though.

My toe is starting to feel a little better, as long as I stay off of it. Jacy is still doing good and only has to keep up the nebulizer till the end of the week. This is definitely a good thing as he is getting real sick of having to take it now.

I hope you all have a great, productive week!

24 October 2009

It Never Ends....

Well, Jacy is finally over the H1N1. Well, almost. See, the problem isn't with the flu itself, but from the complications that may hit after the flu. Since he is high risk with his asthma, the doctor is having me continue his nebulizer treatments every four hours whether he needs it or not. Oh, and we still have to keep up with peak flow meter readings. This has to continue for two more weeks. The idea here is that if he is developing pneumonia, it should show up as reduced peak flow meter readings, and the nebulizer every four hours will hopefully keep him in a state that is not detrimental as we have been seeing with other children who are falling ill with pneumonia and experiencing serious cases of it. I don't have a problem with this, but he is furious. See, he is in 8th grade and is mortified to be seen having to suck on a nebulizer machine. Luckily, the school nurse has a back room in which he has been retreating to with the door closed so as to preserve his fragile ego :]

However, something good and bad happened this week: I broke my toe. Why is this good? Because now I have an exuse to sit with my feet up, rest and bead up custom orders I'm falling behind in!

Have a great weekend!

17 October 2009

Oink, Oink!


Well, Mr. Little Pig is currently taking residence in my house. He came to visit on Wednesday of last week and is currently romping around with my 13 year old son. I keep telling Mr. Little Pig not to play so hard as my son has severe asthma, so I have been spending most of my time the last few days keeping an eye on their play. I have had to scold Mr. Little Pig several times for playing too hard, usually at night when my son's asthma worsens. "Mr. Little Pig, stop rough housing too hard, Jacy can't breathe", to which Mr. Little Pig retreats in the corner after the albuterol nebulizer is taken out muttering, "I told you that it wasn't me." Oh, those sad little eyes. Don't let them fool you.

Seriously, Jacy is hanging in there. He has not reached respiratory crisis yet, but I have been very diligent about pulling out the albuterol as needed with his peak flow meter readings, usually every 3-4 hours, I'm keeping in touch with the doctor several times a day and keep shushing Mr. Little Pig in the corner when he gets too rough. I sent my 15 year old to her father's for the weekend to minimize her exposure and my husband is holing up in our bedroom, terrified he is going to get it. Seriously, folks, this isn't that bad. In fact, the seasonal flu is more serious. Besides, hubby dear, at least you don't have severe asthma! The doctor educated me very well in how to control Jacy's asthma with this virus and I'm not afraid to call them for advice...day or night. I am confident that Jacy will pull through this just fine, he is being watch very closely by our wonderful doctor and I am not letting him out of my sight day or night (in case Mr. Little Pig starts to play too rough). Besides, if I get myself all wiggy, what will that do to Jacy's morale? If I lose it, he loses it and then we lose the battle.

So, therefore, I regret to say I cannot drop for a few more days. I have not spent much time online these past few days. I apologize for not returning drops :)

Oh, and if you like this little picture (he is cute, isn't he?), you can let him live on your computer by clicking on the picture. It links to the site I downloaded it from (don't worry, Norton's approves it with a green check mark). I put it on my laptop to give Jacy a little chuckle when he uses it!

Oh, and don't believe Mr. Little Pig. He lies....

14 October 2009

Decision Making Time and other ranting...


I think I have finally made a decision. This is actually thanks to the opinions of all of you. If you have left a comment to help me decide, I thank you very much for that. It is not easy taking a step back and really looking at what you are currently doing, deciding what you can do better. While change is good, it's not easy to adopt new routines. I'm one of those people that if my schedule gets thrown off early in my day, the rest of my day is shot. I just can't seem to get back on track.

So here is what I have decided. I will taper off the EC for a while. I apologize to all my droppers as I have not dropped one card since last week. I tried this as an experiment. I wanted to see who is dropping because they actually visit me on a regular basis or if it was click-oriented only. I'm going to try to take some time today to check this out, and of course, will be dropping on my favorite blogs. I will resume dropping tomorrow, but will be following the lead of many of you: dropping in only on my favorite blogs. No more 300 clicks per day for me. Over the last several days, no dropping has confirmed the fact that the less time I spend in front of the computer dropping cards to get more traffic gives me that much more time in the studio working! Unless, of course, you caught that Webinar from Tim Adams last night (getting more traffic to your Etsy shop). Did any of you partake in it? I didn't. I was afraid it was another "throw you a few teasers then make you pay for.....", so I didn't bother. He has probably already indulged us in that information, anyway. Oh, don't get me wrong, I am not trying to bash him. He is a very smart marketer. I just question the scruples.

So, Cornyman, yea - I have been with Adgitize for a long time. I never really looked in to how to use it. I will have to set aside some time in the near future to really figure out how to do it....and I will be visiting all your posts within the next couple of days. I have been really swamped with custom orders (please, I'm not complaining), but have been having a hard time schedule-wise as my step-children seem to think my business is a hobby and I sit home alone wearing the fuzzies and watching Oprah and The View! WrOnG! Neither of them want to pay for an actual day-care because they think their children are too good for one (using the pretense that they can't afford it, when in actuality, they are eligible for financial help), so they rely on family members to do their regular babysitting (the other grandmother in both cases). However, if the other grandmother has something going on, the babysitting falls back on me. And it has been falling back on me quite a bit lately. The worst part is I don't agree to it - I get volunteered to do it by my hubby. Makes me so mad. (he does way too much for his grown children who should be able to go more than one day without calling dad to do something or another for them!) So, to keep the peace, I babysit. One problem, though - I DON'T GET ANY WORK DONE!!!! I had to baby sit one day two weeks ago, 3 days last week and so far one day this week (which I didn't even know I was doing until the kids showed up at the house - 4 year old and 5 month old)(which set me back as Monday was a holiday and I stupidly took off to hang out with a friend all day and today my son has a doctor appointment to have outpatient surgery on his foot. I always seem to get volunteered to do one thing or another for his kids which ends up taking a lot of my time...and I shouldn't be worried about my son - he's 13 and still lives home. He is my responsibility, so it makes sence I would have to do for my kids. I have a 21 year old daughter who is out on her own and the only time she asks me do to something for her is to look up something on the internet as she doesn't own a computer or to get a hold of my mother for her (her g-ma) if she can't reach her. It just aggravates me that I do more for my grown step-children as they can't seem to do anything for themselves (dad never taught them how, apparently. Can you believe that he used to drive to his one daughters apartment once a week just to get her garbage to bring here because she didn't want to drag it to the road once a week?) than I do my own children who demand my time to spend time with them, not do things for them. Well, Jacy will demand a slushy from time to time. I am so glad I raised my children to be independant. I love them calling me or asking me to spend time with them, not do things for them. I could go on and on - it seems like every day I have to break my schedule to do something for the kids that can't do anything for themselves. Oh, you haven't seen anything. I could start a new blog just about my step-children that will read like scripts from the Lifetime Channel. Ask my kids! Drives them nuts! Can we say D-R-A-M-A? RRRRRrrrrrrrrr!

Anyway, thanks again to all your comments - you each will be hearing from me soon! Oh, have a great day (I will be TryinG!)

09 October 2009

Entre - Adgi-CFM-Wonderful!


What?!

Okay, as you know, I have decided sticking around EC for a little longer. However, I want to explore other advertising venues: Adgi-CFM-Wonderful.

I have advertised through Project Wonderful before, but usually just to host ads on my site. I don't even have a clue how much I have earned in ads on my blog in the last 6 months! I started with PW because I thought I could take the money I got for hosting ads to pay for my own ads. Win-Win situation. I currently host Adgitize ads on my blog, but never really looked into using them for advertising. Something I always wanted to do, but never got around to. I want to look into other paid advertising such as the one's above, and I will be linking my online shops to the ads. Over the last month or so, I have been reviewing what things I have done for my business over the last two years. I may be a little premature, as I usually do this every January when I write my updated business plan (yes, I update them every year...keeps me on track!). As you can tell, the focus has been on advertising. I spend almost no money on advertising, however, it tends to cost me a lot of time. I have been wondering if it is worth that.

Here is where I need your help:

If you have ever used any of the above-mentioned ad venues, how did it go? Was it worth the money spent? If your ads pointed to your online shops, did they bring you sales?

But, before you answer in the comments below, I just have one thing to say. This little 'situation' has become quite a journey. I want to thank every single one of you for taking this journey with me as well as responding and sharing your opinions as well as frustrations. I shall want to repay you for your opinions and advice some day! If you have previously done a blog post regarding the above-mentioned advertising venues, please put the URL for the page the post appears on in your comment.

07 October 2009

Entre-Contemplation

Okay, I have had a few days to mull over comments received from the EntreCard post last week. If you missed the post, click here. Much to think about. I really want to thank the 30 participants in that post. You all have given me food for thought!

One conclusion I picked up from a multitude of comments (and was a total conclusion, not really something that was mentioned) is a long-term benefit of EntreCard. When you sign up for EC, you are basically a nobody in the blogging world. Not because no one likes you, but because no one knows you are there. So, you get on EC and start dropping like crazy. You buy some ads and the next thing you know, people are dropping on your blog. Even better, people are beginning to follow you and subscribe to your RSS feed. So, you keep on dropping and dropping. Eventually, you become disenchanted with EC and contemplate leaving. You may decide to stay, but not drop quite so much. Whatever you choose, what is the one valuable thing you didn't have before EC? Followers and subscribers. Wow...that's pretty big. Especially considering that the only one reading your blog before you joined EC was yourself! Mull on that for a while.

I still haven't made a concrete decision, as many of you are still working through. I have a feeling, though, that I'll probably stay with EC for a little while longer. I may taper off my droppings over time. (oops, now, that's not what I meant!), but I think for now I will continue down the EC path. Some of you mentioned other avenues to pursue in which I will be looking into. I will probably be taking the stand of EntrePod...following blogs that I do enjoy before they go 'bye-bye' on EC. I have found so many cool blogs and met some cool friends through EC, so for now, I will be staying where my friends are :)

05 October 2009

Music Monday...Thinking Of The Ghost Of You



Thinking of the Ghost of You
basically the My Chemical Romance video with Katy Perry.
Now, my daughter knows what a World War II freak I am, so she simply couldn't wait to show me this video. So now you get to see this video - be sure to watch it - it's about D-Day. If it doesn't make you cry, you need to check to see if you have a pulse :]

Enjoy...don't forget the tissue...

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.




PS: Because of spamming purposes, the linky will be closed on Thursday of each week at midnight, Malaysian Time. Thank you!

03 October 2009

Contemplation and Top Droppers

First, I want to thank everyone for their comments on my last post. Wow...what a response! It will take me a few days to contemplate all of your opinions and I will comment on them next week.

In the mean time, I want to shout out to all of you who were Top Droppers for the month of September. I will comment on this also next week.

The blog of UK artist, Paul Baines
31 drops


Art Shout
more unusual and cool art
31 drops


Funky Town Disco Music
music from the 70's
31 drops



Beaded Tail
Kitties, a dog and jewelry for animal lovers!
30 drops

Vanilla Seven.com
Beautiful design and photography
30 drops


The Ad Master
My Go-To source for marketing ideas
30 drops



Lainy's Musings
All things Lainy!
30 drops


Buy-Tees
The latest on cool Ts i the UK
30 drops


Juliana's Bits & Pieces
Photos, Gifts, Cool stuff
30 drops


Photography by KML
The best in photography from Kathy Libby
30 drops

Take a quick visit of these blogs!