***** FREEBIE FRIDAY *****

I thought I would give my blog followers a sneak peek on the promotion I'll be running tomorrow and let you get in on the deal ahead of time.

I've listed several new items so far today and more will be posted later this evening. Stop by and check them out!


***** TODAY IS FREEBIE FRIDAY!!!! *****
Purchase ANY item from my shop and I will send you FREE
One of my Original Cross Stitch Patterns. It is a $5.00 value!
No need to add the free one to your cart. When you check out
Just let me know which one you want: Truest Wisdom, Christmas
Wish, Sunsational Sunflowers, Sunshine Smiles or Radiant Rose.

This offer ends Friday July 31st at 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time.

Limit one free pattern per customer.
Free shipping offer still applies.

Etsy Store of the Week - 7/26/09

For this week's store of the week I decided to go local and pick another shop from right in my hometown...thetinybird. She carries a variety of bags: handbags, painted totes and clutches. Her prices are very reasonable starting at just $12.00! She also has a special going right now that if you buy a South bag you get a West clutch 1/2 off!!!

My favorite item in her shop is the "Yellow Birdie Handbag" that's only $38.00! I'm headed to a purse party this afternoon and if I can't find what I want I just might be back for this one. I know summer is almost over (at least in N.E. Ohio) but it is just sooooo cute!

Be sure to stop by her shop and check out the great selection she has available. Happy Shopping!

Lobo's New Collar

I got the collar I ordered yesterday from DogDazzle and I absolutely love it! Lobo was so excited and was prancing around the living room until he wore himself out and had to flop on the floor panting! I promised Lea Ann I would post pictures of him wearing it.

I have to say the quality of it is just as good as the nylon collar he has been wearing for the past 9 years. It's just much prettier and very well constructed.

Unfortunately Max didn't get a new collar. With his fur he can't wear the nylon ones. His fur just mats up around it. He has to wear the rolled leather collars. I didn't want him to feel left out, so I'm showing his picture off too. I took this a few weeks ago. For 8 years we had a pick-up truck and everytime we would open the tailgate he would jump in. My husband was cleaning out the trunk of the car and Max evidently thought he was going somewhere and jumped in the trunk and sat there for almost 20 minutes. He loves going for rides and knows the sound of text messages on my cell phone. That is his cue when it goes off at night and our son isn't home that it is time to go for a ride because we have to go pick him up from work.

Can you tell my other "children" are spoiled???

Vinyl Aida

I was at JoAnn's yesterday on my lunch picking up a few colors of needed floss with a co-worker/stitching friend. We were looking at different fabrics, etc. trying to brainstorm ideas on things to make for my shop when we found Vinyl Aida. Neither of us knew what to use it for and I had just seen it the first time about 2 weeks ago. The only thing we could think of to use it for is something for outside. I instantly said, would I want to stitch something to put outside on my patio and get ruined? I decided to do some quick research this morning and this is what I found compliments of http://crossstitch.about.com:

Stitching Surface
Vinyl Aida is typically available in 14-count and 18-count sizes.
Characteristics of Vinyl Aida
Vinyl Aida can be cut or folded making it great for 3-D projects. Vinyl Aida will not rip, fray, or shrink making it great for magnets, placemats, bookmarks and similar cross stitch projects. Vinyl Aida is durable.
Using Vinyl Aida
Although it may take a few moments to become accustomed to the stiffness of Vinyl Aida, stitch on the vinyl just as you would on regular Aida fabric. Vinyl Aida is compatible with all Cross Stitch patterns.

Very interesting stuff.

Tuesday Tantrum

I feel like rambling today for a brief moment, so feel free to read along...

Forums - I'm definitely depressing myself with the amount of time I'm spending in the forums and not getting those elusive sales that are out there (SOMEWHERE). They say promote, promote, promote. There are days I actually feel like I'm pimping my store!! I absolutely LOVE the views & hearts, features in blogs and treasuries...but is it wrong of me to still want to see my 2nd sale at some point in time???

Legal??? - That brings me to my next topic. Even though this is my own blog, I won't call anyone out by name. I've noticed there are several other stores out there selling cross stitch patterns. Some of these stores average one sale per day. Congrats to them. My beef is this; if you look at their stores they have many patterns that I know have to be copyright infringements...national products, dead celebrities that you know have everything with their name licensed, etc. Are they doing this legally? Do they even care if they are? It bothers me that I'm trying to create original patterns that people might enjoy and these other sellers APPEAR (I could be wrong) to be ripping off any digital image they can, dropping it into a cross stitch program and then selling a pdf copy of it. If I use someone else's artwork it is either royalty-free or I pay licensing fees to use it AND I give proper source credit on all my printed patterns - no stealing here!

Guesswork or the real thing? - This is sort of a continuation of above. If you are a cross stitcher, would you rather buy a pattern that is a pdf copy (that you have to print yourself) from a digital photo without knowing exactly what the finished product will look like, or would you like to have a pattern that is already printed (sometimes in a larger size to make reading the symbols easier) that has a photo of what the finished piece will look like? There is definitely a difference between what a digital photo and the finished piece will look like. My sunflowers is a perfect example. I think my rose also is. The sunflowers I didn't need any backstitching. The rose, I finished it and decided (with confirmation from stitching friends) that it definitely need backstitching added to it. I've put the links to both of them from my Etsy store because you will be able to see pics of the finished product and the digital pic I created it from.
Anyone have any thoughts on this one that you'd like to share??? I would love to hear them.

GOOD NEWS - I didn't want to leave a post without some good news in it!
I'm currently working on the white tulip cross stitch that was the winner of the "Pick my Next Pattern" post. I should have a picture of it posted this weekend as a "work in progress". I want to wait until you can see at least 1 full tulip to get an idea of the colors, etc.

Also - I bought from fellow Etsyan dogdazzle a new collar for Lobo, my black lab. I believe she will be shipping it today and I can't wait to get it. He's becoming quite the old guy and I think a bright new collar will perk him up. He's had the same one for the 9 years we've had him. If you recognize the name of her shop it is because she was the won gave me the Premio Meme award in a previous post.

I think I've rambled enough for this morning. Thanks for listening to my gripes (for those of you that made it all the way through)! It's time to get a shower and head off to "Paying" job.

Hope everyone has a HAPPY TUESDAY!!

Etsy Store of the Week - 7/19/09

This week my featured Etsian is DycheDesigns. When talking about her shop she says: "I get great pleasure from creating the variety of items you'll find in my shop. Whether you're into jewelry, bags, scarves, soaps or candles there's something for everyone. So journey with me through the pages of my shop and see if you find something you connect with."

Her items are very affordable, they start at just $3.50 for her soaps and $6.00 in the jewelry category.

My favorite item she has in her shop is the Turquoise Millifiorie Glass Beaded Necklace.

Be sure to stop by her shop and take a look at her beautiful offerings.

I'm a Featured Artist!

I just received an Etsy convo to let me know I'm a featured artist on their website. Click the link and scroll all the way to the bottom. She featured my SUNSHINE SMILES stained glass cross stitch pattern.

http://osljewelry.webs.com/oslsfavsellers.htm

As my teenage son would say, "go me!".

It's Gonna be a Long Day...

I love my dogs! I love my dogs! I love my dogs! I think that will be my mantra for today.



We are the proud owner of two dogs...Max & Lobo. Max (he is my avatar pic) is a golden retrieve/chow mix around 11-years-old and was a stray my husband brought home from work just a few weeks after we were married. Lobo was 9 in April and was an innocent trip to PetSmart to buy vitamins for Max and is a big 130 pound black lab/boxer mix that is one HUGE baby!

We are starting to think that the onset of old age is catching up with one or both of them.

Just last week my husband cleaned our living room carpet. He came home on Monday after the dogs had only been left alone for 2-3 hours and found one of them had left a not-so-nice mess on the floor. Needless to say, he was a little ticked! It has been happening more & more lately and of course they both look guilty when we find it so we don't know who the culprit is.


Lobo has been having hip problems for about the last 2 years. The dogs have always slept in our room with us, which is upstairs. He now has many nights he doesn't want to climb the stairs so he will sleep on the couch, office floor, wherever.


Well, about 2:30 this morning I hear him clomping up the wooden stairs to our room, panting all the way. The trick is to lay there and see if he is going to flop himself at the top of the stairs and go to sleep or come over to wake one of us up because he has to go outside. Tonight he had to go out.


I get out of bed and of course Max is the first one down the stairs (he would prefer to be outside all the time if we let him). I went down and stood at the bottom waiting for Lobo, as he stood at the top just staring at me. I turned the hall light on so he could see better and what does the butthead do...turns around and goes over to the bed and lays on the floor by my husband. I had to go back upstairs and make him go down.


This time I stood at the top until he started down the stairs. As he gets to the bottom, instead of heading towards the side door, he goes the opposite way and went to the office to lay down! I had to go get him by the collar and almost drag him outside.


Normally they go and do their business and come right back to the side door (they have about 7,000 sq. feet of fenced in yard) to be let back in. I'm standing there waiting...no dogs...no dogs...no dogs. I turn on the spotlight for the garage, which sometimes will make them come to the door, still no dogs. I go outside and they are both just laying in the grass under a tree enjoying the nice weather!!!!


After getting them back in the house, spending my requisite 1 hour WIDE AWAKE in bed trying not to toss & turn and wake up my husband I gave up and came downstairs. I guess it will be another day of going to work with only 4 hours of sleep. I think it may be my curse to make up for having a child that slept ALL NIGHT starting at the age of 5-weeks-old and to this day at the age of 17 only gets up if he is sick.


Again, the mantra of the day...I love my dogs! :)

I Received a Blog Award

I've been honored to be chosen by fellow Etsian, Dog Dazzle to receive the The Premio Meme Award for my blog. It is wonderful to be chosen by such a talented artist. Pictured above is a really cute dog collar she has made. (If either of my dogs were girls I would buy it!). You can see all of her handcrafted dog collars in a wide range of colors, sizes and styles http://www.dogdazzle.etsy.com./ She even donates a percentage of her profits to Pilot Dogs, Inc.

In order to accept this award I must share 7 things about myself:

1. I think I was born in the wrong century

2. I think most of today's technology is a waste of time

3. I hate winter...and I live in N.E. Ohio close to the snow belt!!!!

4. The older I get the more irrational fears I have.

5. My dream is to live in a farm house in Italy.

6. My teenage son thinks I'm lame.

7. Really good chocolate makes everything better!!!

As required by being an award recipient I'm bestowing this award on 7 other famous bloggers:

http://bijouxdesignsforyou.blogspot.com/

http://scrapyourstoryco.blogspot.com/

http://beadnikboutique.blogspot.com/

http://quiltsgaloreandmore.blogspot.com/
http://etsytreasurechest.blogspot.com/
http://2kute.blogspot.com/
http://mshilts.blogspot.com/

Featured Etsy Store of the Week - 7/12/09

For my very first featured Etsy store of the week I thought it would only be fitting to feature my very first blog follower (with the exception of my parents)...PJMDesigns! http://pjmdesigns.etsy.com/

Paula describes her shop as being one of pre-made scrapbook pages and random goodies. Currently the "random goodies" are really cute note cards and felt barrettes. Like a lot of us out there, Paula's shop is less than a year old and she is working on building it. Her items range in price from $3.50-$18.00...very reasonable!

Her scrapbooking page designs include prom, summer fun, vacation, camping, love, baby designs and others. I've never done any type of scrapbooking, but if I did I would definitely buy her pages

My favorite item in her shop definitely has to be the Little Birdie Notecards. These would be awesome to send as thank you notes to your Etsy buyers. Or just a sweet note to someone you care about.

Best of luck to Paula for future success with her Etsy store! Be sure to stop by and check her out.

** I WAS FEATURED IN A BLOG **

Can you all tell I'm doing a happy dance?!?! I want to send a great big THANK YOU! to Bijoux Designs for You! She (they - she is part of a 2 person team) had me featured as one of the Friday's Fav Top 10 List.
http://bijouxdesignsforyou.blogspot.com/2009/07/friday-favs-top-10-list.html
Not only should you check out mine, but be sure to check out the other 9 items she listed as there are some really cool ones!

That was definitely my best news of the day, but I had more great stuff happening: I gained 14 new followers to my blog yesterday, 5 more people hearted my store and I only have about 2 more hours of work later tonight to get the Born to Shop pink sweatshirt finished so I can get it posted. I know I will have happy thoughts today while I'm working my BORING second job (yuck!).

Have a happy Saturday everyone! :)

I had a Facebook Referral?!

So yesterday I signed up for this thing called Google Analytics. For those of you that don't know what it is (I'm still figuring it out), it tracks the traffic on your website. I checked it this morning and since late yesterday afternoon I've had 6 visits to my Etsy store (have to check the forums and see if it tracks me). I was clicking on all the different links to see what info it gives and it shows one of my visits was a referral from a Facebook page...not mine cuz I don't have one. Who ever referred me (if you read my blog)...THANK YOU!!

I didn't get any buyers yesterday, but people are looking. I guess all this pimping I'm doing (excuse me, I mean "promoting") of my store must be working to some degree.

Can't wait to see what it will show tomorrow!

X-Rated Stitchers Monthly Meeting

Last night was the monthly meeting of the X-Rated Stitchers. It is a cross stitch group I belong to at my favorite local store, Stitch Piece 'n Purl. I always have a great time!

Every month we try to do some sort of theme; salad supper, pattern exchange, fabric exchange, etc. Last night was our annual White Elephant gift exchange. As usual we had some good laughs once we finally opened our gifts (after an hour or "stealing" others and giving them the package we had). Some of the white elephants were an OfficeMax rubberband ball, a bundle of mixed unused pencils, a magenta colored plastic patio martini set, a weekly calendar, a wallet and the list goes on. I think every one either went home with something they liked or a really good laugh!

Oh, and the best part of the meeting for me was our discount for the night...35% off aida or hand-dyed fabrics!!! Guess what I was buying?! I was just there on Monday night buying the fabric for the white tulips I'm going to stitch (see previous post of winner from the pick my next pattern post). However, I just had to buy more. My friend Bev helped me pick out a really nice color I will use to stitch the "My Christmas Wish to You" Pattern that is on my store. It is the only piece in my store that I haven't stitched yet.

If you live in the Akron area and are interested in coming to the meetings, they are the 2nd Wednesday of every month at Stitch Piece 'n Purl from 6:30-8:30 pm. It is $2.00 to attend, but definite goodies go with it. Can't wait until next month!

Coming Soon...Featured Etsy Store of the Week

Since we all have to help each other out in this tough economy, I will be starting a new feature. Every Sunday I will post my Etsy Store of the Week. It may be a follower of my blog or another local Etsy store. If I feature your store I will convo you and let you know so you can check it out and share with others.

Check back this Sunday, July 12th, and see who gets the honors of being my 1st featured store!

And the Winner is...

...by a clear 3-1 margin the White Tulips! Thanks to all those that voted! You can see the picture if you go to my June 18th blog.

This is the piece I will be starting next. I'm so excited! I went to my favorite local store (Stitch, Piece 'n Purl) last night as soon as I got off work and picked up my fabric for it. Then I sat at home and got everything ready; my pattern is printed, my floss is pre-sorted on homemade cards and my fabric is in my scroll frame ready to go!

I have a meeting tonight I need to get to for a while for the Stan Hywet Needlework Guild so I can learn how to finish the ornaments we are making for this year's Guild project. When I get home from that I either need to work on finishing my "Radiant Rose" or the unfinished sweatshirt I posted about over the weekend. Gotta get them done so I can get them on my Etsy store. THEN I can start my tulips.

Time to run...paying job is calling! Have a great day!

All But the Backstitching

I finished up my "Radiant Rose" last night. I just need to go through and put the backstitching in so the petals will stand out. Hopefully that won't take too long and I'll be able to get it posted to my Etsy store in the next few days.

I know the photo isn't the greatest, but it's one I took with my camera phone (instead of my regular digital camera) really quick to send to a friend that doesn't have access to a computer very often and wanted to see my progress.

Eventually I'll have enough items completed and posted I can have two pages of listings instead of just the one I have. Most of my critiques I'm getting in the forums keep saying "more selection". I'm working on it. :)

I've Found a U.F.O.

I was digging through my closet where I keep SOME of my cross stitch stash and I came across a U.F.O. (unfinished object) I had completely forgotten about. I started it YEARS ago (like more than 12 when I lived in a different house) for my middle sister that no longer speaks with me. I guess it will make a really good project to finish and put in my Etsy store. I'm sure there's someone out there that will like it.

Hope everyone had a Happy 4th and wasn't kept up until 2am with neighborhood fireworks like I was! :)

I'm Learning

I used to think I was cool with the technology thing...I use a computer almost all day at work. I'm quickly finding out as I'm getting older and technology is rapidly changing that there is a big difference between word processing, spreadsheets, power point, etc. and everything else going on (facebook, twitter, blogs, etc.).

I'm excited that one of my Etsy colleagues helped me with actually linking my store to my blog!! No more constantly having to insert a hyperlink for people to click on. You can now see items available in my store located in the top right corner of my blog.

Hope you guys find it easier to use! :)