HAPPY NEW YEAR

December was a good month, sales wise, on Etsy so I have spent most of January re-stocking my shop and thinking of new ideas. I have added coffee cuffs and phone cases/cozies to my shop.

I love these coffee cuffs. I have knitted them in a stitch which gives them a padded feel. They are so much better than the paper ones and they are eco-friendly as they can be used over and over. I am a coffee addict so I keep one in my pocket. I am always getting asked where I got it from, I have sold quite alot of these by keeping some with me when I am out!


I have made phone cozies before, but this time I have changed the design. I have knit these in a basketweave pattern and finished them off with a button. I have ordered some new buttons and I am hoping they are going to come today. They are big and bright and I think they will look great on my phone cozies. I had an enquiry about this one. I was asked if I made these cozies for Iphones. Unfortunately I don't own an Iphone so I asked my daughter if she knew anyone who did. Luckily she did and she took it to Uni with her yesterday so that she could try it on one. Anyway this one fits Iphones and my daughter's friend loved it that much she placed an order for one, the same colour as this but with a yellow button.

FREE SHIPPING

I hope those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving have had a wonderful time with your families and friends. Tomorrow is Black Friday so from then until Cyber Monday any item purchased in my Etsy store will be shipped to you FREE OF CHARGE. I have some lovely knitted and crocheted items that you would make fantastic Christmas presents - prices start from $9.00.

VALENTINE TREASURY

Many thanks to Beadbeautyboutique of Etsy for including my pretty pink heart keyring buddy in this ever so cute Valentines Treasury.  I made this keyring with Valentines in mind but it is a cute accessory that would look great any time of year If you are looking for some fabulous jewellery making supplies at great prices, check out the Beadbeautyboutique.

I'VE BEEN FEATURED

Many thanks to NiftyKnits for featuring my pretty blue teacup keyring buddy in her recent treasury. The treasuries on Etsy are a great way for a sellers to showcase their fellow Etsians work and there is the added bonus that your treasury may get picked to feature on the front page of Etsy. They are also another way for buyers to see the fantastic range of items that are available for sale. If you are stuck for Christmas present ideas this year take a look at Etsy, do your gift shopping from the comfort of your own home.

AMIGURUMI SOCK MONKEY

I first saw sock monkeys on Etsy and fell in love with them. They are so cute and colourful and it is hard to believe they are made from Socks. So when I found myself thinking of something different to crochet, it isn't too difficult to see why sock monkey popped into my head.

I wanted to make this into one of my keyring buddies but it has turned out too big. I think this size, approximately 6.75" (17 cms) is perfect for hanging from a bag or even for sitting on your desk, a pocket sock monkey. I am hoping to start another today, but I have not decided on the colour combination.

NEW KEYRING BUDDY

Here is my latest keyring buddy, a cute little octopus. I already have Sunshine Sally for sale in my Etsy shop, but she is a little larger and probably too big to hang from a keyring. I did make a pink one like this one before, the same size as Sunshine Sally, her name was Polly and she is now residing in Kazakhstan. I think I will call this one Ellie. I have also made another Nellie the Elephant keyring buddy pictured here with her brother Sydney.

FIRST CUSTOM ORDER

I was recently asked if I could make a guinea pig keyring buddy. I must admit I was a bit worried about getting it to look like my client wanted. I wasn't given any directions, just 'no pink'. I can picture finished items in my head, but sometimes they don't turn out the way I hoped and can take a few attempts to get it right. Fortunately this little one looked right after my first attempt. I checked with my my daughters to make sure he looked like a guinea pig and they both agreed that he did and that he was cute. He is now with his new owner in America. I was pleased to get a message from her to let me know that he had arrived safely and that his new owner was pleased with him. If you would like your own keyring buddy, I have others for sale in my Etsy shop.

IS TIME PASSING BY FASTER?

Is it just me or does anyone else think that this year is passing really quickly? I went part-time in my job just over a year ago in the hopes that I would have more time but it is not happening. I can't believe how quickly the weeks are passing, it is Thursday again and the weekend is almost upon us. There are so many things I want to do but I never seem to have the time to get round to them.

We were hoping to go away this weekend but have cancelled due to increasing fuel charges. We are going to Cornwall at the end of July for a fortnight, so we have decided to save our money for that instead. We have a caravan and bought a diesel car to tow it with as at the time the running costs were cheaper. Unfortunately the price of diesel has increased and now it is more expensive than unleaded petrol.

Jasper was sick on Sunday and when he is sick he always does it in his bed. Anyway I put the cushion out of his bed into the washer. When I went to get it out all the contents of the cushion had come out and the washer was full of polyester filling. What a mess!

We had to rush to our local pet store to get him a new bed. I picked him a very smart red tartan one, brought it home and put it in his corner. He wasn't impressed. I made him sit in it for this picture, look at his ears. I don't think he has slept in it yet.

I sold one of my favourite pairs or earrings this week. They were bought as a birthday present for the lady's mum. She sent me a message to let me know they had arrived safely and that her mum was pleased with them. I thought it was really nice of her to let me know.

NEW DESIGN - THE MUMPH

I started this about a month ago, hence the name Mumph (month) get it? Anyway I think he has turned out kind of cute and he will be on sale later today in my Etsy shop. I am planning on designing some different ones, I think the next one may be a baby Mumph and I will also like to make one into a keyring buddy.

My keyring buddies have been very successful, in particular Tina Turtle. I listed her yesterday evening and within an hour or so she had sold. She will be on her way to America tomorrow morning.

THANK YOU

I would like to say thank you to a fellow Etsy Hookers Street Team Member, FairyDC2008, for featuring my Sunshine Sally Octopus in her lovely Treasury on Etsy. Treasuries are where Etsy members get to show off some of the items that are for sale. It is a great feeling when you are looking through the list of treasuries and you see a gold star that indicates that one of your items has been chosen to be featured. So if you get time go take a look at her lovely shop where you will find some really pretty crochet and jewellery items.

UK EARTHQUAKE

My blog has just been rejected by Blogexplosion because it contains adverts and I talk about my shop on Etsy (whoops there I go again). So I thought I should maybe talk about something else. I have decided to talk about my experience of an earthquake. I should have given this a mention sooner.

In the early hours of 27 February 2008 I was woken up by a loud rumbling that was getting closer and closer, then everything started shaking. I sat up in bed and I could feel myself being shook and things were rattling. Then everything went quiet.

I immediately rang my husband, who was at work, and asked him if he had felt it as he works on the opposite side of town and yes he had. Then my daughter rang me and asked me if I had felt it.

I tried to get back to sleep but my mind was racing and I kept imagining I could hear it again. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep that night.

It was a very frightening experience, one I wouldn't wish to repeat, and it was only a small shudder compared to the earthquakes suffered by other countries.

I wanted to add a picture to this post and I remembered this one that I took on 17 February 2008. I was getting dinner ready and just happened to look out of the kitchen window and saw this amazing coloured sky. I went to the front of the house and took this picture.

TWO ITEMS SOLD

I was beginning to think I would never sell anything on Etsy again, then out of the blue I made two sales. The first item to sell was my 'remember summer' cell phone cosy. My eldest daughter called in the day I was packing it ready to send. She picked it up and commented on the wrist strap, she thought it was such a good idea to have one. Hmm maybe I can sell her one later.





Two days later I was surprised to find I had made another sale, this time this pair of earrings - my bubble earrings.


If you have ever sold anything that you have made you will know how exciting it is when someone likes something enough to buy it.


Anyway I am very grateful to both these buyers and I hope they are both satisfied with their purchases.

TYNDALL CRAFT SHOW

I was reading some of the posts in the Etsy forums yesterday and I came across an announcement regarding the Tyndall Craft Show. This is a Craft Show for The Tyndall Air Force Base Community which is taking place on 17 May 2008. An event to raise money for the Air Force Aid Society and their local Airmen and Families.

Sarah, one of the organisers, was asking the Etsy community if they would like to send samples of their work or business cards, anything that could be given away at the show.

I have seen these kind of requests before but I have never bothered, but this time I thought 'why not give it a go'. So I have spent this weekend getting some things together (pictured above) to send to this event.

Unfortunately I am in the UK so will not be attending, but if anyone is in the area why not go and take a look and you never know you might get some free samples!

EASTER HOLIDAYS

We decided late on Good Friday to go to Cornwall for the Easter break. My daughter, along with her husband and 2 children, had already booked a caravan on a campsite near Bude. So we booked onto this campsite too.

I was a bit concerned about leaving our house as there had been several burglaries in the area the previous night but my husband told me that we could not let that stop us from doing anything. Anyway we haven't got much worth stealing, we don't have a plasma tv, my husband's computer is very old and we took our 2 laptops with us.

The view from Padstow Harbour

We set off Saturday morning about 7.30 am and arrived in Cornwall 6 hours later, we were towing our caravan so this slows us down a bit. Even so we arrived at the site about 10 minutes before my daughter and her family, much to the annoyance of my son-in-law, who had apparently been trying to catch us up all the way down.

The beach at Newquay

The site was ok but the ground was very muddy, yuk. I put Jasper, our West Highland Terrier, outside on his lead and he got involved in a play fight with another dog and ended up needing a bath. That was the last time he was allowed out on his own.

The little steam train

We had a good week, the weather was very mixed, wet, windy, sunny, but fortunately we had no snow which the folks back home had, much to the annoyance of my young daughter. She hasn't seen much snow and she would have loved to have had the chance to play in it.

Sunset at Widemouth Bay

We visited Padstow, Newquay, Truro and we went on a little steam train from Launceston which took us to a farm where the children could play on swings, slides, bikes all sorts of things. There was also a little petting zoo. We had a really good day there.

We had a good week, I really enjoyed it. It was nice to spend time with my daughter and her family. We are going back to Cornwall in July, I am looking forward to it.

MY NEW BUSINESS CARD

I was going to order some business cards from a company I found on the internet, but they quoted 3 weeks delivery. So I had a go at doing it myself, which I suppose is a good thing as I now recommend buying handmade. Anyway here is my attempt, what do you think? Please be kind with your comments.

Coin Holder Keyring

I have been making some really useful coin holders for my Etsy shop. I decided to add keyrings to them as I thought it would make them more useful and easier to find. How often have you got to the supermarket and found you haven't got the right coin for the trolley. This is always happening to me. The same with parking meters I never have the right change and just the other day my mobile (cell) phone decided to run out of battery power and I needed to make a phone call, again a scrabble around looking for some change. Well now I have made one of these for myself and I have got it attached to my keyring. So now I will never be in a situation and find I haven't got the right change.

Another brilliant use for these little cuties is somewhere to keep that extra bit of cash you need when you have a night out with your friends. How many times have you run out of money for the taxi ride home. Just place your taxi fare into this and you will never have that problem again.

I have made them in the colours shown, but I have loads more great colours that I am going to use over the next few days and get them all added to my shop (http://lizzyt.etsy.com/).

Mother's Day 2 March in the UK

Mothering Sunday is fast approaching. In the UK this year it is on 2 March. I have not actually made anything specifically for Mother's Day as I have a good selection of items for sale in my Etsy shop that would make ideal presents for your mum or gran.

This scarf would make an ideal gift for Mother's Day, the colours are hot and vibrant. A lovely scarf for this time of year to bring a bit of colour to the world. It is in my Mother's Day Offers Section and has been reduced to $22.00 (£11.00) plus p&p.

I also have a wonderful selection of bracelets and earrings, some of which have been featured here in earlier posts. The one above has a wonderful selection of red beads. It too can be found in my Mother's Day Section and has been reduced to $25.00 (£12.50) plus p&p. I also welcome custom orders, if you see something which you like but would prefer a different colour or different design, please feel free to get in touch with me through my Etsy store at http://lizzyt.etsy.com. Keep checking my store for special offers, especially at the weekends.

Cards

I am starting to introduce my newest products into my Etsy store, cards. I have just listed the first one today, a notecard. It is really pretty. I am very pleased with the way they look and I have loads of great ideas for for more. I get like this sometimes, I have all these ideas running around in my head but I don't seem to have enough hours in the day to do them all.

I find it very relaxing to do, it takes me back to my childhood when I used to spend hours cutting and pasting into my scrapbooks. I have now got to improve my photographs, I can't seem to get the cards to look white.

I love using these to write notes to my family and friends.