Wonderful Wednesday

>> Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Today I am featuring a wonderful shop owned by Tara, The Foto Fairy.


How long have you been creating?

I have been photographing with the intention of creating and selling art since 2007.

How did you get started?

I have always enjoyed the camera and collecting images. Shortly before I turned 29, I had a bit of an identity crisis. I felt that I had only ONE YEAR left to figure out who I really was and what I wanted out of life because once you're 30....you're GROWN, you're an adult. I decided to become a portrait and wedding photographer and did that for a bit but really fell in love with art photography when I traveled up north to Long Point, Ontario on a job to shoot post cards. It was then that I knew that I didn't care to photograph people that I did not know...I wanted to be free to listen to my inner artist and be one with the camera!



Tell me a little about your charity and why you started donating to it.

Another artist turned me on to Partners In Health and all of the work that they are doing in Haiti. When I saw the devastation on TV, I wanted to hop on a plane and go help but I don't have any life saving skills...
So, I am donating all proceeds from the sale of my photo note cards to Partners In Health and specifically their effort in Haiti.
In addition to Partners In Health, I also send photo note cards to our soldiers overseas at every opportunity so that they don't have to purchase stationery in order to send letters home.

Do you have any advice for fellow Artisans?

I am not a money-making artist. I don't break even so I don't know that I should be giving advice ;)
I can relay advice that was given to me and that I have held onto: Don't give up!
Sometimes I think about Van Gogh and similar artists and remind myself that although he is quite famous now, he was unknown in his day.

PS...I am now over 30 and have come to love and accept myself for who I am...grown-up or not;)
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What a wonderful thought to end with. I too have learned to accept myself for who I am, but I do still strive to become better each day. I have also learned to accept others as well. That is some great advice.

I think her work is amazing. I cant decide if I like the Boardwalk or Vessel the most. I'm also very impressed that she sends photo note cards to our Troops. Being a Air Force vet myself I know that they truly appreciate her gifts and so do their families. Tara contacted me shortly after the Haiti earthquake, but I know that the work there is no where near done and they can still use all the help they can get. Thanks Tara for submitting your shop for the feature.

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Bella's Bowtique Fundraiser for Abbygail Marie

>> Saturday, April 24, 2010

Bella Bowtique is doing a fundraiser for Abbygail Marie. If you have never seen Abbygail around Facbook or Twitter you should go check out their pages. She is on an amazing journey. For the details of the fundraiser visit Bella's blog.

I think what Bella's Bowtique is doing is wonderful. I've been following Abby for a few months and on top of all that is going on with Abby, her dad has been overseas (I think in Iraq). He is finally home now. I am amazed at this mom's strength and positive attitude that comes through her posts. She has helped be more thankful for my healthy active boys, and not to complain when my husband isn't very helpful around the house. If she can go through all this without her husband home there is no reason I can't take care of my home without the help of my husband (which he does help from time to time). We take for granted what we have until we see what others are going through and we realize that our life is so much easier and we have no business complaining.

My boys see Abby's picture from time to time while I'm on Facebook and they ask me who she is. I tell them that her name is Abby and she has a beau-beau on her head and we need to pray for her and we do pray for her. I love that my boys are concerned for others and want to pray for them when they see a need.

If you can't help by purchasing something from Bella's Bowtique please help by passing the word around.

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Really... I won!

>> Friday, April 23, 2010

I entered a giveaway with no expectations at all. I've entered several giveaways recently to no avail. I can honestly remember the last time I've ever won anything. I was 15 years old and I was getting a Smoothie from Smoothie King with my mom. They had a number of the day contest, that if you picked the number your Smoothie was free. I guessed it right. From then on my favorite number was 14.

So I guess I can try all I want to win, but going off history it won't be for another 15 years. I'm so excited and I can't wait to get it.

Mabuy's

Civil War Homefront Jelly Roll & Honey Bun Winners!

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Feature Friday

Today's Feature is H & J Star Creations


We will be getting to know this artisan a little each month because H & J Creations chooses a different charity each month to donate to. So for our first installment of getting to know H & J we will find out how she got started and why she chose her particular charity.

Tell me how you got started.

I always loved to sew, but actually started again when I did the costumes for my son's fifth grade play,. Then I discovered etsy, and realized I could do this and not overwhelm my family with bags and pouches. So it has been a great time, buying all the fabric I love, and making things.


She sounds like a great candidate to join Supply-A-Holics (another blog I contribute to)

Tell me a little about your charity and why it's you charity this month.

I do choose a different charity every month to donate to and this month since it is Autism Awareness month, and I have friends with Autistic children, my choice was Cure Autism Now. It is a research organization dedicated to finding a cure. My son, who is reading a book in school on Autism, will also be chipping in $10 of his allowance money.


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I have several friends that have children who have Autism or are on the Spectrum. This cause is very near and dear to me. I love to hear stories of families doing charity together. I know it brings tears to my eyes when my boys (5 and 3 1/2) tell me they want to give money to the missionary.

If you would like to find out more about Cure Autism Now click here.
Note: Cure Autism Now and Autism Speaks have merged and operate under the name Autism Speaks.

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What is an Etsy Treasury and how do you make one?

>> Wednesday, April 21, 2010

All you need to know (or at least all I know) about Etsy Treasuries.

An Etsy Treasury is a place where you can feature items you love and promote one of your items. The first thing you want to do is decide on a theme and a title for your treasury. This is especially important if you are doing Treasury Main or Treasury West. I will go into more detail about the specific treasuries later. If  I am trying to promote one of my items I will try to come up with a theme based off that item.

There are currently 3 different Treasuries

1. Treasury Main
http://www.etsy.com/treasury.php

2. Treasury West
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_west.php

3. Treasury East
http://www.etsy.com/treasury
Each Treasury has its own "rules". Treasury Main and Treasury East have a limit that you cannot add a Treasury to unless it drop below a specific number. For Treasury Main there have to be less than 333 Treasuries to be able to add. In Treasury West there has to be less than 222. How will you know when it drops below that number? Glad you asked. There is a site called Craftopolis that has Treasury clocks that tell you when the number is supposed to drop below the required 222, or 333.



Just be careful, when it gets close to the time it's not always 100% accurate. I usually sit on the Treasury page when it gets close to the 2 - 3 hour mark.

Now if you are not an adrenaline junkie you now have the option to create a Treasury with no pressure in Treasury East. I like this option at the moment because it seem every time I want to create a Treasury it will be available at dinner time, or 4 am. Not the best times for me to go running to the computer.

For those of you who thrive on adrenaline....

Before you get wrapped up in snagging a Treasury you will need to be prepared for when that happens.

There are a few things you can do to be ready for that glorious moment when you actually get a Treasury.
Remember earlier I said you needed a theme and title for your Treasury, well now I'm going to tell you what to do with that. After you decide what your title is going to be (either write it down or remember it for later) go poking around Etsy for the items you would like to feature and heart them so you can easily find them later.


Then you will want to go to Poster Sketch - http://www.etsy.com/poster_sketch.php




The you will start plugging in the item numbers. It will make it really easy for you to do this if you open two browser windows and place them side by side on your desktop like this


 My hearted items ^^^                                                            Poster Sketch ^^^


Where are the item numbers? When you find your first item click on the link to view the item and look at the link, the item number will be there for you to double click on, copy and paste. If you are not sure how to copy and paste send me a message and I'll walk you through that. Repeat these steps till your poster sketch is full. Just make sure you can see the item number in the link at the top of the page. I had to resize the Etsy window to allow for clicking and copying the item numbers.

Here is a screen shot of what you Poster Sketch will look like after you added a few items.


Ok then after you have your Poster Sketch filled (or at least 12 of the spots) you can go snag your Treasury. Oh yeah you need to know how to do that too. When it's getting close to the 222 or 333 number go to the page either Treasure Main or Treasury West (links given above) and scroll down past the list of Treasuries. At the bottom it will tell you that the Treasury is full. Don't refresh your page, you might miss your chance. When the number drops below 222 or 333 there you can... I honestly am drawing a blank here so if I get this wrong someone please tell me so I can correct it. There will either be a spot for you to enter a title or a button to click on to add a Treasury. Then you enter your Title and a description if you like and have your Poster sketch ready.

Now this might not be the fastest or only way to get your numbers, but this is how I do it. I click edit under each item and copy the item number and paste it into the Treasury. After you are done you will click save (oh wow once again it's been a while so I'm not totally sure this is correct) and wallah you have your Treasury.

Now for Treasury East

This is a new one on the scene and we don't know how long this one will be with us.

Click the link to the Treasury East above and click on


Then you can put in your item numbers or the full links to the items.

Then your Treasury will look something like this...



Happy Treasury making.

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New Business Cards

>> Tuesday, April 20, 2010

We moved in Oct and I haven't had the opportunity (funds) to get some new business cards. With the help of my wonderful Hubby we played on Vista Print for a couple hours and come up with a design for both our cards.
Tell me what you think.





I love the picture on Kris' card. Kris the boys our dog and I have been on jobs before... although you may not see our kitty.

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Terrific Tuesday

I think it's time to get back to my features. A few months ago I started making coffee sleeves and 80% of the sales are donated to my friend's Relay for Life team. I wanted to help others spread the word about their causes that they support with some or all of their sales. 

Today I'm featuring Tamisha Design


Let's get to know Tamisha and what she does.

How long have you been creating?
Well I've been crafting since I was very little. Both my mom and my grandma were crafty and started teaching me to sew at a very young age. I loved making clothes for my dolls and embroidering tea towels, pillowcases and anything else I could get my hands on. I started making crafts to sell as early as grade school and have made and sold crafts off and on since then. I started my Etsy shop about a year ago but most of my sales have still been offline because I've been very busy working full time and going to school.




How did you get started?

I started my Etsy shop after requests for jewelry from friends, some of which lived out of town. Once I returned to work full time I took a little bit of a break from selling my crafts online to focus on school and work. I recently started creating new pieces to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society because I started participating in their Team in Training program.




Tell me a little about your charity and why you started donating to it.

The charity I'm currently donating to is the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. My mother lost her battle with cancer in 2004 and she has always been an inspiration to me. Even when she was sick she was selfless and gave what she could to others. She was a cook at the local Head Start and loved children and loved caring for them, so when I saw the opportunity to help raise funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma society through their Team in Training program (Leukemia is the most common form of childhood cancer) I literally ran with it. Team in Training is a program that trains people for endurance sports such as triathlons, marathons, and in my case half marathons in exchange for fund raising for LLS. I've never been a runner or really even athletic so it's been tough for me but totally worth it. You can read more about my journey and learn more about the program at www.teamtamisha.com I can't become a doctor or a scientist and help find a cure but I can run to raise funds and awareness.




Any advice for fellow Artisans?

Make sure that the first reason you create is because you love it. It sounds simple but I've found myself become stagnant from time to time and I've come to realize that it's because my focus was to much on creating just to re-stock my shop. When you create things because you love to it makes it a lot easier to stock up your shop, and empty it again with sales!

That's some great advice. I certainly do not create just for the money, I love what I do and I hope to pass on the joy to other through my stuff. 

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Welcome to Blogger

>> Monday, April 19, 2010

Well I had started working on converting my blog into Blogger a few months ago, but hit a snag with the layout and abandoned it. Since then I've become active on two different Blogger blogs (say that 10x's fast) and thought I would save time if I had them all here.

So welcome to Blogger my faithful blog followers and I hope I will be able to keep you more updated now.

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