Deep Breath!

I own my own business.

I am a small business owner.

I work from home.

My Etsy shop is my primary source of income.

You know how sometimes you have to say it outloud or write it down before it becomes real? Now I've said it. I've been giving it a lot of thought and I've realized that I will not get a better chance to make this happen. I am going to do whatever I need to do to make a profit on Etsy.  I will make enough money with my sewing that I don't need a day job. It's true that I have a lot going on right now, but that doesn't make it any less true that there will not be a better time to do this. If I can't do it now I'll need to get a 40 hour a week job, and if I do that I'll never have this opportunity again. This is something that I've been thinking about and talking about for years. I've made all of you follow along with me, and I really hope that you'll stick with me to see it through to the end.

Here's my game plan:

I am going to write a mission statement and post it publicly, so you can all hold me to it.

I hope to will hit 100 sales on Etsy by the end of next month, and 30 more by the end of the year. At a minimum.

Make at least one new item a day. I won't like post one new item a day, since things are easier in batches, but I want to average out to making one a day. If not more. I would love to will have a full shop of non-custom items, ready and open for Christmas shopping on Black Friday/Cyber Monday.

I am going to write a mass email announcing the new shop plans and send it to everyone I know by the end of September. I will only do this one time, but in that email will be a link to signup for my real newsletter, which I plan to send out no more than 6 times a year. I hope you will all sign up for it.

I plan to blog about my journey. I'd love to read how other women, moms, parents, crafters, whoever, made their dreams a reality, and I assume that there are other wannabes out there who would like to read how I do it. (Note: Completely positive statement there! No crashing and burning!) I have four or five topics in outline stage already, and I'll often refer my business in my other posts.  It is inevitable that this will impact all the other aspects of my life, so prepare yourself for tales of how the Princess played in the dog's water cause her mama was too busy sewing to notice care, and how the Pirate wore dirty socks cause I forgot to do laundry, and how you can't walk through any room in my house without stepping on toys.

I don't plan to stop doing other things I enjoy, like sewing dresses for my little girl, or reading books for pleasure. I'll still blog about that too, just like always.  Some of you have been reading long enough to know that I don't always follow through well, I've been talking about this for years! But I've been home for over a year now and I can't imagine going back to a job every morning. I can't imagine letting my baby spend 50 hours a week with someone else. I can't imagine doing something I don't love. 

This is my chance and it won't get any better than this.

Happy Blogiversary to me!

Books Lists Life is 3 years old today!

(sorry for the spacing, Blogger won't let me add paragraph breaks)

I had hoped to do a giveaway of a cute totebag or backpack for all you book carrying and diaper carrying folks, but October 6th came earlier than I expected. I've decided to do a anniversary giveaway on November 1st instead. The prize will be a handmade tote bag with a few goodies stuffed inside, and no, it won't be all my leftover Halloween candy (though that IS a good idea!)

Here's how to enter: for every comment you leave between September 1st and October 31st I will enter your name one time in the drawing. But Lisa, you say, September 1st was a month ago! You're RIGHT! I want to give my regular commenters a slight advantage. Sue me. I reserve to right to discard ANY comment that I decide is just there as filler space, so don't leave 20 comments on this post unless you actually have 20 things to say. And don't intentionally spread them out either! I don't have a problem with "Oh, that sounds great I want to read that!" or "Hey, what adorable children you have!" but a string of "me too" "pick me" "I have cooties!" won't cut it. (Ok, that last one might make me laugh and I'd probably leave it in.) This is completely subjective on my part, I realize that, but I think most of you understand what I'm getting at-- NO SPAM!

This is open to my international friends as well, unless you are the person commenting in Chinese (? like I know) on the August 17th Random Friday post. You are not eligible.

In the meantime, in honor of my anniversary (birthday?) I'd like to ask you a couple questions.

1. What is your best blogging TO DO tip?
2. What is your best blogging DON'T DO tip?
3. What do you like to see in someone's sidebar(s)?
4. What do you wish blogger swould NOT do?
5. Where do you find new to you blogs? Comments? Twitter? Google?

Don't feel obligated to answer them all, or even any of them, but I am curious. And don't answer them in four separate comments, k?

Avatar and Favicon

Just a quick note to say I updated my avatar for leaving comments- that faded stack of books is gone now! The new one looks like this:


I used the pink from my header for the favicon, but I'm thinking of swapping it to the same one as the avatar.

Awww, I love your blog too!

Amanda at Life and Times of a "New" New Yorker recently gave me the "I love your blog" award. Amanda posts some great pictures of New York City, makes me feel like I've been there. PLUS, she's an Auburn fan, so of course I love her too. I admit to being a bit like a 5th grader in that it gives me a little thrill to get little awards. Then I get all self conscious and wonder who I should give them BACK to! What if she doesn't like me?? What if SHE notices I didn't give it to HER? THE PRESSURE.





But this time, I'm determined to do right by my friends, so here goes:

• Lezlie at Books 'N Border Collies, who makes me want to be a good dog owner.


• Trish at Trish's Reading Nook, who always seems to be online when I'm online. Plus, we'll always have Little Women.


• Raych at books i done read, who never fails to crack me up by saying what I'm thinking, but saying it better.


• Natasha at Maw Books Blog, for her outstanding efforts to help increase awareness of the genocide in Darfur (I sent my letter this week!)


• bermudaonion, who seems to comment on my posts before I even hit publish. Does she live in my computer?


• Megan at Fried Okra. Friday's post was titled, "Friday, I love you more than a Nutella and Cheeto Sandwich." Do I need to say more?


• Bookish Ruth, who I JUST discovered from the BBAW stuff. She's giving away a copy of Tethered by Amy Mackinnon, stop by and say hi.


• And last, Gina at Bitty and the Boy, who has been my best friend since 11th grade. She recently started a blog (I'm a bad influence!) and could use a few visitors. We live 1400 miles apart now (after living 4 feet apart in college) so stop by and show her some love, will ya?

This is by no means ALL the blogs I love, I didn't even make it to the "crafting", "kitchen sink", "parenting" and "living green" sections on my Google reader. Maybe some time next week I'll give some more away. For today, this will do. Girls, I love ya all.

PS if you spell Google "google" spellcheck will tell you it is WRONG. Hrmph.

Big Announcement!

Announcing.... We'd Rather Read !

We'd Rather Read is a joint effort blog between myself and several of my friends. We're just barely getting started, but I've already had a few comments over there so I thought I better out us over here too. For myself, book reviews will be cross posted both places, but there will (eventually! SOON even!) be reviews from other people as well. Occasionally, we might read the same book and then talk about it. We might post about things that aren't books, but that are reading! It'll be a lot of fun, I can't wait.

Why the new blog, you might ask- well with everything I'm doing personally I feel like I don't post often enough over here to keep it flowing. I'm pregnant, I'm still working on my Etsy store (new Valentines bags posted today!), I'm still working. I love blogging and the community around it, and wanted a way to continue to do it AND keep up some traffic without pressure. I'll still be blogging here- my book stuff will be cross posted (the other's reviews will not be) and I'll be posting about my sewing and the shop and, of course, the Monkey and his brother when he arrives.

So stop on by at We'd Rather Read. Say hello, add us to your reader. Expect a lot more content in the following days! But don't take Books. Lists. Life off your blogroll either, I'll be both places.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2008!

This is gonna be a great year for our house, I can just tell. The monkey turns three in April, to be followed shortly by the birth of his little BROTHER in late April/early May. Yes, that's right, BROTHER. Two boys! Yikes! 6 weeks of maternity leave when I don't have to think about a single other person's money problems... I can't wait!

Do you make resolutions? Mine are gonna go something like:

• Continue sewing.
• Keep working on the Etsy Shop.
• Try to keep the house clean on an ongoing basis as opposed to cleaning it on Sundays.
• Continue reading and doing things for me, don't become only a mommy.
• Less sugar.
  

In book news, I just finished up last years wrap up at 65 books for 2007. It easily could have been 66, but I didn't want to redo the post, so I held off. For next year, my goals are:

• 60 books (5 a month)
• 5 books off The Big List. The Big List is an ongoing list of books I "should" have read. These are mostly classics, and since I read 4 of them last year, I figure 5 is doable this year.
• 1 book of short stories.
• 1 Russian novel.
  
• More by men. (only 14% in 2007)
• More non-fiction of any type.
• Try to read anything published in 2008 IN 2008.
  
• Complete my personal TBR Challenge list. This list is made of books that were hugely popular last year and that I own, but never got around to reading. I'll post this list soon.
• Continue blogging about what I'm reading.

And speaking of blogging- big news coming in that area soon! Stay tuned! (I'd hoped to post about it today, but ran out of time.)

What are your goals for 2008?

Thursday Thirteen #25

Once again, I frantically trying to catch up. I have bookmarked roughly 837 blog posts that I want to mention here, I want to talk about what I'm reading, I have a monkey story to relate... SO you're getting it in a freeform sort of Thursday Thirteen. It's kinda cheating, I know, but it's my blog I can do what I want!

1. I just saw this post over at Elle Fredrix's blog. Freaky cool, huh? They move very slowly for me.


2. Your Friendly Neighborhood Book Dragon posted the BEST review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that I have seen yet. Very insightful. (Note: there are spoilers in the review, bookmark it and come back if you haven't finished yet.)


3. Etsy Love! A journey of 1000 stitches had the brilliant idea to post about etsy and collect some links into Mr. Linky. Go check it out. My own etsy shop (still tiny!) is listed there as well.


4. This review of The Time Traveler's Wife (again at Your Friendly Neighborhood Book Dragon) makes me want to move it up my list- fast! I own the book, what am I waiting for? (oh yeah, all those OTHER books I own...)


5. Erin at The Paperback Stash nominated me for the Rockin' Girl Blogger award. I LOVE that picture at the top of her blog, no, not that one, the one on the right.

1. Trish nominated me too! Does this one cancel out the other? Thanks ladies.


2. Your Friendly Neighborhood Book Dragon (can you tell I just discovered this blog? and that I love it?) posted the Best. Ever. Story about used book shopping. Go read it.


3. I am reading The Storyteller's Daughter by Saira Shah. It is about Afghanistan, and I had hoped it to be an enlightening follow up to A Thousand Splendid Suns. It's a memoir, and so far I'm finding it to be much less serious that I had hoped. The author is clearly enchanted with Afghanistan, and it is coloring her writing. This is good for most memoirs, but not really what I'd hoped for this one.


4. I am also reading Glass Houses by Rachel Caine. This is the author of the Weather Warden series, which I love. (Ok, I've only read the first one. I love it though!) I've read about half of Glass Houses, and the jury is still out. It is only just now getting interesting. Fortunately, it is also short.


5. We are going camping for real this weekend. Like, in a tent and everything. I can't wait to see what the Monkey thinks.


6. And speaking of His Monkeyness- yesterday he told me he wanted to wear a specific shirt. I said, "this one? the one with the Brontosaurus on it?" and he said, " No Mommy! APATOSAURUS." Gee thanks kid. Correcting me ALREADY??? and he's not even 2 1/2 yet!


7. Dewey created a blog where we can discuss Harry Potter with full spoilers. Go check it out.


8. There is a necklace on Etsy that I really really want. Like really. Badly. WANT. I visit it every day to make sure it is still there. Because I want it. A lot. Only now I am nervous about posting the link, cause what if you want it too?? So just imagine it, k?

(for whatever reason, blogger doesn't want me to put that picture there without renumbering my list. 5+8=13)

Blogging Tips Meme

Bonnie at Bonnie's Books has tagged me with the Blogging Tips Meme. I love being tagged for things, but have such a hard time thinking of people to tag back.

I also have to admit, I don't really "get" this one. Do I just add my tip to the end? Delete my least favorite? Every list I've seen has had ten on it.

Anyway, here we go!

-Start Copy-

It’s very simple. When this is passed on to you, copy the whole thing, skim the list and put a * star beside those that you like. (Check out especially the * starred ones.)

Add the next number (1. 2. 3. 4. 5., etc.) and write your own blogging tip for other bloggers. Try to make your tip general.

After that, tag 10 other people. Link love some friends!

Just think - if 10 people start this and the 10 people pass it on to another 10 people, you have 100 links already!

1. Look, read, and learn. *** http://www.neonscent.com/

2. Be EXCELLENT to each other. ** http://www.bushmackel.com/

3. Don’t let money change ya! * http://www.therandomforest.info/

4. Always reply to your comments. ***** http://chattiekat.com/

5. Link liberally — it keeps you and your friends afloat in the Sea of Technorati. ** http://chipsquips.com/

6. Don’t give up - persistence is fertile. * http://www.velcro-city.co.uk/

7. Give link credit where credit is due. *** http://www.sfsignal.com/

8. Pictures say a thousand words and can usually add to any post. ** http://scifichick.com/

9. Visit all the bloggers that leave comments for you - it's nice to know who is reading! ** http://stephaniesbooks.blogspot.com/

10. Thrown in something humorous occasionally, to keep things fun. http://bonniesbooks.blogspot.com/

11. When picking the URL for your blog, think short and easy. You'll be typing it a million times. http://bookslistslife.blogspot.com/

-End Copy-

And my tags (I am NOT visiting to see if you've already been tagged, so if you get it twice just think of how loved you must be!)

1. B at A journey of 1000 stitches
2. Bibliolatrist at Bibliolatry
3. Neila at Blog That Mommy!
4. Leila Roy at Bookshelves of Doom
5. Janssen at Everyday Reading
6. Jill at The Magic Lasso
7. Trish at Trish's Reading Nook
8. Susan (or whoever is talking today :) ) at West of Mars
9. Amanda at A Patchwork of Books
10. Maggie at Maggie Reads

Whew. There's ten! Have at 'er!

Thursday Thirteen #20

While we were on vacation last week I had very little time to check Google Reader for new posts. We returned Sunday morning and I had 670 new blog posts to read. For this week's Thursday Thirteen, I give you thirteen of my favorites, in no particular order.

1. Letters from Mommy's Journal at Nattie Writes! As many of you know, Nattie recently passed away. These are letters written to her children a week of so before.



2. The best book so far this year over at This is the Life. This is the second review of A Thousand Splendid Suns that makes me want to run out and buy it. In Hardcover.



3. Amanda at A Patchwork of Books recently read 13 Little Blue Envelopes and also enjoyed it. Here's my review.



4. If you've been anywhere in the book blogging world in the last month you can't help but be aware of the big debate over the value of book bloggers vs. in print reviews. I haven't talked about it here, but Bibliolatry has a nice blog post about it.



5. 3M posted about the incredible amount of reading she has to do by the end of June. I am amazed, as always, by her.



6. Mother Reader hosted a 48 hour reading challenge last weekend (while I was on vacation or I SO would have been there!) and posted the results here. The winner read an amazing 20 books.



7. Darla's Thursday Thirteen last week was memorable first lines- I have got to get in on the Jim Butcher bandwagon!



8. Suey over at It's All About Books posted this great conversation between her spouse and kids.



9. A High and Hidden Place has a review of The Lightning Thief- a book I just bought on vacation.



10. Mary Elizabeth Williams has an opinion on the Sopranos finale. I didn't get to watch it (yet) but hope to soon.



11. So the fish said... has a wonderful post about being a parent. I know exactly how she feels.



12. The only book I read on vacation was Number the Stars (my review here), 3M also read it.


13. Oh My God! They Nebulized Kenny!
    

Ahhh. Home again.

Vacation is over and we're home trying to catch up on everything. I had 670+ Google Reader posts on deck! If I post a comment on something you said a week ago don't be surprised. I got smart and did most of our laundry at my mother's house so almost all the clothes are clean.

The vacation itself was very nice. Lots of relaxing, pool time, some chick-fil-a, a couple Krystals. I didn't get much reading done, just one Newbery Challenge book (review to be posted later) and a little bit of another.

His monkey-ness had a great time circling the pool at my aunt's house and playing with his cousins. He fell madly madly in love with my cousin Alanna and wanted to know where she was every moment she was not in his sight while in Tennesse. This is the two of them poolside.



















We also hit the Nashville zoo, which is gorgeous, but the animals aren't so exciting. We met up with my best friend since forever and her kids, and took them back to my aunt's house for a swim. This is the three boys (the monkey is third from the front) and me looking at the Zebras. OMG! ZEBRAS! The monkey was much impressed by them.

















I had posted 13 Things I wanted to do on my vacation, and we did everything on that list except for 2 and 4, so yay!

Book shopping was done- I came home with 7 new books:


















The Monkey learned to spell W-A-T-E-R in sign language at Ivy Green. No, not really, but that IS the famous well at Ivy Green.


















The cousins stomped in puddles.


















Ok, this one isn't from vacation, it's from our (no longer) overgrown backyard. But isn't it an EXCELLENT photo? I'm gonna frame this one.























And lastly, this has nothing to do with anything, but I love the song Hey There Delilah so so much. Please, no one ruin it for me. It's just so romantic and sweet as it is.

Did I miss anything while I was gone?

More Lists and Monday's Math

Have you heard of the book 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die? I'm not sure how the author compiled the list, but some bored soul bought the book and typed out the list of all 1001 books. I have read 37 of them. It's interesting, the more I see classics talked about the more I want to read them. I think I might have to quit my job so I can read.

Shortly after finding that link, I found this link to the Publisher's Weekly best books of 2006. I have read none of those. I haven't even heard of most of those.

I've gotten 4 more books from Paperbackswap, 2 books from a book exchange, and bought one (Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs) since my last count. This takes me to 20 books in, 8 books read- I'm behind by 12 books! Today starts the 8th week of the year, I've read 8 books, so on track for my goal of 52 books this year. This blog is really helping me to get things read- I have to have things to talk about!

The Big List of Lists

I think this is the most perfect post ever. It's got books, lists, humor- what more could I want? If you haven't yet clicked on the link (and why haven't you?) it's a list of possible book lists. Not content with the standard "10 Best Books of All Time" or "10 Best Books of 2006", this is the mother of all lists. Some examples:

• Books I Will Never Read But Have a Great Title
• Books My Friends Should Give Back: It Was Just a Loan
• Books I Keep Re-reading, but Only After Enough Time Has Passed That I've Forgotten the Ending (Which Means I Must Not Like Them THAT Much and Should Therefore Not Even Bother)
• Books You Put Off Reading Because You Were Afraid They Weren't Going to Live Up to Your Expectations

It's from the blog 50 Books, which I am on my way to add to the sidebar now! The author of the blog plans to actually make lists of books to go with each topic, so if this is your kind of thing bookmark it and check back.

I wish I had thought of it first. (And might steal the idea on occasion, giving credit to her, of course.)

Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot

I've heard a lot about Meg Cabot. The author of one of the blogs I read daily is her biggest fan. She wrote The Princess Diaries. How could I not have heard about her? Several weeks (ok, months) ago I purchased this book on the buy 3 for the price of 2 table at Borders. This is one of the few books I've bought new in months. It sat there forever, mocking me for paying money and then not reading it.

Last weekend I woke up before either boy. Mike was sleeping on the couch, Tristan was in his crib. I didn't want to wake either of them by wandering the house and the book I was supposed to be reading was in the living room, so I picked this one to fill in. Turns out, it was an excellent book. Very fast paced, very funny, easy to read.

Size 12 is Not Fat is the story of Heather Wells. Heather is a washed up former teen pop star (think Debbie Gibson). She's recently broken up with her fiance (think Justin Timberlake) and is broke. Her mom and manager ran away with her fortune and her dad is in prison. Heather takes a job as assistant director of a dorm, I mean, residence hall, at New York College. When the second freshman girl dies she becomes convinced that it is not accidental and the story takes off from there.

This was very like Nancy Drew for grownups. It's not a dead serious mystery, I'm sure any true mystery fan will know who-dun-it for the first time it's hinted at. Heather is a very likeable character. She's not perfect. She's a size 12. She makes mistakes. The story is told in her voice, and we hear her thoughts all the way through, including when her thoughts stray. I found it to be very easy to read, and will definately read more of Cabot's books. For a quick sample of her writing, her website and blog are here.

As I faint dead away...

Today as I was wasting a little time online I found this blog about books. Oh Yay! I thought, a new blog. So I started to click links and follow posts around and.... now I have TWENTY-SIX new bookmarks. ALL ABOUT BOOKS. A good many of them I have barely looked at, and, in fact, named the folder "blogs to explore later" but I can already tell you that there's some good stuff there! Keep your eyes open, I'll be adding a few links to the list at the left as well.

All these blogs about books are intimidating me a little, I must admit. I started this little blog of my own to do exactly what they are all doing- but they're all doing it better than I ever could! Yikes! I guess the only remedy is practice practice practice.

Of course, if I don't stop reading blogs and start reading books I'll never have anything to post about anyway.

Edited Jan.23 to add: ok, I keep going and going, I have 61 blogs. About books. Who needs sleep?