Playing catchup

• I missed Friday. I knew it was Friday, but I couldn't make myself write coherent sentences.
• I have starting putting some of my shop items at our local mall for consignment this Christmas. It's a really great deal for me, but in return I'm volunteering my time at the shop so  that the owner can have a smidge of a life. I've already sold a bit of stuff and had a handful of custom orders. I took this little batch of zipper wallets up to the store today- at $5 each I really hope they fly off the shelf.
  
  
  
• Today I'm headed to the local thrift store for quarter day. I can't wait! It's once a month, all clothes are $.25. It's always completely crowded and I always come home with a bunch of stuff I end up not being able to use, but it still ends up a bargain. And, best part? I get to go ALL BY MYSELF.
• On Thursday we took the Bug to Sioux Falls to have a suspicious lump on his arm looked at. The doctor did a biopsy and he has two little stitches. He is SO angry at the doctor, and at us. We get lab results back in 8 days, so any good thoughts his way would be really appreciated. 
• Things on the bar in my kitchen are literally a foot deep. This is a function of my sewing all the time and being gone all the time and OUTGROWING THIS LITTLE APARTMENT. I can not wait to move. We have so many things that we just CAN'T put away, as there is no where else to PUT things, except in long term storage, and that's so hard to manage.

What I Read This Week:

• Hell if I know. I didn't finish anything.

My blog is five years old!

Guys, somehow Books. Lists. Life. had another birthday and turns five today! I thought we'd celebrate with a little giveaway!  I'm gonna give away two of these little owl coin purses. They are tiny and cute, only slightly bigger than a credit card.





The first winner will be chosen from everyone who comments on this post! That's it! Easy peasy! (Please don't just say "pick me!", say something witty, or tell me your favorite romantic movie or song or book, or tell me what's for dinner, ok?) Winner number one will get their choice of owl. At the time of this posting, there are three to chose from, but if they continue to multiple I'll happily give the winner one of the others.





The second winner will be chosen from the losers. (What?)








While credit cards will fit in the owls it is a tight squeeze. (Tho I'd imagine they will loosen up a tiny bit over time.) The black one does not have a key ring, the other two do.

If you'd like to be a fan of Made By Lisah on Facebook, you might win the third one. Just Saying.

Contest is open until October 14th. I'll announce the winner on October 15th. If you do not have an email address in your profile be sure to leave one, because I will not track you down! If you do not win, and you want an owl of your own, I'll be listing them in the shop soon! This giveaway is open internationally.

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.

Random Friday: A detailed look at my weekly calendar and to do list

• This school year I bought a planner and have been using it for a month. It shows a week at a glance with a section for my to do list, and a side bar for additional notes. (It's technically for menu planning, I don't use it for that.) It's ridiculously full each week, because I write a daily to do list on it, but it's really working out for me.  I tried to make notes for how I use it, but you'll have to click on it to see it bigger. The key turns out to be writing out my to do list in excruciatingly tiny detail. Each morning I make a new to do list, carrying over whatever didn't get done yesterday. It does not include things like laundry and feeding children. The section under the pirate ship are future blog posts, if I ever write them.  How would you tweak this to do list to fit your life? What am I missing? What could make it easier to get organized?
• I dusted off the made by lisah blog yesterday, with a post of my Favorite Etsy finds of the past week. Pop on over and take a look!  (I also worked on sprucing up the sidebars and vacuuming the dust out of the corners.)
• We're going to have a little friend staying with us a couple days a week. We've had her here twice now and I think it's going to work out well. She's a little younger than the Bug, but he still enjoys her company. We'll be calling her Little Bo Peep, just cause I think "Bo Peep" will be fun to type.
• I've been lugging these 4 or 5 underbed boxes of paperbacks around with me for the last 12 years or so. As part of my storage unit clean out, I just purged 4/5 of them. I added them to my yard sale stacks, but honestly I can't imagine who is going to want to buy 15 -18 year old Harlequin romance novels, or other old, non-stellar, titles.  I did keep a handful of my favorites. (G, if you're worried, Jake's Mountain is safe!)  I also purged about 1/3 of our other books. I still have 2 or 3 boxes to go, but a lot of them are Mike's so I suspect they will stay put.

What I Read this week:

• Finished Divergent by Veronica Roth. I loved it so much. Probably more than The Hunger Games.I might even review it.
• Started The Help. In Large Print!! Kinda worried I'm not in the mood for something serious, which means the next one is really crazy...
• Started Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I've been telling Trish I would read it and the anniversary of 9/11 seemed like a good time.

I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks. All content copyright Books. Lists. Life. at http://bookslistslife.blogspot.com. If you're reading this post anywhere other than there, you are reading stolen content.

Random Friday: The shocker is at the end.

• The most recent custom banner, I think this is number 52.
• I'm skipping the challenge today. It's to dress up jeans and a T-shirt and I'm just not feeling it.
• Thanks for all your good thoughts for the Bug and back to school. It's been a tough few days. He is very needy and clingy. 
• Speaking of, I think he is scared of... lightbulbs. Yeah, I know, crazy. But I really think he is afraid of the light fixtures, specifically the one over the vanity in the bathroom, but sometimes others.
• I've started the process of cleaning out the storage unit. We're hoping to sell a ton of stuff and then put the rest in our garage and save ourselves the monthly money.  It's gonna be a huge project.
• Mike is off this weekend (which means he'll only go in for a couple hours each day) and we have no plans except to work a bit on the storage unit.  I've pretty excited because we've decided to bring my sewing cabinet back to the apartment. 
• Hexes are coming along very slowly, but I did add two more small rings this week. (Link in the left sidebar, if you're curious.)
• Have you ever felt like you have so many good ideas, and you're right on the verge of breaking through to something big, something successful, but you just don't have QUITE enough time in your day to get there? No? Just me?  I've had several very stressful days this week where I had so many things that had to be done and all I could think about was how very close I was to finally getting somewhere with other things. The had to be dones are what are paying the bills, while the almosts might pay bills one day. It's a tough balance.

What I read this week:

• Nothing. Seriously. I know.

Banners banners and more banners

Last night I was talking about my banners to a neighbor and I realized that I am closing in fast on banner number 50! (I think. There might be a few unaccounted for!)
 
So I thought maybe I'd give banner number 50 away.

If you've been thinking about ordering a banner for yourself or your child or a friend or your dog, now's the time.

I'm not going to tell you how close I am to 50.  But if it's you I'll refund your money and send you the banner for FREE.

Here's the shop link, in case you forgot.



PS. This is the sort of thing I'd typically announce over on the Facebook page. You might wanna go "like" that as well!

I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks. All content copyright Books. Lists. Life. at http://bookslistslife.blogspot.com. If you're reading this post anywhere other than there, you are reading stolen content.

A month of sewing, show and tell.

One of the things I got to do a lot of while mom was here was sew.  With her help with the kids, I made pinafores, aprons, napkins, clutches and a handful of other fun things. Ready for a little show and tell?




First up was this custom order pinafore. This is similar to the one I made for the Princess, only sized to fit a big girl. It's roughly a size 7 or 8. I tried it on the Pirate, who wears a 6, and it was a little big. He was not willing to have his picture taken in a dress though, so you have to imagine it on. I added a bit of bias trim to the neck and a pocket for her stuff. The inside is a rich chocolate brown. I also made a cute set in a cherry print for a pair of adorable sisters. These were sized 12 month and 3T. I'm considering adding these to the shop, but haven't really decided yet. If you need one for a little girl in your life email me and we'll work something out.

Next up, a pair of little pants for the Princess made out of a bandana. SO fast and easy. I have a second bandana that I'm going to make up and I plan to use them for my very first tutorial. I'm gonna call it "So easy you could figure it out on your own, but since its nice to be told what to do, here're instructions!" Catchy, no? (This picture was taken before I put the elastic in, but they are in the wash now, so no complete picture.)

This item and the next are a little, well, boring. First, mom wanted some little towels to put over her dining room chairs. She has 3 cats and 6 grandkids that visit frequently and wanted a little protection on the chairs. We picked up two summery vinyl tablecloths and I cut them down and ran them through the serger. They wouldn't have frayed if we'd just cut them, but "hemming" the edges make them a tiny bit nicer looking.

This was a 5 minute job- stuff your plastic bags in the top, pull them out the bottom. I guess she used the first one she had until it ripped!






Then the napkins. Mom's kitchen is black, white and red so we choose two black and white patterns. The napkins with the dots are half sized napkins (7x14). This is typically the size we use here at home and is great for kids and for tucking into lunchboxes. We did 24 of these (see: 6 grandkids). The white and black swirls are full sized napkins (14x14) and we did 9 of them. We used a simple rolled hem on the serger and it was a quick and easy project.






Next up a pair of gathered clutches. These were a lot faster than I expected. Inside they have a divider and a couple little slots for credit cards. Super easy and fun. The front one is for mom and the back one was supposed to be mine, but I've decided to give it to a friend of mine instead. I'm definitely adding these to the shop, once I find a good deal on zippers.





Last, a child's art smock. This is similar to a bib for a baby, but lined with waterproof fabric and with a large divided pocket. It has arm holes to keep it centered on their chest and ties behind the neck. This one is on it's way to Alabama for use in mom's classroom, but there are more underway to be added to the shop this summer. This version is machine washable, but I'm also planning some with a vinyl top layer that you'd just wipe down when they are done. I'm not sure if those will get a pocket or not.

We also made the two water bottle totes seen here, and there are four more of those cut and ready to sew.

In addition to all this sewing, I found ideas for about a dozen more things that I just HAVE to make, but I think I'll save that for another post!



I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks. All content copyright Books. Lists. Life. at http://bookslistslife.blogspot.com. If you're reading this post anywhere other than there, you are reading stolen content.

Craft Inc. by Meg Mateo Ilasco

As you are all fully aware, given how much I talk about it, I have a shop on Etsy. I'd love to turn it into something that will generate a little extra income for my family so that I could one day be debt free. (Yes, "one day" is a long long long long LONG time in the future. Do not crush my dreams.) To that end I bought (yes, bought!) this book- Craft, Inc.: Turn Your Creative Hobby into a Business. It's a short little book, only 160 pages, and while not everything in it will really apply to me, there was a lot of inspiration to be found.

Ilasco breaks the book down into chapters about marketing, inspiration, sales, and pricing, among others. The book covers in very general terms all the different aspects of owning your own shop AND creating your own brand. She's very clear that you have to brand yourself fully, you can't have a bunch of random stuff throw together and expect to be a rousing success. I think this is possibly the most useful thing I took out of the book and I expect it'll cause me to think more about my own shop and how I can pull it together more cohesively. One thing I took the time to do already was to create a Facebook fan page for the shop, please go become a fan!

Throughout the book there are short interview from various people who have managed to turn their hobbies into very successful brands. Each one was about two pages long, just long enough to keep me interested, without too many details. Some of them were very inspiring and make me think that this IS possible for me.

The one aspect of the book that wasn't so helpful for me was that a lot of the book does focus on things that can be mass produced. For example- pottery pots, or lip balm, or even knitted hats. Most of what I make tends to be one of the kind- custom team banners, messenger bags, and tote bags from t-shirts. It's a little harder to market something that is so unique- just how many sample banners do I need anyway, if the Twins fans don't bite?

Overall, a useful book, one that I'll add to my shelves. (The bright yellow spine will certainly look nice on them, don't you think?) It certainly does inspire me to work harder at my goal. If you're interesting in starting a creative business of your own, I think you could get a lot out of this book, otherwise probably not for you.

If you could turn any hobby into a business, what would it be? What do you love to do? You don't have to be great at it, I'm just interested in what your passion is... and don't say "I'd love to make a living reading books!" cause DUH.

Craft, Inc. by Meg Mateo Ilasco

Chronicle Books

2007

160 pages

Please stay tuned for these commercial messages

I don't usually do full on commercials for myself, so bear with me for just a moment. I want to show you something I've been working on for a while now- Birthday Banners. I've made quite a few of them now, some for my boys and some as gifts. There's the one that says "Happy Birthday" (which you may have also noticed in this post, you can see the entire thing in that picture) that I'll be hanging for each family birthday.


Then I made one for each boy with their first name on them. I'll be hanging those in their bedrooms for the other 364 days of the year.


I'm quite pleased with the way these turned out. In fact, I made two more for my best friend's boys. I love that I could make them in the boys favorite colors. They turned out to be quite the personal gift. There is a good chance that this will be my go-to gift for families with new babies.


I've added both types of banner, the Happy Birthday banner, and the Custom Name Banner to my Etsy shop, so if you want a nice family tradition, or a gift for a new baby be sure to check it out!

Did you know?

That you can subscribe to Etsy shops through Google Reader? It's TRUE! I just noticed it. So say you want to know when your favorite seller (ahem) posts a new item- just go to their shop and near the bottom you'll see "subscribe to shop feed."

Ta da!

Cool, huh?

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New law will put Etsy toy makers out of business?

On February 10, 2009 a new law requiring every toy made be put through more stringent lead testing procedures will go into place. This law applies to every toy and every item marketed or potentially marketed to kids under 12. This will include handmade toys, bags, clothing, jewelry and games. While I am all for higher standards of testing to avoid things like last year's Chinese made toy recalls, I (and lots of other crafters) see the writing on the wall for handmade toys, and Etsy in particular. This law is called the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) and will require lab certification that lead and phthalates are not present in toys or clothes. Each type of item will be required to be tested, at a cost of up to $500 per test. You can read more about this on Boing boing, StartupNation, or mothering.com. There is a great collection of links on this article at Cool Mom Picks.

I urge you (beg you, even) to follow this link to a sample letter, print it out and send it to your Congressperson. You can find the names and addresses of your Congress person here and your Senators here. If you need help with this, please email me.

Please?

A little blatant self-promotion

As you all probably know, I have a little Etsy shop. I don't have a lot of free time and haven't added anything in weeks, so I have decided to close up shop. BUT- I'm gonna open a new one in January. I'll still be selling the same type of items, but due to several reasons, least of all this book, I'm going to change the name. I'm hoping to be able to put some real effort into it once all this Christmas sewing is done.

Why should you care?

Because I'm going to mark down the three remaining items to $10 each. I don't want to feel that I have wasted my listing fee, so I'm hoping to sell them before the transfer to the new shop takes place. The three remaining items are all Correspondence Kits. They are a handy little wrap designed to hold a pen and some notecards, and perhaps your address book. If you're looking for a little gift for a teacher or a Secret Santa gift, this is a great idea.

I will still be doing custom orders, so if you were interested in a jewelry bag or crayon roll, drop me an email and we'll discuss it.

Coffee, coffee mugs, etsy, and Christmas.

Every morning when I wake up I make myself one cup of coffee. I have a couple of coffee makers, but the one I use 99% of the time is this Keurig. The Keurig makes one cup of coffee at a time, so I don't waste a lot of coffee. I also have a Senseo one cup maker, and a more traditional coffeemaker, but those are stored elsewhere.

For the last year I have been using a set of snowman coffee mugs. They were a gift for Christmas, and are the size, shape, and design that you would expect from a large department store like J.C. Penny or Kohl's. They are, well, a little boring.

I have decided that I want a nice little collection of eclectic coffee mugs. A different mug every day! Because I was bored this morning, ya'll are all blessed with getting to see what I like. These are all available on Etsy. Unless I bought them.

This blue, green and chartreuse mug.

This black and white floral mug.

I am strangely drawn to these vintage mugs

This Cobalt Blue Monster Mug.

I also really like these tumblers.

How bad do I want to buy this Batman mug for the Pirate? (Ebay link, not etsy)

This one says MAMA. (also Ebay)

Why do I like this style so much? (Ebay) (I'm bidding on a Christmas present on Ebay that ends in a couple hours. I can't seem to tear myself away.)

This guy, who is selling his 4 vintage Snoopy mugs starting at $99, might wanna talk to this guy, who is selling his 1 vintage Snoopy mug starting at $0.99.

Dude. Just got outbid. Do I wanna go higher?

The Sunday Salon: My first, with a giveaway!

You know how all the cool people do something that looks cool and you always feel too dorky to ask to join in? Well finally, I'm going to do the Sunday Salon with the rest of the cool peeps. (Is "peeps" still cool? I don't know. Mmm sugary goodness.) I'm finally starting to get a rhythm going again with reading, and I hope having a regular posting schedule will help. I plan to blog more too, I'm sure you're all excited.

This week I finished reading Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside by Katrina Firlik. I love memoirs that show a life I'll never lead. I love learning the fascinating details that you'd never hear in a book about something else. I have a huge stack of these waiting for me, some of them were gifts/contest winnings from some of you- A Piece of Cake and Queen of the Road, for example. Anyway, Another Day in the Frontal Lobe is about Firlik's experiences as a neurosurgeon. It has a lot of potential as an interesting book, but in the end it kinda falls short. Firlik seems to lack some of the cues to make a person empathetic, even though she takes great pains to emphasize her great bedside manner. She is arrogant and a bit conceited, clearly thinks she's better than her readers due to being a brain surgeon, and even more so for being female. The chapters are only vaguely cohesive, one anecdote running headlong into the next before she finishes the point in the first. Regardless of this, I read the book over the course of a couple of days because I found the idea of reading about brain surgery fascinating. I finished it early in the week, and even now can't remember what I learned from it.

Next I read the short story by Patricia Briggs about Anna and Charles from On the Prowl, and got a good start into Cry Wolf. It is excellent, and I'd have finished it last night except I left my bag at the hospital while visiting a relative and haven't had a chance to go back for it.

Because this is October and signs of Halloween are appearing everywhere, I've considered limiting my reading to my insane backlog of spooky and paranormal stories. I know there are a couple challenges out there dedicated to this, but is anyone else thinking of just reading on topic like this? I have some Laurell Hamilton, Kim Harrison, Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, the last Carrie Vaughn, along with some new to me authors sitting in the TBR. I could so easily make it the entire month, especially now that I only manage a couple books a month. (I'm trying to rectify that, too.)

Last month I read and reviewed The Thirteenth Tale. Because this is my first Sunday Salon and it's a respectably spooky tale, I'm gonna give it away! If you're one of the 4 people in blog land who has not read it, please leave a comment and I'll draw for it next Sunday in my second Sunday Salon. It is not in pristine condition, but is definitely not worn. I tried to give away A Nation of Wimps a few weeks ago, and had not ONE taker, so if you're reading this and want that, let me know and I'll draw for it too.

My plans for today: go get and finish reading Cry Wolf, clean my house so my father-in-law can visit, get a little sewing done for tomorrow's Etsy update, and list this Halloween bag in the shop (It's gonna be cheap, it has a tiny flaw on the back that bothers me!) What are your plans for today? Are you reading anything spooky for October? Have you read Cry Wolf?

Happy Labor Day!

It's Labor Day! Are you working? I'm not. THANK GOD. My husband took the Pirate to work with him, which kind of turned out to be a bad idea, but for now they are gone. The bug is sleeping on my lap. It is quiet. Ahhhh. I'd go back to bed but I hate to waste time to myself that way.

We've had a hugely busy weekend. On Saturday I took the boys to the park where we discovered a PIRATE SHIP. Ok, not really, but a large wooden play structure that seemed very much LIKE a pirate ship. We played on it for hours, literally. Saturday evening the Pirate and his daddy went to a local high school football game and watched his cousin play his first Varsity game. The bug and I stayed home and I did some sewing. Yesterday, the boys and I met a friend at the newly found pirate ship and then went for lunch. Things fell apart yesterday afternoon, when the Pirate CLEARLY didn't nap enough. Fortunately, we have today to try and recover.
















(Yeah, that COULD have been a good picture!)


I've been reading and reading- I finished Death's Acre and hope to review it today or tomorrow. I've been working hard to read A Nation of Wimps. My online discussion starts on Wednesday and it's not looking good for finishing it. I really want to read it, but it's just killing me. The idea is that parents are too overprotective and are raising kids who can't think on their own and (I think this is his point) will weaken our country when they are in charge. It should have been left as a magazine article. The author repeats himself over and over. I think a high school senior could have written it better. Plus, he keeps talking about how it's the Stay at Home Moms who are increasingly insane about parenting, and is so insulting that I want to scream. And I'm NOT a SAHM. Anyway, you can look forward to that review soon too.

Finally, I got some sewing done and posted two new items to my store this morning. This is called the Christine Correspondence Kit, named after a good friend of mine who persists in sending actual letters through the mail, even when I suck at returning them. Head on over and check them out.

Some books, some sewing, some grump

It may not SEEM like it, if you're reading my blog, but I've actually gotten a little reading done lately. No, I'm not kidding! I haven't actually finished anything, but I'm reading.

I'm halfway through The Thirteenth Tale. It's pleasantly gothic, if that's possible. Makes me think I should read Rebecca again.

I'm halfway through Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab the Body Farm. This one is non-fiction, about The Body Farm in Knoxville, TN. Patricia Cornwell wrote about The Body Farm, back when she wrote good books. Forensic stuff if fascinating (and if you don't believe me just watch The Discovery Channel, or TLC, or TBS, or or or...) This one is very interesting, but a bit annoying. I don't really like the author's style. In fact, I gave up on their fiction book without finishing it. Because this is non-fiction, it's a lot easier to take.

I'm about to start Nation of Wimps: The High Cost of Invasive Parenting for an online book discussion. That outta be great. I admit to hovering over my kids a little bit, but hopefully when they are old enough to have a little common sense I'll back off some.

About sewing: A couple Fridays ago I said I would discount one item in my shop or add one new item every Friday. Well, Friday came and went. I forgot. Today I remembered, so I posted one new item AND discounted the old. Go check it out! This week's item is a cute little travel jewelry bag. Hopefully this week I'll do better. (Though, I might move it to Mondays so I have the weekend to sew.)

And the grump: the place where I spend 40 hours of my time a week is not a very fun place to be. I need something different before I die of stress.

Coming soon: way too much thought about the TBR.

New Etsy Policy!

Starting TODAY I have decided that for every Friday that I do not post a new item to my Etsy shop, I will discount one other item by 10%. I have not yet determined how I'm going to decide which other item, but since I have no new items today, and there is only one listed, today's sale is pretty clear! The discount will be permanent. This means that if I have no new item NEXT Friday, I will discount that one lonely bag another 10%. If you're in the market for a new bag this might be your chance! Go check it out!

The Etsy Shop

The Etsy shop is FINALLY re-opened! Granted, there is only one bag listed at the moment, but I have a couple more in progress and a fairly unplanned weekend, so there is hope!

The Good News, the Bad News, the Book News

First, the Good. I sold a bag!! To a total stranger on Etsy! Whoooo!! This really inspires me to get crafting again, and luckily the creative juices have been flowing. Look for new stuff at over at the bag blog in the near future! (some of the won't be for sale, as I have CHRISTMAS to think about!) I have Monday off work and hope to make some serious progress in the Christmas sewing, as well as make up a Brand! New! Bag! that I drew out last weekend.

And now the Bad. Just as I'm starting to feel like a human being that eats again, I got a sinus infection. Booo. The good part of the bad news though, is that I thought up this blog post title days ago, and am already feeling much better. I actually went to the doctor, where they gave me Amoxicillian. Does that stuff really work? No good decongestants or cough medicine though, which I was hoping for.

And for books. I've actually read two books in the last few weeks. Kitty Goes to Washington and Kitty Takes a Holiday by Carrie Vaughn. These are books 2 and 3 in the series that begins with Kitty and the Midnight Hour. Kitty is a werewolf (ha. ha.), the first to come out publicly. She's not an Alpha wolf, she's not always right, she's often unsure of herself. She's very human, for a werewolf. If you can suspend you system of beliefs long enough to believe in these things, the books are very believable. (How's that for a selling point?) No Anita Blake superpowers or Stephanie Plum slapstick or anything, just a nice girl who happens to be a werewolf. The books are getting stronger, and I think with this last one that Vaughn really took a risk and established herself. (In a word, Cormac.) The next one comes out in January.

After finishing Holiday, I zipped over to Amazon.com to read some reviews and see what people thought of it. One of the reviews is a decent review of the book, but ends with this, which surprised me. Do people really think this way?

I do hope the series continues- I'd like to know more about the shaman who comes to save the day. As for the setting, I hope the story takes place somewhere else. I have never been to Colorado, but I don't much care to visit. Seems kinda lonely and small minded, appropriate for this book, but I'm done with it.

She's never been there, but knows she wouldn't like it? Based on a fictional book about WEREWOLVES? You know, I've never met her, but I don't think I care to. She seems kinda small minded...

Up next, a little non-paranormal to cleanse the palate. I started Knocked Up by Rebecca Eckler on Haley-O's recommendation. This does not appear to have much in common with the movie of the same name, regardless of whatever lawsuits are floating around. I am thinking of reading the latest Lisa Kleypas (it's about Cam! Swoon!) once I'm done with this one.

Did I mention I sold a bag??

The rest of my weekend...

What else did I do this weekend? I made a new bag, or two...

I mailed out a bunch of my business cards last week, so now I feel like I really need to have some product. We're headed out of town on Thursday and will be gone until Sunday, so it's sew sew sew until then, and read while I'm gone! (I hope...)

If you're interested in seeing the new bag, I posted about it on my other blog.

We also went to Legion Lake campground in Custer State Park, where my Monkey displayed his new terrible-two skills. I threatened to send him home with everyone else, but no one was biting.

Except for Glass Housees, I didn't get anything read, did you? I think I'm due for a challenge book next. Maybe I should take only challenge books on our mini-vacation?