Gourds

Tuesday we had a big adventure. We drove all the way to the Welburn Gourd Farm in Fallbrook CA for the last day of their 30% off sale. Seems the place was packed on Friday and Monday because of the Labor Day weekend, but we practically had it to ourselves today. We had to pick up canteen and bottle gourds for a commission.

But my project was to get mini gourds to make santas for my Etsy shop. The first batch I picked were cheaper than I thought so I still had five dollars left to spend. For slightly more than that, I got 7 more gourds. It was a blistering hot day and we don't have AC so by the time I got home I was too tired to do much. Basically I zoned out in front of my computer. But tomorrow I will clean up the gourds and get started. I'll also post photos of the gourd farm. It's 2 AM so it will have to wait for tomorrow.

We had lunch at Subway in Menifee on the way home, mainly so we could sit in the air conditioning for a bit. We happened to have a bag of cans and bottles to recycle, so we turned those in first and it paid for most of our lunch. I have a high school friend that lives in Menifee now.  I didn't know where Menifee is so I didn't get to go see her. I haven't seen her since I graduated in 1976, or maybe I did at her wedding soon after. One day my sister found her on Facebook. I imagine she was at work anyway. We've been meaning to get together for about a year now.

Right now I really need sleep, so goodnight.

Hooting Around

These are the two owls I made today. I'm experimenting with different shapes of owl bodies.  Which one do you like better? In the top one the sides of the head are straighter. In the bottom one they are more rounded.

I haven't listed either in my Etsy shop yet. I just haven't had time. But your opinion will help me decide which direction to go with these in the future.

Etsy Shop Updates

I'm happy to say that my grandson was finally born yesterday after sixty hours of labor, and now my brain is back to working again.

I'm knitting two hats on the knitting loom for presents.  I have them by my keyboard so I can work on them whenever my computer is lagging.

I also got two new listings posted on Etsy. One is the blue and gray baby hat I made on the loom, and the other is a snood I crocheted. Then it started to rain so I couldn't take any more photos.  But it feels good to have new stuff listed.

I also made an Etsy sale last night. One of my hooters sold. I'm sending it off to New York. I'm already making some more fluffly little hooter owls.

If any of you are on the fence with purchasing one of my Etsy items, don't wait too long. I'm hoping to have all new stuff in the new year, which means the other items won't be listed again once they expire. Last chance so to speak.  Then my relatives and friends will make out like bandits, because I'm going to start giving it away to make more room in my apartment for new stuff. I don't believe in Etsy sales, so once the items are gone, they are gone.

Arm Mitts

Our heat wave is continuing. So I'm trying to do crafts that involve sitting still a lot. So I've been working on knitting some arm cuffs. I'm about 3/4 done with the first one. The yarn is a blend of fall colors.

By the way, did you know Etsy added a new feature for sorting your shop items with one click? You can sort high price to low, or low to high, or newest listed or oldest in the shop and so on. I played with it a little last night.

Now I've Gone and Done It

I've gone and opened a new Etsy shop. There is nothing in it as of yet, but I'll let you know as soon as I have some items for sale. My friend egged me on, so I'm gonna blame her. :P See how chatrooms get me in trouble. One minute I'm minding my own business and the next minute I'm opening a new shop.
Shout outs to my friends that I saw today: Siarh, BlaylockArt, Baconsquarefarm, RiverOtterWidgets and Choochcat.
Hope you guys are hanging on in this tight economy. I had my fingers full trying to type to so many people in the chatroom at once. Maybe mentioning you in my blog will make up for the lack of quality time I could spend with you all today. Take care and happy sales.
Right now though I'm getting pretty hungry so I'm going to go get dinner started.

The Watchman

A special shout-out to http://crazyaboutcrafting.wordpress.com/ who helped me to get more followers on Twitter. He has an etsy shop called Thewatchman and has some new ways to combine Steampunk with Dichroic glass. Take a looksie. His creations are fascinating.

Graphic Arts

I'm seriously thinking of opening a graphic arts shop on Etsy. I told my friend I didn't really want to do it unless I had Paint Shop Pro 9, so he got me psp9. He rocks. I really missed having the kaleidoscope feature and the twirl feature. I'm so excited but it's after 1 AM so I have to wait until tomorrow to play with it.
I'll be making Etsy banners and business cards and ads for other people in the sizes for Project Wonderful. Please consider giving me a shot at making your banner or avatar. I've been doing my own graphic arts since the '80's for my performing arts businesses. And of course for my websites and other places a person uses avatars. Oh I'm so excited.

About the photo: I drew this with watercolor pencils. Then I used the antique mosaic feature on PSP9.

Featured Etsy Shop Cupcake Girls

I ran across this shop on Etsy today. http://www.etsy.com/profile.php?user_id=5171215
The Cupcake Girls. Cute and affordable little pieces of retro whimsy. Notecards, felt bunnies, girly gift items.

Love their little owls.

Those Etsy people

Unlike most people on Etsy, when my items expire I usually don't relist them. I feel that gives people the incentive to make a buying decision when they want something, because it may not be around 6 months from now. It also keeps the store fresh.
Well, this morning I checked my main shop http://www.pigglewiggins.etsy.com and it was almost empty because so many things had expired. It was down to one page. So I added 3 new items right then and there. I added a pirate voyager cap, a red scarf and a water bottle carrier.