More for Friday

My new bobby pins are featured on Paper*Cakes Finds Flickr Friday, yay!

Also, go take a look at my mother's blog to check out her new items, flower pins for hair or clothes!

New items

New items at Coffee and Cream!

Coffee and To do's

"Cool, Calm, Collected - cup and saucer" $3.50 from RiceBucketVintage!

Finishing some coffee and then it's time to get ready to go out soon. Me and Kavi are going to Nancy's house. We go there on Thursdays for what was once a womens' bible study time, but now it's just me and Nancy most of the time so we chit chat. :P She also always makes very delicious coffee.

To do today:
Take pictures of a couple new jewelry pieces, as long as the sun is available later!
Finish some laundry
Uh oh there was something else that I already forgot!

Family Jewelry Project

So last week my mom had been visiting, and then more family came to visit over the weekend-my dad, my sister, and a friend who is like a sister.

I decided to ask my sister Jenny, friend Rachel, and mom to pick out items that they would like me to put together for a jewelry piece which I wanted to name it after them. So that was fun. On Saturday night I pulled out my supplies and they looked through and fiddled around with their ideas until they came up with something they wanted me to make.

I still need to take pictures of one of the pieces, but here are two of them.

The Jenny Necklace, brass leaves, red flower, small accenting bead

Darlene earrings, gold leaves with small blue flowers

They are both listed now at coffeeandcream! I will be adding the third soon.

Calm and Creamy

I want by ChristinaD

I was just playing in ployvore one day and ended up with most of the above items, then saved it and forgot about it. So last night I finished it up. I am not sure what to say about it besides that I want the items. I like the creamy orange/peach colors with the deeper blue.

And here are photos that show the same kind of color scheme, from flickr.

1. peachrose2, 2. Babushkas tan-blue, 3. Orange Zest Corsage Brooch, 4. blue + orange

Art Decor for Little Ones, take 2

Back in April I spotlighted some art that would be great in a child's room. Click here to check it out!

I decided to make a fresh spotlight! I don't often search around Etsy for Children's art because my son's room is not currently in need of new decor. As he gets older, I will look to refresh his room with new items here and there. He will be 18 months old on August 1st, awww!

If you do a search for children's art, so many results come up and with lots of adorable choices, as with many things on Etsy and in the handmade world in general. So these are my picks above, though there are many many more shops that are worth looking at! I will make new spotlights from time to time to show more. I know many people in the Etsy and blogger world are moms, moms to be, and hope to be moms, so why not get a kiddy art fix sometimes!? :)

International food!

originally uploaded on flickr by atelierpompadour

Having a nice time with the family! Later today we are all going for Thai food. I love Thai food! I like lots of different kinds of foods. Thai, Indian, Mexican, Chinese, Italian, Greek and so on. Yesterday we had some Greek at a local places called Greek City Cafe and I am so glad we have them here! They had a special- $4.95 for falafel in a pita plus a side. It is a delicious falafel, and very very big! We can't get falafel very easily around here.

I love food and am not afraid to admit it!

Like many other Americans, I am a "mut" in terms of the nationalities that make me. From my mother's side of the family comes Ukrainian and Czech. I don't often meet people with those. From my father's side comes Italian, Scottish, English and possible sprinklings of other European countries all mixed together. Something a lot of people I know have in them. Now my husband is from India so he is Indian(not native american "Indian" haha I wish people wouldn't get confused). I heard from a friend about someone they knew who said they have had Indian food before---corn. Hmmm! Well they must be missing out on some yummy Indian food like from INDIA. :P

Fabric covered buttons from aimoobaroo

Mineral Make Up

I am posting this ahead of time and have it scheduled to post in the morning. I am up late waiting for the family members that are going to be visiting this weekend! They should be here soon(it's after midnight Thurs!). I won't have much time to write while they are here so I am getting this done now.

I ordered a sample pack of 10 mineral eye shadows from theallnaturalface.etsy.com. For $1.50 you get the sample, and it came with LOTS of freebies. I couldn't believe it!!! Free lip gloss, lip stick, and eye shadow primer samples. Free face powder samples. And extra eye shadow samples. OH and a free eye shadow applicator and lip brush. Can you believe how much I got for $1.50 + $1.25 shipping?

It arrived in the mail and I had fun going through every color and testing it on the top of my hand. I was very happy with the tones of most of the colors. Sometimes a color looks vibrant until you test it and it gets dull looking when not in the container with the rest.

I picked ten colors.
Cherry Bomb, Midnight Plum, Olive U, Deep Mauve, Moss, Smolder, Ocean Green, Swiss Chocolate, Pearl Gray, and Subdued.

So far my favorite is "Swiss Chocolate". I also love "Moss", "Olive U" and "Deep Mauve". I also really like "Twilight", an extra eye shadow sample that was sent.

I highly suggest trying out the samples. I definitely will want to buy some full sizes very soon. The seller also sent an awesome coupon and it says I can share it with friends and family. So friends I share this with you...Buy One, Get One 50% OFF discount valid until August 15th at theallnaturalface!! Just put "BOGO" in notes to seller on Etsy checkout!!

A sleepy feeling

I am just so sleepy feeling today! I did a search on Etsy for various sleep related items and put together the above.

I love this especially, a vintage press postcard potrayal of Sleeping Beauty, from confections who has some other lovely images as well:


I am soon going to write about some mineral make up samples I bought from Etsy!

I wish I could go to a Renegade Craft Fair!

Renegade Craft Fair San Francisco 2009
Originally uploaded by anitakhart

I am down here in Florida. I have been reading updates from bloggers and flicker users about their experiences at the Renegade Craft Fairs in LA and San Fransisco. I am living vicariously through them!

I would find it extremely fun to be able to go to one place where so many amazing shops are selling their items. And no shipping costs either!! This is a picture from a flickr group with pictures from Renegade San Fransisco.

Items of mine on Flickr.

1. RetroSewing1, 2. RetroSewing2, 3. flora&fauna2, 4. roundreds, 5. pinkyturq, 6. birdflower

Five out the six above are not yet on Etsy but will be soon! I especially love the retro fabric pillow cover, with sayings and ads for sewing!!:)

Coming soon...

My mother arrived last night for a visit, which is always nice! This Thursday night, late, my sister, friend and father will be arriving to visit as well. My mom got a chance to come down earlier by hitching a ride with good friends of ours who were heading down here to Florida for an unexpected trip. Unfortunately someone we all knew for years, though I had not seen him for many years now, passed away recently, so they came down for the service.

But back to my mom's visit, it will be a nice few days! And then this weekend will be filled with lots of fun with the whole family.

Coming very soon at my shops...
More earrings at CoffeeandCream!
More Pillow Covers at TheCozyNest!

New items' pictures have been taken, but I still need to fully edit them and create listings.

I have two Anna Maria Horner Fabric pillow covers on sale for $13 each at The Cozy Nest.
Fabric is "Small Gathering, in azalea". I had the pleasure of selling a few items in this shop since Friday night. Always encouraging to sell!!
Very excited about a certain pillow cover I'll be listing, which has retro sewing ads made into a comic book looking fabric!!! I almost don't want to part with it. But I can always order more. ;)

New things

Here are some things that are new to me!

http://www.craftcult.com's Heartomatic! Why haven't I discovered this yet!? You put in your Etsy username and it tells you which items have hearts and how many, and if any are new! Yes I had been clicking around item by item. Go there, it's cool!

http://bighugelab.com's Mosaic Maker! I had been wondering how people have twitter mosaics with a nice list below showing the name of each photo, numbered too! I heard someone mention it on a blog or somewhere, I can't remember. But yay! That's what I used for my last post's pictures. You input flickr addresses and it makes a nice little mosaic. I use a collage option on Picassa for making collages of my own pictures though.

Favorite smells...

Some of my favorite smells...Lemons, Roses, Coffee, and Cinnamon(below are flickr finds that express these!).

1. Faking it.., 2. smaller version of Pink Roses in aqua urn, 3. cinammoon rolls, 4. I made this cup of coffee and it danced for me, 5. Lemon Love_Affair, 6. Vintage Rose Handkerchiefs

I am editing to add more to this post! I was very excited to sell two items on Saturday at The Cozy Nest. Someone bought the lemon pillow cover! I am happy it will have a home. It is going to California. I notice a lot of my items that have sold lately are heading to different cities in CA, that is cool. The opposite coast! And the postal service has been very fast, getting things across the country in two days most of the time.

Also a sweet person I know through cyberspace, who LOVES squirrels, bought my newly listed "Squirrel and Tree Stump" pillow! That was great. I am always encouraged when something sells.

I received in the mail today delicious smelling soap I ordered on sale from dennisanderson.etsy.com, Lemon Sugar Cookie scent. Mmmmm.
And it came with a whole free lip balm! "Butter cream" scented lip balm. I'm telling you, it also smells so delicious!!! I highly recommend the lip balm. The soap I also recommend but I don't know if they have any Lemon Sugar Cookie soap left! :( I got it for 2.40 + 1.25 shipping. A Christmas in July deal, you better go check it out! I first read about the sale at Lillyella.blogspot.com. I ordered it late Thursday night and it got here today, all the way from Portland, OR!

A Firday hello and discount offer!

Hello to the people who recently decided to click the "follow" button for this blog. How very nice of you!! Thank you for following!! :)

I would like to offer a special discount to blog readers here! This weekend, today through Sunday night, receive 10% off your order at either of my shops!! Just write "blog reader" in message to seller. I can refund you the money through paypal, or ask for a revised invoice before paying.

I thought I would just write a little about some ideas I am working on. It'd probably be good if I finished up all the pending ideas first, but I always try to do a bunch of different things at once. I think most of us have to! I recently purchased silver plated bobby pins to decorate and sell at coffeeandcream. I hope to have a couple pairs listed soon. We'll see.

Also I would like to add some rings and brooches. Still working on that, mostly in my mind! In other words, I don't have the supplies to actually make them yet. I keep looking at the different designs for ring bases and haven't decided yet.

Here are a couple items I recently listed for sale:

Have a happy friday!!!!!

Current Favorites

I got some words of encouragement yesterday on here and elsewhere about applying for the craft fair. Thanks!!! I am excited. Still months away, but excited! If anyone else reading lives in central Florida, you should check it out!

Here are some of my current favorites on Etsy that I wanted to share. It may seem I really like pastels, but they are just one aspect of colors I love. :) I like bold colors, light colors, and in between! These just happen to have really caught my eye lately and maybe I will be the owner of a few of them sometime soon. :)



I finished three pillows yesterday and listed them at thecozynest, what a relief. Those unfinished pillows had been staring at me for a few days!! They were just waiting and waiting and waiting. They are a squirrel pillow, a pink dress pillow, and a new house pillow.

Now if I could only make the "bazillion" pillow covers that I have fabric for, and that fabric is waiting around now. It's so pretty too.

Update

So I did apply, yay! AND just got an email saying I'm accepted, yay!! :)

Opportunity Knocks?

Art found at ErinJade.etsy.com

Me and my mother have often talked about going to a craft fair or flea market to try selling the items we make. We just do a lot of wishing, thinking, and talking about it. Now that we live two states apart, it's mostly wishing(me in FL, her in AL)! To me, the actually doing part of it is a little overwhelming since I have no experience with it.

Well today on twitter I saw this tweet:
A call to Crafters! Handmade Holiday Bazaar in St. Petersburg, FL - Applications now open!

http://handmadeholidaybazaar.blogspot.com/

The blog says this:
We're looking for edgy, interesting, amusing crafts and crafters for the Handmade Holiday Bazaar. ...

So now the question is, should I apply?? It's $40 for a table, and $60 for a 10x10 booth space. It's December 5th, perfect shopping time for Christmas! Many of my necklaces are unique compared to store necklaces, and I make all kinds of pillows. I think a Sasquatch pillow, like one I sold before Valentine's day this year, would qualify as amusing!! Right?

So now I am just debating the applying part! I know I should, but it scares me! At least I would have many months to prepare and learn how to set up a good presentation. That is, IF my application was accepted!

Snagged a treasury west!

"Bright Sunshiney Day"

I haven't made a treasury in quite awhile. I read a tweet on twitter about treasury west opening soon, so I decided to go check it out. And seven minutes later I had a treasury, woop!!

I am also featured in a treasury right now, have a look! It's called Handmade in Florida.

Girly Plaid

plaid by ChristinaD featuring Forever21

I'm loving the plaid look with feminine details. All the above shirts are from Forever21 and Faith21(the extended sizes section of Forever21 which is newer!!). I don't actually own any of these, but I want to!! I think my favorite is the shirt on the lower left side. I wanted to go see what the Faith21 section of Forever21 was like in a Tampa mall, but we also went to IKEA that day and were too tired to go to another large shopping area. So I still have to get there sometime. It's about an hour away from where I live.

I have more things to post today but I will have to come in a little while to post them. Need to do some Kavi(son) related things and get myself ready for the day, too! :)

Newly Arrived Goodies

Here are some supplies I have received and already started making some earrings with! I hope to be posting a lot of new jewelry items this coming week! I think I need to work on adding more inventory into my coffeeandcream shop. Will add a lot of earrings and some necklaces too.

I also ordered some silver plated bobby pins to adorn, a new accessory that will be added to my shop soon! I also hope to work on rings in the near future too. I still haven't ordered bases though. I have been looking around a lot for now at various styles and need to decide.

Frugality:

Frugality is the practice of

1. acquiring goods and services in a restrained manner, and
2. resourcefully using already owned economic goods and services, to
3. achieve a longer term goal.

I wanted to make sure frugality was an actual word before using it and found an entire wikipedia entry about it! WOW!

More from wiki:
Common strategies of frugality include the reduction of waste, curbing costly habits, suppressing instant gratification by means of fiscal self-restraint, seeking efficiency, avoiding traps, defying expensive social norms, embracing cost-free options, using barter, and staying well-informed about local circumstances and both market and product/service realities.

My favorite part is the "defying expensive social norms" part, which I do well! haha. I think being frugal is a blessing and slightly a curse! The curse part comes when I think everything is too expensive even if it really isn't.

I hate paying full price for clothing and other accessories in stores . I love sales!! Bargains!! Blow out clearances!! I will pay full price if the price is originally low, or if it is a real necessity, or a special occasion/gift.

Sometimes I get kind of bummed out by things I see in the Etsy finds emails. I'm not trying to be a downer about it because I completely love Etsy. And I'm not saying it's every time, but so many times the items in the finds are priced way above what I would spend. Expensive items! I realize handmade is special and I support it. But I will still have to weigh if something is important enough to spend a lot on or if I can live with a cheaper version or just without it at all.

I am not judging those who want to spend big bucks if they have the money to. But most of us don't! I am willing to pay more for handmade vs. commercial because I know the work that goes into it. However we all still have a spending limit and a reality to deal with. I love finding shops on Etsy that fit into my price range. We all have our own.

Here are some unbelievable deals I have found on Etsy!!

Visit shop lechic. Everything is $3.50! Shop announcement says "everything must go!" and I am not sure why, but $3.50?!! Hard to resist.

Visit considerthelillies, my mother's shop I recently talked about. Headbands at low prices!! It takes her no time to whip them up, and is a great opportunity for someone who doesn't have lots of extra cash. Especially young people!

Visit Lovenit to see this adorable bobby pin trio on sale for $5.50!

I really want to buy a purse on Etsy in the future. I have found so many shops where the prices are not drastically different than Target's but they are much cuter!! AND they are handmade. You can't beat that.

Visit ohhlalabebeboutique to see some cute bags! I love this one.

Visit grannypurse, I love this clutch!

Visit bayanhippo, pretty pretty bags!! Lookie at this one!

If you know of a shop having amazing sales or prices you can comment too! I'd love to hear more.

Now if you happen to visit my shops today, you can forget being frugal for a few minutes. I won't mind if you want to spend a little money!! ;) Honestly!

Fabric Preview

Fabrics I ordered very recently and excited about:

All ordered from Etsy fabric shop rainbowfabrics.
I think she has many unique fabrics available! I finally ordered some woodgrain fabric and more of A. Henry's beautiful "Mirabelle" fabric. I currently have this pillow for sale made in the fabric.

Fabric #2-Click here to see it in the shop, closer up! It's called 'Home Sewing is Easy", by A. Henry. I love the retro ads put onto fabric! A fabric set, I also ordered the cute spools of thread fabric!

Fabric #4- called "How to Get a Husband"!!! Click to see closer view. It's funny! (by Michael Miller)

My mom's items

I just wanted to feature some of my mother's items that she makes. They are for sale in her two Etsy stores considerthelillies and thelillyofthevalley.

Consider the Lillies she has designated now for mostly crocheted items. Check out these cute headbands with amazing prices! Yellow circles is $5! Taupe double strand is only $3.50!

assorted styles of headbands!

The Lilly of the Valley has stamped, blocked printed, and other neat items.
Cute Bike notecard set, only $3!

Tree stamped tags, $2!

Block printed sack, $7!

Back in Florida

We got home last night from our fun weekend in Alabama. Unfortunately I got some kind of bug and felt sick during the drive home yesterday and I still don't feel completely well yet. I really hope I am all better by tomorrow.

My husband is bringing home some Chinese food from our favorite local take out.

I decided to search for "Chinese food" on Etsy while waiting.

Flickr and Twitter!

New house applique pillow, have to list on Etsy later today!

I was wondering if having a twitter account for my mostly Etsy related updates/items was going to pay off. Well it did this week! I advertised my $5 earring sale on Twitter, and I had one sale definitely related to twitter, and sold a necklace related to twitter, and three other pairs of earrings that may have been related to twitter. On twitter I am twitter.com/etsycoffee. Oh, I also got a sale from someone who became a fan of my facebook fan page! And a friend also bought some pillow items from me yesterday too.

Flickr, as I have mentioned before, has been useful for getting my items seen by various people. And that also means occasionally being featured on a blog. I was again today! Visit this cool blog, Lova Revolutionary to see my pillow shown, which is not yet for sale on Etsy but I uploaded to flickr last night and submitted it to one of the group pools I belong to. And this morning, it was on the blog associated with the Lova Revolutionary blog flickr pool.

As other Etsians who sell know, you spend lots of time working on your etsy shop(s) and thinking of ideas. It's just nice when you start to see more fruit of your labor.

As for the pillow above, I'd also like to offer it in a variety of color schemes. I have lots of fabric scraps that come in handy for this type of design. So for instance if the colors do not match someone's decor, I could probably do custom work for a variety of color needs. Pinks, red, blues, greens, browns, etc.

Tomorrow afternoon we are leaving for Alabama to visit my parents, sister and assorted friends who live there. We are staying for a couple days. I have to get things ready today for our trip!