A new day

For the past few years, I have (very generously, I should say!)shared my vehicle with my daughter, Jackie. That means I am stranded at home regularly without a car and some days I just want to climb the walls. Jackie got herself a car yesterday and we are both ecstatic. I can't believe I'm sitting here and my car is in the driveway. It's a joy knowing I could get up and head out any time I want. And it will be like that from now on. AMEN!

Slowly but surely

I finally managed to get a few aprons listed on Etsy tonight. I realized I should take several more photos of each one. Usually, I just do a front and rear view but it probably would be good to show photos of some of the details. I'm just learning as I go. I also learned that there is quite a large international community on Etsy so I took the time to familiarize myself with international shipping costs and now I've added that to all my listings so I can and will ship just about anywhere in the world. I suppose there are a few places the US Postal Service will not allow me to ship to, but I'll find out what they are if I try to ship to said location.

It would actually be nice to be able to send things elsewhere in the world. A guy bought a painted birdhouse from me at a craft show and told me it was a gift he was sending to a friend in France. I loved knowing that something I made was going to find it's way to another country. It's a nice feeling.

Tomorrow I will work on more listings and also taking more photos. I'm still undecided as to whether or not Etsy is the best venue for patterns. I seem to be doing much better with those on eBay but, in fairness, I have lots of feedback on eBay, all positive, and none on Etsy yet. I'm sure that counts for something.

Every journey begins with a single step

I'm so excited! I just realized I had my first sale on Etsy.com yesterday. I'm going to have to better familiarize myself with that process because I didn't even realize the item had sold. I'll learn, but it's exciting to have a sale.

Etsy

I'm finally getting my Etsy shop set up but between figuring out how to use Etsy, figuring out how to get my blog the way I want it, and then figuring out how to use all the tools on Google, I'm having a technology overload. There's so much to learn with these things. I want to put all the cool Etsy links on my page that I see on others' pages but I don't have any more time to work at figuring that out right now so I'm going to attempt putting a link here. If it doesn't work, I'll just have to try again another time.

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Well, whaddya know, it seems like it's going to work!

Happy Valentine's Day

I am feeling frustrated at not being able to get my blog to be what I'd like it to be. First off, using a template has proven to be far too restrictive, but starting from scratch doesn't appeal to me either. I'm not happy with my format and I don't seem to have enough time to learn all of the html coding I would need to know to get this the way I want it. I will have to keep looking for a better alternative to designing my page and getting it the way I want it. And then there's my etsy store which is looming over my head. I want to get it set up so I can get my painting and sewing on there but it's one more thing to learn and I am partly dreading it.

Today is Valentine's Day. I've never liked making much of Valentine's Day. We usually exchange cards and maybe a box of candy, but I asked that there be no candy this year because that just never has a good outcome. I can't resist having that box of chocolates here. We'll probably just do our usual at-home Valentines dinner of steaks on the grill. It beats going out by a long shot.

It's a rainy day which means I have a good excuse to stay in and sew all day. I made two aprons last night which I will post later. I haven't had a chance to photograph them yet. I continue to see so many fabrics that I fall in love with, but my stash keeps growing. Each time I see new fabrics I want, I keep telling myself that I have to use what I have first. That only works about half the time and so the stash continues to grow. I have a few non-apron sewing projects I have to complete and I have quite a few new design ideas I want to try on some aprons. I suppose I should get those projects I'm not quite so excited about out of the way first and then I can just do the things I want to do.

Productive Sunday

It seems I have been having the most difficult time getting to my sewing lately, so I was so happy to finally have a sewing day yesterday. I made three apons. Here they are.

This first one is obviously a cupcake fabric with bright green accents and lace. I like the ties on this one. I made them with a strip of black fabric and then a stip of green fabric. I like the effect.

This one is lined and reversible. It's the first lined on I've done and I will definitely make more. This fabric has grapes on it which i thought the winery might like. We'll see!

Here's another wine one. It has a wine and cheese pattern with purple contrast bias tape down the sides and matching bows at the neck strap.

More glasses

I painted two more glasses today. Wine Diva has the same image on the front and back; the Birthday Girl has the bunch of balloons on one side and the single balloon on the other. I've made all of these samples to, hopefully, fulfill a potential client's wish list. I'll be bringing to samples tomorrow to see what she thinks. I'm also bringing an apron or two, as well as a painted box I'm working on that can be used for wine storage. Wish me luck.

Painting Wine Glasses

Today I've been painting wine glasses. I was on a mission yesterday to find a good supply of wine glasses at a reasonable price; I hit the jackpot at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Watch out Lolita. Here I come!
This one is rosebuds and leaves

This tropical one says "It's 5:00 Somewhere" on the base.

This is the front and back of Happy Birthday/cupcake glass. It has cherries on the base.

This Happy Birthday one has blue squiggles on the base and around the glass.

Nice Saturday

Today, after spending as much time as possible out enjoying the gorgeous weather, I started working on some painting. We went to a wonderful little wine tasting room today and, after some discussion, I told the manager I'd bring some painted wine glass samples by next week. If all goes well, perhaps we'll come to an arrangement under which I will paint glasses for sale at the shop. I've been amazed at the popularity and cost of those Lolita wine glasses. I suppose when you know how to do something yourself, you can't fathom that people would pay so much money for them. That's how I feel about the Lolita glasses, which I really like a lot.

It looks like Super Bowl Sunday will be a sewing day for me. I've been so busy with so many projects lately, that I have not been able to get back to sewing aprons and I have all this fabulous fabric, already washed and waiting to be turned into aprons. I hope I'll be posting pictures of the new aprons I made later this week.