Tied Up at the Moment

I thought I would share the contents of my postersketch with you, as it sums up my feelings right now. Since Rory and the kids can spend money faster than I can sew for it, I hope the orders keep coming. Here is what is happening in my sewing room for the next couple of weeks: 5 bridal clutches, 4 quilted pillows (and patterns so you can make them too,) 3 chair slipcovers, 2 duffel bags, and a partridge in a pear tree. The partridge is really a custom changing pad bag and the pear tree is really the quilting of a queen sized quilt. I will be popping in here from time to time to post from flickr, or say something that just has to be said, and as always, I will enjoy reading your comments and sneaking into your blogs in the middle of the night. Now here is a look inside my mind with the help from some of my very talented friends.

Customer Service with a Smile

Does this guy make you smile back? He makes me smile, every morning. My 10 year old is the star of my current treasury on Etsy. (That link will only be good for a couple of days from the date of this post.) Here is the customer service story. I was shopping for some face paint to help out with the school carnival. I bought this mineral powder from PinkQuartzMinerals. Thanks to our dyslexic mailman, my neighbor received the package and promptly forgot about it. After canvassing the neighborhood while the airhead neighbor was not at home, I contacted Doree at PinkQuartz who sent me a replacement which coincidentally arrived on the same day as the neighbor cleaned off her kitchen counter. Now I had 2 cool sets of mineral makeup. I gave one to my friend who happened to be in the living room with me chatting up a storm at the very moment of this harmonic convergence of minerals, neighbors and postal incompetence. When I offered to pay for the extra, Doree refused, so I sent her some photos of my sons in their pirate faces to use in her shop. (My older son is now too cool for all of this - but his photos are amazing!) The carnival just happened the other night and I have been so consumed with work that I never did volunteer to paint faces. As it happens, one of my son's classmates has a dental hygienist mom who also happens to be the reincarnation of Matisse. I stood in awe as she turned a first grade boy into a webkinz dog, and thought how silly of me to ever think kids would line up for me to paint them. There was a line up around the building waiting for her facial masterpieces. I probably would have been roaming the place in pirate garb, accosting everyone with the offer of an extra eye or two. Aarg! Doesn't anybody want an eye?!!

Must Read for Etsy Sellers

pendant by Pendantic

Just a quick post today to point my fellow Etsians over to the Storque to read about how Etsy has enhanced their SEO and how you can capitalize on it. SEO is search engine optimization, and it is how you get found on the internet. This is a must read for anyone serious about making sales in their Etsy shop. It is a comprehensive article with great diagrams for you to read, study, and implement to make more sales. It will make you feel like the girl in Pendantic's little pendant. You may notice that the date of the Storque article is April 29 - all I can say is I am very busy sewing! Thanks for all of your great comments on my blog posts, I love hearing from you and knowing you are out there reading. Wishing you all much success.

Martha Shakes Her Head and Says Tsk Tsk

My mama gave me a great calorie saving tip from a Weight Watcher's friend of hers. Instead of the oil, water, and eggs in a cake mix, use 12 ounces of soda - club soda or soda pop, and bake as usual. It makes the cake very moist and a little sticky, but it tastes great. I had a dream the other night that Martha Stewart was in my house and she was looking through the pantry. I wondered, what can I show her that she'll want to put on her show? She interrupted my thought by asking, why do you have cake mixes? You know there are recipes for cake. I answered, because sometimes I am in a hurry. She said, why would you ever be in a hurry for cake? When I told Rory the dream, he asked why do you use cake mixes? I think it runs in my blood. When my mom was growing up, her mom worked at the flour mill and brought home cake mixes for the family to test. CakeMix=Mama. Now CakeMix+Soda=LighterMama. But maybe that disqualifies me from The Martha Stewart Show. Oh, well, I love my mama more than Martha.

The Shoe Philosopher Part 5

Kid keeps Daddy waiting while she sees to pebble in shoe
Originally uploaded by florriebassingbourn

I was walking along at my usual brisk pace, enjoying the fresh air and solitude, when I felt a small pebble in my shoe. I thought, oh, it doesn't bother me that much. It's so tiny that it hardly irritates me at all. Maybe it will find its way into a recess of my shoe somewhere that I won't feel it. Even though there were leaves fluttering in the breeze, flowers in bloom, and a cool blue morning sky, all I could picture in my mind was the inside of my shoe and the pebble that hardly irritated me at all. Then I thought of my 8 year old and how she stops on hikes to empty her shoe if anything gets in it. Kids, how funny they are... how they let such a small thing stop them...I'm a grown up, I can walk with a little pebble in my shoe. A few steps later, I realized how huge that pebble had become in my mind, and I stopped, dumped it out, and walked on pebble free. It makes me wonder, have I got any metaphorical pebbles in my metaphorical shoes? Just thinking...

Deep Creek Bridge Beaver

Deep Creek Bridge Beaver (cropped)
Originally uploaded by studiocherie

On Sunday afternoon, we went for a hike, and I spotted this guy munching away under a small tree. I think I was about 5 feet away when I got this shot. This was a real treat for all of us. We also discovered a fantastic trail heading up deep creek with a ton of photo ops, but my camera batteries were dead, so we'll have to go back another time. This is all part of Riverfront State Park. The slogan- Spokane near nature, near perfect -works for me. For all I complain about missing Seattle, I do enjoy hiking around Spokane.