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Getting back to "work"

Tah Dah!!! I found my way back. lol

I have said a few times that I am going to post everyday during the week and I am going to take many pictures of what I am doing. I am going to make video instructions of crafts and yadda yadda yadda ... Ok so, I am not a liar, just uhm... Internet lazy! That is why I put the word work in quotes in the title. I actually love being on the Internet but blogging, listing my etsy items, following up on "Link Love" ( which is a whole other monster ) and keeping my Payvment shop up to date and oh yeah liking and posting on Facebook. That my friends, all seem like work! Even though I totally love interacting with everyone and sharing and learning new things, when I say I HAVE to do it, well then it feels like punching a clock.

I guess what I am saying is I am full of good intentions but I really just want to keep having fun doing what I love and I never want to feel like I have to do any of the things I do . Boy what a ramble!!!!

So what have I been up to? Well like I mentioned I started a Facebook Fan page a few months back. Mamablingthing, and on that page you can shop for just about anything I make. I really like using payvment for my shop now tab except I have yet to see a sale through Facebook yet. Not that I am placing blame on facebook, I have been extremely network lazy. I really need to get listing more items on my Etsy page though. What is really cool is that Payvment added an app that takes everything you have listed on etsy and merges it with your facebook store front. Really cool. I'm not sure why Etsy would allow it but so far I haven't heard anything against it. I don't really get into the forums though.



I have recently started making natural bath and body products. I love, love, love doing this. I think my favorite thing to make is the Bath Bombs. Oh and to lay in a warm tub with these....mmmm. I have to remember not to use everything I make because I actually do have to sell some in order to recoup the cost of inventory. What else? Well, goats milk lotions, creams, and body milk spray. Goats milk based lotions are sooo silky, I just love them. Oh yeah and I found out I totally love working with pure soy wax. I bought about 20 lbs. of 100% soy flakes and got soy crazy. I made solid lip gloss, solid perfume, chap stick, and tons of soy tarts. I love the way that any left over wax just washes away! So much nicer than working with bees wax. Don't get me wrong, I really like the smell of bees wax, it's so rich and homey, but it's not fun to clean up your tools after.

This entry is way to boring long so until next time ( maybe tomorrow? ) hugs, blessings, and happy crafting.

New Year...Take 2

Ok friends, here's the deal....... I need motivation. Not the kind needed to go hole myself away and make all kinds of cute little crafts and such. I never need to be motivated for that. I need to give it my all when it comes to getting my products out there.

I use ETSY, Facebook, Twitter, and obviously Blogspot. I am on Ravelry and I have a Flickr stream. All the things I know I should be doing, Right? Did you know that each one of those things should be updated on a regular basis? Did you know that they should all be used simultaneously? Oh and they should all have a similar name? Oh I know this.......... I have done all this, well except KEEP THEM UPDATED. I had 13 post here last year. 13 !!!!!!!! How is that helping me? Do you know I walked in to the Christmas season with 45 item in my etsy store? I only 2 days ago made a Fan page for my etsy shop. ( I didn't know I should have a fan page too ) and twitter? I still have a hard time getting into twitter.

Oh and Ravelry... I love ravelry!!!! Oh but do you think I have done much more with it than keep patterns in my Library or mark OTHER atrist as my favorites.

Ok then there is Flickr. I constantly use Flickr ( for my own editing...). Did you know that you should join groups and follow threads on Flickr? Um............ again I knew this but, yeah anyway.

I AM NETWORKING LAZY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rant over..... lol

Now this is a New Year and I am giving myself a new start. So..... I will try to post something different during the week. I haven't quite figured it all out yet but I want to give it a shot.
Things like:

Mondays : Metaling ( Beading and Wire work )
Makers ( I will feature other artists that I love )
Morning Banter ( Just a random rant, maybe about the weekend )
Making it ( things I am making with instructions or patterns )
Mastering ( things i am trying out and where I found the how tos for it )

Tuesdays: Tatting ( I needle tat, so I will share things about that here )
Twitter ( Sharing interesting tweets )
Tacky ( all things crafty, tacky and gorgeous )

Wednesdays: What's New ( New to crafting, or well new to me anyway )
Way back ( Those blast from the past crafts we grew up with
Macrame anyone? )
Whip up ( shared items and Ideas that just got or can be easily whipped up)

Thursdays: Threads ( crochet, knitting, sewing, tatting... all things thready )
Thrown together ( pretty much the same as whip up but we all need more time)
Think about it ( what is planned for the future, and what needs to done )

Fridays: Follow Me ( Follow me Fridays just a time to post new site to check out and
follow)
Fabric ( all things fabric related: quilts, blankets, clothes, accessories... )
Flickr ( sharing of great flickr streams )
Finished ( here is where finished objects will get post first and will be up for
dare I say it... critique... )

All of this is preliminary and well you guessed it, not set in stone because I am after all

THE LAZY NETWORKER...........

Oh but on that note, there is a great thing happening all over the place and it been dubbed
" LINK LOVE " Just a way to share all of our links with everyone and get your name out there and noticed. Please join in, it's been so much fun so far.

Here's mine:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mamablingthing/

http://www.mamablingthing.etsy.com/

http://www.mamablingthing.blogspot.com/

http://www.twitter.com/mamablingthing

http://www.ravelry.com/people/lynns2mi

Fan me, follow me, heart me and I will do the same back!


Hugs, Blessings and Happy Crafting!
-Lynn
( mamablingthing )

Crafty measures

See I knew I was right and now I ( we ) have proof. All those scarves, hats, blankets, and wash cloths are therapeutic! It is money well spent! ( I wonder if I can write off my yarn as a medical expense? Hee hee)

I know what are you talking about? Ok so here, I followed a link to this video this morning. It basically just say that crochet and knitting ( or basically needle work I guess ) keeps your mind active and lowers your blood pressure.
Here watch,



Watch CBS Videos Online

Hopefully it works, computer techie I'm not.

Ok so here's an update on the birdies. THEY NEED TO FLY AWAY!!!!!!!!! So as the eggs were hatching, very exciting, really neat to see and a great learning experience for my 5 yr old. Now the babies are all cute and fuzzy and their eyes are open and Mommy bird is constantly feeding them ( also very sweet to watch ).

Mommy bird and friend bird from tree next door keep dive bombing my dog every time Abby tries to go outside to potty. I was on the opposite side of the deck ( mind you our deck is over 30 ft across ) the other day and all was well until Andrew let the dog out and she stood by me. All of a sudden the two miniature " Red Barons " started to attack. I mean I felt the wind by my face from one of their wings. Ok Birds this is a human deck not a tree. Beautiful and all, but at this point I'm really frustrated with them. We can't even use our grill because it's next to them. Arrgg.

Here's a couple pictures of them.

Ok feathered friends my pup Surrenders!!! Play Nice!!!

Birdies 2 and 3 are here.

Ok just before I put dinner on the table I ventured outside to take our dog out to potty and noticed that Mommy robin wasn't on her nest so i thought I would go and take a peek. Well baby number 2 had hatched. Way cool. So sure enough after dinner I was just too curious to see if the egg three had hatched because it had a crack in it earlier. Sure enough there was 3 baby birds making the sweetest little chirps. They had their little beaks open ready to eat. ( for as long as their necks would hold up their heads ).

Here's some more pics. Enjoy.

I will update tomorrow on the stats of egg four. What are the chances they were all good eggs? We shall see.

New birds

The baby birds are on their way. We have one this morning and number 2 has cracked its shell. You can see it in the pics.

It so naked. Ok, so here's my question, where is Mommy bird? And where did this little guys shell go? Is that why she is not here? Did she take the shell out and dispose of it? As soon as I stood back from the nest after taking these pictures she flew up to the nest so she must have been really close by.

I will post more about them all during this week. Hopefully I can keep updating the pics. We'll see how tolerant she stays with the human.

Hugs, blessings and happy crafting

Spring is here

Good morning!

I know here in Michigan it has been pretty darn nice. Well it has rained a lot but it is April after all. I also realise that according to the calender it is definitely Spring but I have absolute proof.

About 2 weekends ago I went outside to clean out the pots on my deck. You know all the dead annuals that I "forgot" to clean out in the fall. I have a huge deck and a ton of flower pots, it a chore. Anyway, I got to one pot that is up on a plant stand and went to grab out the dead plant and low and behold it was a beautiful birds nest. ( in my pot only 3 ft of the deck ) I hadn't noticed it in the fall. Well I cleaned out my dead plants and just set it back in the pot. I couldn't bring my self to throw it out, it was just to beautiful.

One week later Hubby goes out to his BBQ grill to cook hamburgers and rushes back in to get me. I run outside thinking something is wrong to find him all excited about the nest in our pot. I laughed and started to go back in the house saying "yep I know I saw it already". Then he says " Have you ever seen eggs that blue?" WHAT??!!! EGGS??!! Yep mommy robin laid eggs in the nest three feet off the floor of our deck in a 6" pot next to our BBQ grill. Oh and did I mention the nest is exactly nose level with our 3 yr old Greyhound. (By the way she just stands back and looks at Mommy bird ) Here's the pics.

I'll post more pictures when the eggs hatch. I have no idea how Mommy Robin is going to teach them to fly. She is so close to the ground. I am also concerned because the babies are going to be so close to my dog and she will probably find them VERY interesting. My other concern is the fact that the nest is in direct sun light. What was this mother thinking? Everything about the situation is poor judgement on her part. Is there a Birdie Social Services? lol

Sorry nothing about crafting today. I haven't really done much lately. Spring cleaning and getting ready for garage sale season. Unclutter the house ya know.

Oh wait I did make my Greyhound Abby a new " lambs wool " unstuffed squeak toy. Here's her playing with it.

Ok well hugs, blessings, and happy crafting.

HIgh Hopes

Ok so when I started doing this blog a few months ago I was going to blog all the time share instructions to the crafts I do. Talk about my etsy store, chat with other SAHM (stay at home moms) and sell my crafts. You know network. Ok unless I treated all of this like an actual part time job, staying on top of it is like really really hard. NOT IMPOSSIBLE but hard.

I am going to work hard at doing exactly what I set out to do.

Any how my last post told you how I needed ideas on setting up a good display for a quick church craft show. Here is what I came up with. It really did turn out pretty good I think.

It's nothing professional but at least it was pleasing to the eye. The background looks kinda cluttered but we were in the hall way of the school and those are the kids locker walls.

In the next comming days I want to add some instructions for things that I have been working on and start sharing more. Hope you come back to find out more.

Hugs blessings and happy crafting.

Crafty Conundrum

I have a dilema. I am going to be doing a craft show this weekend and I am completely beside myself. Ok so I have done many shows but i usually have my crocheted hats, scarves, gloves, washcloths, face scrubbies and pot scrubbies. I fill on the table with my amigurumi critters and all is well. I usually use different stacks of boxes under a table cloth to get varying heghts to appeal to the eye and what not. I use mannequin heads for the hats and scarves.

Ok, well this time I have more ribbon barrettes, felt clippie and corker bows and I won't be bringing along the crocheted hats and scarves this time. I also have coffee cup cozies, and small snuggle taggie blankets. I don't want to go and spend all kinds of money on dispaly items when I am probably not going to make a huge profit at this show.

I have no idea what I am going to do. The presentation always means the most to your bottoms line. If you booth is appealing people stop. Well if anyone has any great cheap ideas I'd appreciate it. I'll post pictures of how it went on Monday probably.

I've been busy at work and in getting everything for the show catorgorized with some sort of stock number so I really don't have any pic to post this time of new crafts so I will leave you with my adorable exracing greyhound. She loved her hat for St. Patricks day, can't you tell?

Ok until after the show:

Hugs, blessings and happy crafting

Happy St. Patricks Day

Happy St. Patricks Day!!!!!

What a cool day! You get to be Irish for the day even if your really not. Lucky you. (hee hee)

Well I must say I have a weebit O'Irish in me. My grandmother and Grandfather were both half Irish so it gives me about a quarter if you think in mathematical terms. Right? with both grandparents 1/2 it would make my mom half and me half of that since it is only on her side right? O.k whatever. Just pass the corn beef , boiled potatoes and carrots and a little bit o'cabbage with a sprinkle of vinegar. Yum. Hey don't forget the grated horseradish.

Ok so what does this have to do with crafting. Nothing!!!! Well except my Mother has made this traditional boiled dinner every St. Patricks day since I can remember. It's actually a family get together for us. ( I love traditions ). So as far as crafting goes I got to leave my mess on my dining room table and go over there to eat. Now I can go back to gluing and packaging my barrettes and book marks for the craft show next weekend.

Here are some pictures. Let me know what you think. I am still trying to find "that" item that will sell like hot cakes.

These charms are made from thick wool blend felt that was die cut and layered . They are two sided and very light weight. I think they are so cute. They can be worn on a necklace a zipper pull, a key chain, or as a cell phone charm. I was thinking of using them on my bent wire book marks. ( I haven't shared those yet but I will another day)

Same material but made into clippie barrettes on snap clips. I like the look with the rhinestones.

These are really just like appliques right now. I guess they could be used for scrapbooks, cards, altered books, or even clothes but I think I might add pin backs to them. I haven't decided quite yet.

I think these are cute. These are just the alligator clips covered in grosgrain ribbon that are SOOOO popular. I just wanted to make them a little different besides the common bows on them. I think the bows are adorable but I wanted a little uniqueness in mine.

Here's more clippies but just a little smaller

These are my Jumbo brass paper clip bookmarks. I really like these. I have no idea what to price these. Still trying to decide. I don't even know if something like would sell at a craft show. Hopefully they would make good Easter basket stuffers.

These are more charms like the first picture except the second picture shows the back of each charm. They co-ordinate with the front but are reversible for another look. Pretty cool if you are buying them to wear as a pendant.

Ok. Well I think that is enough for tonight. Have a great green day!!!!

Hugs, blessings, and happy crafting.

A Mom and Daughter walk into a quilt store.........

Good Morning!

Ok so there really isn't a great punch line to that title but something really cool happened yesterday.
So my mom says hey let's go out for the day. No children, no husbands no time restraints. HMMM...... let me think, should I go? What about vacuuming, or laundry or dusting. Oh did I mention she said something about getting lunch and oh yeah there was a huge quilt show? LOL. No brainer, I'm there. Well the quilt show was nice, very well run and I think I just may have been inspired ( we'll see ). Afterwards we asked about the local quilt store. The ladies replied with " Oh you'll never find it on your own!" HUH?! We knew it was there but my mom had never found it just like they said.

Anyway this little store's entrance could only be accessed from a dead end street by going to the back of a house through an alley. You enter the store by going into the garage. The ladies at the show were right... I NEVER WOULD HAVE FOUND IT .

We were in there for quite a long time just browsing and talking to the shop owner. After talking about different crafts and such she suddenly asks if I knew of anybody that could tat. Well...... O.K. as rule I am not a quiet person until I as an individual gets targeted, then I tend to clam up. I hate extra attention and being in a spot light. Mom to the rescue, she is the voice when I have none. "She does!" Mom replies. My first thought was really Mom? Great!!!!!! Well this made the sweet shop owner Kaye very happy and very insistent. So here is the punch line.......(finally, I know) I am now going to be teaching needle tatting at her shop. But....... I really don't think the attention thing will bother me because they won't be staring a me but they will be watching my hands. I don't think my fingers are shy, ( Oh gees, at least I hope not. (grin) )

Any instructing advice would be very helpful since I have never taught anything in my life to any body over the teen years. Kids tend to ooh and aww a lot. (very self gratifying.)

Ok. with this said I will now leave you with the few things that I have been crafting since my last post. Enjoy and as always , feel free to contact me about the projects and I will get you instructions. ( I will be posting actual how to's very soon)

This doily/candle mat was my own design. My 5 yr. old said it looked like a flower in the middle so the next pic is what I came up with the help of his inspiration.

This is my take on a sunflower.

and with candle:



Here are just a couple chokers that I crocheted from mercerized cotton thread. I have needle tatted quite a few doilies and necklaces lately but I still have a mad passion for crochet. I love what I came up with here. Hope you like them to. I'll me adding them to my shop soon .

This picture isn't the greatest but I also crocheted up this cute little choker that in black makes it look kinda Gothic. I did it up in other colors too and the colors make it look everything from bohemian to goth to Victorian. I love how color play is so important in design. ( Not that I designed this stitch because I did not. I just took the stitch in a different direction )

Hope you enjoyed another sneak peek at what I'm up to. Feel free to share with me too.

Hugs, blessings and happy crafting.

Still so new.......

It was October of last year that I decided I really wanted to give it a go at being a TRUE crafter. Wow, not as easy as it sounds. LOL.

I had recently gone back to work. ( sorta, I work less than 15 hrs a week at a Party City store ) and already had an etsy store ( www.mamablingthing.etsy.com )for some of my craft items. I had done a few local craft shows and had some luck with those. So ok the ball is rolling. I can make this snowball. Right..........

I give all you very successful crafters out there a huge pat on the back. You are very driven. I have come to the realisation that you have to treat it as a full time job to get the word out and make a TRUE presence of yourself. I am still trying to find that hidden drive within myself to do this full time. I will!!!

It seems like I find a million reasons why I didn't blog or why I didn't update my myspace or facebook. There is always something else to do than sit at the computer and list new items to my store. I get bored doing research on trends and finding new venues to show at.

Oh and then there is this big problem I have.... the self confidence factor. Yikes!!!!!! I just need to remember that no, not everyone will like my items but this world is huge and yes there are others out there that will. I just need to reach and find them.

On that note... I need to do some out reaching in computerland. Take photos of items to list on Etsy and maybe put a few things on E-bay. I also need to do some inventory control for my next craft show.

I will put up new photos tomorrow of things I have been working on the last couple weeks including some original work I came up with. I haven't decided if I will post the crochet pattern here or actually make it a pdf for etsy. We'll see what I decide.

Hugs and Happy crafting

Keeping on top of things.......

Wow I guess blogging is kinda like exercising to me. I like to do it but it really slips my mind and then I feel real guilty that it's a commitment that I am failing to keep. I will try better in the future.

OK so I have been home for the past week from work and you would think that I would have a million crafty things done right? NOPE!!! I have been sick the entire time. Sore throat, stuffy runny nose, ear ache fever and now chest congestion and coughing. One entire week folks. Yes this sounds unfortunate but I am MOM things keep on trucking and well us MOMS just don't stop for a flu bug right? Oh no you see both my boys have the same bug. Tissues, blankets and cough syrup have been our lives. Cuddle this one, hug that one, kiss both foreheads, make lots of soup. Still not stopping. O.k we are starting to feel better, flu is more of a nuisance than being sick, yep you guessed it, Hubby came home yesterday at noon from work. Daddy has the flu.

Anyway enough whining right. How boring.

What I did accomplish was one crocheted doily, a crocheted bookmark, and two explosion photo boxes.

OK let's get one thing straight, I finished the boxes (pretty much, I never seem to leave well enough alone) and I finished the doily. The only thing I started from scratch was the bookmark. I wanted to get a bunch of things needle tatted and I wanted to make a slew of boxes. I also wanted to upload a ton of my ( already done ) jewelry to my mamablingthing etsy account but only managed a few new items.

I still have coffee cup coats to add and I still need to add all the taggie blankets I made. I also have a ton of korker bows to list and those cute little ribbon clippies.

I tote all these items from one craft show to the next and never seem to list any to the etsy store. Where is the time and the motivation. You know actually all those little etsy hearts can be a motivation and even the convo's that lead nowhere can motivate. I know so many etsyians poo poo the hearts but hey someone saw you and they marked you. Some one else might find you through them, so don't poo poo the love.

O.k. enough of the ramble and off to the craft room to work on all my U.F.O's. That way I can start on my mom's quilt magic butterfly for mothers day and I can start quilling all those valentine and Easter cards I have floating around in my head. ( O.K. so they are crammed in there along with every other project I have no time to do. LOL.)

Here are a few quick pics of the fore mentioned projects. Let me know what you think. Seriously.

love hugs and happy crafting

my craft evolution part 2

Ok so we left off with my first son. Well we moved and bought a house with 2 bedrooms and a 3rd upstairs that was that entire floor. ( bungalow ) Well the baby has to stay on the same floor as us so well.... ok if my arm gets twisted...... I'll take the entire second floor for my "studio".

Well this worked out nicely for a couple years and boy did I fill it up. YIKES. Then when my son was around 6 he asked if he could move upstairs so he could have a big playroom. This is where I found E-bay. I needed to down size. This is when Mommy-n-me-wee-craft was born. Yep i opened an E-bay store. This worked for a few years. I resold his clothes, I bought foam crafts in bulk and sold them, I even started to sell some of the things I would make. Well then as evolution would have, the prices rose and rose and rose and others started selling the same kits I was buying and the whole world was reselling their kids clothes and well I started to not see my profit margin any more. Next step. Ok craft shows. I need inventory!!!!!! ok got that, watched a million craft shows on TV and videos and read books and so on. Yep a good craft show costs a ton of money to do right. Well now I am doing a hodge podge of items that I really don't have a lot of any one thing. hmmm........... I have now completely overwhelmed myself and ya know what, I got momentarily burned out on crafts. ( I know , blasphemy, sorry ).

Well my craft room sat idol and I was in a funk. UNTIL i found QVC's craft day marathons. UHOH. Now I have learned about PAPER. Oh my goodness. I can make cards, invitations, origami, and wait SCRAPBOOK?????!!!!!!!!! I NEED IT ALL!!!! Yep here we go again. I have it all including a million punches and rubber stamps, brads, eyelets, chip board, and stickers don't get me started on those. And have you ever tried teabag folding or iris folding? FUN FUN FUN!

If you follow me you will!

I am going to jump ahead, way ahead. Past the gallery glass, the one stroke, the polymer clay and oh yeah kniffty knitting. I told you I was addicted. Any way............. my present 3 loves are jewelry beading ( I found firemountain beads and spent, well ALOT ), Needle tatting which I love, and paper filigree also known as quilling.

But.......... I still have all the tools and supplies from everything else I have tried. I could open a Michael's all on my own.

In the next few days I will be posting pics of what I have been doing. Maybe even instructions on how I did them.

If I get a few followers maybe we can do a few craft alongs. That would be fun. What else I would like to start is a craft supply swap. How cool would it be to try a new craft and give some else a chance to try a craft and never spend any extra money. ( well beside postage ).

Let me know what you think

Happy Crafting and many blessings

ok I'll leave you with one ufo ( unfinished object)

This is a christmas tree I have started. I still need to add a "trunk" to it. I believe I got this pattern from be-stitched. I'll have to look that up though.

Resolutions? I don't think so!

I am refusing to make any resolutions this year. I was going to make doing this blog and keeping up on my craft networking but um, have you noticed the date? Let's see, I am already 8 days behind schedule. Nice right? Well I am not going to beat my self up over resolutions. I just won't have any and I will just live my life to the fullest and try to be happy each and every day. So there.

O.k, so here is my plan for this blog. I will ramble about being a SAHM (stay at home mom), selling on Etsy and some on E-bay. I will show you each craft project I am working on or have finished. If (when haha) people start to folow I will start adding patterns, and instructions to the things I have made.

I do so many different crafts it's actually a little insane. I have such an "If you can do it, I can do it" complex it resides on the edge of crazy. You see once I find out I would like to try a craft I have to have everything for that particular craft. Let's see let me walk you through my crafting evolution. I started crocheting and knitting at 8, by 11 I was needle pointing and cross stitching. I had already found a love for shrink plastic and those plastic melty suncatchers. As a teenager I found painting and drawing and took many classes. Then came ceramics. Bored yet? Just wait....

I got married and we rented an apartment with a spare room. Ok craft-aholoics we all know the spare room is.........? Right, the craft room.

With craft room came space for a sewing table and fabric and wait I could store more yarn and patterns and books and OMG.......

And then..... "Honey I'm late. No not late because I got to wrapped up in the quilting, late like "we have to move because the baby needs his own room (he's not getting mine) hee hee.

And on that note... I'll let you know of the evolution on another day. I have to go tat a snow flake or a christmas tree. ( Christmas 2009 is around the corner ya know.) hee hee