Just in case....

Just in case I don't get on here for the next couple of day's. I want to wish all my friends a Happy, Joyous New Year. I love the thought of the new year, a fresh start , a new outlook, new determination. I wish you happiness, joy, love and success in every part of your life in the coming year my friends.

On a vacation?

As of today I have not had a day of work at the Cafe in a week and a half. Not my choice. One of the things we are noted for besides being a tourist town because of the summer horse racing, we are home to Skidmore College. Well 95% of the Cafe's business is Skidmore students and they have all gone home for Christmas break. So no students in town= no business and no work for Debbie. Well I am scheduled to start back next Sunday, and in the mean time I am trying to accomplish some things. Now that Christmas is done I am going to do some house cleaning. I have my son probably moving back in and my daughter possibly moving out so lots of rearranging to do. Also going to try to stay focused on my shops. Working on my daily sale, staying active on the computer. I have been working on some new items , just finished this one above.
I am also working on an idea. My felt and sequin ornaments which I make for my Etsy shop. My granddaughter gets a portion of the profit on each one to donate to Esterville Animal shelter.
I must say this year I sold only a few so , so far we haven't come up with enough to send the shelter, we want to at least send $10.00 at a time. I am considering a way to offer a sample sale here on my blog but need to work on the details a bit. I will let you know more on this at another time. My house is quite, I am the only one home except for the whining dogs!
When my daughter leaves the house , her dog Bailey wails, I mean he Wails, until she comes home. If I go spend some time with him to calm him down, my dog Alex cries and yips because I have left him. With Bailey and Alex whining the big lady, Morgan gets upset and starts to bark at everyone else. So there is no such thing as silence in my house even when I am the only human here:) Have a good night every body.

Sale Update

Just a quick note, last week I told you my newest idea. To have a sale in my shop of one item and to change the item every 24 hours. I have been doing it for the last several day's . One item that is priced at about 1/2 off. Every 24 hours have changed to a new item. I have to admit I am having fun with it. It also keeps me active because as I choose the sale item, I renew it so it is keeping my up a bit in the pages. Don't know how long but it can't hurt. Any way I am doing it, actually have sold 2 items, will do it for sure til the end of the year. Maybe even longer just because I am having fun with it.
I have also decided to get more active again with my Ebay shop. I know all the reasons I stopped doing it but the fact is I will not ever sell anything if I am not pro-actively doing everything I can. Sent a note to my brother who built and manages my website and hopefully he will add the Ebay link back to my page.
For any one who hasn't seen my website, take a peek and tell me what you think!
www.serenitycollections.com

Peaceful Thoughts

I decided to take a walk downtown on Christmas night. It had been a very tough day for me with the situation that we are in right now and felt like I had let my grandkids down badly. I needed a way to think about things and taking a walk seemed right. Living in town that while small is alway's busy with lots of traffic and people walking the streets and ton's of businesses clustered in a very small area, then, on a special night when the businesses are closed and the people are at home and the cars are in the garage.....wow, kind of like stepping into a different world. so completely calm and quiet, with all the Holiday lights glowing was just the most pleasant and peaceful feeling. By the time I went home I realized that I was okay with things, my family was okay and no matter what we did not have, we have soooo much. We are blessed if for nothing else than to be a part of a close and loving family that will alway's support each other in the roughest times, at least emotionally if nothing else is possible. I realized that I can be very much at peace with myself as long as I concentrate on the blessings in my life!

My wishes

Alex and I wish you all a very merry Christmas, the best time of year . Enjoy

Better late than Never

Every year I create a one of a kind amulet bag for Christmas, put it up on Ebay and it sells, every year. Well this year with all the drama I have been putting myself through I did not get it done in a timely manner so it won't sell before Christmas. But Today I did finish it TaDa! I went ahead and listed it anyway even though it won't go for Christmas, it's still a super nice winter peice. I am super happy with the way it came out!

My newest big Idea

The fight for Christmas sales is now pretty much over. I don't know about you but I like to freshen things up and have new items to start the new year and I just don't like things to hang around to long. So just for the heck of it I am going to try a sale. A bit different though. I started already tonight. Every 24 hours I will pick one item in my shop and put it on sale for up to 1/2 price. That one item will stay on sale for the 24 hours at the end of which it will go back to regular price and a new item will be put on sale. In my title bar I am putting:
ON SALE TODAY and I will state the regular price in my description area so people will know how much of a savings they would see if they purchase it. I am going to do this from today through New years. What do you think? Silly? Will it get noticed? Maybe not. I put a notice in promotions on the Etsy forum and it got buried within seconds. So would you please spread the word?
So that's today's crazy brainstorm, I let you know how it turns out!

Getting Control

That is what I am working on today. Getting control of this bad attitude. If I don't things will get worse because there is just so much stuff going on with not just myself but my kids too. If I don't reach down deep and pull out Debsparkles we are going to be in deep deep deep crap. So when I got up this morning I made up my mind to accomplish some things. I have laundry washing and dishes washed, and I finished this lip balm bag, took a bunch of pictures which is a problem because we haven't seen the sunshine in forever but had to get them. Tonight I will post it up for sale. Mission accomplished. May be tonight I will call my mom......so ok I am working on me :)

Gone to long

I just realized how many day's it's been since I posted something. I have to be honest, I have been going through a really emotional downer since they turned my cable off last month. Even though I got some help getting it turned back on I don't like the way I have been feeling. I am just so tired out, don't know what to do to improve my attitude and that's just not like me. I am alway's the one saying we need to be optimistic and better things are coming and keep moving and ........lately I keep thinking I have walked in the same circle for the last 30 years and it just never ends.
I must tell you I am truly disappointed in my Etsy shop. I worked so hard, took advantage of every possible thing, marketed in every way I could think of, posted to the point where what it is costing to list items is a joke and nothing. Foolish me, thinking I could get enough sales for some kind of holiday if I just worked hard enough at it. And this is not like me to feel so bad about lack of sales. I am the one that alway's say's no worries, some day the right buyers will find me and we will just keep going. I think alot of the negative stuff going on with sellers canceling sales and buyers not paying and the stuff that is constantly being kicked up in the forums full of whining and complaints are just really having a negative effect on the community. I truly wonder if it can be healed. I think I need to spend some time in thought on this one.

When I am feeling really down I stop working and play. I am a recycler. I use soup cans, mayonaisse jars, coffee cans, anything, trying to think up a use for it rather than just through it away. One of the things I like to do, don't ask me why cause I don't know, I have this odd fascination for trying to find way's to turn all this stuff into change banks. While I have been dealing with my bad attitude this week I have been creating the picture at top. A coin bank out of an empty cardboard ice tea can, I had these old plastic gemstones that I took off a shirt because after a few laundry cycles they got really beat up looking. Beaded around each one then glued it onto this can. Now I am trying to bead around all the glued on peices until I have beaded the entire can. Probably take me a year, silly, but it is what I do when I have no energy to work on real stuff. I hope your time before the Holiday is going much better than mine I truly wish a blessed time for everyone and I hope to pull myself out of this soon.

First snow

Last night I took the picture of my house with the start of Christmas lighting and it was cold, completely quiet and dry! By the time I woke up this morning, this has happened. My only regret is that since it's my day off I slept in and by time I got up the plows had already been through a few times. As a rule I dislike snow and cold. I should not be living in the north country. But...it truly does help with the Christmas Spirit. Christmas and snow go together. I truly can enjoy looking at the snow if I don't have to leave the house but I have to walk to the market for dish soap and ingrediants for dinner. I make a point of putting a good dinner on the table for the grandkids when I am home from work because cooking is one more thing that is difficult for Heather right now so they eat alot of easy microwaved meals. Although I am lacking the energy today to put too much work into dinner, last night I made a great mac and cheese casserole, tonight....tonight I want a plain old Hamburger. With fried onions and A1 sauce!
Have a great day everyone..... I gotta go find some boots:)

So Many thoughts

Yes I am back once again, for a while. Much sooner than expected because my angel was watching. I say my angel because how else do you describe a friend that lives many, many miles away and you only have email to keep in touch, yet she knows when you are at the breaking point and takes action? I won't go into details but that is the best friend I have and once more she managed to know without me telling her that I needed a boost. Any way, after reading over my last post I realize how very down and discouraged I was and I am so lucky that I don't let myself dwell to long in that place. While nothing has changed much, have alot of things to sort through I have been doing alot of thinking and am forming a few plans. First let me say, I posted this picture of my house, my daughter has started putting our lights up. I do know I have managed to teach my kids and now my grandkids how important it is to celebrate the season being thankful for what we have and not be miserable for what we don't. We may not have a whole lot of stuff for Christmas but we do have spirit. My daughter is far from done with the outside lights. Funny thing is we are the only house in the neighborhood who decorates and when she is done you can see it lighting up a huge area of my block. We will still continue to make crafts involving the munchkins. Every year I make an ornament for each person in our family and we decorate them together. We make food gifts and if I can scrap enough to have the extra supplies we will bake during Christmas week for ourselves. So basically what I am trying to say is we do alot of things for the holiday that don't cost much and have a great time doing so . I truly believe I have instilled some good value's in all of them.

Next I feel like I want to explain, though I am not sure why , things are so tough right now. Everyone who has been reading my blog since the beginning knows already my own story. You know also my delight in starting my part time job , which I must say is still going really well, I still hurt like hell everyday when I get home and I AM STILL loving it. My daughter on the other hand, has been unable to work for the last 5 months. This loss of her income is truly pushing us to the limit. A few years ago she and my grand daughter were in a car accident that left her truly hurt. She had some surgery and while has had certain problems since was doing well. Last year she started having a problem with her hands, they would be very swollen in the morning and hurt badly but she functioned. The last few months though it has gotten so bad, she cannot use her hands for a good part of the day. When she wakes they are swollen 4 times there normal size, (the right is worse than the left and she is right handed). She can not grasp anything, can not hold anything. I have to make her a cup of coffee, wrap her hands around the cup and hold her hands while she gets it to her mouth. She cannot hold a pencil so any paperwork for the kids school has to be taken care of the night before. By later in the day, the swelling starts to go down and she can do a bit more but not much, she is even afraid of going to the grocery store, grabbing an item off the shelf, she drops it because she cannot maintain her grasp. Can you imagine if she needs something in a glass jar? Now she is having pain and numbness in her feet. Our dr. just finished a big series of blood work trying to eliminate anything like R.A. etc. The blood work all came up fine and he started gathering some names of neurologists for her to see but they were all out of the area. Now, yesterday the dr. office called her and said they have to see her. She has an appointment tomorrow and I pray they have some information. In the meantime, besides the fact that we only have my small income for all the bills, and anything the kids need and food, I am trying to take care of things at home besides just dealing with the physical aftermath of my part time job. It's really tough and taking it's toll.

So I have decided so far.......My disability check pays my rent. My part time work check has to be split each week between the electricity and cable on a weekly basis to keep us on an even keel and I need to find another source of selling my own work. That needs to get better to take care of food and the little things that we always need with children in the house. I am thinking on different way's of doing this and I will come up with some answers soon. I will keep you posted as the ideas come along because your feedback is important to me. I thank you for allowing me to get all this out, that helps, it's kind of like thinking out loud.

Update

Hi everyone, hope your Thanksgiving weekend was wonderful and everyone is getting ready for the rest of the upcoming holiday season. I am writing today, simply to let you know that I will not be posting much for the next few weeks. My internet/phone/cable has been shut off again and the plain and simple fact is that I am way to tired to fight everything anymore. I am tired of the more I do to take care of myself and my family the more that gets taken away. So, I for a few weeks have to just sit back and rethink what it is I have to do to get by. Work on just paying the basic's and feed my grandkids, stop putting money into my Etsy shop for no return, not to mention the hours and hours of time I was wasting promoting my shops and staying out there. Right now I will just do my job and as I say , take care of the basics, spend my time at home working on new jewelry items, do what I can to be okay with once again, not having much to offer my family for christmas. AFter a few weeks of just accepting that I can not do it all, I will work on getting my ducks in a row and keep moving forward. When I am able to post, it will be from the local library where I am right now, I am lucky to be able to come almost everyday to check my email and check on my shops. But , I will be back before you know it. I will find a way to pull above all this crap just because I alway's do. I know I am strong enough, I have lost alot in my life and it hasn't stopped me yet. So, now I have once again bared my soul, don't lose faith in me while I work this out. I will be checking up on all of your blogs during my visit's to the library. Have a good day, blessing's to you and yours.
Debsparkles

Please say a prayer

I posted about my cousin Amy amonth or so ago. We have known for a while Amy would be deployed soon for her 2nd tour of duty in Iraq. This picture of her is with her husband Todd. They met during Amy's 1st tour in Iraq and were married after finishing that tour. We were all very happy she has been away training and just got a pass to spend just a couple of day's home with Todd for Thanksgiving. Went back to training yesterday and my Aunt just now found out that Amy is being deployed in 24 hours.
She is good at her job, she is to be proud of. I thankful that she and Todd were able to be together for Thanksgiving. Now I pray that she is watched over and kept safe while she once more does service for our country. I pray that God helps my Aunt and Uncle stay strong and have faith. We love you Amy, our thoughts and prayers are alway's with you till you return home to us again.

Oops

The last post should have ended...."I hope you are too" can't think or type:)

Saturday Check in.

Just stopping by to see how everyone's Holiday sale is going. I don't know about you but I am beat. I have since Thanksgiving night been at the computer, promoting, visiting forums, listing new products. Way, way too many hours sitting here so my back is screaming in this chair, my carpal tunnel is out of control, so today, I am going to try to list something new on and off I cannot sit here and do this all day. I did have 3 sales yesterday. That is not great in the fact that the sale price means no profit but it is fantastic in that they were new buyers for me. As I have said before usually when someone buys' once they return because I am proud of the quality of my work and it does give me return buyers. So, once this sale is over Monday night and I put my prices back where they belong, keep in mind I try to keep prices very reasonable all year. In my mind it is necessary. Financially things are tough for many, many people and I don't see it getting better soon. Businesses are still tightening their belts, people are still losing their jobs, I think this the way it will be for along time so in order to keep people shopping we have to be realistic. Just my way of thinking. People with the extra money ,well, God bless them, but we will see less and less for a time. Any way, this was supposed to end on a happy note so , I am happy with my weekend so far and you are too!

I'm Ready!

For 2 day's straight now, when I am not at work but working at home I have been in my Etsy shop. I have been adding tags for the sale, I have been chiming in on the forums in the small chance a buyer will spot me and peak at my shop, tonight I went through every item and marked it down to the price after the 25% off that will be my sale. At first I was just going have people wait until I invoiced them with the mark down but then decided I had better invest the time in the changes so I don't have to pay Etsy money I am not getting on my normal prices. I wanted it all done by tonight because tomorrow. ...Well of course tomorrow is Thanksgiving but this year it will be a very quiet one in my house so I have alot of time to work on the sale . What I choose to do is alot of photo's of the stuff I still have waiting to list and start listing every couple of hours and continue to list over the course of the next few day's every few hours, one item at a time. While so far in 2 1/2 years on Etsy I have never had any luck with the different sales but I am determined to work as hard as I can to make Black Friday weekend work for me. I am counting on it to give my grandkids some Christmas and I insist on being optimistic and am telling myself that this is going to be the year shoppers notice me! Any way, I hope everyone has success this weekend and if I don't make it back here tomorrow let me extend this to you tonight.

Happy Thanksgiving and many blessings for you and yours. Debbie

I'm working

I am having the best Saturday. I have the day off from work and after sleeping in I decided today was a good day to spend in my studio and work on ornaments. I want alot available this year, they are inexpensive and pretty. But the are a really involved process, after stamping my felt, I have a bit of painting to do before I start sequining. So today I have painted Santa's faces, I have painted and glittered the belly's on my Dragons,Dragonfly's and Sea Horses, and glued my little acrylic rhinestone ornaments on my christmas trees, I have done a lot more of each than I have in the picture, just didn't think you needed to see 30 of each thing, now waiting for something to be dry enough to start stitching my sequins. After that each one needs another felt backing. That is actually what makes the ornaments strong. It binds and hides the stitches and the glueing of it stiffens the ornament up quite nicely. I know they last a long time because I have them all over my tree from when I started making them many, many years ago. Yeah for an enjoyable, productive day!

Blessings

Something happened today at work, just a little thing but I was so struck by the kindness I just had to find a place to express it and what better place than here. The cafe I work at is a bit different. We don't depend on tips because we don't wait tables or serve customer food at the table, they come in or call ahead, pick up their food and leave or grab a table and eat. With the exception of delivery. We service alot of area business at lunch time and deliver. Of course the delivery drivers do make decent tips because they are using their car and gas and out there dealing with the traffic, the payment , etc. Any way, those of us that just make the food, we have a common tip jar at the cash register which some customers will add too but most don't.
We split this jar at the end of the shift with whoever is working that shift and quite often you may go home with a buck from tips but that's just how it is. Any way, one of my co workers does alot of the food work but also delivers during our busy lunch times. Today, after lunch deliveries were finished he came up and handed me $5.00. I looked at him and asked, what's that for?
He said because ________office gave me a great tip and I am sharing it with everybody.
Wow, how nice, that was not something he had to do, his tips are his tips and we would never have any clue how much he made in tips.
So the reason I had to post this is: How blessed are we that we still have people in this world to share something with another for no reason but Kindness! I for one so appreciate that this still happens it helps me continue to have faith in all of us.
Thanks for letting me share.

New Tonight

I have been rather quiet the last few days. I do go through times when the pain is so bad that I just don't accomplish much. Now that I am back to working a normal job, I have to hide the fact that I am in pain until I get home so accomplish even less because I am exhausted from pretending I am up and feeling good. I don't mind though, it is good for me! But I have been on a mission to list a new item in Etsy each night, have been concentrating on getting my sequined ornaments in there because the season is so short but tonight I listed this bag, this was rather inexpensive to make, great for a teenager in case they lose it or break it but mainly I wanted to get it up because it is red. Bright , Cheery, Christmas red. I am now feeling like it is time to get the Christmas spirit, my daughter is wanting to put her outside lights up , so yeah, it's time :)

Need your help

Today's post is a very obvious self promotion but I need to ask you for your help. Everybody knows I sell Avon. I have a handful of customers that I service in person, not alot because I just am not able to get out there often enough. I also have an online store. So here is the thing, I have to pay to have this online presence and so far, it has cost me monthly for little return. I opened it thinking, everyone does so much online it would be really conveniant to have a build a good customer base. But so far, I do not get the traffic to make it worth while and am taking the opportunity to push it and build it for Christmas or in January cancel it and cancelling is not what I want to do. Let me ask you a couple questions....
Do you like Avon products but don't have a reliable rep in your area?
Do you have friends that have this problem?
Do you enjoy online shopping?

If you answer yes to any of those questions. Shopping my online store is very easy. When you go to my website, Browse around a bit. Then register as my customer. You can then click on shop now, then click on shop brochure, it will put your choices in your shopping cart, when you finish shopping it will ask you to register if you didn't do that before shopping, then it will ask you if you want personal delivery or direct delivery. Choose direct Delivery. It will then ask for payment and after payment verify your shipping info. In less than 10 day's your order is in your mailbox. Easy!

Of course right now, Avon has a lot of gift ideas' and special sales to take care of alot of the people on your Holiday shopping list. I would love it if you either became a customer of mine or shared my website with friends that may want to become my customer. Thank you for thinking about it and letting me self promote my Avon, which is something I don't normally do here.
www.youravon.com/deborahreynolds.

One more and I'm done

Okay I promised myself I would get some work done tonight but I had to show you the necklace I posted in my Etsy shop tonight. Now I am going to turn off my computer and get something accomplished while I watch some Scyfy and bead. See you tomorrow.

Giving Thanks, a reflection

I now spend alot of time on facebook. Somehow, my whole family and alot of my friends have gravitated there and we have all found it the easiest way to check up on each other, say hi, say I love you. Some how so much easier than phone calls and letters which we seem to neglect just living our daily lives.

A few day's ago someone started this new thing, each day name something you are thankful for and do it each day through Thanksgiving, and try to get everyone else to do it to. Not only do I enjoy doing it, I enjoy reading others.
As I was reading this morning it really, really struck me how much I do have to be thankful for.
Then in response to some emails, I directed some people to the first 3 posts I made when I started this blog last May rather than tell my story over and over. Then it hit me,
Wow, look how far I have come in the last 6 months.

After going through the years of financial and emotional devastation from my illness, I have done everything I am not supposed to be able to do. Just because I decided everyone else was wrong and I would find a way to regain ME.
So I want to declare my gratefullness and my thanks for all these things in my life.
Of course I am thankful for my family, my wonderful loving mom, dad, sister and brothers, Aunts and Uncles and cousins and most especially for the children and grandchildren that are are part of my life every single day. They have been there for me, supported me at my worst times, and still try to protect me and keep me in line.

I am grateful and thankful for the many friends I have made on the computer because I pushed myself to learn how to do it. I have "met" people all over the world and have been able to share things with you.

I am grateful to be stubborn enough to get my hands to work again so that I can create all these little things I put up in my shops, whether they sell or not I have been given a reason to push myself to keep working on it and showing it and wanting to make more of them and I am so truly grateful that, regardless of the physical pain to do so, I WANT to keep making things, so I am still winning over the physical side of me.

I am grateful for now being able to say that I get up and go to work everyday. I am thankful for having met Chris and Mike, the owners of Legends Cafe, for being willing to give me a chance at working again. I won't lie, it is not easy for me. I am in alot of pain when my day ends but the absolute emotional fullfilment far outway's the physical pain that I can and will deal with that pain and I win! I am thankful to have met new friends in my co-workers, most of them younger than my oldest child who have accepted me and befriended me, and put Joy in my day.
I am thankful to be able to say without reservation That I love my job.
Regardless of what I do without I can honestly that I am trying my best and I am thankful that I can honestly say that.

I am thankful for that stubborn streak that has gotten me from the mess I was just a while ago to the person I am now. It would have been so easy to allow this illness to take over and keep me in that recliner but that stubborn streak say's no , we are not having it, and guess what?
I win! I am happy, I am busy, My God and my Angels have helped me stay me and come out on top.

Is this everything? No truly not, but it is a good start and I will continue to find reasons to be thankful every morning when I wake up, get out of bed and attempt to do something.

Thank you for listening!

Here it is!!!

It is finally done and I am so excited about it. I love to push the envelope in my work sometimes but I really pushed it hard with this one. It is huge! The bag itself is 3 1/2 x 3 3/4. The fringe at the longest point hangs 9". I tried making the neckchain shorter at 24" with a clasp to compensate for the large size of the bag but it is still a really big bag. Yup , beaded wall art. But I could be wrong. I went to the very first meeting tonight of a Jewelry makers group formed by a fellow Etsian that happens to live in my town. I was very excited. My first social event away from my computer (with real people in the same room as me!) in a very long time. Any way , I hauled this with me to get some feedback on the size of this and was told that some one out there would absolutely buy this to wear for the "extra bling factor" So I am on the fence but I will try putting up for sale first as jewelry and maybe change it up a bit with hummm maybe "wearable art" or Beadwoven wall art" we shall see, anyway, as happy as I am with this it will be a very long time before I take my sizes this far again. I will keep you posted on what happens with it.
Have a great night...or day depending on where you are.
Debsparkles

I can't wait any longer

I have been beading this fringe for hours and it is not going to be finished tonight. I had to show you though how it is coming out with the fringing and it is truly the largest peice of work I have ever undertaken. Definately beaded wall art. I can't picture any one being willing or able to wear a necklace this big but it is soooo much fun to create it. I learn something with each new design on I do. Lesson here: the bag is too big so the rest of it will be hugh!!!
Any way, that is the last in progress picture I take, next will be the finished bag.

Happy Monday

I had the day off today which is really unusual but so far, have used my time well. Lot's to do yet but I was able to get some new listings up in Etsy and, well I am working like crazy, I finally got my desk cleaned up enough of the little odds and ends that I am back to work on the butterfly bag. I so want to finish it. I want to list it in Ebay before sending it to one of my shops but I am wondering, It is such a big bag, would someone be able to wear it comfortably or should I label it as "Beaded Art" rather than jewelry. hmmmm, I will try to put up a picture later on tonight and show you what little bit of progress I have made.

A Post-Halloween Giggle

Okay so they do celebrate Halloween in the UAE. I couldn't resist putting this picture of my sister and brother in law up. Who say's we are too old to have fun? They will never get old.

Etsy Black Friday

I must take a few minutes each day to wander through the Etsy forums. I don't actively post alot, have to much to learn myself to be of much help to any one else. Any way that's besides the point. This morning I saw a thread about having a Black Friday sale and this was the first time I had seen anything. So, right now I think I will take advantage of any promotion that is going on to draw some attention to my shop and decided I will join in. I am working on getting more stocking stuffer items in the shop (bookmarks and keyrings mostly) But I have decided that I am going to do a weekend deal, starting Black Friday through The weekend I will offer 25% off any purchase in my shop. This means no profit but right now I am really focused on getting people to notice my shop and I have found those that buy from me, realize that my work is so much better than my pictures (I have tried everything , I suck at photography ) they become repeat customers. So if I can get them in there once there is a good chance they will come back.
So Black Friday sale here we come, are you thinking about doing it?

A question for you.

Happy Friday everyone. Tonight is the first of a few posts concerning feedback and advice on some ideas. I am starting a major brain storming session. Sitting here tonight actually realizing how close we are to Christmas, thinking about finances. I am alway's in a financial crisis. Actually pretty used to it since I have been going through it for the last 30 years as a single parent. I do ok. I deal with the ups and downs of trying to keep the bills paid for basic living expenses. I am not a materialistic person, never really wanted much (except more beads!)
have alway's been a very creative person figuring out a way to deal with most shortcoming's to as they say "deal with the hand I'm dealt. My one down fall is Christmas. Right now, as you know, I have my 2 grandchildren with me, my daughter and I have worked together to keep things afloat, right now though , she is going through some serious medical issues and can't work until some testing she is having done have results and our MD finds the right specialist for her to see. So, I need to come up with ideas to kick start my creative money making skills to make sure my grandchildren have Christmas. I am not talking expensive, extravagant , unecessary gifting. I am just talking, a few things they want under the tree, the extra money to spend on food items to bake cookies and make a gingerbread house. You know the little things that make it Christmas.
So, here goes with tonights brainstorm:

I want to hold a open house/Holiday boutique at home showcasing both my Avon and my Jewelry. I would want to have a lot of product of both kinds for cash and carry, not take orders because I would want to do it around the first week of December. Having the product is not a problem. Big order to Avon the week before and lot's and lot's of beading when I am at home.
My question is this......
A. I don't have any idea how to pull this off. I really do not know a lot of people that are local and might possibly attend, How could I advertise this to get people I don't know to possibly come. A flyer ad? Pretty little invitation's handed out to people we run into?
I know alot of people have done this event and I am looking to any of you that has some experiance to give me some ideas, advice, don'ts,
Please, any information you can share with me would be sooo appreciated. Either in my comments or my email. I know that some one is out there that can give me some good ideas.
Thank you, I will spend some time brainstorming for the next idea.
Hope you are blessed with a great weekend.
Deb

Thursday Accomplished!

I got out of work a bit early today and it was nice to get home and have a bit of time before supper time chores to finish another item to get listed in my Etsy shop. You can usually tell what season it is through my beadwork. This lip balm bag was woven out of my favorite brown seedbeads and the branch fringing, which I love to use for seasonal work reminds me of the limbs on the trees outside. They are basically naked at this point with the leaves in piles on the ground. Any way, got this up in Etsy tonight and now have one more bag on my table to finish up quickly before I go back to my Butterfly bag. I have to finish up the little odds and ends first because once I start the fringing on the Butterfly bag I need to focus in on it til done. Hope you are having a great week!
Deb

Legends

I thought it would be fun to share this. This is where I work, Legends Cafe in Saratoga Springs, New York. A casual fun place to eat with sandwiches and salads named after Sports Stars and Movie Stars and in my opinion a really fun place to work. This add appeared in one of our community papers this week and I think it is a really nice add!

Among the missing

Hi folks, yes I have been missing since October 27th when my cable company who has absolutely no sense of humor shut off my cable/internet/phone. But I won, payed something on my bill and I am back. But I have not been slacking! Doing alot of work to get put up in my shops. I do have to do something when I can't play on the internet! I am going to get motivated to start doing alot of posting of new items in my shop for the upcoming holiday's. Tomorrow I get to go buy some beads to finish my butterfly bag. That will make me very happy. When I got on the computer tonight for the first time in over a week, I had an email from a friend/customer/fellow Etsian. DZ Fantasy, I don't know if you have ever read Donna's blog but I think she does a great job and features many, many great Etsy shops. This week she started a post for Holiday shopping featuring a great bunch of shops and I was pleased to find she had included me. I just love her! Any way, if you haven't had a chance yet please go visit Donna's blog, she does a super job of showing alot of shops:

fttp://dzfantasy.blogspot.com

Well as I said, I have been keeping very busy, also working alot of hours at the cafe, one of the things we accomplished at home this week was tree removal. I have (had) a huge tree at one of the back corners of my house. It has some kind of nuts, remind of chestnuts but I have not been able to find out what they are, every fall it rains nuts and casings all over the back yard, you hear them pounding the roof as they fall and clean up takes forever. Have been having a problem with a really bad leak in my roof. I replaced part of the roof 2 years ago and it did not help, come to find out this tree had gotten so big the roots were getting down under the foundation and un leveling my house. So the tree had to go. Lucky for me, my son works for a home painting and restoration company and he likes big toys so at the top of this post you see him moving his toys after taking the tree down.

I will have a few post's coming up over the next few day's so for now I will say good night. I am so happy to be back!

Not enough Time

So Sorry I haven't been keeping up, I am working way too much and just not getting anything accomplished other than sleeping, washing the dishes and going back and forth to work. But tonight I got a bit of a break, only had to work until 2 because I did a double shift yesterday so I was able to get some pictures done, Posted this red Lip balm bag and a few other things in my Zibbet shop, after my visit here I am going to try to get a few items listed on my Etsy shop.
My butterfly bag is still sitting on my work space because I still haven't had time to go buy the accent beads I need to finish it, that's aggravating because I really want to finish it up. The good news is my camera has brand new batteries and if the sun will come out just a little bit tomorrow I want to get a picture of my daughters halloween decorating before I go to work. I have a lot I want to do, how much will actually get done? I'm not making any promises.
I want to spend some time while I am in Etsy tonight to shop surf, I have been doing that when ever I can , hearting shops that I find gifts I can buy for Christmas, I have a problem though, When I look at all the shops I find I have an awful lot of handmade soap shops. I love soap!
Problem is there only a few people on my list that I can get it for. I guess I just have to start making more tips at work so I can start buying all kinds of it for me :)
Have a wonderful week and happy creating!

Friday Night

Hey everyone, hope you have all had a great week. I haven't got any pictures to put up tonight, my camera batteries died. Thats to bad cause I could have had some fun. My daughter created a witch crashing into one of the posts on my front porch for a Halloween decorations. It's really cute, hopefully I will get a picture of that before the weather ruins it.
Tonight, well I am still laughing. We needed a snack and my daughter decided to bake. I do not have an electric mixer and manage just fine without it. Well she did not want to stir batter by hand. Let me back up a minute, earlier, she had said to me, mom, I have an idea and it doesn't involve power tools. ( My daughter is always coming up with a project for around the house and has her own set of tools) I want to bake.
Any way she found some recipes that we had all the ingrediants for and started making apple muffins. All of the sudden I hear something electric going in the kitchen so I have to go downstairs to investigate. I kid you not, she hooked a kitchen whisk to her power drill and was mixing muffin batter. I laughed so hard, I would have given my right arm to get that picture and there isn't a usable battery in the house.

On to other things, I am pretty tired tonight, my work schedule has been flipping all over the place because we had someone quit and walk out this week so my boss is trying to cover that gape in the schedule. I have to admit I find it really difficult to always having my schedule flip from dayshift one day to night shift the next then back to days. I can't get into any kind of routine because of the daily schedule changes so it kind of interferes with everything else I am trying to do. My butterfly bag is at a standstill until I can buy the beads I need for my fringing but I am almost done with a red lip balm bag, maybe tomorrow night I will finish it. Have an idea in my head for a choker I am going to try to use one of the black clay roses I made a while back. I am hoping as soon as Halloween is over I can start posting new items especially in my Etsy shop at least every other day, I would love to see some sales start soon.
I think that's about it, I really need to get to bed but wanted to post here before I get into the weekend schedule. Maybe I will make enough tips tomorrow to get batteries. In the mean time have a great weekend!

More progress

I had the day off today and was still feeling a bit out of sorts. When I have these day's I find the best thing to do is throw myself into what ever beading project I am doing so I got tons of stuff done on this today. They don't call me debsparkles for nothing, I love sparkle and bling and now my butterfly is full of it. I always have just little ends of left overs from one project or another so I use them up by decorating my main projects to get that necessary sparkle. This butterfly is now full of fire polish czech glass beads, a little handful of 3 mm swarovski crystals, some rose quartz and some plain faceted glass not to mention 2 green beads, origin unknown in my wings. Now I really need to get to a bead store because I need more pink and green to incorporate in my fringe and neckchain.

Working tomorrow and Thursday so probably won't get far until Friday with more work.

As a side note, I follow hundreds of blogs just because I enjoy them. If you are following me and I am not following you please send a comment here. I haven't quite figured out how to see if I am following all my followers. Whew say that 3 times fast!

Let's talk Holiday's

Bet your wondering what this butterfly has to do with Holiday's.....Not a darn thing, just wanted to show you what I am working on right now. This bag has a long way to go because it is on the big side, has alot of detail work and need to go shopping to find fringe accent beads to knock your socks off.

Now, I have been spending some time thinking about what I want to do to keep my shops alive on my limited time and make some holiday sales. I know that I recently said that I just really wanted to concentrate on what I like to I think that come the holiday season we have to stock lots of affordable , easy gifting idea type items. I especially think this is true this year. While people are tightening their belts alot, have been for a while, they will still shop for Christmas. They will just be a little choosier on what they are buying at what prices. So for myself, while I will alway's have an amulet bag or intricite cuff or choker in the works, I will try to really put alot of the little items, bookmarks, keyrings, ornaments, in my shops through the next two months.

What are your thoughts on making your shop super appealing for the holiday season?

My house is coooold!

In one weeks time my house has gone from being a little cool but comfortable at night to needing to turn on the furnace and all the critters are protesting. This Milo our cat. My grandaughter went away this weekend and when she packs for a weekend she has to empty her closet and drawers and throw everything on the bed.. Milo appreciated it alot, got in the middle and cuddled down. He usually prefers to be outside prowling at night. Guess he has decided to come in and stay warm and do his prowling during the day.

My bed was made this morning, tonight Morgan climbed up and walked around in circles and with his nose pushed all my blankets, sheets and pillows into a mound then crawled into the middle of it to nap. Now I have to fight to get her off of it so I can remake my bed so I can get in it.

Bailey was curled up in a blanket on the couch until I came out with the camera. He is a really , really smart dog and when he see's the camera he has to pose. This is one of his "aren't I sexy" poses just for the camera!

Alex can't find a way to keep himself warm unless he curls up with Morgan. Usually he is at my feet just the way he is now barking for me to put him in my lap. I find it difficult to work with him in my lap all the time. When I go to bed he will curl right up against me as tight as he can and stay there til my alarm goes off in the morning.

My granddaughters mouse is named cream. Don't ask me why but Cream seems to be having no problems with the colder temps. His house is very comfy with lots of ways to make blankets.

Bye Bye Twitter

I have had a really crappy few day's. I have lost alot of time from work because I have been really sick and medicated to the hilt. My paycheck this week was really short when I really needed a full weeks pay but went to cash it , on the way home, took a hell of a fall. I do have problems with my balance from my disabilities and was not being careful, hit a patch of uneven sidewalk and went crashing down on my knees and a wrist that I used to protect my head from hitting so now I look like I have been totally worked over with a 2x4. Fortunately I am on a 2 day off schedule to stay quiet and work at reducing the swelling in the knees and wrist before work tomorrow. But today was one of those days that I felt no choice but to do something I did not want to do and plain and simple It pissed me off.
I love twitter. I use it daily, I promote, I show pictures of my work and I just like to sit and read other peoples stuff and interact. I will never say it is something I needed for my business because it has been worthless as far as that goes. It was just fun. Anyway....... I stupidly clicked on a dm this morning. It looked legit because the sender was someone I have interacted with many times. It brought up a twitter page telling me I wasn't signed in. I knew I was because I was there checking my messages but thought I had been kicked off somehow and resigned in.
Bottom line it was a phishing attempt in I fell right into the trap. Well I know enough now, when something like that happens to go in and change my passwords, so I did. Then signed out to go on to other things. Later, I went to sign in to Twitter and It told me I was using the wrong password, now mind you I used the new one that I changed to so I went back in and signed in with my old password and it let me in. So at this point I am thinking for some reason it did not go through when I made the change even though it told me it did so I went and tried to change it again . It told me I was using the wrong one. So I went back and forth for a while between passwords trying to see which one they would accept and no matter what I did it told me I was using the wrong thing. So I gave up and thought about it for a while. Since I could not find a way to get help, I don't feel like it was worth being involved in any kind of phishing scam or spam or having anyone trying to get into any of my other stuff, I ended up deleting my account. Not happy about it but felt like I had no choice so just really mad tonight!

A Project!

Good morning everyone, I am super excited about a new project. Last night after I got home from work, I was just relaxing and drinking a cup of coffee while I surfed around a bit. I ran into some information that truly got me going. The Holocaust Museum in Houston is working on an Exhibit to be unveiled in the Spring of 2012. They are creating an exhibit of over 1.5 million hand made butterflies to represent the children lost in the holocaust.

Can you imagine? They are looking for donations of hand crafted butterflies in just about any medium , preferably 2 dimensional. You have to know, to someone like me who loves a reason to make butterflies that is all it takes to get the creative juices flowing!

I know it may sound crazy for me to want to do this what with me being so over loaded right now between work and my shops and Avon and home but this is a challenge I must be involved in. So, the deadline to turn in your donation is November of 2011 , I am going to put my odd seedbeads and rainbow of sequins to great use. I don't know how many I can do but having a full year to do it, I should be able to ship off a nice sized box of butterflies. Sorry, I am truly excited by this challenge. If you would like to read about the museum the website is:

http://www.hmh.org/

A tour of my Studio

I have been really sick this past week. I have only been to work 3 times in the last seven day's and as lousy as I feel I am pushing myself to get some work done in the studio. I spent some time today trying to think of a subject to blog about because I have neglected it badly this week. While I was thinking I was browsing, I love looking at the pictures of people's studio's. So I decided to be very very brave and give you a tour of mine except for the corner where my bed is because my dogs make it a horrible mess every day! This first picture is at my desk directly in front of me, of course you can see I am starting my own Drugstore trying to beat this mess and right in front is the project I am working on today. I wanted to make a large bag. I am using a large paper towel tube from work to bead on to give the work some support. I like bringing them home from work because they are much thicker and stronger than what we get at home. I don't have this bag completely thought out yet, just know I wanted to make it large so need to spend some time thinking about how I want to decorate it. So lets move around the room a bit, although I keep trying to re arrange it to make it easier to access the things I use the most keep in mind this is the attic in my house with sloping ceilings and decorating possibilities are very limited as is floor space.

The left half of my desk with a container with brown beads and a half done amulet bag, behind that a container of sequins and some half done ornaments.

This is the corner I sit in and make magic, of course I had just pulled the pillow case off of my old back pillow before I decided to take these pictures so just ignore that please!

This corner holds my beads, sequins and beading equipment both the same picture, one with flash and one without.

The corner that holds all the odds and ends I don't know what to do with!

Who knew

Just getting ready to go to bed when I got this and had to share adding to the Debbie's family saga. This is my brother in law James. Married to my sister who swims with camels'. I know Halloween can be great fun but........Do they have Halloween in DuBai? At least he won't get cold in his out fit.

Their Back

Hi everyone. Today's post is just a kind of catch up the week visit. First of all, the cold weather is starting to hit here in Upstate New York. That means it is time to start adding my sequined ornaments back into my shop. I chose this picture since it is Breast Cancer awareness month but little by little I will add all my different designs in because the Holiday season is the time that I truly sell these. I probably should devote a bit more time to creating some new patterns and stuff, jewelry sales have gotten slower and slower. Any way make sure and take a peak every once in a while into my Etsy shop. I don't think I will bother adding them to Zibbet. Course, I have been slowly adding to my Zibbet shop for a few months now and not had any sales. With my time more limited now I am wondering if the Zibbet shop is worth it but it costs me nothing but time unless I make a sale so we shall see.

This week my grandson brought me home my first school year cold. I woke up yesterday with my throat so sore I could not talk, swollen glands, both my ears hurt. I went to work any way since I was not coughing and my nose wasn't running. Just made it through my shift. Today my nose is running, terrible pain through my face in my sinuses and the cough is starting. My boss actually called me this morning and told me to take the day off today to get some rest because she knew I was struggling yesterday and really needed me tomorrow. That was super nice. I don't think I have ever had a boss who cared that I didn't feel good. They all wanted me there working even if I was dying so this was a pleasant surprise so I did stay home from work and trying to get some extra rest. I hope I can get the runny nose under control before work tomorrow, it is difficult because I have severe high blood pressure and the the medication I take to control it does not deal with cold medications even the ones that are supposed to be ok to take with HB meds.

My job: I still love it. I will be very honest. Physically it has turned into quite a challenge, I am able to stay strong while I am working and I am slowly but steadily getting better at my job, but once I am home I am just wiped out and in a lot of pain. It is interfering with all my other activities. I am making very slow progress with my shops, getting little jewelry made, just to tired and not motivated. I still have hope that this will get easier as I go along, it has only been a month since I started working after being home for 5 years. Emotionally this job is doing wonders for me. I feel confident that after a while I will be able to get my household expenses under control again and if nothing else know I won't be homeless at any given time. I enjoy being out in public again, learning a new skill and I work with some very awesome people. The whole crew is a lot younger than I am but that's okay with me!

So, now that we are caught up again, it is getting dark out, I have a few dishes to do then going to just sit and work quitely in my studio just a little bit then try to lay back down with a little prayer that my nose gives me a break tonight and tomorrow. Hope you have all had a great weekend.

Meet Amy

Yes, I am still on my family kick and today I would love you to meet my cousin Amy. I am so very proud of her. She is in the Army and has already done a tour in Iraq. She is now getting ready for her second deployment. This picture was taken during what is called predeployment training. On a romantic note for just a minute, she met her husband during her first tour in Iraq, I was able to go to her wedding and it was great!

Any way, I give her mom, my aunt, alot of credit for being strong about Amy's career choices but beleive she along with all our service people deserve a world of thank you's, I love you's and prayers for their safety while they do what many of us could not for the rest of us. Please keep Amy along with every other man and woman in the Armed forces in your prayers.

Playtime

This weekend I lucked out and had Friday and Saturday off from work. My daughter who is in a strange mood was home and we spent Friday night playing with my craft supplies. When my kids were growing up probably from the time they could sit in the highchair and not eat what I gave them to play with, I taught them to craft. It has always been a family affair and I have done the same with my grandchildren. But the times when my daughter and I sit down and play together are very few and far between now. Any way, we pulled out the wood scraps, the polymer clay, the acrylic paints, the glitter paints, all the fun stuff. While she got to work on making decorations for her son's room, my thought s turned to what I could make to go with the gothic jewelry line that I am struggling with. These black roses are what I came up with. They baked up very nicely without losing their shape, I shaded just the edges with a bit of silver glitter paint. Now I just need to give them a seal coat to shine them up and figure out how to incorporate them into a necklace.

Sunshine

I know it is the first day of fall but I am in love with the color of these seedbeads. I know I have spent to much time in blogger today but I am feeling like super woman and wanted to brag. My day's off from work are broken up, I work 2 or 3 days then have a day off then work another 2 or 3 and get my second day off so I try to fit a whole bunch of stuff in on that one day that I just don't feel like doing on a work day. I have to shamefully admit. I love my job but it is physically doing a number on me. When I woke up today, not only had I slept half the day away, my legs and feet were in some serious pain. My extra strenght tylenol did not touch it. Any way, after a few coffees and my different regular meds then another coffee and my tylenol I got busy. I delivered some new avon books, I went to the market, I washed several loads of dishes that got left for me. I cleaned and rearranged my studio/office/bedroom and then I finished this bag , got some pictures and got it posted in my Zibbet shop. Now it is almost midnight, need to get to bed but wanted to share. I know alot of my bags look very closely alike. The difference is the colors. I love trying different colors and stone combinations all the time. Tomorrow going to work on a few more keyrings for my custom order. Hope you all are having a great week and I am going to leave you alone for a day or two now.

My mind is an open book

Well as you can see by my need to post these pictures I really am missing my siblings. Seems funny to say that because we are all middle aged at this point but we are really still a fun bunch of people and I wish I had known growing up we would spend our adult years so far apart from each other on this planet. Most of the time all I have are my pictures and a hope that we get to see each other once or twice a year for many years to come.

Just one more

This is my sister in Dubai, you never know what you will find on the beach there! I can't even imagine.

My family continued

Well since I am exposing my family to the world here is a sneak peak of my other brother Dave, this is one of his more lighthearted moments that are few and far between. Just a very serious hardworking soul who gets little playtime. But when you add our few family gettogethers when someone can get back home and a little bit of alcohol you just don't know what will happen. In this instance he got bowled over by a 6 year old nephew!

Family Ties

Hi everyone, it is late Sunday night and I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend. I was sitting here thinking about my family, which I often do. I guess because my grandkids just got done fighting. Made me think about how bad my own kids used to fight, which made me think about how me, my sister and my brothers used to fight. Why is it we can't realize how important we are to each other until we are all grown up? This picture is my brother Scott. I miss him so very much. He moved to California when he joined the Marines 30 years ago and made his home there. I have a brother that lives locally here but I don't get to see him much but we are able to keep in touch. My sister, well I think I have told you my sister and her husband are currently living in the UAE or as she calls it the land of sand. She moves alot too because her husband just recently retired from the military. Any way back to Scott, he does try to come home for a visit once a year although it did not happen this summer. Any way the week he spends here is just not enough time to catch up with everyone so it is a really fleeting visit. We just recently had a bit of banter on face book after I looked at some pictures he posted, he is very into Cheetah car racing and such. Any way, I know him as a very strict, religous , father , husband such. I really don't know the fun loving side of him because hey he has been gone 30 years. He commented that it made him sad that we don't know him that well because of his absence. But you know, that is life, we all make choices, I personally give him credit for deciding to stay where he was happy but I miss him all the same. Course I miss my other brother who lives right here because I don't get to see him either. He is super busy with life.
I guess I am wandering away from the point of the post. That point is that I so love my family and miss spending time with all of them. I just wish we could have all foreseen that as teenagers trying to do each other bodily harm :)