A Sale!

So the thing I dreaded most has happened and I have to have myself removed from my home by March 1st.  So we are packing boxes like crazy so I can get a storage unit.  In the meantime I don't want to put all the jewelry in my Etsy shop in a storage but I will need to put the shop in Vacation mode for the Month of March.  So I decided to try to sell as much as I could so it's not sitting a box in a storage unit I am having a 1/2 price sale on everything that costs over $5.00 in the shop.  I changed all the prices last night and put an announcement on my front page.  Please, if you can, share this
http://www.etsy.com/shop/debsparkles

Gathering Ideas

Looking for some idea's today.  It seems like each time I update this blog it's because something lousy is going on and it bothers me.  But for those of you who have read my blog from day one, I did state that the contents would be my "everyday life".  No great advertising, no spending lot's of time window shopping to show you great items I find.  Just me and what's going on and the sad fact is , the one place I am comfortable doing a bit of venting is here.  Yes it is very public but in a way so much easier.  We don't personally know each other, not my family that I have to face everyday or someone I have somehow let run my life and tell me how wrong things are.  That being said, here we go.

I have been dealing with increasingly worse health problems for more years than I can count.  I think the moment that it became real is when I underwent the first brain surgery in 2004.  Then we did it again in 2005. Then we spent a few years trying to regain the use of my legs and hands so I can attempt to work.  I have tried several times over the last few years, starting strong at first then anywhere from 6 months to a year ending up having done nothing but worsen the disability I live with.  Right now I am waiting for a February appointment with a neurology team.  I have a pretty heavy duty case of Hydrocephilis.  An over abundance of excess spinal fluid filling the tumor's in my spine and backing up into spaces in my head around my brain.  I also have new growth on the tumor that was removed named Henry.  The mistake being , the last surgery I was not given radiation therapy after because it came out cleanly and easily and was supposed to be a done deal.  Well it's back with a vengeance.  This time no longer a free floating tumor but attached.  So that will be one more surgery and this time there is no question.  Radiation treatment is on the table.  It is probably I good thing I don't love my hair.
Add into this mix the non stop health problems with my daughter and my Granddaughter.  My granddaughter especially is sadly at 16 in the same condition as a 70 year old.  We can do very little for her chronic, lifelong illnesses other than help her learn how to control the worst of her pain through diet, possible excercise and the right attitude. 
The bottom line here is the financial mess.  I have been totally financially responsible for myself, daughter and both grandkids for several years and it would be pretty obvious to any one that the financial tole has been totally devastating.  I have lost everything.  I am now in the process of losing my home.  I have no where to go or no one to take me in.  No one to give me a huge financial loan.  But if you know me, you know I wouldn't want any one to give me that.  I was raised to find a way to provide for myself however possible.
So that is what I have done.  When able to work....I work.  When I cannot go out into the world for a normal job, I bead like crazy.  I have been running my Ebay and Etsy shops since 2007.  No miracles but enough to keep me trying. 
So once again, I am brainstorming.  How about mass selling of something that is very easy.. Like these friendship bracelets.  The teens and preteens wear them as much now as they did 20 years ago.  So then I spent some time thinking of how to sell them.  First I thought about selling wholesale lot's on Ebay.  I did put up and sell one lot.  A good idea but if I sell them for 1 or 2 dollars myself, I am looking at getting 25 cents each if I'm lucky selling them as lot's.  Then there is Etsy.  Well I do have some better ones listed on Etsy in sets of 2 but selling one bracelet at atime doesn't work.  Most people who would buy these are not going to open an Etsy account to buy a bracelet for her 12 year old.  No one is going to spend $3.00 shipping on a dollar bracelet.  Then I started to think,  years ago any magazine you picked up were full of adds.  Buy this or that or the other thing.  Send $1.00 along with your name and address to such and such address. I know they worked.  I often myself took advantages of those ads.  But we live in a different world now.  I could take out ad's in our little local weekly papers.  I could list it in my blog, I could twitter and facebook it.  What I can't do is put my address out there for the world full of not quite okay people to see. My daughter came up with the idea of renting a PO Box and it is a good idea.  But it cost's money that I don't have.  But I am thinking about it if I can come up with a few sales that would be enough to do it.  I need to think of something, I cannot lose my home.  Not that I am that attached to this particular home but I am not interested in a cardboard box behind some store downtown.;o)

So I am looking for any ideas how to do this.  Has anyone who normally sells through Etsy,Ebay,Zibbet etc. ever tried a different way of selling a large amount one product?   Any advice or idea's will be welcome and appreciated.  Post me a comment here or email me deb913@gmail.com.  

Winter, finally

I have been in bed sick since December 23rd.  Just now starting to get up little by little get back to normal.  If you can call this life normal.  I don't feel like I missed much over the Holiday time and now I am just taking things a day at a time waiting until February 13 to get back to finding out what we need to do to fix me again.  Way too many scenarios running through my head because let's face it, how many times can you have your head operated on before it does more harm than good.  I am so lucky to have my beadwork, it is the one thing that absorbs me to the point I can stop thinking about the lousy things for a bit.
I tried to post a picture but once again of all the choices to upload a pic they give you, coming from my documents is not there.  We finally got our first snowfall and it is just so pretty before the cars and plow trucks go through,  maybe it will work next post. 
Happy January

Change

I spent some time this weekend playing with ideas.  Trying to come up with way's to change up my work while staying true to what I love.  This flash drive holder came to mind.  I have made many of them as necklaces but then got to thinking, If I could turn it into a keychain how handy would that be?  I know college students and people who work with computers alway's have their flash drive with them.  My first attempt isn't perfect but I think I may have a good idea....I'll keep working on it.

Downtown

The middle of December and I am very sadly lacking in any kind of Christmas spirit.  I am the one who if nothing else dives into making ornaments and bakes cookies and makes silly things just for one.  Just not happening so far.  So heading out for my almost daily trip to the library, which seems to have become my "job" so I can stay in touch with the world, I decided to take my time walking downtown.  Saratoga Springs is a small community and one of the things that stand out is the main street in town is full with small, Independantly owned stores.  While we seem to accumulate a few chain stores we still have many, many privately owned places with unique products.  The point here though is that these store owners take great care dressing the store window's this time of year.  Each store, no matter what they sell has enough glitter and shine in the window to make even me happy.  What a great way to get inspired.  I find as I walk down the road, stopping to look at each window display , new idea's start making their way into my brain.  It was a good way to slow down and pull myself out of the dumps and I think when I get home I will have some new idea's to play with.,

Revisiting Favorites

I am finding that I am running out of new idea's of different designs.  Maybe it's burnout after 30 some years of weaving my beads into new ideas' but I'm thinking there is nothing wrong with remaking some that I loved when I first created them.  For alot of years I felt like I never wanted to make the same thing twice so every person who purchased or was gifted with my work had a one of a kind item.  Maybe just getting older is changing my point of view but either way, I love working on cuff's and this one was a favorite so I let myself make another.  Maybe I'm just at a temporary block and more new idea's will start flowing soon.  We shall see...

Thinking

One of the reasons I started my blog was to get down in writing what was in my head so I could move on.  Then I find that everytime things get rough I stop because I don't want these thoughts written.  It's seem's too much like whining.  But I am wrong.  Writing it down seem's to help me think things through and create goals to look forward to.  So, time to fess up on what's been going on and keep up while I make some progress.
Those of you who have been reading my blog from the very first entries know my whole illness story.  What I never seem to want to admit is that I am so stubborn that I cannot or could not accept certain things about my illness.  That is probably why each year I attempt again and again to work.  My parents worked hard and raised my siblings and I to work for whatever we wanted and needed in life.  I learned that lesson well from them so it has alway's seemed to me anything else was nothing more than looking for a hand out or whining poor me!  Not my style so... I have attempted 4 times over the last 4 years to return to work.  Each attempt has made me more sick and needing more surgery.  This last attempt needs to be my last because I worked hard, I had a goal of working full time and being responsible for myself and family.  Now of course I am looking at another surgery.  Won't have all the info until I see the Neuro in February but that's besides the point.  Every time I have to leave my job due to my disability I feel like a failure.  I feel like I have let alot of people down, I feel like a whiner.  I have realized that right now is the time to change how I view things.  I am not a failure.  I am a disabled person who tries hard to rise above it.  I am not a whiner.  I'm tougher than alot of people would be in my shoes.  Can I be responsible for myself?  That's a tough one.  A monthly disability check does not take care of basic necessities let alone responsibilities.  But can I deal?  Well I have to learn to.  What I have to learn is that the small check I get every month is not a hand out.  I worked 37 years for that.  So bottom line on me is that it is time to make an attitude adjustment.  I can not attempt work again and I have to learn to be okay with the person I am and being sick does not make me any less of the person I have alway's been.   There , I said it outloud in public so now I have to stick to what I say.

Now onto my Tori.  My beautiful, 16 year old granddaughter who has suffered with one illness after another since kindergarten.  Tori is in bed with Mono. Again.  Tori has had mono at least 1 or 2 times a year since kindergarten.  Going through another round of testing and labs the Dr.s have decided that the virus just never leaves her.  It lay's dormant in her blood stream until it's in the mood to flare up and make her sick.  Tori is going through CT's for the Sinus disease that seems to get worse every year.  She will be seeing her neuro as soon as she is better from the mono because they want all new CT"s on the spinal and neck deterioration.
This past month while in the process of all this blood testing, Tori was diagnosed with severe RA.  This was not a surprise to me.  I asked them to test her for it 3 years ago because her father was crippled by it in his early 20"s but I quess it's one of those things that can't be tested while a child is growing.  The day we were told this she just sat and cried , she kept saying I told you I wasn't crazy, I told you I really hurt.  And hurt she does.  This kid has lived for years with pain every single day of her life.  She has been told that she is a hypochondriac, she has been told she is depressed, she has been told she is overly dramatic (this all by Dr.s and Nurses.)  Nope this kid hurts like an 70 year old person and alway's will.  My heart breaks for her and there is little I can do.  I surely can't change it so with my new attitude adjustment what can I do?  Then I got it.  Back when we were told that Tori had Thyroid Cancer I created a special amulet bag and called it "For the Love of  Tori"  So it is time to get busy working and creating a whole line of these bags.  Sales would help me provide things for her, even if it's just a new movie because we have seen every one in the Public Library at least 5 times and not being able to get out of bed much is really boring.  It's an idea, a goal to work towards and it's being proactive about what we are dealing with and not feeling like I'm whining.

So I guess there is whole lot of stuff I have forgotten here but I'm getting the thought process down and feeling good about a way to move forward.  If I have to type it down here as I go along I will feel the need to be accountable and keep striving forward.  Thank you for that ;o)