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 :)