Rae Gun Ramblings

Link Party: What We Wore and Made Wednesdays #14

2012-02-14T18:01:00.000-07:00

Top and Jeans -Forever 21
Headband - ?
Jeans - Forever 21

shoes - Cents of Style
Necklace -My Grandma's design

Cords - Old Navy

Jem Tee - Thrifted

Cardigan - forever 21

Shoes - Jelly Pop

Ferris Wheel Necklace - Fat Cats on Etsy

Dress and Leggins -Forever 21
Sewing Machine charm - RJ Charms on Etsy

Shoes - Le Sport Sac
Headband - Made It
Cardigan - Charlotte Russe

Your turn, let me see your favorite fashion, crafty, helpful, or delicious posts.

Fine Print:

Please be a follower

I'd love you to add my button anywhere on your blog (I'm not picky)

Link as many as you want and I don't mind if they are older posts
Also I WILL NOT be sending reminder emails any longer. Hopefully the button or following will help you remember about the party.

Please Note: I will not be sending reminder emails about the party any longer. Hopefully having my button, following, subscribing or something else can serve as your reminder.

Recipes: Beginner's Green Smoothies

2012-02-14T00:02:00.002-07:00

So I finally took the plunge. After 3 years of thinking I'd like to try this whole green smoothie thing I just did it. Now I am NOT a health nut. I have a policy if I'm going to be eat it, it better be worth the calories. And mind you the "worth" I use is purely a function of taste -not nutritional health. Any ways I've been drawn to these green smoothies since my neighbor first told me about them back when we lived at the condos. I found a couple of combos that I really enjoy (I've been drinking them every morning). I'm someone who has to force herself to eat veggies and would eat bacon and cookies every morning so trust me when I say you can't taste the "green" in these.

Orange Wake Me Up Green Smoothie

2 handfuls spinach
3-4 slices frozen peaches
1/2 C frozen mango
1/2 C cantaloupe (optional)
coconut juice to desired consistency.

Strawberry Orange Breakfast

2 handfuls spinach
1 cup frozen strawberries
1/2 orange
orange juice to desired consistency

I put my bag of spinach in the freezer just so it last longer and I think it blends up easier but I did it once with fresh leaves and it was almost the same.

First blend spinach up. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Blend. If you want it thicker add 1-2 cubes of ice. If you want it thinner add more juice. I start with about 1/4 to 1/2 cup juice. I'm weird and don't like drinking thick stuff out of a straw so I prefer it thicker and I eat it with a spoon. (these make one glass)

If you've been thinking of trying green smoothies I think these are good ones to start with. Also I've got a ninja blender and I absolutely LOVE it. It blends things up like a charm and my favorite part is that it has 3 different sized chambers and the smallest is perfect for 1 smoothie. If you're a green smoothie pro I'd love to hear what some of your favorite combinations are.

Customer Appreciation Pic: Valentine's Baby

2012-02-13T00:06:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. Is it just me or is 2012 speeding along? I got this darling picture in my inbox last week and thought it was so much fun. What a darling set up right? How darling is this sweetheart in my little Classic Ruffler? You guys are all so creative I love seeing all these adorable photo shoots and cutie pies.

I still need to come up with a little something for the musicmaker (we usually do little nick nacks or cards) but I don't know what I'll do this year. I hope the rest of you are set for Valentine's day.

What's for Dinner: Week 115

2012-02-11T23:43:00.001-07:00

(Medditeranean Nachos from Cous Cous in Murray Utah)

This week I'm going to attempt to make a version of Lamb and Dried Plum stew over wild rice -but use beef since I'm cheap. You know the meal that Katniss LOVES in the Hunger Games? If you didn't already guess my friends and I will be having a Hunger Games Hype party to prepare for the coming movie. I plan on doing a virtual party here on the good old blog if you would like to be a part of it via guest posts, giveaway or possibly some other means let me other. If you're Hunger Games fans I hope you're ready to geek out with some themed crafts and cooking...in March that is. Hopefully the stew will be good but I'm starting early so I have time to figure it out with out you know having to eat similar stuff too many days in a row.

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	Pigs in a Blanket and Peas with almonds	Grains and nuts: granola bars Veggies: Spinach, Salad, Green Beans Fish: Tilapia
Monday	Left Over Soup and Rolls
Tuesday	Katniss Stew and Wild Rice
Wednesday	Fish Tacos
Thursday	Chicken Artichoke Sausage with Wilted Spinach and Mashed Potatoes
Friday	Eat Out
Saturday	Some Kind of Soup for Hunger Games Craft Day with the Girls

Tutorial: 10 Minute Cowl

2012-02-10T00:01:00.001-07:00

I am so in love with my cowl that I made last week. The best part is that it uses a small bit of fabric and is super duper fast to make. I actually whipped one up for a birthday party we decided to go to an hour before we left. I know I'll definitely be making more of these to come.

I love how comfy those basic shirts are but they look so blah but I think a cowl with a fun print is just as just the perfect little pop. Not only is it the solution to boring old solid tops but it's great when I'm just a little cold but a cardigan is a bit too warm. Oh plus it's technically reversible.

What You Need

1/4 yard outside fabric
1/4 yard inside fabric (I used fleece but I think flannel or just cotton would be great for a lighter one)

What To Do

Cut your pieces down to 9 inches by 30 inches
With right sides together sew the long sides of the fabric together making a tube.
Right side out the tube you have just made and iron.
Tuck the edges under of the on end and iron.
Tuck the other side into the ironed end to form the cowl shape. Sew down.

Etsy Tips: Working At Home with Kids AKA Juggling Kids and Etsy

2012-02-08T19:46:00.007-07:00

So I know that I said that I have no idea how my Etsy will work when I have kids of my own but that's not really true. I actually have a pretty good idea how I'll do it. While I don't know how every minute of my days will be chopped up since I haven't had kids full time, I do know a few things about how to get things done with kids around.

There were a few months that I took care of my baby niece while my sister worked. Now my nieces also come over all the time and hang out while I'm working (often while Mom or Grandma are running errands). I've also had a number of friends and helpers who have kids around while we work. All that is to say that I've learned some things about managing kids while getting my work done.

Let me first say, I am exceptionally good at multitasking. I know that's not the case for everyone. If you are someone that really needs to focus on one thing at a time you might do better with working while the kids sleep or look into having someone come to the house to watch the kids for a couple hours a week. I know many fellow shop owners who swear by this approach. But if you want to try to juggle here's a few tips from me and some of my fellow EtsyKids team members.

Set up your work space to work for you

The set up that works for me has me behind an open area where the kids can play. This way I can work while seeing everything that they are doing. I have the stuff they can’t get into out of reach or closed up in boxes and the stuff they can play with easy for them to access. I’ve got tubs of toys in my work room, an exersaucer and many kid movies. Little babies do great in car seats close, new crawlers get a barricade around an approved space (with tubs, boxes, etc.) and older kids have a variety of toys, craft stuff, etc to freely use. And of course there’s TV and movies. The Wiggles and Princess and the Frog are favorites here.

Have a plan, do the thinking while they're asleep

Do your planning and prep stuff while they are asleep. Even though I’m really good at multitasking its hard to think and juggle. Do you’re thinking when it’s quite that way you’ll have your list to consult when there are many competing voices. Bethany of Bethany's 5, mom of 5 (ages 5 to 12) says her schedule is very important. She works weekdays from 7am to 2pm. Starting her day with emails for her and cartoons for the littles. She makes herself a to do list with timeframes of when to complete things (I do this too). She leaves a lot of wiggle room to take care of the kids needs while working and if she doesn't meet a goal for the day she understands that the work will still be there for her tomorrow or after the kids are in bed for the night.

Take it outside when you can
You’ll probably be trapped inside a lot but if you do something portable take advantage. After a morning of cartoons and computer work, Bethany takes to the porch with her little ones where they can play and she can crochet. I've done pinning and hand sewing while the girls played in the yard.

Let Them Play with Your Crap

Make sure the stuff they can and cannot play with is clear and in place. It takes too much energy keeping them out of your good stuff and constantly taking things away. If there’s stuff that you use that it’s okay for them to play with let them. They will love it (and that’s less junk to clean up since it’s already out). The nieces particularly like fabric scraps, that cardboard that bolts of fabric are wrapped on, and my ruffles. When they get older give them little jobs to help (my nieces are just barely able to help sort and cut ruffles and they love it – you know for about 5 minutes). Tiffany of Cupcake Dream gets her little one involved whenever she can. She even lets her hold glue, pull out shapes and draw next to her.

Don’t try to just ignore them and or expect them to do their own thing
While some kids (if you’re lucky) might entertain themselves, my nieces rarely do that. And while they are getting better at that the older they get, if they are around I'm probably interacting with them. While I’m sewing I am always talking to them, telling them their drawings are pretty, giving them suggestions of fun things to do, getting kisses, giving kisses etc. Making faces at a cranky kids, singing silly songs, and talking to little ones while you're doing other things with your hands really goes a long way. I’m working but I’m also there for them.

Let your work do double duty when it can
Christine of Belly Bear Baby Gear often uses her kids as models. This lets her spend time with them while getting great pictures that do double duty: personal photo albums and etsy shop pics. When the girls were little I made many things for them that ended up in the shop. Now many of my creations, parties, etc. for them double as blog posts.

Be close and give yourself to them

Sometimes kids are just needy. If they need to be held a lot (or most waking hours like my niece did) slings come in mighty handy. Other times you might have to revert to just working with them on your lap. Yes this will probably slow things down but that’s just life and most kiddos probably won’t be this needy all the time. I have worked for many many hours with my niece in a sling or sitting on my lap. Other times you might just need to take a work break to be mommy (or aunty or grandma or whatever) but you are your own boss and you work from home so you can. This is where giving yourself generous turnaround times comes in really handy, a sentiment that Erin of Sweet Child of Mine Kids echos.

I hope this has been helpful I would love you to share your own tips with each other so please by all means comment with tips that you have found helpful. Different things work for different families so it's all about seeing what works for you.

For more of these etsy related posts see my "etsy life" category. And I'd love to hear if you guys have any questions or topics you'd like me to hit on.

Link Party: What We Wore and Made Wednesdays #13

2012-02-07T18:50:00.006-07:00

First some quick house keeping

I've got a cool giveaway open that I'd love for you to check out.
I'll be doing some fun Hunger Games stuff in March if you want to guest post or play in some way let me know. Yes I will have a special Hunger Games linky party as well
My sister FINALLY told me where that awesome Potter necklace from two weeks ago was from Bookish Charm. Sorry it took so long to get back to those of you who asked...it was all her fault :)
And as you've probably heard Google Friend Connect is going away soon so I'm hoping you all will update our connection by following with Linky Followers (see the widget to the right). If you're not familiar with Linky Followers see this post.

Top -Target
Cowl - Made It (I'll be sharing the tutorial Friday)
Jeans - Forever 21

shoes - Cents of Style
Necklace -My Grandma's design

Dress, Boots, Necklace - Target

Dress and Tights -Forever 21
Sewing Machine charm - RJ Charms on Etsy

Boots - Target

Your turn, let me see your favorite fashion, crafty, helpful, or delicious posts.

Fine Print:

Please be a follower

I'd love you to add my button anywhere on your blog (I'm not picky)

Link as many as you want and I don't mind if they are older posts
Also I WILL NOT be sending reminder emails any longer. Hopefully the button or following will help you remember about the party.

Please Note: I will not be sending reminder emails about the party any longer. Hopefully having my button, following, subscribing or something else can serve as your reminder.

Giveaway: 25$ at Sneakpeek

2012-02-07T01:32:00.002-07:00

Have you heard of sneakpeeq? Well it's a really cool site that has discounted short term sales. I'm sure you've bumped into those deal a day sites but what I like about sneakpeeq is that each sale is up for a couple days so it's not like it's a this second or never. Also they've got lots of options each day with new ones starting and ending every day. They have three sections living, style, and tastes so there something for everyone.

I had the pleasure of trying out a 25$ gift card (and they have one for me to give away today) it was SO much fun! I had a hard time deciding. When I was looking they had a few really cool shops. Wallet, mug, fun flash drive, awesome necklace? Yeah it was tough! In the end the chocolates won out they sounded so so good. I'm excited for them to arrive.

To enter the giveaway

Go and check out sneakpeaks. You'll need to click on one of the links in this post and sign in to be eligible (it's a specific link that will trace it to this giveaway so just googling sneakpeaks won't work). ~~FYI, I was nervous since you used facebook to sign in but I when I tried it it did not post ANYTHING to my account and I haven't had a single problem with unwanted anything so fear not.~~ UPDATE: sorry all I just found stuff posted to my timeline. It was really small and I was able to remove it but I felt like you should know that the stuff you look at does show up on your timeline. You can just do it once go and then click remove and it will stop showing everyone else your every move on the site (at least it hasn't reposted anything to my timeline yet)
This is only open to U.S. residents and NEW sneakpeak users (this protects them from being taken advantage of by people trolling the internet just to enter over over).
Then come back here and comment.
Giveaway closes in Feb. 21, 2012 at 11:59 PM . So what you'll see is just an example of the types of things that will be available. Remember things are constantly changing that's part of the fun. The winner will be chosen by with the use of random.org and will be notified via email.
Extra entry for following me via LINKY FOLLOWERS (if you don't know google friends connect is going away so I'm trying to make sure we are all connected in a new way before that time comes) please leave a comment telling me you did that.
Extra entry if you share this anywhere (facebook, twitter, your blog, etc.). Please leave a comment here telling me what you did.

And a special bonus, if you do see something that you absolutely love between now and when the giveaway ends sneakpeek has given us a link that will automatically give you 20% off awesome right? When you click through on any of the links in this post you should receive 20% off. I had so much fun playing on sneakpeek I hope you'll check it out and who knows maybe you'll find your new way to shop or even get 25$ free to spend there.

Please Update Our Connection AKA Bye Bye GFC AKA Linky Followers

2012-02-06T10:41:00.001-07:00

As you may have heard by now Google is phasing out Google Friend Connect (you know the thing so many of us have used for years to follow blogs we love and get people to follow our own blogs?). It goes into effect on March 1st for non-blogger blogs and sometime after that for those on blogger. I've been dreading the switch not just for my followers but out of worry for how I'll organize the blogs I follow.

I am personally excited to be using Linky Followers. It makes so much more sense! I hope that you will all join me in switching over. To the right you'll see the widget to follow me there. I'll be updating my personal blogroll and I hope that you'll do the same.

This is exciting since it means that if we ever want to change blog formats then we wouldn't have to start from square one. You hear all the time how people move to Wordpress (since they actually have customer support) but that they have start from zero and it's really hard to build their followers back up. This would eliminate that concern since Linky Followers can go anywhere.

I was also paranoid that all my non-blogger favorites would be disappearing from my blogger dashboard (I have no idea if this is how it works but it makes sense if they are taking GFC away from them). So I'll be slowly adding them to my blogroll in Linky Followers over the next few weeks.

And finally I don't know about you but I'm kind of sick of google buying up everything and then trying to force us into Google+. Ugg. This is finally a tool for following blogs not just another social networking site. It's cool since you can use it with or without a blog.

Any ways I hope those of you who visit here regularly will follow me via linky followers since we know the days of GFC are numbered.

What's for Dinner: Week 115

2012-02-05T14:29:00.000-07:00

(Teriyaki Salmon, Spinach and Cous Cous)

I give up. I will not try making risotto again. I will NOT. Remind me if you see it appear on my menu okay? I just can't figure it out. It was edible this week but all the left overs went into a freezer bag labeled "to use in soup". It wasn't what I would call a success. My Salmon on the other hand was super tasty. And the next day I threw all those left overs (cous cous, spinach and salmon) in a tortilla with cheese and avocado and that was heaven.

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	Super Munchie Bowl food	Grains and nuts: granola bars, ww pasta Veggies: Spinach, Salad Fish: Tilapia, Shrimp
Monday	Big Salad
Tuesday	Lemon Tilapia and Fettuccine Alfredo
Wednesday	rejected risotto soup
Thursday	Shrimp and Grits (didn't get to this last week)
Friday	Lasagna
Saturday	Eat Out

Book Inspired Jewelery: Hunger Games, Harry Potter, and More

2012-02-03T10:27:00.001-07:00

(Hunger Games Mocking Jay Necklace)

If you've been playing along at my What We Wore and Made link parties on Wednesdays you've probably noticed that I'm kind of obsessed with book-inspired, geek-embracing jewelery. Pretty much all of my necklaces celebrate some book or another.

(Lupin Necklace)

My absolute favorite shop to buy these is Pretty Little Charms UK on Etsy. I've received many comments on them so I figured it was time for a formal introduction. Leigh the shop owner not only is a fellow Harry Potter fan (she's been to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter multiple times and lives in the UK!), but she's incredibly great to work with. I've bought many necklaces on numerous occasions and she's been wonderful.

(custom Divergent necklaces)

I've purchased items straight from her shop, asked about slight alterations which she happily was able to accommodate, and even ordered a few fully custom pieces (my awesome Divergent necklaces!). She was great to work with and even though she's all the way across the ocean everything ships REALLY fast.

(Harry Potter Lumos Necklace)

In fact I ordered my first piece less than 2 weeks before Deathly Hallows 2 came out assuming that I'd receive the necklace after the movie (after all was coming all the way from the UK) but it was to me in time to wear it to the movie.

This is not a sponsored post I just love her shop so much that I want to support plus I know many of you would appreciate this awesome jewelery. And even though I have ahem 6 already I think I still need a Neville one, how did I not realize this gap in my collection sooner? And I'll probably break down and get that Cinna one I've been eying forever. Any ways if you are a book lover or have book lovers in your life you should definitely check out Pretty Little Charms UK.

Recipe: Chicken and Two Potatoes

2012-02-02T00:15:00.004-07:00

This is one of our regular rotation dinners. If you've read my What's For Dinner posts you probably have seen it in my weekly menus. I like this recipe because it's relatively easy, if you have frozen chicken the other ingredients last forever so it's easy to have them on hand, and it's yummy. It's one of those meals that you don't have to be in the mood for it's tasty and filling whenever.

Ingredients

1 large yam
2 small to medium potatoes
2 chicken thighs
1 tsp butter
1 tsp olive oil
garlic salt
grated (or powder) parmesan
Italian herbs

What to do

Cut potatoes in wedges.
Microwave white potatoes and butter for 1 minute. Stir. Add the yams and microwave for an additional minute with the olive oil and stir.
Toss with garlic salt. Pour into baking dish. Sprinkle herbs and parmesan on top.
Cut under side of thighs so they open more. Lay on top of potatoes, sprinkle with more sprinkle herbs and parmesan on top. Spray with oil.
Bake at 450 for 20-45 minutes. Don't add any more oil the chicken has plenty already. Sometimes I adjust the chicken part way through so the potatoes are covered differently. (this serves 2 but can easily be doubled)

Link Party: What We Wore and Made Wednesdays #12

2012-01-31T18:56:00.004-07:00

Dress, Tights - Forever 21

shoes - Cents of Style

Divergent "Four" necklace - PrettyLittleCharmsUK on Etsy

Tee - ThatBearIsKnitting on Etsy
Cardigan - Charlotte Russe

shoes - Cents of Style
Bracelet - Gift

Dress and Tights -Forever 21
Snitch Necklace - my teenage dream (why yes I do have two different snitch necklaces)

shoes - Old Navy

Thanks so much for linking up. We had a great turn out. I was a little nervous about how our first week without a reminder email would be. Oh and a few of you asked about my Potter Necklace I shared in last week's party post. I"m still waiting for my sister to tell me. I'll bug her again though.

Your turn, let me see your favorite fashion, crafty, helpful, or delicious posts.

Fine Print:

Please be a follower

I'd love you to add my button anywhere on your blog (I'm not picky)

Link as many as you want and I don't mind if they are older posts
Also I WILL NOT be sending reminder emails any longer. Hopefully the button or following will help you remember about the party.

Please Note: I will not be sending reminder emails about the party any longer. Hopefully having my button, following, subscribing or something else can serve as your reminder.

Etsy Life: Shipping Tips

2012-01-31T10:44:00.001-07:00

(my sister posted this on my fb I laugh out loud, this is so my life, oh how I can relate. my hubby does post office runs all the time! hand made ryan gosling)

Looking at a lot of the comments I've received people seem a little anxious about figuring out what to charge for shipping. I have good news, it's not that hard.

Get your item, pack it up how you would if someone bought it and weigh it. If you make a lot of different items you may want to buy a postal scale (you can get a postal scale for around 10$) but if your items will be similar enough in weight it may be fine just to go weigh it at the post office. Make sure to always round up.
Paypal's multi-order shipping tool is free and super helpful. You can print labels from your home and either hand them to your mail person, drop them off in a blue receptacle, or at the post office. And you don't have to wait in line. You can only use this for US orders. I use it even if I'm only printing one package since it's easier/quicker to use than the other set up. Since it automatically loads the addresses this will save tons of time writing out addresses and purchasing postage. Also it includes delivery confirmation so you can track the packages. It sends your customer an email to let them know it shipped with the tracking info and it gives you proof of shipping if for some reason there is ever a dispute. (It's always good to double check that the paypal address and the etsy address match up before shipping.)
International shipping is scary to a lot of people but don't let it stress you out it's not that hard. You can enter into the postal calculator the weight of your item and determine the shipping to any country and it will tell you how much it will be. For me I ship a lot to Canada, the UK, and Australia. Much much fewer and further between would be the Philippines, Spain, Brazil, Germany, and a few others. For me most of my international orders have not been much expensive than shipping to Australia I think Israel was the most. On etsy you can set your shipping to "everywhere else" I have three options: domestic, to Canada and everywhere else.
What to charge. Technically shipping costs involves the cost of shipping, the cost of printing the label (paper, ink), your time packing and taking things to the post office, your gas to take things to the post office, your envelopes and tape, and usually more. With the exception of extremely heavy items my philosophy is to charge a just little more than what my envelope plus postage costs are. For me adding 50 cents to a dollar to what the postage is has worked for well. So if the post office charges me 2.50 I'll list my price for 3.50 because I buy my envelopes in bulk and I know that will probably cover the rest of my supplies but it is still reasonably low. If you're using more expensive envelops or including other stuff that might not work for you. Some people have success with rolling the shipping price into the cost of the item. This seems to work particularly well when items are expensive to ship or when most of your customers are in a different country (cuts that barrier of 'oh do I want to pay for international shipping?' potential costumers might have).
You could make it easier on yourself by just using flat rate priority packaging. They make envelopes and boxes. It's one price and the packaging is free/included in the shipping cost. You can pick up a stack and bring them home to pack and then either print up the labels at home or pay for the shipping later at the post office. I use these a lot when people order multiple items. This cuts out having to buy envelopes and tape and you don't have to figure out how much to charge since it's a flat rate.

Hope that's helpful to a few of you. Let me know if you have any questions about this or have other topics you'd like to hear my two cents about.

Treasury Love: I Love You Baby

2012-01-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

Fellow EtsyKid's team member handmaidencanada (who makes super darling dolls and doll clothing) created this lovely treasury featuring one of my new wrap around strawberry ruffled bloomers as well as a number of other great creations from other team members (how cute is that little whale?). Click here to see the collection up close and to get links to the items and to see more from these talented artists.

What's for Dinner: Week 114

2012-01-29T19:16:00.003-07:00

(Seafood Mac and Cheese)

I really liked the coconut beef stew that I tried last week it's definitely going into the circulation. Yea for trying a new recipe and really liking it!

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	Seafood Mac and Cheese and salad	Grains and nuts: granola bars, ww pasta Veggies: Spinach, Salad, Green Beans Fish: Tilapia, Shrimp
Monday	Teriyaki Salmon Cous Cous and Wilted Spinach
Tuesday	Turkey Rice and Corn Chowder
Wednesday	Bangers Mash and Pesto Green Beans
Thursday	Creamy Risotto with Sausage and Peppers
Friday	Eat Out
Saturday	Shrimp and Grits (if you have a good recipe send it my way!)

Guest Posting: Love Pillow Case Tutorial at Ruby Jean

2012-01-27T11:09:00.004-07:00

If you liked Big Bow Pillow Case tutorial from earlier this week you'll want to hop on over to Ruby Jean where I'm guest posting today and sharing my Love Pillow Case tutorial.

If you are visiting from Ruby Jean welcome it's great to have you! I hope you take a second peek around. If you've got a blog of your own I would love to have you link up a few projects, recipes, outfits or whatever to my What We Wore and Made link party. Here are a few of my favorite posts in case you need a sparing point for peeking around.

Sequenced Heart Headband Tutorial a quick and cute hair accessory just in time for Valentine's Day
My (long) Etsy Journey how I started and the whole stinking trip I took to making my Etsy shop a full time gig
Quick Apple Pastry Recipe an easy tasty recipe with lots of stuff you can keep on hand all the time

UPDATED: Tutorial Following

Today I want to share how to make this fun Love pillow case. I based it off of trusty 10 minute pillow case tutorial and the extra details only takes maybe 5-10 minutes still a pretty quick and cheap project. Fun right? Oh and if you like, you can see my Big Bow Pillow Case tutorial here.

What You Need

Pillow case fabric (for a 17" pillow half a yard will work)
Scraps for design and to make lettering (a fat quarter of each will be more than enough)
Ultra Hold Heat Bond (to make iron on lettering) or store bought iron on letters.

What to Do

I used 17" square pillow cases so my measurements are based off of that. If you have different size pillows check out my basic pillow case tutorial for info about how to get the measurements for different sizes and add 11 inches to whatever you need.
For a 17" pillow you'll need a piece of fabric 17x38 inches long.
Finish the short edges of the pillow case piece. I did this with a serger or you can just fold the fabric under twice and sew.
Find your pillow width in the middle of the fabric (for me 17") and fold the edges in. That means I had two 10.5" flaps. (You might want to read through my basic pillow case tutorial it has way more step by step pictures that might help if you're having a hard time picturing this part). Iron down the fold.
Cut your scraps into little pieces. Open up the pillow case fabric and arrange the middle part of the pillow case fabric (you want it to be inside the ironed lines). Pin them down and sew around each one.
Make your "Love" iron on by ironing the Ultra bond to a piece of black (or whatever color your like) fabric. Then you can cut the letters out. I did this on my cricut but you can trace any font and cut it by hand (make sure you do it reverse if you're tracing on the back side of the iron-on paper) I have a tutorial for making iron-ons too with more pictures and slower directions if I've lost you.
Peel the paper back off of the iron on position on your pillow case over the scrap pieces and iron down.
Fold the flaps down so that they overlap (the back of the pillow case) the pretty part should be inside under the flaps. Remember that the first flap down will be the one that is showing so you want that to look nice. The other will be hidden.
Sew across the top and bottom.
Now flip it right side out and shove a pillow in there.
Admire your beautiful creation. Easy right? Feel free to leave a comment on my blog if you have any questions and I'll do my best to answer them.

I hope you like it. As always I'd love to see pictures if you try it out. Feel free to email them to me or link them up to my What We Wore and Made Party if you post them on your blog(with any of your other projects).

Customer Appreciation Pic: Watermelon Birthday Girl

2012-01-26T14:23:00.000-07:00

It's that time again yup time to look at another stinking adorable little baby. This darling picture if from the very talented Kristine of Kristine Kraft Photography. I love that facial expression she caught. And isn't this set up so cute! Seeing cuties in my little creations like this pair of watermelon bloomers is seriously one of the best parts of the job. Keep em coming.

Etsy Life: Setting Up Shop

2012-01-25T13:15:00.004-07:00

I was surprised to see how many of you really resonated with my "Etsy Journey" post. I had lots of comments from people either with very young shops or who have been strongly considering opening an etsy shop. In my opinion, if you've really been wanting to try Etsy out, go for it. At 20 cents a listing it's very inexpensive to try if you sell something etsy and paypal each take a small percentage but if not all you're out is the initial 20. Here are a few tips I have for those of you who might be just getting things started or re-started.

Put all your information up. Fill out the shop policies section, the profile section, and every other section there is to fill out on Etsy. This will help you think through many possible scenarios you may encounter as a shop owner and it will answer important questions for your potential costumers. Also don't forget to add a banner, featured items, profile pic etc.
If you haven't already, buy something on etsy and leave feedback. This serves afew purposes. It teaches you how things work and puts you into the mindset of a customer so you can better anticipate what questions your potential customers may have and gives you the opportunity to get feedback. Hopefully your experience will be good and you'll leave good feedback. If the shop owner doesn't leave you feedback send him or her a message explaining that you are trying to build up your feedback and asking if they would mind leaving your feedback for the purchase you just made. That way when customers get to your shop they will see a positive percentage (sometimes having no feedback makes people nervous).
If you haven't written up a listing write one up. Then look at it from the view point of a customer. Are there multiple pictures that show different angles, sides and details? Is the sizing, color, etc. clear (write it in words in the listing AND if possible show it in a picture)? Do you explain what the turnaround time is? Use all your tags.
Fill up your shop. The short of it is that most successful shops have many pages of listings. Each page has 24 items. I'm tempted to suggest trying to shoot for a full page of items to start. But unless you just have stuff sitting around you probably don't want to make up a bunch of things that you're not sure will sell yet. So I think 10 would be a solid start. On the other hand I have purchased something from a shop that only had 4 items. Part of filling a shop is to let potential costumers know that you're serious. Unless you have a ton of good feedback a shop with just a few items might make customers doubt how serious to take the shop. While all the shops I've seen that are really successful on etsy have pages of items I fully believe that it's possible for a shop to just sell only a few and do well. One shop I saw that sold seasonally just had a few items she'd relist over and over and remake them and that worked well. Another option would be to make multiple listings of the same item (assuming you either have multiples made or are prepared to make multiples).
Etsy will let you write up a bunch of listings and save them as drafts so you can post them later when you're ready. I like to stagger listings so that they are at least an hour apart. While it's tempting to put all your listings in at once if you stagger them you have more of a chance to hit different groups of shoppers that are on the site at different times.

Also please understand that all of these"tips" are based on my personal experiences so please take them with a grain of salt. These are just things that I've noticed have worked for me but one of the great things about etsy is how different each shop and approach can be.

To see more of these etsy related post check out my etsy life tag (I will be adding more regularly so check back in, next week I'll share a little bit about shipping).

Link Party: What We Wore and Made Wednesdays #11

2012-01-24T16:34:00.005-07:00

Top, Jeans - Forever 21

Boots - costco

Potter Necklace - PrettyLittleCharmsUK on Etsy

Top and jeans- Forever 21

shoes - Jelly Pop
Scarf - ??

Cardigan - Charlotte Russe

jeans -Forever 21
Potter Necklace -Gift (I'll find out though)

shoes - Le Sport Sac

I'm running out for a full filled night, birthday dinner for the musicmaker's grandma and a Rotten Musician concert so I know this is up early but I hope that's okay.

Your turn, let me see your favorite fashion, crafty, helpful, or delicious posts.

Fine Print:

Please be a follower

I'd love you to add my button anywhere on your blog (I'm not picky)

Link as many as you want and I don't mind if they are older posts
Also I WILL NOT be sending reminder emails any longer. Hopefully the button or following will help you remember about the party.

Please Note: I will not be sending reminder emails about the party any longer. From the pure number of participants gmail froze my account and blog. So even though I technically didn't break their rules and everything is up and running they obviously have some automatic thing that freezes accounts when you email too many people so hopefully having my button, following, subscribing or something else can serve as your reminder.

Tutorial: Big Bow Pillow Cases

2012-01-23T06:59:00.003-07:00

I finally got around to making some more pillowcases. Just in time for Valentine's Day I made a bunch of festive pillow cases using and tweaking my trusty 10 minute pillow case tutorial.

Today I want to share how I made the big bow one. It it only takes maybe 5 minutes (max) to add the bow to the basic pillow case. Cool right?

What to Do

I used 17" square pillow cases so my measurements are based off of that. If you have different size pillows check out my basic pillow case tutorial for info about how to get the measurements for different sizes and add 11 inches to whatever you need.
For a 17" pillow you'll need 28" of fabric (by the width probably 44" or 60").
For a 17" pillow case you'll need fabric cut to 17x38 (pillow case), 9-11x38 (bow), 6x6 (bow tie). My red pillow case I used the 11x38 inch bow and the pink one was a 9x 38 inch bow.
First sew the bow. Fold the bow piece in half so that it's 11x 19 and sew the long sides. Flip it right side out and iron.
Make the bow tie. Fold the 6x6 piece in half and sew around three edges. Flip right side out and iron. Tuck one end into the other to make a little tube (like a napkin ring kind of) and fold under the edge of the top layer and sew shut. I had to sew from one edge to the middle cut it and sew from the other edge to the middle.
Finish the short edges of the pillow case piece. I did this with a serger or you can just fold the fabric under twice and sew.
Slide the bow piece through the bow tie. And arrange on the pillow base. Find the placement by folding the pillow base so that you have a 17 inch space and the flaps should fold over in the back (if you only finished one edge like me make sure the pretty one goes down first. You can iron the edges so you know where to fold them. Mark the middle of the square with a pin at both the top edge and the bottom edge. Open up the flaps.Then pin the middle of t bow edges to where the pins are. put the flaps in place making sure the pretty side goes down first. Then pin the edge of the bow so they are sandwiched between the pillow from and back.
Sew the two edges making sure to catch both layers of the pillow case, the bows and the flaps.
Now flip it right side out, stuff a pillow in and arrange the tie so it sits in the middle of the bow.
Stare at it and say, that was so easy and quick and look how cute my pillow case is.

I hope you like it. As always I'd love to see pictures if you try it out. Feel free to email them to me or link them up to my What We Wore and Made Party if you post them on your blog. I'll be sharing my Love Pillow case tute soon too.

UPDATED: here's the tutorial for my "love pillow"

What's for Dinner: Week 113

2012-01-22T00:00:00.003-07:00

(Broccoli Slaw with Baked Chicken)

Hope you all had a good week. I did a soup round up from a bunch of recipes people shared at my link parties. I'm excited to try one of them this week. So many scrumptuous looking recipes. We've kind of got a lot of stuff going on out this week so we'll see if I make all of these. Oh and today my mom will be making our annual Chinese New Year Feast, it should be super tasty!

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	Chinese New Years Feast	Grains and nuts: granola bars, ww pasta Veggies: Spinach, Salad Fish: Tilapia, Shrimp, Scallops
Monday	Grilled Cheese and Whatever Soup is in the Freezer and Salad
Tuesday	Coconut Beef Stew
Wednesday	Eat Out
Thursday	Chicken and Two Potatoes
Friday	Seafood Mac and Cheese
Saturday	Lemon Tilapia, Wilted Spinach and Cous Cous

Round Up: 5 Soup Recipes Perfect for Winter (and a couple extras)

2012-01-20T00:19:00.000-07:00

I have been drooling over a lot of the tasty treats that have been linked up in my What We Wore and Made Link Parties over the last few weeks. I'm such a fan of soup and sandwiches and there have been so many good ones that I figured I'd share some that especially popped out to me.

1. This Coconut Beef Stew from Turtle and Tails is definitely on my too try soon list.

2. I've never tied to make my own but I love Butternut Squash Soup (on it's own and with ravioli). This delicious looking one is from Young Living Oil Lady.

3. I love a good Hamburger Soup and this one from Wellness Hammock looks like it would hit the spot when you just need something safe and tasty.

4. This Hearty Minestrone Soup from Path to Wellness looks like a great way to cram in a bunch of veggies into a delicious meal.

5. This Dairy Free Potato Soup from Real Food Allergy Free looks fabulous as written or could easily be adapted to be vegan or to use regular dairy products.

6. And because every bowl of soup needs either a super tasty roll or a delicious sandwich here are some tasty Cheddar Bay Drop Biscuits from Stella B's Kitchen

7. And and amazing Green Monster (avocado filled) Grilled Cheese Sandwich from Everything Under the Moon.

Shop Update: New Girl Rufflers and Boy Romper

2012-01-19T12:26:00.000-07:00

I've had a few, ahem a lot, of bolts of designer fabric that I haven't done anything with so the last time I was cutting out some Retro Ruffler (my vintage inspired sunsuits) I made on out of each of them. Most of the fabrics were purchased with that in mind but I just hadn't gotten around to it.

I'm so happy with how they all turned out. I'll be adding all of them to the shop over the next few days including two new boy romper. I say they are for boys but obviously I think they'd be really cute on girls too and both of these styles I can do in custom colors. Oh and I've got one of each of the ruffle ones ready to ship if you're in a rush (most of them are either 12-24 month size or 6-12 month size or of course you can order them made to order in whatever size you need).

I'm Back and No More Reminder Emails aka holy heart attack

2012-01-18T09:44:00.002-07:00

I just wanted to let you all know that I will not be sending reminder emails about the party any longer. From the pure number of participants gmail disabled my account and blog last night. So even though I didn't break their rules (since I had a preexisting relationship with everyone messaged) and everything is up and running they obviously have some automatic thing that freezes accounts when you email too many people. So hopefully having my button, following, subscribing or something else can serve as your reminder. I'm not sure if the party people would like me to post a reminder status on the Rae Gun facebook page but I could if there were enough people who wanted that.

Sorry if you stopped by and got the "this blog has been removed" message. I had a total freak out and heart attack last night as I was getting ready for bed let me tell you. Thank goodness it's all back (I wish I had received an explanation though I'm just guessing on the reason since it makes sense, they never sent any info just shut down and turned back on).

Link Party: What We Wore and Made Wednesdays #10

2012-01-17T18:39:00.003-07:00

Dress Tights - Forever 21

Boots - Wet Seal

Belt - L.A. garment district (not sure which shop)
Best Accessory of all an AWESOME BOOK - Divergent

Top -Old Navy

Scarf - Forever 21

shoes - Cents of Style
Skirt - Ross
Tights- Nordstrom Rack

Cardigan - Urban Outfitters

jeans -Forever 21
Potter Shirt -Made It

shoes (love them!) - Cents of Style

Hope you're all have a super fantastic week. I've had so so much fun looking through all your creations, ensembles and tips. I'll be doing a round up later this week so be sure to check back in to see if you're featured.

Your turn, let me see your favorite fashion, crafty, helpful, or delicious posts.

Fine Print:

Please be a follower

I'd love you to add my button anywhere on your blog (I'm not picky)

Link as many as you want and I don't mind if they are older posts

Q&A: My Typical Work Day and Some Great Selling on Etsy Resources

2012-01-16T11:08:00.005-07:00

I hope it goes without saying but just in case you need the invitation I want you all to know that I love getting emails and questions from you guys (fun, serious, whatever).

A few weeks ago Krissa of the super adorable Etsy shop Mish Mash Clothing sent me an email asking a bunch of questions. I hit on a few of her questions in my last post about my Etsy journey but I thought this one was kind of fun and to be honest I was kind of curious about the answer myself.

I stumbled across your blog today, and had a look around. I see that you are a very successful Etsy seller, and I have a few questions if you have the time.... I would like to know how you divide your time. Do you set a certain amount of hours per day or per week that you work?

First I have to say I spend A LOT of time working. A LOT. My hubby and I both work from home and we both work a lot. We both set our own schedules. And while we could do things in the middle of the day in the middle of the week most of the time we keep normalish work hours. Where he works on his 'day' job (social work-y stuff) and his music, I work on my shop and the blog. I see the blog as part of my business but I also see it as something separate. When I need to cut something it's always the blog side that gets cut. I'm not writing this as 'advice' by any means I just thought it was a fun question and I know a lot of people are curious as to what the day of someone who does Etsy full time is really like.

Typical Work Day (I do this or some variation of this probably 4-5 days out of the week)

9:30 am Wake Up - Check email, shop and blog. Respond to questions, relist items that have sold, comment on treasuries I've been featured in, respond to blog comments and submit to link parties that weren't
up the night before while drinking juice and eating a granola bar

11-11:30 Make or consult my "to do today list" start cutting or sewing or getting things ready to ship (printing labels packaging yup that takes a whole lot of time too). If I have new items I'll photograph them as well.

1:30 have some lunch, tidy up the kitchen minimally while lunch is cooking, and take my What I Wore pictures. After food is cooked I usually eat while I continue to work or while I check/respond to computer stuff again.

2:00 get back to product making. At some point I start packing items up that are ready to ship. People don't realize how much time this part actually takes (and that's after you've gotten someone to buy something and made the item)

3:30 go to the post office on my way to the gym. if it's a cardio day I read during my workout

6:00 get home, shower, and start making dinner or stop at the market (or fabric store) to pic stuff up. While I'm making dinner I start submitting to more link parties and check/respond to computer stuff again.

7:00 eat dinner, watch tv, and submit to link parties (this is kind of my down time). I never just sit and watch tv. Even though I consider this down time I'm still on the computer, or doing hand sewing or something else that is kind of relaxing and mindless but productive.

9:00 get back to work for real. About half the days during this time I'll write blog posts, write shop listings and do other computer stuff that I can do while sitting on the couch. The other half I get back on the sewing machines.

12:30 submit to the last of the link parties, print shipping labels for the next day and make sure the blog is set for tomorrow. Make my to do list for tomorrow.

1:00 - 2:30 get in bed and read. I love reading plus it helps me to shut my mind off (I usually fall asleep between 2 and 3:30). I'm not going to lie I wrote my times down last week to prep for this post and I didn't get in bead before 2 am. That's totally normal for us and half the time when I head into read my hubby is still on his keyboard making his tunes.

The weekends I usually work half days which means probably a couple hours of actual sewing, cutting, making the product type work and a couple hours (to many hours) of computer stuff and a post office run. Even on an off day I probably work at least 3 hours but a lot of times that's late at night. But I normally do less product making on the weekends.

A couple nights a week we'll go out to dinner or do something during the evening. But I usually still work for a couple hours after I get home. Sometimes we play like 6-10 ish or 9-12:30 ish. Yup we're night owls.

I tried to do a kind of half day during the week where I'll go do what I want like shopping for fun, or shopping for supplies or make something for myself or try out a new recipe for the blog. But I don't stick to it that well.

To me I work a lot so that when something fun comes up I can just do it. If my family or friends want to go out for lunch or watch the nieces or go do something fun 99% of the time I'll do it. I do regular craft days with my friends and my husband I go out a lot. But then again I'm someone who likes being busy and since there's always plenty to do work-wise, when there's not much going elsewhere on I'm usually working. But again I really do enjoy it. And if people come into town I usually will do a week full of half days. After all if I wanted I could just take less orders, it's my business I can do what I like. Like right now I've been on the computer for like 4 hours and am getting antsy and even though I'm pretty far ahead on work stuff it sounds appealing to do a bit of serging while listening to my Divergent audiobook (and it's 11:30 pm on a Sunday). It helps that I really like watching my shows and listening to books while I work ;)

Top Tips?

So I know I said that I was going to write a top tips post but I sat down to do it and after about 2 hours of typing and thinking, I was totally overwhelmed and felt like I had barely touched on anything. I figured if I'm overwhelming myself then what hope do I have in getting my ideas across to some of you who are just barely starting out. So instead of trying to cram a bunch of tips into one manageable post I'm going to hit on one topic at a time and make sure to do etsy tips regularly (like once a week). Definitely let me know if you have any specific topics in mind.

And for those of you ready to dive right in here's a ton of reading material for you.

Etsy's official tips blog post I'd start here. It's chalked full of many links on many topics.
And also be sure to check out Handmadeology's great post full of tips with lots of linked articles under each tip for more info.
And last I found this Newbie Guide to be helpful when I was starting out. This looks like it's the newest version (still 2.5 years old) but some of the info will be helpful. I know there's a lot of info.

Try not to be overwhelmed just read a little here and there. If you have any questions or suggestions of topics you'd like me to talk about feel free to let me know in the comments or shoot me an email.

What's for Dinner: Week 112

2012-01-15T16:26:00.004-07:00

(Cobb Salad with Chicken Sausage)

I've been kind of striking out with trying the new recipes. I tried 3 new ones last week and they ranged from blah to okay. I'm not sure if I'll make any of them again. Bummer. I've been wanting to try more crockpot recipes since a couple nights a week my day ends a little later than I'm used to so it would be great to have dinner already started/cooked, but I've been really disappointed with the recipes I've tried. So if you have any slow cooker favorites I would love love love you to leave me links in the comments. I know there are many good ones out there but the ones I've tried have just not been very flavorful.

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	Beef and Wonton Noodle Soup	Grains and nuts: granola bars, ww pasta Veggies: salad Fish:Tilapia
Monday	Ravioli and Meat Sauce
Tuesday	Baked Chicken with Ramen Broccoli Slaw
Wednesday	Dinner with the girls
Thursday	Lemon Tilapia, Wilted Spinach and Cous Cous
Friday	Eat Out
Saturday	Islands Tortilla Chicken Soup

Things I'm Loving: Beside My Bed

2012-01-13T14:23:00.001-07:00

I woke up this morning and saw this view. It made me super happy so I thought that I would share. These are a few things that I'm loving that reside beside my bed.

My night stand. I used to have a stool with a plastic tub on it that I threw my glasses, chap stick and whatever book I was reading in when I went to sleep. This is so much better. (p.s. Ikea is discontinuing this line if you've been eying their pieces like I have)
My tiny mercury glass lamp. I used to have an ugly student table lamp that sat on the floor since I had no place to put it. I've got a super low watt bulb in this one and it's perfect for my nightly reading.
My big pile of books. My own copy of Divergent came in the mail, that lives below a neat devotional my inlaws gave me for Christmas that I've been loving as well. I'm currently reading The Graveyard Book (it's too early to have an opinion) and as is always the case ALL the books I requested from the library came off the hold at the same time. Don't they look pretty? I'm so excited about every one of them.
My inspiration fabric. For a long time I've been wanting to do something to our boring tiny bedroom. I think I've found the fabrics I'm planning on using. They've been sitting on my night stand so I can decide if they feel right in there.

Guest Post: Monster Gift Card Holder

2012-01-12T22:02:00.004-07:00

I just wanted to let you all know that I'm sharing a tutorial on how to make a fun monster gift card holder today over at The Ivy Cottage.

For those of you visiting from The Ivy Cottage welcome, it's great to have you. I hope you takes some time to peek around. If you need some place to start here are a few of my favorite posts.

My upcycled book page wreath tutorial
Hunger Games Mockingjay shirt tutorial (are you as excited as I am about the movie?)
Finally, I've got a What We Wore and Made link party going on and would love you to add some of your favorite posts from your own blog.

TUTORIAL REPOSTED BELOW

What You Need

Piece of fabric 3.5 by 12 inches
Batting
2 buttons (different sizes are a plus)
Ribbon (if you want it to be a girl)
Small scrap of felt (or other fabric for teeth)

What To Do

Cut fabric pieces. You need 2 body pieces about 3.5 x 5.5 inches. 1 lower body piece 3.5 x 4.5 inches. Arms 2 pieces 2 x 2 inches. Cut teeth
On the lower body piece turn under the short edge and sew down.
Arrange the teeth and sew down.
Fold each arm part in piece and sew one two two edges leaving one side open. Then flip them inside out so that you have two little arms.
Sew on your eyes on one of the body pieces leaving adequate room around the edges to allow for you to sew.
Lay all the front pieces like shown above with the hands facing inward. Next lay the back piece on top and pin making sure to catch the arms and lower body pieces.
Sew around the edges leaving a hole in the bottom edge to allow you to right side out the monster.
Stuff the monster and sew shut.
Tie a bow and sew it on.
Add a gift card and you're good to go.

The possibility are endless. It would be cute with all sorts of fun fabrics. You could even use it as a little jewelry pouch. I'd love to see if you make your own little monsters.

Recipe: Cream of Mushroom Soup

2012-01-11T14:46:00.000-07:00

Until a few years ago I was a mushroom hater. But after one fantastic mushroom risotto I can't get enough. We love this quick and easy recipe for cream of mushroom soup. It's pretty light since the cream is really minimal but it's super tasty and great for a weeknight meal.

Ingredients

1 8 oz pack of mushrooms (I usually use whole mushrooms but they were all out this time)
1/2 small onion
1 potato peeled and diced
2 TBS butter
1 TBS chicken granuels
1/4 C heavy Cream

What to Do

Chop mushrooms, onion and potato
Saute with the butter in pot big enough for the whole recipe.
Add 4 C hot water bring to a boil and add chicken granuels
Blend with immersion blender (or you could use a regular blender)
Add another 4 C water
Add cream and stir
Season to taste with salt and pepper

So easy right? It goes perfectly with Cheesey Jalapeno Rolls. I know it's really basic but it's good old comfort food perfect for when you don't know what you feel like.

Link Party: What We Wore and Made Wednesdays #9

2012-01-10T19:49:00.005-07:00

Cardigan, jeans, booties - Forever 21

Tank - Old Navy

Necklace - dsant869 on Etsy

Dress -Kohls

Tights - Forever 21

shoes - Cents of Style
Katniss Necklace- PrettyLittleCharmsUK on Etsy

Top - Ross

leggins -gap
Snitch necklace -Bratboutique

shoes - Costco

Hey all I'm running out the door but wanted to get this up. Hope you've all had a good week. I wanted to point out my post from yesterday about my journey on Etsy to any of you guys who may be curious (I know a bunch of you had asked). Okay let's party.

Your turn, let me see your favorite fashion, crafty, helpful, or delicious posts.

Fine Print:

Please be a follower

I'd love you to add my button anywhere on your blog (I'm not picky)

Link as many as you want and I don't mind if they are older posts

Q&A: My Etsy Journey

2012-01-10T00:11:00.007-07:00

(me working at a band practice because I literally needed to make use of every spare minute available)

I hope it goes without saying but just in case you need the invitation I want you all to know that I love getting emails and questions from you guys (fun, serious, whatever).

I get tons of questions about selling on Etsy and for the longest time I've wanted to write something that would be helpful. For those of you who don't know, I make and sell baby clothes on Etsy. I do well, not like crazy, but for a small self created home business it's good. While I DO have tips to share with those of you interested, I first want to share how I got here. Don't get me wrong I don't think I'm all fancy smancy but it's a welcome supplemental income for our family doing something I really enjoy and since I regularly get asked how I've done it I thought I'd share. Warning this is going to be a LONG post.

2006
I was in grad school pursuing a phD in philosophy. I was newly married and living in a tiny condo. My sister told me she was pregnant with a baby girl -my first niece. I started making the baby clothes.

2007
Joined a community ed sewing class to refine my sewing skills. I had spend the last few years totally in acedamia it was nice to be back in touch with my crafty side. The baby came and I kept making her clothes. People told me they were good and I should sell them (in that non-serious way that people say that about nice things people make).

I found a craft community called craftster which introduced me to Etsy. It was so cheap to open a shop so I listed my first item. I filled out the paper work with the State and Feds to make tax stuff legit (just in case and because it was so easy, really just a phone call and a form. I'm not sure if things have changed).

I spent a lot of time in the Etsy forums, showing my face, making comments, asking questions, etc. I think this really helped me to get noticed. I personally kind of hate the forums since they are a time sucking hole of drama a lot of the time. But you can get a lot of good info and it's a way of networking. My tip is to stay away from the promotion section. Ask questions, if you know answers give them. And use a nice clean product image for your profile picture.

I made the dresses in sizes of babies I knew took pictures of the dresses and listed them for sale as made to order. I also had pictures of the dress style and fabric swatch pictures that I could make the dress out of and sold those as made to order as well. I was not interested in making a bunch of items that would just sit around my small house and never sell.

That year I sold 100 items. I was over the moon. Most of what I sold were little dresses, coordinating bottoms and baby carriers. I set a goal to double my sales in the next year. I was blogging too.

2008
I blogged more and added my blog to the blog roll lists on the etsy forums every week. I still interacted in the forums a lot.

I added more dress options both styles and fabric options. I added bloomers and lace topped diaper covers.

Late this year I made my first ruffle diaper covers a gift for that baby that started everything. I took pictures before mailing it off and listed it. This is also the year that I made my first retro ruffler, my vintage inspired sun suit.

I took a custom order for a Fancy Nancy dress and sold a few during Halloween that year. I also took a custom order for a Pebbles costume made an extra for my eldest niece and made a french fry costume for my new baby niece and took pictures of them and added them to the shop.

I became involved with a few teams. Team treasuries have been very helpful for me. I recommend joining teams.

This year I sold a little over 200 items.

2009
This is the first year I sold my Pebbles and Bam Bam outfits (besides the initial custom order). They were a hit and every Halloween since I've been swamped.

This is also the year I realized my shop goes through seasons. The on season is from mid-January to the end of October. November and December are very slow and things to start picking up in January again.

I gave up cleaning my home. I paid a gal to come on a monthly basis and clean.

I tried a few craft fairs. They were flops I was stuck with a lot of product.

This year I sold a little over 300 items.

2010
This is the year things started to feel real and with it the stress came. We moved into a bigger home and instead of having all my sewing crap in our living room I got a joint work room that I share with my hubby's music stuff and his day job work stuff.

I was no longer teaching and I was so busy with the business I did almost nothing for school. I was supposed to be writing a dissertation. The stress of not making progress on school stuff was overwhelming. I was so busy and I didn't want to feel like a failure for quitting. But I thought about quitting all the time. I had finished EVERYTHING (classes, tests, proposal, etc.) except the actually writing of the dissertation. Everyone kept on saying "but you're so close". My mind was constantly torn between wanting to quit school and wanting to finish. On one hand school was hard and discouraging and on the other hand I was seeing my business grow and feeling encouraged by customers. I gave my time to what made me feel more competent.

Sales were steady and regular every day. Halloween was pure insanity. I couldn't have gotten through it without the help of my family and friends.

I joined facebook. Did some giveaways on my own sites , the sites of others and did some guest posting. I started submitting things to sites like stumbleupon, craftgawker, and all the link parties on other crafty blogs.

This year I sold over 550 items.

2011
Sales were steady. I was working 14-16 hour days 7 hours a week. I took work with me everywhere. To family parties, to the bar when friends were performing music, everywhere. It was obnoxious and not healthy. I set a resolution to deal with my stress and the anxiety that 'juggling' school and my business had caused and another resolution to make my business more manageable.

I worked my butt off to get ahead and we went on vacation. I added to all my listings that things would take an extra week while I was gone. I was right on schedule right when I got home. And then I got really sick. Just a terrible cold that lasted 2 weeks and I got really behind. It was horrible. Once I was well enough to look at the computer I was so behind. I sent out tons of apology emails. With help from my mom I finally got caught up and I sent partial refunds and special coupons and was so grateful for many understanding customers and just had to shrug off the handful of cruel ones. But I was freaked out. I should be able to get sick without everything falling apart and I shouldn't have to work 16 hrs a day every day of the week just to stay a float.

My mom started helping me regularly instead of just at Halloween or when I needed to be bailed out.

I made the hard decision to quit school with just a Masters. The relief of having the stress lifted was amazing. I don't regret it. I wish I had had the guts to do it sooner.

Halloween was crazy again but this time I had regular help. I also had spent a lot of time thinking how to streamline things. I cut a lot of steps out that took up time like hand writing notes to customers,ironing at multiple steps, and more. That made a huge difference.

I also stopped making things that I didn't like making as much and put more energy into trying to sell the items I could sew faster. After many customers requested onesies to go with my bottoms I added sets which were great because people liked them and they fell into the 'faster to make' category.

I pushed really hard to improve my blog and facebook presence.

I was selling regularly so I was renewing my items regularly which brought in more sales.

This year I sold over 700 items.

2012
I feel like I'm in a good place. I see sales picking up again after my normal seasonal lull. I am still a little nervous about the changes that Etsy made to their search but I think things will be good. I'm not sure if sales will be as good as last year but I'm hopeful that things will still be good and more importantly I'll be able to handle them in a healthier way. On the other hand if things do get overwhelming I know how much I can handle and I'm prepared to say no or take less orders because I know how hard it was to be too busy.

I'm going to be honest. I know many of you already have little ones. I have no idea how things will have to change when it's my turn. I know they will have to change and I know a lot will depend on the temperament of my future kids. I hope that I have done the hardest part of getting the business started so if I get the privilege of having my own kiddos that is one thing I have going for me. I'm at the point that I can take a normal weekend if I wanted and even though I still do work most nights I could probably cut that out (or down) too.

Okay that's a lot and I know it's not tips but I always find it interesting to see the path others have taken and I think you can kind of see some of the steps that helped me. I plan on doing more Etsy related posts. Very soon I'll be sharing what a typical day for me looks like as well as my top selling on Etsy tips in more of a list form for Etsy sellers. I hope this has been helpful. If you've got questions you want me to touch on feel free to leave it in the comments or email me.

Also if you feel like writing anything mean please don't. I've seen many times on other blogs when people share good things or their successes it really brings out some cruel people. I've worked really hard and I know I've been blessed. I am not writing this to brag. I'm writing this to try to be helpful and because people have been asking. I hope you can be happy for me the way that I am happy for you when things go well. Plus you never know the whole story, there have been plenty of hard times along the way.

UPDATE: another installment of a peek into my etsy life is up I'll be tagging them all with my Etsy Life tag if you want to check them out.

Show and Tell: American Girl Doll Winter Coat and Fun Outfit

2012-01-09T00:17:00.002-07:00

I made a coat! Albeit a little coat but I finally did it. I've got a little friend (I've mentioned her before here and here) who is really into the whole American girl doll thing. Well when I was trying to figure out what she might like for Christmas I remembered the year that my mom paid a gal to make us a bunch of really cool Barbie clothes and we thought they were SO cool. Since I'm a pattern horder (not so much a user but horder none-the-less) I had a few 18 inch doll patterns on hand.

After a quick look at my scrap fabric I decided on a coat, and a little top and skirt outfit. I knew the skirt would be a breeze but I've only done collars once, under the supervision of my sewing teacher and that was like 4 years ago. I kinda followed the pattern. I use patterns more for inspiration and a starting point for sizing than anything else. I find that patterns are usually are miserable for sizing people but the items fit the doll great!

It took me a while since it was all new but it was pretty easy. There was one part of the coat and shirt that had to do with the collar that I totally didn't get. Like I started at it for an hour tried some stuff for another half hour and then just gave up and did it how I thought might work and it was fine. I haven't ever done doll clothes nor this style of a jacket and top so it was a little slower than most stuff for me (it took me probably around 4-6 hours). To me that's a long project since I'm a pretty fast and competent seamstress. I can make a dress for myself in less time than that. But of course there's a learning code of doing something new.

It's not perfect but I'm happy with it and so was the little recipient. She's in the middle of editing The Wizard of Oz script and has plans of making a movie with her dolls based on her edits. Creative cookie right? I hope to make her more outfits, maybe some for her movies, it was fun and she really like them.

p.s. sorry about the crummy pics I took them very long after dark right before we left to deliver the gift.

What's for Dinner: Week 111

2012-01-08T10:11:00.007-07:00

(breaded chicken and mac and cheese)

So I'm sad to report my "newbie" i.e. the crock pot Chicken Korma recipe was pretty bad. Not like spit it out of your mouth bad but not yummy (which is weird since there were loads of comments saying how much people liked it) :(. It smelled good but it didn't taste like Korma at all and it didn't have much flavor. We each ate it (it wasn't bad enough to make something else to eat) but I fished out the leftover chicken to throw in ramen since the potatoes were kind of yucky. Oh well. This week I'm going to try out a bunch of new recipes cause I'm in that kinda mood. Hopefully they turn out better than last week's newbie.

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	eat out	Grains and nuts: granola bars, ww pasta Veggies: salad Fish: Salmon
Monday	Lasagna Soup
Tuesday	Big Cobb Salad
Wednesday	jalapeno popper buffalo chicken mac and cheese
Thursday	Shredded Korean Beef Tacos
Friday	Bangers and Mash
Saturday	Teriyaki Salmon with Cheese Ravioli and Butternut Squash sauce

Giveaway and Free Shipping Code: Diaper Covers

2012-01-06T15:32:00.001-07:00

I'm helping My Belle Boutique celebrate surpassing 5000 facebook friends see this facebook post for all the details. If you're not a facebook fan I'd love to like my page here.

And just because, a coupon code for free shipping Just enter 2012FS into the coupon code section on Etsy when you check out and it will automatically adjust everything. Feel free to share it with your friends. Expires Feb. 1

Book Love: Divergent

2012-01-05T23:31:00.002-07:00

So I've been trying to write a blog post for the last 3 hours. The problem isn't a lack of stuff, pictures, etc. I've got projects that I want to share, it's just that my mind has been taken over and I am giddy and in love. I sat down to type out a crafty post but I couldn't stop thinking of the book I finished a few days ago. Divergent. Have you heard of it. It is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. It struck me hard and I feel like a stupid teenager in love who can't stop thinking of that boy. My sister borrowed it from the library and had another week left so she told me to read it. I did and I'm obsessed. So despite all attempts at sharing my own creativity I must share someone else's.

It's no secret that I am a Young Adult Fiction fanatic. Ahem, ahem and ahem. I'm not a person that easily names her favorite this or that. If forced I normally say The Harry Potter books and the Bean spin offs (Shadow books) of Ender's Game were my all time favorites and they still rank right up there but I do believe Divergent is my new favorite.

I may or may not have sent the author (Veronica Roth) a message over goodreads. And it may or may not have said exactly the following:

I just wanted to tell you I loved your book. I'm sure you've heard it a ton but I know I never get old of people telling me they like the stuff I make. I read a lot and I think divergent may be my favorite book ever. I don't make those kind of declarations lightly but I just loved it, everything about it, I think it's perfect. Thanks so much for writing it. I adore YA literature but I'm always a little annoyed at the depiction of love in most books but when I was reading divergent I couldn't help but think "this is how it is, this is how it should be". Besides the story which I adored, I appreciated the way you wrote the romances, friendships, and the family relationships. I loved how real you made them, but at the same time didn't make me feel like I was hearing another downer news story. I feel like you challenged me to be a better person while really entertaining me. When I read that you're just 23 it made me so happy and excited for you! Anyways I wanted to say thanks for sharing your gift with all of us. I look forward to following your career and reading more from you.

Most sincerely,
Marissa

So yeah. Total geek moment out of control. If you like dystopian YA lit like The Hunger Games, Matched, and The Host I highly recommend it. So hopefully that helps me get some of it out of my system, at least until my copy of the book arrives in the mail (so dumb of me to order it using combined free shipping with something that isn't in stock for a few days, errr). Thanks for putting up with my nerd take over.

Naughty Time: Slave Labor Part II

2012-01-04T23:53:00.001-07:00

Remember my post from a year and a half ago of little L pretending to sew on my machine and how she freakishly mimicked me? Well she's still at it, only this time she's doing stuff for real. She's always asking if she can cut the string when she sits on my lap while I sew. Last time I asked her if she wanted to help me cut the ruffles apart for my diaper covers and she was so excited to help. And even better she did an awesome job! Yeah for having a niece who loves helping her aunty work. I'm so excited to teach her how to sew and do other fun non-baby crafts with her.

Link Party: What We Wore and Made Wednesdays #8

2012-01-03T20:28:00.002-07:00

Dress - Forever 21

Cardigan - Charlotte Rousse

shoes - Cents of Style

Necklace - My Grandma's design

Pants -Mervyns

Sweater - ??

shoes - Payless
Remus John Lupin Necklace - PrettyLittleCharmsUK on Etsy

Bracelets - My Grandma's design (I wear these almost everyday)

Top - Forever 21

Cords - Old Navy

shoes - Jelly Pop

Well it's 2012, let's see what you've got going on. If you didn't have a chance to see my round ups from 2011 make sure you peek at my last week's posts after you link up.

Your turn, let me see your favorite fashion, crafty, helpful, or delicious posts.

Fine Print:

Please be a follower

I'd love you to add my button anywhere on your blog (I'm not picky)

Link as many as you want and I don't mind if they are older posts

Recipe: Ice Cream Puffs aka Profiteroles with Chocolate Ganache

2012-01-03T00:37:00.001-07:00

After holiday dinner we're always beyond stuffed so this year for Christmas I wanted a smaller and lighter dessert. After trying something similar in a local restaurant I decided to give these ice cream filled profiteroles a go. For some reason even after making eclair cake a few times I have this block in my head that cream puff pastry is complicated. Let me just say, it's not, it's easy, it's pretty fast and it's down right delicious

for the profiteroles shells

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup salted butter (if you use unsalted butter add 1/4 tsp salt)
1 cup water
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 425 F
Bring butter and water to a boil. Remove from heat.
With a wooden spoon stir in flour it will ball. (you'll need the strength of the wooden spoon I tried to rebel and had to switch)
Stir in eggs one at a time. Wait until the egg is fully combined before adding the next egg. stir fast so the eggs don't cook.
Use drop by the spoonful on ungreased cookie sheet. I made a couple sizes. If you use a heaping TBS it'll make about 20 shells but we kind of liked the smaller ones I made with a tsp of batter (use parchment paper if you have it, I didn't and it worked fine, if you spray the pan they're more likely to burn) .
Bake for 20 minutes then poke each in the side with a tooth pick and bake 5 or so minutes more until golden brown.
Cool.

for the ganache topping

1/2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips (or what you have on hand)
1/3 C heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla

Over medium heat combine chocolate and cream stirring until chocolate is fully melted. Turn off heat and stir in vanilla.

to assemble

When puffs are cool cut a slit or if you like cut off the top part of the puff then put it back on the ice cream like a lil' hat. Add a scoop of ice cream and top with ganache or caramel. I used Tillamook ice cream (the yummiest in the world). I did some with their cherry flavor and topped it with the ganache others I used their cinnamon roll flavor with jarred caramel ice cream topping.

'
Oh and an added bonus you can totally make the shells and ganache ahead of time (and supposedly you can freeze the shells) convenient right?

New Years Resolutions: 2012

2012-01-02T11:21:00.001-07:00

Well here we are at another year both on the calendar and for my age, yup it's my birthday. I am a resolution maker it's kind of unavoidable. I know that not every one "gets" making yearly resolutions but it really helps me. Plus I am such a planner and list maker. I get the whole, every day should be important and there isn't something magical about New Years thing but I really like having a date to reflect on the past year as a whole and think out what I want for the future. Plus since my birthday is at the top of the year it really works for me.

You can see my resolutions last year here. While I struggled with getting all the veggies I wanted to and keeping up with my pictures I succeeded in my two most important resolutions. The first was Do not be controlled by anxiety or worry and let me tell you I do feel so much more free, I cut some anxiety makers in my life and I adopted some good practices (like not entertaining worry in bed).

The second that I feel really made an impact in my life this year was to Re-evaluate and optimize Rae Gun. I can happily report that I haven't been spending EVERY SECOND working. This resolution was definitely a long term one but I stuck with it. Falling into workaholic mode takes a lot of work to get out of (you know unless you're okay with just quitting work, but I love running the shop I just needed it to be more managable). I've been playing more, taking days off without worrying or feeling like I should be working, making things for myself, it's been wonderful.

This year I have a few goals but they aren't as grand and life changing as the ones from last year but they are important in a more practical way.

1. Contain the Clutter - I'm a pile maker and clutter bug. I'm not dirty but it's hard for me to tidy up as I go, it's just not my personality so I end up with lots of stuff around since I've been doing lots of stuff, then I get tired and don't feel like putting everything away. So this year I want to get organized (I know I'm the only one right?). Part of how I want to do this is to set my world up in a way that it's easier for me to stay organized. Not only do I want to get a hold on my every day living spaces I want this year to be the year I go through, sort and organize all my storage areas and delete extra/bad/etc. photos regularly. I also want to develop the habit of tidying up the kitchen and my sewing area every day. I really think this will minimize the stress I feel when things look so messy and cleaning up feels overwhelming.

2. Curb Emotional Eating - I have the taste buds of a fat girl. I love anything fried, cheese, muchies and more. I know eating right will be something I always will have to work on but in the past few months I've had some frustrations that I let myself eat a lot of crap to comfort myself. I want to again try and get more veggies (hey have any of you tried green smoothies, what's your honest opinion?). I want to go back to only eating things that taste delicious I don't want to eat crappy food that's just convenient, if I'm going to spend the calories on it I want to enjoy it. And finally I want to make my snacking healthier and more purposeful.

3. Pray More Intentionally - I pray a lot like during the day, small things, big things, about everything and anything. When I read something of facebook, think of something going on I pray but I want to take time to pray in more focused ways. For Christmas one of the gifts the in-laws gave me is a daily devotional. I want to go through that and pray for whatever is going on, for friends, for people that drive me crazy, for people I don't know. I was better at this in college and I want to get back

I do plan on picking a power verse (you know something from the Bible to focus on and keep close through out the year) but I haven't decided on a verse yet. Last year's verse was Philippians 4:6-7 and it was wonderful to have on the tip of my mind as I tried to control my worry and overloaded-ness.

So there it is my gols for this year. I hope that 2012 is a great one for all of us!

What's for Dinner: Week 110

2012-01-01T23:44:00.002-07:00

(we went to dim sum yesterday it was SO good, happy to have finally found a good dim sum place in SLC)

Well hello 2012. I'd say the first day went well. I guess it's time to get out of holiday mode and get back in gear. For me part of that is going to be eating better. I've kind of fallen, well more like dove, off these past few months. I'd love it if you'd send me your favorite healthy tasty recipes, snack ideas and tips!

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	Swedish Meatballs over Pasta	Grains and nuts: granola bars, ww pasta Veggies: spinach, peas, salad Fish: Tilapia, Shrimp
Monday	Eating Out
Tuesday	Creamy Mushroom Soup and Rolls
Wednesday	Crock Pot Chicken Korma
Thursday	Lemon Tilapia, Rice and Wilted Spinach
Friday	Panko Pork, Mac and Cheese and Peas
Saturday	Quiche

Best of 2011: My Top Five (+1)

2011-12-30T10:55:00.001-07:00

Earlier this week I shared my most popular post from 2011. And while this next set of post may not have been the most pinned or favorited on craftgawker, they're special to me so I'd like to share them again. I made a Mockingjay shirt after falling in love with the Hunger Games series. I've always loved reading but I think this year I just really let myself fall back in love with reading fiction (particularly YA fiction) as my goodreads account proves.

I can't decide. Do I like the time I made my husband aka the best uncle in the world dress up like a Butterfly or a Unicorn. Yup the naughties' birthday parties (and invites) as always were a blast.

I was surprised at Christmas last year with a trip from the musicmaker to Florida to go on a fun cruise and experience the magic of Universal Studio's Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I know it's been a while since I've had a full out post devoted to my addition but fear not my Potter obsession remains strong.

I also shared my all time favorite customer appreciation picture to date. I always love receiving each and every one of them so please keep them coming but this one is just such a cool idea and the little guy is so stinking darling.

The hubby also started a great new band called Dani Lion with a friend of ours who has an amazing voice, they're kind of Fiest meets Gorillaz meets She and Him. They played around with a green screen one day and made this super fun music video. I just love their music so it makes me so so happy (you can hear the whole album and stream or download it for free here)

And this one is just one an aunt would love. Nothing flashy, no fancy sewing or crafting or cooking involved but this year I discovered and shared this old picture of the nieces on their first trip to the aquarium. L could barely talk and she said clear as day "mermaid?" in a totally inquisitive voice like she was wondering if there was a mermaid in there. They're growing up too fast!

Any ways 2011 was pretty dandy. I hope you all have something fun planned for New Years Eve and I'll see you in 2012!

Treasury Love: Blue New Year

2011-12-29T11:24:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it's only a few days until 2012! To ring in the new year fellow EtsyKids team member Michelle of Small Fry Notables made this darling treasury. She was so nice to include my little Euro Rocker Toddler Dress in the love collection full of EtsyKids goodies. Click here to see all the talented artist and get clickable links to each of the items and more.

Link Party: What We Wore and Made Wednesdays #7

2011-12-27T22:00:00.008-07:00

Top and Jeans - Forever 21

Belt - somewhere in LA's garment district

shoes - Cents of Style

Mockingjay - PrettyLittleCharmsUK on Etsy

Shirt and Jeans - Forever 21

shoes -Costco

Cardigan - Forever 21

Top - Kohls
Pants - Mervyns

shoes - Costco

Remus John Lupin Necklace - PrettyLittleCharmsUK on Etsy

I'm not going to lie, last week was kind of a fake Uggs kinda week if you know what I mean. I'd been in CA for a wedding for 5 days and the Utah cold was making me just want to be warm and comfy. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas. I can't wait to see what you've got to share this week!

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And for your listening pleasure (see the play button) here's a cool Christmas song one of my hubby's bands put out this weekend (it was featured on the Salt Lake City Weekly Page and everything). And if you're feeling adventurous watch the awesome music video (it's in yesterday's post). See more of his music here.

Your turn, let me see your favorite fashion, crafty, helpful, or delicious posts.

Fine Print:

Please be a follower

I'd love you to add my button anywhere on your blog (I'm not picky)

Link as many as you want and I don't mind if they are older posts

Music: A Late Christmas Present

2011-12-27T12:00:00.003-07:00

The Lazy Waves - Christmas (I Want Some More) from Matt Glass on Vimeo.

I know this is a few days late, but one of my hubby's bands did a special Christmas song and video that they put out on Christmas Eve. It was all fancy and featured on Salt Lake City Weekly page. It's pretty good. I'd love you to give it a listen. If you like it the band is called The Lazy Waves. This song and others are available for free download (and streaming) here. And if you want like their facebook page so you know when they come out with new stuff here.

Guest Posting: Ginger Snap Crafts

2011-12-27T07:01:00.004-07:00

I'm guest posting over at Ginger Snap Crafts today who is having a fun "Christmas Break" series with lots of neat bloggers.

For those of you visiting from Ginger Snap Crafts I hope you'll hang around for a big. Yesterday (it should be below) I shared my most popular posts from 2011 so if you're looking for somewhere to start that's a good place.

Also feel free to link up to last week's What We Wore and Made Wednesdays Party and I hope you come back tomorrow for this week's party! It so much fun seeing everyone's, creativity, style, recipes and tips and love featuring projects and ideas that are linked up.

Best of 2011: Reader's Top Five

2011-12-26T11:01:00.000-07:00

Can you believe this is the last week on 2011. My oh my how the last two months (not to mention the entire year) flew by! Just for fun, and for those of you who may not have been hanging around all year I wanted to do a few best of 2011 posts. Today I'm doing the most popular posts from 2011 later this week I'll do my personal favorites. I hope you enjoy these oldies but goodies! By far, my most popular post of this past year was my tutorial for quick envelope pillow cases.

I also made a fun lego storm trooper shirt for a little friend's birthday. His Star Wars Birthday Party was so stinking fun and cute I had to do a right up about the whole thing. My friend made awesome costumes, a crazy cake and all kind of games for her little's party.

In one of my many odes to my never dying love for all things Harry Potter I made this fun Hogwarts Bound Baby Outfit for a friend's new little lady and I also added them to my shop here.

I jumped on the book page craft band wagon and mad this fun Upcycled Book Page Wreath. Cheap, quick and easy, my kind of home decor!

And last but not least I shared a super scrumptious recipe for Eclair Cake. Seriously it's really good you should make it. It's been a good year, thanks for letting me share it with you!

What's for Dinner: Week 109

2011-12-25T23:11:00.001-07:00

I hope you had a delicious and Merry Christmas! We certainly did. Traditional Christmas Wontons on Christmas Eve, a Christmas brunch of sausage cheese balls, scrambled eggs, monkey bread, fresh fruit, juice and toast with homemade jam. Then as if our tummies weren't already full we finished the day off with prime rib, smashed garlic potatoes, a green salad and profiterole stuffed iced cream for dessert.

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	Prime Rib feast	Grains and nuts: granola bars, ww pasta Veggies: stir fry, salad Fish: Tilapia, Shrimp
Monday	Lemon Tilapia and Mushroom Risotto
Tuesday	Cream of Chicken and Rice soup
Wednesday	Eat Out
Thursday	Seafood, Meat and Veggie Stir Fry with brown rice
Friday	Chicken and Two Potatoes Parmesan
Saturday	Chicken Artichoke Fettuccine Alfredo

Q&A: Advice on Buying A Serger

2011-12-23T12:45:00.007-07:00

I hope it goes without saying but just in case you need the invitation I want you all to know that I love getting emails and questions from you guys. Whether it's sewing or crafting related, questions about selling on Etsy, what my favorite places to eat in Utah are, or really anything else silly, serious, or whatever. I love feeling connected and helpful. I realize that some of your questions might be helpful or interesting to others so every once in a while I hope to post them if I think they'd help others or are just fun and interesting.

Tori sent this to me a few weeks back and while I answered her right away I kept thinking some of you may be thinking of buying a serger with Holiday money so I figured I should share.

Hello! My name is Tori Bonner @ http://onehappinessinlife.blogspot.com/ I'm starting to make my daughter some simple clothing items, such as dresses, skirts and pants and had a question. I'm assuming you use a serger? I was thinking of getting one for Christmas, but I'm torn as to whether I really need it or not. Do you have any tips or advice? Thank you for anything you can offer! :)

Tori Bonner

Busy B Family

(I found this while looking for serger pics. Look how little L was)

I have three sergers haha but I also sew for a living. A serger is kind of like a cell phone. You don't "need" it but boy is it helpful once you have one. You can do everything to a much lesser and slower and uglier degree that you can do on a serger on a sewing machine. But my personal opinion is that if you sew a lot a serger is worth the investment.

My biggest piece of advice is not to buy the cheapest one you find at Walmart or Joann's. I'd buy one from a sewing store that services them. Or even better check out a store that sells used ones (but ones that they have serviced and know work, I don't advise your first serger to be purchased off of craigslist since they are a little complicated if you have no idea what you're doing). Most of those kind of places you'll be able to try a similar one out and they'll give you a free class to teach you how to use it and in the chance that something is wrong they'll probably help you. Usually even the lowest priced ones there will be better than the pricier walmart ones.

I have one that my mom bought, a singer from costco, years ago (like when she was sewing for me) that I love but the newer model singers I am not a fan of. The ones I've seen have been frustrating to use (they keep messing up) and seem like a cheaper product (I'm not sure if it's the way they make them, the material or what). And if you get a cheaper quality serger you'll end up not really using it much since it won't sew right or will frustrated you so it won't be worth the savings in the long run. I recommend spending in the 300$ or above range on a new one (you may be able to get a better deal used though).

I also have 2 Juki machines (MO-644D) that I've bought as my busniess has grown that I really love. I bought the lowest priced machines in the quilt shop. Juki was a brand that I had heard great things about and after testing it out in a local quilt shop I was sold. Babylock is also know for good sergers (I've happily used them in sewing classes) but those tend to be expensive. I've heard good things about Janome and Viking brand machines but I've never used their sergers.

My advice is that if you decide you want the convenience of a serger, look up all the small independent kind fabric shops that sell machines and smaller sewing machine shops and call to see if they carry sergers that you can try out before purchasing and if they have used machines. Try out the more expensive ones just so you can compare how they feel. And make sure that if you end up buying it somewhere that doesn't do classes to do a class anyways most of the places that offer classes if you don't buy the machine from them you can pay to sign up for the class.

And just as a last thought you might think that it would be worth it, like when buying shoes, to go try it out and then buy cheaper online. But my former sewing teacher told me that it's better to spend a little more in a brick and mortal independant shop because they tune the machines before you buy them, I'm not sure if this is true across the board but with such a finicky machine like a serger I'd spend the extra money to have the local support and availbility of classes, plus it's a heavy annoying thing to have to mail back if something is wrong.

I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions and good luck shopping!

Customer Appreciation Pic: Santa Baby

2011-12-21T12:26:00.000-07:00

I received this picture last year and was so smitten. Isn't this little one a cutie. I love how they set her up in my reindeer ruffle diaper covers, pseudo grass and with a darling hat so fun right? It's been a while since I've shared a customer pic but they really are some of my favorite parts of the job!

And as always if you have any pictures of your kiddos in my gear or if you've ever made anything from one of my tutorials I'd love to see it and share it here!

Link Party: What We Wore and Made Wednesdays #6

2011-12-20T18:04:00.003-07:00

Coat - Target

Jeans - Forever 21

Cardigan - Nordstroms Rack

shoes - Cents of Style

I just have to say I am so stinking in love with my new coat. Like I have a bad morning and go out to run an errand and putting on the coat cheers me up in love. I told myself I wouldn't be a new coat this year (I kind of have a problem) but it was love at first site. I got it at target, on sale. I was afraid people would think it was grandma-ish but it seems like most people like it as much as I do. In fact some lady in fancy smancy boutique asked me "who makes it" bwahahaha it was fun telling her it was from target.

Dress, Belt, and Leggings - Forever 21

Headband - Craft Fair

shoes - dollhouse

Lumos Necklace - PrettyLittleCharmsUK on Etsy

Tank- Old Navy

Jeans - Forever 21

Cardigan - Charlotte Rousse

Scarf - Somewhere in Thailand

shoes - Nordstrom's Rack

Your turn, let me see your favorite fashion, crafty, helpful, or delicious posts.

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Link as many as you want and I don't mind if they are older posts

Last Minute Christmas Ornament, Decor, and Goodie Round Up

2011-12-19T10:25:00.002-07:00

I know Christmas is just days away but in case you still want to get a few last minute, gifts, ornaments or decorations made up, here are a few of my favorites from the What We Wore and Made party over the last few weeks. These peanut butter chocolate pretzels from Bouffe e Bambini are so darling they'd double as decor and presents.

I love the way these hand cut snowflakes out of magazine pages from Maarnietvangrijs turned out. This would be a fun job to give the kids while you're doing other stuff.

And I always love ornaments for easy gifts or just to remember the year and these picture ornaments from Life as a Thrifter look quick and easy perfect for the week of Christmas.

I'm kind of slacking on how I'll prep the table for Christmas brunch and dinner but if I get a chance I might try this tutorial for mercury glass from Randee's Organized Chaos. It is so gorgeous!

And I love this simple wreath from Not So Homemade. It looks totally doable on a last minute schedule but would be a great way to welcome the guest.

Finally the ladies from Sister, Sister shared this cute popcorn ornament and I just adore the feel of it. Not only is it a quickie it would be such a fun thing to do for the kids to watch. You pop the popcorn in it cool right?

What's for Dinner: Week 108

2011-12-18T14:57:00.002-07:00

We're on a little trip visiting some friends from my college days and celebrating the nuptials of a close friend. The wedding was yesterday and was so amazing. It was beautiful and totally expressed the couples' fun and whimsical personalities while being a lovely Christian spiritual event. It was really cool, really kind of perfect. We're having fun eating out and catching up with everyone.

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	Slaw Dogs	Grains and nuts: granola bars, ww pasta Veggies: hmmm Fish: hmmm
Monday	Roommate Dinner
Tuesday	BJ's
Wednesday	Mac and Cheese
Thursday	Bangers and Mash
Friday	Fancy Ramen
Saturday	Christmas Wontons

Naughty Time: I Spy Ornaments

2011-12-16T10:57:00.000-07:00

Last week I pinned a bunch of cute ornaments. I really wanted to make these mod podged fabric ornaments but even though every other day the girls are at my house they love cutting fabric into pieces they were having none of that during last week's Christmas Craft Day. So since I happened to have a bunch of stuff on hand that I could use for the I Spy Ornament that I had also pinned I set the naughty nieces up to make those instead and they turned out pretty cute and were really fun to make.

We Used

Clear Ball Ornaments
Polly Pellets
Assorted beads, buttons and jewels
Ribbon

First I laid some fabric on the table so if the naughties spilled the beads, as was inevitable, there was a chance that they'd stay on the table instead of roll on the flour to be lodged in someone's foot. Then after I removed the metal hanging part from the ornaments. I poured some poly pellets (left over from I Spy Bags from ages ago). They've got a big bag of beads, buttons and jewels that they use to make necklaces so I just told them to put some in. I tied ribbon to use to hand them with and they were done and the girls had a lot of fun.

The next day I went to a craft store to buy some cute miniatures to add but I didn't see anything that would be small enough to fit in the ornament neck but I think they're cute as is anyways and 100% reflection of the kiddos' creativity. Plus it was awesome that I had everything on hand. This was so fun and easy it would even be a cool gift to do on Christmas. If you need something easy that will entertain the kids this might be fun to try.

Recipe: Fresh Homemade Whole Grain Pasta

2011-12-15T12:44:00.004-07:00

It's been a while since I've gushed over my pasta maker but don't be mistaken. We are still living the life of luxury eating fresh pasta. Really it's bad we can't go back. The few times I've used the last of the noodles remaining in our cupboard we were both like meh. We're totally spoiled. Thankfully fresh noodles are so flipping easy and cheap it's totally worth it.

Light Whole Grain Pasta

2 C Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/2 C All Purpose Flour
4 Large Eggs
2 TBS Water
1/2 tsp Salt

Place flour, eggs, water and salt in mixer bowl. Mix with flat beater. Switch to dough hook and knead for 2 minutes. Hand knead for a minute and divide into 8 equal balls. Process according to you pasta roller. Dry or freeze it to store.

Makes about 1 1/4 lbs of pasta.

I usually pile the dough and freeze them and they can go straight into boil water and only takes a few minutes. It's so delicious.

Serve it with your favorite sauce recipe. Here's my Chicken and Artichoke Alfredo if you need any ideas.

And if you want my opinion. I absolutely love my kitchen aid pasta roller attachment. I have the 3 piece set with the roller and two cutters. If you need a gift for a foodie type (or yourself ;) ) I can't recommend this any higher. I totally wish I had forked out the money for this ages ago. Plus there is something so relaxing about it.

Link Party: What We Wore and Made Wednesdays #5

2011-12-13T18:37:00.003-07:00

Top - Forever 21

Jeans - Forever 21

Cardigan - Nordstroms Rack

shoes - Cents of Style (my new fav they have great cheap shoes)

Elephant Necklace - Untamed Menagerie on Etsy

Cardigan - Charolette Rouse

Dress - Made it

Shoes - Cents of Style again (love this place, I kind of bought 4 pairs!)

Tights - Nordstroms Rack

Hair thingy - from a craft fair

And since the nieces were around when I was taking pictures one day and needed to get in on the self timer action here's what they wore umm except I don't know at all where their stuff is from. But they're still cute right? L did her fashion clothing pose and T did her water bending pose.

Your turn, let me see your favorite fashion, crafty, helpful, or delicious posts.

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Green and Gold Ornament Wreath and Book Page Ornament Tutorial

2011-12-12T09:28:00.005-07:00

Before pinterest I saved a photo of an absolutely amazing wreath. It was apple greens and golds and whites. It was a texture lovers heaven and I loved it. This year while I was trying to figure out what I wanted my Christmas decor to be like, you know theme, colors or whatever, that wreath kept popping into my head. I loved how it was definitely festive but not traditional. I don't know about you but I wanted to pick a theme that I would love in the future or that could be easily tweaked to work in a lot of themes just so all the decorations I spend my time making this year can be reused. I'm so happy that I went with apple green, gold and book pages. I'll show you more picks of my other decorations which are still a work in progress another time but today I want to show you my wreath because I love how it turned out.

This (above) was the inspiration wreath. I don't remember where I found it since it was before pinterest but if anyone does please let me know since I'd love to credit the creator of this masterpiece.

I still love the original but when I went to do mine I didn't think I wanted to do the fabric balls (they didn't feel right with some of my other Christmas decorations). And I have to say I'm really happy with how it turned out. If you want to make your own it was super easy and pretty fast (unless you want to make your own ornaments, that took a bit of time). I started off by making book page ornaments. But of course you don't need to do that but just in case you do I'll explain that first (if you need more step by step photos check out this tutorial)

Book Page Ornaments Tutorial

plastic ornament balls
a book to destroy
Mod podge and brush (I like those cheap foam ones)
Loose Glitter
Clear Spray Paint

To make the book page ornaments just tear your pages into small pieces and paint a bit of mod podge on the spot of the ornament you want to work on then put a piece of the page paint a layer on top of that and repeat until the ball is covered. This takes a while and your fingers will get coated but it's easy. When it's done put a thick layer of mod podge on and sprinkle glitter all over. Let dry then spray with a coat of clear spray paint to try to keep the glitter a little more in place (it won't be perfect but it'll make it so that less of the glitter falls off).

Ornament Wreath Tutorial

ornaments of all types and shapes and sizes (I bought a big box at Joanns of gold ornaments, it had balls of various sizes with and without glitter and different finishes, stars, and icicles. I also picked up a box of apple green balls, made a few book page ornaments and bought a few other odd shaped ones)
pine cones
metal wreath form
glue gun
ribbon for hanging

Lay out the ornaments around the wreath form so you get the general idea of how you'd like the layout, what ornaments you like next to each other, etc. Start gluing. Just glue to the metal frame. Keep adding pieces by gluing to the frame and to the pieces already attached to the frame. Repeat until nice and full. Yup it's really that easy. Fill in any spots. String a piece of ribbon through the frame in back and hang.

So that's what I've been up to. As always if you try this out or if you've got something you're proud of I'd love you to share it and link up at my What We Wore and Made party.

What's for Dinner: Week 108

2011-12-11T20:14:00.001-07:00

Last week I tried the PF Chang Lettuce Wrap recipe. It was pretty good but I kept on thinking something was missing (maybe rice, eggs or something creamy, I'm not sure). I've never had the lettuce wraps at the restaurant so I'm not sure how they compare. I think I'm going to keep trying to make at least one new recipe a week (doesn't have to be a dinner though). This week I want to try a version of this Baked Cream Cheese Spaghetti Casserole.

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	MIL's Christmas Party	Grains and nuts: granola bars, ww pasta Veggies: hmmm Fish: Tilapia
Monday	Baked Cream Cheese Spaghetti Casserole
Tuesday	Lemon Tilapia and Roasted Sweet and White Potatoes
Wednesday	Music Maker's Work Christmas Party
Thursday	Basil Tomato Soup and Rolls
Friday	Eat Out
Saturday	Dinner with Friends

Tutorial: Christmas Bustle Skirts

2011-12-09T00:46:00.004-07:00

(you know cause when aunty says stand by the tree she really means lay under it and pretend that you're a present)

I've been drooling over and pinning all the bustle skirts that have been floating around the blogosphere over the last year (like this, this, and this). I had plans to do one for valentine's day, then forth of july, then just any old day and I finally have done one in time for Christmas. Yeah sometimes it takes me a bit to get around to things.

I love making the nieces holiday skirts but they grow so fast that I wanted something that would last longer than just this Christmas. So my solution was to make this a two part skirt. The bottom skirt is made of two layers of red and white. The top bustle layer is made up of a fun snowman fabric I found in my stash. Since the Christmas-y part is separate the girls can where the underskirt whenever or if I feel adventurous I can make more top skirts for say Valentine's day, Fourth of July and more since the red and white would work with so many holiday and everyday fabrics.

I was having too much fun at craft day to remember to take a ton of pictures but if you know how to make a basic skirt (or can make sense of my written directions) you should be able to do this. If you have never made a simple gathered skirt you might want to check out this tutorial from made (with lots of pictures) for a better explanation of the basics. And little pink monster has a good tutorial on for how to do a similar layered skirt which is close to what I did for my underskirt.

What You Need

layer 1 underskirt fabric (my white)
layer 2 underskirt fabric (my red)
ruffle fabric
lace
bustle fabric
ribbon
elastic

What to Do

Unfortunately I don't have too many pictures and wasn't super picky about measurements I just cut the white fabric a little shorter than the red fabric so for the girls the white was about 8 inches the red was 10 and the ruffle was 4 (they are 3 and 4 years old). The bustle fabric was 10 inches. So these are the full width of the fabric so for the bustle the piece is 10 X 44 (since the width of the fabric is 44 inches). This post has a good chart on skirt/fabric length suggestions for skirts. Think of it as the length if you weren't adding a ruffle or lace. You'll want to do some math to accommodate for those things.
Attach the lace to the white piece. You can do this with a serger like me or french seam or however you'd normally sew a seam.
Finish the edge of the red fabric (or whatever that layer is for you). I did this with a rolled edge but you can do a basic hem or zig zag on your sewing machine to mimic a rolled edge.
Finish the long edges of the ruffle. Attach to the underside of the red piece. The goal is to make it look like it's two layers but it's really just a ruffle underneath. You could just do a whole extra layer if you like.
Lay out the fabric so that everything sticks out the amount you want, cut off some of the tope if necessary so the layers stick out how you want them to and pin (or if you have a serger just serge the layers together at the top). Sew the ends of the fabrics together (both layers) so you have a tube.
Next make a casing at the top edge and add your elastic. You should now have the white and red skirt finished. This can be worn as is or with a bustle top skirt. And the best part is that you can make a bunch of top skirts to change things up

For the bustle layer. Hem one edge of the bustle fabric. Sew the ends to form a tube. Finish the top edge (or just roll under twice) and make a casing.
Before you put in the elastic put four pins spread out evenly around the hem of the skirt.
Then sew the sew from the edge to the waistband pushing and scrunching the fabric so it gathers.
See how you like the length if you want it shorter just repeat and scrunch some more.
Add bows. I sewed the ribbon in the middle then tied the bow then took a few stitches so the bows wouldn't come undone.
Add elastic and you're done.

Let me know if you have questions and I'll do my best to help. And as with all my tutorials if you try it out I'd love to know and see pictures. And as always I'd love you to add them (and any other creative, delicious or fashiony posts) to my What We Wore and Made Link Party that I hold every week.

Link Party: What We Wore and Made Wednesdays #4

2011-12-06T21:11:00.004-07:00

Top - Forever 21

Jeans - Forever 21

Shoes - lesportsac

Belt - Target

Lumos Necklace - PrettyLittleCharmsUK on Etsy

Kitty Shirt - made it

Jeans - Charlotte Russe

Cardigan - Forever 21

Shoes - Ross

Camp Half-Blood Tee - I designed it on ooshirts.com

Cords - Old Navy

Shoes -Jellypop

In case you missed it, I did an advent calendar round up. Feel free to grab a button (see button tab at the top of the page) if you were featured. Also I made us a We We Wore and Made party button it can also be found by clicking on my buttons tab above. I love seeing all of your creativity thanks so much for linking up I'll definitely be doing round ups regularly to feature some of my favorites!

Your turn, let me see your favorite fashion, crafty, helpful, or delicious posts.

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Link as many as you want and I don't mind if they are older posts

Show and Tell:Christmas Craft Day 2011 #2

2011-12-06T08:49:00.017-07:00

There was a time when I first moved to Utah that I didn't have any crafty friends, it wasn't until I made some through a community sewing class that I realized how much I had missed that part of myself. My how things have changed. My crafty mom, sister and friend from college move out here and I keep making new crafty friends. Life is definitely better with crafty people in it :) Above are the felt ornaments my friend Linda made. You can see a tutorial for them here.
Here's some of what the we made this week. They never cease to impress me. It's fun how there are so many projects out there that even though we are all on pinterest when we get together I feel like everyone's got a new cool idea I haven't seen yet. These are Leah's awesome Joy stars . Here's the tutorial she based things off of but she taped the cones and sprayed the whole thing with sparkles.

I made the nieces bustle skirts. I'm hoping to take some better pictures when I finish T's and write up a tutorial for you guys. I think it turned out kinda of cute and the best part is that the top layer is separate so they can wear it just as red and white or I can make another topper for Valentine's Day and Fourth of July!

Jacquie used this tutorial for making salt dough ornaments to document this cutie pie's first Christmas with some footprints ornaments.

My mom made a cute muffin tin advent calendar. Here's a tutorial similar to what she did.

Courtney made a easy car seat cover. All she did was sew two pieces of fabric together after rounding the corners. Inside out it. Top stitch and then after marking where the straps would attach to the car seat she sewed on ribbon for straps.

I also made a few of these quick and cheap Christmas centerpieces for our church Christmas party. I'm having so much fun with our weekly craft days and excited to keep up the the tradition in a monthly fashion in the new year. I love getting things done and getting to spend some quality time with some quality girls.

Camp Half Blood Shirt

2011-12-05T10:52:00.002-07:00

I'm really excited to finally have a Camp Half-Blood shirt. As many of you know I'm a big reader of young adult fiction. Some of my favorites are from Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series. I was really thinking I needed a fan shirt.

I had the pleasure of checking out ooshirts.com last month and I had a blast. It's a website where you can design shirts. It's such a cool site. You can add your own text or upload your own design. Also what's extra cool is that they have a button that you click and it gets rid of all the white in your design so you don't have to worry about making your background transparent or cutting out your design yourself.

(click on the images to enlarge)

And yes I've done the freezer paper transfer thing and really like it but some designs and fonts are such a pain that I really like this option. Like this font would be really annoying to cut out on the cricut by hand.

On top of the design flexibility, ooshirts.com has tons of shirt options. Many many brands and styles, tees, tanks, hoodies and more so you really have the ability to make the shirt that you actually want. This is what it looked like while I was designing it. Neat right? I was really impressed by the company. The website was really easy to use, they shipped my shirts super fast and so much fun. I even tested out the customer service. If you want one just like mine you can see get the design right here.

What's for Dinner: Week 107

2011-12-04T16:25:00.003-07:00

(texas chili don't the spices look so pretty?)

I've been wanting to eat really delicious things lately. I'm not sure if that makes sense but most of the time I'm fine eating yummy things but lately I've been wanting it to be fantastic. You know after you have a really good meal and you're totally satisfied, umm yeah I've been kind of obsessed. Maybe it's more of a trying new things thing too. I think since I'm not crazy busy with sewing stuff I'm going to try to force myself to get into the habit of trying at least one new recipe a week.

Anyways not to put pressure on you guys or anything but if you have any recipes that you've tried and liked lately (doesn't have to know your socks off just something yummy I'd love to try them) feel free to link them in my current link party and just put the links in the comments. And yes I'm still planning on a soup round up so if you've got any (or have links to any) of those I'd love for you to share them too.

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	Shrimp Alfredo with homemade pasta	Grains and nuts: granola bars, ww pasta Veggies: lettuce Fish: salmon
Monday	Eat Out
Tuesday	Chicken Sausage mashed potatoes and some spinach
Wednesday	Campanelle
Thursday	Lettuce Wraps (my newbie)
Friday	Pork and Shrimp Wontons
Saturday	Zuppa Toscana

Advent Calendar Round Up

2011-12-02T07:48:00.005-07:00

Don't think it's too late to start an advent calendar. If you get it made up this weekend you still have three weeks of fun with it to build up the excitement for Christmas. My friend told me today that every year she prints up pictures and memories from the year to put in her advent calendar. As they count down the days they are able to reflect on the year and fun memories. Plus when Christmas is done everything is printed and written out and can easily be put into a scrapbook. Cool right? I've heard of lots of neat ideas. Obviously food, fun family activities, parts of the Christmas story, ornaments and more. I love all the options.

Here are some of my favorite advent calendars I've seen in my link parties and on pinterest. Let me know in the comments if you've seen some other cool ones or if you have other good ideas for counting down to Christmas!

The True Story of Christmas - Find a full list of Bible verses and related nick nacks to fill any advent calendar base over at Sweeter than Sweet
Reindeer Count Down - Such a cute idea and would be fun to make with the kiddos from Balancing Home.
Paper Packages - I love the idea of just wrapping up gifts of different shapes and sizes. This is from flickr user Carambatac.
Envelope Garland - This is from Kristy from 365 Days of Pinterest. Yes she's making daily projects from pinterest awesome right?
Baby Socks - I love how this looks like a bunch of stockings but they're really just baby socks. Cute right? Of course it's from Martha Stewart.
Framed Boxes - A bunch of tin boxes on a frame clever right? She also added some yarn to fill up the frame with a clip and she switches out pictures and drawings. So fun.
Remodeled Store Bought Calendar - Analise from Sugar Sugar totally revamped a primary color advent calendar. I love this idea since you see so many awesome shapes but they either are cheesey colors or don't go with your Christmas scheme. Brilliant right?
Snowing Packages - I love the tiny packages falling like snow. See the whole tutorial from Pickles.

Also my link party from this week is still up if you haven't added anything to it yet ;) I try and get most of the projects I feature from my link parties and I'd love for you to submit anything you're proud of (doesn't matter how old or how many).

Guest Posting: Cutest Little Elf Stocking and Baby Set and Apron Giveaway

2011-12-01T10:15:00.005-07:00

I'm guest posting and doing a little giveaway today over at The Crafting Chicks. See the tutorial and how you can win some Rae Gun goodies here. For those of you visiting from The Crafting Chicks welcome it's great to have you. I hope you take a peek around. Here are a few of my personal favorite posts if you need somewhere to start.

Upcycled Lid Mini Collage Ornaments capture a memory and put some trash to use
Eclair Cake great for Holiday parties
Playing with a Green Screen see the fun music video we made

Also I do a link party every Wednesday. This week's is still up and I'd love you to add something. See this post for the most recent link party.

Link Party: What We Wore and Made Wednesdays #3

2011-11-29T22:00:00.015-07:00

sorry about my lame-o face, I was sick most of the week, this was before we headed out to Thanksgiving
Sweater - I think Ross

Pants - Mervyns once upon a time

Shoes -Jelly Pop

Mermaid Necklace - Black Apple on Etsy

note, my boobs aren't that lopsided, I just can't dress myself.

Undershirt - Old Navy

Pants - Forever 21

Vest - Charlotte Russe

Scarf -Somewhere in Thailand

yes my eyes are closed, come on I was sick this was the best out of like 12 self timer shots

Nimbus Tee -Teefury

Cardigan and Pants - Forever 21

Booties - Walmart

Shoes for a short time period -Costco

Hope you all had a spectacular Thanksgiving. I was kind of sick. Bummed that I was too yucky to hit the mall at midnight but what can you do. I'm hoping to do an Advent Calendar round up on Friday so I hope you guys will link any advent calendar projects in addition to whatever you were planning to link since I would love to feature many of your cool projects in the collection.

Your turn, let me see your favorite fashion, crafty or delicious posts.

Fine Print:

Please be a follower

I'd love you to add my button to your blog (anywhere I'm not picky)

Link as many as you want and I don't mind if they are older posts

Show and Tell:Christmas Craft Day 2011 #1

2011-11-29T08:42:00.001-07:00

(Linda with awesome winter decor, just battery operated lights and some cool branches from Michael's that she chopped up)

My friends and I do a Christmas Craft Day every year. It started off just as a day to put together Christmas cards and bake cookies but quickly evolved to crafts of all sorts. You can see the awesomeness from last year here. This year there was an outcry that we needed more than just one day so we've planned a few. So here's what we made at our first Christmas Craft Day of the year.

My sister made these darling shirts for the naughty girls out of ribbon. She made some similar turkey ones for Thanksgiving that she liked so much she did this. We sewed these one and she glued the turkey ones and says she much prefers the glue style.

Our cute exchange student friends Seema and Lamia made a ton, and by a ton I mean a gazillian gift tags. They were so cute.

A few of us made wreaths. This one by Leah was made with real clippings, like from the yard, and a wire. Awesome right?!

There was knitting and crocheting (I think there was both). After Heidi whipped out a wreath she worked on her family stockings.

Laurel, host mama of exchange student Seema made 5 super adorable stockings. Here's Seema holding the one that was created for her.

I made a few ornaments that are going on a wreath and helped friends with sewing stuff. But my wreath isn't quite done so this is all you get for now. I had crazy mod podge fingers after finishing the ornaments.

And my ultimate favorite part of the day was that everyone showed up with a giant box of craft crap. It was awesome.

Rae Gun Finds: Crafty Wood Cut Outs

2011-11-28T09:40:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of visiting a brand new shop called Crafty Wood Cut Outs that's just a little drive down the freeway from me that's really neat. Those of you who find yourself in Utah County should definitely check it out.

While I am not much of a wood crafter, I'm so much more comfortable behind a sewing machine, I had a lot of fun seeing all the amazing projects that they sell and picking one out for myself. It's always good to try new things right? They have all sorts of kits of unfinished wood as well as paper, paints and more perfect for all your crafty needs including some special holiday and season appropriate choices.

(it's hideous right?)
Now I really really wanted this post to be a cute tutorial on how you can use mod podge fabric on cut outs the same way you would with paper but after did my first pass I was hating how it turned out. Nothing to do with the technique or cut-outs just the colors and it was so so red and so not me.

So I ripped off all the fabric and started again. And while it didn't involve mod podging I like the result so much more. But you should know if you have some cool fabrics you can totally use them in these kind of projects. Super thin fabrics aren't the best but medium weight fabric works really well. I ended up with a few letters solid with gold glitter and a couple more textured with white and gold. I keep going back and forth between whether I want them all gold and glittery or if I like the diversity how it is.

I really like how the bells turned out especially the one in the C. Cute right? Oh and one last tip did you know that you can use was paper for crafting too? Yup if you put down a bit of wax paper when you're painting or gluing or whatever it makes cleanup a cinch and you don't have to worry about your work surface.

Any ways if you're into the wood crafting stuff i encourage you to go "like" Crafty Wood Cut Outs on facebook since they are working hard to open an online shop in the next month or so.

What's for Dinner: Week 103 aka call for soup recipes

2011-11-27T00:31:00.000-07:00

(rolls from Thanksgiving)

Today my friends and I are having our first Christmas Craft Day of the season. A few of them ~~demanded~~ asked for more this year instead of the one we had last year and I love crafting with friends so I'm wasn't about to say no. I'll be making a big pot of soup and rolls and probably grab some salad stuff on the way home from church plus we'll have whatever munchies they decide to bring, it's going to be fun. As far as the menu for the week goes there are a bunch of repeaters since I ended up getting sick last week and didn't feel like cooking at all.

And if you haven't noticed I started a weekly link party (on Wednesdays) for food, fashion and crafts (or if you have any tips those are welcome too!) I'd love it if you guys would link your favorite soup recipes since I want to do a soup round up sometime soon since I'm a huge huge soup fiend and it is soup season.

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	Potato Corn and Turkey Chowder Salad and Rolls	Grains and nuts: granola bars, ww pasta Veggies: lettuce, spinach Fish: salmon
Monday	Seafood Quiche
Tuesday	Ravioli and Marinara
Wednesday	Eat Out
Thursday	Meatball Sandwiches and Salad
Friday	Salmon Cous Cous and Wilted Spinach
Saturday	Tomato Soup Salad and Rolls

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T12:07:00.000-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I've very thankful for all my readers and love that you let me share this part of my life with you and let me have a peek at yours as well. How amazing is technology.

Just a reminder that you can get free worldwide shipping in the Rae Gun Etsy shop all weekend by entering the code GOBBLEFS into the coupon code on etsy when you check out. I've also got other promotions all weekend that you can enjoy in addition to free shipping. See this post for details and codes.

Link Party: What We Wore and Made Wednesdays #2

2011-11-23T00:21:00.001-07:00

Ruffle Shirt - Made by Me

Cardigan - Kimchi Blue

Jeans - Forever 21

Shoes -Payless (we're breaking up with this pair

they are starting to rub way too much)

Bow Shirt - Charlotte Russe

Undershirt - Old Navy

Jeans - Charlotte Russe

Shoes -Jelly Pop

Snitch Necklace - Brat Boutique on Etsy

Tank - Target

Pants - Old Navy

Cardigan - Charlotte Russe

Shoes -Nordstrom's Rack

Potter Lumos Necklace - PrettyLittleCharmsUK on Etsy

Welcome back. I had so so much fun looking at each of your projects, outfits and other creations last week. Thanks for playing! Here are a few of my favorites from last week. For those of you who have never done a what I wore post, I have to say knowing I'm going to take a picture of my outfit and just looking at my outfits on the camera each day has really helped me out. I'm kinda liking this.

Your turn, let me see your favorite fashion, crafty or delicious posts.

Fine Print:

Please be a follower

I'd love you to add my button to your blog (anywhere I'm not picky)

Link as many as you want and I don't mind if they are older posts

What We Wore and Made Features

2011-11-22T07:49:00.015-07:00

You guys are amazing. I had lots of fun looking through all your amazing creations, recipes and outfits. Here are a few of my favorites from last week's party.

Marine Corps Ball how amazing is that dress, they are such a cute couple!
Fabric Covered Necklace it's just marbles and fabric cool eh?
Jewelry Wall Hanging
Monster Pants does it get any more awesome? I need a pair for myself.
No Sew Scarf yeah so my mom made one for my sister in just a few minutes, we're kinda in love
Belted Cardigan I love how she spun this outfit, too cute.

Feel free to grab a button if you were featured. I'll have the link party up tomorrow and I look forward to seeing more amazingness from all of you

Rae Gun After Thanksgiving Sale 2011

2011-11-21T14:24:00.001-07:00

Just a quick note to give you all the details of this weekend's upcoming sale. I only do one sale a year so if you've been eying my baby and toddler clothes, want to get ahead on Halloween orders for next year or have a gaggle of pregnant friends or family that you'll need baby shower gifts for now's your chance. Sale starts Thursday November 24, 2011 and runs through Monday November 28, 2011. Check out my Shop.

Please read all the info so you know how the sales, codes and discounts will wok.

FREE SHIPPING all weekend starting on Thursday through Monday. Enter the code GOBBLEFS into the coupon code section during the Etsy check out and it will automatically adjust your price.

10% OFF on your entire order on Saturday and Sunday only. Since on Etsy you can only use one coupon code at a time if you want to get both the free shipping and the 10% off enter the code above for free shipping in the coupon code section and in the notes to sellers section (where you'll also write the size info) please write THANKSGIVING10OFF and I will refund you 10% after you pay.

BOGO on Friday and Monday buy one item get one READY TO SHIP item of equal or lesser value half off. So the half off item must be something from my "ready to ship" section and it must be of equal or lesser price to what you purchase at the regular price. If you want something more expensive feel free to buy a few regular price items (for example you can buy a set and a bottom and if that adds up to the same or more than a jumper you can get the ready to ship jumper half off). Since on Etsy you can only use one coupon code at a time if you want to get both the free shipping and the BOGO enter the code above for free shipping in the coupon code section and in the notes to sellers section (where you'll also write the size info) please write THANKSGIVINGBOGO and I will refund you after you pay.

EARLY BIRD CUSTOMER CHOICE so to make life easier for all of us who will be trying to take advantage of all the great deals around town I'll be doing an early bird special order sale. Here's how it works. You'll get free shipping plus the discount of your choice: either 10% off the entire order OR BOGO buy any regular priced item get one ready to ship item of equal or lesser value half off. To do this message me on Etsy (to raegun) your list of what you want to order and what discount you want by Wednesday 10:00 pm PST . I'll set up the listing with the prices adjusted already and you'll need to check out and pay by 11:59 pm PST on Thursday (11/24/11).

Please note. I'll do all the refunds at once. So on Tuesday. Depending on how many orders I get it may take a couple days but they will all be done next week. I'll be adding more ready to ship stuff but there is a limited amount so if you're interested in the BOGO please know that is is first come first serve.

Also I will be out and about shopping on Friday and Saturday. I'll try to find my way back to a computer to relist things but if something you really want that is showing up as sold when you get there feel free to send me an message on etsy and as long as it's a made to order item that I can make another of I'll set you up a reserved listing as soon as I get back.

Okay I hope that all made sense please ask me any questions if something is confusing. Oh and as you can see above I'm doing aprons. I'll be adding more to the shop all week. Check out my Shop.

Naughty Time: Easy Turkey Craft

2011-11-21T01:27:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had a fun little play date at our home. One of our friends brought his kiddos over to play with the naughty nieces while his wife was out of town. The friends showed up in full batman and spiderman costumes (it was awesome). It took some time to get them to take off their masks because they were afraid that we'd "know who they were". Oh yes a kid's gotta protect his/her identity after all.

My sister brought a fun craft for them. It was so easy I thought some of you might like to do it on for Thanksgiving (or even on Thanksgiving if you need something for the little ones to do)

What you need

paper plates
construction paper
paint
double sided tape or glue

What to Do

Cut the plates in half.
Depending on how old the kiddos are either cut the pieces or have them cut the pieces (brown body, white and black eyes, orange beak and red gobbler, it's called a gobbler right?)
Have them paint the feathers. And let dry (we played some rounds of hide-n-go seek here it was awesome)
Have them take or glue the pieces on.
Marvel in their creativity

What's for Dinner: Week 106

2011-11-20T08:46:00.005-07:00

(Sausage and Ricotta Pizza)

I'm in charge of green beans, rolls and dessert (which I'm doing a version of this amazingness). What's your job for Thanksgiving?

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	I'm eating Popcorn and watching Breaking dawn! but making Spicy Fish and Cheesey corn potatoes for the hubby	Grains and nuts: granola bars, ww pasta Veggies: lettuce Fish: Fish
Monday	Meatball Sandwiches and Salad
Tuesday	Seafood Quiche
Wednesday	Some kind of Pasta
Thursday	Thanksgiving Feast
Friday	Left overs
Saturday	Eat out