The Journey Continues ... New Life from Old

Yay. Another sale. I usually have my first cup of coffee in bed while I check emails and shop stats on Etsy.. Yesterday, there it was - an email saying I had been paid -- so I knew something had sold. That's a great way to start the day. It was my first non-North America sale, which made it extra special.  Recently I saw some notices of upcoming craft shows. Now, if I left it to myself, I would likely think, "hmm, I should enter," and then miss the registration deadline. So I talked to my sister, who has been doing a lot of painting lately, and asked if she had enough inventory to enter the show and, if so, I'd share a table with her. She is organized and gets things done -- on time, no less! So we are entered in three craft shows. I have done a couple of shows before, but they ended up being not-craft shows ... most of the tables were rented to home party sales people, so lots of Tupperware, candle companies, and cookware dealers, but very few crafts. The...

The new year is no longer so new, it being February now. No need for season's greetings anymore; it will soon be time to tally up the resolutions I have kept, except I didn't write any. Does anyone else have time slip away from them like this? I closed my Etsy shop for most of January while I was on a bit of a vacation. I believe the shop notice said to come back in February to see my new shop look. Hmmm, there's no new look but I have been toying with making the products I want to list.  My new project has been experimenting with fused plastic. It's fun and feels really creative, in a I'm-being-green-and-saving-the-landfills sort of happy way. I spent a few hours online to get an idea of how to fuse the plastic ... it's plastic shopping bags. Everyone cautions that you must work in a well ventilated room due to fumes (even if you can't smell any, they're there). I had a window open beside me, despite the fact that the wind chill was minus 35...