Showcases on Etsy

I signed myself up for my first showcase on etsy which aired yesterday under "children". After a day at the market it was kinda fun (read btwn the lines as addictive as hell!) It was kinda nice not to have to rise at 5am, attempt to look vaguely acceptable, drive for miles, lug stuff, stay in one spot for hours, be tempted by food vendors and then reverse all the above. You could however sit in your PJ's ...pop into your "stall" frequently with some apparent obsessiveness and ride the waves of emotion for a whole day of "showcase". My hubby kept taking the piss out of me all day saying "SHOWCASE" in an overly theatrical fashion ..."Oh are you ready for your ..SHOWCASE...."...Is that the outfit you are wearing for your "SHOWCASE" ..you get the picture. However he did dance round the room with me when I made my first ..yep say it together everyone "SHOWCASE" sale ..and was respectful enough to ask me all about "hearts" and "views" at various intervals during the day. I should warn you though..SHOWCASES are highly addictive and should come with some sort of warning. I was on a buzz all day and was seriously on a come down today. I have been pretty moody and toddler seemed to sense this and pushed my buttons all day. "Mummy can I play with THIS..wielding some highly dangerous pointy thing.....NO ...then I shall play with THIS...some other highly dangerous object that came out of nowhere". He even drove his car up the steps and into the house - how he managed this I have no idea. When I asked him what sort of toy this was? He would reply it is an inside toy....I would remind him "it is an outside toy Jack".....it is an inside toy mummy....again you get the picture! Ciders opened at 4pm for me today and God Bless "The Night Garden".

Showcase Cold Turkey is no fun...I made one sale which was great and it drove nearly 100 people to my shop so it was definitely worth the $7....hmmmm I wonder when the next one should be..just one more hit man..one more hit!

All Packed up for Market

So tomorrow is market day down at Moss St and I am getting all packed up and ready to go. Today has been a daycare day and I cannot believe how fast it goes. I get quite a lot done, but always hope to have achieved more. Today I had a Cazza photoshoot in the house to try and get some more flags into the store (check them out in my etsy store) - I am amazed at how long these take and my pictures still look pretty crappy - but they are fun to stage and I am getting more and more creative with the sets. I then made 2 little tote bags to take to the market tomorrow - these have been on my permanent list of to dos for a long time - so it was lovely to finally see them in the flesh.

Other news - not sure really - the summer is so busy with stuff. Great stuff - but I do feel like the season is whooshing by. Hubby and I are not getting a lot of time to hang out together as one of us is usually on the run somewhere and I think we need to make the time to see eachother and actually "talk" - somedays it feels like we are barking a bit at eachother "I've got to do this.."can you do that ..bark, bark ..woof..woof". Yesterday I came back from watching "Eat, Pray, Love" with a girlfriend (was much better than I had thought it would be)...only to come home to a load of washing up, laundry to do, laundry to fold, dog puke in 3 separate places and then a crying child".....the zen of the film and a box of smarties waned pretty quickly.

Dog puke was due to my dumb dog eating a whole pack of butter off the counter - seriously - what?!?!?!

Where on earth am I going with this?? I guess sometimes there is such overwhelming guilt at my spending time and money on wallflags, etsy and the market. It takes me away from my wee one, my home responsibilities and really limits the time I get to play with hubby. Deep down I know that I really need this to keep on the straight line - this is so good for my soul and as a friend once said "don't sabotage it now." Anytime I hear that nasty inner voice..you know the one..I have to say to myself out loud "don't sabotage"..because you just do not know where things will lead .... and this is making me happy.

So have a great weekend everyone - wish me luck at Moss St and do come and see us if you are ever in the neighbourhood!! I have to go pick up my little one now - let the games begin!!

The Animals came in two by two

This little fella is a very popular guy. He sells everytime I bring him along to a market so I haven't even had time to take his picture yet for my store. Today I had a great friend visiting myself and the boy and she bought a lot of the new flags that I printed yesterday including this little fella. I hope I can get round to printing more for the store this week - but I wanted you to see him sooner as he is such a handsome fellow and a hit with the ladies! I think I should get a Noah's Arc flag soon I have an elephant and a giraffe - what else went on the arc?

Other news is slim today on the work front as I was being a mumma for the day for the busy boy!

New Beetle Car Design

I had so much fun designing this flag for one of my friends today! IT is going to be all mixed colours and I think some are definitely going to hit my store soon as I can't stop printing them. Ahhh the rush of block printing.

Eat, Pray, Love

Well today was a productive day in my La La Land studio! I am having a bit of a love fest with my house this summer - we moved here nearly 5 years ago and even on the first viewing with my husband I wrote on the info pages "I love it!". Now it is by no means perfect, finished or dreamy to most - but it is maybe for those very reasons that I love it so much. It is so "us" and it has actually brought us nothing but happiness and watched our family grow from the cat we adopted who lived here before us ..to the puppy..to the bambino! This is the first place my husband and I ever made our roots after such a whirlwind time together. We have finally made a home and when you are in the right place I think it just all seems to happen so easily. A year ago I thought I wasn't enjoying my home...we had some suspect junkie renters move in next door and bit by bit they really changed the atmosphere of our neighbourhood and my love of this house. We had been hunting and hunting for another place, but every viewing I would go on I would see something that didn't fit - find fault in some way and just keep coming home and going - but we have so much here. Soooo finally the renters left (yippee) in June this year - my feelings of relief were not immediate - but bit by bit my frantic house hunting has dwindled and I have begun to feel all that LOVE back for my sweet little home! So here is a picture of some words that are painted in my kitchen - still there from the previous owner - Love, Dream Laugh, Dance!! We are again and we are so happy to have our home back.

My first etsy sale and my first blog win!!

Wow what an exciting weekend this is turning out to be. I made my first sale yesterday on etsy and was just so excited! I want to put a big thank you out to my new etsy customer and now I am learning abt the next stage - sending your product. Am wondering how best to package, send and pop in lots of happy thoughts - hoping that the customer is really happy with their new flag!!

My next news today was that I won a book that I have absolutely adored reading. It is by a very talented new author called Michele Young-Stone and the book is called "The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors". I just really enjoyed reading this story, the characters are so well constructed - you care abt them all - and you miss them when you have finished reading - wondering how they are "getting on". It was just a joy and great escape for me - now it is hard to start anything else. So when I found out today that I had won a free copy I was over the moon because my copy had come from the library and the book is a real keeper!

Well this was a quick post to say "yippee" - I am now off to enjoy the summer evening with hubby - if 2 yr old will let us!

Have a great holiday weekend BC readers XX