Forgetful...

Sometimes I forget how old I am and try to stay out as late as I used to. That was definitely the case last night, I got home after 3am (3:30? 4?) and am feeling every bit of that today. ::wince!::

Jenny's Leap Year party was fun. She loved the jar of gummy frogs I brought as my guest gift. I made 4 origami jumping frogs for her to put in the jar when the gummy frogs were done and everyone loved the idea. The gummies went VERY quickly. =)


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I'm so behind on some parts of technology! Etsy started posting video podcasts and audio podcasts and I can't for the life of me figure out how to download them and put them onto my mp3 player! Okay, really, that's the only part of me that's behind. Just the podcasts. I guess that's not so bad. If anyone who reads this has suggestions, please let me know!

Yesterday I sewed my fingers off, watched 3 episodes of Season 2 of "Big Love" and swooned over SweetestPea's monster made out of recycled men's clothing on Martha. I just recently bought a rice ball from her for a friend of mine. I hope I get it today!

I still ended up one or two behind my Etsy quota. That's fine, I will make those before working on March's 20. My fabric didn't come yesterday either. Sigh! I didn't REALLY expect it to, since it was only 4 days after the prints were shipped, I was just really hopeful. I DID get another card from my handmade penpal TheSeaWithin! I love her! I get things from her every other day. I want to find fun objects to send her along with my handmade cards/envelopes.

Speaking of TheSeaWithin, check out my new makeup bag:

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The fabric is named "Caribe" which I think is so cool since that's actually my brother's name. The color palette really does resemble like the Caribbean Ocean.

I really want to make clutches, if my migraine ever goes away today, I am going to cut fabric and attempt to make one today. Migraines make me sad. I know I should rest but I should also do laundry, tidy my apartment, finally put together my dresser. I'm trying to work through it, but I don't know if that will really work.

I'm off to take more excedrine and see if I can get up out of bed!

<3 Always,
--Taina

Leap Year!

Hello friends!

So as many of you know, I have Friday/Saturday off from my fulltime job. I'm also 8 behind my 20/month self-imposed quota of items to make for Etsy. I couldn't be more thankful for a Leap Day this month!

Today, Etsy will be on Martha! It's so exciting! I try to watch Martha whenever I can, which is usually once a week at most. I love all of the recipes of hers that I've tried. Especially the Irish Soda Bread, to die for!

So the plan is to make 8 things today and list as many as possible. Then I will be going to my friend Jenny's Leap Year party. I'm still trying to think of a good hostess gift for her and her roommate. My last party, she brought a "Hostess Platter", which was a nice plate covered in Twinkies, DingDongs and HoHo's. It was really cute. She joked that we are in competition because she spent "so much time" working on her gift to me. I was thinking of maybe making a jar of hand-dipped chocolate covered pretzels. We'll see!

Here is item 12/20:


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A tried & true fabric, hopefully it will sell once again! This time I lined it with blue fabric I picked up at Mood. I hope my new order of fabric from FabricStash arrives today! I can't wait to make things out of the new prints.

It's 9:24am and even though my throat is slightly sore, I'm ready to start my day! I think today is an oatmeal & an organic navel orange day.

<3 Always,
--Taina

Happy Birthday to me!

It's been almost a week since I last updated. Not much has happened in my handmade world. Let's see...

I made cornbread and baked ziti. I put together a new ikea bookcase for all my craft and art books.

On Wednesday, I attended my first Marketing class. The instructor was sick, so she was low-energy and had very little of a voice. The homework is interesting. I'm supposed to answer questions abour promotion, price, product and profit. I was so thrilled to have homework that I did all of it on the subway ride home. I hope next week has better energy.

One of the students is a jewelry designer who has sold to a few celebrities, all by word of mouth, doesn't have anything online. I don't even think she has business cards. I will talk to her about Etsy next week, I think, she seemed interested in how I use the online world to my advantage.

I haven't listed anything new! And the makeup bag is becoming the bane of my existance. It needs to be able to support heavy normal-sized shampoo and conditioner bottles along with other such things. It's not terribly to my liking, so I will try again today.

And yes, today is my birthday. I'm putting together my new dresser for my bedroom and working (once again) on the custom order makeup case. And Dorian and her girlfriend have invited themselves over to watch the Oscars. I'm hoping they don't kill me, I really just want to sew. Hopefully they will not catch an attitude with my sewing at the kitchen table while they watch the show in the livingroom.

A perfect relaxing birthday? Sewing, cleaning, putting together my dresser and taking my old one apart, and maybe making a bday cake for myself out of the Magnolia cookbook.

<3 Always,
--Taina

How do I ship this?

I am so glad I have today off, even though I would have gotten overtime pay for working it. It's rainy and cold outside, which makes it a perfect day to stay in and figure out how I will be shipping the massive makeup bag that was custom ordered. Seriously, it's huge. 20" across, 16" tall, with a 6" gusset? It's taking me forever, as I am triple-stitching everything.

The problem is that it's so sturdy that I don't know how it will fit in an envelope or box. I will be taking it to the P.O. tomorrow to see if they have any suggestions. I also want to make sure I know exactly how much my buyer will be paying for shipping. I really hope it's not terribly expensive. The normal size makeup bags I sell only cost $4 to ship overseas, and that's including the padded envelope that's made of recycled fibers and tissue paper. Because I won't be able to fold the bag in half, I will have to ship it flat in a gigantic envelope. Do they even make envelopes larger than 16x20? I'm nervous.

I washed all of my new fabric when I reorganized everything yesterday. I'm excited with the fabric I bought at Mood. I made a coin purse out of it late last night:


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Well, I'm off to try to figure out this bag and make some more things. I haven't counted how many items I've made for Etsy this month yet, but I have a feeling I may be behind schedule. Here's to my goal of 20 again! So glad I have this week off!

<3 Always,
--Taina

Hooray for Organization!

Well dearies, I'm much more organized in my crafting area!

Yesterday I bought more plastic containers with lids and organized all of my fabrics by type (fun prints, everyday prints, interfacing, lining fabrics). I also decided to use one of my big glass jars for holding thread. It's clear and really pretty as you can see all of the colors. I even organized my notions into smaller containers! Totally exciting.

This morning I awoke to find I've already sold my pink bird makeup bag I listed yesterday. Hooray for sales!

I've been trying to be more organized this year, as it will make next year's taxes even easier on me. Etsy's dedicated part of it's website to "The Storque", where you can find all sorts of news, updates, videos and more. Well guess what I found? A pre-made Seller Worksheet!

I just spent the last hour customizing it to my needs. I needed a column for Charity percentages and I also wanted to include the sum of gross sales each month. And now I'm all done with January and February (thus far). Everytime I make a sale, I will just enter it into the spreadsheet and away we go!

So I listed another umbrella coin purse today:


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And now I'm off to water my plants, straighten up the livingroom and get ready for my friend Dorian (and maybe her girlfriend) to come over for brunch.

Speaking of plants, here are photos of my kitchen window, from left to right:








OMG, I just sold something else in the time it took to write this blog! One of my zoo pillows! How awesome! Today is a great day.

<3 Always,
--Taina