Setting Goals

I believe it's always a good thing to set goals, especially when your time is so limited and you're hopeless at following a regular schedule.

With this in mind, this week I am determined to work on my office area, get the last of my old toys listed by Sunday so I can reclaim the space for my crafting supplies and finally get the remainder of Christmas inventory in lollipops and soaps listed in my etsy stores.

My goal is to acheive this by this time next Monday ...

I'm so excited!

When I came down this morning to check my messages I was delighted to recieve one through my etsy lollipop store telling me that they had found my store through a magazine called "Small" and they were letting me know I was in the magazine in case I didn't know - which it turns out I had NO idea!!

I am buzzing beyond belief, not only one, but two of my lollipops feature on page 6 of the magazine and the way the page is put together is simply beautiful.

You can check it out here SMALL MAGAZINE

THE LITTLE BLACK BOXES

Kim over at The Little Black Boxes is having a fabulous promotion for Black Friday starting November 28th and going until November 30th called The Black Friday Bonanza. They have an awesome selection of indie artists contributing in the Little Black Box for this promotion which will include fabulous sales that just can't be missed!

I have been part of the boxes in October (I sent in barley pops and ducky soaps) and have bought a few boxes myself and am hooked. You recieve so many goodies (average 16-20 per box which include everything from jewelry, bath and body, paper goods and so much more. I even made a sale and a great trading partner in another wonderful indie artist by just taking part myself beccasboutiquebows

They represent some fabulous indie artists and contain amazing products. You can even buy one and have it sent as a gift, which I've done for my daughter in the army (I can't wait to hear how she likes it). So check it out, you really won't be disappointed!! The Little Black Boxes Black Friday Promotion Info

New Christmas Candy

This last week or so has been one of craziness yet amusement. Of course it happens when you're trying to get a lot of things done, you just have to feel under the weather, however I ignored and soldiered on and finally got some new Christmas inventory made up ...
I was so proud of my new lollipops, totally fabulous, new shapes, brand new flavors and even more jewels ...
Then the phone rings ...
It's a very nice lady from a local store here in New Hampshire, she's purchasing products for their grand opening and she's asks if she can come over and see what I have available ... well of course I'm thrilled and of course I say come on over ...
Out came the samples and she tasted a few and fell in love. She bought all my nice new Christmas lollipops, all my nice new crystal jewel candy, in fact she wiped me out of everything I had in stock and then placed an order for the following week!
Silly me had thought that I'd have time to unwrap and photograph my new Christmas candy and so had just packaged them all away for a few days to catch up on other things ... so today I made them all over again!
This time I took the pictures immediately!! Here's my new Santa Claus face lollipop in my new delicious cranberry flavor.

Help! I need a new layout and I'm blog inept!

I hate my layout ... I need something new and fresh to go with my banner but each one of the standard layouts in blogspot all seem to suck when I click on them or look weird ...

Is there a magic place where I can get something trendy and bright that fits the page nicely?

If so how on earth do I get it to work?

Seriously when it comes to computers I'm as thick as bricks !!

I'm hungry ...

I am craving chocolate cake like you couldn't believe ..

Yummy, moist ... NO frosting ... just delicately delicious delectable delightful chocolate cake ... not too rich ... just perfect for those 4am cravings when sleep just won't knock out the brain with the same level of comfort and endorphins as the taste buds desire ...

Right now I would give just about anything to sink my chops around this fantastically yummy looking delight from Vanilla Bean Organic Baked Goods on etsy:

Vanilla Bean Organic Baked Goods

Itching to paint

2.30am .. insomnia .. and the urge to break out the acrylics and a canvas and create!

My brain is overloaded with imagery and thoughts breaking out all over the place, sometimes I wish I could just turn it off ... after all it is 2.33 .. well now 2.34 in the flippin morning!!!

I will resist, for now I will continue to finish the episode of "Life On Mars" that I began and try to sleep ... but if that doesn't work, that's it

I'm breaking out the paint and forget brushes ... I'm slapping it on there, fingers n' all ... to heck with conventionality .. I feel like simply molding color to sit and settle in formations of abstract brilliance ...

Our Last Craft Show For This Year

We had a fabulous time at the Memorial High School Craft fair this past weekend, I stayed up all night frantically packaging and labelling and getting everything ready and then woke everyone at 6.30am to load up and get over there.

I was absolutely amazed at the efficiency and speed of the folks at the school that emptied my minivan in under a minute taking everything right to the booth space, it's the easiest and quickest I've ever got everything inside and set up before and I was most definately impressed!

The craft fair itself was fairly busy and I met some fantastic folks including 3 members of my New Hampshire etsy street team, which was totally cool. I was able to go home for a nap and Amy and Ed took over (Amy is in the picture of the booth) which was a huge help as I was pretty tired by mid morning. We decided to just use the basic L set up with tables and red covers and it worked out ok I think. It turned out to be a fun day, a great way to advertise locally and meet and talk about all of our creations and I definately am considering returning next year.

Memorial High School Craft Fair - Manchester, NH

So I applied months ago and didn't hear anything back from them and assumed we didn't get in...

Saturday we get a letter in the mail saying "hello, here is your spot for Memorial High School craft fair". Um ... it's like in 7 days!! I have nothing on hand ready, and on top of that on the forms it says you cannot sell food items ...

"Points to name" - "Sweet Lollipop Shop" Wouldn't that suggest food?

Have tried to call the number once but got voice mail that said voice mail box was full ... will try again today ...

Also in other news, we got our first wholesale customer on Friday, she came over, tried some crystal jewels, fell in love with the taste and bought pretty much everything I had on hand!

She'd like some moose making up this week so I need to get a hold of my supplier today to see if I can get my better maple in stock because I hate the cheapness of the other stuff I have, my other one is just so much richer and tastes so much better!

Busy Busy Busy and a Surprise !

So this past Saturday was our annual Halloween party for the grown ups! I was so behind on getting the house ready and the food, people are arriving and I'm not even in my costume making chicken curry and rice and trying to prep the tortellini in a frantic rush with my red face and frankenstein hairdo!

Despite my initial flipping out everything went perfectly, this year was bigger and better than ever, and it's amazing just how many people you can fit in one house! Only injury of the night was one of the younger guys getting a severe back spasm but with the aid of heat, tens and a massage therapist (thankyou R!), he was able to lay on the air mattress and by the morning was much better.

Shocked myself by running my own little hypnosis show in front of a limited audience and had my two favorites guys doing quite hilarious things for about an hour before letting them off the hook!

Now we're in clean up mode ... and everything goes into the shed until next year ... handmade creation of the year this year was Ed's fabulous full size aged coffin ... next year we're combining our talents and coming up with a full size electric torture chair!!