A Heart Breaking Story

A New Face For RuJu

My two small children mean the world to me. My entire life revolves around them. As I'm sure it does for most moms. But their are times, when they can be soooo bad...and do things they REALLY REALLY shouldn't, that make me SO mad.

I, much like most of the people in the US, don't have very good insurance....and vision is not covered at all. I have terrible vision. I can't see squat if it is more than a foot in front of me. I NEED my glasses.

I usually wear contacts during the day, in the evening I wear my glasses. And I actually do sleep with them on my face. I'm so paranoid that I'm gonna wake up to an intruder and not be able to see him.

Anyway, my (almost) two year old son got his grubby little fingers on my glasses. Snapped them right in half. So, husband drilled holes into what was left of the nose piece, and twisty tied them back together. Then I wrapped some tape around it.

So...great. Works fine. Not good if a contact tears and I have to leave the house in them, but good enough for now till I scrounge up some money for new ones.

Ha! Thats what I thought! A few weeks after the initial break my kids were playing in my daughters room. I went up to check on them to find a completely trashed room. So, I started cleaning it up. And what do I find on the floor under a mountain of toys?!?!?! One eye frame from my glasses...lens still intact...but missing other half and arm! Ugh!

I cleaned the rest of the room and managed to find all the pieces to my poor little glasses except for one arm.

I reassembled them as best I could...but without an arm glasses are really next to no good. I needed to be able to see, it was the eve of three kings day and I was wrapping presents for the kids. The right side of my glasses kept flopping forward....pulling the rest of them off my face.

WTF! Stinking kids!

Like I said, I was wrapping presents, so the tape was right there.....so, I did what I had to do and taped them to my face.

I did this for another week.

(below is a picture....I wasn't going to include it....but Jen and Gir encouraged me to do so)

Finally I couldn't take it anymore and made an appointment for new glasses. I opted to go to America's Best....cause it's cheaper right...? WRONG! My glasses were NOT 2 for $50. They were $350!!!!! I will not make that mistake again. Granted a lot of the cost is because I had to get 'special' lenses, otherwise I would have been walking around with 6 inch thick glasses.

They are really cute tho.

My Baby Phats. These will not be worn anywhere near children. They are strictly for times when my contacts hurt or whatever and I need to wear my glasses out. (they were $300 of the $350 total)

...and the cheaper of the two pairs. I don't even know what brand they are, they just say 'made in china' on the inside. Cute still, black and pink with white stripes at the sides.

This is new

I did a search a few weeks ago for a desk organizer on etsy. 3 pages of items came up. 3!!! That's it. I was shocked. To my surprise most of them were round type pen holders. I was not looking for that type of organizer.

You know those cheap plastic things that fit in a desk drawer.....that's what I was looking for, but pretty.

None.

So I had a mission. To make one of these things. It'll be easy right? Well, yes, it's easy. Lots of measuring ironing, cutting, folding, hammering. VERY time consuming. But relatively easy. So here she is.

Click on her if you wanna buy her. :)

FeatureMe - JulieMeyer

Today is Wednesday, and my awesome week continues! I decided yesterday, after receiving so much love that I would really like to be able to 'pay it forward'. If you have a shop you know how awesome it is to be recognized for all of your hard work.

So here we go, time to give someone else a little recognition and let them feel special for a while! :)

Here is how it's gonna work. I asked Julie a few question, and being an opinionated person...had to include my impression of what she has to say. Please feel free to comment on this post, and give your opinion as well!



A little bit about JulieMeyer


Me: Where did you get the idea for your 'clean in style' gloves?

JulieMeyer: I was cleaning my basement, wearing my cleaning gloves, and when I moved a pile of oilcloth I had to make bibs, I realized that it would be perfect trim for gloves. I had seen ribbon-trimmed gloves before, but knew the oilcloth would be a fun, sturdier choice.

Me: Oh the basement, I have to start that this weekend. Thanks for reminding me. (ugh)


Me: You sell bibs and lunch bags, are you worried about the new law that might effect shops selling items for children? And do you think this law is fair? (click here to see what YOU can do)

JulieMeyer: Since I only have a few oilcloth bibs in my shop, I'm not worried about business once the new lead law takes effect. I agree that better testing needed to happen to protect children, I worry about how quickly this law was passed without really understanding the whole effect. I really feel for the shops that specialize in children's items, especially the ones that already use all natural materials.

Me: Personally, even tho I don't make much kids stuff, this law really gets me going! Last time I checked the issues we had with childrens items were not from handmade toys. It's the mass produced stuff that needs quality control.


Me: So, your are a mom? How do your children affect your ability to create? Do they ever 'assist'?

JulieMeyer: Being a mother of 3 does pose it's challenges to create. Without them though, I'd be sitting in an office all day with very little chance to create the things I make. I've learned to work when I can. I used to work late into the night when the kids were in bed, but since I'm not a night person, never really liked this arrangement. I've learned to prep my materials during the day, then try and go to be shortly after the kids. I'm able to get up between 4-5am and work for a few hours before everyone gets up. There are times though during the day when I have a toddler sitting on my lap while I'm sewing. When it's time to ship items, my 10 year old loves to find out where in the world the packages are going.

Me: Ack! 4AM!?! No way! I'm the opposite of you. I like to stay up until I can't move my arms anymore, then sleep in. Good point on the fact that without kids you would be stuck in an office, never really thought of it that way. I'm 25...not 10, and I'm still amazed by all the places in the world that are connected thru etsy.

Me: I see you have made over 100 sales in less than a year! Congrats, that is quiet and accomplishment! What advice can you give to some of the newer etsy sellers?

JulieMeyer: I think the key to making consistent sales is to try and create and list something new every day that you can. I try and spend some time each week in the fun Etsy Forums to learn something new or help someone with a question. I've done a couple of Free Shipping Sales on weekends and that seems to help too.

Me: Yay! The etsy forums! One of my favorite ways to spend my day (and where I met you!) Trying to list a new item everyday is hard, but it really does help, and I have to agree on that bit of advice!

So Much Love For RuJu

Wow! What an amazing week I am having, and it's only Tuesday!!!

MONDAY:
Yesterday I was featured on a blog!!! (veronablu.blogspot.com) It's a fresh blog that is just starting out. The blogger plans to feature a new etsy shop each week. And I was lucky enough to be chosen for this weeks feature!
Read it here

And to top off my Monday I got 3 sales!!!! WooHoo!!!!

Oh! And my new earrings came in the mail! I was so excited about them I put them on in the post office parking lot. hahaha!

These are my gorgeous new earrings made by a fellow fantastic etsian! Check out her shop www.sarawestermark.etsy.com


TUESDAY:
Well, today is Tuesday, so technically more good can still happen. But even if it didn't I would be totally cool with it cause it has been so fantastic already!

I logged into my etsy this morning to find another sale!! Sweet!

Then I checked one of my new favorite sites (www.handmadeinpa.net). To find that Tara (the person who runs the show) wrote a fantastic article about my shop!!!!
Read it here

I seriously could not feel anymore fantastic than I do right now!

Banana Rama Ding Dong

I made the COOLEST treasury ever!!

For those of you who don't know. A treasury is something that sellers on etsy make. It's a group of items that other sellers are selling...if it is pretty enough it might make it to the front page.

In order to get a treasury the list of them has to drop below 333.....I'm not patient, so I never get one.

But I did! Yay! So here is my awesome treasury!!!

Click on it to be directed to it on etsy.

Shop Re-Vamp

According to some great etsyians my shop pics were not up to par. After my successful show this past weekend I decided to buckle down and work on the appearance of my shop.

This meant retaking all of the pictures of all of the items in my etsy, and taking pictures of all of my new stuff from the show that did not sell.

Well, it took me 2 days, and I'm still not done editing the new stuff pics. But my shop has a fresh new look to it. Everything flows, and some of the pics are kinda funny!

I'm hoping that this will bring some traffic my way, but only time will tell.

I suggest you all go look. HERE

And while you are there check out my "mother of all market bags" this is the bag that sold out at the show!

Face

So I just made a facebook. And it rules pretty hardcore. I don't know how to post a link to it on here....but my name on there is my real name. Erin Quintana. So go find me and be my friend. Cause I only got one friend right now, and I think more people should be my friends cause I'm awesome.

This is my avatar/main pic/whatever they call it on facebook since there are other people with my name. Find me and be my friend.

My First Craft Show Did Not Suck

Lancaster City Arts Market
So, this was my first ever craft show and I must say it was not sucky. The building wasn't heated, and a few windows were broken, so it was FREEZING.

Friday Night - SetUp
So friday night my hubby and I drove the pickup to Lancaster (about 45 minutes away) to set up shop. I suck at driving that stupid ginormous truck. Gah, I hate it.
Anyway. We got there, and set up my booth. The plan was to make feet outa toobafors (2x4's) for the doors that I hung my bags on....well, we didn't. I was kinda scared people would trip on them. So we just went for it and prayed they didn't fall and crush anyone.
Here's my booth






SATURDAY
So saturday I got to the spot at like 9:30, the doors opened to shoppers at 10. I would say the first hour was slow...then 11 hit and BAM shoppers everywhere! It was like a mad house.
I've never used little reciept books before, for those of you who haven't....remember to stick the carbon paper BETWEEN the two copies. LOL! It took me 3 receipts to figure that out. DUH!

So anyway, my best friend Kristine was there with me, just helping out. This is us (I'm the one in the hat)Alright, so. I whipped up 11 HUGE market bags. I had them out at the end of the booth on a coat rack with I big sign that said "Big Market Bags $10". I sold out! With over an hour to go.

Driving home I found the end of the world, in the form or 18 million black birds. They looked like pigeons, but were jet black. This picture only shows like 2% of them. Its was nuts. (and I took it while I was driving....safety first!)


I had to make more, cause I promised customers I would have more Sunday. So I stayed up till 1am making more bags. I didn't finish, but was so tired that I told myself I would get up early and finish 'em up.

SUNDAY
Okay, so I get up early. NOT. I had about 10 minutes to finish the bags...so I'm sewing like a sewing fool. And sew right through my finger! The needle actually broke off in my finger. My husband had to pull it out for me and bandage me up. I almost barfed. Sorry, no pic, it was painful and I didn't even think about finding the camera.

I arrived late...well, at like 9:57. Oh and there was NO coffee at my house. (bad bad morning). So I had to buy coffee before rearranging and prettying up my booth for the day. So, I got my cup o joe and cleaned up my booth, and plopped into my chair. And waited for the shoppers...and waited....and waited...and they never came. :( I'm not sure if it was because it was crazy cold outside, or because everyone that planned on coming came the day before.

My mom, dad, uncle, aunt, cousin & cousins boyfriend came to see me tho! Yay! Gotta love the family support!!!

So.....in closing. This show rocked for me. I think next year I will only do saturday tho.

Oh AND....I got to meet a few fellow etsyians with killer cool stuff!!!!

Check them out!

www.MaggieFrenchFolkArt.etsy.com

She has the coolest etsy chair EVER!!!!


And this was my neighbor at the show!

www.thepaintedlily.etsy.com

Really freakin' awesome kaleidoscope art!!!