2011 Calendars

I have a couple different calendars that I am offering this year.
The first calendar is my...
2011 Creeper Calendar

I've shown only a small sampling of my
2011 Creeper Calendar
but hopefully you 'get the idea'.
I've limited the number of calendars to 100...
and they are being printed by a professional printer.

It's a wall calendar and much larger
and easier to use than the
2010 Creeper Calendar.


I also have a
2011 Steampunk Calendar
which is also a wall calendar that includes  both
US (and) UK Holidays.

This calendar took me a bit

longer to finish,

since I decided to do some extra

artwork to each page,

so that I could show the entire print rather than just a portion,

as with so many prints on the Creeper Calendar.

I'm limiting the number of Steampunk Calendars to 50.

With that...and the extra work involved...

these Calendars are a few dollars more than the Creepers.

Finally...my original Pocket Calendar painted art covers.

These are handpainted original 'paintings'

on real canvas.

I'm including a 2011 Pocket Calendar in each of these

covers and the number of

these will be incredibly limited...just due to

the constraints of time.

(Unfortunately I didn't have a pocket calendar for sizing purposes,

until recently...

and I just can't work fast enough to get very

many done between now and the first of the year.)

These can be found in my

Rustic Goth Etsy Shop

for anyone who is interested.

The 'Never Ending' SALE

If it seems like I've got a

'never ending Sale'

going on in my Rustic Goth Etsy Shop...

in a way...

I do.

See...I do make my living selling what I create..

mostly through my Etsy Shop.

And...occasionally I'm fighting to keep this utility on

or paying my rent in increments

instead of in one lump sum...

For the most part though...

it does seem to pay the bills.

What I don't have though...is the 'extra'...to get myself

a new computer and my own Pro Printer.

So...I have Sales...almost constantly...

because I am 'determined'.

When my husband fell ill...I was selling my art on eBay.

And...at that time it was Great!

Put the bottom dollar price as the starting bid...

and sometimes it would go far above what I thought I'd ever get

for my art.

Everyday I listed new paintings...and almost everyday

I sold paintings.

One of the things that gave my husband comfort...was knowing

that he didn't need to worry how I was going to make a living

when he was gone.

Neither of us had any idea what would happen to eBay...or the economy.

But...I'm a bit of a 'fighter'

and I do what I have to do

to pay the bills...

even if it means having one Sale after another.

The Etsy Bloggers HOLIDAY SALE

H a p p y H o l i d a y s ! !
The EtsyBloggers HOLIDAY S*A*L*E* is going on from Black Friday thru Cyber Monday!!
That's Friday 11/26 thru Monday 11/29!!
See our team website for a list of all shops having a SALE http://etsybloggers.com
H a p p y S h o p p i n g ! !

An Upcoming Give Away

My 2011 Creeper Calendar is out!
And...I'm having a giveaway for one 2011 Creeper Wall Calendar!

How it works....

just leave a comment on this post...

I'll use a random generator
to determine the winner
and post the winner on December 1st.

That time of the year!

It's getting to be
'that' time of the year again...
I'm not talking about the 'Holidays'...

It's that time of the year when I begin
'cleaning house'
in my Etsy Shop.

I like to keep the number of items in my Shop
to a 'manageable' number...

 I've always liked to keep that number to 150 or less..
but since finding 'Etsy on Sale'
200 is a good number...
who knows...
maybe one day I won't be so intimidated by
higher numbers
and I'll get my shop up to 250 or even
300!

A New Look...

I've given my blog a new look...
sort of.
I selected what I think is a much neater template
and now I'm in the process of
going through everything on my sidebar
and cleaning that up...
so that it looks...
well..
a little less cluttered.

It's been an ongoing process
and I may not get it all done until after
the Holidays.

Featured Etsy Blogger for November

As a member of the EtsyBloggers Street Team

I have been very remiss at my own level of participation.

So..in an effort to improve this situation...

let me present

The Etsy Bloggers Featured Member of the Month...

Divine Designs Jewelry.

She creates some awesome pieces that she has listed in

her Etsy Shop

and she has a Supply Shop which

can be found by visiting her blog.

Join me in congratulating her for being

November's

featured Member.

The Power of Positive Thinking

 

I know I've mentioned this in a post or two in the past..

but since I do so firmly believe this,

I find myself wanting to post it again and again.

My husband was the 'positive thinker'...

which I really needed

since I tended to be the more negative and skeptical one.

Over the years...I did begin to become a little more positive...

but I still have a long ways to go.

Thank goodness several of my children have more

of their dad's 'positivity'...

positive things just seem to 'follow' those children

whatever they choose to do.

And..during those times they allow a bit of 'negativity' to creep in...

things don't go as smoothly for them.

For those of us for whom 'positivity' doesn't come as easy...

we have to work a little harder...

but

the rewards are always great enough

to make it well worth it!

This is the attitude I'm taking while I'm determined

not to let myself get too sick

with whatever it is that has me a bit

under the weather.

And...I'll take all the positive vibes I can get!

Real Egg Ornaments

I have the first of the eggs to be listed in my

Etsy Shop.

The top picture is one of my 'Hummingbird' Eggs...

over the years it was always one of those ornaments that sold

immediately.

The second picture...is one a little more 'close to my heart'

as it is an 'Abstract Nativity' painted by my husband.

This was his own design and one of his

most popular ornaments.

This egg was painted in 2004...initialed and dated by him...

but was never coated as we didn't usually coat the eggs until we

had 24 of them ready to 'pour'.

(It was a rather messy undertaking...so we always waited until

we had enough eggs before dragging out everything we needed to do the pour.)

The third and fourth eggs...

Candles and Black Holly

were also painted by him, and are pictured

to show what the eggs look like with a heavy coating of resin.

The ornaments are actually quite durable...about the same

as a glass ball ornament...in spite of the fact that they are

real eggs.

We began painting the eggs in 1993, while living in Wyoming.

My sister had some geese eggs that she didn't want

to throw away.

For some reason, my husband thought they'd look

good painted up and tried to talk me into painting them.

I put it off...so he painted them.

One thing led to another and he messed with them until

he came up with the idea to coat them with resin.

Then we bounced them off the floor...to test their durability...

some broke and some didn't.

For the most part...we were satisfied and took them to a local

craft show...and sold out!

Every year after...from '93 to '03 we did the shows...

in Wyoming and then in Nebraska...

folks came to the shows to see what new egg designs we

had, so they could add to their collections.

I don't even want to think about how many special orders we did

over the years....including a standing order for 100 eggs every year

for one collector.

It seemed like we never had enough eggs to get through a 

Season so we started early in 2004, to get a head

start on the Season...

but we ended up not doing the shows that season...

and then he got sick in 2005.

So....I have a few eggs left that were never finished...

except for the painting...

that I'm listing.

And a batch of new ornaments in various stages

of completion

that I will be listing over the next week or so.

Most will be uncoated...leaving the option of

personalizing them...until around the 10th of December.

Then I'll have to offer only those ornaments that are

ready to ship out...because of shipping times during

the Holiday Season.

Anyway...that is the 'story of the eggs'.

I wasn't going to do anymore of them...since it was something

my husband and I did together...

but I have several dozen eggs that he'd already prepared

for painting...

and it seemed such a shame to let those just go to waste.

Some new paintings in the Shop

I've got some new paintings in my

Rustic Goth Etsy Shop.

These are currently part of my Veterans Day SALE...

and will be available at the Sale Price for one more day.

I'm continuing to work on some new paintings...

the Egg Ornaments

and a few other new pieces that I want to list within the next week.

Maybe I Should Have...

We all know about 'hindsight'....well I'm wondering...

in 'hindsight'...

if we should have gone ahead and tried one

more show.

I ended up with a week-end that I didn't get anything done

anyway.

Oh well...we made our decision and I'll go ahead

and stick with it.

I'm going to have to get really busy with the eggs...and I've also

decided that I'm going to paint some Art Covers for

Pocket Calendars...so that I can use up

the rest of the unstretched canvas that I ordered.

Hopefully...I'll get completely caught up with

my Shipping

and end up getting a lot of new items done this week.

Short Show Season

Well...it turned out to be a very
short...'show season'...for us.

After a lot of discussion and all the family issues
we've encountered in recent weeks...
we decided that our 2010 Show Season is over.

It was a disappointment on one hand...
and a relief on the other.

For 10 years...from '93 to '03
my husband and I offered hand painted egg ornaments
during the fall show season.
I even sold a few of them through an internet shop
we used to have and through eBay.

Well...I knew that I had about three dozen eggs that had been
blown...cleaned and painted with a base coat...
hiding in my closet...
so Jaime and I had decided we were going to finish
those and offer them at the November shows.

What we're going to do...instead...
is offer them on our shops
starting the second week of November.

I LOVE Etsy On Sale

I do LOVE Etsy on Sale.

It has saved me so much time

and we all know

'time is money'

so it's saved me lots of money.

Only problem...if I re-list something that sells...

that item doesn't revert back to the original price..

since it is no longer in the 'sale queue' it was

originally placed in...

and

if I 'forget' to edit it...

then some things end up

'on sale'

even after the sale ends.

This happened at the end of my

"New in Shop" Sale.

One of my bracelets had been re-listed...not changed back..

and sold for half price

hours AFTER the Sale was over.

I will have to be more 'alert'...or ... not re-list

Sale items until After the Sale has ended.

But...definitely on the 'plus' side...

I'll be having a variety of 1, 2 and 3 Day Sales

more often

during the Holiday Season!