Dear Diary, Little Did I Know!

Well it isn't reflected here but DawnCorrespondence's comment on Tuesday's post set off a storm of comments in the uwib forum. The consensus on relisting?

• Jewelry sellers and other sellers of stock items feel it is essential to their business. They can quickly relist topsellers.
• Some sellers use it to bring relevantly themed items to the top of search results when those themes are trending (I'll have to try that!)
• Sellers agree that ooak items are not appropriate for relisting if it has been done multiple times with no results.
• Some sellers take dead stock ooak items and remake them into other things that may sell.

Hope I got it right! Thanks for everyone for the comments, uwib rocks! 

Dear Diary, In Praise of Online Friends.....

One of the things business gurus encourage you to do online is to network. One way of networking is to join a group. There are lots of groups you can join both within and outside of Etsy. Some are better than others, some have different vibes, but I think they all have their place. A while back I joined a group that I found via twitter. It's called Unique Women in Business. They provide a great support structure for fledgling entrepreneurs. It is a forum that you can ask for opinions and advice. The wide base of members are almost always able to provide you with some kind of first hand answers.They also provide a platform to promote one another's work. You do have to make one purchase a month from another member but with the wide range of businesses and products you can almost always find something you would need to buy anyway.  

So explore your options, talk with other entreprenuers in your niche, see what groups they belong too. Explore your options, the forums are a great place to learn about groups and the etsy teams. 

On a sidebar, I'd like to thank these lovely ladies for all the kind words they have passed my way since January. Some people don't really get the concept of online friends, but I can tell anyone who asks that the relationships are real. Thanks UWIB! 

Will Spring Spring Already?

All this unseasonably cool weather for Houston has really got me down, I love warm weather and once I get cold I just can't seem to get warm again. So I'm trying to think warm thoughts and picture spring. Here are a few selections of fresh spring merchandise for a little retail therapy......
So much for spring time dreams, off to go cozy up in my multiple layers of pj's, blankets and comforters......

Merchandise pictured top to bottom
Love in BLoom by Beegrl88
Welcome Spring by KristenSteinFineArt
Bobbies by DirtRoadSouth
Light Green Window Star by HarvestMoonByHand

January (November) Book Giveaway Winner!

We all know I've had a bit of time management issues lately! Well, the book giveaway is done, and the Winner is Donnielle of Design Knit Fun! She gets her choice of the books in my Amazon Carrousel! Thanks for everyone who entered, and tweeted.

That brings me to a big thank you. Friends come in many different kinds, especially now with communication being so easy, worldwide and constant. My life is more back to normal now, so I wanted to thank everyone who reached out during the holidays to me. My "in person" friends and also my internet and UWIB friends. The offers were so kind, to contact my customers for me etc. and the encouragement was great. I hope I can be there for you all as well when needed. Again, Thanks!

What Woman Doesn't Love Shoes?

I had an especially successful day of vintage shopping this week. I found lots of different things, but, my most prized "find" this week were some 1960's pumps. I'm sure they were from the same original owner, since they are the same size and similar styles and she had great taste!

Classic pump style but they have huge amounts of 1960's personality, find them now in my etsy shop retrochique.

While I'll never know much about this lady and her life I read a blog post this week about another lady and her family and their quest for shoes and the wonderful friendships and connections it has created for them! Read about Shelley and her family and their quest for shoes here, it's an old fashioned story about the always special process of getting your back to school shoes!

Kandace of Kandio Designs

Today I'm blogging about a fellow etsy seller, Kandace of http://www.kandiodesigns.etsy.com/ . She is soooo much more than an etsy seller though! I feel like I don't do much after reading her profile. Take a visit to her blog, http://www.kandiodesigns.blogspot.com/ and you will find out about the wonderful variety of talents she has. Fine art, jewelry making and interior decorating are all areas that she works in. Here are a few of her jewelry designs.

You can see why Kandio-o is such an appropriate name with the brightly colored candy looking drops she uses in her jewelry! I hope you enjoyed seeing her designs and projects as much as I did, have a great day!

Late Movie Reviews!

Okay I know it isn't Monday, but I've been super busy. We did find time as always to go to the movies though and continuing with the romantic comedy theme we say "The Ugly Truth" and we saw a kind of comedy, "Funny People".

First "The Ugly Truth". This was a cute show, very predictable but well done. Katherine Heigl has quite a following and she has a scene that really updates the famous "When Harry Met Sally" "I'll have what she's having" situation. Very funny stuff. Gerard Butler is cute in a kind of tight t-shirt but messier Simon Cowell sort of way. Cheryl Hines and John Michael Higgins area super funny too. Bottom Line - Harmless show to see with your husband that will make you both laugh.

Funny People, I either love or hate Adam Sandler movies but this one just kinda left me lukewarm. Don't get me wrong, some of it is very funny and touching. But when they try to deal with the messy parts of life it gets tedious and painful. The ending is predictable and unsatisfying. I loved Seth Rogen and some of the other more minor characters. Eric Bana in particular plays a schizo husband very out of character from his past roles. Soooo I'm of the opinion that unless you are a fan of this gang, apatow, sandler, rogen, wait until DVD. Oh, and by the way it is extra long, 2 1/2 hours.

Vintage Finds This Week

Posted last week on twitter that I was going vintage shopping and well, you know it got put off, but I did get to go yesterday and found some wonderful housewares! Here are a few of them.

Wonderful Russian Nesting Porcupine! I saw one of these on www.apartmenttherapy.com .

A mint set of glass bowls with such sweet pears on them and octagonal bases. I also got this set of 4 Irish Coffee Mugs below, such great items and as with vintage they have so much more character than many of the new things you find in the stores today. I love Vintage! I posted these and many other new items in my etsy vintage shop, www.retrochique.etsy.com .

Monday Movie Review - Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Thanks to my 19 year old son I finally got to see Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. I had it here at home from Netflix, but my husband was procrastinating. My oldest is here at home for the summer and when he saw it he said "Oh, I'd like to see that I heard it was good". And so my husband relented, seeing an opportunity to sit with my son for more than 10 minutes!

Being a person who spent most of the 80's along with my friends obsessing about different bands, I love the premise that moves the story along; finding the afterhours secret gig of a band that the two lead characters really love. The story only encompasses the span of one all nighter and follows them from club to club, place to place while they try to find the band. Michael Cera, the boyfriend/father from Juno is the male lead who is struggling to get over a popular girlfriend who has thrown him to the side. (For those of you who watch entourage the girlfriend is played by Alexis Dziena the new flame for E. ) Kat Dennings is the female lead, a romantically insecure but spunky and fiercely loyal friend. They spend the evening finding themselves, resisting temptation to take the easy path and eventually finding each other.

I personally loooooved this movie, but my husband found it a little young I guess you'd say. My son really liked it. So, I'd say see it. It is funny and sweet, well worth the DVD rental!

When We Played Little League........

......or any other sport when we were kids it was different.

There were no year round sports, you played whatever was in season.

There were no select teams. (you tried out and got on a team according to your ability to play, not pay).

"Intense" parents limited their participation to the stands.

It cost $30 or so to register for a team and maybe you had to buy a shirt or uniform. Not hundreds of dollars for home, away, and practice uniforms, plus travel bags, etc

Pressure was limited to that which your teammates might put on you.

Coaches were unpaid volunteers.


Some of you know my kids play competitive tennis. When they were about 8 years old we had them choose a sport to concentrate on and play since their friends were all starting to play on year round select teams in soccer and baseball. Both the time commitment and money made it impossible to play more than one sport. While tennis has been a blessing for them (I would never change that) and helped tremendously with their self confidence and taught them important lessons on perserverence, staying positive and self control; it is a comment on how sports has evolved that kids can't just go Play casually anymore. Or maybe it is just a comment on a mom reminiscing, after all my kids don't know any other environment than what they have grown up in !

Have a Wonderful Day!

Do you have a comment on kids sports? Leave it here, Thanks!

Bruno at the Show and Ghost Town at Home

Okay not a very satisfying weekend to say the least, deep breath.

Bruno. I saw Borat, I thought it was at times crude and inappropriate. However I did think it was an original concept, very funny in parts and worth seeing if you were not easily offended. Sasha Baron Cohen has gone over the line with Bruno though. It is both rude and crude and I have no idea how it escaped an X rating. It features full male member nudity, and even an animated penis. In addition there is an S&M feature, a swingers party, and lots of gay sex references and enactments. That is just the stuff that refers to sex. There are other controversial references to terrorism, gay conversion, interracial families and the list goes on.

In as much as Cohen's purpose was to push people's buttons he succeeds and parts of it were indeed funny. But if I want to see a movie with nudity and sex I know where to go get one and it isn't at my local AMC theatre.

Ghost Town features Greg Kinnear, Ricky Gervais, and Tea Leoni all of whom on their own I usually like. The premise is Ricky's character has a death experience and comes back to life able to see and hear ghosts. The spirits all have unfinished business and they ask him to complete these tasks and enable them to go on to their own afterlife. The story is predictable from there with Greg Kinnears character wanting to keep his wife Tea Leoni from remarrying. It could be super funny but for some reason it isn't.. The characters just don't gel. If it is the only DVD left get it, if not pass it up.

On another note I want to thank everyone UWIB and elsewhere that has given me a boost this last week. It has been a fantastic month. Special thanks to oldbagvintage www.oldbagvintage.blogspot.com www.oldbagvintage.etsy.com and SuzanneinTX http://spt2.blogspot.com/ www.crazyforcollars.etsy.com for mentions in their blogs. I can't help but think that this helped me!

When I Went to College.....

When I went to college…….

If I needed to talk to my dad during the drive back to school I had to stop at a gas station and use a quarter in the pay phone.

If I got lost I stopped and asked for directions or asked the navigator in the passenger seat to look at the paper map.

Class registration meant standing in long lines in an auditorium, not waiting up until midnight to be first at online registration.

Eating at McDonalds meant actually having to have cash, not a piece of plastic.

Listening my favorite song in the car meant shoving a piece of plastic and magnetic tape into the hole in the dash and hoping that it didn’t get eaten.

Getting new “friends” didn’t involve facebook or twitter.

Turning in a term paper meant typing it on a typewriter and going to class and physically turning it in, not uploading from my laptop to a website.


Do you have a college difference? Leave it as a comment! Thanks.

Appreciating Home - Tale of Two Kids Weekends

As many of you know my two younger kids, Will who is 13, and Chloe who is 11, play competitive tennis. Will is spending time in the John Newcombe Tennis Ranch Academy Program this summer. They live in the dorms there with other boys and get to practice their skills all day in an environment that is geared toward moving up competitively. Will went for the minimum amount of time 3 weeks. They get to travel with the group to tournaments and this weekend they traveled back home to Houston to compete. Will was responsible for getting his things and himself ready to leave the ranch by 1:30 Friday for the 3 hour drive to Houston.

Thursday Night 9:00 - Call from Will he is getting ready for the trip, doing wash.

Friday Afternoon 12:30, 1 hour till departure - Call from Will. "Mom can I wash towels with whites"

Mom - "Why are you washing now, it takes an hour to do a load of wash and dry it"

Will - "I have exactly an hour mom and I need socks and underwear"

Mom - "Okay Hurry and get the rest of your bag ready but don't wash the towel you won't need one at a hotel"

Will - "oh, Okay"

Friday Afternoon 1:05 Call from Will "Why are washers so slow"

Friday Afternoon 1:20 Hysterical call from Will ""Mommmmmmm I lostttt my tennis racquets!"

Mom tells him to get a hold of himself calm down and look for them, she will call the counselor and get him to help.

Friday Afternoon 1:40 call from Will "We're on our way"

Mom - "Did you get your racquets?"

Will - sheepishly "yeah, but mom I forgot my toothpaste, contact solution, and toothbrush, can we get some there?"

After all this I get a final call early Saturday morning, we are about to leave with my daughter, who is playing in the tournament too. We were going to meet Will and his group there and watch his match.

Will - "Mom, I got up late and didn't have time to put on compression shorts (for those of you unenlightened in 13 year old tennis lingo compression shorts = underwear!) Do you have any extra at home?"

My husband's take on the situation was that this was to show Will how much we do for him and how he has to learn responsibility and appreciation, I don't know if he did or not but I hope he remembers his underwear next time.

The champ tournament was a success and Chloe won the consolation draw, a great boost for her.

One Scrappy Chic!

Good Morning, One of the things I find really fun is to look at the shops that have hearted mine and the things they make. You can cyber stroll etsy for hours, but if I limit myself to one of those shops I have a natural stopping point! Anyway it has led to some great discoveries for me and I like to share them, perhaps it can bring someone inspiration or give you a new favorite shop too!

This week I chose OneScrappyChic.etsy.com. This shop is run by Bettina and her story is familiar to us all I think!

" I opened OneScrappyChic on Etsy to bring in a little extra money for my family. I am a mother to a beautiful 2 year old little girl! She really was the inspiration behind OneScrappyChic, which started out as a pregnancy/baby album idea and eventually evolved into much, much more."

Her paper goods are wonderfully colorful, whimsical and combine sewn embellishments as well as unusual materials like paper bags. Here is her comment on her goods.

"I like to make all types of paper crafts such as scrapbooks, notecards, etc., but I LOVE to make EXPLODING albums! I love the idea of someone finding all the hidden pockets and pages and the album popping open at the turn of nearly every page. "

So I hope you have enjoyed my stroll though http://www.onescrappchic.etsy.com/ . She is also having a giveaway on her blog http://www.onescrappychic-etsy.blogspot.com/ . I know I'll pay a visit! Lastly here is a pic of her own favorite item, an exploding album.

Two Extremes Public Enemies and the Proposal

Good Morning everyone, time for Monday Movie Reviews. With my kids gone this week we saw two in the theatre, an unusual occurence. My husband and I chose one together, (guess which) and I chose one.

I love Johnny Depp and have ever since 21 Jump Street so it wasn't hard to like Public Enemies. It was a spare, classic gangster drama complete with J. Edgar Hoover, G- Men and Johnny Dillinger. Johnny Depp has a restrained, nuanced performance. He was understandable and likeable even as a most wanted criminal. Marion Cotillard was fierce and defiant as his girl Billie. You almost feel sorry for Christian Bale's character Purvis the FBI man in charge of getting Dillinger. So I recommend it for adults, if you are looking for a compromise to see with your guy...

The Proposal on the other hand was super funny! I wasn't expecting a whole lot, you know it seems like the funniest bits of movies are usually in the trailers, but not this one. It was funny, sincere and sweet. My husband, who thought it was a Chick Flick, really liked it too. Sandra Bullock was funny but some of the funniest stuff comes from Ryan Reynolds too.....Betty White and the rest of the cast complete it and the locations are gorgeous. I recommend it wholeheartedly for adults.

Have a great week!

Editing your Photo with Irfanview

As promised here is the piece on doing a few simple edits with irfanview. I chose a simple picture for the sake of the piece that had all straight lines. Irfanview uses commands that are familiar, after starting the program use the file open commands to open your picture out of my pictures files. First we will crop it.

1. If you move your cursor onto the picture you will see that it turns into crosshairs. Holding your left mouse button nails that crosshair down and dragging the mouse will create a selection in the picture. I imagine how I might want to crop this picture and choose a left top corner starting point, dragging my mouse to create the square. In the picture above I have started the process. In the picture below I have finished drawing the square.

2. In this picture you will notice that I have drawn my square, the lines barely show. In the top blue bar it also shows my pixels. I got them to be almost equal (555 by 544) since I wanted approximately a square. I then hit the control and Y keys, this cuts away the unwanted area outside the square. Below is my cropped picture.

Now we will give it a white background to float on.

1. Go to the edit drop down and choose show paint dialog. It will bring on the box shown in the right of the pic below. The commands are very similar to the pc paint program we all let our kids use.

2. Next we are going to choose our background color. In the paint dialog box on the right click on the one of the two small rectangles in the bottom. This will bring up the color selection box you see on the left of the picture. For each rectangle you will have to choose a color and hit okay. I chose white for both.

3. Now we will outline the picture. This keeps the fill color we will put in the background from "creeping" into the picture. It is important that there are no holes in our outline of the picture. In the paint dialog click on the box that has the diagonal line in it on the left above the circle. This will give you a crosshair like the cropping procedure. You can choose how wide the line is byusing the up and down arrows making the width px higher for a wider line, or lower for a more narrow line. I used a 14 px line. I find a wider one easier to use and see. Nail down the line start point with your left mouse button at one corner and drag it to the point you want your line to end. Release the mouse and you will have a line like this.

4. Do this for all 4 sides of the item.

5. Now click on the paint can that is tipping over. Touch it to the area outside of the square you drew and click your mouse. Now your background is the color you want! There may be a few areas of clutter that need to be cleaned up so just click on the eraser symbol and hold down the left mouse button while moving your mouse, this will erase anything with the new background color. Extra hint, if there is anything that accidentally got "erased" with your new color, you can restore it by using the erase tool and the right mouse button. When you drag your mouse then the original pixels of the picture are restored!

The last thing we will do is change the resolution for uploading. Close the paint dialog and hit control and r at the same time. This brings up the resolution box. On the right there is a drop down that includes defaults, or on the right you may put in your own choices. If the resolution you choose makes it appear all wonky (technical term) just hit edit undo and try again. You may also change the resolution of the original picture before you start editing the picture if that is easier for you. Edit undo will always take you one step back if you mess up.

I hope that this helps anyone who is getting started trying to make better pictures. There are lots of resources and programs out there for you to use and a lot of them are free. It just takes time to practice using them. These are just first steps, there are lots of things that you can do with this software. Best of luck, and please comment with any tips or resources you may have! Jamie.

Picture Manipulation - Irfanview

One of the things I read about in posts and threads most often is photos. Etsy Sellers are forever looking for ways to improve their photos and it is always noted as one of it not the most important factor in having a successful store.

I'm not the best of photographers and I can't tout my store as having great photos but I can let you know about a free download that I use on every photo I put on etsy that does some amazing things.

It is irfanview. My son who does digital art showed it to me. The download and program info is available here http://www.irfanview.com/ . I use it to crop photos, change their resolution and block out backgrounds. Here is an example of a before and after shot.

Over the next few days I will post instructions on how to get from first picture to the second. It is a simple 3 step process that anyone can do. Leave a comment if you are interested or have a specific questions. thanks!

Monday Movie Review....not so much...

Good Morning!

it's been a busy weekend, my kids went to camp, so I had to pack for them. My oldest and his girlfriend are here so I'm busy with them too. I haven't caught up on movies either on DVD or at the theatre so I thought I'd post some pictures of our vacation in Palm Beach. Have a wonderful day!

Monday Movie Review, 2 Comedies

Good Morning all! After a week in sunny Florida I'm back and ready to post. We did go to the movies too so I'll start this week with my usual Monday Movie Review. It was vacation time so we chose comedies. My kids saw Land of the Lost and my husband and I saw The Hangover.

The kids really liked Land of the Lost. I didn't go but both my 13 year old boy and 10 year old girl said it was funny. The scenes they commented on to us had that usual brand of Will Farrell silly humor that appeals to kids of all ages. My 13 year old though, who loves comedies didn't come out asking to buy the DVD when it comes out, so, I will generalize that while a good pick for the tweens it wasn't a smash hit........

Okay, The Hangover. First of all do not even think of a tween going unless you are a super liberal parent. I can't remember seeing an erect penis in a regular movie since Boogie Nights, but there is one here! Second it is hilarious (the movie that is) ! If you are easily offended don't go but the premise of the movie is plausible and there is both slapstick and more sophisticated humor. Rollergirl from Boogienights (Heather Graham) also makes an appearance ironically, and I enjoyed that she isn't a typical Hollywood woman and has continued to appear a natural beauty. Ed Helms from the Office gives a great performance as the walked on boyfriend while some guy I never heard of named Zak Galifianakis is super funny with his delivery of strange and zany dialog. Bradley Cooper and Justin Bartha up the cutie quotient and the movie has a satifying ending. So, in general go see it ! It is really funny......

Kathi's Kreations - Great Etsy Shop with an Eco-Centric Focus!

Today I'm going to share with you a new etsy shop I found that I love. Kathi's Kreations, http://www.kathip22.etsy.com/ . She has a fresh approach to eco friendly products and upcycling. You know those cool reusable sandwich/treat bags? Kathi's shop has a great selection of them.

When I cut fabrics for a project I always feel a little guilty when throwing away the selvedge, the border where they print the fabric manufacturer, the screen colors and stretch the fabric before printing. Well Kathi has a lot of wonderful creations made from upcycled selvedge!

Trivets, picture frames, coasters and more are all items she has made from the cast offs. Like typical artists/crafters she has always felt the need to create. Here is what Kathi said on her own behalf.

"I'm 58, been sewing and crafting since I was a child. I love to sew, knit, needlework and I'll try any craft that interests me. I like to craft/make things that are new & trendy. I am always looking for the latest/greatest thing out there! I also want to do more to help our planet so I have become eco friendly in my crafts. "

So, check out her shop, she is one of the many great finds on etsy!