Showing posts with label about me. Show all posts

After almost a year running my shop, Pictures of Lily, I finally decided to open another. This one is for my jewelry creations. I've always enjoyed making my own jewelry, and kind of put that hobby aside to make room for all my paper crafts. Until now. Because Etsy is jam packed with jewelry sellers already, I'm not sure how it will all go. But, I thought I'd give it whirl. Check out my shop, The Glass Onion. I've just only listed a few items, today. But plan on adding more each day. Here is what I've listed so far:




Wish me luck. ♥

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was having a new logo made by the fabulous bennyandroo. She did a fabulous job, as I knew she would. I had like 8 options to choose from, which was great, but difficult. She has a knack for understanding people's style and I was very happy with the outcome. Here it is:


So far, it has become my new avatar and I added it to my business cards. I haven't change my banner yet, because I think they still work together. I may incorporate it into my banner, eventually. For now, I'm just so glad to have a new logo, one that is easier to include on all my business forms. I am sooooo glad to be gone of the lily flower that was my avatar for so long. It just didn't go with my shop.

I have been wanting to contribute to The Sampler, ever since I discovered it. If you don't know what The Sampler is yet, check it out. It's great. I finally get it together and just sent in my contribution for the December Holiday Sampler. I'm not sure how effective it is going to be, as far as getting people to my Etsy shop, we'll have to see. I'm pretty excited about receiving my sampler that I get for participating. When I first contacted them, letting them know I was interested in contributing, I was feeling a bit over confident, when I first starting putting my samples together. For some reason I thought I'd be able to get 200 of them done. I had almost a month to get it ready. Well, it didn't take long for me to realize that wasn't going to happen. I ended up getting 100 (108 actually) done. It still qualified me to contribute to the media only sampler, if I want to. I plan on doing that next month. So anyway, I decided to contribute a mix of items, magnets, push pins, gift tags, and a few pendants. It came out to about 75 gift tag sample packs, 25+ mini boxes of magnet sets or push pins, and 5 pendants.

Here are a few of the mini boxes of magnets and gift tags packs. I like the way the gift tag packs turned out. The mini boxes were something I learned from an Etsy tutorial from the Storque .


Here is everything all boxed up ready to send off.


I received an email from them today letting me know that my package arrived safely. I am so relieved it got there on time and intact. I'll update once I know how it goes.

Not so far, at least as my Etsy shop is concerned. So often I heard about the holiday rush for Etsy shops. Sellers who have had their shops for a year, talked about how much business picks up when holiday shopping begins. I read lot's of tips about how to prepare for this busy time. Those of us who weren't around to witness it, were eagerly waiting the much talked about sales. Well I gotta say, it's been quite the opposite for me, so far. It is only November 9th, so I'm still hoping. But, so far, the past month or so have been the worst ever, since opening my shop. There have been a huge increase in new shops opening up, which explains the slow sales. When so many new shops are opening, while not so many new shoppers are visiting, it sure does change things in Etsy land. I hope that despite the growth in sellers, as Christmas gets nearer, that sales pick up a bit.


Here are some of my newest gift tags:

I haven't learned all the ins and outs of it all out yet, but so far, ning seems to be pretty cool. I joined the "we love etsy" group as another way to promote my shop. There are quite a few fellow etsiens there. They have a bunch a fun tools to add to your page. Here's a slide show from the photos I uploaded so far:


Find more photos like this on We Love Etsy

It took all of 1 minute to create. Im sure flickr has something similar as do other places as well. Wherever it comes from, it sure is a nice little way to showcase your work.

So, I've been wanting to try my hand at bookbinding. It's one of those projects that I always see, and admire, wishing I knew how to make one too. So, I figure it out. A hand binded book is such a cool thing to have, and it's something I know I can get great use from, myself. And the best part is I get to choose a gorgeous paper to put on the cover of every one of them. Which gives me another reason to go paper shopping. I've found a few online tutorials that explain it pretty well, but I think it's one of those things that is much easier to do than to explain. I wish I knew someone that could sit with me and walk me through it. The coptic stitch, I believe it's called, is the first I'm trying. I like the look of this method, with the exposed binding, and I like that the book can be opened all the way and lie flat. I found a shop online that sells a lot of the supplies I need, and ordered some yesterday. Being it's a holiday today, I'm guessing I won't see the FedEx man until Wednesday at the earliest. In the meantime, I'll look for more instructions with pictures, to add to the ones I have. I'm thinking that between them all, I'll be binding in no time. Now get a move on Mr FedEx man.
If any of my 5 readers happens to know anything about bookbinding, please feel free to share any bits of widsom with this newbie. Thanks a bunch.

So, I was trying to watch a movie the other night on the couch, and my husband goes in the kitchen to get a snack. A few minutes later he starts cracking up. So, I turn up the volume, and tell him, "Shhhhhh." He ignores me and laughs more, even louder as he's crumpling the newspaper. He says, "Gina, you gotta listen to these police reports." I look over, and he's reading the Benicia Herald, our cities newspaper. I'm like, "hold on, I'm trying to watch this movie." Don't get me wrong, I love where we live, but Benicia, doesn't always make for the most exciting news. Plus, I read the police reports all the time, and they are never anything to laugh at this much. So, I continue to watch my movie, straining to hear over his bellowing. He laughs at everything, so mostly I'm annoyed that I can hardly hear my movie. He brings the paper over to me, and says you gotta see these. Humoring him, I snag the paper and look, thinking, "hurry up, what?" Next thing I know, I'm bellowing right along with him. These are copied, word for word straight from the Herald:



Friday May 18
5:54 pm Graffiti in the form of the words, "snitch" and expletive were written on a driveway on the 100 block of Church Street.

8:24 pm A caller said her roommates daughter unlawfully attacked her and her daughter over eyeliner that was taken on the 400 block of Mills Drive. The argument escalated into a physical disturbance, and then the suspect hit the caller and her daughter with her fists.

I know, real newsworthy but it gets much better...

6:43 a.m. A maroon Land Cruiser on the 500 block of Morning Glory Drive was tagged "Gay Boy" over night.

12:02 pm Pamela Scott, 55 or 56, was arrested for driving while intoxicated with a blood alcohol level over .08 after a friend reported that Scott was drunk driving to get more alcohol from the Liquor Warehouse.

first of all was she 55 or 56, did ya ask her, or check her id? there were 3 other reports with ages like this, which i thought was quite strange. and more important, nice friend, Pamela has. I wonder if it was her house that someone wrote "snitch" in her driveway.

Sunday May 20
1:44 pm A Benicia City Park worker told the owners of a bulldog that had tied their dog to a "No Dogs in the Park" sign to leave. The dog owners were given a warning.

I think these people were messing with the park worker. and why agian, did he have to call the police? i mean get a life.

2:10 pm Children on the 1100 block of Southampton Road repeatedly called 911 to make "fart" noises.

haha

7:07 pm A caller reported that neighbors on Turner drive are raising rabbits in tents in their backyard and that they could smell the odor inside their home.

i think this lady is on crack. rabbits in tents, right! lady, Trix are for kids.

there are a few more knee slappers, but I think I've made Benicia, pitiful enough for now. I'm so glad they deliver the Chronicle here.

Sometimes I wonder what it was that used to fill my time, the days before I was online. I was a senior in high school when I first signed up with AOL, and heard those infamous words, "You've got Mail." I didn't care it took 10 hours to load, I just wanted to see if my dad (the only other person I knew online) had sent me a message. It was just cool, and I had this sense, then, of infinite possibilities. I didn't know exactly what they were, but I felt it, none the less. Skip ahead to now, and sometimes I worry that one day I will regret all this time I spend in front of a computer screen. All the fresh air, people watching, talking to neighbors, and just all around real life, that I am missing whenever I am in front of my computer. Of course, I do those other things, but not as much as I could. As much as I enjoy, even fiend, being connected, sometimes, I wonder if it's good for the soul. Luckily, I have this one discovery, that makes all of it worth while, my friend Emma. Emma, my friend from Australia, whom I've never even seen, except in a photo, is one of my favorite people in the whole world. We met completely by accident. I say that because I am so not the type of person to seek out friendships or any kind of relationship online. The fact that I even joined a pen pals site to begin with, is so not my style. For whatever reason I did, and I even returned to read a message from Emma. This was a couple of years ago, (I think) and since then, I have come to appreciate her so incredibly much, no one could even understand. She gets me, completely, and I get her. We just like each other, and there is nothing about her that could ever bother me, she just rocks. We are two totally different people with different personalities, but we just click. We have regular instant message chats, well as regular as we can, and have even spoke on the phone a handful of times. (I love her Aussie accent). Our conversations are full of laughing and the "F" word, just the way we love it. I always have the biggest smile on my face when we finish our talks. I can't really explain what it is, but I'm just so grateful to have met her. I can't ever say my time was wasted online, because if it wasn't for the internet, I never would have met her. We hope to, one day, be able to actually meet, face to face, and get our hugs in, meet the hubbies, and have our kids hang out...one day. But until then I'm just glad to have someone in this world, get me the way she does. Isn't that what life is all about? It should be.

xoxo ;)

i didn't always feel this way, extreme hate for paypal. for a good couple of years it was smooth sailing, no worries, buying and selling with ease. then one day, out of nowhere, BOOM, they froze my account. without getting into the whole very lengthy story, they had wrongly accused me of holding two accounts, one of which apparently had a balance of a few hundred bucks. at first, it seemed simple enough, just send them the info they asked for proving my identity and then all things would be cleared up. Ha! that's what I thought. i did everything they asked, faxed them my drivers license, and added a bank account to my profile. then i waited patiently for my freeze to be lifted. when that didn't happen, i made several phone calls talking to the dip shits over at paypal, pleading my case. still, no luck. finally i was able to speak to the customer relations manager. i spoke to this woman for over an hour, and argued until i was blue in the face. in the end she told me they didn't believe me, that it was still a possibility that i held another account, and that i was too much of a risk to be allowed to hold an account with them any longer. she actually told me, "you will NEVER be allowed to have a paypal account again." and that the freeze on my account will never be lifted. to say the least, this really pissed me off. if it wasn't for the fact that i need a paypal account in order to have any success with my etsy shop, then i wouldn't care. i offer Google Check Out as a payment option, along with money orders, cashier's checks, and even personal checks. so far, every transaction has been paid for using paypal. people are used to paying this way, they like it. i know that is how i used to feel too. i've managed to get another paypal account for my etsy sales, although it's under a false name, and has no credit card or bank account attached to it. so as of now, i have all this money in my paypal account, and am unable to spend it. i have the option of being paid by check but am afraid to do that, as i wouldn't know who to have them send it to. would i be able to cash the check that was written to this made up person i invented? would they figure me out if i gave them my real name?

so yes, there was a day that paypal had my full support, and i would even have great things to say about them to anyone that listened. now, they've screwed me royally, and i finally get what all those paypal haters have been talking about. beware to those that have not yet had an issue with paypal, your day will come, and then you too, will know why PAYPAL SUCKS.

take a look at other paypal horror stories, you won't believe what they get away with.

don't say i didn't warn you...