Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Wordless Wednesday-"Vintage Leaf"

I stepped into the Etsy search engine with only the words 'vintage' and 'leaf' in hand and here are the fruits of my labor:



1. Windy River
2. Sweet Rice
3. Park and Beach
4. Good Life Vintage
5. The Caravan Collection
6. Fashion Rerun
7. Aimee's Armoire
8. Jody's Vintage
9. A Collectible Cachet
10. Sparker Select Vintage
11. Capricious Traveler
12. Portobellobelle
13. LaVogue
14. Elisa Loves
15. All Wild Jewels
16. Japanese Greeting

Yes, I love leaves. Truly, madly, deeply. Hopefully, you are now afflicted with the same disorder.

~Lori ;-)

Win a FREE Premium Zibbet Account for life!

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Can you Zibbet it just a little bit? Win a FREE Zibbet Premium Account!

**CONTEST CLOSED. WINNER CHOSEN**
CONGRATS TO MOON OF GLASS!
Yes, you can! If you've been a reader of my blog, you know that I have a shop at Zibbet and have sung their praises in two separate posts here and here. Zibbet is a young venue, but I truly like the vibe there, and the owners are very down to earth people who respond to you lickety-split!



One of the great things about Zibbet is that you can open a shop for free and list up to 25 items! That's a great deal for a free account. Zibbet has just launched their Premium Accounts at $7/mo. and for that price you can list unlimited items, customize your shop colors, choose from 4 different banner sizes, put widgets in your shop such as your Etsy mini or your Twitter feed, post video, rearrange your entire shop, and choose which feedback you want to appear! The $7/mo. is an introductory price; the regular price will be $15/mo.

Now, $7/mo. is a fantastic deal, but Zibbet is letting me give away a FREE Premium Account for life right here in this little post, so if you'd like to win a FREE Premium Zibbet Account for life, then you need to go to Zibbet, find an item you like, and come back and link to it in the comments. Be sure to leave your email address as well in case you win.

If you'd like an extra chance to win, then tweet 'I Want A Premium Account at Zibbet' and then come back here and comment with a link to that tweet, again, with your email address.

The winner will be chosen next Sunday night at 9pm, EST time! Good luck and let me see you Zibbet it just a little bit!

~Lori

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

I've been tagged-10 facts about me

I was tagged by Fo-Shizzle Design Studios so it's my turn to share ten facts about me and to tag 10 others to do the same. This is a great way to get to know about each other and further develop our friendships, even though most of them are long-distance.

So... without further a-do, here's 10 facts about me:

1. I have two cats that have almost convinced me that I'm one of them.

2. I have synesthesia, specifically grapheme --> color synesthesia. All numbers and letters are a specific color in my mind as do days of the week and months of the year. For instance, I've never been able to think of the days of the week as anything but: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. I don't know why Sunday and Wednesday are the same. They just are.

3. I write all the time. When I'm not writing, I'm thinking about writing.

4. Nothing thrills me more than findings beads that look exactly like lettuce or veggies or hamburgers.

5. I'm a bleeding heart liberal, and I consider myself just one person in this great big world, a person who has no right to deny health care to anyone else. I think politicians who think otherwise are incredibly selfish and quite frankly, cruel.

6. I like Laffy Taffy and tangy, sour candy.

7. I have a degree in Education with a concentration in High School English, but I spent my career being a child care teacher, director, business manager and then operations manager and then in accounts receivable for construction companies. I've taken coursework beyond college in Early Childhood Development and Computer Programming. Now, I run Risky Beads and the Handmade Highway. Go figure.

8. I'm an avid fan of: Mad Men, So You Think You Can Dance, Wipeout (because it's brainless hilarity), Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, Countdown, The Daily Show, Reno 911, The Rachel Maddow Show, Glee, Big Brother, and The Colbert Report, and documentaries. This year, I'm trying out Survivor.

9. I buy way too many music soundtracks and TV soundtracks. Including Mad Men. Great soundtrack!

10. Up until about 6 months ago, we didn't have Bravo on our cable system here, so I couldn't watch Project Runway. When we did get and I saw it come on one day, I realized that for years, I thought the show was Project Runaway. I was expecting a riveting documentaries about teens on the streets. o_0 I wish I was making that up!

I tag:
1. Five to Nine Design
2. Ollie's Boutqiue
3. Lynsey & Harper Confections
4. Moppets Closets
5. Californiablue
6. Hypnotransformations. Hypnosis To Transform Your life
7. Make Every Day Your Lucky Day
8. Addition Style
9. PieceMama
10. Luminous Art by Shannon

Friday, September 18, 2009

Pulling Over to the Side of the Road

See this sign right here?

Click it and you'll go straight to our very first Souvenir Stand on the Handmade Highway tonight! We have 43 pieces of gorgeous jewelry marked down and ready to go! If you're not in the buying mood, that's okay! Just come by and enter our giveaway. You could win free registration on the Handmade Highway or a very cool necklace from one of artists.


Isn't that the coolest necklace ever? Remember, click the road sign to get to the Souvenir Stand! See you there, Lori

Sale runs 5pm - midnight, Friday, 9/18

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

FREE with purchase while supplies last!

Get a free pair of the above antique copper spiral earrings with any purchase while supplies last! Aren't they adorable!! Lots of new designs will be going up in my shop tonight for fall and winter.

~Lori

Saturday, September 12, 2009

The Easiest Way to Get Featured on a Crafty Blog


Did you know that the easiest way to get featured on a crafty blog is to be..... left-handed? Yes, it's true. I, Lori, of this blog, Handmade Highway, and Notes from the Handmade Highway, also run a shameless little left-handed blog called Lefthand Madens! So, if you're a crafter or artist or vintage or supply seller AND just so happen to be left-handed, then all you need to do is 'heart' this shop on Etsy and I'll pull from your shop at some point when I'm featuring items on the blog. I feature at least one item a day in a Southpaw Sighting!

The amazing artwork used on the blog is from a fellow Etsyian, Jane George, who runs the shop JGeorge Photography. Jane is not a lefty, but I forgave her as soon as she agreed to let me use this unbelievably amazing lefty lady on the blog.

If you're even more ambitious and want to be full-fledge featured on the blog, then all you have to do is click here and follow the directions. I post full interviews with full Etsy minis as well. Lefthand Madens is not limited just to Etsy folks by any means; any crafter from anywhere is welcome!

So get busy, South Paws!!

~Lori

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

The Only Option Left

Tonight is a very important night, the President speaks to the country about health care. I was driving around town the other day running errands, thinking to myself that, drat!, I forgot that I needed to stop at the grocery store for something. I hate grocery shopping, so I was trying to rationalize why I didn't really need to stop there. Couldn't I make it one more day?


That train of thought made me think about health care for some reason - probably that whole wait one more day thing...one more month...one more presidential election thing, and I was headed to the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions. My health insurance (via Cobra) ends on October 15. I've spent a lot of time making phone calls trying to figure out which meds will be affordable without insurance and which won't. ( I have chronic migraines that make it all but impossible for me to work for anyone but myself. They've gotten much better now that I work for myself, but I still have to have medicine.) So, while I was thinking about this and stopping at the pharmacy and not the grocery store, I started to wonder, why am I even allowed to go to the grocery store? I mean, I'm not insurable after October 15, so why should I have the luxury of shopping for food? Shouldn't I have to buy a weapon and just start hunting? And why do I even have a car? Shouldn't somebody take it? And a roof over my head? Ridiculous! Somebody should just come to my house and toss me and my beadage right out into the street!


Oh, stop being ridunkulous, you're probably saying. You can still buy your drugs without insurance. Well, yes, but not the really important ones. I'll be jonesing in front of Glaxo for those. And it's no big deal that since I already have this condition, any other bug I get on top of it, is extra problematic, so if I can't afford to see a doctor about that, then BONUS POINTS FOR ME! I don't know how I'll adjust about October 15th. I'm so used to donating 90% of my earrings to BCBS of NC so they can tell me that the medicine my doctor prescribes isn't good for me that the shock alone might do me in.

So, Mr. President, please remember that I'm just a person who lives a regular life, who goes to the grocery store and drives a car and pays rent and works for herself and oh yeah, I need affordable health care. I'm happy to pay for it; I'm not asking for anything free, just some access. Please?

I'll pick something up at the grocery store for you if you want.

~Lori