~Lori
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Please Stand for the Star Spangled Banner - A Treasury
Okay, I had a lot of fun making this! The first time I made it, it didn't save and I had to do it again. Argh! But, I like the end result a lot. :) Click to visit...
~Lori
~Lori
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Success with Diet and Exercise
It's been one of my goals to lose weight and get back in shape, and I'm having some decent success at it. I've lost 9 pounds in about 2-3 weeks. Now, I realize that's not a lot, but I'm changing my lifestyle, not just my eating habits. I've lost my appetite for fast food, and exercising has also helped curb my appetite. I'm watching what I eat and going to the gym several times a week. When I'm there, I do a strength training circuit, stretching, and a few minutes on the treadmill. I'm getting to the point where I look forward to the moment I strap on my sneakers and head out. So, in honor of steady success, here are some nifty handmade exercise-inspired things!
Now, get to stepping!
~Lori
Deal of the Day Info
Look left... <----------------------------------------------
The Deal of the Day will now be posted in my left sidebar each day. It only lasts 24 hours, and it's a great chance to get a steal of a deal! You purchase thru Bixbe which is a cool, independent listing service that will take you straight to PayPal. Questions? Please ask!
Did you look left? <--------------------------------------
Monday, June 28, 2010
Deal of the Day, June, 28, 2010-Peaching Aventurine Leaf Pendant
Today's Deal of the Day is a peach aventurine leaf pendant called 'Fading Innocence.' Save $5 off the sale price in my shop and enjoy free worldwide shipping. Click the listing to see details! Only 1 in stock.
~Have a great day!
Lori
Fading Innocence ...
~Have a great day!
Lori
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Deal of the Day - June 26, 2010 - My Etsy Guide to Success for only $5.95
Hi, everyone! Starting today, I'm going to have a deal of the day thru the end of June. I'm using a new service called Bixbe developed by 1000 Markets. (The 2 sites are not related.) Bixbe allows you to set up a listing and sell anything (that's legal!) directly to folks without going through a venue. There are no fees (except PayPal) and you can set the listing to expire for up to 2 weeks. Today's deal is my Etsy guide to success: How to Make It Small When You're Trying to Make It Big. Click below to purchase to get my book for $3 off the regular price.
Have a great day!!
~Lori
How to Make It Sm...Have a great day!!
~Lori
Friday, June 25, 2010
Recent Handmade Purchase-Body Frosting from Caribbean Scents on Etsy
Well, it's Friday, and what better day to pontificate effusively about my recent Body Frosting purchase from Caribbean Scents on Etsy? I am always on the hunt for the perfectly aroma-therapeutic bath and body experience and this one did NOT disappoint! I like it when bath and body shops offer sample sizes because try as I might, I can never get the scent feature on my monitor to work. ;-) So, I opted for 4 samples of body frosting for $7. I chose Brown Sugar, Lime Crystal Kisses, Pineapple Coconut, and Ginger Peach.
I'm impressed with this cream. It moisturizes well and doesn't feel at all greasy. I've also noticed a small improvement in my skin. I say 'small' because anyone who uses as much handmade soap and lotion as I do, already has sufficiently drenched skin, lol. Of the 4 scents I purchased, my least favorite is Pineapple Coconut; it's not quite pineapple-ly enough for me. (I'm ALL about the fruit!) I'm very pleased with the Lime Crystal Kisses and the Ginger Peach. It's pretty hard to mess up lime, and the Ginger Peach is a really interesting scent. It has a little kick to it that I really like. (Yes, I know that's the ginger, lol.)
You can sort of tell from the picture above that Brown Sugar is my favorite! And when I say favorite, that's an understatement! I LOVE this scent. I'm an Om gal, a discontinued scent from The Gap that you can only find on Ebay on the second Tuesday of every week and while I still have some left, I'm also searching for a comparable scent to take over when my dealer runs out of it. Brown Sugar might just be it. Ana, the shop owner, describes it as: a magical, complex fragrance composed of top notes of Fresh figs, peaches, and passion fruit; followed by middle notes of coconut milk, vanilla orchid, jasmine, muguet, and freesia; well-balanced with base notes of vanilla beans, caramel, maple sugar, fig leaves, and musk. Now I've purchased similarly described scents on Etsy before and many of them have gone right in the trash because they were harsh and overbearing. I like my perfumes to warm to my skin and make you wonder why I smell so good rather than make your nose implode on your face. This Brown Sugar is delightfully mysterious, and while I realize how goofy that sounds, it's just the truth!
Hope you enjoyed yet another foray into my penchant for purchasing! Be nosy and read about what else I buy. More confessions coming soon....
~Lori
I'm impressed with this cream. It moisturizes well and doesn't feel at all greasy. I've also noticed a small improvement in my skin. I say 'small' because anyone who uses as much handmade soap and lotion as I do, already has sufficiently drenched skin, lol. Of the 4 scents I purchased, my least favorite is Pineapple Coconut; it's not quite pineapple-ly enough for me. (I'm ALL about the fruit!) I'm very pleased with the Lime Crystal Kisses and the Ginger Peach. It's pretty hard to mess up lime, and the Ginger Peach is a really interesting scent. It has a little kick to it that I really like. (Yes, I know that's the ginger, lol.)
You can sort of tell from the picture above that Brown Sugar is my favorite! And when I say favorite, that's an understatement! I LOVE this scent. I'm an Om gal, a discontinued scent from The Gap that you can only find on Ebay on the second Tuesday of every week and while I still have some left, I'm also searching for a comparable scent to take over when my dealer runs out of it. Brown Sugar might just be it. Ana, the shop owner, describes it as: a magical, complex fragrance composed of top notes of Fresh figs, peaches, and passion fruit; followed by middle notes of coconut milk, vanilla orchid, jasmine, muguet, and freesia; well-balanced with base notes of vanilla beans, caramel, maple sugar, fig leaves, and musk. Now I've purchased similarly described scents on Etsy before and many of them have gone right in the trash because they were harsh and overbearing. I like my perfumes to warm to my skin and make you wonder why I smell so good rather than make your nose implode on your face. This Brown Sugar is delightfully mysterious, and while I realize how goofy that sounds, it's just the truth!
Hope you enjoyed yet another foray into my penchant for purchasing! Be nosy and read about what else I buy. More confessions coming soon....
~Lori
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Battling the Heat Wave In NC - A Treasury
It's hot here in Raleigh, NC. We hit triple digits yesterday and are hovering around a nice and blechy 96 the rest of the week. We had a vicious thunderstorm yesterday which gave us a bit of relief. I wish that would happen again today! Click my Treasury to cool off!
I'm so tired of sweating...lol.
~Lori
~Lori
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Victimology...A Handmade Collection
Those real and unreal...
Nothing like a little thought provoking on a Wednesday!
Nothing like a little thought provoking on a Wednesday!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Absence and Workspace Confession....
Where have I been for a week? Well, I'll tell you. Last week I was completely surprised (and honored) to be featured on Etsy's blog: Etsians Help Clean the Gulf. I've never been featured there before, and it took me awhile to figure out what was going on, lol. I had a small cluster of sales and then the cluster got bigger and then that cluster had a bunch of babies, and the next thing I knew, I was out of my crucial supplies, bubble mailers, business cards, packing tape, pre-made freebies, and ink in my printer. I had to go on a hunt to figure out where the publicity was coming from and eventually, I found the article and was like WOWZA! I ran out of EVERYTHING, lol. It was fabulous to be featured--beyond fabulous--and to date I've raised $115 for the American Bird Conservancy, and I'm not stopping! I'm fully re-stocked now. I generally like to spread out my overhead purchases such as mailers, ink, tape, biz cards, etc., but this month, that went out the window.
So, this morning I unpacked a ton of supplies that arrived and finally cleaned up my workspace a bit. Then I took a picture of it to remind me that I do in fact know how to keep it neat. Now, when I saw that this is my workspace, I mean that it's about 1/10 of my workspace because my 'studio' spans my entire apartment except for my bedroom and bathroom. Some day, I'll take a picture of a different section. I should do it today while everything's relatively tidy, lol.
Have a great day!
~Lori
So, this morning I unpacked a ton of supplies that arrived and finally cleaned up my workspace a bit. Then I took a picture of it to remind me that I do in fact know how to keep it neat. Now, when I saw that this is my workspace, I mean that it's about 1/10 of my workspace because my 'studio' spans my entire apartment except for my bedroom and bathroom. Some day, I'll take a picture of a different section. I should do it today while everything's relatively tidy, lol.
Have a great day!
~Lori
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Princesses and Peas and Mattresses - A Treasury
I'm so excited today! My Save the Gulf necklaces are flying off the shelves and so far my customers and I have raised $49 for the American Bird Conservancy!! Wo0t! I'm about to fall into bed from exhaustion when I get a convo that Smile For Suzy has included my bracelet in a treasury. If you follow my blog and shop, you know that I'm very partial to fairy tales! Isn't this the cutest thing?
Off to bed...I'm pooped!
~Lori
Off to bed...I'm pooped!
~Lori
Friday, June 11, 2010
My Future Imaginary Craft Room
Right now, I live in a 1 bedroom apartment that in no way resembles an apartment anymore. I bead; I stamp jewelry; I write and run the Handmade Highway. I tell everyone who might be dropping by that I live in a studio that just happens to have a bed. One day, though, I dream of having at the very least a 2 bedroom apartment so I can have my very own craft room. If I did, I'd adorn the walls and stock the shelves with things like these...
And this is just round 1. Well, a girl can dream....
~Lori
~Lori
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Go Crafty or Go Home
Lately, I've been in a very celebratory mood when it comes to crafting. I think part of it is because our culture in America is changing. When I was in school, being a crafty kid didn't get you very far. If you wanted to crochet during lunch, you could count on sitting by yourself. If as you grew older, you still enjoyed playing with beads or god forbid, making potholders, Christmas ornaments out of walnuts, or latch hook rugs, you might as well not leave the house. Not anymore. Our culture is evolving into one with a real appreciation for crafting talent. College kids have knitting needles in their backpacks for those long lags between classes; guys who can handle a sewing machine are viewed as modern super-heroes instead of losers. Women who can handle a saw and a torch are--dare I say it--sexy. DIY TV shows are ruling the air waves. We're no longer merely judged on what we know or what sport we play but on what talents we have and what we can create. The crafter and the geek are becoming people we idolize instead of mock. In that spirit, I bring you a few Etsy items that celebrate this new reality...go crafty or go home!
Underwater Sisters on the Go Hook and Needle Storage, Slipped Stitch Studios, $20
DIY Felted Wool Soap Kit, Heartwood's Creations, $9
(had to include this because I'M inspired by this whole movement!)
*Whew* I don't know about you, but I'm tuckered out now!!! Stay tune for tomorrow's post...how I'd decorate my dream craft room.
~Lori
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