I was featured today....

by stick a bow on it and be done !

A couple of sassy girls who love pink and green...can I say any more than that?

So, I finally have been working on my Flickr page...

I set up my account a long time ago...but this past week or two I have slowly but surely been working on my account. I even ended up upgrading to the pro account! I joined some groups but haven't posted anything to the groups...yet! Here is my main photostream page...right now I have 9 sets configured...woo hoo!

I filled out my profile page--It is bare bones now but at least it is a start!

I added general tags for each set and descriptions!

I have accomplished a lot..but oh, there is so much more to do! I have more sets to create and more pictures to upload...but, first, I need to go through and add descriptions and titles to everything! The work just never ends.

All About Purses...

I recently just started taking photographs of my purses all over again!

I am afraid that I am guilty of over editing my photos in my last batch so one by one, I am going through and re-taking all of the pictures again!

It is an arduous process, but well worth it, I think!

Christmas in July!

Call it Christmas in July! Call it a custsomer appreciation sale!

Call it Heather is suffering from heat stroke! Call it whatever you want...but I am having a sale!

Here is the knitty gritty...

• FREE SHIPPING-minimum order is $15.00 usd


• DOMESTIC and INTERNATIONAL apply (worldwide)


• Dates: Friday, July 18-August 10


• ANYTHING in the store inventory


• All items purchased from the 18th-24th will ship at once


• All items purchased from the 25-AUGUST 10th will ship on AUGUST 11,12


• Please WAIT for me to send you a revised invoice! It will just make things a lot easier...but, if not, I will refund the shipping charges!

See my store on Etsy for more details!

I've been waiting on these little gems to arrive!

One of my favorite sellers on etsy is weakness. For months now, she has been supplying me with some great promotional stickers to use on my packaging! Here are some of those pics....




A few weeks ago I conoved her again with a new challenge! I wanted to to take my generic stickers and create some more specific stickers that I can use on my supplies....I had her create some new designs for my ball chain, grosgrain ribbon, rag bag kits, fabric scraps, etc...etc.... Well, they came yesterday and they are so cute! Thank you weakness:)

Now, enough about me! Here is an informal interview with weakness (aka...AMY!!)

Q:Please tell us a little about yourself.

I am a stay-at-home mom to two kids (7-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son) and a principal's wife in Indiana. My etsy shop is pretty much my life right now (I keep thinking I'm going to get caught up one day . . .), and spend my free time driving my kids to golf, dance, basketball, and cheerleading practices. I love Etsy and find myself spending hours just browsing through shops and bookmarking so many unique items and gorgeous artwork . . . total eye candy! I also love photography, digital scrapbooking, and traveling with my family.

Q:What's your favorite item in your store and why?

I think my favorite items in my shop right now are the new baby-themed designs (the baby peeking out from behind the teddy bear, the stroller with the teddy bear, and the box of baby toys) . . . I love the soft colors and cute designs.

Q:What item has surprised you the most, and why?

I think my scalloped tags have surprised me the most because my customers keep coming up with different ways of using them that I hadn't even thought of! I had originally made them for people to use as price tags for craft shows, but have had customers ask me to make them into business cards, thank you cards, gift tags, journaling tags for scrapbooking, and even earring cards!

Q:What are you're goals regarding Etsy?

I had originally started my shop on Etsy as a way to make a little extra spending money in my free time so I could buy some of the wonderful handmade goodies I saw in other Etsy shops - but now it has turned into a full-time job and business . . . I'm even in the process of opening a second shop!

Thanks so much, Amy!

SnagIT part 2

Okay, so I have been continuing to play around with the features and this is what I figured out now...WOW, is it cool!

• First, you can add post it notes!
• Then you can make any type of arrow or pointer--the orange arrow I drew to show how you can curve it or make it go anyway you want!
• You can add markings on the page (like the red circle) to highlight specific parts of text or images
• You can use the highlighting feature to bring attention to certain text
• On this border, I used a "wave"

Now, what are you waiting for? Go snag something!

So, I have a new (not so little) addiction to tell you about...

In a word...SnagIT!
So, my thumbalizr hasn't been working, so I started searching for an alternative and stumbled upon snagit! These are great tools for capturing screenshots...only with snagit, you can do so much more! It is so unbelievable I can't even begin to tell you all of the features it has! When I saw it had a free 30 day trial, I jumped on it! You can add all kinds of effects to it, insert the "actual" hyperlinks directly into the images, you can insert captions into the page.....the possibilities are wide open with this program!
Take a look at what I have learned to do so far....

Lesson #1: You can insert little windows into your images...how cool is that!

These are currently running treasuries...I have items in two and then the third treasury listed above is one I created! You can capture as little or as much of the screen as you want/need! There is a custom scroll feature that makes it so simple to capture what you need.

Lesson #2: You can play around with the edges of your screenshots....how cool is THAT!

Here I used some of the same images but instead, I used the ripped paper, bezel edge and jagged edge effects on the images!

Go snagit, will you!?!

Happy creating

A little treasury shoutout to Midnightcoiler

While I was away today, midnightcoiler was busy creating a treasury which happened to include me! It also gave me a chance to use snagit a new alternative to thumbalzr...It is so fun to capture important screenshots of things on the internet! Enjoy!

Here is the treasury! I have to go into snagit and figure out how to edit, etc...but the possibilities are endless. See a critique and review on snagit from critiquesandreviews!

OH, what an etsy find...

Background: How I stumbled upon vmdesigns
Just before Christmas this past year I was frantically looking on Etsy for a few more "stocking stuffers" for my daughter to include in her stocking. I remember searching jewelry and children's jewelry and just could not get anything to come up in the search that would be perfect for my "tween". I spent a day or two looking through an enormous amount of stuff. And then, I remember something catching my eye coming through on the recently listed items on the home page of etsy, and sure enough, it was a pendant that would end up being perfect for my daughter! I think what attracted me and what caught my eye in that tiny little picture was the big, bold, C O L O R ! See, here it is! K is for KATIE!

And then a few months later, my daughter and I were trying to figure out a gift that she could give to all of the girls in her class (there are only 7 total) and so Vicki so very graciously created 7 coordinating necklaces for my duaghter and her friends! They were so cute! Each time one of them comes over during the summer, they have their neclace on:)

You are familiar with the phrase, "great minds think alike", correct? Well, Vicki just happens to subscribe to my own philosophy of the bigger (well, not this one:), the brighter, the sassier, the better:)

Now here's Vicki...an informal interview
Q: Please tell us a little about yourself...
"My name is vicki musser. My background and education is in interior design. I gave up my design career years ago to be a stay-at-home-mom to my 2 children.....while my wonderful husband (who is also my high school sweetheart) became the breadwinner. But design is in my blood so I needed to find an outlet for it, so I started designing children's jewelry. I found as my daughter became a "tween" that there was not a large market for it, so I created one......and Ive never looked back! I've taken my love of paper, whimsy, color, lines, and design and translated it into a different medium.....decoupage jewelry. I love what I do!"

Q: What's your favorite item in your store and why?
"hmmm......my favorite item would have to be my Charmed Life Collection - Personalized Seeing Spots - Triple Ribbon Initial Necklace -I love it because it's so colorful and fun and it's a new take on the scrabble tile pendant design"

Q: What item has surprised you the most, and why?
"The item that most surprised me is my Tween Scene Collection - Personalized Color Burst - Triple Ribbon Initial Necklace -it was originally done as a custom order for someone and I liked it so much I listed it in my shop and it's been my most popular piece! "

Q: What are you're goals regarding Etsy?
"My goals are to keep my shop going and growing. I"ve been blessed to have many wonderful retail and wholesale customers that have found me through etsy and i'm looking forward to continued growth......and bringing new and fresh design ideas for the ever growing "tween" market."

Here are some of MY favorite things from vmdesigns:

Those bracelets are brand new...I hadn't even seen them yet! They are A D O R A B L E !

p.s. I love the new banner, Vicki!

Just before I threw my blackberry up against the wall....

I discovered the Opera Mini! Opera Mini is the FREE mobile web browser and wow, it is like having your desktop on your mini screen! I was so excited to get my blackberry so that I could check email but also so I could do some basic updates to my etsy store. But, I was so disappointed when it took 4 minutes to load each page:( Then I found Opera mini...It is FREE, it is FASTER, and it is really, really easy to use! If you have a mobile device and are ready to toss it out with the garbage, I encourage you to download it today!



Btw...this was my first youtube video and I learned how to add it to my blog posting by reading this:
How to add YouTube video to blogger blogs

And the winning project is......clean out the grosgrain ribbon drawers!

It seems like just about every Sunday nowadays gets devoted to cleaning out/up something around the house or office! Today....it is the grosgrain ribbon drawers!

My daughter, Katie has been counting down the days to vacation and has been in a state of eternal boredom, so she has been very eager over the past two weeks to help me out with packing orders and cutting grosgrain ribbon. Katie had the wonderful idea of cleaning out my ribbon drawers today! So, I took her up on it.

First, she emptied out the drawers. She pilled up all of the ribbon and cleared out the ribbon that only had a few yards on each roll. Then, she measured it all out and put it in the cello bags to get it ready to sell. And, last but certainly not least, she reorganized all of the ribbon into two drawers--1 drawer for 1.5" ribbon, 1 drawer for 7/8" ribbon and one drawer for all of my ribbon roll end odd ball pieces!

She was a great help to me today!

Thank you, ♥Katie♥!

I just stumbled upon the thumbalizr!

I was trying to figure out how to take pictures (thumbprints) of web pages and while searching in google, I came across this great little tool called the thumbalizr. The basic (and still in beta) format of the tool is FREE, although there is a premium service available as well! If you need a quick screenshot it quite a handy little tool to use!

Here are some of the first thumbprints I took trying to capture an etsy treasury that I had created. First, is an example of a screen shot and the second example is of an entire page! In addition to those choices you can also choose from a variety of pixel sizes as well! It is quite the handly little tool!




Now you can preserve all types of material you find on the internet!
Now, I must get back to thumb-ing:))))

My summer reading list....

I am getting ready to start THINKING about going on vacation in just a short couple of weeks! And, of course, I have to get my reading material in order! I love to read while I am on vacation and usually read about 1 book a day--which means I am reading about 15 books while I am gone! Some of my absolute favorite books are of the "southern flair"....there is something about a southern woman amidst a drama that gets me each and every time:)

I'm not sure if you have ever read anything by Mary Kay Andrews, but if you like to laugh when you read, her books are certainly well worth the read! They are an absolute must for vacation reading! I will be reading her latest book, Deep Dish, while I am on vacation in a few weeks!
Books by Mary Kay Andrews:

• Little Bitty Lies


• Savannah Blues


• Savannah Breeze


• Hissy Fit


• Deep Dish

Another author ideal for your summer reading is Dorthea Benton Frank. I have 3 of her books to catch up on this vacation and cannot wait to start. The first book I read by her was Plantation and it absolutely got me hooked!

Books by Dorthea Benton Frank:

• Bulls Island


• The Land of Mango Sunsets


• Full of Grace


• Pawley's Island


• Isle of Palms


• Shem Creek


• Plantation


• Sullivan's Island

Happy summer reading!

Etsy Office

The ultimate etsy office...from lighting to furniture to accessories! Etsy has it all covered! Check out these sellers and many, many more on etsy.com!

Oh how I wish I had a more organized office! Currently, it is a slightly organized mess! But, when the economy turns around, I'll be sure to be picking up a few of these wonderful office ideas I found on etsy!

(resurface, DDsRestoredFurniture, thekeepershouse, RobertoSand, baconsquarefarm)

We can't forget about the very important accessories, now can we! I love all of these just as much!

(capturedtimebooks, autumntomay, Teen1, MooreMagnets, shimandsons, playinghookey, uncorked, custompaperdesigns, RobertoSand, JJMFinance, Weakness)