Black Friday through Cyber Monday Sale

If you're in the mood to start your holiday shopping today, but don't feel like dealing with throngs of people at the malls, this is your lucky day!  Today through Monday you can receive a special discount in my SusanNeedlehands Online Boutique without even leaving the comfort of your own home.

Just enter the coupon code BGBFCM2010 at checkout and you will receive a 15% discount on your entire purchase!  And don't forget to let me know if there is a charity of your choice that you would like the proceeds to go to.  The list is below.

Thank you and Happy Shopping!

Showing Off my LovMely Headband

Just wanted to show off my new LovMely turquoise feather headband.  She does beautiful work!  You can see more of her lovely pieces and shop for them here.

Adventures in Networking

For my final examination of areas in my life in which I have fallen out of love with my old ways, I look at how things are going in the world of Etsy.

As soon as I picked up this book at Borders, I realized that I was no longer enamored with my normal going-it-solo route.  So I started looking for Etsy teams that I might fit with, and found, well ... several.  As of right now, I think I am a member of eight teams.

Scrambling to try to get "networked", I added people willy nilly, left-and-right to Facebook and Twitter.  I have now signed up to Stumble and Tumble, Flicker, Shutter and Kaboodle.  Someday I hope to actually learn how to use all of these services, and get my contacts organized (thus my fiddling around with TweetDeck today).  Ahhhhh!!! In an effort to make my life simpler, I have totally complicated things--as usual!

What was that I said about falling out of love with Wonderland in one of my previous posts?  The Cheshire Kitty might as well put a blindfold on me and spin me around and around and throw me out into the forest.  I'll be wandering around on these platforms for a looooooooonnnnnng time.

Falling in Love

The Safe Place by The Little Fox on Etsy

This post is supposed to be about how I fell in love with crafting and creating; however, I think I've pretty much exhausted that topic in previous posts here and here.

Instead, I feel the need to revisit those persnickety goals I came up with not so long ago (has it only been two weeks?), and check in on the progress (if any) I'm making towards them.
 

Goal #1 - To prioritize my time in order to balance work, shop, recreation, and my many interests:

Abstract Photo Chocolate Hearts Satin Flowers by StudioJB on Etsy 

Hah, now I realize what a pipe dream it was to think I could cut 12 hours from my work schedule.  Since I set that as my primary goal, my mind has been consumed with ideas of things I could do for work, things I want to learn about teaching and technology, and wanting to work on our class and student blogs.  It's almost as if the thought alone made me feel guilty, like I need to work overtime to make up for even thinking of abandoning my students.  Or really, I just love teaching kids and want that to be the priority over crafting and trying to sell my wares.  Could it be???

Victorian Heart Earrings by Stardust Love on Etsy

In fact, I didn't do any shop updates this week (since putting together my Valentine's Day Scarf Sale for the month of February last weekend), and you know what?  I don't feel bad about it at all.   To be brutally honest, I'm kind of glad I didn't have any sales, or I would have had to wrap the items, package them up, get to the post office (not a thrilling place my past few experiences) and get them in the mail, all on top of parent conferences at work.  I know, I know, this is sooooo not good P.R. for my shop, but I have to say it.

I did up my meditation time and that seems to be helping me not feel like it's imperative that all things must get done--NOW! Somehow, I wonder if this is what helped me decide to reprioritize my time back to teaching.

Didn't get any exercise in, because I was feeling sick again.

Blue Glitter Heart Necklace with Wings by Stars Sprinklez on Etsy

Goal #2: Taking the time to organize and put things away

Goal #3: Finish up projects that are already out instead of starting new ones

I did clean up the living room.  Now I'm down to one little pile of papers on the couch, but the dining room table and rocking chair are no longer being used to  hold up stacks of stuff!  I also put away most of my "in progress" projects and am down to just my regular knitting bag by the couch.

Overall, I think it was a very good week.

I guess what I'm saying through this little diatribe is that I fall in love over and over again with different parts of my life, in cycles.  Sometimes I am in creative/making things with my hands mode, and sometimes I am in research/educator mode.  And sometimes, just sometimes, I clean up the house a little bit!

(Of course, there are people I love too, but that will be another post to come....)

Jim Warren on Planet Perplex
Can you find the 7 hearts in this picture?

So, what about you?  What are YOU most in love with in your life right now? 

Reaching for the Sun

New growth in the new year

Something I never seem to have enough of

I would have written yesterday, but was taking pictures of product for my Etsy shop aaaaalllll day, and then spent the evening learning how to use Google Calendar.  I vow that this year I'm going to keep all my to do lists on the computer instead of on my regular kajillion post-it notes that end up everywhere...

So I'm supposed to have a "mission" statement to present here, instead of just my usual rambling mode.  I can already feel my resistance to the word "mission" statement rising.  It feels so boxy, like I'm being reined in, corralled, confined.  Or maybe like then I'll have to keep to my word, if I write it down.  What if I can't keep all my promises???

I did write out all my reasons for making my craft--the passion and inspiration behind it, and how I learned it, but think I will leave those for another time.  They seem too cold and formulaic right now, and I'd rather tell them as a story.

Instead, I'll leave you with a few sneak peeks of the new product photos.  They seem to say everything I want to get across so much better than I could in words:

I'm going to try to list one item per day in the mornings before I go to work.  Let's see how long I keep that up!

Peace and good wishes to all in the New Year!