2011 in Review

I used to do these kinds of posts on LiveJournal way back in the day so I figured I'd try to do the same here. It's a month by month short review of the things that happened this year.

January
Marked 2 years that Adrian has been gone, that was rough. Wedding planning getting hectic.

February
Our last Valentine's Day as "singles." Bridal shower that was blown off by many. The big day is almost here!

March
The last dating anniversary we will probably ever celebrate. We both lost our jobs within about a month of the wedding. Finishing up last minute DIY projects. Surprise birthday party for Aunt Betty - it was princess themed!

April
We got married! Almost lost reception venue and Pastor in the week before the wedding. Jacuzzi room with the leak.

May
The hubby turned 24 and went back to work. Another Mother's Day as only a mother to angels. I got back into Etsy more.

June
Nothing much must have happened because I can't think of anything.

July
Paper flowers galore! 3 years since I'd had a "real" job.

August
Finally got down to see the wonderful Miss Kelley! Had a blast at the fair despite the heat and enjoyed Duck Farts and Duck Poop. Health insurance kicked in! Officially re-opened my Etsy store.

September
Dad turned 61! Now he is getting old (notice no quotation marks!).

October
I turned 29! One more year until I'm "old."

November
The terrible neighbors finally left! Leg bummed up most of the month. Black Friday shopping online. First holiday season as a married couple.

December
First gift from Hubby that I wasn't there to pick out. Amazing savings on clothes for the niece and nephews. Christmas is still a rough holiday despite all the reasons to be happy.

Thinking of You - Mojo Monday 221

I wasn't planning on posting any more in 2011, but I just HAD to get this up and show you.

Here's the latest Mojo Monday sketch.

I chose to do the square as I knew it would still let me use a regular A2 envelope.

Card available for purchase by clicking picture above

Christmas Gift Card Haul #1

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! I know I sure did! All of the gifts I gave people were very well liked and I loved everything I received, especially the gift cards to Hobby Lobby and Walmart!

I decided to go shopping today to see what I could find to spend those gift cards on and came home with quite a bit of stuff, and even had some money left! I got several new papers, stamps and inks as well as blank cards for embellishing. I was going to try to come up with lots of different projects to help show off all I got, but decided instead to just take pictures of everything and add a little description.

Here goes.

Is it really almost Christmas?

The last few weeks have both drug and flown by at the same time. I can't believe we're nearing the home stretch to Christmas and I haven't even started my cards. That might be something I get to tonight.

Since the weekend before Thanksgiving I've been pretty well laid up with a leg injury. I went to my family doctor who said I had a Baker's cyst. After a week I was still in a lot of pain and of course the doctor was out for Thanksgiving vacation, so I ended up at the ER. The doctor there diagnosed me with phlebitis (an inflammation of a vein, mine happens to be in my leg) and told me to follow up with my regular doctor in a few days. I did that this week and he gave me a water pill to get rid of the swelling in my leg.

I'm going to be honest here. I kind of don't feel like either diagnosis is the correct one, but I'm kind of done with testing and blood work and such. It feels, to me, the one feeling the pain, like a pulled muscle of sorts. I believe that I did initially have a Baker's cyst, but I'm not so sure about the phlebitis.

As of today I'm feeling pretty good. The pain is no where near what it was and it actually feels better to move around and stretch things out a little (hence why I think muscular problem). Once the swelling goes down even more I think I'll feel nearly as good as new.

It's been a while again

It's been a while since I've done a blog post, 10 days to be exact, so a while but not a long time. I really like to write more, but just haven't had the energy lately. You see, I've been sick since shortly before Thanksgiving.

It started with just a headache and slowly that sometimes headache went to an all the time headache and I had a whole host of other health difficulties thrown in there for good measure. I ended up at the doctor a week ago and he basically thought I had "the crud" and a sinus infection. Thus I got an antibiotic. I kind of hate meds of all kinds, but especially I hate antibiotics. They always upset my stomach any more.

So anyhow, it's a week later and tonight I take the last of my antibiotic so you'd think I'd be feeling better. I am mostly, but not completely. I'm still running a low grade fever (in the 99s mostly but sometimes creeping up just over 100) and I just feel blah in general. I don't have too many specific symptoms I can put a finger on anymore, just the general not well feeling. I think I'll give things a few more days and see how they go before calling back to see if I need to be seen again and/or another round of antibiotics. You'd think though that if this was some sort of bacterial infection the antibiotics would be helping more. I'm leaning toward some type of virus, which an antibiotic won't help anyhow.

Yep that's pretty much been my life for the last few weeks. It takes all of my energy to get out of bed, play stupid Facebook games, sometimes nap and cook dinner. By 9 or so I'm exhausted. Also I ended up giving it to my mom. She's on the same antibiotics as I am, but she got hers about 2 weeks sooner into her illness than I did. Hopefully hers doesn't hang on as long.

Thanksgiving 2011 911

Yes, we haven't even had a full week of November yet and I'm already planning one very specific meal I will eat in about 3 weeks. I'm a firm believer in planning ahead. PLUS, we always cook for about 40 and rarely, if ever, have fed more than 10 at once. We can't help cooking so much, the leftovers are just too yummy!

Goodbye October, Hello November

I've decided that this will be a monthly post about what goals I have for the current month and how I did with goals from the past month. I will choose about 5 goals for each month. Sometimes these will be large goals and sometimes they will be smaller goals, but they'll all be things that should be achievable in each month.

So here goes for October/November.

I started October with the following Etsy goals:

• 4 sales
• 100 items in my shop
• 200 FB fans (http://www.facebook.com/HandmadeCreativity if you're interested)
• Get a decent stock pile of paper products printed (~25 of each should do)
• Organize my craft area a little better 

And how did I do?

• 3 sales
• At max I had 86 items in my shop
• 159 FB fans
• Still only have less than 10 of my paper products (business cards, labels, etc.) printed
• My craft area was organized better, but it has since exploded again

So what do I want for November?

• 5 sales
• 100 items in my shop
• 175 FB fans
• Get more storage for craft area
• Come up with 2 new products or 2 new uses for existing products, even if they can't be implemented just yet

Halloween Pumpkin 2011

Every year we try to come up with something fun and scary at the same time for our pumpkins. This year I came up with this:

I need to scrape out a bit more of the small pumpkin so more light shines through, but otherwise I think it's pretty neat.

Anyone else carving pumpkins?

Foodie Friday - Pork Roast

This week I bring you my recipe for pork roast. I started cooking it several years ago (5 or so at least) and I'm not quite sure how I came up with it. I think I was attempting to come up with some sort of BBQ sauce to go with the pork roast to make it BBQ pork sandwich style, but that kind of flopped and I ended up with this instead.

Also, I was going to take a picture of how it turned out all nice on a plate and stuff, but we were so hungry I don't think it lasted 2 minutes just sitting there.

Happy Birthday Week to Me!

In honor of my 29th birthday (and no, I'm not just saying I'm 29, I really will be 29) this week, I am offering up 29 cent shipping for all US orders (includes custom orders placed this week even if they aren't ready to ship this week)! There is no special coupon necessary to take advantage of this great deal as all listings have been adjusted already to reflect 29 cent shipping.

What do I have to offer?

I am the face...

October 15th is Pregnancy and Infant Loss awareness day. 1/4 women suffer a miscarriage or loss, and yet we suffer it alone because it is a "taboo" to discuss these things. My goal is to break that taboo, and I hope that by talking about my angel babies, that I will inspire someone else who is in pain to come out and talk about their losses as well. I remember my babies today and everyday. ♥ Hugs to everyone who has lost their babies before getting to meet them, or those that are gone too soon.

October is for more than just breast cancer

October has always been a special month for me since I was born in October, 1982. Now that I'm older, wiser (hopefully) and have had more worldly experiences, October has taken on an additional, equally special, meaning.

October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month and will forever hold a special place in my heart as such.

Etsy Uncovered - Halloween

You'll notice a slight change in the title of this post compared to Etsy related findings posts in the past. I didn't want to be confused with the e-mail Etsy sends out called "Etsy Finds" and I wanted to make these posts a bit more themed. They will still feature shops who have yet to have a sale as of when I write things up, but the items featured will fit into a theme. Today's theme is Halloween!

Halloween will be here shortly and many people I know are just starting to break out the decorations and are thinking about their costumes. Now would be a good time to snap up any of these findings if you'd like to receive them before the holiday.

Shabby Toddler White headband with Ghost & black rose with feathers

TsLilBowtique

$16

Enchanted Moonlight - Fine Art Print 8x10 

WhatsReality

$17.50

Halloween Quilt "Mummies, Witches and Bats, Oh My"

notyourgrammysquilt

$300

Pumpkin and Ghost Trick or Treat Text BothFor 5 x 7 Hoop

TheViolinist

$3.99

Goodbye September, Hello October

I started out the month of September with a few goals for my Etsy stuff:

• At least 1 sale
• 75 items in my shop
• 200 FB fans
• Get all paper products printed up and ready to go - labels, business cards, etc.
• Clean up my craft table so I can work there and not always at the dining table

So how did I do?

• 2 sales
• 70 items in my shop - Have said 72 if you include the sales
• 156 FB fans
• A few extra paper products printed, but not exactly "enough"
• I now craft at my craft table and not the dining table

And my goals for October?

• 4 sales
• 100 items in my shop
• 200 FB fans (http://www.facebook.com/HandmadeCreativity if you're interested)
• Get a decent stock pile of paper products printed (~25 of each should do)
• Organize my craft area a little better

My thoughts on Etsy's new ads

I am by no means a marketing guru, nor will I claim to have any experience in advertising beyond the one public relations class I was required to take for my major in college. That said, after reading through the Etsy forums in the last few weeks a two major things have become apparent to me.

1 - People don't understand what the ads are all about - And for good reason. While Etsy did a decent job (in my opinion) of explaining HOW to set up an ad, they have done a fairly poor job of explaining exactly how these ads can and will benefit sellers. Many people are confused, especially after the recent switch to relevancy as the default search, about how any ads they may take out will impact their shop and sales.

2 - People are impatient - And again, for good reason. With so many companies switching to online only or expanding their reach online, it's no wonder people just assume that all they need to do to be successful on Etsy is set up shop and let well enough alone. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It takes work, dedication and patience to be successful at anything on the Internet, not just selling on Etsy. This even includes the "overnight sensations" and things that have gone "viral" quickly. It takes getting whatever it is you're doing, from selling merchandise to writing poetry to sketching comic books, in front of the right person at the right time to be successful and that my friend requires patience.

All of that said, I have a few hints and suggestions for fixing these problems.

It's been a busy few weeks

Over the last couple of weeks I've been working on creating new items for my Etsy shop and I'm happy to introduce my latest line of products.

The Season of Change Treasury

With the leaves beginning to change colors and the air getting cooler, it's hard not to think of all the vibrant fall colors starting to surround us. I made this treasury in honor of those colors and I must say it's amazing (not that I'm biased!). It's so amazing in fact that I want to share it with more than just those who are on Etsy, so here it is in all its glory.

You can check out the full sized treasury and all of the listings by clicking here. Hopefully you find something you enjoy!

Etsy Finds

It's time for another great edition of Etsy Finds! All of these shops featured had 0 sales as of 9/15/11 despite having amazing items. Perhaps someone is looking for something they sell?

Hand-made Green Power Belt,Malachite,gemstones - $59.00 - By rasiukas38787

 

ORIGINAL canvas art painting - 8x8- LOVE - Pretty - $15.00 - By TiandrasCreations 

 

Wood Butterfly Jigsaw Puzzle Box - $35.00 - By sherwoodboxes

Etsy Finds

This is the first in a series of sporadic Etsy posts promoting interesting items I've found via Pounce on Etsy. All of the shops featured have yet to receive a sale and you, yes you, could be their first.

Buffalo Gourd Alix by redhorseartco - $75

Blizzard and a Chicago Sidewalk by crimsoncatstudios - $25

Within the Mystery Fine Art Print 8x10 by WhatsReality - $19.50

Changes are making me sleepy

It's only Tuesday and I'm already having problems keeping my days straight this week. This is surely not a good sign.

My husband recently got a promotion and switched from 2nd to 3rd shift. This means that instead of him going to work about 2pm, we now leave about 10pm and instead of picking him up at 11pm, I now pick him up at 7am. Granted, he usually was able to get a ride with a buddy on 2nd shift so I wasn't running around quite so much, but it was a loose schedule for me.

Now, however, my awake/asleep pattern has gone completely bonkers and with so much waking up and then going back to sleep, I really felt like it was Wednesday already. This is going to make for a long week - or a short one.

This week, my schedule has looked like this:

Sunday
10:15a - 12:15p - Church
2:00p - 4:00p - Nap (not on purpose! I laid down to watch tv and out I went)
10:15p - Take hubby to work
11:00p - Get back home, finish up loose ends and lay down to watch tv until I fall asleep

Monday
12:30a - Fall asleep
6:15a - Wake up
6:40a - Leave to pick hubby up
7:20a - Home, cook breakfast
8:30a - 10:15a - Back to bed for a bit
10:15p - Take hubby to work
11:00p - Get home, lay down to watch tv until I fall asleep

Tuesday
12:00a - Fall asleep
6:15a - Wake up
6:30a - Hubby texts and says a friend will give him a ride home
7:00a - 10:00a - Back to bed, not feeling well so I'm glad he got a ride

I'm currently feeling another nap in my future, but I've got dinner to make and laundry to finish and I'm still not feeling well. The BRAT diet is my friend today as I had a banana for breakfast, applesauce for lunch and a Mexican sweet bread for a snack (I'm counting it as toast).

Fall Comfort Foods - Foodie Friday

Just as Memorial Day in May is the unofficial "official" start to summer, Labor Day in September is the unofficial "official" start to fall. Surprisingly, the weather has been quite fall-like here in Northwest Ohio. It's been in the 60s or lower just about all week, which brings me to this week's Foodie Friday.

Fall comfort foods!

Tartar Sauce - Foodie Friday

Today I'm sharing with you my awesome recipe for tartar sauce.

Maid-Rite - Foodie Friday

Some of you may have seen the sneak peek of today's post on Monday's post about my little trip to see a friend. For those of you who missed it, here's the peek again:

Manic Monday

I had one of the most amazing weekends I have had in a while. What made it so amazing you might wonder. The answer is simple: my sister and I went to visit one of my very best friends!

(L to R: Kelley, Andrea, myself)

Wedding Invitations - How to

This is a copy and paste of a blog entry I did a while ago on another site. It outlines how I put together the invitations for my wedding.

It's beginning to look a lot like...Fall?

Yep! The weather is getting cooler and it's so nice to fall asleep at night with a little chill in the air. I remember a few months ago when this 70something weather would have been a heat wave, but now it's a nice bit of a cool down.

Broccoli - Foodie Friday

Today's Foodie Friday is brought to you by the letter B and the word Broccoli.

The best broccoli ever (or so they say):

Source: amateurgourmet.com via Jessica on Pinterest

Modified wreath tutorial - Now topiary tutorial

The following is a modified tutorial for making a topiary from cupcake wrappers. The original tutorial is from making a wreath from cupcake wrappers.

Foodie Friday

I was all excited to write this week's Foodie Friday because it's about a ton of very yummy but very bad for you food that I will be eating this weekend. I was originally going to grab some pics from around the Internet to show what I would be eating, but I think it will be much better to have pics of what I actually DO eat.

That said, Foodie Friday will be moved to Monday.

Etsy Re-opening!

It's re-opening day for my Etsy store!

I've been putting quite a bit of time and energy into getting new products made and ready to be bought. My focus is going to be mostly on paper crafting things - scrapbook embellishments, cards, etc. - since that seems to be what brings me the most joy in creating.

July 4th Desserts - Foodie Friday

It's a little past July 4th, but hey at least it's still July! At any rate, here are some of the yummy things I made for our cook-out.

Cookie Dough Dip - Foodie Friday

For today's Foodie Friday I had to rave about this new recipe I found on Pinterest and decided to try this week.

Recipe & Pic from

Willow Bird Baking 

Reader Roll Call!

Just out of curiousity I was wondering who was actually reading my posts. My view count keeps getting higher, but I've yet to have a comment, so I thought I'd take a quick, possibly weekly, roll call.

Internet blooper

I love catching a good "oops" on websites. Today's is a doozy. I was trying to check out an article on Yahoo about best bargains on furniture and this is what came up:

Note the "date" the article was written and then in the bottom is today's date and time (I just took a screenshot). And there's no article attached. Good job Yahoo!

Chocolate Popcorn - Foodie Friday

I'm pretty sure that just about everyone has some secret (or not so secret) food that they eat that a lot of other people would think is strange. I am no different. In fact, I have a lot of strange cravings that usually end up with people asking "Are you pregnant?" No, I'm not. I just have a very creative food mind.

I'm re-opening my Etsy shop...

...on August 1!

My latest Pinterest find: Color palette generator

I think that a lot of people now days are addicted to/interested in color palettes. I know that I have gotten interested in them more and more as I think about having our own house to decorate someday (hopefully soon). Sometimes I find a picture or picture of an item that I LOVE the colors in, but I have no idea where to go from there to figure out what colors would match/look right.

Foodie Friday: MIA this week

Sorry to announce that Foodie Friday is taking a break this week due to my losing the pictures I was going to post for it. I was going to write about the amazingly cute desserts I made for our July 4th cookout, but I am currently missing my camera which has the pictures on it. Should I find them in the next few days, I'll post them.

S'mores - Foodie Friday

The hot food of the summer, especially this summer, seems to be S'mores. They are everywhere! S'more this and S'mores that. They are so delicious so it's really no big surprise.

This is only a test

I just created a signature and wanted to test it out. There is nothing else to see here...Unless you want to tell me what you think of it.

Thanks!

Edit: I didn't like it so I'll be reworking things to figure it out. I tried to make it transparent but it didn't work out so well with my dark background

Dear Photograph

I've always been interested in photography, but I'll be the first to admit I've never been really very good. I like to look at other people's photos and wish I could be that good or could have caught that moment.

I'm an addict...

Hi, I'm Jessica and I'm addicted to Pinterest.

June 24th - It wasn't all bad

I know I usually don't post on Saturdays, but there's a first time for everything. I got up around 9:30 after falling asleep somewhere after 3. I.am.tried. Ick.

All About our Wedding Cake - Foodie Friday

Wedding cake, in my opinion, is usually one of the best cakes to eat. Either that or it's the worst and it's a dry, icky mess. For some reason I can have a vanilla cake every single day of the week, but it just tastes better at a wedding.

Why I should someday have a girl

It seems that a lot of my pins on Pinterest (leave a comment with your e-mail if you'd like an invite) are related to kids and food. Since I spend a lot of time talking about food on Fridays, it stands to reason that I should talk about kids today.

Cherry Limeade Yummies - Foodie Friday

It was particularly hard to think of something for this week's Foodie Friday. I was sitting at my computer and thinking all things food when it hit me. I should write about something I really, really like. Cherry limeade!

Freezer Paper T-Shirt Stencil Tutorial

I first saw someone trying this out a few weeks ago and thought it was cool. The more I thought about it, the more I really wanted to try it. Here is a step by step of my first attempt (which turned out pretty good!).

A Week of Dinners - Foodie Friday

I try to think all week on what to put in that week's, or a future week's, Foodie Friday. I like to get food inspiration from everywhere because, well, food is pretty much everywhere anymore. This week I thought I'd give everyone a peek into what I eat for dinner.

Manic Monday

It's been a while since I've had a real "Monday," but today was definitely it. Ugh!

Summer Foods - Foodie Friday!

In honor of last weekend being the unofficial start to summer, this edition of Foodie Friday is dedicated to all yummy things summer.

TGIF!

This has been an insane week. It's been a long time since I have been so happy for a weekend. My husband started a new job on Tuesday and he's working second shift. Since he doesn't have his driver's license, I drive him to work in the afternoon and pick him up at night.

Pinterest Yummies!

Like quite a few other people I know, I have gotten addicted to Pinterest. (Not addicted but want to be and need an invite? Post your email below as a comment and I'll send you one)

Rapture Re-Do

So I try not to get caught up in all of the things surrounding the "The world is ending on xxDATExx" talk that inevitably pops up every few months or years or so, but it was kind of hard for me to not acknowledge this time around.

Without getting into the specifics of religion and whatnot, I'm just simply going to say that I don't truly believe any human here on Earth will ever be able to accurately predict the end, except by possible fluke.

Manic Monday + Recipe Bonus!

This weekend was a TON of fun!

Since my sister's birthday was last Wednesday and my husband's birthday is this Thursday, my aunt decided to have a BBQ at her house to celebrate. It rained a bit and was kind of hot and icky, but it was such a great time. We had entirely too much food too! Of course we had hamburgers and hot dogs, plus pinwheel sandwiches. They were so fun to make!

Thrifty Thursday

With wedding season in full swing, along with all sorts of graduations from kindergarten to college happening in the next few weeks, I thought you might benefit from some cheap photos.

Wedding Wednesday

Today is all about wedding programs. Somewhere in my online searching pre-wedding I found a template for a wedding program that I thought I could finally actually work with. I knew I didn't want to get too fancy because 1) not everyone would even take a program and 2) most that were taken would probably find their way to the trash sooner or later. It wasn't worth it to me to spend too much time and energy on all of that.

30 Day Challenge

I've been thinking lately about how I've been doing such a horrible job at crafting. Not just that I've been slacking on making cards, that I've been slacking on any crafting at all, especially since the wedding. This disappoints me greatly and I think it could help with this boredom issue I've been having lately. I'm not challenged creatively and, for me at least, that makes a world of difference.

Manic Monday

This weekend went by too fast! It probably doesn't help that I spent most of the weekend in bed either. I've been having strange and random leg cramps and I've found they aren't so bad if I just lay in bed.

My blog has a new home

I've been trying to think of a way to make it easier for me to blog so that I can do it more often. After checking out a few other sites and blogs and such, I decided to try my hand here. It seems much easier and more accessible than doing it through my regular Webs.com site. Hopefully that is the case - only time will tell.

If you've checked out the Webs.com site as of today, you'll notice that the old blog is no longer live there. I didn't want to cause any confusion, so I'll just be starting fresh over here. Look for updates, tutorials and just general life chatter. I'll be posting some wedding pics soon!