Year in Review

As part of my reevaluating process, that usually takes most of January for me, I have been reviewing my blog posts for last year.  I find that I have a few favorites and from looking at the stats, I see that they might have been your favorites too!  I have chosen one from each month for review!  Enjoy! (And keep going--there is something extremely cute at the end!)

January 

Studio Guest!

I often house sit for a friend who has a huge sewing studio!  Lots of space with three machines, a light table, cutting table etc.  If you love studios, you will love all the pictures here!  I love it, and will be house sitting again for her in a few days!

February

At the urging of a blogger friend, I decided to tell the story behind my shop avatar. It got lots of views!

March

March was  a big blogging month if your views were any indication!  It was hard to choose since many of my posts were popular--the BBA challenge Part 1 and Part 2, the Goodbye Winter post about our local river stroll, and the Shamrock Charity Run, but I chose one post about my Sew Expo Perspective, since I did several posts on this subject and all had lots of views and comments!

Sew Expo in Puyallup Washington

April 

With the start of spring and an April Easter Sunday, I had the urge to make something new.  Sew . . . I made a new Crayon Roll-up from some fabric that is still my favorite!  Oh . . . and there was a cute post about my future crafter granddaughter Vivienne: Vivi's Pins

Favorite fabric for a roll-up!

May

May is for Mother, right? I did a post of an old vintage picture that I found of what I think is my own mother!
I also celebrated my 500th post!  Yay!  But my pick for this month was about hand embroidery, since I love and appreciate the handmade quality of it over machine embroidery.

Embroidery enhanced Cell phone case

June

In June, there were graduations, birthdays, softball, fun runs, and Father's Day!
I did a series of posts, four in all, on "Got Creativity?" Actually started them the 29th of May, but finished the series in June. Links can be found on one of the home page tabs at the top of my homepage. 

Trying something new-- get creative!

July

Summer hit and I was out doing a summer craft fair with my granddaughter! I was also involved with creating a new line of aprons for a local merchant with a relationship that started back in May. It kept me busy for the remainder of the year.

August

Not much bloggin' in August--to HOT and had vacation fever!!  But I did introduce a new line of products! Children's tote bags! 

Kid Sized!

September

Still had a little vacation fever, and went on a little trip to visit a local volcano: Mt Saint Helens.  Posted pictures of our trip.  I blogged about National Sewing Month, my patio garden, and my broken sewing machine! 

Trail head sign on Mt Saint Helens

October 

In October I became a grandmother--again, with the birth of our 26th grandchild!  Yay!  Most of the month was taken up with that, and not much blogging.  Here's a current picture of Gideon!

Doesn't that smile just melt ya?

November - December  

November was full, with the start of the holiday season, with craft shows, Thanksgiving and family  celebrations, and a yo yo tutorial.  Right after Thanksgiving, I started a "30 days of Christmas Fun" Series with lots of ideas.  Here's one that got lots of raves!  My cute little scrappy snowman pillow!

Hope you enjoyed my review and will visit some of the year's posts that interest you! 
On to a New Year of Fun and Creativity!

Holiday Advertising

The holiday season is upon us, and I am sure that most small business people, including those of us who sell online, would really like to increase exposure to potential buyers.  As online sellers may know, if you can get referrals from another site, it helps your standing in the search engines. 

So, I am adding spots for sponsorship on my blog. I have been blogging now for four years and haven't done this in the past, but have had such a good experience sponsoring on a friend's blog, that I wanted to offer the same great experience on mine.  If you want exposure for your online shop or blog, this may be a way for you to get it!

I am running an advertising special for this inaugural offering and for the holiday season.  (See the Advertising tab for details.)  Ads will run from now thru Jan 1, 2013 for a reduced price and inclusion in my Black Friday/Cyber Monday after-Thanksgiving post!

I have added an Advertising tab on the home page of this blog.  You can find information there about very reasonable sponsorship on this blog.  Contact information is there with all the particular details. Hoping you will join me!

Jack (Jill) of all trades!

Hope that title is not politically incorrect!  Seems like everything we say lately has to be considered for fear of offending someone! Oh . . . heck with it!  Anyway . . . .

I'm back!  I have had a wonderful vacation from the riggers of promotion blogging in favor of blogging about my creativity, as I have been doing in my other blog during the month of August.  I know that this sounds a bit on the unfavorable side,  but I have had a time to be honest with motivations and take a frank look at my time availability.

"Promotion blogging" as I have labeled it here, is just that.  A blog that exists for the sake of promoting something.  I originally started this blog to promote my fledgling Etsy shop.  Along the way, I have met quite a few wonderful friends in the blogging world and other Etsy sellers. Blogging has blossomed into a healthy community "thing".

In looking back over my nearly four years of writing this blog, I have made a few observations:

1) I have blogged about my creativeness, but there are so many others who do the same. There are so many great blogs out there! I feel sort of like just one of the ships sailing in a vast albeit crowded sea.

2)  I have blogged about my family, from time to time, which I dearly love. (This is not strictly a family blog.)

3)  I have blogged about and participated with my favorite Etsy team, the Blogging Business Artisans.  I have met an awesome group of ladies (all Etsy sellers) thru my BBA team participation and consider them friends.  I thoroughly enjoy participating with them in this selling journey.  (If you are a serious blogger and are interested in participation with an active group, please visit our team blog.)

4) Blogging puts a bit of pressure on the writer, unless, of course, one lives for writing.  I like to write, but I don't live for it! I am a "jack-of-all-trades" kind of person, but "master of none" as I can hear my dad saying. I like writing, and sewing, and painting, and reading, and creating and . . . um . . well. . . you get it!!! BTW, my BBA team has a September challenge to try something new. . . that's gonna be difficult for me!

5) I can be consistent with something!  Over 530 posts just in this blog!! My gosh, I have been blogging for a long time!

So . . . . I do like the outlet of the blogging medium, if for nothing else than to have a communication outlet with you, my reader, and with my potential customers! This online selling environment can be a lonely world at times, and honestly, we all need to share our triumphs and our failures with an audience of like minded and friendly individuals.  Thus, I will continue blogging after my much needed break!  Hope you will continue to follow along.  I love having you! 

Looking forward to our chats and your comments!

Vacation!

August Vacation!

For the entire month of August I will be on vacation from this blog!  I may put up a couple of blog posts to keep up with my favorite Etsy team, the Blogging Business Artisans (see our BBA blog here) , but for the most part, I will not be posting here.  Please watch for my return in September on this blog. 

In the meantime . . .

I do have another blog, and will be posting to it, as my vacation is actually a change in focus from handcrafting to writing and my other blog is a creative writing blog.  I will be taking this month to work on some writing projects, which I will share in my Abigal's Attic blog.  The new adventure starts here. See you over there!

My 500th Post!

I can't believe it!  This is my 500th Post!

When I started blogging back in December of 2008, I really didn't know where it would take me!  I started because I wanted to support my new fledgling online business and I was told that blogging was one way to do it! 

So, where has it taken me?  What have I accomplished?  Do I want to continue? 

It truly has been an adventure!  I have learned A LOT!!!!  Tags, and SEO; advertising, and content; link parties, and blog rolls--to name a few!  HTML is still a mystery! Wow!  Tons of education about Internet blogging.  And because of the need for blog content, blogging has forced me to do more online research, not a skill that I used much before I became a blogger!

I have made new friends everywhere--Other bloggers, Etsy team members, customers.  I read other blogs now, never did before.  Enjoy interaction with friends online. Thanks to all my wonderful readers!

Do I want to continue!  Yes!  Even though my regular readers are not so many as I would like, I find that I enjoy writing!  I will do it for me! (and you, of course!)  I am also thinking about having my blog posts made into a book for posterity's sake.  There are many online sites that can help with this task. I will list a few:

blog2print.com
blurb.com
bookemon.com
familyheritagepublishers.com

I'm not recommending any of these, just did my research and want to pass along the possibilities.  Isn't that want blogging is all about?  Sharing!!!

See you tomorrow!

Business Goal for 2011

I've been on a short hiatus from blogging lately, but it is time to resume.  I will do it with this:

I belong to an awesome team--The Estybloggers.  We have a writing carnival every two weeks. The current question is:  Now that it's the beginning of a new year, what goal do you have for your business that you hope to achieve in 2011?

Before I reveal my goal, you--my reader--need some background material.  Well, it can be somewhat like debris, the "stuff "of my essence but it has a point. 

I started blogging in November of 08.  It's been a good experience, although it has it's ups and downs.  I originally started on this journey for two reasons:
1)  I wanted to have an excuse to make myself  write something everyday, as I would eventually like to write a book or two.  It was an exercise in staying in the writing craft. (I did do a little bit of creative writing with my Abby story in the blog last year.)
2) Also, because I love creativity, I wanted to have a platform to showcase my own craft business handiwork and the handiwork of other obviously talented artists.   

Over the last two years, I find that I have languished and stagnated, in my writing here on the blog and in my creativity in my business. So,  I took a little hiatus from it all during the holidays thinking about what I wanted to do for the next part of this journey. I needed to focus----I was not clear on anything! Everything had become just so much routine! The spark and crackle was gone!

During my break, I  tossed around several ideas; a possible new emphasis for my blog; OR starting an additional blog, either for the purpose of introducing a concept for a new brick and mortar business within the next year; OR starting a new blog and separating my creative writing from the craft business stuff; AND closing one of my three shops and starting again with an new product--not jewelry. I guess you could say that I have bandied about my creativity like I would a little hacky sack ball. 

I started going thru all my blog posts, re-reading and looking with a new eye. (Actually, I am still in this process--there's a lot of reading material there!) To my surprise, I found that I had been true to my purpose--"writing about creativity, inspiration and family". Although true to mission, I had lost my vision, my passion, because I had been running down the same grooves in the road for an extended period of time.  I had been lulled into an unconcerned mode of operation.  Everyday was more of the same which stifles creativity!

I could go on, but I need to finish this post and get back to the blog carnival question.  What goal do I have for this next portion of the journey?  I will finish my introspection, it can't be rushed.  I do intend to bring into focus all the little details of my essence, create a new vision and decide which areas to keep and which to wave goodbye.  Success must be specific and have determined focus, and  . . . . I want to be successful!  I will continue to write about this little journey, I hope you will stay with me  ("not lulled into an unconcerned mode") and enjoy the details of the journey!

Happy Creating!