I saw this a few days ago and I think he’s really cute.

Check it out here at the Etsy DarkSide Team LJ community There are some cute photos of the little guy and while you’re there why not check out what else the community are making. There’s a cute little pink monster that’s just adorable.

I saw this a few days ago and I think he’s really cute.

Check it out here at the Etsy DarkSide Team LJ community There are some cute photos of the little guy and while you’re there why not check out what else the community are making. There’s a cute little pink monster that’s just adorable.

Day 5 in the big blood eye house.

Ellie is turning into a vampire

Yup I can actually feel when it’s bleeding now, and it seems to bleed a little more every night.  Hmm usually after talking to Jack *wonders if there’s a connection* *eye starts twitching*

Went a bit mad last night on a fabric shop that someone from Etsy linked me to because I wanted to know what fabric she had used on something that I ended up buying.  OMG the shop had a sale and shipped internationally.  Many dollars, a seven page wishlist and some hours later, I logged out and went to bed dreaming of all the prettiness and ruby slippers.

This morning the postman delivered some parcels but still not enough (!) and also a card demanding more money for customs charges for something they haven’t/won’t deliver until I pay *sigh*  I think it’s probably my sexy topless men fabric.  I hope they didn’t open it or they may think I’m some kind of pervert.  I guess I can look forward to at least another 3-4 similar cards for all the rest of the stuff that is on its way

On the bright side, I did the rest of my Christmas shopping online this morning and it should all arrive this week.  Then it’s only a matter of me making the rest of the things I want to give people - once the supplies arrive from the four corners of the globe.  Hopefully I am not cutting it as fine as I think I might be.

Also thinking of throwing in free tablet with orders on Etsy once I get organised and make stuff to sell there.  So far it’s only book covers and mousepads.  It should be many other things which should be easier now I can see the room I’m supposed to be working in, but probably too late for Christmas orders.  Timely for January sales though!

Oh and later I will post some photos of the new improved sewing room now that I can see it lol

So my eye has been bleeding again. It seems to bleed at night when I’m sitting down doing nothing and not exerting myself, sneezing or being stressed - unless of course it’s just a delayed reaction to what I’ve been doing during the day!  I took more photos of it this morning, it’s looking more vampiric by the day and the good news is I will probably still have it at Christmas and I will be able to scare small children and repulse people while they’re eating their Christmas dinner - see everything has an upside!  I made another batch of Tablet last night but I’m not eating it, nuh huh.  I will have to hide it from my sister though lol

When I stocked up my Zazzle shop a few weeks ago (3 almost) I set myself a little test target just to see if anyone would want to buy anything that I created, and also because statistically less people know about Zazzle than Cafepress.  Well I exceeded the target I set for the month in just under three weeks, so thank you everyone who bought anything from the shop and especially to all the crazy Twilight obsessed fans who are just buying everything I have.  Thank you all!  I’m really surprised at the popularity of keychains btw, I guess they make good stocking fillers.

It might be a bit of procrastination on my part but I am still trying to reorganise my sewing/craft room workspace instead of doing any actual sewing.  I’m taking a break for lunch (even though it’s 3pm) as I just managed to dig my way out of mountains of fabric. Remind me why I think I need more fabric?  Speaking of more fabric I am fretting quite a bit that some things I ordered at least 2-3 weeks ago have still not arrived from the US, whereas a beautiful bracelet (a present and unfortunately not for me) I ordered via Etsy arrived today, also from the US.  I just hope they aren’t holding my fabric up in customs as I REALLY NEED IT and it’s very sexy.

Still also waiting for my recent ebay purchases but since some of them are from Saturday I know I’m being unreasonable.  I just want them now. (like I don’t have enough fabric lol)

Photos of the new and improved sewing room will be posted - maybe a before, during and after makeover lol.  I found stuff up there buried deep within the depths of the spare room that I forgot I even had, but also I found fabric that I bought in Glasgow last Christmas and that reminded me that the shop (Mandors) will be having another sale this Christmas so I definitely need to put that on my to-do list.  I seem to remember last year having to enlist the help of a couple of family members to carry everything I bought.  Fabric is heavy you know.

Book Group

Just a quick mention about the book group since this isn’t the book group blog!  1984 - George Orwell and Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer are the books for this month, and in the Paranormal Social Club we are reading Pleasure Unbound - Larrissa Ione.  And of course you can read whatever you want and come talk about it with us.  Virgin Suicides and Time Traveler’s Wife discussions are still going if anyone wants to jump in.  Plus also we have very sexy Rules of Book Club designs on a bunch of items on both Cafepress and Zazzle.

Right, first things first. Here is the link to download the very pretty and free knitted vest pattern I mentioned a few posts ago.
Wicked Eyelet Rib Vest

I already emailed to my knitting friend SG, so at least I remembered to do that.  Meanwhile I have about 65 tabs open in Firefox with all the things I need to remember to do, so now I’ve done this, that’s one less tab I need.

Next up is a fun thing I saw on Twitter.  Click on the link and then draw your cursor across the screen and see the kitty run.  Run kitty run (another tab gone from FF)

Is it going to rain click in the big yellow box and type in your zip or postal code and you’ll get instant weather predictions and find out if it’s is in fact going to rain.  (deletes yet another tab)

Classic Elite Yarns - list of all their issues with free patterns to download, it’s where the wicked eyelet vest above comes from.  (another tab gone, I am doing so well here)

UK Handmade - quite a new site.  Click on the image on the home page to download a free copy of their magazine (winter issue).  It’s a .pdf file and about 90 pages so give it a little time.  (yup another tab down)

Heart-o-matic - I don’t know why I like this so much as you can get most of the info from Etsy but this site allows you to view who hearts your shop, individual items, how many item views and also quickly do the same for other Etsy sellers.

The rest I’ll put behind a more tag for the LJ people since there’s video etc

Read the rest of this entry

Just a reminder that today is the final posting day for overseas mail that is “guaranteed” to get there for Christmas (of course it doesn’t mean that if you post after today that it won’t get there but it’s not guaranteed)

Consequently Zazzle has free postage offers for today and Cafepress are giving free postage on their FLIP mini camcorders.

There are also lots of sales on Etsy today and this weekend, so now’s your chance to pick up something special at a discount. Remember too you can filter your browsing results by locality which is great if you want something in a hurry - order from someone close to where you live! I’ve been buying a few things there this week and it occurred to me that if anyone came up with handmade things for teenage BOYS they would make a fortune because there isn’t anything and they are so hard to buy for. I checked the gift guides on Etsy and not only is there nothing for teenage boys, men are not really catered for either. I guess it’s a girl thing huh? Wanting to have pretty shiny handmade things lol

*goes into man bag production overdrive*

Speaking of men, I was shopping in the men’s underwear section of Tesco last night because I’ sick of freezing (I’m tempted to say “nuts off” considering what I bought) and decided to invest in some thermal underwear! I bought some men’s long johns in attractive white with handy little pouch for storing things or keeping your mobile phone handy. I may have to dye them purple or something though as I don’t like white. Next week I’m going to get the matching t-shirt, also thermal

I bought the object of my fabric lust yesterday btw. There was never any doubt that I would buy it but I’m still short on ideas what to do with it when it arrives. It is very pretty though. I keep thinking moulin rouge and corsets. I don’t know why.

Only Vampires Love You Forever design remains my top seller on Zazzle. It’s now available in four colour options and it’s selling like hotcakes. Keychains in all designs are also flying off the shelves. I also added some embroidered hats, totes and t-shirts in two new forum related designs - 100% Book Addict and Paranormal Social Club. Probably doesn’t make a lot of sense now but it’s all part of my not so cunning plan.

Applied to join a couple of Etsy teams since that seems to be the way to go.  I might join some more, it really depends on what is beneficial and how big a time commitment there is - there are requirements if you join a team.  At the moment I joined the Scottish team which goes by the cute name of McEtsy!  Basically joining a team with either a regional focus or a craft or outlook focus gives you the support of the team and allows you to support and encourage each other as well as being for other things like promotion and marketing.  The Scottish team seemed the most likely to try first since that’s a regional team, but I am applying to join a few more that appeal to me for other reasons.

Most if not all regions are covered either by state or at least by country, so it’s worthwhile checking out what’s available in your region and connecting with some local craft people.