Button brooches

Yesterday my boss gave me a box of vintage buttons. How sweet is that?  So very sweet. I guess I have a reputation as a button lover. The one thing I love more than buttons is vintage buttons!

I got out my glue gun and I made some brooches!

This one is my favorite! I put it on my winter coat.

Side view of the red flower.

This is my second favorite!

Fun!  I still have a lot of buttons left from the stash. I added them to my main stash and I'll use them eventually in various projects. 

Shop update and a GIVE-A-WAAAAAY!

*UPDATE* This give-a-way is over - thank you to everyone that entered!  I do give-a-ways periodically, so please do check back!  I also make give-a-way announcements on my Facebook page for my shop - click on the link to the left to find it.

Shew doggie! I finally have my Etsy shop all updated!  Currently I have 38 items for sale!  I have 6 baby-safe dolls, 17 plastic button eyed dolls, 13 linocut printed items, and two big dolls in stock!

Annnd, let me announce, a GIVE-A-WAAAAY!  Yay!  I love doing give-a-ways.  The reason for this give-a-way is to celebrate my shop being fully stocked, to celebrate the holidays {perhaps what you win could be given as a gift? or keep it for yourself as a present from me to you, that's cool too!} and to thank you for reading this here blog! 

I'm offering you a chance to win, for free, anything in my shop (except for the two big dolls, because they're quite large, expensive, and expensive to ship, mmmkay?) .... so, without further ado, please, go to my shop, take a gander {use the tabs on the left side to navigate through the different sections} then come back here and tell me in the comments what you'd like to win. 

Pick one thing, and be specific - use the item's name. If I don't know you, that's perfectly OK, just provide me your name and email address so I can contact you if you win. 

If you feel like it, share this give-a-way with your friends and family!  You can enter more than once if you do!  {Just specify in your additional entries that you blogged about my give-a-way, you tweeted about my give-a-way or you Facebooked about my give-a-way. Facebooked sounds just ... wrong. You status-updated about my give-a-way. There, that's a little better.

The contest will end at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, December 1 wherein I will draw a winner via random.org, the handy little internetty tool that picks a number at random.

Boots & Sass

For 11 months, I grew out my hair. I had worn it quite short for ages (post here in which I talk about my hair back in January - with pics - and also here). I just decided back in January that I wanted to grow it out; I thought I'd like it to be longer. I didn't mind the growing out process. I had fun with it - I dyed it really blond this past summer (picture here) and liked that well enough. Then I dyed it back to my natural brownish color in October. Then last week I chopped it all off. And I LOVE it. I've got a bit of my sass back. I like having short hair. It's so much easier to do!  I was spending way too much time in the morning doing the 'do and then I was never fully happy with the result.  Now?  I put a little product in it, dry it (which takes one minute) then put more product in it to fluff it up a bit. Done!

Here's a pic of the new 'do:

I'm all squinty but you get the idea.

Now, onto the boots! For the last two years I've wanted to find a pair of tall boots. I found some this year!  SO EXCITED!  I love, love, love my new boots. The girls wanted some black boots too, like Mommy's. Theirs have little buckles on the sides, super cute also.

I hope I'm not too old or too rotund to be walking around in this outfit:  

Long shirt, stretchy black pants and beloved black boots?! How does it look? My expression just screams dork, I know!  (I hated having my picture taken but here it is!!!) I quite love this look on other people, so even if it does look bad on me, I'm owning it! I have four tops that I can mix and match with my black pants and I have a gray pair too. Super comfy!

Yay for short hair, black boots and confidence!

Button eye doll, deluxe version

So my lovely pal Lori posed the question, do you make dolls with pigtails?  Yes!  She said her cousin wanted a LaLaLoopsy doll but Lori wanted her to have a handmade one - for sure!  Delighted!  So I set about making a LaLaLoopsy-inspired doll! I was so pleased with how it turned out.

This is the LaLaLoopsy doll I used for inspiration:

This is the doll I created:

She's got all sorts of special stuff going on - pig tails, sleeves on her arms, a "pocket" on the front of her dress, eye lashes, and socks and shoes!

I do really like the real LaLaLoopsy dolls; the girls each have one. But I also really like the version I created!

It's my three-year shop anniversary!

I can't believe it's been three years!  My Two Stars Etsy shop opened November 26, 2007!  Wow! 

My first sale was the very next day, November 27, and it was this wee little curly girl pendant:

I don't know what possessed me to photograph it with that bright yellow paper. I must have thought it had good contrast or something, hah! 

I began my Etsy foray by making resin filled pendants. I had a lot of fun and experimented with different things. I made a couple custom ones with photos, like this one:

Look at the girls - so teeny in that photo!  You like that bust?  So fancy! 

I had a stint where I made some pendants with sprinkles:

And tiny beads:

At this point in the game I was getting more creative with my background images.

I sold the resin pendants for about a year then they became just too expensive to produce. I preferred sterling silver plated bezels (the silver cups) and they were getting much too pricey. And around that time Etsy was getting very saturated with resin jewelry. I got into sewing and I designed a rag doll pattern for the girls. I was so pleased with how it turned out and I thought it could be marketable. It wasn't a totally new pattern, by any means. Rag dolls have been around for ages. But I did add plastic button eyes, which made it mine, exclusively Two Stars. To this day no one on Etsy is selling dolls exactly like mine.

This was my first doll sale - a woman actually bought up a total of nine dolls at one time!  Wow!

This was my latest sale:

I also sold a custom doll earlier this week, photos of that cutie will be in a future post.

I have had such fun making dolls. I truly do enjoy it!  I've sold quite a few on Etsy and at various craft shows. I've enjoyed success with Etsy and I do love, love, LOVE Etsy!  I love buying as much as I love selling.

It's hard to say what the Two Stars Etsy shop will look like in the future. I've been getting into making stuff out of fabric printed from linocut blocks, so maybe my shop will be a mix of dolls and a mix of linocut block items in the future. In fact I have about six of the house pillows that I plan to list in the shop this weekend!

I still struggle with photographing my items for the shop. I'm never fully satisfied with how they turn out, but I guess they work okay. I also really struggle with pricing my items. I'm still pricing them kinda low considering the cost for materials and the cost of time to make them. I'm not a mass producer, in fact, no two dolls are exactly alike. I struggle with pricing them low enough to be marketable versus being able to make a slim profit on them.  I'm sticking with the price I have them set at now because I know I make a quality product. I'm not making bunches of money with my shop, but the money I do earn from sales helps to pay for supplies and pay for other things that I find on Etsy from other crafters. I do love to buy from Etsy!

I plan to keep Two Stars open as long as I keep enjoying the process of making stuff to sell. Thank you to the many friends and family who have supported my shop over the years!  It means so much to me when people I know buy what I make. Really!

To celebrate the shop anniversary, be on the lookout for a Two Stars give-a-way soon! 

Awwwwwww

Full of thankfulness

Image credit: Complete

You know what I'm most, most thankful for today? Love! Being in love, being loved, having kiddies to love, family members to love and friends to love. Hug your loved ones today, tell them you're thankful for them. Happy Thanksgiving!

Etsy Favorites Wednesday - popcorn!

When I was growing up, I had a special job in the evenings: to make my dad his microwave popcorn, to pour his Coke into a glass with ice and to bring him a chocolate bar. It's my dad's birthday tomorrow!  He jokes with me that he can't wait until my girls are old enough to make his popcorn for him. I know he's not joking. He used to tell me that his popcorn snack always just tasted better when I made it for him. Although tomorrow is his birthday, he got an early gift last week!  My mom got him a popcorn maker just like ours!  Score! So, because I've been loving popcorn lately because of said cool popcorn maker and because my husband suggested I do an Etsy Favorites Wednesday list of popcorn related items, and because tomorrow is my dad's birthday, here's this week's list, full of popcorn goodness!

Vintage popcorn garland - this is so cool! 

Snack card - look at the similing snacks!

Popcorn bags - I like the retro look of these.

Popcorn spices - I wonder how the beer one would taste?

Coffee and popcorn jars - such a winning combination!

An interview with the husband

I asked my darling husband Mike, the Mister behind this operation, some questions, and he answered very honestly. With him, there's no messing around, he'll tell you what is what.  I find his answers fascinating, especially his answers about my blog and social media. We've talked about my blog before but it was interesting reading his take on the direct questions about it.

My questions are in bold:

1.) How do you feel about me having a blog?  Honestly, the parts I like deal more with the issues Lydia has had with her tip-toe walking. I feel the blog must be a great resource for other mothers in your shoes. But the majority of it ... I feel is too personal. I feel like having parts of our daughters' lives or pictures of them out there in the "cloud" is too personal. I worry more about the disconnect between people "reading" about our lives and not BEING a part of our lives.

2.) Have I ever over-shared on the blog? Have I ever embarrassed you or shared something that you wish I would have kept private? Yes, you have over-shared but you have never embarrassed me. I do a good job of that on my own. Sometimes I don't like pictures of the girls posted. Again, they are ours. Random people reading your blog don't need to see our kids. People close to us will get a Christmas card with a picture.

3.) What’s my favorite possession right now? Starbucks Cinnamon Via packs.

4.) What makes me happy?  Crafting. Starbucks. Sleeping in. Not having to bathe the kids. Polar Pops. Rob Pattinson.

5.) What makes me mad? The biker guy across the street who revs his bike past our driveway twenty times a day.

6.) How would you describe my style? You are the master at rocking a good cardigan. You look best in red. Your style is like Claire Danes in My So Called Life.

7.) We often joke that Arlene is just like me and Lydia is just like you. I think it’s awesome that the girls are taking to our personalities. But it’s also scary, in a way. We’re probably going to have trouble with Arlene when she’s older, huh?  Arlene is already an issue. She acts like she is 16. I will have to chain her up during her high school years. I can see it now...her pulling the tears out...shutting down when I say no...demanding high school fashion items. I cherish this time right now...

8.) What are my best attributes? You are a crafty, independent woman. I feel you have made your own career and success in life. You are quiet, yet don't take mess from people. You are honest and a great mother.

9.) When you think of my career long-term, where do you see me working, what do you see me doing? I see you quitting your job and crafting from home full-time. I do not see you working much longer.
Maybe I see you moving on to do PR at the state level.

10.) Do you think I spend too much time online?  No. But you do have too many eggs in a basket online. To much in the cloud. Blog, tweets, Facebook.

11.) When I start talking about my “online friends” do I sound loony?  No, they are your network. But again, people that live close enough to us, you should see. Which you do. People who you are close to online should have the same connection in their own real life.

12.) What’s your thoughts on Twitter?  I have never understood it. Never will do it. Honestly it is one of the more selfish of all technologies. A status update on Facebook is enough...and most people do THAT too much. But tweeting? That is a mess. Why do I care what so and so is thinking RIGHT NOW? Do people honestly think they are THAT important? Sorry to rant on this one. But Twitter will fade away soon. I hope.

13.) Is there anything about me that other people would think is funny – a random fact or story or something?  Wendy will frequently not believe me when I tell her something. Such as: "we don't need spaghetti, we have four boxes at home." She will then buy the spaghetti anyway, seemingly just to spite me. Then to come home and find ten boxes of spaghetti and not acknowledge that Mike told her so. This scenario is the scene so much in our home. Mike says something ...Wendy does not believe Mike.

12.) How excited are you about the news that we’re trying hard to not get TOO excited about?! Not as excited as I thought I would be. Honestly.

13.) Sometimes I go crazy with stress and trying to do too much too quickly – how do you put up with me?  Rolls off most times. I do get irritated sometimes though. I feel you create a lot of your own stress though by having too many balls in the air. Drop a couple.

14.) Five words to describe me?  Pretty. Smart. Calming (to me). Independent. Real.

15.) What should be my theme for tomorrow’s Etsy Favorites Wednesday list?  Horror films that Mike wants people to appreciate more. Popcorn themed items. Etsy items made by men. Etsy fav t-shirts.

16.) Is there anything else you’d like to add? So glad I found you and am proud of everything you do.

How sweet is he?  A big thank you to Mr. Couple More Hours for taking the time to write these answers. He's just too nice to me sometimes, believe me. I put him through the ringer quite regularly. His mention of the "online cloud" is interesting, isn't it?  And how hilarious - Rob Pattinson makes me happy, hahahahaaa!  Sure, he does, but so does my husband!

Show disappointment

This past Saturday I was in a craft show at a local high school. First, the good:  the show was PACKED! There were so, so many people. And, my booth was beside a gal, Emily, who I went to high school with! It was fun to catch up with her - she lives in my area and makes really pretty necklaces. {She has an Etsy shop - here.}  OK, and now the bad: I didn't sell a thing!  Well, let me clarify - I did make a sale of $1.00; I sold two chocolate button suckers that were priced 50 cents each. And Emily bought a Mr. Moustachio'ed Monster that I had for sale. But. That's. It. I was sooooo disappointed.  I mean I'm always asking myself, will people buy my stuff, do people actually like my stuff?! And I have had good success in the past, online on Etsy and at other craft shows, but I have to admit that I was pretty dejected on Saturday. It was really, really disappointing. I worked my butt off preparing for the show. I was really excited about the stock that I had.  

Here's some pictures of my set up!

I brought the two big huge dollies with me. Those two just crack me up. Their button eyes are huge.

Bottom right are the tea-towels I made!  I will have to get better pictures of those.

House pillows!

Campers!

I was pretty excited about these pins - I had stamped them onto fabric, then glued them onto card stock. Just a fun little thing! 

I made chocolate button suckers!  They are tasty!  And I'd know, since I made 30, and brought back home 28!

Oooooh well. You win some, you lose some.  I'll be putting all of the stock in my shop by the end of the week!

I'm all official now

Check this out - for my craft show I got approved to accept credit cards remotely and I got one of those slider credit card machines - where the paper is slid over the top of the card and the card information is imprinted on the receipt. I got to order an imprint plate for my shop's information, and I went ahead and called myself, "Crafter" hahaha! that delights me so. This is a part of my imprint plate:

Craft show pictures coming Monday!

Toothless Sisters

Lydia lost another tooth tonight, so now they both have tooth holes in their mouths, which is VERY EXCITING!

On writing. On blogging.

I blog because I love to write. This blog is like a very public, open journal. Which is a good thing, mostly, but sometimes a bad thing like if I say something stupid or offensive unintentionally which, thankfully, I haven't done that often. All in all, this blog is like therapy. And it's fun. I get to share stories about my children and our daily life. And I get to share good news which readers rally around and celebrate with me and bad news which readers rally around and support me. And I get to share craft projects or the latest thing that I made.

I love to blog because of the connections I've made through blogging - I've developed a circle of blogging ladies that I have come to know over time and consider friends, even though I've never met some them, but may in 2011 for a meet-up, yay!  I enjoy the heck out of these fellow bloggers, and if you have a couple minutes you should read their blogs too, listed in no order what-so-ever:

• Two Pretzels, our favorite American living in Mexico with her uber cute dog and uber cute kid, and 
• Wrestling Kitties, who I think is just the kindest person alive, and also witty, such a winning combination! I heart her so, and
• Write Here Write Now who's been doing a great "things I'm thankful for" series of posts this month. I think we all could benefit from writing such a list and be thankful for what we do have, and
• Grumbles and Grunts who is the only blogger in my circle who lives in my city and therefore I want to stalk her regularly but not in a creepy way, and who has the cutest little kid and takes really great photos, and
• Written Permission who I find very witty and have really enjoyed getting to know over the last few months via her blog, and
• Turtle Parade, who is another one that I've gotten to know better via her blog and Twitter over the last few months, and
• Athena Bees who has two of the most adorable little girls, and who's another one that is very funny; I quite enjoy her blog, and
• My Reality who has re-engergized her blog this month and I, for one, am enjoying it thouroughly, and
• Sassy Times, who has melted my heart with her recently-discovered love of sewing! and
• Disorganized Thoughts of the Day who started blogging again because of NaMoBloPo which is great because I love reading! and
• Happy Hopefuls who has a great eye for decorating and a shared love of Etsy, and last but certainly not least (I told you these aren't in any particular order!)
• Iris Took who just cracks me up! She was a gnome for Halloween!  

I love reading all of your blogs and I read all of your posts.

This month, I've been posting every single day because of this thing called NaMoBloPo. When I started out I listed out the month and what I wanted to blog about each day. It was surprisingly easy to come up with something to write about each day. I've deviated from that list as the month has gone on and I've come up with new things as new things have come up. I've loved posting every day. Before NaMoBloPo, I posted about four times a week. Posting three more times has allowed me to share more and to be more thoughtful about my blog and about my posts. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to keep up the seven-day-a week posting after this month is over. I'm just not sure. I may need a break and a breather. But it's definitely doable, I know that now.

I blog also because people actually read what I have to say. That's thrilling and also very terrifying. I have readers that comment frequently and I love those comments, I truly do. Comments are like liquid gold to bloggers. I have readers who never comment, and that's perfectly okay too. I know that you're reading and that propels me. I keep track of my blog stats because I'm a total nerd, so I know who's reading when and how often. Hello, sister-in-law!  I have readers who come here from my Facebook page too. I'm flattered that you take the time out of your day to find out what's going on with my day.

I also have mystery readers who land on my blog through various search terms, and that is sort of odd to know that complete strangers are reading my blog, but I'm okay with it. There are a lot of people that land here from searching "toe walking" and I would hope that our story with Lydia's tip-toe walking has helped them a little. I get a lot of searches for "BUTTON EYE DOLLS" (always all in caps, which cracks me up) and yes, lookie here, you've landed at the right spot!  I do make 'em!  Earlier this week someone Googled " hookers" and got here because of my post about Daniel Tosh. That really cracks me up. The only real "hookers" you'll find here is crochet hooks. I've been getting a lot of searches for "Jack Skellington fabric by the yard" and I wish that if someone DID find such a gem, they'd pass along the link. The only Jack fabric I have is the stuff that I made awhile ago.

So, the point of this post is that a.) I love to write, b.) I love that I have this free outlet to write and journal about my life, c.) I love that people actually care to read what I write, d.) I love the connections I've made because of this blog, and e.) I love to write. That's the bottom line. I'd write this thing even if no one read it, because I love doing it.

Thank you, for reading.

Pause. Fast-forward.

Right now, I'm impatient and I'm also wishing I had more time to get more done. I want the days to speeeeeed up but I also want the days to slooooow down.

If I had a pause button I'd pause my evenings at around 8:30 p.m., right after the girls get settled in bed, and I'd work for about three hours on my craft projects. Then I'd unpause, and it would still be a manageable time in the evening to sit down and watch a movie and enjoy a popcorn snack and unwind from my day. Instead, what I've been doing all this week is starting on my projects at around 8:30 or 9, working feverishly for about three or more hours, then crawling into bed all bleary eyed at midnight or later, frustrated that I couldn't get more done. I'm trying to put some finishing touches on some things for my craft show this Saturday. I've got the bulk of everything done, but it seems like what I"m working on now is just taking so long to finish. And "life" is also getting in the way of my plans. Responsibilities, blah!  Can you believe I've actually had to feed and bathe the kids, do dishes and laundry and clothe the kids and make sure they are entertained too?  How dare they have needs! I have projects to do!  And work!  Blah!  I have a meeting tonight so I won't be home until late. Stupid work. Allowing me to have money to buy supplies for my crafts but then I have to actually do the work and put in the hours to get paid. As if that's fair.

If I had a hurry up and get here now button, I'd rush through this week and be into next week. Because next week, we're supposedly supposed to be getting an offer on our house. We got word from our Realtor Tuesday that someone wants to make an offer on the place. The person hasn't submitted anything in writing yet, just a number via phone. We countered via phone, and now we wait for a response. The offer is do-able, we think. It's low but not as low as we've gotten in the past. It's so hard to not get excited about the offer, but I keep telling myself to calm down. Calm down, calm down. Until we get something in writing we aren't even going to consider it a solid offer. The person could just be fishing and not be serious at all. But I hate the waiting. And the tease. I want to know NOW. My mind is spinning about the possibility of actually selling our house right now and what that would mean and what we'd have to do to get it done. But then I tell myself that I can't worry about it because there's a good chance that it won't even happen. Even if the person DOES offer us a good offer in writing, it could fall through, as did the offer we had earlier this year. I want to just know now. I don't want to get excited about something that will only end in disappointment. If it's going to end in disappointment I want to know now. I don't want to be teased and then have to wait to find out if it's for real.

Etsy Favorites Wednesday - it's cold & I feel like crocheting

Whenever we get a snap of cold weather, as we did this week, it makes me feel like curling up on the couch under a quilt and crocheting. I always have grand ideas of crocheting all sorts of projects, and it seems like I never have time to complete them. I'm determined this winter to actually finish a few projects. Each year I've wanted to make myself a scarf, and I never have. 2010: scarf mission!  I'll DO IT!  I was peering through Etsy for some crochet patterns of scarves and other stuff and look what I found!  Lots of cute, cute stuff! 

Owl Potholder - hoot hoot! love love!

Lace scarf - I like the lacey and open look of this scarf.

Christmas lights - bwah haaah!  These are awesome!

PeeWee Hermann and Chairry - this is all kinds of awesome.

Flower w/ scarf - The flower "scarf ring" is sweet!