Oops!

Okay so anyone that knows me knows I get a little out of control when I start certain projects. Maybe not the worst character flaw but def not good for the bank!

I've done it again! I was going on Jerrys Artarama (where' I've gotten screen printing ink before that I love!) just to check out prices and whatnot....well they had a 12% sale and free shipping on everything if you spent over a certain amount (I will not say what amount, it's not a ton but it's not cheap) AND IT ENDED TODAY!! So of course I had to get in on this and by things (even though they have these deals quite frequently).

Hopefully having all this stuff will get me to make more screens and use them! I hope I haven't gotten in over my head again but we shall see.

I'll never learn.

Who can now add screen printing to one of their many crafty skills???? THIS GAL! I'm sooo happy I finally did it! Last night I also made some of my own screens with some fabric from Joann Fabrics and picture frames from Value Village so hopefully those will work out! If they do I'll have a pretty cheap way to make my own screens. Now just to finally put down all my ideas onto screens, that will take some time for sure. I did snap a few pictures for you guys, horrible pictures but you get the idea.



If I didn't have enough to worry about I found this little bugger on my eye today. It's from either yesterday or today. No puking, sneezing, coughing or anything else that happened in that time to cause it so I'm assuming it's from stress :/


Things that have been stressing me out lately in no specific order
-taxes
-court
-the weather (and hating how it makes me feel)
-relationship stress
-work
-appointments
-my wisdom tooth coming in and chipping one of my other teeth
To fix all this I'm taking a night off and having craft night at my place, it's been way to long since I've had it. And all together just not worrying about anything. We all need to step back sometimes and relax! I need to remember this more often. I even took off this Sunday from bartending so I'm really trying to make this work out to my benifit.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Nervous!!!

Waiting waiting waiting!!!

Obviously I'm waiting for something but what you ask?
I just burnt a screen! Using the sun because I don't have the right kind of lights :/
Hopefully I let it sit long enough. After reading a bunch of stuff on screen printing I though I had it figured out the emolusion was supposed to get a little darker but it really didn't so I moved a stencil over a tad bit and saw it was yellow underneath so I went and washed it out. Looks great! But looks can be deceiving, for some reason I don't think I let it sit long enough so I'm letting it dry in the sun and will test it out later.
Fingers crossed!

MY 6th POST THIS YEAR AND IT'S STILL JANUARY! Hahaha I must say I am slightly happy about this (slightly being an understatement) maybe I'm blogging more because I haven't been to social in life lately??? Oh well.

Anyway I have a few pieces of good news. I'm not sure if I blogged about it a couple years ago when I bough oodles and oodles of screen printing supplies only to keep it for a year and sell it. About six months ago (actually probably more but I'll say 6 months to humor myself) I decided to give it a shot again and well...actually DO IT instead of letting it sit around. That got me nowhere. Last night I was sitting on the couch watching a movie after cutting up some patters and jumped into it! My screen is drying at the moment, fingers crossed I did everything right! And I am very excited about this but not excited enough to go out and buy tons of supplies again. For my first one I'm going to keep it simple and hopefully it goes well and isn't a discouraging disaster! I will keep you posted, I hope to have it all done by Friday :)

Some other good news is I have a few new shirt patterns and am going to jump back on the sewing bandwagon! I've been sooo busy with plugs lately I've been neglecting my sewing machines. My plug making station has even migrated to my sewing table :(
Expect some new clothes up in the shop! I will try my best to make same the same style in different sizes, something I've never done but need to! I know I have mostly had sz small and medium in shirts and I NEED to change that! I am also working on some more skirts.

One last thing! Again a couple years ago I wanted to open up a store in downtown Racine. I was thinking mostly handmade at the time but Racine isn't the best place for a store with only handmade things in it (I will admit this town is kind of cheap and sketchy at times). I looked at storefront prices and everything but was very discouraged and put it off. I am rethinking the idea and will be talking about it with a couple of close friends soon so it may be a possibility! Although I don't think it will just be handmade items. I'm thinking handmade/vintage/thrift but we'll see where we go from here. Right now it's just a matter of brainstorming.

This month has been super super hard but I'm trying to look on the bright side of things. Expect another post soon!

Packages!

Packaging is a big part of selling online. So I was wondering how all you guys pack your items or how you like to receive packages when you purchase online.
Personally I am one of the people that don't really care because I basically buy supplies online and that's about it. But when I do splurge and buy something for myself I always get a little more excited when I see the colored tissue paper nicely wrapped around my new purchase (like a little present).
I have gone through many many different ways to package trying to figure out the best way that is both cost effective and beautiful. Some I will say weren't to great and if you received a poorly wrapped one I'm sorry :(
When I first started I would put my business card in a little baggie with the plugs and then in a bubble mailer, not to exciting. Then I had the great idea to add tissue paper and ribbon! But after receiving a package that was sent to a wrong address I realized this is not the best way. Going through all the machines at the post office made it look like a crumpled mess. After that I purchased little boxes and started doing it that way but then again receiving a bubble mailer with a white box....not to exciting. Ugh I couldn't win!
I recently was browsing on Uline and found the perfect little boxes!!!! They won't get crushed so the tissue paper will not crumple and they are the perfect size!
I took them to the post office and ran into some problems with a not so nice clerk stating that they are way to small, he can't fit anything on them blah blah blah. Very very discouraging! Even though they were less than 1/4" to small than a post card. So I'm just printing them out at home and guess what? The labels fit perfectly! I will be looking into boxes that are 1" bigger just to make the man happy and so I can send international packages the same way but talk about frustrating!
I will be putting up some pictures of the little guys soon, I'm so happy I found them! Hahaha sorry I get a little excited over little things.

New items will also be up in the shop soon! I found an AMAZING typewriter that I can't wait to show you guys!! I love photographing them :)

I will also be carrying plugs made with wood for those of you who dislike the steel. I personally can't wear steel to often in the winter because my ears freeze!!! They should be up in the shop within the next two weeks. Supplies will be limited until I know how much of a demand there will be for wood. They will also be $5 more.

Hope you guys have a great day!!!

Worn down

Worn down, but still excited for new things. I think the weather is just getting to me, a lot.

I was able to get my vacuum chamber up a running but it's not working as well as I though it was :( The vacuum I bought has a broken gauge and doesn't pull as much as a vacuum as it's supposed to. It still works but takes a long time! I'm experimenting with a couple different methods that might make it work better but so far no luck (then again I have only used it a couple times).

This week was a load on me! It was Milo's birthday (along with my brothers) and a lot of other little things thrown in that I had to do. I think I just need to sit down and relax a bit, I wish I had a fireplace. For Milo's birthday we went bowling! It was a blast!!! And tonight my parents are taking him to a monster truck show!!! I remember going when I was younger and it was a lot of fun so I know he will enjoy it.

Needless to say when he is out watching monster trucks I will be working on orders and finishing up tax stuff (almost done!!!). I may go moonlight bowling with a few friends and that should be a lot of fun. I will also be getting my hair cut today by a professional. I usually just cut my own hair (trim) and have gotten 2 haircuts by pros in the last 4 years...maybe 5 years. The other day I cut off about 4" myself and it already looks better and healthier. I may also be able to squeeze in a movie, I've been wanting to see the black swan since it came out!

I hope everyone has a nice weekend! Hopefully this dark cloud over my head passes soon. I think I just need to be more social and stop worrying about things.

Work work work work work.

The past three things that I have been constantly doing so far this month?

1. Preparing for taxes. I really really should have organized better last year!!! Ahhhh!!! Well at least I'm learning but doing everything last min is not the way to go! I will not be able to make some deductions this year because it would be just to much work to figure it out! This leads me on to #2

2. Organizing like a mad woman! I do this about once every three months. I go through the whole house and pile bag upon bag of things to go to Value Village and then drop it off when they are not open so I don't look like a mad woman (sometimes) returning things I bought there 2 months ago :/ But this time I am orgaizing EVERYTHING! Including my inventory. It's a big job but I'm definatly motivated by the tax season.

3. Court. I won't get into detail but of course at the worst time child related issues arise and I am being taken to court.

Whew! Talk about stressful! At least Christmas is over and I don't have tons and tons of orders to fill so I can organize and work on tax things. Although this has not kept me away from the thrift stores, but then again that's part of work too. I love the fact that when I'm out having fun shopping it's work and I'm enjoying it!

Yesterday I was able to grab this beauty!

I am soooo excited to try it out and I may replace my current machine with this one if it works good. Fingers crossed that it does! It's a portable machine (even though it's super heavy!) and even has the original box so when I'm done I can just store it away.

That's about it for now. I haven't really been able to do many fun things or even go online on tumblr or anything like that since I'm so busy but I should return soon!

2010/2011

2010 You were an interesting year that taught me many things, both good and bad. Here's a few things that happened
-Realized after 3 years someones actions are not going to change. I'll admit that I knew this before but this was the year where I stopped caring and did not try to encourage things that will obviously never happen.
-Spent our first year renting an apartment where it's just us (Milo my son and I).
-Stopped buying so many things and got rid of a lot (still working on this one).
-Worked my butt off and in the end it paid off way more than I thought it would.
-Started looking at houses again, hopefully moving half way through 2011.
-Finally got back into dating and am still with this wonderful man.
-Cried, smiled and laughed a ton :)
-Got a kitten!!
-Started bar tending.
-Improved my skills.

Here's a few things I'm looking forward to in 2011.
-Starting my own website for plugs (not just handmade!).
-Improving my skills more (working on it right now!).
-Thrifting and auctioning more.
-Selling more vintage items and not just holding onto them.
-Clearing my life of unnecessary people and things.
-Buying a house.
-Exploring more arts/crafts.
-Sewing more! I fell behind a bit in that department this year.
-KEEPING ORGANIZED!
-Possibly doing the 365 photo challenge.

There are tons more but it's almost time for work! I still do have to work on my goals list and keep it up all year! Last year was great and I'm hoping this year will be fantastic! Happy New Year!!!

NEW YEARS SALE!!!

New Years Sale!!!! 50% OFF EVERYTHING!! 12 HOURS ONLY 12PM to 12AM CST!
To get the 50% off you need to use coupon code NEWYEARS If you do not use the coupon code it will not be applied to your order.