Etsyblogger Carnival: Vacation Time

This carnival's host is Handmade By Sandi. The choices were:
#1 What's the best vacation your ever had?
#2 Of all the places in the world, where would you like to go and why?


I decided to go with #1 since, well, there is no one place I really long to go. I know, boring, but true. I am not a hug fan of beaches. I adore the water, but not the sand. There just is not enough to do. Okay, you can sit around and read, but I'd rather do that somewhere other than under the sun. Hubby, now he'd take a lazy beach vacation any day. I'd want to do something, something active, something I normally would not. Which is kind of funny considering my fave vaca.

It's cliche, but my favorite vacation was my honeymoon. We went to Toronto. I was there way back when during a fifth grade field trip, but remembered nothing from that. This one, I remember :)
We traveled by train - which I loved....first class sure did not hurt. When we arrived we walked across the street to our hotel, the Royal York...VIP floor. Very nice.

In the morning we woke up and walked down the hall to the suite thingy where they had coffee & breakfast. Yum! The rest of the day...guess...no! Not that! We walked. All. Day. Long. And it was great! We wound our way up and down nearly every street. Went in to too many shops to remember. Ate tons of great food. It is the best way to really get to know a city.
We even got what we now refer to as our family seal there...at a tattoo shop - one of the best I might add. Just don't ask me to remember the name of it...I do have their card somewhere around here though.We hit the touristy spots too, like the CN Tower and even took in a baseball game. We thought it was fitting since that is what we did after the wedding reception...and before the bar hopping. All in my gown by the way :)

Here's the entrance to the tower...loved the moose!!!

And us at, well, near, the top. And no, no pics of me on the glass floor...uh uh - no way!

I had to throw in this pic to since, while it may not be from my fave vaca, it is my fave vaca pic....

Wordless Wednesday

Hair Goodies

My hair has been getting quite long. I have always been one to play around with color & style, but lately have just been too lazy to do much. And the result - my hair seems longer than it ever had been before. And yet, I still hate it in my face, especially when sewing. So it winds up pulled back most of the time.
I found some cute handmade hair thingies online...but most of them I just can't bring myself to buy since they are sewn...something I can just do myself. Well, I have no idea if I really can, but I sure will try first :) So I recently bought some hair sticks & barrettes to craft some hair pieces. I have lots of ideas, but just need to start them.But one thing I know I can't do - metal work. Solution...buy some :) I ran across this shop, Additions Style, during a giveaway look around. I just love her style. And the packaging it came in was so cute too. See....

I Won!

It was back at the end of January, but I just recently took pics. Over at Ametista's blog I won this awesome purple Love pendant from Belandaria Designs. And I just had to show it off :) I falls perfectly when I wear it...but no pics of that. I tried an in-the-mirror pic, but it just looked wonky.

Blogfire - In the Kitchen

It's that time again...another BlogFire carnival. This time, I will take you into the kitchen...not mine, I haven't cleaned :P

Breast Cancer Awareness Kitchen Set by Sew Happy Designs




Cups of Tea - Recycled Wall Clock by Decomundo




Tea for Two Cozy Set in Brown and Blue by By Camille




Green Bottle Spoon Rest, Nut Bowl and Cheese Tray by Silver Garden




Party Set, Lime Green Lampwork Cheese & Canape Cutters, Wine Stopper
by Chrysalis Art Glass

Wordless Wednesday

And the Winner is.....

....Darcey Rojas...

Congrats to Darcey! I will be contacting you via e-mail :)

Darcey is an artist and a writer. You can go visit her at her design website, 365 Days of Discovery and Barefoot & Breathless blogs.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by. I had a great time this year riding along & seeing so many new blogs! It looks like the final total for participating blogs was 1088!!!!! Whimsical Bohemian had them listed out not only by number on her sidebar, but posted them alphabetically as well. I think I personally visited about 70 or so....not even 10%! Next year, I may shoot for 20% :)

Woo Hoo!

I just realized this morning that I have not told you about the big surprise I got this week. I think I was still too stunned. As you may know, I am part of the Etsyblogger team...and this month...I am their "Blogger of the Month"! *insert cartwheels here*
I am so geeked! I love opening my mail now to find Google Alerts with links to things other than my own postings :) So I want to throw out a big 'ol thank you to all my blogging buds...


And another nice surprise I saw today...I have 400 hearts for my Etsy shop!!!! Wow!


Okay, now I need to go sew so people aren't seeing the same old things in my shop...later!

Wordless Wednesday

Time Boxing

Nope - not a sport. A biz tip from Crissy Herron of Indie Biz Chicks. I have been receiving her weekly biz tips for quite some time now and this one could not have had better timing...no pun intended, well, not too much. *I highly recommend checking the site out*

I have been struggling with time management for a while now. When I first started creating, time was not an issue because it was for fun. Then I started selling and time still was not too much of an issue. I gave myself lots of slack for being a newbie. But now....I need to crack down. I tried a schedule of sorts about one month ago which was okay, but not great.

I have managed to work in my gym time during my youngest's school hours. I am not going to let this one go. I have come to terms with the fact that I may need to give up some crafting in order to keep this up, but it is too important not to. I realize that my crafting is already very part-time and this makes it even more so...health needs to come first. The downside - that time used to be when I sewed. So when do I sew now? Um, good question. Haven't done much of it yet. Today I will sew during his naptime and hope it does not keep him awake.

The computer time...I think that is my biggest downfall. I get so caught up with this new laptop of mine...I mean ours. Really hubby, I know it's the family's :) *think he believed me?* Oh well. I need to limit time spent here. There's e-mail, shops, blogs (which includes lots of browsing for my treasury blog and lots of giveaway checking for the giveaway/finds blog) ...oh, and blog decoration, and home stuff like Quicken, paperwork for the biz, photo editing...etc etc etc. And all the digi scraping/imaging I have been playing with...did ya see the nifty new buttons on my sidebar for my other blogs? That took up a couple hours right there... Yup, lots 'o time.

So this is where time boxing comes in. It's more than merely scheduling. I interpret it as scheduling with a timer.

Crissy describes it like this: "... assigning necessary tasks a certain measure of time in your day. Within those time constraints you accomplish what you can and then move on to something else... Usually a long list brings on the pangs of procrastination.... Time boxing takes care of anxiety that leads to procrastination and perfectionism."

I think it may be the moving on part that will take the most effort on my part.

Here's what I will try to go for...it's a mix of boxing & scheduling:

M, Tu, W, Th: kiddo in school.... 2hr Gym, 1d/wk 2hr shop (after school pick up), 3hr sew (during nap & just before or after), 2hr computer (after school or evening)...possible extra hours sewing depending on the day

Fri: 3hr computer (while kiddo plays & evening), 4hr sewing (naptime & after oldest comes home to keep an eye on little guy for a short bit if needed)

Sat/Sun: willy nilly...try for 4hr sewing blocks and 1hr computer A, 2-3hr computer B
note: computer A will be the "important" things like e-mail, shop upkeep, paperwork (home & biz)....computer B will be the treasury blog posts, giveaway posts & digi stuff (until I do enough to try & do this for others...I hope to make it part of my "wares", starting with freebies - but not for a while yet)

Now let's see if I can stick with it. Wish I had a graphic of fingers crossed :P

Blogfire: Pink Valentines of ArtFire

Pink Valentine Heart Cookies Potholder Polka Dots by White Dandelion

Pink Sugar Limited Edition Handmade Soap by Lotions and Potions






Heart Shaped Beaded Art Quilt Pin Pendant by Andrus Gardens






Handmade Love Potion 9 Vintage Shabby Chic Valentines Day Love Card
by Gen's Scrapbook Kitchen






Hot Pink Valentines Day Burlesque Corset Costume (with mini top hat) by Olga Italy

Wordless Wednesday