Getting Legit..

So here I am. It’s already mid-September & the numerous incomplete blog entries are just sitting there waiting to be completed and posted. Oh, well…

I figured I’d have plenty of time when I’m on medical leave in November to do all the miscellaneous interwebbing task I’d like to catch up on. Read other blogs, put up some entries of my own, upload a ton of pictures on flickr… facebook…

I’ll stay busy.

So for now I’ll share what some of the main goals I’m trying to accomplish by the end of 2011. I’m going legit. Sellers permit, business license, and fictitious name papers will all be filed by hopefully October, but if it stretches out until November/December I won’t mind.

Why the push? Well, I want to be ready to sell & have a booth/ table.

I’m starting to be more confident of the items I make, and I’m ready to put myself out there a lot more. 

I recently attended (with the hubby & kiddos) the San Pedro Square Sign lighting ceremony, in beautiful downtown San Jose. We were able to do a walk- through of the whole floor plan, and I can honestly say I’m very excited about the vision the higher-ups have for this place.

If you’re interested here is their website.  http://www.sanpedrosquaremarket.com/

Well during our walk-through, I noticed a “rental table section- $20 a day” which got me very animated about the whole idea.  So excited that when I got home that night, I emailed to get more information.  So now I’m preparing…Sellers permit, I figured was the easiest, because that’s what everyone else wants you to turn in when you are doing a booth at a festival. Now I will have one of my very own.  Yay!

I also went out and got a PO Box for Girly Spazms. I figured with Christmas coming & the busy times I had last year, I’d like to mail things out from the new PO instead.  

So if anyone comes across this & feels the need to send some snail mail, send it on over.  I’d love some.

Girly Spazms P.O. Box 59661 San Jose, CA 95159

I have new business cards designed and ready to go, but I’ve placed them on hold until I get down to at least half of my other supply of the old cards.

I’ve been busy making lunch napkins & I am planning to add bento box sets to sell on my etsy shop as well as the table later.

I have my little brainstorming book that I carry around with me.  As much as I love my ipad, there is nothing like being able to write w/ good old paper and pen.

My cute little idea notebook.

 Quick update on Sam's elections. She didn't win, but to reward her for her bravery, we went out for some awesome udon & sushi dinner. We had a great time & over-all I think she's coping well with not wining. 

Now the kiddos (+ her bff) are asking for Halloween costumes & I'm slowly designing them.

Oh! Halloween is coming! My favorite! 

I also started commissioning Sammie (aka meowstachio) to start doing my graphic work on photoshop since she's such a whiz kid at it.

So that's it... 

I made another entry! yay me!!!

shen 

Learn to laugh at yourself..

Sometimes you just have to learn to totally laugh at yourself.

So with the kiddos back in school.(I still can't believe I have kids in high school and junior high) we're back to making lunches, (happy that my kiddos love bringing lunches to school) I had this wonderful idea of making cute little cotton napkins for their lunches. Reusable, washable, and did I mention CUTE! oh yes, I did... 

Well, I've made quite a few. Some for the kiddos (if you haven't noticed by now, I am keen on the word "KIDDO"), some for the etsy shop. Quite excited with my stack of cute little napkins, I decide to do a search today on etsy, and the number of hits sent my head spinning. Yes, I know, I know... Napkins isn't exactly an innovative idea, but I just thought this was an awesome idea. Turns out I'm not as genius as I thought.  It's okay though, the practice was good for my sewing skills, and now I'm on a search to find the perfect fabric to make into our dining napkins. So what can you do... Just laugh. I'm still going to put up my little sets in my shop. Why not right? I mean it's something else to add to my endless growing number to the shop.

In etsy shop news, I can't believe it's already September. One more month, and October will be a full year since I opened my shop. I'm excited!

Latest & greatest: Sam is running for Freshman VP, so she put her crafty mama to work & this is the results of that. Elections are today & she finds out next week...

380 mustaches to hand out

handcut

holes punched & turned into necklaces to handout

Silkscreened Sam's shirt for election day

 After I had been cutting out about a hundred, the hubby comes in & cuts 2 & says "out of all the machines you have, none of them can cut this?" So now I'm looking into either the "sure cuts a lot" program or cricut software as a gift for myself in the near future...

Again you just laugh...

It's finally the weekend! Happy Labor Day everyone! 

shen 

Scrapbook Expo- My First time

I've got a few blog entries saved that should have been posted over the course of the summer. Did that happen? Nope. So I figured I'd be able to get this one done quickly.

So I'm sitting in my craft room on my last day of my four day weekend, the kiddos are still at school. It's their first day, and to keep me busy I've got a long To-do list to keep me distracted.
So far so good, because when I sit to really think about it my stomach starts to hurt. It's a new school for both of them, oh well I'll find out in a few hours how it went.

To start off my first day of my four day weekend, I went to my first scrapbook expo held at the Santa Clara Convention Center. My co-worker (who has become what I consider a really good friend) took me. She has gone consecutively for 5-6 years now, and lemme tell you. I had so much fun.

So much to see, so much excitement. I even won a door prize of $10 to one of the booths at the expo.

Alright, here's my confession. I do not scrapbook. Yes, I shall repeat. I DO NOT SCRAPBOOK!

At least not yet. I just looked through the papers I have and whoa...baby. I need to stop getting some for a bit. I use the patterned paper as backdrops in my etsy shop photos. I just have a lot more than I need.

 I came out of the expo with a few cute sheets of patterned paper, some stamps, stickers, and a huge regret of not buying a pillow box die cut from a particular booth. But it's fine, I was able to look up the expo map layout & flip through the few business cards I took & ordered what I wanted online. So it'll be on it's way. Next year... My motto "JUST GET IT!"

Along with a nice lunch, and great company, I totally had a good time, and can't wait to go again next year. 

A blurry iphone pic of just some of the things I came home with.  From Left to right. 1. cute birthday clear stamp set, 2-3-4 things I found at the booth I won a gift certificate from.

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 Yay! I finally was able to finish an entry!

shen 

A tid bit of my crafting history.

I love that my daughter & I are connecting in so many different levels as she gets older & older. I shared this story with her on a quiet afternoon after school while I prepared dinner & the kids finished up their homework. I thought it would be a nice story to share on here too, since it’s been a while.

 Although I opened my etsy shop just 6 months ago & started bringing in some cash for my crafty creations, I actually started way back in high school.  I had a jewelry making class during my senior year. (So although my crafts are all over the place, it all actually started with jewelry, and although I rarely do jewelry pieces now, it's always nice when I am able to put something together.) 
I was allowed to take a few more electives because I had met the requirements to graduate already thanks to the private school I had transferred from.  I was excited because I had always been interested but never had the chance to get my hand on jewelry making. When I was younger, my mom considered all my craft things “junk” so it was really hard to do things, I mainly stuck to drawing & sketching. It was the easiest to hide & avoid criticism from my mom.

Anyways, this class was so much fun! I made jewelry, and got A+++ on projects from my teacher who was so encouraging &  supportive. I’m ashamed to admit it but I can’t remember the name of my art teacher, yet it has been a while so I shouldn't. I started with a B... can I get some points for that at least? ;)
All I remember is that she was a small petite blonde lady, maybe in her mid-30s, who was completely insane about George Clooney. She put together an art show for an upcoming open house that year & asked me to sell my pieces. They all sold that night! AND it was enough to pay for my equipment fee for the class (I think it was about $25) & go towards buying more materials for me.  I was ecstatic that people actually bought my earrings, and necklaces that I had designed. ME!?! A measly little high school senior.

So I started buying my own materials.  See, the reason why I had transferred from private school was because there was a change in household, and I was now living with my dad for a brief time until I eventually rented a room a little later with Tony (my boyfriend back then, my husband now), so I was able to start my little supply of materials without someone coming in & throwing everything out or ransacking my room. I started making more and more jewelry, and started selling at school. I had price tags on each piece, and took cash. I sold out of my backpack during break & lunch. On occasion I would sell in class because the teacher was very lenient & allowed me to. There was even a teacher who asked for custom made pieces.  It was a lot of fun. It made some extra lunch money, and it kept me busy.

Sam smiled as I told her this.  I’m guessing she likes hearing the history of my crafting since she has only seen the recent. I hope you enjoyed this little story as well. 
Quick update on the etsy-business... 

I recently installed the Square app on my phone, and was sent a credit card reader that attaches to the jack of my phone. This will allow me to accept credit cards when I finally set up a booth at a art show/ festival. I also plan to use it at the Pride Parade this year, as I sell some cute rainbow flowers out of my backpack.  Ironically enough, just like high school.
I am also planning on opening a booth at local farmers markets & festivals soon. I'll keep you updated, as for now I'm building up inventory. I have multiple projects going on everyday. The studio is a disaster, and on top of it I'm still filling orders on etsy. 
Life is good. Busy, but good. And the weather has been amazing. I'm hoping it stays like this now. Love the hot sunny weather. Can't get enough of it.

shen