New Blog

Please Visit my new Shop Blog HERE
I would really appreciate it if you like me on facebook and follow the new blog for fun recipes and giveaways.
Thanks!
janae

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judeMcConkeyPhotos Interview

Here is an interview with jude of judeMcConkeyPhotos of Etsy.  I selected her because I love her work - the photos are so expressive and rich with detail and her jewelry is wonderful;  and she is a good Facebook friend too, which I love!  

1. Tell me a little bit about yourself: 

I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and moved to the upper peninsula of Michigan about 32 years ago (it's where my husband grew up). I started photography about 9 years ago after a pretty horrible "glamor shot" session. I realized I could actually bring out the beauty that every woman has. It moved quickly onto fine art photography, though.

2. How did you name your shop?: 

Lack of any kind of imagination since it's judemcconkeyphotos .. lol

3. If you had a thousand bucks to spend on Etsy, what would you buy?:

Ohhhh, that's a great question! There is some jewelry here that I've been wanting for years. Also, I'd love a complete collection of original artwork from obsoleteworld.etsy.com (her shop is on vacation til the 26th). Here's her FB page:www.facebook.com/obsoleteworld .. I absolutely love her work.. I can look at it and cry for hours - it's very emotional.

4. What are three tips you would give other Etsy shop owners?:

Market a lot. Renew/relist/list a lot. Try not to let it overcome your entire life (almost impossible).

5. What is your favorite thing about being an artist/creative person?

I've always been artistic/creative - I painted, I wrote, etc. And there was only one time in my life I didn't - when my children were little until they were in high school. As soon as they were old enough and I felt I had time (since I was also working a full time job) I felt that drain of not being creative. I started to try to find what would fill that creative side in me, which eventually led me to photography. THE thing is that creation is what I believe we are all here to do in some way. When we do that, we feel fulfilled.

6. How do you balance business and creating?

It's the hardest thing for me, I think. Since I started making vintage-inspired photo jewelry it takes up most of my time. Sometimes I think "are you a photographer, or what?" and it makes me leave the house and go in search of new photographs - WHICH I love to do. Working on photos is like being in a sacred place. It sounds weird but I'm so lost and happy when I do it. That is my first love ... not just taking the photo, but seeing what I can create wit it. Unfortunately, marketing is a huge part of being on a site like Etsy and I feel like I spend way too much time doing it, but that I have no choice I'd like to

hire a trained monkey to do that part ;)

7. Tell us about your family, or support system?I've been married to Tim for a little over 37 years. We have 4 grown children and 5 grandchildren - all who live very close to us (streets away). My husband is my biggest fan and has taken up photography as just a fun thing to do (he gets my old cameras when I get a new one). We enjoy traveling around to look for photos. He unselfishly takes all his vacation days to go to art/craft shows with me and does all the heavy, hard work. I treated with a Neil Young concert a few weeks ago to let him know how much I appreciate it.

8. When you were younger, what did you want to be when you "grew-up?"

I wanted to be an FBI agent, a lawyer, a writer and, in my teens, a pathologist .. Kind of glad I didn't do most of them, although I did write for a living for a while.

9. What was the best gift you ever received?

This is going to sound really unexciting, but it meant a lot to me. My birthdays are notoriously forgotten by family. One year my husband and brother went in together and bought me expensive, leather-bound books of "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings Trilogy".

Thanks so much for letting us get to know you more, jude!  Be sure to visit her shop on Etsy!

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Start Us Out Giveaway

Now in an ideal world and the one I live in, we will be giving away excellent prizes from Etsy sellers and fabric and stuff.
But this is my first giveaway so I'm going to be a little different.
Amazon.
What could you maybe get at Amazon?  Well I'm going to go over some of my latest purchases, and when I say that I mean the songs I just bought for my playlist.
Like Florence and the Machine. My friend sent me "shake it out" and I love it.
Or Call me When you're sober a great song.
Or Wide Awake which has a totally awesome music video.
Also I think I bought diapers on Amazon recently- have you seen their subscription program?  It kills me it is so good.

All of them?  on my running mix. I'm still not very good at running but you can imagine how good I should be with all this good inspiration.  I imagine you could be even better
.
So I'm running this giveaway through Rafflecopter, and they seem pretty awesome these days.
They have easy to follow directions. 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Etsy Treasury Contest: YELLandPANIC

Amber Glass Chicken Covered Dish from YELLandPANIC on Etsy

Announcing an awesome Etsy Treasury Contest featuring Etsy shop YELLandPANIC!

THE PRIZE:

A $10 Amazon Gift card!  

THE RULES:

1. Follow my shop blog -  this blog!
2. Make an Etsy Treasury featuring any item from the Etsy shop YELLandPANIC - Place the item somewhere in the top three rows.
3. Tag the treasury "claireandjanae" and "yellandpanic" (2 separate tags)
4. Leave a link to this blog entry with your treasury.
5. VERY IMPORTANT: Post a comment on this blog entry with a link to the treasury and your Etsy name and/or email address so I can contact you if you win.
6. You may enter as much as you want - multiple treasuries are encouraged!
7. Contest ends September 30, 2012 at noon EST.
8. I pick the winner - the treasury I like the most!

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Fabric Friday

you might be asking yourself what you should do with the fabric you bought this week. well I found another fantastic blog that could help you with that question. A site called Sew Much Ado has lots of tutorials that are great to use- and even beginner friendly. I love their peasant dress pattern.  I love sites that do tutorials- they seem to organized and with it and I want to be one of those awesome people. 

Maybe I will start being one of those people- but I can't find my camera right now so I'm going to be one of those other people that loves looking at what other people do for tutorials.  oh maybe tutorials should be on a different day than Fabric day.  but they really go hand in hand.
So do you buy fabric for a specific pattern or look for something to do with the fabric you love?
I thought of a few fabrics for this pattern.

and I love this Michael Miller fabric. I think it would make a cute little baby dress.  you know what else would?  Chevrons.  Chevrons are quite possibly my latest obsession.  I have a board on pinterest inspired by them.  So this dress could be made with chevrons. for real. Imagine how fun that would be.

what are you doing with your fabric today?

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What a Beautiful Giveaway.

I do love me some fabric.  In a serious way. so here is a fantastic giveaway.
http://seevanessacraft.com/2012/07/giveaway-fat-quarter-shop-fabric-bundle/#comment-86817

she uses the magical powers of rafflecopter to power her giveaway of a fat quarter bundle valued at 59.99. um- I totally need to win this.  My mother is obsessed with Fat quarters which I totally LOVE. and I always want to buy the bundles.
I want to win this giveaway.  but I'm blogging about it- because if I can't win and you win from finding out from me that is like me winning.  only different. but also I was part of it so you can imagine.

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Fabric Friday

Since I have decided against going to a group for fabric addiction I've decided I can post about Fabric. I might change my mind about that if I get a car anytime soon. So I will post about it on Fridays. Maybe every Friday because Fabric Friday sounds pretty good. If you have any ideas about fabric you like and why you like it or fabric storage just let me know.

So I thought first I would share a fabric idea  from Craftaholics Anonymous that I totally started to copy in the Scranton house.  OK right now I'm a bit in transition so I don't have a real place to store my fabric right now.  Or my own place. It's also nice to surround yourself with people who are beautiful inside and beautiful things. I've learned recently who is good to have around in an emergency and how they aren't always who you suspect.  I'm really blessed to have such great friends. and I'm blessed that I still have things I can enjoy to do, like fantasizing about different projects I can make.  Hopefully I will be able to sell enough stuff on Etsy for a while to pay off some of my debt and become financially self sufficient. Scary! life can be super overwhelming- and trying to keep a clean house is also super overwhelming.
You know what makes it feel better?  Thinking of people with awesome fabric storage. Like Linda and her Ideas for Storing Fabric on her neat Blog.
Don't you wish your floor looked this great? I know it looks like brand new carpet and it doesn't have any toys on it. So it's not my house. Oh wait- don't have a house right now...Anyway I love the way she has organized it. Not to mention that she has some fantastic fabric that I would like to own. I love the curtain rod clips to store fabric- they are perfect! It just looks like it could be in a store- and I secretly want my craft room to look like a store.  If I ever get a craft room again. Ok I will get a craft room again- I decided it's official.  You know what would be cool?  Owning a fabric store and just being with people all day talking about different projects and helping them organize their homes. And helping them spend their money.  I could really do that for a living I think.  Maybe I will earn enough to buy millions of the cute little clips for my fabric.

What are some of the best ideas you've seen for organizing fabric?

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Steps to being a Bad Etsy Blogger.

It's come to my attention that I can give a really good guide about being a bad etsy blogger.  Here are ten easy steps.

some happy sock monkeys have joined the claireandjanae team

1. Get pregnant.  This will help you feel sick for at least 20 weeks.  Maybe 28 if you are lucky. Or more.
2. Start challenges where you give stuff away and then get jealous of the people who start blogs about them after you and have more followers. Then they start an awesome team. and you realize it probably wasn't your original idea but you still feel a bit sad about it because you don't get to pick the winners anymore.
3. try to start a Facebook page but realize they are really hard to manage and apparently you aren't as Facebook savvy as some.  Don't blog about tutorials since you can't do it.
4. Realize there are ten million other sellers who also blog from etsy and do awesome tutorials.
5. Don't advertize. This way no one will find your blog.
6. Don't tell your friends to buy things from you and follow your blog. This can be achieved by being secretive or unfriendly (see step one for help if you are too kind).
7. Complain a lot in the Etsy forums about how some people get all the Etsy attention.  I'm pretty sure people like complainers. you could link to your blog in your complaints.  Then the right kind of people will be following you. You could also complain about other stuff on etsy on your blog, which is mean.
8. Don't update your blog except every five months.
9. Don't ever do giveaways.
10. Don't feature other sellers.

Hopefully this short tutorial will help you attain mediocrity.  I am off to start working on it, because I realize that I am never in the etsy forums so I have definitely not complained enough.

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What I Made Today

or rather, what I made Yesterday. I've decided to do another month challenge where I actually photograph and make things every day. I'm hoping to boost my etsy shop contents, and finish some quilts.

Danielle wanted to help me make a "quilt" which to her is a soft fuzzy blanket so we made one together. People have been asking me to make soft minky blankets for adults to I decided I should make some and list them in the shop. Danielle picked all the fabrics- so I guess it is for someone who is young at heart.
I love my little girl. Check out her design HERE

Month Challenge- 31 days of making things, every day. Consistency Counts. Like the year challenge, only way way way shorter.

DAY 1 of 31

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Front Page :-)

I was just on the front page of Etsy. it made my day. My little Butterfly shirt that Danielle helped pick the design for was featured. Thanks HippieKingdom!

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