New things!

Today I posted a couple of new items, my fancy barn owl and my pretty sloth! Last week I had two sales and am hoping for at least the same this week! Gooooo me...finally some sales! I have to make more things tonight and hope everything goes well, since this weekend I will be away from my creating. Now since I am selling things, I want all my time to be dedicated to it and don't like to be away from it for too long - I guess that's a good thing! :) Also etsy just made a wish of mine come true today...draft listing! Now you make a draft listing for an item and save it, then publicly list it when you want to! Now I can put the listing together anytime and post in high traffic times...if I only had the iphone, I could list from anywhere!!!!!!  My wishlist has expanded to a new camera and iphone....well I guess if I keep selling, it may become a wish-come-true-list. :)

Happy almost 3 day weekend! 

Yes, I love technology, but not right now, as much, you see.....

Sometimes I wish Kip was my brother.....he and Uncle Rico could fix all my technical problems or at least provide some comic relief.

Kip - Napoleon Dynamite

I really hate my camera, like really hate it. It was a birthday present from my husband (then boyfriend!) two or three years ago. I think he was a little disappointed it didn't turn into a prize possession of mine, but then he witnessed the failure firsthand. At first it was ok. At the time it ranked high in compact digital cameras and then it went downhill fast. Exhibits 1-5.....

Close up in bright light - more like underwater pool setting 

even better.........

Night scene, that magically cuts people in half!

Action with zoooommmmmm! 

 Pitch dark with a flashlight setting - just kidding, it's close up in bright light again!

Now before I'm labeled a whining camera-basher, there have been some good moments. Exhibits 6-9.....

It's always loved the beach!

Although there are occasional good moments with my bad camera, it just not working for me. Yesterday I took about 400 pictures of 3 items to sell and came out with about 10 usable ones (plus had to take redo photos of an item this morning because they all came out terrible yesterday!). It also took me 2 hours to upload the pictures because it is now refusing to simply upload to iphoto with it's adapter. I had to take the memory card out of the camera, stick it in a digital photo frame and hook the frame up to the computer to download the photos. I already have to take more time taking pictures than I would like, because the light is never right for my temperamental, princess camera, but also have to make time-consuming sets to get a decent picture.....exhibit 10.

It's not that dark in my apartment, it's the camera again! 

This camera is just plain wasting precious time. This weekend I'll be on the hunt for my next camera....I looked up trade in programs for my existing camera and was offered a whooping $4.00 buy back credit. I guess that should tell me something!


Have a DYNAMITE weekend! I wish that was my last name.....dang!

Shake and Bake!

HI! I have been absent for quite some time, but now it's time to shake and bake! I've done lots of boring paperwork and can now finally start on the real business of making and selling, producing and profiting. (fingers crossed!) I'm excited about my new designs and the potential of making my dream a reality, but have to stay positive and remember hard work can only lead to better things, but you have to actually DO the hardwork! ......On another note my camera has died and I need a new one pronto! I'm not the best at picking winners and can't reason buying the 800.00 dollar one I want! If you have any suggestions, send them my way!

Here's some new items.....

The peanut bin!

My sheep pillow! 

Happy Thursday!

Bueller......? Bueller......? Bueller......?

I'm here! Contrary to the movie, I'm NOT taking a day off!

I've been absent in my blogging and etsy item posting for good reason. I'm organizing! Just over a week ago, I watched this - http://www.etsy.com/storque/seller-handbook/etsy-success-symposium-11615/

The ETSY Success Symposium, and it was wonderful! It was an all day affair dedicated to really understanding and enhancing your business, or should I say, making it an actual business. The number one thing I learned was to seriously get organized before going any further. SO I am! I have been financing, list making, questions asking, re-doing, tax figuring, problem solving and organizing my way to a better business, a better stelladottie. This first thing I realized into this process? I was going about it all wrong! After doing some "finance" homework, I realized I wasn't really making a profit at all! Yes, to sell things, you must make things, but to make and sell them blindly is just pointless. I've learned what it takes to be an actual business. I didn't think this would be easy, but I now know there is a systematic process that goes along with the creative one and even though it's a lot of work - it makes it easier. So once again, those fantastic people over at etsy have helped open the eye of the seller to ACTUALLY become successful!

So I still have some business fixing to do, but hope to see you on the successful side very soon!  

A little golden story.....

The snow storms have finally left for this week and now it's on to the clean-up. Since I live in an apartment, I actually have no physical snow clean-up to do, but I could use some "self " clean-up. I haven't been the best (stelladottie) I can be. I've worked harder, but not hard enough. I thought it was the weather, too much comfort of working from home, not enough work space, no change of scenery, lack of human interaction during the day, doubt, frustration, my coffee wasn't strong enough, "but it was a good Oprah topic today" and facebook addiction (side note - it's more evil than good and more annoying than interesting, why is there so much obsession!), to name a few, that was giving me the lack of motivation and all out laziness. 


BUT!    It's not.    As much as I would LOVE to have an excuse for my laziness lack of motivation, I don't! It's ME! ME! ME!!!! Remember that book, The Monster at this end of the Book starring Grover? Well it's just like that, except it's just loveable, furry old  unmotivated me at the end of the book!

Please don't turn the page!! There's worry and doubt and laziness at the end of this book!! Oh no wait, it's just old worrywart, doubtful, lazy me! Yesterday, my book would have be entitled, There's Nonsense at the End of this Book! But today I'm renaming it to, There's IS Something at the End of this Book, and it's the BEST THING EVER, if you really want it! 

And I really want it! So enough with my worry, my doubt, my laziness. It's time to REALLY put in the hard work and plow through the negativity. It's true you get what you deserve. If you do nothing, you get nothing, and you definitely deserve nothing and how could you want nothing? 

Time to take Grover's advice, there's nothing to be afraid of, so I'm off to do something! 

P.S. Did you notice what I found today??? THIS! and I love it! 

Also - when did Grover ever get old? Isn't he like 5?? 

On to the next one...

"I move forward, the only direction, cant be scared to fail, search and perfection..." 


Ok, so Jay-Z wasn't talking about crafting, but I am! I would like to say I came up with the theory that making what you love, works better than making what you think people will love, but I didn't and I think it's one of the best theories going. I love Jay-Z, so how about my crafts? 
I loved the pottery I made and I miss that feeling. I've been on a break from ceramics since I moved back downstate. Not a willing break, but a financial/searching for a space to work in break. To keep my crafting dream going and an outlet for ceramics, I picked up sewing. But with my "got to make money" brain, I started to make what I thought people would "like" and buy, not what I loved making. It wasn't exciting me, it wasn't challenging me, and it wasn't paying me. It was frustrating me. SO, with a "what the hell are you doing" lecture to myself and lack of sales on etsy, I'm on to MY next one. My next one of what I love to design and create.
So again, they say if you love what you make, so will others. I hope this holds true for many reasons, but most of all because you should live what you love, time's too short to just "kinda like things." :)


So here is the start of my new (I LOVE IT!) collection. It still needs a name, but this one really reminds me of Goldie Hawn in her Laugh-In days! Maybe it's the eye lashes.....

First, colors and patterns I love!

It started with one.....

(Oh, here's where I craft!)

I added some more.....

and more.....

even more.....

now I'm just getting out of control!

EYES! (lashes....)

sew, sew, sew

Oooooooooo.....it's almost alive!

I love her!





I'll be adding her to my etsy shop on monday (even though I don't want to let her go!)  along with some other treasures!
Have a happy weekend, do something you love!! 

Happy Monday!

Today is a day of making, posting and blogging. But as a special treat I would like to share some pictures that make me happy! Friday we went down to the city (NY) to see the Martha Stewart Show. She's pretty in person, has an odd sense of fashion, and wasn't AS snooty as I thought she'd be! Haha! The show we went to was primarily about yoga, so we didn't bring any great freebies home, but some craft supplies would have been nice!!

I didn't take my camera down because my bag already weighed 35 pounds and fiddling with a camera in the midst of a bustling manhattan day is not so appealing to me. So here are some pictures of the TREASURES I brought home! :) 

A trip to Billy's!
http://www.billysbakerynyc.com/

 2 Red Velvet, 1 Chocolate/Vanilla, 1 Vanilla/Chocolate...

Was there ever a more beautiful picture!! ??

Finally! A trip to MOOD!
http://www.moodfabrics.com/

Oh, what to make?!

AND FINALLY! My sneak peak has been posted, the Dorothy Clutch! 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/66131885/dorothy-clutch

And meet her sister, Alice! 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/66133482/alice-clutch