To 'etsy' or not to 'etsy'?

I like to make things, plain and simple. I have a room full of all sorts of crafting supplies. For the most part, the supplies are somewhat organized. But at any given time, I am working on multiple projects. Knitting, sewing, crocheting, hand stitching, mod podge, quilting, baking, canning jam. This can lead to many unfinished projects.

In fact, to add to my pile of projects, this coming up Friday (you know the one, the day after Thanksgiving when crazy people get up early to try to find crazy deals!), you will find me at my local JoAnn's to purchase flannel for $1.49/yard. Yep, I will probably spend at least an hour or more in the store waiting to have yards of flannel cut so I can have a collection of material on hand to make flannel baby blankets for the multiple baby showers that usually occur during the upcoming year.

I have to say though, the finished pile of baby blankets and wash cloths I had on hand earlier this year was the start of my fundraising for our upcoming Compassion trip. Since the beginning of May, I have canned multiple jars of jam, made umpteen knitted dish cloths, sold almost 20 sets of baby blankets and wash cloths, and a good number of other homemade items. I have been able to sell all of these items on one of my Facebook pages. And it has been very successful!!

So I come to my question for this post: to 'etsy' or not to 'etsy'? Like I stated at the beginning of my post, I like to make things. After our trip, I would like to continue to make things and sell them. We really could use the extra income (our new medical rates are doubling, but don't get me started on that subject!). And I would like to donate part of the profit to Compassion.

Here is how you can help me out: answer two questions for me in the comments, I will enter your name in a drawing for one of these fabric pennant banners!

Question #1: Do you think I should start an etsy store?

Question #2: Have you ever purchased something from an etsy store?

Thank you so much! I will keep comments open for the drawing until midnight pacific time on Friday, November 29th.

Candy Corn Jar Candle Holder

A couple of days ago, my blogging friend, Kris, shared a Book Leaf Banner tutorial on her blog. It was just the inspiration I needed to put together a fun project using a couple of my favorite fall items.

Do you like candy corns? I sure do. And do you know if you pair them with peanuts for a snack, they taste like Payday bars? Yum! And candy corns are made from great fall colors!

Anyway, back to the project…

The materials needed for this project are pretty simple:

• half pint jars
• mod podge
• orange, yellow, and white tissue paper
• foam brush
• scissors

When I am working on a project like this, I like to use a sheet of wax paper to keep everything from sticking to my table.

First step, cut the tissue paper into strips. You really don’t need exact measurements for this, you just want to make sure all three strips will cover the jar.

Next, brush the whole outside of the jar with the mod podge.

Then wrap the white and yellow tissue paper around the outside of the jar on top of the mod podge. You can use two strips of white tissue paper if you don’t want the top of the jar to be too clear.

 

At this point, you will want to add more mod podge around the middle of the jar, then add the orange strip of tissue paper around the jar. Then carefully, cover the whole outside of the jar with more mod podge. Let the jar set to dry.

Once the outside of the jar is dry, add a tealight or votive candle to the jar and enjoy this cute fall decoration in your home!

Giveaway!!

Since I made two of these jars today, I would love to give one away to one of my lucky readers! To enter, leave a comment below. Want to earn extra entries? Pin, tweet, or share this post and you will receive extras entries! Please be sure to leave a comment below for each thing you do. (Open to U.S. residents only. Winner will be drawn next Friday, October 11th.)

Capture Your 365

A week worth of photos for you this week!

cropped

ISO 400, 50mm, f/2.8, 1/10 sec

Day 194 – Cropped: Each month, on the Capture Your 365 photo challenge, we are encouraged to take a self portrait. For this photo prompt, I put the self timer on and decided to take a picture of just my hands knitting a dish cloth.

old and new

ISO 400, 50mm, f/2.8, 1/25 sec

Day 195 – Old and New: School supplies are showing up in the stores. I picked up a few boxes of crayons. Believe me, they are not for us! We have a big plastic drawer full of old crayons. I will be saving these new boxes to take with us to Mexico.

I spy

ISO 400, 50mm, f/2.8, 1/8 sec

Day 196 – I Spy: My daughter has discovered Sherlock Holmes.

dry

ISO 400, 55mm, f/8.0, 1/50 sec

Day 197 – Dry: Things are usually pretty dry here in the California Central Valley during the summer. It is very rare for us to see any rain for months until the fall.

starts with s

ISO 800, 50mm, f/5.6, 1/13 sec

Day 198 – Starts with S: I couldn’t resist the strawberries at the farmer’s market. You know what that means…

a source of happiness

ISO 800, 48mm, f/5.6, 1/13 sec

Day 199 – A Source of Happiness: One more batch of strawberry jam! I hope to sell a few more jars, but we will be keeping some for all those PB&J sandwiches we like to eat.

two scoops

ISO 800, 50mm, f/5.6, 1/8 sec

Day 200 – Two Scoops: I just love ice cream, no matter what the season.

Question for you: What is your favorite thing to photograph in the summer?

Capture Your 365

Time to share a few of my Capture Your 365 photos from last week with you…

one flower

ISO 400, 50mm, f/3.5, 1/100 sec

Day 189 – One Flower: You know what this one flower means, fresh zucchini!

an ordinary moment

ISO 400, 50mm, f/3.5, 1/50 sec

Day 191 – An Ordinary Moment: This is my kitchen, meals are prepared here usually three times a day. It doesn’t always look this neat and organized, people do live here and we do make messes.

on the street

ISO 400, 50mm, f/4.5, 1/80 sec

Day 192 – On The Street: This is the street where we live. That is my son’s truck in the driveway of our home. It is a pretty quiet street and we are so thankful to live here!

stacks

ISO 400, 50mm, f/2.8, 1/10 sec

Day 193 – Stacks: Here is a stack of flannel baby blanket and wash cloth sets I have made recently. As you know, I have been making items and selling them to earn money for our Compassion trip to Mexico in January. See a set here you would like? Be sure to visit my Facebook page and see what else I have for sale!

Questions for you: What did you photograph this past week? What would you consider an ordinary moment in your home?