Monday Makers: CraftsWithHeart

Tweet Hello everyone,
Its Monday - time for another feature! This week I had a chance to talk to the lovely Diane of CraftsWithHeart who shares some behind the scenes info with us! If you read all the way to the end, there's a little surprise waiting for you!



Vee: Hello there! Its great that you found the time for this interview! Can you tell me a bit about you?
 My Etsy shop is CraftsWithHeart which is filled with top-quality handmade fashions for Waldorf dolls in natural fabrics. I was featured in several Gymbofriends Treasury lists in 2010.
My Facebook site is Craftswithheart Dressler.
I have been sewing doll clothes for well over 20 years. I've progressed from Barbie, to Cabbage Patch, American Girl and Bitty Baby, to my current favorite love, the Waldorf dolls! I was encouraged to start sewing for these precious dolls by a terrific customer with four little girls after they gave up their Bitty Baby dolls in favor of Waldorfs. It was great advice!



This is great - where can I find your beautiful work?
My etsy shop is here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/CraftsWithHeart
And here is my facebook page: Craftswithheart Dressler



What does your day look like?
I have not held a day job since I left my administrative assistant position 24 years ago when we had our first son. We then had another son and I have always been a stay-at-home mom with sewing as my past time, passion and passport to the world of little girls. Both of our sons are engaged to be married this year, so maybe I'll be blessed with a granddaughter some day.
My days start late, i.e., I really don't do mornings; and end late, often 2 or 3 a.m. After getting up, I go out for a little air and some lunch, run a few errands, and then it's sewing the rest of the day and evening. This holds pretty true for all seven days of the week.


Do you have any Tips that you want to share with other artists?
My tips would be to enjoy what you are doing and enjoy the interaction with your customers. Stay current in your area of expertise. A Facebook page for your business and activity on Facebook pages related to your area are probably the best ways to be “found”. Don't get discouraged. It's amazing what even one sale can do for your enthusiasm. Photography is my weakness, and I hope to improve there. It really is as important as we always hear from the well-schooled Etsians.


Do you want to offer a discount for our lovely readers?
I'd like to offer a 25% discount for the month of February for any order generated from this blog. The buyer should indicate "Veelana" when they purchase and WAIT for the discounted invoice I'll send to their email address.


Thank you so much for taking the time to do this! I really like doing these features - if you, or someone you know should be a Monday Maker on this blog, contact me! I would love to talk to you!

Vee

Sunday Scrapbook: Moments in time I want to preserve: Disney world 2010, part 2

Tweet Hello there,
here is the second part of our vacation, where we moved to our Disney hotel and the total Disney immersion begins...
You can go back and read the first part here Sunday Scrapbook: Moments in time I want to preserve: Disney world 2010 part 1

Nov. 27th: Jedi training

click to view day six album

after a last breakfast at our old hotel very early in the morning, we went to the POP century hotel to get our "key to the world" cards. We got a room all the way in the back of the 80s building, which is a good 10 minutes walk from the entrance, food court and bus station. And we really didn't want to walk that much with tired children in the evening...
Not that I mind walking - we did a lot of walking! We just didn't want to do this on top of everything. The hotel staff was very nice  about it and promised us a better room the next day, when the thanksgiving crowd left - and they would even take care of our luggage.
So, after checking in and taking our key cards we used the shuttle bus to the Hollywood Studios. We had originally planned to just walk around and take in the sights, since this was going to be a day with a high crowd level. We really didn't expect it, but there were still spots available in the Jedi training academy! Of course Dorian wanted to go. we got a spot for later that morning and went on to do some other things that weren't too crowded. The kids loved the clubhouse Disney show and we spent our first dining credit on a sandwich, chips, muffin and bottled water deal which kept us fed for the next part of the day. We realized that eating all the food we'd get would be a big challenge...

Dorian got very intense about the Jedi training. He got scared at first ("mom, I don't want to, I don't think I can beat Darth Vader") and then he had to go to the bathroom (again!) because he got so excited - and he did so well! He fought Darth Maul and actually poked him in the foot...

We had planned to go back to the hotel for a late nap, but since the kids were still really happy, we decided against it and instead watched the BlockPartyBash parade (kind of an idealized love parade), did the lights and sounds movie tour, saw Kermit and Miss Piggy in 3D and stayed long enough to watch the Osborne Family Lights dance. I was absolutely overwhelmed! There was even fake snow - at a temperature of 25°C...

Needless to say that we fell asleep as soon as we hit our pillows.

click to view day seven album

Nov. 28th: M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E
We actually managed to be in front of the Magic Kingdom for the opening ceremony - we saw Mickey and his friends  arrive with the Train, all the dancing and the kids loved it! (We did, too :-)) While I enjoyed the rides Dorian is still too short for (most of them, actually - he's just short of the 40" that are necessary) and got wet on Splash mountain, Chris went to the country bear jamboree with the kids. They started their pin trading adventure and Dorian initiated his first English conversation with a staff member  ("where is woody? Where is Jesse?") we finally got to meet some characters (Mary Poppins was really good - She even had a British accent!) and went back to the hotel in the late afternoon - just in time to test the swimming pool before bedtime.

We made a big mistake that day - we buckled when the kids wanted to get a lollipop. We never buy them stuff like that - but since we were on vacation and it was included in the meal plan we figured it would probably be OK. NO. They ended up fighting over that  fragging thing, Lilith ate about a third of it by chewing it off, she put the lolly in my hair whenever she sat on my shoulders and drizzled red food coloring, sugar and spit on herself and me. And she wasn't allowed to hug winnie the poo. Well, she could have hugged him, but she would have needed to give the sugary treat to someone else (that thing simply wasn't allowed anywhere near a characters clothing) and she was not willing to do that.
I had to wash about an inch of sugar from my hair after that...

Interlude: A word about dining credits
since we went to WDW during the off season, we got a nice deal at the hotel - they gave us the quick service dining plan for free! We had no idea if this would be a lot of food or very little, but we found out as soon as we bought the first meal that it would be near impossible to eat all of it. The quick service dining plan entitled us to two meals (main course, drink and dessert) and two snacks per person over the age of three.   So we had to eat six meal credits and six snacks every day. We managed about half of that. (but we brought our own bottled water)


Nov. 29th: A day off

click to view day eight album

Chris got up really early to hit the parks alone - Dorian had a pretty bad cough and I wanted us to take a day off. So I stayed at the hotel, walking around, checking out the shop and generally lazing around. The kids loved the change of pace and Chris got to go on all the wild rides - he did three of the four parks in one day.

Once the kids where asleep, we switched places. My husband stayed with the kids and I want to the magic Kingdom. So much fun! I did space mountain and Buzz lightyear and I had dinner without anyone stealing my fries! The veggie burger in tomorrowland is excellent! Can you tell that I haven't had a night out in a while?

Click to view day nine album

Nov. 30th: Epcot
I didn't think that Epcot had that much to offer for little kids , but I didn't account for the Innovations! exhibits. The kids loved it there - and I got the chance to do Soarin', test track and Mission Space while Chris waited in line to meet Mickey, Donald, Pluto, Goofy and Minnie. We did the little boat tour together and saw some amazing hydroponic plants and a couple of hidden Mickeys. I got the kids back just in time for dinner - and we all watched "glee" cuddling in our hotel bed.
The kids were doing so well so far, we really didn't want to push them too hard.  It was good to have so much time - we saw WDW at our own pace and we had no pressure. Resting days where so important - and going home early wasn't a problem either.


Thank you so much for coming here! The next part will be up next sunday - hopefully :-)
Vee

Silent saturday

Tweet

Top Ten Tuesday

Tweet Hello There,
as most people who know me in RL know, I am a regular bookworm. When I was 15 I went through 8-10 Books per week. I started reading english books to slow down a bit, but that doesn't work anymore...
Having kids takes care of that, though - and running an online store, too :-) Anyway, here are 10 books I really recommend - in no particular order:

• Dave Duncan: A man of his word (a very awesome series about a stableboy who does everything in his power to save his queen - because he promised, with an equaly awesome prequel series)
• George R.R. Martin: A game of thrones (This is the most stunning and complex piece of historic fantasy I've ever read. It is incredible!)
• Patrick Rothfuss: The Kingkiller Chronicles (So far, only the first part is out, but the second part is on its way)
• J.R.R. Tolkien: Lord of the Rings (Do I really need a Reason?)
• Susan Cooper: The Dark Is Rising sequence (I think this was one of the first fantasy books I've ever read - and its a sweet not quite young adult series of five novels about children in our world who have to discover old treasures to fight off the dark)
• Robert A. Heinlein: Stranger in a strange world (I would actually recommend reading all of his work, but thats my favourite!)
•  Joe Haldeman: The long Habit of living
• Terry Pratchett (with Neil Gaiman): Good Omens (I highly recommend all of Pratchetts discworld novels, too, but this one is one of the most hillarious books I know)
• Orson Scott Card: Speaker of the Dead (this is actually a sequel to Enders Game, but I preferred it - not as many tortured children. I don't subscribe to Cards religious, social and political views, but most of his books are awesome anyway)
• Frank Herbert: Dune (Its a classic. 'Nuff said)

Monday Makers: QuietudeQuilts

 Time for another feature! Today Kelsey from QuietudeQuilts talks about her work andtells us some behind the scenes stories!
Tweet


QuietudeQuilts

Vee: Hello there! Its great that you found the time for this interview! Can you tell me a bit about you?
My husband Jonathan makes all the beautiful doll furniture for Quietude Quilts, and I (Kelsey) create all the doll quilts and other sewn items. We both work full time Boston, Jonathan is a structural engineer, and I teach and work at a college, and sewing and woodworking are favorite hobbies. After we got married two years ago and I first had a living room that was all my own and not shared with roommates, I started quilting right away. The first year I made several large quilts for gifts for family members and friends, and last January we started Quietude Quilts, which developed into primarily a doll bedding accessory shop within our first few months.

Your Doll Quilts are very cool, how did you get into that?
I was always drawn to quilts while growing up because both of my grandmothers were quilters, and one even did all her patchwork by hand. I machine piece and quilt, but do enjoy the handwork of stitching the binding edges of my quilts. I made a couple doll quilts for the fun of finishing a smaller project, then discovered how much moms and their daughters (and sons!) love cute bedding for their dolls. My husband’s aunt first commissioned him to make a doll bed for his cousin, and we’ve made and mailed hundreds of doll beds since, all across the United States and Canada, and even as far as Hong Kong. We’ve also really enjoyed entering the market of newborn photography props and love the beautiful photos we receive back from professional photographers (some of which can be seen on our facebook page).



This is great - where can I find your beautiful work?
here is our etsy shop: www.QuietudeQuilts.etsy.com
you can follow us on facebook: www.facebook.com/QuietudeQuilts

What does your day look like?
We both work full time, so our craft time is in the evenings and weekends. After work I complete and package anything ordered the previous day, then work on new doll bedding sets and with new fabric. I quilt many doll quilts at once in a very full day every few weeks, so I’m daily I’m usually making ruffle pillow shams, throw pillows, and pillow inserts to accompany the quilts, hand binding doll quilts, or designing new bedding accessories. We accept custom orders as well which often inspire new items for our shop. Jonathan spends a few hours several times a week crafting doll beds and making custom photographer prop beds. On Thursdays we package up each week’s doll beds for mailing on Fridays. I love sewing every day and get restless if I don’t have a chance to!


Do you have any tips for other artisans/crafters?
We’ve learned so much from our customers, so be sure to really pay attention to what your target customers like and are looking for. We didn’t anticipate or plan that Quietude Quilts would become a doll shop but really followed our customers and our talents and capabilities, and are so happily surprised with the results and love the many friends we’ve made in our first year. Thank you so much, everyone, for your support!


Do you want to offer a promo code/give away something to the blog readers?
Your readers can enjoy coupon code VEELANA0211 for 10% off their first purchase of quilts or bedding at www.QuietudeQuilts.etsy.com. Beds are excluded and the coupon expires 2/28/11. Thank you!


Thank you so much for taking the time to answer all these questions! If you need a doll to sleep under those fantastic quilts, take a look at my store, I'm sure you'll find something!

Sunday Scrapbook: Moments in time I want to preserve

Tweet Hello there,
you might have read that w all went to Disney world for our vacation late November/early December. I have promised to post pictures for a while now - here is part I with a recap of the first part of our vacation.


Nov. 22nd: Travel day
the kids were absolutely awesome - we had about 20 hours of air travel/transfers and we Lilith whined for about 20min when she was tired and couldn't go to sleep. That was IT! I brought a bunch of toys and coloring books and whatnot, but it wasn't necessary - the airline (I highly recommend Lufthansa if you travel with kids!) provided us with tons of things to do for the kids, they brought us candy and the kids could watch cartoons. Still - I was really impressed!

Click to wiew day two album

Nov, 23rd: Jet Lag
We kept the kids up in the evening to get them to sleep a bit longer and it somewhat worked - Lilith woke up at 4 am. which is pretty good considering that this would be ten o' clock for her in our own timezone. I got up with her and we ended up watching cartoons. Dorian joined us a couple of hours later - we let Chris sleep in a little. We all felt pretty tired that day, so we ended up just doing some grocery shopping and hanging out at the hotel pool.
We tried to find a nice, regular Mall to get some shopping done, but the Mall we ended up in was by far too expensive for our taste. The second mall we found made a dumpster look organized and friendly, so we didn't really shop there either.
The biggest surprise of the day was the breakfast. Our kids are fairly picky when it comes to food - we didn't really expect them to eat a lot on the first couple of days until they got really hungry. But they ate EVERYTHING that was available there. Eggs, sausage, waffles, cereal - Dorian even drank OJ, something he never does at home! I think we where almost able to roll them to our room!

Nov 24th: Downtown Disney

Click to view day three album

We decided to get our Disney tickets today, so we went to Downtown Disney. Dorian was in a pretty bad mood - until we got to the world of Disney store. After browsing through a room full of Star Wars and Toy Story Merchandise for over two hours (Chris got the tickets in the meantime), he was totally fine and in the mood for some adventures (of course, he didn't really want to leave the store...). We played at the LEGO shop for a while and ended up going to Disney Quest. We had fun there, but weren't too excited about coming back and wanted to leave fairly early. Luckily a cast member showed us the way to the fourth floor that we had missed before for some reason. And the fourth floor is where they have the Kids arcade... Dorian and Lilith would have stayed there for hours...

Click to view day four album

Nov. 25th: Thanksgiving
Apparently going swimming isn't a thanksgiving tradition - we had Blizzard Beach almost to ourselves when we went there. The  Kids loved going on the kiddie slides and Dorian even went on one for grown ups, too - we had a great time! A lot of people told us that our kids would still be too small to enjoy WDW - But I have to say that there's a lot of stuff that you simply don't see or do without little kids. The Kiddie pool at Blizzard Beach is absolutely amazing!

We went to Whole Foods to get some Turkey&Stuffing and were surprised that they closed at 3pm - and we arrived at 2:45, just in time to get what was left over. We had dinner back at the hotel and watched football - but my husband claimed that my turkey tasted better :-)

Nov. 26th: Black Friday

click to view day five album

We had heard about Black Friday back home and we were glad that we'd have a chance to experience it close up. Chris got up sometime before 6am - but he was way too late for the great offers! We went to the Florida Mall, that we finally found and admired the sleeping people all around that had been shopping for hours already. We took advantage of some great offers (50% off at baby gap, 20% off at the Disney store) bought tons of things and went back to Bubbalous Bodacious Barbecue. This is one of those places where the iced tea is the only vegetarian choice...

I'll be back with more vacation fun next Sunday!
Vee

Silent saturday

Tweet

Etsy changed its policy - is that a good thing?

The change in etsys policy has launched a big debate on the blogpost it was released with. It seams to be a "I don't want to be offended" vs. "Artistic Freedom" discussion - and since I love to add my five cent to pretty much everything, I thought I might as well do it here on my blog :-)

Tweet Disclaimer:
I love the internet. I am a complete sucker for freedom of expression and speach and I have a fairly accepting sense of humor, so please keep this in mind while reading. I am not here to offend anyone, I just cant keep my mouth from running away with me :-)

Let's all be friends!

So, after a lot of bad publicity etsy got for having someone sell "hateful and demeaning" cards, it was decided that the policy needed to be changed - especially the section with the prohibited items. To me, it is fairly clear that etsy had to do something to keep a lot of people from leaving or boykoting etsy, and they have every right to do so. Its a privately owned company, if they only want to allow art made by lefthanded people, they can change their policy so everything has to be made with the left hand - it has nothing to do with constitutional rights AT ALL.
They didn't do that. Here is a quote from the original article:

For those of you who don't want to read the full text of the policies, I'll summarize the big changes. We no longer allow items or listings that promote, support or glorify hatred toward or otherwise demean people based upon race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, disability, or sexual orientation; including items or content that promote organizations with such views.

We also looked at our policies around violence and illegal activity and we have revised those, too. The revised policy now prohibits items or listings that promote or support illegal activity or instruct others to engage in illegal activity and items or listings that promote, support or glorify acts of violence or harm towards self or others.

Sounds good, right? I mean, nobody wants to be bombarded with hateful craft when they open up their browser. And Kids could see that stuff, too! So lets just remove everything that is demeaning and we're all set, aren't we awesome? Etsy should be a place where people feel welcome, a place to sell nice handmade things...

But...

I picked a non-etsy seller on purpose

it's not that easy. It never is. The wording of this section is so vague that it can mean pretty much anything. And the slope they are getting on here is oh so slippery!
I looked at the shop that apparently started it all. You can buy weird greeting cards there that congratulate people to all kind of awkward situations - rape, death, AIDS, Down Syndrom and yes, they are pretty bad taste in my opinion. I have to admit that I actually laughed at some of them - A card that has two white guys shaking hands that reads "Congratulations, you're white" is hillarious. Its social criticism at its best and in no way racist - unless you plan to be offended anyway.

 My main problem is that I have no clue where this ends. Can bacon be labled as offensive and demeaning to muslims? There is a website (not an etsy shop - I didn't want to use something that could be tagged as offensive...) that sells absolutely hillarious "Feet for Jesus-fish" - you can stick them to other peoples cars. This is absolutely offensive to creationists - no question about it! But it's still funny...

I have no idea how this will play out - the TOU as they were weren't enforced much. Will it be any different now? I don't think so. I think this is a way for etsy to be able to ban any listings that give them bad press - and even if I don't like that, it simply had to be done. So, I don't like the changes that where made, but etsy had every right to do it and it was probably a necessary business-wise

Wow - I forgot how long winded I get if you let me! Thanks for sticking with me to the end of this rather long post!

Vee

Top Ten Tuesday

Tweet I will share a top ten list on tuesdays - this week, I thought it would be fun to feature the top ten girls names in my country, Austria.

1. Lena 
2. Leonie 
3. Sarah
4. Anna
5. Julia
6. Sabrina
7. Melanie
8. Sophie 
9. Laura 
10. Magdalena

My first name is still vary high on the list and it has been in there for about 25 years A quarter of a century! Sarah was really out of fashion when my mom named me, I had a fairly unique name.
What about you? Are there any names on the list that you love/hate? Is your name on the top ten list?

Monday Makers: Looking for people to feature!

Tweet
Hello there,
in the past I have done a couple of features for some etsy teammates. I loved doing them and would like to do this as a regular thing. Now I'm looking for some people to feature on my Monday Makers Feature.

Who can get featured? 

• Almost anyone. 
• I want to focus on Children right now, so toymakers, dressmakers and all childrelated crafters/bloggers are on the top on my list
• This blog is family friendly, so nothing too adult - but if you're selling or trying so sell something, you could be here.
• Even if you don't sell anything - do you have a blog and something to say? 
• Are you a hobby crafter, a great scrapbooker - do you have a cause you're promoting? 

Just let me know about it in a comment on this post, give me an e-mail adress that I can use to contact you and I'll get back to you. I reserve the right not to feature you if your product is in direct competition to mine and a lot cheaper - I don't mind featuring your waldorf dolls if they are in the same price range as mine.

Hope to hear from you!
Vee

Scary! Someone klimbed into my mothers apartment!

Tweet My mom had a huge scare this morning! She just called me tonight - no idea why she didn't call earlier...
My mom lives in an old peoples home even though she still works - she said she wanted to move there when it's still her decicion.
She got up at 6am this morning because she couldn't sleep anymore, so she opened her bedroom window to let in some fresh air and went into the living room to play on her computer.
When she got tired again an hour or so later and she wanted to go back to bed - but she noticed something in the corner of her bedroom that wasn't supposed to be there - and then she noticed that it was a human that was hiding! In her fracking Bedroom! She went back to her livingroom, pressed her emergency button and started shrieking.

The guy got really scared, looked into her livingroom, saw my mom there and ran off - back the way he came, through the window. My mom ran off and locked the door - she wanted a nice, solid door between herself and that guy.
The police isn't even investigating - nothing was taken and the guy vanished - he only left a footprint on the windowsil...

As far as I can tell over the phone, my mom seems to be doing all right - she's now trying toget a second floor appartment in the same building.

send some nice thoughts her way, please? If you leave a comment here, I will send them to her. Her name is Barbara.
Vee

Sunday Scrapbook: Moments in time I want to preserve

Every sunday I will try to talk about those little family moments, traditions or stories that I want to remember - just like a scrapbook! This week I looked out of the window and noticed that there's something I really miss...

Snow

Tweet  Hello there,
We had the weirdest weather this winter so far. It got really cold at the end of november and we had tons of snow in december - right up until the 23rd  when it got warm, started raining and on christmas eve, nothing was left but a couple of grey heaps of slush and a lot of little pebbles.

And now... Its the middle of january and we had 15°C yesterday. As much as I like being able to go out in a sweater instead of a coat, this also means I don't get to do or see any of this:

Catch snowflakes with my tounge and tell my kids to try to do the same
I love the taste of snow! I know there shouldn't be any taste to snow - after all, it's just water! - but there totally is! Same with icicles: If you are lucky enough to find a place where clean icicles form (I would definately not recommend eating the stuff that grows on the bottom of you car... *Uagh*), just lick an icicle to get taken back to your childhood...

Make snowangels
I don't know why I always do that - every time I make a snow angel, my jacket, sweater and shirt ride up far enough to to let a strip of naked skin hit the snow! It is soooo cold! But I still enjoy making them - and taking snow out of the back of your pants isn't all that bad if you know you'll be home soon and you have a dry pair of pants to look forward to!

See Vienna all clean and pretty
I know that most people hate snow in the city because of the way it looks after a couple of days, all grey and slushy - but I love the way the city looks when the snow is really fresh and white.

Make fake animal footprints in the snow with my son
so far I can fake birdprints with a twig, dog prints with my fingers, human baby footprints with my fist and traktor tracks with my feet. Do you have any more ideas?

Make a miniture snowman on our balcony
I love making an army of mini snowmen on our balcony - we give them colorful scarves and hats and they get spoons and forks - and when my son and husband make them, little painted sticks as lightsabers to fight each other...

Go tobbogganing
Living in Austria and not being able to downhill ski is something very, bery rare and almost frowned upon - I think it counts as a bit of a disability... Well, I don't ski. I've never learned it (not growing up in Austria may have played its part in that). My husband didn't go skiing in a very long time. But we love tobbogganing! And pulling the kids on their sleigh! Last year, my husband got to take Dorian on their Ski trip from work - and they took the sleigh and went down one of the coolestsledding hills I know - it takes about twenty minutes to go all the way down and you get to go up on the skilift, too!


Come home from playing in the snow
When we are all frozen and wet,we go home to a warm bath and a hot cup of cocoa - and then we all huddle together on the couch. Sometimes we watch a movie, sometimes we read books - that just depends on our mood.

What do you like or dislike about snow? Is there ritual for coming home in you family? I am going to try to make this blog more interactive this year - I would love to hear from you!

Silent saturday

What will YOU do to increase the peace? A Question and a give-away...

Tweet
Hey everyone,
I have a question for you all. Dreaming Monet has posted a heart breaking/heart warming post today on her Blog. She challenges us to do a little thing to increase the peace on this planet - in your country, your city or maybe even just in your family. She also has a 50$ give away to her store :-)

So, here is what I want to do:
I want to make a quilt for a blind person. I have this Idea that I could use fabrics with different textures instead of colours to make it a thing of beauty.
I want to use knitted squares, fuzzy fabric, raicoat fabric, organza, fake fur - all the weird and fantastic stuff I  love to buy and never really have any use for.
I want someone else to enjoy it - but I don't know many blind people...
And this is where I need YOUR help - do you know someone who would enjoy a quilt like that?
There are two things that I ask of you, though - leave a comment at this post and tell me what you will do to increase the peace and friendship on this planet. The winner will also be asked to help with the shipping charges, if its at all possible for them.

So, read the original post,  think of something to do, post your comment and tell me about someone who deserves a quilt like that. The person does not have to be completely blind - if you can think of someone else who should have it, tell me so!

Vee

Ready for success in 2011!

Tweet  Happy (belated) new Year, everyone!
Here is a list of plans I have for this year:

Blog at least once a week
I will use 52 weeks of blogging as a starting point again, but I might not follow it completely. I love this book and most of the Blog prompts are absolutely fantastic, especiall if you have a bit of a writers block. But it was suggested that  I might want to re-brand this blog into more of a family than a design blog, so...
*deep breath*
honestly, I have no idea what I should do with this blog. I actually like the mix I have on it right now - I will start again with my feature friday and the picture for silent saturday will be back, too. Other than that? I currently am a bit clueless as to what to write...

Do a scrapped project 365
I did really well with this last year, thanks to the fantastic stuff at weeds and wildflowers and somewhat good the year before. I will try to do a double sided LO every week with 7 pictures - I don't care if every day has its own or not. I will continue to take a picture of my family (with me in it, too!) every month. I treasure the ones I have and really want more!

Sell some Dolls
I will have a finacially rough year - so I really need to get this business going! My plans include online advertising, regional marketing (I did quite well on a local christkindlmarket) and lots and lots of cross promoting.

What are YOUR big plans for 2011?