Weekend Sale in my etsy Shop !!

Do you need a gift for someone special? Come shop my sale this weekend and find the perfect present !! Everything is 10% off all weekend long. More details are available in my shop, so come on by and check it out !!

I have flower appliques, flower magnets, rose stems, 
flower arrangements, crochet flower patterns, and more ! Plus, I am always adding more flowers too, these flower magnets are fresh today ->>

Take a leisurely stroll through the flower shop this weekend, and get your selections for less.

Red Carpet for Etsian !!

I found out today that the lovely memorial pendant of his precious dog that Mickey Rourke wore to the Oscars was made by etsy craftsperson wickedworld !! I wrote a forum thread about it, and before long, etsy admin picked it up and ran a blog story. It was pretty exciting to see my name in their article !!

Here is the New York Post article that I believe Anderson Cooper was referring to.

Way to go wickedworld ! Check out her shop for more great items. What a great red carpet moment for her handmade pendant !! Congratulations !!

Kittens Like Crocheted Flowers Too !!

I couldn't resist showing you these cute critters !! Check out the flower on the kitten's collar. Where did that come from?? (me). This is Pinky, the Sock Kitten:

Uppitywomandesigns created these 

adorable sock animals.

Here is Blinky, the Child-Safe Sock Bunny:

Check out her shop and enjoy all the wonderful creations !!

Have You Had Any Chlorophyll Today?

Yummy ! It is still a few months before seeds are sown for our summer garden, so instead, the window sill is hosting this lovely batch of wheatgrass. It looks so bright, and is said to provide amino acids, minerals, vitamins, enzymes, and chlorophyll to whomever consumes it.

Personally I've never tasted wheatgrass juice, but when we lived in Boulder, Colorado, one of our favorite restaurants used to serve it. My husband would order a shot glass-sized serving now and again. He said it was pretty potent tasting, and usually followed the shot with some water. I will find out soon enough how it tastes, as we are becoming wheatgrass farmers at home. It will be fun to see how this experiment turns out.

I did some reading, and it turns out the man who popularized wheatgrass first made it to help ailing chickens. Maybe we'll have to plant some near our chicken coop too! The man was Charles Schnabel, and his experiments were done in the 1930s. The health benefits apparently have not been verified by scientists, but many believe that consuming wheatgrass tablets or fresh squeezed juice, can improve digestion, prevent or cure diabetes/heart disease, plus provides general well-being. 

The known health benefits of eating green leafy plants only adds to the theory that wheatgrass will be a good nutritional addition for both us and our chickens !!

Blogging Tips: Contests

Lately it seems like everyone is doing contests on their blogs. This got me wondering if I should try doing one, and what I would need to know to set one up. Researching this topic was pretty easy, and took me to some great blogs I had never seen before.

I searched for information two ways, on Google and on etsy. The results in Google were not as specific as I wanted, and included instructional tools that cost money. Moving over to etsy, I did a community forum search for "blog contests" and got almost 300 results. All I had to do next was dive in and read what people were posting about.

The forum titles included "how to" and "promotional" posts. The "how to" ones I read were not very helpful because they posed the usual "how to I get people to look" questions. Instead, peeking at actual contests gave me more interesting results. I found contests where readers could vote on favorite items, write in stories, or guess answers to questions. There was a lot of contest variety !!

Contests could have rules, so I was interested to find out how bloggers handled this. Some didn't list any rules at all for their contests, while others had very specific ones like limiting participation to US only, or only accepting one entry per person. I saw contests that asked voters to enter only if they were over 18 years old. This contest setup was getting more involved !!

Finding a way to contact contest winners could be challenging, I noticed, after seeing how other bloggers tried to solve the issue. Wouldn't it be terrible to pick a winner then not be able to reach them? Or to help the scummy spammers in the world by having nice people publicly post their email addresses only to be targeted with spam? Contests really need careful setup !!

On the surface the concept of a contest sounds like a fun and friendly way to meet people while marketing your blog or online shop. However, my research taught me that if I decide to do one, I should do a bit of planning so that everyone has a great time.

Share your comments about contests you have enjoyed, and what made them fun !

Hooker Romance - Etsy Hooker's Creative Challenge

It's the season of romance, love and friendship and the perfect time for the Etsy Hooker Team's Creative Challenge. I have entered this contest, and my red rose arrangement is getting some attention, which I love !! Click here to review the entries ~CONTEST~

Voting is easy on this blog page. It runs from February 16 to February 23rd. Everyone can vote, so come on by and have some fun looking around.

Foggy

I woke up this morning to a white world, namely fog. It got me thinking about weather, and why fog happens. As usual, I went to my favorite source of information, the wikipedia pages on the internet.

Clouds that come in contact with the ground are called fog. Usually the humidity levels are high, like ours is today at 93%. It looks pretty, but can be hazardous since it reduces visibility. I have to go out today, so hopefully the fog will be gone once the sun warms the air. 

Some of the foggiest places on earth include Point Reyes, California, Argentina, Newfoundland, and Labrador. Low valleys get a lot of fog too. As I make my way to town I may hit patches of fog in the low parts of the geography, but hopefully not too much will be left by late morning.

I hope it is sunny and clear where you are today !

Living Off Grid

There are lots of ways to be greener in the world today. Simply changing light bulbs to fluorescents is one easy way. If you wondered about going further, here is a list of what we do at our 'off grid' farm. 

• Electricity: Solar panels and a wind turbine generate all our electricity. It is stored in batteries which hold enough for a few days. If it gets cloudy or the wind is calm for very long, we have electric and propane driven generators to supplement the supply.
• Water: Our well is 450 feet deep. It runs with an efficient pump that gets electricity from our power system.
• Sewer: We have a septic system.
• Fuel: We have a propane tank for gas stove cooking, and the water heater.
• Heat: The water heater makes domestic hot water, and also heats water that pumps under the floor for radiant floor heat. It uses electricity, and some propane to light.
• Trash: We compost a lot, and also recycle all we can in our area. What is left gets bagged up and hauled to the dump a few times a year.
• Building: Our house is small, about 900 square feet for two people. We only heat the main floor. It is built with a lot of thermal mass, including a concrete slab base and very thick walls, to moderate temperatures. We don't have air conditioning, and only during the hottest months do we need to use a ceiling fan upstairs. The house also has lots of windows on the south side to get more sunlight in the winter months.
• Phone/Internet: Cell phones work great in most areas; we had to change companies to get better coverage here, but now we do fine. The internet comes by broadband; we have a dish that picks it quite well. 

In addition to these aspects of the farm, we strive to provide for ourselves by having chickens for their eggs, and a large garden for food. By freezing and storing what we grow, grocery bills are lower than when we lived in town. Plus it is so satisfying to eat what you have labored for.

These choices have changed our lives, for the better. Now, we hear the wind blowing and know nature is giving something we need, and sunny days take on a whole new meaning. 

Get Free Stuff !!

I'm labeling this post 'alternative energy' because part of living greener is trying to re-use things. Today we took advantage of this idea when some free home insulation came along.

Did you know that craigslist has a 'free' section?  Wouldn't it be great to get something for free, and have it be useful? Today I checked in my area, Fort Collins Colorado, and found someone offering free insulation rolls. My husband is working on insulating my studio building, so the timing was perfect. 

Give it a try! Bookmark the 'free' section for your state and area, then just check back to discover great finds. I saw a piano not too long ago - for free !!

Yellow Treasury on Etsy

I love yellow ! My roses got a great position in this lovely yellow treasury recently. Check it out ! Isn't that bull dog adorable??

Groundhog Day

So today is groundhog day ! Did you see a picture of Punxsutawney Phil on the news? What an interesting creature ! According to groundhog.org he is the same one who has been telling this tale for the last 120 years ! He drinks an "elixir of life" and that gives him longevity. 

He isn't the most handsome creature I've ever seen ! But who would be, at that age ?

Here is Colorado we have a much cuter creature, the Black Tailed Prairie Dog. These guys are amusing to watch, often standing on their hind legs to look around, or racing between burrows to visit each other. On a sunny day there will be lots of happy little rodents going about their business. For those of us who have worked in cubicles, it is called 'prairie dogging' when everyone pops up to have a conversation.

They can cause problems though. One issue is that they can be carriers of bubonic plague. Another is that their burrows damage vegetation. Our land is in native grasses, which if damaged by burrows, will increase erosion and clear soil for weeds to take hold on. 

So what was the prediction today?  

------------>     Phil says "Six More Weeks of Winter!"