News Flash!

Drumroll please... I'm excited to announce my Etsy store is now open!  More items to be added later this week but I thought I would let you know.  Plus if I waited till I had time to list all my items it would never happen.  If you'd like to visit, here's a link.

If you're here for Giveaway Day please go to This Post.

Thanks!

Something Big

In my post about New Things I've done lately I purposely left one out.  Maybe because I hadn't done it yet, maybe because I still wasn't sure I would.  But now I'm ready to share...

I'm going to sell my crafts at a real, live craft show!

Yep, I'm a bit scared about it!  But really, what's the worst that can happen?  I sell nothing (though that seems highly unlikely, I'm sure I have a friend or two who would drop by and take pity on me) or I sell everything and am left with an empty table 2 hours into the show.  Neither are horrible situations to be in.  I've told myself to suck it up and take the plunge.


So why did I decide to do a craft show?  One of my goals this year was to re-open my Etsy shop.  Since I love crafting it seemed to make sense to sell a few things on the side and make a little money from my hobby.  Only I can't get really motivated to do the whole Etsy thing.  There are photos to take (and they better be good!), descriptions to write, postage to figure out, labels to create and all that time sitting in front of a screen listing your items.  And no deadline to do it by.  I'm the kind of person who really needs a deadline to get motivated for, otherwise it's a lot of "some day" going on.  So a craft show sounded like a good idea: make a bunch of stuff by a certain date and spend time setting up and managing the table rather then in front of the computer & camera.  Yep, sounds like a good idea in theory, stay tuned to hear how the reality turns out!

The show is April 30 so between now and then I'd better kick my crafting into high gear so I have enough stock to fill my 8 x 10 space. 

If you happen to be in the area I'd love for you to come by and say hi!  Here's the flyer with show details:

Last Few Weeks

These last few weeks have just flown by!  Just after my last post I spent the weekend in Winnipeg.  Sadly, this was for my grandfather's funeral but overall it was a great weekend (is it weird to say that?).  I got to reconnect with cousins, aunts & uncles I haven't seen in a few years and for the first time all 11 grandchildren were together!  Six of the eleven set up camp in the basement which actually saw a fair bit of sleep due to late nights spent talking and the nine year old who we all realized needed to sleep.

During this trip I got to test out my handmade ziplock bag which went through security twice, no questions asked.  I guess it's a go!!

Back at home I've been working through a placement that is required for the Early Childhood Educator diploma I am working towards.  Basically it's doing my regular job (daycare teacher) at a different centre for no pay!  I guess not exactly my regular job as I have fewer responsibilities making my days at "work" less busy then usual.  The flip side is the placement involves a lot more paperwork so that is what I've been doing most evenings.

Or at least evenings when I'm not training for the Try-a-Tri I'm doing in June.  We had our first lake swim this Monday, the weather has been hot so it was nice to get in the water.  I did a fair bit of lake swimming (the cottage variety, not the racing variety) while I was growing up so being in the lake doesn't bother me the way it seems to bother others (murk, mud, no edge and all that).  I've also learned the techique involved in biking up a hill which is making me look at biking in a much friendlier way!  (For anyone as out of the loop as I was, it involves gearing down, several times, as you climb the hill.) 

It's been pretty quiet on the crafting front but in my few spare moments (while watching TV mainly) I have been cutting up old magazines and punching out circles like this:

To create recycled note cards which I plan to list in my shop.  When I get a few spare moments that is.  I seem to remember listing on Etsy taking much longer then I expected.  Anyways I have 12 sets plus some other paper goodies which are looking for new homes!

Deal of the Day

I've had a couple good Deals of the Day lately... free vanilla syrup at Starbucks (it was no longer part of their product line, therefore was not recognized in the computer system, therefore I couldn't be charged for it!) and labels rescued from the garbage by a kind employee of a local store.  Today I had a super surprise - I guess Find of the Day would be more appropriate - lots of Martha Stewart magazines in the basement!  Yes, they are mine, I just forgot I had so many (I was thinking 1 or 2 but there's probably a dozen).  Perfect for recycled envelopes & cards!  I'm thinking of putting some sets in my Etsy shop and sharing the loveliness!

Etsy!

I'm so excited - I just finished setting up my Etsy shop.  It's been in process for a long time... I started playing around with product possibilites in the spring!  A few weekends ago we had some sunshine and I got the pictures taken (now that the days are short there's no hope of taking good photos before or after work).  Tonight I had time to set up my shop and get some listings up.  More to come over the next couple days.  Also another tutorial on doll's clothes and new on the Christmas crafts I've been working on.

I almost forgot - if you want to have a look at my Etsy shop you can find it here:
http://lauraarual.etsy.com/

Giveaway Day Continues...

So I've just finished going through all the blogs listed on the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day list. Yes, it took me four days to get through it all! I'm following lots of new blogs and was amazed at the creativity and generosity of all those hosting a giveaway.

As well as reading giveaway blogs I've been reading all the lovely & thoughtful comments that have been left here. I got home from work on Wednesday to find 55 new messages in my inbox! At first I thought the computer was acting up but there really were 55 e-mails for me! I was so touched by all the kind things you had to say, I really appreciate them all. Now that I'm done scouring the giveaway list I'm planning to come visit you all at your blogs (if you have one) and see what you're up to. And for anyone interested in my Etsy-shop-to-be, if you'd like to be notified when it opens please leave me a message here or at my e-mail (laura11arual at hotmail dot com) and I'd be happy to send out a "Grand Opening" e-mail. Hmmm... Grand Opening seems to suggest special or sale - I think I'll have to develop that idea further!

Stay tuned tomorrow for the giveaway winner!

Etsy Buy!

I'm so excited! I got my first Etsy purchase in the mail today! I custom ordered a necklace from Littleput Books. The picture was taken in Tofino (west coast of Vancouver Island) during the summer of '06. I was there for a couple days and absolutely LOVED it! The scenery was amazing, food was great, loved the tide pools and I hope to go back some day.

It came in a nice little tin:



And I'm excited to wear this memory!



I also got a pack of papers (Japanese mostly with a little... Italian?) for creating with. I'm not sure what they will become but I'm excited to have these beautiful papers to use!

What’s in a name?

I’ve been wanting to start a blog for a few weeks now. What’s been holding me back? Finding a name! It proved to be rather difficult to find a name I felt represented something about me yet was original (ie. isn’t registered to someone else.) Years ago when I was setting up an e-mail address I used “arual” (Laura backwards) as I thought it was easy to remember yet a little different. Maybe not as easy to remember as I thought judging by the blank looks I got when I said my e-mail is “Laura backwards… A-R-U-A-L”. I think I got on the backwards thing from my dad - when I was growing up and my dad was on business trips his postcards would often arrive with all the words spelled backwards and my sister and I thought this was really neat. So I am arual (or, if that was taken, Lauraarual) in some places including my Etsy account. I knew when I was signing up I might want to have a store one day and read about how to pick your name carefully but I just wanted to get started saving favourites and buying things and couldn’t think of anything more creative but for my blog I was determined to come up with something better. I happened to see an ad for a line of Birkenstocks called “Betula” which reminded me of Betula Lake where my grandparents had a cottage. I spent many summer weeks there and belieive I inherited my love of crafting, baking, knitting and sewing from my grandma. Great I thought, I can be Betula something (Betula is taken of course). Then I thought I’d be “Betula*la” as Lala is a bit like Laura and actually I was called that by a little girl. Again, taken. So Betula`Loo it is, kinda fun, playful and unique. What do you think? I’d love to hear how you came up with your Blog/Etsy/Screen name!