To cook or Not to Cook

DANG !! I must get better at posting to this blog. A month since my last post uuuggghhhh!! Sorry to anyone out there reading this!!

Well yesterday I "took the day off" so to speak. I went to my recently laid off brother's house ( which also put me out of a job, since I usually babysit his three beautiful girls!!) well any way spent most of the day at his house which btw is just down the driveway!! I watched the cutest movie about the girl who cooked her way through Julia Child's cookbook. This is the cutest movie and reminded me of why I started blogging, to become famous !!! Haha just kidding. But as I watched I wondered could I ever do that, am I tooo lazy to accomplish something like that?? I do like to cook. However buying all those ingredients and having a husband who thinks Taco Bell is the best place EVER to eat, and having a two year old , I just don't know that I would have the stamina to blog and cook everyday!!

Speaking of cooking I have been cooking up some luscious goodness here lately to bathe in. Hoping to come up with a product line I can sell on Etsy or Artfire or Zibbet or all three or just online and all that that entails!! I don't want to go into great detail yet, but they involve essential oils. I used to "play" with essential oils back in my twenties , can't believe I'm old enough to say that now, in my mind I still feel 18!!

Anyway enjoying getting to know them again.

I realize this post has nothing to do about jewelry, and I am still creating jewelry, I'm just branching out in my endeavors!! Jewelry is a very hard hobby to sell solely online!! When I had my stuff in stores it sold very well, now it's hard to be seen in the wide wide web. I'm not going to stop creating, or trying to sell it, so if you like my jewelry don't worry it's not going anywhere!!!

Having said that, I'm thinking maybe I could cook my way through my recipe book for natural beauty products and blog about that. What do you think??

Life

Wow ! 21 days since I've updated!! We've been so busy around here, not all of it good things, but all of it very important!

I want to send out prayers for one very loved friend of the family who is dealing with the nasty "C" word : Cancer. This family and person has been a part of my life for a very long time, and we love them dearly. I grew up with their children and them and we have shared tons of great times.They have helped me and my husband through some rough times and we have learned a lot from them. They are a very special family and They need all the prayers we can give them.

I also want to send out prayers for my favorite Great Aunt who suffered a massive stroke and has a long recovery road ahead of her. She is not much older than my mother and has alwys been a wonderful part of my family. Growing up she was the coolest great Aunt anyone could have ever asked for, she still is very cool don't get me wrong, but her daughter and I were very close, and I spent as much time at their home as I did at my own. She has this amazing outlook on things and I've learned alot from her over the years. I love her so much and we all need her to recover from this stroke.

If you pray ~ please send up a prayer for these two very loved people and their families.

Also I have been working on items for a new shop I want to open on zibbet ~ I've already "opened" the shop I just haven't been able to fill it with items as of yet. I am working on this it's been a rough couple of weeks, and my creative time and mood has been very limited these past couple of weeks. In my zibbet shop there will be nothing over $25.00 these items will include jewelry, and eventually other things I wish to dabble in. Something that has been on my mind like crazy is bath & beauty products. My cousin that I mentioned above and I "opened up" our own little shop in my grandmother's basement where we had "made" lotions and perfumes by mixing up beauty products that my grandmother gave us to play with. I think one of our other great Aunts bought a couple of items, and maybe our moms and grandmother. So even as a young girl I always wanted to open shop and sell things. maybe bath products will be on the way soon. I've been looking at supplies and there are so many choices and things to think about. It's slightly overwhelming, but I'm definitely interested in starting!!

Also we have been busy planting seeds to hopefully plant in our container garden for the back deck. That was fun ~ just wish me luck on getting them to grow! I did not inherit my grandmother's green thumb, but I'm hoping I can pull this off!!

It's been a long and COLD winter and I am hoping the sunshine will bring us lots of good days ahead. I am more ready for Spring this year than I have ever been in my entire life!! Another giveaway is coming soon our facebook fan page is VERY close to 800 fans!! I've got to come up with something Springy to give away!!

Easter and Mother's Day is coming up quickly remember to check out our shops to see if you can find some gifts.

550 FANS GIVEAWAY

Well.....didn't think I would see this number for a long time!! However ~ thanks to a wonderful thing called "link love" I have hit 550 fans on my facebook page and surpassed it!! I see 1000 fans on the horizon, I thought this would be years away.

At first I was a little skeptical about doing this "link love" because it seemed okay to "FAN" people who are doing the same thing as you (with me it's JEWELRY) the Internet marketplace is flooded with jewelry makers/designers, and I thought "Why do I want to be their fan?" What if their prices are better than mine, what if people like their work better than mine, what if I'm showing my customers their jewelry, and they quit buying from me? Well, as I am going through linking up with all these wonderful artists/crafters/designers of many many different things as well as jewelry .....I find myself filtering through their pages and finding many more interesting pages, and I find myself buying from some of their FANS and even some of the pages in link love. I'm finding all kinds of neat artists/crafters/designers that I never would have known existed.....THEN it hits me if this is happening to me....then it must happen to them also. So now I GET LINK LOVE.... it's the exposure of your links and pages and shops, it's meeting other people doing the same thing you are....trying to make a business out of their hobby or craft or talent, helping each other out in this tough economy and the tough world of cyber selling. So if you are afraid of a little link love .....DON'T BE!! Embrace it ....everyday I try to spread some link love, and I'm getting it back just as I spread it!!

I'm thankful for all of the new FANS and all of the "LINK LOVE" being spread. To thank all my new fans .... I'm giving this bracelet away to help remind us SPRING is on the way, and to keep spreading the love.

Become my FAN on facebook to see how to win this bracelet.....tweet this too, because when we reach 800 FANS there will be another giveaway!! Find our facebook badge on this page to FAN US!!!

Keep spreading the love and I'll see you in the links ~~~~~~~

More Snow!!

More Snow !! Wow where was all this snow when I was working outside the home? The best thing about snow here in the south is getting an unexpected day off from work, because the roads are too bad to drive on!!

Well..... when you are home everyday, snow is just that... SNOW!! No free day off!! However I am still in this mode of "goof off " when it snow's!! I also have this overwhelming urge to EAT JUNK FOOD!! Luckily today I have no junk food in the house, because I haven't been to the grocery store for this week yet!! I could make some sausage and gravy, but the sausage is frozen and I'm not that motivated!!

I'm going to use today to catch up on some things that have desperately needed my attention....my 'studio" is in desperate need of some cleaning, my "filing" is two feet tall, my treadmill is covered in cloths, and I have nothing clean to wear, so I guess my snow day is taken care of. It's gonna be tough because I am in goof off mode!!

Maybe I'll take a break later and make some snow cream!!

Have a great day!! I'm off to make me some hot tea and get to work!!

I need to feature another Etsy artist , I have my eye on one, and I've tried her product, so I need to sit down and introduce you to her. Look for this early next week!!

Winter Block

Hi all ~ I have been in a winter block.....I can't seem to make any jewelry and I can't seem to update my blogs!! I guess all the things that come with winter have kept me busy enough!! So far me, my husband , and most of all my sweet little girl have been sick with the virus that's running rampant around here, bad thing is my nieces, brother, and sister-in-law, and my mom & dad have all had it and I think we have passed it around for a month and a half!! YUCK!! We are ready for spring!!

We had a blizzard this past weekend, and they are calling for more snow this weekend and early next week!! I love the snow but it makes me want to take the "day off". Wish I could be like my friend who uses her snow days to get stuff done!! it's just not in me, I'm a bit lazy I'm afraid!!!

My grandfather's been in the hospital ( he's at home now), we had a great Uncle pass away, and I sprained my ankle!!! I'm not complaining but all of this has just left me wanting to go to sleep until Spring....do you think I could get away with hibernating for the rest of winter???? Probably not!! But I could use the sleep!!

Today the sun is shining so I'm going to test out the camera my brother just brought me, it's his old digital camera, but it should be better than the one I am currently using !! Gotta love my brother. When he upgrades he passes down his older one which is always newer than my newest one!!! This is with everything he buys, tv's, dvd players, camera's, now if I could just get him to pass down his cars I'd be right!!! Thanks little brother!!!

Hopefully I can get some good pictures of some jewelry that I had made before Christmas and gets pics posted , it'll be new to you right???

Also if you haven't yet checked out my new shop please go see the new jewelry there, it's different jewelry that is not on my etsy site!!!

http://www.rwestdesigns.artfire.com/

If you get a chance stop by my facebook page and become a fan, and if you have an Etsy or Artifre or any shop where you sell your crafts/arts, leave your links in the discussion tab under links to Artisan Pages. I think I'll go start one for blogs too, so you can leave your blogs if you don't sell anything!! I love to read blogs, if you have a cool one I'm not already following please go leave your link, become a fan of my facebook page also, you can get there by clicking on my FAN BOX on the right hand side of this blog!!

Also follow me on http://www.twitter.com/rwestdesigns

Follow me on my blog, fan me, and follow me on twitter, I'll return the favor!!!