Marketing woes

I wish I had a degree in marketing. Who knew 30 years ago that I would want to start a business. Etsy has opened doors and made home based business reachable for anyone, however it seems to me the successful sellers are people who know how to market themselves and what they do. I have tried the local team, but they seemed to want to sell at shows and at First Friday events and left out those of us who were staying just with Etsy. Luckily I am good on the computer and have figured out blogging and adding links and ads to my blog site. Hopefully this will add traffic to both sites. There is so much to learn and challenges to overcome. I much prefer making the goods than selling them. I love the creation process - find that just right piece of fabric and have it tell me what to do with it.

A friend and mentor of mine has the marketing thing down pat. She does the widest variety of jewelry from fun light hearted stuff to serious Judaic items which I have purchased myself.

You can check her out at A Passion for Fashion at the following link: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5218926

Thank heaven my daughter had a baby and I was there to see my first burp cloth. Who knew? Now it's one of the many things I enjoy making. Applique is my new skill. I love my new Singer Confidence machine that seems to do it all. Now days you can Google anything - and voila there were the instructions for perfect appliques. What can't you learn just sitting at one's computer?

Lucky for me my other passion is my garden. Living in the SW we have the best growing weather starting in January and my garden is now giving me such joy with everything coming into bloom. I plan to add my first roses this weekend. I love roses but they remind me of being old - don't know why but they do - so I held off adding them for the past six years. They grow well here and offer cut flowers all summer. I just hope my humming bird flower bed gives me other offerings for floral arrangements. I opted for gardens instead of a pool and about August I regret that choice due to the extreme hot temps we get. With flowers all summer I may have an easier time this year. Swimming pools are great but very selfsish - look at all the water it takes to fill one. Deserts aren't designed for that.

It's almost warm enough to start hanging the laundry back outside like last summer. I miss the routine and look forward to starting that up again.

Please be sure to check out my new and improved Etsy site. I added a new colorful banner and there are always new items.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hannah

As always, I'm Dreaming in Colors now - For Baby

Atty in his RoslynsCloset onsie. So Cute!!

Click on the link below to go to her shop.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=102728

Hurry Spring -

Phoenix is in the midst of Spring weather - not too hot and not too cold. In fact...it's just right. We can leave the heat and AC off and have the doors and windows open to circulate air. This is the only time of year I can say anything nice about living here. Come May it will be a different story.

We had heavy rains in February and early March and the weeds have been prolific all over the valley. I went to several stores looking for extended weed killer (very un-Green of me I know)and all of them were sold out. The stores just couldn't keep up. Now I admit to using chemicals SPARINGLY only where I can't get to the weeds (rock riverbeds, pathways and under cacti) and the weeds were smart and grew where they thought I couldn't get to them. Ha! I hate weeds more than I hate weed killer so they lose! They were strong little buggers though. It took me digging the majority of them up, followed by some spray followed by more digging a week later. Once I get them out of there I can use Amaze granuals and keep them at bay the whole season. The really great garden news is my orange tree has blossoms and I just hope the bees find it and pollinate. My first citrus - how exciting.

Besides the yard, I have been a busy bee in my craft shop. I made Elsie a dress and a vest/pant outfit that took so much work and looks so bad on her. I can't help but crack up when I see her in them. It was so bad I deleted the pictures of her in the pants and the dress made her look like a bag lady, and the vest fit, but the pants look like parachute pants on MC Hammer. It was pitiful. I'm better off sticking with tag blankets and burp cloths. My etsy shop is getting stocked and I have been buying fabric like I used to buy shoes. It's important to get designer fabrics not available at the local Joann's so things are unique. It all started with Funky Monkey and has gone uphill from there. I've had to organize in bins all the fabric I have now. Be sure to check out my esty site dreamingincolors.etsy.com)

I haven't seen my new boy Atticus since the first week of February but he's growing fast and has the cutest grump faces. We kid his daddy that Atty picked that up from him. Jason jokes all the time about hating people so we blame it all on him. I can't wait to hold him again before he gets too big. They are small so short a time. I plan to go up North for tulip season in April, again in June and in August for the birth of our second grandson to Javan and Terina. 2008 is proving to be baby explosive. Enough!

Hope this finds you happy and well. Thanks for stopping by,

Hannah

Always, Dreaming....in colors.

We have a Baby Boy!

I am visiting in Seattle and helping out now that we have a wonderful new member of our family. Atticus Ryan Ronald was born on January 28th at 8:44am and weighed 8 lbs 2 oz. It was a blizzard the morning the kids headed to the hospital and we were totally surprised to wake up with Elsie at home to a heavy layer of snow outside. We took our time and waited for the rush hour traffic to subside before joining the kids and Atty at the hospital. I don't remember snow in Seattle like they get it now, every year!

Elsie is a wonderful sister most of the time. She kisses and hugs him and feels the need to cover him with a blanket and offers binkies to him - however when we went to get Mommy and the baby to bring them home, Elsie was a bit confused as to why he was in the car with us too. She hadn't figured he'd be coming home too and sticking around. Most of the time she's busy with me or her folks and ignores him. If he cries she gets a bit upset but is quickly calmed and distracted.

He looks just like his little sister Elsie did when she was born, except he frowns all the time and hates to be naked. He sleeps most of the time and eats and we change diapers a LOT but other than that he's pretty quiet and uneventful. We still have to pinch ourselves and remind each other that we really have a baby boy with us now. She was Ms. Mellow about most things but he has definate dislikes and lets them be known. Baths and diaper changes lead the list of least liked activities.

Elsie on the other hand is an amazing little creature and I love spending every day with her. She is vocal and has opinions on everything - and loves her 'Nona' with lots of hugs and kisses every day. We play and read and since I didn't feel like lifting and carrying her everywhere, she is now a full on walker. It started with me holding her hand and her walking with me, and now she stands up and walks off on her own. We make a big deal about it each time and she feeds on the praise and does it more and more! She gets up with the help of holding on to a piece of furniture or my legs and then off she goes to see Daddy, Mommy or baby Atty.

Being a girlie girl myself, I have convinced Elsie to let me brush and add ribbons and a topnot pony tail to her hair. She looks adorable and seems to enjoy the added attention! Her mother makes fun of me and her dad is his usual sarcastic self about the whole thing and asks "what the H--- did you do to my kids' hair?" to which we all protest loudly until he finally admits it looks cute. (I win!!) Now her poor Mom will have hair to do on top of a baby to keep fed and bathed in the mornings.....sorry.

I will head back to Phoenix on Saturday and out of habit will watch Sesame Street to stay up on Elmo, Grover, Abby and Big Bird just so I can converse with Elsie about the latest events. It's our special time and I will miss it so much!!

Everyday I try to figure out how to move back so I can see my kids more. Phoenix is just too far away and I love the chaos and love this house surrounds you with, just by being in it.

I'll write again soon. Thanks for stopping by!

Hannah

Dreaming in Colors

Crafting with Nona

Welcome to 2008 - Hope it's a great year

We have survived the holidays and are pretty much back to normal again. The freeways starting this week made that abundantly clear - gridlock has fully returned. It was nice for the past two weeks to only take 30 minutes to get to and from work instead of the usual 1 hr. and 15 min. Urghhh

The kids in Seattle and Bellingham had really nice Christmas days - with little ones around, the spirit of the holiday really blooms. Elsie Quinn was totally amazed when she came downstairs and saw the tree had exploded with presents. She got lots of goodies - Santa thought she had been a very good girl her first year. He gave her a baby doll and stroller, a huge Elmo and small Grover, a vacuum cleaner so she can clean when Mommy does, and daddy gave her a computer (of course). She got crayons and loves to sit at the dining room table drawing. I guess she's become quite the little Mommy with her baby doll and carries the moses basket and strolls with her baby all through the house. With a new baby brother coming this month those skills will come in very handy!

Santa was good to me too this year. I have struggled along using a very worn Singer sewing machine which for basic hemming and scrapbooking worked fine, but for anything more than that it would fizzle. Santa brought me a wonderful new one - top of the line computerized Singer that sews, hems, button holes, sews on buttons and self-threads! Wow - have I been having fun. I had planned to make a flannel quilt for Atticus with a pirate theme and did it over the weekend in less than 2 days. I am now making 'tag-blankets' with cowboys and indians in a retro print. I have lots of material so plan on making extras and selling them on my Etsy shop site.

I will be heading to Seattle on the 25th to help out when Atticus joins the family. It should be fun. I miss Reyna so much and enjoy just having her in the same house with me.

I guess the other big news would be the elections going on in Iowa and New Hampshire. I was really not concentrating on the candidates very much - Louie watches Fox News every day he's home so I had seen a few of the Republican debates but none of the candidates spoke to me and how I felt about things. I knew Hillary wasn't my type either. One day I heard a bit of a speech Obama gave and it stopped me in my tracks. I knew of him but not where he stood on any issues. I didn't like that Oprah was so involved and had ignored him up until I heard that speech. I checked his website and fell in love with his honesty and "upfrontness" (new word) about every issue imaginable. It was awesome. I pledged some pocket change to his cause and volunteered for the Arizona Obama Coalition and that gets us to today. I am hoping the trend continues for him and he has a big win in New Hampshire today. It sounds good so far.

Hope you have a great month.

Hannah

DreamingInColors.etsy.com

Yeah - Christmas Season

We had our first Thanksgiving alone with no kids this year and lo and behold - we survived. I think my monthly trips to see everyone in the NW has helped. I cooked and Louie actually worked a day shift and made it home in time to eat at 6:30 pm !! I have been reading about Heritage turkeys this year and had to try one. I called it my 'organic, free range, heritage, flying turkey'. Yes Virginia, turkeys can fly. Not far or high but they can fly. The Heritage birds are raised on open fields and glean what they eat from the field not from bagged grains. It is healthier and the birds are what turkeys used to be. The ones in the mass turkey farms are injected with growth hormones and antibiotics and are raised for wide breasts which is the white meat - but they are so out of proportion that they can't even have a good time before they die. Poor things. The heritage birds get to have a good time and are treated very well all through life and when they are put down. I eat meat so the least I can do is buy and support farms that do it the right way. I also froze brioche bread I got on my last trip to Seattle and made the stuffing with that and Italian sweet sausage, mushrooms, fresh herbs from my garden, dried cranberries and organic celery and onion. I added the cursory mashed potatoes with Parmesan and cheddar cheese, and creamed spinach. I bought the fresh cranberry/mango sauce but it was super. We had a terrific dinner and we had enough food to last this whole week - I have one more meal left of the white meat and plan to do open faced turkey/cheese sauce sandwiches. Yum.

We had four days off this past weekend and I was so busy. I cleaned the house and did tons of laundry - at least it's still warm enough outside to dry the clothes but it takes a bit longer now. I went through all the closets and purged - 8 bags worth of purging - with clothes and old Christmas mistakes going to a favorite charity. I was then ready to get started on decorating. I keep promising it will be less this year that in years past and so far so good. No lights on the house per se - but I did put up a wooden Santa and lighted tree - we also have a small doe that is lit and this year I added multi colored glass balls to the inside hollow. I saw it done at a shop we go to in Snohomish and tried it at home. It looks so cute! I did white fairy lights on the small bushes too - so the side yard is well lit for the holidays. We have a double gate where I hang 2 plain green wreaths with red bows and cow bells. If someone else wants to add white fairy lights to the trees in the side yard they can, but I'm done outside. I came home from Seattle with all kinds of Christmas stuff and put it all through the house. I'm painting ornaments, and have some paper stars to make, plus I sewed new tree skirts for us and for Reyna and her family. We plan to contribute to charity this year and keep the gift giving to handmade items. Keep it simple and try to have less stress and more fun.

I will go to Seattle again December 13th for 4-5 days. I can celebrate Christmas with the kids then. We plan to take Elsie Quinn for her first carriage ride and then the carousel plus all the lights up 5th Avenue and the store windows. It will be so much fun.She seems to love the trees and lights. They put their tree up this past weekend and Elsie was quite a big help. We should try to make some cookies and decorate them too. It will be wonderful being up home for some holiday cheer.

The big trip is in January when Atticus comes out to join this crazy bunch of people we call family. They have decided on Atticus Ryan Ronald and we all gave a cheer. They picked another great name. Elsie Quinn and Atticus Ryan. Wow.

Reyna called last night excited about snow falling. Here, we're just glad the temps have finally cooled off to the mid 70's with nights in the 40's and 50's. I thought for a while I'd have Christmas in shorts on the deck because we were hot up until Thanksgiving. For the past week we're doing much better. It's actually chilly in the morning! If it continues to cool down we can actually have a live tree again this year. With it hot outside the poor tree would die in a couple of days of 90 degree heat.Thank heaven. Louie would hold his breath and turn blue without a live tree. We all have our holiday "thing" I guess.

Wishing you all a wonderful pre-holiday season!

Love to all

Hannah

Dreaming in Colors and hoping for snow...