Thinking like a business woman.

If you are looking for the earring contest, scroll down slightly and you will see it.

I have been so busy the past few days. Trying to keep up with laundry, cooking, cleaning, teaching my kids, playing with my little one AND trying to be creative at night. There just are not enough hours in the day, but you already knew that!

I joined an Etsy Team yesterday that is made up of Christians joining together. I look forward to the encouragement that this group could bring. I was able to post their banner but am still working on making it a link. If you click here you can find their team page.

I am working on starting an Etsy Team for home schoolers that also sell on Etsy. (If you are interested please contact me at oceanbreezeblog@yahoo.com.) I am excited to join a group together and hopefully provide encouragement for being creative as well as helping each other market our items. I really get overwhelmed when I think about how big the internet is and how do we even tap into it. I just did a search for beaded jewelry and came up with something like 176,000 results. How does one stand out when there is such a large pool?

I have been thinking (or trying to think) more like a business woman lately and pushing the creative side of me over a little. It isn't working very well for me. I have never been business minded. When I made pottery, I took a lot more joy in giving things to friends and family than selling them. I would much rather go to my mom's house and drink out of one of my mugs than wonder who is buying it and will they use it? That kind of thinking is part of what gets me in trouble.

Maybe it will help me to feel more business like if I clean my desk! You know that personality tests and career tests always seem to ask if your desk is clean or cluttered. I guess that tells a lot about a person. The ironic thing is, everyone uses my desk. I can clear it off but within a day everyone in the family has dropped on item or two on it and that is the end of clean! So it isn't all my fault that I appear disorganized! Really!

Here is what I made last night. I would make everything in these colors if I thought I could actually make a profit doing them. I love these colors. This is a necklace. I really thought about keeping this one. May have to make another one...

For those that have asked about this necklace. I just made it a link to the listing (Can't believe how much I am learning lately). :)

Earring contest

I want to give away five pairs of earrings.

Why would I want to do this you ask? Well, I have stalled out a bit on jewelry making lately. I have not sold a whole lot since Christmas and the biggest joy for me in making things is having other people enjoy them. I have always been this way about the "things" I make. When I was a potter I just had to give things away or sell them because that is where the joy is for me. So PLEASE help me out.

So if you want to play along please do. I want to make it fair so I will just pull your name out of a hat. To enter all you have to do is...

1. Give me your favorite spring color combination (it can be more than two colors)

2. Tell me the length of earrings you prefer.

3. Look at my Etsy sight and mark your favorite earrings (if you look on the right side of the page you can see a spot to mark the item as favorite. This will allow me to see the styles people like) If you are not signed up with Etsy and you don't want to sign up you can just make a note of the name and put that in you post to me.

OR

Send me a picture of a style you like (maybe I will get some new ideas that way).

4. Write a note to me with these items and a sentence or two telling me why you want a new pair of earrings. Please feel free to give me any feedback or comments that would give me ideas or help in designing something for you. Mail it to me oceanbreezeblog@yahoo.com OR comment here (I will watch for both). If you win I will email you back and ask for your address.


Deadline is March 7, 2008 (Will pull names March 8th in the am on the west coast).

To make it fair to everyone, I will put your name in a hat and have my kids pull out five. I will email you and also list the winners here (preserving your privacy of course). I will post pictures of the earrings here as well. Thank you for playing and good luck.

I think I have covered everything...

This is going to be fun!

A Valentine Birthday

Yesterday my five year old turned six.

She told me in the morning that she didn't feel any different. Our conversation went something like this.

Me: Good morning birthday girl. How are you this morning?

M: Mom.... why don't I look six? I don't think that I am any different today than before.

Me: I thought you started looking like six a couple of weeks ago. Your getting so big.

M: Maybe I will look more like six later.

It was a fun day, even if I was on the tail end of the flu. We had a full day planned but skipped part of it and changed some of it. In the end we skipped bible study and going out to lunch (a rare treat these days). We met up with our home school park group in the afternoon for a Valentine party. The kids had a blast, we sang happy birthday to my birthday girl, decorated cupcakes and cookies, passed out valentines and just had fun. There were over 30 kids and they all just love being together.

Then we ran off to get ready for ballet, drop of siblings, pick up a friend that was riding with us and we actually made it on time. After ballet we had to run and pick up our little one who had been with a friend all afternoon then go home and make dinner. Dinner ended up being at 6:30 by the time we got home and I cooked.

What a long day! Especially long for someone who is sick. I was in bed by 9:00 pm, completely exhausted. It was all worth it though. My six year old felt loved and maybe she even started feeling six.


So Happy Birthday Mikayla Joy. I hope you had an awesome day and will remember your day with a smile.

My first official blog post

Never thought I would do it! I read blogs all the time, along with many other things, but I never in my wildest dreams thought I would start a blog.

I hope to post a variety of things but honestly, most of what I will talk about will be how to school three different grades with a toddler in the house. Oh, and try to get a home business going. Makes me tired just thinking about it.

This is really the first year that I have questioned my ability to home school my children. I have been at this for almost four years and hope to school them all the way through high school.

As the year goes on I am learning so much about what works and what doesn't work. I will be sharing all kinds of ideas on how to make it work. I am sure I will post what doesn't work too.

More later!