And the Winners Are!

Thank you to all who took the time to look around my Etsy shop and give me some input. Thank you also to those who became Facebook fans. That will benefit you in the future because I do run sales only through Facebook at times and you will be the first to see these deals.

Your comments are always helpful. It helped me to see that I need to make more necklaces. The color ideas were noted as well.



The winner of the $25 gift certificate is Stebenjoe.

The winner of the $15 gift certificate is Lynnettemomofboys.

The winner of the $5 gift certificate is Jana.

Congratulations to you all! I wish every one of you a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year. May the love of Christ fill your hearts and homes.

Passing on the Blessing

I have been blessed in so many ways this year. I feel very strongly that I need to pass some of that on to my faithful customers (you know who you are). I have decided it is time for another giveaway on my Etsy shop. Of course you don't have to be one of my customers to enter.

I actually have opened a second shop this year that is primarily sterling silver but it is not stocked as well as I would like. The good news is, I have been too busy making things for my main shop to stock the new one, the bad news is, I have been too busy.... :)

This giveaway is for my original shop, Mompotter. I am giving away three gift certificates this year. You have equal chance of winning any of the amounts as I will be putting all the names in the same hat. The gift certificates will be for $25, $15, and $5. The deadline for entering will be midnight (west coast) of December 14th. I will contact all winners on December 15th. This will give you a chance to get in on my free shipping deal that is offered through December 16th.

How to Enter:

Go to my Etsy Shop and look around.

Come back here and enter in one of three ways.

1) Tell me one thing you would pick for a gift and one thing you would like to receive.

2) Become my fan on facebook (where good deals/sales are posted) and tell me that you have done that.

3) Tell me what you would like to see "more of" in my shop. It could be, more necklaces, more of a certain color, etc.

Be sure to leave some kind of contact information so I can find you if you win. You can enter only once but feel free to fan me and leave comments. The comments really help.

I am also offering free shipping until December 16th for all US and Canada first class mailing only. This applies to both shops.

Sales and Specials

The Schooling at Home Etsians are running all kinds of deals and sales right now as they gear up for the holiday season. I have free shipping in my two shops until December 16th. If you hurry, you can also save 10% on everything you purchase. Since my prices are kept as low as possible, this is the best deal you will find in my shop. This 10% off special ends on Monday so what are you waiting for?

Here is a sample of some of my new items.

Ocean Breeze
(mompotter shop)


A sweet little girl bracelet


Antiqued Jet Travertine Earrings


And Three from my new Tide-pool Series

Ocean Breeze Design

This shop is primarily sterling silver and oxidized sterling silver (black).

If you see any earrings in my other shop that you would like to have with sterling silver components, please ask for a price quote.

Has it really been that long?

Where does the time go? Has it really been since September that I have posted to my blog? I guess I am just too busy living life to write about it. :)

I have a full day ahead of me today too so just popped in to post a couple pictures of what I have been up to. I have been busy with a special order and trying to keep new things in my shop at the same time. It is my goal to post something new every day.

Here are a few of the latest.

Ruby Red Sliding Diamond Earrings - Perfect for Christmas!


Antiqued Jet Travertine Earrings - Love this new "jelly roll" bead!


Aqua with a Hint of Bronze - Love this bead!
I have more of them if you want something to match.


Green and Bronze Earrings


Click on any of the photos to see the item.

I will be back soon with a giveaway offer. Be sure to check back!

Weekend Deal

I am offering a weekend deal in both of my Etsy stores this weekend. I have been listing a few new things and have more coming. Just needed to generate some grocery money and decided that everyone loves a good sale. So go shop away so I can shop away!! :)

Here are a couple of the newer listings!

In my mompotter shop.



In my Ocean Breeze Design shop...

The difference? My Ocean Breeze Shop carries primarily sterling silver.



Happy shopping!!

My new shop

I have had a lot of requests for sterling silver jewelry and a line of jewelry that is a little "higher end". Why people would beg to pay more is beyond me but I am happy to comply. I do like to please my customers after all. ;)

So I opened a shop called Ocean Breeze Design. Not to be confused with my "Ocean Breeze" shop listed under "Mompotter". I opened up the mompotter shop before I thought through the name I wanted to use. It is the name I have used on many homeschool forums online. Ocean Breeze Design is the name I have used for a long time with my jewelry making. Are you confused yet? I think I am.

I have a lot of work to go but I thought I would share a couple of photos here of some of the newer pieces. I have also worked very hard at making my photos better. Of course I can always learn more.

Blue Skies

Coral Dance


Ocean Blues


Aqua Clear

There will be a mixture of oxidized sterling silver (black), sterling silver, and some antiqued brass or bronze. I am also pulling out the bead caps and "special" beads that are not easily found. If you can only wear sterling and see a bead (or color) in my first shop that you would like in sterling, please ask!

You will probably be seeing a lot of the oxidized sterling. It is my new favorite!

Long Break

Wow! What was intended as a short break from being over scheduled turned out to be a very LONG break from blogging as well as jewelry making and other things. In April (last time I blogged) a couple of things happened.

First of all, my husband took a fall while hiking and ended up very hurt. When he came home from the retreat (some retreat!) he thought he had just hurt his knee and leg. Long story short he found out that he had a ruptured disk in his back. Extremely painful for him. About a week later I threw my back out (happens a lot) and we were quit the couple for a while. At least he had pain medication! LOL

Combined with that, potty training the youngest (that got postponed too), soccer season for the older three and finishing up our home school year the blog just took back seat for a while. Jewelry making did too!

Fast forward to today. We just came off a VERY busy summer of sports camps, VBS, beach days, swimming with friends and just relaxing. At the end of that the kids and I hoped in the car for a two day drive to Idaho. We had a great time spending two weeks with family (missing dad the whole time) and relaxing. We started school while we were there (becoming tradition) and enjoyed a bit of the fall weather. I am just going to post some pictures because they are more fun than words!


We drove for two days and the middle of the second day we stopped to play at the falls in Oregon. These call my name every time I drive by but we don't usually stop. This time I decided that the road would still be there 30 minutes later. The kids enjoyed stopping but had no interest in walking up to the upper bridge. :)

Spent a day looking for the elusive huckleberry. Throwing rocks in the river was fun even if we couldn't find those purple berries!

This was the view while driving around looking for huckleberries. Not bad!

Gus (the dog) was the constant companion while at grandma and grandpa's house.

The ranch! My favorite place!

This mule was being pastured next to my brother's house. It was very friendly. I am sure it was wishing for a handout!

The kids!

A very special treat this year was getting to ride horses. The kids had a blast and so did I!

My favorite time to photograph is when the sun is starting to go down. I especially love taking photos in the field next to my parent's house.

E. loved getting to know grandma and grandpa.

Lots of fun had by all.

Now back to reality!!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Focus on a SHE team Member

This is the start of a weekly post (hopefully) to highlight a member of the Schooling at Home Etsians (SHE) team.

According to Etsy, "Etsy Teams are groups of organized Etsy members who network, share skills, and promote their shops and Etsy together. A Team forms around a shared location, crafting medium, or another interest."

The SHE team has the common ground of being a group of homeschoolers. This team has really grown over the past year. I did not realize it has been so long but the first blog post on the team blog was March 5th of 2008. We started with just a handful of people that happened to "know" each other from the Sonlight forums. We now have over 100 members. Although most are homeschooling moms, there are some teens, recently graduated homeschoolers, some homeschool dads and even some moms that have already graduated their students. What a great combination of team members.

This weeks highlighted team member happens to be one of the first members. In fact if I remember correctly I think she is even the one that came up with the name for the team. She has been very supportive of the team and very supportive of my efforts as I fumble through facilitating this team. Thank you Lona!!

Introducing Lona from ShadySideFarm


ShadySideFarm is not only a working farm but has some great items coming from it. It is a place where they work hard and create lovely things from their own wool. To learn more about this shop please click on any of the items pictured. If you would like to read more about farm life and see some sheep click here.

Here is a pair of socks made completely "from scratch". Not only do they use an antique sock knitting machine to make these but they raise the wool and dye it. Can't get any more handmade than these socks. I am posting these because they are my favorite colors. If you happen to like another color there are plenty to choose from. They are all beautifully made!


Here is a photo of the machine they use to create them. Facinating! A school lesson all in itself!


Speaking of wool, you can buy it this way...



...or how about learning to spin it yourself?


I happen to have a few of her dishcloths and a beautiful rug that sits on my kitchen floor. Lots of talent in this shop. Please go and visit!

M turned 7

My sweet little Valentine turned 7 this year. I can call her my Valentine because her birthday is on Valentines day. The day she turned 7 she was walking around pointing out all the things she could do now that she was 7. It was so cute to watch her stretch a little higher and try a little harder.

We have not been able to throw parties for the kids for the past couple of years. This year they ALL decided they "needed" a party. It was small, very small but we were able to do it without breaking the small bank. She invited 6 girls from church but two families were out of town. In this case that meant half the party. I suggested we invite some of our other friends but she just wanted her church girlfriends.

They had fun dressing up, painting, decorating cupcakes, playing "pin the bow on the Hello Kitty", the limbo, and the pinata. I tried to make a pinata but if you have done this before you will realize it takes more than 24 hours. I ended up buying a small one. A simple, but fun little girl party.

Here is the birthday girl with her sisters and mom.


I have no idea what we will do for the other two birthdays coming up soon.

Photos

I want so badly to take better photos. I keep thinking that if I could just find more time in my day I could learn more about photography. Here are some recent photos of my jewelry that I feel turned out nice. There is always more to learn.

What I really want to be taking photos of, is my kids. I would rather look back at photos of them twenty years from now rather than photos of objects I made.

Hmmm... maybe I should think about that a little more.

A very impressive young girl and awesome speech.

To read more click here.

Words - How Many is Enough?

I am really beginning to rethink the whole idea of having a blog. At first I thought I would find plenty to write about, but that doesn't seem to be happening. Of course I probably shouldn't admit that I have nothing to say or you will not bother checking back (That is what blog giveaways are for. LOL) I was trying to figure out why I couldn't think of what to say and I finally realized what it is.

I have used up all my words for the day!

Yep! That must be it. Being an introvert I truly believe I use closer to the amount of words in a day that a man would typically use. You have heard that men use about half the amount of words in a day as a woman, right? That is always the excuse for men to not communicate... they have used all their words already.

So... I claim the same excuse. I have used all my words for the day.

I use my words when I am reading aloud to the kids, working on math and grammar with them, answering questions, etc. I definitely use up all my words when they are constantly bugging each other and fighting over things. (Yes, my children fight!) I also use all my words when I spend time talking to my extroverted friends that don't have enough time in their day to use all their words. :)

So... instead I will just post a couple pictures of things I just listed in my shop. If you have read this far and you want to go shopping, mention "the blog offer" and I will give you 20% off your order (before shipping). Trying to help pay some bills this month. The offer is good until the end of February.

The Winner of the Giveaway

Thank you so much for all the wonderful comments both here and in my email. It is good to see what people like and it is fun to be able to give away something every so often. I had my husband pick a name for me this time and the winner is, Stacey ( I Love Lucy from SL forums).

Thanks again everyone! Be sure to stop in my Etsy shop again. If you don't see exactly what you want, just ask. I might be able to help you out. I also have more hearts like this and you can pick the color of bead if pink just is not your thing.

Spreading Some Love!

Time to spread a little love with another blog giveaway. I am thinking that with Valentines just around the corner it is time to say thank you to those that have been so encouraging and supportive of my Etsy shop. Don't worry, even if you have not even seen my shop I will still let you enter.


I want to send someone this beautiful little silver heart. This would be perfect as a gift to a friend, mom, or grandma for Valentines day.

To enter go visit my Etsy shop and then come back here and tell me what your favorite item is. Be sure and leave some sort of contact information for me or make sure you bookmark me to come back and check.

I will draw a name on February 6th and could potentially mail on February 7th to ensure you receive it on time for Valentines day.

Official Stuff:

This contest is open to all U.S. adresses only (sorry, not enough time to go international on this one).

Be sure that I can find you again, if I can't find you or you don't contact me within 3 days of the drawing I will pick a new winner . If you prefer to not post here you may email me at Oceanbreezeblog@yahoo.com, write "Valentine Blog Giveaway", in the subject line.

Winner will be picked by random drawing on the evening of February 6th.

In case you have not checked out what the newest items are in my shop, here is a little sample of my favorites. Click on any of the images to find out more about them.