dirty thirty!

i haven't blogged lately because i've been busy turning 30, going blonde and loving life! what?.. you wish you could send me a belated birthday gift? well, how about you hit that LIKE button on the little prints' facebook page!

you'll find me here:

 http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/the-little-prints-etsy-shop/131248766907394

and you'll also find six seconds of me here, making hilarious birthday shot faces, because that's how i roll.

although, in reality, i roll more like this:

three wishes

my mom gave me a bag of goodies from when i was little, mostly old birthday cards and school papers, but there was one hilarious bit of kiddy history in there that i had to share! inside a folder with "happy christmas" stenciled on the front was this:

there are so many things about it that make me laugh.. like my spelling, and how greedy i was! i didn't want a lot of money, or even a million dollars.. i wanted ALL of it.

it makes little me sound so serious and stressed out.. poor thing just wanted some quiet time.

say my name

it's officially time to either commit to a shop name change, or fully accept the one i have. it's not that i think that buyers really care what your shop names is.. i don't think a crappy name is gonna break you, as long as you still offer items that appeal to people, but i do think it's important for a shop owner to be confident in their name. how can i create a brand for myself and totally get behind it if i don't feel a strong connection to the title i'm going by? i want to work on improving my shop, but this little nagging name thing keeps tugging at me. i want to order sew in labels and a custom shop stamp and create a facebook fan page.. but i'm having a hard time committing to it. i should have taken the plunge 100 sales ago, when i thought i had already come to far to change. i could always hold out for the hope that etsy will eventually support name changes.. we'll see.

and just incase the title of this post didn't ensure that this song is stuck in your head, here you go:



you're welcome :)

today looked like this:

i worked on ella headbands

for most of the day

i made a huge mess with a clean spot in the center where i sit and destroy from. it's not pretty, but it's the process.

does anyone else ever hold their needle in their pants? i do, but i do not recommend it. i forget it's there and remember the hard way.

i made my first custom headband for a lovely etsy customer. she wanted an ella headband in blue and brown, and this is what i came up with!

finally, bradley came home from work and we headed right out to the porch for our five o'clock coffee ritual. also, i only exsist from the thighs down.

freshly caffeinated, we set out on a bike ride with our tree books to solve some nature related mysteries.

getting our learnin on, and making use of the tree journal!

today we learned about smoke trees (leaves pictured), and some awesome tree maybe called a basswood or a linden, or "bee-tree". it was beautiful,  and i wanted to climb in it and take pictures, but i try to not creep around peoples yards if i can help it.

lastly, we came home and cooked some burgers on the grill and watched glee. i will leave you with the words of sue sylvester:

"i will go to the animal shelter and get you a kitty cat. i will let you fall in love with that kitty cat, and then on some dark cold night, i’ll steal away into your home and punch you in the face."
                                                                                                                                             

tag report

if you sell on etsy, chances are you've visited craftopolis to find out if you're goodies are in treasuries, well.. this site just got even more useful. there is a new features called "tag report" and it shows you what keywords people were searching for when they found your items, and how many pages it took for them to find you. i've always been curious to find out which tags are working,  and this feature does exactly that!

check out this post on the etsy blog for some helpful tagging tips:
seller workshop recap: tags, titles, descriptions and most relevant search

MUG MONDAY

mug monday is back, and it's gone country!

fresh & handmade

i finally have some new goodies to share! i'm very excited to have some new stuff listed. it felt like i was on a small, unintentional break for a while, but i'm so ready to be back in action. why can't the days be like 5 hours longer..

click the photos if you'd like to see the listings!

it's our loveiversary!

today we have been married for four years!  we had an awesome, relaxed outdoor wedding, with more focus on fun than tradition.. and it was such a great start to what has definitely been the best chapter in my life by far.

here's a recreation of our wedding, treasury style!

Craft Room: Refreshed

My peach parlor is now mega organized! It's never been so uncluttered and clean and I'm ready to MAKE SOME STUFF! My favorite new thing about the room is the button jars. I've been wanting to do this for a long time and finally got around to it. I love having my buttons organized by color. It helps a lot to not have to dig through a huge stash.

The old armoire belonged to my grandma, and my mom needed space to make her sewing room functional so I adopted it and it's saved me so much space already. It's packed full of frames and vintage items I'm reselling.

Another thing I love about my workspace: WINDOWS!! The light is always perfect in here. I also came up with a clever way to not burn my house down! I often forget to unplug my glue gun, and sometimes it gets left on for an embarassingly long amount of time. Now it's on a surge protector with my lamp, so I know if the lamp is on, my glue gun is on.. and it's helped me so much!