~Unique Commodities~

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Jariah the cutie pie

Jariah is my BFF Tecia's baby girl! Tecia and my daughter were actually pregnant at the same time and their girls born a week apart! Who ever would have thought?! LOL! Jariah is such a sweetheart and I enjoyed spending time with her in Florida! She gives big hugs and has the most gorgeous smile! She absolutely adores her daddy and gamma! Kicks her mommy Tecia to the curb when they come around...LOL! She had a cold while I was there but she still kept making us smile!

Look at that smile!

Friday, November 21, 2008

Laid off for the first time ever!

Well I go on an incredible mini vacation and come to work that Wednesday to find out that I am being laid off! First time I have ever been laid off and it was not a good feeling! I felt numb at first and the next day as I started to "unthaw" I suppose, I felt a range of emotions! As a single parent of two young adults both living with me (one in college and the other a single parent), this is definitely a nervous time for me. I am the only one working right now because my daughter recently got laid off from her job. Geez Louise! When it rains it pours! Anyway, I have a few irons in the fire and pray as I know God will open the door he wants me to walk through! I am a strong believer that in all things God works for the good and that he will provide for me and my family!

To all the rest of you (sure that is 97% of us) who have either lost your jobs, had a family member to lose their jobs or are just struggling financially! Hang in there and know that "This Too Shall Pass!"

And hey take a look at my supply shop and my Unique Commodities Shop

My Favorite Holiday Tradition - Blog Carnival

Mom says "Ronda" I am going to make your favorite Icebox cake for Thanksgiving". Book aka "Toot" for you I am going to make your deviled eggs. Rodney I know you, Poncho (my uncle that lived with us) , Robbie and Janice love the macaroni and cheese". Not really sure what Sandra (the eldest of the bunch) likes. We all smile with excited anticipation about getting to eat our favorite holiday item! I cut up the onions because for some reason they don't make me cry so much and I have to peel the potatoes because I peel the fastest. Hmmm...I think I got tricked! LOL! My brother Rodney is a great cook and loves to help in the kitchen. Janice, Book and Robbie are the youngest so they just play around or watch!

We all do our parts and then go sit at the table for a round of monopoly. Why is it that Rodney seems to always win?! He always gets Board Walk and Park Place! He is so business savvy at such a young age! I am fighting to get the yellow and the red properties! We are all happy there is no school and we have the long weekend at home! The only thing we don't look forward to is having to dress up to sit at the Thanksgiving table! What in the world?! We all have to share something we are grateful for and eat with TWO forks! huh? LOL!

There is nothing like family and building relationships! The laughter, the fussing about who gets to sit where especially since in our blended family! There were 10 of us in a 4 bedroom house that was about 1200 square feet with ONE bathroom! WOW! When you are living it, you just do what you got to do, you don't think about the how! We had so much fun growing up!

Now that we are all adults some married, some single parents, some no kids, some never married and hey some divorced too, we still get together for Thanksgiving almost every year and yep we usually play MONOPOLY and YEP Rodney still usually wins! Of course it is usually just the kids since our parents broke up! Sometimes it is a little sad though because Robbie was killed in a car accident at 19 years old. We all miss him! He and Book were the closest since they were only 2 years apart.

But just the same...memories of the good ole' holiday traditions are still treasured in my heart! Laughing, loving, crying...sharing things we are grateful for! I think for me as I look back on those childhood memories...my gratitude was for the simplicity of family!

Happy Holidays!

Jewelry Making Fiesta

My friend Tecia is the one who actually peeked my interest in jewelry making. I watched her do it first and thought "no way I can do that". Not too long after that - I was HOOKED! So of course when I came to visit her I had to bring a suitcase FULL of jewelry making supplies! LOL! Tecia, Niyah (Tecia's daughter) and I made jewelry all afternoon and we had a blast!

PS - I wasn't smart enough to get them to take pics of me at work and FORGOT to take pics of my items! You will see them in my store soon though! LOL!

Niyah at work!

Great job Niyah!

BFF at work

Love this set-My fav! Great job BFF!

Another jewelry item made by Tecia! How cute!

Another peice from my BFF!

MY BFF did my hair for me!

So while I visited my friend Tecia, she did my hair! Trust me it was a mess! I love my new do! Thanks BFF!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

The Best Legal Drug EVER!

YESS! I am way behind on my blogging but I just had to share how awesome my BFF Tecia is. I went to visit her last week and I woke up on Friday morning to breakfast in bed! And of course I LOVE Coffee “the best legal drug ever”! I think we went through 3 small jars of coffee while I was there! Not to mention the three half-gallons of ice cream we ate between the two of us! She is soooo sweet! Whenever I go to visit her, I always feel taken care of and so encouraged! I even got her HOOKED on blogging while I was there! Check out her brand new blog! Tecia thanks for being the most awesome BFF ever! Love ya!

The Best Legal Drug Ever!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Featuring an Etsyblogger Newbie - Bliss Soybean Candles and Gifts (Just because)

Bliss Soybean Candles & Gifts is an established high-end soy candle vendor based out of the very beautiful Grand Haven, Michigan! Susan developed all of her own marketing, labels, branding, products, and ideas! Her goal in candle making is to provide a high quality product - the best available - while providing an attractive container and packaging.

Bliss Soybean Candles and Gifts

She started her business by accident... yes, really. she was reading a magazine article about melting old candles together back in 2004 and somehow that led her to the internet to look for soy candle making supplies. She knew back then that soy was much healthier and since she has terrible allergies and asthma, that was a big plus! Check out more great items in her shop and her blog

Friday, November 14, 2008

Get Stuffed -Slow Cooker Stuffing Recipe

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
1 cup butter or margarine
2 cups chopped onion
2 cups chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
12 ounces sliced mushrooms
12 cups dry bread cubes
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 1/2 teaspoons dried sage
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 1/2 cups chicken broth, or as needed
2 eggs, beaten

DIRECTIONS
Melt butter or margarine in a skillet over medium heat. Cook onion, celery, mushroom, and parsley in butter, stirring frequently.
Spoon cooked vegetables over bread cubes in a very large mixing bowl. Season with poultry seasoning, sage, thyme, marjoram, and salt and pepper. Pour in enough broth to moisten, and mix in eggs. Transfer mixture to slow cooker, and cover.
Cook on High for 45 minutes, then reduce heat to Low, and cook for 4 to 8 hours.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Make A Plan - How do I intend to use my blog for promotions and sales?

One thing I learned from the Block Head Rod Talk show was that I needed to sit down and make a plan for how I intended to use my blog for promotions and sales. How do I want it to look and how do I promote? Funny thing is I NEVER did this. I created my blog in order to be a part of the Etsybloggers team. I did start to enjoy it once I got started but my purpose and focus have evolved since I started blogging. With all that said I took John’s words to heart. Fact is I have felt quite aimless the past few months..not knowing what I am doing and why, joining everything under the sun with no sense of purpose though everything I joined has the potential to serve to advance my business. So where do I go from here? Well first things first. I need to be a student and take John’s advice.

How do I intend to use my blog for promotions and sales?

Promote other sites with the first priority being to my Etsybloggers Team members. Goal: Driver bloggers to my blogsite and then to my Etsy Store hopefully to make a purchase
Allow other artist (Etsy or not) to advertise on my site. I am a little green at this so will ask John the best way to go about this because truly I am clueless though know that I want to have multiple means of income.
Share my personal life – I want the readers/bloggers to see that I am a real person with struggles and joys just like the rest of the world. I want to be personable.
Post pics of my items as I create them. Allows the customer to see my creative process and know that it truly is hand made and to see that I work hard to develop a quality product. Besides I know people are quite visual!
Post actual sales items on my shop – Now UNTIL John mentioned this I SERIOUSLY never thought about it. I think I was more intimidated by the thought of figuring out how to do it than anything. Now that I know I have access to support and based on John’s explanation that it really is not that difficult! I am ready to give it a try.
BLOG CONSISTENTLY – I know that the more I blog, the more exposure I will get and hopefully the more sales I will get!
Networking with other Bloggers – Use my blog by whatever means to meet other bloggers and creative artist to learn from, share experiences and ideas with. I am confident this will help my sales and build upon my blog exposure!

Those are the things I have in mind so far. Please feel free to share your thoughts and offer your feed back.

10 Tips for a successful Craft Show by memoriesforlifescrapbooks

I was on twitter the other day and Memories for life Scrapbooks mentioned she did a craft show and showed us pics of her set up! I would love to do a craft show one day soon and suggested she do a blog about her experience with her show to help those that are new to that Venue. She did it and here is the link to Memories for Life's blog to check it out!

She gave some incredible tips and posted pics! I hope it serves to help your business to grow!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The Block Head Radio Show ROCKS!

Yesterday was my first time participating in the Blockhead Rod Radio Show! It was a very positive experience! What is funny is I had no clue what I was supposed to do so I call into the number posted on the site and ended up being a guest on the show. LOL! That is what I get for being the unknowing new kid on the block! LOL! Good thing though because now I have no fear of calling in and will surely do it more often. ‘Blockhead’ – I mean “John”—LOL gave an incredible training on Making that Blog Sell Part 1.

I joined Blockhead Rod, A Good Witch Too, Sew Happy Designs, and Huckleberry Arts for a fabulous night of education and fun! A Good Witch lovingly jeered at John. John and his wife Huckleberry Arts sit in the same room and host the show. I think that is sooo sweet! The chat room was full of energy. Debra Linker won the Artisan Challenge. I won the fast fingers contest. What that means is when Huckleberry Arts types in Fast fingers in the chat room - the first person to get their shop/blog typed in the chat room gets their shop announced on the show. Exceptional benefit in that many people listen to the show after it is over! Tilt Creations answered the Trivia question correctly and won the chat room giveaway prize which was a beautiful Magenta Butterfly Limited Edition Block Print by Blockhead Rod. All in all - it was an incredible show!

I enjoyed it and look forward to the next! Hats off to the Block Head Rod team members!

Wordless Wednesday

Unique Commodities

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Stormy Designs Rocks

I took a look at Roseworks Jewelry new blog and was floored! It was a beautiful site so I asked her who designed her new blog and she quickly told me Stormy Designs did. So I asked the awesome Stormy what it would cost me to redesign my blog! Well she doesnt charge a specific fee but takes donations and is more than willing to barter! The end result for me is this incredible site that Stormy Designs did for me. Not only that but she did a new banner for my store and an Avatar! Way above and beyond anything I could have designed myself or paid someone to do for me!

Polymer Clay couch Business Card

Stormy Designs is one of the most giving Etsyblogger team members I have met! She is very active in the Etsy Community. She is a member of the Etsy Bloggers Street Team and Organizer of the EtsyBloggers Carnival. She is such a sweetheart and gives to her family so above and beyond. Stormy told me she has 10 grandchildren! That is so awesome! I love her spirit and her giving heart! Hats off to one of the most encouraging Etsy Artisans!

Glitter Star Crackle Earrings

Monday, November 10, 2008

Tip from Palleiko Designs - How to create a screen shot

Tip from Palleiko Designs re: how to create a screen shot! Worked for me – see my treasury shot below!

* Hit F11 to view full screen, then hit the print screen button.
* Hit F11 again to return to normal screen mode.
*Use whatever photo editor tool you have, paste the screen shot there & save as a .png or .jpeg
* Crop wherever needed and there you have it!

Note: If for some reason it is blurry – you may need to check your monitor setting or how you are saving your document in your photo editor software.

My First Treasury - Yippee!

OMG! I am sooo excited! The awesome LazyTcrochet just featured me in my FIRST TREASURY ever! At least that I know of! I was so excited and it made my day! Thanks LazyTcrochet!

check out LazyTcrochet's blog

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Working with Polymer Clay

OK so Why was I so INTRIGUED by working with polymer clay?! I love working with my hands and I love the possibility of what you can create but geez it is so intimidating to me. I bought all of this sculptey clay when it was on sale at Michaels and of course a few books and tools and gadgets the books and different people recommended. Then I let it sit for 3 whole weeks too afraid to jump in and start because I simply didnt know where to start. So today as I cooked Sesame Ginger Turkey tenderloins for a church luncheon tomorrow, I sat outside and simply STARTED. Now I have NO CLUE how these pieces are going to turn out once I bake them but HEY at least I started and at least I tried (so no laughing allowed)!

First I picked out some clay and worked it some with my hands and some with my polymer clay machine that I got from Firemountaingems.com for $11.

Then I looked out on Etsy and through some of my books for inspiration! I found a pair of earrings on Etsy made from glass that I loved and tried to make them out of clay! I really dont like what I see so far but hey I played and had fun with it and will see what the finished product turns out like.

My inspiration earrings from Etsy

Then I knew I wanted to do something with autumn leaves so I grabbed a few leaves off of a tree that was just gorgeous and cut the leaf up and placed it on the pendant I made using liquid polymer clay (sure hope that was right..LOL).

Supplies I used

Made an acorn pendant and embellished it with gold clay. With the left over clay, I made a few beads - one of which I embellished with gold circles. Now I have to let it cool, sand it up and add my glaze!

Here it is! Cooling and ready to be sanded and Glazed!

Feel free to share any tips and offer any feed back!

YIPPEE! The price of gas is dropping

I tell you the price of REGULAR UNLEADED gas being at $3.99 a gallon was CRAZY! I remember when regular gas was .89 a gallon! Long gone those days! But I will say I was most excited today to find Regular Unleaded gas here in Columbia, SC at 1.98 a gallon! I thought finally some relief and sure hope it is not temporary!

Got my gift in the mail

I got my gift in the mail and I LOVED it so much it made me CRY! As I shared before the sweet glorybe1024 http://glorybe1024.blogspot.com/ tells us on the etsybloggers forum that her close friend Vicky from http://2sistersandme.blogspot.com/ held a contest in honor of her own birthday and I WON! I received my items in the mail this past week and I was so encouraged. The gift was beautifully packaged and I got more than I expected. She sent me chocolate (OMG), the BEAUTIFUL hand made journal, journal cover and TWO matching pink pens. Not to mention I got a warm encouragement card that lifted my spirits and a gorgeous hand bag! Thanks again Vicki! I will cherish the gifts you gave me in honor of your birthday! I showed it to all of my coworkers!

Signed with much Etsy Love,

Terronda

WELCOME NEW ETSYBLOGGERS TEAM MEMBERS

Welcome to our NEWEST Etsybloggers team members!

I decided weekly to welcome all the new Etsybloggers to the team! This is an incredible street team where we support, encourage and push each other towards our goals! More than anything we are all blog-a-holics! LOL! I wanted to take the time to welcome the new team members below and let you know if there is anything you need from me (or any other team mate) we are all here to help!

Welcome to…..

AMYSBEADING SUPPLIES

Amy

Etsy: www.amysbeadingsupplies.com

Etsy: www.amyscollections.etsy.com