26: current age
18: countries visited (turkey, egypt, peru and all over europe and north america)
12: age when i earned my first paycheck (working in spinach fields, really!)
7: languages studied (latin, italian, spanish, french, mandarin, arabic and turkish)
5: square dances attended this year (yay bluegrass!)
4: movies seen in the theater this year (juno, persepolis, dark knight, wall-e)
3: states lived in (wa, la, ca)
1: pet cat (his name is goose. he enjoys looking indifferent and sleeping on my feet)
I am a mother of three almost grown-up kids! I love all sorts of textiles and am inspired by color, shape and texture. With my kids moving into adulthood, I am finally finding time to pursue my artistic adventures. I add new designs often so come back to see what's new! I have a mailing list! To join, email me at mfs284 [!at] yahoo.com or visit my blog at www.onthemarygoround.blogspot.comI send out monthly newsletters full of Etsy news, as well as specials and events in my shop!
And I'm happy to report that today I hit #1!! Check out my status bar from the shop:
Woo hoo! At the beginning of October I think I had about 30 items in the store, maybe a little more, so I've been really working hard to get it more fully stocked and ready for what I hope is a busy holiday shopping season. Plus I had plenty of sales this month, so I've had to make even more goodies to get to my target number! But today I'm celebrating hitting what is, to me, a big milestone.
Sales are going well -- I've got 23 now and some custom orders in hand that will get me to my goal, I hope, before the 31st. Twenty three sales isn't a ton in the world of Etsy, but since these have all happened in about a thirty day period I'm feeling really good about it! I'd like to thank everyone who's shopped in my store -- thank you so much for your support!! It's so exciting for me to see my creations going out into the world, sometimes to people I know and sometimes to people who discovered me online. I've gotten some great pictures of little ones wearing my dragon shirts and daisy tees and duckie onesies and hairclips, and it's such an amazing feeling to see that.
And finally - favorites. Etsy has a feature that lets people mark your shop or items in it as a favorite item so they can return and shop later. I was hoping for 100 this month (starting at zero a month ago) and so far I have ... drumroll... 130! I've been purposely NOT trolling for these on twitter so that they'll be an accurate reflection of people visiting my store and deciding on their own to make it a favorite, so that's a very positive sign.
I'm getting a couple hundred views a day on various products, have 550 people following me on Twitter, and I've been featured on five different blogs so far, including this frog shirt giveaway running right now on Heart Hugs Designs, features on StampHappy and BlissCandles, Elektra Jewelry, and Glass Menagerie.
So overall? I think it's going GREAT! I'm really excited about how the first month has turned out and feeling very positive about this as a longer term endeavor. And now I have to think about what I'm trying to achieve in November.
It all started when I was 10 and I asked my mother to show me how to use her turquoise 70's sewing machine. It's been a meandering road from making Barbie dresses, going to study fine art, selling at my local craft market, and now to selling on-line.
At the moment my passion is customising clothes, although I also do graphic design,handmade cards, and illustration. When I see people wearing my pieces it's like my drawings have come to life, full of clashing colours and over sized decoration.
Visit Oh Lime at http://ohlime.etsy.com/.Over the summer, some friends of mine had the opportunity to go on a mission trip to Guatemala City, Guatemala, into a ghetto called “La Limonada,” a place plagued by unhealthy living conditions, drug use, and violent crime.
Almost 15 years ago, a woman named Tita opened a school in La Limonada, to give the children an education and the hope for a life outside the dangerous, dirty ghetto. There is no charge for the 250+ kids to go to Tita’s school. She only asks that a parent come to a parenting class once a month. In addition to a regular education, at Tita’s school, the kids learn to brush their teeth and comb their hair. They get a warm meal (in some cases, the only meal they’ll eat that day), and medicine if they need it.
In July 2008, Tita was able to open a second school on “The Other Side,” a deeper and more dangerous part of La Limonada, where many of the kids had never been to school before.
Tita has earned respect in a place that respects little, and she has dreams to offer more to her kids, like counseling for sexual abuse. Running two schools is a struggle for Tita financially, and she has had to turn kids away. For these reasons, Fellowship Bible Church and the Amistad foundation are sponsoring a benefit for Tita and her school.
For the week of October 18-October 25, 75% of all my sales at Oh Lime will go to Tita and her efforts in La Limonada. Thanks for reading, and thanks for any help you can give!
