Decluttering

I was reading an article about decluttering on Alison Marks' Inside Out Design Coaching site this morning, and her suggestion to consider whether an item was beautiful, useful, or loved really hit home. I'd been wanting to go thru my closet and dresser for awhile, but just hadn't made the time ... until this morning. I quickly filled up two paper grocery bags with clothes (and a few other things!) to be donated to charity. Sure wish I could do the same with my studio, but that stuff is much harder to let go!

Earth Hour

"Earth Hour" got its start in Sydney, Australia in 2007. And, in just one year, it has spread worldwide to include major cities and small towns on many continents!

Now, YOU can participate too! All you need to do is turn off the lights, as well as non-essential electric appliances, in your home or office between 8 and 9 pm. TONIGHT, March 29, 2008. This is your local time, wherever you are, so there's no need to worry about time zones.

What will shutting the lights off for one hour do? Well, last year in Sydney, the energy consumption was reduced by 10.2% -- this is the equivalent of taking 48,000 cars off the road -- for a year!

Awwww Shucks!

Carey Lynn, over at Edge of the Wildwood, was kind enough to feature my work recently. Please stop by and visit her blog when you get a chance!

Quilt Trader's Newsletter (QTN)

I just wrote up an ad for Quilt Trader's Newsletter to sell quite a bit of my "destashed" fabric. This newsletter is published on the first of each month and offers free ads to members who have quilt-related items to sell or swap. There are always lots of patterns & books for sale on there, as well as fabric, sewing machines, quilting machines, etc. There are also occasional ads from people looking for discontinued fabric or an out-of-print book, as well as announcements of quilt shows and other related events. As of today, this group has 1220 members, all around the world!

Beads, Beads, and More Beads!

A friend has asked me to help her sell off her HUGE collection of lampwork beads. Some of these are mass-produced, but there are also some artist beads available as well. The mass-produced beads include metallics, foils, wedding cakes, and more. The picture to the right, here, is of the purple beads that I have listed on Etsy. The artist beads were purchased from a variety of sellers on eBay; I'll try to post more about them as I go along. I have a few bead listings in my Etsy shop now, and will be listing more on eBay (yeah, I said I wouldn't sell there again ... but this is for someone else, so it's not quite the same -- LOL!)

The Roar of the Thunder!

One of the benefits of living next door to a former Air Force base is that I don't have to buy tickets to the annual air show -- the air show comes to me! For the past couple of days, I've been entertained by the Blue Angels making their practice runs in preparation for the California Capital Air Show; they're at it again right now, in fact, flying over about every 5 minutes. And tomorrow and Sunday, I will not be going anywhere during the day due to the massive traffic jams just outside of my apartment complex. I plan to spend most of the weekend listing beads on Etsy and/or eBay (more on that soon)!

Etsy on Martha - AGAIN!

I was very excited to see yet another segment featuring an Etsy artisan on the Martha Stewart show today! Emily Martin, owner of The Black Apple shop showed how to make her adorable rag dolls.

Rob Kalin, the founder of Etsy, was featured on Martha Stewart last month. I hope Martha will continue to feature Etsy artisans on her show -- wouldn't that just be TOO cool?!