Learning and sharing

Mixed in with holiday business, I'm trying to learn how to promote my business on the internet.  Just finished Handmadeolgy's 5 day Twitter course.  It's free, I always say that's my price.  It's a start and some confusung, since I mostly see people trying to sell something to me.  I started the next course on How to use SEO to sell your merchandise.  I'm trying.
  Today my hubby, Larry, was Santa for a big nursing home.  He has done it for them for 15 years, and on Sunday is the big one.  He is Santa for the Diamond Children Center and he gets to ride in a fire truck over there.  It is mostly for the children with cancer, and he will see some of the children who receive the toys he makes and donates. 

Thanksgiving

We have been really busy creating for our Etsy shop, but this week is a break.  Family coming for Thanksgiving, always love seeing the grandkids.  We will be going to my daughter's in-laws for dinner.  A busy time,  I also want to get started on gifts I'm making for family.  I started a stuffed owl for my newest grandson, he is 7 months old.  In my new line of reversible hats, I'm going to have one side water restitant for a rain hat.  My son and daughter-in-law live in Florida and I think she needs a rain hat. So I guess I will get busy.

Another trip to Albuquerque

Just back home again from Albuquerque.  We made the arrangements to leave our motorhome there all year in dry storage when not using it.  It was not easy to get licensed in New Mexico, we had to go back 4 times.  We had to jump through hoops to get it done, but we made it.
Whenever away, we both think about new products we want to make.  I took some materials with me, but my husband, Larry can't take his woodworking along.  It's like an itch you can't scratch when you can't work on your stuff.

Halloween Decorations

I,m real happy with my latest creations for Halloween.  Since I was on vacation, I started making  by handstitching everything.  Turned out nice.  May keep making by hand, or do some machine work to speed up process.
By the way-----Happy to be home.  Our problem resolved itself before we got home.  Prayer does work.

Homebound Preparations

Well, we leave Albuquerque in one week, and we work on getting ready.  Went home toTucson last week to drop off our van and bring the pick up.  Things were crazy there, and not sure how to fix,  We let a homeless lady that had aquired a small trailer to park it at our house while we are gone.  She was allowed to use the utilities also.  The understanding was that she would be gone by the time we got back.  It's not looking good.  What do we do, I don't want to be mean, but it is against our zoning.  Help!

New Product for Etsy Shop

I created a new item especially for Halloween for our Etsy shop.  It's one of those things that you feel it should sell like crazy and people think reallly cute.  Then you post the pictures and descriptions and it just sits there.  Most artistic creaters know what I mean.  Of course, it's a it's a bit early for Halloween sales.  I can only hope and make some more styles.  We sold so much more in craft shows last month,  we may do more of them when we get back home in a couple of weeks.

Bayfield Park Problems

This was our third year at this beautiful RV park, and really didn't enjoy it that much.  We had asked for some shade at our spot since we don't have an awning and we have two dogs.  No shade!  Right away we started having problems with getting enough power to run our air and it was hot.  Even Colorado can have very warm days.  The owner blamed us by saying we
must have something going bad in our RV.  It cooled off after a couple of days, so we tried to use little air conditioning.  We enjoyed our parties and kept an eye on our power usage with a volt meter.  When it got hot again, we put volt meter in their connection and pointed out to them how little power we were getting.  They moved us to another spot and our last week was much more pleasant.  But it came out that they were having power problems in that area of the park before we ever arrived.  If we come back next year, we will probably go to another park.

July 16, birthday. July 17, wedding.

WE got lucky, no rain on my birthday.  There were about 30 people for the party here at the RV park.  I knew most of them, because they are family.  My son, Matt traveled from Florida, not so much for my 70th birthday, but to be best man at his brother's wedding.  Nice to have him here, haven't seen him for a year. We are a pretty tight family.  That's what can happen when a single mom raises three children through some fairly tough times by herself.  My daughter, Shauna, with her husband and four kids came in from Albuquerque.  My brother arrived with his son from just west of here about 3 hours drive.  His other son from Ohio, with his wife and son, and his daughter from Corpus Cristi, Tx.    Well, the birthday was planned and then along came a wedding of my oldest son, Mike.  He decided he wanted the wedding here in this beautiful park, so we decided to do it while everyone is here.  It all turneed out wonderful. 

What excitement! Laundry day.

It is definately cooler in Colorado, of course just about anyplace is cooler than Tucson.  Phoenix wins the award of being the hottest big city, I think.  The sun is intense here, though, and we try to get stuff done early.  This  morning we got off early(9:30am) to do the laundry in town.  The laundry here at the RV park is tiny and hot, and we found the one in Bayfield the first year we came here.  By going early, we can take the dogs and park in the shade, and Larry stays with them while I get things done.  While the wash was doing it's thing, I went up and down the street taking pictures.  It's a nice small town, and I want a few pictures to remember it by.  We probably won't come again next year, since my husband has problems that make driving the motor home difficult. 

Home in Bayfield

We made it through the smoke, it was pretty bad for about 30 miles, and here we are home for a month.  The RV park is really full for the fourth of July and should empty out somewhat after that.  We have a family right next to us in a brand new Class C and first time camping.  They didn't have all the equipment to empty their  waste, so my husband showed them what they need. 
This is a beautiful RV park and it's our third year here.  It is Bayfield Pine Riverside RV Park and my son is having his wedding in the meadow this month.  Pretty exciting.    Terry

Fire Watch

Well, we are almost ready to go to Durango tomorrow and have debeated which direction to take to avoid some serious smoke.  It isn't the first time we have had to run fires in traveling in the west. I don't like it much, but we have had to go to some small towns and meet some nice people we would never have had the chance to do.  I do think God is with us in our travels, and always will be.

Sunday and Relax

Gonna be a not as hot day--only 98 degrees.  In Tucson it's probably 110 degrees and that's why we're here.  The craft show was slow and I sold 0 items, but my daughter did well for such slow attendance,  She had advertised to her friends, and some showed.  It's a good idea---it's called a Friends Craft Sale and she gets together with 4 or 5 friends and has at each others homes.  They e-mail or twitter or whatever their friends, and at least a few show. They all sell jewelry so there wasn't many looks at my things that are from my shop at  http://www.tigerseyecrafts.etsy.com/.

Hot day in Albuquerque.

Today will try a local craft show with my daughter.  She has a shop on Etsy also, http://www.myladyjewelry.etsy.com/, but does most of her sales at craft shows. Hope we do well.

Vacation and Etsy

My shop on Etsy is  http//:Tigerseyecrafts.etsy.com  and we are trying to maintain our shop while on vacation.  It's a challenge.  We brought all of our product with us and a few more items to list, but we are away from home for three months every summer.  What else can we do?  The one item we sold while here in Albuquerque is a vintage necklace made by Trifari.  It sold first day, and was easy enough to ship.  I can't see leaving my shop untended for three months, so here we are.  Has anyone else tried this?  Terry  ,

2nd sale on Etsy today.

Yeah!  It's been slow, so excited about sale of my vintage Trifari Necklace and earrings set.  It's only second sale and maybe a good sign.  You may wonder how I can handle my business while away from home.  Well, we brought everything with us.  I just listed this item.  lol

RV Park

We have met a couple from England staying at same park just two spaces away.  They seem very nice, and are pretty interesting.  We talk about every thing, and get to hear about their travels.  He was in the RAF and they have seen most of Europe and they even went to Australia.  His mother lives there.  I asked what they thought was the prettiest place and they agreed on La Rochelle, France.  They thought the most pleasant place to visit is San Sebastion, Spain.  I get to see their pictures later,  and sort of visit
myself.

Windy and Smokey

Our first two days of our visit in Albuquerque have been sooo very windy and our RV park on the west heights is always windy anyway.  This is our third year staying here a month or more.  You might say the price is right.  This year we have smoke to add to the high winds from an Arizona fire.  One year on a trip to the northwest, we had to run fires to get back home.  It seemed like ther were fires every way we turned.  We had to change our route a couple of times, and passed areas where the earth was scorched by the road.   Needless to say that was "exciting" and my hair is gray now.  lol

Today the world is good.

My husband ,Larry, is flying high.  He got free gifts at Firestone tire after buying a new tire for our RV.  Even better, there was free food.  We left Tuesday on I-10 and headed to Albuquerque for a month.  We had a flat tire on Wednesday, heading north on I-25.  What an experience, but some nice traveler signaled us of our problem and probably saved us from an accident.  God has his way of looking after us.  Thank you, Lord.

Wanderer: My first time

Wanderer: My first time: "I tried to build a blog at another site and got nowhere, so here I am putting my first blog here. It seemed fairly easy, so I can hope it w..."

My first time

I tried to build a blog at another site and got nowhere, so here I am putting my first blog here.  It seemed fairly easy, so I can hope it will continue to remain that way.  Now how do I keep my blog from being lost in a wide world of blogs?  Any ideas out there?