A Little Of This...and A Little Of That!

     The sky, header photo, when Ashley and Aron...of the blog Hither and Thither... went to the Brooklyn Bridge Park Cinema the other day, looks a lot like our sky here in Massachusetts. We have some rain clouds rolling out, and it's suppose to turn into a beautiful day!...Great back-drop for the start of a great new week, and to talk about a little bit of this and a little bit of that! :-)

       By the way, if you wanna see some more great photos of Ashley and Aron's outing, you can go HERE. 
       I wanna tell you about A little Of This And A Little Of That All Handmade, by fabricartist21! :-) And yes! That's the name of a new treasury one of my necklaces was included in. :-)) 

     Considering that I have a few things, kinda random things, to talk about today, I thought it was a perfect name and the perfect time to show it to you! ^_^
      The necklace of mine that she included was my Turquoise Green Birds On A Wire Crochet Beaded Necklace.

       Phew! That's a whole lotta 'mouth full' of name for a piece of jewelry, isn't it?!! LOL More about that in a minute!...First, I wanna show you a couple of the other things that were in this treasury with it!
    One was this three piece table runner set by Serenstitches.

       I'm always so amazed at how much time and love creative-minded people put into their work! You can almost feel it oozing out of their finished projects, can't you?! :-]
       Speaking of which, look at this beautiful Window Pillow by MamaRabbitsWorkshop.

       I crocheted a wedding circles blanket one time that had all of the circles in it. I KNOW that's a lot of work!!...And look at all of those pretty colors! :-) ...Anyway! If you wanna see the rest of the items in her treasury, including some cute quilted pieces, you can click HERE.
      Okay...back to the name of my necklace...I followed an Etsy link over the weekend to an article about SEO, in other words...optimizing the getting of your items seen in Etsy searches. I learned in that article that they've changed how your things show up in the searches now! O_0 In other words, I used to renew everything as soon as it expired because I thought it went right to the top of the searches!
       I found out from this article, entitled 'Make Your Shop More Relevant', that that's no longer true!! O_O The day you used to renew things they used to go right to the top of the searches for a while. Now the date doesn't matter at all! Your items are relevant based on how well you let the customer know what you have!
      For instance, little did I know that when I was titling my necklace as a "Necklace" it wasn't hardly getting seen because it didn't tell people that it was a 'special' "Crochet" necklace, and that it had beads...I also wasn't titling my scarves as crochet scarves!...I also didn't call my circle scarf a "Crochet Cowl Scarf"!...You see where I'm going with this?!
     Those of you with Etsy shops probably already knew this, but 'Miss Wug Oblivious' over here didn't have a clue that my little 'babies' that I've been working so hard on were practically invisible in searches!! O_O ...So, I changed a few of my titles yesterday. Thankfully they said that you don't have to do every listing the same. In fact, you shouldn't...Good!
     And guess what?!...Already this morning I noticed the views increased on some of my items that never get any love!! :-) So, needless to say, I need to be paying a bit more attention to thinking like a customer, instead of thinking like a finicky maker!
      And yes, I am still a finicky  maker!...Remember this?!

       It had gone to the old 'I'll-Get-Back-To-You-Some-Time-Or-The-Other' pile...because I didn't want to fool with 'making' the lining to put in it!...Well, I'm not gonna make the lining!!! Surprised you saying that, didn't I?! ^_^ But hold on....it will have a lining. I gave it to a friend the other day...A friend who is what I consider an 'Expert Seamstress'!...who is going to make me a lining for it! :-) 
      I saw the bag when I was fishing through my other bags the other day trying to find out where the rest of my brown yarn went! I almost got weepy thinking about how much time and effort I put into making it, and here it was...doing nothing, and being seen and used by nobody!!
      So, as soon as she finishes doing the lining, and I pay her WHATEVER she asks!....and then I calculate how much of that price I can reasonably ask the customer who buys it to reimburse me...I'm going to list it for sale in my shop.
       I have an idea already about how much I'm going to ask for it...It's a lot!! But I figure that if pocketbook designers who don't actually sew their bags themselves can ask 2 or 3 hundred dollars for them...I should be able to get at least what the labor on mine is worth!..Hey! It's a 'Ugly Wug Original'!!! LOL...Hmmm...maybe that's not a good selling point. I'll have to think some more on that one!...WHATEVER!!! ^_^
      In other quick news...

     ...regarding the 'situation' I spoke about on Saturday! :-) This makes me happier than you will ever know! YAY! For taking advice and getting on with it people!! :-)
   Lastly, for today... ^_^ ...the gray sweater scarf...

          ...is at a stand-still. :-( I ran out of gray yarn...I really should say I can't 'find' the gray yarn!! In fact, it's in the same bag as the brown yarn I was looking for!! UGH!! How can a menopausal brained-woman lose a whole bag of her 'good' yarn?!! I'll let you know when I find out!!
       I put a pair of my shoes in the refrigerator one time when we were going to a gathering. I put them in there next to the cake I didn't want to forget to bring with me...and the car keys I knew I wouldn't be able to leave the house without!!...Cut to me, hours later, in my bare feet and in a puddle of tears, wandering around the house trying to find the car keys so we could go to the gathering!! ^_^ ....................No! We didn't make it!! LOL But after I calmed down, and hubby got over being mad with me, we had a nice midnight cake party!! ^_^
      Anyway, back to the other story....When I couldn't find the gray yarn right away, and I saw this other soft pretty yarn in one of the bags, a yarn I had totally forgotten I had, I decided I'd go ahead and start a scarf with it for now...and continue to look for the gray yarn later. Here's what it looks like!...

     It's a variegated angel hair yarn, with pink, white and blue. I added a brown thread and another pink thread for interest...

       It started to look like it was gonna be too busy-looking. So I decided to add a section of brown...

        (Sorry about the bad lighting. It had gotten late, and I tried to take this picture in the bedroom by lamp-light....Not a good idea!!)

        This is the time I realized I didn't have enough brown, and went looking for it.....since I had to look for the gray yarn anyway! UGH!! Now I'm aware that I don't have either!! And I can't find the bag they're in ANYWHERE!!!...Don't you wanna be inside my brain...with your high-heel shoes on right now?!! ^_^
        Enough looking already!!!!! I need to get me some breakfast, find me another project to start.....before which I'm gonna make sure I have enough to finish it!! LOL {Reminded me of a scripture from the bible: Luke 14:28..."...who of you that wants to build a tower does not first sit down and calculate the expense, to see if he has enough to complete it?"...I'm not building a tower, but you can see why I thought of it, right?!!!! ^_^}
       Have a good day everybody!!....Whatever you're doing! :-) {The poem below is one I wrote a while ago. I'm only posting part of it. The rest of it is hard-core y'all....reality!!! LOL}

Change Of Life

I have one good week a month-
A change of life that drives me mad!
At 52, this is the worst
of all the changes that I've  had.

The week before-I start to crave.
I clear the fridge-bit by bit.
My 'Slightly Hungry' appetite
becomes a raging bottomless pit.

My highly focused, scheduled mind
now loses shoes, and curries fears.
My hair gets all dried out
and I become a ball of tears.

Then there's  the trembling of the legs,
Flashes-hot and cold alike,
headaches that don't  seem to quit,
charlie horses in the night.

In the mirror is a woman
I recognize-but she scares me!
"Lock me up, please, just this week,
and kindly throw away the key!"

But first, make sure my cave's  in order-
all my things where they should be,
'cause I'll  be checking 'Every Hour'
when I wake up-to go pee.

Yes-it happens every month!
This change of life will drive me mad!
(At least 3 weeks a month-
because one week its not so bad!!)    

Am I done yet?

YAY! The weekend Tag Sale is DONE! We did pretty good too...at least we did on Friday. Saturday was such a beautiful day, weather-wise, that people took the opportunity to go biking with the kids, barbecuing, or just going for walks in the sunshine. NOT Tag Saleing! Saturday's take was about $30.00, and that's how much we paid my sister for sitting and helping us. So, it was a break-even day. Friday we made enough to cover either 1/4 of a mortgage, 1/60th of a car payment, 4 weeks worth of grocery, or 1/10th of that beautiful living room furniture I want to buy!!! LOL
  That was the good news of the weekend. The other news is that I had a "friend" visit again after not seeing them for a whole 6 months!!! UGH! I hate to be indelicate, so I won't get into details. When I say "My Friend" though, women...you know what I mean!! I'm almost 51. Enough said. Needless to say, this is one "Friend" I thought I was never going to see again!! Oh well, I guess I'm not DONE with this "friend" yet. I saw a print, done from an artist's original acrylic painting, that said it all! It's by an ETSY shop owner named artbytrudy http://www.etsy.com/shop/artbytrudy It's titled "Yellow Giclee Print Women Illustration Hand Printed Humourous Red".

  SAD,...but true! LOL Although I wish "Myself" wasn't such a BEAR at that time. It doesn't make for a nice friendly Tag Sale Hostess. All those fruitages of the spirit get a real work out!!! Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, and especially self-control!!! Maybe it'll be at least another 6 months before this "friend" visits again...or never!...That would be GOOD!!...Sad to say that about a friend that you've been familiar with since your late teenage years (Yep! I was late....VERY!!!  I was about 16. If not for a hurried trip to the Emergency room with Appendicitis, and being asked by the nurse about my Menses...and not knowing what she was talking about, I may have never even known about this "Friend". But a little pill from the doctor and me and my "friend" have been constant, battling, companions every since!). I know, too much information! LOL
  As you can see, while I try to be tactful in my speech, no subject is really off limits with me. I learned a long time ago how healthy it was for me to just be myself...and so I am! But thankfully for you, except for the poem below, now I'm DONE! :-)) {By the way, I wrote this poem almost 3 years ago. A lot has changed in that short period of time!!...NOW I'm done!}

Change Of Life

I have one good week a month-
A change of life that drives me mad!
At 48, this is the worst
of all the changes that I've  had.

The week before-I start to crave.
I clear the fridge-bit by bit.
My 'Slightly Hungry' appetite
becomes a raging bottomless pit.

My highly focused, scheduled mind
now loses shoes, and curries fears.
My hair gets all dried out
and I become a ball of tears.

Then there's  the trembling of the legs,
Flashes-hot and cold alike,
headaches that don't  seem to quit,
charlie horses in the night.

In the mirror is a woman
I recognize-but she scares me!
"Lock me up, please, just this week,
and kindly throw away the key!"

But first, make sure my cave's  in order-
all my things where they should be,
'cause I'll  be checking 'Every Hour'
when I wake up-to go pee.

Then-the flowing starts.
I can't wait til this is less!.
I just stay in my nightgown-
its now 'Unreasonable' to dress.

This goes on for days and days
while brain cells flee, and calmness too.
I'm  frustrated, tired and mad
and please tell me: "Where's  my shoe?"

And then-Hurrah! The flow subsides-
Then all my bones begin to hurt.
All my muscles start to cramp,
and my suspicion's  on alert.

"Everything', with me, is wrong-
Depression now has raised its rear.
The only good thing is-this means
that soon my good week will be here.

Yes-it happens every month!
This change of life will drive me mad!
(At least 3 weeks in the month-
because one week its not so bad!!)