The I Can Blog: December 2017

Friday, December 29, 2017

30 Days of Reflection: Day 1

As I stated previously, I am trying to increase my blogging with some new ideas besides just crafty stuff, or things I make. So, I am doing a 30 day blogging challenge, on reflecting. This is perfect for New Years. I do not usually do resolutions, but reflecting is something different. I will be making some resolutions, or goals for 2018, and increasing my blogging is one of them. So, lets pretend it is January 1st, lol, and start day one. I won't be doing 30 days of writing, 30 days in a row. Sorry, I am not that motivated to write, lol. But, I will get the full 30 days in. Day 1, and I found this list on Pinterest, is to name one thing I could do this month to improve my spiritual walk. Now my spiritual walk began many years ago, when I was a teen, and has been a bumpy, windy road. As I continue my walk, with age, comes some wisdom and strength that might not have been there before. Since reflecting is about getting to know yourself better, I can safely say that I jump to conclusions too quickly, especially emotionally. I am not an emotional person per say, but I do get them ugly thoughts in my head pretty quickly. Not ugly where I want to hurt someone, just ugly in spite, or anger, moodiness. So, one thing I would like to improve is to not do that. Just because something doesn't go exactly as planned, or someone annoys me, or does something I don't like, keep the ugly thoughts away. How do I do that? Good question, since I have fighting with this my whole life. But, one thing I am sure will help is to pray about it, and ask the Lord to help me bite my tongue, or bite my thoughts, lol. Sometimes ugly thoughts come out with ugly words. That is another whole issue, but if the thought isn't there the words won't come. When an ugly thought comes to mind, I will try to just shoo it away. I know it sounds kind of simple, but if I practice what I preach, meaning I teach my children to treat others the way you want to be treated, then my brain should know ugly thoughts do not fit into this. How will this help my spiritual walk? Because I can't love others, as myself, if I am having ugly thoughts about them every time I get a little annoyed. What is one thing you could do to improve your spiritual walk? Check back for day 2 coming soon. Join me if you like. If you do a post with this topic, please share link in comments, and I will check it out.

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

New Year, New Ideas

I mentioned in my previous post that I was making some changes for 2018. You probably read about a couple of them, already. Two other changes I will be making, are: 1- Each month I will post a theme, for creating new items. For January the theme will be birds. This means that most of the items I create for January will include something to do with birds. That doesn't mean I won't do other things that tickle my fancy, but will try to stick mostly with birds. February will be Valentine's Day. 2- Each month I will have a sale either in my Ebay shop, Etsy shop, or both. They will run for the entire month, and may include all items, or just chosen items. Be sure to check back for that. The first sale will begin on January 1st. 3- I will be learning some new things in 2018, namely, I hope natural beauty products. That will be in conjunction with continuing perfecting my other creativity projects I love, like crocheting, jewelry making, wood burning, glass etching, drawing, painting, etc. 4. Now that my son got a laptop for Christmas I hope to be able to get back to blogging on a more regular routine. I will be doing some blog challenges, that will hopefully keep me blogging at a regular pace.

Monday, December 18, 2017

Make It Monday: Etched Glass Pieces

Welcome back to a new Make it Monday! This week I had to finish up a Christmas gift, and it will be a made to order item in my Ebay shop. It is the glass vase, shown below, with etched glass cross image, and the words Joy To the World on the back. This is a gift for my youth choir director. Like I said it will be a made to order item in my Ebay shop.

The second item, I only started. I hope I can finish it tomorrow, but it might have to wait until next Monday, which is Christmas. I have a busy week this week, but Christmas day is looking quiet. There will be a set of 5 of them, Mason jar style, in a nautical theme. They too will be in my Ebay shop, once completed.

My new Ebay shop will be called Missy69, and it should be easy to find. Right now I am selling under my name MRR05, until I open the shop in the new year. I will continue to have items on Etsy until they expire, and then a few items only.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Coming in January!

Since Thanksgiving to this past weekend, my life has been super busy. Not only was I not able to do my Make it Monday, posts, because I was working every Monday, but then I had a job opportunity fall into my lap that I had to get ready for. So, I haven't had a lot of time to blog, or create new items. I will be having some big changes in January of 2018. I have spent most of 2017 learning some new skills, and perfecting others. Along with evaluating how I wanted to sell those items. Etsy just is not working for me right now, and hasn't for this whole year. I did have 3 sales so far in December, but it really is not enough to sustain the amount of fees I am paying out to advertise said items. So, after much thinking, researching, and deciding what would be best for me, I have decided to open an Ebay store in January. I have some items listed there already. Once the store opens, I will add inventory that has ended on Etsy, and all new items. I will keep a few items on Etsy, but most of my inventory will be moved to Ebay. I have had naysayers say you can't sell handmade on Ebay, and make any money. I just don't believe that is true. If someone loves your product, they will buy it. If something isn't going to sell on Ebay, then I see no difference then if it doesn't sell on Etsy. In the long run it is about saving money, and making profit when I do sell something. I can also sell my art items on Ebay, where Etsy makes me go through some arcane process to have outside manufacturing. Just a big time hog. So, be sure and watch for my new Ebay store at the beginning of January. I will also be running a sale every month, or shipping deals. I will also be returning to Make it Monday items. I might do a monthly theme each month.

I would really love to start collecting emails from fans who would love to see my new items, and follow for sales, and specials. I don't want to sign up for an email collector, but if you would like to receive a weekly email update, or monthly, not sure, with new items and specials, you can either leave your email in the comments, or email it to me at melissaruede@yahoo.com with newsletter in the subject.

The two items below are as follows, and available for purchase. The first item is a new item added to my Etsy shop about a week ago. It is 3 terra cotta pots with Peace, Love and Joy painted on. They are on sale right now, until December 20th when my shop will go on vacation, as are most of my Etsy items.

The second item is one of my original paintings of a Zentangle elephant applied to a studio pouch bag. It is available on Ebay via my seller account.

My Etsy shop is going on vacation on December 20th. So, if you want to get any of my items for sale there before the sale runs out, hurry and get them now.