Potato Pancakes

Let the leftovers begin! I made a mountain of mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving and this morning we had potato pancakes for breakfast. Super easy recipe that you can easily adapt to your taste or what you have in the fridge.

This recipe made 6 medium pancakes.

• 2 cups mashed potatoes
• 1/3 small onion grated
• 3 slices cooked bacon
• 1 egg, beaten
• butter for pan

Beat egg in bowl, to that add additional ingredients. Melt in skillet butter, drop spoonfuls into pan and press flat, I found them to be gooey so I sort of had to pry them off the spatula with a butte knive. Let cook about 8 minutes until crisp, flip and cook additional 6-8 minutes, watch for done-ness.

Serve with chives and sour cream.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sale

I rarely do sales, sure I mark things down from time to time, but an all out shop wide sale, not so much. But since I elected to not do any shows this holiday weekend I thought I would join in the online fun, well I hope anyway.

Etsy is or will be promoting 3 tags this weekend, Free shipping Etsy, Black Friday Etsy, and Cyber Monday Etsy. You can read more from the etsy November Merchandising Desk here in this blog post. I will be doing a combination of offerings; free shipping on some items and discounts on other items and in particular my BlackFridayCyberMonday section will especially be discounted.

I have been busing getting my shop ready, here is what I have done so far and what I still need to do to be totally ready.

I am using a few off etsy apps to help get ready as well, I signed up for Etsy On Sale over the summer and finally did the full read through to apply sales, and change tags in my shop. I also bought the 25.00 package and got 125 credits to use. You can use these credits whenever you like, each action you apply to your shop costs credits. A sale is 4 credits, and a tag change/addition/delete is 1 credit.

I also will be trying for the first time a few of the apps on Craftopolis there you can edit a title and the first paragraph of your listing, these are suggestions made by etsy if you are participating.

Readying my shop:

• I cleaned up my sections, condensed items and reduced the number, this was to help reduce cost of using etsy on sale. Since credits are applied by entire shop or by section having less sections will reduce that cost a bit.
• Reviewed ALL my tags, this has actually been an ongoing project but I finally went through one by one and made my tags more relevant and also made sure I had enough room to add the 3 etsy tags for this event.
• I am listing...a lot, I hope to have nearly 200 items listed by Thursday, I have been doing this since early October, I have listed about 125 items since then.
  
• Created a "Free Shipping profile" to be applied to some of my listings, this will only be for US transactions.
• Writing my new first paragraph for my free shipping and % discount that I will add via Craftopolis later this week. I like to type it out and live with it for a few days first.

I plan to have most of this and ready to go on Thursday, with EOS you can schedule so mine will begin at various times late Thursday to midnight on Friday.

You will have to check out my etsy shop for the sales and deals, and free shipping items. I hope it will be a fun sale for buyers to get some of their shopping done!

Shrine Show November 18 and 19th

Had a GREAT time at the Shrine show Friday night and will be heading back this morning. My spot was next to my friend Molly, from MollyCoddle Tiles. I had a great time meeting new people and hanging out among such creativity.

This is just a few quick pics to share of my space, looking forward to this morning, and going to grab a few bake sale goodies as well.

Craft Show Craziness...Readiness

I do a limited amount of shows each year so for me they are always a panic, so much to do above and beyond making the items. This year I am hoping to be more organized and less panicked. I have the first of three this coming weekend and now that it is Monday and set up is Friday I am actually starting to pack up now (really RIGHT after I post this to my blog).

I also thought I would give a checklist of things I need and want to take along, I know when I started I was somewhat guessing. Here are a few of my essentials.

• Change, I bring $80.00 in paper money, usually 4 10's, 4 5's, 20 1's, plus coin since I collect sales tax, I just bring a lot, at least 30.00 in coins.
• Sales tax license
• Secure location for money
  
• Receipt pad(s)
• Pens, scissors, tape, small notepad
• Calculator
• Clip board, for checks and receipt signing
• Merchandise bags, I have 3 sizes
• Business cards, postcards, fliers, etc.
• Table coverings
• Gridwall hardware, I keep this stuff in a small plastic box, also I need for some assembly screwdrivers, plier and wrench, good to have all.
• Apron, I also stock this fully before the show with some cash, business cards, pens and a small calculator, also a lip balm :)
• Bowl of candy - obviously optional
  
• Small decorations, I sometimes bring a few nutcrackers along to add a festive touch to my table, since the shows are actually Christmas I am not worry about offending, just be mindful of the crowd if you choose to decorate.
  
• Signs or pricing, I often just price in bulk and use mini frames to help sign, I once did a blog post on this idea here
• Cosmetic bag with a few personal items, make up, brush, toothbrush, etc.
• Small cooler or lunch bag, I always bring water, soda, and dry snacks such as pretzels, granola bars.
• Grocery bags for garbage collection at my booth
  
• Printed list of above
• Admin basket or bag, I use this to keep things I will always need to know right where they are, like my apron, cash, lists, etc.
  

Some pics of my spare room, top, stacks of stuff needing to be priced and placed, middle my growing collection of baskets, its good to have options, and the guest bed, which is really just another table.

I am lucky to have a good size extra bedroom and am able to set up a 6 foot table, which seems to be the standard size for inside shows. Here I can play with my displays and items and have a good idea of set up before I get to the show. I also draw a little diagram and refer to it when I get to the show. For me my mind is always racing so having this for references does help. If you cannot use an actual table, mark out your space on the floor or bed a visual before the show helps a lot.

Here is a sort of picture of what I will do at the show, I have a fair amount of flexibility to move around as needed. Making this and stapling it to my checklist and make sure it goes to my admin basket for the show.

Columnists | Crafter turns fabric into practical items | The Detroit News

I am super excited about my weekend feature in The Detroit News. I had the chance to share one of my accessories and talk a bit about my selling life. I did an event Saturday at "State of MInd" it was fun to have several people say they saw me in the paper. Here is the link to the article below.

Columnists | Crafter turns fabric into practical items | The Detroit News

I still need to actually get my hands on a copy for myself, as I sort of missed it when it came out on Friday. I have a few nice folks who will be saving it for me.

New Item Stocking Stuffer Coin Purses

I have a new item this year, very Christmas like, which is unusual for my shop. I rarely sew any holiday items as they don't do very well for me...really, not everyone wants a Santa purse?

So, I have had this idea for a few years and finally did it. I was in the sewing room on Saturday and actually felt kind of bored - very unusual feeling. I remembered this idea and having a few holiday shows and stacks of Christmas fabric I finally worked up a design and started making these. I am calling them "stocking stuffer coin purses" kind of cute, huh? This way I can also legally use "stocking stuffer" on etsy and be found by eager holiday shoppers...tee hee!

A little bit of the design process, pattern pieces for the stocking and lining, then the revision, I wanted it wider and rounder, I re-drew my pattern and ended up with the perfect size.

So this is how it starts, I need a stocking shape, I have several books on stockings so I pulled those out and adapted one to the size and shape I wanted. Luckily I only had one that was done first that was not my desired size, a quick edit and I not have the sweetest stocking coin purses. Added to each a vintage jingle bell and these will great to use all season long. I plan on using mine to keep all my Christmas Receipts in ONE place in my purse.

While I am really planning these for offline events and markets I could not resist adding a few, above are the first two I added to my etsy shop.

A close up peek of these vintage jingle bells, and all the colors one last time!