Sitting by and hoping!

It's a pretty calm night with my 1 and a half year old being at her dad's house for the weekend. My 3 and a half year old is watching TV and drifting off to sleep so I may actually have some time tonight to list some items! I'm actually hoping that I may have some extra time tonight to actually create! :D Tomorrow is Saturday, so I don't have to be anywhere specific at any certain time. I can stay up as late as I would like. (Until my eyes close on me, that is!) The weather is supposed to be very rainy, so I am not able to go garage saleing like I usually do.

I won $20 today on an instant lottery game and felt hopeful, so I got 12 Mega Millions tickets for tonight. Man, I would settle with $1,000 or a little more. I don't even have to win the full $333 million! (Although that would be wonderful. I can save my house as well as pay off mine and my mom's debts!) If I won that much, I would also finally reach my dream of opening my own shop with my items and other Etsy artist's items. :) That would be my ultimate dream. If only I would actually win... I'm hopeful.

ThreeSeventeen had another sale today and I am so proud! I know that this person was from the Etsy message boards and I feel that now I should post there more since I got a sale from it. :) I feel very hopeful in EVERYTHING today. My life, my weight, my shop!

Today is officially 21 pounds lost for me. It's extremely amazing for me that I got this far. Whenever I had gotten this far in the past, I messed up and cheated. This time I am staying faithful to this diet. I am not going to venture off into cheating land because I know when I do I'll gain weight again and I won't be happy. I have a wedding to go to in 3 weeks and I need to look perfect. :) I have faith that I will. I just feel so good tonight and feel that there is going to be a turning point for me soon. Hopefully it involves my business! :)

I hope I can find the energy to list and create tonight!

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Holy Moley! Supplies galore!

On my lunch break, I decided to take a ride to AC Moore. I was planning on also going to Michaels and Joannes as well, but after my amazing trip to AC Moore, I just didn't have the time nor the money! lol I was only going for a few items that I needed to make a new product I am going to be adding, though the sales were spectacular! They had bins and bins of 25 cent, 50 cent, 75 cent and dollar items! Beads included! (And the good beads that were glass, semi precious stones, pearls, crystals..) Almost everything was marked down and I had the time of my life! lol I relaly have to learn to only go to the craft store for things I need! :D

Completely new merchandise coming this week and next week. Some will be posted tonight!

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New items!

New items added today! Including original paintings by myself and a wall hanging that I am in love with. The wall hanging has a special meaning to me because of the quote on it. "We can't all be stars, but we all can twinkle."

The inspiration of this wall hanging was a saying that my mom had always said to me when I was a child. "We can't all be stars, but we all can twinkle." She said that to me because I had always wanted to be something more than I was. I guess to prove a point more than anything else! However, the saying proved to be true. We all twinkle in our own way. That has now become my motto with my children as well. They are unique in their own way, and that is what makes them shine. :)

So, there lies the inspiration and meaning behind that piece. I am very happy with it. Unfortunately, my camera isn't and it had been handled by my kids accidentally. Thankfully, the photo is just of the display piece. The real piece will be much more vibrant and fresh. :) I probably should re-do it and make it "fresher", I just don't have the energy for that tonight.

I have been reading up a lot tonight on the Etsy forums and found many threads on how to make your shop successful. Unfortunately, my shop has been around for almost a year and I only have 10 sales. I really should have more by now, but I neglect it. Well, I have been because I've been so busy. From here on out, I am going to make the shop work if I have to put my sweat, blood and tears into it. I have a custom piece that I am doing over the weekend and that is making me happy. That's a few more dollars to add to the improvement of my shop. :)

Tomorrow I am going thrifting and yard sale-ing. Hopefully I can find some great things to use in my creative ventures. *prays* Right now, I must get my two monsters to bed, finally.

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We are finally back!

After a very long and grueling summer with getting a new job, making arrangements with my ex about my daughter's visitations/vacations, all of our family events and our "daycations", we are finally back for business. We have a sale coming up that is actually going to be in front of our house. THREE SEVENTEEN is ready to be thrown out there, and we are trying for a local start at first. (Besides Etsy.)

We are branching out a bit to other things such as decor, more soaps, body items & such... I will still keep OhMyCupcake for the "cuter" items, but Three Seventeen is going to be more a variety than just jewelry. :)

Keep checking back!

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I promise more coming soon!

I've been working on items since we cleared off the dining room table and I have room to work on my jewelry. The next place to be cleaned is our STUDIO!!! Yes! lol My mom and I are going to get that cleared this week. We want to get some stuff ready for our garage sale anyway and that room has always held our garage sale stuff.

This blog entry is short but sweet! I have to head out to get my daughter, who is at her dads. :)

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Business is finally picking up!

I am so happy. Business is finally picking up! I had two fairly large orders in the past 2 days, which is great! I also have some custom orders that I am currently in talks on. I possibly will be doing those orders as well. Very excited about all of that! :)

I never knew you could explode Cucumber Avacado melt 'n' pour soap. Well, I did. Even if it is absolutely impossible, I did. I don't know how I even did it, because when I tried again to see WHY I did, I couldn't do it. The only thing I could think of, is maybe I put a higher power on the micro by accident and it did it's own thing. (Consisting of a loud BOOM and soap EVERYWHERE) What's funny, is I work with melt n pour A LOT because I just started making hot and cold process. I don't know what to say about how I did it. LOL. :) I have to say one thing...whenever I make my soaps, my house smells AWESOME because of the essential oils I use. lol

Michaels and AC Moore has had the best sales lately and I've had 50% and 40% off coupons. I got some great findings, beads, new crystals from various stores and I also went to garage sales last weekends and got some great vintage pieces to turn into jewelry. I'll be making those this week and trying to add them asap. It's been very difficult lately to do anything.

A few days ago my 3 year old Alayna was running (and I mean running) out the door and down the front stairs because her best friend was calling her from the driveway. In the process of me telling her to slow down, no sooner did I say it, she tripped down the stairs. Down TWO concrete steps. I was petrified she did bad damage but thankfully she didn't. All she did was get a nasty bruise on her nose. Poor baby. I keep putting Neosporin and Mederma for kids on it hoping it will go down soon. I'm so glad she didn't break her nose or do worse.

My youngest has been having a terrible problem with teeth coming in. Both my kids got their teeth early, which is good. Poor Olivia has been having a bad time, though. It got so bad the other day that I guess one of the teeth broke through and actually started bleeding in that area. We were actually at Michaels when that happened and I was so freaked out. She's doing a lot better now, though. We're just getting ready for Spring around here. :)

I will have those other things up a.s.a.p!

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Another order. :)

As I speak, I am waiting for my chocolate eggs (ChocoEggs) to harden so I can get them out to our customer! That's right, another purchase! That makes me jump for joy to know that business is really picking up. I couldn't be happier. March has been an OUTSTANDING month for me! Though we're just starting out, still at this time, and though we haven't had too many orders, I am very happy that we have what we have. This has definitely been great. My mom and I have been coming up with so many ideas for Sugardust Confections as well as our other stores. My mom was digging out my grandmother's recipes so that we could really get some great ideas! Sugardust is definitely in honor of my grandmother. She was an amazing baker and candy maker. She did everything perfect and we would love to follow in her footsteps. My mom and I have fully stocked our upstairs kitchen (The kitchen we only use for Sugardust Confections) with all of the things that we need and we are so excited!

OhMyCupcake and ThreeSeventeen will also be getting some new products soon. We couldn't be happier at the progress we are making. One thing, we do wish there were more hours in a day so we could get all of this done! The kids are a handful amongst my looking for a job to keep this business rolling until we get a steady flow of income. I primarily work at night on all of this and usually end up pulling all nighters. Whatever gets the work done!

I think the eggs are hardened!

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We were featured!

We were featured on A Scrappy Design's FEATURE FRIDAY!! Yay! Be sure to check them out and also check out our feature! Excited! :) New blog and new items coming up!

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

So, today is my birthday! I'm so excited! I know I'm not going to be getting presents today, my family can't afford them, but I just love my birthday! (Even if I am 24 years old!) Happy birthday to meeee! lol I had my fun birthday festivities this past weekend and hopefully I'm going out to dinner tomorrow with my mom, daughters, uncle and grandmother. :) Later today, it's work work work work on Etsy things!! :)

glitter-graphics.com

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Being a working single mom.

I saw this question on the Etsy forums and I decided to create a blog about it. It was a great topic and I'm so glad I found it so I could share my tips with other working & artistic moms! :) I'm a single mom and I have two girls. (3.5 and 1) They are my life, but being a single mom, I need a way to support my kids as well as keep my sanity in tact. I worked at home for a very long time doing Customer Service from my home office. That was my full time job, besides being a mom, for almost 3 years. I enjoyed that because I could spend time with my kids as well as bring in an income, which is very necessary when you're the only one bringing in an income. I loved working from home and I was bringing in a good amount of money, but it required me to work 65 hours a week, and that was tiring for me and still difficult for me as a mother. I had to step back and think as a mother who was exhausted physically and mentally and a mother who had to put her kids best interest first. I decided to put my job on hold, as hard as it was, and I decided to take on my other love; art. I had a lot of friends who were great and very successful at selling their products and I wanted to do that as well.

Art has always been my main emotional outlet and I knew that I could make an income while also keeping my sanity. Granted, I would have to do my art once my kids were asleep, but it was still a way for me to earn something and still be able to stay home with my kids. I hoped, prayed, and worked on a plan to get my business off the ground. That's when I found Etsy and thought it was a great idea, and felt very hopeful about the business that I was about to venture on!

Unfortunately, my business hasn't been as profitable as I hope, but I still put my all into it. Besides this, now, I have a real full time job. It's hard...very hard...but supporting your family is first. Supporting your family, single parent or married, engaged, etc... it's what you have to put first over your business.

How do I balance everything is difficult to explain because I don't even know! 1. I do take days where I just do things for myself. Be it going to get a manicure, getting my hair done, getting myself a new outfit, new makeup, etc... That is the most important thing. To relax. 2. When my kids nap (which is sometimes at the same time! lol) I take a nap myself. If they don't nap at the same time, when one is napping, I take a "mommy and me" time and lay down with the other, watching TV or playing a game. Something quiet and relaxing. 3. I go to different activities with my kids where I can relax and talk to other parents. If you'r working at home, communicating with other adults is vital for sanity. ;) 4. When you're working at night, I know it's important to get things done, but don't just sit there for 4 hours straight without getting up every once in a while. That's how you get even more tired, is just sitting there. I know how important it is not to break your concentration, but you don't want to go crazy with exhaustion either. 5. Let your kids help you! If you're going to work with Polymer clay, give them some to play with as well, if you're beading, get out some large pony beads and some yarn for them to make necklaces or bracelets out of, if you're making candy, let them mix it or give them a piece to eat while you're making it, if your sewing, maybe let them press the peddle or something. Try to make them a part of what you're doing if you are working when the kids are around.

A lot of people feel it's impossible to work and be creative when they have children and even I put my creativity on hold for the first year of my oldest daughter's life, but you can juggle it all. You just have to come up with ideas and ways to relax. :) You can do it!

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