Tip of the Day: instantly make your space look less cluttered

Do you have a bookshelf packed full of books or papers or cds or a combination of the above? Go to your local fabric store and visit the remnants bin in the upholstery fabric section. For a few dollars you can grab a remnant large enough to turn into a curtain. Sew across the top, slip a tension rod into it and stick it in the top shelf to hide your mess. Or, if your shelf is old and you don't care if there are holes in it, screw in some hooks and use a dowel rod to hang it.

Cost: $15 or less
Time: 15 minutes

Holiday Heap

This year I went to the Holiday Heap for the first time. For those of you who don't know, the Holiday Heap was a juried craft show in Baltimore this past weekend. It was great to see so many gorgeous handmade things all in one place and I had a lot of fun even though I was carrying around a 6 month-old strapped to my front. I didn't buy anything, because I'm past my spending quota for the month, but I came away with some cards and have bookmarked some items to purchase when I have money later.

My favorite vendor was Little Flower Designs. They sell pottery with pretty little flowers or birds on them. The photo above is the one I'm going to buy when I have a little extra laying around. Love it.

And now I'm sufficiently diverted from the thirty minute earring project. I've put together my idea for a 30 minute earring and the prototype is for sale on Etsy right now. The problem is I don't know for SURE if it took me 30 minutes to make. Why? Because I'm a stay-at-home, first-time mom with a 6 month old who is on a "mommy-only" kick. So even when the hubby gets home, I still can't sit and try to make them in one go. I THINK they only take 30 minutes, but I'm not sure. I guess I can always submit my entry and see what happens.

And now I have to go stop her from rolling into the corner of the stone chess board.

thirty minute earrings

Here I am, sitting at the desk next to my workshop, trying to figure out what kind of earrings I could possibly make in 30 minutes that. Why? Because there's a contest, or rather, a challenge to make an awesome pair of earrings in 30 minutes. The winners will have their earrings and how-to published in a book. And I can enter as many as I want. I have one pair of earrings I'm already working on (see previous post), but can I get the time down to 30 minutes or less? I don't know. If I can, not only will I have an entry for this challenge, but I'll have something I can sit and make over and over to sell. The more I have to sell, the more money I could potentially make.

I have another idea in my head, one not in my sketchbook. The parts are sitting here beside my elbow as I type. This pair, I'm fairly certain, will take less than 30 minutes, but will they be pretty? Will anyone want to put them up by their faces and say, "Look at these awesome earrings! I bought them on Etsy, what a steal!"

I'm a perfectionist. Almost everything I make, I don't like after I'm done. The things I've sold so far, I'm amazed that anyone would buy them. My most recent sales were on Artistful.com. I haven't received any feedback yet, but I'm hoping the customer liked them as much in person as they did when she saw them on her computer screen.

Well, here I go. I need to make some earrings and see how they turn out.