What does Earth Day mean to you?

Whether it's doing little things like composting or recycling it still makes a difference in the long run and you will feel all the better for it. Being Earth conscious for many has become a way of life in recent years. More people are recycling, composting and buying greener products. The little bit we each do makes literally a world of difference. What are some or your favorite Earth conscious things to do? For me I really like rescuing things from the trash whether it be old furniture or saving tin cans and taco liners for when I paint. As for the outdoors I have a few projects in mind using old tree branches. Also I’ve tried my hand at composting. Though getting a good batch of soil out of a mixture is the hard part. However I do live on a farm and there is a pile of manure that has turned into fantastic compote material over the years. So my garden will be very happy this year

Also here is a great site to help you locate local farmers markets. You can even do a bit of shopping for Earth friendly products........ http://www.localharvest.org

Near and dear to my heart

Help raise money for an organization that is near and dear to my heart. The Childen's Cancer Connection is an Iowa base program serving family with kids affected by cancer. They run two annual camps amoung their many year round activities. One camp is for kids wiht cancer and the other is for their siblings. I've been attemding the camp both as a camper and as voluteer staff for the passed 26 years. Please donate if you can or help out by spreading the word! thank you! http://www.philanthropig.com/ChildrensCancerConnection/CampershipChallenge/Jeanette

A fun idea found on Pinterest!

A great project to make for kids or with them! Just gather up those old plastic easter eggs that aren't suitable for candy anymore. Or buy some inexpensive ones at a dollar of craft store. But you can always wait till the clearance sales to, too snatch up a large collection of eggs. Decorate the eggs with simple craft paint and pipe cleaner. To add a bit more fun use a glitter glue and foam stickers too. Then just add a led light to the inide! and wha-la! you have a fun decoration or nightlight for your little one! :)

Pinterest

Something farely new in the land of social media. Pinterest if you haven't heard is an online place to share favorites of all sorts. Make a virtual bulleton board for whatever you like from food to trave, you can make it. Post pics and repin existing pinterest content or upload your own. It's all in good fun. Plus I'm finding it may be a good and free place to advertize. Been slowly uploading picture contect from my etsy shop into a pinterest board. Hopefully it'll bring more traffic in! If you would like a pinterest account it's currently by invite only. But honestly an approved request from pinterest only took a few days. So happy pinning ;)

Happy December Everyone!

Hope everyone has their Christmas shopping underway. How do you manage the huge task every year?

Something that may help a little when pricing...

I subscribe to a number of etsy newsletters and the latest in the sucess series has some helpful info on pricing items to gain a profit. It was originally a Twitter interview and was formatted to writting via storify.com
http://storify.com/etsy/etsysuccess-pricing-tweetchat

Etsy, not so easy

With the addition of the new ad sense and earlier relevancy setting. It seems it's been much harder on shop owners to sell their products. I've been looking through the site forums and the general oppion is to advertise off site. Which I agree, this makes all the more sense. Why advertise where you're already selling anyway. Who's going to see it, well other etsy shop owners more likely. Which is fine but it would be nice to be able to sell to a wider range of customers. As in those who don't sell on etsy and are just looking to shop local and handmade.
I've had some ideas for solutions but haven't put most of them into practice yet. So I haven't much of an idea if they'll be effective not. So here goes...

• Advertise on google - yes google. Seems expensive yes, but if you already have a blog account with them it's likely they'll send you an offer in the mail every so often. You can get $100 of free advertiseing. Which will go down twenty dollars I after a deadline I believe is a month latter if I recall correctly.
• Facebook seems like a good enough place to grab the attention of like minded people. I've found several shops and fan pages by clicking on their ads. Though mind you they have the same ad system that etsy hosts now.
• Word of mouth. Ever the old school way of getting people in the know. Friends may tell friends who love what you're selling.
• Place a local ad, might be surprised and lucky if your sales happen to increase. Plus who can resist supporting a locally own shop. Whether it be online or brick and morter. People know you need to buisniness.
• Local farmers markerts, Flea Markets and local art fairs. -All three requires prep work. But being that they are local you will have a higher chance of getting return customers. And making a few friends in the process. 
• Craft Shows - Probably requires the most work of them all. One of the reasons why I haven't tried but if you can find one that has an affordable fee and you have the inventory. Heck why not!

Hope I've given some new ideas or at least left the light on for ideas to grow. ;) Best of luck  :)