Things are Crazy

Wow have I been busy, but I promise all for a good cause. I have been working on setting up my Etsy store. Who knew what trouble it would be to find out about shipping prices and the best and cheapest way to get things from one place to another would be so difficult. Well I started it and I listed my very first things on there today. Go check out the Market Bags that were listed and keep checking back for more later.

Little Beauties

It's about time that I actually post some pictures of my little gems. I have worked really hard on all of this. I have so many ideas rolling around in my head that there aren't enough hours in the day to accomplish them all. I will be putting some of my stuff in my Etsy store when I get it all set up so keep checking in for new updates.

My pride and joy are these adorable Market Bags. They are so fun and functional. I love all the fun fabrics and have a blast picking out fabrics to mix and match together. They have a deep front pocket and are reversible and washable. I love that you could use them for farmer's markets, shopping, book bag, or even for the pool or beach. Too darn cute!

My other adorable item are these baby burp cloths. These are a hit for baby shower. I have had a million baby showers lately and these are a practical, yet whimsical addition to any baby shower gift. A favorite item by many!

Last, but certainly not least are my quirky and silly Mega Magnets. I love these! How you could resist these? I know I can't. I want to keep more than I make. No two are alike. Individual or magnet sets are available.

Enjoy and I hope to have more goodies for you to look at soon.

First Craft Fair

I am a smidge nervous about our first craft fair. We are setting up downtown Menasha during the farmer's market. We will be there the last Thursday of every month this summer. Lindsay has her sliverware windchimes and I'll be selling all my goodies. I have been working my hiney off to get everything ready and looking good. Here are the cards that I attached to my burp cloths and market bags.

I hope everything goes well tomorrow. Hopefully I can post some pictures of all our wares set up.

A Bountiful Harvest

It has sort of been a yearly tradition to go strawberry picking. I love eating the strawberries right off the vine. Unfortunately, it has been a very rainy summer here in Wisconsin, so we didn't know how good the picking would be. Fortunate for us, most other people probably thought the same thing.

The berries were huge, beautiful, and delicious. I hope enjoyed spending time with my mom and sneaking a few berries too!

What's in a name?

Believe it or not, I began this blog/business idea so much later than I should have because of a name. I have many things I would love to do in my life. One of them is either to own/run a soup & sandwich restaurant or to have my own cupcake shoppe. I have names for both of those businesses, even though the probability of either of them actually happening are slim at best. It's still important to dream though.

I didn't want to start a blog, website, Etsy store, or anything else until I picked out a name. This proved to be somewhat more difficult than I thought. Anyone who knows me, knows that I don't like making decisions. I toy with ideas but could never settle on one that felt good. I still feel unsure about the choice I made, but here is the story behind it and why it works for me.

I had a student named Max this school year and he liked to put my name into a website on the computer called Sloganizer. One of the slogans that came up was, "Simply Amanda (last name)." He thought it was so funny. It wasn't until I started thinking about business names that this once funny inside joke became a real contender. Once I settled on the name, it became clearer to me that this was the right choice. It really does speak about me. I am pretty simple and I don't like things to be too complicated. As the things I do and sell are an extension of me. They're all the things I love best, so...they are simply amanda.

Happy 50th Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's 50th birthday. I can honestly say that I am happy that she made it to 50 years old because at the beginning of this year, she had a heart attack. She is doing great now and I am lucky to still have her here in my life. My mom has been a lot of things for me...teacher, guide, friend, mentor as well as my mother. I look up to her. Even though we disagree on many things, I know she is always there to support me.

For her birthday I asked her what she wanted and she asked for Red Velvet cupcakes. (This is because my mom knows that secretly someday I would like to have my own cupcake shop.) So I fulfilled this request and made Red Velvet Cupcakes with Buttercream frosting. Yum-O!

Anything but Crafting

Hi there. I spent the day doing everything except crafting. Some of this was on purpose and some not so much. I was up until 1:00 a.m. last night working on bags, burp clothes, magnets, and much more. I love that I have no one telling me that I have to get up at any certain time in the morning either, but I feel a pang of guilt if I get up past 8:30. Geez...I know I'm on summer vacation, but summer school starts next week and I can't get too comfortable with these late evenings and sleep-in mornings.

Anyway, my husband wanted to plant raspberry bushes so I have been trying to get his help to dig up the grass alongside the house and put in wood chips. The plants are still sitting in their plastic pots in front of our house. If you want something done, you must do it yourself...so I did. I started digging up some of the grass until I hit my second ant nest. Boy, were they mad. I gave up for today. Then I moved on to the weed garden. Now, mind you this is the garden my husband wanted, but won't weed. Sick and tired of the weeds taking over, I weeded today and it looks magnificent if I say so myself.

I'm sure I'll do a little something something tonight to make up for my lack of crafting this afternoon. Such is life!

Oh, guess what? I got the best news today. I won a Flip camera from a technology conference I attended for school this year. Yippee!

Baby Steps

I am not brand new to the blogging world, I have been blogging with my mom for some time now for our Stampin' Up business. I was aprehensive to begin this blog on my own because I don't like making lots of decisions. Well I pulled up my big girl pants and got to work. I have been working hard because my sister and I are going to have a booth at our very first craft sale. My craft room in the basement looks like a bomb went off. There are days I feel like I've gotten next to nothing accomplished, but I know it will take some time. I will be posting some of my creations soon here. Eventually I would like to set up an Etsy store for purchase, but I'm taking baby steps. I guess it helps that I'm on summer vacation. Too bad summer school starts next week. Well off I go to get crafting.