Spring Fling and my Mosaic Birdfeeder

My Mosaic Birdhouse Birdfeeder has been featured on DZFantasy's blog. She is doing a Spring Fling featuring quite a line-up of Etsy shops with great spring items. And she chose my Birdfeeder as one of her Spring items. Here is a pic of the feeder itself. If you want to see more great spring items, check out her blog. And if you're interested in more glass for your home or garden, check out my shop, KayzKreationz, for windchimes, plant stakes, sandscapes and more.

"Beach Baby, Beach Baby, Give me your Hand"--Beach Treasures, a new Sandscape and a Treasury

When we go to the beach, I can't resist strolling along looking for whatever treasures I can find. I always find something It may be just more shells, some beach glass or something to bring home and use, either in the garden or in my work. In fact, my "Ocean Meets the Sky" fused glass suncatcher has some of these treasures strung from it and worked into the macrame hanger. My new Sandscape "Beach Baby" also has some of these treasures in it. So in honor of my sale of the previous sandscape and relisting "Beach Baby" I decided to stroll through Etsy shops and see what kind of beach treasures I could find for a treasury. And right after finding my "treasures" I snagged a treasury to showcase them. Take a peek and see what treasures you can find in this treasury.

Rescue Turtles, Wildlife Management, our small Texas Ranch and my Glass

About a week and a half ago, a friend of ours that owns apartments, went to check on one of his rentals to find that the renters had moved out and left their fish tank with "a" fish, a hamster in it's cage and their tank with 2 turtles in it. Whether they had left food or not I don't know for sure, but obviously with no-one there, the animals couldn't get food. I don't care for people that just go off and leave their animals or decide that they can come dump them in the country for us to take care of. What they don't realize is we already have our own animals that we "responsibly" take care of and their animals will sit beside the road chasing every car coming back, hoping their owner is coming back to get them. Then they will wander off and either get hit and hurt or killed or we will have to shoot them, because we don't know if they're sick, mean or whatever. In case you can't tell this is a real pet peeve of mine! If people want animals in their life, then they need to take responsibility for them. If they can no longer care for them, then it is their responsibility to find homes for them or a shelter that can take them and then provide some support to that shelter. But I digress. Our friend had found a school here that wanted to take the fish and it's tank for the children to learn how to take care of and they had decided to keep the hamster. (He had taken all the critters home until he could find homes for them.) But he couldn't keep the turtles and couldn't find a home for them. In steps my DH. We have a water trough buried in our back pasture as a water source for the wildlife as part of our wildlife management we do on our small ranch. We told him we would take them home and release them in this water source and hopefully they would survive. We didn't know what kind of turtles they are and neither did he. But at least they might have a chance. So he put them in containers for us, we toted them home, cleared out some of the moss and grass that always overgrows this trough, put some rocks in so they would have a place to climb up without hopefully climbing out and then released them. They seemed happy enough with their new home. Although one of them was "not" happy with being handled, once they were put down at the edge of the water, they immediately took off into it's darkest depths. I go out every day or two and sprinkle a little food for them and look around. So far we haven't seem them, but we haven't seen anything floating, and there seems to be enough room around and under the rocks where they could hide/live. So unless they have climbed out and crawled off, we're hoping they will survive. At the very least they had a chance they wouldn't have had when their previous owners decided to just irresponsibly leave them behind for our friend to bring home and try to care for. Here's a couple of pics of my DH putting the rocks in for them and them being released.
This is one reason so many of my glass items have to do with gardening, birdfeeding or birdbaths and such. I love nature, animals and wildlife and like to provide for them and usually end up spending any money I make from my glass to either make more to sell or to provide food and homes for them. I'm a sucker for animals and I think they know it. :) Enjoy the pics and if you're looking for something to help the animals and wildlife check out my glass in my Etsy shop, KayzKreationz or my Artfire shop, also KayzKreationz.

Mini Pyramid Stained Glass Sandscape and a Sale!

Yay! My Mini Pyramid Glass Beach Sandscape sold tonight. There's been threads on the forums several times that it seems like when you quit watching your shop, you get sales. And today that seemed to be the case. I had paperwork, taxes and a ton of other things I needed to get done or get started on today and didn't have time to check my shop. Finally after I started my homemade pizza cooking for dinner I sat down and decided to check my e-mail and my hearts. I checked into Craftcult and couldn't believe it when it said I had one less item for sale than I knew I had. Excitedly I started reading my e-mails, and sure enough my Beach Sandscape had sold from my shop. I was doing the happy dance then. :) So I've contacted the buyer, am getting it ready to ship and then will check to see if I have another one to list and get pictures done. I love doing these, because I can't resist picking up shells and pieces of glass whenever we go to the beach and these make such a unique way to keep them as a keepsake. I've even personalized one as a graduation gift for a young girl who loves the beach, with her name and grad date. This was a good day. Hope everyone else is having a good evening. Thanks all.

And if you're in the mood for some fantastic Sterling Silver jewelry, check out this shop. She has some great items.

New Etsy Avatar--Blue plate picture redone

After reading for several months about the importance of your avatar for your shop, and posting on several threads and getting some feedback about what would be a good avatar, I've changed my avatar for my Etsy shop. My blue fused glass stripe plate seems to get tons of views and hearts, so I figured it would be the best item for my avatar. I had also read a few threads about how to make your pictures really stand out and to tell a story. So I mulled this over and came up with these ideas for redoing the photos for this plate and then decided to use it for my new avatar for my shop. I like the way the photos turned out. I think they make it a very romantic look and show other uses for this plate. So act quick if you just love this plate or have it hearted. It may sell quickly now. (I hope). And tell me what you think of my new photos and my new avatar. Would it make you click? Does it tell the story? Does it represent what I sell well enough?

Thanks for all the support from all my followers.

Interview with Yaffa Dreams

After purchasing a couple of adorable guitar pick pendants from Yaffa Dreams, like the one to the left, I wanted to fing out more about her and her art. So I asked her for an interview. Here's her great answers. I hope you enjoy learning more about this great Etsy seller. And afterwards, check out her shop, YaffaDreams. Here's just a peek at some of her great items in the box on the right.

1. When did you start crafting?

When I was a wee one! I also majored in Constructive Design in college and wanted to design fabrics, which never happened.

2. What is your favorite part of your crafting?

Seeing the end results. I usually start out with one idea and by the time I have finished, the end product is totally different.

3. Do you make more than one craft, and if so, do you sell them all in your shop? I make mainly jewelry but I also paint bags and jeans and yes, I sell them all in my shop.

4. How does your crafting help you? (i.e. do you use it to support yourself entirely, to help with part of your bills, or mainly for fun and some extra cash as well as the joy in crafting?

Right now, I am unemployed and use crafting to help pay my bills and also to keep me busy, so that I don't end up in the nuthouse.

5. What is the hardest and easiest parts of your crafting?

For me, the hardest part of crafting is wire-wrapping. I guess it takes tons of practice. Also, not buying every bead out there.

6. What do you enjoy about having a shop on Etsy?

I love the support from fellow Etsiers. I have made tons of friends on Etsy.

7. What are some of your favorite shops on Etsy?

www.KayzKreationz.etsy.com for the beautiful glass work (and the mosaic bird bath).

www.Host.etsy.com all proceeds go to help fellow etsiers in need.

www.scrapbox65610.etsy.com the tarts are so cute and smell so good. I keep them all over the house. My closets smell great.

www.catiahades.etsy.com for the cutest jewelry items.

www.boogerelli.etsy.com for her fun lil' boogers.

Another great Award

Thank you so much AudreysCountryCrafts for this honor and great award. After posting about my "Sisterhood Award" and passing it on, I found out one of the recipients had in turn awarded me this award. It's the "Kindred Spirit" Award. Sometimes you come across a really wonderful blog that makes you laugh, makes you think, or just pulls at your heart strings and you would love to have an award or button to give them that shows how great you think their blog is. So this award if for those blogs. So I feel honored that she bestowed this award on me. And in turn I will pass it on to another blog that I thoroughly enjoy. It has to do with my other passion: horses. So Crafty Equine, here is your "Kindred Spirit" award.

If you know of a deserving blog - feel free to take the award and pass it on. The only "rule" I have is: If you take it - please let me know which blog you gave it too. I love to look at and read new blogs!!

I was awarded the Sisterhood Award

I woke up this morning to find out Softpencil had awarded me the "Sisterhood Award" for my blog. I wasn't sure what this was, so I went to her blog to find out. Thank you so much for the Award. And don't forget to visit Softpencil's Etsy shop. She has some beautiful original artwork.

Now I can share the award with some other great blogs I follow. Here's how it works:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate at least 5 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!

3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.

4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

Here's my 5 blogs and Congratulations on your Award:

1. Audrey's Country Crafts

2. Shades-Sharing Marketing, Advertising and Promotional Ideas

3. The Redhead's Homestead

4. The Muddy Moose Bath Boutique

5. Clay It Again

So visit their blogs and their great Etsy shops. Thanks Softpencil for the award.

New Treasury--Treasury West "Threadkillers Unite"

Yay! I got another treasury tonight. It is a Treasury West. I titled it "Threadkillers Unite" in honor of all the threadkiller threads and some of the regulars I've gotten to know on those threads. If you don't know what a threadkiller thread is, it's a thread on the Etsy forums, started by someone who says that if any one person can be the last poster on that particular thread for 24 hours, they will "kill" the thread and win a prize from their shop. I've been able to kill one thread and win a prize and was the 500th post on another and got another prize. So I decided to do a treasury with items from some of these regulars on the threadkiller threads I've met. Check out my Treasury West "Threadkillers Unite" and leave a comment. Also be sure to click on the items and visit their shops for other great items. And while you're there, be sure to check out my glass items for your home and garden. I love to make unique, unusual items out of glass. You'll find them in my Etsy shop, KayzKreationz.

HEART OF A COWGIRL: To Have a Horse in Your Life

HEART OF A COWGIRL: To Have a Horse in Your Life

Check out this great post. If you have ever owned a horse or even ridden one, you will truly enjoy this post about horses, the special place they hold in our lives and how they enrich our lives.

"Isn't it Mauve-alous?" Treasury

I love Mauve, Pinks and Purples. So I decided to check out all the mauves, pinks and purples on Etsy. I found tons. And tonight I was fortunate enough to get a "Treasury" to feature just some of the great items I found. Here's a screen shot of the treasury I named "Isn't it Mauve-alous?" But check it out here and give it some love. Maybe you'll even find something mauve, pink or purple you just can't live without. Hope so. And while you're at it, you can check my shop KayzKreationz for some great glass. I've got a couple of purple things, too.

found-handmade

found-handmade

Take a look at this cute post about Skittles by Timothy Adams. Too cute.

And while you're at it, take a look at some of my colorful glass items in my Etsy shop or Artfire shop. They make great gifts for yourself or a friend. Items for your home and garden.

HelenesDreams.etsy.com: Super Sweet Crochet Slippers- Etsy Giveaway!

HelenesDreams.etsy.com: Super Sweet Crochet Slippers- Etsy Giveaway!