Man, I haven't posted in... forever! and Time to Celebrate, plus purple hair

We came back from our wonderful Thanksgiving trip, and I was so busy catching up with life that I completely forgot to blog!! Sorry about that.  I'm getting back on the blogging wagon as of right now :)

Last weekend, we had a "Halloween in December" birthday party for our youngest and I'll try to post some pic's soon. :)

Why I'm celebrating now: the Musers Etsy site hit 40 sales yesterday!! Woohooo! It's been a great adventure so far, and the goal for 2012 is to have at least 150 new sales!

Here are some recent items:

This is a custom puppy that was recently ordered.

This is a Secret Santa gift I made for an Etsy team member!

The Narwhal was purchased!
Now I want to make some smaller ones.

Guess what's in THESE envelopes! :)

Oh, I forgot to mention that yesterday was also my birthday!  I dyed my hair purple to celebrate!
Here's how it came out:

Me a day before 37!
Wonder what color it'll be when I'm 73!

Going to the Lake!

Woohoo!  For the week of Thanksgiving, my hubby and I and our 2 girls will be sharing a cabin with my parents and my sister and her hubby!  We'll be fishing on the lake as much as possible, roasting marshmallows, playing board games.  The hard part is that there are only 2 bedrooms, and only ONE bathroom . . . for 8 people.  But we plan on having as much fun as humanly possible!!

I hope you all have a Great Thanksgiving!!
:)

Dangit, i feel like a pooper-scooper :(

I think I'm losing the battle with this stupid cold. Constant sneezing, ridiculous amounts of mucus, aches and pains, tight itchy lungs...BLECH

Anyway, here's what I've been working on lately:

There will be some Christmas turtles, dripdrops, curlies, a chester.

Oh, and don't worry, I'm Constantly washing my hands so as not to share the cold-cooties.
Here is the finished ChristmasChester and ChristmasCurly:

I'm thinking of making little Christmas hats for some of my "regular" listings.  What do you think?

Halloween Decor!!!

Here are some photos from our house and our daughter's Halloween themed birthday party a couple years ago:

This is one of the built-ins next to the
fireplace. I put an orange "gel" over the
fluorescent lights by getting transparent orange
folders, cutting them up, and tacking in over the
lights.  The actual color of the back of the
built-ins is primrose.

Our girl's costumes!  The one on the right is a crawfish :)

Kitchen counter

Table next to sofa

Dining room 1

Dining room 2, with goodie bags on the tiers.

Hanging from the chandelier over the dining room table.

At the party!

Drink table

Cookie cake, decorated by our daughter!

Close-up of Ghostie faces taped to the chairs :)

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!

Three Month Etsy Anniversary

Woohooo!!!  I've made it 3 months (and have only partially lost more of my mind that usual)!  The Musers Etsy site has made 26 sales as of today.  I don't really know if that's good so far or not, but I'm definitely happy about it.  It's funny, though, because I find myself thinking of stuffies at the oddest moments these days.  Shopping for apples, could be a plush!  Looking at things on the ground...

...stuffies!  These 2 pretties are actually the newest from the Inspired Series.  You can read more about them on their Etsy pages here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/84300304/acorn-greenie-stuffed-acorn-autumn-fall and http://www.etsy.com/listing/84300800/acorn-smallhead-stuffed-acorn-autumn.

...I'm thinking about leaves and turkeys, too.

On another cool note, here is a link to a fellow Etsy Artist's (Ang) Blog Post, where she talks about her original art and seeing the pieces I did inspired from it: http://ranzangel.blogspot.com/2011/10/makers-share-inspiration.html.  She does some really cool work!  Here is her Etsy shop: www.ranzangel.etsy.com.  Thanks again, Ang!!

Crazy Day in Etsy Land, A New Shop, and a Snail

Yep, the title about sums it up.

So here's the scoop:
A few days ago Etsy announced that today (10-18-2011), for the First Time EVER, they would allow shop owners to change their shop names!!  This may not seem like that big of a deal, but there are a lot of shop owners who either started as buyers and didn't think to change their names, or simply didn't know the in's and out's of what their shop/user name would mean, etc.  So, there were many (many many many) people anxiously awaiting this feature!  I was one of them.  I started as a buyer and just kept my name (kathrynmuse) when I opened my little shop.  I decided to call the shop Musers, because that's what I called the creatures I make, but my URL didn't have musers in it.

Plays on the word 'muse' are many, so I was a little concerned that someone might sign up for 'musers' before I got the chance.  I wasn't as worried, however, as all the shop owners who got online at Midnight and literally stayed on Etsy waiting for the feature to roll out (many in the UK, who were up forever!).  Thank goodness I was lazy and checked once this morning (around 6:30) and then got on at around 12pm.  I started checking the site help discussions to find out more, and it still hadn't come out yet.  Owners were starting to get flustered.  Many were at this point sleep deprived and starting to get a little angry.  I watched and waited.  The capability to change names started rolling out at around 3pm, my time, BUT it didn't roll out for everyone!  I was sitting here watching people happily change their names, but I couldn't (talk about nerve-wracking).  That was definitely the hardest part for me!  Thankfully, about 20 minutes later, they opened it up to everyone, and...

I got the name I wanted!!!  My shop can now be reached by typing in http://musers.etsy.com! YAY!!!  Oh, and I don't have to worry about return visitors or all the cards I've handed out, etc. because the old URL will still work (by immediately redirecting to the new one)!  Many owners didn't get the names they wanted (either because the name had been taken long before (but no one realized it), or it just got grabbed right before they were able to type it in) so I felt blessed to get mine!

I also opened up a brand new shop called "Gallery of Muses" (http://galleryofmuses.etsy.com) where I plan on listing my art photography.  There's only one image there now, but I'm hoping to fix that very soon!

And here is the little gal I listed on the Musers site today:

I made her a little while ago, but somehow kept forgetting to list her.  She will be overlooked no longer!

:)

The Last of My Halloween Stuffies . . . i think

Everyone's starting to post Christmas items on Etsy now, so I'm guessing it's about time for me to put away the orange and black material, and get out the green and red?  I don't think I'm Quite ready for full-on Christmas, so I think I'll just stick with Fall colors for now.  What do you think?

Here are the last (I think) of the Halloween themed items I'll be listing on Etsy (this year):

Ghostie Pair - Jumping Jacks

Ghostie Pair - Opposites Attract

Ghostie Pair - Stayin' Alive

Igor Mini - The newest from the Inspired Series

 You can find out what inspired Igor by going to his listing - http://www.etsy.com/listing/83885416/igor-mini-stuffed-frankenstein-monster

I'm having a little trouble thinking of Christmas themed items.  Any ideas?
Thanks!
:)