Shout Outs!

So for some reason the title "rainy day = heavy hearts?" came to mind and I was going to write about how it started out this way, but how I'm trying to lift it, but whaaaaaaaaa whaaaaaaaaa I don't want to be so serious today! (but just for one more second)... Ok so the whole... "when life hands you lemons thing". Life has handed us a few lemons lately.. We're trying to so hard to make lemonade, but has anyone ever stopped to realize that lemonade is really sour without the sugar? What about the sugar? I NEED SOME SUGAR!

On that note... Here's some shout outs to people and things that have been giving me some sugar!

1. Pam of Folk Art Tree Fandangle absolutely made my day. First of all, she had the most clever idea of sending a gift to every 50th person that hearts her etsy shops. When she told me I was 50 I thought it was a really sweet idea, but didn't want her to feel obligated to send me a gift. She (sweetly) demanded that it didn't matter I was a team member, but I was 50th and I won. So today I open my little gift. The card she wrote me was the sweetest thing and made my day. Her packaging was adorable. She puts in a tiny little piece of paper that says smile on it that falls out into your lap and makes you do just that and then (we haven't even gotten to the gift yet!) the cutest little earrings were inside the box. They are sterling and swarovsky crystal and I just love them. Thank you Pam.. that deserves a shout out.

2. My Boys. This show just keeps getting better and better. One of the episodes this season.. maybe the first I think I laughed uncontrollably for at least 3-5 minutes. It was great. We had to pause it. Jeff and I both love it. We just wish that the episodes were longer and by golly that the season was longer! 6 or 8 episodes or whatever it is is SO short! But we LOVE it and we want more!

3. Sushi. Oh how I miss you dear sushi. It's been far far too long. But you still deserve a shout out. I've yet to find a "sushi buddy" around here and the only place that was open for lunch is no longer. I NEED my fix!

4. Toyota Sienna. I just love my car. It's wonderful. I love that because we took one of the bucket seats out we have a big open space where I can easily change a diaper, we can sit and have a snack, or just waste time. It's wonderful. As much as it's still crazy I drive a mini-van I still love it.

5. Mini Golf. I just love mini golf and I'm getting her started early! She had a blast. When we were in NH we went to Pirate's Cove with Mom and Paul. She was a bit too young for the putting concept, but she loved being there and having the ball.

6. CSA's. I am so excited to start getting my veggies from Hatchet Cove Farm. Hatchet Cove Farm’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program is a great way to receive farm-fresh, nutritious, organic vegetables at a great value. When you become a CSA member (by buying a ’share’ in the farm for the season) we become your farmers, and Hatchet Cove Farm becomes your farm. How does it work? When you purchase a CSA share you help support the farm by paying up front for your veggies in the spring. That helps them pay for seed and cover the expenses of starting up the farm for the season. In return, you get a weekly selection of all that is available on the farm. This means you are eating the freshest, most delicious seasonal veggies possible. Kelsey and I can't wait to start visiting the animals!

7. Scrabble. It really is the world's best board game. I don't play nearly enough. I think I need to start a scrabble night!

8. Sesame Street. Kelsey loves it and ok I admit it.. it makes a good babysitter sometimes. Kelsey was just so delighted to see the picture!

9. Comfort Foods. mmmmmmmmmmm. mac n cheese, stuffed shells, pot roast. yeah that pretty much sums it up for me right now. Oh and I have meatballs cooking right now.


Ten seems too cliche.

Facebook brings on the orders...

Facebook has been a really great way to get exposure to my etsy shop and some of the hand-painted accessories and toys I have created. As a result of posting my work in photo albums on facebook, many of my friends have purchased from Whimsidoodle. Here's a look at some of the orders I've had in the past few months and how they came to fruition:

Kristin knew she was having twin boys and wanted letters for their nursery. I was the only person who knew their names. I based the letters off of her bedding, as well as some coolorful canvas art she'd gotten with a jungle animal theme. The boys just came last week. Congrats to Kristin and Josh!

My friend Danielle had seen some of my work on facebook and in my etsy shop and she immediately thought to have a set of ladybug coasters made for her aunt. I used unfinished 6" ladybugs and put extra coats of varnish on them, so they can withstand moisture. I've had very good luck with that. Her aunt loved them. It was a set of 4.

My friend Carly wanted to get some letters for her niece Alaina. The bedding was from target and I used some of the flowers and butterflies from the patterns as inspiration. The target site is great for this, because it shows an entire collection, which may be bedding, lamps, light switch covers, rugs, valences etc, so everything has a different patten and it gives me a lot of opportunity to segue from it, but use it as close inspiration by combining components within the different patterns. I don't have that many stores near me and none with letters, so Carly found letters she liked and had them shipped to me.

Another baby on the way was Payton. My friend Kelly wanted to have them sent to her sister before Payton's arrival. They were also inspired by the bedding and nursery, which is a ladybug theme. Kelly also had the letters shipped to me. She found them on walmart.com and they are great. They were already white and very big... 8", which was the largest I'd done. They were a little challenging, because they were more like plastic, but the paint varnish took to them fine.

This was actually the order that started it all! My cousin Mary Elizabeth and I did a custom trade for our etsy shops. She sells the cutest handbags in her shop. Actually, it all started because she made me the cutest diaper bag and matching zip pouch for my baby shower. I loved the zip pouch so much, I'd been using it as a makeup/ditty bag when I traveled, but I needed something bigger. So I had her make me a custom one (which I LOVE - it's this beautiful black and white almost damask design, but funkier), but I'd also fallen in love with some of the cluthes my other cousins had, so I had her make me one of those as well in this gorgeous pink and green fabric. She also has wallets, key fobs and lareger bags in her shop! So in trade for my two bags she had me paint furniture embellishments for her daughter Nicolina. She told me the paint colors (a periwinkle type color) and I did my thing. I think they got put on the door in her room. These letters are only 3" high or so.

another day for whimsidoodle

Today was a good day... and a productive day. Kelsey is definitely teeething and two of her 1 year molars are coming in on the same side, so she took a LONG nap (happens when she's up a lot at night.) I managed to vacuum, do the dishes, do laundry, put clothes away, take pictures of 3 items, get them uploaded, get a gift ready to go, pack... whew.. and more.

Some of my latest items listed on whimsidoodle

Jess made a huge batch of onesie cards which is awesome! oh.. I left Josh's birdhouse out of the collage. I am so excited to have all of these new items by such talented people in my shop! One thing I love about etsy is the trading aspect! It's a fabulous way to get things you're hoping to have if the other person has interest in trading with you. I am currently doing trades with my cousin, Mary Morra and the Lemon Drop Studio.

So tomorrow Kelsey and I head out to Massachusetts for a crazy busy, but really fun and exciting four days! Tomorrow we'll be in Marbleshead (one of my favorite places!) with KT and Emily. Then Saturday we head to Danvers for Reece's baby shower. Then back to KT's and hopefully a trip to the Peabody Essex Musuem. Then Sunday I head down to Boston.. JP to stay with Ash.. so excited to see her and meet Temple! Then Monday Shea took the day off and we're heading to Downtown Crossing.. YAY H&M and hopefully Kendall Square to the Garment District.. can't believe I have never been there!

It may be a whirlwind few days, but I am looking forward to it!

Are You Up For a Fall Challenge?

I become more and more impressed by my fellow MaineTeam members. They are such marketers at heart! We received an email last month giving us a challenge and everyone has been having fun with it. Here's a treasury that Adroit Jewelers put together with some of the items including my orange and yellow origami lights.

Maine Team Fall Challenge--

Maine in the Fall-- what does it mean to you?

Our team challenge is to make at least 1 new Fall inspired item by October 15th! We will blog about it along the way and also post threads in the promo section here on Etsy. We can post pictures & links of the items and statements from each artist describing their product and how it's related to the project while promoting the entire team. We may even have a volunteer to interview each seller for our blog! Keep an eye in the live weekly forum thread to keep up with our developing ideas!

Let's start creating some items and post them as you finish them! Tag them with the usual "Maineteam" tag and also add "mainefall" so that we can find each other for treasuries and promos. Team challenges are very successful within Etsy for promoting items and shops and I can't wait to see how this boosts our sales!!

Endless...

I just love the MaineTeam. We have some serious marketers hiding in crafters bodies. Backwoods Creations had the fabulous idea for everyone to blog about someone whose shop is the opposite letter of the alphabet than your own. I got pretty close with the letter E and I just love this shop.. we both like words beginning with whim and I gave her a shout out yesterday and she has the same birthday as my step-daughter... so I want to share some of Endless Whimsy's work.

Endless (aka Ronovia), is a music teacher to junior high students, as well as a chorus and boy's choir teacher to middle school aged kids. And she is the assistant director (training choir) of the Southern Maine Children's Chorus. And she teaches piano at nights in her spare time.. uh wow she's busy..

Is it totally obvious that I am getting all of this from her bio?! (clearly well written!) But I thoroughly inspired as I keep reading. Piano which I mentioned she teaches as night is her "main" instrument (uhm yeah.. hi... I sadly don't have any) "to a small studio of students (you may hear of three of them once they're famous!)"

Endless began sculpting polymer clay kitties becuase she was looking for something to do that was non music related. (Good Choice Endless!) "Endless Whimsy stands for the never ending creative part of me that needs to explode after a day at the workplace. I've spent my entire life being creative – through art, unconventional ideas and music. I'm a closet artist who dreams of specific artwork, and after the idea is formed in my head – I go for it. I have a multitude of Eiffel Tower paintings at home, along with many portraits of my two cats, who inspire my work: Stoli, a Russian Blue, and Luxor, an Egyptian Mau."

Each scultupe beings as a ball of polymer clay and is then hand sculpted to form a one of a kind kitty.

Aside from being a MaineTeam member, Endless is also a member of Etsy for Animals. She so kindly contributes 10% of revenues from her cat themed items to a local rescue shelter (HART) in Cumberland. That's so nice Endless.. such a nice gesture. I thank you for that.

Favorite Materials: clay, acrylic, watercolor, stamps, ink, screenprinting

Birthdays and Tightwads

Miss Kelsey turned a year on July 19th. It was a great day. My mom and my gram came to visit. We had the perfect sized group of little girls here and friends and family. Kelsey received a water table for her birthday and proceeded to get soaked!

I made the froggy cupcakes. The theme was a froggy in a pink tutu.

I cannot believe a year has gone by. Each day she makes me smile and laugh more and more.

My mom took this picture of us. The dress/shirt Kelsey is wearing was mine! We were opposite seasons as babies, so my mom had to shorten the straps for it to fit her. She looked so cute in it!
Currently she is in that not sure if she's going to have one nap or two stage, but today we are on the 2nd one and mama is getting stuff done. check, check, check of the to do list. I love that!
Is it just me or is everyone else with a near empty wallet thinking about Christmas and starting to cringe while turning blue? I decided to be proavtive and went through the trendy, cool and of course expensive toy store around here yesterday and wrote down all of the things I know the girls would like and will then proceed to find them less expensive.

So Julia is on a must have an American Girl kick. I personally wanted one so so so badly when I was 10 and never got one. NOTE: to any mom in this same predicament... don't assume ebay has the best price and know the retail price. The american girl dolls are priced better on the american girl site than on ebay!

So on that note.. I have been reading the Tightwad Gazette for several months and truly have learned so much from it. I was already starting to think differently, but I've learned to apply a lot of it. I have been finding more resourceful ways to package things I sell on my site on etsy. I made a big batch of pumpkin, raisin and walnut muffins and froze them. I then take one out and wrap it and put it in Julia's lunch box so it's thawed enough to eat by lunch time.

I highly reccomend it for anyone pinching pennies and even if you're not just making what you have stretch.

Stay tuned... I want to share pics of our awesome week down at the beach just 15 minutes away.

a whole lot of treasury going on

I am so lucky to have been featured in so many treasuries in the past several months. These are the ones I was lucky enough to get screen shots of.

Not to be constantly repeating myself, but I really am astounded each day by how wonderful the Etsy community is. Talk about a group of people supporting one another and how amazing that is and how deep it goes considering we're all hiding behind a monitor. But then again... we're not. Those of us on the Maineteam get out there and go to eachother's homes and have

parties and genuinely have created relationships and ways to help one another; to compliment each other. Jamie is just ingenious in her efforts to cross promote. Talk about "better than a thank you note".. check out the 2nd picture and read the bottom of the description!

I am truly ashamed by my lack of blogging this summer. Which is just too funny, since I held out as long as I possibly could on creating a blog.
But now I feel as though it lets me reveal a piece of myself. And that makes perfect sense, because I am an external thinker and sparing the people in my life... I can only talk so much!

I miss posting about the kids, so I will definitely do that in the next few days. Lots of fun things happened this summer. Some intense things as well. I wil l also be doing a tribute to my beautiful brother Jim who unexpectedly passed away in July.

Thank you to those who have made comments encouraging me to keep writing! Oh and please don't mind my major formatting dilemmas! Ok.. I've had enough of this horribleness of a layout. I am only showing three treasuries tonight and will post some more in upcoming posts. I will spare the ugliness...

YAY! I made the front page of Etsy!

I cannot believe it.. a treasury I made made the front page of Etsy! I am so thrilled and honored. I LOVE making treasuries. I think I have discovered a secret dream job of curating (but only art and things of my choice!). I didn't actually see my treasury on the front page, but some of my etsy friends took the screen shots for me.

And I am especially happy because the bottom right item is from a fellow Maineteam Member Backwoods Creations

I also had Jamie's aloe leaves print in my alternates that I intended to switch out if I caught the FP, but I didn't. Who knew I'd get it! But yay!

And!!!! Not to mention I have gotten 3 sales this week which sold 7 items!!!!!

Thank you to the Etsy community for supporting me and Whimsidoodle!

A childless moment...

Kelsey is taking her morning nap and I actually found myself thinking, "now what?". Don't you love when that happens? Rarely do I check everything off my list. But then of course I feel guilty thinking "should I read this magazine or should I be tackling the projects that haven't even made it to my list yet like organizing the pantry I've let become a disaster?" sadly... I think the pantry might win, but it is Thursday, which means Jeff plays basketball, which mean pantry can happen after bedtime. Gorgeous windy day outside.. here I come!

A large group of Etsy folks decided to have a "Yart Sale" (ok.. a lot of quotation marks today).. get it... Art Sale meets Yard Sale. Pretty cool idea. If you go to etsy and type in "yart" in the search bar all 8000+ items (as of today) will appear and they are all on sale! Here's what I listed for $3 off the regular price.

Oh and on a final thought... Kelsey yesterday not really sure what she was upset about, but this was actually before she banged her head on the floor literally 20 seconds later. You have to love the ode to Richard Simmons shorts!

Until next time!

Enjoy the day...

rainy, sunny.. whatever it is where you are!

2nd time around

Well.. I survived my first post. I got one comment, so wow.. someone out there found my blog... imagine that! It's been so nice outside. I just haven't been sitting by the computer much.

It rarely gets in the high 80's in Maine and 90 is especially rare. So we've been enjoying it! Kelsey went in her kiddie pool for the first time ever... Julia loves being the big "sissy" and helping "KK" with everything. They had fun. Poor Kelsey got a bleeder of a black fly bite right in the corner of her eye. Mama needs to be more diligent with the bug stuff! Kelsey just loves being at the swing set and her bumblee swing her Gramp gave her.

I never knew I'd love being a mom so much or that I'd feel guilty after I quit my job, because I just have so much fun everyday!

Ok.. so moving on... I am excited that this Saturday we are having an Etsy Maine Team meeting in Augusta, Maine. The MaineTeam members are fantastic and so supportive.

Whimsidoodle had two sales this week.. very exciting. One was a trade for Miss Kelsey's 1st birthday invites and the other was to

Australia! My first international sale! Hopefully that goes smoothly through customs.

I recently started listing sets of origami lights without the lights- just the boxes. So far one sale of those (to Australia), but I'm thinking those are going to work out pretty well. They save on shipping for the buyer and then the buyer can use their own lights, but either way... they're still fun!

Each Christmas my parents (mom now) put up a strand of lights my sister and I made and put them in the shape of a Christmas tress in the huge window of the condo. Such a nice and festive way to use them!

Alright... enough talk about Christmas. It's 80 degrees outside in June. I have a baby napping and some plants that need to go into the ground.

Enjoy the weather wherever you are and if it's raining... well.. wash the floor I guess.

Until next time!

Enjoy it all.......

Gotta start somewhere right?

Welcome to my blog. This is my very first post, so please bare with me as I attempt to make a go of this. I must admit... I've been holding out on joing the "blogosphere". I figured, "what do I need a blog for, everyone already has one, so at one point in time do they become obsolete?", but then I started to look at it differently and started realizing what a fun way to say what I want to say, show pictures of my work and my family and whoever wants to read it can... sign me up.

I left my job in December of 2007 to be home with my baby. Since then I have been piecing it together. My new tagline = "Piecing it together through a hodge podge of projects". I think that pretty much sums it up. In march I opened my very own shop on etsy - whimsidoodle.etsy.com. I've really been enjoying finding my creative side again.

Etsy is a fabulous community filled with amazing artists and more importantly very nice, caring and helpful people. Soon after I joined etsy I stumbled across the MaineTeam. A group of Etsy members who happen to all live in Maine and thought it would be great if they banded together and help promote one another. Check out the MaineTeam blog!

I should probably take this opportunity to introduce myself... everyone looks the best on their wedding day, so naturally........My name is Jennifer Payson. I am married to a wonderful husband and father, Jeff. We have two girls at home - my step-daughter Julia and our baby Kelsey (I can't believe she will be a year in July already!) Jeff is a phys ed and health teacher for k-8. Julia is a vivacious first grader and a phenomenal reader and miss kelsey is crawling all over the place these days. How fast it goes by!

Until next time... (it just feels weird not signing off)