Craft Central

Wow, summer is awesome. After a particularly crazy year, it's been so wonderful to enjoy lazy afternoons, chatting on the phone with friends (and not feel the nagging stress of homework!), reading for fun, and most of all, doing crafts!

This summer my crafts of choice are handmade journals (made from maps!) and frames with screen - perfect for hanging earrings. I've been watching the World Cup and crafting at the same time. This last Thursday I sold my crafts at the Last Thursday street fair on Alberta Street. Sales were...ok. I only sold 2 frames and some other little craft items, but I made $27, and hey, that's $27 dollars I didn't have before, which is awesome. I just posted all my journals (and will soon post my frames) on my etsy site, so check that out! And click on the pictures - then I get more views. :)

Other than that, summer is starting out SO well. The sun finally came out, and it really feels warm. I have 10,000 freckles and tan lines that won't disappear and I'm starting to talk like a little kid after teaching lessons all day. So all is right with the world. :)

Welcome to Summer 2010!

This is it. Summer has arrived. To all my faithful followers (aka Charis and Dad), I apologize for not blogging a single time during spring quarter. It was one heck of quarter...10 weeks during which I was sick for about 8, my classes were killing me, and I was busily wrapping up PA things and getting ready for summer. And now it's here!

I'm home, home again, working at the pool for my 7th summer, which is as long as Jacob had to work to marry Rachel, so I really think I should get some kind of prize for my longevity (it's Biblical!). But I guess I'll have to settle for earning $12.75/hour. (not too shabby)

On top of that, I'm 21, I'm footloose and fancy free, and I have some great summer plans to make an epic Summer 2010. Here's the top three things on my To-Do List:
- Olivia and I have grand ambitions to try different coffee shops all over Portland and compare them. We're looking especially for coffeeshops that serve fair trade. Be checking back on the blog to see the results! (And I should credit Michael Frank for giving me this idea...and he's doing the same thing in Seattle this summer...can't wait to see the sweet places he discovers!)
- Secondly, I have been getting my craft on, just in time to sell at the Alberta Last Thursday Street Fair this Thursday. I've got frames with screen (perfect for hanging earrings), journals, and hair accessories galore. Whatever I don't sell will probably be put in my etsy shop...hopefully bringing in a little extra summer income.
- I'm having a garage sale! I'm clearing out old things I don't need (and a lot of floor decorations I got at garage sales last year) and convincing my family to get rid of things too. Last summer Erin and I became garage sale connoisseurs, so this year we're going to try our hand at having our own garage sale (with excellent sign coverage, of course).

Oh, and how could I forget? This month is World Cup, and that means soccer (I really should say football) almost 24/7 here, complete with "themed cuisine," meaning that at least one meal a day is an international dish featuring one of the teams playing each day. It's time to go eat Italian food, and watch Brazil play!

Treasure Hunting

In the epic battle that took place last night at approximately 12:45 am, I defeated my opponents and prevailed in getting an etsy treasury (it's tough competition, let me tell you)! Some of you might be wondering what exactly is etsy, and why am I concerned about treasure? (Sounds like Pirates of the Caribbean or something.) If you don't know what etsy is, you're in for a treat. www.etsy.com is "your place to buy and sell things handmade" - it's basically like buying stuff on ebay and amazon except they are handmade crafts or vintage items.

It's a lot of fun to look through all the different items. Because it only costs 20 cents to post an item, that's a really low start-up cost, which encourages people to be creative and start selling their stuff! I fell in love with etsy as soon as I started using it last December, and I do, indeed, have my own etsy store, where I sell some of my photographs and crafts that I've made (I will soon be adding more photos, by the way). Some of my items show up at the bottom of this post.


One of the tools that etsy has is called the Treasury. Users can compile lists of all their favorite items that they've seen on etsy and then post those lists for other people to look through. The trick is that you can't add a list unless there are less than 333 lists at a time. However, as soon as the number drops to 332, everyone who is currently looking at the treasury page has the opportunity to create a treasury, so then the overall number skyrockets back up to like 600. You have to time it just right to score a treasury. And that's what I did last night at 12:45, and now my treasury is online for just another day and a half!

You should check it out! The more people look at it (and click on stuff) the higher the rating. Here's the link: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=55167

Etsy Buy Handmade sadielou

Haiku Wednesday

It appears that I spoke too soon yesterday. The clouds came rolling in, the wind picked up, and now it is freezing outside. Spring, where have you gone?

The highlights of my day:

-2 people bought something from my etsy site! My site (sadielou.etsy.com) has been up for 4 months, but alas, the only purchase I made was to my friend Olivia...until today! Two paychecks also came in, so overall, I'm feeling pretty good. :)
- I went to buy a smoothie in the SUB, and they gave me a free t-shirt. Sure, it's size Xl, but hey, it's green and orange and pretty darn cute.

However, none of these rambling thoughts are as interesting as my new favorite haiku. Last week I went to Uwajimaya (which was described to me as "the Asian Costco") for the first time, and I loved it. While browsing through the bookstore, I came across a book of haikus. Now, I'm no poet, but it is National Poetry Month, so in honor of this, I cracked open the book. Most of the haikus were about the usual...starlit skies, world peace, the smell of spring...you know. Very calming. But not the following (which was by far my favorite):

A white lotus -
the monk decides
to cut it!

Well, there it is. :) Now go enjoy National Poetry Month, spring, and fresh flowers.