I am feeling so sorry for the FedEx driver whose truck is stuck in our Colorado driveway.  It is surprising that he attempted to go up the driveway and equally surprising that he doesn’t carry chains.  We are searching for our tow chain, but so far no luck.  So, if you live in Colorado and you are expecting something from FedEx today, it may well be here.

I am reading through the blogs and I am surprised at how few of the blogs contain any posts.  Rebecca invested the time to set these blogs up.  Come on people — give me something to read!

I discovered Etsy (www.etsy.com) about a year ago.  It is a consortium of sellers of handmade and vintage items and a great way to supplement the success of a regular website.

Unlike Ebay, with Etsy you are permitted to link to your regular website.  So when I first signed up for Etsy, I didn’t necessarily expect to receive any sales there.   I would have been content if some people found me there and migrated over to my regular site from Etsy.  But I know from customer communications that both happened.  I have had Etsy sales and people have wandered over to my regular site to see what my lettering styles look like or what items of mine are available there that are not available on the Etsy site.

Now for the benefits — There are no sign up fees, there is a low 20 cent per listing fee to list the items (regardless of value).  As you probably know, the cost to list on Ebay depends on the starting bidding price or the buy it now price.  And with Etsy, the completion fees are low too.  Best of all, everything on the site is handmade, so it is a great forum for my embroidered and personalized items because people who are searching there are searching for my kind of work.

My experience with Etsy has been very positive and I recommend it to anyone with a handmade product who wants to further their sales.  Do let me know if you have any questions.

Finally some snow in Colorado!   We have ten inches so far.  Meanwhile I am working on 22 custom embroidered aprons for a child’s birthday party in Pennsylvania.

We have an enormous deck and snow is heavy, so I had to take a break to shovel the snow off the deck.  I heard from a local emergency room physician that there are an inordinate number of heart attacks triggered by shoveling, so my husband doesn’t do that anymore.  Apparently, most of these heart attacks happen in the early part of the day.  The theory, according to this ER doc is that the strenuous activity is more stressful to the heart when it has not had time to wake up and start its day normally.  The ER doc said that men should shovel later in the day if they have to do it themselves.

Seems a bit strange, but that is what he said…

We now have a Flickr Photostream where you can breeze through hundreds of photos or look through categories - all Initial Impressions items.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/initial-impressions/

You can view more information about Initial Impressions and connect to us through Linked In:

Charles Shultz, creator of the Peanuts comic strips, coined the phrase “security blanket” with his character Linus Van Pelt, who was always seen with his blanket in tow. Karen Loucks founded Project Linus in 1995 to provide blankets to children undergoing serious medical treatments to help them through the process. Karen had read an article about Laura, a 3 year old undergoing chemotherapy, whose blanket helped her get through the treatments. Since then, the organization has grown and provided security and comfort to thousands of children who are seriously ill or traumatized. Project Linus donates 350 blankets every month and is close to hitting the 2 million mark. Project Linus is a nonprofit organization with headquarters in Bloomington, IL.

School started a while ago, but wouldn’t your child’s bus driver be surprised and pleased to get a surprise gift of one of these dish towels?  As I sewed it up, I could remember and almost hear my daughter Erica chanting the “Thank you Mr. Bus Driver” song at least fifteen years

Santa’s List: Stocking Stuffers

Thank you Rebecca for providing this forum to me and other Digital Women members!

I started blogging about embroidery in January, 2007.  That was after 8 years of commercial embroidery and a lifetime of general sewing before that.  Suffice it to say that I love sewing in general and embroidery in particular.  This next year, 2009, will be my tenth year in the embroidery business.  I have learned a few things about what makes good embroidery and what kinds of things customers like.

I have not figured out how to import the content of the ongoing blog into this blog, so I will just provide the link to it here.  Interested persons can go there and get the prior posts and content.

www.initial-impressions.net/blog