My Childhood Memory

As part of the EtsyBloggers Street team we have to fill certain requirements each month. One is to post on a certain topic once a month. The topic for September 1st is "Something You Did When A Child That You Will Always Remember".

This topic is especially appropriate because thinking about my dad's blog has reminded me of our pet black lab Snoopy. Snoopy was one of those dogs that when you looked and talked to him, he really seemed to know what you were talking about.

Now my memory of something I did that I will always remember involves our dog Snoopy. We lived at the top of a hill that the road plateaued for 2 miles, went down into a valley for 2 miles and then back up to our house. This road around was about 6 miles long. When I was about 10 or 11 our parents would let us (my sisters and I) ride our bikes on this road as long as Snoopy was with us. This was at a time when kids could be away from the house for a long time, and the parents didn't worry about someone abducting them. Plus with Snoopy along, someone could have tried, but he really would have made them pay.

Thinking back to those times, I wish the world was still such a trusting place to be in for our kids. It's hard to even let my son go anyplace alone in a store, much less spend several hours riding his bike where I can't see him. But he is of course a good kid, so even if he misses out on this 6 mile bike ride, he gets to experience things I never even dreamed of.

Family Joins Blogging Nation

I cannot believe that my dad has joined the blogging movement. One sister at Holy Crap We Had Twins started the movement. I think another sister had a blog for awhile. I'll have to ask her if it's current. I'm back to blogging going on 1.5 months now.

And now my parents have joined. They can be found at Mort2008. This is be a blog about their new puppy, Mort, fishing on the Mighty Mississippi River, living on the Mighty Mississippi River, bald eagles(which they see year round out of their front window) and other general news.

If I have my way, my dad will be totally immersed in the Technology Age!

Thanks for stopping by.

My site visits results

I was having a hard time deciding what to write about tonight. I had a full paragraph about the craft show I'm going to be in this weekend, but then I decided that was boring. Then was just going to show pictures of the town I'll be in this weekend, which is where my parents live, but.....even more boring. So while I was checking my blog stats, I decided to review with you who is visiting my blog.

Entrecard advertising 10
Entrecard.com 9
(direct) 2
Blogger.com 7
Google 3
Etsy.com 1
Bloglines.com 1
Total Visits 33

I know what all of these are except www.bloglines.com. I guess I should check to see what that is. I'm glad that I got quite a few hits from my Entrecard advertising. None of these hits have turned into sales yet, but since my items are more for gift giving, I'm still being patient.

If you would like to see similiar stats for your own blog and you have a google account, it is very easy to install google analytics into your blog. It will then keep track of how many visitors you have, where they came from, how long they spent on your site, etc. I know that my shop's traffic has increased, but where the traffic has come from I'm not sure. If Etsy admin ever gives us the ability to install tracking on our shop, it will be interesting to compare the two statistics.

Thanks for visiting!!

To whom it May Concern...

This blog is my blog and only my blog. It is so much my blog that my husband refuses to claim it in anyway his blog. But I must remember to tell him if someone comments on the pictures of the deer I have on "my" blog.


So yes, it is my blog.

More about a web presence

Since yesterday, I have opened my spreadsheet every time I go online. In case I found another place I had registered. I have sorted my list and I am on 16 different sites. Some I signed up for and some I have ended up on without my knowledge.

In connection with my last post, will this funnel people to my sales site? As the owl in the famous Tootsie Pop commercial said, "The world may never know."

Does Promoting your Blog = Promoting your Etsy Shop?

So, I've been wondering if promoting my blog will equal additional traffic to my etsy shop. The reason I've wondered is mainly because of this Location, Location, Location post on the Etsy Forums. Schoollocker.etsy.com compiled a list of all the different locations people can make their presence known on the internet when it comes to their artistry and shop. (Thank you schoollocker, by the way, that was some undertaking!)

I have pasted the list into an excel spreadsheet, so I can track where I am registered with, and there are 144 different websites an artist could possibly be found on. That's a lot of websites!

If a person could be found on even a small number of these sites, how much would it increase their traffic to their shops. I'm not sure, but I'm hoping the places I'm located on will help my future sales.

What’s Your Favorite Book and Type of Bookmark?

Among the different areas in the etsy community forums is the promotions area. Promotions usually move pretty quickly. I've been trying to come up with an interesting way to promote my bookmarks. So here, as well as on etsy.com, I'm going to ask this question….

What is your type of bookmark and favorite book?

If you need help thinking of a type of bookmark here is the link to a search on etsy of bookmarks.

If you need help thinking of a book, here is the list from The New York Times Best Sellers List.

If you find this question interesting, please post a comment with your favorite book and type of bookmark. J

 

HARDCOVER FICTION

Top 5 at a Glance
1. ACHERON, by Sherrilyn Kenyon
2. THE BOURNE SANCTION, by Eric Van Lustbader
3. THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
4. MOSCOW RULES, by Daniel Silva
5. THE HOST, by Stephenie Meyer

Complete Hardcover Fiction List »

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

Top 5 at a Glance
1. THE OBAMA NATION, by Jerome R. Corsi
2. STORI TELLING, by Tori Spelling with Hilary Liftin
3. THE WAY OF THE WORLD, by Ron Suskind
4. WHEN YOU ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES, by David Sedaris
5. THE CASE AGAINST BARACK OBAMA, by David Freddoso

Complete Hardcover Nonfiction List »

PAPERBACK TRADE FICTION

Top 5 at a Glance
1. THE SHACK, by William P. Young
2. BAREFOOT, by Elin Hilderbrand
3. WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, by Sara Gruen
4. THE ALCHEMIST, by Paulo Coelho
5. THE KITE RUNNER, by Khaled Hosseini

Complete Paperback Trade Fiction List »

PAPERBACK MASS-MARKET FICTION

Top 5 at a Glance
1. PLAYING FOR PIZZA, by John Grisham
2. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED, by James Patterson and Howard Roughan
3. TURBULENT SEA, by Christine Feehan
4. INTO THE FLAME, by Christina Dodd
5. LEFT TO DIE, by Lisa Jackson

Complete Paperback Mass-Market Fiction List »

PAPERBACK NONFICTION

Top 5 at a Glance
1. THREE CUPS OF TEA, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
2. EAT, PRAY, LOVE, by Elizabeth Gilbert
3. A LONG WAY GONE, by Ishmael Beah
4. THE AUDACITY OF HOPE, by Barack Obama
5. BIG RUSS AND ME, by Tim Russert

Complete Paperback Nonfiction List »

HARDCOVER ADVICE

Top 5 at a Glance
1. THE LAST LECTURE, by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow
2. YOU: STAYING YOUNG, by Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz et al.
3. THE SECRET, by Rhonda Byrne
4. JUST WHO WILL YOU BE?, by Maria Shriver
5. DECEPTIVELY DELICIOUS, by Jessica Seinfeld

Complete Hardcover Advice List »

PAPERBACK ADVICE

Top 5 at a Glance
1. A NEW EARTH, by Eckhart Tolle
2. SKINNY BITCH, by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin
3. THE POWER OF NOW, by Eckhart Tolle
4. WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING, by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel
5. SOUL WISDOM, by Zhi Gang Sha

Complete Paperback Advice List »

CHILDREN'S BOOKS

Top 5 at a Glance
1. GALLOP!, written and illustrated by Rufus Butler Seder
2. FAIRIES AND MAGICAL CREATURES, by Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda
3. ALPHABET, by Matthew Van Fleet
4. MADAM PRESIDENT, by Lane Smith
5. SPLAT THE CAT, written and illustrated by Rob Scotton

All Children's Books Lists »

 

Upcoming Items in my Shop!!

 

I've finally been able to take some photos of more bookmarks, in between my little girl grabbing at the camera. I'm up to 23 different bookmarks in my shop. And I honestly have a lot more that could be listed.

I have a craft show coming up in 2 weeks, so I've been busy, busy, busy making these. I'm hoping that they will do well at the show!

I do have a sale going on in my shop right now. It is a buy 3 get 1 free on any woven accessory and bookmarks. These would make very good gifts for teachers, librarians, secret santa's, etc. Plan ahead for the holiday season!

My Updated Etsy Banner

I've been trying to update the look of my etsy shop. But I no longer have Photoshop, so I'm working with Picasa, SerifPlus 6.0(a free photo editing download) and Microsoft Word.

I have finally perfected using the 3 to make what I think is a presentable banner. By using word, I inserted my photos on the page where I want them. In Microsoft Office 2007, I can edit the photos in a variety of shapes and outlines. I especially like the rounded corners I gave each photo. Then I made a text box with my name. With the text box, I can change the background color, text color, etc. I arranged everything the way I wanted it in the word document. Took a screen shot, pasted it into serifplus6.0. I then cropped the photo for just the banner, exported it to a jpg. And uploaded it into my shop.

I made it sound easy, but it was a lot of putzing around trying to get the photos to line up correctly and the number of pixels to match what etsy wanted. But since we still have limited internet access, I could spend what time I wanted on this.

I think it turned out ok for using limiting programs.

Later everyone!!

Satellite Internet Fair Access Policy

So as you may have guessed, we live out in the country in rural Wisconsin. There are advantages and disadvantages to living where we live. One is the amount of wildlife we can see around our house. The lack of neighbors too close to our house. And peace and quiet.

One of the disadvantages is dial-up internet access. So 1 year ago, we decided to make the jump to satellite internet access. It's the slowest speed, but still much faster than dial-up. But we exceeded our fair access policy. Which apparently limits the amount you can upload or download in a rolling 30 day time period. When you go over the threshold, you only get limited access to the internet. That is why I've been unabe to post much this week, or drop entre.com cards, or comment on anyone's blogs. It's been a dreadfully long week.

I have internet access at work, but I've been terribly busy there and I always feel guilty if I do personal stuff while I am working. I'm a great multi-tasker, but there's still there's always that thought that I should be working.

So we've been limited on the internet this week, thinking we should have full access soon. I finally called, and we should get full access on the 11th. We could get full access earlier, but it would involve unplugging our modem for 24 hours. 24 HOURS!! No internet access! The technician was not amused when I asked that question twice. He just did not understand the truly addictive nature of my etsy store, blog, entrecard, treasuries, email, etc. So we can continue with slow access until Monday, and hope that the technician wasn't leading me on about getting full access back then. Maybe I should call again and double check with someone else!?!

The Joy of Checking the Game Camera

Part of the fun of living out in the country is the chance to see wild animals. My hubby has several game cameras set up around our land, in the hopes of seeing the "BIG ONE" on camera. Here are some of the photos he most recently got, along with my color commentary. :-)



















Most deer have twins when they have babies. This is a rare photo of a mother with just one fawn. It cool to see the lines that the spots make on the fawn.
















I think this must be the equivalent of getting caught picking your nose!















And DRUM ROLL!!! This is the photo that my husband was waiting to finally see! I have caught him practically drooling over the set of photos of this deer. If you look closely, you can see that this buck still has the velvet on his horns. Eventually, the closer to the rut, this velvet will come off.

I will occassionally post photos from my hubby's game camera. I find them interesting and I hope others do also!

Would you like your Etsy Mini on my blog?

I was able to answer Wire Lily's promo request in the Etsy Forum's quickly, when she put in an offer to advertise any 4 shops on her blog for free. When I was one of the four, I also offered to place her promo on my blog. I couldn't figure out how to make a list with just people's logos and links to their shop so I asked her for her etsy mini code.

I'm going to "pay it forward" to people who come to read my blog first. If you would like me to place your etsy mini on my blog please let me know. You can send me an email at rockcreekcreations -at- gmail.com. I would like the mini to be thumbnails, with 2 columns and 1 row. If you don't know how to do this, let me know and I'll have another topic for my blog. :-) (Can never have too many topics lined up you know.) If you email me, I will save your spot.

August is Happiness Happens Month

I just received an email from someone that mentioned that August is Happiness Happens Month. Isn't that a nice thought? Below is an excerpt from the Secret Society of Happy People website. Of all the secret societies out there, isn't this a nice one to be in!?!

I'm normally the type of person that goes around smiling and saying "Hi" to everyone. I remember many times after talking to a person in the grocery store, my son asking me, "Who was that?" I would always answer, "Just an interesting person I said hi to." I like to think that even if I haven't officially joined the Secret Society of Happy People, I've been following their advise for a long time.

Secret Society of Happy People

Founded: August 1998

Purpose: The Secret Society of Happy People encourages the expression of happiness and discourages parade-raining. Parade-rainers are those people who don't want to hear your happy news. And no, we don't tell people to be happy if they aren't or how to be happy.

Motto: If you're happy and you know it ... tell somebody!

Members: More than 7,000 people in 34 countries have joined the Secret Society of Happy People.