I love the Holidays! Busy Busy Busy!

So far this year has been amazing!  My very first year "in the business" and everything has been going so well.  Not only have I made a lot of new friends thru the Etsy.com community but also I have had the opportunity to sell INTERNATIONALLY.  My first international sale back in August was to Australia.  There are so many things I learned by having to ship internationally that I had never expected before.  There are TWO different types of Custom Forms to choose from, and it is BEST to have the Post office or FedEx place help you decide which one you are supposed to fill out.  In my case because my items are merchandise, non-perishable items, they have me fill out the simple customs form.  My most recent sale that was international was to Barcelona, Spain.  

This got shipped this afternoon!  

The best part about making things by hand is that more and more people now a days are starting to truly appreciate the hard work and artistry it can take.  More and more people are willing to order things from people like me because they know what I make is HAND CRAFTED, and no two items are ever alike.  Even if you purchase the same item, because even the same color yarn can have a different length in between colors or even thickness, no matter what you do, each item is one of a kind.  They are all beautiful, that is what I love.  I have been crocheting for over 23 years, so my technique is quite exceptional, so the only thing that is really a surprise in my work is what the yarn does while I am creating a new masterpiece.

These two were my most recent sale of my "One of a kind" slouchy hats.  I love Lion Brand Homespun yarn.  I have said it a thousand times and I will continue to say it.  No matter what color I have bought, it never ceases to amaze me with the finished product.

And I can't forget this little beauty!  This is one of my other best sellers.  Sold 3 so far this year!  I love how amazing they all come out when they are complete.  This is a Secret Santa present!  Goddess, I love the holidays.  :)

I finally got a new phone with a better camera! Time for some updated pictures of my stuff!!!

     Getting a new phone to me is like getting a new car almost.  I upgrade my phone once every 2 or 3 years it seems like and each time I go to get a new one, the choices are almost overwhelming.  I love Samsung.  In the 10 years that I have been buying cell phones, the only brand that has ever lasted me for a decent amount of time has been my Samsung phones.  I have owned probably 4 or 5 different models of Samsung phones and they all have been well built and lasted as long as my husband thought they needed to until I could afford an upgrade.  I even had one that wasn't worth anything as a buy back, so I kept it as a back up forever, and I actually had 2 LG phones completely stop working on me and was able to switch back to that OLD Samsung until I could afford my new ones.  So when it came time for my hubby and I to upgrade again this time, he was set on getting us new Samsung phones.  

     He found the new Samsung Galaxy II Epic 4G's as a buy one get one for $99 and was sold right away on them.  He upgraded from the HTC Evo which he liked for a long time, until it all of a sudden decided that it didn't want to hold a charge.  When you are having to charge your phone 2 and 3 times a day it gets pretty annoying if you ask me.  So we got new phones yesterday!

     The camera on this new phone is better than the one my husband had on his EVO by far!  It's incredible the detail these pictures come out with.  Just playing around with it yesterday I took a picture of my kiddo's in the back seat of the truck and you could see the dimples on my little Ridger's cheeks.  I am so impressed.  So as a goal, I have decided that all the items that I have been making and not taking pictures of for posting are going to get photographed and posted by the end of this weekend. 

     So stay tuned for some brand new stuff!!!