Etsy Team - Golden Rose Crafters Anniversary Sale

Month of September Anniversary Sale

Things have been busy at Etsy. I think everyone is in the mood to shop for fall and looking forward to all the special times it includes: Halloween, Thanksgiving, enjoying the colorful leaves on the trees, etc. I belong to several teams on Etsy and one of them is the Golden Rose Crafters. This is a small team with less than 60 members and the team is having a celebration throughout September because it's one year old on September 13th. Several of the members will be having a sale for the month of September, my shop (TheSandlapperShop) included. There will also be special Treasuries and lots of activity going on.

Here's a list of the team members who currently have let us know about a special sale in their shop for the month. I also included the web site for each shop. Come by to visit the shops and browse the great items on display. Although I only have "aprons" indicated in my sale listing, a few other items will be marked down for the month and I will be adding new ones every week so you may want to be the first one to discover them as they appear! Come visit me.

As you'll notice, some shops require you to enter a code in order to get the sale price, so don't forget to do that. Tomorrow is when all of this begins.

COUPON CODES:

1. Marilyn1545 - RushHour - 10% OFF
http://www.etsy.com/shop/marilyn1545
2, PurpleCowArt - GRCANN1 - 10% off all items over $5.00.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/PurpleCowArt
3.PattiesPieces - GRCANNIV1 - Free Shipping
http://www.etsy.com/shop/PattiesPieces
4. Patchworkcrafters - GRC1STANNIVERSARY - Free Shipping
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Patchworkcrafters
5. Twistedsticks - free item with every order
http://www.etsy.com/shop/twistedsticks
6. TheSandlapperShop - 20% off on aprons
http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheSandlapperShop
7.RusticVengeance- RV520 10% off for all items.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/RusticVengeance
8. LaTuStudio- GRCANIV 10% off for my clothing, jewelry, or photography
http://www.etsy.com/shop/LaTuStudio
9.Connieryan123 10% off coupon ANNIVERSARY
http://www.etsy.com/shop/connieryan123
10 Lilac Cottage Cards - 15% off all items over $5.00 using coupon code lilaccards
http://www.etsy.com/shop/lilaccottagecards


Celebrate Halloween with a Witch of the Grottes Token from Howe Caverns in New York - you can purchase it in my shop:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/106110143/witch-of-the-grottoes-token-halloween

Wild and Crazy Week

It's so hard to work on quilting when your eye is uncomfortable. This quilt was finished today... whew, it seems like I started it so long ago. I like the green, purple, and white with just a touch of yellow.

Meanwhile, it has been a wild and crazy week. My husband and I have been car shopping. I started out with a list of about 18 or 19 cars that I wanted to look at. (Now, keep in mind I don't pay a bit of attention to cars until it comes time to look for one which means for years and years I would not notice if a Ford Mustang or a Chevy Equinox is next to me at the red light.) I started out with Consumer Reports magazine. Our plan was to go to various dealerships and just look at the exterior of the vehicles that I thought I might like, take a look at the size of the cargo area, and sit in the front and rear seat. So that took about a week and narrowed the list considerably. Then we test drove a few and began to talk price.  Finally there were only 3 models left on my list. They were all similar in having the features that were really important to me and not too dissimilar in price. Color was an issue on one, but the dealership was willing to bring in an acceptable color from out of state. I stressed a lot about which one to pick and we now have a red Nissan Rogue. I like it so far and it's doing better on gas mileage than advertised. The car I traded in was really good on gas and I wondered about working my way into the small SUV category. It will still be awhile before I feel comfortable driving it in lots of traffic and on narrow streets, but I'll get there.

Now if you have been reading my blog for awhile, you know there have been issues with my eye since I had cataract surgery on it early in July. It got worse this week. In fact, I called the surgeon's office this morning and they had me come right in. It's still supposed to relate to my eye being dry; but after adding over the counter drops and gel for two months now, there has been little improvement. There are what they call "inflammation cells" in my eye so I will be starting on two prescription eye drops once I get into town to pick them up tomorrow. I guess it's nice to be trying something to get rid of the discomfort, but it is supposed to take 4 months to see if this will make an improvement.  Do you think I am patient?  I am not! So, in December I can let you know if this works.

Eye'm Much Improved

I know that first word is wrong, but it sounded so appropriate. A few people have been following along to learn more about cataract surgery and might be wondering how I am doing. I am so happy to report that my eye is getting closer and closer to feeling normal. I would rate it somewhere around 85-90% back to normal. I'm still glad I postponed surgery on the second eye, but much relieved that my eye won't feel like I am wearing a torn contact lens for the rest of my life. Are you like me and so impatient to have something get better? Today makes one month since I had the first surgery which doesn't sound like a long recovery in terms of surgery, but it was not what I anticipated with cataract surgery.

Did I make the right decision to keep my vision about like it was?  I really think so.  I can read, sew, and work at the computer without my glasses.  I can read my alarm clock which is on the nightstand right next to my bed, I can cut or file my fingernails, and if I ever decide some occasion warrants it, I can see to apply makeup.  I must say I don't wear it very often now that I am retired and I doubt it would stay on long with all the sweating involved in a South Carolina August.  I don't know about other South Carolina women, but I sweat in this hot weather!

I bought fabric to work on making an I Spy quilt for my triplet grandsons so I hope to get started on that over the next few days and finish up another quilt that now only needs the binding put on and stitched down.  Last year my quilt guild had a UFO Challenge and that helped me so much to finish some quilts that had stagnated, but those that didn't get finished last year have not made a lot of progress this year.  I know, I shouldn't expect them to magically finish on their own! Cheer me on so I can get more quilting done.

Happy quilting and if you are waiting for something of your own to heal and mend, get well soon.

Etsy on My Mind

Let me start out by saying that my eye that had cataract surgery nearly a month ago is still not back to normal and continues to be uncomfortable.  I was supposed to have surgery on the second eye next week on Monday, but I cancelled it.  I can see very well out of the second eye at this point so there seemed to be no point to risking the possibility that I might be dealing with another problem.  If any of you have worn contacts, you know what it feels like when you have a slight tear in your contact lens.  Well, that is what my eye feels like all the time now.  I am hoping it's just a reaction to the prescription drops, but there is no way to know. 

The doctors say this is because my eye is dry, but when I use the moisturising drops, ointment, etc. it does not feel any different - and it seems that after I put those in, it should feel better if that was the case. Anyway, if it does get back to normal, I will be here to shout about it! Today was my first day using my sewing machine again and I could thread the needle really well so that was a sigh of relief. I embroidered the names of my triplet grandsons on some bibs so I can mail something to them. I did similar bibs just prior to Christmas, but I think those bibs need replacing by now!  I also went to the dentist this week and got two old fillings replaced and all of that went well, so not everything has been bad.

www.etsy.com/listing/101612908/coffee-sachets-3-original-design

What has been great lately is all the support and surprises that I have received from some of my Etsy Teams!  I belong to quite a few, but I have to tell you about four of them in this post. Not any of this was because of my issues with my eye - all totally coincidence, some of these selections are situations where shops are selected at random, and with some others it was just my turn to come up in a team event that I participate in. It just happened to be an ideal time for me to get a little extra attention. 


Promoting Creative Friends has been so wonderful to me all week and believe me, it has made me feel better when my eye has been such an issue. The Coffee Scented Sachets  that I made (see photo above) were in the Thursday's Tag You're It Treasury Challenge for this week and have been featured in so many wonderful Treasuries.  I love coffee and coffee related items so I have had a wonderful time enjoying them and favoriting the items. I was also in a Shop of the Day Treasury where any item in the shop could be featured... and the Sawtooth Star Quilt that I made is featured in the PCF's Weekly Shop Hop.  You can see the items here: www.pcfteam.blogspot.ca/2012/07/weekly-shop-hop_31.html.  If you are active in or just curious about Etsy, stop by to see this team at: http://www.etsy.com/teams/10036/promoting-creative-friends.


Another team I am on is the Treasury Island Team and my shop, which is TheSandlapperShop, was a Spotlight Shop for the Treasury Challenge this week. You can visit the Treasury Island Team at: http://www.etsy.com/teams/7400/treasury-island. I love to make Treasuries so I have lots of fun with it.


Team Elite recently allowed us to request a buddy and I have Melissa from Serendipity World as my new buddy. You can visit Melissa's shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/SerendipityWorld and you can get to know Team Elite at http://www.etsy.com/teams/12725/team-elite.


This next team is listed last, but is not least in any way - the Golden Rose Crafters Team. What a warm and welcoming group!  Their blog that just came out features one of my gardening articles - see my column "Growing Together" about Nourishing Your Soil at http://goldenrosecrafters.blogspot.com/2012/07/growingtogether-nourishing-your-soil.html
One of my Treasuries entitled Lavender-licious is a Top Pick for July in the General Treasuries Category. You can visit the team at: http://www.etsy.com/teams/10421/goldenrosecrafters


Maybe it will help if I explain how you can see all of the Treasuries I have made and those that feature items from my shop. Some wonderful people beyond those I just talked about also featured some of my items in Treasuries this week. If you go to http://www.etsy.com/Treasury/, you will see a space where you can enter search terms.  Type in TheSandlapperShop and you can see every Treasury I have made as well as Treasuries that were made by others that feature an item from my shop.


If you haven't visited my other blog lately - Write Here, Write Now - I have posted another author interview.  You will love to read about author Marie Fostino.  Check it out!


So, most of the week has been such a good week so far... now if I can just get my eye back to normal, but at least I no longer live in fear of the second eye feeling bad, too.  Sometimes you have to take a stand!