Thinking Outloud

Last night I was a little bored and wanted something different to do.  So I picked up my daughter’s knitted afghan that I have spent months working on and started knitting again.  I honestly couldn’t believe how long it’s been since I last worked on it.  It’s a good thing that she is a very patient child when it comes to things like this.  I have a tendency to go in spurts when working on certain crafting projects and lately I have been in the jewelry creation spurts.  But to be fair to my daughter I have decided to spend a little time working on her afghan every night until its finally completed.  I feel like I’ve been working on it forever so I can’t wait until it’s done.  My son wants one next, but I think I’m going to look for a different pattern that doesn’t take quite so long to complete.

Happy long weekend to you all.  Today is Good Friday, but there really isn’t much going on in our household today.  My husband, who was supposed to be off, was called out to work this morning.  And, as he had to travel quite a distance to the job site, he will proablybe gone most of the day.  So that leaves me and the two kids home alone all day.  So I think we will have a quite day today doing crafts and playing around on the computer.  Although this may sound quite boring, sometimes having days like today can be an excellent day to just unwind and recharge the batteries.  We do have quite a busy weekend ahead of us, so having a quiet day sounds like a great idea to me.

As most of you are aware, I am currently trying to get a small home crafting business up and running. It’s going quite slowly at the moment, but things are starting to pick up. Right now I sell stuff (mainly jewelry for now) on my Simply Crafting website as well as through my Etsy shop. Well I have discovered a new way to try to promote and sell my jewelry. It’s through WP auctions. It’s really easy to set up and there are no fees EVER.

All you need to do is pop on over to Life with Kim and you can see what is currently up for sale. If any of my jewelry interests you, all you need to do is click on the “bid now” button and you can place your bid. It’s just that easy. And, if you have anything yourself that you would like to sell, why not set up your own account and let the bidding begin.

As you all know last year I started a small home crafting business. I did pretty good for just starting out and I did end up by the end of the year having a few sales. But because I did have a few sales, I now need to file income tax for this type of business. The good thing about having a home business is the fact that you can claim all sorts of deductions. So this year I will be claiming deductions on my home office space, my Internet service (advertising) and my office supplies such as ink pens. Because I have never had a home business before, this year I will go to a professional to get my taxes filed. Always better to be safe than sorry in these matters.

As most of you know, I just recently started to make some homemade jewelry. I have made quite a few pieces and have to say that they look pretty good. But these pieces are just very basic and I would really like to try my hand at making little more advanced pieces. I would love to be able to create beautiful religious jewelry. I have seen so many beautiful pictures of this type of jewelry and I would love to be able to create some of this myself. I’m sure that after a little more practice, I should be able to create some of this type of jewelry and hopefully get it looking like some of the jewelry that I have seen in magazines and on the Internet.

The other day my husband went to look into our bedroom closet for something.  He then came out of the bedroom shaking his head.  He then stated that I am the worst pack rat that he has ever seen and he can’t find a thing that he is looking for because of all my “junk”.  But guess what, all my “junk” is stuff I need or want to save.  I really don’t have that much stuff.  Just a lot of crafting supplies, tons and tons of books and everything that the kids have ever made in their lifetime (so I guess 18 years of stuff). lol

So yeah, I guess you could call me a pack rat.  But everything I have I need or will need in the future.  Honest!!  How about you guys?  Who’s the pack rat in your home?  You or your significant other?

One of my favorite hobbies to do is knitting. Right now I am in the middle of making a knitted afghan for my daughter’s bed and it is really starting to come along quite nicely. After seeing me work on this particular project for a few days, my youngest son has also requested that I make him an afghan as well. Well I have started looking at different patterns to see if I can create him something that looks like it would be good for a little boys bed. After coming across one pattern which I think may work out, some of the instructions got me a little confused. One of the stitches for this particular pattern would be the “cable” stitch. The term fiber cable has come up a lot lately in my research and I thought it had to do with knitting. But, after doing a little more digging, I have discovered that it doesn’t and it is something totally different. This is a good thing as I really had no clue as to how to do this particular type of pattern. I guess I don’t have to worry about that for now.

Well I have decided to try something different with my homemade jewelry.  I have been making jewelry for a couple of months now so I have only been making some really basic pieces just to get the practice.  Now don’t get me wrong.  Although the pieces I have made are very basic, they are very pretty and I have had quite a bit of interest in my jewelry products.  But, I have decided that I really need to come out of my comfort zone and try something a little fancier.  So later today when I dig out all my beading supplies, I’m going to try a more difficult pattern.  I’m always up for a challenge and I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that this little adventure will turn out.

So wish me luck and if I manage to create something a little more difficult than what I normally do I’ll be sure to pop in here with a picture or two to show you all my work.

Oh yes I did!  The reason why I am so excited about this event, is that I never shop.  Seriously, NEVER!!  Even this past Christmas, I would tell my husband the things that I would want for him to pick up for the kids and then he would go get it.  But, I started  running out of jewelry supplies and I really can’t trust my husband to get the right beads and supplies.  So I made him drive me into the city (did I forget to mention, I NEVER drive in the city either), and I went to the craft shop.  I spent over an hour searching for jewelry supplies, and $100.00 later I walked out of the store. lol  Maybe it’s a good thing that I never shop, otherwise I would be broke.  But, I’m good to go for a little while and hopefully I can make the jewelry, sell it and get my $100.00 back.  All in all, it wasn’t a bad shopping trip and I think I may do it again real soon.

Now that the Christmas season is over and done with, it’s time for me to get back on my normal schedule. And, part of my normal schedule includes making crafts and uploading them on to my website. So the first thing I need to do is place my order online for some beads to create some more gemstone jewelry. I have found that one of my biggest selling items on my site has been jewelry so this is the craft that I am going to concentrate on while trying to get my business booming again.