Item of the Week ~ Recipe ~ New Stuff

Item this week is the Heart Locket Necklace. Free shipping world wide ( even though it says US)

New recipe was added this morning to Coffee Tea and Recipes ~ Apple Streusel Muffins. Made these last night and they were wonderful for breakfast with a cup of coffee :) It is a great basic recipe for muffins that you can add just about anything to, super quick and easy. Please remember that I would LOVE to have everyone post a recipe on this blog.. well I would love to have you post a LOT of recipes on here. Coffee Tea and Recipes

Spent some time this weekend working on some new shadow boxes... I am so very excited.. I love every single one. We have four new boxes. A couple of different sizes and styles. I have spent the weekend trying to pick one as my favorite and I just have not been able to. Tonight we will be finishing the boxes up. One is getting painted.. I can't decide if it will be black or white.. and the other ones will be finished in clear so that the details of the boxes themselves can be shown off. Hoping to be showing off pictures of them all soon.

~Michelle

Beach in a Bottle or in a Heart

Well this has been one of those weeks when blogging was not happening for me. I am not sure why besides the fact that not a whole lot happened. I spent some time at the beach and worked on some new necklaces and hmm well that is about it. I did go out to dinner with Dave and we had a wonderful time. Spent some time in the shop working on the new boxes Dave has been working on getting some new joints perfected and I just enjoy being out there with him. I can sit and visit with him while he is working on them, as long as it is not while he is doing the math figuring. To be honest there is not a lot of physical help I can be in the shop due to my shoulder but I do enjoy spending the time with him and I love the way the shop smells when he is cutting up the wood. I also always have an idea or an opinion on just about everything and am more than willing to share :)

I do want to share my two new items this week in the shop. One is a heart locket filled with sea glass

and the other is a little glass bottle filled with some of the beach so you can do your own treasure hunting ~ Beach in a Bottle

I have also decided that every week ( or so ) I will be picking an item and putting it on sale. Could be free shipping or a gift with purchase or maybe a percent off. I am going to try some different things and see what people like. Would love your input on what you like to see in a sale that makes you want to buy something. ( just leave me a note in the comments ) This week the special is the Beach Themed Shadow Box ~ marked down to $40 and will send along a free gift.

Just look for the item with the yellow banner when you are browsing through my shop.

~Michelle

Detours

If you read my blog you know we do a lot of road trips around here... jeep, motorcycle or motor home... for the day, the weekend or 3 weeks.. we love just heading out. A lot of times we will have a destination decided.. but not how we are going to get there... or we will have one point of the trip decided but then end up somewhere else all together. It is a lot different than planning every stop along the way.. which used to be how I would have done it. I like to have lists... and go down my lists checking things off as I go. Which in some things works great. I finally made a list of all the phone calls I needed to make.. what I had been putting off for two weeks ( hate phone calls ) I was able to get it done in ten minutes once I had a list and could check things off. For road trips.. it is an ok way to do it.. and when we were on vacation last summer we did have some things on a list, things we did not want to miss. For the most part though.. we went with the flow..a lot of times that means finding a Walmart to park/sleep in for the night.. at 3 am in the morning. More often than not it means driving around and around in a town you do not know.. into places that maybe a motor home should not go or does not fit and getting lost more than once. Well as lost as one can get with 6 gps units in the car. What it also means... is finding the most awesome adventures... the best small town restaurants and camp grounds and people and sights. Sometimes the best place to eat or the prettiest Mountain or park are not the ones that everyone is going to but the ones that are kept a secret on the road less traveled. I know our best adventures have been off the beaten path :) Might be why we love Geocaching so much.. it takes you to the places no one else seems to go.. or shows you new things about where everyone goes.

Was talking to a friend about this sort of stuff the other day... and then today I logged into another friends blog and saw a quote that touched on the same subject...

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; But often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us." ~ Helen Keller

Took that as a sign to write about it. Right now I have been trying to find as many roads/doors as I can to get my shop out there. We are adding new ideas to the shop and trying lots of new things... and a lot of them seem to be working.. I am getting about 100x more views... and the sales are picking up. They do not seem to be buying out of the shop too much... but they are window shopping in there and then coming to me with things they would like made custom.. which I am more than happy to do.. I love that artfire lets us work with our customers in so many ways. Right now I am feeling really good about what is happening... trying out lots of different roads and opening a lot of different doors... some of them I head down a bit and look around and see nothing is happening... no views.. just a big open space feeling... I want to feel like it is a waste of time... sort of reminds me of driving through Wyoming this summer... parts of it were rather boring.. nothing to see as fas you can see... then... it seemed like all of a sudden.. one of my favorite parts of the trip happened... we stopped for an easy grab and go cache.. and ended up spending an hour or so exploring some awesome HUGE rocks... and then headed on to the best camp ground of the whole vacation. ( here is the blog post for that part of the trip )

My point in all of this is remind myself to stay focused and balanced.. life hands us detours.. or shuts doors... but it is true that it opens other ones... we just need to look for the adventures and be open to finding new ways and seeing new things. Be willing to accept that sometimes what we want is not what we need. Life is a road trip for me.. as long as I am moving forward ( or sometimes a little sideways ) it is good.. it is when I try putting it in reverse or try driving through a "road end" ( just because the map shows it going through does not mean it does ) that I start having problems. If something is not working then turn... go around a block... pick a new direction... remember though that sometimes we have to drive through some boring to get some awesome!

~Michelle

Smile of the Day

Yesterday a friend blogged about The Power of Bright Spot Thinking and I think it is so important to be reminded of this once in awhile and to do our best to stay focused on the positive in our life. Sharing our "bright spots" of the day and our smiles of the day, the things that make us smile and help us to be focused and keep us on track... are just some of the things I want to share on my blog. I feel they are like love.. you can never love enough... it is something that the more you give the more you have.

My first Bright Spot and someone that always makes me smile is the above mentioned friend. I am not sure how we started sharing our blog posts, I know that in the several years of being a crafter and having an online store I have seen her here and there and always thought her stuff was so much fun. Her name is Jenny and her blog is Knees and Paws her shop is KneesandPaws on etsy and it is full of fun things to allow and encourage children ( and adults ) to use and enjoy their imagination which I believe helps us to grow.

I love reading her blog, she has an interesting life, she blogs about a lot of different things, homeschooling, her business, her community, her family and so much more. One of the best things about being friends with her is the support she gives. She takes the time to read my blog and leave comments, which I know is time consuming. I am thankful for every person who takes the time to read my blog.. I know a few people who do read it and don't leave comments here very often but take the time to comment to me elsewhere.. that is wonderful to. Even if you are not leaving comments anywhere or if all you do is scan through the post.. I am still thankful that you clicked on this page :) Leaving the comments/feedback on the post itself is nice as it keeps it all in one place and I can get an idea of what people enjoy reading about by the comments they leave or do not leave. Thank you Jenny for the feedback on my blog and for sharing your life with us on your blog.

My second bright spot that has had me smiling since it happened last night is from the artfire.com forums. Dave was working and I was online a bit later than most nights... and I was posting in a forum thread that was just for fun.. nothing serious.. but it wasn't working right for me... things that should have shown up on the right were showing up on the bottom.. not really a huge deal... but... annoying. I gave up and went elsewhere... then I saw an email in my artfire box. It was someone I had seen before in the forums and I had explored her shop but had never talked with her. She wrote me a very friendly note letting me know what my problem was and how I could fix it. One thing I was able to understand and fix right away but the other thing was causing me problems and when I tried to follow the directions I ended up making it worse. I knew I was tired and my eyes were not working right (dang getting older) so after a few emails back and forth she could tell I was getting frustrated and she was so patient and supportive that I took a deep breath and went back and tried it one more time... it worked! :) That in itself made me smile.. that someone who does not know me at all would take the time to not only offer help but to keep gently pushing me and believing in my ability to do it. She stayed with me until I got it. Then this morning I log in and go to the forums.. I see she has a thread about what she had been helping me with. I clicked on it and a few posts in I see my name... they are talking about me... a few of them... at first the panic button goes off.. I have seen other forums on other sites.. where people who are learning are cut to pieces... I took a deep breath and I kept reading... and my heart melted a little a bit.. no one was mean or hurtful or snide or anything but friendly and helpful and fun and it was one of those moments where you KNOW you are where you should be. Here is the thread it is these people that make artfire.com what it is.. a wonderful place to sell and a wonderful place to buy! You can check out their shop by clicking on their names.. or clicking on the items on the right hand side... they are all pretty wonderful... I would love to have you take a minute to explore AnitasPottery as she is the one who was so helpful to me and well.. her shop is awesome.. she makes very tiny little "Wheelthrown Pottery MINIATURES Ceramic Clay BUTTONS Tiny Clay TILES Unique Quirky ONE of a KIND" I love the tiny little teacup earrings I am amazed when people can do this type of work in regular sized items.. and these are so little.

Please take a minute to share my bright spots and smiles and give these people a moment of your time. You never know when it might be you or something you do that is someones bright spot or maybe their reason for smiling that day.

~Michelle

Titles ~ Todays Special ~ Smile of the Day

I know that the title of the blog post is so important.. it is what will pull people in.. and yet.. I struggle with that so much. Most of my blog posts are all mix and matched a bit of this and a bit of that and some of everything and sometimes nothing. So I tend to have very boring titles.. many times I have sat and stared at it and just not written anything because I can not come up with anything that even sounds interesting. I am wondering if I should do smaller posts that are more focused on one thing at a time.. or if I just need to get with it and be more creative.. or .. I have no clue.. would love any suggestions or ideas to try. Thank you!

Item of the day!!! Valentines Key Chain ~ frosted white sea glass and a heart charm ~ free shipping world wide today for this item!

I am going to start doing a few items of the day with either free shipping.. or a % off or something on a regular basis.. not daily... in fact might end up being an item of the week... not sure how it will work.. but I do not like to put the shop on sale.. or do those things since I never seem to get any orders when the shop is on sale.. and then a week later I get sales.. weird.

Today on a friends Facebook I saw something that touched me.. and reminded me... life is not about the money or the material things that we have and I wanted to share it. it is so easy to get caught up on the bills we have and the money we don't have but... in the long run.. money and having it or not really is not what is important... not that this helps any stress of having more bills than income.. but... it does remind me to keep things in perspective and it is my smile of the day.

There once was a rich man who was near death. He was very grieved because he had worked so hard for his money and he wanted to be able to take it with him to heaven. So he began to pray that he might be able to take some of his wealth with him.

An angel hears his plea and appears to him. "Sorry, but you can't take your wealth with you." The man implores the angel to speak to God to see if He might bend the rules. The man continues to pray that his wealth could follow him.

The angel reappears and informs the man that God has decided to allow him to take one suitcase with him. Overjoyed, the man gathers his largest suitcase and fills it with pure gold bars and places it beside his bed.

Soon afterward he dies and shows up at the Gates of Heaven to greet St. Peter. St. Peter seeing the suitcase says, "Hold on, you can't bring that in here!" But, the man explains to St. Peter that he has permission and asks him to verify his story with the Lord. Sure enough, St. Peter checks and comes back saying, "You're right. You are allowed one carry-on bag, but I'm supposed to check its contents before letting it through."

St. Peter opens the suitcase to inspect the worldly items that the man found too precious to leave behind and exclaims, "You brought pavement?"

Today was a beautiful day on the beach.. cold at 32 degrees.. but sunny and beautiful... that water was still like glass and you could hear people on the island across the water (well maybe not but it felt like it ) Compared to Monday when it was storming and the waves were muddy (video here ) The picture at the top is from today :)

~Michelle

New Projects

About a week ago we introduced new items we had been working on over the holidays and people seemed to love them. We have sold a few, mostly to other people who collect sea glass and want to show it off.

The big thing is.. we have gotten a lot of feedback from people who would love it if it was bigger or deeper or had a door or ect. With keeping the feedback in mind we are once again out in the shop and working on some new ideas. We will have bigger and deeper and doors :) We have also figured a way to make them so that they are more custom, a way that you can pick how tall, how wide and how deep you want them. You will be able to pick a solid back, a mirrored back, or a see through back. You will still be able to pick from the 6 finishes too. These should be able to work with the suggestions we have had for shot glass displays, fiber art displays, bead displays and all the other wonderful collections people have and want to display... well not big things.. we are still talking smaller things... people who collect big things that they would like to display... we would love to work with you too... just give us some ideas if what you want.

We are very grateful for the feedback we have gotten and do hope that you will all keep it coming... leaving comments here or on facebook or twitter.. you can even email me Michelle_Ballard@hotmail.com Tell us what you would like or what you need. We have a wood shop... we love working with wood. We have made our own cabinets and done all our own wood work in the house, made furniture and would love to make something for you.

Custom cabinets we built for the bathroom

Custom Laundry room cabinets, without the counter top ... the great thing about these is that the bottom two hide the hot water heater.. and then the top one holds the extra towels and t.p and stuff... open the doors and unscrew a few screws and the hole thing slides out to replace the hot water heater. To maintain the hot water tank you can just open the door.. but we wanted to build the cabinet so that it easily comes out without doing any damage to anything.

More photos of home can be found on my flickr page, all of the work we have done ourselves.. lot of it needing to be custom as we do not seem to fit into any boxes anywhere and we both like things to be a bit different :)

~Michelle

Weekend into Monday

I had the most wonderful weekend... so relaxing and yet we got so much done. We had been collecting things that needed to go to storage and had the back room totally full.. so we loaded that up and headed to storage.. which.. we happened to have a huge pile there that needed to go the goodwill and another pile that needed to go to the dump.. so we made a trip to goodwill and then loaded up for the dump and brought that home. That was Friday night.. it was late.. the dump was closed, which was ok because we had a few things at the house that needed to go... as always. I really have no clue where all this stuff keeps coming from. When we got home we decided, since the back room was clean, to sort some stuff around. We ended up staying up until about 3 am and moving the treadmill from the living room back there.. and the computer table from the dinning room back there. We also rearranged the living room and dinning room.... which we have decided we love.. makes the house look twice as big. It is nice having the wood floors... not only did everything move easily ( which was nice since I could not help ) Dave was able to just push things around, I also think that having the same floor throughout most of the house makes it all look a lot bigger too.

We finished that up on Saturday and ran to the dump... then later that night we had company over for dinner. They are some people that Dave has known for a long time and I am just starting to get to know, they are so much fun.. I laughed so hard my jaw hurt. They brought their daughters (teens) with them.. and they are totally sweet, fun girls and seem to have a really good relationship with their parents. They also brought some awesome chips and dip stuff.. ..I have gotten the recipe and will be adding it soon to Coffee Tea and Recipes. *hopefully tonight*

Sunday we did nothing.. and I mean nothing... we stayed in our jammies all day.. watched some tv... in fact I was chilling too much to even bother taking a nap. We did finally ( after dinner ) start working on some things.. me online and Dave had some work to do... so once again we did not get to bed until 3 am... we are much better swing shift people than morning people.

Today was horrible getting up...and it is the start of our walking everyday again.. so I set the alarm for 30 minutes early... starting off very slowly. I did walk for only about ten minutes.. did just over a half mile.. and then I got on the scale... arghhh. I was looking forward to heading to the beach today.. it had been over a week since I had been there.. it was a wonderful day to be there too... the water was so very calm.. the sun was shinning like it was a spring day.. and there were so many wonderful treasures... and then.. it started snowing.. with the sun shinning and a bright blue sky. It did not snow very much or for very long but it was beautiful!

I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out the facebook fan page and the networked blogs and the signatures in artfire forums. I am trying to find as many new ways as possible to promote my shop and get some more sales going. Seems we sell a lot better in person than online.... so still going keep on working on building up stock and going to some shows this spring :)

~ Michelle

Our New Items

I am so excited, been working on these for awhile and I am so bad at keeping secrets.. yes I do all my Christmas shopping on Christmas eve... other wise I either tell people what they are getting or I just give it to them :) Keeping this to myself while working to get them finished was hard for me to do... so..... here they are.

Handmade wooden see through shadow boxes or display cases.

They sort of have a long name because the best thing about these boxes is that they can be used for a lot of different things. Dave made these for me for my sea glass.. this way I can set it in the window sill or hang it in the window and the light can shine through and show the real beauty of the glass. Some of the white glass if left in the sunshine will turn a lavender color due to the manganese... or straw colored due to the selenium in the glass. I can also keep a frame full on the coffee table.. this way people can look at the sea glass but it keeps it safe from dirty fingers ( ok that is not really a problem for sea glass.. it washes.. but if it were something like dried flowers or something else you might want to be able to share and yet not have people touch it would work)

These are the colors of frames we have on hand, we love custom orders though.

We also made one for our friend who loves to walk on the beach with me and then other people started seeing them and thinking they were cool and we decided to go for it and here we are. The plan is to make many more with different styles and sizes. Expect a lot more blogging about them as we work on a lot more ideas we have going on. We will be making a style that is a lot bigger and deeper and has doors on the front with shelves inside and someone else was asking about us making them one that has different sized grid inside. We have also had some request for frames that would match. We would love to explore any idea anyone has in these directions so please feel free to add any comments or ideas or suggestions you have. Please!

~Michelle

Survey/Giveaway

Thank you to everyone who left a comment, the random number picked was 2 which means the winner is @kayakcove :)

I just have a couple of questions... and I would love as many answers as possible so am hoping that by adding a giveaway to this that lots of people ( yes I mean you ) will be willing to leave a comment ( no need to sign up ) and answer the questions. Just by doing so you will be entered in the giveaway. The giveaway is for one of these key chains..

or $5 off any item in either of my shops. Michelle Ballards or Glassidentities ~ You pick!

Now on to the survey questions

1, Do all the frames in your house match or pretty close to matching.. or are they random?

2, What type/finish is the most common in your house for frames?

3, What size is the most common?

4, What types of things do you collect and do you display them?

Thank you for taking the time to read this and please take a moment more to leave a comment with your answers. I am going to leave this up for only a couple of days.. then will draw a random winner and will come back to post the winner right here on this post. Please be sure to answer in the comments so you can be entered to win... if you answer on facebook or twitter or email then it won't count.. even though I am grateful for answers anywhere I can get them.

~Michelle

New Amazing Year

Well today is 1-1-11 and the start to an amazing year.. I am not sure what is on the calender this year but I am excited to find out. I am sure it will be a roller coaster as each year is.. with the ups and downs that life always has for us. I look back on this last year and there have been many speed bumps and wicked corners.. but all in all.. I have loved every minute of it and I look forward to everything that this coming year has planned.

I did not make any resolutions this year.. I have yet to keep any that I have made in the past.. some of my goals this year are do my best to stay focused (I tend to get easily side tracked) do my best to always do my best... and I want to try a LOT of new things. Going to work on being more social.. lol not on the internet but out in the face to face world. Dave and I are working on getting some new projects together, not only to sell online but to start selling locally. Lots of other little things...but mostly.. just going to work on having fun and being a good person!



Tonights sunset was so beautiful... sort of wrapped up how I feel about this year starting. All new and beautiful and filled with amazing things just waiting to be seen and done.

~Michelle