not as clever as I thought

I have been thinking and thinking all week about what I could be working on for my shop. it isn't at all popular and I really don't have the salesmanship to make it widely known, nor do I have the money to advertise, so I have been depending on my few additions to the store to draw a tiny bit of attention and a couple of links to my store in my signatures on a couple of crafting sites... the problem with that is that any traffic I get is usually someone who can make it themselves and not even the least bit interested in buying.

the other problem I am running into is my total lack of creativity. If I'd had any sense I would have been working on Valentine's Day items back in December. but I don't and I didn't so I'm going to be skipping that Holiday.

now here comes Spring right around the corner and I have no idea what I should be working on.
also with Summer coming up no one is going to want to buy hats and so far that's been what I have worked on most.

I can make toys but I don't know what to make. I've thought about lady bugs for Spring and that's pretty much where my creativity ends.
I don't know what to do.

now, I have thought about designing a baby sling for baby wearers. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to design the strap... do I want it all one strap or two straps so they can be tied to fit different size mothers. Okay that might be the best option.

Baby cocoons are adorable. but so many etsy stores have them. they are, however, listed as photo props and they are not intended to be practical or functional other than to stick your baby in it and take a picture. I believe these are intended to be sold to photographers and that way they might be used again and again... but they are wonderful for a little bunting to keep baby snuggled in.
I just think that idea has been done and done and over done (at least as a photo prop) but the thing is people are willing to pay $45 and up for a little bag you put a baby in one time.
WHAT?! Am I the only one who feels that is just obscene? alright, obscene is a bit much, but certainly disgusting. I'm disgusted.
maybe I will make them and sell them for less with the intention to actually use the item. Get your money's worth for goodness sake!

or maybe I should just jump on the photo prop wagon and start making some real money

just a tiny update...

I haven't written for a while and I thought that I'd better so I don't just forget about the blog all together.

I have been a bit busy over the last two weeks. I haven't gotten a lot done, but I've been multitasking a little for my store. I made up a new pattern last week and toy snake and posted them in my store. I made a soft book and finished a couple of hats.
I made a new hat for a lady in Grandma's town. I've been so pleased with it that I had to show it off and it's becoming my most popular craftster post. now I have to decide if I really do want to make a couple more and put them on my store site.
I've also been learning tunisian crochet. it is a little tricky at first but once you get the hang of it, it's really easy. Now I'll need to teach myself how to increase and decrease in tunisian stitch. but if I can't, it will make wonderful scarves anyway.

the kids had the day off of school yesterday and so it made a good opportunity to have a sleep over. Emma went to my sister's house and we took one of her boys. Before we could switch back the blizzard hit. Tim came home from work about an hour early and said they were closing the highway and that's why they were letting people go home early so I called my sister and said keep Emma for another night.
This morning when Tim got up for work the highway was still closed and our road was drifted shut enough that he would have gotten stuck. So he had to wait until we got plowed out and the reopened our highway.
a good old fashioned MN winter...

the up side of fog

at least in the winter....

the last couple of days we've had some pretty dense fog in the mornings and it has produced some of the most beautiful scenes to gaze upon.
as I've grown older I've grown to dislike the cold but add that cold with a low hanging cloud and it is simply awesome. I mean that in the most exact meaning of the word, awesome. and it's such a shame that photography can never come close to capturing the complete awe one experiences from being out in that cold looking at and being a part of the awesome beauty.

see what I mean?

5 !! (the exclaimations are my astonishment)

Yes it's true, he is now five years old.
Yesterday was Connor's birthday! He spent most of the day trying to convince me that he was going to be four all over again. He even told that to aunt Birdie when Gramma had her on the phone for a few minutes.

but he gladly put 5 candles on that cake.

if you are thinking that frosting is looking might familiar, you are correct. he's had the same frosting with sprinkles for the last three birthdays.

blowing out the candles almost always ends up with the blower working at it for a while.

I think it took him about five tries before he had that last one out.

last year he cut his own cake. it was a pretty good effort.
this year he had highly improved his cake cutting skills. there was a row of large pieces, but they were all symmetrically cut. I was proud.

and now that he is so big, he needed to help with Gramma's candles.

then time for presents. that can never come soon enough. Connor was telling me that he wanted to open presents before cake and ice cream. a nice idea, but that never works; we'd never get around to the cake that way. I suppose there's really nothing wrong with that but, hey, it's cake!

presents....
He really liked the gifts he received.
I should have taken a picture of him when he was ready for bed. he has a pajamas shirt and pants set with Cars all over it. along with this marker board he got Cars magnets and Cars socks.
for bed he was Cars right down to his toes.

then it seemed to turn into a car themed birthday when grandma and grandpa gave him a remote controlled car. a picture of him playing with that in a minute...

and he got an Atari plug and play game. he can plug it into the video and audio ports on any TV that has them and he can play some of the good old Atari games from Tim's and my youth. we never had them as kids, but I remember playing them at friends' houses and Kmart.

but the biggest hit was the car. yes that car is on the wall.

even though it is a picture of the back of Connor you can see he is grinning from ear to earHappy Birthday!