Tuesday, January 24, 2012

My first Etsy sale, new plants, Tast

Hello Folks,

Here it is Tuesday afternoon for us.  We woke up to a gentle rain this morning and it must have rained for quite awhile from the evidence of puddles. We needed it and I hope we get some more.

I’ll be working at my job the rest of the week so am trying to get caught up with blogging for the week.

Yesterday my first Etsy sale happened and I was thrilled to say the least. It was the ecru colored needle case.  Thank you Jane.

Today I worked a bit on my spreadsheet for inventory. Yikes, that is a learning curve for me.  I’m glad DH is into that sort of thing and can help me out.  He makes up formulas too and that’s great.

We went to H.D. this morning because DH had to return something and he wanted to check on some electrical stuff.  I went into the garden dept. and ended up buying two pentas, one a reddish and the other a lavender, and a flax lily.  I repotted them, and was able to split off a flax lily tuber and potted it up.  Later I’ll divide up the plant some more.

01-24-pentas-flax-lily

Here are the tiny flowers of the flax lily.  Really sweet.

01-24-flax-lily

Yesterday I planted some native Blue Flag iris seeds into a flower box and look forward to seeing them sprout.  Susan thank you for the seeds.

I was late on last week’s tast stitch and today the new one came out, the Cretan stitch.  Last week’s was the Feather stitch. and I did it yesterday.  I used a variegated green thread and the little plants I was making reminded me of the asparagus ferns we have growing in the main garden, so I added the red berries that they get.

01-23-feather-stitch

Here’s how I am storing them.  In a photo album I got for free when DH found boxes of craft items last year. There are three sleeves to each side of a page, and I’ve plenty to use for the 52 weeks of TAST.

01-24-tast-book

I’m moving along on the embroidered heart.  Still have a bit more to do.

01-18-heart-1

DH has cleaned up the tiny fridge from the caravan, painted the outer sides of it even though it won’t be seen, to retard the rust that had started.  He used some oak looking formica that we had in our stash to make a new cover for the front.

01-20-fridge

01-20-fridge2

01-21-fridge

He’ll be cleaning away rust from the little two burner stove that was original too and painting it with a grill/stove paint which only comes in black. He used steel wool to get some of the rust off to see how bad it was, that’s when we decided to paint it.  DH had a quart of the paint in his workshop so we won’t have to buy any.

01-20-cooktop

We are going to use some granite looking formica that we had in our stash for the counter top .

01-24-granite-formica

I think that about does it for now.

Hope you all have a great week.

Chat with you later ~ FlowerLady

******

We can easily manage if we will only take,

each day,

the burden appointed to it. 

But the load will be too heavy for us

if we carry yesterday's burden over again today,

and then add the burden of the morrow

before we are required to bear it. 

John Newton

 

15 comments:

Becca's Dirt said...

I love pentas. They did so well for me last year and I intend to add more this year. Looking forward to your beautiful gardens.

Congrats on the sale.

Sandy said...

Congratulations on your first Etsy sale!! I know you are happy and your work is so lovely I'm sure you will continue to sell.
Enjoyed your post, as always.
Blessings~

Jillayne said...

Congrats on your first sale! I'm sure there will be many more in your future...
Your plants sound wonderful - I can't even dream of mine yet - we have a foot of snow over all the poor little things!

Corner Gardener Sue said...

Congratulations on your sale! I love the new work you are doing, too.

You and DH sure are having some fun projects! I don't think cleaning rust is so fun, though. I did a search the other day to find ways to remove rust from kitchen utensils. I have an apple corer and a wire whisk with bits of rust. I tried soaking the apple corer in vinegar, but forgot to check it, and I think Larry probably put it into the dishwasher, which was where it got rust to begin with, after sitting in it over night. I'll have to go check.

Well, have a great week! It's exciting that spring is coming to your parts, and eventually will make its way here.

Oh, and I love that quote. Since I'm not feeling so well, it's good to remember to take it a day at a time.

L. D. said...

What a great post. I like seeing your plant buys and also your husband is always busy making things better.

Darcie said...

So happy for you and your first sale!!! Your work is beautiful, and I am sure there will be many more sales to follow! Have a wonderful week Flowerlady!

Lona said...

Congrats on your first Etsy sale! It is always fun when things you have created start selling. I love pentas and have seeds to grow some white ones this summer. Okay I missed out somewhere, what is TAST stand for??? LOL!

Jane said...

Never heard of pentas. So much to learn! I'm longer for spring, so it's so nice to come here and see your beautiful flowers. My word! You certainly have lots of valuable building materials in your stash. I think between you two's stash and our stash we could make a pretty cute little house!

janine said...

Loved the quote...we all need that reminding every now and again! I saw some red pentas yesterday I wanted...I stopped myself, one project at a time :) Congrats on your sale too!

One Woman's Journey - a journal being written from Woodhaven - her cottage in the woods. said...

Love the plants and
all of the beautiful
hand work that you do.
You and DH
are very talented.

Susan said...

Congrats on your first Etsy sale. It must be very rewarding to sell items you've made with your own hands. Good choices on your new plants. :)

gld said...

Congratulations on the sale! I hope it is just the beginning for you.

You are an artist in stitchery...those are just beautiful.

Hope the work week goes well.

Val said...

Congratulations on your first sale. :) That must feel good! ♥

tina said...

What a beautiful heart. You are creating keepsakes forever. The refrigerator is looking great.

Jean Campbell said...

I've been reviewing older posts here this morning. I hope it's okay that I 'pinned' the Caravan on Pinterest. I see many fairly unreachable garden retreats; yours is a labor of love that cannot be bought, in a garden of beautiful flowers.