I finally took a day off

well.. sort of. I have been running around all week, I had a crafters guild meeting on Tuesday which meant I had to spend all day Monday preparing for it, Making and laminating new membership cards, Copies of the agenda, preparing the presentation...... I always say that I am going to prepare slowly during the month,but I think I would rather take one day instead of dragging it out, everything always takes longer than you think.

I was also preparing for a show at town square I had pictures,but they have disappeared on my my camera, they probably melted! It was sooo hot out there about 104 degrees! I have lived in Las Vegas for over ten years and I can not take the heat, I thought I was going to DIE. Sales were slow which turned up the heat even more, I have done the show several times, The first time was great last month we got rained out, and this month was not so great. I really need to find a permanent boutique to sell my product because setting up and tearing down a booth display is A LOT of work, I would never quit doing shows I love meeting customers,but I think I am going to strictly stick to doing 2-3 day shows. I did not get home until midnight after I packed up the show and picked up Sabrina at my mom's house, but at least she slept in until 7:45.

Today I took my mom shopping, tomorrow is my parents 50th wedding anniversary and they are going on vacation next month, my dad is going to surprise her by having a "second Wedding" I was in charge of getting her a dress(on the sly) so I told her I was going to buy her some vacation outfits, and got her to try on a bunch of dresses, I bought her a few so she wouldn't be suspicious,she is going to be so surprised, I was surprised when my dad told me he was planning it!

I will have to keep you posted on how it went.

Welcome to my photo studio

........OK so it's my bathroom. At the craft show this weekend I Met Becky of Art Under Glass, we talked about getting nice photos of our product. I like the white background photos that look like they are floating.I started out using a photo booth that I bought at a camera shop for $139.00, I could never get the lighting right so, I chase the sun all day for the perfect lighting in my back yard, and still have to edit, edit, edit in my COREL program but, ALAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Becky told me about the OTT- light, which "true light", so I decided to try it out I went to Jo-anns craft store the next day and whatta ya know, IT"S ON SALE!! It still definitely was not cheap,but I bought the large one for $127.00 and that was 50% off. I also got a small one for $50.00 ( I need two if I am taking pics of large items). OH... AND I looked to see how much the replacement bulbs cost $40.00 yes 4+0. she said hers has lasted for years.Becky told me to make sure I am in a room with the lights off,except for the Ott -light.

So my studio was created..which caused pandemonium in my house, apparently Sabrina thought that only mommy could use mommy's bathroom, but after some coaxing she managed to take the leap,obviously I need to mix it up in our house every once in an while :)

I took a few pictures, and played with the white balance on my camera. I managed to get some good shots with very little editing, I have some work to do, but here are the first shots. I think I will try to take some in my light box.

Taken with the light no edit

Photo with a little light tweak, I think it is still a little too bright, but I think it is an easy fix. This is still soo much better that the old way I took photos. the diaper cover would look like it was floating if the background of my blog was white. Click on the photo to see it on a white back ground. it is not perfect, I still see a small tinge of blue.

Just thought I would Pass along this cool tip, Thanks Becky, No more chasing the sun for me.

well I'm off to do some late night blog stalking :)

My Dilemma

This is going to be long, but you need the back story.

So, I told you that I ordered some woven clothing labels for my product. The order was placed on Etsy April 29th 2008 and contacted the seller, received a response 4/29/08. 5/3/08 contacted to check and see if my photos were received through e-mail, seller confirmed 5/3/08 and said he would send proofs. 5/9/08 I contacted seller to ask if my proofs were ready, 5/12/08 contacted again due to no response. 5/13/08 contacted by seller to confirmed my order is being processed, appologized because he was travel for a few days. 5/21/08 contacted seller to ask about my order, 5/22/08 contacted by seller to inform me that they are experiencing a high volume of sales and my oder would be sent out in 3days and he would let me know when they were sent. 6/1/08 contacted seller to check if order was sent, 6/4/08 contacted again. 6/4/08 contacted by seller and was informed order was sent out a week ago. 6/12/08 I contacted seller to inform him that I have not received anything, ok ok my exact words were ....

"I still have not received anything????????????????? what is the tracking number for my packeage? It should be here by now, I have gotten packages from China faster than this.(serious)ThanksRochelle"

I swear that is the only e-mail that I sent that sounded like a jerk :o)

6/13/08 said he does not have a tracking number and does not have pictures of the labels to prove he sent them.

6/15/08 informed him that if I did not have the package the next day I was going to report to ETSY for non-delivery.

6/16/08 seller contacted me and said he did have a picture to prove he made the labels and would forward a picture that night. and if I did not receive my labels by the end of the week he would refund my money.

6/16/08 I agreed, I received no picture that night ,6/17/08 no picture ,6/18/08 no picture, 6/19/08 still...no picture

I made the report to ETSY 6/19/08, 6/20/08 I received a refund of my $90.00 through paypal. When I got home that night the labels were.......................IN MY MAIL and they are BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I looked at the ship date stamp on the package and it was 6/18/08!!!!!!! he totally lied to me about shipping it !!!!

So after such a long explanation, my Dilemma, should I give the money back, and give negitive feedback on ETSY, should I keep the money and give neutral feedback, should I give it back and give neutral feedback??? I don't know what to do, in reading his feedback this is not the first time he has done this and got several negative feedback since I placed my order, Maybe I should give neutral feedback and comment about the service (shorter than this post, of course)?

help me out, I feel bad becuse he was sooo polite to whole time (even through the lies) and the labels are beautiful.

OH MY, now I feel worse, I just looked at his shop and he is trying to make it right. I copied and pasted what he said on a page in my site (I don't want to give his site since I am semi bashing him :)

WHEW!! look at my new labels, I got 300 of them!!

LOOK MA, I'm a knitter!

SOOOOO.........The craft show was a slow go this weekend as far as customer traffic, but I had a Great time!! The craft show was at Findlay Chevy, they have the best community room there, but the dealership is on an out of the way one way street. We got lucky they had a car show there, and that brought in some customers. Lets get to the great time part....... I did this craft show through the Las Vegas crafts meetup group, and met a lot of the crafty members this weekend. I met Keri of One Crazy Stitch, and she taught me to KNIT !!!!! It was so much fun, I have always wanted to learn, best of all.... she blogged about me, check it out.






I am so excited that the handmade movement, has made huge strides and I am able to meet so many crafty people.Being able to meet people doing such big things with their business' is so inspiring.


so are you ready to see some pictures of my space at the craft show.....................







more tomorrow, I am so tired I have to get more than five hours of sleep tonight :o)

Totally worn out

I spent my day Packaging product for the craft show tomorrow. They say( whoever they are) that your packaging sells your product, so I hope that my new packaging works.

Packaged Diaper Covers

Packaged Bibs

Packaged Baby Booties

I was holding out hope that my clothing labels would come in the mail today, but no such luck. I had to get everything done with out them. I placed another order today for more labels with a different company, I hope I have better luck. I might go to bed at some point tonight, but I am NEVER finished, there is always "one more thing". I'm off to read our favorite bedtime story "Please baby Please" I love the illustration.I will post pictures of the show this weekend... wish me luck.

Pricing and Picture taking for Craft Shows

Today has been a frenzy of taking pictures of new product for my website and then getting prices on everything for a show I am participating in this weekend called Spring into Summer Craft Boutique. I have this bad Habit of waiting until the last minute to Price my product, people don't realize how long it takes to get prices on, With my mom's help today it still took two hours, and everything is still not done UGGGH!!

Newborn Booties Galore

Diaper Covers

Bibs & Burp Cloths

I need to have a better process, for the past two years I swore to myself that I would price product and box it up as soon as it is finished. Well...... there was a wrench thrown into the program (this is my official excuse). I bought some woven labels for my product from a guy on ETSY, well I paid for them on April 28th and still have not received them yet! We have gone back and forth and he has apologized , said business has been better than anticipated blah blah blah, so I waited, wrote e-mails and he had excuse after excuse, all the while I see his feedback getting worse on ETSY, more people complaining about the same thing. I finally had to tell him that I was going to report him to ETSY. He said I would have them by the end of the week or he would refund my money, we shall see. Meanwhile... I have everything on my couch waiting for labels.

I have been working on a couple of new lines for my business, I have to get them ready for my website. Take a look at these new infant hats that I am making, I have been cutting the pattern for about a week and I finally found something I like. I am always looking for the "perfect cool hat" for Sabrina, and never find what I want so... I created it. This size is for infants, I need to make some for toddlers. I always do Sabrina's hair "big" these won't fit her, so I made some cute visors too.

I'd better get back to Picture editing, I want to get some of this on my site this week :o)

Baby Time Expo

The Baby Time Expo started today, it is a two day event held at Cashman Center. The Baby Time Expo has vendors selling products geared toward families and new mothers. We went to check out the show and maybe get a booth next year. One of my friends Autumn of Lollipops and Bows had a booth there, her display looked great! I love a display that is functional and looks nice ( something I am always working toward). Autumn sells some very cute bows the were very popular with the moms. She sells baby headbands that you can clip the bows to, and change them to match your child's outfit. There seemed to be a crowd at the event and I saw TV cameras, so that should bring more shoppers out for tomorrow. I really hope that the $10.00 admission fee does not keep people away, I paid $13.00 including the parking fee before walking in the door.



Autumn's booth



Autumn and Sabrina

Another reason for us attending the show was to have a hand print made for me and my three year old Sabrina. I have seen The Tiny Expressions booth at several craft shows and I never have Sabrina with me, I was determined to have our hand prints done together before hers is as big as mine. I will have to post a picture when we get it back in about 4 weeks.

We had a fun trip to the Expo, Sabrina got so much swag! candy, rubber ducks,balloons, stickers, crayons ,coloring books WHEW!!!

WHAT AM I THINKING!!

Am I crazy? As if I don't have enough on my plate I decide to start blogging? But .... I know I love STALKING some of my favorite crafty blogs. I love to see what goes on in their creative worlds...... I'm Crafty, and I like to think my world is creative! soooo maybe someone would love to STALK me (in a good, I like your crafts kinda way). I could not decide what I wanted to call my blog. I thought about my business name I'm Not Spoiled Designs, and although it is perfect for my boutique baby items, and home decor I wanted someting a little more about my whole life. Sin City Craft Addict is my life in a nut shell. I have lived in Las Vegas since 1994 and have been crafting and participating in craft shows since 1997. Over time you will see that I am a true craft addict..........seriously, I think I have a problem :o)