I'm home!!!

Hubby and I went up to visit his mom over the holidays, with the dogs! That means we had to drive from San Diego to northern California - which is a drive of, at least, 10 hours. It was 10 hours up since we hit very little traffic outside LA and few "plugs" on I-5 in the San Joaquin valley. I decided, after the slow drive back down, that trucks create a lot of the plugs. We left on a Sunday to head up there and there are a LOT fewer trucks on the road on Sunday than on Thursday when we came back down. We enjoyed the visit with his mom, but the drive back was MUCH longer. I also dropped my cell phone at our lunch stop on Panoche Road. I didn't realize at the time but after calling it a few times and not hearing it in the car I realized I dropped it. I kind of remembered the road name and definitely remember that there was a restaurant called Apricot Tree so after a quick internet search I found the name, phone number and address of the restaurant. When I called them up they were very helpful. The manager, Carlos, had one of his crew, Jorge, look for my cell phone as he was emptying the trash cans in their parking lot. Jorge called me as he was looking in the park where I walked the dogs to find out more about the cell phone. As I was describing it to him he found it!! That was so nice of them to look for it for me! So ... if you're driving up or down I-5 in the San Joaquin valley take a rest stop at the Apricot Tree restaurant and give them some business. Nice folks need to be thanked and rewarded with business. Their apricot pie has some rave reviews from my mom-in-law and others on the web. I immediately shipped off two thank you cards with some reward money to them in appreciation of them taking the time to look for my phone and then helping to ship it to me.

Next up - another blog promo for a 90-blogs in 90-days Etsy seller ...

Featured ETSY artist #7 of 90 - SimplySaidBySarah

Sarah is the graphic artist behind SimplySaidBySarah. She has some wonderful sticky note pads in her store. Here is a great one for the holiday season:



And here's a fun memo pad, sticky pad and pen gift set all packaged up and ready to go:



You can see more of her graphic design items in her Etsy store at http://simplysaidbysarah.etsy.com

And if you want to see what she's up to read her blog at http://simplysaidbysarah.blogspot.com

Featured ETSY artist #6 of 90 - Celticgoddessjewelry

Andee is the woman behind Celtic Goddess Jewelry and she describes herself as a "Buddhist pagan living in the Orlando area. I sell celtic and pagan inspired jewelry, art and bath and body products."

In perusing her shop I found several beautiful pieces of jewelry. One is these "Ohm" earrings: . Isn't that just a wonderful, irridesent blue in the beads?

I'm also a big fan of charoite and just love the focal and wirewrapping in this necklace .

If you find these interesting you can see more at her shop at Celtic Goddess Jewelry @ Etsy

Want to learn more about Andee? Then check out her blog at http://buyindie.blogspot.com

Featured ETSY artist #5 of 90 - Indigoluna

I'm behind in my Etsy artist features so it's time to do some catch up! I'm featuring Rachel Kitterman who is Indigoluna on Etsy. She creates many varieties of art. She creates wonderful mandalas like this one:


She also creates gorgeous quilts such as this one:


She has been doing art with fabric for over a decade and in her own words she is an "art addict". She also "love paper, altered art, mixed-media, knitting, crocheting, jewelry, artist books, photography...pretty much, if it will hold still, I'll make art out of it." If you want to see more of her art that is for sale visit her Etsy store. If you want to know about Rachel read her blog at http://indigoluna.typepad.com

My Holiday Boutique Setup

I did my first Holiday Boutique last week. Here is my setup at the boutique.




It was an interesting experience though not profitable. But with all the inventory I made I'll be able to list many things in my Etsy store and put more on consignment at Gilianna's in La Jolla. So keep on eye on my website for frequent new additions!