Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale

Happy Black Friday! From today (Black Friday) through November 26 (Cyber Monday), you can get 20% off any purchase in Move the Needle if you use the coupon code "HOLIDAY2012" at checkout. You can use this code in my Etsy or Storenvy.

Are you planning to shop on Black Friday/Cyber Monday?

Thanksgiving Inspiration

Happy Thanksgiving! Here are some last minute Thanksgiving ideas:

Make a rustic table cloth with an old table cloth and burlap.



Do fall inspired nail art such as pumpkin, autumn leaves or turkeys.

Give yourself a DIY spa treatment with Thanksgiving food such as an apple hair mask, pumpkin face mask and brown sugar scrub. Find recipes here and here.

Make a turkey out of candy such as Nutter Butter cookies and candy corn This is perfect for children.

What are you thankful for?

Updated Thanksgiving Items

It's almost Thanksgiving! Here are some Thanksgiving items I updated the photos for in my shop:



Watercolor Pumpkin Harvest Thanksgiving Card




Pumpkin Harvest Coptic Stitch Journal




Autumn Leaves Thanksgiving Card



Autumn Acorns Greeting Card



 For more Thanksgiving items, check out the Thanksgiving section. Do you shop for Thanksgiving?

Sales Down

I've been looking at my shop stats on Etsy lately and I've noticed my views and sales have been down in late 2012. I only made a few sales at the beginning of this year, but none after that. This is my chart from Google Analytics. You can see the chart is down a little at the end:

I know my views for specific items have been down since Etsy changed how the search works, but usually it's not down for my overall shop. Are sales down for anyone else?

Art Journaling Goal

I use this website called 43Things where I make goals and keep track of how I am doing on them. I recently went through some of my old goals and marked the ones I have completed. This is a journal entry on the site I made about one of my goals to journal more. I thought I'd post it here because it might help someone:



"Art journaling made journaling more fun for me. "

How I did it: I've kept journals throughout my life, but I never really liked just writing in my journal. I started an art journal in 2008 and I've had at least one journal a year since then (usually more). Being able to do more than just write made journaling a better experience for me. I like that I can write, paint, glue stuff in, cut things out, etc. It helped me express myself more and I love journaling now.

Lessons & tips: If you start a journal, try to be consistent. Pick a time like every day or every week and stick to it even if you're not really in the mood to journal. If you get bored with your journal, experiment and try doing something else (like if you usually free write, create lists or art journal).

Resources: Going on Flickr.com and looking at art journaling photos. Also, googling "journaling prompts" or "art journaling prompts" to get inspired.

It took me 1 year.

It made me

You can see some of my art journaling pages here. To get more art journaling tips, sign up for my newsletter on the right side of this page.

Storenvy Updates

Storenvy is a website kind of like Etsy. I opened a shop there a while ago, but decided to import all  my items from Etsy with updated photos:

I also updated my policies and changed the layout a little bit. You can get 20% off your purchase if you enter the coupon code "BLOG" at checkout, just for blog readers.

Have you heard of Storenvy?

Politics Inspiration

Happy Election Day! These photos are politics related images that inspire me:

Are you planning to vote?

Election Day Treasuries

My Vote Card was featured in these four treasuries: 

Are you planning on voting?

Election Day Items in My Shop

Election Day 2012 is coming up. Here is an election day card I have in my shop that encourages people to vote:



I had some more Election Day cards, but they didn't sell because they were made specifically for 2008 (I had the date of the Election 2008 inside the card) so I couldn't relist them. Are you excited for Election Day?

Personal Halloween Photos

Here are some photos I took on Halloween:



These are some Halloween decorations and a candle I lit in my house.



I made a bunch of pumpkin themed food for Halloween. This was a photo I took while making pumpkin bread.



I made a pumpin soup using a cooking pumpkin instead. These are some photos in the process of making the soup. For the recipe, I cut a pumpkin i half and cooked it and then used it in the soup.









I forgot to take a photo of the soup when they were done, but these are the pumpkin seeds I roasted from the pumpkin.

How did you celebrate Halloween?

World Vegan Day

Happy World Vegan Day! World Vegan is an annual event celebrated on November 1st by vegans around the world. Here's some animal related items in my shop:

Rounded Animal Postage Greeting Card



Wavy Blue and Gold Greeting Card




Heart Shaped Zebra Print Mini Greeting Card



 To see my favorite vegan channels on YouTube, click here. For food related posts and recipes, see the food label.