Yes, I did fall off the face of the earth. Ok, not me, but my external hard drive, which is where I store all pictures and files (my computer is old and maxed out!). I'm not sure if it fell on the floor, which is possible, or just fell into a state of dysfunction. I've purchased a new one and, hopefully, will have the old one fixed in the next few days (because OF COURSE I don't have all five years of pictures stored anywhere else ... dumb me. I have discovered that those little flash drives now come with a huge amount of storage, no excuse to not be backing everything up).

So, I had to check in and tell you about this site my son found ... govdeals.com*. It's like eBay for government items - like computers, ambulances, stuff left at airports, police cars, office equipment, boats, misc. books, supplies, etc.


I talked to a gentleman at the school district's office and he said they only use computers in the classrooms or for the kids until the warranty runs out. Then they replace them and list them on govdeals.com. Basically, they clean out and replace when the computers get to be five years old.

I scored a laptop for $117 at govdeals.com, which wasn't the lowest price they were going for, from our local school district. It's a terrific little laptop too. It came with nothing but Windows XP on it. Perfect for customizing to meet my needs. Finally I have a computer in my sewing room ... I've gotten a fair bit of exercise over the years running up and down the stairs checking patterns, orders, shop and blog information, etc.


In a wonderful case of perfect timing, Clark Howard had a little blurb on Facebook the other day about free office suite software, OpenOffice.org. He says it's what he uses, so I'm sure it'll be wonderful for my little laptop (and free, at that price even less than wonderful A-Ok).

The pictures ... random bow ties not yet in the shop (but on my new external hard drive). I have crafts and teaching ideas to share, as well as more ties, but they're stuck in the other hard drive.

 
*I'm not affiliated with govdeals.com, just giddy about my new laptop.

Quick check-in ...

First of all, Happy New Year! 

My kids are with their father for a bit so I'm busy adding inventory to the shop, lots and lots and lots and lots of new ties will be added as quickly as I can. If I didn't have help I'd probably be moving more quickly, but this gentleman has been busy, not only keeping me safe from the ties but also trying to bat at the sewing machine as it runs and "softness testing" all fabric before it's used. He's a crazy little Hippo, but he's good company.


I've redesigned my blog/website to make it tidier and more user and business friendly. This is the first redesign I've done in years and was quite a project, but I'm thrilled with the results. I actually figured most of it out myself, turning to my 14 year old when I got really stuck. Please take a look around and let me know what you think (if you use a blog reader you won't see changes, you have to come to www.becauseimme.net itself to see them). If you come across any glitches or quirks please let me know so my tech guy (aka - unpaid son) and I can fix them.


I've added a bunch of blankets, handbags, home decor items, and more to the sale section to add more current fresh merchandise to the shop. Everything in the sale section is 30-50% off and going quickly.

Wishing you peace and love in the year ahead.

I'm sure I'm not the only one constantly seeking photo tips ... especially for items I'm selling online.

This brilliant blog post by Liz at Mill Girl tells how to take awesome pictures with an ordinary digital camera.  I'm so excited by this and can't wait to give it a try!

Found via the etsy facebook page.

First thing Monday morning I deleted all unread items from my Google Reader.  It wasn't easy, I knew I was going to miss a lot of awesome posts ... but I also knew the chances of actually sitting down and going through the thousands of unread blog posts was none (was going to say "slim to none" but that was way too unrealistic).


The exciting part, though, is that for the last few days I've been to click on "all items" and actually see every post that come through.  It's so exciting to read messages from bloggers I haven't been able to follow or keep up with in ages (years, for some) and at least feel like I'm "touching base" with them and their world.


I have a handful of personal finance and money saving blogs that I do keep up with regularly, they are my lifeline to financial sanity and savings, it's the craft blogs I've had to neglect.  Being able to glance through the new posts has given me so many great ideas and inpirations, I really feel revived.


Apparently, about 200 posts come through my Google Reader every day so there's no chance I'll be able to continue to stay on top of this, but while I can I'm loving it.

P.S. - I just recently started using Google Reader, so this may not be new and exciting to anyone else, but it is to me!

Another P.S. - The images bear no relevance to the rest of the post, nor were they taken by me (taken by one of my kids).

Our camera is on it's last legs, thus I'm looking into a new one.

I've decided on a Nikon Digital SLR camera.  But there are so many to chose from.  I'm finding the model numbers confusing ... often the higher the number the better and more expensive the camera but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

I'm looking for something not overly expensive, easy to use, that will take high quality images both indoors, and has a good focus feature (unlike my little point and shoot).  Easy to use is pretty important, I'm not tech savvy by any means.

This is the one I found this morning, a Nikon D3000 10MP camera with lots of added "stuff".  It looks to be a good deal, but I'm not sure.  The camera alone, without the stuff, is available at Sam's Club for under $500, this one at Amazon is $650 plus shipping.  Hmm ....

Any input or suggestions of places to find information would be greatly appreciated!

Can anyone give me an idea of how to add a sidebar on the lefthand side of this blog, or a second sidebar on the righthand side? Also, where would I find the code to edit the sidebar font size without editing the main body font?

And ... how do I post a link on flickr without posting the actual link (attach the link to verbage ... ie- "Fun!" would like to something without showing the page address. I used to know how to do this ... apparently not anymore.

Ok, this isn't exactly free but it comes pretty close.

This idea came to me from willy wagtail who offers a tutorial on getting the most out of free, or almost free, business cards at Vista Print.

I've ordered from them many times in the past and, honestly, have never been disappointed.

I went through MyPoints to place my order and earned 300 points for doing so. I'm saving MyPoints, Huggies, Coca Cola, and Swagbucks points to buy Christmas gifts (although the Coke Rewards site is currently down ... wonder what the story is there).

Above is the card I ordered. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

Yeah, I'm the last to jump on the bandwagon ... but just in case you haven't heard of swagbucks, or just haven't wanted to bother with it ... it's not a bad deal. In fact, you earn points just for searching the web (really!), which you do anyway, and then you get to redeem those points for prizes and cool stuff.

There are other ways to earn points as well, by finding codes or making purchases, or by referring others to the site (hint, hint) .

These days I'm all about saving money and trying to get the very best deals I can on just about everything. If I can earn enough Swagbuck points to get Amazon.com gift cards before Christmas ... well, there's a gift off the list. Just for searching the web! I can handle that.




Because I'm Me is now on twitter. Why? I'm not yet sure. But I'd love to have you as a follower.

I listed a few things on etsy the other day and was thinking that it'd be awfully nice if I could copy a listing, change the things I needed to, and then post the new listing.  That'd save a lot of time over having to retype the descriptions, materials, catagories, etc.  But that's not an option on etsy.

While it may have appeared that I was a complete slacker this weekend I really wasn't. Instead I was working to finish quilts, three of them. Here's the first one down, mentioned previously here.



This was quilted with random free-motion quilting with a cream thread.

The back is golden with suns on it ... a perfect complement to the front. The binding uses a variety of the fabrics from the front squares ... I couldn't decide which to use so I mixed and matched.

For this quilt I used bamboo batting. It was the first time I'd used it - it was on sale at JoAnn Fabrics for 50% off, so worth trying. I must say, it's pretty wonderful stuff. It seemed like a shame to sandwich it into a quilt because it was so soft and comfortable. I'd have been perfectly happy to sleep under just the batting ... it felt that good. Firm too, not an overabundance of give in it, which led me to believe it'd go through the wash over and over and hold up really well. And it smelled better than a lot of battings do. Will I use it again? Absolutely.

This quilt will be listed in the shop very soon.

Have you made this yogurt in your crockpot yet? It's a must, really it is. Beth sent me the link for it and I had to try it immediately ... there's no reason not to if you have a crock pot, milk, and yogurt. Less than 48 hours after dusting off the crock pot and making the first batch I had to make another. With the second batch I added unflavored gelatin ... the jury is still out on that idea as it did thicken it nicely, but there are thicker spots throughout that are kind of weird. We either eat the yogurt mixed with a little honey, blended into a smoothie, or as an alternative to sour cream. It tastes just like plain yogurt (because it is) so a little sweetening is probably necessary for kids and most grown-ups (I like it plain, but I don't think most people do). Again, you really have to make this.

Speaking of Beth ... she's days overdue so send prayers and labor thoughts her way!

Did you know Because I'm Me is on Facebook? Many thanks to my teenaged daughter, who is extremely helpful, talented, and Facebook literate (she should be, as much time as she spends on the site). Join us here or here ... one link is a group, the other is a page ... they serve different purposes and I'm not yet sure which is a better fit for me so both are up and running.


And now back to the Smashing Smock ... thank you for all your comments and input. My children randomly picked a "winner" and the recipient will be Charity of Knitting in the North, who said, "Yes, please enter me in your drawing, this is so lovely! :o)". Charity, e-mail me your address and I'll get it right out to you.

I found this on Jenni's blog and had to find out ...



Apparently my blog does not imitate my real life.

Finally, I've got a Because I'm Me website put together and up. It needs a lot of work ... but it's a start. Any comments and constructive criticism would be most appreciated (please be gentle).
I'm having issues getting the images to look ok, and I think there are too many images so that's at the top of the list. Second is re-wording some of the pages.

Malissa asked about etsy. I like it as an additional outlet for my products. I've sold quite a bit there but I wouldn't want it be be my only venue. The search features leave a little to be desired so I think you really have to do a lot of self-promotion to sell a lot, which is fine but important to know. Also, the etsy market for a lot of items, like handbags, is oversaturated so unless you're out there selling your product and directing shoppers to your etsy shop it's likely to be overlooked.

I've never tried to sell any Because I'm Me (<-- note link to my newfangled website, I feel so hip and cool) items on eBay but I've done other items on eBay, and costwise etsy is certainly preferable. I've heard other people say they prefer handcrafted items on etsy over eBay ... that they sell better on etsy. I've had occasional issues with buyers on eBay but never a problem on etsy, and I've gotten to know more than one person who has purchased from me there.

I sell at least one item per week on etsy, sometimes more. I sell more quilts on etsy than at craft shows, but more handbags at shows than I ever will on etsy.

I looked into creating a webstore but felt it'd be less expensive and better exposure to use etsy as my store instead. So that, in a nutshell is my experience with etsy. I've still got so much to learn about the site and the different tools available.

These pictures are of the pillowcase dress for the second mannequin. Now they are both happy, dressed young ladies.

I didn't make bloomers this time as she's taller and there wasn't enough fabric left over, but I think if I were to make these for a real child I'd make the bloomers. I love the added character they create, and the bloomers (or ploomers as C. used to call them) are adorable on little girls.

The underarm seams on this one are no better sewn than the first one, simply because the dress won't leave the sewing room so I wasn't being as careful as I could have been. She hasn't complained yet ... though that could be because she had no head.

updated to add: I changed the website around a bit and am much happier - new header, background image, added a few links here and there. I will change the picture on the front page and I realized I should add an "about" page ... about the products, where the name came from (originally I was only going to do baby items ... and it was supposed to sort of be from the baby's point of view ... Mom wondering how she can justify buying her little angel something special and baby responding - though still too young to actually respond - "because I'm me!" ... and Mom knowing that one or two more things for her little prince/princess won't cause any harm because spoiling them is fun, especially when the items are so special. So now you know!), etc.

My first day of retirement!

We cleaned the house well this morning. The kind of clean where you take the Magic Eraser to the white woodwork. Of course that was this morning ... right now it looks like it did before we started cleaning (but with much whiter woodwork).

I took the kids to the pool and practiced my handsewing/childwatching skills ... very simple ... sew a stitch, count kids, stitch, count, stitch, count ...

M. and I took put the mannequin with the new dress to work this afternoon. We took pictures of some of the appliqued and embroidered onesies for a project I'm working on.



Then I listed some quilts on etsy. Some of these pretties have been hanging around for over a month patiently waiting to be given the opportunity to find a new home and some new love.

After serving CORN for dinner (I just heard that last night on someone's blog ... I can't recall who or I'd give them proper credit, but it means "clean out refrigerator night". Love it.) I trimmed the hedges with clippers. I wanted to go out and buy a new electric hedge trimmer but my dang "penny pinching get out of debt" family suggested that might not be a necessary use of $68. Where do they get this crap from? Just because I've put them on a tight budget doesn't mean I should be on one too, does it? Yeah, it does ... darn. So anyway, I trimmed the hedges and built up some muscle (I hope).

It's nighttime now. I need to reseach website info for Because I'm Me.

My point of this whole lame rambling post is that I have yet to eat a bon-bon or put my feet up on the couch.

Jason and I don't have green thumbs. We've got an oak tree in our front yard that the builder planted. Everyone else's is now twice as tall as ours. My poor gardenia tree never flowers. I could go on.

So here's an effort at some spring flowery-ness. I was able to finish this lap quilt over the weekend. Truth be told, I finished quilting it and sewing the binding on at 1:00 AM Saturday morning, 5 hours before we had to leave, but I wanted something to do while the kids played and, to me, binding a quilt is good busy work (and daylight is easier on my eyes than room light is, 'cause I'm getting old).

The quilt started as a Chinese coin quilt made from a charm pack but after I'd gone through and pulled the matching 5" squares that I had in my stash I ended up with a lot of quilt, much more than I needed. In fact, after I was done sewing the charm squares I cut the quilt in half. I should get the second one finished in the next few days. The quilts are extremely similar, the only differences being one of the border fabrics and the backing fabric.

The quilting on this is done with very random imperfect flowers. I'm debating adding some hearts to it but am leaning towards leaving it as it. Around the borders the stitching is done in the ditch. I'd like to do some more stitching on the green floral and will probably add some kind of swirly pattern.

The backing fabric is a recycled sheet.

C. took the pictures while K. held the quilt and played.



Oh, the bloglines thing ... thank you! I signed up for bloglines last night and added all my blogs. I've still got a few things to figure out but I can't believe I went without it for so long. What a difference it makes! So thank you, thank you.

Yes, I must know. I probably already should know, but I don't. I'm hoping for an easier way to read new posts on the blogs I keep up with and I'm wondering if that is what bloglines is for? If it's not then what is it? Is there any other service that will pull new posts from my favorite blogs for me? How do I go about doing this? And why oh why don't I have anything better to think about on a Friday night?

I'm also dying to know how I'd know if someone had put an item of mine in a treasury on etsy ... I see posts from other people saying they are in someone's treasury, but I have no idea how they know.


Lovely random picture from last summer.

I finished this quilt during the craft show last month and, in all the holiday flurry, forgot to post some pictures. So here ya go. The quilt measures about 42" by 42", and is crafted from alternating strips of green gingham, a blue leafy almost floral (I didn't realize it was floral at all until I thought of using it for the back ... so it's not noticeably floral ... but then my boys wear pink so it could be me), and blue-green fabric. The backing is solid blue. The binding is the blue leafy fabric. Great baby, toddler, or lap size.

These pictures don't do the quilt justice at all. It's very pretty, with topstitching of variegated blue, green, and teal thread.

I've gotten a lot of comments lately that the quilts are a perfect size for car travel. Got me to wondering why I didn't make any for our Wisconsin trip .... they sure would have come in handy.

Most of my weekend was spent working on a Christmas project ... I'm dying to talk about it but the recipient reads my blog. Dang it! I have a feeling that on Christmas night I, and many other crafty bloggers, will be posting a plethora of gift-given goodness.

But my sad tale (not really though!) ... the Brother sewing machine kicked the bucket. I may be able to revive it, sometimes he works fine after a bit of rest, but I was ready to send him to the curb. Changed needles, cleaned ir, changed thread ... repeated all ... no luck. So today is sewing machine shopping day (surprise, Jason!). I have the current project and two others that must be finished by Christmas and I know my Pfaff, as tried and true as she is, won't do them all well.

I do have two questions if anyone knows ... I'm looking at a Pfaff and a Janome, but am leaning towards the Pfaff because I like the one I have so much. When I went to look at the Pfaff the gal told me about free classes to learn how to use it. That's when I went from "sold" to "no thanks". I'm not technically savvy ... I don't care to be ... I want simple, straightforward. So my question is, do I need to take a class to figure out a Pfaff? Could I open the box, read some directions, and get it to work? Second question, and I may be able to find an answer to this online, do the lines on the plate of the Pfaff correspond to metric measures or American ... the lines directly to the right of the presser foot? Much thanks.

I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Some of my favorite flickr groups ...

Quilts and Quilting - some days I only have time to look at photos from one group. On those days this is the group I'll choose to look at. Every day I find something new, wonderful, beautiful, and inspiring. Oooh ...

Rural Decay - this group gets a lot of images in a day. I find that looking at it as a slideshow is the way to go for me. The kids and I can sit for quite a while enjoying the images, dreaming of the families who lived in the decaying homes, wondering who ran the now defunct ivy covered gas station from days gone by, pretending that we are inside the ruins of castles, bridges, inns, barns, and schools. Sometimes we ponder the possibility of owning old farmsteads or factories ... would they be large enough for our family ... could they (will they?) ever be restored? Aaah ...

Handmade Crafts for Boys - cool stuff for boys can be hard to find! This group is packed with talented artisans who get what a boy wants and needs. Full of inspiration.

Studebaker and Packard - my Dad is a Studebaker fanatic. Not sure what a Studebaker is? Check out the group. LOL

Baby Accessories - another great source of inspiration. Beware ... baby envy can develop after prolonged exposure to these images.

Crafting for Kids - cool clothes for kids, but also great craft ideas (think upcoming holidays).

There are more, of course, but these float my boat these days.

Shhh... I'm on break, from schoolwork. While the kids are sitting diligently at the kitchen table studying away, quietly assisting each other with their studies, and striving to create educational masterpieces I've snuck off to the computer. As focused as they are on their work I'm sure they'll never notice I'm gone. ***

That ...
is more of my family. I think they look very dysfunctional, but at least they were e-mailing each other while on their laptops.

And some of the other thing ...
When A. and M. go to speech the other boys and I head to Goodwill. This isn't our favorite Goodwill by any means. It's not one I'd ever go to if I were in search of something. But for some reason they usually have good older books for kids, so much so that I. proclaimed, "oh good, we're going to the book Goodwill" as we pulled into the parking lot. We've found other odd treasures there too ... a fantastic crib for Ditto Kiddo, a cover for I.'s Flypen, and some misc. linens, but it's the books that keep us coming back.

We found some fun ones today. First, a book on foundation pieced quilting for me. I stink at following directions, so I may never actually use the book to make a quilt but it'll make a good reference ... and it makes me feels so grown up to have a real book on quilting.

And then the kids books. All these books came from the same family. I believe I can say that with great confidence as all of them are written in, and all have the same names written in them. Normally I'd have passed on them, I'm not a fan of books with scribbles in them, but with A. and K. just learning how to read I felt we'd get our money's worth out of them (.59 each!). I think M. will appreciate the Beatrix Potter books too.

I love the pictures in the Top and Toby book, pretty colors, simple lines ... except for the pencil scribbles through all of them. Ah well, I'm sure by letter 26 we won't even notice the pencil anymore.

*** Yeah right. The truth is that I was fighting the computer, frustrated that my GPS, which I truly truly can't live without (ask anyone at the sailing center) is now discontinued and not updated, A. and K. were chasing each other and destroying the living room, and M. and I. were playing in the kitchen. Trust me, my kids don't do schoolwork if I leave the room ... or answer the phone ... or blink ... or well, you get the point. :)