Knit Bit Accident

So I'm going to start off by saying that if you aren't following Justin Moran's The Spidey Project yet... you should ;). And you should tell your friends. They've gotten a TON of press and rehearsals have started. Tickets will be FREE and you can buy them online!! They'v also been nominated for the 2011 INNY Awards!!  (feel free to vote for "Made Up Musical" in section 5, "The Spidey Project" in section 7, the Magnet Theater in section 10, The Pit or The Magnet Theater in section 14 (The PIT is where Spidey will be performed, the Magnet is where it will be rehearsed), The PIT again for section 15, The Magnet for section 16, and Armando Diaz for section 18... if you needed any suggestions ;-P)

And now for our regularly scheduled programming...

I'm going to attempt to be a little better at the blogging this week... we shall see. I was HOPING to put up a post today about my fabulous tea-cozie I knitted... except when I was done... well...

 

Fabulous Tea Cozie?

 

Or hospital-gown accident?

This one looks like it'll deserve a second attempt. Mind you - this is the 3rd tea-cozie I've attempted... and this is the closest I've gotten. I WILL get it one day! hahahaha


-Betsy

Hostess anyone?

After much looking... there appear to be no craft fairs this spring that I can apply to :(.
They're all either
a) too expensive
b) beyond the application date
c) too far away (and bad travel-timing)
d) on a "booked" weekend.

Pbthhhh.

SO, since I've been received well before... maybe I'll just stick with the Direct Sales approach. SomethingBetsy.com will officially now come to your Tupperware, Pampered Chef, Lia Sophia, Premier, Close-to-my-Heart, etc Parties... to show off her stuff and take orders as a side vendor! OR if you're feeling feisty, have a SomethingBetsy party. Why not, right? Invite some friends over, look at some pictures, and get yourself some photo-related goodies. Parties that reach $100 in sales will get free shipping to host for all customers, and the host/hostess gets 10% off their order! That's right - I said it.

Card Sets make fabulous hostess gifts by the way ;)

-Betsy

Hi again.

So I'm quickly learning, that I'm not very creative in the "titling" category.Oh well! It's been a bit since I've posted, so I figured I'd drop in and say hi again. Hence the post title.

My parents came to visit us this weekend and everyone  had a really good time! Dad is very impressed with the new camera, and we're working on switching over from my current server, to a more "Webmaster Friendly" version :-P. I got to be a side-vendor at another Pampered Chef show and was happy to fill a few orders!! YAY!  Next week: Premier Jewelry side vendor. I'm liking these direct-sales-partying-friends!

As far as SomethingBetsy stuff goes, I'm looking for a new virtual shopping cart. Pay Pal doesn't let you use coupon codes (and I know you all want coupons), and it doesn't allow for multiple shipping options :-/. So if anyone has any ideas... I'm GLAD to listen!  That, and working on a few other tweaks has been keeping me pretty busy, but on the to-do list is to find some spring craft shows in the area. All the ones that look good are REALLY far away :-/ and with bad timing for me to go :-/.

And because I'm bad of letting holiday's go... a dozen roses :-P Because they're STILL so beautiful!! (These are the Valentines Day flowers... that I took today!)

Don't forget to comment on ideas for the Recipe Calendar that will come out of the Tutorial (if you want to help me test the tutorial... give a shout too) AND, continue to check out Justin's Spidey-Project. They're getting ALL SORTS of press today!

-Betsy

Recipe Calendar

A while back (like, years? ago), I made a recipe calendar. It wasn't HARD, but it wasn't easy enough for me to make another one... yet. And I totally planned on it. I was 100% going to give one to my old neighbor before we moved... but... it didn't happen.

When I use my calendar, my days go like this: Wake up, check recipe behind today's date, pull meat out of freezer... go about my day. Put meat back in fridge after it's thawed later that day (sorry food police, I'd need to take my chicken breasts out 2 days early to thaw them in the fridge... which I suppose is easier with the calendar, but still not what happens). Dinner time? OH! Ok, pull out recipe, stick to magnet on my hood, chop/mix/cook/etc... DINNER! (around 6ish)

What happens when I DON'T use my calendar. Wake up, go about my day, some time between 2 and 4pm "crap! I forgot to defrost something!" - Throw something in a bowl of water, continue about day... "crap! I forgot to figure out what I was doing with _____" look in fridge, pull out whatever's left behind in there... mix it together into something we've probably eaten recently and dinner goes on the table around... 7:30. oops.

Why don't I spend the 30ish minutes at the beginning of the month figuring out my SUPER EASY TO USE calendar? I don't know. I think the holidays happened. That's what I'm blaming it on at least :-P

Needless to say, hubby dinged me on it last night... so I just sat down (with my lunch of chili and chips) and figured out dinners for the next 2 weeks. It should help significantly with the grocery shopping for the 2nd half of the month too... it's nice when you know what ingredients you need until the next time you go shopping (and what you can look for on sale ;-P)

It's always good to have a few recipes like these...

and a few cards like this...

And now that I'm done... this is what we're having for dinner tonight :)

I'm planning on making a tutorial in case you'd like to make one yourself! (and since this will require me to make a new one... I'll probably need to DO something with it. Comment with ideas ;-P) Some of my ideas are "hold a random entry giveaway" "Give it to your old neighbor silly goose!" and "Hold a 'why I should get it' Giveaway". Shoot me more! MORE I say!

Valentines Flowers!!

Last night was a little rough. 

I've been praying for a little over a year now for something 

(those close to me know what it is), 

and it felt REALLY far away last night. 

I didn't sleep well, and woke up in a foul mood, 

but dragged myself to the gym this morning for Yoga. 

Yoga helped, but let me tell you... 

...coming home to that 1-800-Flowers box on the front porch... 

put the biggest smile on my face. 

Not only did I get a bunch of roses...

But Calla Lilly's too :-P

And I got all excited... and got my click on with my new camera (and the 64GB of memory I got as my Valentine's present!). I got all the way to page 225 in the manual last night too... so much closer to having a handle on this camera!

And that makes me smile.

-Betsy

P.S. If it's in your inclination, I would gladly accept a few prayers for my sanity, comfort, and luck.  Oh! and P.P.S... don't forget to check out Justin's blog and pass along his video! 28 days...

Attention Attention!

I have a favor to ask of whoever is willing... The favor is simple, and that is... tell your friends about this crazy project I'm about to tell YOU about.

A good friend of mine just started a project, and I am really excited about it. Why? Because he's a fabulous musical writer, and has decided to take on this project - a challenging, interesting project. He's decided to write, produce and put on a musical, in NYC... in 30 days. Starting with NO money, NO script, NO score, NO actors, NOTHING but a facebook video and determination. Why? The new Spiderman Musical... which cost $65million dollars and was apparently not that fabulous? Was a disappointment to Justin. So before he criticizes, he's going to try and make one himself.

Check out his starting video and blog HERE.

If you're interested in helping, in whatever capacity... he's willing to accept help. If you can pass it along to friends who might decide that THEY want to help in whatever capacity - that counts! I can't wait to see the newest Spiderman Musical in NYC this March ;).

This Guy.

His last, fabulously successful, musical.

-Betsy

Psyched

As per usual, I wrote a blog post, and didn't finish it... so hopefully all my grammar checks out...

So I had a "snow day" yesterday. Which is funny to me, considering that I only "work" at the thrift shop one day a week... and I've had two snow days this year. I'm beginning to wonder if the children in this town EVER go to school. Fortunately, I don't have to worry about any bored little ones yet, so my snow days are still exciting to me.

So I spent the day getting all sorts of things done that have been pushing all the OTHER things down on my to-do list. Including a secret project, which I'm super psyched to tell you all about... but... then it wouldn't be a secret. I probably shouldn't even mention that I'm DOING this secret project, but I'm too psyched about it. Objective: scanning. I spent LOTS and LOTS of time with the scanner.

I also printed up and worked on all varieties of STUFF for my PHOTO SHOW tomorrow today. Which I'm also super psyched about. I'm even cooking up some things I've thought of, but haven't made available yet. We'll see how they're received tonight. They take a little more than the other stuff to put together, so we'll make sure people want them before they're available on the inter webs. HOWEVER, they are not secret, and so I will TELL you about them. (And they are available through special order- aka, an e-mail to me)

One, I put together a Memory Game. I've made one before, but here we go with try #2. I even put together a new "set" for them: The Crayon Set :-P Can you guess why?!?!

I also put together a few glass coasters. I figured I'd throw some green in them for St. Pat's next month, but you can totally switch the photos out to match the seasons if you wanted.

And then I made some more magnets... cause why not?

SO I've got this funky purse I got for FREE at the thrift store. I'm not sure WHY it was free... but it was definitely in the "free" pile. And I've loaded it up with note cards, and greeting cards, and catalogs and magnets and business cards and order forms and coasters and a memory set. I'm all set for my little "Vendor Table" at the pampered chef show tonight! Or is it tomorrow... ;)

-Betsy

Questions...

So starting a new business is exciting. I'm coming up with all these new ideas, learning what makes sense to people who don't live in my brain all day, and managing to mesh math and art. It's refreshing.

That doesn't mean I have all the answers however... SO

Questions for you, my faithful and loyal readers :).

1) Should I change the name of the "Gift Cards" and "Gift Tags" to "Mini Cards" and "Mini Tags"?
I mean, I did have to order "Mini Envelopes" for them... And I think that "Gift Cards" already have their own connotation (like, another name for a Gift Certificate for example).

2) Should all my "Mini Cards" (because I'm probably going to change that unless I get a resounding "NO!" from... someone.) come with envelopes? Or should I offer them with and without envelopes? I suppose it really does depend on what you want to do with them. Like, they'd look pretty cool all matted together as a collage... or you might want to actually use them as CARDS, to like, put on gifts. So both... unless, again, a "NO" From someone (All caps will be required ;-P)

3) Does the home-page of the website need a little "welcome" note? Maybe something along the lines of

Welcome to Something Betsy!

We hope you'll enjoy looking at the galleries

and find some artwork for your home, or as gifts. 

Please take some time to look at the detailed descriptions

of each product type and some of the

sets we have available for purchase. 

Or, if you'd like, make a set of your own 

by contacting us . Enjoy!

4) What's a good name for this photo? 

- name me something witty -

-Betsy

Crisis or Catharsis?

This morning, while I was going through my morning ritual, it occurred to me that some of the blogs I read have SO MANY readers. And while I'm not as astonished by the blogs of people I DON'T know, I wonder about the bloggers I DO know. It's gotta be thrilling. I mean, who wouldn't love to know that there are hundreds of people potentially reading your blog every time you post? And who doesn't love getting little comments proving so? 

Every so often I try and find a direction for this blog, because... it really doesn't have one, and I feel like it should. But why? I don't have a solid direction... and I don't really want one right now either. There are so many things that make up "me" and I don't like the idea of pushing one to the side to let another one take over. I know, I know... it's supposed to say "flourish" - but I don't always see it that way. This is my personal identity crisis. Not a bad one, if I do say so myself. And you'll have to admit, that for right now, Photography has taken over as my "flourishing" interest, so it must not be a taxing crisis.

So while there is part of me that really wishes I had HUNDREDS of readers (because I <3 quiet attention)... nothing around here is going to change. I'm still going to shamelessly plug SomethingBetsy.com (see!), and throw in the random recipe I think up (even though lately, I've been going back to the blog to use my own old ones instead of making new ones) and if I ever get my knitting needles back out, photos of the darling things I make. It'll still be a blog mainly of "somethings Betsy".

I AM going to try and make sure there is at LEAST one photo per blog entry however. Today's is a sneak peek (although I'm not sure how sneaky - depending on how productive I am in the next hour :-P). It's another photo-set to be available VERY soon. (probably now-ish by the time you read this).

S3-6 Roses Set

Happy Early Valentines Day!  

orders placed through tomorrow should arrive in time for Valentines day by the way ;)

-Betsy

blargh. Moving on! :)

**need to gripe. Keeping it short. And small. Skip if you don't want to hear it ;)**

It was a rough morning at the gym. I know, because I ended up crying before I left. And because I just titled this post "blargh" and I haven't used that word in a LONG time. The gym was ok, except that I discovered that I was lied to. Again. AND after a rather strenuous 2 hours of Pilates and Zumba to boot, which didn't make it any better. Blargh. BUT, I am home now, I will re-read their contract for the 52nd time shortly, and hopefully find some reason to rekindle my affection for the place, cause otherwise... I'm getting ALL my money back and buying some Zumba and Yoga tapes. SO THERE HA! So now that I've shed my cranky pants... I've decided the rest of the day is going to be good. (after all, it was only about 45 minutes of grrr to begin with)

I'm stoked.
1) The website has been de-glitched and pretty-fied!

  

2) My negative scanner has become more familiar to me again (which means more archives can make it to the site sooner than later)

3) I went to a pampered chef party last night, and one of the guests asked me to bring my stuff over for her next week to look at! (Now I need to create a little more stock, lol)

 
4) I finally cleaned off my hard-drive of last year's photos (to the external)!

5) I found a way to make a bare-bones catalog (good, since I apparently have "show" next week)


6) I'm determined to finish reading the manual to my new camera, because the more I read, the "easier" it becomes to use (it's OH SO customizable!!)

7) Multiple people have asked if/how they can buy photos :-P. Which is good and bad. Apparently, it's not QUITE intuitive enough (bad) but people want them!! (good!)

** side note: this got saved as a draft instead of being published on Friday. Whoops. I hope you'll keep me ;) **

-Betsy

Fun little gadgets

I'm dumb. I found this old blog post from a while back. Like, a month ago. Which I didn't post, cause I didn't have pictures to put in it. OH well... you're getting a picture-free post instead. Late. 
---------------------------
I'm super psyched.

Hubby's getting got me a new camera for Christmas. :-D

Yes, I know Christmas was a ways back at this point, but I got an IOU under the tree with an adorably cute drawing (even my hubby has the artistic skills).

(supposed to have a picture here. never took it. Sorry :-/)

He didn't know which camera I wanted most, which ended up being good, cause we're NOT getting the camera I had dreamed and wished for... we're getting the newer one :-P. I'm going to have to read the manual on this sucker.

I'll be sure to post pictures with and from it when it gets here in the mail... which is it's own Odyssey in itself.
quickly: it was ordered, just like all the other Christmas presents, from Amazon, but somehow mailed to our OLD address - in NC. We managed to call enough people to get it re-routed (because honestly... if you received a top-of-the-line camera, would YOU return it?) so once it gets BACK to Amazon and we get our refund, we'll order it again, and have it shipped to the RIGHT house. And cross our fingers that the battery really is returned, cause what use is THAT without the camera? We hope. I DID post about THAT, which probably makes more sense having seen THIS. Which I thought I posted... and didn't.

But with this camera and note, and support on the new website and official business starting... I'm finding some inspiration to make a wholehearted effort at this venture. And THAT is why I'm writing today: I found an internets gadget, to help all you college students, and office workers, moms, and all the others out there who find their time drained by facebook and gmail (but never blogger, of COURSE! haha ).

It works with Mozilla as an Add-on, and it's called LeechBlock. You can enter any number of websites in, give time frames in which you can't access the website and you can also set limits on how MUCH time you spend on these sites. So you don't have to GIVE UP Facebook or gmail or whatever else sucks your time away from you, and get a friendly little reminder that you SHOULD be doing something else.

I have mine set for no Facebook throughout the day, and only 15 minutes of Gmail an hour. Lets hope this gets Mr. Website ready for final tweaking by the true Daddy-O of Webmastering by Friday.
*It didn't get the wesbsite done by that Friday, but it is pretty stinkin useful when you have other things you need to be doing. Not that it's actually ACTIVATED on my computer anymore... but it's there in case I find myself glued to the computer again for poor reasons.

-Betsy

SHE-nanigans.

Check out  SHE-nanigans (We share pictures on Facebook at Silly Girls United). Join. Join ME if you're around me. Do it on your own, like I do if you aren't. I'm not a faithful participant, but I have a good time :-P. I enjoyed this whole shoot. And learned a LOT about my camera. Man, it's so much easier to take quality pictures when you're BEHIND the camera, instead of using a tri-pod and remode. Almost all of these photos were taken completely zoomed out, and cropped for these shots.

-Betsy

Comments Please

I just wanted to share with you all,  

now that I'm in  "super-bloggy" mode, and want to write about something like, EVERY DAY... 

that I realized that some of you COULDN'T post comments for a while there.

You can now. 

At some point, I was messing with settings, 

and made it so only people with a google account could post comments. 

Which obviously, is not everyone in the world,

like I must have been thinking.

SO...ANYONE can now post. 

Sorry to those who wanted/tried/ignored me for a while thinking I didn't love you. 

I was just silly, and didn't realize it until my sister confessed she didn't comment 

"because she wasn't allowed". 

 I thought she was crazy. 

She wasn't. 

SORRY SISTER!

-Betsy

Radio-Contest

You know how they have those radio contests for tickets and such? 

The 

"Be the 9th caller!" 

and 

"Answer these 3 questions right and you can qualify for..." 

ones?

I'm holding an internet-version :-P. 

I'll be the first to admit that some of my photo titles are.... a bit lame. 

Alaska 9? 

Seriously?

I have 9 photos that the only thing I can come up with for a title is 

WHERE THEY WERE TAKEN?!?

Lame. 

Even lamer that I have 11 "Alaska's".

SO, If you can think of a new name for a numbered photo 

(Like, Alaska 9, or Kaaterskill 6), 

and I decide I like it enough to change the title to it, 

I'll send you ANY note-card for FREE! 

And I won't even use it to thank you :-P. 

It'll be blank and with a blank envelope so that YOU can use it... 

to thank ME for my generosity of course ;).

So you're now wondering how to enter your fabulous titles, right? Easy.

Contact me through the web-site with...

1) Your Name. 

example: Betsy Hackett

2) The title of the piece and it's image#. 

example: Alaska 9, 5-18

3) Your NEW title name.  

example: I'm SO lame.

4) Your Address in case I like it, and you win. 

example: 123 Sesame Street, Fairytale Island, PBS, 07734  

(that zip code is hello upside down on a calculator for those who didn't notice :-P)

 5) The title and image # of the note card you want .

(cause maybe you don't want a note card of Alaska 9)

example: Alaska 4, 10-10

And if I decide I like your title enough to rename the photo... you'll get a note-card in the mail, and a photo as your name-sake :-P

You can continue to submit entries for as many numbered titles as you can find on the site, until there aren't any left. Oh, and there's no "end date" here. If I get lame again and don't come up with good titles in the future... the deal's still good ;)

You can also blog-stalk if you find photos on HERE that haven't been named and haven't made it to the site yet. 

(Hint: You can also look out for when I post "new images" posts and get your e-mail on)

-Betsy