Link Exchange!

Today in the Plurk posts there was a great idea that I've seen happen before but never embraced it: Link exchanging!

So, if you have a blog or an Etsy shop and want to exchange links (look at the right hand side of this screen and you will see a "Blog exchange" and "Etsy exchange"), please contact me! You can leave a comment on here or add me to your Plurk or Twitter!

I'll be looking forward to exchanging links!

Orion + a harness = bad idea

Today we bought our cat, Orion, a harness. Mind you he was a church cat so getting a regular collar for his name was a miracle (he would rip it off daily, thankfully we bought a brand called SafeCat which doesn't choke him). He feels pretty safe at home, but, for obvious reasons (that, and a cat that chills in our backyard every day), he feels like every time we open the door to leave or come in, he needs to go investigate what's on the other side.

At first, he would only walk a few steps into the grass, but now he feels adventurous and runs out to the middle of the yard and just lays there. My husband and I got scared that he would run off, so we gave in and bought our first cat harness to use with a leash.

Trying to put it on, Orion realized this was no game and that it was another annoying strap around his neck and belly, so he tried to pry himself away from my grip (without using his claws, he's pretty good at not clawing us). He was unsuccessful: We got it on! I gave him a bunch of treats for being a good boy and let him down... only to see him walk a few steps and tumble on his side... and just lay there. Didn't move and he just stared at both of us, mainly me because I was holding him so that made me responsible. I thought we had choked him so I released the grip of the harness a bit. He was breathing fine but hating life at this point.

Next, it was time to try out the harness with a leash. We hooked on a leash and opened the door. He didn't flinch. No intentions whatsoever to move towards the mysterious outside world. I used my last resource, a laser, and pointed it. He bolted out the door (obviously, that is his favorite toy) and followed the laser around for a bit. Then he stopped, shrugged a bit and in 5 seconds he was out of the harness. How? We still have no idea. We are going to keep trying because he is becoming a fat indoor cat and this seems like the only choice of exercise for now. Harness was back on a few minutes later, with Orion purring and meowing and twirling around trying not to let me put it on.

Believe me, it has been so funny to see him just hate it and act like a punished 3 year old... but it will be even more hilarious to see my husband walking Orion around the neighborhood!

Someone picked me for a Treasury!

I can't help but feel little butterflies when someone picks any of my items for their treasuries. I don't mind if these make the Front Page of Etsy or not, to me it means someone liked my things enough to select them over millions of other beautiful Etsy finds. I got a pic of this treasury and would love to share it!

I've been tagged!

Well, my fellow blogger Kayz Kreationz has tagged me in her little game :) I'm just wondering where I will get 7 people to tag back!
So, here I go! I've never done this before, these are 7 random things about me:

1. I am addicted to the show Clean House. It gets me motivated to fix my house so it doesn't become part of the show.

2. I absolutely LOVE traveling and daydream of winning the Lotto so I can do it forever.

3. I'm addicted to buying beads everywhere I go. My husband took a pic of me while buying some and labeled it "7th heaven"!

4. I've had my hair 8 different colors, other than my natural brown: Red, pink, blue, purple, black, yellow, green, and black. And I still have healthy hair :)

5. I have a severe addiction to chocolates. I could stop drinking sodas a year ago, but if you take away my chocolate, you're dead meat.

6. I had braces for only 9 months and got away with it.

7. I miss reading books, but I haven't found anything interesting to immerse myself in.

Ok, now here are the rules for the few I'll tag, but everyone should keep doing 7!
Link to the person who tagged you
Post the Rules in your Blog
Write 7 Random things about yourself
Tag 7 people at the end of your post and link to them
Let each Person know they've been tagged

1. Allover Art
2. Aunt Pam's Closet
3. Fabulous Handmade Finds
4. Robyn's Art
5. Lulu Borealis
6. Airy Fairy Jewelry
7...... I'll add more as I follow more blogs!!!

New Business Cards!

I finally got around to sit down to design my business cards/jewelry cards. Talk about procrastinating! Well, I went everywhere: Moo, VistaPrint, Overnightprints, etc. Not to say they offer bad or ugly stuff, it's just that nothing, NOTHING they offered captivated me, for some weird reason. Yeah, free business cards sound like a great deal, but the designs are kind of blah and not emotionally intense enough for me. And yeah, double sided mini cards sound like fun, but price-wise, not so much fun. And sure, I would love cheap designer cards, but still, no pizazz. So, what does that leave me with? Sitting down and deciding what to do myself. Thank God for Adobe Illustrator :)

I started by extracting a piece of my banner that caught my eye the most, and that would be the little bird floating around in the orange area...

After adding some text, tiling a bunch of cards and deciding what size of paper I'm going to print on (11x17 #234 Bleedproof acid-free paper in 108 lbs), here's a screenshot of what I ended up with. I discovered that using a snap grid helped me a lot with tiling and making sure there was space in between the cards for cutting them.

Now, my printer comes in! Here is the printed result. Almost the same as the screen shot (always remember, screen colors are hardly ever true colors!).


Cutting...


Separating...


Using my handy new hole punch tool (1/16" perforations)...


And voila! Home made business/jewelry cards.

Now head on over to Drop Of Sunshine's Etsy Shop and go shopping! There might be a little surprise in every package!