Favorite Etsy Purchase

I got lucky enough to find the "SNS Secret" from southpacificbody on Saturday, Feb 16 (my birthday, by the way). What I got was "OVER Fourteen ounces of Olive Oil Soap Ends". Basically samples of lots of different soaps from her shop. They are SOOOO awesome!

With most soaps, my biggest complaint is that they dry out my skin, and leave an icky film. With these soaps, that DOESN'T happen!! My skin is so soft, and NO film!

My favorite so far is the Mocha - it has little chunks in it that massage and exfoliate. LOVE IT!! I am definatly going to be back for more when I run out.

She also has natural deodorant that I REALLY want to try. It will be my next Etsy purchase for sure!

Check out the rest of her shop - she has some GREAT stuff!

Favorite Etsy Purchase - Boogaboobabies

One of my favorite Etsy finds is the Crayon Keeper from Boogaboobabies. I was given one for my son from my EtsyBABY Secret Santa (thank you knitstyle!). My kids actually fought over it, so I had to get another one!! :)

The crayon keeper is great because it keeps the crayons in one place and protects them from getting broken. The kids can easily take them out and put them back in. And, they roll up easily and fit right in a bag. We take them to church along with a couple of coloring books and it keeps the kids entertained for *almost* the whole time!
















Be sure to check out Boogaboobabies for more great items!

My Latest Creation

Here's the latest creation that I've been working on.
I've had the butterfly idea for a while, but I couldn't figure out how to implement it. I tried making a long, skinny ball for the body, but it looked a little too much like poo with wings. O_o

And, I tried putting wings on one of the larger sized balls, but that didn't look right either. It reminded me of Heimlich from Bugs Life - big body with tiny wings.

So, when jkalea asked me to make an ant for her, I thought - hey, this might work! And I think it does!!

It has some imperfections, so this one is not for sale (my daughter has already claimed it), but I'd like to show it off and get some opinions.

It is about 10 inches long with a "wing span" of about 11 inches. Most of the fabric is flannel, except for the back of the wings, which is velour.

Where am I featured

So, I got a little bored tonight and decided to Google myself.

I was pleasantly surprised by the results! Here are all the places that I found Zadyball mentioned. Very cool!

http://kangarooshop.blogspot.com/
http://natural-childhood.blogspot.com/
http://rowleybaby.blogspot.com
http://trendytots.typepad.com
http://prizey.blogspot.com/
http://etsybaby.blogspot.com
http://milliedogdesigns.blogspot.com
http://kidletnation.blogspot.com/
http://www.indiepeddler.com/

Famous Buyer!

Wow! I am SOOOOO excited!
Someone FAMOUS purchased from my Etsy shop tonight! At first, I thought it might be some kind of joke or something, so I looked the address up. It's a real address. I looked the person up on Wiki - yes, they live in that town. Plus, the email address is @ the "official" website! So, I'm pretty convinced that it is the REAL DEAL!

I posted about it on the Etsy Forums, and people BEGGED me to tell who it is, but I really don't feel like I should do that without permission. I'd like to respect their privacy.

But, here is what they bought - and unfortunately, I think this is the last of the fabric I have of BOTH!
:(

Happy Valentine's Day!

This week was mine turn to host preschool for our little co-op group. We've been doing a letter of the alphebet each week, and this week the letter just happened to be "V" - perfect for Valentine's Day!
So I thought it would be fun to have a Valentine's Day party instead of preschool today. I looked for games that would be fun and decided that all the games needed more than just three kids to be fun. (We only have three kids in the group right now, but we have been looking for a fourth for a LONG time!)
So, I invited some of my son's other friends to come too. We were expecting a total of seven, but two didn't come, so we had five.
I think that the kids had lots of fun! We had a bean bag toss - with bean bags that I made and a target that my husband made. We played, "Heart, Heart, Valentine" (just like duck, duck, goose). We played "Valentine Says" and we decorated cookies. The cookies got VERY messy - which is only to be expected I guess!
After everyone went home, I asked my son what his favorite part of the party was. He said "Putting valentine's in everyone's bags." Ha! It's the simple things that kids like the best I suppose! :)



















Oh - and I just have to add, since it's Valentine's day, my son has already decided who he's going to marry. The girl in his preschool group, my best friend's daughter. They LOVE to play together. They hold hands while the walk to class at church. And, they are both SURE that they will get married. He has even asked me when he will be old enough to marry her! I'm sure they don't really know what any of it means, they are only three after all, but it is pretty cute! He's staring at her in the picture. :)

One of my favorite Etsy buys - from KnitStyle

One of my favorite items I've purchased from Etsy was "Grace Bear" from KnitStyle. I bought it for my daughter because it looked oh so soft and I thought she'd like it. When we got it, it was even better than I had imagined! It is SO soft, and the perfect size for my little one to carry around.

And, she loves it so much! She even sleeps with it and calls it her bear.





















KnitStyle has a wonderful shop full of lovely things for babies and grownups too!

100 Hearts!

I know that hearts don't technically mean anything - but they are SO fun!

I hit 100 hearts today and I'm SUPER excited, I just had to share!

"So, how'd the craft fair go?"

I'm sure you're just dying to know. (HA!)

I actually thought it was a really fun time. I met some great people - including people I'd "met" on Etsy. Like aPassionForFashion . It was weird - she looked EXACTLY how I'd pictured her. Such a great person too!
The location was great, and there were several venders set up. I got there a little bit early and was afraid that I'd be the only one there, but there were LOTS of people already set up. It was great to have such a nice variety too.
As far as customers go, there wasn't a huge crowd. Maybe a few hundred people. And that's probably being generous. I had quite a few people look and several took a card. I also SOLD 7 Zadyballs! Not exactly what I was hoping for, but it could have been worse. I think I'd really overestimated what would happen, as I'd made 80. But, at least people had a variety to choose from.
I had made several "Mini" Zadyballs, kind of as a last minute after thought. I'm so glad that I did, because 5 of the 7 I sold were minis. I was a little surprised because the minis don't sell as well on Etsy - maybe I need to market them differently. And, I was glad that I chose to put bells in several of the balls. People really liked that. Almost everyone picked them up and shook them to see what would happen.
I did learn at least one very valuable lesson about craft fairs. ALWAYS bring your own shade!! Since we were in a parking lot, there was basically NO shade. It was the warmest day we'd had in quite a while, probably in the 70s, and I didn't have a hat, or sunscreen. Four hours in the sun is not good for me. I am now and deep shade of red. :P
There were some people there from the 7th avenue street fair which takes place in March. They were passing out information to all the vendors. I'm seriously considering signing up for it, but it costs $75! I don't know if I can afford that right now! Maybe I can share the spot with someone...

Zadyball locations

I thought it would be fun to make a map of all the locations I have sent Zadyballs to. So I entered them all (over 100) into Google Maps and here's the result. I used city and zip code only.

I think it's interesting to see where everything falls. I need to get more "in the middle" states. I've got lots on the west coast, and lots on the east coast, but not many in the middle. I'd love to have more international sales too! :)

Turning into a real business

I think that my family and friends are getting tired of my talking about my business ALL THE TIME. But, it's really the major thing that's going on in my life right now - besides my kids of course.
I went and talked to a lawyer on Friday. With the way things are going, I think that I really need to protect myself, and my idea. The lawyer recommended that I get started on a trademark and a patent. Total cost for both will be around $3000! I of course do not have that kind of money to fork out right now. I'm hoping that things will go so well that I will soon. He also said that I should become an LLC. I looked into that, and it's pretty easy. I've got all the paperwork filled out and ready to go, it just needs mailed. I should do that tomorrow.
So, after the lawyer, I went to the bank and set up some business accounts. I have a checking, savings, and now a credit card with a surprisingly large limit! So, I guess that I can use that to cover some of my expenses.
Speaking of expenses - I decided that I need to have some kind of label attatched to my Zadyballs with care instructions printed on it. I have some really nice lables from jennifersjewels.etsy.com, but I've gone through two orders of them now, and I need something a little more versitle and a little less expensive per lable. I contacted a jamylabels to get a quote on that today. $62.50 for 500 labels - plus a one time engraving fee of $75 and $12 shipping. A little bit pricy to start, but it should be plenty to last a while.
Oh - by the way - it's just amazing how nice people are to you if they think you are going to give them money. I think even more so when you are a business so they think there is a real possiblitly that you might have money - at least someday.

I'm SO excited about the craft fair this weekend. I've been working almost constantly to get an inventory built up. It's not like I don't have plenty of fabric (I have TONS). It's just a process to get them all made. I've been going through a lot of thread and poly-fil. I've lost count of how many I have done. I'm hoping to have somewhere between 50 and 100 by Saturday. I hope they sell - cause I don't have anywhere to store them!

Craft Fair

I'm so excited about the craft fair I was invited to participate in this weekend! It is really the first one that I've ever done, so I'm not quite sure what to expect. I've been working hard to get lots of inventory ready, and I hope I have enough.

If you're in the Phoenix area, be sure to stop by!

AND THE WINNER IS....

I first want to say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone that entered my Grand Opening giveaway! I was amazed at the response and the kind words!

Unfortunately, I was only able to select one winner. The drawing was truly random - I pulled a number out of a hat, so to speak. (I had Excel select a random number)

AND THE WINNER IS.... Annette from Natural Childhood! She has a really fun blog - be sure to check it out! http://natural-childhood.blogspot.com/ She will be receiving her choice of Zadyball.

I really want everyone to have the opportunity to have a Zadyball for their child. So, if you entered my drawing - I'll give you a 10% discount - good through next Saturday, Feb 9th. Either contact me through Etsy, or send me an email at zadyball@hotmail.com and I'll change the price and reserve it for you!

And - because I'm kinda a sucker for statistics - I found this contest VERY helpful! Now I KNOW which Zadyballs are favorites! I kept careful track of the "votes" and here are the results

Ladybug	35
Retro Dots	32
Primary Polka Dots	20
Citrus Circles	12
Dark Blue Stripes	12
Black, White & Red	11
Camo	8
Delightful Daisy	6
Orange Blossom	5
Pink Dreams	5
Valentine	5
Argyle	4
Red w/Pink Dots	4
Retro Robots	4
Apples and Cherries	3
Chocolate Dots	3
Cow print	3
It's a Jungle Out There	3
Leapin Lizards	3
Lots of Swirls	3
Bright Butterflies	2
Bright Flowers & Circles	2
Pink Princess W/ Retro Flowers	2
Pink Stars	2
Purple w/ Hearts and Flowers	2
Under the Bright Blue Sea	2
Baseball	1
Blue & Brown Stripes	1
Blue Camo	1
Faux Fur Leopard Print	1
Olive & Maroon Plaid	1
Paws & Stripes	1
Pink and White Stars	1
Pink w/Tiny Polka Dots	1
Pretty Purple Flowers	1
Primary Color Stripes	1
Solid Pink	1