Featured Artist: Kathy from aangels

Kathy from aangels on Etsy is a fellow member of the Made In Vegas Etsy team. http://lasvegasetsyteam.blogspot.com/


Tell us a little about yourself, why you do what you do:
I learned crafts at a very young age of 10. My wonderful Grandmother, who I spent lots of time with, taught me knitting and crocheting and sewing. She was very crafty and in her day a school teacher also. I was so amazed at everything she did. She even had a newspaper article that was written about her. She did everything without taking a single class! So I picked up everything from knitting/crocheting and have done it over the years, I even worked at home doing some work for Lion Brand Yarns. I put some items on Etsy too.

Throughout the years, I was involved with MLM companies which I was not 100% into it. I always thought why am I paying a middle man. One of them was candles. So I thought why not do it myself. I only wanted to do Soy. Thank God for the internet and research. I did lots of testing. So my passion started with knitting/crocheting and then candles. I have been making soy candles for about 7 years. From there I have made soy lotion.

Then went into soaps! You really have to keep on adding to a line to have the client have different options.


Your shop name AAngels Heavenly Sense, is interesting, is there a special meaning behind the name?
Wow! I met an Angel in my life who came to me, when things were down. That is my hubby!
I am also an avid reader of Angels books and love, love, angel items. A clairvoyant once told me, she sees Angels around us all the time and many around me. So when it came time to name my biz, I had to put Angels in their somewhere with AA's.

Tell me a little about your shop? Name, what you sell?
AAngels Heavenly Soy Sense is my DBA but everything else says AAngels Heavenly Sense.
I sell handmade Soy candles, botanical soaps and salves. Everything is with natural ingredients or botanicals. No dyes.

Why do you create?
I have a saying that I saw back in 1974 which reads, "The Reward of a Thing Well Done is to have done it!!”  Emerson. That has always stuck with me and it is in a frame in my office.
It is very rewarding to me.

What do you do for fun?
This is a tuff one, in my spare time , I love to knit/crochet I usually make blankets for Hospice. I love walking, swimming, movies, garden work.
Just recently this past March, I semi-retired from nails to focus on my business on line and local Craft Events. Been on Etsy 2 years but didn't really start with it till this past March. Etsy is a challenge. I am hoping one day to have this be my retirement, on line and local sales for myself, I don't have a retirement personally. 

I always say, just go for it, what do you have to loose???? You just never know.

You can visit aangels by following these links:

aangels on Etsy


aangels on Facebook Click here to read more!

Cheryls Purple Cow A Bit Of Background

It has been quite some time since I posted on this blog. I can provide you many excuses (some of them are really clever) for my inattention but the main reason is simple. I have allowed too many minor details take over my schedule. I am working on setting up a schedule much like the schedule that I would follow if my business were a regular job. I will keep you in the loop and give regular status reports.

I plan on getting back to the basics with my blogging. I am going to write more tips and tutorials. I won't be writing the follow-up tutorials I promised on the Facebook Store Front but I will be adding a feature that is very important to me. For now, I would like to re-visit the story of Cheryls Purple Cow both for my benefit and for yours.

Many of the people that I meet through my shops have been crafting all their lives. They learned crafting at a young age and have been creative all their lives. 

That is NOT my story. My story goes like this:
Most children get A’s and B’s in art class. If you didn’t participate you could actually get a C or D. I failed art class. I found the whole process of creating something bothersome. I just could not and would not do it. I preferred structure and organization. Math class was my favorite.

When I started working I favored jobs that were math oriented with attention to the details. I worked in banks mainly. The last job that I held was working for the department of motor vehicles titling and registering vehicles.
My life started changing in 2004. I remember having "episodes" of sudden inappropriate emotion or rage most of my life. But they lasted a few minutes and happened every few years. I was under a lot of stress starting in the summer of 2004. My "episodes" became more frequent and lasted longer. It was during this time that I started having a compulsion to create things.

On Tuesday November 23, 2005 I was on my cell phone listening to my boss explain that I was no longer needed when I received an important call from my doctors office on the land-line. I asked my boss to hold for just a second and listened to my doctors office as they gave me the diagnosis that changed my life, Right Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.

I started taking my anti-seizure medication and as my seizures decreased, the need to create grew. And the more I created the better I got and the better I got the stronger the need to create became. That is the reason I attribute my newfound "gift" of creativity to my epilepsy. 

I started trying different crafts and techniques to see what I really wanted to focus on. I tried most of the crafts available when I started beading and making jewelry. And working with beads and making jewelry is what gives me the most pleasure. My favorite is Awareness Ribbon jewelry. I think it is important to raise awareness regarding medical conditions like Epilepsy and Cancer. At first I was giving most of my pieces to my family and friends. They urged me to start a business and sell my creations. It took a while for me to get used to the idea that I could make something worth selling, but I came around.


I made several pieces and was ready to open up a shop on Etsy. There was only one thing holding me back, a business name. The name had to hold special significance to me.

Purple is the color for epilepsy and it has always been my favorite color. but I needed a little more than that. I had one word, but I still couldn't figure out the name. 

One day out of the blue, I remembered a gift I received in Junior High from my best friend Dee Dee. She gave me a purple cow with a poem attached:
"I never saw a purple cow;
and I never hope to see one.
But I can tell you anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one."
 
I had completely forgotten about that purple cow. Now I had a name, Cheryls Purple Cow. The purple cow represents something unusual, extraordinary, remarkable. It is something that we all would like to have or even see just once. 

My best friend Dee Dee was never ordinary and neither was I. We are both still purple cows. I never realized how wonderful it was to be different. I even located her through the Internet and found out that she has Lupus. The Awareness Ribbon for both Epilepsy and Lupus is purple. Strange coincidence?

Now you know a little bit more about me and how Cheryls Purple Cow was born.

I know that my story is not the only interesting story. I want to invite you to share your story too. All you have to do to send me an email at cherylspurplecow@yahoo.com with a brief background and I will send you the interview questions. I will include any links and pictures that you provide in the feature. This is one of the easiest ways to promote your product and your shop.

I used pictures from the following HandmadeInVegas Team Etsy shops in this post:

bearbottombear

Hidden Light Photos

loveandluckshop

StuffimalCreations

Please click on the pictures of the items to be taken to the listing page.
Click on the shop name to be taken to the shop.

Click here to read more!

Good Morning!

It has been hot outside. I feel like I will never catch up on all the listing I need to do. And there were about 30 other things to complain about yesterday. But that was yesterday. Here is today's story.

I woke up late this morning, kinda tired and kinda bored. I have been working on re-organizing my craft room. the first thing I did today was move my computer in there. I finally turned on the computer about an hour or so ago. Did a couple of things, then checked my shops. WOW!! I couldn't believe it!


Click here to

My largest sale ever in my supply shop both in number of items and in invoice total.

It's all because I recently joined a brand new team here in Vegas. Can you believe that with the size of this city, there was no Etsy team? Within one month the membership of this team is over 180 Etsy shops. So far everyone is extremely enthusiastic. But I digress. Back to my Good Morning.


Fellow "MadeInVegas" teammate Velma of designsbyv was the culprit behind this purchase. Being the nosey person that I am, I just had to check out her shop.  I have to say again WOW!

Yellow Rose Hair Comb by designsbyv

You know that my favorite is the Yellow Rose Hair Comb.  I am a native Texan and nothing warms my heart like yellow roses.  It makes me wish that I had long enough hair to use it.  The flower looks velvety.  Is that a word, velvety?

Lace and Rose Choker by designsbyv

I love this Lace and Rose Choker.  It is so classy,  She also has the same choker with a white rose.  Methinks she likes roses.

Black Tie Garter by designsbyv

Another classy item is this Black Tie Garter.  I fell in love with it.  And what is that I spy in the background.  Yellow Roses?

Vintage Style Cameo Pendant by designsbyv

I promise that I tried to limit myself to 3 items, but I couldn't.  I have to include this gorgeous
Vintage Style Cameo Pendant









Click here to visit designsbyv on Etsy .If you want to see the listing for any of these items, just click on the item name for the link. Click here to read more!