The T-Shirt Lady

Blog Carnival – Spring Time at Handmade By Sandi

tshirtlady — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:54:05 +0000

Spring time is almost here, do you have any special items in your shop to celebrate the season? This was the question posed by Melissa at Made By Melissa as part of the Etsybloggers Blog Carnival for this week.

I have so much in my Handmade By Sandi shop, that I had to go look to see what could be considered spring time items

My favorite item for spring time, is the Lacy Shawl that I made with a new pattern that i had never tried before, and I’m delighted that it came out as well as it did. In the picture, I have a good friend modeling it

The next item that I picked is one of my coffee cozies. Like many people, I drink coffee all year long, and love to use different coffee cozies based on the season or my mood. This one represents springtime to me – with it’s lemon color and a darling little flower!

These earrings are crocheted, again, a new pattern that I tried and I love the color – really looks like spring – light and dainty.

Last, I’ve included a set of my facial scrubbies in pink – pink sounds like a spring color

I’m working on some Easter earrings, but I don’t have them finished yet. Perhaps if I get them finished, I’ll add them to this post before it’s added to the blog carnival list by Melissa.

Hope you enjoy your stroll through my spring time items

Sandi

The wearing of the green last nite at our Sneak Attack

tshirtlady — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:21:36 +0000

We were all decked out in green last nite in honor of St. Patrick’s day coming up next week. The avitars were delightful from green horses and bunnies, to green clovers. We even had green soap! You should have been there. That’s one of the things that is the most fun about a Sneak Attack – besides the good that we do to help new Etsy shops get a good start – and that is to participate in our threads and themes! We have a sneak attack twice a week, once on Monday and then again on Thursday. Find out more at The Handmade Movement

We had 2 shops that we ‘attacked’ last nite!

The first one was ZuZu’s Petals This shop sells fabulous stationary. I bought one of her notepads for my daughter, who is a teacher (don’t tell her!) In addition to the one I bought, I found adorable notepads with owls on them, like this one:

The 2nd shop was Somebody’s Stuff This shop offers magnets and frames, and not your usual ’stuff’. I thought all the buttons, and recycle tiles adhered to the frame was a nice touch!

Come on out and join us on Monday. I am one of the co-sponsors. You will have lots of fun!

Sandi

Featured Etsyblogger – Vicki of DizzyDragonflies

tshirtlady — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:26:32 +0000

I belong to a group called the Etsybloggers Street Team. Every month a member is chosen to be the Featured Etsyblogger. What fun! And I was really delighted to see that Vicki from the Dizzy Dragonflies was chosen, as I love looking at the pictures of her hand dyed yarns. Of I do so want to buy them all – but you need to see the stash that I already have, must use that first…. must use that first… this is a mantra that I use to keep me from adding more

This first picture is of Vicki’s Tropical Waters – appropriate as I just got back from Jamaica.

Oh, and I want this one too!

Vicki’s talent is not limited to hand dying yarn. She also knits the neatest things too! I especially love this scarf – like the way Vicki has made it look stripey! (is that a word?)

Vicki – if that’s you – you are a great model!! And congrats on being the Featured Etsyblogger!!

If you drool over yarn the way that I do – Vicki’s shop is a must see.

Sandi

Cool Stickers for My Business

tshirtlady — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:48:33 +0000

I recently ordered some stickers to use for both Sandi’s T’s orders as well as my Handmade By Sandi orders. It’s one thing to use scotch tape on a bag or package – it’s another to make a statement! And I want customers to know how much I appreciate them!

With that in mind, I contacted my fellow ‘Sneaker’ Joy from The Art Of Joy. Joy is a member of the Sneak Team with me, we have ’sneak attacks’ on Etsy shops as a way of giving them a kick start! See more info about this at The Handmade Movement

So anyway, as I was saying – I contacted Joy and we discussed what I wanted in the way of stickers to better promote both my business and my Etsy shop. Voila, here is what she came up with an I’m delighted.

These stickers are for Sandi’s T’s orders:

And these are for my Handmade shop!

I LOVE THEM!! Thank you so much Joy for your wonderful work.

Be sure to visit Joy’s shop – she can design something just for you!

Sandi

What’s new at Sandi’s T’s

tshirtlady — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:36:41 +0000

I love when I have new items to add to my website, Sandi’s T’s.

The companies that I represent, often come out with a delightful array of new items, and I work as quickly as I can to add them for you to see.

The recent addition of new Heritage Lace items is a perfect example. I am still adding to the various categories of products from Heritage Lace, but have finished adding the new curtains, placemats, and shower curtains that have now become available.

CURTAINS:

An addition of a valance and tiers to the Bristol Garden pattern, a pattern that has birds, flowers and vines interwoven on the lace. Bristol Garden

Window treatment collection features classic “country” motifs — saltbox houses, willow trees and grazing sheep. Country Willow

SHOWER CURTAINS:

A shower curtain and valance set to coordinate with our Sand Shell pattern that features bead and shell trim Shower Curtains

PLACEMATS:

There have been a number of new patterns added in the placemats category of Heritage Lace. While I was adding the new patterns, I also changed the way the Placemats page looks – putting the patterns in alphabetical order, so you can browse on both pages for what looks appealing to you. The color choices are listed under each pattern.

A couple that really appeal to me are:

Camille

Country Home

and Grain Sack

I have new doilies and table runners to add as well – and I’m working on those as quickly as possible. You will love the new looks!

Sandi

Husband and Wife team sponsor Sneak Attack!

tshirtlady — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:34:44 +0000

We have 2 members in our Sneak Team who are husband (fromMarz) and wife (verveinteriors) and it was so cool yesterday, that they co-sponsored our sneak attack. The theme for the day was science fiction or fantasy characters. I chose the Muppets in Space for my avitar. Things got really busy the closer we got to the Sneak Attack and then Etsy threw a wrench in, and started making changes. It’s always a fun and exciting time when we are getting ready for a sneak attack. You should join us – we are not always so crazy!

We had the pleasure of attacking 3 shops last nite! Something for everyone.

Our first shop was Natures Reality all natural items for hands, body and soul. One of the categories that this shop has is for ALCOHOL FREE HAND SANITIZERS. This is a big thing in our world today, as we try to eliminate as many germs as possible that might cause us harm. I find that hand sanitizers that have alcohol, really dry out my hands and I can’t stand the smell. Well search no more – I had a hard time deciding which scent I liked best – and this one won out – Lavender scented

Our second shop was Aventine Hill a bath emporium containing bath salts, clay face masks and more!

Not sure what you want to try – get one of the gift baskets with a little bit of all you could use! This one contains two natural soaps: Snickerdoodle and Warm Apple Pie; one large 4 oz. lotion: Pumpkin Pie. Herbal Cleansing Grain: Ancient Herbal! Totally indulge yourself!

Our third shop was It Is Made 4 U This shop features ceramics and is run by a Mom and child team. They make the most adorable cats! Just had to get this one…
Can’t wait to add him to my collection!

Want to join us but can’t spend any money? That’s ok, just check out our Handmade Movement Blog to find out more. Tweet about the attacks, blog about them, chat with us in the threads. We’d love to see you there!

Alice in Wonderland has a Sneak Attack

tshirtlady — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:33:27 +0000

I’m sure you remember Alice in Wonderland from your childhood. And with the new movie coming out – it’s very much in the forefront.

Well last nites Sneak Attack theme was, you guessed it, Alice in Wonderland. Everyone was dressed in their finest – from Alice, the chesire cat, the white rabbit and of course the mad hatter. I was Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, and let me tell you it was difficult being both of them!!

Of course, it’s all in fun.

We had two shops that we had the pleasure of ‘attacking’.

The first was Silver Puss Lots of purrfect love. I bought the cat earrings you see here, and all of her items are just adorable – you are sure to pick out something that says ‘YOU’!

The second shop was The Orange Octopus What a delightful shop – full of all kinds of tags, holiday and thank you cards. I snagged these – I can never have enough thank you cards!

Whether you are a fan of Alice in Wonderland, or a fan of Etsy – you are sure to have fun. The shopping goes on throughout the morning – so be sure to pop on over to our ‘attacked’ shops and see what you can’t live without.

We have our sneak attacks twice a week – Monday and Thursday – we’d love to have you join us – whether it’s just to have fun with the thread, meet and greet members of the Sneak Team or buy something, you are most welcome. And check out our blog The Handmade Movement for information on how we pick shops, what our sponsors do, and more! See you there
Sandi

I’m in a treasury!

tshirtlady — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:16:52 +0000

Got messages this morning from My Sassy Glass about both my shops having items in a new team treasury. This is from the Etsy Twitter Team. Wow!

You can see the treasury here! The items included from my shop are the Patriotic teddy bear fabric, and the Little teddi bear earrings. I’m delighted to be included with our other great artists!

Susan, the owner of My Sassy Glass created the treasury.

I went over to Susan’s shop and browsed through her pierced earrings. You know that I’m obsessed with earrings, right? Well I found something that really would look good on me:

Be sure to visit Susan’s shop and pick out your favorite!

Sandi

What have I found for my Mac?

tshirtlady — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:00:38 +0000

After just buying a Mac on Saturday, I’ve been doing a lot of searching online as well as using the help on the Mac itself. I’m slated to sign up for some classes, and trying to work those in – as it’s an hour away. Weather is a factor – they are predicting snow again tonite. So I’ll probably sign up for a class Monday morning.

Here’s what I use on my windows laptop and what I need. I was using the old windows laptop to do all of my coding and image adjusting for my webpages.

#1 – I already use Dreamweaver and have submitted a request to have a cross-platform software replacement made. Waiting on that.

#2 – Changing file names – on my windows I use a program called Flash Renamer. It’s great – have a whole folder of files, and add to the front, change case, remove, etc – works great. The one I found for Mac, which I’ve downloaded but not installed yet is Renamer 4 Mac – supposed to work the same way.

#3 – Along with Dreamweaver – I was using a validator – where I could validate a number of files at the same time. Validating – making sure that the pages conform to internet standards as far as coding is concerned. It’s also good to check for missing links. The one for mac is just called Htmlvalidator. Again, not installed yet, just downloaded.

#4 – my dhtml menu software only works on Windows. Sothink is the software creator. But I did find an extension to Dreamweaver which will allow me to make dhtml menus. I’ll continue to use the menu I have created so far, as there is nothing to add to it just yet. That will give me time to learn the new one.

$5 – the biggie is the image manipulator. I currently use Irfranview – which does not have a mac version. It’s a great little software package – and it’s currently on my new windows office laptop – in the event that I have to get something done in a hurry. Many of the images that I get from the companies I deal with are good to go as is. But some are a high resolution and would take too long to load on my pages – so I usually create an image that has low resolution for the smaller images on my pages. The Irfranview works just great with that. I don’t know enough about iphoto on the mac – will take class – but I took an image, imported it into iphoto and fixed it the way I wanted, but couldn’t figure out how to copy it to one of my image folders on the mac. This morning I was tinkering – and double clicked on an image to see what would happen – HA – it brings up the image in Preview and from there I can change the size and the resolution You can even crop the picture – I think that’s where I’ll work until something better comes along

I found out how to access a shared folder on my windows laptop from my Mac – so exchanging pages, etc, will work.

I haven’t found out how to create desktop icons yet – with the programs I use all the time. Oh I know that you can put it in the doc – and that works like the quick launch – but right now that one is on the right – because the screen on the Mac isn’t as tall and the screens get cut off at the bottom if I have the dock down there. So this will be a learning issue.

Oh, yeah – there’s another one. The folder with my images needs to have a column with the image dimensions. When I’m updating my pages with new products – I don’t want to have to click on the image to get info.

I’m sure there are other things that will come to mind – I’m writing them down to ask at class.

More later!

Sandi

Did you see the neat items for sale in last nites Sneak Attack?

tshirtlady — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:36:40 +0000

Once again, we had a blast during our Sneak Attack last nite. Why? Well, we are all so tired of winter, so our theme yesterday was kittens in spring time.

Everyone had the most adorable avi’s.

Heres mine:

Themes really liven up the thread, and you can’t help but have a smile on your face when you see the avitars that are picked

Last nite, we had 2 shops to buy from!

The first one was I Need Closure What a terrific description of her shop – Flippin’ Awesome Buttons! We really got a kick out of the name! And buttons galore – the shop owner makes the buttons herself with pottery clay. I bought a blue button that I decided would work as one of my broaches when taking pictures of the scarves that I make. But this button was really a delight:

The 2nd shop was One Click Gallery Isn’t this the cutest bird you ever saw? It will be hanging from my bedroom mirror as soon as I receive it!

If you join us for a Sneak Attack – you don’t have to change your avitar if you don’t want to – just join in the fun. Find out more at The Handmade Movement

Sandi