8.26.08 A big day for Heather Knitz

Today was all about the big "3"...

1) I was featured today on etsy in a treasury!

2) Today I hit 3000 sales on my etsy site, heatherknitz!

3)All on one of the most important days...my son's birthday:)
Happy Birthday, Taylor!

etsybloggers on the front page of etsy!

8/21/08
Etsybloggers on the front page of etsy!
Congratulations to those who made it on the front page!

Etsybloggers Street Team in the Storque!

To celebrate the 1st anniversary of the etsybloggers street team, the Storque featured the team this week!






Congratulations to all etsybloggers that were featured specifically in the reporting!

heatherknitz is having a supplies sale! 8/19-8/22/08

It's simple really...

If you purchase $15.00 in supplies in my store, you will receive FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE!!!

Supplies are as follows:
-fabric listings
-ball chain
-purse handles
-magnets
-grosgrain ribbon


Happy Shopping!
Heather
heatherknitz.etsy.com

Change of Heart ~ a must read!

As is typically the case with vacations, I read a lot. This year I began with my typical southern favorite authors. I quickly caught up on all of those and then my mom asked me if I had ever read anything by Jodi Picoult...She dropped Change of Heart in my lap.

While it may be her 15th book, it was the first one I have ever read by her and I was BLOWN AWAY! The book was simply amazing--you definately will not put it down:) Just when you think you know where it is going-BAM, you are headed in a completely different direction! I LOVE the writing style she uses--each chapter is a different character's voice!
Here is a synopsis from Jodi Picoult's site....

Synopsis:

Shay Bourne - New Hampshire’s first death row prisoner in 69 years – has only one last request: to donate his heart post-execution to the sister of his victim, who is looking for a transplant. Bourne says it’s the only way he can redeem himself…but with lethal injection as his form of execution, this is medically impossible. Enter Father Michael Wright, a young local priest. Called in as Shay’s spiritual advisor, he knows redemption has nothing to do with organ donation – and plans to convince Bourne. But then Bourne begins to perform miracles at the prison that are witnessed by officers, fellow inmates, and even Father Michael – and the media begins to call him a messiah. Could an unkempt, bipolar, convicted murderer be a savior? It seems highly unlikely, to the priest. Until he realizes that the things Shay says may not come from the Bible…but are, verbatim, from a gospel that the early Christian church rejected two thousand years ago…and that is still considered heresy.

Change Of Heart looks at the nature of organized religion and belief, and takes the reader behind the closely drawn curtains of America’s death penalty. Featuring the return of Ian Fletcher from Keeping Faith, it also asks whether religion and politics truly are separate in this country, or inextricably tangled. Does religion make us more tolerant, or less? Do we believe what we do because it’s right? Or because it’s too frightening to admit that we may not have the answers?

Now that I am addicted to her books...I'm going to have a really difficult time deciding which one to read next!
Heather

I was featured today....

by stick a bow on it and be done !

A couple of sassy girls who love pink and green...can I say any more than that?

So, I finally have been working on my Flickr page...

I set up my account a long time ago...but this past week or two I have slowly but surely been working on my account. I even ended up upgrading to the pro account! I joined some groups but haven't posted anything to the groups...yet! Here is my main photostream page...right now I have 9 sets configured...woo hoo!

I filled out my profile page--It is bare bones now but at least it is a start!

I added general tags for each set and descriptions!

I have accomplished a lot..but oh, there is so much more to do! I have more sets to create and more pictures to upload...but, first, I need to go through and add descriptions and titles to everything! The work just never ends.

All About Purses...

I recently just started taking photographs of my purses all over again!

I am afraid that I am guilty of over editing my photos in my last batch so one by one, I am going through and re-taking all of the pictures again!

It is an arduous process, but well worth it, I think!

Christmas in July!

Call it Christmas in July! Call it a custsomer appreciation sale!

Call it Heather is suffering from heat stroke! Call it whatever you want...but I am having a sale!

Here is the knitty gritty...

• FREE SHIPPING-minimum order is $15.00 usd


• DOMESTIC and INTERNATIONAL apply (worldwide)


• Dates: Friday, July 18-August 10


• ANYTHING in the store inventory


• All items purchased from the 18th-24th will ship at once


• All items purchased from the 25-AUGUST 10th will ship on AUGUST 11,12


• Please WAIT for me to send you a revised invoice! It will just make things a lot easier...but, if not, I will refund the shipping charges!

See my store on Etsy for more details!

I've been waiting on these little gems to arrive!

One of my favorite sellers on etsy is weakness. For months now, she has been supplying me with some great promotional stickers to use on my packaging! Here are some of those pics....




A few weeks ago I conoved her again with a new challenge! I wanted to to take my generic stickers and create some more specific stickers that I can use on my supplies....I had her create some new designs for my ball chain, grosgrain ribbon, rag bag kits, fabric scraps, etc...etc.... Well, they came yesterday and they are so cute! Thank you weakness:)

Now, enough about me! Here is an informal interview with weakness (aka...AMY!!)

Q:Please tell us a little about yourself.

I am a stay-at-home mom to two kids (7-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son) and a principal's wife in Indiana. My etsy shop is pretty much my life right now (I keep thinking I'm going to get caught up one day . . .), and spend my free time driving my kids to golf, dance, basketball, and cheerleading practices. I love Etsy and find myself spending hours just browsing through shops and bookmarking so many unique items and gorgeous artwork . . . total eye candy! I also love photography, digital scrapbooking, and traveling with my family.

Q:What's your favorite item in your store and why?

I think my favorite items in my shop right now are the new baby-themed designs (the baby peeking out from behind the teddy bear, the stroller with the teddy bear, and the box of baby toys) . . . I love the soft colors and cute designs.

Q:What item has surprised you the most, and why?

I think my scalloped tags have surprised me the most because my customers keep coming up with different ways of using them that I hadn't even thought of! I had originally made them for people to use as price tags for craft shows, but have had customers ask me to make them into business cards, thank you cards, gift tags, journaling tags for scrapbooking, and even earring cards!

Q:What are you're goals regarding Etsy?

I had originally started my shop on Etsy as a way to make a little extra spending money in my free time so I could buy some of the wonderful handmade goodies I saw in other Etsy shops - but now it has turned into a full-time job and business . . . I'm even in the process of opening a second shop!

Thanks so much, Amy!

SnagIT part 2

Okay, so I have been continuing to play around with the features and this is what I figured out now...WOW, is it cool!

• First, you can add post it notes!
• Then you can make any type of arrow or pointer--the orange arrow I drew to show how you can curve it or make it go anyway you want!
• You can add markings on the page (like the red circle) to highlight specific parts of text or images
• You can use the highlighting feature to bring attention to certain text
• On this border, I used a "wave"

Now, what are you waiting for? Go snag something!

So, I have a new (not so little) addiction to tell you about...

In a word...SnagIT!
So, my thumbalizr hasn't been working, so I started searching for an alternative and stumbled upon snagit! These are great tools for capturing screenshots...only with snagit, you can do so much more! It is so unbelievable I can't even begin to tell you all of the features it has! When I saw it had a free 30 day trial, I jumped on it! You can add all kinds of effects to it, insert the "actual" hyperlinks directly into the images, you can insert captions into the page.....the possibilities are wide open with this program!
Take a look at what I have learned to do so far....

Lesson #1: You can insert little windows into your images...how cool is that!

These are currently running treasuries...I have items in two and then the third treasury listed above is one I created! You can capture as little or as much of the screen as you want/need! There is a custom scroll feature that makes it so simple to capture what you need.

Lesson #2: You can play around with the edges of your screenshots....how cool is THAT!

Here I used some of the same images but instead, I used the ripped paper, bezel edge and jagged edge effects on the images!

Go snagit, will you!?!

Happy creating

Just before I threw my blackberry up against the wall....

I discovered the Opera Mini! Opera Mini is the FREE mobile web browser and wow, it is like having your desktop on your mini screen! I was so excited to get my blackberry so that I could check email but also so I could do some basic updates to my etsy store. But, I was so disappointed when it took 4 minutes to load each page:( Then I found Opera mini...It is FREE, it is FASTER, and it is really, really easy to use! If you have a mobile device and are ready to toss it out with the garbage, I encourage you to download it today!



Btw...this was my first youtube video and I learned how to add it to my blog posting by reading this:
How to add YouTube video to blogger blogs

I just stumbled upon the thumbalizr!

I was trying to figure out how to take pictures (thumbprints) of web pages and while searching in google, I came across this great little tool called the thumbalizr. The basic (and still in beta) format of the tool is FREE, although there is a premium service available as well! If you need a quick screenshot it quite a handy little tool to use!

Here are some of the first thumbprints I took trying to capture an etsy treasury that I had created. First, is an example of a screen shot and the second example is of an entire page! In addition to those choices you can also choose from a variety of pixel sizes as well! It is quite the handly little tool!




Now you can preserve all types of material you find on the internet!
Now, I must get back to thumb-ing:))))

Etsy Office

The ultimate etsy office...from lighting to furniture to accessories! Etsy has it all covered! Check out these sellers and many, many more on etsy.com!

Oh how I wish I had a more organized office! Currently, it is a slightly organized mess! But, when the economy turns around, I'll be sure to be picking up a few of these wonderful office ideas I found on etsy!

(resurface, DDsRestoredFurniture, thekeepershouse, RobertoSand, baconsquarefarm)

We can't forget about the very important accessories, now can we! I love all of these just as much!

(capturedtimebooks, autumntomay, Teen1, MooreMagnets, shimandsons, playinghookey, uncorked, custompaperdesigns, RobertoSand, JJMFinance, Weakness)