Where In The World ARE You, Macaroni?!?

A quick update on my status and where in the world I've been for the last few days. Saturday (as my Twitter peeps know), my family set out on a road trip from Dallas to Rochester, Minnesota to visit my daughter's great grandfather for the first time in her little 3-year life. He is 98 years young and has a busier social calendar than I do!

Anywho, in the midst of preparing for our trip, I suddenly found myself with no fewer than 575 cards, announcements and invitations that needed to be completed before we left. Needless to say, that didn't leave much time for blogging (or sleeping for that matter). Remarkably, I actually got almost all of them done - the few that still needed to be finished came along for the ride. And so, today finds me sitting in the library at Great Grandpa John's retirement home, catching my daily little dose of the laptop-internet interface I've become so incredibly dependent upon for my sanity and my business. Woohoo!

We're back on Sunday, so expect a recap (vent?!) of the road trip back on Monday-ish. Have a great rest of the week, friends.

Fun Etsy Find

This morning on my daily pilgrimage to LinkReferral, I stumbled upon Vielera Design's Etsy shop, and I just had to share this with you.


Definitely one of my favorite Etsy finds in a while. If you feel like you absolutely must have it for your very own, you can purchase it here.

A quick update on my LinkReferral stats. As of today, I've had 367 visits to my shop, at least one sale directly traceable to a LinkReferral click, and 63 reviews of my shop. Overall, I'm impressed. I'll keep you posted.

Twitter -- Confusing But Cool

Do you tweet? I do, apparently. This weekend, I finally gave in to my curiosity and set up an account on Twitter. I confess I'm a bit confused about how the whole thing works. I'd heard it referred to as "mini-blogging," and I guess that's true - you're limited to 140-character posts, which I suppose forces one to be succinct and encourages frequent, real-time updates.

I also confess that I was a little freaked out when several people I don't know started "following" (watching my updates) me within a couple hours of setting up my account. But now that I've spent some time reading through others' updates and finding some people to follow myself, I think this Twitter thing is actually pretty cool! Minimal drama, maximum potential for fun. And there are a TON of Etsy peeps out there. Apparently all the cool kids are a step ahead of me... as usual.

So wanna follow me? Find me here. Fair warning - I'm a crazy liberal with a big, bold opinions on all things political, so your run-of-the-mill announcements of new Etsy listings and updates on my daily WAHM life may be interspersed with rantings of the leftist variety. If you're up for it, I'd love to have you along as I venture into this brave new voyeuristic world!

More Birthday Love

Now THIS is a nice birthday gift!

Happy Birthday to Me!

That's right, the mama behind Macaroni and Glue is turning (drumroll please...) 35 this weekend! And just lookie lookie what's on its way to my house, courtesy of my faaaaaaaaabulous husband.


Yes! A real light cube! Finally, I can send that cardboard/tissue paper monstrosity I created several months ago to the recycle bin where it belongs. I could not be more excited. After lots of looking around and reading reviews, I decided to go with the 20" EZCube from Table Top Studios. Did I mention how great my husband is? 'Cause, for a pop-up meshy thing, light cubes are NOT cheap. And this is the very same husband who, not more than a month ago, purchased (and even paid for expedited shipping) a brand new Canon Powershot A650 IS for me when my beloved camera met a tragic end on our tile kitchen floor during a product shoot. I can't imagine what my face must have looked like at that moment... I can only assume it was bad since I swear I've never seen him make an electronics purchase so quickly.

Guess what else? I just tracked my light cube package and it's coming TODAY! Woohoo! Have a great weekend, everybody. You know I will. Now, which is the darkest room in the house...

Utter Randomness

No idea why I find this so endlessly amusing, but here you go...

When you reach for a carbonated beverage or offer one to a friend, what do you call it? Coke? Pop? Personally, I go for "soda," but I've always been fascinated with the apparent geographical component involved in how my friends and family all refer to these refreshing, sparkly drinks.

Well, the theory of soda "regions" has been proven! Check it out:


You can read the whole article here. Now the only thing left to explain is why my fellow native Hoosiers refer to any cola product without sugar as just "diet." As in, "Can I get a large diet?" Yeah. Weird, right?

I now return you to your regularly scheduled crafts blog.

Altered Notebooks Rock

Those of you more crafty than myself probably don't wander around Etsy thinking, "How in the world do they DO that??" But I'm a relative newbie to this handmade life, and I'm forever finding paper projects that intrigue me, but that I just can't quite figure out. Altered notebooks have always been a bit of an obsession for me - I've got designs swimming around in my head (great gifts for girlfriends, you know), but haven't had the slightest idea how to approach the project.

That's why I was so excited to find this tutorial on the EtsyGreetings blog yesterday. Captured Time Books gives up the goods in a clear, concise, step-by-step that even I, the formerly craft-impaired and currently craft-limited, can follow.


Now that I finally have the info I need to create an altered book of my own, I've decided to share with you some of the Etsy faves that have so inspired me to try it out for myself. If you prefer to have someone else do your crafting, these altered notebooks are sure to please.

Bingo journal by suchandsort:


Retro games journal by TraceyAnns:


Mixed media blank book by juicychristians:



Inspired? Now go get your craft on! Or break out your credit card. Whatever. I won't tell.

September Featured Etsy Blogger - Joey and Aleethea

This month's featured EtsyBlogger is our fearless leader, Joey and Aleethea. This mom of two is famous for her handmade super Etsy coolness as well as for a fun, witty blog about her adorable Florida family and her life as a "baby-wearing, breast-feeding, co-sleeping, attachment-parenting" mama. Check out a few of my fave Joey and Aleethea creations:






Adorable, right? Congrats to Joey and Aleethea for your month of EtsyBlogger fame!

Stuff I Love - Screenprinted Tees

I'm sick and tired. Literally. Yes, it's true - the weekend saw me fighting off some horrible virus, sleeping most of each day away, and grumbling at my poor husband about housework and headaches. Thankfully, Ike turned out to be a non-event up here in the Dallas area. Although we were warned to have supplies ready for a potential long-term power outage (which I always have ready anyway - we're in Tornado Alley, after all), we barely saw any wind and just a little bit of rain. Whew! As of this morning, I'm unquestionably on the mend, but perhaps still lacking a bit of creativity and spunk, so I've decided to brighten the mood around here with a little show and tell.

I heart screenprinted tees. And Etsy is a fabulous place to find those sassy, unique designs that defy the trends and let you stand out and express yourself as only the perfect tee can. Once fall rolls around, I positively LIVE in my jeans and tees, and here's what's on my wish list for this year.

Cool (and slightly disturbing - in a good way) "octo-owl" destroyed tee by Deadworry:


"Dead Man's Party" black tee by theboldbanana (and I'll look JUST like this in it too):


Gorgeous blue chandelier tee by ellembee:


Adorable jellyfish tee by HopefulMonster:



And, last but not least, ridiculously adorable "Dogs for Obama" tee by alfieandrex:



While we're here, a BIG thank you to Amy of Giggleberry and Corinne of Daydream Arts Studio. Both featured my shop over the weekend. Thanks, ladies! You can read the interviews here and here.

Treasury Friday - Sweet!

My very first stop in the treasuries this morning landed me an unexpected Treasury West spot. Woohoo! Feast your eyes on a few of my favorite Fabulous Artistic Mom jewelry bits.

Blues...

This week's EtsyBloggers blog carnival topic is color - pick a favorite and explore the ways it's expressed in your work.

I don't know that, before I began crafting and creating, I would have been able to tell you my favorite color. I've been flummoxed by the question before - generally, just making something up to appease the asker (lately, my 3-year-old). But as I began to work with all the glorious decorative papers I've come to fall so in love with, I find that I'm almost always drawn to the same few palettes. A quick trip to my shop reveals all - pink and brown and, even more so, blue and brown.

As I was thinking through this post (while making beds, as per my daily ritual), it occurred to me that my house is filled with this same combination of soft, calming blues and warm, chocolatey browns. There is something about this palette that, to me, conveys affection, sentimentality, and comfort. So it's only natural that, as I create my little folded sheets of paper and attempt to infuse them with those same sorts of feelings, I might drift into the same sweet and simple color scheme.

My "bluesy" cards are definitely among my faves, and probably carry just a little bit of extra "me" in each envelope. See what I mean?

Cool! Free Traffic!

Come on! All your friends are doing it...

Thanks to Captured Time Books (cool altered journal pictured above) for pointing me in the direction of Link Referral earlier this week. Have you heard of this thing? Here's what their "About Us" page has to say about the Link Referral "concept":

Members directory traffic - By joining, you will be included in our members directory which is visited by our community of over 180,000 members, and thousands of outside visitors on a daily basis. You'll have the opportunity to earn a ranking at the top of your category, absolutely free! Receive valuable feedback from visitors of your website, network with your peers, and give your opinion on other websites in the directory. The more you participate, the more you get in return! (more details)

Referral based traffic - You are probably familiar with the concept of network marketing, well this is a free version of that marketing method - by registering and promoting your linkreferral affiliate link, an exponential growth of 5 levels of referrals can be created (ex. you refer 10 people who refer 10 people each who refer 10 each....), potentially 10,000s of visitors/day all viewing your link prominently in the top spot of our 'Featured Sites' section on our home page for your referral ID. It works because its free, fast to register, easy to implement and no risk. People that are referred from your site will have nothing to lose and everything to gain, just like you. (more details)

Search engine traffic - By registering, you'll benefit several ways, including,

1) having your webpage listing indexed more quickly - the major search engines continuously spider our site, and the sites listed in our directory.
2) Improved search engine rankings and SEO optimization.
3) Indirect search engine traffic via linkreferral.com. Pages such as your directory listing and your affiliate page listing feature your link and description, are picked up by all the major search engines. Your sign-up description, combined with our strong traffic base (a prime ranking factor for most major search engines) can pull in a significant immediate steady stream of traffic to your listing on linkreferral.com and then on to your web site.

A search for "Etsy" yields 1032 results as of this morning. Wow! Apparently I've been missing out! I swear I'm usually the world's biggest skeptic about these things, but several fellow EtsyGreetings members have had quite a bit of success with Link Referral, and try though I might, I've not been able to find a single reason NOT to create an account. A small daily investment of time has honestly yielded a substantial bump in traffic within the past few days. Plus, browsing member links has been a great way to find and promote other great Etsy sellers I might not otherwise have run across. Why not give it a shot, right?

Monday, Monday -- So Good To Me

Sweet! This was surely a nice way to cure my nasty little case of the Mondays...


Thanks to one of FAM's treasury queens, Winklepots, for creating such a gorgeous collection! In other news, there's yet another great giveaway today over at the EtsyGreetings blog, this time featuring Carlin Card Creations. Check it out!

A Brand New Artiste

Armed with a whole new look, four new vendors, and a whole shopload of unique and beautiful mommy-made treasures, Artiste Congo is stocking again tomorrow night, September 5th, at 9:00.

Macaroni and Glue is proud to be one of the newest "artistes." This great group of talented moms truly offers something for everyone, from knitted goodies for your little one to indulgent soaps and teas to handsewn mommy essentials. With lots of great new product and special guest, Miniature Magic, tomorrow night's stocking promises to be quite the event. Pick your faves now and be ready to pounce when we go live!

Who Doesn't Love a Giveaway??

Visit the EtsyGreetings blog today for a chance to get something for (almost) nothing! Simply leave a comment at today's post with your fave Mac & Glue creation and be entered to win a set of my best-selling "Pretty in Pink" thank you cards. Good luck!



EtsyGreetings has launched an exciting new blog lineup as of September, including weekly giveaways, monthly design challenges, Treasury Tuesdays, team member features, business and craft tutorials, and more! With more than 600 members, the EtsyGreetings team offers not only a huge variety of handcrafted greeting cards, but a wealth of knowledge about Etsy, paper crafts, and business ownership. Check back often to see what we're up to!

Find Me On Facebook!

Macaroni and Glue is now on Facebook! Become a fan to get exclusive updates on special events, promotions, and sweet deals for Facebook pals. You can find our page here:

http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Macaroni-and-Glue-on-Etsy/18333326699

In other news, the 2008 holiday earlybird special continues. Purchase any card set from the 2008 holiday collection before October 1st and get a $1 PayPal refund. Also, check out the EtsyGreetings blog tomorrow, September 3rd, for another Macaroni and Glue giveaway.