Category: just stuff.

In case you haven’t already figured it out for yourself, I’m not terribly tech savvy.

Sure, sometimes my 87 year old handyman neighbor calls me over to help figure out how to print his Christmas card mailing labels.  But for the most part I only know just enough about technology to get by.

I probably barely scratch the surface when it comes to the things I could be doing with my new cell phone because I can’t be bothered to figure them out.

I’m also not willing to switch to vlogging rather than blogging because I don’t want to have to learn an entirely new skill; how to take good videos, and then use the software necessary for editing them (the real challenge).

All of that being said, I do mostly manage when it comes to blogging.

But there is one thing that I just haven’t figured out, and that’s how to know what is driving traffic to my blog.

For example, in the month of November my most visited post was my blogiversary giveaway.

That’s not surprising.

But my 2nd most visited post in November 2024 was from May 2020; the flower collector secretary.

Where did that come from?  Why are so many people finding that post 4 years later?

And how in the world did that post become my most popular post in 2024 with over 4,000 views?

I wish I knew.

I mean, sure, that was a fun makeover.  But honestly, that use of the Sea Glass color on the interior feels a bit dated to me now.

Sidebar:  look how ridiculously large I made my watermark back then.  That’s embarrassing.

I do have some analytics built in to my WordPress blog, but they aren’t terribly helpful.  For example, my stats page says that February 16, 2020 was the day with the highest number of visitors to my blog.

Weird.

I didn’t even publish a post that day.  That’s two days after I posted this dresser.

My stats page also tells me that my most popular category in all of 2024 was “happy holidays.”

That’s where I put all of my Christmas project posts, so that’s interesting.  I feel like Christmas projects are just a small percentage of my content throughout the year.

My 2nd most popular category for 2024 is “furniture.”, with “toolboxes.” as a close 3rd.  That sort of tells me what people are interested in.  But as with all stats, there is more to the story.  I need to know how many ‘furniture’ posts there were in 2024, compared to how many ‘toolboxes’ posts.  That would have a significant impact on the number of visits each category received.  But my WordPress stats don’t give me that number.  So does that stat actually tell me anything?

I do get some very basic stats on ‘referrers’, so you’d think that would help tell me where traffic is coming from.  My top referrer is still pinterest, but I don’t get any specifics on which pin is driving the traffic.  My 2nd most popular referrer is google.  Um, yeah.  That doesn’t help either.

I could try using the free version of Google Analytics to figure out where traffic is coming from, but it looks rather complicated to use.  As mentioned earlier, learning to use a new software is definitely not something I enjoy.  Also, one source I found noted that “Google Analytics collects visitor data and analyzes it to provide insight into your website’s traffic and performance. Google then re-uses these data to power its extensive ad tech ecosystem. Like other Google services, it is a privacy-invasive tool that customers pay with their data- or rather, with their visitors’.”

That doesn’t sound good, does it?  I definitely don’t want to invade your privacy.

So I guess for now I’ll just be left to wonder why a post from 4 years ago has become so popular this year.  I wish I knew.  Maybe you know?  If so, be sure to leave a comment!

Well, I promised to report back on my craft show experience and I have to tell you all that it was a total bust.  For me anyway, opK had better results.

Honestly, I just have to laugh about it.  It clearly was not the right venue for me.  Our booth did rather stand out amongst the Pampered Chef, Scentsy, socks and American Girl doll clothes.  There wasn’t even very much Christmas decor, let alone any that was vintage.

The location itself was a bit of an issue as well since there was very limited cell service.  I had service on my phone with t-mobile, but anyone who had AT&T had no service at all.  That made both Venmo and credit card transactions difficult.  Luckily we had an exterior door right in our booth, so people could step outside to get a signal.  It definitely was not a great set up.

opK’s clocks and lanterns were a big hit.  She sold quite a few of them.  In fact, I even purchased one of her clocks myself.

The original turquoise paint really spoke to me.

On the other hand, I only sold two things all day.  The first was a vintage measuring cup with a little faux feather Christmas tree in it.

It was only $10.

My second sale was one of my stenciled drop cloth stockings.

The woman who purchased it loved that it looked like a vintage grain sack with German writing on it.

Although I had also had some stockings with red stripes …

and also some stockings with stencils in English …

She just wanted the German writing, and unfortunately I only had one of those with me.

My friend Sue sewed these stockings up for me out of drop cloth, and I stenciled them back in 2022.  I’d attempted to sell them at the shop in 2022, and again in 2023.  I’d finally priced them super low at $5 each and tried to sell them at the Carriage House sale with no luck.

So, yeah, if you’re doing the math, I had a whopping $15 in sales for the entire day.

It was definitely disappointing, but now I know that this sort of venue isn’t going to work for me.

It probably didn’t help that there was fierce competition, especially for people who love vintage.  The Holly Jolly Market was also taking place this past weekend.

I definitely think I’d fit in better there.

Well, as they say, live and learn.  I’m not sure if will ever pursue doing another market of this kind, but if I do I’ll try to find one that better suits my style for sure.

How about you?  Have you ever sold at a craft show or market?  Or do you have a favorite holiday market near you?  Leave a comment and let me know.

This coming Saturday I’m sharing a booth at a craft show with my friend opK.

This is going to be a mostly new experience for me.  I say ‘mostly new’ because I did share a booth at Junk Bonanza way back in 2014.  You can click on this link if you want to read the full story, but here was my review of that experience in a nutshell after it was over:

“In the end the question is, “would I do it again?” and the answer is, probably not.  It was fun to be a part of it once, but it was a ton of work.  I did make a little more money than I make at my occasional sale, but that was ultimately eaten up by the overhead expenses of renting a truck, paying for half the booth rental, and gas to drive to Shakopee for 4 days.  In addition, there were a lot of ‘rules’!  No merchandise newer than 40 years old, no leaving early even if sales are so low that you are sitting there for nothing, you are supposed to wear official Junk Bonanza shirts, etc, etc.  I have to follow enough rules at my day job, I didn’t need them added to my fun hobby job.”

LOL, I have to laugh at that last part about the day job.  Don’t have to worry about that one anymore 😉

Anyway, this time it’s going to be a much less intense experience.  For one thing, it’s only for one day, rather than 4.  Second, we’re only driving to Stillwater (much closer to me than Shakopee).  Third, I won’t have to rent a truck because I’m not bringing any large furniture.  Finally, I’m pretty sure I don’t have to wear an official shirt.

All of that being said, I also have no idea if the shoppers at this particular craft show will be at all interested in our vintage aesthetic.  I fit right in at Junk Bonanza, but I’m not sure what sort of crowd (optimistically?)  this event will draw.

Speaking of our vintage aesthetic, opK popped over with a few of her items the other day so that I could photograph them.

She creates adorable Christmas scenes in vintage clocks and lanterns.

And most (all?) of them light up.

They are totally charming.  This next pink one is one of my favorites.

She has done a few of the lit up scenes in vintage wooden boxes as well.

I’m just in love with this aqua velvet reindeer.

Isn’t he pretty?

She also has a mishmash of other vintage finds that she has dressed up for Christmas.

As do I.

I’ll have a couple pairs of painted skates for sale.

And a few other things too, like my stenciled stockings.

And a few of my boxes.

So if you’re local and you’ve got some free time on Saturday, be sure to stop by.

And if you’re not local, be sure to stay tuned.  I’ll update you next week on how it went and whether or not I would do it again!

Remember my non-collection of whisk brooms?

I’ve used them as props in so many photos!  This next one being one of my all-time favorites.

I initially started accumulating them because I wanted to make a wreath, but even after I had enough for that I still hadn’t made one.

So I put price tags on them and put them in my Carriage House sale back in June.

Maybe one or two of them sold, I’m not sure, but most of them didn’t.  For that matter, that really cool bucket didn’t sell either.

So I said to myself, ‘you know what?  I’m going to make that damn wreath after all!’

First I went to pinterest to see if I could find any examples of a whisk broom wreath, but I didn’t find anything there.  Next I just simply googled ‘whisk broom wreath’ and I ended up on Ki Nassauer’s Lived-In Style online membership magazine.

Now I’ve been a fan of Ki for a long time.  Back in the day she had an occasional sale over on the other side of the Twin Cities.  She also was the original inspiration behind the Bachman’s Idea House (back when it was awesome).  She has since moved away from Minnesota, and the Idea House was never the same.

The Lived-In Style online magazine requires a membership fee of $6 per month.  Normally I don’t go for that sort of thing (because you sign up and are perpetually charged each month until you finally remember to cancel your membership three years down the road, yada, yada, yada), but I decided to bite the bullet and pay my $6 to see if there were any good tips on making the wreath.

Comically, when I finally got to the article the instructions were as follows:

“Arrange them on a wire wreath form, with the handles pointed toward the center and the threaded areas aligned as much as possible. Wire the brooms to the frame.”

And that was literally it.  It was one short paragraph, with one photo.

So I gathered up my supplies …

and then started laying out my brooms.

I started by spacing out the larger brooms, and then I filled in with the smaller ones.

I did get one take-away tip from Ki, to align the threaded areas on the brooms.  I hadn’t done that before the photo above, but I did later.

The next challenge was to figure out exactly how to wire them to the form without the wires showing on the front.  I began with a lightweight floral wire.

For the life of me, I could not get that wire through the brooms.  I fiddled around with it for a while, but no go.  So I switched to a heavier weight wire, but again it was a no go.

So I decided to keep it simple and just use hot glue.

I whipped out the tackle box that holds my hot glue supplies and got to work.

I found that I needed to weigh down the wire frame to make good contact with the brooms as the glue hardened, so I just used a couple of bricks and a heavy rock for that.

And that was it.

I flipped it over and hung it on the potting shed.

Now, I’m not at all sure how well the hot glue is going to hold up to the elements.  We’ll see if it lasts the entire fall season or not.  Also, as you can see, it took 13 whisk brooms to make a complete wreath, so accumulating that many might take some time.  Especially if you’re hoping to find them for $1 each at garage sales.

But I think it’s a fun and unique fall decoration.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let me know.

Recently my neighbor’s parents (a.k.a. my adopted family) were cleaning out a storage area and came across a couple of items that they thought I might like to revamp.

The first is this little cupboard.

They were guessing that it was some sort of shoe shine cabinet because it seemed to come with that brass foot plate thingie.

And it also originally had a hinged lid, which would have made it easier to access the contents of the box.

However, that being said, I couldn’t find any holes on that lid where the brass shoe plate would have been attached.  I also didn’t see any signs of shoe polish inside the cupboard.  I’ve revamped a couple of shoe shine boxes in the past, and they always have remnants of shoe polish on them (check out this one, and this one).

So I’m betting this little cabinet was used for something else.  Maybe to hold knitting supplies?  Or sewing stuff?  Any guesses?

Whatever it was, I decided to give it a new look with some paint and another of the new I.O.D. transfers called Fairytale Florals.

I started with the decision to glue the once-hinged top section on (so the top is no longer hinged).  Then I scuff sanded and gave it a good cleaning.

I then painted the interior of the cabinet in Dixie Belle’s Silk All-in-One paint in a color called Serenity.  This color has that French blue sort of vibe.

I chose to use the Silk paint because it has a built in top coat, so I would only have to slap on two coats of paint and that’s it.  It was a bit tricky getting a brush inside that cupboard.

Next I added two coats of DB’s Drop Cloth to the outside of the cabinet.  Once dry, I sanded the edges to distress the piece.

Next it was ready for transfers.

I added this pretty blue floral to the top.

Then I added a row of florals above and below the door on the front, along with that wreath-like detail on the door itself.

That wreath came with a sweet little crown that sat above it, but it didn’t fit on my door with the wreath so I cut it off.  Hopefully I’ll find something else to use it on down the road.

I finished the cabinet off with some of Dixie Belle’s clear wax to protect the Chalk Mineral paint on the exterior, as well as the transfers.

I was curious about the word ‘lille’, so I googled it and found the mark for Lille porcelain.

According to worthpoint.com, porcelain was produced in the 1700’s in Lille which was then in Flanders, but now is part of France.  Certainly that mark was the inspiration for the transfer design.

My little French fairytale cabinet turned out pretty sweet I think.

What do you think?  And what would you keep inside this little cupboard?  Leave a comment and let me know.

Now, as for that 2nd item I received …

That one is going to take a bit more work!

In the meantime, if any of my local readers are in need of a French fairytale cupboard, be sure to check my ‘available for local sale’ page for more details.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing their products used in this makeover.

I know I’m not alone in wishing that I.O.D. would release another typography transfer similar to their retired Label Ephemera.  But so far we are left wanting.

Rather than complain about it though, I’m on a quest to come up with other options and that brings me to the new I.O.D. stamp set called Ephemeral Type.

There is some fantastic typography included with this decor stamp.  I’m especially drawn to that Flore Française section at the bottom left.

Unfortunately, my stamping skills are somewhat lacking.  But as they say, practice makes perfect.  So maybe I just need to get practicing.

I ordered the stamps and then looked around for some guinea pigs.

I painted up these books back in February 2018 …

Good gracious, that was over six years ago.  Time flies.

I’d been using them as decor in my own house, and they were ready for a refresh.

I started by painting over them with a couple of coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  Then I pulled out the Ephemeral Type stamps and some Versafine Clair ink.  One of my readers recommended this ink to me the last time I tried to work with stamps.

Now, I’ve watched quite a few YouTube videos where creators just pull the stamp off the backing sheet, add ink, and then carefully pop it onto their surface, gently press all over it and voila.  The perfect image.

Yeah, it didn’t quite work out that way for me.  Here is my first attempt.

It’s a bit of a mess.  Luckily, I can just paint back over this book cover and try again.

Maybe with enough practice over time I could get better at that technique.  But for now, I think I need to stick with using an acrylic block to apply my stamps.

You can buy these blocks in different sizes at any craft store.  The I.O.D. stamps cling to them quite nicely, and then peel right back off when you’re done using it.

Using the block makes it easier to keep the stamp from wiggling around.

Here is my 2nd attempt at stamping on a book cover, this time using the block.

So much better!  I just applied a tiny bit too much pressure on the far right.

I went back and tried the larger stamp using the block as well.

So much better.

There is a downside to using a block, you have to be stamping onto a fairly flat surface.  It’s a bit tricky to try and maneuver a block around a corner or over a curve.

I was able to make it work on the spines of the books using a smaller stamp.

I carefully rolled the stamp just a bit as I lightly pressed it onto the spine, giving me a pretty good result.

Maybe over time, with a bit more practice, I can get good at stamping without a block.  Or, maybe I’ll just stick with using one because the results are a little more predictable.

Either way, I’m hoping to get some good use out of this stamp set.

As for the books, I finished them off with some of the Rose Botanical transfers from I.O.D.

I’m definitely going to need to order some more of them, I absolutely love them.

The wording on the spines of the books is also from the Rose Botanical transfer set.

Oh, one last thing.  About that Versafine Clair ink.  I did have some issues with it smearing.  You can see that on the left side of the round medallion stamp at the bottom of the book with the pink roses.  I found that I had to let the ink dry for several hours before applying the transfers over it.  I do have some of the I.O.D. ink around here somewhere (I think).  I’m going to have to dig that out and see if it works better.

In the meantime, I’ll touch up that little smear with some paint.  Just to be on the safe side, I’m also planning to seal these with the RustOleum matte spray sealer to avoid any further smearing.

All in all, I’m fairly happy with how the books turned out.  I do need to get in some more practice with stamps though, so stay tuned to see what else I can come up with.

In the meantime, are any of you expert stampers?  Feel free to give me some tips in the comments!