that's a bad billy

You wouldn't believe the morning {or the last hour} I've had, well maybe...no, no you wouldn't.
I just finished untangling one of the billy goats from the hog fence. His horns were caught and because of this he tried to free himself, only to tear down five panels of fencing in the process. Now mind you, I had been running errands all morning so there's no telling how long he had been tangled up.

When I pulled up our dirt road all I could make out was a strange looking goat on his front quarters all bent over, with what looked to be his head stuck in the ground {you know like an ostrich} and bellowing like there was no tomorrow. Once I could make out what was going on I ran up into the field to help him out, okay so maybe run is too strong a word.

If it weren't for the fact that I felt so sorry for this old boy I would have run to get my camera and take pictures. Instead I did the next best thing and freaked out on the phone to Bri. I was so out of breathe from running {humor me} up into the field that he thought the house was on fire. No it's just a goat with his horns stuck in a fence silly and nobody here but little old me to untangle this beast, who by the way was sitting on top of the fence he tore down.

This is the most action we've had on this little farm since the weather warmed up!
Anyone who can blog this moments after it happened with fresh goat poo still on her boots deserves a farm girl award if you ask me...I will have to go make one!

In the Shop

In the Shop

The Healing Benefits of Lavender {interesting Ezine Article}
by Ashira R
"Did you know that lavender is the key ingredient in smelling salts? Back in ancient Greek times, it was imported from Syria because of its fragrance. They were the first to use lavender as a perfume and in bathing water. The fragrant contains more than 100 different chemical compounds that will calm the central nervous system."

Celebrating Two New Etsy Shops!

Pillow from Treasure This
Miss Jenn just opened her Etsy Shop Treasure This {love the name} last week, which I blogged about over at my wordpress blog but since I'm ditching that and coming back to blogger I wanted to post about it again....I don't want you to miss out!


Apron from Lady Farmers Market
We get to celebrate another Etsy shop opening, which belongs to Reann from Lady Farmer Parables and it's called Lady Farmer's Market {another great named shop}. Adorable handmade vintage style petal aprons...so sweet!
Thank you ladies for sharing your news!

How to Photograph & List Your Items on Etsy

Taking Photos There doesn't need to be alot of technical equipment that goes into taking a good photo for your Etsy shop. First, you will need a digital camera, #2 - good lighting and #3- a good background. There are so many great tutorials already out there already on the subject, here's just a few I wanted to share;
Etsy Videos- Photographing your Items

E-How Article - How to Create Awesome Digital Photos for An Etsy or Ebay Shop

Cheap Homemade Lightbox Tutorial - This is great for small items, like jewelry.

Listing Your Items: How to List An Item

Etsy's Help Guide Guidelines & Tips: Tagging on Etsy- This is a great article on how to effectually use key words when lisitng your item.

For me the Storque, is my answer to the reading the daily newspaper, there are so many wonderful articles written by talented people on Etsy waiting to share what they know.
I also like looking through magazines to get good styling ideas.

Setting Up Shop at Etsy Part I

This is it you have made the decision to open your own little shop online at Etsy, a community for buying and selling handmade goods. That's great! Just thought I would share a few of the basics, because I realize how overwhelming it can be.

Here are a few things you need to know:

**Note: Before beginning have a pencil and paper handy, you will need to keep a note of your user names and passwords.**

You will also need a credit card to sign up as a seller with Etsy, not to bill you but to verify you are human.

1. Before setting up your Etsy shop you should sign up for a Paypal account. This will allow you to offer online paying options to your customers and without it your sales could be almost non existent. Paypal is something I have used for years and they are safe and easy option to online payments without needing to open a merchant account. The customer service I have received from them has been excellent.

2. If you haven't already registered for Etsy go ahead and do that, but Choose Your Sign Up Name Carefully because this will be your Etsy shop name and it's permanent. Once you have signed up Etsy will send you a confirmation to your email address, in that email you will need to ckick on the confirmation link and sign in to Etsy with your user name and password.

Congrats, Now it's Time to set up shop! Get a big cup of coffee and let's begin...


3. Now that you are logged you will find yourself back at the Etsy homepage, don't get distracted by all the neat stuff {like I would}...you have a shop to set up! Click the word "SELL" at the top of the page. And follow the directions to setting up your personal and billing information.

4. Your Public Profile {found in the left margin}- Here you will need to add an Avatar, this is a small 75 x75 photo for your public profile, that can be seen in your shop. Next you will want to fill out your location and your Bio. Please don't neglect to tell about yourself, your experience and your work, remember people want a connection with who the craftsman/woman.

Under the Section Shop Setup.

5. Appearance. Give your name a shop Title. Now you will need to upload a banner, 760 pixels wide, 100 pixels high and this will show up at the top of your shop. If you need a little help on this part, Etsy has provided a free Banner Generator for you to make it simple. You will also find there are several people at Etsy selling pre-made graphic banners that you can buy.

* Shop Announcement. Write a short welcome note here, tell about your shop, what you offer. I change portions of mine on a weekly basis to let everyone know about sales I'm having, or giveaways.

* Alchemy, you can leave this blank for now.

* Message to Buyers, you can type in a "thank you for your order" here. Don't forget to save your changes!

6. Shop Policies. Here you will set up additional information you need customers to know concerning shipping, payment, refunds and exchanges.

7. Sections. Sections are like categories of the type of items you will be selling. This part doesn't have to be done right now, if you know you will be selling tote bags or soap then go ahead and type that in, if you aren't sure of every item you might be selling that's okay you can always do this part after listing an item.

8. Shipping Options. Here you can create a shipping profile for each item you will be selling. At this point you will need to know how much it will cost you to ship, you will need a scale. USPS has a price calculator available online that's very helpful.

To create a new shipping profile:

1. Give your profile a name, like "small tote bag".


2. In the drop down box, enter the country name which you are shipping from.


3. In the next drop down box, enter the country where you will be shipping items to. Choose your own country here.


4. List your primary shipping cost, this will be how much it costs you to ship the item by itself.


5. List the secondary shipping cost, this is what your shipping cost will be if your customer purchases more than one item {like combining shipping costs}, I usually give a discounted price for multiple items. If you choose not to give one, just enter the primary shipping cost here too.


6. Will you ship Internationally? If so, click +Add Another Shipping Destination and repeat the process. Remember if you want to ship Internationally, check with USPS for prices and any special Customs Policies.


7. Now Save. You can always edit your shipping profiles by going to Shipping Options and selecting the profile to edit. If you edit a shipping profile, for an item already listed you will need to go to Batch Shipping. I know it might seem a bit overwhelming, but you are doing great! Just keep going.
   


8. Payment Methods. How will you accept payments? Here you will enter your PayPal email address.

10. Click View Shop! How does everything look to you? Go ahead and click through Profile & Shop Policies and make sure everything is just as you want it, if not you can always go back and change something. Remember, once you login to Etsy it will return you to their homepage and at the top you will click on "Your Etsy".

Congratulations!! You have set up your first Etsy Shop!

In the next post I will talk about taking photos and listing your items.

The perfect weather for a good book

I'll will have to admit, I'm not the romance novel kind of gal. In fact I'm more of a tomboy when it comes to having a reading personality, I like back Woods Home Magazine, Mary Jane's Farm {of course}, Country Magazine, Country Home Magazine...oh wait those are all magazines. Okay I'm more of a magazine reading kinda gal, but I did come across this book- Made From Scratch by Jenna Woginrich last week at our library. Let me tell you, I couldn't put down the book! I love Jenna's writing style and even more I like what she's saying. It's all about Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life, it's a how to do-it-yourself kind of book but it's also lighthearted and I love the fact that she is completely honest about how hard it can be to take care of chickens but I love the fact that she kept going and was determined to achieve a more simplicitic lifestyle, without having to run off and buy 20 acres in the country. Jenna proves anyone can learn homesteading skills wherever you live and no matter your experience...we all started somewhere, one day I will have to tell you how we started out here on the farm. Oh, she even has a blog, so be sure to check it out!