POWELL'S SWEET SHOPPE

My Grandson turned 10 on Monday and we went up to Chico, CA for the weekend to help celebrate his birthday. The party was held in the most charming candy shop I have ever seen: Powell's Sweet Shoppe.

Powell's is an old time candy store with candy from when I was a little girl and probably way before. Their motto is "Remember Yesterday, Today". I found a package of Chicklets Chewing Gum in the yellow package like the one my Grandma ALWAYS had in her purse. And I found SEN-SEN....for those of you who do not know what Sen-Sen is, they are itsy bitsy pieces of very strong licorice candy designed to freshen your breath (and send smoke out of your ears at the same time). They have more than 5,000 varieties of candy!!!

Besides all the wonderful candy they sell, Powell's also provides a Birthday Party Room. Each child gets to go on a scavenger hunt and are given a huge bucket and a list of candy to look for (they get to keep the candy),and a helping of any flavor gelato they would like. The birthday child gets a Happy Birthday Hat.

Powell's is also extremely civic minded and has two marvelous programs: Sweet Rewards and Sweet Donations. SWEET REWARDS is designed to get kids to do good. They also offer achievement awards for doing chores, homework and reading, citizenship, sportsmanship and being a good patient. The child gets to choose one of the candy items which appear at the bottom of each certificate. It's Powell's way of saying "GOOD JOB!".

SWEET DONATIONS is a fundraising program for organizations, individuals and causes to raise funds while enjoying purchases at Powell's Sweet Shoppe. Through this program they have helped raise thousands of dollars for many organizations. For information on each of these programs please visit them at http://www.powellssweetshoppe.com/

If you are ever in Chico, CA please make sure you get to visit Powell's Sweet Shoppe at 121 W. Third Street, Chico, CA My Grandson and his friends and our family all had a wonderful time! Thank you Powell's for allowing me to take pictures of your shop for this blog!

STELLARRELICS, STELLAR LADY!

In my traipsings through Etsy, I have found StellarRelics...a wonderful shop with the most adorable earrings, altered art and vintage goodies!

StellarRelics is a single Mom who not only designs the most beautiful jewelry I have ever seen, but she is also finishing up her Bachelors in Business Administration next month, and will start on her MBA in the Fall...talk about multi-tasking!

Being the Mom of an adorable little girl has taken her imagination into jewelry making almost a fantasy craft...she has bunnies, birdies and bows dangling from ear wires...she takes broken jewelry and gives it new life.

Here are a few samples of what you will find at StellarRelics:

This is "Calla Lilly in White Gold"....I think these are awesome!

This one is called "Loteria Pill Box in El Sol"..I would use it to hold treasures, not pills!

This last one is entitled "Upcycled Turquoise Post and Ring Set"...so beautiful!

Not only does she design these lovlies but she doesn't charge an arm and a leg for them....they are priced just right!

So come on....head on over to http://stellarrelics.etsy.com/ to see more of this Stellar Lady's STELLARRELICS!

MY FIRST INTERNATIONAL ORDER

I am so excited about this....a very nice lady from Germany convo'd me about these craft books that I had listed. We had some chat about the shipping cost which are really ridiculous for shipping overseas; however she really wanted these three books and agreed to pay the shipping charge that I searched out for her on usps.com.

Having never shipped anything internationally I was at a loss, and kept filling in the customs form incorrectly...how do I know I was doing it wrong? Well, every time I hit 'next' the same page would come up telling me i had too many words in the description ('craft books' is too many words?). Well, when I finally redid the page for the umpteenth time, it kept telling me that the weight did not match the original weight. I FINALLY figured out what I was doing wrong, over and over and over....the purchase was for 3 craft books and in the 'amount' column I kept putting the number 3. My brain finally kicked into gear and I changed it to '1'. VOILA!!!!! It worked!!!

Well tomorrow I will hand the package to the mailman and hope it gets to Germany before the year is up. Wish me luck :)

YOYO MAMA

A while back, before I got consumed by crocheting, I made a bunch of fabric yoyos....172 of them in small, medium and large sizes. Then I put them into a plastic bag and they got forgotten...

Today I listed them for sale in my Etsy shop. Do you yoyo? Do you use yoyos for making embellishments, or toys? Well why not stroll over to http://grannyscraftattic.etsy.com/ and take a look?

EVERYTHING E-DIRECTORY

I've joined a new group...Everything E-Directory. Here you can find a plethora of handmade items, how-to's, e-books, free patterns...you name it, it's there! I hope you check it out...look for her 'button' on the right hand side of this page. You will find a wealth of information that will take you ten lifetimes to check out!

CONNECTIVITY

I feel it is important to connect with my readers and my customers, soooooooo.....



What types of items would you like to see listed in my Etsy shop? What, that I can make, do YOU like? What types of items would you be interested in purchasing?



I await your responses....



And now back to the workshop :)