Spiritual & Inspirational Sunday - Happy Saint Patrick's Day

https://www.facebook.com/PostcardsInTheAttic?ref=hl#!/vintageimagecraft

Even small holidays makes me miss when my kids were small and I am feeling a little nostalgic.  We always made the traditional Cornbeef and Cabbage for dinner and everything else we ate was colored green for the day.  We would have Shamrock cookies and many other little treats.  I loved how the bright color would break up the long gray winter week and it always reminded me that we were one step closer to spring.  Sigh....

I am so proud of the adults my children have be come but wow how time flies.

Blessings friends and Have a Happy Saint Patrick's Day

https://www.facebook.com/PostcardsInTheAttic?ref=hl#!/vintageimagecraft

https://www.facebook.com/PostcardsInTheAttic?ref=hl#!/vintageimagecraft

Meeting Dolly Madison An Amazing Young Artist

I found Dolly Madison while surfing ETSY and fell in love with her sweet little buttons and characters.  She is a very talented young lady and has been very kind to do an interview for us. 
Her lovely little shop is also featuring a special discount, 5% off with coupon code BIRRCASTLE.  Please check out the interview and Dolly's wonderful creations.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/DollyMadison?ref=ss_profile

Tell me a bit about yourself……
I'm sixteen years old, and I love to work with my hands, writing, reading, and crafting. My main focus of crafting is my Etsy shop, where I sell polymer clay items, mostly buttons, but also little decorative bears (mostly custom orders for those). :) I began working with polymer clay when I was eleven, and I opened my Etsy shop in May of 2010.

Apart from creating, what do you do?
Dear me, it depends on the day! I love to read, and I have several subjects that I pay most attention to, one of which is history. I'm a genealogist, and I love to find out about my ancestors! I found lots of Irish way back there, and so I now have what you could almost call a 'hobby', finding old Irish songs and artists. I love to buy books (that's mainly what I spend my Etsy profit on) that I can feel satisfied handing down to my children and grandchildren. I desire to glorify God, and as my motto says "To enlarge the glory of the gospel!" (quote from Richard Hakluyt, puritan).

What first made you want to create?
I'm just a creative person, I suppose. :) I've been crafting as long as I can remember, and when my grandparents gave me some polymer clay one time, I immediately latched on to it and began making rather crude figures. It wasn't till April that I found my Etsy niche, which is specialty buttons. I had one set that had been custom ordered, and didn't sell, so I listed them anyway. Then I began attending BNRs and BNSs on Etsy (a selling spree system, Buy and Replace and Buy and Stay, where someone buys your item in a treasury and then they in turn get featured in your spot), and my buttons sold, and re-sold, and sold again........ Ever since then, my button making has taken off, which is really nice. But it's funny that the thing that sells best for me is the thing that I never meant to make in the first place.

Describe your creative process?
It depends on the situation. Sometimes I just sit down with my clay and start making buttons without a goal in mind or even a conceived notion as to how I want them to be---I just pick out a few colors that all the sudden stand out to me and run with it. That is always a fun process. Other times I know exactly what I want, and I fall to making them......or they turn out completely different from what I wanted. It's an adventure, and it's a very fun one. :)

How are you promoting your work?
I don't have many ways of promoting yet. Mostly I attend BNRs and that really gets the word out because it's always a great crowd and great publicity. Otherwise just getting to know folks on Etsy is a great way to get business. :) Hearting other folks' items and shops have brought me several sales, not to mention hearts and circles (Now I have switched to Etsy lingo, haven't I? ;)

Where do you want to be in ten years?
The problem to me is getting too busy. Etsy is the only source of income I have right now, and I'm not really able to devote all of my time to it. So to answer your question, I don't know if I shall be around on Etsy in ten years. :) Since I am just beginning to get sales, I will have to see if it turns out to be something I want to pursue in earnest, and if the profit is worth the effort. But I intend to have a steady income by then from some sort of home business. :)

Aromatherapy Thursday - Peppermint

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!  Many images come to mind for this special day:  Shamrocks, Pots of gold, Leprechauns, and Peppermint.  (Good lead in, yah?)

http://www.etsy.com/listing/67339131/vintage-postcard-st-patrick-harp-heart

Taking long car rides to new undiscovered places is such fun...for most people.  Unfortunately for a few or maybe many it is not fun.  Car sickness has not been one of my experiences although there have been times that I felt queasy due to an illness while riding in the car.  For those that have experienced that there may be a simple holistic means of reducing that sickening feeling. 

It has been found that Peppermint will often help with car sickness.  I personally use it for when I am not feeling well and have nausea.  Simply having that wonderful minty freshness in the air around you can reduce the sick sensation. 

Peppermint has other wonderful properties:  it can also ease headaches, help open up that stuffy feeling when you have a cold or sinus problem, sooth muscular pain when you use it as a rub, and it has mood altering affects.

Needless to say I am a strong advocate of aromatherapy.  Peppermint is extremely powerful for my moods.  If I am tired or in a slump as soon as I open a jar of my sachet and that wonderful aroma meets me I become more alert right away.  Peppermint has a reviving and mood boosting property along with helping to calm nerves.  Alert and Calm!!  Many of us would love that.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/69580535/antique-postcard-man-in-nightgown-in-bed

Just like in any aromatherapy caution must be used.  Pay attention to signs of allergies to specific smells and herbs, respect others that do have allergies because it can be very detrimental to their health, and never directly smell essential oils from the bottle (it can burn the mucous membrane) or use it directly on your skin (a variety of reactions can occur.)  Essential oils are very concentrated and can cause many negative affects if used "neat" or straight from the bottle.  Most all of them need to be mixed into a sachet, potpourri, bath product, or message oil. 

One simple method of using peppermint oil in your car to ward off car sickness is to place a few drops on a cotton ball and set that cotton ball on your dash board or some other location that will allow it to fill the air with its minty freshness.  I sell a wonderful sachet mix that could easily be put into a pretty cloth bag or a simple muslin bag and used in the car or anywhere.  I use it to freshen my house after someone has had a bug or if I am tired.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/67026289/handmade-invigorating-peppermint-sachet

I created this treasury for the love of mint.  Have a wonderful Alert and Calm Day