Changing gears, holiday saving potential!

Hey all! Hope you're having a good start to the week.

Today I wanted to just pass on something I find neat. With the holiday season coming up, we're all slowly shifting gears to holiday shopping. With our economy how it currently is, that's hard for some people. So here is my little tip to help stretch those dollars:

Have you ever heard of Groupon? It's a Daily Deal website that features a certificate to a random local business. You pick the city and every day you'll get a deal sent to your in box. Many times these are drastically discounted certificates to everything from food and clothes to sporting events and rental cars. For instance, in my city today's deal is Spend $20, get a $40 gift certificate to The Body Shop.

Combined with holiday sales, it's an amazing way to stretch your budget. You can purchase for yourself or a friend and the certs are generally good for a few months up to a year, depending on the seller.

Here is the link, check it out and pass it on!

Groupon, Saving Money and Getting Swag at the same time.

Mrs B's 31 Days of Halloween

It's that time of year again folks! Mrs B is hosting her 31 days of Halloween(And you can expect to see a couple items from me soon)

Today she has this absolutely fabulous bath and body set up for grabs! Wonderful, hand mixed items to melt away a long day of tension. I can't deny it, I'm hopeful to get it! She's also got a book and bookmark that are lovely. Stop by and check them out!

Bath set

Book

Bookmark


In other news, I've been working on preparing for Youmacon in Detroit over Samhain/Halloween weekend. Lots of adorable Bloops just waiting to get home and some new items as well.

I have to say, I've been feeling sort of down in regard to my art. I feel like I haven't come up with anything really new/original/appealing in a while. It's sort of like I'm drifting along a river while there is a party going on on the shore. I look around and see all these amazing things and wonder "Why didn't I think of that?"

I'm one of those people that want to do everything, so I spread myself super thin, then I feel like I'm not really growing in any one field.

What do you do to get our of your slump/spark the muse? I'm afraid that my first full year of business was a fluke and I won't really be successful in this.

To add to the "new things that I shouldn't be focusing on" I did a little sewing yesterday:



Not anything too super fantastic, just playing around with this Minky Fabric I have. The ears weren't sewn in far enough, but it's a start.

Maybe I'll get into making sewn plush once I get the craft room finished.

And this was a very rambly post. I hope this finds you all well!

~Aria

P.S. During August I went to Japan for 18 days. I may post some of my photos here for the heck of it. I apologize now for the potential pic spam!

Another post so soon?

Hey guys! Recently I joined PayBox.Me. It is a website that is working on developing a new payment processing system, similar to PayPal. They are currently looking for Betas to help with giving input and general testing in the future.

THIS IS NOT SPAM. Let me stress that point. I've done the reading and from what I can tell, it is not going to end up losing you any money nor does it ask for any personal information. I received the reference from several well established bloggers who's judgment I trust, thus I am passing this along.

It gives you a chance to make a little money. Currently it is just accumulating their own form of currency but it is supposed to be convertible to various currencies in the future.

It takes a couple minutes a day and filling out a survey or two a week.

If it never goes live, you just lose a little time.

So if this is something you are interested in or if you'd like to read more about it, check out my referral link which will take you to the site:

Pay Box Link Here

Thanks for looking!

Money problems for me means SALE FOR YOU! + Some updatey thoughts

Hi all! Unexpected car maintenance(isn't that the worst?) is prompting a weekend sale. 10% off everything in my ArtFire shop. In addition to that, the first ten shoppers will receive FREE SHIPPING on any order of $10 or more. Simply use the coupon code: GRANDOPENFREESHIP

I understand times are tough for everyone, but if you're in need of a cute gift or just something for yourself, please stop by my shop :3

Shop Preview:

Bloop For A Cause, Breast Cancer Awareness Plush:



Set of four Sweets Shop Candles:


Cutie Corn Plush:


Chainmaile Flower Necklace:


Check the shop out at: Manifested Dream's Artfire Shop

Thanks for stopping by!
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In other news, I'm heading down to Florida next week to visit my parents and grandparents. Really excited to play on the beach and gather up some sea shells and shark's teeth. I'm hoping to gather those pieces to make some jewelry. Drift wood would also be fun to play with.

I recently ran into a woman who kayaks our local rivers, cleans up the "trash", glass, drift wood, whatever she finds, and turns all those pieces into hanging pieces of art. It really inspired me. I love upcycling and re-purposing.

I also joined a swap a few days ago. Granny Squares! The idea of joining these swaps and slowly collecting squares from different people to make a blanket seems like a lot of fun. As if I need another project!

Speaking of blankets, I started work on a quit a few months back. Almost finished cutting out all the fabric. It uses very unique shapes so it's a bit time consuming. Once I get my first quilt block made, I'll start posting progress pictures.

And that's it for me. Have a wonderful Friday everyone!

Ponderings

I originally created this blog to keep up with my business announcements and the like. Then I found that I really wanted to be able to just...write what was on my head.

I stopped using this because I didn't know what direction I wanted to go in.

I've considered making a personal blog to keep things separate but I'm not sure that I would update both. I feel like they go hand in hand, but I worry that people would become disinterested if it became more my personal thoughts.

I'm not sure if anyone reads this, but if you do, what are your thoughts? New Blog? Just use this blog for whatever I want? Something else?