Good & Bad News

Well, lets start with the good news. I have been contacted about 2 jobs in the same day! Praise God! The first one I have an interview on Thursday and the second the next step is you fill out a personality test online. That one is with DSS so they want to make sure it's going to be a good fit. I am hoping for the DSS position, not only would it look GREAT for when we take in our next child its also closer to home. The other job is about 20ish minutes away (which includes going over a mountain) so I'd prefer the one closer to home. So pray that one of these are the jobs God has intended for me. Also things are moving along with our adoption. Looks like it will be the end of February or first of March at the latest. So we are excited about that and she is trying out new names LOL. So far she likes Bella. Just not sure if its going to be short for Isabella or Rosabella and the middle name is definitely Jade. We all are just still on cloud nine.

On to the bad, I am in need of some serious prayer requests (which I will post on the prayer request board as well). Just found out yesterday that they had to stop all treatment for the cancer on my husbands father, he is just not strong enough to handle it. They've had to stop treatment once for him to re-gain his strength, it put him in ICU. Once they got him stable they started the treatment again and the same thing happened. So my husbands mom called him yesterday and the doctors have told her he is too weak for surgery and the treatment and basically now all they can do is make his last days comfortable. Mark is the type to hold all his feelings in and I am just letting him know I am here for him and just trying to support him in this time. It's also going to be really hard on our nephew (he lives with us) and basically just the whole family obviously.

And just on a side note, not near as life threatening as his dad is I am still struggling with my depression/anxiety. Still trying to find the right med and dosage so I seem to stay an emotional wreck. And I really need to be strong for my family now. Please pray for peace for me from this illness. I have battled it so for many years that sometimes I just get so tired and just wonder how much more I can bear.

PS...I'm still running a 15% sale in my store, plus a free gift with every order

Ok, I cave :)

Ok, after all the overwhelming support and responses I received about closing my etsy shop I have made a decision I feel is best. I am going to keep my etsy shop open and delete the tons of sites I have only for promotion, Rubee and Castteam NOT being one of those lol. I will no longer spend hours on the etsy forums trying to get sales. I will post and blog here and cast and rubee and just let God's will be done and take a rest. This way there is no pressure and I don't burn out on my crafting or go any further in debt trying to advertise. So I am going to leave the store open but just ease up a bit and give myself a break.

Update and Possible Goodbye

Well all I hate to say it but I am seriously considering closing down my etsy shop. I'm just not getting anywhere. The only time I have sales are the buy and replaces and while I love those, I'm not making any money. I am thinking of just leaving ads for my stuff on my blogs and such and just let people purchase through paypal if they see something they want. I might set up a one page website (get if for free with Verizon) and let people see my stuff then contact me if they want to buy something. It really depresses me but I feel like I am going backwards. I've spent more than triple the amount of money on products than what I've sold and no matter what I do I just can't seem to get the exposure to get regular sales, and not even just alot of sales, in the last several months all my sales have been buy and replace except one from a friend online. I just feel like I'm sinking cause I am even joining all these street groups and trying to promote anyway I can and nothing seems to be working. I fear this just may not be for me, no matter how much I love it. I'm not going to stop crafting but make it more a hobby. I am neglecting my family and duties around the house and staying up all hours of the night trying to create that "perfect" item that will "put my shop on the map" and it's been over a year and it's just not working. I'm putting us in the (or rather HAVE put us in the hole) by trying to keep this up. And right now our lives are so crazy that I just can't keep continuing on like this. I need to simplify my life some. De-stress myself. Even my doctor said so, he said I am (and my husband has been telling me the same thing for months) taking on just more than I can handle and I need to take a step back. And I get so upset, I feel like such a failure that this just isn't working. But I will continue to make things and at least give as presents and gifts, maybe, hopefully, one day do a local craft fair. I just don't feel as if the online shop is going to work for me. But as I said, I'll do something so people can still get in touch with me, if they want. Not to mention I will keep my blog here, this isn't going anywhere. I'm not sure how many if any people read this but its a good outlet for me. So probably in the next couple of days I'm going to clearance out my etsy store and close it. So keep checking back, I will try to do it tomorrow but things have been so insane.

BUT...on the EXTREME plus side of life and all that's been going on, we have been OFFICIALLY APPROVED to adopt our foster daughter!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They say it will probably be sometime in March to get all the paperwork finalized and filed but we couldn't be happier!! That has come as such a great relief to all of us, we are going to throw a HUGE party in celebration of it as well. And my daughter can't wait to change her name, and she may only be 6yrs old but she is dead set she is changing her first, middle and last name. I was told its actually fairly common among foster children, it's a fresh start for them. Plus her name is a "family" name that's been handed down and she just flat out does not want it. So we've been working on a list of names...we actually had a flat out, tantrum throwing fit that I vetoed the name Barbie....LOL. I just told her to trust me, in a few years, she'll thank me for that one! So praise God this is almost done and we can relax a bit now that we've been officially approved and just have to do the paperwork now.

Well as you can see I've wrote a book tonight, so I will post tomorrow or the next day about the closing of my etsy and how to reach me if you still want to buy. Besides, my daughter loves doing arts and crafts with me too so I could never stop actually creating, just having to find a different way I suppose. Well goodnight for now.

www.debtybeautifulbeads.etsy.com

Sorry Been MIA - update

Sorry I've been gone so long guys. It's been crazy around here. All of a sudden my internet starts acting up and I call in and get an automated machine saying that I had called and scheduled to cancel my internet! Of course this is news to me since I didn't! So I go round and round and they couldn't (don't know why) stop the disconnection and then they tell me its going to be 2 weeks before they can have it back up, now I have all the equipment, they just have to turn it on....so I stew about this and figure I would call in on Monday and demand it be turned on sooner when lo and behold it was up on Saturday morning LOL. They must've heard me and got scared lol.

So update on me, went to my doc and he has upped my depression med to full strength. It will take a few weeks to see if it works. If not, then we will have to try something else. I am still trying to just deal with it and all the drama going on. Doesn't help that I got fired, yes fired, from my job. Now the kids were out of school for TEN days (not including weekends) for the holidays and my husband took off those days so I wouldn't have to. Well right after that there was 2 snow days, of course Mark has taken so much time he can't take those days too, then I got sick, so I got a call from the staffing agencey saying I was fired. Just keeps getting better and better So take pity on me and buy something from me LOL. Same sale, %15 off and free gift with every purchase!

www.debtybeautifulbeads.etsy.com

Sale Sale Sale

Ok everyone I am marking everything in my store 15% off and get a FREE gift with every order!! This sale will not last forever so get it while you can! Be sure to check it out at: www.debtybeautifulbeads.etsy.com


And new items are always being added!!!!!!!

Life & Sales

Well needless to say December was a very rough month for me, and sadly this month isn't looking any better. I pray things will change, just too much to go into right now.

Needless to say I still need to raise some money! So I am still have a super sale in my etsy store! And check back often, I just hit the craft store today so lots of new goodies will be popping up soon! And now for the SALE: 15% off any item in the store and a FREE gift with every purchase!! Just make sure to mention the sale so I can adjust the amount or I can just do a refund if paid thru paypal. So come on by and help me out!!

www.debtybeautifulbeads.etsy.com