Alexa "stop playing around"

Please don't think or even say her name out loud.

I think I have been re-gifted this year or someone returned Alexa to Amazon and I got her for Christmas.

Here she is

Not your typical "Queen Ann"

You know when that light comes on at the top you need to run for cover because one of the following is sure to happen:

She will auto dial my son from on top of the counter and not hang up.

She will turn just the dining room light on and off, on and off.

She voice commanded our bedroom TV to play through her so we watch tv in the bedroom and turn her up loud so we can hear her in the other room. I know what your thinking??? Just plug her in our bedroom, h e double hockey sticks I won't.

She auto sets a timer on the oven.

Then all of a sudden out of no-where she will tell you the time, she is always right on the button but why do I need a round box telling me what time it is when I have a round clock on the wall.

Perhaps all these Igeneration products are just a step above me.

Cindy and her counter "Alexa"

Hammered Wire

Someone told me once a long time ago I was born with a hammer in hand.

I always thought it to be a parallel for something I'd done wrong, like the amount of stuff I broke so often.  

I have found a new use for that hammer. 

These days I've turned copper wire 16g into beautiful earrings.  

I'm part crow so I don't know how it is I can swing a hammer anyway.

These are so attractive and catch so much light.

I find they are almost too distracting when I'm talking to someone.

I know I couldn't concentrate on what someone was telling me if I was gawking at these.

I hammered and added mom and ink

Just love these they are so light to wear

Yes, you guessed it they also come with sea glass.

find these and other shiny things in my Etsy shop

Have a wonderful happy, shiny day
~00~ Grandma (aka Cindy)

Crochet Scrotum Holdums

Scrodum Holdums





A bachelor party or Bachelorette party would be a great place to offer one of these pouches stocked full of condoms. 

The Problem:

Men have a ball sac - it's a scrotum and its a problem. The most common problem with a scrotum is the location and the fact that men have to have them. As well as serving a purpose they have a tendency to be stuck to the side of your leg, they are uncomfortable when it is hot, cause painful chafing or the feeling of being scaled. If you are a man you know what I'm talking about, and face it they are not the kind of dudes you want to hang with daily. 

This is painful for both men and women for men it is physically painful and for women it is visually painful: the constant placement in public, pulling, poking, and adjustment all to find comfort. 

Can you relate to this?

• Playing pocket pool
• The no one will notice if I take this long step
• The one leg shake
• The half squat
• The pelvic thrust
• Just grab and adjust no matter who is watching

For about 7 weeks now I've become a vendor @charlottetownfleamarket where I make and take crochet slippers for men and women. I ventured out to the market to get a bit of social through the long Winter months. Not sure what would sell with this kind of influx of people, my product changed from week to week. I started out with Easter @TheBagLadyGifts, making cool gift bags - they didn't sell. Then I took crochet slippers but they were a slow sell. Then it came to me after people watching that there is a need for a purse, a bag, a holder yes! A Scrodum Holdum after watching painfully from 9am to 2pm at men adjusting, shaking, poking and drilling into their pockets all for the same result - to get their ball buddies peeled off the sides of their legs.

The Solution:

Scrodum Holdums were first visually designed after weeks of research and hours of people watching. They are to keep your boys happy at work or at play, but mostly when it is hot and you are out in public. I've crochet a design with breathable air holes, light fabric, soft for comfort and in a few different designs with a drawstring at the top that is laced through the top crochet making this an easy drawsac for closure.

Scrodum Holdums are versatile and have other uses:

• A change purse
• A party gift
• A gift for him
• A gag gift
• A drawstring pouch to put things
• A purse organizer for our wee little things
• A dice bag for your games
• A pocket money bag
• A bachelorette Party Gift
• A tea bag holder
• A condom container

The Scrodum Holdums come in three (3) sizes (s) Tiniest Token, (m) Must be Medium, (l) Gentle Giant, and designs - Camo Rough and Ready, Blue Mean and Macho, and light Camo Stern and Firm. 

Rough and Ready

Mean and Macho

Stern and Firm

If you can't attend the @CharlottetownFleaMarket to purchase your Scrodum Holdums they can now be purchased on line @TheBagLadyGifts or from Etsy at MadeByGrandmasHands.

Thank you for stopping by and be sure to get your next gift in a unique way from The Bag Lady Gifts,

Best,

Cindy

~00~ Grandma (aka Cindy) or Crafting

Sweet & Sour Chicken Make Ahead Freezer Meals

Freezer Meals!

Made with love,

For the busy people, elderly, and working parents of today.

 

Here is what you need.

The containers $1 at the dollar store for a pkg of 3

A marker to write the name & date of the meal

 

Today I'm going to show you a sweet and sour chicken freezer meal.

 

Cooked Basmati rice, cooked carrots from Brookfield Gardens PEI, Chicken from a local Farm Gate small producer named The Egg Man of Hunter River, PEI.

 

 

 

 

 

Directions:

Cook rice set aside, cut and cook carrots set aside. Cook chicken in a slow cooker - cool and refrigerate overnight.

The next day make the sweet and sour sauce.

Sweet & Sour Sauce

1. 1/4 cup brown sugar
2. 1/4 teaspoon of salt
3. 1 Tablespoon of ketchup
4. 1/2 cup of pineapple juice/chicken stock/or water
5. 3 tablespoons of rice vinegar
6. 1-2 Tablespoons of light soy sauce
7. 2 teaspoons of cornstarch stired into 2 Tablespoons of water.

I double this recipe easily. Place 1-6 in a pot on medium heat and bring to just before a boil. Mix 2 tsp of cornstarch with the 2 Tbs of water. Pour into the sweet and sour sauce and cook until thickens, then cool.

 

Cut up the chicken into cubes.

Fill your containers with the cooled rice/carrots and then add the sauce to the cut up chicken and put it into the containers. Label the lid with the name and date and heating instructions ex: thaw in fridge, heat 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Enjoy from Grandma's Afternoon,

Cindy

 

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Etsy Marketing & Sales

We the Artisans and Etsy marketers try to break the trend of going from zero sales to the first sale.

Finding the niche and market for our on-line goods is hard.

Etsy shop owners like seaglassing https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/seaglassing are out there but they compete with a bazillion other artisans with the same product idea. How do we stand out? how can we be unique? How do we get sales? Do we have a select market and direct product just there? Who has the answers?

We have a product, we craft for all different reasons, and we run out of family to give these gifts away to. We are mothers, crafters, taxi drivers, nurses, time stretchers, and yet we all want to polinate like a Bee turning the pollen into rich honey. Everyone says we are amazing, "oh you should sell these" This is beautiful! But does anyodne buy it?

I've had a booth at events and it is hard as an artisan to hear someone say, "Martha, you got buckets of sea glass? look you could do that! It can't be that hard."

Come on people we artisans are struggling, don't insult us while we struggle, at the very least walk away and say these sort of things. Live market is one thing.

Selling on line is another thing.

I have an etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/seaglassing, part of marketing is where I put the link right here https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/seaglassing right now. Not for you to buy, but just for you to visit, visitors get other visitors. Do you know having a Pinterest account and following other on Pinterest, and following sellers on Etsy is a good way to get noticed? I blog as well. I know, I don't blog much in the summer as life is hectic but I love taking pictures of my product but most of all I love to get comments on the pictures.

Do you have a story to tell. People love to hear how you started, what you do and why, maybe someone about the product you use.

Ghost Bead Bracelets

The photo below is a product I made special order off my https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/seaglassing seaglassing shop. A Grandmother asked me to make a special order for her grand-daughter who lost her bracelet awhile back and is so upset. That might be the story although true, I created this for her and it sells for $3.75.

But the story is the Ghost Beads,

The wee brown ones.

These are juniper berries off a cedar tree. They fall to the ground, ants nibble off the end and eat the centre. Artisans collect and drill out the other end making them into a bead. Why? Well it is a Navaho tradition that women years ago made these ghost bead necklaces for children to wear or hang over a baby crib if the child had bad dreams and nightmares. These beaded items connect the earth, the trees, the animals and humans. The Ghost Bead brings peace, harmony, safety and protection to the person wearing them.

Putting product on facebook gets comments. Will it generate sales, not likely but it does generate traffic if you post a link to your etsy account at the same time, oppps there is that sales pitch again, https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/seaglassing nice how I just stick this in.

They say a person has to read or hear a name 7 times before they start to actually show trust and acknowledgement that they know this person or business, 7 times so that means I have to post a link to my seaglassing etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/seaglassing another one more time before you might come for a visit, lol.

If I can share anything I know.

Print business cards and pass them out to everyone who sees or comments on your products, wear your own making, talk it up. After all it is a great product or you wouldn't take the time to make it.

Share your etsy name with me so I can visit soon.

Bye for now,

Cindy on Etsy seaglassing.ca https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/seaglassing

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Tea Gift for Tea Lovers of Prince Edward Island

TEA-RIFFIC

Tea gift giving ideas from Grandmas Teas

 

 

This Vintage Rose Queen Anne Tea Cup and Saucer is included with Island memorabilia making this a tea drinkers dream box.

65g of our best English Breakfast tea

Disposable paper tea bags

Wild blueberry tea / Anne's favourite

A tea pot tea strainer

PEI Island tartan tea towel

3 photos of PEI

Tea scrapbooking for card making

A "tea time in PEI" card

 

 

 

A Tea Time Gift Box ready to ship

What better way to say I love you than with tea!

Great for teachers gifts, grandmothers, or somone who needs a pick me up.

Find on Etsy at MadeByGrandmasHands https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/MadeByGrandmasHands

Enjoy your day,

Cindy

Seems that cindy@besidethetrail.ca hasn't been working and I'm just finding out that the profile email stopped working ??? Whenever. I've fixed it now and I can be reached.

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A bike hike into town

I want to Blog!

I've been away so long I think I've forgotten how,

I lost all my blog friends,

I've been so blog lonely lately and don't know where to start.

Breathe!

 

Let me start by saying, "I"m sorry". Sorry for staying away, and sorry for not just jumping on here to say, "hey, I've been busy with our tourism year and not had a chance to visit you or to blog."

 

Forgive me?

Nice, thank you!

 

Yesterday,

I gave some time to exercise,contemplating and cobwebs. First thing was getting the cobwebs off my bike, second was contemplating how windy it really was, third thing was pushing past the wind and getting that all needed exercise. So I biked into Charlottetown, to Wendy's in fact for a favourite of mine, come bike wiht me.

The day wonderful,

the salad was the apple, pecan with roasted chicken, oh magnificent,

and then a stop at the grocery store to pick up a little that always turns into a lot.

The ride home pushed past cow pastures and hay fields, the memory strikes me vividly - I was looking down at the pee gravel path when the strong smell of fresh cut field caught my attention. The sun was jumping through the hedge row that lined both sides of the Confederation Trail and I came to a short small clearing pointing to where the fresh hay smell came from. Just as I cleared the hedge row a box on the back of a tractor pooped out a large bail, giggling over the ordeal as I thought of #6 grand-daughter and how she finds humour in everything. I pushed on past, realizing although the trail was a safer ride it was 4 klm longer than If I'd rode from town on the highway.

Home with the groceries.

The Asian pears were on sale but heavy for the ride.

Hummus on the bottom of the pile and pita to the right. The back is everything bagels - two only because I had to buy to get the sale price and herb cream cheese to go with.

Nice fruit, very watery, not so sweet but gritty. Hubby likes them and they were on sale. I tried to imagine these heavy things growing on a tree and my imagination saw them all falling to the ground.

Thank you for stopping by,

If you have come this far leave me a short note so I can return the visit and start my routine back up again.

Take care,

We care,

Cindy

 

 

 

 

 

~00~ Grandma (aka Cindy) or Crafting - http://scrapandwrap.ca

 

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