Planet Nice Crafts

Hello Everyone! Well, it has happened – “Planet Nice Odyssey” was available on Etsy so it was officially registered and the shop became “live” on October 2 nd . Please use this link: https://planetniceodyssey.etsy.com when visiting the shop from here on the blog because I get extra credit points when I drive traffic to Etsy and it is traceable back to me. Ahhh, the world of social media. I haven’t kept you that much in the dark – it has taken about a month to make progress on listings, policies, and shipping strategy. There was a mini-meltdown amid the effort when I realized that I will need to additionally store packing materials to hopefully, find homes for the items and then a long-term decrease of Planet Nice Craft’s storage footprint will occur. To put my account and the shop together, I followed “Starting an Etsy Business for dummies®” by Kate Shoup and Kate Gatski. Throughout the years, I have found the for dummies® series helpful in establishing beginner level knowledge on...

Hello Everyone! I hope you have thrived in at least one way during this hot summer. The summer that had kick in it until yesterday?  Now on to Fall or Autumn. All is well here; some extra self-care was required because allergies were worse than in previous years. But there is nothing wrong with more self-care. Not much free time devoted to crafts except for a session on repair work that had been stacking up. What has been happening and this is the big REVEAL is the development of PLANET NICE ODYSSEY (PNO) on Etsy. YES! Okay this is not official yet as I haven't signed up, but I'm getting there. What is this new adventure? I haven’t exactly drafted a mission statement but in macro terms I would say it is a presentation of craft materials, goods, and experiences/services by the practitioner of Planet Nice Crafts, me. The purpose of this blog and PNO is to share my adventures in crafts with some baking, gardening, jigsaw puzzles, reading, and other hobbies of necessity (plumbi...

Hello Everyone! Welcome to Summer. I have already experienced a variety of weather conditions from cooler temperatures with smoky haze to full on summer heat and humidity.  Chocolate Mint Geranium The picture above is one of two plants that I am maintaining for this garden season (remember the years I had the 20’ x 20’ garden plot? I cannot believe I did that). Now, I am down to this lone geranium survivor and some struggling kale. Today, I am thinking about goals. At work, I had my mid point review this week and my manager mentioned that I should start thinking about where I want to be at the end of 2024 to start developing goals or resolutions for next January. I have transferred the conversation to my personal life and started it by re-assessing the 2023 goals. One of my personal 2023 goals was to take Drawing 1 and 2 at the Chicago Botanic Garden, drawing is difficult and I had been wanting to take a class for a long time. I budgeted and planned my vacation time because in my...

Hello Everyone! Well, the theme so far for 2023 is Tying Up Loose Ends. Projects ranging from home repair to tree trimming to sewing are being completed - some have lingered since 2021. How do I feel about this? I'm glad progress has been made and there is so much left to do. First up, sewing. Two promised Christmas presents from 2021 were completed and sent off in January. The first was a coaster set made with fabric already in possession but a fancy variegated polyester thread was purchased new along with a tear away stabilizer. I had never used stabilizer before - it was suggested for the zig-zag stitch edge. There is water soluble stabilizer too - the tear away was the only available at the brick-and-mortar store. If you look real close you may see bits of remaining stabilizer but I let it go. The coasters are reversible so that is pretty neat. And the great thing about the zig-zag stitch, you can go over previous stitching no problem if for example, an edge was missed. The imp...

Happy 2022! Hello Everyone. Has it been a good start to the year for you and your families? With the holiday season and the garden tapering off to be officially deemed frozen on January 1, my main activity since I last wrote has been cleaning. The holiday season was plenty full for me and since its close on Twelfth Night, I have been doing a little of this, a little of that. So, in chronological order... I do a whole home clean before any holiday decorating occurs. It is an intense goal requiring precious weekend hours but there are benefits: I take a general inventory of my belongings and supplies (a sort of "state of affairs") and once this major clean is finished, I can focus on the holidays and later, creativity, which results in brain yoga. Food and drink had big roles during the holiday season and I really wanted to try new things. Drink included an exploration of the mocktail craze with the mixers Ghia and Pentire Adrift , both being well regarded. At this time, my pr...

Hello Everyone! It is the official start of summer. The Chicagoland weather this Spring has been...odd. Windy, hot, and very very dry. But before I get to the various updates, I wanted to share some behind the scenes news. In mid-April, it was announced that Blogger's email subscription service, Feedburner, would end in July, which is right around the corner. So, Planet Nice Crafts has been doing some research on what to do next. I would like to remain on the Blogger platform because though it is not very fancy or powerful - it is really easy to use. For subscribers to continue to receiving posts via email, I am going to try MailerLite. Of course, there may be a hiccup or two so bear with me. Planet Nice Crafts has much work to do and it is not going away, but in case you don't receive any notification of blog activity for a couple months, please check this page, contact planetnicecrafts@gmail.com, or message us on Instagram @planetnicecrafts. Planet Nice Crafts really apprecia...