I have been keeping a gardening board on Pinterst for a while now. Some of the pins are just things I like, others are for ideas I actually want to implement. I thought today I would share some of the things I am looking forward to adding to my garden this spring. If this weather keeps up, I may be out there sooner than later doing a little work to prep the beds!

When I start some of my seeds this weekend, I plan to begin with these DIY recycled newspaper pots by Garden Betty. I like that the pot will be large enough that I likely won’t have to transplant any plugs and they will be able to go right into the garden.

Another thing I would really like to do for my garden this year is get it fenced in to keep the dogs out and at least to attempt to keep the cats out. Thankfully, the cats can be trained with a few squirts from the garden hose early in the year. The dogs are ok about it until this give chance to a squirrel or a cat! A nice little fence is exactly what I want. I love the idea that it makes it look more “finished” than what I have now, which is basically just a patch of tilled earth.

And keeping with the organization, I would also like to add some permanent raised beds. I am not really looking to make my whole garden raised bed, and plus I have been working on the soil composition for 5 years now, but I would like to add a bed or two specifically for root veggies like onions, carrots, radishes and the like. I think if I added a few raised beds I would fell less overwhelmed by weeds around the root veggies and also I could make the soil even more loamy so that it is loose enough to grow some good onions and carrots. Right now my beds still have a large amount of clay-like soil and it makes it hard to grow onions and carrots.

I would also like to take advantage of more vertical space in my garden, and I love this idea of a cucumber trellis that also provides shade for lettuce. In the hot summer it is nearly impossible for me to grow lettuce. This might be just what I need to help increase my lettuce crop.

While there are way more things I want to do in the garden, I think I will save those ideas for another day, so I can keep dreaming of spring long enough to get me through this last “real” month of winter. Sooner than I can imagine, I know I will be out in the garden getting ready to plant my first lettuces and more!

One thing I knew I wanted to do for this party was to make some fun trophies. I did some searching around and couldn’t find many examples of homemade trophies, so I decided to do one of my favorite things and bust out some spray paint and glue. Below are the instructions to build your own chili cook-off trophies (and for only about $5 each!).

What you need:

Unfinished Wooden Plaques ( I got mine at Hobby Lobby)

Old Spoons, Big and Small Sized

Picture Hangers (the “tooth” kind with nails)

A Strong Glue or Epoxy that will hold on Wood and Metal

Silver and Gold Spray Paint (if you can’t find silver, chrome spray paint also works)

A paint marker or a Sharpie Marker (I used a sharpie)

I decided to make 4 trophies because we were awarding two 1st place and two 2nd place trophies- one set to people who lived in our neighborhood and one set to our friends outside of our neighborhood. One you have gathered all of your materials (which is total cost me about $20), you’ll want to get out a hammer and nail the “tooth” hooks to the back of the plaques. Be sure to do this step first. If you forget and do it last, you might risk scratching up your paint job when nailing.

Attaching the tooth hooks is really easy. It just takes a couple of taps with the hammer to nail the hooks onto the soft pine plaques. Up next you will want to glue your spoons to your plaque. I highly suggest giving yourself two days to do this project so that you can allow the glue to dry fully before painting the plaques. Most of the types of glue you would buy for this project do have a long (up to 24 hours) dry time. Put some glue on the back of the spoon in 2 spots to make sure it sticks well.

After you put glue on the spoon, center it on the plaque and let it dry over night if you can. If any glue squeezes out of the sides the be sure to wipe it off with a paper towel right away before it dries on the plaque. In the morning when your glue is dry it is time to bust out the spray paint and make your plaques look awesome! I didn’t take any pictures of the spray paint process because it was really, really cold out, so I just sprayed outside really fast and then brought the plaques back in to dry. It is important that the spray paint dry at the right temperature, so if you are hosting a chili cook-off in winter, you may need to do the same thing. Remember, when you spray to spray in short bursts instead of holding down the nozzle. It will make for more even coats of paint. (For another of my spray paint projects with pictures, click here to see my display stand project).

When you are done painting you plaques (it may take 2-3 coats to get it all covered and to make the paint look even) you can write on your plaques with a paint marker or Sharpie marker. I planned to use a paint marker, which worked ok on the gold paint, but didn’t work at all on the silver paint, so I switched to the Sharpie. One you have them marked up, you have trophies!

On the day of your chili cook-off, make sure you have some ballots for people to vote on. I had everyone name their chili when they arrived and then people voted for their first and second place choices by writing the names of the chili on the ballot and placing them in a ballot box. You will also see in the photo above that I made a fun “Most Unique Chili” trophy by painting it green (for this I used regular craft paint and a paint brush) and a bent spoon.

Be prepared for people to be really excited when they win a trophy. My lucky neighbor Ted won 1st place for his chili named “Ted’s Punkin Chili” as well as Most Unique! Congrats again to Ted!

If you are looking for another fun homemade type project for your chili cook-off, I highly suggest making Chocolate Chili Ice Cream if you have an ice cream maker. I make some and it was a huge hit! I used this recipe from the Simply Recipes blog, but when it said to add a dash of cayenne pepper, I actually added about a half a teaspoon of really spicy chili powder. It made an excellent cool, creamy (and slightly spicy) complimentary dessert!

Have you been wanting IN LOVE sweatshirt but missed out in 2011? Now is your chance! After selling out in only one week over Christmas-time, we’ve decided to do one more print run before spring arrives. To get your IN LOVE sweatshirt, you’ll have to pre-order it here, as it will not be offered again in stores or online again until fall. We will be taking pre-orders until Friday, February 17th at 11am, then we will begin printing orders and all sweatshirts will ship no later than February 25th. If you’ve been jealous of your friends, worry no more and order now!

As an added bonus, we’ll also be offering toddler and baby sized hoodie IN LOVE sweatshirts. The only difference between the toddler and adult sweatshirt is this: Toddler sweatshirts have side-seam pockets instead of the “pouch” pocket on the adult sweatshirts. Toddler available in sizes 2T, 3T, 4T and 5/6.

The baby sweatshirts will be ZIP UP hoodies (not pull overs). Baby Sweatshirts will be in blue or in pink with a WHITE ink design and the IN LOVE design will be printed on the right upper side of the sweatshirt! Available in sizes 3-6 month, 6-12 month, 12-18 month or 18-24 month.

Ready to order for you or your whole family?

CLICK HERE to place your order!

Today’s final offer for pay-what-you-can week is really special because this course only happens once a year! My Start Your Year Off Right e-Course launched last year and over 15 people signed up for the course. I have happily watched these businesses grow by leaps and bounds over the last year (check out The Red Dog Barkery, one successful business who took the course last year) so I know this course helped them get a jump start on the new year.

This course is designed for you if you run a small crafty business and you want to take it to the next level. This e-course is designed to help you start the year off right for your craft business. Whether you are starting from scratch, you’ve been at it for a couple of years, or you’ve been at it for a decade, you will benefit from this course because it is going to help you start your year like you never have before. This 5 week course covers goal setting, budgeting, product cost calculations, social marketing, and blogging as well as procrastination, time management, and so much more. This course is designed to give you a jump start in the new year, to help you plan wisely, budget correctly, and come out more profitable in the end.

You might be asking what I know about such things or why you need to do these things. Let me tell you this: Each year that I sit down and do these things for myself, I reach my goals (and often surpass them), I increase my profits, and I get one step closer to my ultimate dream. If this sounds like something you would like to do for yourself or with your business, then please read on.

Whether you want to quit your day job and go full time at crafting or you want to craft part time, you can do it of you are honest with yourself and have reasonable and truthful expectations. If you decide to run a business, having a clear budget, clear goals and clear expectations about money and time will result in success. It is often the case that many people view their crafting as a “hobby” or a side job and therefore do not track things like costs of goods sold or income versus expenses. Many do not consider it possible to make money from making crafts. The only thing this lack of tracking and lack of confidence results in is wasted money, wasted time, and wasted dreams.

If you are tired of wasting your money, tired of lack-luster results, and tired of being just plain tired, then working for yourself full or part-time might be the best step to take. If you’ve been thinking this already, but you don’t know where to start, then you have come to the right place. Spend 5 weeks with me learning how to start your year off right, and the other 40-some-odd weeks you work will be more fulfilling, more enjoyable, and ideally, more profitable.

If you are ready to figure out what you need to do to start your year of right, sign up for this e-course! Regularly priced at $74.99, this week only you can pay-what-you-can (really! pay the price you can afford) and you will receive instructions, worksheets, weekly tips, prompts and guidance all to help you craft a business you are proud to run and proud to call your own. Then, the next time someone asks you, “What do you do?” you can proudly say you work for yourself by creating for others.

This course will begin right after you sign up! Your first email will arrive within 24 hours of payment and you will get a new email with new lessons for the next 4 weeks (5 weeks total). Emails include formulas, worksheets, tips, blog prompts, and much, much more!

Are you ready to give your business the kick start it needs in 2012? Click the special “Add to Cart” button below and get signed up now! This course is regularly $74.99, but for the next 3 days, you can pay any price you can afford! How? Once you click the “add to cart” button below, you can edit the price and then click “update cart” and check out at your price! Just keep in mind, I can’t do all this for free, and the minimum price is $5.00! I can’t wait to see you in class!

As Pay-What-You-Can week continues, I’m ready to offer you something special: My 30 Day Blogging for Crafters E-Course. I designed this course specifically for crafters who need a help getting a blog up and running, or to get a blog that has been ignored back on track.

Ready to get started? Click the special pay-what-you-can link below to buy now or read on for more information!

So, if you are stuck in a blogging rut or if you have a blog, but don’t know what to write about then this month long blogging course is for you! This e-course helps keep you on track by sending you a prompt a day for 30 days as well as some great tips and links to other great resources.

I know that sometimes you might think all day about what to blog about and never have an idea what to say. Sometimes you might be too busy with work, family, or school to even think about writing a blog. Maybe you find it easier to just go to sleep or watch t.v. then think of something original to write. Does this sound all too familiar?

For over two years I have been blogging regularly about crafting and starting a craft business. I know that sometimes it isn’t easy to blog, and sometimes you don’t understand why you should blog, but a blog is one of the best ways to attract potential customers, gain loyal followers, and share your expertise, talent and thoughts with the world. Knowing that it is often very hard to find time, topics, and readers, I have created this e-course to help make it easier for you to gain the experience in a much shorter amount of time.

This 30 day blogging e-course starts when you sign up. The cost of the monthly blogging workshop is regularly $49.99, but this week with pay-what-you-can pricing, you can pay any price you can afford. The minimum price is just $5.00, but after that, you pay what you can to get the boost you need to get your blog off the ground or back on track.

This month-long blogging workshop occurs on-line and will provide you with everything you need to bust out of your blogging rut or start your new blog off with a bang! Here’s what you’ll get:

–Get a thought provoking, craft specific blogging prompt every weekday. Each prompt will arrive via email each day so that you have plenty of time to think about the topic. You may decide to post your response on your blog the same day, or the following day. You may decide to only respond to some of the prompts, and save others for later. It’s all up to you!

– My prompts promise to be specific to crafting and running a craft business, no generic or thoughtless prompts will be sent out. Prompts promise to challenge you mentally, but be easy enough, and fun enough, to respond to that you won’t feel like you’re getting an “assignment” each day, but a chance to show the craft world who you are and what you know.

–Special tips and activities are included in many emails to help your weekday blogging.

– Receive weekly tips for gaining readers, gaining exposure, and stopping blogging procrastination

If you’re ready to sign up, you’ve got to use this special “add to cart” button below. You can edit the price to what you want to pay, then click “update cart” and get ready for class to begin!

COGS Stands for cost of goods sold, and if you sell things, you need to know how to figure your COGS.

So, how do you use the worksheet?

The first half of the spread sheet (the orange lines) are where you enter in your material and labor costs. Now, for this spreadsheet to work for you, you do need to have your material costs at hand, and you need to know what you charge for labor and how long it takes to make something. So for a quick example, if you make a beaded necklace, you’d want to know that the beads you use cost, say, 25 cents per necklace, the cord 50 cents, and the clasp 30 cents. You’ll enter that into the material costs section. Now for labor, you’ll want to know what you pay yourself per hour for labor. If you pay yourself $15 an hour, and your necklace takes 30 minutes to make, then you’d put $7.50 in the labor line. The spreadsheet will give you a nice little total of labor and material costs.

Now, the bottom half of the spreadsheet is where the real magic happens. Once you’ve plugged in your material and labor costs, the spreadsheet is going to calculate your wholesale costs and retail costs based on the most commonly used calculations. You choose whether or not to add on the Etsy listing fee and percentage for when the item sells, and the spreadsheet adds the PayPal fees, too! And, if that weren’t awesome enough, you can also enter in your state’s sales tax and get a final retail price with tax figured in, which is really good to know for craft fairs.

This is an MS Excel Document and is sent to you as such.

This worksheet is a really great tool to make sure that you are making as much money as you should make when selling your handmade products. Whether you make them and sell them yourself at fairs or online, or on consignment in shops, you need to make sure you are making enough money for yourself and to help your business grow.

If you are ready to get the COGS worksheet, use the special “add to cart” link below. You can adjust the price and hit “update cart” to buy it at the price you can pay! The minimum is $1, but otherwise, simply pay what you can!

If you are interested in more Sunday Afternoon Housewife digital products at the pay-what-you-can price, don’t forget to check out my e-book, Blogging for Crafters, or my Consignment Tracker Spreadsheet!

Stay tuned for more items at a pay what you can price tomorrow! And don’t forget, you must use the special link at the end of each blog post to get the pay-what-you-can pricing!

This is a super helpful spreadsheet designed to help you track your sales at consignment stores.

So how does it work? Well, If you sell your handmade products in consignment shops, you know it can be challenge to keep track of inventory month to month. Having well stocked shops means more sales for you and that’s important! This worksheet is designed to help take away some of the hassle while keeping track of your inventory and your income from your consignment sales.

My Consignment Tracker spreadsheet allows for you to track your inventory all year long with a few simple entries each month. You don’t have to do any of the hard work here, simply enter your product, retail price, quantity in inventory, and when you get an inventory update from a store, you can quickly input your sales to see what current inventory levels are.

The Spreadsheet is an MS Excel Document and is sent to you as such.

Ready to purchase? You must use the “add to cart” special link below to get pay-what-you-can pricing! You will see a yellow box where you can edit the price, then hit “update cart” and check out. The minimum purchase price is $1.00, but otherwise, you pay what you can!

I hope you enjoy the worksheet and that it truly helps you stay on track in 2012!

As I was sitting down thinking about goals for 2012, I thought you might benefit from a little boost, too and decided to offer my blogging e-book, The Blogging Adventure: Tips & Prompts for a Crafter by a Crafter to you on a pay-what-you-can basis. The e-book normally sells for $19.99 but with pay what you can pricing, you can pay what you think it is worth to you! When you click on the link to check out, you can adjust the price to the price you want to pay (look for the yellow box) and then hit “update cart” and check out at your newly defined price! The minimum price is $1.00 which is a pretty awesome deal for over 30 days of blogging tips and prompts! If you’re ready to make your purchase, click “Add to Cart” and remember, you can edit the price to what you want to pay! Just hit “update cart” before checking out!

What are people saying about my blogging e-book? Take a look:

“Just got it! LOVE how it motivates me to write SOMETHING everyday!” —Book Inz

“I think this is an AWESOME resource that all craft bloggers, as well as others, will benefit from. Great job!!! You link to tons of helpful articles, sites, etc. that I am intrigued by so I know others will be too.” — Jessica D. from Funky Finds

“The book turned out great. Great job…” —Tim Adams, Handmadeology

“I haven’t finished the book yet, but have devoured several pages. I love your writing style and the layout of the book. Great work!” — Jordan Moore, Handmade Success

Some of the highlights of this book include:

• 25 thought-provoking prompts for every weekday in a month (Monday through Friday). With these prompts you can write a engaging blog post every weekday for a month!
• Weekend blogging tips and worksheets to help you further expand your social networks and grow your blog
• Tips to bust blogging procrastination
• A chance to expand your social network beyond just friends and family by meeting new art and craft bloggers across the country.

What makes this e-book very unique is that it is designed to be interactive. As you read through prompts and activities, you will see links to websites, worksheets, and more. Following these links will help you expand your knowledge of blogging as a crafter.

This e-book is set up in two sections. The first section provides you with 25 individual prompts, many with multiple ideas, so you have something to write each weekday on your blog for well over a month. The second section is comprised of worksheets for 4 weekends in a month, meant to help you learn more and expand and grow your blog and social network.

If you are ready to improve your blog, stop procrastinating, and be inspired to write, then this eBook is for you!

If you would like a sample of the book, I encourage you to sign up for my free 5 day blogging e-course for crafters. Curious about the free class? Want to sign up? Read all about it here: http://sundayafternoonhousewife.com/free-5-day-blogging-e-course-for-crafters/

The eBook  itself is sent to you as a PDF file and it is sent instantly after purchase. You will get an email from e-junkie/ Sunday Afternoon Housewife with a link to click to download your eBook. If you have any issues with downloading, simply respond to the email and I will resend the file or help to resolve any issues which you might have. You must use the special link in this blog post to get the pay what you can pricing deal.

After you get the book, I hope you will let me know what you think. I love feedback from readers and would be happy to help answer any questions you might have as you work through the book!

Ready to purchase? The minimum price is $1.00 and if you’re ready to make your purchase, click “Add to Cart” and remember, you can edit the price (in the yellow field) to what you want to pay! Just hit “update cart” before checking out! Click below!