Up until 1AM listing Halloween Buttons

Happy Halloween from Portable Graffiti.
This is one of my favorite holidays, so I listed lots of choices of Halloween buttons.

Today is the Day! Turning my living room into a work space

My bedroom is busting at the seams with buttons. I have no other choice but to turn the living room into more work space. Today is the day. So, off to do that. Should be some photos later.

Rare Sale - Don't miss it.

If you have been thinking about getting some of my buttons, right now is a good time to do that. I rarely have a sale because it's difficult to do when most of the buttons are just $1.50.

But bills are past due and I really must have sale.

Enjoy choosing 10 buttons for just $10 with this listing.

867 listings of buttons. They are not all pictured here, but you'll see them all in the shop. Lots of new ones, not pictured here were added to the shop in the last 2 days.

Winners Announced for the Etsy Bloggers Mega Giveaway

Congrats to the winners.

Etsy Bloggers Treasury

Treasury by Mystic Wynd of the Etsy Bloggers Team.

Lots of very different and wonderful jewelry in her shop. That being said by a person who never wears jewelry.

My Karma Ran Over My Dogma button was part of the treasury.

Items in the treasury are not the items in the giveaway but are selections for the shops who donated items for the giveaway.

You can find my buttons on Zibbet now. http://www.zibbet.com/PortableGraffiti

Special Order from YES Studio

I had fun working all day today on a special order from a super nice person at Youthful Expressions Studio. It is a school for artistic enrichment for children ages 7-14.

You can follow them on Twitter.

Want your own special buttons made? Email me at portablegraffiti@earthlink.net or visit Portable Graffiti and contact me from there.

EX-Boyfriends Treasury

Walk on the Moon created this treasury and included my Electrician's button. ... which coincidentally was drawn by my ex-husband. So it fits the treasury well.

Here's the link to the treasury for as long as it is up.

The Electricians Buttons is now on ZIBBET in choice of colors.

Get it HERE.

Portable Graffiti and The Purple Rat do a craft show

Portable Graffiti and The Purple Rat do a craft show...

I have not done a craft show since 1990. So, this was an adventure. The tent and button displays, counters, banners, signs...my whole booth that I worked many years to perfect, no longer exists. So we just decided to wing it. We took our dining room table and just put buttons in tubs for people to sift through.

My daughter, The Purple Rat used the 2 chairs we brought with us and set an old board across them to make a table for her paintings and origami. I think it looked rather nice.

We stayed in the 100 degree heat all day and bought the most delicious Grouper Sandwich. We brought in $10.00 in sales, and spent $13.45 on a grouper sandwich and sweet potato fries to share.

There were even other Etsy shopkeepers there to talk to, which made for an enjoyable day.

We split at around 6 o'clock, I think; I don't wear a watch. And we got out and home just before the thunder, lightning and torrential downpour of rain.

So, all in all it was a lucky day. I had put my Etsy shop on vacation mode for the first time, and as it turns out there was no need to. As soon as I put the shop back to "open" I made several sales.

Moral of the adventure for me: Stay home and sell on Etsy. No more craft shows until I get back to the northeast.

[The rusty old "Stuff for Sale" sign was on a palm tree behind our tent.]

Treasury West for Geeks

One of my Einstein buttons is in a cool GEEK treasury at Treasury West on Etsy. The treasury was designed by Montserrat from Chocolate on my Cranium. She has a beautiful photo of her garden harvest on her blog. Living here in Florida I am suddenly reminded that my seasons are all wrong. I am a northerner by birth and my natural clock says it is time to be digging in the dirt, harvesting some veggies, and putting food by for the winter, but here in Florida the growing season ended over a month ago and there is no local produce to be found.

Nice layout of blues and tan don't you agree?

I have more Einstein button selections HERE:

200 196s

My daughters' college ordered 200 buttons with a big 196 on them. Has something to do with a campaign to make a smoke-free campus.

Needless to say, I made the kids cut and punch out all 200 buttons. We delivered 208 of them.

Me at the New York State Fair

Here's an old photo I just found. Me at The Fair, Syracuse, NY. This was the last year I did that fair after the arrival of my 2 daughters. Babies and Fairs are hard to juggle. Long hours selling.

The big round display to the left of me displays all the State Fair Buttons we sold.

I had a 20 foot tent filled with buttons. You are looking at only about 3 feet of the booth.

We had been making and selling buttons for 10 years when this photo was taken. This was our 7th year at the New York State Fair.

My babies are now both 19 years old. I'm one of those who adopted and then got pregnant. So my daughters are just 4 months apart in age. Virtual twins.

Now they are old enough to help me work the arts and craft fairs. But they are going to college. I think doing shows, at least at this magnitude, is history.

I am still going through some of the old stock. Might take me another year to get everything posted on line. So if there is anything you want, better just ask me if I have it.

Lost Packages

This post could also be titled: "The Nicest Customers."

On July 2nd I shipped out 6 packages of buttons from SW Florida. One to CA, one to MI, one to IL, and 2 to two different customers in GA.

About 2 weeks went by and one of the customers in GA sent me a convo (etsy-speak for an email) letting me know that she did not get her button order. Gosh what a patient person! I think I might have emailed sooner than that asking unless it was something I ordered from overseas.

I always use delivery confirmation, so I found myself, for the first time actually using it to check on the package. Records showed that the package was stamped in Fort Myers, FL on July 3rd, and no tracking information after that. It just said it was in transit.

I decided to check ALL the packages I mailed that day. Tracking showed that the packages to CA, MI and Il had all arrived ages ago. Both packages going to GA had been scanned in Fort Myers FL on July 3rd and were never delivered.

I quickly emailed the other GA customer and told her about this and asked if she got the buttons, hoping tracking info was wrong. She said she didn't get the buttons, but assumed there was a good reason. ANOTHER very patent etsy customer. And this customer had a very large order.

My customers checked with their post office and I checked with mine several times. I told both customers I would send all new buttons. BOTH customers said not to do that yet, give it time. Time? It was going on 3 weeks and it was seeming obvious to me that without insurance we would never see those packages. So I spent one day remaking both orders of buttons. I mailed them off about 2 days ago, insuring the box with the large order.

Guess what happened yesterday?? Both customers got BOTH packages the same day. The original packages of buttons I sent PLUS the new packages of buttons.

I learned a lot though this ordeal:

1. It can 3 weeks with first class mail to cross the state line from FL to GA.

2. My postmaster told me to always put your address inside the package in case it gets damaged and the outside label not readable. The Post Office will return to sender a damaged package even if all that is left of it is shreds, as long as they can find your address somewhere inside it.

3. If you write FRAGILE on your package even if it isn't so fragile, the package will get special handling and more chance it will arrive safely.

4. Buy insurance for any items that I cannot replace, one of a kinds, and all large orders.

5. Some of the customers on Etsy are the nicest people you could ever meet. My customers were so patient, polite and kind. I wish they had an Etsy Shop, so I could promote their shops here. But neither one of them do. One customer wanted to PAY ME for the doubles. Gosh how nice is that! I told her not to. But she has already bought more buttons.

Hope this post helps some other Etsy Sellers out there in regarding to shipping and lost packages.

I sure learned a lot.

Now a member of Etsy Bloggers

I joined Etsy Bloggers.

I haven't figured it out yet. I made an introduction under new members introductions, yesterday. But I don't see any replies. Hope to have time to figure out how it works soon.

Meantime stop by my Zibbet Shop.

Etsy Treasuries

I have gotten behind in posting about Treasuries my buttons have shown up in. Here are 3 recent Treasuries and one Treasury West. I hope to get back here soon to tell more about them, like who created them, and the buttons that are in them. But way too much to do right now.

Buttons are now on ZIBBET.

1st Treasury
You have to Marry Me First

2nd Treasury
Woodstock Button

3rd Treasury
The Pi Button
I can still make that button, but I don't have it listed right now.
Here's a NEW version of the Pi Button.
Pi Pie

4th Treasury
Set of Cat Buttons

My Tribute to Michael Jackson

Very sad to hear about Michael Jackson. I saw the news when he was first brought to the hospital. The first story he had been brought to the hospital but had not been pronounced dead, however in 2 places in the story, they wrote in past tense. They said he "was." I knew the bad news was coming. I hung with the news which changed rapidly.

So I stayed up late tonight making Michael Jackson buttons. It's 1:58 AM.

Portable Graffiti

New Bags for my Mirrors

I got some exciting mail yesterday from the OleBagLady. She sent me some new bags she made for my mirrors. Now some of my mirrors can be purchased with bags and pouches. She does a very professional job of sewing. Trust me, you would not want a bag sewn by me. I bought holiday fabric bags from her last year. It is wonderful to not use paper gift wrap anymore. The fabric bags get folded neatly and used year after year.

My daughter voted she liked this mirror pouch best which comes with a Rafiki Mirror. It's a one-of-kind.

I think the Troll and Unicorn mirror with this glittery pink bag is really pretty. There are 100 mirrors to choose from. Some come with bags and some do not. If you see a mirror you want but also want a bag contact TheOleBagLady and ask for a custom made bag. She does a great job.

I have mirrors to take on your vacation.

A mirror to bring to a friend in the hospital.

A gift for your hairdresser.

For a wedding or bridal shower.

A mirror to take on a picnic to the beach.

Currently 100 different mirrors to choose from. If there is something special you want on a mirror, a beloved photo like this one of my father and my daughter, just ask and I will be happy to make it for you.

Rock 'n' Roll is Forever...but these Rock 'n' Roll pins won't be in my shop forever

I've seen so many of these vintage rock and roll pins tucked away in people's "favorites" on Etsy. I was just going through stock and noticed the bags in the tubs are getting thinner. These buttons won't last forever. Today I sold one Anthrax that I had listed as the LAST ONE. But I also sold an REO Speedwagon that I thought I had more of. I don't. That was the last one, too. I do have other Anthrax pins in the shop.

Stop in sometime and browse. Over 800 buttons listed. But, many more not listed. So if you don't see your favorites, just ask me if I have it.

Portable Graffiti

Some days getting the mail is so exciting

I get my mail at the post office instead of the house. The other day when I got home and spread the day's mail out on my desk it was so pretty and cheerful I decided to take a photo of it.

The Mad Tatter had mailed me some of her tatting which I made into buttons.

I had ordered some buttons from Miss Brigette, that I had been wanting for a long time.

And my Organic Valley milk coupons arrived in the mail. We go through a lot of organic milk here. Gotta have those coupons.

What a wonderful assortment of mail to get in one day.

Also in the photo is the bowl my daughter bought for me from Julie Persons Creation Nation. The bowl is brimming full of all the beach pottery and sea glass I ordered from Ruby C Quins in Scotland. I use the pottery to prop my buttons when I am taking photos of them. But mostly I just enjoy looking at them.

My Daughter's First Treasury

Hooray for The Purple Rat who was finally featured in a Treasury.

This Etsy Treasury called The Global Economy was created by Art Grants.

Thanks Art Grants for including my daughter's origami dollar heart with a quarter in it.

Congratulations Purple Rat for getting into your first treasury.

Button Workshop in a Bedroom Stage II

Thanks to a wonderful friend for his carpentry skills, again, and free used plywood, I now have shelves over the other side of my desk. A shelf attached to the shelves on either side makes more shelf space above my window.

This is a work in progress to make a small space in a small bedroom work efficiently to make buttons to sell on my Etsy shop.

The second photo shows how small this bedroom really is. I had to back myself into the far corner of my bed to get a photo of the wall where my studio lives. Large plastic tubs are stacked at the foot of the bed holding large quantities of button parts.

My bulletin board had to be moved to fit the shelves against the wall. I took everything off of it and put up just the cool stuff, like my ACEO collection all purchased from Etsy Artists, some of the business cards and decorated envelopes, bookmarks and other items Etsy sellers enclose when you buy cool stuff from them. Some of the buttons I have bought from my fellow button makers on Etsy also live on the bulletin board. I love trading buttons with other button makers.