I didn’t even know who Bjorn Wiinblad was until about a week or two ago. In my never ending hunt for vintage-tastic stuff, I came across some of his work. And then I went and found more. And then I fell in love.

And then I was sad. Bjorn Wiinblad died in 2006. He was one of Denmark’s most famous and beloved artists of all time, working from the ’50’s through his death on paintings, sculpture, pottery, posters, illustrations, glassware – he’s even immortalized on a Danish postage stamp. His work was incredibly whimsical, yet contemporary and classic. It was flowery without being obnoxious. And he was so ahead of his time. His work looks just as stunning today as it did 60 years ago. You might see some similarity with Kaj Franck’s work, the two were both prominent designers during the same era.

The worst part about his work is that most of it isn’t cheap. I’ve seen hard to find sculptures on Ebay for $20K. Even his mass-produced vases and decorative plates can go for $75-$300. I’m saving my pennies to start a collection of Bjorn Wiinblad pieces. I found some of his pottery on Etsy for only $30, because the seller didn’t know they were Wiinblad-made. Lucky me.

Anyway, the most surprising thing to me about his work is that it made me want to draw again. I’ve always been into art, but I haven’t actually done original artwork in over 10 years. But I wanted more Bjorn Wiinblad art so much that I decided to draw something myself. And if he were alive today, I wondered what he would do, faced with a blank canvas and an extra hour of time.

Totally weird.

So yeah, my photoblog just turned into an art and photoblog, I guess. I don’t know if I will continue to do more illustrations, but I must say this was insanely satisfying. Even if it was a complete knock-off of someone else’s style.

Thank you, Mr. Wiinblad.

Related Pages: Sleeping Beauty Coloring Pages, Tinkerbell Coloring Pages, Snow White Coloring Pages, Disney Pumpkin Stencils

Disney's Rapunzel Coloring Page

Disney Rapunzel Tower Coloring Page

You might also like our printable Disney Crossword Puzzles, too!

Related pages: Smurfs Coloring Pages, Scooby Doo Coloring Pages, Printable Movie Crossword Puzzles

Yogi Coloring Page	Cindy Bear Coloring Page	Yogi and Boo Boo Coloring Page
Yogi and Boo Boo Napping Coloring Page	Yogi Bear Coloring Page	Yogi and the Ranger Coloring Page

The Woo! Jr. Network has hundreds more coloring pages, all free!

Related Pages: Scooby Doo Coloring Pages, Hello Kitty Coloring Pages, Care Bears Coloring Pages

Smurf Coloring Page	Smurfette Coloring Page	Baby Smurf Coloring Page
Papa Smurf Coloring Page	Sassette Smurfling Coloring Page	Grumpy Smurf Coloring Page

Check out all of the cartoon coloring pages from Cartoon Jr.!

I find Tinkerbell to be a fascinating Disney character. She is such a stinker in Peter Pan, yet somehow she is the most popular character in the movie! I think it’s the cuteness factor, because Tink is really one of the cutest Disney characters they have ever made!

Plus, we have more Tinkerbell coloring pages and printables in our Tinkerbell Party Ideas post!

Tinkerbell and Disney Fairies Coloring Pages

Tinkerbell Coloring Page	Rosetta Disney Fairies Coloring Page	Tinkerbell and Flowers Coloring Page
Iridessa Disney Fairies Coloring Page	Disney's Tinkerbell Coloring Page	Silvermist Disney Fairies Coloring Page

More Tinkerbell Coloring Pages

Tinkerbell (as seen above)

Tinkerbell blowing a kiss

Tinkerbell Printables from Go.com

Be sure to check out the official Fairy Hollow section on the Disney site for fairy games, Tinkerbell videos, and an interactive fairy creator!

If your kids like these coloring pages, they may also enjoy these fairy coloring pages, or our Disney Halloween pumpkin stencils!

For more Tinkerbell, check out these adorable Tinkerbell and fairy costumes, too.

Although she died 14 years before women received the right to vote, she was the first woman to appear on circulating coins in the United States. She was also featured on U.S. stamps in 1936 and 1954.

Related Pages: Women’s History Month Kids Poems, Amelia Earhart Coloring Pages

Susan B. Anthony Coin Coloring Page

Susan B. Anthony Coloring Page

Susan B Anthony Kids Poem

Check out all of our Women in History teacher resources!

Related Pages: Susan B. Anthony Coloring Pages, Black History Kids Poems

Women's History Month Kids Poem

Susan B Anthony Kids Poem

Rosa Parks Kids Poem

Learn about another great woman in history with these pages on Amelia Earhart for Kids and Amelia Earhart coloring pages, too!

Related pages: St. Patrick’s Day coloring pages, Shamrock garland craft, St. Patrick’s Day printable pinwheels, St. Patrick’s Day kids poems

Leprechaun Printable Maze

St. Patricks Word Search

St. Patricks Printable Maze

Be sure to check out all Woo! Jr. St. Patrick’s Day kids activities, too!

More St. Patrick’s Day Activities

St Patricks Day 4-in-1 Kids Printable Activity Sheet

5 Classic Irish Recipes for St. Patrick’s Day

Make a Magic Leprechaun Mirror

How to Fold a Shamrock from a Dollar Bill

St. Patrick's Day Garland Craft

My kids were was more excited than I thought they would be about this shamrock garland. The little ones hadn’t done any crochet before, and were fascinated by it. My 7 year old was certainly frustrated at first when she tried it. But when she saw her big brother master it, she gave it another shot and was beside herself in glee that she did it. Since this garland only requires one strand of single crochet, it is the perfect project to introduce kids to crochet because it is so easy. The hardest part was showing them how to hold the yarn and hook. Once they got that figured out, they were well on their way!

Related Pages: St. Patrick’s Day coloring pages, St. Patrick’s Day printable poems, St. Patrick’s Day pinwheel craft

What you Need to Make this Shamrock Garland

Green yarn

Green pipe cleaners

Really – that’s it!

How to Make this Shamrock Garland

First create a crochet chain stitch in the length of the garland you want to make. Here’s a really excellent chain stitch tutorial if you don’t know how to do this part already:

Then make your pipe cleaner shamrocks – 2 or three per ‘loop’ length. These are easy-peasy. I showed my 7 year old how to do them just once and within 15 minutes we had 10 of them sitting around.

How to Make Pipe Cleaner Shamrocks

Simply wrap the pipe cleaner around all four fingers, slip them off, then bend the long end around the middle to make the stem.

Then thread them onto your crochet strand, hang and enjoy!

Shamrock Garland Craft

Here are all of the Woo! Jr. St. Patrick’s Day kids activities all in one place!

We interrupt our current programming for a gushing mom moment.

My husband and I are horribly right brained. We’re always late. Can’t remember much. House eternally messy. But with these curses comes amazing creativity. And as if we didn’t already know – this picture makes it obvious that our daughter inherited it from both sides.

All of our kids are very creative – but what makes this especially awesome is that it was drawn with no input or help at all from anyone – by my daughter who is 7. SEVEN! If I drew like this at that age my work would be hanging in the Art Institute by now.

Related pages: Truffula Trees craft, The Lorax activities, Dr. Seuss Activities

Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat Craft

Cat in the Hat Finger Puppets Materials

I’ve placed a photograph next to each finger puppet with the exact materials needed for each finger puppet. All of them require a very easy to find set of stuff:

Pipe Cleaners

Pom Poms

Googly Eyes

Glue (Hot glue gun works best, but I’ve since discovered that even regular glue will suffice, it just takes longer to dry)

Wire Cutters (So you don’t ruin your scissors cutting the pipe cleaners)

Also, to make the Cat in the Hat’s whiskers, you need a small 3 inch piece of black thread

General Finger Puppet Craft Instructions

Please refer to the original Easter finger puppets post for general assembly instructions.

It explains how to wind the pipe cleaners around your finger and how to attach the pom poms accurately.

Cat in the Hat Finger Puppet

Cat in the Hat Finger Puppet Craft

For the Cat in the Hat, you’ll need 2 red pipe cleaners, one white, and two black (the black used together to make the finger puppet base). Plus a 4 inch black piece bent as shown to make the arms.

First, wind the puppet base with the two black pipe cleaners.

Then make the Cat in the Hat hat (say that three times fast!):

Pipe Cleaner Seuss Hat

First you’ll wind a red and white pipe cleaner around your finger to make the top, then after three turns, start winding them together to make the brim. The wire is so easy to work with and so forgiving, don’t worry if it seems to come out all wonky – it’s super easy to fix into whatever shape you want. To make the top of the hat, simply coil the top pipe cleaner piece a little smaller as shown in the last photo in the series above.

Glue the hat to the white pom pom.

Bend two small black pieces of pipe cleaner as shown for ears, and glue them to the sides of the head just below the hat.

Cut the thread into two 1 1/2 inch pieces, and glue them to the back of the tiny black nose pom pom. This is a little tricky because both are so small – younger children might need help with this part.

Glue the nose to the middle of the front of the cat face.

Glue the googly eyes right above the nose.

Glue the head to the puppet base.

Slide the cat’s arms in between the coils of the puppet base body.

Tie a ‘bow’ with a red pipe cleaner around the neck, and use your wire cutters to trim the extra length of the ends off.

Thing One and Thing Two Finger Puppets

Thing One and Thing Two Finger Puppets Craft

The materials shown will make both of these puppets – 4 red pipe cleaners plus two sets of arms bent as shown, two 2 inch pieces of white pipe cleaners, two white pom poms, one turquoise pom pom, 4 googly eyes, two tiny light blue pom poms.

Wind the puppet base with two red pipe cleaners coiled together.

Find the middle of the blue pom pom and snip it in half with your wire clippers or scissors:

Thing One and Thing Two Hair

Pull them apart very carefully so that the two sides stay intact. Quickly put a LOT of glue onto the blue hair and get it on top of the white pom pom head – otherwise the fuzzies will fly everywhere and make your nose itch.

Glue the nose onto the face and the googly eyes on top of the nose.

Slide the arms in between the coils of the puppet base body.

Coil the small white pipe cleaner into a tiny circle, and glue it to the front of the puppet body

Glue the head to the puppet body.

More Finger Puppet Crafts

Easter finger puppets

Halloween finger puppets – and more of them

Thanksgiving finger puppets

Alien finger puppets

I made very simple new years resolutions this year. 1 – be better at bookkeeping – check. 2 – get more family time – double check. That’s it.

Just a few years ago, these goals would not have seemed ‘big’ enough for me. But I’ve found that I totally underestimated just how amazing life can be when I make things less complicated. You know – the changes that seem so little that they can’t possibly make a big difference – until you actually do them. And then you feel a little silly and foolish, wondering why you didn’t do this thing long ago.

My resolution to get more family time started to form last December. I was sitting at the kitchen table and an old episode of the iconic ’70’s sitcom All in the Family came on. I’m hearing that opening song and I’m physically still in my kitchen, but in my mind, suddenly I was 7 years old again. I felt like I was sitting in my grandparent’s family room, smelling pipe tobacco and Downy and pot roast cooking in the kitchen. I could hear my grandpa laughing at Archie Bunker, sometimes for all the wrong reasons. I imagined my grandma worrying about not having enough food for us (a trait my mother and I have unfortunately inherited from her). Every Tuesday we went to my grandparent’s house for dinner – and we always watched All in the Family together.

Suddenly I was in tears. Missing my grandparents all over again, even though they have been gone for a very long time. Missing the time my brother and I got with just our mom, because Tuesday was Kiawanis night for my dad. And definitely missing my grandmother’s pot roast recipe, which I have always imitated but never duplicated. I decided right then and there that I wanted to see my own parents more often. I wanted to make more memories like this one. This memory that swept me 30+ years back in time and made me feel loved, happy, and very full of pot roast.

Enter the 2010 monthly Piersall family dinners.

It’s perfect, because my husband loves to cook and is always looking for an excuse to buy overpriced prime rib. It’s perfect, because my sister in law and I adore each other but never find a way to make time to see each other as much as we want to. And it’s perfect, because it’s only once a month and the two most important rules are:

Houses need not be clean and food must be easy to make

It’s perfect because now we get to celebrate the month’s birthdays on our family dinner nights. It’s perfect because I really love hanging out with my parents. It’s perfect, because my kids are always bugging me to see their cousins. And it’s perfect because last time we were all laughing together watching TV while waiting for dinner to be ready – just like we did when I was 7.

And most of all, it’s perfect because when my kids and niece and nephew are all grown up, they will have so many family dinner memories that their heads and hearts will still be stuffed full of love and happiness.

I’m not sure that Archie Bunker intended it this way, but even that hard old jackass might have liked to know he’s done some good.

I’ve always loved putting up my printable pinwheel crafts – here’s more spring pinwheels, which also includes a blank one if you want to decorate these yourself.

St. Patrick's Day Pinwheel Craft	Pot of Gold Pinwheel Craft
Puppy Leprechaun Pinwheel Craft	Shamrock Pattern Pinwheel Craft

More St. Patrick’s Day Printables

St. Patrick’s Day kids poems

St. Patrick’s Day coloring pages

St. Patrick’s Day activity sheets

Celtic designs coloring pages

I’m finding that the more time I spend on Ebay finding incredible vintage stuff, the more questions I have. Who made it? What’s the company history? Is this really collectible? How much is this thing really worth? Two companies that I am starting to get to know are Arabia Finland and Berggren Originals. I don’t know that their stuff is really all that valuable – more that their stuff is freaking beautiful and I want to surround myself with these pieces.

This bowl is from the 1960’s, produced by Arabia Finel and designed by Kaj Franck, a famous mid-century modern Finnish designer. This particular enamelware mushroom bowl is fairly easily found on Ebay or Etsy – but finding some of his more obscure works is proving a lot more difficult – and costly. I’ve seen a very simple enamel teapot designed by him priced at over $300 – one that I’m not even that impressed with. But this bowl? I’m in luv. And it was less than $25.

I’ll feature more of Kaj Franck’s designs as I am able to acquire them – and I’m totally on the hunt. Maybe I’ll have some luck at the Kane Country Flea Market this weekend.

I just got this from eBay Power Up Feb. Edition - three big reasons to start cashing in today:

Reach millions more buyers–for no extra cost. If you ship worldwide, for no extra cost your listings will appear on eBay.eu with access to nearly 200 million more Europeans. (No more switching to eBay UK to list your items)

Only domestic DSRs count. Since only DSRs on your transactions with U.S. buyers count on eBay.com, you can sell globally without worrying about customs or international delivery affecting your eligibility for Top-rated seller or PowerSeller status. ( I had NO idea that DSRs from international selling wouldn’t effect selling out of the U.S – BONUS!)

Be a Top-rated seller in more countries. Now you can also earn and enjoy the rewards of being a Top-rated seller in more countries, including Germany and the U.K., two of the largest export markets for U.S. eBay sellers. (This is great for branding yourself in other countries!)

Get more helpful tips and best practices for international selling.

 

GREAT news from an eBay seller standpoint! It certainly takes the guess work out of selling Worldwide!

People love free things. To the point that they’re willing to pay for them. Huh? IHOP gave away pancakes from 7 am to 10 pm, and asked that customers donated money to the Children’s Miracle Network if they were able. While some people only came for the free pancakes and didn’t donate, many gave, and many bought things to accompany the free pancakes.

IHOP is aiming to raise $5 million for the Children’s Miracle Network within 5 years (this is the 5th). Last year they raised $425,000. That’s a lot of free pancakes!

In addition, fans spread the word. I heard about Free Pancake Day on Twitter, where there were thousands of mentions. Blogs and Facebook, too, were riddled with mentions. Free publicity from people who want to share. Priceless.

Free is a veritable marketing tactic. Whether you’re donating money to charity (also a good PR move) or just giving away the farm to sell some milk, free works. But I can’t afford to give away anything for free, you’re whining. My reply? You very well may not be able to afford not to. Here are some examples of freebies:

• Making a larger size product and selling it for the same price (25% more free!)
• Giving away a bonus item, such as a free table with sale of a couch
• Free info products (get my free book/ebook with a coaching package)
• Free services; if you’re in the services industry, give away something your clients wouldn’t otherwise buy as a way of introducing it

My assignment to you is to think about what you can give away for a month, a day, a week. Promote it. See if you don’t see an increase in sales as a result.

Time to share! What have you given away for free? How did it work?

They weren’t surprising to me. Consumers are showing strong loyalty to brands with good Facebook presence. Just take a look at True Lemon or Mashable. Their fans love them and are eager to interact with them on Facebook.

So ForeSee did a study of 10,000 visitors to the biggest e-retail websites in the United States to see how they are interacting with brands on Facebook. Here are some highlights:

• 56% of shoppers to top e-retail websites who interact with social media websites have elected to “friend” or “follow” or “subscribe” to a retailer on a social networking site like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• Facebook is, by far, the best place to reach shoppers—both because it’s where they already are, and it’s where they want to hear from retailers.
• Customers mainly interact with retailers on social media sites to learn about products and promotions—a marketer’s dream come true.

Interestingly, only 61% of these people follow five or fewer companies on Facebook. This surprised me a bit, since I am a Fan of many pages. However, I only really interact on the pages that interest me most. So I guess having a lower number of pages per consumer means they can focus more time on your page.

While consumers used Facebook the most to interact with brands, they also used Twitter, YouTube, MySpace and LinkedIn.

And here’s a good fact, so listen up. Consumers told the researchers what they wanted when visiting a brand’s Facebook page:

• 49% wanted to learn about sales or special offers
• 45% wanted to learn about products
• 5% wanted customer support
• 1% had other unspecified reasons

So brands, this is what your customers are demanding on Facebook. Are you paying attention? Does your current Facebook page reflect what your consumers want?

Here are some of my own suggestions for how you can add depth to your Facebook Page and encourage interaction:

• Include articles or links to blog posts on relevant topics
• Ask questions to get dialogue started
• Respond to each and every comment or request that needs an answer
• Be prompt! Responding 2 months later does nothing for your reputation
• Post videos and photos of products and even staff and fun things
• Update daily

How are your Facebook efforts going? Got questions? Ask ‘em!

I have always been a thrift store junkie. Not because I’m cheap (well, I am, actually) but because I have always been enamored with beautiful vintage stuff. I have some gorgeous pieces from my grandparents, but lately I’ve found myself on an enamelware kick. And mid century modern Scandinavian design. And turquoise and red. I saw this European country kitchen and was instantly infatuated. More like obsessed. I want that kitchen. Bad.

I will be vicariously living my European country kitchen life through Ebay for now, though. I found this rosemaled kettle along with a few other pieces – they make me smile a lot.

Do you work from home?

If you do, we’d love to hear your favorite piece of advice for others who work at home or are looking to start working from home on the topic of how to work effectively.

Simply leave a comment at the end of this article and share your tip! That way we can all benefit as we read each other’s advice. I’ll try to compile everyone’s comments into a follow-up article for next week.

If you can’t think of your absolute number one tip, feel free to just share one or more tips that can help other Sparkplugging readers learn how to get things done as a work at home entrepreneur.

Once again, today’s question is:

What’s your number one tip for working at home effectively?

Okay, I’ll go first. I’ve worked exclusively from home for over five years.

My number one work at home tip:

Separate. Create a special space and time in which to focus on professional work, and try to keep it separate from your home life. I’m not saying you should lock yourself in your home office from 9 to 5 every day – just that you should carefully decide when is “work time” and when is “home time,” and where you want your home office to be.

Every time I’ve followed that bit of advice, I’ve found myself enjoying the work from home life much, much more.

Okay, your turn! What’s your number one tip for working at home effectively?

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy:

1. Following my Own Advice on Working from Home
2. Weekend Conversation :: What’s the Worst Part About Working at Home
3. Weekend Conversation :: What’s the Best Part About Working at Home

When you start listing in bulk you get into the groove, and sometimes you may forget about the details! Yes – I know you have heard me say before that details are everything. Details can help the bidder realize that not only is this a Burberry Dress, but it is red velvet with sequins around the trim of the dress by Burberry from this Holiday season. Sometimes we get in the groove, but get lazy in our descriptions. Try not to get into the lazy ways.

Getting your items on eBay is only half of the listing process. In order for people to bid you they need to be sure of what they are getting. That is where your item description comes in.

Effective listing tip: Be upfront with your bidders but also engage your bidders so they will compete for your products which could start a bidding war.

As I have mentioned before, bidding wars on eBay are a good thing. Often times the bidding war will increase the final price of the item and your time dedicated to creating and listing the item was well worth every minute.

What makes up an effective listing description?

The most important elements of an auction are the title and the body of the listing description. Both of these will work together to create a well-rounded picture of the item in the bidders head even before they take a look at the pictures of the item being described. Dull and boring descriptions won’t attract the potential buyers to click and want to see more.

First, let’s begin with the title. When creating your title, be specific and visualize. Ask yourself, if you were looking at this title, would it draw your attention? Use that same idea to write one an eye-catching title for your items.

Let’s image you are selling a red holiday dress. What would the title be for a red holiday dress? Let’s look at a listing titled as “Red Holiday Dress”. How much does that tell you about the red holiday dress? That title doesn’t really say much about the red holiday dress. Immediately a few questions come to mind, such as “What size is this holiday dress?, What is the holiday dress made out of?” Think about it, we all know what a Red Holiday Dress could look like, so this is no help at all. It could be a dress for a doll or a Barbie, for all you know.

Let’s try this again. Creating an effective descriptive title by saying, “New Burberry Girls Red Silk Holiday Dress Size 5” Now, the potential bidders can visualize the dress and even virtually touch the texture due to the mentioning of the type of fabric. You couldn’t envision that before. Your potential bidders will come in for a closer look at your listing to see what this dress is all about since you put a mental image in their head.

Next, we move forward to develop the description for the listing. A description is not about being fancy but itemizing the features of your product using attention-grabbing words. The first thing to remember is to mention all noticeable features of the item that would be important to anyone buying a dress.

What will help you to describe your feature and create a dazzling description knowing your product inside and out. If you are unsure of what you are listing then I would suggest doing some research. Go to Google and type in what you know. From there try to find the manufacturer’s website to gather more information about the product you want to list on eBay. For an example, we will use the girl’s dress. What brand and style is it? Does it have a zipper, snap or button and where is the closure located on the dress? Does it fasten on the sides or up the back What are measurements? Is it fully lined? Would I need to purchase a slip? What else would you want to know if you were looking for a dress?

All of these questions will help you come up with a great description. Let’s again look at the title that we developed earlier and answer some of the questions: 

New Burberry Girls Red Silk Holiday Dress Size 5

• Burberry, new with tags size 5 girls. Short sleeved, bishop style, slight smocking detail along the front.
• Full zipper up the back.
• Measures 23 inches from shoulder to hem, falls just below the knee.
• The dress is fully lined and also has some crinoline starting at the waist to give it some body.
• No slip needed – I have included matching tights that are also new with tags. I also have black patent shoes listed separately.

You would bid on a dress with that description, wouldn’t you? :- ) It includes all the details that you can use to make an informed decision about bidding on this product. You know that Burberry makes high-quality items and you won’t be dissatisfied by your purchase.

Listing tip: You know now that the more information you can include in your auction’s title and the item description, the more likely potential bidders are willing to take a closer look and put in their high bid.

By taking the time to create an effective title and item description for your listing you will be one-step closer to attracting buying customers and boosting your profits on eBay. I hope this helps with your listing descriptions!