Book Giveaway!

Who would like to win a book?

This book -



Eating the Cheshire Cat by Helen Ellis.

You would?

Then here's what you must do -


1. Leave a comment below to enter
2. Should you be successful, THERE'S A CATCH... you must promise to give the book away on YOUR blog when you finish reading it. It's all about sharing the love!

Speaking of sharing the love, if you tweet about this (include @beautifulschlop) and post back here with the time stamp, I'll toss your name in the pot another time for a 2nd chance at winning!


This book giveaway was instigated by Angela of Pickles on Pizza, in February 2009.

So far, this book has journeyed from Greenville (MS, USA) to Montreal (QC, Canada) to Brisbane (QLD, Australia) to Sunbury (VIC, Australia) to Sydney ( NSW, Australia) to the Blue Mountains (NSW, Australia), and to me in Rockford (IL, USA).

Where will it go next?

Entries close on November 11th.

The winner will be randomly drawn using random.org , and announced on this blog.

Thanks for participating and good luck!

Pumpkin Carving!

We carved pumpkins tonight! The kids got to do a couple with my mom while she was babysitting the other day, but we did family ones tonight! Liam chose a Mandalorian (we're really into Star Wars at our house) and hubby chose Boba Fett (another Star Wars). Lyla chose Snow White and I decided to do the witch with the apple for Snow White.

Mark helped Liam (read: Mark carved the whole thing while Liam jumped around excited), then carved his own. I ended up carving Lyla's (she's only 2).




Both the kids did enjoy pulling out the guts, though!








I'm really happy with how my Snow White turned out.






Here are all the finished pumpkins! The top ones are the ones we made today and the bottom ones are the ones the kids made with my mom.




- Danielle from Beautiful Schlopp Art Glass and Jewelry
www.beautifulschlopp.etsy.com

Another Treasury!

I made another treasury! I stuck with the seasons thing (my last one was the Cherry Blossoms of Spring). This one is called Earth Autumn. It's all about the browns and greens and warm fuzzies you get in the Fall. You can check it out here! Enjoy!

Lack of Motivation

I'm bummed. I'm not sure what it is- the weather, busy with work, lack of sales... I just have not been into selling my stuff lately. Selling online is hard! Anyone have any tips? I'd love to be in craft shows, but I have no idea how to find out when/where they are and get involved.

Maybe I just need more promotion to get my sales up. But where do I get the time? It's all just a bit disappointing and has me in a rut right now. I've been keeping up on the blogs that I follow, but not been writing any of my own.

I also have a bunch of jewelry that I need to take pictures of and list, but it takes so long and I just feel like nothing will come of it.

What do you do? How do you stay motivated? How do you find time to self-promote online and where do you do it?

I made my first Treasury!

I got to make my first treasure on Etsy! I am so excited! I've been wanting to make one for a while, but never got there in time. Well, last night I did! Even though Fall is approaching here, I have found a new obsession with Cherry Blossoms. Please check out and enjoy my Spring into Fall treasury!

Watch my Etsy shop for new cherry blossom creations to sprout up there!

Sinus Surgery

So, Thursday, October 1st I had surgery on my sinuses. I'd been having trouble breathing at night and I snore horribly. It's gotten worse over the years and I had come to realize that one reason I'm tired all the time is because I work so hard to breathe at night. So, I went to an Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) specialist. He had a CT scan done on me and we discovered that I had a chronic infection which had caused some of my sinus cavities to become blocked. It had also trapped air in those cavities causing my headaches. As the pressure changed with the weather, the air trapped in my head expanded and contracted. Ouch time.

So, we scheduled surgery. The idea of getting my problems fixed was very exciting, but I have to admit I did get nervous the closer my surgery came. I'd never had any kind of surgery, I've never been put to sleep with anesthesia, and the only time I've really spent any time in a hospital was to have my kids! But I got through it without any problems!

The first day was rough because I had packing in my nose. I pretty much stayed in bed and took my pain medicine as soon as I could. I was up just about every hour through the night getting sips of water because my mouth got dry from breathing through it. I had the packing taken out the next day and that made a big difference. Not as much pressure in my sinuses. I hadn't realized just how bad my problem had been until I found out there are only 5 sinus cavities (per side) and I had 4 (each side) that were blocked. Now I'm just on the road to recovery. It feels like a really bad cold where everything is all stuffed up with an occasional headache. I can't blow my nose yet, but I use a nasal saline spray, like, 10 times a day to keep it all moist and flush out the junk. It may be TMI, but I have had some pretty nasty chunks of stuff come out of my nose already.

So, that's what I've been up to the past couple days. Mark has done a great job of making me rest and taking care of the kids. He got me a bunch of movies and I've got the newest Dan Brown book, so I'm all set. Please send me quick recovery thoughts and prayers (but not too quick! I like this being-waited-on stuff!).