• Researching color palettes made by other users or generated by you (I used a bunch of these during my wedding planning daze)
• Generating color schemes from photographs
• (I love the name of and the tool ColorSuckr — check out how it sucked the colors right out of my kisslock change purse!)
  
• Finding color schemes from other websites

The last category is where I found my favorite tool of them all, a simple but useful tool called I Like Your Colors. After last month’s Adora-inspired post on finding color names, I figured this would be a fun way to ring in October’s set of posts.

I’ve already used I Like Your Colors to customize the color palette of my new Artfire shop (er, studio). Artfire allows you to choose from an assortment of preset color schemes or customize your own. There’s not much you can customize, but it’s enough to give me some tie-in between my blog and my Artfire shop. And now for my amusement, I shall demonstrate how.

1) Type in the web address of the site whose color scheme you’re interested in.
Go to I Like Your Colors, scroll to the bottom of the page and type in the URL in question. Click Get colors.

Search field from I Like Your Colors tool

2) Marvel at the display of hex values in use on your site.
I Like Your Colors picks up colors from my website header image as well as from my WordPress theme.

I Like Your Colors search results

I Like Your Colors search results (from WordPress theme)

3) Hop on over to your Artfire studio and customize your colors!
In the Edit My Studio section, choose (1) Colors & Themes. Click on the (2) Custom radio button. Select a (3) color for the top navigation bar. Then, set your colors for (4) Primary Font — see below for details on how to do this, (5) Dark Background and (6) Soft Background. Click (7) the Save Theme! button when you’re done.

Artfire's Colors & Themes page

How to set the hex value for your colors (numbers 4-6 in the image above).
Click on (1) a square to set colors for the primary font and backgrounds. A large color palette will pop up on your screen. It’s not immediately obvious that you can manually enter a hex value here, but you simply scroll down to the bottom of the color palette, highlight any hex value that’s already in the (2) text field and replace it with your desired hex value (you don’t need to type “#” first, but you can). Hit Enter or Return on your keyboard, and your color is set! Note that if you roll your mouse over any of the colors in the color palette, the field will automatically populate with that color. So keep your mouse out of the way.

Color palette

4) Click on My Studio in the left nav, and check your work!

NOTE: I use a backdrop image for my studio banner so you don’t see as much of the color customization as you would if you used a regular sized banner, but I like the backdrop image option a lot better because it gives you more control of the top of the page’s design.Similar Posts:

• Name that color!

Right, because I recently started working with a few local retailers and am SO excited about it that I’ve wanted to spread the word everywhere: on my blog, on Twitter and of course on Facebook, to name a few! So I added a Retailers page to my blog, updated my Profile in my Etsy shop, tweeted it out and made a few Facebook status updates about the news. And this week, I added a new tab on my fan page called “Where to Buy”!

Here’s a tutorial on how you too can add a custom tab to your very own fan page!

You’ll need:

• A Facebook Business Page (aka fan page) of your own
  • If you don’t yet have a fan page, see my previous post entitled Promote your Etsy shop on Facebook for assistance or try one of the many other fine tutorials that have been written since!
• Some very basic HTML knowledge…or simply the ability to copy other people’s HTML code!
  • Here’s a page from w3schools.com with four very basic HTML tags that make a perfectly good start for HTML newbies! If you’re feeling more adventurous, use the menu of the left side of their site to find out how to make bulleted or numbered lists, basic tables…and more! Hack away, no harm done!

Ready?

1) Add the Static FBML application to your page

• Go to the Static FBML application page and click “Add to my Page”.

• Tell Facebook which of your fan pages you want to add the Static FBML app to. Click Add to Page. Then click the Close button.

2) Go back to your fan page and open the newly added Static FBML application

• I usually access my fan page either through a bookmark that I’ve added to my browser, or through a shortcut I’ve created on my Facebook profile page. Below is a screenshot of the latter.

• Once you’re on your fan page, click Edit Page.

• You’ll see a list of editable stuff for your page. Scroll to the Applications section. (1) Click on the pencil icon to display the edit menu and (2) Click the Edit link.

3) Create content for your new tab

• Clicking the Edit link above will take you to a simple form page where you can edit (1) the title of your tab and (2) the content to be displayed in your tab. You’ll notice that I’ve used some really basic HTML tags in the FBML box in order to format how my content is displayed. If you don’t know any HTML, you could just enter plain text but everything will just show up as, well, plain text and in a single paragraph — no line breaks, no bullets, nada.

• When you’re done, click (3) Save Changes.

• Facebook will confirm that your changes are saved. Then, click on the name of your fan page to return to its front page.

4) Tell Facebook to display your new tab, dammit

• When you get back to your fan page, you’ll see that your new tab is…nowhere to be found. WHAT?! Not to worry. Click on (1) the + icon to add a new tab, and (2) select your newly created tab — in this case, “Where to Buy”.

• You should now see something like this, where your new tab is displayed, content and all, alongside all your other tabs:

You did it! You did it! Jump up and down, call your mother, tell your friends and holla at ya fans! Your new tab is in town!

Addendum:
Waaaaaait a quick second. Say you come back to your page the next day and WTH?! Your new tab is M-I-S-S-I-N-G. Freak out! No no, don’t do that. This just means that your other tabs have momentarily crowded it out. Just click on (1) the double arrow >> icon, and (2) select your previously “missing” tab. Note that you can shuffle the order of your tabs around just by clicking on the tab you want to move and drag it to your desired position, holding your mouse button down while you do this. Hooraaaay, happiness returns.

Feeling fancy?
To take it to the next level, or for more ideas and information, try these helpful articles:

• Customizing Facebook Pages with “Static FBML” application by HyperArts
• Static FBML: Not Every Facebook Fan Page Needs An Application by Snipe.Net

I hope this was helpful! If you have any other tips to share, I’d love to hear your inside scoop!Similar Posts:

• Promote your Etsy shop on Facebook
• How to add a zippered pocket to your handbag
• DIY shelf curtains!

The other day I came across this sweet looking book Drip.Dot.Swirl. by illustrative designer Von Glitschka, via a Craftzine book giveaway.

I tried to win the book but alas, no such luck! Phoo. So onto the Amazon wishlist it goes, because a) I love the title and b) it looks sooooo chock full of drool-worthy designs. Plus, PLUS! the book comes with a DVD containing all the vector patterns (in three color themes each!) that you can customize in Adobe CS2 or higher as you so please. How ya like that?!

images from Art Backwash

The author offers some freebie teaser downloads that you can test drive:

• “Beautiful” from his book site, Vonsterbooks.com (in the Drip.Dot.Swirl. column under “FREE Pattern Download”)
• “Memory Lock” from his blog, Art Backwash

And then TODAY while I was searching for Drip.Dot.Swirl for this post, I found Wallpaper Projects by San Francisco’s own Lauren Smith and Derek Fagerstrom! This sweet-looking bundle of pages boasts, as the subtitle says, more than 50 craft ideas for your home, from accents to art. And while it features wallpaper as the material, I’m thinking a little Mod Podge + fabric would work just as well! Maybe?!

I can’t believe I didn’t know about the book before but now I do, and yup — hellooooo, wishlist!!! Sheesh, still almost six more months til Christmas. Can I even wait that long?! Perhaps not. So I best get on it and sell more pouches y pillows, people!!!Similar Posts:

None found

The couple’s color scheme includes pale blue and orange, so they chose this Anna Maria Horner Sketchbook fabric for the pillow. I loooove this fabric with all its huge florals, mini bursts and birds. It was tough picking two 9×9 inch squares to cut because the pattern’s so big but I chose one side with just flowers,  and one side with a cute little bird.

I had the hardest time finding a 5/8″ ribbon in an orange shade to match until I remembered to check at Piedmont Fabric, where I picked up this delicate pale orange silk ribbon in two sizes.

There’s a flat, fabric-covered button sewn into the centers of both the top and bottom of the pillow. I also made the thinner ribbons detachable so the couple could use the side with the bird as the top if they preferred. I’d actually intended for the bird to be on top when I started out but thought it might a) not have enough orange on that side and/or b) be a little too funky for their tastes…but who knows?! I guess I’ll find out tomorrow!

Congrats Rob and Elisa, and thanks for letting me have the honor of making your ring pillow!Similar Posts:

• Ring pillows for Olivia (and Kevin)
• How to be a forest fairy
• A pillow to bolster your spirits

Admittedly, I’m a late adopter of Google Base and have only recently uploaded my Etsy shop products to the free service. Part of my excuse is that I didn’t think it’d be THAT quick and easy. (The other part was just procrastination/laziness/would-rather-be-doing-other-things-edness.)

But…I’ve finally done it! This post celebrates that accomplishment by giving you a few visuals of what your Etsy products can look like with Google Base and sharing the online tutorials I found helpful for showing how to set up Google Base for your Etsy shop. I’ll do a follow-up post on steps for taking your Google Base efforts to the next level.

What is Google Base, and what does it have to do with my Etsy shop?
Google Base is a free service that enables Etsy sellers to publish their shop’s products to the web, thereby making them searchable through Google’s shopping engine (Google Product Search) and/or their main web search. If you use it, you’re basically opening another channel through which potential customers can find your products online.

A picture’s worth a thousand words, so here’s what it looks like!

From the Google Product Search page
After uploading my Etsy data to Google Base, I went to google.com/products and searched for “spring chickens pouch”. Voila! There’s my zipper pouch, complete with photo, direct link to the Etsy product page, short description (that I need to work on), price and shop name. Because I did such a specific search, both of my Spring Chickens products came up on the first page of results alongside, of course, a slew of other products not belonging to me.

From the main Google search page
It’s true that your products may show up in Google search results without loading them to Google Base, but using Google Base means that a bunch of other key data associated with your Etsy product listings — product photo, title, description and price for example — will also be displayed in the results. And on Google Product Search, the search results are formatted in a very shopper-friendly way.

Here’s what a search result for “spring chickens pouch” looks like from Google’s main web search page:

Then I wondered if any of my products could possibly show up on the first page of search results if I searched for something more generic. So this time I searched on “long zipper pouch”, and here’s what I got.

Google web search for “long zipper pouch”
I was really happy to see that one of my products shows up in the top three Shopping Results section at the top of the page:

Google product search for “long zipper pouch”
And if I clicked on the Shopping link this time to search “long zipper pouch” on Google Product Search, two of my products come up on the first page of results (in the 3rd and 13th positions).

I want that. How do I set up Google Base for my Etsy shop?
I followed one of the many fine tutorials out there on the web. I ended up setting up the automatically scheduled RSS update AND doing a one-time only manual upload of my XML file.

1. Sign up for a Google account to access Google Base
2. Follow one of these step-by-step tutorials.
   I used the first one for its easy-to-follow instructions with accompanying screenshots and its coverage of both methods for loading your products into Google Base (i.e. scheduled and manual).

• Beginner’s Guide to Let’s Ets & Google Base by TheJuneBride
• Feed Enhancements, Google Base and More from The Storque on Etsy
• Etsy RSS and Google Base by Go To Great Panes

I’m loaded, now what? Taking Google Base to the next level.
When the initial excitement of seeing your products in Google Product Search has worn off a little, you’ll probably ask yourself the same question.

I’ve been making a to-do list for myself to not only improve my product’s rankings in Google but also to increase my page ranks overall using some basic SEO (search engine optimization) tactics. If you’re interested, you can subscribe to my RSS feed for Part 2 of this post.

In the meantime, these are some of the sources I’ll be using for Part 2:

• How can I improve my products’ rankings?
• Optimizing your Etsy item description for GOOGLE Base
• Google PageRank Tips for Your Etsy Shop
• Why is SEO Important for My Shop?

Similar Posts:

• Big ole box o’ labels
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So you’ve picked yourself up a fabulous new pillow cover or two from the shop, and now you’ve gotta find the perfect insert. You could sew your own, but perhaps you want more instant gratification.

This post offers solutions for both the make and buy pillow insert (aka pillow form) options. Note: I don’t currently sell pillow forms/inserts in my shop because not only would I have no room to stock the inventory, but it actually seems to make more sense to give buyers the option of choosing their own filling (polyester, bamboo, down feather, faux down, recycled) and size (the same size as the pillow cover or slightly larger for a firmer, more filled look). If you disagree and think you’d be more likely to buy if I also stocked the pillow forms, please let me know!

Make your own pillow form
How to Make a Basic Pillow Form tutorial on eHow is one of the best online tutorials, with photos, that I’ve seen. What’s even better about making your own is that now you have a way to reuse those old t-shirts and sheets you might have lying around the house.

Before you shove that polyester fiberfill into your pillow, I also highly recommend following this video’s tip on pulling your stuffing apart first to help de-clump it. This step “airs out” the filling and really helps avoid the lumpiness you sometimes get with handmade pillows.

Who has time to make anything? Where can I BUY a pillow form?
Here are a handful of suggestions. I buy my inserts from IKEA and Jo-Ann, but I’m also considering ordering from one of the last two places on my list for some additional size options that IKEA and Jo-Ann don’t offer. For price comparisons between the shops, I’ve listed unit prices for polyester-filled 20×20″  pillow forms.

• IKEA
  • These aren’t available online, but if you live near an IKEA store you can choose from a slew of pillow form options including polyester-filled or down-filled. Except for the 14×14″ pillow form, none are quite as bargain-priced as the 20×20″ size.
  • IKEA’s 20×20″ INNER cushions are available for the bargain price of $2.99.
• Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores
  • You can get a pretty great deal on pillow forms from Jo-Ann if you can either wait for their pillow form sales (which would be advertised in their Weekly Sales Flyers) or use a coupon. To get coupons, you can either sign up for their emails or look in your Sunday paper (assuming they still distribute this way). Both methods can save you 40-50% or even more if you wait until the big holidays, where you can get a coupon for an additional 10% off your entire purchase.
  • Jo-Ann offers the 20×20″ Soft N Crafty Pillow for $15.99. Again I wouldn’t purchase this at regular price if you’re looking for a bargain, but at 50% off it’s quite a deal especially if you get it in-store!
• eBay
  • I’ve never ordered pillow forms from any eBay sellers before, but I’ve considered buying from the Pillowflex eBay store because of its good reviews. Pillowflex also has a non-eBay store where it seems that you might actually be able to save slightly on shipping, depending on where you live.
  • Pillowflex’s unit price for its 20×20 pillow forms is $6.73. Their eBay shipping is $10.50 for 2 pillows ($8 flat rate + $2.50 for each additional), while their non-eBay store shipping cost to my zip code is $8.98.
• Robey’s Fabrics
  • Robey’s Fabrics is another place that I’ve never ordered from but have bookmarked because of its competitive prices.
  • The Robey’s unit price on a 20×20 pillow form is $4.00. I’d have to register for a new account to see exact shipping costs, but on their Shipping & Returns page it says: “An order of 2 -3 pillows to a state close by will cost under $7 for the shipping. We do not charge a handling fee. We only charge actual shipping rates.”

So now that you’re armed with all this info on where to buy inserts of all shapes and sizes, go on and get yourself some fresh new pillow covers!

Similar Posts:

• New living room, new pillow
• I love Wednesdays

• Setting up the actual product to get a good representation of it from different angles
• Finding a background that I could easily set up and break down
• Finding the optimal spot in my home to take advantage of natural lighting
• Configuring the camera for the lighting conditions I’m shooting in, and finally to
• Touching up my photos to make them Etsy-ready

That ‘s a lot of different factors to tinker with, especially since time spent on stuff like this is time is time NOT spent making things that can be sold. Happily, I’ve now worked it out to a relatively pain-free photography workflow that works for almost every product that I currently make. And I think the thing that was the final breakthrough for me was using Google’s free photo organizing and editing tool, Picasa3, to prep my photos for final upload to Etsy.

If you like this before and after photo, then read on to see how you too can easily transform your poorly lit, in-need-of-cropping and otherwise dull product photos into ones that are, hopefully, much more pleasing to your prospective customer’s eye!

I’ll just assume that you either have and know the basics about importing photos into Picasa3, or will follow this link to download Picasa3 and then go through the relatively easy instructions on how to use it. Although I have and know the basics of how to use Adobe Photoshop, I use Picasa3 because it’s a lighter application that doesn’t bring my laptop speed to a miserable crawl, and it’s so quick and easy to use.

I put together a crude, soundless video (because sadly those are the only kinds of videos I know how to make) showing me using a mere five features in Picasa to transform the before photo above, into the after photo below it. Here it is, for better or for worse, followed by a written summary of what I did.

The Process
Note: I use a digital camera that allows me to set the custom white balance on it.

Not shown in the video:

• Set the custom white balance on the camera.
• Positioned product in same lighting that custom white balance was set for, and snapped away.
• Imported my photos into Picasa3, creating a new folder for the product.

Shown in the video:

1. Double-clicked to select a photo to work with.
2. Used the Crop tool in the Basic Fixes tab. I chose to keep the dimensions of the photo the same proportions as the original photo, but for Etsy you could also consider cropping the photo square.
3. Went to the Tuning tab, and used the sliders to adjust:
   • Highlights – amplifies bright spots
   • Fill Light – adds foreground light to balance photos with dark backgrounds
   • Shadows – provides additional depth or contrast by darkening shadows
4. Used the Zoom tool to take a closer look at the photo details, and repeated step 3 for more fine tuning. For me, it helps to have the actual product sitting next to me so I can make sure the colors I’m editing to are as accurate as possible, at least on my own monitor.
5. Exported the photo, making both the photo and file size smaller for web use AND adding an “eleen.com” watermark. I export my photos as 800 x 600, which makes them big enough for Etsy buyers and blog readers to take a close look at the detail of the product but small enough to make them load more quickly. The non-exported file was 4.7mb, whereas the exported file is a mere 62kb.

Other features I regularly use:

I’d say that all the other features in Picasa3 are just as easy to use as the ones above and are worth playing with to make your photo the best that it can be (without using a more high-powered tool and/or spending too much more time). Some other features I regularly use on my photos are Straighten, Sharpen and, if there’s a speck of lint I overlooked, Retouch.

That’s about it! Except maybe that I highly recommend learning Picasa’s keyboard shortcuts to help you quickly scan through and select the subset of photos you want to work with, delete the ones you don’t and move through your keepers.

More Info

For other great posts on improving product photos for your Etsy or other online shop or portfolio:

• These first two really set me off in the right direction when I first set out to work on my product photography
  • Shoot to Sell: Taking Better Photos for eBay, Etsy & Instructables by Photojojo
    
  • Photographing for Success by Etsy

• And here are some great tips from my fellow Full Time Etsy Crafters street team members!
  • A slew of tips from Mu-Yin Jewelry
  • How Do I Take My Product Photos? A Tutorial.

One of my goals this year is to bump the quality of my photos up another notch, so I would looooove to hear pointers about techniques that any of you might be using to make your photos look good too!Similar Posts:

• Figuring out how to get better product shots
• Magnetic cuteness from Button Arcade
• Promote your Etsy shop on Facebook

The Subjects:

Snuffles and Dirty, before

Snuffles and Dirty, after

The Catch
Snuffles and Dirty were not allowed to stay with Auntie Eleen for fittings and such. Bang had to sneak them out of the house during the day whilst Vyl was at work and bring them over, on 3 separate occasions, to my home studio.

So what? Well aside from not having models at hand, I’d a) never made cargo pants before…b) for a stuffed toy…c) that is an elephant with shall we say, odd proportions…d) and a tail. On the same note, e) a zip up wetsuit was also new territory…f) for a tiny little stuffed dolphin…g) with a fin and two flippers to cut slits for(credits to Bang for cutting the slits).

Sure sure I’d sewn my own wedding gown and even make handmade bags, pouches and home accessories for a living so you’d think it’d be a no-brainer. Well, the gown took me three months to make. And my handmade products primarily have deliciously straight lines and angles. No fins, tails, or…blowholes. Okay enough with the excuses! Bang was very patient and didn’t make me feel bad at all about first missing the originally-requested Christmas deadline or for having a hard time with the fit around Snuffles’ derriere.

The Play-by-Play (sort of)
So poor Bang had to come eastward three times and hang out with me for a total of maybe about 9 or 10 accumulated hours. But it was good quality time and I learned quite a bit about him, including the fact that his Brain Age is 48. And he’s really good at selling things on Craigslist.

On the last day, I put Bang to work too. He helped Fray Check the inside seams of the cargo pants and, as I mentioned, cut the slits for Dirty’s fin and flippers.

We finished the project the Thursday before Valentine’s Day, and I spent the whole weekend wondering how it all went down. Happily, Bang took pictures of the whole unwrapping process and shared them with me! I love Vyl’s reaction here, from “What the…?!” to “HA! Stretchy pants!” I also love the gift box and tissue paper. It’s all in the packaging, after all…

The Aftermath
So now, Dirty can go for a swim anytime he wants and Snuffles doesn’t have to be embarrassed about leaving the house for want of a pair of pants!

Further, I get to say that I’ve made:

• a pair of custom-fit cargo pants complete with elastic waistband, pleated flap pockets with buttons and a buttonhole tail slit for an elephant, and
• a custom-fit zip up wetsuit made from an ankle brace for a tiny dolphin

And hopefully, Bang scored some major points for thinking of such a sweet, personalized gift for his lovely young wife!

all images from BangSimilar Posts:

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There are no shortcuts to any place worth going? Rubbish! For without my daily shortcuts, I would be going nowhere fast. Or at least, somewhere a lot more slowly. No disrespect to Beverly Sills from whom the quote originated, especially since I’ve gone and taken it all out of context.

So I was reading the chapter in David Allen’s Getting Things Done on how to process your inbox to empty, and he wrote:

If you’re in a large-volume e-mail environment, you’ll greatly improve your productivity by increasing your typing speed and using the shortcut keyboard commands for your operating system and your common e-mail software. Too many sophisticated professionals are seriously hamstrung because they still hunt and peck and try to use their mouse too much.

How true! How many times have you hovered next to a co-worker and been driven mad by their slow typing and/or cumbersome fumbling between mouse and keyboard? “GAH! Ctrl+Shift+Right Arrow!”, I’d scream in my head! “Ctrl+Shift+Right Arrow, why don’t you?!” Not that I have that problem working from home any more, but still.

So I was inspired to pull together a collection of handy shortcuts I’ve adopted for the tools I use most often these days: Etsy, Gmail and of course Windows XP. Come on, you know you’re excited.

Shortcuts for your Etsy shop

Etsyhacks
For Etsy I recently started using a handful of etsyhacks to save some time. Etsyhacks are little programs created by the code-tinkering husband of an Etsy seller that alter the view of your web pages and basically allow you to take shortcuts between actions.

Say for example that you have to leave feedback for 10 customers. Etsy has a convenient batch feedback tool to let you submit all your feedback from one form, but you still have to tab from one customer to the next, selecting the appropriate radio button and copy/pasting the feedback for each customer individually. Even if you use keyboard shortcuts, that can be a lot of tabbing and Ctrl+V-ing.

Well thank goodness for geeks! Ian at etsyhacks offers a tool called Fast Batch Feedback where, if you have the same Positive feedback to leave for everyone (since presumably you’re gonna wanna leave shiny happy positive feedback for all those wonderful customers right?!), you can truly just select Positive once, type up your feedback text once, and submit!

image from etsyhacks

There are two ways you can install etsyhacks: one is by using the Greasemonkey add-on for Firefox, the other is by using bookmarklets. I use Greasemonkey and it’s a total no-brainer to install and get right to using the etsyhacks.

One of my favorite hacks is Copy Listing, which gives you the ability to quickly copy an existing product listing instead of starting fresh from a new listing and filling out all the fields from scratch.

My next favorite is Edit This Item, which lets you jump to a specific page you want to edit for a product listing instead of going back one page, forward one page, or skipping to the very last page. I’ve always hated having to wait for the Tags page to load when I’m editing a listing, so with this hack I can skip right over that page. Yay!

There are a slew of others that Ian discusses in his etsyhacks blog. Thanks Ian!

Using Gmail to Filter Etsy Order and PayPal Payment Emails
I’ve also found it helpful to set up some filters in Gmail that help me quickly find emails related to Etsy orders I’ve received. This process involves 1) setting up an email filter and 2) creating a Quick Link to it in Gmail.

1) My Gmail filter

2) My Quick Link, which sits in the left column of my Gmail window

This way when I’m printing shipping labels and want to quickly compare the customer’s address in PayPal to the shipping address they supplied on Etsy, I click on my Quick Link and then it’s just a matter of using the keystrokes k, j and o (see below for Gmail keyboard shortcuts) to toggle back and forth between the Etsy and PayPal emails.

Keyboard shortcuts for Gmail
I haven’t been able to bring my unread messages down to zero ever since I got lost in the final throes of wedding planning in January 2008. But having finally taken the time recently to learn more keyboard shortcuts for Gmail, I’m a tad closer.

These are the four keyboard shortcuts I use every morning to quickly scan through the latest messages in my inbox and immediately trash messages that I know I don’t even need to open:

• k = Move to newer conversation
• j = Move to older conversation
• x = Select conversation
• # = Delete

Then, for the messages I do need to open and take action on:

• c = Compose
• o or <Enter> = Open
• r = Reply
• a = Reply all
• f = forward
• l = Label
• <tab> then <Enter> = Send message
• g+i = Go back to Inbox

see the full list of Gmail keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts for Windows XP
Then of course there are the operating system shortcuts. There are a bazillion and I think most people already have a bunch of these in their repertoire, so here are some that may be less well known and are irrefutably handy (at least I think so):

• General
  • CTRL+any of the arrow keys (Moves the insertion point to the beginning of the next/previous word or paragraph)
  • CTRL+SHIFT with any of the arrow keys (Highlight a block of text)
  • ALT+F4 (Close the active item, or quit the active program)
  • CTRL+ESC (Display the Start menu)
• Microsoft natural keyboard shortcuts
  • Windows Logo+D (Display the desktop)
    Windows Logo+M (Minimize all of the windows)
    Windows Logo+SHIFT+M (Restore the minimized windows)
    Windows Logo+E (Open My Computer)
• Windows Explorer
  • LEFT ARROW (Collapse the current selection if it is expanded, or select the parent folder)
  • RIGHT ARROW (Display the current selection if it is collapsed, or select the first subfolder)

see the full list of Windows XP keyboard shortcuts

And now the sewing machine and audiobook beckon. Lucky you, since I was about to continue with my favorite shortcuts for:

• Microsoft Excel
  full list of Microsoft Excel 2003 keyboard shortcuts

• Remember the Milk
  full list of Remember the Milk keyboard shortcuts

• WordPress
  full list of WordPress shortcodes

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These are the latest bright and billowy pillow covers that I’ve added to the shop. They’re 18″ square cases that come on and off the pillow insert of your choice with an invisible zipper, and the edges of the inside seams are finished with a serger for a polished, more professional look.

My serger is a Brother 1034D that I love, from Amazon.com. It has no thread cutters and makes no locking nor backstitches however, so you get a couple of thread tails when you start and finish serging your seam. Up until now I’ve simply been tying each thread tail into a knot and snipping off the loose ends. Nothing wrong with that method, but today I finally stopped long enough to look for alternative methods.

I found a sweet Serger Basics article on WhatTheCraft.com that answers my very question: how do you hide serger thread tails? The short answer is to thread the tail through the eye of a darning needle and use the needle to draw the tail through/underneath the threads of the overlocked seam. I remember seeing this technique elsewhere, but the golden nugget of WhatTheCraft.com’s article is that you slide the needle underneath the threads of the overlocked seam BEFORE you thread the tail into the eye of the needle. A-HA! That takes care of either not having a long enough tail to thread through, or using too much thread to create a longer tail. Brilliant!

I’ve also vaguely recall learning a technique long ago where you use a thin metal crochet hook inserted between the threads from a couple inches away from the thread tail and draw the thread tail down from the bottom instead of from the top. I didn’t have a slender enough crochet needle to try, but I think that could work equally well.

Here’s the link again in case you too are wondering, “Just what DO I do with those long thread tails that my serger leaves behind?” Here is your answer, with step-by-step photos and instructions.Similar Posts:

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