New Art Gallery Shop for Steffens Photography

 The last year seems to have gone by so quickly.  My "day job" had me helping facilitate the opening of a brand new building, and even with all the restrictions due to covid, I just couldn't get to everything on my to-do list.  But that's ok - part of life is balancing the things that need done with the things that you want to get done.  What have I done over the last year?  

I worked really hard on my crafting room - painted the walls, installed shelves, organized all my craft supplies and finally consolidated my gigantic yarn collection.  Just a few weeks ago, I finished sorting all the items that I have that will be going up for sale very soon. I'm so excited that I finally feel like I have a nice space to create my art!  (So is my husband because he thinks that means it won't appear in other parts of the house... ha!)

I added a few new patterns to my Etsy shop, Crafted By Life Designs.  This is your one stop shop for all of my knit, crochet and graph patterns for all sorts of yarn crafting.  Crafted By Life Designs

We re-did the kids rooms, made a giant Audrey II (more on her to be shared soon!), went totally Clark Griswold on the house for Christmas, and played a ton of Minecraft and board games as a family.

Lastly, I opened a brand new Art Gallery online which will be the new home for my photography.  From here you can buy amazing prints and have them shipped directly to you.  They'll even frame them if you want!  Please check me out, and consider buying something if you're looking for a new piece for your home.  I specialize in abstract and manipulated photography, but do also dabble in nature photography. 

Steffens Photography Art Gallery

What else is in store for me this year?

Well, one thing that anyone who knows me knows, is that I love coffee.  And now, you can buy me one!!  Visit me at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Craftedbylife and help me support all of my artistic endeavors.  Right now, all you can do is buy me a coffee (not a real coffee, silly, I'll buy my own!), but in the very near future, I'll be offering recurring support memberships that will give you exclusive rewards, request commissions and more! 

You'll be seeing one more new shop go live as I catalog and price out shipping on all of my yarn items, jewelry, resin work and more!  I'm moving away from Etsy for all of my physical items, as my new platform doesn't charge me fees on anything that I ship myself, but provides me with a free platform to sell my art.  This, in turn, saves me money, which I can then use to make more art!!!  

New Listings in the Shop!

Happy Tuesday everyone!
I'm popping in today to tell you all about five new patterns that have been added to my shop!

I've added the following graph patterns:

Game of Thrones Inspired pattern for crochet, knit and cross stitch:

"After all this time...  Always" graph pattern for crochet, knit or cross stitch:

"Remember to Turn on the Light" graph pattern for crochet, knit or cross stitch:

A two pack of Om and Namaste graph patterns for crochet, knit or cross stitch:

and last but not least, "Home Sweet Home" graph pattern for crochet, knit or cross stitch:

Go check them out!!!  I've got more coming in September, including card packs, gift tags and wall art printables!!

A blink.... and where did the time go?

Hey everyone!

So is anyone out there like me, and sets goals and makes plans and blinks... and all the time is gone?
I have been feeling like lately there is not enough time or energy in the day to get it all done.  Between my kids and family, work, my business, my blog, dance class, gymnastics, band and cleaning, I just don't have time like I used to.  Working on projects for the blog and my shop seem to take forever.  I used to be able to have new designs ready to post within a week of conception, complete crochet projects in a day and still get to make dinner for the kids.  Now, I'm just happy if I can cook something that doesn't come out of a box! 

I've been trying different things - bullet journals, the Getting Things Done principle, pomodoro timers, planners and more... but I just can't seem to get a handle on everything the way I did when I didn't have a desk job that lasted 40+ hours a week.  I just started a new bullet journal/planner/getting things done combo in a disk bound format (and yes, I mushed together all my previous attempts), which I have high hopes for.  I even put in project pages so  I could track the work that I still needed to do in order to get some work done for my business and in my personal life!

I started working on a couple of new series for the shop about 6 months ago.  Some of them are getting close to completion, and I am hoping that I will be able to post FIVE new listings by the end of this month!  This months new listings will be some graph patterns that I have lovingly created for your crafting desires.  They work for knitting, crocheting or cross stitching and are of varying difficulties.  Next month will bring you some super fun printables for the holidays, including cards, gift tags and art.  Who knows... I might even have a few new graph patterns for the holidays!

I will post again when the next listings go live in the shop!  Until then, leave me a note and let me know what you do to help manage your time and busy schedules!!!