And this is what I'm working on right now:

Nice little banner, isn't it? Now I just need somewhere to put it! And stuff to sell!

It's been a dream of mine for a very long time to make a little extra money selling my crocheted things. I like making clothes for little ones, so it makes sense to me to specialize in this area.

I designed the above banner a few minutes ago. Took a little doing. Which I will now explain here because I am just that narcissistic, & who knows maybe someone else needs a mini class in banner design.

First thing I did was 'borrow' a banner ad from the website I intend to first have this on. This is to make certain I get just the right size. Then I opened it up in Paint Shop Pro 9, which is my graphics program. Added a layer. Opened up a graphic I'd already made, which is a clip of a close-up of one of my projects. Shrank it down so the height was exact (80 pixels). Pasted it on this new layer to cover up the old banner. Did a gaussian blur on it (2.5, for those interested in the techs). Opened up the photo of my daughter you see there on it. (Why this one? Because she's cute & that is one of my more original designs.) Resized it so the height was exact. Copied, pasted. Added in the text. Saved. Cursed myself for forgetting to rename the file, then went & renamed it.

Then PM'ed the owner of the site I spend most of my time on, MomsWhoThink, and asked her for specifics on price to advertise my fledgling business in my signature.

I'm sitting here now with a knot in my stomach, for no good reason. This is a huge step for me. I am so scared. Will my items sell? Are they good-enough quality? How on Earth do I keep proper records for tax purposes? Oy. Change scares the living crap out of me.

Wish me luck...