I guess my love for arts and crafts started with Girl Scouts. I had such a fun and energetic scout leader who always had projects for us to work on.

When did you first start creating things?

One of my favorite crafts was when our scout troop painted Dr. Pepper bottles black and put Styrofoam "heads" on them. We used felt to decorate them to look like cats for Halloween. I believe that I was in second grade at the time. I have been an avid craft er since then.

My aunt taught me to crochet when I was very young. I used to crochet dresses for my dolls and make my own hair ribbons. Later, in high school, I took painting classes and fell in love with oil painting and acrylics.

No, if this were my only business I would probably starve. :) I am a registered nurse who does contract work at hospitals around the country. We are called "travel nurses" because we fill in at hospitals that are short handed due to the nursing crisis. I work primarily in Intensive Care and Cardiac areas.

Do you still dream about making other things? If so, what?

Definitely, I really want to learn to quilt. I'd also like to try my hand at card making and maybe some jewelry making.

How did you hear about Etsy? Funny, I didn't hear about Etsy. I went to work one day to find that the previous nurse had left the Etsy homepage on the computer screen. I started looking around the site and decided to try to sell some of the things I was making and giving away. I opened Hat Creek Creations (www.hatcreekcreations.etsy.com) and started having fun with it. I decided to open Dirty Dishes (www.dirtydishes.etsy.com) because I didn't want to offend my regular customers with the "dirty" stuff.

Persevere. I have found that, as with anything in life, you get out of it what you put into it. As for Etsy, stay positive, provide good service and work hard. Just because you post an item on the Internet does not mean that people will see it. You have to work to get their attention, then keep things fresh so they will want to come back and bring a friend or two with them.