Happy Holidays

Since I spent much of the day out of town, I really don't have much to recount to you from yesterday. I finished one bracelet in the car, but it's the same ones that I showed you yesterday. The evening was a lot of hanging out with my brother, who is the first of our house guests to arrive. The other two and their cats arrive late this afternoon assuming they survive the drive with all of their pets.

I'd like to just take a quick minute to wish all of you who celebrate it a Merry Christmas since that's this weekend. If that's not your winter holiday of choice, I'll just throw out a blanket Happy Holidays for you and if none this holiday nonsense is your thing I hope you have a lovely, stress-free weekend. You can find the pattern for this woven snowflake I designed last year here.

Merry, Happy

Let me first start off by saying Merry Christmas to those of you that celebrate and a happy Wednesday to everyone else. I bet you're wondering why I'm bothering to write at all this morning. Well, it is a weekday and it is my deeply ingrained routine. Besides, the cats refuse to let me sleep in for more than a half an hour even on weekends, so I'm up and the rest of the household, save for the cats, still slumbers.

I'm afraid the only tatting I managed yesterday was another snowflake for a gift. The rest of the day was a ton of cleaning and the family trip to the dentist. Yes, I am aware going to the dentist for just a checkup on Christmas Eve is a little weird, but what else were we really doing? Nothing, but cleaning. We ended the day with a viewing of Scrooged followed by the cartoon version of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. The youngest said the title was misleading as he didn't actually steal Christmas. She's awesome like that. She also lost on of her front teeth yesterday making her one tooth shy of a perfect holiday cliche. This also brought on several comical conversations regarding the meeting of Santa and the Tooth Fairy.

So there was yesterday and today will likely be a complete wash. There will be cooking and cleaning, then too many people and cleaning up after those people when they all shuffle off home. Then of course there's the Doctor Who special, winding down for the day and getting ready for normality to attempt to return on Thursday. I really do miss those days as a child when all I had to do for the holidays was show up. Those were simpler times. I guess it's time to get on with it all and again, I hope everyone just has a lovely day.

Holidays

It was such a very long weekend that I'm having trouble this morning remembering what it was that I did first. On Friday I managed to get all the presents wrapped quickly and efficiently, leaving me plenty of time to work on the list of tatting, but I didn't. No, instead I fell victim to a cute knitting pattern I saw from the featured seller on etsy this week. It was a nice, simple mitt pattern and I dug through my stash of yarn, which is much smaller than my stash of thread and made a pair of them for each of my girls. Then we all stayed up late watching movies to celebrate the Solstice.

Saturday required us to run some last minute errands in the rain. Luckily the trip to the mall was fairly painless and all those last minute things were mostly taken care of including buying more, better yarn so I could make myself a pair of mitts. When were were home I knitted and tatted and waited until the evening when we heading to a friends house for a holiday get together. Again we stayed up late and had a merry time.

By Sunday I think I was suffering a little sleep deprivation, partly from the intentional staying up late and partly because our neighbors have this set up in their back yard. Yes, I said back yard, where it shines a light worthy of a stadium into our bedroom that no blinds can keep out. I'm all for festive lighting, but they don't entertain in the backyard and they keep adding more LED craziness. It's madness, madness, I tell you. I did manage some more tatting, some more wrapping and the final errands for Tuesday.

So I guess that brings up to this week. I got a few unexpected orders over the weekend that I need to send out first thing this morning and then there will be last minute cleaning, more mitt knitting which I promise some picture of and probably enough downtime to encourage me to pick a few more pieces from the list to tat up. I've also got to start on the tutorial for tatting onto jewelry bases soon. which will most like be a bobby pin flower. I want to get it up as early in the new year as possible so I can start the year feeling productive. I would send you a holiday wish today, but I'm likely to write again tomorrow as sleeping in is not an option in our house, but if you don't read tomorrow, have a Merry Christmas or if you don't celebrate, have a lovely Tuesday.

What Was I Gonna Say This Time?

Okay, it's one of those mornings when I have nothing planned to write about. I'm sitting here with a long list of items to be tatted and rooms to be cleaned and countless other small tasks that should be attended to, but most likely will not be done any time soon. Instead I find myself thinking of strange and mostly irrelevant topics. Already this morning I have discussed the potential for life on other planets and the rumors over what new product will be announced at Macworld next week.

I feel scattered and unfocused and I blame the winter holidays that throw my schedule off so horribly. I remember when I was in high school I wanted nothing more than to be free to do whatever I liked whenever I liked, but by college I realized that I thrive on structure. While I am much happier to determine that structure myself, I definitely need one in place to function correctly. I need to start the day with coffee and the news. I need to check my email, etsy, twitter, steam forum and blog every weekday morning. When I am forced away from these an other predetermined events for too long everything seems to suffer.

I hope that after Macworld, things settle back into my less than exciting routine and I can really get back to work. Until then I'm afraid you will suffer my inconsequential ramblings...sorry.

Happy Holidays

T'was the day before Christmas and I just finished wrapping the gifts. Back from the coast where the weather was warmer, the people were nicer and the days not nearly long enough, I find myself exhausted and rested all at once. I both love and loath the holidays and I'm glad that they are almost upon us. I really can't wait to share all the gifts that I bought for the family on etsy and I really hope that they love them as well. So much work went into both their creation and their selection and I always worry that a few will fall flat.

I have not picked up a tatting needle in a couple of days and with all the cleaning I must do to host the holiday meal, I'm certain that they will be neglected just a while longer. While I was quite happy with the many sales I received during the last few weeks and I will surely be disappointed to see them dwindle down, I am also looking forward to a little rest and perhaps some time to create new pieces. I've also let a bunch of pieces expire and I will probably donate them someplace since they no longer fit in with my other things.

We also took a trip to Gold Coast Tattoo while we were in Monterey and added some fresh ink in honor of our daughters. My mother-in-law also added a bracelet to her already extensive collection of small tattoos. I haven't uploaded any of my vacation photos yet, but as soon as I do, I'll share a little of my trip with you.

So, have a Merry Christmas tomorrow if that is your thing, if not have some other happy holiday and I'll see you in a couple of days!

The Long Weekend

I'm certainly feeling a little muddled up this morning and it was an amazingly long weekend. It all started with a visit from an old friend, then the Thanksgiving meal at our house. This was followed by a trip to the movies on Friday, decorating the tree on Saturday and a Sunday in with a sick kid. Even though I was able to write that all out in a single thought, it was a very long and drawn out span of time with little of consequence actually getting done.

I got in some yarn on Saturday that was ordered to make a custom tatted scarf, so once I got that all rolled up, I started work on the scarf. I was actually amazed at how much faster the Art Deco scarf is coming along this time. Though I did need to constantly refer back to the pictures of the one I sold for the edging, the motifs worked up like clockwork and the project I was afraid would take up the better part on the week could be done as early as this evening. Speaking of custom order fear, I finally sold the custom caplet to its intended recipient. I had worried that it would not meet expectations, but I worried for nothing. This of course does not mean that I will cease irrational stress over custom orders, but it really is a relieve to have this one on its way to its owner.

Weekend sales were not amazing, but better than I had thought they would be. I still don't think that my free gift or shipping upgrade swayed any casual shoppers and it is much more likely that these purchases would have been made anyway. Still, I feel pretty good about sending freebies out for the holidays. I used to do it with every order, but soon I was spending more time tatting free bookmarks than I was making things to sell. Really, I think people just want what they ordered made well, shipped quickly and friendly customer service, so that's what I've done since.

Well, the other kid is sick now and it promises to be an even longer week than it was a weekend. I did try out an old tatting pattern called beading over the weekend that might make it into the store this week in the form of a new necklace and bracelet, but no promises. I'm likely to remain muddled up for a bit longer.

Handmade Holiday

I am a self professed Gen-X'er. I grew up watching personal computers go from science fiction to a nearly disposable object. I grew along side the video game industry as it changed the face of entertainment. I saw the witnessed the war between beta and VHS long before they changed their names to Blu-ray and Hd-dvd. I watched as vinyl all but died and my walkman became a discman and then an ipod. The point I'm trying to make here is I cannot live without tech and neither can any member of my family. I mention all this because I have begun my holiday shopping and I feel so much pressure to have a handmade holiday and I don't think it is possible for me to comply.

I know I can't be the only one trying to work out this dilemma. I want to support my fellow artisans, I want to be socially responsible and I of course want others to buy handmade to support myself. My family, however, would not be pleased with a holiday that did not include the newest video game release or some piece of fantastic technology. Since making ones family happy should be the focus of the holiday, not some social agenda, I simply can't justify forcing unwanted gifts on them.

I think that I found found a nice middle ground already though, that is a little handmade for everyone this holiday. I've decided that I would get at least one present for everyone at etsy and then the rest of their gifts can be whatever they really want. I also think the key to getting people to accept their handmade gifts is to make sure it is really something they would like, even if it had been bought at the mall. I've forced vegan body lotion and lip balm on my family in the past and I think I might have just wasted my money. I'm going to get it right this time.

I wish I could show you all the amazing things that I have already picked up, but I'm afraid the family would pick now to visit the blog and ruin the surprises. Perhaps after the holidays, I'll have a giant gift feature to show them all off. I'm also encouraging my four year old to make gifts for her cousins, with my help of course, but I think this might start her out with a better appreciation of handmade goodness and as soon as I'm sure the one year old won't try to eat the hot glue, she can help too. We may not have a completely handmade holiday, but perhaps we can have the best of both worlds.

Slow Times

I think I now have an answer to one of the most popular forum questions of the summer. It is a question that sits right along side of, "Why am I not selling?". In fact it's really the same question thinly veiled in sincere curiosity. "What do you do during this slow time?" See, the question points out that times are slow, which translates as, I'm not selling, so tell me what to do to change that. It comes off less whiny than the first question, but that does not change it's nature.

Well, sales have been slow for me as well and I, of course, started out wallowing in self pity, but then I opted to use the time to my advantage. I started working on new pieces and on duplicate pieces in anticipation of busier times. As a result of all this work, my store has reached 100 listings and I have several pieces ready for future venues. Now, I could have very easily spent this slow time wasting mine in the forums whining until it got me a pity sale. I could have fallen into a pit of self doubt and stopped working at all, but I think I chose well.

This convergence of slow sales and productivity may have an even better result as the holidays roll around. All my extra stock will allow me to rest more and create less as the stress of the busy time sets in. Which might mean that I can spend more time with my family without a tatting needle permanently attached to my hand. The moral of the story is, use every bit of time you are given because you never know when you'll get another free minute. Always move forward without dwelling on unpleasant circumstances. I am by no means an optimist, but I do know that no lasting good can come from whining and hard work is the best way to achieve your goals, whatever they may be.

I will be continuing to work on building up stock and I will spend very little time in the forums. I will come up with new designs and I will improve my skills. If I make a few sales along the way, well that's great, but I'm not going to let sales or the lack thereof derail me. I will use this slow time to my advantage, I will not let it beat me and you should not let it beat you either.