Sigh

I got to start off this morning one of my least favorite ways, cancelling a large order in my etsy shop because it came from Italy. Oh, how I wish that I etsy had a tool to exclude a single country from purchasing from our shops. I'm certain that I've mentioned this before, but Italy has extremely restrictive customs regulations protecting its native industries. So if Italy is known for making something, you cannot ship that thing made somewhere else into the country, this of course includes lace, but also shoes, hats, leather goods...it's madness. Anyway, I occasionally will get an order from someone there who did not read my policies stating I can't ship to Italy, so then I spent twenty minutes, refunding, cancelling and explaining their own country's restrictions. Oh well, there's really nothing for it.

I didn't do much of anything over the weekend. Well I did finish the cowl I was knitting and then I knit up some boot cuffs, because I can no longer not be knitting apparently. Oh, and I did get one thing sussed out on the new tatting project. The little section I was trying to fill between the motifs got filled. I tried so hard to work something up separately from the piece, but in the end I just had to work right on it to find the right flow. I think I know what's coming next on it, but I won't know for sure until I get another motif tatted up and they are not quick little pieces.

It's a school and work holiday in our house, so I'm not sure I'll get round to much tatting. When everyone is home and bored, we tend to go adventuring, but if I get anything at all done, you'll hear about it tomorrow. Here's hoping I get a nice order in the shop today to make up for the one I had to turn away this morning. Either way I should be back to lace making tomorrow.

Weekend Recap

What a long, busy weekend. Not tatting busy unfortunately, but busy none the less. On Friday morning I finished up the crochet blanket that I've been working on. For some reason I actually kept track of how long I worked on it, I guess just so I'd have a ball park for next time I'm asked, and it was about 30 hours in all. It was so much crochet that when I finally picked up my tatting needle again the thread felt beyond miniscule.

I was pretty happy with how it turned out, particularity once it was washed and soft. Oh and I told you I'd get you the link to the edging...not that anyone asked, but I really liked using it, so I feel it's only right to share the source. It's the crochet All Shawl by Doris Chan. It's a free pattern and if you're comfortable modifying patterns, it's quite versatile as well.

The rest of the weekend was visiting wonderful friends and family and eating far too much. There was a little more cleaning of course and we managed to put up all our holiday decor. We're still only using the unbreakable ornaments because we still don't trust our army of cats, but the tree still looks as if Christmas threw up on it, so we'll call that a win.

Unfortunately I sold only one small piece over the weekend, so I have little to do today besides get back to schooling with the kids. I also finished tatting up my stack of snowflake ornaments for my mother-in-law over the weekend. I still need to glitter them up and get them on hooks, but once that's done, it's all just sitting about hoping the shop picks up so I can feel less guilty and actually do some holiday shopping. Here's crossing my fingers for some business.

Crossing Fingers

Well, there wasn't a single snowflake in my life yesterday. Quite thankfully, just as I was finished writing for the morning, I got an order in the shop. So I spent the day working on remaking the pieces sold. Among them was one of my larger bracelets and a tatted ring.

The bracelet took most of the day, but the ring is what I managed to take a photo of for the blog. It had been a long time since I made one of these. They're fairly simple, but with the weaving, they take a bit longer than an ordinary, or smaller one.

Just as I was finishing this for the day, I sold one more small piece as well. That gives me something to work on for today. Though it is just a pendant, so it shouldn't take long and then I can get back to the snowflakes.  I'm just so very glad to have made one sale, let alone two for the day. You have no idea how much I am crossing my fingers that it is the beginning of a trend and not just an isolated incident.

It's Something Anyway

Well, I was a little more on task yesterday, but just barely. It's finally gotten cold around these parts...not cold for most people, but cold for us, so I was cuddled on the couch most of the day which a good position for tatting. The first thing I did was remake the piece I sold on Monday, a Star Flower boutonniere. I didn't really need to as it's listed in the shop as a custom order where you can choose your own colors, but I needed something small and interesting to make.

I used the same pattern for this that is available for sale in my shop as a pendant pattern, The Star Flower Motif. It's always a little more fiddly to make anything attached to a pin finding, but again, I needed something a little interesting so I would focus and get tatting again. It worked too, because after this I started making more snowflakes for my mother-in-law. I've made tons of them already, but she was never clear about how many she would eventually want for gifting. I figured if nothing else, it would get me back into the groove of tatting at a normal pace again.

I'm still hoping for more sales in the etsy shop for the upcoming holidays, but so far this November is about half the sales as last November which was down already from the years before. It's been a sad steady decline. Oh well, nothing for it, but to keep tatting and crossing my fingers right?

Less Than Fun

I'm afraid all the weekend had in mind for me was a ton of work and really not a bit of relaxing. Sure, I sat a lot after cleaning, but it was not relaxing. Well, let me back up a bit, I didn't hear from the buyer with the missing package all weekend and since the whole matter of missing packages stresses me out, I simply decided to remake all the lost pieces 'just in case'. So every time I got to sit, it was to work on those pieces. When I wasn't sitting, I was cleaning.

The husband had decided that we should get the carpets clean before the holidays, since 6 cats make them, well, less than pretty even with regular vacuuming. This meant I was using the carpet cleaner to deep clean them all after he vacuumed. It's times like these that I seriously regret purchasing a two story house. Anyway, the carpet cleaner made my hands sore, well it made all of me sore, but my hands specifically, which meant sitting down to tat when I was done with a few rooms was less than relaxing. I felt like I was on a 'just in case' deadline though, so I needed to work fast.

So I guess what I'm saying is that I'm tired and have little to show for it. To make matters worse, I emailed the customer again last night, this time directly, to find out what they preferred and wouldn't you know it, I heard back this morning that they would prefer a refund. This means I now have double pieces that I don't really need to have on hand and money I don't have until the shipping insurance, hopefully, pays out to refund. I do not like the look of the week to come. I sure hope that the Universe proves me wrong on this one.

Away

As expected, we were out of the house the entire day and since I could not bring tatting with me on the trip, I did none. The field trip was a train trip to the state capitol where we went to a museum and then toured the capitol building. After that it was a bit of shopping in Old Town Sac and back on the train.

This is the kids at our first stop, the California Museum. Honestly, I am just wiped right now and I can't believe I still have to do a day of schooling today. Not to mention the depressing message I got upon returning home in the evening. Okay, maybe not depressing, just frustrating. A rather sizable order has not arrived at its destination. Like others before it, it appears to have gotten lost or stolen just after leaving my hands. I did insure the package, so hopefully the claim will go smoothly, but I still need to hear back from the customer to find out whether I'm returning their money or if I have some large pieces I need to quickly make and send as replacements. It will certainly put me in a funk until it is resolved, but there's really nothing for it other than to deal with it as it comes.

So here's to a quiet weekend with some rest both for my sore feet and my stressed out head.

This and That

I had quite a lovely day yesterday. It started out pretty bad though. I got a sale in the shop from Italy that I had to immediately cancel. If you were unaware, shipping things from the US to Italy is problematic because they have some of the strictest customs regulations I've ever seen. Primary among them for me is the prohibitions of "Haberdashery and sewn articles of any kind, including trimmings and lace; handkerchiefs; scarves; shawls, needlework including stockings and gloves; bonnets, caps, and hats of any kind". This means I can't ship anything I make, so order canceled, customer disappointed, and day started on wrong foot.

I tried to turn things around by finishing the pair of dream catcher earrings with spiders I was working on, then after schooling we went to an open house at the husbands work. They moved into a new facility some time ago, but this is the first time we've had cause to visit. When we got back from that I started graphing out the new saying for the cross stitch I'm working on. I got so busy doing that that I hadn't yet checked my phone or email. Turns out I had received not one, but two orders while I was distracted! So I went to work remaking one of the pieces I sold, a bracelet I call rickrack. It's been awhile since I had cause to make this one. It's one of my simpler designs, but I love the shape it makes.

The other piece I sold I couldn't remake because I am completely out of the beads that I used to make, yet another reason I tend to use few beads in my work.  I went back to the cross stitch and with the new saying fully graphed, I got most of it stitched. I still have a bit more writing and then it's onto the additional elements, to make it more appropriate to my household. I am truly hoping there will be more tatting distractions for me today, but if not the end of the cross stitch should stretch my creative muscles a bit and that's always a good thing.

Surprisingly Busy

Well, I got a monkey wrench thrown in my plans yesterday. It was a pleasant monkey wrench, but still. The first day back to schooling with the kids was fairly quick, but rife with complaints. I suppose we're all just going to have to ease back into it slowly. After that I had plans to get the new design made into a choker and list the bracelet when I received one order after another just as I came downstairs. One of them contained a mask that needed making so that became the task for the day.

I also had a most interesting issue to contend with for the afternoon. One transaction contained an order for two pairs of ankle corsets. I thought there was a possibility that the customer thought that each one was separate and the two pairs was meant to be just two pieces, so I contacted the customer to confirm. Turns out I was right and they had meant to just get one pair, so I set about to cancel that extra pair and refund the money. Refunding is easy enough through paypal and usually canceling the one item in the order at etsy is easy too except apparently when it's a quantity of the same item. Then you can only cancel all of the pieces in the order or none of them. So where does this leave me... I'm avoiding fees if I cancel both and I lose those same fees if I leave both in the order. I could have cancelled the whole order and had the customer order again, but that seems like an awful lot of hassle to make someone go through to complete an order. So in the end I left it alone and became a little irritable knowing that my accounting numbers will be wrong and I'll have to remember to manually adjust them later. Oh well, there's nothing for it.

So the new design remains unlisted and it will likely stay that way unless the sun comes out for me to get proper pictures. Not that I don't have plenty of other tasks to take up my time. There's the mask to finish as well as the remaking of the other pieces that just sold. I guess they just go on the list with the rest of them. I'm starting to think I'm never going to catch up and I'll just have to list the unmade things as custom, just to get them listed. That wouldn't be so bad really. Most people have the patience to wait for a piece to be made, just not during the holidays. I also have more time to work on demand, so perhaps that's the way to go here. I'll slowly relist the unmade pieces as custom, the queue clears out, and I can just work on what is immediately requesting my attention. Yes, I think we have a plan. Let's see if I actually do it now.

Hello There

Well good morning Monday...unless of course you are reading this later in the day, in which case a simple good Monday for you. Well, my weekend was full to bursting and that is all due to one little thing that happened in the early afternoon on Friday. I was lacking any motivation to get custom pieces remade and I was trying to think of what to make next. I tossed around the idea of a circlet then stumbled upon a few of them tatted already, but before I could wonder anymore I received a large order.

How large, you ask? Well let's just say that this morning I still have to do the finishing on the pieces so that I can get them in the post later. The pieces are needed by the 9th and even if I drag my feet at this point they will get there in plenty of time. No, I am not going to drag my feet at this point. I was a tatting fool over the weekend though getting the pieces that needed making done and as soon as they are in the mail there are several pieces that now need remaking. The kicker is that none of them are small, easy to make ones. They are all ones that generally take me a full day or longer to make, so that will be basically my week long task.

I also attended the Atwater Fall Festival with the family over the weekend. It's just a small fair that they do every year one town over. The reason I bring this up is that we ran into someone we know running a handmade jewelry booth. Apparently she also has started an etsy shop, but has had no luck there. While passing on what I have learned during my tenure there I was also reminded why I do not bother to do fairs and such in this area. Really, there are so few people who get it here, it being the value of handmade goods. The Fall Festival is dripping with resellers and no one seems to want to pay more than a few bucks for anything. Our area is also at the top of unemployment and foreclosure lists, so while I'd like to be mad at them for this mentality, it is understandable. Then since I have no interest in paying booth fees and traveling to find buyers that can and will purchase handmade goods, I remain as ever solely an etsy seller.

So then, I'm off to get making for the week. If I manage to sneak in anything new and interesting between production modes, I'll be certain to let you know.

This One Is A Spat

Another day, another storm. It's wet, it's windy and I really have no desire to leave the house. So why did I run outside to stop the barbecue cover from blowing away, in my slippers? Why did I then run inside and not wipe my wet, slick feet on the rug before stepping onto the tile? Because, apparently, I thought it would be fun to slip all cartoon like, my legs flying into the air while I land on my bum so hard that sitting is still now, nearly 24 hours later, painful. Sure, I should feel lucky that I landed firmly on one cheek, sparing my tailbone and leaving me a side to sit on, but really I'm just annoyed at my lack of forethought. To recap, my rear hurts.

In other news, I was hard at work on my newest ankle corset design. Everything started to come together and the shape started to form. I did do one thing I rarely do while designing, I did cut out the bottom center motif you see here and replaced it with a smaller, different one. That's the thing about making pieces meant to fit the body. It's hard to visualize where bends are needed and this one was sticking nearly straight up when I arched my foot, which would have made it look ridiculous in heels.

Again, I don't have the final picture yet, but I added an edging to help it match another piece and aside from choosing the final color gradation, the prototype is done. I'll probably play with colors today, or I might just take a break from this and pull out those fingers and give them some attention. I am wishing however that I had started working the gloves in ecru as counting stitches with black thread is quite the eye strain and as I get further on, I'll need to do that. No, I didn't write anything down. Do I ever write anything down?

Still waiting on emails. Of course this illustrates how insane I would be if I was waiting on actual mail...insane. I have also been neglecting my shop a bit, which is ironic given the amount of energy I usually pour into the thing. So many of my recent projects have been custom pieces I've been emailed about, or secret projects, so I just don't have anything new to list in the store. I've even let a few things expire since they were more seasonal and despite what people say about clearing out old inventory to make room for more, I've got plenty of room as I'm certain they do too, so I'll just reintroduce them when appropriate. Anyway, traffic is down and I think I need to get on some advertising or something too. I refuse to use all my social media to constantly stream promos as I think it's actually counterproductive. I will have to think outside the box a bit to get my precious attention, you know, when I get around to it. Back to tatting then.

Too Mean

I'm up, I'm up. Seriously, I haven't a clue as to why I am so ridiculously tired lately. Of course I suppose it might have something to do with my daily task list getting longer by the minute, but still.

So anyway, I have a story to tell. I have again garnered much attention due to my original tatted mask on Instructables. It was almost a year ago when I first joined the site and since then I have produced three full tutorials and one video. They've been viewed a ridiculous number of times and I've been able to help and answer questions from dozens of people trying tatting for the first time or just trying my pieces. The comments have always either been encouraging or questions, but never mean...until today. Now, I'll grant you that it's not all that mean and I really ought not take it to heart especially given the sheer number of those who have made, admired or purchased one of my masks, but it still burns a bit.

You can see the comment here as it is probably still the first one there. If not, I imagine a short scroll and you'll see it. I'd spend a few paragraphs arguing the point made, but really that's a waste of energy, so instead I'll just share and let you be the judge. Really, it would take much worse than that to scare me away as the site has been really nothing but good for me and well for tatting. So many people who like to try new things have been exposed to something they probably knew little or nothing about, so yeah...it still lands in the positive column.

I'm still tatting as fast as I can to keep masks in stock and I will keep doing so until the holiday is upon us an the mask fades away. I just wish that paypal would stop flagging my customers payments. Seriously I've had two flags just this week and there was another not too long ago. I feel like they're watching me not watching out for me as the flagging system claims. This seems to only happen when I have things that need to go out on a deadline. Never when I have tons of time, no that would be convenient. So know, when people are ordering masks for Halloween or a masquerade ball around the corner, I get to sit on my hands and not ship their pieces for at least another day. Yes, I am annoyed. Gotta keep moving forward though, no time to dawdle.

update: The "mean" comment has now been removed! Thanks for the support.

Free At Last

You know the other day when I was talking about all that creative rule breaking that I do, well what I didn't mention are the self made rules that I have a hard time getting past. I do a lot of different craft type activities and when I first started my etsy shop it was full of various crap I had created. Crochet, knitted bears, macrame necklaces, beaded bracelets...all kinds of stuff. Eventually I was confident enough and focused enough on my tatting to say no more and turned it into a tatting only emporium. Okay, maybe not emporium, but it's a cool word. So know I sit here attempting to create a mask based on a video game image my husband showed me. It was a trailer for the game Bayonetta and one of the characters sports a lacy looking butterfly mask. I was then charged with attempting to recreate this piece.

I printed out the screen cap and started drawing potential motifs upon it. When I though I had a good section to attempt I began a bit of free form tatting. It was an utter failure. Besides the long unruly chains, the rings are well...too round to recreate the feel of the mask. After much musing I realized what my problem was. I was thinking inside my own little box. Who said every element needs to be tatted? Well...I did when I tatted my first mask. I only used wire for the eyes to give the piece structure.

No more! I shall break free the chains of my own oppression. I have in my hands a spool of wire and with it, I shall create the mask. Upon the sturdy base of metal I shall place any tatting that shall occur. Sure it feels a little wrong, but just because I'm a tatter, doesn't mean that it my only means of creation. I know that I put myself in this box. I've no one else to blame and I shall set myself free. Not all at once though...maybe just a step or two at first, but I'm moving, I swear.

I Know I Packed It

I woke up in a good mood and then I got one of those messages that puts a cramp in the whole day. It was the 'something is missing from my package...are you sure you sent it?' message. First one reacts with sheer, 'oh, crap', then I do a little looking to see exactly what transaction and the second I see it, I know for certain that everything was in that package. Just to be extra sure, I spend the next 15 minutes tearing apart every corner of the office to see if I don't 'find' said piece, the whole time chanting, ' I know I packed it'. I DO know that I packed it, and I sent a message back asking them to please recheck the package to see if it somehow slipped away from the rest of the pieces. This has actually happened before and the second piece had done exactly that as they tore open the package. Even knowing, I will spend the rest of the day doubting myself and flinching in anticipation of negative feedback, worrying that she has already tossed the envelope or tissue and there's nothing to be done for it. See, great way to start the day.

I shall try to move on here though, I got a special order for a mask yesterday. It's only a slight variation on my 'A Pale Kind Of Jewel' mask. Instead of the clear crystals, it's being made with black diamond ones for a more subtle sparkle and I have reshaped the eyes to a more catlike shape. They now come to more of a down point in the center and are a bit more flattened across the top. I shaped the wires first and am now tatting the design onto them. So far I'm made few changes to the actual pattern to adjust for the new shape. I have separated a few rings that were connected in the original design and will better space them when I wire the wire at the end. I figure that way I can keep the shape without losing the core design. I'll take some pictures when I get further along, or at least when I'm finished so we can all see how I did.

See, I wrote one whole paragraph and I'm already back to thinking about the lost piece...grrr. Anyway, the family is off to a 'field trip' with the other students in the virtual academy today and boy I am overusing the fake quotes today. All the families simply meet where we are going so that's why I hesitate to call it a real field trip. I don't mind telling you that I'm a bit nervous and uncomfortable about the whole thing. As you might imagine, my appearance occasionally puts people off, Generally, I'm perfectly fine with that, as the people I, umm, upset are not usually those that I care to spend time with anyway. If I am going to continue attending these events for my daughters sake, I would really like to not be a pariah. This is compounded by the fact that I am not what you might call, social. I'm painfully shy in new situations particularly when taken away from places that I know well. You know, like on a field trip, to a museum, I've never been to, in another city. I think you get it. Yes, I will suck it up and might even end up enjoy myself. That is, if I can forget about that damn lost piece message...sigh.

Here I Go Again

Okay, it wasn't so bad...the pre move out inspection, that is. As I had hoped nothing looks bad enough to warrant taking funds out of our deposit save for a couple of window screen ripped up by neighborhood cats, trying to get in the house. I do, however, have to clean, well, everything. We've decided at this point to try and wait until we're actually moving and/or moved to do the rest of the cleaning though. At this point the house is so full of boxes that we'd probably have to do it all again anyway. We are still waiting for the new paperwork too...you know the ones that require a seven day waiting period before the loan can close. Our lender says he's trying to get an addendum from the sellers bank so he can proceed and it has not been forthcoming. I swear, someone is losing an eye if we can't get this all wrapped up before we need to be out of this house. I know, we can ask for an extension here if we need one, but I don't want to have to do that.

Alright, enough house stuff. Yesterday the task was completed. All the pieces listed in my etsy store are now made and ready to ship. No waiting period on anything. I feel very accomplished. Of course I also sat for a bit wondering what to do next. I decided to go ahead and get on another mask. This time, I'm remaking the Valentine Evening mask, which is just my avatar mask, but in burgundy with garnet colored crystals. That ought to keep me busy for a bit.

Oh, and one small rant this morning. Someone is trying to sell a piece made with the necklace pattern I shared on Instructables. Again, I am annoyed. This time on Artfire, where I have no presence and they have renamed it, but it is clearly my necklace. I know, the minute I started to share my patterns I opened myself up for this, but it still ticks me off. No mention of me as the designer at all and again it is someone I am acquainted with. The whole reason I began using only vintage patterns and designing my own pieces was to never infringe on another persons work. Anyway, rant over. I haven't even complained to them yet & honestly...I hope that they read this and are guilted into fixing it themselves. I know that's very passive aggressive of me, but I'm not in the mood for direct confrontation, so there. Feel free to tell me I'm being petty, it's cool.

So more tatting and a little cleaning today. We also get to do a walk through and sign some more paperwork with the sellers. So we might have more information to share come Monday. Hopefully, everything gets sorted for the Wunderkammer over the weekend as well so the giveaway will proceed over there. All in all, gonna be a crazy weekend.

Crap

I had a bit of a freak out yesterday. As I was working on the Wunderkammer, I tool a quick look at the date to schedule the post. Then I looked at the calendar and realized that the end of the month is a week away...a week. If all goes well, we will be home owners this time next week. This realization sent me on a whirlwind of packing that lasted most of the day exhausting me completely. Of course when my husband returned home after his trip he dismissed my urgency. You see, we only just put in our 30 day notice at our current residence, so we have a large cushion to get everything moved. What he doesn't get is all the other stuff I need to get done and how many of those things need solid dates to be accomplished. You know address changes, utilities moving, cable, DSL, not to mention all my etsy business. I know, I know, take a deep breath...it will all be fine.It will, when it's all over.

Needless to say I got zero tatting done yesterday. I never even held my needle. I haven't decided whether it really is lucky that I don't have any custom orders on deck. Sometimes they serve me best when I'm busy, giving the day more structure. I set out certain periods for the tatting among my other daily tasks keeping me motivated to move forward. Without that pressure, I tend to meander through the day getting things done in no particular order, even the packing is just a random assortment or rooms, rather than simply completing one then moving onto the next. When I have an order though, there's a virtual checklist in my head. Yeah, I'm not really sure which is better.

It has now become clear that this is one of those verbal vomit sort of days. I've nothing important to say, so I'm just babbling incoherently until I think the post is long enough. I've much to do so perhaps I should just get on with the stalling that I will inevitable do for the greater part of the day. Yep, I'm a role model of efficiency, come follow me.

Communicate

I'm not an easily ruffled personality. I tend to go with the flow whenever possible, why stress over things that you cannot change. It is best to accept the hand you're dealt and work with what you've got. There are of course exceptions to this course of action. I'm not a complete push over, I just prefer not to get worked up over the little things. That being said, I got all into it yesterday over, well, a little thing. Monday morning I made a sale that needed to be delivered by Thursday. It was in state, no problem...until Paypal flagged the payment. The site stated it would take 'up to 24 hrs' to review and release the funds. Ok, I have a day, it's still cool. right?

Twenty-five hours later, still no cleared payment. Now, I'm annoyed. Finding no resolution on the site, I made a fruitless phone call where the agent tells me the review takes '24-48 hours' to review. To which I respond,'Then why does it say up to 24 hours?" The fellow clearly ruffled says I can send a message on the site. Frustrated, I bark my goodbyes and hand up. I proceeded to write my message and right after I clicked send, I received the cleared payment message. Aaarrrggghhh.

I must point out that my problem was not with the time frame of the review, I get it, I do. They are covering their own bums and consequently mine. I appreciate the effort. My issue is with their ability to communicate. If the time frame is 24-48 hours, just say that for goodness sake. If you think that something might even remotely take longer than you say, you might just want to add, 'some reviews may take slightly longer'. See, that was easy. if you're going to miscommunicate with your customers, at least do it the other direction. You know, under promise and over deliver. That I can hang with, everyone wins when you say something will take up to a week and it only takes two day. I could be saying that because it's what I do, but I still think it's the better way to go here. Whew, glad that's all out of my system now.

Just Words

I seem to already be settling into a new daily routine. The new balancing act now contains the tasks of cleaning and packing things away. I'm trying for 'a little a day' approach. I figure this is the least likely to interrupt daily living, for anything that upset the kids schedule too much, destroys. We dropped off some updated paperwork at the loan office yesterday and out real estate agent tells us escrow will open any day now. So aside from moving into a different phase, we are still basically in the dark, waiting.

I've been very fortunate during my sale to sell a good many large pieces, masks, chokers and whatnot. This does put me in the position of having to decide whether to relist even more pieces as custom listings or simply wait until I have them remade. I hate listing because then I have to work on demand, normally not a big issue, but with current events can be a bit too stressful. Then again, I hate not having those signature pieces listed because they can't sell if they're not listed and I doubt many people troll the sold items looking for things to buy no matter how many times I make that suggestion. I will probably opt for a combination of the two, some listed, some waiting and hope that I choose the right ones to relist.

The end of my knitting project is in sight. I haven't gotten any in progress photos mostly because it's my bedtime project. Not much desire to get up and fetch a camera at that point in the day. When it is finished. I'll get some pictures for the blog. I have been horrible at adding images here lately. It must be awful boring to have all these stark works filling up the page, but I hate adding pictures for no good reason. Since I haven't made anything new, there's just not much besides family stuff on the camera. See, I just looked for something and couldn't find a thing. One of these days I'll do one of those wordless posts or something and you'll all be confused.

July

Wow, July, huh? I'm been caught up in so many different things recently that time is just flying by. That, however, is not necessarily a good thing. It occurred to me only this morning that we're going on day four without a sale in the etsy shop. I know, many of you are cursing me for that complaint, but it's not so much a complaint as it is surprise at not having noticed sooner. I have gotten back to tatting up sold pieces. I finished up a Voodoo mask and started a pair of barefoot sandals yesterday. I should finish up those and then I'll get on something with yarn. It might be hot as Hades here, but its fall on the flip side of the planet so it's not that crazy of an idea.

I know I have mentioned that I love the Internet. Sure, it's full of creepy people and bizarre gossip, but where else could I mention a problem and receive helpful and well thought out support from people on the other side of the country. So, thank you Internet for allowing me to connect with other people. Between my blogs and twitter I feel like I have a great network of people to call upon and as a stay at home mom, I really need other adults during the daytime. I do have a great husband and a helpful family near me that I would never trade, but boy does the Internet fill in the blanks.

Not much else to share, I'm afraid. Since the store is slow, I've decided to put off the new corset purchase. We're going to Monterey on our annual anniversary trip and I think affording that is more important that buying something that's just meant to skinny me up a bit. I'm still wearing this one about 23 hours a day. Sleeping in it is easy and comfortable and though I think this size has done all it can do, wearing it will at least maintain until I get the smaller one. I'm certain to share when I get the next one and start the tightening process once again.

What A Week

Boy, the Internet is a strange place to live sometimes. Like so many others, I spent a big chunk of time glued to twitter yesterday whilst dramas real and imagined played out at the speed of sound. I did manage to get a few more pendant listings up, which means today I'll list just four more from the fair batch and then I'm all done. I've also spent a lot more time knitting than tatting the last few days. I guess I just can't seem to get back into my normal routine with all the extraneous events. Speaking of which, my husbands birthday is tomorrow, so if you know him, wish him a good one.

I know I'm rambling a bit today, I've got no cohesive thoughts to share, just an amalgamation of stuff, like this next story. Yesterday I asked the twitterverse why they were following me as I have had a bout of followers that I don't understand, they aren't friends of a friend or etsy sellers and I didn't get why or how they found me. This morning I saw a response from one of them, then they unfollowed me. I went to their twitter stream and I saw that they called someone so damn cocky at about the same time. Now, I have no ides if that was directed at me, but I got all defensive over it. I obsessed about it really for a good half hour. I wasn't even on the twitter when the response came in, so I couldn't react to it...yeah I know I shouldn't worry about it, but I live in the internet and I do like it when people like me.

What else...yes, I have found the perfect collaborator for the wunderkammers redesign and thanks so much to all of you who offered your kind help. I'm gonna keep it all on the down low until it's closer to fruition, but suffice it to say, it should look amazing. The project wonderful ad spot is also up and running and has made me a whole 3 cents so far. No, I didn't think it was going to make me rich, but it is amazing how well it just seems to run itself. I might even throw one up here one day. I do kind of like the idea of giving people really affordable advertising for their etsy or other micro businesses.

I do have another question to ask you all. I know some of you have used places like cafe press to sell merchandise. Do you have an opinion of any of the other similar companies, good or bad? I do still want to set something like that up for the wunderkammer and thought I'd cull your vast knowledge for information before I make a false step. Again, I'm not in any rush to get started on it, just doing a little groundwork first. I almost said legwork, but that seems ridiculous as I am clearly sitting down and don't plan on moving any time soon. So that's it for this week. Here's hoping no more icons die, Iran finds a little peace and the Transformers movie I'm seeing tomorrow doesn't suck.

Done...For Now

Deep breath...they are all done. That's right, all the custom orders that had been bogging me down are now complete packed and ready to go off with the mail. This sweet relief gave me a small window to knit again. It was like turning off my brain. I don't do it much now, but there was a time when I was always knitting. My hands can take care of all but the most complex patterns without so much as nudging my brain. I got to the point in the scarf/wrap pattern where I start dropping stitches. It's one of those things that no matter how many time you've done it on purpose, it still feels like you're doing something a bit wrong, but as the pattern starts to slowly emerge, I'm getting excited to see the final piece.

I will stop with the knitting today in exchange for getting some of my pieces off the custom list and put on the ready to ship one. I certainly don't mind having a couple of things sitting there, but I think I've got over half a dozen right now and with the run that was all of them in a row, the prudent thing would be to get more of them ready to go. I did have one more custom request sitting around, a face veil, but I think I'm gonna pass on that one. I think that it might be possible, but I really not sure that tatting is the way to go with something that should have nice drape, you know? I'm going to leave it short today and get back to work now.