Switching gears

My 2010 craft shows are done.  One lack-luster one, one fantastic one and one horrible one.  (Snow storms coinciding with two of them.)  I have a handful of custom things to do this month and then I'm going to jump in imagination first on some completely new projects that I'm excited to start.  I'm also going to work on my etsy shop again... after basically abandoning it for almost a  year.  I do well there when I work at it and I'm finally feeling ready to do the work again.  I'm also rolling around the idea of doing a few craft classes/events.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the shows! 

wow.  It's been quite awhile since I've posted.   I have been so busy with my new job that besides a few coptic bound journals I made to sell in Colorado I haven't done anything.  So I signed up for two shows (maybe three) this fall to MAKE myself create.  I've been having a fun time the last few weeks getting stuff together... and some sewing stuff which I've never done before.   I'll have to get some pictures up soon....if I have time.

we're not the practical kind.

Z's teacher's didn't get anything the could actually use from us this year. But I thought it was cute watching him give each one a flower.  He was super excited and even practiced his "Thank you for being my teacher" line to get it to be just the right volume.  But once we stepped into the classroom he was overcome with shyness and mumbled it with his head down, flowers limp in his hand. 

In an etsy treasury!

I was included in a dancing themed treasury!!

Check it out:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4bd98f958de56d91c962b237/sacred-dance?show_panel=true

I don't completely understand treasuries.  But people are able to put together small collections of items from various shops and sometimes they're used for the front page of etsy!  It's always fun to get a message that a stranger has picked one of my items to include in theirs!

perspective.

soon.... I'll look across at you...

and with a twinkle in my eye whisper

"Can you believe we're actually here!"

I got a job this past month.  I love it.  But at the end of the day I have no energy to create anything new... which is fine because my new job is great and pays way more than basement handicrafts.  Which is also why I haven't updated in well over a month.  My March my etsy sales have totaled $4!  four whole dollars. I have also decided to put craft shows back in the cupboard for now.  Maybe I'll do one local one this summer if I have enough time to create some things, because I do love everything about the process of creating and selling.

My kids, who have been going back and fourth with each other all day, are now on the couch watching tv before bed.  I went in and Kate was asleep.  Zachariah told me that she "looked like an angel".  I have no idea where he got that from... but there is hope yet!

german ladybugs.

I was asked to make a journal for someone who loved ladybugs and was going to germany for awhile.  After quite a bit of sketching and abandon attempts I finally came up with this...

It's my second coptic journal I've done. 7 signatures. 16 pages a signature.  It's the first one that's I've actually made the cover boards for.  A mixture of white and random papers. Two sewn pockets.

And last week was a good week for Zachariah... he got a tie, which he insisted on wearing for a few days straight, and a harmonica.

just had to do something!

The bad thing about getting cable is that I've ended up spending too many nights watching the lamest things. The good thing about getting cable is that tonight I got SO sick of sitting on the couch that I took out the printing blocks and cutter I got for my birthday (six months ago!!) and made my first stamp!  I hope to hone my skills.. but I'm still relatively happy for my first stamp since junior high!

Love is in the air!

I just finished my first valentine order. Matchbook/Notepad valentines with pictures of rats loving cheese and birds loving worms!

In other news... my son decided to play barber on himself  last night as I was doing dishes.So I had to shave his head... something I've NEVER done.  He was worried that his "friends would laugh at him".. but once he felt it he was excited because it was "prickly like my friend Cole!"

I keep his hair relatively long (he just got a haircut last weekend). So I can't get over the fact that he looks a little like a boy with cancer.  But I would have been fine with that...... putting them to bed I noticed that he cut Kate's hair too!!  A big chunk on the back side of her head.  so she has a half mullet!!!!  She will be wearing pigtails for months now!!!

Snuggies. Journals. and Little Cookie Makers.

Nicely wrapped up in my deluxe sage snuggie I am ready to face the cold basement to make an update--mainly because cleaning the house holds no excitement for me.  I am convinced that winter is a direct result from the fall and would move to Hawaii if that were feasible.  It's not. So a deluxe sage snuggie during a black friday sale it was.

(okay.. I must add that I was going to get a picture of a snuggie and super-impose my face on it... but got too distracted from the website.  It sounds like a group 9th graders wrote it together in their marketing class.  My favorite lines: The sage green Snuggie will make you look neater and more put together on those brisk days when you decide to wear it out. The sage green Snuggie blanket is an exclusive color that you can wear at any occasion.  Wear it out to eat with friends... I dare you. Wear it to work tomorrow.. I double dog dare you! Wear it to your friend's wedding... I triple dog dare you!! Myself...I won't wear it past the basement steps. My husband isn't quite as convinced that it makes me look "neater"... fatter maybe... but not "neater". )

Monday was a friend's birthday so I decided an hour before the party (not recommended) to learn how to make coptic bound journals so that I could give her one since she likes my mixed art journals. Really not that complicated at all.  I had two seconds to take pictures in my dark basement.. but of course I have to share them anyway! The cover was a picture from a really old medical book... a drawing of a body pasted on chipboard with the tissue over the picture with the names of the organs printed on it. (She is in school to be a physicians assistant). I cut a transparency and put it over the top to protect the tissue.  Connected it all with eyelets.  Six signatures of 8 full pages.  Blue embroidery thread.

 

 
And how was my Christmas?? Thanks for asking.  It was nice.  No traveling. My sister was here Christmas to New Years.  Ben made me a dvd of some pictures of the kids to music as my gift. I tried to be the "fun mom" who bakes with her kids... Kate took the job of cleaning the beater very seriously.

Zachariah got outside with Ben to shovel, have a snowball fight and make snow angels before it got too cold.

I also got to meet twice with Sarah, my business partner from California, because she has relatives in the area. It sometimes gets a little freaky with how closely our ideas for the business are. We're not just on the same page.. we're in the same sentence. If we could only come up with a name we would get SO many things rolling... we're kind of stalled until the right one lands on us.

Alright... time to see how much I can get cleaned by the time Ben comes home... a daily race.