Delivering Today

.

Productive Sunday

.

At 8:15 this morning we lost power for 7 hours. It was a neighborhood thing, don't know why it happened but Rochester Gas & Electric fixed something on a pole this afternoon. The dairy farm across the street and the tree farm next door have generators. Since we lost power for 5 days a couple of years back, I've been meaning to ask Steve if he thinks we should get one.

Today wasn't a big deal but I think I'm feeling grumpy because I was gypped out of part of my day. That's silly because I did the same things I would have done if we had had power. I crafted a bunch of new pieces and because it was so warm out today, I was able to spray paint some frames in the garage. My studio was filled with sunshine so I had plenty of light to work by. But as I said to Steve - I enjoy working in silence. I enjoy being with my own thoughts. I like my company. But after a couple of hours, we'd had a nice visit and I was ready to hang with my Tivoed friends. I felt so bored, even though I was having fun crafting.

One of new things I'm going to offer is cards suitable for framing. It's the #2 comment I get from customers, "I'm not going to give this away, I'm going to frame it." (The #1 comment is, "You must have a lot of patience!") So my plan is to make cards with designs that do not go all the way to the edges, so someone could frame this if they want.

I always wonder what percentage of my customers actually do frame the cards. So, in an effort to give the customer what they want, I'm pretty sure I'm also going to offer frames. I'll make these cards all 5-1/2" square (because that's what fits the 6" envelopes I bought recently on eBay, meant to buy 5-1/2" envelopes). And I'll offer black metal frames, already assembled, for my cost plus a little. They will come with acid-free foam core backing, Plexiglas and wire ready for hanging. Maybe I'll include a note with the frame about spray painting them to coordinate with the card. Or I'll offer to do that? Not sure about this part. But the card can be used as a card or slipped into the frame.

Any thoughts on this?

This one will be sold as a card because the design comes too close to the edges, unless one frames it in a float frame, which is another option I'm considering. But I don't want to offer very many options - I don't want to be in the framing business, I just want to offer another service to my customers. I buy the metal frames at a good price. I haven't looked into square float frames, but I will, just to see.

See? Frame-able!

This design will go into a 7" frame. The threadwork is so intricate, I thought it deserved to be framed, rather than a card.

I also finished 4 framed pieces for an order. I'll be assembling those later tonight and will post pictures of those tomorrow. And I'm working on another custom piece for an order, sans frame. I started a new batch of bookmarks but ran out of Xyron adhesive before I got very far. I'll buy a new cartridge on my lunch hour tomorrow. The bookmarks are for an order too.

Today Steve went to his brother's to listen to football on the radio. Simon went to lunch with his girlfriend and her family. Other than Reggi defending our hearth & home against all the Christmas tree buyers wandering the tree farm that surrounds us, I had a very productive, yet quiet day. You know the quiet I mean, no refrigerator humming, no nothing!

So it was actually a very good day. I've got nothing to be grumpy about.

Oh! I did get my studio cleaned up spotlessly yesterday. I did take a Before picture but haven't taken any After pictures yet. Funny, I was thinking about how much I love before and after photos - unless it's of my stuff! I'll post some in a couple of days.

.

Rolled Paper Beads

.

Ann asked about the paper bead bracelets seen in my gallery I linked to yesterday. Rather than reinventing the wheel, here are some instructions I found online by MootePoints.com. (Check out their gallery - all kinds of cool stuff!)

To make the bracelets, you string the beads on elastic thread, criss-crossing both ends, going in figure eights back and forth through the beads. You use a round bead of your choice between the paper beads. I've looked a few times for bracelet directions online but have yet to find any.

Oh wait! I found this diagram in the class instructions I received years ago. That should help. (I'd reprint the page of directions but they are copyrighted by the teacher.)

.

Memory Lane

.

I received a very nice email yesterday from a woman who found me by Googling the Bollio stamp by Judikins. (Hi Shari!) It's a long 4-sided rubber stamp that looks like a squared rolling pin. I had to see what she was looking at so I Googled the same thing and found my old Gallery that I'd created for a previous incarnation of this blog, back when it was called an online journal. It felt like a walk down Memory Lane so I thought you might be interested in seeing it too.

We had our (almost) traditional Thanksgiving at Gretchen's yesterday. A fine time was had by all. Steve went with his mom to his brother's house and Nick is in Iraq, so it was just Mom, Dad, Simon, Paul, Gretchen and me. This year we tried the turkey breast purchased from Boston Market. Delish, so moist and tender, with no waste. One breast serves 6 so we bought 2 - gotta have turkey leftovers. Just heat and eat. It was wonderful.

Computer update. I'm slowly adding software - having trouble with a couple so I'll take it in to work on Monday so the IT person can help me. For instance Microsoft Money can't find a dll file. I have plenty of other stuff to do but Money was the one program I really wanted to get going so I could get caught up. And I really freaked yesterday when it looked like it crashed the same way it did originally, a week ago. But it automatically uninstalled the offending program, leaving everything else in tact. Whew - dodged that bullet. You might have heard me hallelujahing.

Steve bought a 60" high definition TV the other day. Oy vey, this thing is huge! He has pretty poor vision so he's always wanted a big TV - that's the logical justification for it. The other part is it's just plain cool. Simon hooked up the components for us yesterday - except for my beloved Tivo which he'll do today. None of the diagrams in any of the instructions (for the TV or the cable box or Tivo) show our configuration of cable box, VCR and Tivo. He'll figure it out - he's good at that stuff.

I was telling Dad yesterday that when we bought our last TV, a 40-something inch I think, it looked pretty big but we got used to it in a day or so, so I suspected the same would be true of this monstrosity. After our Thanksgiving meal yesterday, I was the only one home so I decided to veg in front of it and work on some paper embroidery pieces. Before I fell into a tryptophanatic stupor, I realized the TV had gone from being the giant fireplace of the room - to just a TV. And that high def is all it's cracked up to be. Like I said, Steve bought the TV, but I came around to the beauty of high def when I stopped in a pizza place the other day and they had Rachael Ray cooking in high def. The picture was so clear, I could count the calories from across the room. I'm sure high def will become our normal in no time too. That part is still a novelty at this point.

Meanwhile, I tease Steve that I'm just fine with my 13" black and white with the coat hook antenna in my studio. I'm kidding of course - it's color, with cable! - but while I'm enjoying his electronic choices, I could never bring myself to spend my money on that stuff. But it's his money and makes him incredibly happy. And I get to watch it. What's not to love about that?

I'm off to work in a few minutes. One of my long-standing pet peeves about the company I work for is that we're open the day after Thanksgiving. It's the one holiday each year that would otherwise be guaranteed to give us a 4-day weekend since it's always on a Thursday. Our Call Center has to be open, but the rest of us - I don't get it. It's the owner's preference. Over the years it's dwindled to maybe 10 people out of 50 in our building show up, for the morning only. I used to feel guilty taking it off because that meant someone else had to work, but always resented having to work it myself. The interesting thing is since becoming a supervisor a couple of years ago, I found myself insisting the staff take it off - encountered with zero resistance of course and I (more) willingly work it myself so they can do that. It feels like a gift I can give them, which makes it palatable to me. Even as recently as last year, I wasn't sure what time I should leave but today I'm going in with the notion that I'm leaving at noon, on the dot.

Last year I brought breakfast treats for everyone - like I said - 10 people, maybe. This year a friend of mine is bringing some stuff in for us. Last year I used the morning to paint the stall in our ladies room. We'd taken it upon ourselves to redecorate the room last year. The Building Dude (yes, that's the official title we've given him) painted the walls and the stall a lovely French Blue for us. I found some beautiful hydrangea print fabric that Jen sewed into a skirt for the sink. I hung a flag on one wall and added a fake plant, baskets, stuff like that. But we decided we wanted the stall wall & door a shade darker than the rest of the room. Since the Building Dude didn't seem to think that a priority :-) I painted it last year's day-after-Thanksgiving. It was fun - and looks great. Makes me happy every day.

This year I plan to reorganize my desk. I'm a very neat & organized person but this year has probably been my busiest ever, that professionally and personally, I find myself working in what I consider disastrous conditions. If you told me I'd be able to function, with piles of paper scattered all around me, I wouldn't have believed you. So this weekend, at work and home, I plan to get things back to normal. My old normal.

.

Happy Birthday Dad & Simon!

.

Just popping in long enough to say:

1. Laptop still being fixed. Files will be saved it looks like.

2. Work sucks.

3. And at least one bit of good news: Simon turned 19 yesterday.

He's all wrapped up in the girlfriend so we'll have a family celebration Sunday, if he's around. I'll make his favorite meal, whatever that is this year. It's been London Broil the last few years, I think. (We went out to breakfast with my extended family last Sunday to celebrate Dad's birthday and Simon's birthday.) In fact I didn't see him yesterday at all, but I talked to him on the phone a couple of times. I did see him Tuesday night long enough to hand over a pile of cash as a gift. And so it goes.

I always take Pine Tree Designs stuff to work on during my lunch hour. As I sat stitching away yesterday, thinking about Simon, here's what I text messaged him:

The day you were born, even though I didn't know you yet, was the happiest day of my whole life. Happy birthday! Love you lots. Mom

Then, as I always do on his birthday, I think about his birth mom - and get a little sad, teary-eyed even. She was 23 when she gave birth to him so now she's 42. She must think about him at least every year on November 15. I always send her a giant silent thank you.

So it's Thursday and I'm off to work at the ass-crack of dawn, 5:30. Think I'll stop at Dunkin Donuts for a bagel breakfast sandwich and a strawberry banana smoothie. Maybe that will cheer me up. Did I mention work sucks? Nothing I want to talk about. Just some information I'm trying to deal with.

.

Hummingbirds

.

My computer crashed Friday night. Fortunately, I've had a busy weekend with several out of the house activities so it hasn't been totally painful, being computer-free. And of course, I can use Steve's or Simon's. Still, I miss my very best friend in the whole wide world.

I have a few pictures from the St. John of Rochester School Craft Sale that I'll post once my computer gets up and running. I'll take my laptop to work tomorrow to have our IT person take a look at it. I hope I'm not being naive - but I'm not worried. She'll fix it and I will have lost nothing.

Meanwhile, I ran across this neat story when checking out the new stuff on Snopes tonight. Check out the amazing hummingbird photographs.

Over and out until tomorrow, she says optimistically.

Daisy Flour Mill Show

.

Last show I offered about some of those blue bookmarks spread out on the table and they sold pretty well. For this show I made more and this is how I displayed them. I like it.

My table pretty much looked the same as it always does except I put the stand of bookmarks where I usually have a lamp at Casa Larga. At yesterday's show at The Daisy Flour Mill, I was in the middle of a big room and didn't need the additional light - and didn't have access to electricity anyway. This place has huge, gorgeously beaded chandeliers - very cool!

Even though this show was produced by the same woman who produced the Casa Larga shows, the booth size was substantionally smaller. Actually, it's probably that this is the size she advertises but due to the layout of Casa Larga, she spreads us all out a little. So I had to use my hinged black screen flat, like a wall, instead of in the back corner, folded at a 90 degree angle. That meant I had to have my tall card rack in front of the black screen a little bit. It was okay but I prefer the other booth layout better. I didn't sell a single framed piece yesterday, but I'm not surprised.

I've been told I'll have my same space as last year at Saturday's St. John's of Rochester School show and that's on an end of a row so I think I'll definitely be able to spread out a bit more. It felt very roomy last time. I didn't have the black screen but I did have my big wood card rack, which I don't use anymore. I think it will be good. I'm looking forward to it.

At yesterday's show I made about half what I normally do. That's about what I expected, so I'm not particularly disappointed. It's only the 2nd annual show at that venue so I think it takes time to get established. And I don't know that area of town but it kinda seems off the beaten path to me but I'm sure it's not. But while there I got to work on some paper embroidery pieces, hang out with my crafty vendor friends, and made some new friends. I did a ton of networking that I'm really excited about - have at least 2 new (to me) big multi-day shows unofficially lined up for next year. I was invited to participate in a home show next weekend by a friend. I'm going to see how much stuff I have left after Saturday before I commit. She also spent a lot of time giving me tons of info on marketing, especially on eBay. She had a lot of wonderfully simple ideas that I think will be highly effective - can't wait to try them out. I owe her!

I always come home with lots of notes from these shows - I always learn stuff. I love that!

I started accepting credit card payments this fall - through Virtual Terminal on PayPal. The first show, I didn't realize I needed to get that 3-digit code off the back of the card. But I was able to contact the people and get it. (I sent them each a bookmark as a thank you for the inconvenience and got two orders for more out of it!) The second show I was so completely focused on that 3-digit code, I forgot to get their addresses, which is also needed to submit payment through Virtual Terminal! But I was able to get them too. Lucky me.

This show? I did the credit card thing perfectly. But. You knew there was a but. This show - I forgot to count my money before I started, so I don't know exactly how much I made. For an accounting type like me, that's a little painful. So now I'm going to add to my Show Checklist how much of a beginning bank I should always have so I don't have to think about it each time. And when I count my cash from one show, I'll leave a note with the total in my cash box so I'll know how much I make at the next show. I know, duh.

I used to remove the price stickers from stuff as I sold it so I could tally those stickers up at the end of the day to see what's selling best. I used to track inventory in a software program. But I decided maybe I was overthinking all that and could get away with not doing that. It was a little weird for me, because I'm a record-keeping kind of girl, love spreadsheets and exactness. But I think I'll go back to my previous methods because this Menopause Brain ain't getting any better, ya know.

I'm so glad I took today off to get reorganized, maybe make more stuff - and even relax. I had a massage at 9:00 this morning and Steve & I are going out to lunch early afternoon. (He took the day off too.)

New Pattern

.

Here's a new pattern by Erica Fortgens I've been working on. The first two are for an order, the last one was my trial balloon. I'll gussy them up with embellishments and frame them in a 5" x 5" frame.

I was very excited to see that JoAnn's has a 50% sale on all thread. I bought two spools of blue yesterday because I needed them but I'll definitely be going back Friday for more. As I was drooling over all the variegated thread yesterday I was thinking I should just buy one of each and get it over with. Nah. I'll buy a bunch but I better pace myself. Something about delayed gratification.

.

Chugging Along

.

I made so much stuff yesterday! The yellow pins are sunflowers, awaiting the arrival of brass bee charms, arriving today probably. The purple pins are stacked shades of purple. I'll show them another time. Upper left you can see the wreath cards I started. But I decided I should concentrate on bookmarks because they sell better than cards these days.

Conversation in my head this morning:

• Whoa. Three days, then two shows this week. Feeling stressed! I just have to get through Saturday, then I can breathe.
• Stressed? What about next year when you're doing even more shows?? What about that, huh?
• Yeah, but it will be different because now that I know I'm doing at least 5 shows/year, most likely more, I'll work harder through winter. And now I know what's selling well. So it will be better.

Then I realized I was doing that thing that we do when we know we have vacation scheduled. "Oh my God, I just could not last another minute if I didn't have that vacation day scheduled!" Except if you didn't have it scheduled, you'd be just fine.

As this fall show season approached, along with increasing work responsibilities, I knew it would be a stressful time. Except now that I'm near the end of it, it didn't seem so stressful. Just one foot in front of the other.

This is how wacky it's gotten though. I can't wait to clean the house. Somebody slap some sense into me.

.

Good Show!

.

For someone who sat on her butt most of the day, I sure am tired!

The show was good! Not great but pretty darn good. I do, however, have a new Personal Best - made more money than I have at previous shows. And took a few orders, always good.

Thanks Mom, for lunch. I told Steve all the moms were there. My mom, Steve's mom and Steve's ex-mother-in-law, who is one of my best customers! And Mom - your friends, Mary Ann, Kathy and Betty all stopped by. And hi to Pam - always appreciate your love and support, my friend. And a big hello to any new friends popping in here!

I'm off to work today but it's Friday - who can't do a Friday? We have breakfast at work, a meeting I'm looking forward to and a massage after work.

I have two shows next week Thursday and Saturday. Driving home last night I decided to take off the Friday between. The Thursday show is only the 2nd annual and from what I hear, last year's show wasn't too hot - because the restaurant (Daisy Flour Mill) where it was held was not as completed as it was supposed to have been. I'm not clear on the details. So I guess based on that alone I have low-ish expectations. Although as I passed out my card of future shows and told people about it, their reaction was enthusiastic.

But I expect Saturday's show at St. John's School to be a biggie for me.

I have a lot of stuff to make to replace what sold yesterday (mostly Post-It-Note pads, pins and bookmarks, all which sold like crazy). I sold 3 framed pieces, whereas last show I sold 7. But the woman who bought 4 last time came back and ordered 2 more, along with more stuff!

No rest for the weary!

.

Teal

.

5" x 5", Black Metal Frame
I love this shimmery variegated thread, especially on black paper.

.