PokeFan

Remember a while back, I made a brightly colored bracelet for a twitter friend to match her brightly colored nails. You remember right? Anyway, She is quite the fiber lover herself always knitting or crocheting some brightly colored bit or bob and the before my bracelet even got to her she was making something very special for my daughter. You see, not only does the woman love her fiber, but she is also a pokemon fan...a big one. Well, my 5 year old daughter is as well. I go as far as to say a bit obsessed really, so when she spied a pokeball hat my twitter friend was making on my computer she began to chant 'want'. After I shared my daughter reaction a second hat was selflessly made and sent to her. It arrived yesterday and her reaction was priceless.
That is pure joy right there, plain and simple. So thank you so much Patience aka @millarca of the twitter. It IS much loved...in fact her little sister has a fledgling interest in the pokemon and had to try on the hat for a moment as well. I think this piece is going to get a lot of wear.

The children did spend a good chunk of the afternoon with their Grandparents, so I got to clean and vacuum and finish up the choker I was working on. So today, I'm seriously back on the masks. I feel the time before Halloween slipping away and I can't sell the things if I haven't got any made to sell. So that and setting up the Wunderkammer are on the to do list today. Oh, and bills and more cleaning...wow, I really DO lead a charmed life.

A Little Complaint

I try to avoid talking about those topics...you know, the big ones that cause all the drama. I find that along with bringing out the loonies on either side of the debate, you can offend people you actually like, but simply disagree with. So I'm just going to complain without mentioning particulars. I am starting to lose patience with people lately. The alarmist reactions to even simple things seem to be gaining ground. Why is everyone going off their rockers with the crazy? It appears that otherwise functioning adults are losing the ability to tell fact from fiction. Is the Internet and its viral nature to blame here? People seem to be believe everything the read regardless of what basic logic should be telling them. I know I'm being very vague here and it is intentional, besides it is happening in so many different topics that being specific is not really necessary. I think that if you spend any time online or watching television you have probably been exposed to the behavior and I imagine that you might be sick of it as well. I think I feel better now.

Outside all the loony business, I think we're on track to have the Wunderkammer giveaway the week of the 10th. I'll be contacting all the folks who offered up prizes in the next couple of days with further details and get the posts ready to go up. Oddly enough, I'm finding it hard to mess with the formula I've set up over there. I've been so consistent, I'm worried about shaking things up with contest posts. Of course it should be a good thing, but I still feel weird about it.

I got the lost package necklace remade and in the mail yesterday as well. While I'm still annoyed at the package getting lost, these sort of events allow you to really show what your customer service is made of. It affords me the opportunity to do the right thing and even be appreciated for my efforts. Even though I've now got a couple of extra weeks until my house move, I won't be making anything new. This is partly because I have already packaged away all my photo props and I don't feel like unpacking them. I plan on continuing to make up masks since I keep hearing about Halloween already. I know, it's 101 outside and people are talking about fall holidays, but it would be wise to prepare. I've begun babbling now, so I'm going to stop writing now. Until tomorrow.

Two Steps Back

Well, I can't say I'm really surprised, but yesterday was full of little setbacks. First as I spent afternoon nap time packing, I received a convo about a package that had not arrived. It was a piece mailed over a month ago and of course the delivery confirmation shows it as delivered just two days after I mailed it. It was a custom colored piece, so I tend to believe the customer and they have been given the option of me remaking the piece or a refund. I know that it's not my fault, but I always feel guilty when this happens. Lucky for me it has only happened a handful of times. Even though I haven't heard back yet, I went ahead and worked on remaking the piece anyway.

Turns out that I needed to stop packing anyway. We got a call later that evening from our real estate agent. Apparently the 2nd bank on the seller home, the same one that held us up for so long in the beginning hasn't gotten their paperwork done, so we need to file an extension until mid August with the first bank to give them more time. We'll be filling out that paperwork tonight, so fabulous right? It's not all bad really, at least we'll have a set date now and more time to sort out our house. We have until the 19th to get out of our rental, so hopefully there will still be a little cross over for comfort. This does also mean that I can do some supply ordering and keep the store open longer. It also means that I might be able to set the Wunderkammer redesign date, though I still need to talk to my design elf. Yes, I know that also means that my husband was right, but that, right there, is the only time I'm saying so.

So today's agenda is supply orders, mask tatting, Wunderkammer planning and no packing...see not so bad.

Mail Call

Guess what I got in the mail yesterday? Go ahead, I'll wait...yes, I got my new corset. I immediately laced the sucker on and proceeded to gasp for air for the next two hours. I do remember that this was the exact sensation I experienced two months ago when I started with my larger corset. I couldn't even make it through the whole day at first. Of course after I had had enough I put my old one back on and it was as if I was wearing a t shirt. That corset will now be the sleep corset and the new one for days. The new one is still a good fit, so I've not doubt that in a months time it too be perfectly comfortable, so yay!

One note, if you like this one and plan on getting it, the flower design is a raised velvet and on one side the grain goes up and the other down. So if you look at it for a top of bottom angle, one side is darker than the other. I kind of like it like that, but thought it would be good to know.

My husband is giving me a hard time about my assumptions regarding our house move. You see, I am working on the idea that we will in fact close this weekend and start to move. He, however, is under the assumption that Murphy will win out and he's not even thinking about moving until the next weekend. I suppose it doesn't really matter, but I feel all floopy without a definite date to work with here. So many things can't be done until I know for sure what's going on. I'm running out of supplies that need ordering, but it's pointless to order them until I know which address I'll be at next week. I know, I know...just breath, it'll be over soon enough. I've put a closing warning on the etsy storefront, but I think I may revise it a bit to indicate more uncertainty. I suppose I'll calm down a bit and try to just roll with it.

Weekend

Ah, the weekend. A time to relax, enjoy family time, or if you're us pack, fend off the cuteness of a stray kitten and go to the fair, leaving you exhausted and sore. We're still under the impression that our house purchase will close at the end of this week, so we're packing as if that's a possibility. All the boxes and empty furniture is providing the children with really bad ideas for play time. I have also begun the unsavory job of really cleaning things like the walls and floors, in short I'm feeling a bit like Cinderella over here.

Oh yes, the kitten. We have a nasty habit of having small kitten arrive at our place of residence and cute us into letting them in the house. We have however already acquired 4 cats, which is plenty enough to feed and clean up after. This weekend we were visited several times by a cute little white and mottled boy kitten with a shoelace tied loosely around its neck as a collar. We assume that someone has claimed him, but he just keeps coming back and sleeping n our porch. We really can't let him in, but if he continues we might take him to the in-laws who have large group of outside cats that they care for. What's one more when there are already a dozen getting food and water right?

Then onto the county fair. It was a fairly sad display this year with all the exhibits smaller and even though it was cooler this year than it has been, even the animals looked like they were phoning it in. This didn't matter at all to the kids of course, who ate up all the bee displays and petting the three goats and two cows that made up the sad petting zoo experience. Let's face it, we are not really County Fair kind of people, so we're going for them. Before you ask, no I don't enter my tatting the fair. I used to enter my art before I became a Mommy, but haven't in years. There is no tatting or lace category and though I could enter it in 'other', who would I be competing against except myself and that's no fun. Last year they did have a woman doing tatting demonstrations for a couple of hours and I stopped by. She actually knew who I was from my Belle Armoire piece, which was nice, but this was the first time I had met another tatter from anywhere around here so there you go.

If I get the indication that we are closing this week, the etsy store will go into vacation mode for the duration of the move, which may be up to two weeks. I'm just trying to give everyone fair warning just in case you might want of need something in the near future, get it now. I will definitely be taking down or altering all custom orders to a month wait, to give me enough time to pack, move and unpack without worrying about getting them done. I think that's all I need to share this morning...yep, that's it.

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.

Corset

As a stay at home mother I'm used to a bit of monotony. Sure everyday is filled with brand new dramas, but mostly the day plays out as I expect it to, so only when an element of that routine is removed does my dependence upon it become obvious. With my husband gone, the last few days have become almost unbearable exhausting. The morning, lunchtime and evenings he is normally here is my little break from the children. My sweet, sweet moments to say, go ask daddy, hide for a bit or do anything else. He also provides an important bad cop element to child discipline, that tiny bit of fear that keeps them from running completely wild. Sure, I can turn it on too, but then I also have to be their comfort and it all feels a bit schizophrenic. I do not know how single parents manage and I hope with every fiber of me being that I never have to find out.

Anyway, I did finish tatting a pair of ankle corsets yesterday and even moved on to a Voodoo mask. It can be awful mindless working on remaking pieces especially when they haven't been ordered and there's no real urgency to the task. I'll finish up this mask today I imagine and then spend an hour or so trying to decide what to make next while secretly hoping someone will buy something I need to make and take the decision away.

Speaking of corsets though, I bought one yesterday. Yeah, I know after all that talk yesterday about not spending money and whatnot. The shop I had previously decided to get the next one from because they have the most reasonable price for the highest quality off the rack pieces, had a new clearance section listed. I had seen one there before but it had been gone. It appears that they only do it when they change a design on a piece they have left over stock on or a design that just didn't sell being discontinued. I had kept checking just in case and I found one that I liked in the size that I need and for even cheaper than their normal prices so I pounced. One note on off the rack corsets if you're going to do waist training also called corset training or tight lacing, they are not recommended. They say corsets should fit perfectly if you're going to strap into them everyday and that makes good sense. Off the rack pieces are made with a standard measurement which may not work for everyone. The one I have right now is made by the same people and it fits me very well and causes no discomfort to me at all which is why I'm sticking with them. I'm only saying all this just in case my corset adventure has inspired anyone else I don't want to be an irresponsible recommend-er of stuff.

Cool

Good news my friends, the air is cool and today should be a lovely day. The story of how the air go cool however is a long and annoying one, so I'll share it with you. I got a call a little before 8, the a/c man would be coming soon, he said he'd have been here the night before but had been given the wrong number. He arrives quickly, hops on the roof and 5 minutes later he's done. The motor needs to be replaced and he cannot do that without the owners permission, so the property management will have to get that first. I am defeated as I know the owner lives overseas and can't imagine how easy it is to get a hold of him. Two hours later the a/c man calls back, he has permission and comes right back. He hops on the roof and 10 minutes later tells me that he thought he had a motor, but does not so he has to go out of town to get one. I estimate the time that will take and assume I'll see him around 2 or 3. Time passes, the house heats up to nearly 90 degree and I hear nothing. The children have resorted to soaking their feet in ice water to stay cool...yes it was a bad idea. It's 6:30 when the a/c man calls again. There have been some problems, but he is just now getting that motor and will be over. Another hour passes before he does arrive. He hops on the roof and 30 minutes later the air is finally cool again. If you're keeping track, that was a 12 hour adventure from start to finish...yeah, fun.

I know that I really ought not complain. In the wide scheme of things a couple of days without air conditional is less than nothing, but I was too hot. Too hot makes me irritable, lazy and full of malaise. I did learn a few things though. Creating a cave by closing everything up only works for so long. Wet washcloths are like magic and if you want to cool down fast, cool your feet first. A wet, but not dripping pair of socks also magic. In fact the kids had so much fun with the washcloths and socks the first night, they were upset they couldn't use them once the air was fixed. Oh well for them though, I am so not doing that again if I can help it.

I did get a lot of tatting done early in the day though. I knew that heat was going to get me so I started early and I worked fast. I finished up a mask I had already started, made a bracelet and started on a pair of ankle corsets that I hope to finish this morning. Speaking of corsets, how about a corset training update. Yes, I'm still doing that. It's actually become really routine and comfortable, though I admit I left it off the last couple of days due to the ridiculous heat. When I put it back on this morning, one thing was clear, the effects have stuck. The corset went on just as quickly as normal and feels just as comfortable. I have decided that I will buy myself the next smaller corset for my birthday next month. With all the house buying I think that's the only way I can justify the purchase. So you can expect the corset complaints to start again mid to late August. I do still think this is a viable solution for my belly issues, but only time will tell for sure.

Too Hot

I think I mentioned that it was getting to hot yesterday. What I think I didn't mention was the reason the heat was getting to me. Well, our air conditioning has broken. I know many people live in climates where this would not be a problem, but I live where yesterday was over 105 degrees. I managed to keep the house under 90, but barely. We did tell our property management about the problem,but we also told them we were putting in our 30 day notice, so I'm just crossing my fingers that they don't ignore the problem. Sure we're out of here in a few weeks, but it's not likely to be cooling down outside for quite sometime. To add a little extra fun to the hot, my husband is now out of town for a few days for a training. Yep and he's in the bay area where it is always cool, but I'm not bitter, not at all.

Yesterday I snagged prize number three for the Wunderkammer giveaway. Part of me feels kind of weird planning so far in advance and yes a few weeks is far for me. I'm used to doing these sort of things on the fly with little advance planning. I'm finding that contrary to what logic might dictate the extra time is not making me plan better. If anything it's letting me come up with then summarily reject additional giveaway scenarios that are really quite lame. This is certainly a case of going with your first instinct as the best bet.

I know that I also said I wasn't going to be able to come up with any new designs for a while either, but during the construction of my custom project I came up with a ring. It wasn't much of a stretch from the hat band to a ring. I just decreased the circumference a bit and it made itself. It's quite a comfy thing and I've already listed one in what I suppose is a small size since I have particularly skinny fingers. When I asked after pricing on twitter, it was suggested that I might do a ring and pendant set, so I decided that a pendant based on the same basic pattern design would be interesting. I haven't gotten great pictures of that piece yet, but it too is made with the slightly smaller thread, size 20 and is based on the same motif as my Spine barefoot sandals and the throat corset. I made it smaller and turned the top edge into a clover as well. I might get it listed later today. Of course I might not as the heat is sucking the life out of me.

Look What I Made

I had the worst nights sleep last night. Seriously awful. It has gotten ridiculously hot here and on top of that my brain won't shut the hell up. You see Saturday we met with our real estate agent to sign a few papers, but she had unexpectedly received the escrow papers so we got to look over and sign those as well. This is our first house buying experience and though I've done a metric ton of research on this stuff, it's never real until it's actually happening. Causing a particularly high level of stress were the pages denoting the tax disclosures. I know that they will be reevaluated with the new, much lower sale price, but they still gave me...pause. All those things we were going to buy for the new house listed out in our heads are now right out until all this business works itself out. So, yeah...didn't sleep so well.

Before all that happened though, an interesting tatting project fell into my lap. A friend of mine, met through the Internet, Diana. You might know her as paynesgrey , asked for a few pieces to add to her current doll project. Now, I've been asked to make some odd things in lace, some easy some impossible, but these rank high up on the things I never thought I'd try to make. First a hat band and matching garter...so easy. I made them both in a Celtic fashion to make them not only look a little more complex, but also to give them a little extra strength. Yeah, that wasn't the odd part. The odd part was a little whip. Honestly I would not have known where to start with this piece, but she had made a design out where it would be made in three parts and folded over with the whip portion braided.

I went a little further with the design and matching the other pieces weaved the handle together in a triangle. The actual whip was a simple crochet chain braided together thicker toward the handle. I was pretty proud of how quickly the pieces came together. Though I am notoriously design lazy. I mean, the first prototype of a piece is almost always the end product. I rarely take the time to refine and adjust a design. If it looks like it'll work the first go round, it is done. Anyway, I'm certain you have questions as to what sort of doll might need these accouterments, but for now I shall keep you in he dark. Hopefully I'll be able to reveal it as she does.

Done and Done

Is there a name for that gesture where you mime slapping dirt off your hands to indicate that you've completed a task? Well, that's what I did this morning as I finished packing up the last of my recent bout of custom orders. All done. Whew. Hmmm...now what?

I've notice that this summer in particular has been moving in a feast or famine pattern. I go a long stretch with no sales nor attention and then without warning they are heaped on for a short period only to fade to nothing just as quickly. This is not a comfortable pattern for me, though I am getting used to it. You see, now that these are in the mail I can expect to go with sales for up to a week. Then if the pattern holds I should get at least two custom orders in a row effectively swamping me for days. I think I would much prefer a nice steady one day on one day off sort of pattern, but we don't get to choose now, do we?

I've already begun taking advantage of the recent downturn to remake many of the pieces lost to the feast, but with the daily packing regimen, it is going to be a slow process. I've all but abandoned the idea of any new designs at least until after the move and the Wunderkammer relaunch. Though honestly the relaunch shouldn't take too much effort really. I've received two giveaway offers and though I am hoping for a few more, I can always make up the deficit with a couple of my own pieces. We're suppose to meet with our real estate agent this weekend and that might result in a better sense of the time line we're looking at. Then I'll know more accurately when the relaunch should occur and I'll let everyone know.

Goals

It's that time of the year again. The time when I start to get antsy and decide to come up with a set of goals. The goals I've chosen this time are a mixed bag of slightly possible and absolutely ridiculous, as is my way. The set this time includes receiving 5000 heart in my etsy shop and my 1000th sale by years end. Then there's the ridiculous one. In the past I've set this goal to revive tatting as the newest craft craze and while I admit to doing my part to expose more people to the art, it remains an illusive one. Another ridiculous goal was the writing of a tatting book. This one is hampered by being the stay at home mother of two small children...yeah it's not happening any time soon. This time I've aimed for the starts, I want at least one celebrity sale that results in a tatted jewelry sighting on said celebrity. This doesn't even need to be a sale, I'll give away the tatting to get the sighting, though I've no idea where to start to make this one a reality. Which is why it sits comfortably in the ridiculous goal spot.

More house updates for you this morning too. The house was appraised yesterday and came it at what we needed it to, so that's moving smoothly. Packing however is going to be the death of me. The dust is a killer...I know I could wear a mask, but I don't and I not certain it would really help anyway since the dust I disturb floats around the house all day and night now. Also my desire to keep everything is fighting dramatically with my desire to throw away tons of stuff so I don't have to move it. Of course I also suffer from an advanced form of the pack rat syndrome. I believe everything will eventually be used and to throw it away now would mean that need simply presents itself sooner. That's the way it works...right?

I opted for a simply call for donations on the Wunderkammer's sidebar. I'm hoping to get in a healthy handful, so I can run the same sort of giveaway I did here. You know, more entries more prizes and all that. It was really successful at getting new traffic and though the levels I reached during the giveaway were not maintainable, I did see a sustained increase in traffic, so here's hoping I can do the same thing for the Wunderkammer. I've already gotten a couple of responses so I am hopeful...for now anyway.

Updates

Well, it seems like everyone who has already left for the darkside had plenty to say justifying their decision and those out here with me are all just fighting the pull. I shall discuss it no further until it has me firmly in its maw, so moving on. We were finally informed yesterday that we are in escrow and the house we're buying is officially off the market. We don't actually know when this happened because our real estate agent and mortgage guy seem to be running with the ball. What they don't realize is we're those people who want an update on every little mundane detail, there is never enough information for me. No I don't really want to supervise the whole event in an active sense, but I do want a play by play and I'm not getting one.

In the world of tatting, I'm slowly catching up. I have just one pending order I'm working one. Of course that order contains two masks, so it's not likely to be finished for another few days. I haven't gotten any new orders since I got back and while I would normally begin to worry, I'm relieved that I have the extra time to catch up. In fact this run on custom pieces has gotten me thinking forward to the holidays. Yes, I know they are months away, but if the summer sales are any indication and I hope they are, I'm going to be a bit swamped. So from this point forth, every little bit of down time I am afforded will go to creating stock of my most popular items starting with a crap load of masks for Halloween. Though making this statement will probably jinx me to very few sales of them, oh well.

Anything else...oh yeah, the Wunderkammer redesign is humming along and has an eta of the first week of August. To go along with the new skin, I want to have a giveaway, which I think I've mentioned. Problem is, how to ask for donations from the featured artisans without coming off all spammy. I know many of them make very expensive items and those are right out, but perhaps discounts. Then I was thinking of offering an ad to those who wanted to donate an item, but I want to make sure that the prizes are, well...appropriate for the Wunderkammer audience. I suppose I could just post a call for donations on the site, but would that look tacky? Aargh, I'm just thinking out loud now and I have so many other things to think about, so I'm gonna stop it now. You know where to leave opinions should you have them.

One Of Us

I feel my resolve cracking. I have been holding strong against the facebook, but I don't know for how much longer. I was happy to add this social network of things I'll never do. Said list includes watching the film Titanic and well anything Twilight related. Then my husband joined in and everyone I know is apparently there. In fact I haven't gone a day online without several people mentioning the damn place. I really don't want to join another social network, I already deleted my indiepublic profile and I've all but completely abandoned myspace. Won't this just be another place to waste time. I already have this blog, the wunderkammer, my etsy store, flickr, steamteam and of course the twitter, when am I even going to find time to maintain a new place.

I know, you're thinking why am I whining about this when I could just continue to ignore it all. Well, last night my husband chanted, 'one of us' at me and even though he has never seen Freaks, the implication was clear. I know I will soon succumb to the siren call and become one of them, or you...I assume. So I'm curious, what's the point? Do I set up a personal page and then a business one and what the heck is up with all this 'fan' stuff. I'm constantly seeing people asking for fans and I keep thinking how silly it is to ask for fans. Is this one of those words that has an entirely different definition in this world, because I was under the impression that fans were people that liked you and/or your brand, not people trying to get reciprocal attention. I really don't want to get into a numbers game again and I certainly have no desire to play games and answer quizzes. Is this place going to annoy the crap out of me? It's a moot point I suppose...I'll join eventually, but that doesn't have to stop me from questioning the reasons why.

I'm Back

So tired. Yes, my weekend was lovely. The weather was cool and even the sun came out on occasion. As usual, the Aquarium was where we spent most of our time. The children love it and we can always just sit down and enjoy the exhibits. We were still vacationing with two small children however, so we exhausted ourselves lifting and carrying the two of them. Not to mention the unnecessary purchases that also required toting back to the hotel and whatnot. What I'm trying to point out here is that we are tired.

There is no rest for this wicked girl. While I was gone, I received a few more custom orders that now need attending to. In fact at this point almost every piece listed as a custom has been purchased. I have no intention of re listing them again until this batch of orders has been completed. Well, I suppose I'll do it if asked, but otherwise they are off the menu. I still have a ridiculous amount of packing to do before we move and I am getting a bit overwhelmed. I'm not complaining really, both of these things are attached to wonderful events. Buying a house and a steady sales in my shop, both great...great and stressful.

I also got a nice convo the other day that made me giggle a bit. It was a lovely request to carry my masks in a brick and mortar store. In the past I have sworn off the idea of consignment and wholesale orders. Quite simply, I have no desire to sell my things any cheaper so someone else can get a cut. I know, I know, etsy and paypal already get a cut, but compared to traditional consignment and wholesale, their cut is terribly tiny. Anyway, my reaction to this offer had nothing to do with my previous opinions, this one was based on simple feasibility. I can barely keep up with my store orders of masks at this point, how on earth could I make enough extra to stock a store. There's just no way right now. Honestly, it takes me at least two full days to make a mask and that's working pretty much all day with few kids and house related breaks. You see why I giggled a bit. If only an offer like this had come in a year ago when I had plenty of time to spare, but that would have been convenient.

Well, I guess its back to work this morning. Thanks for all the anniversary wishes as well as the sales that helped us celebrate. It was a wonderful weekend, too bad its over now.

Happy Anniversary

...To us! We're off, my family and I, this morning to the coast to celebrate out 11th anniversary on the 11th. We spend all our wedding anniversaries in Monterey. It's been a tradition since before we were a family. The kids love the aquarium and we love the weather and, well just getting away somewhere we know is relaxing. We'll be gone for the weekend and will return to loan paperwork and tatting custom orders come Monday.

Here's just a picture from one of our trips many years ago. Enjoy.

Rainbow Bright

With yesterdays little rant, I didn't share my tatting adventures from Tuesday. I was twitter stalking while making a custom mask. One of my lovely twitter friends shared a picture of her new manicure. A bright and multicolored hand and I was inspired. I dug through my collection of patterns for just the right one and made a bracelet. The pattern was an adaption of a cross pattern by Dianna Stevens. It was one collected before I started designing my own pieces, but it is perfect for the three bright colors I wanted to use.

I got straight to work on the bracelet and took pictures with my laptop during the process. It went very quickly and was done just a couple of hours later. I'm sending it to her this week as a little present. I might make another up to sell later, though I'm pretty busy with the remaking sold pieces.
One more thing for the day, my SALE. This is the last day of my anniversary sale, since I'm leaving for Monterey tomorrow. This is definitely the last sale I'll do until perhaps the holidays, so take advantage of it. If something you want has been recently sold and isn't listed, just let me know & I'll list a custom piece for you. I want you to be able to take advantage of this rare discount. I'm not closing the store while I'm gone since it's just a weekend. I'll just be shipping any orders out on Monday or Tuesday instead. Thanks for all your purchases during the sale too. I really appreciate the business and thanks to my customers we'll have a nice, comfortable anniversary trip with the family.

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.

Undone

It has begun. The slow, steady dismantling of the house we've lived in for three years. The pictures and figurines are coming down and I'm filling in the holes in the wall. It's already feeling less and less like we live here. Of course I am still avoiding any 'real' packing. Our loan agent has finally contacted us for updated paperwork making everything just a bit more real, though we're still waiting for that 'pending' or 'sold' sign to appear in front of the house for further reality checking. That hasn't stopped us from the train of detail worries we're thinking about, everything from how to move the huge desks we put together here to where we're gonna put the kitty litter boxes. We have extreme busy brain and there shows no sign of it slowing.

The sale I spontaneously put together last week has been much more of a success than I could have imagined. Really, it is quite odd, until this point my sales have created no more than business as usual. I keep saying I wish I knew what the secret ingredient was in this one so I could clone it and share the wisdom, but I've really no idea. The discount isn't too large, I'm only pimping it out on the twitter, here and then there's the store announcement. I haven't left links anywhere, haven't tweeted about it non stop. So if you see that little spark of genius in it, please let me know. The sale will continue until Thursday, since we'll be off to our anniversary trip on Friday with the kids in tow.

Oh and just a heads up, as our impending move gets closer, I'm likely to close up shop for an undetermined length of time. Moving utilities is always a crap shoot and I'd hate to be without Internet and have sales or questions sitting unanswered and unexplained. I imagine that blog posting is likely to suffer as well, so please be patient with me. We still don't have a confirmed move date and the way people keep going on about the horrors of closing, I fear we won't know until it is upon us either. See how I can't stop thinking about this crap...aarrgghh.

I am still managing to get in some good tatting time. I've actually been mulling around a few new ideas recently which means I must be hankering for a bout of creation. Though I think that I will have to keep it simple for my own sanity. If I even get a moment to work on them. I'm also almost done with the scarf/wrap I'm knitting up and I'll show that off when it's complete. So check out the sale while you can, the details are in my last post and I'll see you tomorrow.

Anniversary Sale

You guys are ridiculously sweet, seriously people. I did not post the naked face pictures to fish for compliments, but that's what I got, so thanks! I did have one problem to work out yesterday though. My dilemma was a need to break a no sales streak and get some sales to make sure our families Monterey trip doesn't cost the family budget too much. We visit every year for our wedding anniversary, first as a couple, now as a family. Some years we make just a day trip, but we try hard to stay a few days to actually relax. With the impending purchase of a house, we really can't dip in to the budget. So, I presented this issue to the twitterverse and they indicated that if I offered some incentive to shop along with perhaps a sappy love story, I might get more sales. So I decided to follow the advice and offer a spur of the moment, it worked and I hope it continues to work.

The Sale

To celebrate my 11th wedding anniversary on the 11th, take 11% off everything and free worldwide shipping. Sale will end 7.9.9. Pay as normal and I will refund the difference through paypal.

Husband is off work today, so we'll do a little family time. I do have a little tatting to get to, but I've been using the down time to get a few of the custom listed pieces made already so I'm not behind on anything. I also got some packing started yesterday, the books. It's been three years since the last time we moved and we have acquired many more things in that time that will need to be moved as well. It is a bit overwhelming, but if all goes well, this is the last time I will need to do it. I think that's it for now, visit the sale and enjoy.

Naked

Well, what do you know, we heard back yesterday regarding the house. I don't know if they were waiting for the first of the month, the end of the fiscal year or if the timing was just coincidence, but I suppose it doesn't really matter. We don't have a lot of details yet. We were only told that both banks have approved the deal and would like us to start on our loan to close by the end of the month. So all that stress created by not knowing has been immediately replaced by the anxiety of, 'Oh, my gods, we're actually buying a house'. This anxiety will likely plague us for the coming month, so I apologize in advance if I drone on about it repeatedly until you want to harm me.

In other news, I fell victim to peer pressure. That's right, I did...so, umm it's not my fault blame them. Oh, yeah, a few of my friends from the twitter are fashion bloggers at The Demoiselles and there has been much discussion regarding some photos on the cover of the French Elle with a makeup-less Scarlett Johansson. The discussion resulted in a few of them posting photos of themselves without makeup. Now, honestly I am addicted to my eye liner. I do not like to leave the house without it, but this was peer pressure remember. So here they are, fresh out of the shower, my makeup-less photos.I was going to do them in black and white to better hide, well...everything, but I opted for just a bit of a fade. My hair is still wet and is in serious need of a freshening of color. They aren't as bad as I thought they would be, but this is definitely the only time this is happening, so enjoy.

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.