Happy Halloween

Another long weekend in the can. We had a nice movie outing, dinner with friends and the annual massacre of the pumpkins, but what I fear most is how today marks the beginning of the holiday season. This day alone is packed with Halloween things and a birthday. There's another birthday tomorrow and they don't stop the rest of the month. Much of our immediate family has birthday's in the months of October and November. This coupled with the regular holiday mess makes for one stressed out Pamela...you have been warned.

I did get some tatting done here and there over the weekend. I did up the new earrings in bells and coins and plain and got those all listed. Then I made up the Center Medallion pendant in navy blue, green and lavender and got those all listed. I've also been pretty good about making up a couple of small snowflakes every day. I figure I'll work on more this week and should have enough stockpiled to begin giving them out next week.

I do have one mask that needs remaking, so that's in queue for today should I actually find any time to do so. You see there is regular schooling, then I take the girls to their father's work for trick or treating. We then return home to a birthday dinner with the family for my mom and then more trick or treating. With the cleaning I'll have to do this morning to make the house presentable again, I'm not certain I'll have much time for anything. In fact, I'm tired just thinking about it and since I had to pay bills this morning I am also feeling poor and I don't have enough time to walk on the treadmill this morning. Wow, I am a fountain of complaint today, hope it's all out of my system now, I have things to do.

Deconstructing Doilies

So, let's see...I finished up the new cuff design. It was not a well received as the first, but I like it. This of course means that if it manages to remain unsold for four months, it is mine. I like the way it comes over my hand a bit and it's comfy.

I managed to also get a couple of snowflakes made for the coffers. I meant to take a picture of them so you'd have an idea what I was yammering on about, but I didn't. I guess I save those for when I am ready to start giving them away. Then I got an idea in my head regarding the first doily bracelet design...start the deconstructing.

First I went with a simple center piece that should make a lovely dense pendant. That was of course simple, but then I started to deconstruct for a potential pair of earrings and that took several iterations, including these two to get what felt right. One was too wide, one too narrow. In the end I settled for four outer rings. This in interesting only because I fought it. I hate round numbers in jewelry...I have no idea why, but they turned out great with the blasphemous four.

Then I wanted to add something to them and asked the internet, coins or bells? Apparently there is no easy answer to this question. The answers were very mixed and so in the end I decided to make it both ways. One pair with coins, one pair with bells. I'm, not quite finished with the last pair, so that's what I'll get done today. Then I'll get the lot of them all listed and I was thinking about making the same pieces in color, though what color, I don't know yet. I will certainly take opinions on that matter. What other colors look good with tribal, bell dance type outfits? Well, I guess that's it for me, have a great weekend all.

More Doilies

I had a fairly uneventful day. I got the last necklace that needed to be remade finished and back up in the shop. Then I spent some time trying to suss out the simplest snowflake pattern I could for the free gift with purchase idea. Of course I just ended up sticking with the same one I used years ago when I did sell them in the shop. It's just a variation on the simple flower pendant that I did one of my Instructables on. I figure if I knock out a couple of them a day in black and white as per your suggestions, I should be able to have enough on hand as gifts without taxing myself with them.

Later in the afternoon I decided that I really would go ahead and try another doily bracelet. This time I went back to the very first pattern book I ever bought, Anne Orr's Classic Tatting Patterns, and the first large doily I ever made. Okay, it was the only large doily I ever made, but it's huge and it took forever. Anyway, I used the center of the design for this one. Based on the size I knew I wouldn't be able to just do a smaller one on the side, so I did a half or partial one instead. In the picture I still have another row to go and I attached it to the side as if one was overlapping the other.

Since the last row is so loose, the resulting cuff has quite the frill to it and this one won't just wrap and lay flat like the other. Of course if I wanted it to behave exactly the same way, there would be no point to using a different design to do the same thing. I should have this one finished, photographed properly and listed later today. After that I really have no pressing plans again. I should get back to the gift project, but I just haven't been feeling it lately. Boy, us creatives are whiny, fickle people. It's a wonder we get anything done without a deadline staring at us. Well, off to it then.

Dark Doily Necklace

Well, that was a day. I got the new necklace done and listed and I must say it is quite the bold statement necklace. It might even be too bold for me, but I still really like the way that it turned out. I'm sure there is someone out there that would wear the hell out of it and I mean that in a good way. I didn't get around to any of the other things I thought I might do though.

First there was the dreaded lost package email. Lucky for me the customer was quite reasonable. I get so afraid that all exchanges of this sort are going to dissolve into rudeness, accusations and demands. That in itself is a sad commentary on previous customer interactions in traditional retail I suppose. That being said most of my customers have been beyond wonderful. I guess we just remember the worst experiences the most vividly. This issue was resolved late yesterday evening with package being found though, so yay!

In other more pleasant news I lucked into a feature in yesterdays etsy fashion finds email. This time it was my ivory ankle corsets under the heading of luxurious lace. If you don't get the email here's a link to it. I'd like to say that this feature brought tons of traffic and jump started sales, but as you probably guessed at the beginning of this sentence, it did not. Still it is always nice to be noticed and given that nod. I appreciate every single mention my work receives. Every single one.

I'm still working on remaking a sold necklace so I'll be on that today. Maybe I'll get around to playing with more medallion patterns or maybe not. I'm also thinking about making up some small snowflakes to give as gifts with purchase during the holidays, so I might make some of those.  I asked whether people prefer white or my more signature black yesterday and the results were split, so your opinions on the matter would be greatly appreciated as well. I don't want to make them for sale as there are plenty of other sellers doing so, but I thought they might make a nice, 'spend this amount and get a gift' gift. So, yeah, I just don't really feel like over planning the day right now. I think I'll just go with the flow...whatever that may be.

Dark Doily

Funny story. Before I started schooling for the day I finished up the doily cuff and posted that it was done and would be listed after school was wrapped. There was interest in it so I excitedly began work on another set of medallions based on the bracelet but with the intention of making it into a bib necklace hung from a chain. After schooling I got the cuff here listed and continued work on the necklace to be. This is when it gets funny. I'm working along, paying little attention to what I'm doing and when I'm just joining the last rings together I realize that I had added a hook and made another bracelet instead of the intended necklace piece...oops. Sure I could have undone back tot he hook, but that's so much extra effort.

Lucky for me the initial interest in the piece was not feigned and the first one is going out to a new home today and I now have a second one already listed. Of course I started the necklace attempt again and that should be finished and ready to list today. I do also now have one necklace in queue to be remade as I had finally made a sale after a week long drought yesterday morning. If I get those two thing accomplished, I was thinking I might try out a few other medallion patterns and see if any of them is also suited to this cuff concept. Other than that I expect a nice event free day.

Yawn

To say,'what a weekend' would be a gross understatement. We headed up to Monterey on Friday and visited the Aquarium. We then headed to the hotel and soon after to the wedding venue my brother and sister-in-law chose, The Holly Farm in Carmel Valley. The kids played with their cousins, much chaos ensued and somehow a rehearsal was completed. Saturday afternoon it was right back to the venue for photos before the wedding and we had to keep the kids from destroying their flower girl finery while simultaneously keeping them entertained. Then there was of course the wedding, reception and a long drive back home. I'd like to say that on Sunday we rested, but that would be a lie as Sunday I caught up on laundry and we ran errands. I am extremely exhausted.

On Sunday evening we sat down to watch a movie so I finally pulled out some thread and tatted something up. The shop had been unusually quiet so I hadn't done so in many days. I started by tatting this single shuttle pattern as intended, immediately realizing that the amount of cut thread I'd have to work with to complete it would be ridiculous and converted it to a needle pattern with a small chain filling in for the bare thread space. I thought I was finished when I got this bit done. It would make a nice pendant, but I was so starved for tatting that I just kept right on going with the whole medallion.

Once I had the next two rows done, I wondered what on earth I was going to do with it. At this point it really is just a small doily when made with size ten thread. So I played with it for a while and decided to do what so many artisans do with doilies they find in thrift shops and re purpose it...only on purpose, in the first place. I'm adding a second center bit to the side and I'll tat some hooks into it and it will wrap around ones wrist into an off center cuff...hopefully. I still have some more work to complete the design and hopefully my vision with it is fully executable. So I'll start today like I like to start a day, with something to make.

Adieu

It was another long day full of tasks that had nothing to do with tatting. I over schooled the child so we could easily take today off as we head to the coast for my brothers wedding tomorrow. I had my favorite yearly doctor's appointmentand then spent much of the days remainder packing and preparing. It is ridiculous how much we need for a simple overnight trip. My mother-in-law has been booked to feed the cats so they don't revolt yet I'm still certain that something was missed or shall be forgotten.

I'm afraid I have nothing else to share, not even any kitty pictures, but I will again wish you all a pleasant weekend and I hope that by Sunday things are a bit more normal and I, a bit more interesting.

Housework

So...much...cleaning. We had picked up a new Shark floor steamer this past weekend because I felt like I needed something easier to use than the big old Bissel thing if I was going to clean all the tile in the house on a more regular basis. Still, just because something is easy to use doesn't mean I'm going to start loving cleaning. Heck, I adore my Dyson vacuum, but it isn't going to make me vacuum everyday or anything, but I digress and I'm starting to sound like really bad product endorsement. I cleaned up the floors, tidied up the guest room, kitchen and the laundry room. In fact it just now occurs to me that I didn't tat anything all day...not a thing.

I did get the two new bracelets photographed and listed though. I named the design, Holding Hands, because that's what it looks like the center rings are doing...well, to me anyway. Sometimes I know exactly what to name something and sometimes, like in this case, my creativity fails me. When the closest thing to a name the original pattern had was a plate number, I just have so little to work with. It's easier with my completely original pieces, but with the adaptions I like to pay homage when possible, but plate 9 doesn't really have a ring.

I'm not holding out much hope for creativity today either. I've got a doctors appointment this morning and then I really ought to get on packing for the weekend wedding stuff. This is probably the first time I've ever had to pack nice clothes and multiple shoes for everyone so I've got suss out the best way to do so without making our luggage ridiculous. I should still manage a post tomorrow morning before we're off, but if not, have a good weekend. If I do, please ignore these early well wishes.

Look, It's New...Kind Of

The day started out as busy as ever, but by the afternoon I was given a bit of a break. I was going to get back to the gift project, but I felt like I really needed to do something new for the shop, something simple. These are the times when I paw through the antique and vintage patterns looking for something to appropriate. This time it was an edging pattern and I thought a nice bracelet would be perfect for the time allotted to me. As always I worked up the pattern as written for the prototype, but even at this point I could already tell what I was going to change.

For the final piece I decided to add some gunmetal colored seed beads and I re spaced the picots on the top edge. The center cluster was too close together and the outer ones didn't do anything for me either. Other than those small changes it's the same as the original pattern. Of course I tatted it tighter and more evenly on the final piece as well. The design worked up quickly enough that I had time to get another made. This one I made with silver plated beads and a greenish turquoise thread. The reason I don't have a picture of that one is that my phone camera is completely incapable of capturing the color turquoise. It always turns out basic blue or worse and I was too lazy to get the good camera out.

I will get those both pressed and listed today and then I have to get on some serious cleaning that I meant to do yesterday. You know when you start the week thinking you have plenty of days to get to something and then suddenly you're already out of time? Yeah, I'm right there. My brother and his future wife will arrive later today and I haven't even touched the guest room. There are linens and towels to wash and floors to clean. At least if I don't have anything interesting to write tomorrow, it won't be because I didn't do anything...what I do just won't be all that interesting.

Busy

I was fortunate to have another busy day. The orders came in throughout the day so once I have finished remaking one piece, it was time to start on another. While I thoroughly enjoy being busy, it makes me a boring blogger. I had no time to play, to invent, to work on side project gifts or create anything new. I schooled the child, scheduled my Wunderkammer blog and began tatting. I only stopped to get orders ready to ship.

Oh, wait...I did play dress up for a while. My brother's wedding is this weekend and since I rarely have the opportunity to dress up I am no longer confident in my ability to put together a nice look. So I played dress up until I had a couple of outfits put together. See, even that adventure scored me no pictures or anything really interesting to share.

I'm just going to stop writing now...maybe something interesting will happen today that I can write about tomorrow. Crossing my fingers.

Weekend Recap

Let's see, what did I do this weekend? I have as of late been rather fortunate that sales, while not nice and consistent, are coming in small bursts. This has been keeping me busy, just not in a steady way, more like a feast or famine sort of way, though the famine has only been lasting on average a day or two which wouldn't really cause anyone to starve to death were this metaphor accurate, but I think you get my point.

In between the bouts of remaking sold items and custom pieces I have started one large project that I can't show you. No, it's not some new secret project, but it is going to be a gift and I think surprise is better served by not plastering photos of it on the Internet. I could also kick myself because I did make a nice little dangle for my mother-in-law's birthday present over the weekend and I failed to get a picture of that before it was gifted. I meant to get one before she left, but as we were hosting her birthday dinner at our house, I found myself busy and forgetful. So you will just have to trust that I made something new and interesting. I've made her jewelry in the past, but she never wears it so I opted for something she could just hang off her car rear view mirror and forget about.

So that brings us to the plans for this week and it's a busy one. I have my yearly checkup later this week and my baby brother is getting married in Carmel this weekend. The kids are in the wedding so we have to head up the day before. Oh and the couple is stopping by our house for a night before they head to Carmel themselves. I'll need to get some extra schooling done to make up for all the chaos that's bound to occur come Wednesday. Amongst all this, I will try to get the present worked on and keep up with the shop as well as attempt to keep the house in some semblance of clean. Man, I'm tired just thinking about it. Whew.

This & That

Again, my day was more or less exactly as planned. I started schooling early to get it done before we all headed out on our field trip. It was far too hot for October standing in the sun while the children pretended to learn, but we left with a couple of small pumpkins and home we went. Wait, on our way home we stopped by the newly opened Hobby Lobby in town. I'd never been in one, but I'd heard they were wonderful and that they carried Lizbeth thread. So in we went and I was completely, wholly disappointed. While the store was huge the yarn section was a joke and they had exactly one roll each of a dozen shades of Lizbeth in size 20 only and no cebelia at all. They has some low end cotton crochet thread and some nylon which doesn't seem appealing either. I don't know if they plan on stocking more, but at this point I don't have a reason to ever walk back through the doors. It was full of house decor and the fabric section was nice, but I really don't see it killing Michael's anytime soon.

Once we were home I immediately began cleaning the floors. Not sure why I felt they needed to be done that minute, but we are hosting a birthday dinner this weekend and guests next week so it had to be done sometime. All this cleaning and adventuring meant very little tatting. I did start the last mask I need to remake for the time being, but it will have to get finished today. After that I don't currently have anything else in queue, so it's a mystery what I'll get up to after that. I leave you with a cat in a basket, because I can.

Stalling Again

I stayed on task like a good girl most of the day. For my troubles, I got a cuff bracelet made up and one mask finished. Okay, I did stall a bit in the afternoon and I doodled on this paper mache skull I got from Michael's with a paint pen. I've decided that I adore sharpie paint pens now. What else is a bit of a kick is searching for sugar skulls on etsy. It brings up quite a few things made with this same base...and generally not very well. Not that mine's a work of art mind you, but then again I'm not trying to sell mine. I know there's no shame in using supplies found at the local craft store to make things to sell, but it's always a bit of a trip to recognize somethings humble origin when online.

So today, it's a field trip to a pumpkin patch where they get all educational and teach the kids about farming and the water cycle and then the kids refuse to go in the maze because it's too dark, it's a covered hay maze. Yeah, we've been to this one before, but it should be fun and a nice break. I still have one more mask that needs to be remade so I will at least get started on that. I have been trying to make something new the last few days, but everything I have started failed. I'll keep at that too since I think I really need to make new things on a regular basis to keep my brain...you know working. Oh & now I'm thinking about making one of these skulls and tatting all the decorations to put on it...that's the stalling talking again. I'll get to work.

Um...

See, now when I do what I'm suppose to do, I have nothing interesting to say. I went ahead and tried to hang something in the new necklace, but it just felt like an add on and not an organic part of the jewelry, so I scrapped it. It also helped that a few of you said it looked nice as it was. So I got that listed just after I finished schooling for the day. Then it was back to the all important remaking. Of course I only managed to get one of the four pieces in queue made up, but I was on task, I swear.

Today will be back to the same thing. I'm really going to try and stay focused on the tasks at hand. I also just got the newest Clive Barker book recently and I really must read some more of that. The thing is gigantic, but his writing is so vivid and there are so many painting in the book that it's just flying by. So to recap, more remaking, reading and likely another short and dull blog post coming at you tomorrow. That is, of course, unless something fabulous, interesting and unexpected were to happen. Yes, I'm trying for another prophetic moment there...crossing my fingers now.

Stalling

Rarely do I ever stall as much as I did yesterday to avoid doing the few things I should have actually done. I mean, all I had to do was remake a few bracelets or a mask, but noooo. Instead I stared aimlessly at my computer screen for what must have added up to hours. Then I make some failed attempts at mimicking a necklace I saw. After that I almost started to work, but managed to continue to stay off course and started tatting around rings with no purpose in mind at all.

By the time I finished making this necklace I had properly stalled long enough to avoid all other tasks. Look, I even used seed beads to make it more interesting. I'm thinking I might try and hang something in the center circle before I get it listed though to further obfuscate the Mickey head image that I can't help but see. I thought adding the outside row would do it, but alas the comments have been made and I clearly must do more.

So I guess that's what I'll do today. I'll finish up this piece and then try to get to the remaking that needs doing. I know I have little time to stall as the holidays are fast approaching and I will have no time to get anything done then. I can't sell what isn't made, now can I? I guess that's it for me this morning, at least I did something new to show you this time.

Monday

Why is it that the weekends in which I have the least planned to be done, I always end up the most exhausted from doing things? It really makes no sense, but the truth, it is. Sorry, we've been watching the Star Wars movies on blu ray with the kids and it appears to have affected my speech patterns. We still have one to go before we have fully indoctrinated the children. Anyway, I had a lot of remaking to attend to, so I didn't make anything new or interesting to share.

I do have one bit to share with you though. I was contacted a while ago and asked if my pictures could be used in a blog post about tatting, more specifically about Mrs. Beeton. The post is a both a tribute and a delightful fiction that I think you might enjoy reading. It is on their blog in German, Störstoff. The author has also said that she will post it on her English blog as well, but as it is not up yet, here's a direct link to translate it. It really was a fun read and had little to do with me at all and since I have nothing of value to share today, it'll give you something nice to read, but you can always come back and tell me what you thought of it.

I do still have a couple of pieces that need remaking including a mask, so I am likely to be busy with that today. I will try to do something interesting just so I have more to share tomorrow. Off to Monday I go.

Update: The English version of the article is up now here.

Two One Offs

It was such a dreary day yesterday. The previous day had been stormy with heavy downpours and thunder which is interesting and inspiring. Yesterday was the sort of rainy day that saps your will and makes you want to curl up on the couch with a blanket and hot coco. This is not to say that nothing got done, just nothing that took too much energy. I made up two one off pieces in a row, but neither of them taxed my design or tatting skills. In fact the second I literally made up as I went and it is only through some bit of luck that it turned into anything at all.

This is the second one here made around a piece of turquoise from the infamous grab bag collection. One of these days I really must show you how much stuff I have accumulated from those grab bags, but not today. I started on the bottom with a small ring and then brought the thread up through the center. This is when I totally lost the plot and started a strange meandering with rings and chains.  I didn't intend any specific design, but in the end it reminded me of a rain cloud. It was also compared to a vase of flowers and an antique key on the facebook page.

The other one here is actually the first I made, but I am not in love with it. It started around this mystery stone doughnut.  Since it had veins of deep red in it, I used a brick red thread and wrapped the piece. The colors match better in real life and I tried to take advantage of some grooves in the piece, but again, not in love. I suppose everything I make can't be a work of art in my own eyes, but regardless they will both get listed today. I have a feeling there is someone out there that will love it.

I did these in lieu of actually remaking things for the shop like I really should have, but the afore mentioned weather made me choose one or the other. So today I should like to get back to that. The weather is suppose to be back to sunny and temperate so I hope that rubs off on my mood. Once again I will wish for unexpected good things to float my way today and throughout the weekend.

iSad

I know that this has nothing to do with tatting, but since all I did yesterday was working on sold orders and remaking pieces, you'd be bored with that anyway. So here's a short post for Steve Jobs who was at least a small part of reason I can do what I do everyday. Heck, I still have the first computer that was just mine, a Mac Classic from 1991though I used quite a few before them. It certainly is true that if it weren't for my household full of Apple computers  and other products I certainly couldn't sell my wares online...at least not nearly as conveniently. Heck, I wouldn't have even found tatting without a computer and since I only own Macs, I owe a thanks to Steve for thinking differently so I could too.

I read this text from the Think Different campaign yesterday in one of the many tributes online and it inspired me once again so I thought I'd post it here for you too.

"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

Yes, that is a cross stitch project I made years ago based on a 1997 Wired Magazine cover. Now I feel compelled to clean the canvas and frame the sucker. Back to tatting though, I still have a couple more pieces that need remaking, but I hope to get some time to make another one off or something else creative. Here's to a better day.

The Search Ad

What a nice day I had yesterday. Specifically, what a nice sales day. Spiders were flying out of the shop and I started teh day with an order for a mask that needs to be made. This means two things, one, I am still busy working on that and two I had no time to do anything else interesting enough to talk about.

So I suppose I'll use this opportunity to document my latest etsy experiment with their in house search ad system. It's only the first week so it's still hard to draw any real conclusions about it's value, but I thought I'd share the numbers I got with it in case any one else was curious. I went for the lowest cost which is $5 a week for about 5000 impressions. Each keyword has its own value so I suppose this moves about a bit. I figured $5 wasn't too much to spend to try something out. So, what did I get out of it? Well, I got 6,058 impressions which is how many times my ad items were seen. For the record I chose to show my mask section. For those impressions I got 52 views, which is the number of times my ad was clicked on and 9 favorites. That's it. That's one click for every 112.5 views and one favorite for every 5 clicks. There were no sales. For comparison I got 6,666 clicks in the shop from other sources in the same time frame and 322 favorites. With this information, it's pretty clear that these search ads didn't do much for me at all. I'll let them run one more week, but I think that perhaps they are just not a good fit for me.

I shouldn't be shocked, they are based on keywords that don't necessarily have anything to do with the search at hand. I did a few searches for the wunderkammer and saw plenty of ads that didn't relate at all and thus were useless. Of course, I am also not the biggest of ad clickers in the world and I'm certainly not alone in that regard. Since I have not been the best advertiser of my own business I thought I should at least try it since it was so simple and built in. I suppose it just proves that the easy way is most often not the best way.

Today, it's back to the mask order and I need to make even more spiders and there are a couple of other things that need remaking. You can look forward to another boring post tomorrow then...sorry. Oh, but since yesterday's pleas for something interesting to happen brought so many sales, I think I would like to ask for that again today. May the universe rain down good and unexpected things today as well!

Family Skulls

I didn't get up to as much as I had hoped yesterday. As I dug through my fresh grab bag, I was distracted and thus less inspired by its contents than usual. However, I did manage to pick out a few odds and ends and made up this necklace. Sometimes I feel like I am cheating on the tatting when I make one of these since the tatting is just a part of and not the whole of the piece, but hey, diversity is the spice of life. Anyway, it isn't listed yet, hopefully I'll get round to that today and maybe try again for a bit of inspiration.

In other news, I thought I'd give you a peek at some of the family crafts we've been up to since that fateful trip to Michaels over the weekend. The masks were done by the kids. The youngest did the red and white one...she has repeatably shared that she is pretending that the red is blood. The oldest went for 'realistic' with hers, as long as real skulls have black glitter between their teeth. The fancy coffin there is mine, but both the girls are working on those as well. In a shocking development, they have both accepted that they need to work on them in phases. This means they are actually waiting overnight for the first coats of paint to dry before decorating them. This is a degree of patience I did not think them capable of and it's quite refreshing.

So again, I start the day without a clear plan in place. I might go left or right or get lazy and do nothing of significance. Or perhaps something interesting will happen outside my influence to turn my day in unexpected directions. I'm voting for that last one, if you're wondering.

Weekend Wrap Up

Let's see, Again, I'm afraid there is not much new to share from around these parts. It seems I am keeping busy making spiders for the time being. I was asked if it was possible to simple purchase them and so I made up a listing for a batch of 10 plain ones and once the customer picked those up , I made another just in case.  Then my brother-in-law requested some with beads, so after I picked up some comparable beads at Michaels I made a bunch more. I've got thread spiders coming out of my ears.

Most of the weekend was family time though. We took a trip to the zoo a few towns over. We bought a membership this year so we could keep going back without feeling like we were spending too much money to do so. Then Sunday was mostly a lazy day except that's when we went to Michaels and came up with all sorts of Halloween things to paint and adorn. Just a piece of advice, never take a family into that store without a specific and firm agenda especially around Halloween or this sort of madness is bound to occur. The rest of Sunday was spent painting things and finishing the first trilogy of the Star Wars Blu Rays in an attempt to fully indoctrinate our youth. I think it worked, next it's onto the next trilogy and by that I mean the second set made, we started with the classics.

So, what's on tap for this week. I have no clue. I've managed to keep the store pretty well stocked, so there are no major projects that direction. I did get in another supply order complete with grab bag, so perhaps a stroll through those goodies for something inspiring. Anything, but another spider...well, maybe a few more, it is October after all. I might even put together an instructable for the beaded ones...we'll see.