Holiday Recap

Ah, back to normal...well, almost anyway. We spent solstice and the days that followed in Monterey. We returned home on Wednesday when my brother and his girlfriend arrived from San Diego to christen our guestroom. Then of course it was straight into the holiday with Christmas dinner hosting duties and the subsequent cleanup. Many members of the family caught some bug or other even my daughter managed to contract fifth disease. That's not as bad as it sounds, she just has a rash on her cheeks, but it sure looks scary.

All the while I managed to actually stay on vacation. Sure I worked on some sewing some sequins in the hotel and Christmas eve I did tat a couple of things, but as soon as I received a Zelda game for Christmas, my needles were down. I decided that all the signs pointed to me wasting a little time. I have not done that is many a moon. Of course Sunday night I had to play catch up. I got orders ready, curated the Wunderkammer and caught up on emails and convos. Then I even had a little more time for Zelda...I love Zelda games.

I did get one tatting related gift and I was glad to receive it. A lovely wooden needle case I had eyed on etsy. Like many tatters, my needles have been existing in their plastic tube since purchased. Said tube was not standing the test of time. All my needles fit in this thing. There are even a few steel crochet hooks and beading needles in there. I have to appreciate my husbands ability to search through my massive favorites list, which contains mostly future Wunderkammer picks to find something I actually wanted for me, it had to be a chore.

I did get more sequins done on the mask project as I mentioned, but I haven't gotten any new pictures yet, so maybe for tomorrow. I also sold a mask that needs making so as you'll imagine I'm back to work today. Oh and my freshly inked neck, which is driving me batty with the itching should be ready for a proper picture soon as well, so you can see what I bought myself for the holidays. I'm sure to take a few days to really get back into the swing of things. Vacation always does that.

Oh, crap, I almost forgot to tell you. I know I mentioned that the mimics shop had vanished. Well, I did finally get that official message from the etsy legal team stated that they had removed the infringing material and informed the "user". It was a very formal, canned response, but that was all I needed. Also, though the mimics accounts still exist at Artfire and that other site, all the listings are gone. I'm still in that 'waiting for the other shoe to fall' mode, but I think I am now prepared should this sort of business rear it's ugly head again thanks in no small part to the legions of tatters and artisans I have had the pleasure of knowing online, who offered support and advice. What drama the Internet creates, it may also be used to destroy...and now I'm back to work.

Handmade Holiday Part 2

Yesterday I got my very last etsy ordered gift. I was really excited that I managed to get so many handmade presents that my family will actually like. I was really worried going into the holidays that I would have a hard time finding things they would actually appreciate and enjoy and there were a couple of people I gave up on trying for. For the most part it was a success and now is the hard part...waiting. You see, I really want to show off all these great things I got, but I can't. I have to wait until after the holidays because some of my family reads the blog.

This annoyance gave birth to a great idea I'm calling Gifts Exposed. Right after Christmas I shall begin posting all the etsy gifts I gave away and give each of their creators a little shout out as a thank you. I bought enough that it should take up at least the better part of the week. It should also provide a break from all my tatting talk. Of course I am now reminded that though all my shopping is well done, I still need to pull out all those hidden gifts and get wrapping. I really dislike wrapping gifts mostly because I have cats and kids that like to "help". Their efforts extend the wrapping time considerably.

I've got a couple of pieces I'd like to remake for the store today, but I'm officially caught up with mask orders. I did make a slave bracelet in black that I plan on getting listed today, but that depends on whether the kids let me take pictures later or not. It will only fit someone with a tiny hand such as myself, but there are plenty of us out there...I think. I also have to finish tatting my gifts for the SteamTeam members. I'm really glad to be able to give so much this year and I hope next year is even better.

Happy Mother's Day

I'm at that point in motherhood where my children have very little idea of what it is that I actually do for them. This means that any gift I receive for this holiday is really from my husband, so it's kind of hard for me to really see the holiday as mine yet.

It is however a holiday for my Mom and my Mother-in-law. I spent the last couple of weeks constructing their Mother's day gifts. I really haven't decided whether I will be making more of these for sale, but I wanted to show them off.
This first one here was made with yarn from fearlessfibers. It's a superwash merino hand dyed in a brick house colorway. My mom's favorite color is red, but I didn't want something too bright and this worked perfectly.

The second one was a merino wool nylon blend in an amazing green called Margarita from Jenhintz. This was her first hand dyed sale and since my Mother-in-law has a love of extreme greens, it was the obvious choice for her scarf. Both yarn sellers were great to work with. It's always a bit scary for me to buy hand dyed yarn. I 'm always afraid that my monitor has misrepresented the colors somehow, but these were exactly as described.

I'm still not quite finished with my new scarf design. I hope to knock it out today, so I'll have something to show off for tomorrow.

All this mother's day stuff has also got me thinking a bit about this tightrope I walk between being Mom/Wife and being and individual. I know a lot of people wonder about keeping the balance between etsy and family, but for me it's the balance between me and my family because my tatting and etsy are truly the only things I do during the day that are only for me. I'm certain I've got a whole post worth of things to say on this subject, so I'll save it for another day.

For now, let me just say, I hope all you Mommies had a great day yesterday!