Holiday Sale

My how I have abandoned this space. I have been feeling less that creative with my needlework lately and that means I have little, it anything worth sharing. I have had a few small orders in my etsy shop, so I've remade a few things, and work on the Armenian lace piece is ongoing as ever. I've done a little crocheting and some knitting and I'm still hard at work writing. I'm still muddling through the editing of my first novel and my hope is that I'll have something to share before the year is out. I'm also writing daily on at least three different projects, though there is currently much doubt as to which ones will survive to completion. I may have bit off more than I can chew on that front.

‪Knotting up an Armenian lace pineapple tassel pendant today.‬

A post shared by Pamela Quevedo (@totusmel) on Nov 19, 2017 at 12:53pm PST

Last bit of news to share is the SALE in my etsy shop. No coupon code is needed, but you do need to spend at least $20 to activate the 20% off. It will likely be up through the holidays, but sooner is always better, especially if you want anything custom.

Birthday Sale

I've not got much to share this week. I've been working slowly on the Armenian lace, but most of my time has been spent reading and writing. I'm at 66,000 words now so if I keep working at the same speed I should be done with the first draft of the book by the end of the month. Of course I really have no idea where to go from that point. I made a point of not thinking beyond the actual writing of the thing, so I don't have a clue what might or might not happen with it after I edit and proofread it. I guess I'll have to do some research at that point.

That's not why I popped by though. It's my birthday, so I've set up a coupon code for a birthday sale. It looks like soon I'll be able to run a proper sale in my etsy shop as tools for that have just been released, but won't be live until next week. So for now get 25% off anything in my shop through Friday with this link: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TotusMel?coupon=BIRTHDAY25 or you can use the code BIRTHDAY25 at checkout like usual.

Armenian lace piece is 42.5" across now.

A post shared by Pamela Quevedo (@totusmel) on Aug 8, 2017 at 1:26pm PDT

Sale is Still On!

I haven't had a lot of takers for my sale, but it is still on until tomorrow at least. You can get 25% off with the code SUMMER25 in my etsy shop. In the meantime I have spent my days reading and writing. I've managed to pen over 16,000 words now and I am not yet burned out, so there's a chance I might actually see this one through.

I did get a few orders in my shop including a custom order for gold and gray bleeding heart earrings and this wide cuff bracelet, whose name escapes me at the moment. So I've been tatting quite a bit too, just not as much as I wish I was.

Unfortunately I've also had a package go missing in France. It was marked as delivered, but the customer has not been able to locate it. It was likely stolen off a porch or by a carrier, so that means I need to make a new bracelet and send it off again. The worst part is that postage to Europe is ridiculously expensive so honestly it's costing me more just to send another than I got from selling it in the first place, never mind the loss of the bracelet on top of that. Insurance would have been too much on such a small order. Oh well, that's the cost of doing business when you have to rely on others to make final delivery. Luckily the customer seems patient and kind about the whole thing.

So just to recap, I'm alive, reading, writing, tatting, oh and I'm still knotting away on the Armenian lace as well. I'd really like to make a few more sales, so I may leave the sale up for another week to see if that helps. Otherwise I'll keep on working like I have been and I may try to start writing more often again. I think it might help with my other writing if I'm doing so. Time will tell.

Update & SALE

Happy Monday morning world. So the last couple of weeks have been a bit of a slog. First there was our broken air conditioner. You might remember that it went down two Monday's ago at the beginning of a triple digit heatwave. It took nearly two weeks to have a new one installed after we found out that it was something that just couldn't be fixed. We finally got it last Thursday, unfortunately it also came with a rather sizable price tag. On top of that we also had my mother staying all last week while she transitioned to living at my sister's house. That wasn't really a big deal, but it definitely contributed to the demise of any sort of routine.

I did manage to spent some time working on the Armenian lace piece and I got one whole order in that time. I tatted up a replacement bracelet as soon as I got the order. Other than that I have been writing everyday for a week now. I'm up to about 7500 now, but it's just the beginning so no one has seen that yet. My plan is to keep writing everyday until I've managed something that could be called a novel, good or not. Only time will tell whether or not it will see the light of day.

In the meantime I'm going to offer a 25% off sale to try and get some sales and hopefully put a tiny dent in that air conditioner bill since it pretty much ate up all the savings we had. So for the next week use the code SUMMER25 in my shop to get 25% off everything and please do share. I can use all the sales I can handle right now.

2017

The family has today off as well, but I figured it was best to get back to a sense of normality before I completely lose my routine. If it wasn't for all my morning habits I don't think that I would get anything done at all, so here I am the first Monday of the year writing about the not much that happened over the weekend.

I started making a doily for my brother. I didn't make him one for Christmas, because I thought he wouldn't want one, but after consulting him, it turns out that he actually would. It'll be in black and hopefully I'll remember to take some photos for you. After I get that wrapped in a week or so, I think I am going to start to put together a tutorial for Armenian knotted lace, at least my version of it. No promises on the quality of it yet, but I'm making an actual plan to do it.

Also at the last minute of New Year's Eve, I added a sale to my shop. There won't be another one until probably April. You can get 25% off with the code YEAREND in my shop. The code is good through Friday, but there have been no takers yet. Here's to the year ahead, may we survive it and perhaps thrive in it.

Winner

Happy Friday all. Yesterday I discovered that I could pedal my new recumbent stationary bike and knot Armenian lace at the same time. Of course I was slower at both, but it's nice to know that I can exercise and make lace at the same time. I haven't tried tatting yet because I'm afraid the ball of thread would be unwieldy, maybe I finally need one of those ball holders from Handy Hands.

In other news today is the last day for my birthday sale. Use the code HAPPYBIRTHDAY30 for 30% off everything in my etsy shop. This is my last sale until the holidays, so take advantage while you can.

I also have a winner for the fusion lace pendant giveaway. The random number generator picked Trish G! I don't have any contact information, so shoot me an email(my address is in my profile) or message me on etsy to claim your prize. Again, thank you for all the lovely comments everyone.

Not Much

I spent all day working on orders and then didn't take a single picture. Thus today's post is extra boring. I still have one more piece to finish for the orders I've gotten, but it has been a rather unsuccessful sale so far and once that's finished I'll be back to the Armenian lace doily. The home schooling year is less than two weeks away now as well, so I need to start focusing on that and getting the kids back in the schooling groove. And well, I guess that's it for me this morning.

Oh, and just the usual reminder that the sale and giveaway are on until Friday. The sale code is HAPPYBIRTHDAY30 for 30% off in my etsy shop and the giveaway is located here.

Well, That's Over

Thank you guys so much for all the birthday wishes. I really do appreciate them! I had a nice, if low
key, day. We tried to shop and found nothing to buy. We went out for frozen yogurt, watched a movie, and had some family over for pizza because I just couldn't be bothered to clean the house enough to do anything more elaborate.

I did have some sitting time so I worked on this Armenian lace piece. Since it's going to be a gift, I'm taking these slightly ridiculous colorized pictures to share my work without giving away the color and fine details.

I did get a couple of orders yesterday for my birthday sale, so today it's down to getting those made up. I've got a pair of barefoot sandals that need making and a pair of earrings that just need to be remade. I decided I earned taking yesterday off, so I saved them for today.

The sale is still up until Friday. Use the code HAPPYBIRTHDAY30 for 30% off anything in my shop. Also, you can still enter to win the fusion lace pendant by leaving a comment on yesterday's post.

Happy Birthday To Me

Okay, so I wasn't sure until this very moment that I was going to go ahead and celebrate my birthday in a public manner. You see it's one of those 'big' birthdays. You know, the ones with a zero at the end that card companies have a whole section devoted to. I know it's not really a big deal, but it's made maybe not worse, but more prominent, by the fact that I am the oldest child in my family and they are all making a big deal out of it. So if I'm going to suffer the slings and arrows of the birthday anyway, might as well be in on it too, right?

So while I'll gladly accept gifts(address provide upon request, or amazon/etsy gift cards to totusmel[at]gmail.com), I'll just default to my traditional birthday celebration of an etsy sale. Get 30% off this year, partly because that's how old I wish I was, with the code HAPPYBIRTHDAY30. The sale will run through Friday to give everyone enough time to see this and take advantage of it if they choose.

As a bonus I thought I'd do a really small giveaway as well. Just leave a comment here on this post to win a fusion lace pendant in your choice of colors. I'll choose the winner of this on Friday as well. I guess it's off to face the day now, goodbye 30's, I'll miss you.

A Good Day

Yay! The shop had such a great day yesterday and that means I had a great day of tatting and Armenian lace. I even woke up this morning to another order which means I have plenty of tatting and knotting to keep me busy for another couple of days. I started the day very early remaking this neon green necklace. It had been so long since I'd sold and made one that it took a bit longer than it should have for me to remember what little tricks I employed to make this small piece work.

Next up I got to remake an Armenian knotted lace necklace. Luckily I already had a crochet base made up so I got to start straight away with the knotting. Since I've been working on the tablecloth pretty much nonstop, I've gotten used to using much longer lengths of thread, so it went a bit faster than before and with fewer starts and stops.



 


After that I has an order for barefoot sandals and one for a bracelet. I knew I didn't have time to finish the barefoot sandals yesterday and the bracelet was yet another piece where I employed mystery tricks to make it work, so I opted to spend the time remembering how I did that one. It was trickier than I thought, but I managed to finish that piece as well.

That brings me to today. I've got those barefoot sandals to make and a couple of Armenian lace tassel pendants as well. I'm crossing my fingers that the weekend holds more, but even if it doesn't I'm pretty pleased with what I've sold so far. This much work might even inspire me to create something new soon. Now, I'm really crossing my fingers for that.

Remember my sale is good through the 24th! Get 25% off with the code HAPPY10TH on anything in my shop.

Sale

No sales in the shop yesterday and I didn't do any tatting either. I did work on the Armenian lace quite a bit though. I fear the ripple that formed so long ago is not going to be worked out at all. I shall keep trying, but I'm starting to accept it as a feature, not a bug. I've now reached 30 inches across which make each round just under 8 feet long. Of course at this point I kind of feel like I've knotted miles. I don't know the math needed to make that assertion though.

I made another graphic for my sale using the Armenian lace as the background. It didn't seem to inspire any sales though, so maybe it's not as neat as I thought it was. There are a few more days left in my sale, so if you're thinking about picking up a piece, or pattern, please do pop by the shop. The sale code is HAPPY10TH and it's good for 25% off everything.

Back to Tatting

Thanks so much for the congratulatory comments yesterday. I did get a few sales in my shop. Not as many as I had hoped, of course, but the sale code is still good until the 24th, so I'm crossing my fingers that they'll trickle in over the next few days. The ones I did get though, will keep me tatting for a couple of days at least. I started by remaking a couple of pendants that sold. The first one I did was this heart. It's one I designed years ago based on a common edging.

Then it was the tiny triangle. This one is definitely not an original design, but rather a vintage element that I adjusted the stitch counts on until it served my purpose. After these I got to work on remaking a beaded necklace that I didn't get a picture of at all. I did finish it up last night though.

This morning I do have a couple of orders to pack up and send out and an anklet to remake for the shop. Then I'll likely spend much of the day pestering various social networks with my sale. I even made a little graphic to share it with.

So remember you can get 25% off with the code HAPPY10TH in my shop until the 24th of April, and please do share the sale if you can!

10 Years!

Well, here we are, the anniversary of a whole decade selling my tatting and some other nonsense on Etsy. When I first started I was the only person on the site doing tatting at all. I signed up for my shop on April 19th, 2006 and then five days later I tried to sell my pieces at the then brand new UC Merced campus at one of my only craft fair appearances. I did not enjoy it, but when it was over, I listed my pieces in my new shop and sold my first item. It was this bracelet here. I still had no idea where to buy colored threads and was relying on what I was finding in my local Michael's store. I even spent some time using awful perle cotton just for the sake of color in those early years. My, but I've come a long way since then.

So, I waited until this morning to decide that I shall have a sale that lasts until that first sale on the 24th. So for six days please use the code HAPPY10TH to get 25% off everything in my Etsy shop!

When I opened my Etsy store I was just hoping to make a little money for thread while I stayed home caring for my then nearly 2 year old daughter. I had no aspirations about designing new pieces. I wasn't looking to meet other artisans and tatters and I certainly had no clue that I would create videos to teach tatting and write patterns people might actually want to buy. I didn't even anticipate that two years later I would start writing on this blog nearly everyday of my life. All of that was years away when some nice gal bought this bracelet from me and convinced me that maybe I could make a go of this.

I've had good years on Etsy, weathered many changes, but it's been more bad than good in recent years. The market is saturated and my focus is more on schooling my kids and I let the shop take care of itself more than I should. Unfortunately it's really not so good at that. All that being said, I'm pretty sure I'll spend the next 10 years on Etsy as well. I'll hope for a turn around, I'll get inspired sometime and create something new and interesting and I'll keep writing the stories of my successes and failures no matter how dull they get.

Thank you so much for your continued support of my ramblings and my work. I'm crossing my fingers that the best is really yet to come.

A Question For You

Well, my sick brain is fading, just a bit. I likely have the rest of the week to spend time with this cold though, so don't expect too much. I spent most of yesterday knotting on the Armenian lace again with no pictures to show for it. I did attempt to get back to reading a bit while doing so and since everything made sense, I must be getting better.


I remembered yesterday afternoon that I forgot to mention something here. You see, next week, on the 19th, is my 10th anniversary selling my tatting on Etsy. I'd like to do something to commemorate this milestone. I was thinking a sale, but I'd love to know what percent off would be the most inciting to get you to celebrate with me? You know, within reason. Personally I don't consider it a sale until it's 25% off, but that's just me. I was also thinking about maybe creating a sale section where I put the patterns on sale for a couple of bucks each and some tatting for $10 or something like that. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated. The shop is still mighty quiet and I'm kind of hoping that I can at least wake it up next week.

International Tatting Day 2016

Those of you you've been reading awhile are probably aware that today is International Tatting Day. To those of you who are new this year, it is, I assure you, a real, albeit unfortunately timed, holiday.  The traditional celebration ritual has been established as tatting some lace and eating some chocolate. Clearly this is a holiday that is easy to celebrate. The previous few sentences may also be familiar because I copy and pasted them from last years post. You can only think of so many ways to say the same thing. I also can not promise that I won't resort to that technique again in this post.

My slightly less traditional personal celebration ritual is to design and sell a pendant at a very low price for this day only and more recently the pattern as well. This year I opted to make them two different pieces, though the pendant is similar to the pattern. As always, I hope that by offering a small bit of lace cheaply, it can fly to new people exposing tatting to more places. I also hope that by offering the pattern, those that already practice our art can create something new to share with others as well.

This year's pendant design is a modification of the center of my Black Star piece with the added
elements of a few beads, and your choice of color surround by a black outline giving it a stained glass look. The pattern for sale is my Black Star necklace. Both listings are up in the shop now. They will continue to be available after today, but the price of the pendant will double and the pattern will go up to $4.75 tomorrow, the 2nd. I will be making the pendants to order, so depending on the number of pendants that sell, it may take up to a week to get them all out. I'm really crossing my fingers that I sell a ton of them, so please pick up one or more if you can!

The pendant listing is here or click on the picture above. The Black Star pattern is here or click on the image to the right. The pattern is written for needle tatting, but a bonus shuttle tatting addendum has been included thanks to my wonderful test tatter. I can't really help any further with that though as you know me and the shuttle have a long standing grudge.

So, that's it for me today then. I really hope that you like the pendant and the pattern. I'm always a bit nervous about new pieces. I'd love it if you would share these links around, or at least share tatting with someone new. Wear some lace around or sit at tat at the mall with some tasty chocolate and try to ignore the the other April holiday.

Happy, Merry

I completely forgot to write yesterday morning as I got occupied with other holiday related matters. Mostly I was getting things ready for this morning, but I'm back today. So Happy Friday, or Merry Christmas, whichever you're most happy to have today. I have a house already full of sleeping relatives and come afternoon, there will be many more. In fact I think this year we might be stretching capacity at our house, but there's nothing for it.

There will definitely be cleaning, cooking, eating, and more cleaning and it will be loud. I'm all but certain that I will have no time for creativity today, but hopefully I'll find something interesting enough to share for Monday. I do plan on having a small giveaway here and on my Facebook page to close out the year next week. Not sure what going to be given, but something. Opinions on what you'd like to see would be appreciated. In meantime have a lovely weekend and thank you for everything.

Current & Final Etsy Shop Sale: 10% off with the code HOLIDAY10. Code is good through Dec. 27

Weekend Recap

It was one of those up and down sort of weekends. We managed to finish all our holiday shopping and avoided all retail outlets on Saturday. Years working retail has given me a healthy fear of shopping the weekend before Christmas. I got one order on Friday, so I had a little tatting to do while I caught up on television. The worst event of the weekend was the dreaded lost package message. It is especially bad this time of year. Even though I have no control of shippers, I always feel so bad when presents go astray. Right now I'm just waiting to hear back before I get to wok remaking the custom piece that was in the order.

I also got some more tatted snowflakes made up since I gifted a handful of them at a gathering of friends this weekend. I'm always so relieved when they seem to actually like them. I always get nervous that they think they are the equivalent of macaroni art or something. The gathering itself was of course the highlight of our weekend, but I'm still a bit tired from staying out so late.

Sunday was a wash really, though I did get some of the cleaning needed done in anticipation of our house guests this week. That's the plan for today as well. I also need to get wrapping because there is a pile of gifts on my desk that are taking over. Even without schooling this is going to be one long, busy week.

Current & Final Etsy Shop Sale: 10% off with the code HOLIDAY10. Code is good through Dec. 27

Some Tatting

Since I actually started yesterday with an order in my etsy shop, I had tatting to do. My only regret is that they were all incredibly quick pieces to make. Of course I imagine that's a plus for the person who purchased them as gifts. They'll be out in the post this morning with a shipping upgrade as a gift from me.

I didn't tackle any more chairs yesterday. I decided that I should let my hand recover a bit so I'm not bruising a bruise. Instead I knitted and read the rest of the day. I'll probably get back to chairs today though. I'm running out of time to clean up the house before we host holiday house guests. My brother and sister-in-law will be here the longest starting on Tuesday, but my other brother will be staying here as well. I'm totally just stalling on all the things I know I should do. We haven't even finished shopping for gifts yet. There used to be a time when I had those all wrapped up before Thanksgiving to avoid all this stress. This year I'm apparently trying to win a procrastination award. Here's to a productive day in something anyway.

Current Etsy Shop Sale: 15% off with the code HOLIDAY215. Code is good through Dec. 20

Chairs

Yesterday went a weird direction on me. After schooling, I worked on the knitting project for a bit. Then we had a family dental appointment. After that we popped by the fabric store to get some material to reupholster our 8 dinning room chairs. The fabric on them has been wearing for some time. It's a weave with a thin thread over a thicker core thread and it's been splitting. The last straw was the pet rats though. Two chairs ended up pushed a bit too close to their cage and they chewed through the sides. So, it was time to make them look nice before we host yet another holiday dinner.

So, yes I spent the rest of the afternoon measuring, cutting material and getting three of the chairs done. The one on the left is the old material. You can see the splitting on front right corner. We tried to get material in the same color family, but it's a bit lighter and luckily denser too. I think I did a pretty good job though it's definitely not perfect.

I woke up to a custom order this morning, so that will be on the agenda today. It will be followed by the chairs. I've got a couple of weeks to get them all done, so I'm not actually in any rush. Maybe I'll just do one at a time, plus using the staple gun left me with a sore hand. I guess it's just been too long since I used one. I've also still got the knitting as well, so I should stay nice and busy for a little while at least.

Current Etsy Shop Sale: 15% off with the code HOLIDAY215. Code is good through Dec. 20

Knit

It was a housework kind of day yesterday. No new orders in the shop so when the time did finally come to sit down and catch up on shows with the kids, I opted for a little knitting.It's nothing big, nor fancy, just something to keep my hands busy when they would otherwise be idle.

As the days go by, it does get less likely that I'll get any more sales in the shop before Christmas. It's just getting too close to shop anywhere that ships first class. If you were running late though and wanted anything faster, I can ship priority upon request. Otherwise I'm just trying to focus on everything else that needs doing this time of year.

Once the holidays are past I usually have the time and inclination to start designing again, so I'll just start looking forward to that and start thinking about what I might want to create. Until then I'll clean and knit and try not to stress out on anything.

Current Etsy Shop Sale: 15% off with the code HOLIDAY215. Code is good through Dec. 20