Another Gone

Well I have good news to report about the green necklace I showed you yesterday. Like the red piece, it was picked up quite quickly yesterday and will be heading to a good home this morning. It really is one fabulous feeling when something finds an owner so quickly. These are the moments that recharge my drive and remind me, after bouts of silence and slow sales, that there are people out there who do appreciate the work that I do. In fact these are the moments when I feel like a real artist as opposed to most days when I feel a little like an overworked thread slave or ignored cog in the household machine. I much prefer the ego boosting days.

Other than that though, we had a teacher meeting with assessments for the youngest at the book store. So I stalled until that because I knew as soon as we were home I was going to tackle some more bathroom cleaning. I love having three bathrooms except when I need to clean them. The worst one is the kids of course, not because they're horribly messy except for the toothpaste, but because I never go in there which means it's neglected until I clean everything in the house. I still have the kitchen to tackle and the floors in the rooms that will serve as guest rooms and I can feel time slipping away. Hopefully I'll get the bulk of that done this weekend.

Back to tatting though, I remade one piece yesterday afternoon and I got an order for a custom necklace from one of my favorite customers that I will be working on today. Of course I do have lots of favorite customers which is also a much needed ego boost. If I get caught up on those things this weekend I'm going to try to get back to the art project so I can try out my something more ideas before they slip right out of my brain. Man, is this time of year exhausting.

Green

Well I'm slightly disappointed to report that the purple piece I listed yesterday has not in fact flown off to a new home yet. Of course this does mean that you get to see a much better picture of it today. In fact I was so bummed that I didn't get a repeat of the red pieces success I almost didn't bother making the green one that I said I was going to make, but the idea was already in my head and it would be silent until I cracked open that bag of metal bits and dug around for treasure.

We are definitely at the end of these, or very close to it for now. While I still have more stones and the setting in both copper and brass, I have very few matching bits in either metal left and these only work if I have some of those. There is a chance that next time I do a supply order that I just pick some up so I can actually repeat a piece like these, but aside from the fluke of many sales the other day the shop is still too slow to justify me actually spending any money. Anyway, I did this piece in Lizbeth Evergreen. I had to use two different sizes on both this one and the purple piece. This one was was extra annoying because the round beads I used are the mountain jade too and that stone is incredibly soft. I snapped like three in half just trying to make links out of them. The ones I used are survivors though, so they are strong.

So today I have schooling and then a teacher meeting for the youngest that I didn't learn about until yesterday afternoon. I still have a few pieces that need to be made for the shop and I need to get this green piece listed as well. I'm attempting to be way more social online than usual as well in an attempt to get more attention for the shop and if I get any downtime there are still rooms left to deep clean and the art project still waiting for that something missing to be discovered. I guess what I'm saying is that I have plenty to do and I really have no idea what part or parts of it that I will actually get round to doing. Man, I'm tired just thinking about it and next week should be even worse with time slipping away.

Blarg

I was having such a good morning, I got to sleep all the way until my alarm, the election is over and won't be dragging on for weeks and then I was distracted by a lost package to Lithuania. Now I knew it was hadn't arrive a while ago, but the recipient was still looking for it on her end. Yesterday she said they couldn't find it, but they'd know for sure in a day or so, so I offered to send another piece though I'm honestly worried about the same thing happening. This morning I get a message saying it can't be found since it wasn't sent in a method requiring signature so could I send the replacement that way. I never do that because on a regular first class shipment it raises the cost about $16 and I don't expect anyone to pay that for shipping unless the item is particularly expensive a $30 piece really doesn't rate, right? The customer who is also a seller says she adds that to her shipments, so my guess is the service is much cheaper coming into the U.S. Anyway the whole business has put me in a sour mood.

On a lighter and more tatting related note, I made another one of a kind piece yesterday. I listed the red piece yesterday morning and it sold immediately to a facebook fan who had expressed in interest in it the day before. So I thought I'd see if I had enough bits to make something else in the same family and I did. This time I used dark purple Lizbeth and did a little more tatting around the brass bits. This one was pretty well received too, so I'm hoping it flies off today when I list it as well, though it would be pretty weird to have that happen twice in a row.

Also when I posted this image, it was suggested by someone that it would look good in a dark green. Well, I just happen to have this same stone in green as well, so I'll be digging though the bits once again hoping to find something to make up another. I am running out of matching pieces though, so the green will likely be the last one unless I order some of these on purpose and not in a grab bag. Well, here's hoping today picks up from here.

One Off

Yesterday started out so calm, quiet and annoying. Not any special kind of annoying, but the kind that comes with a Monday after a holiday where the kids are being squirrely and not getting their school work done. There were many sibling battles and I just retreated into thread once school was wrapped. I had one custom order to complete and then I decided to take a look at last years November sales to see if I could infer a pattern from the holiday sales. I wanted to see if there was in fact something I should be making more of at this point. My research was inconclusive, but looking at some of my old one of a kind pieces inspired me to dig through my random bits and make up something nice.

It's actually quite sparse on the tatting, but folks seemed to like it. I used the last of my copper chain and the only three copper feathers I had so yes, it's another one of a kind and I am going to try to get it listed later today. Hopefully it finds a home quickly.

As of bedtime last night I was prepared to just play some more today with random bits when my sale notification went off on my phone. It makes a ch-ching noise that I've become quite fond of. Anyway, I heard that noise a few more times during the night. I've no idea where all these people came from all of a sudden. It's even more confusing because of the lack of views the shop has gotten over the last week. I'm not complaining, just commenting on the unexplained. So today I have a few pieces that will need remaking which feels really good to say and I'll hopefully get this necklace listed as well as the one linen necklace I got make eons ago that never got listed. Well, that's quite a list for today and I'm feeling pretty good about that.

Something's Missing

As the cold finally let go of my brain completely over the weekend, it because quite clear to me that there are tasks I seriously need to get on, both in the shop and at home. The first came with the realization that Thanksgiving is quite a lot closer than I thought. This year we're playing host to more house guests than we have in the past and though none of them are uptight about a spotless house I'm stressing on getting things as clean as possible. As I'm generally one of those, 'that'll do' sort of cleaners this is more work than I'm used to, so I started tackling some of the tasks over the weekend hoping that maintaining that level of cleanliness is possible with the kids and cats...I guess only time will tell.

After a day or so of playing the victim over my still mostly dead shop, I got back to work on the art project prototype. The entire shape has now been constructed, but I'm not quite settled on the design yet. It needs something more and I'm not sure what that is yet. There are also a few stitch count changes that I will need to make on the final pieces, but that pales compared to the feeling that something is missing. The shape is good, the width of the piece is good, but I think it needs something on the inner edge, a little frill or something. Oh well, I'll work it out. That is what a prototype is for after all. In fact as I'm writing here, starting at the image, I've gotten a couple of ideas to try out later. Man am I glad that cold finally freed my brain.

Other than the art project and the two weeks of cleaning ahead of me, I'm going to buckle down and work on the shop. It's no help to worry about sales, I just need to focus on what I can do. I've already gotten a few more listings changed to offer different colors with the variations tool and I finally posted a processing time on all my listings. I can always get more variation listings worked up and get some more stock made of a few pieces. Now comes the focusing on all this stuff. I think I've already exhausted myself this morning thinking about it all. Of course that could have more to do with the cats waking me up early because they don't 'get' the time change. Whatever it is I definitely have a week to start now. Wish me luck.