The Horror

So I was all ready to write up this morning about how I finished the commissioned belly dance inspired piece. I was going to talk about how I melded the various elements and how it jingled relentlessly as I created it. It was to be a fine and pleasant blog post forming as I finished the piece yesterday and then the worst email ever.

Okay, in the grand scheme of things I get that this isn't really all that important,but for me, the bottom dropped out. The New York designer I have been working with emailed to say that my package had not arrived. What?!? I tracked that thing obsessively and the bloody USPS said that it arrived on the 31st. Before you ask it was a big Priority mail box and it was insured, but not signed for. After a bit of back and forth with the tracking information and double checking that the address was accurate, it was, it is left up to her to see if she can find where the package got to...in less than a week.

So I start this week with a horrible feeling of dread. There is nothing I can do either. I can't possibly remaking the contents of that package in time and to make matters worse, it contains my one of a kind, irreplaceable masquerade mask that I was loaning for the show. I am truly devastated, my stomach is in knots and I could barely sleep last night as my mind wandered from one awful scenario to another awful scenario. This, my friends is why I never share good news, because somewhere deep down, I fear that this sort of thing is inevitable. So, I am hoping beyond hope that it did arrive safely and just got misdirected to the wrong desk, but after a week I know that it's unlikely. I know it's my own fault for getting my hopes up, for trusting the postal service and for assuming that the tracking was accurate. So there is likely no fashion show for me and I will slink back under my rock and try to not let that stop me from getting other work done. I have the sad.

Lost

There is definitely something to be said for deadlines or maybe I'm just the sort of person who needs them. I managed to stay on task much of the day. I did get distracted by shoe shopping again, but I finally settled on a nice light beige pair...at least I hope that's what color they turn out to be so they work for photos. I managed to get all but two pieces in queue made up when I got yet another 'lost package' message.

This holiday seasons aftermath has brought me at least three missing international packages. Luckily they have all been smaller pieces so replacing and refunding hasn't been all that painful, but they are making me seriously reconsider shipping outside the country. The option is to jack up the shipping costs to a more traceable method and pass those costs onto the customer. I suppose that might work out just fine when shipping really expensive things, but I certainly wouldn't want to pay $10 or $15 shipping on a $9 pendant. Yeah, I don't know what I'll end up doing. I'm probably just venting here to get it off my chest and won't change a thing, but it does make me wonder what larger companies do when shipments go missing. I ordered supplies from a smaller one and they were delivered elsewhere and the company just told me to go to the post office to track it down. Of course I didn't and they finally arrived about a month later. Is that standard practice, to just tell the customer, 'oh, well, not our fault' and move on. That just doesn't feel right to me even though it's not strictly my fault.

Anyway, I will finish up the stocking today and I've got a few ideas brewing in my head that just might burst free before I start the next round of stocking pieces. I want to get some of the masks listed as custom made up and ready to ship as well since Mardi Gras is just around the corner. Thought o be honest I don't sell all that many for this holiday. Maybe they're not glitzy enough for that, still better safe than sorry.

Tatting Gets Married

I lazily meandered though yet another day of stock making. Rather than stay on task though, I went back and forth to a couple of different projects. I spent a little time working out a potential pattern for the new belly dance piece. I decided to marry two pieces together for the right bold size. Then decided that the top edge would need something a bit different and decided to add different motifs along it to give it a bit of a patchwork or layering effect. In the picture the bits are just lying together  so I can see how it might all work. What I will need to do next is work out the placement of the coins and bells and once that's done, work up the final piece. I still need to get a neck measurement for the perfect fit first though.

I also worked on one solid failure of a one off. I saw a necklace on a TV show that I liked and I tries to emulate it, but I made some poor design decisions and scrapped it. I might make the necessary adjustments to save it, but it's not really a priority. I need to get back to the stock work, but without a looming deadline to keep me focused, I can't, well...stay focused. I also got an order yesterday so I allowed myself to be distracted remaking bits that probably didn't really need remaking. I think I need to just set my own deadline and stick to it. Yes, that's what I'll do. The remaking needs to be done by Friday night. That's two days Pam...get to work.

The giveaway closed last night with two winners picked after 135 entries. I remember now why I do these so infrequently, they are exhausting. You wouldn't think so, but they are a lot more work that they are probably worth. I do like to do them though to say thank you and get people excited and it doesn't hurt that they generally attract new fans and you know how much I love attention. Speaking of attention, I got a couple new questions to answer in yesterday comments. I've written too much already today to tackle them, but I promise sometime next week, I will tell those stories for you.

Habit

Yep, it's another of those, typing out of habit days, as I have little to report. I been spending much of my time working on stock and worrying about things I cannot control. In fact so many things have been dancing around in my brain that I fear I am clenching my jaw again. This happened a couple of years ago and combined itself with a dying tooth to provide me with much pain and suffering for a few months at least. This time I think it is just the stress so I'm trying to keep massaging my jaw and relax, but it's been giving my a subtle but persistent headache as well. Seriously the next two weeks need to just scoot on by now.

Reliving the jaw pain took me back though and I remembered that I used to do these personal reveal posts. I would answer some question no one ever asked, but I stopped doing them long ago. Since it strikes me that many of you just recently found me and digging through over 700 posts is not practical, I thought I would provide a link to the last one I remember doing. It contains in the first paragraph links to all the other ones...I think. So if you were curious about the hair, tattoos or what other talents I used to think I had and you have some time to kill, start here. I apologize in advance for subjecting you to these stories all at once, but originally they were doled out slowly in small doses.

I should be finishing up with my current stocking project today or tomorrow and then I will get on the belly dance inspired piece. I've come up with a couple of different ideas to try out, but as always, I hope the first one I try works. Also, I will be picking a winner in the facebook giveaway this evening sometime, so if you haven't stopped by, you still have a bit of time. I got enough entrants to add a second gift certificate so the odds improved dramatically. There is very little chance of reaching the third though. It still cracks me up how few people enter to win free stuff when there is so little effort involved, but no skin off my nose.

1000 Strong

I tracked that package all day to reassure myself that it would make it safely to New York and it apparently did. I of course haven't heard anything regarding it yet, but most people don't stop whatever they're doing and say they 'got it'. So now I wait.

While I am waiting though I have plenty of work to get on with. I have stocking in anticipation of event reaction and I got a most interesting commission request. How interesting, you ask? Well, very. Again, you know me and spilling details, but I'll give you some broad strokes. I received a message from a Seattle based sculptor. She approached me about using some of my lace for a very interesting concept piece. I am terribly exciting to have any part is her art and am awaiting further dimension details before I jump into work. I shall share more details on this project as it evolves providing that this one doesn't fall apart either. First fashion, now the art world...I don't know how they're finding me, but this year seems to be starting off with a bang.

In other news, look, I bought a white shirt just for listing photos and they look so much better with the white jewelry. I'm still desperately searching for the perfect off white shoes to do pictures of white and Ivory ankle corsets, but apparently I have expensive shoe taste and since I know I will only wear them for this purpose, I need them to not only have the right silhouette for the corsets, but be under like $40. I also couldn't find any in store and I am weary of the colors online being what they appear. Usually it's easy to online shop shoes, because I only ever buy black ones and those are always true to color.

Also, I just broke 1000 fans/likes on my facebook page so I started a giveaway over there. It won't close until Wednesday evening, so you have plenty of time to get in on it, if you like. Rather than offer up a particular piece, I'm offering a gift certificate/credit to the shop for $50. There will be more credits adding to the pool if I get more people to enter. You can find the direct giveaway thread here. I know a lot of you aren't facebook people, but don't worry if you don't want to play over there, my 5th anniversary on etsy is coming up in a couple of months and I will do something interesting for that, provided that I'm not ridiculously swamped. No, I'll do something either way, 5 years deserves acknowledgment whether I'm bored or busy.