One More Down

Another day down. This week has been and I imagine will continue to be a slow march. I refuse to start any new tatting projects with the moments of free time I have been given as the world slows though. As a result for the first time in a long time, I haven't been totally exhausted every evening. I am saving new for the new year. Instead I actually finished a mask in one day and should have it off to its new owner today. Of course this does mean I did little else. Sure, there was still schooling and I managed laundry and dishes, but mostly it was just the mask.

Today starts with a couple of necklaces and a lapel pin that need remaking and since our annual holiday trip to Monterey is tomorrow, I must get the house mostly cleaned as well. We'll still have Saturday to finish up, but who really wants to clean on Christmas Eve...not that we do anything else interesting, but it's the principle of the thing.

I have started to let my mind wander a bit on the subject of a new art piece for the shop. I need to make something striking and slightly over the top. So far my big pieces have been the Masquerade mask, the Day of the Dead mask and one large neck piece, but that last one was only halfway there. This time I don't think I want to do a mask, but I'm not sure what I want to do. I know that I will end up making it up as I go along, but I still need a picture in my head. Any suggestions are surely appreciated. The more brainstorming, the more likely I am to have an 'ah, ha' moment. But, for now it's remaking and cleaning...oh my exciting life. Oh, and just in case you were wondering, I will definitely still be posting on my usual schedule through the holidays...just don't expect much tatting, or substance.

Sigh

So as it turns out the headache was a pretty good portend of the day to come. There just wasn't much to it honestly. There were a few hours of schooling the child and then I spent some time cleaning as I think I had avoided it long enough. Do you have any idea how much fur seven cats leave on a tile floor? It's epic really. Almost the entire remainder of the day was spent trapped under a pike of cats working on remaking one of my neck corset pieces and staring at the computer screen hoping something else would happen to distract me from the doldrums. I even attempted a flash sale on facebook, but had no takers for three hours. Of course I don't know why I bother, I've never really had a successful sales event of any kind. It seems my customers are just not motivated by percent off sort of things which is actually a good thing as I don't really like doing them anyway. I guess I was just trying to change things up.

I did receive an order for a mask that needs making this morning. So that's what I'll be working on today. I want it done and in the mail by Thursday so I don't have anything hanging over my head for the weekend other than the holiday itself. That also means I'll be scheduling up a bunch of posts for the Wunderkammer and I'm still not certain whether I'll take a break from here or not. Writing in the morning is such an integrated part of my day, I might feel weird not doing it. It's likely I'll still be around posting. In fact theoretically, we should be gifting our friends with my secret projects soon...hopefully, so at the very least I'll get to post those pictures. So my day is mask making and probably a bit more cleaning and tomorrows post will be as boring as today's, but what are you gonna do?

Crochet

Well nuts, my after the holidays project has already been completed. I guess at a certain point I just found my rhythm and the neck warmer was done on Friday night I think. There were no sales in the shop all day so I just kept on going. I even cut the buttons off of an old jacket I had so I wouldn't have to wait for a trip to the store to get some. It is terribly cozy, though I do wish I'd had a bit softer yarn to use for it. I might still venture out after the holidays to find some, maybe to make them for the kids, if they decide they want them too.

Saturday was also a completely dead day in the shop, but we got errands done and I finished the book I was reading. Then on Sunday we accomplished the great wrapping event. We left the girls to play with their cousins for a couple of hours and got it all knocked out. Of course we still can't put everything under the tree for fear of the cats reactions to piles of paper covered goodness. I sort of miss that part from childhood. You know, the box shaking and guessing, but we're certain that it would not end well.

Sunday also brought a small influx of orders. I assume trying to get in just before the shipping deadline. That should keep me busy remaking today and I'll offer one last day of Priority shipping tomorrow. Then, well then the shop will likely turn into a ghost town for a month. Though there are always a few, 'I didn't get what I wanted, so I'm buying myself a present' orders right after the holidays. We still have most of the week homeschooling, but then she's off for three weeks. I doubt we'll stay that long on vacation, you know for our sanity reasons, but that's the official schedule. We also need to clean the house up again before we host the Christmas festivities for the family and I'd rather that was done sooner rather than later, so as soon as I've finished catching up with the shop, it's cleaning time. Sounds like I have one hell of a week ahead of me and I'm starting it with a headache...that can't be a good sign.

The days are really beginning to run together as the holidays sneak up on me. I think perhaps that is a side effect of completing the shopping so early. I really stopped thinking about it, at least in the way that affects me and my family, instead focusing on the store. I means, yikes...it's just over a week away until Christmas. Sorry about that, it's just an external realization and this is the place that those spill out into the open.

I spent most of the day focused on remaking sold pieces and I've basically caught up save for a few I really have no interest in remaking right now. So as afternoon rolled around and it became clear that I wasn't going to get many if any more orders for the day, I opted to crochet. Yes, I am aware that sounds odd. Before I discovered tatting I both knitted and crocheted all the time and had since my teen years. I found tatting when I had bored of those for a time, but it was turning tatting into a job that left no time to pursue those crafts any longer. Every so often when things are slow, I'll pull out a hook or needles and let my muscle memory remind my how to move the yarn.

I had purchased a pattern for this neck warmer I saw on etsy with an interesting stitch I'd not tried before. That's what this is the beginning of. I still have plenty of yarn about so I got started with some black alpaca. It's definitely going to take a spell before I finish as it's pretty slow getting any length with the scales, but it's fairly simple, keeps my hands moving and gives me a break from tatting. I will of course pause to work on the shop should that be needed, but if the last five years have taught me anything, January is a slow, slow month. That means it's perfect for side projects and maybe even another tatted art piece for the shop. You know, if inspiration hits. That's all still a couple of weeks away though, so rather than speed toward it, I'll just let it come. I hope that you all have a nice weekend.

Remember To Knock On Wood

It's my own fault really...I should know better. Yesterday when I spoke of the great sales day I had the day before I forgot to knock on wood and luck, she abandoned me...at least for the day. It wasn't a horrible day by any stretch of the imagination, but once you've had such a great one, you unfortunately expect it to continue and anything less is just disappointment. I was however, plenty busy with the task of remaking the pieces that flew out of the shop the day before.

I also have a short tale to tell about patience. Early in the morning I received an order for a custom item with a request attached to rush ship by Friday. Well, the piece not being made yet made that sort of impossible. So I sent a message to that effect asking politely if they would like to then cancel the order. I waited and waited and then I received a message saying it wasn't really a problem and that yes, they would still like it. The moral of the story lies in my initial reaction of, 'read the damn listing' and my own stress over it. What I should have realized was this was more of a, 'doesn't hurt to ask' sort of occasion. Luckily I had already learned the lesson to communicate with patience and kindness no matter my own stress so I didn't make the situation worse. I share this story to remind myself and others to continue to answer these sort of situations honestly and kindly and remember that without jumping into another persons head, we can't know their full intentions. Believe me, if it turns out that they are in fact entitled brats that will come out soon enough, but it's better to assume the best that the worst.

I still have more pieces to remake today so don't expect anything else too interesting for tomorrow. Again I'm hoping sales pick up a bit. The cut off for domestic first class mailing isn't until the 20th so technically there is plenty of time left for people to shop. I just hope they know that. I bet you guys can hardly wait until the season is over and I stop going on about sales and return to creative tatting, huh? Yeah, I know, have patience it's almost over.