Onward and Upward

Well things seem to be moving slowly in an upward direction. So far there has been no extreme change of fate, but things are looking up a bit. First thing yesterday the vet called to confirm a bladder infection, the easiest to fix issue of the possible problems, so hopefully a few more days of antibiotics and I can sit safely in my spot on the couch once again.

I was, soon after that, granted a sale of an actual necklace. Of course it was a one off, so that doesn't give me anything that needs making, but still a step in the right direction. I had some time to work on the white collar in the afternoon, but I still haven't made it all the way through the clover row. It's a monster of a design and takes far longer to make than any other element. I should, theoretically get it finished today and might even knock out the rest of the collar if the winds are at my back.

Then there was the trip to the eye doctor. With four of us, it took two hours to get everything done. The oldest child has also now followed into her parents footsteps with enough of a 'touch' of astigmatism to require glasses for the first time. Since we're both sight impaired, we've been preparing her for this possibility for a long time. Luckily it seems to have worked and she appeared to fine with it. She'll likely only need them when reading, but they should also clear up her headaches a bit as well, which she's looking forward to.

Since I had my eyes dilated and then tortured at the appointment I was pretty useless the rest of the day. I didn't even remember to get photos to spice up this boring blog post. I'll get back to work today and hopefully the Universe will be with me, assuring that things continue upward and I'll have finished collar pictures for you by Monday.

Well, That Was A Day

It was a long, but fairly interesting day. The first task after some extra quick schooling in the morning was a meeting with the youngest child's teacher for her benchmark assessments. She managed to not only impress her teacher, who sees her only a handful of times a year, but me as well. Child can read and spell like crazy and I was encouraged to speed her through her class assessments until something actually becomes new and/or difficult for her. Then when we got home we worked on an art project with clay and that was a pretty good time for both kids.

Then between all the the morning stuff and the scheduled afternoon trip to the vet with cat-who-pees-on-couch, I got back to work on the white version of the collar. I didn't get as far as I would have on a normal day just because of all the other things that needed to be attended to, but I should have time today to make a nice dent in it. I still have yet to sell anything this week that needs remaking so I'm focusing on this.

The trip to the vet was interesting as the cat's overall health indicated that it was most likely a behavioral problem which, aside from serious health problems, was what I was dreading because I figured there was no fix for that. Come to find out, there is a medical fix for that, kitty Prozac. We'll find out more today after the urinalysis is complete and other issues are found or ruled out. Either way, fun, but expensive afternoon.

Today's fun afternoon includes the family trip to the eye doctor. Luckily the children do not share my horrible vision, but if the adults have to go, might as well keep the kids in the habit as well. I leave you with a picture of the kittens, who are really no longer kittens, exploring the new cat tree the mother-in-law picked up for them yesterday. Here's hoping for a nice day of tatting and maybe a sale or two so I can pull myself all the way out of this funk.

In White

I'm in one of those funks again. I think most creatives must go through this sort of thing. I'd call it bi-polar, but I don't want to trivialize a very real and serious mental condition. It certainly behaves in a similar pattern though. There's a period of manic creativity with the happiness of working hard, compliments, sales, etc. Then when I finish a piece, there's this letdown followed by extreme laziness and funk especially when sales are so very slow. Everything stresses me out and I just want to push a pause button on everything, curl up in a ball and cease to be, just for awhile. Yesterday was particularly stressful, but there is no pause button and I'm still incapable of ceasing to work even when I don't really have anything that needs doing.

I spent most of the afternoon trying to take my mind off a dozen things I won't go into, by tatting up my new collar in white. I first made up some buttons and since I'm going to embellish this one, I started by adding a nice swarovski round to it.

The only great thing about tatting as a distraction is that I work faster. If I slow down I'm more likely to let my mind wander and that's when I get into trouble so I work at full speed. I got all the way though the base rows of the piece and I crocheted the button loops while tatting since this time I knew where they needed to be. I also added more pearls along the bottom edge of this section. I plan on adding just a few more to the final row. I fear too many and it will take away from the classic look of the lace, so they're just small details.

I've got a bunch of things to do soon that I'm not overly fond of doing. There's a teacher meeting in the morning, which isn't too bad, but I have to take one of the cats to the vet this afternoon and I hate doing that for so many reasons. Then tomorrow there's family eye appointments all while still keeping up with the schooling. I know it doesn't seem like much that should bother me, but when you want to pause everything for awhile, anything seems bothersome. It's all just temporary though, I should be back to what passes for normal soon enough. It does help to whine about it though, so thanks for reading.

Done

I had another of those, perfectly Monday, Mondays. Sure, it started out fine except for the mild headache that accompanied me all day long. School went well and I asked more folk about the collar necklace and received some more well thought out, opinions. The addition of buttons was a popular one, but I don't have any buttons around the house. Not only that, but I was really liking the idea of a completely cotton thread piece. So, I decided to crochet my own buttons and just add loops to the other side. It actually worked and people seemed to like the result so I dolled myself up a bit, got some pictures and listed the necklace.

I think it looks great facing wither direction. It either needs a low cut neckline, strapless top or I suppose it could actually work as a collar in the classic sense, layered over a high neck dress. I struggled a lot with pricing and naming it, but mostly pricing. There are quite a few tatters on the Etsy with classic collars priced so cheaply, I feel like they must be giving away their time. I mean I work fast and this took three full days of work to make not including extra design time, but I still felt bad about the high price.

So this is where the day went wrong. I got a message that a package hadn't yet been received and there wasn't even any tracking information on it. I know it went in the mail, but since it wasn't even initially scanned, I fear it was lost or stolen and I spent the rest of the evening hurriedly remaking the order for the very understanding customer waiting for it. This exacerbated that day long headache and I ended the day feeling very much like a Monday just worked me over.

I'm not sure what I'll get up to today since the new project is done and I haven't sold anything to remake in days. I was kind of thinking about doing the collar in white and trying out some embellishments, marketing it a a bridal collar. We'll see though, I might just take a little break since I always feel really letdown after I finish a big piece. At least it's not a Monday again, huh?

Almost There

Well this weekend was definitely a bit quieter than the one that preceded it. There were family errands to run and a Lowe's build and grow thing with the kids, but it was mostly relaxing and little tatting though I did get a custom order in late on Saturday that I worked on through Sunday.

The work I really got done was on Friday when I think I finished the collar design. I say think because I wanted to take a break on it over the weekend and come back to it today with fresh eyes. I thought about, perhaps, adding another element between the now large scallops, but I'm not sure it's needed. It's also likely that I will add crystals or beads hanging from the base row where there it a space created by the low clover sections.

I'm also working out how I want to do the closure. The easy way is just to add a clasp, but I was thinking about making crochet ties so it can be laced and worn backwards as well, tied in front like an old collar. I guess I've got my work cut out for me today figuring all this out. Any opinions on these ideas are greatly appreciated. Sometimes it's difficult to create in a vacuum as the kids aren't much help yet.

That's about all that I have planned after schooling. The custom order will be finished quickly and other than that order, the shop has remained quite calm. At least I had the chance to make something unexpected during the slowness.