Lucky Me & The Little Things

Where to start?

This year has absolutely 100% taken me by storm. Which is especially interesting since I started the year wondering if this jewelry business of mine was something I needed to consider giving up in favor of an ‘actual’ job, in favor of some ‘actual’ income.

Well, apparently there where other plans for me and the world has decided they really enjoy what I make and helped kick my business to a new level. A level that requires for me to move my studio OUT of my dining room and  IN to an actual rented studio space, because at this point I am actually hurting my business and productivity by having to clean up my production goods after my self at all times.

In that same line of thought I have had to purchase one of those fancy phones I have successfully resisted getting for a long time. The geek in me wanted one of those phones since the first time I heard about it, but the responsible person in me was smart enough to tell me that, even though it was a lovely and fancy little tool, I simply had no needs for a cellphone other than making phone calls. But now I had to get one of those phones just so I can keep a pulse on all that is going on with my sales, and questions, and requests on the online, even when I am not home, or traveling for show # 124. This phone practically makes me coffee in the morning and I have a feeling that if I treat it well it will also do my laundry and sweep my floors.

And oh the shows! Where have you people been? You people who come out in masses to drop serious money at my booth! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

So I am still seriously overwhelmed on a daily basis with all this growth, but I just wanted to share it here because I know as a small business owner how inspiring it can be to see someone else in similar shoes do well. I have always been inspired to know that it’s possible to do what I love and make a living at it, when I see one of my contemporaries do well and grow. Granted it’s taken me at least three years of full-time futsing around and many prayers to fine-tune what I make and who I offer it to, and granted this can all implode tomorrow, but right now I am feeling like I am doing what I am supposed to be doing, and I am grateful for it. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

As I was filling a bunch of Little Reminders orders this week, it struck my how this particular batch was such a showing of hope and trust. I think it kind of shows a tiny snapshot of humanity under pressure. I think when times are tough and looking gloomy and unsure in the future, that’s when we often show our true colors and our inner strength comes out in many different forms. Be it hope, faith, trust, strenght, or a combination of them all. And I love that something that I create can be a little something that can remind you to use those inner resources when you need them most. Awesome.

… to be able to easily make things that are THIS cute!

I had knittes these up two weekends ago, and had planned on making a whole pile of additional goods to be felted, but after I made two more things this week, I couldn’t stand the suspense and longer

Next I knitted this bowl. I have been wanting to make felted bowls ever since I first spotted them on Etsy last year, and had been experimenting a little by crocheting some, making up the pattern as I went along but with no luck. It had never occurred to me to knit them! Not until I came across the book Felted Knits!
I may embellish this one with some beading. I may not. I may just make 543 more. Dang this is exciting!

Finally I knitted up this pair, and that’s when i got really impatient to felt this batch. I had been doing some research on felting in a front loading washing machine, and the prospects of it felting up really well weren’t looking terribly great. At my old house we had a top-loading machine, which by felters is widely known as the ‘best felting option.’ This is the only way I had felted before, so I was beginning to get nervous and started to doubt that all these projects may not felt up as nicely as I was hoping to. These last slippers were the most time consuming, and since I was planning on making quite a few more sizes and colors of all of these projects, I just had to make sure I could felt them well, so I wouldn’t be wasting my time.

Well, it’s obvious now that I definitely didn’t waste my time! As a matter of fact, these felted up better than anything I have felted before in my top-loading machine!
For any of you out there who may be coming across this post doing the same research I was doing; how to felt well in a front loading machine, this is what I did.

• Tossed these all in the drum *without* putting them in a garment bag or pillow case (which is what I always did before)
• I added a tennis ball (a trick I found in my research)
• I added my sons crocks (for added agitation, plus they needed a good cleaning anyways)
• I added my house slippers (same reason as crocks)
• I set the washer settings to hot/cold wash, heavy soil, and no spin (I am fortunate to have this setting)
• I added clothes detergent to the dispenser drawer, and also added a little more to the cup and tossed the cup into the drum. (fyi- I use HE detergent as that’s what my washer requires, I imagine this really helps the felting)
• As my front loader is one that has the water level rise to below the door opening, I was able to pause the washing every now and then and check the progress. Even though I was able to do this, I ended up letting it complete the entire cycle anyways, which seemed to be the perfect amount of felting time for these projects.
• The icing on the cake: I only had to do one cycle to do the job! I had read a lot about felters having to do repeated cycles to get the felting right. Not me- yay!

And now the whole batch is drying until it’s bone dry. I stretched the felted bowl overnight over a small bowl I happened to have in the exact right size, which helped flatten the bottom and shape the bowl well.

Now as you have probably guessed, my head is spilling over with future felting projects. There are some lucky babies out there who are going to have ridiculously cute booties and slippers this winter, and my house (and probably my friends houses) are going to be covered in felted bowls. Not to even mention the hats I am planning on making.

To stay updated about my knitting, crocheting and felting mania feel free to check it all out on Ravelry. My new home on the internets.

I tell you, this to-do list project I have begun is really paying off! Not only am I super productive in both things I enjoy doing, and not doing, I am also getting around to things I’ve put off for months, and things I haven’t had time to do for months. Every day I basically update it with the things I want to get done that day, and update the goals I want to achieve for the current week and month. It feels wonderfully productive to knock stuff off the list as I go, and it feels wonderful to plop down on the couch at the end of the day knowing that all is done, that I am not forgetting anything, and that the other things that need to get done will get done in due time. These are the things that help me breathe and relax. Now this is not the first time I’ve done to-do lists. I’ve lived off those for as long as I’ve had responsibilities, but there’s just something about posting them online that makes them that much more effective.
The older I am getting, the more perfectionistic I am getting, and this is a wonderful way to keep from getting anxious. I just hope, pray, wish I can keep it up!

One of the things I finally got to do this weekend is try this little tray project I came across earlier in ’07 in an issue of home companion. When I spotted it I got excited because it looked like something that I could finally use the vinyl for I bought years ago for other projects that never came to be. I have the vinyl in 5 different colors, and have not been able to bring myself to get rid of it yet, just knowing I would find something else with it to do. So today I paired it with some of the sheets of vintage wallpaper that has been accumulating because their patterns are either too big or too boring for use in the jewelry, dusted off my long ignored sewing machine and got to work. I quickly found out that vinyl and sewing machine are not friends, so please ignore the horrible sewing on my first try. I dumped a bunch of crap into the tray for the picture to distract from it you see. After some research I now see that I can stick some gift wrap tape to the bottom of my sewing foot to make it a much smoother experience. I will try that asap.
Long story short, lookit! I have found time to work on my non-work-related crafts without stressing about what money-making work I should be doing and how that kitchen is starting to stink from all the dirty dishes.

This is why January is one of my very favorite times of the year. Though I could go without all the cold that comes along with it, it always provides a clean slate, a time for me to look at the things I messed up the previous year, and try again with no hard feelings at all.

I’ve been spending more time than usual on etsy lately, partly because I am just so inspired by the growing number of quality, and adequately priced artists that are sharing their goods on that site, and partly because I am christmas shopping.

I wanted to share some of my current favorites here:

And I also finally pledged:

I just realized yesterday that 99% of the gifts we’ve bought so far are handmade, and we weren’t even intentionally trying. I think that really speaks for the assortment, quality and availability of handmade goods out there these days. So, if you read this, and haven’t already taken the pledge, why don’t you!

Somebody asked me this year what inspires me, and I was surprised to not really have an answer. I was kind of looking for an answer like “the way birds sing in the morning” or “the way sunlight hits a lake” you know, something romantic and visual. But really the thing is that everything and anything can inspire me. Literally just listening to someone talk can inspire me, or looking at a bin full of beads can, or seeing an artist proud of their own works, just driving down the road to the post office can, or getting friendly with a bottle of wine and staring into space, and thought I don’t like to admit it, fashion trends really inspire me, but it took me weeks of chewing on that question to make me realize that.

I get a lot of my inspiration from the internets too and seeing all the works of the thousands of incredibly talented people around the world sharing their projects and inspirations online. I’ve had a hankering for gathering my daily finds of inspiring internet tidbits and sharing them here, so look for those in the future. Who knows they may inspire you too!