An Honest Moment

For some reason I'm having to really force myself to blog lately.  I can't figure out why, but it just isn't something I've felt like doing lately.  I usually blog when I have some pretty pictures to show, and I really haven't been taking many pictures lately.

What I have been doing is: working, making lists, happily crossing things off the lists, thinking about a low-key yet special Thanksgiving and Christmas, knitting scarves for cats, doing mundane chores around the house (when I must), listening to my Joni Mitchell radio station on Pandora, and running to the grocery store.

I think part of me has been content to withdraw from the bright and sometimes noisy foray of the blogosphere.  But another part of me knows that it's important (so the small business books tell me) to network with other people and market yourself by having a steady stream of stimulating and sparkly blog posts.  And still another part of me wants to just be real here and say BLOGGING IS HARD WORK--and I don't think it's cool to force it, because I fear I'll traipse back into the fake voice I've tried so hard to leave behind.

So this post is, I guess...a confession that I'm struggling with my honest blog voice right now, and that I'll check in occasionally to share the sparklies.

And there are A LOT of sparklies coming.  A whole new shop full of them!  And there are pictures of perfect sparkling snow coming too!  Okay...now I'm feeling like sharing these things...I'll be back soon.

Pumpkins and Afghans

Well I thought I would be posting once a week here on my blog, sharing updates about new items in my store and also what's been going on behind the scenes, but it's turned out my blogging frequency is averaging about once a month.  Oh well.  Just take it as a sign that lots and lots has been going on around here...

I spent today listening to the magical Joni Mitchell


and finishing a very cheerful afghan for a friend's baby shower this Saturday.  It makes me happy just looking at this sunny afghan.  I had fun making it and I plan on listing a made-to-order version of it in my shop this month.  This pattern was found on Ravelry, it's a free pattern from DROPS Design, however I had to make a few changes for it to look the way I wanted, and of course changed the color scheme.

 
Halloween is this week, and I've had a lot of customers requesting more color options for these little baby legwarmers, so that is my big project this week and next, getting more of those made and photographed and listed.  Next year I'll have them in fun Halloween colors.  I came up with a cute holiday color scheme that I think is really sweet.  I'll share some images of that project when it's complete, later on in November.  Here you can see the black option for the baby legwarmers, now available here in the shop.  These were requested for a baby Halloween costume and I was happy to quickly complete them and send them off in time for Halloween. 

I feel like I've really been neglecting my drawing lately, and made a goal of at least doing some fun ACEO sized drawings regularly to keep things active on that side of my brain.  Not sure what I'll do with these, they're almost more of a stress-relieving activity than anything official, which sometimes turns out to be a better final drawing than when I really sit down to draw something specific.  I think they might make cute tiny notebook covers, or greeting cards.  Definitely need to keep brainstorming on them.

 That's my cat, Jane, seen out my window as I sit inside with a cup of hot tea and my drawing pens at the ready.

Can you tell by this snowy drawing that I'm feeling ready for winter?  No sign of snow in our yard yet, but other parts of Kentucky did see some flakes last week!  I think it's exciting and inspiring, and makes me homesick sometimes for Michigan, where I grew up.   My sister and I have agreed that if one of us wakes up before the other, and sees snow on the ground, we are to immediately wake the other up, no questions asked.  It is that big of a deal, yes.  I'm definitely going to be taking pictures and sharing them on here when we get our first snow.  :)


 
I tried to take a break from television last week.  I realized it was making me feel a little bit down, and getting into that bad cycle of comparing myself with the characters in the show and their homes, their jobs, etc.  Sometimes that happens to me on facebook too, and I have to take a break from those kinds of activities that make me think I'm not measuring up.

My first day I attempted to break my tv addiction I completely failed and ended up binging and watching a whole bunch of episodes of The New Girl on Netflix.  It's a cute show, but as usual, has me comparing my clothes and my body size, my career, everything... so I realized the quitting cold turkey technique was not going to work.

The next day I told myself I could watch tv, as long as it was something that aired on PBS.  So I would at least be learning something.  That worked awesome!  I watched some Nova documentaries and loved it.  I felt a lot less negative and down on myself and remembered how much I enjoy scientific and social documentaries.  I think my brain had really been needing that.  I even decided to go to the library and check out some books.  I keep feeding myself these mental messages that I'm not allowed to read certain things, either because they're a waste of time or because they're shallow, or whatever little myth I make up... the day I went to the library I did something I've wanted to do for a long time, and people might cringe or judge... but it was so fun.  I just went through the aisles at a very leisurely pace and picked out about 10 books based purely on their covers.  I didn't read the back of them or anything.  Some of them had interesting illustrations on the cover, or just an interesting title with a neat font.  And wow, what a weird variety of stuff. 

One of them I started reading and it was kind of a slow pace, not really my taste and wasn't really grabbing my attention.  But the cover was very intriguing.  It was called "Lookaway, Lookaway." By Wilton Barnhardt.  Isn't that an interesting cover?

I moved on to the next one and found out I had accidentally picked a book 8 in a series... oopsie.  But it was super interesting so I went back the next day and checked out book number one.  That one is called "First Grave On The Right" by Darynda Jones.

I can see myself getting sucked right into reading the entire series.  It's really grabbing my attention so far.

This little adventure is proving to be a really cool way to open up some of my old judgmental tendencies about only reading certain authors or genres.  If I get my act together in November, I'll do a blog post on this fun adventure.  I keep wanting to do some kind of book review post, after all the reading I've been doing.  Anyone out there reading anything good?
 

My sister and I have been going for evening walks with the dogs and I saw this nice sunset last week.  I think that was one of the nights it really got cold.  One night we even walked in a very cold rain.  The dogs really love it, and we have a nice warm wood stove to come inside to when we're done!

 Today I'm leaving you with these sunny images of the finished afghan.  I can't wait to start another one of these.

 Here's a very colorful granny square afghan that's still in progress.  I love how bright and happy this one is.  It's going to be hard to let this one go...

Hope you have a good rest of the month! 

The End of September

Wow it sure has been a busy month here.  I can't believe the last time I wrote here was way back in August.  The weather is turning colder, the leaves are starting to change, and I all of a sudden have cravings for apple cider and pumpkin bread.  Can you believe how bright and happy these mums are?  There's nothing like a big pot of mums to celebrate fall coming.

I bought some in every color for my mom's birthday:

I think this fall is going to be great.  I'm about to start working on a fun crocheted baby afghan for a friend who's expecting, I've got about three different knit cowls going, and also some knit fingerless mitts. 

I even had time for a nature walk one evening after I mowed the lawn.  I love the way this grass looks near sunset.

Today I decided to make a fall themed treasury on Etsy, just because thinking about fall makes me happy and relaxed.  If you want to look at these great items closer, just click on the image below and you'll be able to peruse their shops.

I'm not usually big on making treasuries but it sure is a fun way to network and chat with other sellers on Etsy.  I'm definitely finding a bunch of new favorite artists and makers from this group of items.  I think each of these items makes me want to go rake some leaves, pick some apples, and make a fire in the wood stove.  Yeah, it really is finally fall here in Kentucky.

I saw this sweet orange cat recently while stopped at a gas station with my mom.  He was very friendly and totally comfortable just hanging out while people pumped their gas.  I wonder what his name is.

Last month I went to a drag race and a mud race at the county fair.  It was so cool!

This big pack of turkeys hangs out in the yard in the mornings and in the evenings now.  Poking around for caterpillars I guess.  Not sure what they eat.  It was a pretty big deal though, every one of our cats was looking out the window and even my dog too that day.  They continue to be the top news story around here, among the cats.

I worked on a very cool family craft project with my mom and my sister.  We made these very bright and happy stepping stones with glass pieces and concrete.

 Here you can see the planning stage where the pieces are set up on paper first. 

 

Here's what it looked like after we mixed up the cement and put the pieces on top.  I need to go take a picture of them all now that they've dried.  They all look very pretty and sparkle very nice in the sun.

Later I took pictures as my mom and sister planted some small trees in the yard.  Cats helped, in their own special way.

On a random side note, it's a little bittersweet to not be participating in the local holiday arts and crafts fair this year, but at the same time I'm so relieved!  It's a whole lotta work crammed into just a little bit of time... and I am excited to be able to take the fall and winter seasons at a slower, more relaxed pace this year.  Come this December I'll be kicking back in the recliner, nice and warm by the fire, knitting and crocheting fun things instead of turning into an assembly line of manic production for my booth inventory.  Maybe next year I'll try again, just to see if it's for me.

Meanwhile I've listed some great child legwarmers in my shop.  I think these fun stripes are so cheerful.  I'm thinking about inventing an adult fingerless mitt or full mitten from these.

I hope everyone out there is having a nice fall and getting to do some relaxing, comforting things. 

The Butterfly Bush and Rick Astley

Well the summer heat is back.  It feels nice though.  I stepped outside to take some pictures today while my sister was out mowing our gigantic and overgrown lawn.  It's always nice to stretch my legs and feel the sunshine after sitting inside crocheting or drawing all day.

Nice Day

Well it sure was a nice day out here today in Kentucky.  I can't believe how cool the temperature was today.  Almost sweatshirt weather out there.  I'm feeling pretty good right now.  Things have really been busy though.  I worked on a brand new happy banner for this blog... not totally satisfied with it though.  It's looking pixelated for some reason.  I sure don't feel like fixing it right now... will have to come back to it later.

I'm trying to make myself sit down and write some serious goals for my art and craft.  Otherwise I get this floating feeling like I know I need to be doing something but there's so much to do I don't know where to start.  Definitely gotta get those goals down on paper soon.  Probably need to tack them right to the wall here by my desk so I can feel like a clear focus is coming back.

Lately I've been helping my neighbor Dawn get her Etsy shop set up.  She takes really pretty sunset and nature pictures.  She's yet to have her first sale.  I remember the raw anticipation before I had my first online sale...and I also remember the sheer joy and pride after achieving it.  It's an awesome feeling to know that somewhere out there, someone liked your stuff enough to pay for it!  I think I actually squealed out lout as I sat at my dingy little desk at the temp job where I was working as a switchboard operator at a hospital in 2009.  What a crazy stressful job that was. 

I remember the first sale was this painting called Blue Dots. 

I remember I was going through a pretty difficult mental and emotional journey during that time.  It's strange to look back on the art I was making then.  I can definitely tell I'm still finding myself as an artist.  Looking at this painting does make me excited to create some new art work though.  I really feel like I've been neglecting that side of myself.  Sometimes that part of my brain just isn't able to be accessed though.  The fiber artist part of me is really churning out the cool ideas but the drawing/illustrator artist part of me seems to be a little bit dormant right now.  Sometimes I do have to scramble for a scrap piece of paper really quick and jot down a sketch or an idea that pops into my head for a drawing though.  I think I need to go back through those little pieces of paper and see if I can get inspired again.

I am having a lot of fun making these baby sweaters.  People seem to really like them.  I kind of wish I had one in my own size to wear!  Hmmm... might have to work on inventing a pattern for that.

 Well I hope everyone else is getting to take some nature walks and enjoy the weather out there.  Me and my dog Gilbert sure have.  For now it's back to work here in the studio...