Brooches galore

And more yet to come. :)

The Girlsies

Seriously, what would I do without these two?

















They suffer so, being kept indoors all day and night, with unlimited food and water, infinite kisses and hugs, and free maid service. Their wish is my command (as long as it doesn't involve going outside!)!

Action sets, cameras and Spring

I've been playing with Photoshop action sets lately (free download over at The Pioneer Woman for action set one and two!). My little digital point and shoot takes pretty great photos, but it's still fun to play around!














Now I'm playing with these with a slight sense of melancholy, because after MONTHS of research, second guessing and general all around torture ... I ordered a new camera! A DSLR camera! A Canon Rebel XSi, to be precise.














It won't arrive for two weeks, so in the meantime, I'll continue to have fun with my beloved Sony.














I suspect it will take awhile to learn to use the Canon anyway ... maybe Sony doesn't have much to be worried about. And Sony will be great to cart around with me for impromptu photos, something I've been reticent to do until now - if I lose my only camera, my shop is dead!

This little lavender flower in the above photos is from just one photo (the first), from my backyard's sprawling lavender. I was pleasantly surprised to realize just how sprawling this weekend, when I snapped these photos.

(p.s., here are the action sets [all from action set 1] I applied to the first photo, which is unadorned, straight out of the camera. Photo 2 = "lovely and ethereal." Photo 3 = "boost." Photo 4 = "quick edge burn.")

New Craft Venture Post!

On Paper N Stitch! Stop by and admire some fabulous product photos, with a few tips and tricks for lighting, macros and resources to learn more about photography.

Christmas is only 8.25 months away ...

Time to start seriously thinking about the holiday marketing plan. I do plan to have my holiday inventory complete by Labor Day, which means a whole lotta knitting and crocheting this summer!
















Also time to make packaging and shipping decisions. I have lots of ideas, nothing concrete yet. Haven't had time to really sit down and think about it!

This year will be all about streamlined operations. Inventory complete by Labor Day (or soon thereafter). Packaging and shipping prepped and organized for rapid "deployment." Everything that can be done ahead of time done.

All in my quest to not experience any all nighters this year - I need my beauty sleep. :)

lotsa brooches

Are on the way! I'm having the time of my life creating these - each is unique and impossible to create exactly the same.

Need your input!

Next week's Craft Venture column on Paper N Stitch will focus on photos and descriptions that help keep traffic in your shop and helps increase acceptance into online gallerias, gift guides and exhibitions. I would love to hear from you all, sellers of handmade AND buyers of handmade!

1. What is crucial in photographs? What appeals to you as a buyer? What appeals to you as a treasury curator? What do you look for when you're writing your own posting or column about great handmade?
2. What is crucial in good descriptions? What turns you off from buying/curating/etc.?
3. Who do you think is exceptional with (a) photos and/or (b) descriptions? Give us some examples! (I may use one or more in Monday's column!)

Some incentive to participate - I will use (and give credit) for your input, with link to your blog and/or shop, in Monday's column! You might get sweet a surprise and see a photo example from your own shop!

To get the ball rolling, here are a couple of my own thoughts on the subject ...



















Photos are absolutely crucial to successful online selling.

• The obvious "don'ts" include not using a flash, not using the date/time from your digital camera in your photo, not photographing on your dirty floor/carpet/sidewalk/bed/couch/etc. (don't laugh, I see it all the time!), not using someone's else's photo!

Descriptions are also key!

• Please please include dimensions! Both US and metric.
• Include fiber content, care instructions, yarn weight (and length), volume, weight, etc.
• Connect to your potential buyer by personalizing your description - what makes it interesting? What makes YOU interesting?

I would LOVE to hear from you - add away to the comments and retweet/blog/etc.! Final draft of the column goes up Sunday night!

Some of MY favorite photos (from top down):

1. All That Glitters Cuff, by paperhill
2. Jolie Hoop Earrings, by urbanlegend
3. Tascanimali Black Masked Yellow Green Cat, by YacsPocket
4. Two Leaves, Two Sisters, by 5gardenias
   

"Only what you love"

Last night, I was really struck by Eileen Fisher's mission statement for her clothing design company:



















One point that leapt out above the others is this:

"Produce only what we love."

I wonder if all of us do truly produce only what we love, or if we succumb more often than we'd like to producing what we think will be popular or producing a special request that we don't love as much?



















I know for me, I'm focusing more on creating what I love, and that creation takes quite a bit more time, resulting in a sizable number of projects in progress. I'm moving to the type of design I love: more intricate and complex. It's been a nice break to slow down and play with new techniques (some of which I'll start to share right here) and reconnect with the part of my soul that loves to create.

By the way, I ran across the mission statement when reading about Eileen Fisher's Business Grant Program for Women Entrepreneurs. This may be of interest to some of you - please check it out!

Yet another reason to knit :)

This book (oo la la!)!



















I have picked this book up and put it back down in a gazillion different book stores this year. I finally realized I should just get it over with and take it home. :)



















I have a serious love for old world intricate work, whether lace or embroidery or tapestry or what have you. This book is chock full of knitting designs that are sumptuous, lovely, elegant, old world, and knock down gorgeous.



















Add some ribbon and I'm all yours.



















The photos are just beautiful. I haven't even really looked at pattern details yet - I'm so mesmerized by the photos and color and fiber. :)

Kristeen Griffin-Grimes is the mastermind behind French Girl Knits. You can also drool over, I mean look at, her lovely creations right on the web.

And hello? A knitting tour in France??? Brilliant!

Inspiration: Trois (that's "three" en francais)

I came home after a VERY long day of work in an unconditioned, seriously hot and insanely humid office, to find a new amazon shipment (hee hee).

I succumbed to temptation again.

One was a book I've been searching for since Christmas! A fabulous little knitting book with the most incredible treasures. I found it at the Barnes and Noble up in Chico while visiting with my folks. And thought, "oh, I'll order it when I get home." And haven't been able to find it at all. (Didn't help that I didn't write down the title or author's name ...)



















So, imagine my glee when I thought I found it via someone's blog (wish I could remember whose!).

And my disappointment when I opened it up to see it's not the book I've been searching for.

And my relief when I saw that it was a completely worthwhile purchase!











I want to order the trim in the above photo if nothing else ...











And look! They've copied my neckbow concept (hee hee)!

Fun projects, some very creative ideas, and some new techniques to play with! I'll show off book 2 tomorrow!

Blog Makeover

As you can see, I'm working on a redesign of my blog! Looking for lighter, Spring colors. And ... changed from two-column to three-column! (Despite sorely outdated HTML skills!)

I'm calling it a night, more changes ahead this and next week.

New Craft Venture Post!

On Paper N Stitch! I hope you'll stop by today (9am PST, 12 noon EST)! This week's post is about marketplaces vs. exhibitions! (I'll add a link when the post is live...)

Weather change alert

One of the worst things that happens to me, at least four times a year, thanks to my autoimmune disease, is weather change. Not sunny to cloudy. I'm talking, climate changes, like Winter to Spring, Spring to Summer, etc. And the very worst, the one I spend most of the year dreading, hit this weekend: SUMMER.

I can't stand hot weather. Worse yet, my poor body can't stand hot weather.

And I grew up in the desert!

I should have known something was up when I couldn't sleep Thursday night. Then couldn't sleep Friday night, just miserably tired and hot and icky. Then couldn't sleep last night, all of the above.

I hope I can sleep tonight.

Doesn't help that I'm out of the prescription most crucial to sleeping (I didn't realize I was on my last bottle until I ran out ...). I'll have to take a break from work tomorrow to go pick it up.

I've accomplished little of note this week and weekend, except to feel hot and sorry for myself! I may need to put the a/c unit back in my window tonight (something not usually required until June).

I need some stay cool ideas - hopefully not involving ice cream (which I'd love, trust me, but not all that healthy ....)!!!

Stay cool this week!

Flashbacks ... the good kind

I was SO excited last week to find out that Vogue Knitting had a big pattern sale, $1.99/pattern for most of their library! I happily lost a couple of hours browsing online, putting a few in my cart, then ...

my heart stopped.

Followed by much joyousness!



















Way back when, in the dark ages of the early 90's, I fell in love with a Vogue Knitting cover, despite being at or below the poverty level, and swooped up that issue.

I'd knitted for years, but nothing on the level of THIS.

That cover is right above. Sigh. What a luscious piece of knitted wonderfulness.

I still have that issue, but it's seriously tattered and worn. I think about knitting it now and then (now that I do have the skills to knit it!). 'Twould be just for me. :)

Now if I just had time to knit just for me ....

Inspiration Part II: Knitting Mecca

As promised! I'm back to tell you about the second book I ordered last week that has transfixed me with wonder and awe.

One of my knitting heroes is Nicky Epstein. Some of you are saying, "Well, duh, who isn't blown away by her work?" Others are saying, "Eh. Don't get it." And still others are saying, "Nicky who?"

Nicky Epstein is an incredibly knit wear designer, who also felts, crochets and probably also has a cure for cancer.














I may have exaggerated about the cure for cancer...

Nevertheless, if you've been wanting to figure out how to knit a flower or crochet a leaf or sculpt the most incredible knock your socks off scarf in 25 colors using several knitting techniques ... Nicky is your gal!














I have been SO drawn to the cover - forget the innards - of her Knitting on Top of the World book that I could wait no longer. I had to have it, so succumbed last week. And don't regret it for one nanosecond.

I am absolutely infatuated with this gorgeous cream shrug on the bottom row of the above photo. Seriously infatuated.

Seriously.










Her Knitting in Tuscany is next. Can you see why? Look at that dress (above)! How can a fiber lover resist?

Luckily for me, her patterns are easy to follow, even for a pattern following challenged person like me. You won't see her designs in my shop - I don't roll that way - but you may just see a project or two shared here, that I make for myself!!!

Inspiration: Pretty little things all tied up in a bow

I've never been one to follow recipes or patterns, but I love to buy books full of both and then just peruse time and time again for inspiration and ideas. When it comes to knitting, I will grudgingly admit that I have a terrible time following other people's patterns! Isn't that funny? Well, it's actually rather annoying. I finally realized that my finished projects deviated so far from the original pattern thanks to my inability to follow the instructions, I might as well just create my own from the get go.

I've been longing for two books that arrived in the mail last week (I finally succumbed!), and true to form, I keep turning pages in glee and awe.









First is Alicia Paulson's Stitched in Time. Alicia, as you might know, is the tour de force behind Posie Gets Cozy, a blog that I just adore. I am so smitten by her dog, Miss Clover Meadow. I sigh over her photos of gorgeous gardens and lovely old crumbling walks. I've really been fantasizing about living in Portland lately, due in large part to her wonderful photos! (Don't worry, Mom and Dad, the thought of actually moving fills me with sufficient dread to keep me put.)



















I have a very very VERY very different design aesthetic than Alicia's, but her book is chock full of wonderful ideas and adorable projects, some of which I'm really looking forward to playing with. Can I also just say that I was knocked over with delight when she mentioned stuffing a plushie with a hemostat (there's the plushie, right above!)? A hemostat, you say? Well, her husband is a nurse, so she spoke my language with that sentence. A hemostat is a medical instrument and seeing that one little word in the midst of such fun craftery filled me with nostalgic longing for my days in clinical care. (Then I remembered body fluids and body parts and was OK again ...)

As for book #2 ... y0u'll have to come back tomorrow to find out about it! (hee hee) In the meantime, I hope you'll check out this wonderful book, which was a steal from Amazon!

Hope you'll read my new guest contributor column!

On Paper and Stitch! Each Monday, we'll talk about the management and marketing of your handmade businesses, with my new weekly column, Craft Venture! I'm so excited about sharing business skills. I'm also very excited about involving my extremely talented colleagues, because you all have mad business skills whether you realize it or not!










I hope you'll go visit today and leave a comment. I definitely need your input and feedback on posts - I see these as an opportunity for dialogue with handmade business owners!

Easter Joy

May you enjoy the beauty of Spring and Easter today!













If you celebrate Easter as a Christian holiday, he is risen indeed!



















If you celebrate as a fun family day with eggs, lotsa chocolate and maybe a peep or two, Happy Easter and enjoy the ham/lamb/tofu! (These are my dad's great great grandparents with his great grandpa as a young'un!)















If you don't celebrate Easter whatsoever, happy gorgeous Spring day - isn't it about time that we have one to enjoy???

Twitter Hijinx

I knew the squirrels in my tree are smart little guys and girls, but also fashion conscious?

And what squirrel would be caught dead without a cowl? OOPS, you're going to have to go here to see the cowl-wearing squirrel - trust me, you do not want to miss this!

Courtesy of Joanne from shavingkitsuppplies, inspired by squirrels and cowls. Photo models my soft kitten neckbow and brand new vintage blossom brooch. Squirrel's identity withheld at the model's request - her privacy is precious to her.

All motivation to spend a few minutes on twitter - the most dangerous social networking tool on the internet. :)

Fond memories of a wonderful sibling

ALERT: potentially sad reading follows ...



















It's so hard to believe, but 19 years ago tonight, Tom, my youngest brother, died (yep, that's me with Tom and my middle brother, Steve, about a million years ago). He died three weeks short of his 21st birthday, which is one of those incredibly unjust facts that occur in too many families' lives. Also unjust, he died in a terrible car accident with several of his very best friends, after a day of fishing and drinking (and yes, drunk driving played a huge part in this). My brother wasn't the driver, but he died nevertheless.



















April and May are big months in my family: birthdays for my parents, Tom and myself, my folks' anniversary, my grandpa's bday (also gone and still loved immensely), mother's day. And now the anniversary of Tom's death, which sometimes overshadows the other days of celebration. Or simply makes them bittersweet.



















I end up dreading early April every year, even if I don't realize that I'm dreading it. I swore to myself that I would celebrate Tom's life every year on this day and his birthday. Unfortunately, life often gets in the way of really being able to do that. I did leave work early today, but am just now settling down to think about my awesome little brother. And now I can let go of that odd underlying dread that I wasn't even fully aware existed (funny how that works).



















Tom was an awesome kid. Incredibly funny. Incredibly creative. Loved everyone and loved by all! We're all animal lovers in my family - Tom's pets (cats - sound familiar?) adored him beyond belief - he got them to do all sorts of crazy stuff. Like a lot of teenagers, he lost his way a little, but was heading back on track as he was figuring out the man he wanted to become. He spent some time with me in the Bay Area not long before he died, sharing career ideas he was really excited about related to videogame design - he would have been a huge success with that, given his creativity, cleverness and artistic talent.



















So, this isn't a post to be sad about, though I've shed a few tears as I've written it. (I've also held back from writing a real tear jerker...) I do still miss Tom, and will miss him when I'm 85. I'm sad that he didn't get to become the truly wonderful man that I know he would have been. I'm sorry that I didn't get to go to his wedding and attend the birth - or graduations - of his children. And I'm sorry that I'm not emailing him right now about some stupid little joke between us, but I know he's laughing anyway. Because I do believe in an afterlife and know that someday we'll see each other again. In the meantime, I'm celebrating his life by living my own, and look forward to many many more years of doing so.

So even though this is a little sad, it's really about love and life, which in the end is all that really matters. And being reminded of that from time to time isn't necessarily a bad thing ...

Window shopping

I have all sorts of things going on in my life, none of which are that interesting or ready to share quite yet (but stay tuned!). I'm dying to go window shopping, though, so thought I'd share some of my Etsy favorites with you!



















How cute and fun is this little guy? I love his face, but I am partial to the kitties. By Sandy Mastroni at Etsy!




















This is turning out to be a tour of some of my kitty faves, isn't it? I do adore this watercolor by GreenManShop!

















Not exactly kitties ... but my kitties adore these animals beyond all others ... squirrels! Squirrel Chubbikins to be precise. Cute!!! I love the little acorns stitched over their hearts. From erinaellis, who makes all sorts of adorable chubbikins.

Friday!

My health has been giving me a reality check this week, which is always fun! I'm not surprised, given the change in weather and stress levels at work.

Thank you all for the wonderful feedback about my first flower brooch, which will be on its way to a new owner tomorrow morning!














Never fear, I have all manner of color, texture and size lining up. Including this pretty brooch, which is now available!

Hope you all have wonderful weekends!