Busy Little Listing Bee

Back at the end of November, I spent a good three weeks tatting my fingers to the bone and acquiring endless paper cuts working on cards to get ready to a craft fair I wanted to attend. Most of the work I wanted to accomplish done, I went to turn in my application and pay my fee, only to be told they'd been full for two weeks. Frailty, thy name is procrastination. The end result of this, is that I now have lots of work to photograph and list. Procrastination got in the way again. But I finally wrestled that evil little devil to the ground and pinned him down long enough to get a little etsy work done. One pair of earrings sold within twenty-four hours! Here are a few of the other little items I've listed this week:

White Filligree Drop Earrings

Live Charmed Earrings

Ring Around the Daisy Pendant

Peachy Keen Pendant

There are a few more items in my shop that aren't listed here, so take a sec and go check it out! More to come soon.

New Earring Designs

I know, I know, I've been neglecting my blog again. I can't help it. Writing patterns up in my tatting journal, filling orders, facebook, there are just too many distractions these days. But here I am to show off some new earring designs. So, while I've been off neglecting the handful of people actually interesting in reading about my life and projects, this is what I've been doing:

Shamrock Earrings

Bell Earrings

Captured Rain Earrings

Those are the new patterns I've added to my repertoire. Enjoy and take a moment to see some of the one of a kind items also in my shop.

Listing Adjustments

I realized a few days ago that there are people in the etsy world who don't seem to understand that we're all just self-employed crafters. I had an order come in for one of my patterns around 8:00 at night. I saw it in my email box, but due to the hour, decided to sent it off in the morning as it was time for me to get off the computer and start winding down so I could get a decent amount of sleep for once. I awoke in the morning to an email from the customer with a timestamp of 1:30 am asking when she would recieve the pattern. It was not, by any meaning an angry or irritated email. Still, it annoyed me. Maybe because I'm not a pleasant person first thing in the morning, I don't know.

Don't get me wrong, I'm always glad for a sale. I love all my customers. It's just, I'm not a mindless computer. It isn't, click this button, I'll take your money and you can immediately download your file. I think I was also annoyed because this forced me to realize that I had to go into every listing for a pattern in my shop and add to the last line so it now reads "PDF will be emailed to you within 24 hours after payment is recieved." Thankfully, there are only nine pattern listings at the moment.

Enough of my complaining. It's a little thing, but it got under my skin, and now it's over. I've also gone into several other listings and changed them so that any piece I make when ordered will now say that.

Other than dealing with this, I've been working on orders and making cards, which I still have to photograph and list, if the sun will even peek out again. I've also been trying to tat some new ornaments, but nothing seems to be working out right. I have a large stack of twisted threads and nothing finished to show for it. If I really worked the amount of false-starts into the time it takes to create a piece when I price it, I'm underselling myself by a lot more than I already know I am.

I am also, of course, still working on creating a mountain of squares for afghans. There are lots of other little projects drifting around in the back of my brain begging to be started, but there's just not enough time to do any of them and no money to get supplies. On the horizon, I'm planning to get some fiber reactive dyes and start dying some of my own tatting threads. But that's probably a long way off. I'm dding my best to keep on top of things, but it looks like I won't be finished with everything I'm already working on until the new year. Sigh, by then I'm sure there will be a new mountain of projects to climb.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Good Karma and My Favorite Holiday

Last night, I got proof that good things come back to you in the end. This is what happened. While we were unpacking and organizing craft supplies among other things, we donated a lot of things to Goodwill. See, I'm not a hoarder, I can part with things. Many things that we donated were old inventory from the last time I was doing craft fairs several years ago. Rather than have to deal with taking new pictures and listing them in my shop, only to have them not sell because they were based on styles from several years ago, I donated them. I left the tags on because they had care instructions. I didn't even think about the fact that my old website address was on the tags. Last night I got a convo on etsy from a woman who bought two hats and, not finding my old defunct website, looked me up through google and found my etsy shop. She wanted to know if I would be interested in making something else for her. So, in giving away a lot of inventory, I got new business!

I feel I may be a little late to the game getting my Halloween stuff up on etsy, but yesterday, I made a dozen Halloween cards because I felt inspired. I wish I had more Halloween stamps, but the spiderweb edging punches I bought on clearance were definitely a good investment. In fact, I didn't even use the one Halloween stamp I had because I was having so much fun with the punches. I've now added a Holiday Kards section to the shop. It's all Halloween cards right now, but as soon as I get some made, Christmas cards will be keeping them company.

New and Exciting!

Finally took some pictures of the totes I made over the weekend and got them listed in my shop.

Rainbow Waves and Shells Tote

Shoreline Waves and Shells Tote

I also managed to list a crocheted business card pouch. I finally found a use for the little 1.5 oz hank of wool I dyed a few years ago as a demo at Michael's. They've discontinued two of the colors of Kool-Aid I used for it. I'd been saving it until I came up with thee perfect project since I loved it so much and could never recreate it. There was enough to make two business card pouches (one for me and one for the shop) and still enough left over for a felted flower or something else small. Want to know what it looks like? Well check out the one on my shop!

Also added a whole new section to my card shop! Friend Kards feature friendship quotes and some tatted flowers.

My hubby takes pretty good pictures. I might just have to get him to keep doing it from now on ;)

Why Michael's Is Out to Drive Me Crazy

I finished tatting the most amazing choker the other day, by far my favorite yet. I needed ribbon clamps to finish it off and, of course, didn't have any on hand. If all were the way I wanted it to be, I'd just put in an order to Fire Mountain Gems for them, but this plan had two flaws. 1) I'm far too impatient to wait for shipping when I'm so close to being done and 2) we didn't really have the money for me to put in an order because Wal-Mart screwed up the hubby's paycheck (but that's another rant for another time). So off we trek to Michael's where I've always gotten my ribbon clamps in the past.

I stare at all the findings for a few minutes. Where are the ribbon clamps? I must have missed them in this massive wall of head pins, eye pins, clasps of all sorts, cell phone charm ends, and, what the heck? wine bottle stoppers and badge clips? Really? Badge clips? Whatever. As long as I find the ribbon clamps, I don't care what other pointless stupid supplies they have. But, alas, there are no ribbon clamps. No, I scream in my head, that can't be! They're here somewhere! I mean, there are badge clips for crying out loud! Deep breath. Okay, new plan. Get all the other things I need and then order the ribbon clamps from Fire Mountain Gems when I get the money together.

After ten more minutes of comparing and contrasting the beads available with the imaginary ones I had my heart set on, I grab what I'm willing to settle on and make one last desperate search for the ribbon clamps. Nope, they didn't magically appear while I was debating the merits of various beads. Dammit! Okay, I'll just get this other stuff and . . . wait, what's wrong with me? Why am I willing to give any of my money to this chain that doesn't have the one thing I really need? Okay, plan C, shove everything back on the first hook I can reach and leave the store.

That's pretty much how it happened. I pouted all the way home because I wasn't going to be able to finish and list this awesome piece. Then the miracle happened.

I found a pouch I'd been using for projects around Christmas and had abandoned when I'd gotten something better suited as a gift. I opened the pouch to pull out the handful of vintage buttons I knew were stashed away there, hoping to distract myself with a totally new project. A little glint at the bottom of the bag caught my eye. I reached for the small package and, would you believe it, RIBBON CLAMPS! I found some I didn't even know I had! So here we go:

Vampire's Kiss Tatted Velvet Choker

Evening Sky Tatted Velvet Choker

So there they are, new totally new choker and the one I've been working on off and on for a good long while. All finished and listed :)

Busy Saturday

I believe I've accomplished a lot this afternoon so far. I finished and listed a new pair of tatted earrings:

Jayne Hat Earrings

I made two treasuries: Cunning, Don't You Think? inspired by the earrings and Not Another Necktie in honor of the Father's Day gift cliche.

And I added some more to the Queen Anne's Lace Doily:

Now it's time to type up some of the story idea that's been banging around my brain for about a week! So much for Saturday being a lazy day, lol.

Intellectual Infringement

I just found out that two cards were removed from my shop because the attorney for Dr. Seuss Enterprises objected to my use of a quote from Dr. Seuss. I had given credit for the quote, not claiming it to be my own. I'm more than a little annoyed by this. It's a quote I had heard before and found online on various quote compilation sites. Seriously, do you not have anything better to do with your time than hunt down things like this and complain? If I had not given credit to the author of the quote, I would understand. I guess I'm just frustrated by the idea that you can lay claim to everything someone said.

I was told by etsy that "The letter stated that these listing(s) incorporate designs or symbols or language or images or photographs that infringe upon the concerned party's copyright or other intellectual property right." So I can't use language that infringes upon another person's intellectual property. Well, as all my cards feature quotes by other people, I might as well just take the whole thing down! Heaven forbid I'm moved and inspired by something someone else said and want to incorporate it into what I do!

Being raised by a children's librarian, I had a great respect for Dr. Seuss and still do. However, I feel that his current representatives might not being operating in the spirit he seemed to embody. They let that horrendous Mike Myers movie mutilate The Cat in the Hat, but I can't put a quote on a $3 card? Are there any of us who didn't grow up with Dr. Seuss books? His work is so much a part of our culture that you see little things everywhere. The banter of Green Eggs and Ham has spawned more parodies than I can think of.

My rant is running out of steam because I'm just flabergasted and annoyed by this so much that I can't think straight. I'm not denying that there are copyrights and patents that are important, I just think this is an overreaction on the part of people with more money and power than I could ever dream of having.

New Shop!

My shop was feeling a little crowded and scattered, so I decided to move all my cards (including the new ones I made this weekend ;) to a brand new shop! I'm hoping to add some scrapbook pages and other things in later. For now, it's just cards. Come take a look and tell me what you think!

www.KeenasKards.etsy.com

Let's Move Out!

I finally added a clearance section to my shop. Things are getting a little crowded in my shop and my finished projects box at home, so it's time to move some things out. Drop in and see if anything strikes your fancy. Pendants at 50% off! Prices so low I must be crazy! ;P

Finally Listed

The camera decided to be evil and uncooperative for a few days. For some reason, it took me five tries to get decent pictures of this choker:

Heart of Gold

At last, I got usable pictures and was able to list it in my shop. I love this choker! Hopefully someone else will love it, too!

Busy, Busy, Busy, Yet Again

Finally finished the choker and listed it in my shop. I decided to go with organza ribbon ties. It's nice and long, a whole yard of ribbon, so that it can be cut, adjusted, etc as necessary by whoever buys it. Of course, now I have two more yards of organza ribbon in two other colors because I wasn't bright enough to remember to take the piece with me to the store to pick out the ribbon. Oh well, I'm sure I'll find a use for it eventually.

I have another choker waiting to get photographed and listed. It's actually been waiting around for a while for just the right opportunity to list it. So far, the pictures have all been disastrous, but I have high hopes I'll get some good ones today or tomorrow.

I loved the way the rose choker turned out so much, that I got an idea for another one. I'm going to use only crocheted roses this time because I like the three-dimensional effect. If I can get the cat distracted long enough to let me work on it, it should be finished soon. Unfortunately, one thing I really wanted to put into it, a red enamel apple charm, has turned out to be a lot harder to get my hands on that I would have thought. I think I'm just going to have to settle for the pewter apple charm I picked up just in case. Not quite what I had in mind, but it should work anyway.

Busy, busy, busy!

Well, I finally managed to fight the new kitten off long enough to make a few quick projects. Cat toys, of course! I even managed to make a few extras that she hasn't claimed yet to list in my store.

I also finally got around to photographing and listing another baby afghan. Been a busy day or two. Now I just have to finish listing cat toys and go make some more.

And I still have to put the findings on another tatted choker and try to come up with earrings to go with it or something. No rest sometimes.

New Pretty!

Finished the one with the beads first:

She Walks in Beauty Choker

Still working on the other flowering vine choker, but this took center stage for a while. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the rest of the star beads. Earrings, maybe?

Missing: Muse

Alas! I have lost my creative spirit today! I can't seem to think of my next project.

So, I've added a poll! Help me design my next tatted choker. Maybe even more than one ;) Take a look at the chokers already in my shop to get an idea of what I can do. Or at least, what I'm talking about. Thanks in advance for the input and keep your eyes out for pics of my new projects, coming soon to a blog near you! (Well, this blog at least ;)

If the poll options are too limiting (it's harder to figure out what to ask than I thought it would be) just leave me a comment with your ideas. Inspire me!

Promotions! Promotions!

It's time to start moving stuff out of my shop. There are too many things that have been sitting there for too long. So, here are my current promotional deals:

Free shipping on all baby afghans in the month of February.

And, this weekend only, buy any knit, crocheted, or tatted item and get the card of your choice for free! Just tell me the name/item number of the card you want in 'notes to seller' and I'll bundle it up with your item!

More promotions and specials coming soon. Help me make room for new inventory!

At Last! I'm Popular!

Take that everyone who was snotty to me in high school!

Okay, I'm not Prom Queen popular or anything, but I did sell two copies of this pattern in one day! And I've sold two sets of Juggling Geese within a week. Makes me feel pretty good. Now, if only some bigger ticket items would become popular ;)

After working on tatting projects for about a week, my tatting calluses are finally starting to build up again and the thread isn't cutting into my fingers as much. I really need to stop letting the calluses soften and heal. It's a pain to build them back up, in more ways than one!

Busy Hands

Two new tatted chokers in two days! It might have been three if I hadn't screwed up the spacing on the second one and had to redo the whole thing. Anyway, here's a peek:

Both are listed in my shop if you want to see more pics!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=20732284

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=20732465

Pins and Needles

My wrist is a little bit better. I still have a tendency to aggravate it when I forget about it. I've had to change the way I lean on my leg to stand up and the way I hold the railing to get up the front steps. Of course, with the cold weather, the stairs are already more difficult. I've decided not to try to leave and have to tackle the stairs more than once a day.

The good news is that I've found that needle tatting, at least small projects like my tatted flowers, doesn't hurt my wrist at all! Hooray! And I've finally organized my tatting threads so that I can actually find what I'm looking for and see what I have. I decided to offer a couple of specific color assortments of tatted flowers in my shop. It just feels kind of weird to make them without just using scrap thread. It's been a long time since that was the project I set out to work on straight from the balls of thread.

I've got a stack of fabrics for sewing projects sitting around. I should really do something about that. I'm just trying to wait until I'm sure I'm done making cards for a while since I'm using the same table the sewing machine lives on. I should really work on my apron. Since I've decided to offer a class in about a month on how to make the project that's currently only an idea in my head. I should stop doing that. It's going to catch up to me some day.

Far too much to do. Can someone add a few more hours to the day for me, please?

Progress . . . sort of

So, I managed to aggravate my chronic wrist pain through over enthusiastic knitting last week. I've put myself in a brace to keep from doing further damage. Of course, resting my wrist means no knitting, crocheting, or tatting. That doesn't leave me much to do. But I figured something out!

It had been a while since I'd done any cardmaking, but my Chrismas cards turned out so well that I decided to make some more. I've got a stack that I'm slowly listing. Of course, with the camera still AWOL, that means my only option is to scan them and this produces less than stunning results. Still, I've listed two cards for now:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=19693718

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=19694235

I decided to start with lovey-dovey cards with Valentine's just around the corner. I love quotes, so I scoured the web for some to use to spice them up and give me a little inspiration. Okay, it wasn't exactly scouring, just a 45 minute search. I wish I still have my old quote list. I'd been collecting it for most of high school and a year or so of college, when my computer crashed and I lost it! I really should try to put something together again. It was so much fun collecting them. I did manage to track down a couple that I remembered from my list to make sure I got them just right for the cards.

Wow, typing with a wrist brace sucks. That's enough for now.