meh, by the numbers.

Along with my crazy work schedule (two separate practices, sort-of adjunct faculty at one college and various temp jobs within a 20 mile radius) I've been attempting to get back a little to my arts and crafts roots. Whenever I have moments to spare, I've been making wine bags and tie purses. And kind of experimenting with headbands, but that's a whole 'nother story. In a couple of short months, I've amassed quite the collection: 62 wine bags and 7 tie purses. But while working on all these bags, I literally had no goals in mind. I was like "I'll upload them all to Etsy and see what happens!" Well....

Nothing happened. Which I was expecting... I guess. It's nice to have no expectations, and then when those non-expectations are shattered when someone buys something, you're super happy. But I guess I was expecting that too, and I was disappointed when no one purchased anything. Therefore crushing my expectations. Does that make sense?

So I started to embark on looking for craft fairs! Nothing is better than some solid one-on-one connections! The first one I participated in was more of a flea market than a craft fair. To be honest, most people were there looking for deals, not handmade items. But remarkably, I sold two wine bags! Then again, three people also asked me where the ties were that I was selling (which I don't sell individual ties). Then, on two separate occasions, people called my stuff decent.  Fucking decent. What the hell is that supposed to mean?  Here's my interpretation of decent.

I was supposed to participate in another fair today. It was cancelled because of the rain, and I can't make the rain date (poo). But, since that one was cancelled, it gave me the opportunity to sign up for the TRENTON PUNK ROCK FLEA MARKET! The spaces sold out in like, less than 10 minutes, so I'm jazzed that I am going to be participating!

I'm trying to go in with no expectations, but you can already guess that that's going to the shitter pretty fast. So during now and then, I'd love to be able to really really work on my table display. Maybe go to the Salvation Army and get an old fashioned coat rack to hang up some of my purses! You know, make that shit look professional! Cause honestly, if I don't sell much, EVERYONE IS GETTING SOMETHING MADE OF TIES FOR CHRISTMAS AGAIN.

necktie tree skirt

Back in December I noticed that my tie collection was getting a wee-bit out of control. I needed to make something out of ties before I ran out of places to store them. Since it was Christmas, I decided to make a tree skirt out of neckties. It was a good project, all done by good ol'fashion trial and error. 

I shared my project with a few classmates and faculty members at the college I attended, and one person expressed interest in me making one for her. She came bearing a bag full of ties! HUZZAH!

Flash forward 6 months...I'm not good with directions. I mostly, like I said, do everything by trial and error. But I'll try to replicate my goings-on so you can follow what I did. 

I cut 36 ties to a length of 24" (the big fat ends) and saved the skinny ends... I arranged them into 6 groups of 6, then used a zigzag stitch to sew the 6 groups of 6 together. There are 5 ties that I cut to the length of 14". You know those skinny ends I saved? I zigzag stitched each of the 5 fat 14 inchers between two of of the skinny ends. Here comes the hard part.... assembling errrthing.

I arranged the 6 panels into a circle, and then placed those 5 smaller panels in between. Zigzag stitch the shiiiiiiiizzzzz outta that circle to form... you know... a tree skirt.

My gosh, even I'm not following how I did this.

Then I cut out 2 yards of black felt and stitched it into a big ol' circle. Then sewed that circle to the tie circle. Beeeelieeeeeve me... there's A LOT of fabric, and it takes A LOT of muscle to get this shizz through a sewing machine in one piece. If you're trying this one, do yourself a favor and get yo'self some extra needles for your machine. You'll need them! But the payoff is awesome-sauce.

Truth is, I could have taken better pictures. I kept forgetting. That's the way it is, dangit.

my first real craft show!

I had a great time at my first real craft show! I brought along 40 wine bags, 4 tie-purses, some poof ball flowers and vases that I made for the wedding, and two small paintings which you might remember: abcdef fail and anxiety.

A lot of people made me feel so great: Compliments on how clever my ideas really made me smile. It was wonderful to hear people admiring my sewing and my bags. AAAAAAAAND (drum-roll PLZ....) I SOLD 4 BAGS! I'm so glad I made more bags and spent time preparing as much as I could. I did learn a couple of things from my craft show experience.

• I need sign. I picked up foam-core to make one the other night, and I decided that it wouldn't look professional enough, so I didn't bother making one. I need to make one like I made for Bamboula. One that says something like CRAFTS MADE FROM TIES! or CREATIONS FROM TIES! or something like that.
• I wonder if I'm not being confident enough. I was so happy to talk to visitors at the table, that I didn't really "sell myself" like other people were. Is that a key to success?
• It would have been nice to have someone there for a couple minutes so I could have left to use the bathroom, or to walk around to see other peoples things. At one point, I had to pee so bad that I left a note that said BE BACK IN A MINUTE! and asked the couple next to me if they wouldn't mind keeping an eye out for me. 

All in all it was a great day for a great cause. I hope I can do more fairs in the future, and maybe with some luck, I can have some more success!

midnight surprise

Last night, after a grueling workout at the YMCA and a successful outdoors Christmas decorating session, I reclined on the couch and debated my options for the evening. I could either:

1. Fall asleep on the couch while watching Monday Night Football, be super cranky when Lou wakes me up to come to bed, stumble upstairs and probably forget to brush my teeth, lay awake in said bed because of course, I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep.

2. Go upstairs, take care of business (bunny visits, personal hygiene, put laundry away, all those fun things) go to bed and read a book. Fall asleep in bed and not wake up grumpy or cranky.

I tried to be adult-ish, and I went with option number 2. But about 20 minutes after I jumped into bed, I heard my phone brrrrrrnnng-a-lllllnngggggg from downstairs. DRAT. I forgot to turn down the phone volume. Again, I considered my options:

1. Ignore that I left the phone's volume on super high. Risk being woken up at 6am from the alarm on the phone that I forget to disable all the time. Also risk being woken up from any phone notification that may go off during the night.  DING-A-LING B**** YOU GOT MAIL! WAKE UP!

2. Get up and go downstairs. Check to see that the alarm isn't set. Turn phone to silent.

Since I was technically on a roll from my previous adult-ish decision, I went with option number 2. I checked my phone and saw that I had received a Google Talk message and two emails. Lou had messaged me "dork" about an hour earlier. Thanks buddy. But the emails were to my art account. One was entitled Etsy Order Confirmation and the other was Notification of Payment Received.

I stood there, blocking the television, staring at my phone. "OH MYYYYY GOD, Lou. I sold a purse on Etsy! I have a sale!" My heart swelled. A sale! Mind you, it was midnight by this point. I went from sleepy to wide-f***ing-awake really fast. After doing a tiny dance, I ran upstairs to my office and removed the purse from my bin of finished items... and meticulously went over it, making sure that all the stitches were proper, that there were no snags, no blemishes. Then I got really nervous. What if it's not good enough? What if she doesn't like it? I hope she does. But that is for time to tell. I packaged it up nicely with tissue paper, inserted a thank you note, taped up the box and said goodbye to it.

 

So, dear purchaser, if you are out there. Thank you. Not only for your purchase, but for restoring a little bit of my confidence. Thank you so much. 

WANT.

Photo courtesy of the amazing Allie Brosh: Hyperbole and a Half

I've been on a clean-the-house kick. What does this have to do with art, you ask? Well, damn! Hold on bro', I'll get to it... I've been washing walls, baseboards, spackling, painting, touching up shit and basically making things look and smell all kinds of fresh. I still don't know why I'm on such a kick, it probably has to do with how distracted I get. But once I fix stuff up, then I start thinking about decorating. That's like, a natural girl-thing to do right? I'm such a cliché.

So anywho, my BIG fix-up project will be our third floor. I probably won't even start it until the winter, so it makes me wonder why I'm thinking about it so much. It's an enclosed loft-ish space with a damaged ceiling, a bad paint job, and ceiling fan that looks like it might fall off at any moment. Not to mention the Moe damage. My fuzzy bunny has basically chewed his way around the room, gnawing at the baseboards and any wooden furniture standing in his adorable way. It's adorably horrible.

Now usually when I plan out these projects, I start by mapping out a course of attack: Estimating the amount of rollers I'll need, how much spackle, the paint color, blah blah. But yesterday, again for some friggin' reason unknown, I was all like "I really want to hang up a bunch of really funny or crappy cross stitches up there once I'm finished painting." And then a monster was born. And the monster was called Jill Looks On Etsy All Day For Geeky Cross Stitches.

And here is only some of what I found.
My God. The creativity is just amazeballs.

Hey Girl, by DefiantDamsel

Clerks II, by DefiantDamsel

Don't Do Coke, by knitforvictory

 

Dat Shit Cray, by LaughingStitchesByC



Moonrise Kingdom, by bobby2scoops

YOU IS FINE, by OhTriviality

Shut Up And Make Me A Sammich, by Stitcharific

NYAN CAT, by risibleitinerant

I could literally keep going all day. I think I might be getting obsessed. If you're looking to purchase me an obligatory wedding present, consider a wacky cross stitch. I'd rather have those than new dishes.  See? I told you the back story about all the cleaning shit was worth something.

package details.

I was so excited yesterday! You probably already saw that I had my first sale over at Etsy. HOLLA! After my euphoria settled into amazement, and the amazement settled into wonder, I began to think: How should I package my item?  It's not everyday that I send someone a package in the mail, and I don't want to just throw the bag in another bag, slap a stamp on it and ship it off. I want my recipient to feel like they're opening up a gift! I want them to feel special! So what to do?

Unfortunately, there's not much I can do with the flat rate box, but once she opens up the box she'll be greeted with this:

A colorful printed envelope, a thank you note, a receipt, a business card and colorful tissue paper round out the package. If I'm going to be serious about selling my crafts online, then I need to let the purchaser know how much I care, and how I truly appreciate their purchase. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be doing this.

celebration!

My lovely friend Kara just became my first customer on Etsy!  I'm bursting at the seams with love. She purchased one of my favorite wine bags, and I'm so glad that I can send it to her, all the way over in Germany!

bag #1 out of 10... SOLD!!