A Busy Week Ahead

March 2nd, 2010

I have never felt so overwhelmed. This week feels like the busiest week ever! At least the worst is past me. I hate when the 1st of the month falls on a Monday; it’s like two worlds are colliding! lol Mondays are always busy with shipping out orders and catching up on emails from over the weekend; but when it falls on the 1st, I also have to prepare for my Crafty Ave newsletter by adding all the new patterns, writing up the news, updating the website, and sending out artist payments. Needless to say I was up until 1am last night working. The rest of the week will be just as busy, but at least Monday is done and over with. Not only am I starting to feel the pressures of my deadline for the Earth Day fair, but I’ve been invited to do another show in April at the Beardsley Zoo. I have two wholesale orders to finish up this week… which means gluing, pouring, drilling, and more gluing of about 400 bottle caps, and sewing up an Americana quilt and wrapping some rag balls. Let’s see.. what else…. I have my art league meeting tonight, and I have my girls crafting meeting on Friday. I just might bring my crafting supplies to art league tonight to work on the craft fair goodies.

I’m starting to see a trend here… I come on over to write a blog post, I pour out all my bad news and complaints, then I say “OH, and here’s the good news”. lol Okay, so let’s get to the good news. As I’ve said, I was invited to do another craft show at the Beardsley Zoo! I didn’t mean for that to slip out during my cranky tantrum. It IS good news. I am so excited! I haven’t officially agreed to it yet though. I’m not sure if I’ll even have enough products to do two shows in only about six weeks from now. It’s a two day show, but I can do only one of the days if I wanted; which is great. Before even getting this invite, I was already feeling overwhelmed with the crafting I have to catch up on, that I invited two of my friends to help me out. Marla will be joining me with her fun soda can jewelry, and Jen will be joining me with her beautiful hemp wrapped jars. The three of us have decided to get together every Friday to craft together for the show. I’ll try to remember to take some photos this Friday!

For the show, I have finished up a couple more zipper pouches made from wrappers. Although, I’m still having a perfectionist problem. I made one perfect pouch, and thought I had it down pat. Then I made another one, and it came out a bit skewed. Darn! I’m not sure what the difference was, or what went wrong. I’ll keep trying! Everyone is telling me they look just fine. Perhaps it’s just the perfectionist in me. I also started making some charm bracelets with charms made from plastic bottles. They look so great! I’m keeping the first one for myself! :0)  OH and I found a way to put a bit of color on my jelly fish!! Yay! (Still never finished that cereal box container! lol)

I’ll have some photos for you soon! But, here’s a sneak peek of the plastic charm bracelets I’m working on.

Comments ( 0 )

, ,

Back To Reality…

February 22nd, 2010

Well, time to get back to reality. Vacation week is over. :( Man, it was so hard to wake up this morning! I have a busy week ahead of me. Two wholesale orders to finish up and some decluttering to do. Not to mention I still need to get a move on with crafting for my upcoming show, and finish designing my blog and website. Never seems to be enough time in the day to do what I want. One of my goals for this year was to start crafting more and begin my journey to find my true calling in the crafty/artsy world. But I haven’t even had a moments time to even think about starting a new project. Will I ever? There is so much I want to do, but I’m stuck here doing all the upkeep to keep me afloat like taking care of the house, ordering supplies, answering emails, writing newsletters, adding patterns to Crafty Ave, packing up orders… it never ends! I think one of my problems is keeping focus. I really need to set a firm schedule and stick to it. Oh, and limit my time on facebook! lol I should also try to keep my internet research/browsing marathons to once a week instead of whenever I feel like it. I seem to get sucked into the internet a little more than I should.

Complaining aside, I’m really excited about redoing my craft room. I took a trip to Ikea on Saturday, and it got my gears rolling again. I literally spent the entire day thinking about my room and trying to manage the space better while having it look more clean and organized. I was ready to do whatever it takes, and completely redo everything. But, at the end of the day, I finally realized that there really is no better way to do it than what I have already started. No other arrangement is going to give me more space; except for one minor adjustment to my desk. So, it won’t be a big change, but at least I don’t have to break my budget to make it look nicer! I bought an interesting shelf from Ikea to replace my peg board display, and I plan to rearrange my desks for more space. The biggest task will be clearing everything out that I don’t use. I still have scrapbooking and candle making supplies that I haven’t touched in over a year, plus a ton of other random things. Time to clear out! I need to have an inspiring craft room… not a storage room! But for today, its back to the daily grind. At least I have art league to look forward to tomorrow night!

PS. Do any of you have any tips for managing your work, or carving out free time for crafting?

Comments ( 0 )

,

Mad Scientist at Work

March 13th, 2009

I have laughed at myself in the past about packing up my mica flakes, complete with my mask, goggles, and glitter from head to toe. Many of you have begged for pictures… well, here ya go!

Packing up mica

My daughter stayed home from school today, and when I went to package up my mica, she said I looked like a mad scientist! lol I said, “you mind as well take a pic since you’re here”… and since I happened to have a pic, I said mind as well share it with all of you! ;0)

But man, was it cold! I packaged up mica for about an hour outside; and my fingers got numb.. there was still a layer of ice in our sleds! Too bad we don’t have a garage… I used to package it up in our basement, but hubby keeps all his music equipment there and was sick of all the glitter everwhere so he kicked me out. So, outside I go! We live in a complex… I wonder what the neighbors think?

Comments Off

,