Sideways photos and all

This is what it looks like around our house (production factory) these days. I never did figure out why the photos insist on loading sideways and such. Oh well.

Sideways kits

A few end caps for the Kumihimo classes

There's a wee bit o' printing happening...

Some Fireline being spooled. About $800 worth.

Pearls anyone? Everyone?

Technology is great. Except when it sucks.

I had this great post with lots of photos to show you tonight, but the technology gremlins are messing with my head! And after spending 45 min. trying to figure out why my photos are all importing sideways or upside down when they're not showing that way in Paint Shop Pro, I give up. The gremlins win. For tonight anyway. I shall live to fight another day! (And probably take the photos with my camera instead of my iPhone and see if that makes a difference.)

Ugh. Frustrating.

The Dog Bed

From June:  Years ago, after Jill and I first discovered we could make jewelry, we tried selling our finished projects. It was all strung stuff. We used quality materials, .i.e., all sterling components. And we watched everyone admire our work, then walk on down to the booth that had the cheap imports and buy there. We never made very much money..

One weekend we were working a show in an un-airconditioned metal shed. In Texas. It was awful. Jill probably remembers more details than I do. I think I've blocked it out. Across from us a nice lady was selling beautiful wooden dog beds, and she had brought her cute, tiny dog to the show.  She wouldn't let us take her dog home with us, but we did buy one of the dog beds. They were so cute, with a fur animal print mattress, and matching blanket and bone-shaped pillow. As I recall, we spent more on the dog bed than we made the entire weekend.

When we got it home, neither of our dogs would have anything to do with it. I was crushed! It was so cute! So it went in the garage. Over time, we got new dogs, but they all turned up their noses at the it. The bed was too nice and too expensive to just throw away, so I put it up on Craigslist. Twice. Not a single call.Still, I refused to throw it out. 

Last week, as I was doing some garage organizing, I came across the bed again. It really had to go. I decided to take it outside to see if the dogs or either of the cats would use it out there. (It's kind of like putting leftovers in the refrigerator, knowing you'll never eat them, but it's a step toward the garbage can.)

SCORE! Miss Piper has decided the bed is perrrfect for her. The last few nights she hasn't even come inside, because she's sleeping in that darn bed! At last SOMEONE will use the bed and I don't have to throw it out.

Slow motion

I had an amazing trip to Seattle to teach at Quiltworks and then spent an extra few days to hang out with friends. Honestly, it was the most fun trip I've had in quite a while. Slowing down to enjoy it made a huge difference for me. Much more to report on that whole adventure another day, including some cool photos.

Since I returned I've been stuck between two equally important tasks. Designing like a mad woman for the book and for future teaching projects, and making kits like a mad woman for my trip to the Great Lakes Beadworker's Guild in Detroit in May, and the extravaganza of the Bead & Button Show that I have to leave for a mere week after I return from Detroit. For the moment, making kits has won out - a decision that has left my mother nervous about the lack of designing it seems. So I'm happy to report to her that I finally feel the mental shift coming on and I think I'll be switching to beadwork for a few days. I simply can't face one more Kumihimo with Beads kit at the moment. In the empty mental space that kitting provides, I've designed several new projects and worked out a sticky solution to a beading problem that's been plaguing me.