Motivation

  For some reason I have been lacking in motivation lately.  My brain has been coming up with newer or better things to make, but getting to making them is oddly difficult for me right now.  Tonight, for example, I had planned to sit down and try and making a beaded bangle cover for the forms I bought a while ago.  The internet and BluRay players were not getting along and Netflix kept having to load, play at low quality, and sometimes didn't have sound.  I got annoyed after restarting it a few times and having the same problems.  Instead of just putting on a regular movie or using my tablet to watch things I got onto the computer and just watched YouTube instead of doing anything.
  I'm hoping once I get a good night's sleep tonight and finish with work tomorrow I will be able to focus more.  I have had these bracelets planned for a while now, and no one will notice them until I have them made and ready to show off.

Kitties Fur a Cause.

  Does it count as a collaboration if I am working with myself?  I am combining my love of helping charities with the fact that I wanted to make something limited edition on my Etsy shop.  I had thought of making some cute buttons back in December, but I didn't know what I wanted to make.  I thought it would be fun if they all had the same thing on them, but were slightly different versions.
  I then thought that I wanted to make something cute, like a cat, with different patterns on it.  This was early January.  I didn't know how to make them stand out and unique.  Why would someone want to buy them if they are just okay looking?  It wasn't until recently that I thought to combine my charity blog and my Etsy shop.
  My plans are to make button/badges with cute cats on them and to determine the pattern I will make a design based on the charity that is usually associated with the given month.  Some months have more than others, but I can just make a new design for when I will repeat a cause.  One of the problems I might run into are that some awareness groups don't have a signature color or pattern to use.  I will have quite a few to run through before I have to worry about that though.  I will also be putting the name of the cause on them since a few are very similar.

Halloween

  I have been going back and forth on what I want to make for my shop since I seem to have problems making things before the season is over.  For example, I always want to make cute Halloween things on November 1st.  It's a little late at that point.

  I have a cute idea for some hair flowers that are Halloween themed.  My only problem now is trying to find the right button for them.  I can find cabochons, but no good looking buttons.

   Here is a little preview.  The cotton fabric is drying right now and though I will have to re-do the small poof, I like how the large patch of lace turned out.

More larger sized earrings.

  I finally found the earring finds that I like with these.  The shape is kind of unusual, but I like how it looks with the dangles.
  It seems, however, that all I can make these days are large dangle earrings.  Is there some sort of group I can go to for this?  I do still like them, though I have plans for some smaller earrings in the near future.

Needle containers.

I mentioned last post about making some of my earring styles into necklaces.  I have a good picture of them now and the listing is now up.
I also have been collecting my earring crochet cottons so I will be able to make more.

I was at my day job and found this weird tube.  Since I was in the middle of doing something I just grabbed it to look at later.  It was a Singer brand sewing needle recycle tube.

Well, I have similar containers, only the ones I have come in fun colors and are less expensive.  I also give the option of having a fun little stripe of pretty tape in case they are too plain.

Matching necklaces.

  I had a vision that I would list my crochet flower earrings and that they would just fly off the "shelf."  This has not happened.  As of right now I've only sold one pair of earrings.  I don't think it is because of how they look, I get lots of compliments when I wear the pair I made for myself.  I think the size is the problem.  Not everyone likes big earrings.

 

   I already made one pair of rainbow flower earrings, but I also wanted to make a pair with my blue gold-stone beads.  I couldn't tell which I would like better, so I decided to make a pair of each.

  When I went to go put them on the hoops I realized that I had no idea where I had put the two new bags I had purchased when they were on sale.  I was able to find one of the older ones that I hadn't put rubber bands on yet.  As I was looking at the single earring it occurred to me that they would also make very pretty necklaces.  This will let people who like the look of the items, but who don't like big earrings, enjoy them too.  It is also a good excuse to find more thread/bead combos I like.

Knitting designer problems.

  I also finally got my cascading leaves and vines shawl blocked.  I had a lot of fun with the other test of a pattern, so I am excited to get another going.  It helps people to have a picture to know if they want to test it or not.
  I'm also having some designer issues in my head.  I thought of a fun shawl idea, but it was so easy I figured someone else had already done it.  Then I thought about it more and thought of a variation on it.  I have been checking to see about the original on Ravelry, but so far I have not seen it.  I tried "block shawl" and found nothing.  I have been browsing through "stripe shawl" but there are over 100 pages of patterns to look at.  I'm on page 51 and so far I have not found the original idea I had.
  So now I'm wondering if I should make two patterns, one pattern, or a two-in-one pattern.  I also need to get my hands on some yarn in the weight I want before I can do any of this.  It will give me some more time to think it over.