It's what time of year?

I can not believe that it is almost the end of the year!  Where did it all go?  I feel like I haven't gotten anything done!  I still haven't made my little mock-up photo "studio" (a cardboard box with a nice smooth and plain background) and I haven't gotten my Etsy shop back up and running.  Good news is that I got more work doing creative things than I have in previous years.
While I know the year is not over, I definitely plan to be more productive next year.

Some finished things.

While I am not completely done with everything needed for The Accessory Lady (she needed to get some things for me and we have yet to meet again) but I have been able to work on some things of my own.

A few not very exciting, but still cute bottle-cap pendants.

Here are some fabric card holders.

 These are a few pocket tissue covers.

The fancy kanzashi pictured here was a birthday present to the person in the picture, but I Pam to make similar ones to sell.

 Like the other picture, this exact one was a birthday present, but I plan to make more of these in different colors.

I send a copy of a few of these pictures to a shop who I'm hoping to sell my things through.  I've seen their website and they have some really cute consignment items.  I'm hoping they like what they see!

Lazy person is lazy...

I keep telling myself that I either need to finish the last few things for The Accessory Lady or work on things to show the consignment shop. I've done neither of those things, but I have done some things.
I have figured out the size I need to make the wallet so that it can fit money folded once. I've also worked on some charity things for my other project.

If it ain't broke...

I think the crafting gods are trying to tell me something. It boils down to: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I was hoping to be able to post a product picture today, but that was not in the cards. The first one I tried to make failed at the very beginning. The second was looking pretty good until I tried to sew it. A few thread issues later I had it all assembled.
Somehow it was too small! The outside also got messed-up when I tried to fix it.
Hopefully the third time is a charm and I will be able to post some good news!

I'm not sure there is an end...

I keep slowly creeping to the end of my commissioned/freelance accessory job, but I don't seem to be able to actually get to the end.
I was also hoping to get some stuff for the shop done while I was at an event in GA, but I was having too much fun running around to sit and make anything.
In good news, one of my friends works at a boutique in DC. They specialize in recycled and upcycled items. My friend thinks that if I made some fabric flowers and card-holders out of old shirts and ties, they might be interested.
Once I get some time I am going to make some inventory and contract them for a meeting, I'm exited!

Is that a light I see?

The end is really getting near now. While that is a good thing, it is also a bad thing. The Accessory Lady is making less sense than usual.
One minute she is saying that she is disappointed that I didn't get more done (even though I told her I was sick) and then telling me how she appreciates how much I have gotten done.
I am looking forward to one day though. She wants to learn how to make all of these, then she will see how hard it is, and how time consuming. (I also have a feeling we well need more than one day)

There might be hope (but probably not)

So this is the crunch week before the big meeting. Of course I have over three designs to finish in that time. I had hopes, then I became 2 days behind. I had no idea how I would even get close to getting done.
Now I'm starting to think that if my idea works and I change the order I do things in, there might be hope again.
Fingers crossed everyone!

Coming to an end and approaching a beginning

There are only a few more designs for me to work on for The Accessory Lady before I am done. Once I am done I will be able to concentrate on my own stuff.
There are only 3 or 4 more designs left. Hopefully I well be able to work though them quickly. I have a few ideas drawn out got my own stuff.
I got the latest order from DelishBeads in, so I will be able to get started right away.
I'm just relieved and exited that the end is in sight!

Cute beads

I opened my samples from DelishBeads. How cute are they? Al but one are perfect for what I want to use them for!

Another day gone...

...and again I didn't get as much done as I wanted.
I wanted to get all the bows done and a few of the metal mesh clips done.  I will hopefully get one set of metal mesh clips done tomorrow.  Some glue is drying now.
I didn't get all the bows done because of two things.  One was that I didn't have all the fabric I need, and the other was that I wasn't sure if she wanted the overhang of the lace to be on the sides or edges.

Here is another odd thing.  I cut the metal mesh into a square and then cut the square in half.  One would imagine that they would be roughly even...well, they were not.  I had to take off two rows of mesh off of the one side.  I'm taking a different approach to cutting this stuff.  It is a bit faster, so it isn't a bad thing.

Busy, busy, busy!

I've having lots of fun at my engraving class!  I'm learning a ton of new things, hopefully I will add some engraved items to the shop someday!
While I'm here I have set-up shop.

Here is my little accessory corner.

I did get the e-mail I was dreading a few days ago.  I told The Accessory Lady that I would be gone for over 10 days while I took this class.  The e-mail I got was asking me when we were going to meet on that Fri (gone day 5) instead of the next one (home day 2).  I explained that we must have gotten confused about the dates and had the original e-mail where I told her about it opened.  She never tried to counter me about it, so it never got used.  While this is good, it is also annoying.  Since she thought I wasn't going to be gone as long when she gave me the next design(s), she only gave me one, not two.  I'm hoping this won't put us too far behind, I'm only one person.

The other design I started was giving me some troubles.  While the fact that the metal fabric was a bit harder to deal with didn't bother me, the fact that I didn't have the right shoe did.  The high heeled shoes I normally wear aren't tall enough.  The end of the fabric trailed on the ground a bunch.  I checked 2 different shoe stores and only found shoes that were less fitting for this than mine.
Lucky for me my mom managed to find a used pair for cheap, and my dad was headed down this way for his class.  While the shoe is not perfect (a quarter of an inch still "drags") they are going to have to do.  Who knows, maybe she will see this and make them smaller?
Probably not, but who knows.

In other news.... I've made a FB page for CMC Creative Creations!  I'm excited about it because it will let me post quick updates about how things are going.
Here is the link in case anyone would like to "Like" it: CMC Creative Creations

...and it takes you how long to make one?

I'm running into some time issues with these bows.  While they are taking me longer to make than expected, not all of it is billable hours.  I am getting paid for 1-1.5 hours of work per bow, but it really takes me longer.  What is the problem? Glue dry time.
It is very annoying to me that glue dry time does not count as billable hours.
Don't get my wrong, I totally understand why they don't count, I'm not actually doing work, I'm just waiting around until I can do work.

Anyway, I ran out of time to open my bead package, so no fun picture to share.

My packing list seems to have grown...

My (and The Accessory Lady's) original plan was to get all the bow variations done before I left for NC.  This did not happen.  This definitely did not happen.  The other part of the plan was for me to take what I needed for a chain design down with me.
My crafty packing list went from:

• chains
• pliers
• glue
• metal mesh
• laptop

To:

• chains
• pliers
• glue
• metal mesh
• laptop
• fabrics of various kinds
• sewing needles
• thread
• interfacing
• mini-ironing board
• glues of various kinds
• cutting matt
• cutting ruler
• rotatory cutter

*sigh* I hope I remember it all...

So happy that the mail-system loves me!

As you might have heard, I have been a bit busy making someone else's designs.  However, I have been making notes about all the ideas I've been getting because of this.  While I have been taking my few-and-far-between waiting-for-glue-to-dry breaks I found this website with super cute beads.
I am in love with most of the things they are selling.  The problem?  The beads look perfect for some of my ideas, but I've been bitten in the bum by that before.  I took a chance and sent them an e-mail.  One of the two owners sent me a reply to my inquiry about the possibility of getting samples.  While he hinted that it would be nice if I bought a lot of beads from them (in a cute way) he said they would be happy to send me samples!  I went from asking for 4 samples to 8, and there was no angry e-mail about abusing the system!
It took a bit longer than I thought it would be for them to process my samples, buuuut... they arrived in the mail a day early!
I knew I couldn't look at them right away.  They would distract me from making the samples I needed to make to pay for my bead habit.  I put them in my suitcase (more about that below) and will look at them once I get there.  Pictures will follow for all to see!

So more about why I need a suitcase.  I have signed-up for an engraving class!  I took it last year and had tons of fun.  There will be a new teacher this year, and I'm excited to see what new things I will be learning.  My "Partner in Crime" is not going this year, and this makes me sad, but I hope I will see a lot of the other friend's I made last year.  I'm hoping to someday be able to engrave some small things to put in my shop!

Good News!

I managed to talk The Accessory Lady into less of each design.  Initially we were going to make four of each, but that was when I thought it wouldn't take long to make each bow.  Once I started working on it, I discovered that each bow is going to take about an hour to finish.  With as many variations as she gave me, that would be 36 hours worth of work.
While that doesn't sound like a big problem, there are other things to consider.

• She would like them all done by Fri
• I have to work my "day job" during this time
• We finally decided on sizing on Wed night

Now I only have 18 hours of work to do (assuming nothing goes wrong).  Another good thing about only having to make half the original number, I don't have to worry about running out of fabric and needing to go to her place to get more.

I'm almost half done with the other items I needed to get done for our Fri meeting.  I'm feeling a lot better about this.

I have a bad feeling about this...

...as of right now...I'm pretty sure I'm not going to make the deadline if I take time to do the following: eat, drink any kind of liquid, sleep, go to bathroom, act in any kind of personal hygiene.

This job might kill me...

So many glues!

I've been working on the accessory job I mentioned before and I've managed to go through a while 8oz bottle of glue just on one design!  It is about $6.99 at Ace Hardware.  I love the stuff. Weldbond is one of my fav glues.
Since I used so much, and it was mostly gluing fabric to ribbon, I was wondering if it would make more sense to get some fabric glue at work, since I could use a coupon to make it cheaper. A bottle of Elmer's Fabric Glue caught my eye.  I got the 4 oz bottle and went home to go and do some more gluing.
When I used it I found out that my bottle needs to be opened all the way, or you only get a tiny amount of glue.  You can squeeze until you feel like you are going to burst the bottle, but nothing much comes out.  Another thing I thought was weird was the smell of it seemed familiar.  It wasn't until later when I realized what it smelled like.
I have some glitter-glue that is glitter in a gel kind of glue.  This one smells just like that!  It also acts like it too.  It seems to be a white glue mixed with a clear gel glue.  It also says on the bottle that it takes 24 hrs to dry.  If you spread it thin, it goes clear before 24 hrs, but remains a bit tacky feeling.  Not tacky feeling that makes it feel sticky, but kind of like rubber that is grippy.  I have a bit of ribbon where it oozed out a bit and it still has that tacky-rubber feeling.
I've a bit torn about it.  I do like it, and it seems strong enough, but it takes so long to dry.  It also takes a bit to grab (which is more important to me than the actual dry time) but that would give you a bit more time to mess with things.

I'm going to have to play around with it some more to decide if I would use it for my things.

New ideas

I haven't been able to do as much as I have wanted with my Etsy shop.  It is not for a bad reason, it is for a very good reason.
I was approached to make some samples for an accessory designer.  I have been very busy trying to meet her dead-lines.  While I have been mostly focusing on that, I haven't forgotten about my own stuff.
I have a ring idea that is floating around in my head, and I'm also thinking of a fun new bracelet design.
As of right now, the sample-making job will go through the beginning of Aug.  I will then be able to focus more on making my own items.