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.

My first knitting pattern is live!

I'm so excited right now.  The pattern test went really well, only a few things needed to be changed. Ribbed Owl Mitts is now listed on my Ravelry page for sale.  I'm debating if I should list it on Etsy as well or not.  I haven't fully decided yet.

I'm tired of winter!

I am tired of it being too cold out.  I like having the option to just decide to run around outside.  To combat the cold I have made some nice and cheery bracelets.

I think though I used black cording for the knots that they are all so happy and cheery.  We got about six more inches of snow yesterday.  While it was fun to watch while drinking hot chocolate, I'm excited for the flowers to come back.

Some new wintery items are up.

I am so excited that these are looking as cute as they are.  I know cold weather makes me excited to see all of the bright red poinsettias around.

 These are nice and puffy and to me look more like a poinsettia.

I was showing someone the two of them and though I personally like the wider earring more, she really liked the thinner one more.  I like giving people a lot of options.

There are some snowflakes in the works, so make sure to stay tuned for those!

It doesn't hurt so much when you just sit down and do it.

I kept putting off so many things that last night I just made something.  I didn't think about it too much to worry about that people might like or not like, I just made something and timed it.  I think I needed this because I tried to make a sample for the crochet bracelet and the beads are not taking up as much space as I had assumed.
This means that I can hold my arm to the side and drop the bracelet onto my wrist.  It usually twirls and falls right back off right after that.  I am hoping that it will fit someone's wrist since it have to push it halfway up my forearm to get it to stay on.  If I need to label some as 'large' and some as 'small' I think I will be alright with that.  I was really hoping for a more 'one size fits most' thing, but that isn't working out for me right now. 

Making knotted bracelets like this feel like they take longer than they really do.  I'm feeling there will be more of these made.  Once the awkward beginning part is done then it becomes pretty portable.

I am still on the hunt for good beads for the Poinsettia earrings and I still need to try out the fabric flower pattern to make some Poinsettia hair clips.  I mentioned that I'm not good working on things to match the season, right?  I think because it is cold out that I just want to head somewhere warm.

Some not so new ideas.

I've decided to revisit the idea of these Kukui nut bracelets.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to make them to order or try for some sort of resizeable version.  I tried the kind where you pull the strings and it either tightens or loosens it, but I felt like that was putting more wear and tear on the string than was worth it.  I couldn't seem to get the ends of the made to order version with either a toggle clasp or a magnetic clasp either.

This is what I have liked best so far.  The future ones will not have as much of an overlap as this one.  Though it is a little big on wrists like mine, on most it should work very well.

I also have some new stitch markers listed as of today.

Slowly filling up the store.

While I have not met my goal of adding some things every few days, I am still adding new items to the store.  The one problem I seem to be running into now is finding things to list.  I made a ton of those earrings and listed a lot of them, but I don't want to have my shop be 90% very similar earrings, 10% random other things.  I want some sort of balance.  Right now I have about 4 card holders, 4 tissue covers, and 5 pairs of earrings.  I think that is pretty good and I should start adding new things.  I have made two sets of stitch markers and I have plans for more.

Yellow Owls with green beads.

Yellow Owls with blue beads.

Good news time!  Though the button thing I mention late last year seems to be on a hold, she is still interested.  I will have all the supply to make them once we both can get everything in order.  Not sure when this will be, but it is good to stay positive.  I also sold a pair of my cherry blossom earrings!  I am super happy about that.

Can't Do Worse Than Before...

What is that you see on the side there? Could that be items for sale?! I do believe that they are!
I finally figured out what was keeping me distracted and off-track.  I kept fearing failure.  I couldn't fail if I didn't try.  Then I remembered something important.  The last time I tried to sell items, there would be months and months where I would list things, but I wouldn't sell any of them.  There is no way I could do worse than that.
So even though I had put aside days in past weeks to list thing, I did not.  I even tried to set aside days just to work on descriptions.  That also didn't happen.
I was having the problem of not knowing what I wanted to do today, so I decided to push myself to get this going.  The listing interface has changed a lot since I used it last.  I like this new one more.  I also like that you can copy a listing.  Before you had to have one listing open in edit mode while you made the other that was similar.
I also did not list many things at once because of something I read a while ago.  One of the successful Etsy users posted some tips and tricks.  I wish I remember who it was, but it was probably over half a year ago that I read it.  They said that instead of uploading a lot of things at once and letting them sit, to upload a few things at a time.  This way it is more likely that someone will notice something your listed in the "Recently Listed Items" area and take a look when they might not have searched for that type of item.  Listing a few items at a time also gives more time for me to make things so there won't be long times where I don't list anything at all.

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!

New Ideas!

I have been messing with some new idea for items to put in the shop.  Why am I working on new stuff when I don't have any of the old stuff listed?
.... I don't know either.

I do, however, have the paint I need. All I need now is to find a good size box and paint it.  I then need to find the cord for my camera and I will be all set!
It would also help if I could find all those pocket-tissue covers I started a while ago.  Oh well, they are around here somewhere.