Wow

So my vacation was great. It was super relaxing, but I also got a lot of crocheting done. The presents I had picked out for the kids were a HUGE hit, especially the hats I made and the stuff I found on Etsy. I was really pleased by the latter, because I like having people to buy for who appreciate handmade stuff. :) (The belle of the ball has been stuff from Kayce's Nue to Me shop, which I did buy quite a bit of...)

Then we got back, and I was in the office one day, but sick by that afternoon. I spent the last two days at home watching Battlestar Galactica, crocheting, and otherwise being a lump. But I'm pleased to report that I feel MUCH better now (and am back in the office).

I finally get to play in our Saturday afternoon game tomorrow, which has switched from being the all-combat Exalted game to a Scion game run by Jeremy. I'll be playing a daughter of Baron Samedi who is a tattoo artist. :)

Sunday is my final show of this winter, at I Heart Rummage. One last chance to get handmade Christmas gifts if you haven't already finished your shopping! :) And if you have, come and buy stuff for yourself! :)

I'm looking forward to my four day weekend for Christmas, which will include the zoo, the new Sherlock Holmes movie, and Chinese food. Oh, and a present. Jeremy picked up the box that contains my present on Wednesday night, and gave it to me to carry. In my sickly state, I had to give it back to him, because it's too heavy. I have NO clue what it is. I'm looking forward to opening presents on Christmas morning. He will have a stack to open from me... which reminds me, still gotta pick up the last couple of things for him. (Alas, not handmade.) :)

Weekend update and more!

So Friday night was karaoke, and Jeremy and I had agreed in advance that we would sing "A Whole New World" from Aladdin together. It was apparently very good, as he had several people come up to him afterwards and tell him it was great. One person told me the same. :) I also had a lot of people tell me that I did "Stupid Girl" by Garbage really well, which is funny, because I signed up for it, and then googled the lyrics because I couldn't remember how it went. (Yeah, they put the lyrics up when you do karaoke, but if I don't have some vague sense of the lyrics before I start singing, I do miserably. Rock Band is proof of this. :) )

Saturday, we watched a couple of horror movies with part of our usual D&D group, in lieu of actually gaming. The first movie was Phantasm, which was pretty laughable to me. I find that I'm just really not that impressed with older horror movies, and they don't tend to scare me much. We followed that with Slither, which I had seen before, but no one else had. I love that movie, mainly because it stars Nathan Fillion. It's also spectacular as a comedy-horror.

From there, we headed to Denny's for the NaNoWriMo kick off, where I proceeded to write 2,200 words in about 75 minutes, a fact which stunned Jeremy and Nate. Apparently, I write fast. :) Of course, I make no claims as to how good it was, and I'm probably scrapping over 2/3 of it when editing time rolls around.

After sleeping like a rock, I had I Heart Rummage on Sunday afternoon, which was a good show for me. I sat next to Susan of This Charming Candy, and ended up trading a pair of arm warmers for two bags of her lollipops. So far, I've tried tangerine-clove and coconut-caramel, and I'm definitely loving the slightly more grown-up flavor combinations. In my bag for today: vanilla cardamom. I don't even know what cardamom tastes like. :)

My current NaNo word count is now up to 5,424, which is about 424 words ahead of where I need to be. Rock on! :) The story is shaping up pretty well, though it keeps going in directions I wasn't quite expecting. I wrote a ridiculously overdramatic scene between a father being sent to fight in the Great War and his thirteen year old daughter last night. Truly over the top. I love it. :)

Now if I can just kick this cold in the next, oh, 48 hours, I'll be set. :) We're off to AmberCon NW on Thursday morning, and I do not want to be sick at the convention!

Lollipops by thischarmingcandy.etsy.com.

Not what I expected...

I made the trek to Telegraph Ave. today, and I don't know if I was just there too early, or what, but it really wasn't what I expected. For those of you in Seattle, imagine the Ave, but with a bunch of chain stores instead of small stores. That's pretty much what Telegraph was like. I was so disappointed.

However, I did finish up the research today, which leaves a bit of work in the morning tomorrow before I begin the trek that will take me home. And then I get to run around like a madwoman to get ready for this weekend. I think to say that I have overbooked my weekend is an understatement. But that seems to be the way of things lately. And as long as I get sleep, it's all good.

Also for those in the Seattle area, don't forget about I Heart Rummage on Sunday, February 1st, at Chop Suey. I'll be there with crocheted roses, cupcakes, and ice cream cozies, for those who would prefer to ignore Valentine's Day. :)

That thing with the hooks and the yarn

So between life, the universe, and everything, I have barely picked up my crochet hooks since before Christmas. Mainly it's been life getting in the way of doing much, and maybe a little bit of burnout as well. I got some work done on the baby afghan for my new niece or nephew last night, and after I finished the 2nd square (maybe 10 inches square), I asked if the two squares were big enough for a baby afghan. :) I suppose I need to get to work on that, though, as we're already halfway through January, and the baby is due near the beginning of March. Of course, the baby afghan doesn't have to be done before the baby arrives, but it would be nice. :)

I also haven't done much of anything for my Etsy shops lately. I can make the excuse with Counting Stars that my lack of being home means I can't work on pretty much anything I make for that shop. But my only real excuse for not working on stuff for Scary White Girl Designs has been the above mentioned life and burnout issues. Aside from the little bit of work I've done on the afghan, I've only worked on a custom order since Christmas.

We had a good EtsyRain leadership meeting last night, though (even if it did technically bleed into today), so maybe that will get me inspired to work on some more stuff. But I also just have to find the time! I've been filling up my schedule with games and fun things to do, and it's been at the expense of my crafts. So far it hasn't bothered me too much, but the existence of this post means that it's on my mind...

And I have a show in 2 weeks, as the February I Heart Rummage is Feb. 1st. Eek!

Hurrah for Friday!

Though I'm busy as all get out, it's still nice that it's Friday. I'm slightly less busy when I don't spend 10 hours of the day out of my apartment. :)

Tomorrow is Punk Rock Flea Market, which will have me out of the apartment for... oh, something like 10-11 hours. Well, at least I'm home for a good chunk of Sunday. Thank goodness for the people I'm traveling with having a much longer flight and not wanting to leave too early. They leave at 4 something, and I don't take off till 7 p.m. :)

Back next Friday, and then we have parties to attend the next two nights. Then I think I have a week of normal with an actual Saturday, before I Heart Rummage on the 21st. Then I work 3 days, and then get something ridiculous like 11 days of vacation. Only spending 2 of them at our apartment, but ah well. :)

I will be a very happy person when January rolls around. I'm looking forward to being bored. :)

And End of the Work Week Wisdom:
"Period military is not the dress code of a straight man."
--Owen Harper, referring to Captain Jack Harkness, on Torchwood

Yes, I am obsessed. :) Though I do have to say that I like Captain Jack better when he's on Doctor Who. He's much more of comic relief there... he only gets one or two really funny lines on his own show. :)

Awesome show!

Last night, some of the Ballard area EtsyRain sellers had a small show at Canal Station, where Dale lives. It was a very cool idea to begin with (wine, cheese, and craft sellers), and turned out to be a really awesome show. In fact, it was the most profitable show that I've done since moving to Washington! (And honestly, the only shows I did better at in Illinois were multi-day shows.)

I also got to get Jerome's salsa bowls from Laura, and he loves them. :) She doesn't have any in her shop right now, but keep your eyes open for them. They'd also work great for other dips or small portions of whatever you want to eat in a bowl. :)

The only downside to the show is that I'm low on inventory for a couple of my best selling items, which means I need to buckle down and get some work done. The top priorities are finishing off more soap socks for Anne, and then finishing Peter's Christmas present. Then I get to work on lots of inventory for my next show, which is Punk Rock Flea Market, on December 6th. (Luckily, that show draws inventory from both of my shops, and I always have PLENTY of bottle cap belts. :) )

And then, if I have time, I have more Christmas presents to work on (supplementary, not required), or replenishing my inventory again, before I Heart Rummage on December 21st. My shop is TOTALLY going to be closed either on or right after that day, and will stay closed through New Years. I suspect that between those two shows and online Christmas shopping, it'll be slim pickings until I'm able to crank out more stuff after the holidays. :)

Not a bad weekend...

Aside from Jerome having a hard time dealing with the seasons changing (lots of sinus difficulty for him), it wasn't too bad of a weekend. I really only had I Heart Rummage on Sunday, and then a show I wanted to go to that night, which I did. I Heart Rummage was a little bit slower than it has been, but I blame that on the weather and the economy. I didn't do badly, but I didn't do as well as I did last month.

The show was a lot of fun, even though Jerome didn't feel up to going with me. I knew a bunch of friends would be there (a couple were performing, after all), so I would know someone else there. John and Aine both made it out, so I hung out with them. This worked out fabulously, as they wanted to leave around 10, and they were going right past my apartment on their way home, so it was easy to get a ride. :)

The performers were great also. My amusing observations are as follows:

1) Magpie Killjoy is like the twisted love child of Tom Waits and Voltaire, with an accordian. I love accordian music (a great-uncle of mine played when I was very young), and he had the crazy raspy voice of Tom Waits with the funny but poignant lyrics of Voltaire. Must find some MP3s, which he says are available, as he doesn't have an album out.

2) Dude with the cello (I think I heard his name was Ben, and I think he was going by Schroedinger's Cat) rocked. Even with his bow going "poof" (literally, the horsehair portion detatched at one end and was a big poofy cloud) less than half a minute into his first song, he seriously rocked. He could totally play in Apocalyptica. :)

3) It's very odd to watch one of your friends play alongside a performer you really like. In this case, it was my buddy Nathan (from Abney Park) playing bass for Jill Tracy. Very surreal. Honestly, though, she had two really tough acts to follow, and I have to say that I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. But her music is a very different vibe from what the other two were playing, and it just felt weird.

And because we are all old, we cleared out before the headliners, The Ghosts Project. I would have loved to stay and see them play, but alas, work.

Speaking of the latter, I think I'm actually IN the office for the entirety of this month, at least until I go on my mini-vacation at the end of the month. But don't get me started about how much I need to get done before that happens (in terms of my own stuff, not work stuff). It's craziness.

Oi...

So I didn't end up posting on Friday because I spent most of the day waiting in airports, sitting at the back of the plane, and having a foot that was sticky with soda. :( All in all, it was a pretty cruddy day, which collapsed when I got home. I took a bath and went to bed, and that pretty much was the highlight of my day. (Aside from seeing NKOTB on TV, but that was a secret highlight. Shhh!)

Saturday was much better, as I was able to get back into the swing of things. I ran a bunch of errands, and picked up the display piece I needed for my show on Sunday. And then Sunday was the show itself (I Heart Rummage), and it went VERY well for me. I heard a lot of people commenting that it was really slow, that there weren't as many shoppers, etc. I did better at this one than I have at both of the other two I did combined. My theory on this was that there were less vendors, meaning more space around for people to walk and look at things. So it didn't seem so jam packed as it often does. Also, I think the new display piece helped my table, as it got all of the cupcakes out there for people to see.

And yeah, it looks like people are ready for Halloween already! Two of my sales were new Halloween cupcakes, which haven't even made it into my shop yet. I had the idea not too long before I was going to Texas, and spent part of Monday working on getting those made. But I had no time to photograph them before I went. So two of the little pumpkin cupcakes have gone on to new homes without even a photo. *sniffle*

The weekend

So I had a pretty nice weekend, despite it not being entirely as planned. Got a lot of work done on my freelancing project on Saturday, moreso because Jerome ended up at work forever that day. Yesterday, I did my first I Heart Rummage, and I really had a lot of fun. I was neighbors with Jessie from CakeSpy, and had a lot of fun chatting with her throughout the day.

I also sold three of my Decapitated Dollies, which were the first three to sell! Lizzie and Patti went together, and Morticia went alone (but she likes it that way). People were apparently really amused by the little stories that I had to go with each one, so I think I'm gonna work on playing that up in the future. Even when I don't have time to do real writing, I can always come up with little stories to go with things I crochet. :)

I also learned that the little plush toys I've been making lately are just right for toddlers to pick up and hand to their moms, repeatedly. I had one little boy give his mom the strawberry and two fish, and a few other kids seemed to really like the plush things as well. I think I'm gonna work on more of those and find a little toy box that I can keep at floor level at shows for kids to spot and look at what's inside. (It definitely helped in terms of looking that the majority of the stuff for kids was on a box in front of my table, rather than up where they couldn't reach it.)

So now I'm just debating if I want to do two shows within a week of each other, and sign up for the May I Heart Rummage. I think I will. It was a fun show, not too pricey to do, and they have pretty tasty breakfast food at Chop Suey. :)