5! shopping! days! left!

I just read this birthing story, which was really and truly amazing. I feel I would have such a similar experience. And now I don't feel so bad about getting personal.

My DH is off having a ball at a show right now (that is, if Glasslands actually stocks something other than Rolling Rock these days). I am wrapping gifts (sans wrapping paper, mind you, but armed with a copy of the latest Craft magazine) and eating a Crunchie bar that I bought in a tea shop today. While part of me wants to cry at the tragic figure i cut, it is fine, I guess. I do like the Christmas season for the purely selfish reasons of getting pressies and even more, the warm fuzzy feeling getting someone something they actually like! I stress myself out over things like gift-buying, letter-writing, and overall impression-making. So to hit the nail on the head and see my friend Gayle genuinely excited about something I got her would make it all worthwhile. Besides, she is terrible liar, so I would know.

Paul (the DH), I am fairly confident, will like his gifts. He is a man, and therefore needs guidance. I know what he needs before he does. Not for a second do I think that all men are created equal in that sense, but I have known him for a while and I know he likes few things more than being looked after. And a large part of me likes being handy and useful. I wish I could think of another way to put that. It is not selfless at all, either - this is something I get off on. I think it works for us.

This takes me back to our wedding story, which is like a birth story of sorts, which I started writing and will probably post in the upcoming reflective days. It is about two people with very similar ideals and aesthetics, but very different ways of executing them.

A special thank-you to all 4 of the lovely people who bought my creations from Etsy this month. I am still humbled and ultimately energized.

progress in progress

So, I got the notion a week or so ago, to start putting stuff up on my etsy site. I had the lipgloss there for a while, and no one was buying it. Then I saw that a blog I read at work (I love knowing someone nearby is doing something like this) was looking for local crafters to put into a gift guide. I gathered my things, put down one of my wedding tablecloths (I will be blogging about that later this week) as a backdrop, and took dark, fuzzy pictures of a wallet, a hat, and a drumstick case. I uploaded everything, priced it, and sent the link to Icky in Brooklyn (sorry Icky, I’ve no idea about your name. But I totally have a bone to pick with Gersh as well. We’ll talk!).

Well, my shop was featured on the site! I was so proud I blushed. And then the amazing Mr. Guskind mentioned me in a post about the Icky guide. So I felt like to be name-checked twice by two blogs I read on a regular basis was so cool. I felt amazing. I felt so amazing that I went home and made a new drumstick case to liven up the listings in case the Times called. I posted that and work got crazy and then I forgot about my life outside of work.

Then someone bought the drumstick case.

I was dying. I know etsy has been revolutionary for the trade, and for small, emerging craftspeople the world over, but to actually have someone buy something I made? Without even thinking about it too much? I threw up a mishmash of what I had and someone bit. So I immediately went into marketing overdrive and have been trying to come up with a branding and logo strategy to focus my attention. I am proud to say I have since sold another drumstick case (so I might be onto something. I will gladly single handedly supply drummers everywhere with my case, which was actually an on-the-fly Christmas present for my then-boyfriend last year. I mean, I literally sewed it up on Christmas eve morning and hoped for the best. I actually liked that the most of all the gifts I got him. Then we got engaged. Coincidence? No.)

I should also mention the karmic factor in all of this – I had been keeping up with Shannon at Make It and her daily blogging/progress. I was so inspired with the epiphanies she was having that I left a comment, which I never do. And then I actually looked at her store and bought something, because I liked her tag and envelope design. And then I had the first sale. I have long admired the selfless swapping and gifting and support that all the ladies and occasional guy partake in on the crafty blogs I read, and I see the beauty in it. Friendships are forged, progress is made, word gets out. I have never been one to brag, and I am terribly shy, but I will try and be more involved and supportive. I feel like I had nothing to back my name up with before, but now I have a little push that feels huge and wonderful. I still may harbor more cynicism than is normal for a still-20-something, and inherited my mother’s forked tongue, but goddammit, maybe there is hope for me yet.

All this goings on has been why I have not done my holiday ornament swap yet… crap. I actually have the idea already, so I just have to concentrate doing them this week. So ladies of group 41 (I think?), not that I gave out my blog address, but they are in the execution phase! I will get them out by the deadline. Like a true journalist.