More projects...

In my work to have fine hardwood Dassenplanks produced to sell, I’ve also started thinking about accessories to sell with them. It’s a natural progression. And one of those accessories is a carrying case for the Dassenplank with room for yarn and a possible skein of on-the-board knitted material. Maybe a few pockets for crochet hooks and knitting needles and accessories too. Then I started thinking about fabrics, and themes and silly things, so I spent the better part of last night working on these:

Spin-A-Yarn ~ Cartouche

Spin-A-Yarn ~ Scroll

Spin-A-Yarn ~ Scatter

I call this series Spin a Yarn. Miss mouse is steadily knitting away, and Ladybird is not being very helpful, batting the ball of yarn about. The little cartouches hold themed items like baskets of knitted material and yarn, a work-in-progress and a smirking Ladybird. The scrolls and cartouche frames are supposed to be golden yarn. :)

So these are my fabric designs (so far) for Spoonflower. I’ve already uploaded these two, I’m also working on a solid with much tinier prints of Ladybird and knitting paraphernalia and a stripe made of a single continuous piece of golden yarn.  That will be tonight when I get home, hopefully.

I might start messing around with different colour configurations for this series. Try different themes, maybe a darker background, maybe one that looks more like toile. I had no idea making tessellated designs could be so much fun.

Knitting/Dassenplank totes.

Anyway, it’s a start. This is the basic idea for the bag. I’ve made something similar before from outdoor yard-furniture canvass; a little striped carrier for my tiny netpad computer. I lined it in fleece which I quilted to a thick (weird feeling) felty-cotton batting to give it more stiffness. It turned out really cute, except I didn’t really work very hard to center the pocket on the front and it looks uneven.

Anyway; this is a rough sketch. They will come in three sizes to accommodate the 1-foot, 2-foot and 3-foot Dassenplanks.

The Soup & Spoon

I have social anxiety, ever since I was a child. Being in social situations, it’s kind of hard to tell, because in mixed company, I am not at all what you imagine when you think of someone with a painful case of social anxiety. I am a spazz. I talk non-stop, I laugh loudly, I flutter from person to person. Of course, this person roaming around, chatting people up, never shutting up about this and that… she took years of work to create. In school, I had a hard time making and maintaining friendships. Around horse people, however, I never had a problem because I was always comfortable having a social life revolving around a beloved pastime. At our stable, I was easily able to make good long-term connections and I hardly ever felt uncomfortable at social events because everyone was a friend.

It took a lot of personal struggle to push myself to do things out of my comfort zone. The ORS is an anomaly, because I expected it would be something small and easy to control, but it blew up into a public relations extravaganza and I had to just set aside my personal insecurities and just open up to people, even if that meant coming off as a crazy chatterbox. Luckily, working for a Chamber of Commerce for some years, I learned the art of the schmooze, which has helped me secure venues and establish relationships with business people, but again… in my head, my brain is going AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Whenever it comes to just joining people for social events, I go through a personal battle every time. My brain fills with all this anxiety, and starts making all these excuses why I really don’t need to go and join in. I can understand why my brain doesn’t like it; because even though I’m outwardly social and having a good time, the whole time I am in a state of high stress… the whole time my brain is saying: I want this to be over, I want this to be over, I want this to be over…. I’m like that overused cliché of the duck on the water, sliding along quite blissfully on the still water, but underneath the surface that duck is kicking like crazy. That’s me.

But it’s something you just have to overcome things like that, I guess; although overcoming isn’t probably the best word. Compartmentalize, maybe. Put it aside, just function and get out as much as you can. But if I let my brain have its way, I’d live like a hermit, in the middle of nowhere, where I would be safe from social exchanges and away from the social expectations that make my dopamine-deficient brain go all ape on me. My social ineptitude often makes me bullish in conversation, I will interrupt people, I will talk my head off, I will tell stories when I probably should just shut the hell up… I am trying though; I’m not too old to change and learn, this I know. It’s a constant process.

Today, I went home early to work from home. I decided to stop at the Soup & Spoon in Welches for lunch. I love that place. It’s what you would imagine a small-town hangout for locals to be. You walk in, they know who you are. You order your food with informality, you talk about family problems with people, and more people come in, and people ask how you’re doing, how your fertility treatments are working, how your cabin is faring in the below-freezing temps. Everyone sort of knows each other, and if you don’t know them, you still feel like you do because you are all from this little town. We all laugh at the ski-tourists, and we talk about local concerns… and when a group comes in that has the ‘not from town’ vibe, things go quiet for a moment, until someone asks them a question. There are four tables, three four-tops and one six/eight top. There’s a bar where I sit, looking right into the kitchen. Today, the health-inspector came in, had some soup samples and then did a quick inspection, was pleased at its meticulously kept kitchens, and went on her way. A TSA employee came up to check on his cabin, and the pregnant lady from the Salon came in for soup. The lady from the acupuncture clinic next door helped wait tables because she had nothing else to do. We all talked to each other from our seats and tables as if we were all at one table. It’s so comforting. I was there an hour and a half.

The soup by the way, is fan-freakin’ tastic. She gives you four soup-samples when you come in, and you get to pick your fav. The food is fresh and delicious and the atmosphere is fantastic. I got on the web and worked there for a while… just talking and doing emails. I walked out of there feeling 1) that I talked too much, but 2) that I had a good time and 3) that I wish I could be there more often. That’s unusual or me, to *want* to go somewhere to be social… so it’s a good thing. Like our local hardware store, I feel good there, I feel comfortable with the locals, I feel like part of a community. It made me feel like I’ve grown a bit in the past few years… that my anxiety is waning, or evolving. I don’t know.

Anyway… if you’re up in Welches, Oregon… look for the Soup & Spoon, it’s small and hard to find, but you’ll likely find a lot of really nice folks there and some amazing soup.

Zazzle-me-dazzle.

Oh, I've discovered Zazzle. It's so much better than Cafépress!


buy unique gifts at Zazzle

It's a smidge wide for my margin, but it goes there nonetheless.

Mua ha.

Etsy Feature

I am now a proud member of the EtsyBloggers Street Team. That means that I am part of a large group of Etsy shop-owners who have banded together to promote our shops and our hand-made products.

One of my duties is to create a promotional post every month for a featured Etsy shop. This month’s featured shop is “Tulip’s Treasure Box”. I’m really excited about this aspect of being a member of the EstyBloggers Street Team; simply so I can become acquainted to the huge variety of lovely handmade products that can be found on Etsy. Here's Tulip's Blog too.

Stunning!

Tulip’s Treasure Box features some really gorgeous hand-made jewelry pieces, as well as handy ‘upcycled’ tee-totes and beautiful beads. She is currently having a sale on some of her items. I recommend you check my fellow EstyBlogger Street Teammate, and also take a moment to browse the cornucopia of creativity that is Etsy. Support crafters and the artists!

More Shameless Begging;

Dear Mr. George Soros and other drippingly rich entrepreneurs and philanthropists who give all your money to huge bureaucracy-foundations:

Our septic is filling up. I wonder if you ever have to worry if you’ll be able to use your own washroom at home. We do. That’s $300 we don’t have. It’s part of the bigger problem that the septic tank is too small and not to code; and we don’t have the money to have a proper system installed.

The sad thing is, the difference of $300 a month can determine if we get by or not. It’s pretty precarious. We have to put some bills off to pay others. We’re also past our grace-period for our mortgage; and so we have to pay a late fee of $50 we could have used for something else, just because we simply didn’t have enough to pay it the first half of the month.

The groceries that usually cost us about $150 cost us $200 last week. We’re not sure why, we don’t get anything expensive or new.

There’s this little blue house about twenty minutes from where I live. It’s right in the center of town, and it’s small and quaint, and has gingerbread trim. It’s empty. I don’t know where the prior business went that was there (I think it was a yarn-shop), and I don’t see a for rent or for sale sign. I'm hoping it will stay vacant until a miracle windfall comes raining down into my lap.

It’s the perfect building, the perfect location, for my dream business. It’s almost painful to see it and feel that sense of ‘What If…?’

Once again, I’m writing this big whining letter to all of you with the power to help ‘middle class’ Americans achieve their dreams and improve their lives. Probably for less than it would cost for one of your trips to Cabo.

Give me money! I’ll make it grow with skills that are being wasted at a workaday job, and it will improve our lives greatly to be investing our energy in a business that will help the local economy, and provide specialty services. Why not?

C’mon. Give me money you rich, spoiled creatures with always-working toilets! Share the wealth, even a little bit. I'll make myself accountable for it, no wasting, no blatantly irresponsible choices like buying a brand-new 2008 Jeep Wrangler 4-door Rubicon ~ or an em.. err... Prius or Smart car.. ahem, ::coff coff:: :D

A pushy letter to George Soros.

Dear George Soros,

I've decided it would be best to post this on my blog, because it has about as much chance of meeting your eyes as an email to your foundation would. You see, this is a blog-post/badly disguised begging session.

George, I'm aware of your multi-million dollar bank account. Such riches are shared liberally with lots of foundations for this, and foundations for that; big honking non-profits that rake in the dollars every day. And I understand you donate all these dollars to these great lumbering juggernauts in order to better this world and this country.

You have shown a tremendous desire to change our politics, change our economy and change our world. Well I have a simple solution. Instead of giving your money to mega-bureaucracies; give it to people like me.

Mind you, I'm not asking for just a win fall of cash to come raining down on my head. I'm asking that you find people like me who have massive dreams and negative cash. I have an idea to create a business that will shape my future; but I cannot start it. A drop in the bucket for you could mean securing someone's future directly, erecting a business that will help the local economy.

Be an Angel investor (and start with me!). Find people whose businesses are floundering, or people who need cash for startups and give them the money. That is a way to fix the economy, in a small way. Start with us, the peons, with no money and enormous dreams. Please! Be my Angel investor.

Signed;
The Hungarican Girl.