Obligatory Post

Ok, so here's what I can tell you today: I don't have anything profound to say because I have been busy. Most of it I have brought upon myself. I can't stand it when people whine about how busy they are, how little time they have for themselves, etc., when they are the ones who agreed to do five oil changes, buy groceries for their deadbeat brother, pick the neighbor's cat up at the kennel, wash the car, and make bread, all before lunch.

I found this picture today on b3ta and it cracks me up.

See? Share the work, share the joy.

This weekend I did very little housework and I felt like I was on vacation. I had what I like to call a "come to Jesus meeting" with my mother last week about the sour, miserable mood she's been in and it really made a difference in my life. The last straw was when she manipulated me with guilt to make me trim the hedges, which for some reason gives me an instant sore throat. Apparently I'm allergic to juniper. So she helped me with Lily this weekend. On Friday I got to go out and have dinner with other adults, in public. I was in the car by myself. . . after dark!I got to spend time with one of my favorite people Friday and Saturday evening, which always puts a smile on my face, and it's nice to have Mom watch Lily while I enjoy that special adult time. I knitted part of a scarf that I'm going to felt and turn into a glorious neckwrap that won't be a gift and won't be for sale. I haven't made much of anything for myself lately, especially anything knitted, other than the very basic neckwrap I finished a few days ago.
Yesterday morning the sitter came and I posted five new things to Etsy, did the Winter Market order for the co-op, and made a great new peacock sword fascinator.

My mom used to have this country-decor, watercolor-embellished poem framed in the kitchen with a line in it to the effect of, "if the doorknobs don't shine then their eyes will shine instead." It was a little hokey, but there's a certain amount of truth to it. If I had made myself crazy cleaning the house to a high shine, Lily would have missed a lot of quality playtime with me, and she would have gotten underfoot often. I was able to create stuff for myself, too, since I wasn't obsessing about the dishes and laundry.
That being said, though, if I don't do it the vast majority of it will not get done, and this is far too small a house to tolerate clutter. It was sort of like a mini-vacation, letting the drudgery go for a while. That keeps a person sane, I think.

Cyber Monday Sales

As promised, here's some Cyber Monday sales that other FAM Team members are having on November 30th.
http://newenglandquilter.etsy.com BOGO 1/2 off - See shop announcement for full details!

www.hotpinkchick.etsy.com 10% off one item - 15% off two items - 20% off three or more items

http://www.octaviasbeads.etsy.com free international shipping over $40; 20% off all purchases over $30

http://www.etsy.com/shop/BerrysweetStuff - 2 FREE Candy Cane Bath fizzy Powders on orders over $25!

http://www.pinklemonadeshop.etsy.com - I'll be running special sales and giveaways all day Monday both at my Etsy Shop and at my Main Store - http://hyenacart.com/pinklemonade

▶www.rachelherzog.etsy.com FREE US SHIPPING WITH purchases of $15 or more, FREE INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING with $30 or more

http://dlcdesigns.etsy.com BOGO 1/2 off and free shipping entire store

Open House

I'm planning my holiday open houses this week, and like most everything else in my life, I have made it more complicated than necessary. I made some square invitation cards with a new font that I downloaded specifically for earring cards & stuff. I had to print, cut, paste, scan, print, cut, and stick them in envelopes. I realized after a few that it was an absolutely absurd amount of effort to put into something with a fairly low expected return. My open houses usually draw the same core group of loyal customers. I could send their invitations on cardboard scraps with the dates written backwards in crayon and they'd still come. So anyway, I came up with something easier that actually looks better, anyway. I buy giant quantities of blank cards on clearance at Michael's and use them for thank you cards, birthday cards, invitations, everything. I printed the info on pretty purple paper and glued it into the cards.
A friend of mine who is a dairy farmer in the Co-op I work for makes raw milk cheese, which is really, really excellent, and I asked for a sampler tray to share with my guests. He ships cheese all over the world, too. Check it out. Another friend of mine, Deb Mercer, is going to be doing seated massages for my Saturday open house. I'm having my mother bring out her higher-end textile hats and bags to fill out the space a little more. All of my previous in-home parties have been great, highly profitable and enjoyable, so hopefully this winter's ones will be as well, so if you're planning to be in Western Pennsylvania on December 5th or December 8th, ask me for directions and come check out our stuff!
I'm also running special Cyber Monday sales in my Etsy shop. Free international shipping on orders over $40 and 20% off all purchases over $30. I am blatantly promoting myself here, but that's what the internet is all about, right? Well, self-promotion and ineptly trying to keep your porn addiction a secret from your girlfriend (come on, we all know that guy. Later on I'm going to post holiday sales from other members of the Fabulous Artistic Moms Etsy team, and possibly from Etsy Team Exposure if those girls are running any specials.

fashion & the definition of luxury

I have been so busy lately!It's been that kind of busy that makes it difficult for me to think of any new designs, because by the end of the day I'm so worn out that I just want to have a glass of wine in the bathtub and go to bed. On Friday, though, I was on one of the machines at the gym and I had a great idea for a fabric cuff. Do I make cuffs? Not yet, but I think I'm about to. I have piles of brocade and velvet fabric cluttering my house. A few buttons and some narrow lace could help turn all that fabric into wonderful things. Yesterday when I was in the garden fighting with my tiller (it was way, way too muddy to be doing what I was trying to do)I had a brilliant idea for a blog entry. I have forgotten most of it, but the high points are as follows:
High fashion is amazing. I love the excess, the frivolity at times, the grave seriousness at others. I adore the international exposure and influence of haute couture. I can say that the Christian Dior Spring 2007 collection has influenced my work.


I believe all women should thank Coco Chanel for making fashion more wearer-friendly, even though she wasn't exactly a fan of ready-to-wear items. All of that being said, however, none of that fits in with my current position in life. Nobody gives a damn if my handbag is out of season, or if my shoes are so-last-decade. The places I usually go, people are pleased as long as I'm relatively clean, and sometimes that's negotiable, too. I'm pretty sure that my well-worn harness boots and NRA coffee mug got me a date last week. No one needs extra adornments, right? It's an expensive luxury during a time of economic hardship.
Well, that's silly. Art is not a luxury, and while we're at it, let's ask Mademoiselle Coco about luxury:
"Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity." To me, that means this: who cares if you're overdressed? If flowers in your hair make you feel lovely, wear them. If you want to redo your makeup and hair at 10 P.M. (even though you have to be in bed by midnight if you want to make it through the next day), go for it. You don't need a special occasion to wear that fabulous Mod party dress hanging in your closet. Even if your dance card is empty and all you do is go to the grocery store and playdates, wear your five-inch plaid peep-toes whenever you feel like it. Nothing shapes a woman below the waist better than high heels worn confidently anyway.
In the spirit of adding more beauty, fashion, and art to every day, I redesigned my earring display cards and designed cards for my mother's brainchild, Sane Hats (you know, Mad Hatter, insane. . . you get it), over the weekend. It's a small step, and I know my work is becoming more neo-Victorian every day rather than high fashion, but I still think these ideas are valid.

Winter Market

I realized recently that I need to pick up even more streams of income if I want to continue to work on my own schedule and keep my daughter out of daycare. The thing that motivates me above all else is the desire to teach her myself, nurture her myself, while she is a very young child. After all, I didn't have her so that someone else could raise her. That's why I started my own business. That's why I teach classes at a corporate craft store. That's why today I started my new and exciting part time job as Winter Market Manager for the NWPA Growers' Co-op store.
It's a really fabulous concept, and for anyone in Butler or Mercer County, PA, it's convenient. My responsibilities include signing up new members, getting product availability from each farmer, adding that to the online ordering system, opening & closing the web store at specific times, reporting the orders to the farmers, and dealing with any irate growers/customers that an error (anyone's errors, not just my own)may have caused. It's not paid hourly; my pay is based instead on a percentage of what is sold. I'm having quite a bit of anxiety about possibly dropping the ball in some way throughout the season even though I should know that I can handle this. I do well with people, especially older people. I know that deep inside I am actually a very old woman, so I am at home bluffing my way through a conversation about quilting or canning or knitting. I do know a bit about all three of those things, but nearly as much as a "real" old woman knows!

I'm excited about this job. What I'd love to do is have some obscenely wealthy person fall in love with my work and bankroll my design house. . . assuming that scenario will never play itself out, my second choice is having a small farm. I'm seriously considering buying some pheasants and quails for feathers, eggs, and meat. How great would it be if I could tell potential clients that I knew exactly where every feather in their custom headpieces came from? And I could eat yummy game birds. . . mmmmm. Let's pretend for now that they kill and pluck themselves.
Working with these farmers is great experience. I have already learned so much during the summer CSA season from one particular farmer who is a grizzled, kind older man with a big laugh and an appropriate anecdote for almost everything. He explained why my vining crops failed this year; he encouraged me to give my daughter raw cow's milk instead of goat milk, and it worked amazingly; he helped me decide which tiller to buy for my garden.

I'm so thankful and pleased to be involved in this. While it may take about 12 hours each week away from jewelry & accessories design time, I think it's the best, wisest choice for me and for my family.

Etsy sellers

I'd like to share a lovely creation by one of my fellow Etsy sellers. Check these pillows out, the fabrics are goregous.

Leaves

I love autumn because it's not so wretchedly hot anymore, because everything smells better, because the trees are goregous. I like to do yard work, too, so even though we have more than a dozen giant, ancient trees on our little plot of land, I can only complain so much about leaf cleanup.
The thing about having a big yard is, though, that nobody wants to rake all the leaves to one place. We left most of them beside the creek, put some in our bonfire pit, and the rest we decided to burn behind the house. In defense of burning, I say this, by the way: I shop green, eat organic, buy local, reuse, recycle, compost, make my own beer and bread, grow my own vegetables, and buy my raw milk, free range eggs and certified organic meat from the farmers' co-op I work for. I do not, therefore, give a damn about that once or twice a year activity that slightly enlarges my carbon footprint. Screw it.
With a tiny bit of gasoline, a crotchety metal rake, and a lighter, I had a big, slow burning fire. My daughter is too young to be trusted near an open fire, so she was with grandma. This is where it gets better than good: I spent more than an hour alone outside in the chilly air stirring the fire, watching the thick smoke curl skyward. I put out some extra birdfeeders so we can see the birds from most windows of the house throughout the winter. I ran inside for black lentil curry and a beer, and came back to watch the fire some more. I watched a downy woodpecker and a red bellied woodpecker come to the suet feeder over and over again. Chickadees and female cardinals swooped around the seed feeders. Bluejays picked at the corn tied to a nearby lamp post. It was an hour of absolute joy and relaxation.
Chores like leaf cleanup are the best. There's instant gratification: there were piles of leaves here, and now there is a handful of ash. The colors and textures of fall inspire much of my work throughout the year, but especially now. That explains the twigs, leaves, and feathers.
Perhaps winter will help me move on to a new color scheme or technique. . . time will tell.