Well, I'm taking the plunge. By selling a pair of baseball-themed earrings to the Director of Merchandising at the local minor league baseball club, I've made my first sale. She is going to show them to a few people and may be interested in carrying them at the stadium store and on their website! I don't know if it will be Christmas or next season or ever, but my work has gotten noticed and I may get an order for a whole bunch more and will be able to say that my merchandise is carried by a minor league baseball team! Isn't that cool? I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but the gal sounded pretty upbeat about the possibility. Just waiting for the phone to ring. ;-)
Since someone besides my mother has shown me that my stuff is worth money (no offense to Mom, but you know, she and Bill are my biggest fans), I've decided to list some of my work on Etsy. It's a sales website that is only for handmade items, vintage items, and supplies, so I'm not as likely to get caught in the noise as I would on eBay. I've looked at some of the jewelry on Etsy and some is way out of my league, and other things are kind of on par, so we'll see what happens. Things don't tend to move quickly, so patience is a virtue. I don't have that particular virtue, so we'll see how I do. :-p I'm listing 4 items today, and then I have plans for several more items once I get the time and energy to get them made. They're all replicas of things I've made for myself, so it shouldn't be too hard to do. All I need is an all-nighter with caffeine overload to crank out some product (you Facebookers have seen what that's like). I don't have any free Saturdays for a while, so I'll have to try to find a few weeknights to set up shop. Problem is, my shop is the dinner table, so that makes things inconvenient unless we want to eat in the living room. ;-) We'll see. I'm still trying to catch up on sleep from quilt retreat, so it won't be this week.
Oh, yeah! Quilt retreat! Last weekend Mom and I went to a retreat in the woods at the cascade foothills (I'd been there twice before - she'd never been). We both had a great time and were really productive! I finished a block swap that I've been holding on to for the better part of two years (and Kelli, I'm going to try REALLY HARD to remember to bring it Thursday to dinner), I got the 48 blocks done I need for another quilt (needs sashing and borders and stuff, but I didn't have sashing fabric with me), and ripped apart another quilt I started 4-5 years ago to fix it and I have all the rows constructed and just need to put on setting triangles and sew the rows together. I was really happy with the amount I got done, even though on one project I spent almost as mich time ripping as I did sewing. ;-) One more full day and I would have had that done, but we only paid for the weekend (the retreat went on until Tuesday afternoon) and Mom was out of medication, so we couldn't even buy another night if we wanted to (and we talked about it, but the meds were kind of a show-stopper). We're planning a sew day at my house in October sometime, so we'll see what I work on then (and how much I get done before then, if anything). Sorry, no pictures this time. I only took one with my Blackberry and it's just to show the 48 blocks I got done. Not worth the trouble of downloading to anywhere.
I'm still working out three times a week and watching what I eat, and I've lost about 40 pounds to date since I joined Curves in February. I'm almost halfway to my goal weight now. I've been working out 7 months now, and I still have to talk myself into going half the time. I thought by now it would be a habit and I would just do it and maybe even like it, but I haven't had the attitude change yet. I guess it's just because I'm so tired after being at work all day that I just want to go home. It's not Curves' fault. ;-) But I go, and some days I do better than others, but at least I'm there. Today is my monthly weigh and measure - last time I lost a few pounds and my body fat % went down, but all my measurements went UP! ACK! I hope I don't see that nonsense again tonight! :-p
So, there's my attempt to manufacture news. ;-) It's been a while since I've posted, and I did want to let you all know to look for me on Etsy and wish me luck!
Blessings,
Kristin
