Today’s goal was to finish the pattern for “Stitching, Please Wait” and release it on Etsy. DONE!
Now to spend time with my girls!
Today’s goal was to finish the pattern for “Stitching, Please Wait” and release it on Etsy. DONE!
Now to spend time with my girls!
Today, or more accurately, yesterday I had my first customer. When I checked my inbox this morning there was an email telling me one of my patterns had been sold. Happy dance!
After I delivered the pattern I spent most of the morning playing around with the content of this blog. Particularly with the sidebars trying to make it easier to find the content. I am now almost happy with the layout.
I also took the time to finally create a twitter account for Chanda Belle.
Now its time to get back to designing and stitching on any of the following designs:
I may well have too many pieces on the drawing board… Time to finish and release a few of them!
The seasons are changing and my toddler Ila is growing. It is time for another wardrobe update.
Ila goes to the kindergarden full-time. The kids spend a lot of time outdoors playing in the garden and it is rough on her clothes. Not to mention she outgrows them so fast. I am not willing to spend a fortune on brand name clothes that can be destroyed in one day. At the same time, I like to get my girls nice stuff.
I’ve found that the 2nd hand clothes markets are great for getting lots of good quality items for a low price, then I go out and get some nice new stuff as well. Today we spent 45 minutes at one such clothes market, would have been quicker but I took Ila along.
This is what we got:
I spent a total of EUR68 (USD 94, AUD88.50) on all those items. The leather shoes, wooden toy and jacket were the luxuries at EUR10 each. All the rest combined was only EUR38. With the exception of the car seat, jeans and shirt, all items are good and well known brand names. Everything looks new or is actually new (with tag still on). The shoes alone are worth about EUR80 new. I estimate buying everything new we would be talking over EUR300 possibly even EUR400.
My tips for today is about how to make the most of a visit to such a market. I’ve been to a few now and have gained some experience.
This is not exactly stitching, but the savings you make can be put towards your crafts and doing more fun things with your little ones. Some of these tips would apply to any kind of shopping expedition:
We can afford to get all new stuff for our girls, but I do enjoy the thrill of the hunt. I also get a good feeling knowing the things I bring home will be loved and used instead of ending up in a landfill. When we are finished with them, they are donated to a charity to hopefully find new homes again.
As I type this my toddler Ila is happily sorting the wooden motifs, putting them in the carseat and a bucket. The new clothes are in the washing machine, there is a box of outgrown toddler clothes to be put in storage until they fit baby Lena. On Monday a load of clothes that no longer fit baby Lena will be placed in the charity box down the road.
Happy hunting!
I’ve managed to transfer all my data from a backup to my “play” laptop. It will do nicely until we fix my main computer. In the process of transferring all the data to the laptop I’ve also started re-organizing my files. A bit of work to do there, but the new structure will give me easier access to my most used files, as well as making sure that important stuff isn’t lost. So this crash of my main computer may actually be a blessing in disguise.
Fortunately my file that lists all my design ideas and my inspirations folder were both recovered. I am extremely happy about that… Now I can get back to creating new designs.
Am I the only one that feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day? I have all these ideas and not enough time to make them reality! The process of creating a new design for me involves:
1. The idea
2. Research on the topic if needed
3. Draft sketches
4. Create a pattern
5. If specialty stitches are needed, find the right ones and learn how to stitch them
6. Stitch the piece.
7. Finish the piece and take photos
Then, if its a pattern that I want to add to my store I have 3 additional steps:
8. Correct the pattern and adjust the legend symbols to make it more readable
9. Create a chart with the pattern, legend, instructions and model picture
10. Add to store
Its all very simple… except that I need more time! I often get as far as create a pattern, and there the whole project gets put on hold until I find the time to test stitch it.
I have many patterns waiting to be stitched up and even more waiting to be charted. Its tough selecting which one to work on next… but I shouldn’t complain. Better that than to have a complete block of creativity.
Late last year I wondered if I would be able to chart and stitch a vehicle. I picked a Ford Transit van, which is a popular medium sized transporter here in Europe. This was the result:
Overall I am very happy with the clean look and simple lines, which do manage to convey an amazing amount of detail.
Details:
Fabric: white linen 32-count from Zweigart
Threads: DMC stranded cotton
stitches: whole and partial cross stitch, petit point, back stitch and satin stitch
Design: by Alexandra Rule
Last night my main computer got slower and slower. By this morning it was very sick indeed. Constantly crashing… and sometimes it hangs at start up. The main volume isn’t always available. It looks like we need to get a new disk for it. Hopefully our data backup system will come to the rescue and I have not lost anything important.
Until we get a new disk and I have everything running again there will be no designing, at least not on the computer.
Karma was not my friend and I guess I am paying for yesterdays procrastination trip to Zweigart. The score is now:
Taxes 1 : Stitching 1
No computer did mean I spent sometime going through my paperwork. I only need to locate another 2 documents.
Given that my computer time is restricted, I’ll put the extra time towards:
On a more positive note: a package arrived today containing some more finishing items and new skeins of DMC310. I never thought I’d ever run out of black thread!
Today’s TIP: Back up your computers!
A good friend came by for a visit this morning. On impulse we took a trip to the Zweigart factory outlet. It is a wonderful place which always hurts my credit card.
This time I showed amazing self control and did not purchase any linen. Instead I got some hoops, fabric edging and mats to finish my smaller designs. The yarn will be used for some other craft project that is in the works. My only indulgence was a piece of dusty blue aida for 1 EUR. This will also be put to good use for one of my designs.
All in all it was a worthwhile trip… no unnecessary purchases. Honestly, I should have been finding those tax papers. While I wasn’t exactly stitching, this is stitching related, so the score is
Taxes 0 : Stitching 1
Now I’d best go find those papers.
My friend Bonnie told me about AMA, the American Management Association site. Here you can find Webcasts with lectures on several management topics. The Webcasts are free to watch and listen to if you register.
Thinking I needed a change from the usual TV shows I watch while stitching, this morning I decided to listen to one while stitching on my current project. I selected Beyond Time Management, by Donald E. Wetmore. As a project manager I am always interested in ways to work more efficiently, even while on maternity leave!
As usual with such lectures, a lot of the items mentioned where common sense or I had heard about before. That can’t be helped if you’ve been managing projects professionally in one form or another for well over a dozen years. Nonetheless, I always get a little something from such lectures… and in my book if I learn something new or am reminded of something, then it was time well spent.
So here is what I got out of this one:
There was a lot more content in this Webcast, the items above are just the ones I took for myself. And now that I’ve procrastinated some more by writing this post, I feel that I am ready to go find those tax documents.
By the way, keeping up with my filling system is something I also procrastinate about…
Stitching is a very good procrastination task! Sadly that means no more stitching for me until I’ve found those documents. How’s that for motivation?
Major online time suck this weekend! I spent a fair amount of time changing the theme template on this journal, I wanted to have 3 columns so I can share lots of pictures and links. Then I figured out how to add a page for Chanda Belle to Facebook and to link it to this journal so that post updates show up.
In between family activities I also managed to select the colours for my current creation:
And I made a start on it… Here is a teaser of “Stitching”: