The Opening of a New Yarn Shop

I am more than thrilled that a new shop will be coming to my small town!  The Spotted Sheep Yarn Shoppe.  It’s where I’ve been spending a lot of my free time, either at the store, or working on their new website: spottedsheepyarnshoppe.com.  Here are some sneak previews…..

 

More after their Grand Opening on Saturday!  I will also be teaching classes there, starting sometime this fall! 

… And… according to the latest issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine, our Giant Pumpkin Weigh-off and Regatta is “Worth the Drive”!  I wonder if this year’s festival will be more crowded than ever because of that promo.  Wondering what I’m talking about?  Check out this post … I never mentioned it, but that’s Mr. Tamdoll in the clown costume!

Is there anything you love or find special about where you live?

Shifting from Summer to Winter Creating

Finally finished the bag and listed it for sale at my etsy shop!  It has a little bit of summer sunshine in it, so I’m keeping it near my desk so I can look at it once in a while.

 Quilted Handbag - Rapunzel in Sunlight

I’m including it here, too:

 

While that has been going on, I’ve been working on a bunch of other projects, too.   (What, did you think I was just procrastinating finishing that handbag?  No way! I’m the queen of distracted crafting, staring something new almost daily – it’s the finishing that I have so much trouble with!)

More to come! 

Crafters, do your projects change seasonally?  If I’m creating for sale, I definitely shift my color schemes and weights of fibers.  What about shopping?  If you see something you like out of season will you still buy it?

EtsyBloggers Carnival – Fall

I’ve been so neglectful of the teams I’m on, jumping back into the swing of things with this fall carnival.  EtsyBloggers team members have answered 1 or more of these questions:

1) Do you have a favorite fall recipe? 

2) Have you been working on any new fall designs? 

You can read all their entries at EtsyBloggers Team: EtsyBlogger Carnival: Fall.   Randomcreative is hosting this month, stop by and see what everyone is writing about!

1) Here is a favorite fall recipe I’ve been making since 1999 without fail, delicious results each time (click for larger view): 

 

2) And here is a project I’ve been attempting… a little Halloween amigurumi cat.  I still need to finesse it, not thrilled with how he looks so far – but working on it:

 

I didn’t realize the week had passed so quickly!!! Lots of projects to photograph and get blogged about soon.

Short-term Planning

Last post I said I’d be working on getting organized and needed to plan better for the next 4 months.  If I get ambitious, I can use 3 of these to plan an entire year, but for now, I have a lot coming up in January – so the next 4 months was enough for me.

I simply folded a piece of paper in fourths and wrote monthly headings in each.  Here’s a blank sheet for you to see what I’m talking about:

 

In previous to-do lists, telling myself what to do each month wasn’t working.  If September said “Make ornaments” – that wasn’t really motivating me to do them.  Now, I’m going to use each space to write down what I wanted finished in that month.  For example, October now lists: “Halloween amigurumi”, and December has: “ornaments, 2 scarves”, etc.  This way, at any time, I can look ahead and see what I need to work on and how much time I have to complete it.  September is currently blank – since I have projects written in for the rest of the year I will focus on getting those accomplished.

Whew.  Was harder to put together this post than it was to get my list going.  I’ve never been great at planning ahead for my crafting/sale items – over the last few years with this blog and wanting to accomplish more – I’ve definitely improved.  Reading other folks organizational ideas, trying different things and learning what works best for me is a continual process.  It can only get better!

9/14 update!  I forgot something!  I have a desk calendar, too.  Without it I’d be in bad shape!! In my kitchen, I use it to keep track of my weekly schedule, kid’s activities, etc.  "Year of the What" – is the name of it… it’s super-sturdy, Sharpies® don’t bleed through pages, and there is tons of writing space.  Each week I’m able to use my above planning (that stays in my workspace) to schedule what I want to accomplish Monday through Friday, and by Sunday night I review what was done and plan accordingly for the coming week.  I won’t turn a page to the next week until I’ve reviewed what’s left on my daily “to-dos” – keeping me on track!  Yes, of course, there are things that get carried over week after week, but I get to them eventually…

Multi-Crafting or Unfocused?

How many things can I do at once and still be productive?  Not sure.  I seem to be testing my limits this summer.  Forget about housework, family, part-time work, etc… I seem to be crafting all over the place lately. 

Still working on the handbag, finishing a teddy bear for a friend who needed help (picture below), thinking of joining this September Stitch-along (isn’t that pattern adorable?), thinking of some knit & crochet holiday gifts; a knit sweater for myself started back in June; a half dozen other handbags that I have fabric laid out for and have been thinking of all summer; and wanting to make some items for sale: fingerless mittens for fall; Halloween amigurumi – just got some cute ideas yesterday and itching to get started; Christmas ornaments to knit and sew.

Yeah, I have a lot on my mind.  Not sure if it’s going to all drive me crazy, I’m going to get organized! 

I’m going to sit down this morning and write out all the things I want to accomplish.  At the start of the year I had a calendar with months laid out and projects I wanted to start during each season.  It worked well for a while, especially when I had a slump and didn’t have anything in progress – I had a chart to look at and goals to aim for.   It got very scribbled on and messy… this is something I’m going to have to rework.  Two calendars next time – ideas and goals. 

Now, I’m looking at a 4-month plan.  I’ll have some deadline dates for the seasonal projects, try to organize the others somehow.  

Going to work on this, and will write about my organizing this weekend. Do you take on a lot of projects at once?  How do you stay organized?

Lawn Fungi

I have never seen so many varieties of mushrooms on my property at the same time, so I took some photos.  Clicking the collage will take you to individual pictures at Flickr.

Their textures were really fascinating, I’m sure they can be an inspiration for some future art project.  What do you make of them?

Quilts to See

Here are some pictures of quilts that I saw at a show in August, 2011.  There weren’t too many that caught my eye this year, so it’s a short slideshow.  Mostly I take pictures of the ones that I find inspiring and unique. 

 

 

Since I go to this every few years, I searched around on my computer and found a bunch of other pictures and made them into a slide show also.  Here’s some from 2006:

 

 

Putting up old pictures while I’m cleaning my workspace.  I have so many UFOs around here and stashes of yarn that I’m dying to get to for some single-skein projects.  I need to do some serious organizing.

Been inspired lately?  Productive?