Back to work

First official work day back after FabMo! It’s been an interesting one. I spent my morning writing my morning pages, emailing people from FabMo and on Etsy about various things, and fretting because the light wasn’t good enough to take photos for my remaining Etsy listings. I realized while doing the pages that I was anxious over whether I would hear from Sala Berkeley (see yesterday’s post); this anxiety is so all-consuming, last night I even dreamed I was updating my Etsy page!! I was afraid that Sala wouldn’t contact me because my Etsy inventory was so bare, so by the time I woke up today I was just getting more and more antsy, wanting to add the snazzy FabMo inventory and being afraid the Sala ladies would check my page and dismiss my work before I had a chance to post the stuff. Well, I spent the afternoon taking decent photos (using some solid-colored saris as backdrop for my eye pillows!) and listing all the remaining FabMo inventory on Etsy, so that’s now done, and all I can do is hope things work out with Sala. I never thought I’d be so hopeful about this, but I really am. I’d really like this to happen.

I also found out today, while packaging James’s eye pillow order, that the USPS flat-rate boxes I’d picked up to ship my eye pillows in actually aren’t quite long enough. So I will have to rethink the shipping on those, arrgh.

And I tried to set up a mailing list via MailChimp, but their test newsletters never got to me — via gmail or hotmail — or to Erik. So… it’s plain text for me, I guess, unless I want to try and figure out what’s going on with MailChimp.

But here’s some very happy news! I’ve made a new friend, on Etsy! She is making me some satsuma charms for my tote bags, and I am going to make her a cash apron for her upcoming craft fair (her first, just like FabMo for me)! I guess it has been a really really long time since I talked to anyone not-Erik (in a friendly, not just businessy, way) while I was working… and since she is another crafter, it was like hanging out with a coworker or something. We exchanged convos all day long and it perked up my day considerably. And now I will have the fun of making her cash apron, which is the perfect not-too-hard-and-yet-still-creative sewing project to get me back to the machine after those crazy 12-hour days of last week.

Oh, another thing. I wanted to start making some travel shoe bags, but I realized today that I don’t have the right kind of cord for those drawstrings. I think somewhere in the back of my mind, I am building up a craft shopping list based on what I learned while sewing for the FabMo show… I should really write it down someplace. What have I got so far?

• drawstring cords (utilitarian, like for shoe bags, and cute, like for omiyage pouches)
• thread snips? not strictly necessary, but I told myself I’d get them as a present after FabMo, so I should at least figure out how much the Gingher ones would cost and decide whether I really still want them
• fusibles… but I don’t know what kind yet. For bags.
• more bobbins (must bring mine to the store to make sure I get the right kind)
• more ribbon, if I can find some on sale
• a closure for Devin’s laptop case, maybe. Elastic? Are magnetic snaps a pain to insert?
• carpet thread
• bookbinder’s thread

I don’t really like JoAnn or Michaels, but I always end up going there because they’re the most convenient places. But I know for sure Michaels doesn’t have bookbinding thread, and I’m sure neither place will have carpet thread either. I might look into ordering these online.

Whew, I’m so tired, and I am feeling a little unsure of my footing art-wise. Before FabMo, I kept telling myself that as soon as the exhibit was over I would get right back to my prior routine (write/draw in the morning, craft in the afternoons/evenings); the past few days, I’ve told myself that as soon as I tied up the loose ends from FabMo I would get back to my routine. But here I am, tying up the loose ends AND setting groundwork for more crafting, but not more writing or drawing. Am I at the threshold of a new routine? I don’t want to craft full-time; I want to be writing and drawing and working on those projects. But… I don’t know. Well, I’ll just have to keep on working every day and see what emerges. That’s another of the things I’ve learned this year: the shape of things will come if I just let it. And I want to say, I’m tired of it keeping changing all the time, but change is the only thing we can count on, so I should just breathe into what’s so!!

Also, I’m feeling a little disgruntled because I messaged a bunch of people on Etsy today about making me those satsuma charms, and now they’re pretty much all responding with “yes, I would love to do it!” I did not realize everyone would be so open to custom orders… probably because if you asked me to make 20 of my mini pouches, all exactly the same, I wouldn’t really want to do it. Or would I? I guess I won’t know unless someone asks. But… I feel bad. I had thought I was going to have to message lots of people just to get one person who’d say yes. I’m on tenterhooks waiting to hear from Sala, and here I am telling several people “sorry, I’ve changed my mind.” I don’t like it and I didn’t intend to get into this position! And I DO like all of their work!

And yet… *sigh* Let’s take a deep breath and get some more perspective on this. Who’s to say that I won’t be giving them some business in the future? If I decide to do satsuma charms on all my creations, it stands to reason that I might want different styles for casual tote bags, versus refined omiyage pouches, versus, oh, I don’t know, cash aprons and iPhone pouches and… whatever else I might make in the future. I just can’t order samples of all of the different satsuma possibilities, right now, but I might order some in the future. And I’m not just making this up to help myself feel better; the more I think about this, the more I like the idea. At any rate there is one other person (besides Mousemarket) whose satsumas I might actually order this week… I’ll have to check with her on pricing, and then we’ll see.

See what I mean? This crafting business just keeps spilling over and spilling over. Well, so it does. My job is just to show up and be with whatever happens!!