Fake wood = affaires réelles

It’s been beautiful here lately…warmer weather, daylight that begins before I roll out of bed and ends after I get home from work, streets lined with blossoming trees. Some of them are magnolias, but the main drag nearest to me is full of these white blooms that look so surreal against an evening azure sky, snowy puffs while I jaunt along in my tee. And! I made my first sale on Etsy! By none other than Etsy Labs, themselves. They wanted to deck out their new craft studio space with some faux bois accessories, and asked if I’d make a custom order. After what seemed like the slowest shipment in FedEx history from a supplier (who will remain unnamed, yet most likely never used again), I finally received all of the necessary materials. Here’s the final product:

(For some reason the images look fuzzy until I open them in a stand-alone window. Strange. Because they look great in Photoshop, and the file size is sufficient. Oh, WordPress!)

Etsy Labs wanted mint green on the bottom and a wood panel look for the sides, the idea being that stacked up, they’ll look like a stump. Maybe once broken in and not so puffy it will register, but right now, I think they just look fun. I love this Joel Dewberry fabric, and think I’ll send some to Mummy for the art quilt she’s working on…perfect for all of the bark in it. Speaking of bark, Mushka is trying to tell me something. She just ate, so I’m pretty sure I know what it is. Maybe we should’ve named her Laika after all (it means “barker”).

Happy IWD…a day late

I can always count on my friend, Jerome, to send me and e-card on International Women’s Day, and this year it was in Russian! We taught at the same lyceum several years ago in Velikiy Novgorod. Although our correspondence has been spotty since (I’ll take the blame), he never fails. I really need to post him this package I’ve been carrying around from apartment to apartment….

Sometimes a little, okay – a lot of, rain is just what I need. And boy did we get some rain this weekend. It all started on Friday night, right around the time SXSW was gearing up, and I was wondering what the hell I’m doing in Somerville. Ryan and I found a little Mexican joint nearby that was decent (better than expected) and had Lone Star behind the bar. It soothed a bit, fanned my fire of longing a bit. But by early afternoon Saturday, that fire was well put out after wandering around Boston and Cambridge in wellies and puddles. Not that I no longer miss Austin. I just remembered that I should enjoy the present, no matter where it is. Getting out the house and sloshing into hole in the wall, magical eateries was enough to sate me for a while.

This weekend, er, Sunday, was devoted to wrapping up some older projects before moving on to other things. I changed the hip curve on a skirt that I made a while ago from a fantastic Donna Karan wool. Now the garment deserves such great fabric! Still need to fix the waistband on a pair of jeans I started ages ago. I made my niece this bag for her 18th birthday. Did I say 18th? Yeah…don’t even go there! She likes pink, and hopefully she doesn’t read this blog (yet). Pink, but not too pink, eh?

And I got really frustrated with WordPress. Ryan’s sleuthing and patience, followed by my basic html skills, finally solved the problem, but I still insist there are too many like-named options when customizing one’s blog. Mine is far from highly-customized, though I will get there. I keep going back to this passage in Catching the Big Fish, because it verbalized a creative frustration I’d been having for a few years:

It’s crucial to have a setup, so that, at any given moment, when you get an idea, you have the place and the tools to make it happen. If you don’t have a setup, there are many times when you get the inspiration, the idea, but you have no tools, no place to put it together. And the idea just sits there and festers. Over time, it will go away. You didn’t fulfill it–and that’s just a heartache.

Finally, I have my own humble little setup. Humble in that my space is a shared office/creative den, and that Peaches (that’s my computer) is shared between Ryan and I, so we often need to kick each other off. However, it’s still a setup. I don’t have to move either of my sewing machines in order to eat dinner. I don’t have to drag plastic totes from under the bed in order to find fabric. Upgrading to an industrial machine will be oh-so-nice. As will not working a day job. Like I said before, though, I do need to remember to enjoy the present.

Puppy pallets, with a nod to Kim & Don…

…because it is they who so wisely instructed me that a pallet is not necessarily that nailed together shipping flat so often used in bonfires. Who knew? Not me, apparently. I never reached for my pallet during kindergarten nap time, but a mat. Maybe it’s a southern thing? Mushka mats, puppy pallets, whatever you want to call them, they are finally here!

And I am absolutely starving. Anyone who knows me knows that that means a couple of things, and if I’m not fed, they all end badly. So, after taking what seemed like forever to shoot/edit photos, write up descriptions, post items to Etsy, I need a snack. I still have a lot to do. Like make more beds (more sizes), order boxes just in case someone decides to make a purchase, finish my logo, fine-tune the shop, upload an avatar, jazz up this plain blog. But for now, it’s all about that snack.

As a quick recap of things that have been going on that I have neglected to post:

I was working part time at a photo lab, which was fun yet ridiculously too far on public transit. Two hours one way too far. Yeah. Ridiculous.

I took a different job nearby that is (so far) pretty stress-free. My ultimate goal is to create full time. Work for myself full time. But, uh, rent here is almost twice what it was in ATX, so for now….

I took a much-needed art break at the DeCordova to see some great photography two Wednesdays ago with my dear, dear Sheila, long-time friend whom I’m so happy to live near again! Their collection was surprisingly large and I got to see prints of some favorite photographers.

Mushka decided to try her paw at flying by leaping out of the window of a stone tower. I’m guessing the fall was about 12 feet, and there was only about an inch of snow on the ground surrounding lots of pokey branches that spoke of puppy kebabs. Scary, indeed. Despite the shock, she is absolutely fine, and even continued to run around the park trail on the way back to the car.

I also took a weekend trip to visit my family in New Hampshire.

Didn’t I mention a snack?

Update, foam party, and other acts of mischief

Despite my lack of posts, I am working, I swear. Last week I came home to find 60 pounds of shredded foam shrink-wrapped on my doorstep…yay! That stuff is crazy, and once the plastic is peeled off it bloats up to the size of two short, round humans. And my zippers are finally on their way, thanks to Andy, my wonderful zipper guy. So while I prepare everything up until zipper install, I’ll let you ponder the absolute adorableness of my little muse. New home means new adventures: here she got busted trying to dig out the drain catch in the tub.

Stitch One

My dog trainer had a great way of explaining the canine mind. If Mushka, or any other pup, was getting into something she shouldn’t, chewing on a shoe or furniture, it was simply because she was unemployed. Mushka had found a job for herself because I wasn’t providing adequate employment. She had become self-employed.

Today marks the two month anniversary of my departure from Austin, and no adequate work has been offered to me despite all the tricks this girl has performed. So self-employment it is.

The universe has been working me toward this path, or maybe I have been working toward it. Creeping, really. For quite some time. And now I’m seeing more and more nudges and a few downright shoves. Whether these clues are more apparent simply because I’m already seeking is irrelevant. It’s working, just the same.

Like the fortune from my first Chinese at Wang’s. And the sign out my window. I took a photo of it, merely liking its warmly lit radiance on an azure sky, and the cheekiness of its message, winking behind my neighbors’ house. But maybe there’s more to it? I also recently began a modest inquiry into meditation and a more academic study of the branches of yoga. All involve diving into the Self. I digress.

So this is my attempt at self-sufficiency. I am excited and have a ton of nervous energy. Firstly, I need to gather resources (fabric and other textile-y things), develop an efficient production system, and figure out my way around Word Press. It’s still a little foreign. So stay tuned….there will be a logo, product photos, and an Etsy shop in the very near future!

Oh yeah, and the product?! Let’s just say your furry friends will be pleased.