Back To School

These are some of the best Yo Mama jokes I've heard in a longtime.  I know it's about using Kmart's layaway but the kids in this are so, so good.
Yes people, it's that time of the year once more.  Back to School.  This year I only have one, she's a senior this year.  I can't wait.  Not for her to go back to school but to finish school.  This is the child that makes my day almost everyday.  Like most relationships we have our moments, but there is always a "I love you, mommy," with a kiss on the forehead.  She loves to bend down and hug me.  You see she's 5'10" and I'm 5'3".  I think if she could pick me up, she would.

This is the year I don't have to buy cases of notebooks and composition books.  A cart of pens and pencils.  We haven't gotten our supply list yet but knowing me I got most of it stashed anyway.  There was a time I had five in school and I spent the month of August buying all the items over and over that I could and this went on into September.

My daughter assured me that she didn't need a lot, especially in the way of clothing, just a pair of shoes and some composition books.  As luck would have it, I was cleaning out my closet and low and behold were a box of notebooks, composition  books along with boxes of pencils and mechanical pencils, blue, red, black in pens and highlighters.  I they were buried in the back hidden by shoe boxes.  I called her into my room and we had a good laugh. 

It might be a little late to start but I'm starting my fall winter clothing for my ETSY Shop.  I know most of you that have online shops are ready for the back to school crowd that will be visiting you and ready to ship.  I applaud you, me it seems that I'm a little behind seeing that I work totally alone.  One day, one day, I'll have some help, if only it's little granddaughter of mine.  She loves to watch me work, it's hilarious to watch her 10 month old face and eyes fixed on my hands as I knit or crochet.  Yep she will be my helper soon.

Well, guys I just want to share this commercial with you, I know the same commercials don't air across the board in this country.  So this is for those who haven't seen it.  Watch and enjoy.  Talk to you later.

KISS

. KISS, one of my daughter's favorite words. She used it quite frequently before leaving for school three years ago. She used it so much I had to find out why. She explained to me when she told someone KISS, it meant 'Keep It Simple Stupid'. According to her that most of time we spend our time making everything more complicated than what it need be. I was thinking about this the other day and I think I figured out why I'm always so tired, in trying to stock my shop, I'm not keeping it simple. I have so many varied interest that I can't decide which one I really want to dedicate myself to. I love to knit, sew and crochet, not to mention jewelry. Being a creative person missed the point of keeping my shop simple. As online shop owners we should strive to keep our categories and product line straight forward so our customers know who we are. Making sure our potential customers understand exactly what we do. Get know for being the best in what it is we do. I work hard at being the best at whatever I do. I look at my shop and see beautiful items but no cohesion. I think that now is the time to narrow my view to pick something and make it my focus. I've that my inspiration lately has been the newest member of my family, my granddaughter. Lately it has been shoes/booties but there is so much more to do. It's coming upon the fall of the year, yes I know summer just kicked in but there will be a need for fall/winter items before we know it. If we're into handmade, it's gonna take time to produce and this is a good time to start. School just ended and know is the time to start the new school year shopping. After thinking school think of the year's end holidays that are also upon us. So this month I will start taking a long look at my shop and see what it is I can take away and what I should keep. Decide on the sizes I want to make and handle and definite color decisions. Sometimes less is more and more can always be added later. But sometimes a few simple items are the only things necessary for sales. To anyone who reads this and has visited my shop I apologize for the confusion. I promise by the end of the year I will be able to look at my shop and smile and not just look at a finished product, photograph it and place it in the shop.

Quiet Voices

We all have moments that we feel something deep inside of us or maybe a voice with a clue to our purpose but we are so bent on doing things our way we overlook it. Looking back over the years with some hard thought involved, I realize now that I missed, no ignored the small still voice that speaks to us all if we dare listen. Dare to listen, the voice is the roadmap to your future. In your dreams comes answers, the sandals were in a dream. I've spent the last eight years doing things my way and wondering why nothing was popping. I was sitting on the side of my bed one afternoon, the kids were at school, so the house was peaceful and quiet, I was working on a tam/slouch hat, one I had made many many times before back in 1976 when my oldest daughter was born. Boy I sold those by the Pamper box full. I had four sales people, that I didn't ask for they offered because they loved the hats so much that they were taking a box a piece a week. This went on all fall, winter and spring.' I enjoyed doing things off the top of my head. As I'm writing this I'm trying to remember a coat I use to enjoy making and how I started it. I know if I keep quiet it will return. Anyway back to the small quiet voice all it said was make patterns. Of course I said "OK" well I started a few years ago and stopped. I felt that the time that went into developing a pattern was too time consuming. I've been working other things that weren't mine and I must sincerely say it hasn't paid off as well as I thought. Looking back and taking notice of the last few years of sales, I've sold more of my patterns than I have anything else. I noticed that last year and this year. But of course being the typical child, LOL, I'm hard headed and now playing catch up but at least now I am working on patterns. What I've noticed that is it's a somewhat slow process, but so rewarding. It really feels good to finish a pattern and it works and you can put your copyright on it. I always wanted to be designer but I never thought it would be in crochet or even knitting for that matter. The moral of this post is 'Take time to listen to that small voice.' These are pictures of my evolving work. Hope you like them.

I'd like to say I've been busy but that would depend on one's definition of busy. February has been a busy month for me though. My birthday was on the 12Th, my youngest daughter and the youngest turned 16 on the 21st and rounding out the month is my second oldest daughter whose birthday is the 26Th.

Less not forget Black History Month, Valentine's Day and my license plates expire this month. Where I live there is such a thing of emissions testing and a safety inspection one's car has to go through before renewing plates. It passed the emissions but nothing's perfect, it had to fail somewhere. I need to repair the sway bar and replace a broken turn signal lens before it passes. The light works but they want the lens replaced, oh well.

Now in the midst of working 24 BP's (auditing mystery shops) as an independent contractor, something I do to feed my yarn fettish, I have found time to create. I've been holding onto this skirt pattern for over two years now and I finally got around to it this month. Never could decide on what color it would look good in and a color I would enjoy working with.

How did I find the time to work it, I decided to get my hair braided and felt like since I had to sit still for hours, couldn't watch TV or play on the internet, my head would be held at just the right angles for knitting. I think this red did it some justice. Something I wish I had thought about sooner, perfect for Valentine's Day as a gift and after all February is also Women's Heart Health Month.

We always set aside a month and or a day for celebrating or creating an awareness. Ladies every month is our month, heart health, breast cancer and any other health issues. SO ladies stay on top of your health, preventive and maintenance.

Tell me what you think of my new creation. I still crochet but I love the look of knitting. It takes much longer, it took two days to get my hair braided and the rest of the week to complete the skirt. I'm happy with the results and plan on doing more of them.

Talk to you later.

Is Journaling Important

This is a question I've often asked myself time and time again. Well, in light of things I am beginning, no.... now, I know that it is important. For the past eight months I had taken a contract with the local news publisher to deliver their papers, seven days a week, rain, hail,sleet or snow, thankfully I didn't get the hail or snow, my contract ended the first of December. That job was probably one of the worst things I've done in quite some time and during the eight months I didn't have much time to knit or crochet. Sure I tried, I had ideas bouncing around in my head and some of the I got to and some I didn't. Those that I started usually didn't get finished. That was starting to bother me and I began to resent what I was doing, I couldn't and didn't have time for my true nature, my crafts. Well, I had been keeping a Dollar Store journal of my works and writing things out had become too time consuming, since I had to be at the depot at 1am and not getting out of there most of the time until around 2:30 to 3am. Didn't make it home most of the time during the week until around 6am. I tried to record my works with a dog tired brain and body. During this time I bought the Dragon, you know, that thing that will type for you as you speak, well, I'm here to tell you that didn't work either. That thing was as difficult to train as a toddler in Pullups. So that was out. Well, I'm here to tell you I finally found my journal, I had wanted to start a new one but that didn't make sense, I knew the one I had had to be hidden in my bed somewhere. After tossing a few things aside, I found it and viola, off to the races. I was truly amazed at the patterns I had written and reading over them relaxed me and brought me back to my world, creativity. This is one of the patterns I had penned about a year ago before I decided to take a job. The booties were staring at me from a box and I with no clue of where to start, until my trusty journal showed up. I must admit that for a creative mind there is nothing more important than a journal. Filled with ideas, notes on projects from A to Z, the life line of a creative person. Some who say it's not that important, what's the big deal, you did it once, you can do it again. Not always true. If you don't keep a journal of your work, you should. It makes your world run a lot smoother. No more guessing what materials you used to achieve your project, it's there at your finger tips. By the way, I remade several pair of the booties, just to double check the pattern and listed the pattern today in my Etsy shop.