I keep forgetting that not everything is up to me, there is a universe out there ready to give me a hand while I help myself. Part of this is coming out because I’m listening to The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron and she is very much into the idea of a higher power, though she does admit that this can be any higher power you choose to worship, that is ready to help us out. A portion of this does come through, getting my downspout repaired and having more opportunities open up to me. I was wrestling with a ladder I borrowed from a friend trying to figure out how I was going to position the ladder between my porch and the Natural Gas meter that was placed right under my downspout when my neighbor came out to offer a hand. I accepted gratefully, he looked at the ladder and admitted that neither of us should get up on that ladder, so he mentioned that he had a friend that could fix the downspout. Yay! Of course it cost about half as much as a new ladder would have and I provided all of the supplies, so I was a bit put out because of that, but my downspout is fixed. I was able to get a gift card for some of the supplies from a survey site I participate in, so part of the supplies were free.
Soon after that I found out that someone that belongs to a guild I used to attend, right now I’m taking a hiatus until I get my credit card debt resolved, was opening up a new fiber arts store and they were looking for a teacher. Of course I volunteered, so I now have three classes and 8 ‘hang out’ sessions scheduled for her shop in May. This will be a great opportunity to promote her supplies, my skills, and library programming that we have to offer.
I have been steadily paying toward my debt, making other sacrifices to get this debt paid off. I sold a loom that I was not using to move forward to that goal. I recently heard from my accountant, yes I pay someone to do my taxes, and while I did not earn enough in my business in 2023 to make the paperwork worth it, I have returns from state and federal. If I throw one of that toward my debt I should be able to get my final credit card resolved. That will still leave me some leeway to take some trips that I feel I really need to take. Visiting friends and family that I have long neglected as well as taking a few small day trips to allow myself the chance to enjoy life rather than just exist.
By keeping these goals in mind I will be able to make progress toward larger goals. Getting my spending under control, making progress toward learning new crafts/arts, having fun, getting my house clean, make deeper connections to my friends and family.
Life is meant to be lived, I need to figure out what that means to me. In the meantime, remember to Live Life A Little More Abstract!
As I wrote in my last post, I’ve been hustling to make earrings, necklaces, and other items, to stock up my Etsy shop, thinking of ways to improve my jewelry game to generate more (any) sales, etc. Then as I was looking at what tools I need to start getting serious about jewelry, soldering, etc., and pushing off whittling again, I came to a realization. In my mind I had switched around a few words of what I had created my etsy store for. I was working toward: “Crafting to sell”. My Original intention was: “Selling my Crafts”. I know, some of you are looking at that like, what’s the difference? The difference is intention.
For the first, “Crafting to sell”, changed the motivation of my work. I was not focusing on creating what I wanted or learning new skills to be able to teach my patrons at work, I was thinking about: “Will this appeal, does this go with the brand I am trying to build up, how can I market this?.”
For my original intention: “Selling my Crafts”, I was using up materials I already owned, learning new skills without worrying about putting something new out each day, and having the crafts I lovingly created going to new homes instead of just sitting around my house or being given as gifts to friends and family that didn’t really want them. I think that it is time for me to get back to my original intention, and allow the universe to generate sales from my lovingly crafted goods.
That is not to say that I am not going to post updates and new items onto my Etsy store. As one maker said, “Don’t wait until your crafts are perfect, put them out there and see if they appeal, then work on getting better.”
I have some loom beaded pieces that I am going to learn how to back, some cabochons that I am going to learn how to create beaded bezels around, and a secret project that I am working on perfecting before I, potentially, launch a kickstarter. Along with all of that I am trying to learn how to cut a straight line on my wood, or plane down to a straight line, without a power saw (Since I don’t own one). This is with the intention of making my own jewelry display, and possibly some of the projects I’ve seen on YouTube. There is one more thing, the next time I have some extra funds, I’m buying the whittling kit.
Remember to slow down, make sure you are working toward your actual goal, and Live Life A Little More Abstract!
Okay, so I did make one direct sale on Facebook and it really did come in handy since I am also trying to start building my own displays for the jewelry I am making. Right now I have re-opened my etsy store with plenty of earrings and some necklaces. ALittleMoreAbstract.etsy.com
Below are a small selection of the earrings I have been making, they are all on sale right now in my etsy shop with free shipping.
I’ve also made a couple of necklaces, and I will be putting some Embroidered Pendants on sale later this week, likely Tuesday morning.
As you can tell I have been very busy crafting. I also have been destashing all of my ‘good yarn’ to afford a ladder to repair my downspout. This just became a bit more urgent since I found out that the water is seeping into my foundation. If you are interested in bargain priced yarn then you can check out my destash link here: https://www.ravelry.com/people/czeitler/stash/trade/
As you can see I have been trying to ‘hustle’ a bit to get some more income. I’ve also found some Skillshare workshops that have been helping me to price my works in a reasonable way. So that has been my last couple of weeks, hustling to create, trying to build up my website, and working on getting rid of a few items that I no longer use. I hope that your week goes well and you remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!
So, I took my rocks out of the tumbler after the final polish. I was excited but let them dry for 3 days before looking at them…and I was so disappointed. I think I know what I did wrong, so I will be taking all of my stones back to the second step and letting it run for a week to see if that will get the scrapes out of these rocks.
I believe that the problem is that I included the small/tiny rocks into the tumbling batch. I think that the tiny rocks banged up and scratched on the rocks that were ready to be polished. At least I hope so.
I plan on taking the rest of the rocks out of the second tumbler on Saturday morning to see if any of them are ready to go onto the second step, and then put those that are not ready back into the tumbler for the first step.
Thanks for reading my update, I’m still working hard on making jewelry and trying to sell on Facebook and Instagram under A Little More Abstract. I hope to have another post on Sunday, but if not then I will see you next week (hopefully with some pretty stones to show off).
So, I have not made any progress on my banner or learning how to create bobbin lace. In the other hand I have been trying to figure out a good platform for selling my handmade crafts as well as creating stock. I am hoping to participate in two craft shows this fall, however, they require a picture of your booth setup during the application. This means that I need to have significant inventory to display in the booth. Also, as it happens many selling website platforms cost on a monthly basis. In order to afford the platform as well as create more inventory, I have been attempting to direct sale my jewelry offerings on Instagram and Facebook. I’ll post my creations at the end of this post, however this has left little time for anything else except working on getting my yard ready for urban homesteading this spring and summer. That is a post for another day however. I am also planning on taking out my first batch of polished rocks this week so I hope to put up a brief update then.
I am never satisfied with ‘good enough’ and I have decided to take on some new learning projects as well as a new big project. I’m going to start with learning, those are wire wrapping (which I mentioned in my last post) as well as Bobbin Lace. I have some already polished stones that I have purchased over the last few years, a few are shapes, and copper wire is relatively inexpensive. These factors combined with the desire to not mess up expensive Silver Wire, has me trying to wrap some smaller stones. This is proving to be a little more difficult than I anticipated, but I expected that since I’ve tried a little playing with wire in the past. Currently superglue is keeping the wire on this cabochon so I’m not really happy with myself, however it is a learning curve.
Bobbin lace is proving to be a lot of fun, I’m not sure it is going to be something that I can teach my library patrons but perhaps.
I was looking at buying a banner for my craft booth, and for a 2’x4′ it looks like about $40-$60 is what that would cost. Perhaps if I want it very simple I could get away with $35…but why not make my own banner? Admittedly, it is not going to be waterproof since it is going to be a Machine Embroidered Quilt…but on the other hand, it’s going to be an embroidered quilt banner…I’m so happy about this idea!
Okay, so this was a short update, but I hope you found it as inspirational as I did! Live Life a Little More Abstract!
I was lucky enough this past week to have encountered a rare productivity burst. Throughout this burst I was able to get one of my rooms organized, start several projects, and make progress on other projects.
Not all of my projects turned out great, but most of them did what I wanted. The first paragraph is going to be about outside projects I was able to complete during a warm day, and the rest is going to be about crafts I have started, some are a little more artistic than crafty, but everything I do comes back around to crafts eventually. Even my garden, which is what the next paragraph is going to be about, is going to have plants that are good natural dye producers. Speaking of, onto the outdoor projects.
During a windstorm my downspout decided to blow off of my house. This seemed like a sign to add a rain barrel to my gardening. I bought a rain barrel, and the device to connect it to my downspout. To see if I was able to get away with a cheap solution I purchased a connector that was a little too big, sealant, and some screws intended for a downpipes, under $10, and decided to try to connect it from the ground… It didn’t work, but I really didn’t think it would I was just really hopeful.
This means that I am going to have to wait a little longer since I will need to purchase a 7′ ladder, new downspout, and probably an elbow for the top. I also noticed that there is no downspout on the gutter that surrounds my porch so I’m probably going to add one on just to be sure. The downspout was not my only outside project, I also managed to put up my mini pop-up greenhouse. It is weighed down with some stones from my front yard and it currently houses my mower, clippers, and a few other gardening things. This prompted me to finally put together my two workbench sawhorses, one of which is currently in the greenhouse. I’m hoping to start some plants in March or April. Okay, let’s get into crafts now!
In getting my home back in order I have discovered several projects that I have been meaning to work on for quite some time. One of which is my Unicorn in the Library fiber from Hipstrings. I finally managed to finish spinning it up, I did split the last puff into 4 pieces so that I could spin some other fibers in between that I will use as ply experiments. I also rediscovered my love for spinning silk, this caused me to spin up some lengths that I will allow my library craft patrons to use in their slow stitching project. That reminds me I need to make up a sample for that sometime this week.
I have been exploring some crochet techniques, mosaic crochet was not as much of a success as I would like, I found a Tunisian Crochet pattern video that I am working through and transcribing into a written pattern, and I will be seeking out resources for two sided mosaic crochet to eliminate the weird stair-stepping I am getting on the inside of my mosaic crochet.
Now we are getting to the part where I can never be content, I have to try everything. I don’t know if I mentioned that I bought a Rock Tumbler? If not, well yes, I bought a rock tumbler, some sample rocks, ceramic media, and enough grit to last me a while. I have been watching YouTube Videos by Michigan Rocks for some time, and my Aunt mentioned not getting around to using her rock tumbler, plus a way to force myself to go outside to find rocks all combined to have me starting this new hobby. I have had a ton of fun so far, I have owned it for a month, and I managed to get my ceramic media tumbled through the first 3 stages ( I didn’t bother to polish it), as well as some of the bag of tiny chips that I only half regret purchasing. They aren’t going to turn into anything great, but I’ll run them through the cleaning and two polishing stages to see if I can get them to have a shine. I did put about three pounds of the bigger rocks into each of my two tumblers to get them started on the stage 1, I’ll pull them off on Saturday to see what they look like. I’ll put out a post of how to get started Rock Tumbling, as well as linking to some great resources later.
Of course I cannot start just one hobby at a time, you think I have any self control? I haven’t started this one but it is going to go hand-in-hand with the rock tumbling, I plan on wrapping the rocks in wire when they are tumbled. To be able to sell these for something like a decent price I plan on purchasing some Sterling Silver wire. I’m not selling necklaces, just the wrapped stones for now. This brings me to my last two projects that I’m working on, skipping over the fishing poles I purchased today because I found out that there are ‘no license fishing days’ in New York State. I will need to find pictures of the types of fish it is legal for me to keep, and I have to remember to invite my friend out since I bought her a (cheap like mine) fishing pole.
Okay, so I did manage to have a sale on my Etsy site (thank you to whomever bought the Dino Plushie) and that caused me to realize that I hate having to pay Etsy out of what I had calculated as earnings. I know that people look for inexpensive items, deals, and sales. This means that I’m going to be paying about .20 per item, every quarter (I think that is how often), create listings, and pay for shipping, to make very little if any money. I do plan on creating some spreadsheet and other printable items to put up on Etsy once I have them perfected, to create something like a passive income stream. I have some great ideas I just need to slow down and find enough time to start working on them, I think I might start staying a couple extra hours on the days I’m supposed to leave early, or go to Panera Bread for a couple of hours before I’m supposed to be at work to get these things done.
Due to the slow nature of my Etsy Sales I have decided instead of dripping my products onto Etsy as I get them done, and sort of rushing to get them done, I will take a little more time and sign up for a couple of craft shows this Fall. There is one in September and another in October I would like to sign up for. There are registration fees, I’ll need another table, and I need to take photos of my setup, but all of that should be doable by September. I’m really sort of excited about this, though I am not sure what type of craft I should bring. There is an apple festival that mentions having old-fashioned crafts, so I’m thinking about seeing if spinning and weaving would work for them.
I think that this is long enough of a rambling post to be getting on with for now. Until next time remember to Live Life A Little More Abstract!
Okay, so as a follow up I still haven’t gotten much done over the past two weeks. My stomach flu came back with a vengeance that Tuesday so I had to call off of work Wednesday. Then the following week my allergies stuffed up my head to the point that I was very dizzy. I took the medication, however, when I reclined to take a nap until the effects kicked in, I became nauseous and did when you do when you’re dizzy and nauseous for about 2 hours.
Needless to say I called in sick to work again. Now I have switched my allergy medications, which should last 24 hours, to the night before and I am looking into getting an air purifier to help with these problems.
All of this being said, I have not gotten nearly as much done as I would have liked. Just this morning, the last nice day for quite a while, I managed to get my rain barrel put together and outside, though I am still working on getting my downspout reattached. I have some crafting plans as soon as I get my house in some form of order, so hopefully I can get the organization done this weekend and get started on crafting again!
Life is full of ups and downs, sometimes the ride makes you nauseous, sometimes euphoric, but you have to stay in the cart and keep riding along. Live Life a Little More Abstract!
I have been trying to get my house in order as I mentioned in the last post. Over the past week I have managed to get three small dressers put together and I started putting together the wider set of drawers. Then I had to get ready for work, after my shower I noticed a really bad smell coming up the stairs…my sewer had backed up. I scheduled a RotoRooter visit to be the most convenient around my work schedule, and then I decided to give myself a treat and order KFC while inviting a friend over for dinner. That was Friday, I quickly remembered why I don’t order KFC, it upsets my stomach. I had signed up for a class on Saturday Afternoon, so I did not eat much for breakfast since I wasn’t hungry, went to the class, and ordered something quick and cheap for lunch/dinner….
I wanted to finish putting the set of drawers together and hauling some things upstairs for storage. Yeah. Instead either KFC hit me really hard or I had a 24 hour Stomach Flu. I’ll spare you the details, but I didn’t get anything done Saturday other than finding out that Door Dash will send you a 7-11 order that arrives at 1:14am (clear soda and saltines). I then spent all of Sunday sleeping and occasionally getting up and trying to drink clear soda and eat a few saltines.
Needless to say I am here, at work on my lunch break, feeling dehydrated and frustrated that I accomplished very little this past weekend.
I’m hoping that the week shapes up to be better, and that I can down enough liquids over the day to combat some of this dehydration. I hope that your week goes well and that you remember to Live Life A Little More Abstract!
Okay, so I have not gotten any real crafting done even though it is over half-way through January. I went to visit family, I was supposed to stay for 4-5 days, then they planned a reunion type event so the stay was extended to 10 days…then two flights were cancelled and I wound up staying closer to 13 days. Fortunately with the holiday I wound up missing only a single day of work and I discovered that I can easily make the drive by myself, since I had to rent a car to get back to my car at the airport.
I had a ton of fun visiting with my Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and cousin’s children while I was there. For a long time I was working 3-4 jobs and taking care of mom so I was unable to go to any family events, plus mom didn’t really want to, so I have a huge gap of time where I lost touch. It is great that I am able to get to know my relatives as adults.
All of that being said, I did not get much crafting done. I brought and completed a small portion of my Tula Nova EPP, however I do not have a photo of it. What I did gain however is a better understanding of what kind of organization might work well for me. One of my cousins has 2 very busy children, however they manage to keep their items in, relative, check with the use of storage furniture. Not just bookcases but storage with drawers that can be labelled. I know, this is not revolutionary information, however I’ve been trying to get away with the cheapest form of storage possible and it just isn’t working. The bookcases always look sloppy and the plastic drawers can rarely hold anything well. I tried ordering Ikea furniture however there were some shipping problems so instead I have some dressers arriving from Home Depot.
Hopefully these can help me to get my materials under control and my home looking like a home instead of a wreck….which honestly right now it looks like a wreck.
Since I am going to focus on getting things in check, then using the supplies I own before purchasing more, my shop is going to take a brief hiatus. I am thinking about switching to a quarterly model where I plan on having a new set of items available every 3 months or so.
I think this is probably enough of an update for now. I’ll hopefully have some crafting content next time, however it might also be some organizing content.
Until next time remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!
A Little More Abstract 