Planning

Batching Tasks

by CZeitler
A stack of colorful fabric pieces including blue, rainbow striped, and patterned fabrics.

At present I am trying to build my ‘side hustle’ into an actual business that brings me some income, joy, and purpose. To that end I have started batching some of what I have decided I want to create as well as signing up for some amazing opportunities. One of the major challenges, and ultimately advantages, that I have is my ADHD. Due to my body’s inability to produce the proper chemicals that induce focus it is either very hard for me to focus on a particular task, or it is too easy for me to go down a ‘rabbit hole’ and lose complete track of time. The latter has not really happened for me since I got out of Grad School, which unfortunately means that I have not been able to do any of what is referred to as ‘deep work’ since that time. After my diagnosis, at age 40, I was put on medication. The first was too strong, and had adverse side effects. My current medication allows me to focus on tasks, remember side thoughts, and come back to those side thoughts without having to write them down or keep repeating them with a single minded focus lest I completely blank on what I was supposed to be doing. It is a singularly unsettling feeling realizing that people can go around knowing what they have to do without blanking when they reach their destination then having to retrace your steps and thought process so you remember what you thought you should do two minutes ago.



Recently, I have learned how to utilize my ADHD, medicated state, and newfound purpose to create systems where I can batch my projects. I have two running at the same time currently. With JoAnn Fabrics closing they are having some serious sales. This is allowing me an opportunity to purchase craft felt at a very discounted price. I am using that felt to create pencil/pen/paintbrush rolls. With the scraps I am creating corner bookmarks that I am hand embellishing with a variety of techniques, embroidery, beading, etc.

To effectively batch my tasks I find that thinking about what the next step is going to be at night before I go to sleep gets me interested and motivated the next morning. That is not going to work for everyone, however it is the method that is working for me. I will walk through my creating pencil rolls as an example, each * indicates a day/morning so you get an idea of how long this is taking me:

*I had some leftover fabric and a lot of pens/pencils/markers. I wanted a way to take them with me in case I decide that I want to try my hand at being ‘artistic’ while taking walks on the beach. I did a quick sample and liked how it looked. Then Joann fabrics had a lot of craft felt remnants for sale for literally pennies on the dollar. This felt is both sturdy enough to hold pens and light enough to roll well. An idea was born, also I plan on going to a conference in the near future and would like something that I can ‘give away’ to promote my business.

*I started batching, the first step was to cut the felt to what I thought would be the correct dimensions. I took a few hours to cut all of the pieces that I would be using to very similar sizes.

*The next day I pressed all of the felt out since many pieces were wrinkled and I had over 30.

*I decided how tall I would like the pockets to be, out of fleece fabric I had in my stash and picked up on clearance, then cut them to the same length of the craft felt. After that, and on the same day, I folded over the top about 1/2″ and did a quick straight stitch hem to have the top looking nice.

* I took the tallest pen that I had to make sure that the felt would be tall enough, I discovered that the back and pockets were both too tall.

* After some frustration, I chose to cut down the felt and resize the pockets. Thus began my second batch project. I took a day to cut these down, while realizing that it was not realistic for me to plan on making dozens of these rolls in time for the event. That is alright, I already have an etsy store and I can bring some to gauge interest. The felt will be great for corner bookmarks.

* I cut down the felt to the correct size for the corner bookmarks and then cut some of them diagonally to create the flap for the page to sit in (thus making it a bookmark).

*During the evenings or when I have a few free moments and feel creative I use various threads to embellish the corner flap of my bookmarks and do the stitching that holds the two pieces together. Beads, buttons, thread, whatever I can get my hands on and whatever stitches I think of are being used to embellish these.

*I did a sample of the slots for my pencil wraps, using a seam ruler I placed it inside the pocket and that became a hard guide for my presser foot. This sort of worked, however I hated how it looked since there was a ridge in the middle of the slot where the ruler stretched the felt a little.

*After some thought I realized that I could use tailors chalk to mark the ruler spacing on the back of the felt and sew along those lines. I have completed one and like how that turned out.

*I had some faux leather and cut that out the same size as the felt so I could create a waterproof backing for the pouch. Placing the faux leather face down on the pocket side of my piece, I sewed along three sides leaving one open to turn and place the cord.

*I pressed the piece once it had been turned right side out. I hate how the leather looks since it just about refuses to lie flat. This could be in part because my iron is set to synthetics, however, perhaps not. I used sewing clips to flatten out the edges some as well as holding the open side so that I can use a top stitch to close that up, as well as inserting the cord.

This is as far as I have gotten, I just put the clips on the faux leather sample yesterday evening. I plan on sewing the sample closed as a demonstration piece. Fortunately I have quilting cotton and thin fleece fabric that I can machine embroider on, this should create a cleaner finish for my pencil rolls while having an embellishment to draw attention.

I am not working quickly, I am trying to be both efficient and produce lovely products with minimal waste. This is a great chance for me to explore different stitches with the bookmarks, play around with my embroidery machine, use up thread and cords I had lying around, and (hopefully) create beautiful projects that people will purchase to help fund my exploration.

I hope that this helps some of you who might be stuck trying to figure out how to get bulk products out the door. While I certainly took my time by taking each step one day at a time, there are ways that you can batch these tasks and do them within one day, for example cutting the felt and fleece to the correct sizes could have happened on the same day, even cutting whatever you would like to use as your ‘pretty’ fabric for the outside of your pencil roll.

I hope that this is informative and possibly helpful. Until next time remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!

Word Switch = Mind Shift

by CZeitler

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!

Bobbin Lace and Banners

by CZeitler

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!

Productive Burst

by CZeitler

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!

Sticking with Estimates

by CZeitler

I do not have any photos to add to this post, though I have been working hard on several projects.

These past two weeks have been a lesson on understanding how much work you are putting into something before you make an estimate. For one of my commissions I based the estimate on how much is usually charged for machine binding a quilt. What I am actually doing is hand cutting around individual flowers from a quilt then hand turning and binding each flower. Instead of the 20 minutes the machine binding would take this is taking about 3 hours per flower. Over 14-19 different flowers this is going to take quite a bit of time. I’m enjoying the work, especially knowing that I am helping to preserve an antique quilt in a way that it can be shared among family members. The age and delicacy of the fabric is why I cannot, well why I am very reluctant, to machine stitch these pieces. I have five flowers done and one more pinned and ready to stitch. At present I am trying to pin two at a time then stitch them up, this kind of batching allows me to feel like I am getting them done faster, though I know that I am not. The only thing that I regret is no matter how carefully I pin the petals of the flowers I cannot completely eliminate tiny folds or puckers from appearing.

Work has been very interesting as we work on finishing up the ordering for the year while preparing for a Haunted Library fundraiser. Thanks to my federal tax refund I am not panicked about my upcoming work trip and I have also been able to order a quiet, I hope, sander for my wet felting. I am still going to take a hiatus from my guilds while I decide if they are serving me at this time in my life. I know that it probably sounds silly but I often feel that the two weekends a month I go to guild meetings means that I do not have enough time to do other things during the week. I’m going to see if I am more productive when not going to meetings or if I just get lonely.

There is a lot more going on, I’m trying to work on my Dream Book planner to figure out what I want my goals to be next year, plan for crafts for 2024 at work, and so much more. No matter what I will always count my blessings that I am able to Mostly care for myself and that I have a loving family with amazing friends. I was able to visit my sister in Pittsburgh last week, the day before the 5 year anniversary of mom’s passing. It was a great visit and I was finally able to meet my sisters friends.

The world is a bright and beautiful place, though the heat seems to be off at work.

Remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!

Cleaning Not Crafting

by CZeitler

So, every now and again, about every 28 days or so, I get a huge urge to clean or be productive. The week before this urge hit I was staining my front deck and trying to get the paint off of my back deck. This past week I have been cleaning and reorganizing at home and at work, my work crafts have been shifted to a ‘craft closet’ which I am trying to organize in a way that will work for me. At home I have been trying to group crafts according to type, get my floors swept up, and generally get my house in a state where I can stand it again. Of course, this is not an urge that came from the ether, I had signed up for the annual Get Organized HQ summit online, though I did not purchase the annual pass this year I just watched what I could while it was available. If you are looking to get organized I highly recommend this resource, it is on sale right now for under $100 to get tons of resources and information on how to organize your home and even crafts this year. (I am not affiliated I just really like them).

Because of this organizing I have uncovered a ton of UFOs (UnFinished Objects) as well as supplies I forgot I owned. This did not stop me from going to the Western New York Fiber Fest on Saturday with a friend that I do not see very often, but I am very proud of myself I just bought a couple of stickers, stitch markers, and very cool potholder weaving loom needles (as well as a possible contact for getting some more Schacht Bobbins made).

Due to this organizing and finding ‘lost’ projects I have decided to attempt to make the rest of this year and next into about 16 months of finishing. I might start small projects intended to use up scraps of fabrics and explore some new techniques but most of the rest of 2023 and all of 2024 are going to be focused on using up what I already have, finishing projects, working on my house, and figuring out what (if anything) will sell in my Etsy store. I also plan on looking into a few smaller craft fairs around me to see if my items will do better in person than they are online.

I will also confess that part of this ‘finding and finishing’ came about when I discovered that I had a couple of Tula Nova pieces already completed but I had put them in a box and forgotten that I put them in a box. I’m also planning on starting from the center out, because when I looked at the next couple of steps in the pattern I realized that the pieces I have been spending all of my time on are in the very last part of the pattern. This is a copyrighted pattern that I purchased so I will ask that you not use this photo to ‘make’ your own pattern from.

Of course, I have been doing little bits and pieces of sewing along the way, I made up a little bowl that I am thinking about putting snaps on to turn it into a pouch, as well as a couple of quilted bookmarks I’m thinking about putting in my Etsy Store for about $5 with free shipping.

This is a quick addition to fixing the crafting photos, I did spend all day yesterday sleeping! Taking a day to just completely chill and catch up on my sleep has always been my form of self care, prior to getting on an ADHD medication I would need to do this once a week to completely recharge myself. I was worried that I would be unable to ever accomplish this again since I have been super productive these past few months, and consequently I’ve been getting a little shorter in my temper than I would rather. Saturday I had a very busy day and so my body finally allowed me to have the form of rest that seems to rejuvenate me the most. Due to this I am in a much better mood and I feel like I can take on the world again. I’m not sure if this form of rest is going to be every other month, or if my body will settle out and allow me this kind of rest more often. Just a PSA, your body will let you take care of yourself and if what you need is to just sleep a day away then that is what you need.

Remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!

Crafting Bug

by CZeitler

*I managed to update the photos so they should all show up, sorry about that.*
I’m really not sure what got into me this past week, I finished so many projects and started some more. I’ll start with my quilt that I’ve been working on for a few weeks. I did finish all six types of blocks then I spent some time before work sashing the pieces and putting rows together…then once I was almost late to work (just one more row), I finished putting the top together.

This quilt is on a queen sized bed, so the entire quilt would fit on a queen sized bed without any overhang. I managed to get the quilt sandwich made, I pieced the back together and I love how that turned out. I’ve started to do the actual free motion quilting on the quilt, I’m considering the quilting something like ‘entropic chaos’. Okay, now that I’m looking at it through a camera lens it doesn’t look as bad as I thought, maybe once I wash it the quilt crinkle will hide things.

I can only do a bit of quilting at any time because of several circumstances, my hands cannot move against the natural movement of the quilt for very long and the top thread is giving me trouble by fraying often. Of course this is not enough for me. There is a new free tutorial on how to turn corners when you are sewing, those sort of internal corners that cause so many problems. This worked really well….okay so it would have worked well if I had ironed the pieces down and squared the two halves before connecting them. The new instructions were created as a masterclass be Plains and Pine, I highly recommend this! It is so simple how they have written it out!

As you can tell from my Lemoyne Star quilt I love all things spooky, so I’m playing with coffin shapes.

I also managed another kitchen towel and finger towel on my 16 shaft loom.

I did some weaving on my saori loom, two pieces have clasped weft and the rest is yardage I hope to eventually use to make a shirt.

So five projects in a week, that’s it right? No, not really. I also found a Tunisian crochet challenge, it’s supposed to be weekly but I finished the first in less than two days, it was the Tunisian Simple stitch. I had a minor problem with counting after the first row, I managed to correct it and I’m hoping to ease the extra into a seam when I put it together. I’ve started the second square which is the Tunisian Knit Stitch.

I cannot wait to see what this next week will bring me. I have 4 classes I’m teaching plus makerspace this week so I don’t know if I will have any energy for crafting, but if the rain holds off I should be able to sand my back porch some more. Until next time remember to live life A Little More Abstract!

Checking off Life Goals List

by CZeitler

I had the amazing opportunity to visit my cousins in New Jersey for a long weekend. Though the primary goal was to spend time with my family they also planned events that accidentally checked off two of my life long ‘to dos’. First and foremost, it was amazing to spend time with that part of my family, I have not seen them since last July and one of my cousins has had a child since then. The first full day I was there started off with a High Tea, my cousins children were just adorable, then visiting another cousin to see their children and feed baby goats. I have always wanted to experience a high tea, and it was just as amazing as I thought. This also reinforced my knowledge that I love Chai tea. The next day I was able to see another cousin and have a picnic at an arboretum, as well as visit a Raptor Sanctuary. All of these events were punctuated by amazing snuggles with my cousins children, playing games, catching up, and generally having an amazing time. On my final day, after the children were off to their respective schools, my cousin and I each took a nap (though mine was accidental), then they took me out for an amazing Dim Sum lunch before dropping me off at the airport. The Dim Sum was another check off of my life long list. I am sad that I had to get back for work and missed a show that my cousins child was going to be in, however I love how much time I was able to spend with them. All of this ties into crafting, I swear!

Aurifil has partnered with several artists and other organizations to bring about a summer project where you use particular sheets, assign colors to specific topics/events, and document your summer by creating shapes that look like sea glass in the colors that represent that event/topic. I think this is an amazing idea…that I would never follow through. With the exception of my past weekend I tend to keep my life relatively low key, though that might change a bit in the near future given how much fun I had. Instead I like the idea of documenting my year in 10″ squares with highlights or particular circumstances represented in each square. June would probably be a 9-patch with sections that explore the amazing aspects of my vacation. This is just a conceptual project for now, though I am eyeing my fabric stash and trying to figure out the major events of the first half of my year.

I am still working on getting photos ready for my etsy shop, I will have those ready to show off (and a link to my shop) in the next post. Until next time remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!

Promised Update Post

by CZeitler

This post my contain affiliate links.

I know, I promised you an update post a couple of weeks ago, but here we go. There will be crafty content, most of this post will be around how I am monitizing my crafting.

The first two steps I took, after getting in contact with my local small business association to figure out how to legally set up my business, were to obtain a Federal Employee Identification Number (this cost over $300 if you are looking into the startup costs for a new business however they do state that it is deductible on your next tax return), and to obtain a New York State Tax ID. The New York State business website has a checklist of the other steps you need to take to start up a small business. In total it took me over 3 hours, and a few phone calls, to make my way through the paperwork. I still have to send in the ‘Doing Business As’ paperwork to my local county if I want to sell at craft shows. Another aspect is that I will be filing business tax papers quarterly starting in September since my business will open June 2, 2023.

The next steps were to set up an etsy site, which I still have to complete this weekend to open on June 2nd, and become an amazon affiliate. For now the amazon affiliate links will be primarily on my book review pages, ayearofbooksinreview.wordpress.com , though as I start putting togeter tutorials I will be linking to the supplies so that people will be able to complete them with similar supplies to what I will be using. That is a another surprise for this site, I am going to begin posting tutorials for various types of crafting with step by step progress photos. Some are going to relate to items that I will have for sale in my etsy shop, but some are just going to be FYI, this is how I do this, type posts.

To begin promoting my business I set up separate Instagram and Facebook pages where I have been posting updates and some photos of merchandise I have been creating. Now to the actual crafting!

I have been busy creating Ear Cuffs and Progress Keepers. Right now each ear cuff and progress keeper is going to be completely unique, as I see if some styles are more popular I may be expanding into some items as production items.

This is not all, have you ever known me to stick to one type of craft?

I have also been making some lovely book page holders out of resin.

Also I have been experimenting with my brand label for a special product I will have coming out when the store opens, the version that Instagram decided they like the best is shown below, though the final product should be on spring green fabric.

Until next time, remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!