Papillion Glass

So, my daughters dance teacher, has breast cancer.  She still teaches, even when she's going through chemo.  Various "teams" throughout her school gave her support items all during the month of October, which is of course Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  Unfortunately, one dance class felt left out, since they're just a "class" and not a "team", and weren't included in the dance team's gift.   I came up with the idea of this plaque.

Just listed a new item!  Pretty excited about this one.  http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=31761764



SCAMP'S STORY

Scamp had earned his name. Like most puppies he was into everything! He would gnaw on his Human Mommy’s brand new shoes, chase the cats till their tails were fluffy, go fishing in the goldfish pond, tear up his new toys until he found the squeaker.. Well, you get the idea.
Scamp had noticed changes around his house lately. There was this white stuff hanging from the ceiling that his Mommy called “spider web” and it scared him at first, he barked and barked until he was sure it knew who the boss was. There were flickering lights and strange noises. Mommy told him something called "Halloween" was coming. She took him to the pet store one day and he got to look at all the puppy costumes! She told him he could pick one out for his very own. She wanted to put him in some bumble bee costume that she called “adorable” but he wouldn’t be caught in it. He picked out a costume with flames on it because he liked to race around the back yard. Wagging and barking he showed her the one he wanted and she bought it.
The big day came! Scamps Mommy dressed him up in his racer costume and let him run around the back yard. Scamp loved it but he had been watching the TV lately and seen some scary movies. One had something called a “mummy” on it, all covered in bandages. Scamp had an idea! He ran up to his Mommy’s sewing area and found some cloth. He gnawed and worried at it till it was torn into strips, then rolled and rolled around. Now being a puppy of course he didn’t wrap himself very well but he looked in the big glass thing his Mommy looked in every day and jumped! Perfect!
Barking happily he ran to find his Mommy and show her his new costume. “Scamp!” she cried. “My muslin!” Scamp’s tail slowed down a little bit, he wasn’t sure if she was happy with his new costume. She was laughing however and didn’t sound mad so he wagged some more. She picked him up and gave him kisses and told him he was a very special little dog! Scamp started thinking what he could be next Halloween!

This weekend Hubby was home so we took a drive up to the lake where we used to go boating.   Zena and the kids came and we took a nice long walk IN the lakebed, that is currently 35 feet low.  Zena was kind enough to pose for me in between sniffing all the neat new smells! 
Driving further down we finally found the water. 

I'm pretty sure I have crafting ADD. 

I'm starting to understand the look my family gets in their eyes when I come bounding up to them with a new project idea.  They look politely interested at first, then their eyes start to glaze over.  I get into the details and they're trying not let me see they're watching TV out of the corner of their eyes and not hearing a word I say!

I can't really blame them for that though.  I'll work on something for a few days then a new project will catch my fancy and off I go with a dozen different ideas on how THIS project will be THE ONE.  The one that is "The Next Big Thing"!  It's sure to be a success, it's going to sell like hotcakes, I'll have to make dozens and dozens and where oh where will I find the time to make them all?

Of course, it never works out that way.  I get bored or I make a few and they fail spectacularly to impress people, or some little stumbling block comes up and thats it I move on.  Sometimes I'll come back to it.  It may take weeks or months or years but I'll usually come around and think HEY I haven't worked on this in ages.  Or I'll come up with something that's a completely original idea at the time, because I scoured etsy for hours to make sure there was nothing like it on there, make some and list them, watch it sit for a month before I find out someone stole my idea and did it better apparently!  So I lose complete faith in humanity (happens at least twice a day) and sulk for awhile, then move on.

I come by this honestly at least.  My father is a dedicated hobbyist, bouncing from project to project as long as I can remember.  It is much lamented by my mother.  My grandmother was the same way except I believe she tended to stick to crochet and jewelry.

Reading Etsy tips the other day it asked some questions:
  Are your photos consistent throughout your shop? Yeah, for the most part, mine are.  Yay!
  Is your brand consistent with your shop?  (something like that) .. Well, no.. not so much.  I have, I believe, too much variety.  Its like walking into a craft fair and you get overwhelemed.  You walk in and think hm... this woman can't stick to one thing so she must not be putting the quality I want into this product.. then you walk right back out.  They're probably right.  I just don't know the one thing to stick to! 

I had another idea just yesterday and I'm fairly itching to do it, but as I just cut out over a dozen fabric toys, I should finish them first.  Doxies really have nothing to do with my shop, no glass whatsoever!  I'd open another one, but frankly I don't know if I have the attention span to keep up with it.  Will I be bored in a week?  Will I get annoyed at the little details like sewing on eyes?  Will I get tired of endlessly clipping triangles out of the corners?  The safe bet is yes.  I'm trying though! 

Isn't the first step, identifying the problem?

It looks like the drought in central Texas is finally ending.  At least, this is a good start!  Two years of no rain, and now we have flooding, its crazy. 
We all donned ponchos and walked around the neighborhood barefoot! Ankle deep water on the sidewalk!









The goldfish are happy though! 











So I decided to finish some UFOs.  I tucked the ends in my Halloween striped scarf; crocheted an edge, sewed buttons on and wove ends in my black wristwarmers.  Knit a few rows of a head scarf I'm making for my mother in law (which is surprisingly difficult, Alpaca Yarn is harder to work with than I expected!)  Started on a puppy poncho that looks a lot like a cape so the name of it will be "Ice Princess".  I'm using an ice blue/green Homespun yarn, with white collar.  The name of the one yarn is "empire" with isn't descriptive in the least!  The pattern calls for lacing but I think buttons are cuter.  And more princess-y!  Hopefully Xena will be un-clingy enough for me to have her model the cape.  Still no pattern in the mail, so no doxie toys.  As soon as its sunny again (which sounds so ironic) I'll take the pictures of the sleeping masks I need to list, and the halloween items and gloves.