There is no joy in Kaufman . . . .

Well, the venue I went to yesterday was pretty much a bust. My sister and I have had booths at this parish carnival for several years, and have always done okay. Even last year, we did all right. Joy couldn't go this year, so I took some of her jewelry to sell along with my baby things and micromitts and cool ties.

This year she sold one pair of earrings. No rosaries (usually a good seller), no bracelets, no necklaces. Just one lonely pair of earrings.

I had a little better luck -- 7 cool ties, a onesie, a pair of mitts, and an apron. I made my rent twice, but that's it. I was glad to see the apron go -- we've had it for a couple years and no one wanted it, but this lady really liked it. But nobody bought any of the new mitts I spent so much time on in the last 2 weeks. :o( I happen to think they're great. Check them out on my Flickr.


It was sunny (a great relief after a week of steady rain), but so humid the sweat just rolled down my legs. All the music was in Spanish (and it all sounded the same to me), but the only decent group was the mariachis late in the afternoon. And all of it suffered from a bad sound system, which did absolutely nothing for my headache. My mother kept joking about paying some kid to unplug the amps.

I don't think I'm going back there next year.

2 days and counting . . . .

I have 10 new pairs of micromitts made and 5 blankets almost done, and Ma is working on a couple aprons. I've done a complete inventory and know exactly what I have in stock, and tonight my nephew will deliver some of my sister's jewelry for me to flog for her. (She has a wedding to attend.)

Tomorrow I'll finish the blankets, and hopefully do up a few out-of-stock cool ties, before I go to work. Friday I have to pack everything in my boxes, get all the necessities like tablecloths and hangers together, and pack it all in the car (along with the tables and displays) ready to leave Saturday around 7:45.

Oh, and I want to take pix of all my new stuff as well, so I can show off the fruits of my labor. With any luck, I'll post them here and/or on Flickr on Friday. If not, I'll do it Sunday and tell you what sold.

I have to say, it felt strange last year. It was the first year we didn't go early and stay at the rectory, as my brother was transferred last spring. No more private bathroom or easy access to water -- we had to muck in with everyone else at the public restroom. Believe me, you don't drink as much when you can't just go in the house as needed. LOL

Going Quietly Crazy, Continued

I have 4 pairs of mitts almost finished, and 5 about a third done. I seamed up a bunch of cool ties today (more left to do), but I'm not really stressing about those. I've got a lot in stock, so if they don't get done too bad, so sad.

I still need to work on the blankets, and I'd like to do some embroidery, but I doubt I'll have time for it. This week's schedule was great for getting my sewing done, but next week I work 6 days straight, mostly day shifts. This means I have to try to sew a little before work, then go back to the machine at night. I truly hate sewing at night -- I'm tired, and there's never enough light. Trying to do embroidery at night is even worse. I always do my worst work then. :o(

Tomorrow I'm off, so I think I'll take a little time to do a complete inventory of my finished stock -- no use wasting time on something I've already got plenty of.

Then it's back to being a regular sew-and-sew.

Going Quietly Crazy

I am going to a craft fair on the 19th, and I'm about to go crazy.

In 12 days I need to finish 9 pairs of mitts, several blankets, a couple dozen cool ties, and anything else I have time for, on top of working at my regular job. Is it any wonder that I'm about to go nuts?

The one bright spot is that most of this week I work in the evening, which means I can get in several hours of sewing in the morning and early afternoon. When I work earlier, I have no time to sew before work and am too tired to sew when I get home.

I hope to post some pix before the fair.

Meanwhile, it's time for my daily time-is-running-out freakout.

Wandering in Postal Limbo

A week ago I sent off 141 cool ties for a local marching band, having managed to turn, press, fill, and sew them all in a week. (Yes, one week!!!!) Along the way, I had to buy more fabric and remake 3 ties after they got damaged while trimming threads. My dad got them in the mail right before the post office closed, unaware that he was consigning them to . . . . . .

POSTAL LIMBO!

I finished the last ties late Saturday morning as my mother was trying to sort them by color and cram them into a large flat rate box. (And I do mean cram. My last order of 100 barely fit the same size box. This time around we ended up using rubber bands to compress the darn things so they'd all fit! These ties only weigh about half an ounce apiece, but it's amazing how heavy they can be en masse. According to the postal receipt, the whole package weighed almost 9 pounds!)

Since I had to go to work, my dad took the package to the post office for me. Sometime after I'd gone to work, my mother looked at the receipt and realized that it said the wrong destination. Turns out my customer mistyped her zip code when she gave me her address! She realized it and sent an email with the correct one, but I was in such a swivet about getting them out that day that I didn't check my email that morning. :o( I never knew about her note until I got home from work after 10 p.m., and by then it was too late. They were in . . . . . .

POSTAL LIMBO!

I spent five days emailing my customer and using track & confirm in an effort to find out where my package was. (Thank God I paid extra for delivery confirmation.) Most of the time it seemed to be floating in the postal ether for all I could tell. I don't know whether it was the form Dad filed down at the main post office, or whether somebody just bothered to LOOK and noticed that the zip and town didn't match, but they finally showed up on Thursday. She told me she bagged them up and handed them out that night. :o)

Moral of the story:

1) Always spring for delivery confirmation so you have some idea where your package has been. And most important of all,

2) No matter how rushed you are, recheck the address before you make the label. Otherwise your package may be the one wandering around in . . . . .

POSTAL LIMBO!

I pressed 70 ties today,

28 yesterday, and 43 on Thursday, and I think I'm about to die. I'm tired and my ankle is swollen from sitting too long at the ironing board. :o(

But I have found an easier way to do the first pressing. I've been using a mini crafter's iron to open the seam, then using my big steam iron to set the seam. This time I tried using our travel iron -- it's got steam and weight but it's a lot lighter than the big iron, and I only have to make one pass across each tie. It worked like a dream. Yay! The only drawback is the small water reservoir -- I had to refill it quite a few times, but the decrease in time, weight, and effort is worth it.

Now I've got my feet up (sort of) and have started turning the ties. I should probably get them done tonight, so tomorrow I will probably start doing the second pressing. Yippee-skippie.

I'm in cool tie purgatory

It's not quite hell yet. That comes next week as I try to finish quickly.

In the last week and a half I've cut out and seamed 141 more cool ties. I've done the first pressing on about half of them and gotten most of those turned in the last two days (when I wasn't typing up a newsletter for my dad). Still to come -- pressing and turning the other half, then doing the final pressing. Then I can finally start sewing and filling the ties.

I can say right now, if I never see another bright yellow, lime green, or red tie after this order, it will be much too soon.