The Crafters Attic

Back on the Blog

2012-07-11T16:34:00.000-07:00

So here we go again...I have decided to start posting about my trials and errors, successes and failures in the business of home-based crafting. I hate, hate, hate the term 'fail', so instead, I'm going to call it successes and learning experiences.
This week (in between giving/receiving injections in the lab at school, and reeling from what is possibly the world's worst migraine), I have re-posted all of my finished jewelry and crocheted and knitted items on my Yardsellr block and also on Etsy. Oh yes, I also revamped my Avon page.
Hopefully, I will see some return on my time investment in the upcoming days - but we shall see what we shall see.

Thomas Edison - I have not failed 10000 times I have successfully found 10000 ways that do not work.

Perfectionism in 24 Hours

2011-12-18T12:32:00.000-08:00

As I sit here in a preternaturally quiet house with coffee cup at the ready, I am suddenly at a loss for words. My kids have gone to the other side of the country to visit their dad until Christmas Eve eve, and I have been working non-stop crazy at my 'real' job until just this moment. Well, okay, I did sleep eleven hours in between then, but who's counting?
I'm thinking about all the unfinished hats, caps, baby booties and gloves that have been promised to friends and also the newest order for an 'obnoxiously pink' hat that I have promised by tomorrow. And for which I have yet to buy the yarn, even.
It has been my lifelong practice to over book myself and - to my credit- I generally deliver. But, sometimes I don't. It is these times that make me feel like a failure. When the only thing I'm failing at is realizing that, barring superhuman abilities, nobody could mass produce the items that I have promised in the time frames that I have promised them in. My failure is in my lack of seeing myself as a human being that is governed by the same 24 hours a day as everyone else and no amount of denial is going to turn that into 25, 26 or even 24 1/2.
It's time for me to get real about time and my inability to live outside of it and just own up to the fact that I can please some of the people some of the time, but I can NEVER please myself. This is the plight of the perfectionist.

What To Do...What To Do?

2011-10-13T18:37:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last year trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. Since I have been getting older (as opposed to younger) and my back has been getting worse, I decided that going back to nursing was, sadly, probably not going to be the career of my future.

I thought about what I was good at, what I liked to do and that question that your guidance counselor in high school asks you about 'if you could do any job for free, what would it be?' Well, since I've been both a wife and mother (one I was successful at, the other...not so much), for free for going on two decades, I realized that baby-making was not really a feasible goal ~ having just turned 40 and all.

Thus, I hearkened back to my crafting roots and started pulling out all of my old projects. Half-ripped out afghans of hideous colors, beautiful cross-stitch pieces, knitting projects that had been packed and promptly forgotten and I realized that I had found my job Nirvana.

I Finally Started Doing What People Told Me....Well, Kinda

2011-10-10T17:12:00.000-07:00

Many years ago (longer than I really actually care to count :), I started making hats, sweaters, booties and whatever struck my fancy to take baby showers or give to friends and co-workers as gifts for their precious new bundles.

My mother taught me to crochet when I was a little girl and then, one year, my aunt (who is a fabulous knitter) gave me a cassette tape, a book, some yarn and a pair of knitting needles for my tenth birthday. The best part about this gift was that it also came with personal lessons from the gift-giver.

That personal touch, to me, is simply what makes crafting what it is. Personal enjoyment from working with great patterns and delicious yarns or stunning crystals and beads. Personal satisfaction from a job well done. A personal touch to a gift that says 'I care enough to spend my time, energy and creativity on a gift just for YOU'. And lastly, the personal, heartfelt joy that both the giver and receiver get when such a gift is exchanged.

This entire process was so intensely personal for me, in fact, that for years I dismissed the idea of ever trying to sell anything that I made. I have been told forever that I should market my knitting and crocheting, that people loved them, that people would want them...but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. It all came back to the 'personal' thing.

Naturally, I was flattered to hear these things, but inside would think 'I can't sell what I make! That would be like selling a piece of me!' Because, as everyone who crafts (be it sewing, knitting, crocheting or what-have-you) knows, a part of you goes into everything that you make. Then it hit me. Why not? So I headed over to the Mecca of all things crafty and homemade...Etsy

One day a realization dawned. What was the purpose of making handmade gifts? Why, to have something personal to give or have or share! As the old adage goes 'the more you give the more you get'. I wasn't so interested in the 'getting' part, but here's the thing...making things by hand is becoming a lost art. People don't have to do it anymore for survival, so many people just don't do it. The reason that these gifts are so well-received is because they show forethought, effort and love.

By selling my creations, I am providing a service to those who don't necessarily want to go the store-bought route AND want to give something that they carefully, thoughtfully and lovingly picked out. It doesn't get much more personal than that.

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2011-10-10T14:37:00.001-07:00

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