Three Missions: Accomplished  

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Ahhh... it's a great feeling to have accomplished your goals. They may have been little, short-term goals, but it feels good none the less!

After finishing the eight butterfly dishcloths, I went to work on the four True Blood bookmarks that I mentioned I was commissioned for on etsy in my last blog. Once they were finished and sent off, I then went straight into the "Secret project." I actually SURPASSED that goal because I ended up deciding to double the amount I was planning on. Since I handed it over yesterday I can now reveal the secret!



FOUR DR. WHO THEMED DISHCLOTHS! Two Daleks, and two Tardis'! One of each made in a multi-green striped cotton yarn and the other two made with a natural cotton yarn, both of the Sugar 'n Cream brand.You can check more photos out here.

Like I said, at first I was only going to make one of each in the green yarn, but since I whipped them up pretty fast, I decided to make two more so that my good friend Michelle and her hubby could share them for their birthdays which were only a couple weeks apart. There was a [couple] Dr. Who marathons on BBC America whilst I was working on them, too, so it worked out sort of perfect, hehe.

The icing on the cake? The Birthday card! I printed out the Tardis on heavyweight photo paper and cut it out. On the inside, I put a photo manipulation I had made where Michelle's face was on the body of one of the Doctor's companions. I cut the doors open on the Tardis, glued the photo underneath, and WAH-LA! Michelle was traveling through space and time with the Doctor! hehehe. I glued it all to some cardboard and then put some blue paper on the back to give it some substance. I also made a little envelope type-thing to put the Tardis card in and attached it to the gift bag with the same blue ribbon I used to wrap up the dishcloths together.

So that's that. All deadline driven objectives finished. All I have left at the moment is that bag, which, like I said, I was taking my time with because a.) there was no deadline and b.) it's going to be tough and time-consuming. I'm going to get to work on it real soon, but after knitting for pretty much three weeks straight my poor, poor hands need a little rest. But hey, I'm not complaining - I LOVE IT!

Happy Holidays!!

A Post of a More Cheerful Nature  

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Just a quick update on the situation:

The spray paint was continuing to give me problems even after going about it a different way and a serious brain-storming session with my artistic husband. I was ready to throw in the towel on my whole darn shop! No point in painfully painting those damn little tiles, only to be ruined by the damn sealer! Finally, I gave up on the spray paint and gave in to his suggestion of... CLEAR NAIL POLISH!

Oh my gosh - I'm a total believer! It's perfect! It's easy to apply, damn-near flawless, super glossy, and dries super duper fast! The only downside is, because it's a much smaller amount in a bottle, it's more expensive. But, at the rate I was going through spray paint just trying to get the desired results, it doesn't really make much of a difference! I'm going to put some on a raw piece and then submerge it in water, and just generally beat the crap out of it, to find out just how well it does seal and protect.

Anyway, the point is, I finished the bookmark! YAY!


[See more photos of it here]

*SIGH*

Hear that? That was a HUGE sigh of relief...

In other news, I am just about to finish up number 7 of the dishcloths! I'm going to stop at 8, switch to another project [a hush-hush Christmas present], and then if Cindy needs more, get back to work on those. I've cut a couple projects from my to-do list, which I'm a little sad about, but I just felt like I was taking too much on. If I somehow, miraculously, finish everything with time to spare [which I won't], then we'll see... but I'm not holding my breath. I get light-headed very easily....

So all in all, I'm feeling MUCH better.


[Now if only people who bought things from my etsy actually PAID...]


ps - UPDATE! I listed the bookmark as a reserved listing on my etsy, and within the hour I've had someone contact me because they want FOUR of them! lol Many many MANY thanks to Angela for being so awesomely supportive, for without her request I would have never made such a cute bookmark, which seems to be so popular!

Knot Much Progress  

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At this very moment I am extremely frustrated with a project, so I'm distracting myself by watching Graham Norton and moaning about it on the internet of course!

I'm not talking about the dishcloths, which yes I'm still working on [there was a fiasco of going to the store and buying the wrong SHADE of "ecru" which set me back a few days]. In between the knitting I've had Christmas shopping and custom orders from my etsy... which is what brings me to the aforementioned frustration...

A friend of mine asked me to make a special bookmark for someone. It seemed simple enough, I've cranked out many things like it. So I said, NO PROBS! I'll have it done in a day or two.... 5 days later I'm still working on it. I feel like such a miserable failure! I use a clear spray paint to seal the things I make on those little bamboo tiles: It's glossy, quick, flawless, and durable. Recently I've been having problems with the spray paint leaving little dimples on the surface. They've grown progressively worse from project to project, too. For this project it absolutely ruined it. I thought maybe it was because I was running low on the can, so I bought a brand new one and made a new decorated bamboo tile. I went out to spray it... BUBBLES! *headdesk*

I just don't know what to do. I've tried different things to try and single out the problem, but nothing's working! And now of course I'm not only wasting lots of materials, but I'm running out of time! Stupid Christmas! lol Seriously, though - I don't know if I should just say "sorry I tried but I don't think I'll be able to" or continue trying, apologize for taking so long, and running the risk of my friend getting it too late. There is absolutely NO reason why I shouldn't be able to do this, as I've done this particular method many many times, so I'm probably not going to just throw in the towel - I have to find a solution eventually anyway! [If anyone has any tips, please share!]

Ugh! It's a huge flaw of mine that I get really pissed off when I can't do/figure out something... especially when I know I've done it perfectly before.