Mid-Week Update

Hello again, avid readers! I realize it's not Monday yet, but I have a lot to say this week!

First of all, I added new items to my Etsy store! I added two pony figurines (1 & 2), an owl pendant, and a massive set of hand-made autumn beads. Of the four of them, the greatest headache of all was the autumn bead set. It wasn't a challenge to figure out how to make tiny gourds and acorns and leaves, but the act of repeating the same steps fifty times to finish the gourds about burned me out. Fortunately, they're done, and now I can get started on my next project--Christmas beads! Oye...

But that's not all I've been up to! Oh, no! I've been hard at work making get-well-soon cards for a former coworker and making cute frogs for a fellow Etsier. I've been toying with the idea of adding some new merch to my store--right now I'm considering the possibility of hand-made greeting cards or custom painted t-shirts, but we'll see. I have my hands full as it is.

I got my Dick Blick art materials catalog today! The Blick materials catalog, for those of you who don't already know, is...hefty. 650 pages of artsy fartsy bliss, and as an added bonus, I can use the catalog as extra seating when company comes over.

Among the items in my new catalog that I'm busy drooling over is this stuff called silicone putty. It's basically like the oven bake clay I've been using except that it cures into a flexible, food-grade mold. I. Want. It's about $30 a pound, though, so it will have to wait until there's more money coming in, but in the meantime I have fanciful notions of custom candy molds lining the shelves of my Etsy shop! The possibilities are endless, and I can't wait to start offering my customers the option of commissioning me to make them custom molds for candy, crafts, or ice cubes!

This catalog is going to get me into trouble yet. For someone like me, a trip to an art supply store is a rare treat, and by the time I get there, I don't have any money left to buy anything. This catalog is like a massive art supply store in my hands, saving me the 100 mile trip I'd otherwise have to make and bombarding me with mouthwatering possibilities ranging from yarn to clay to papyrus to fabric markers, and so on.

Among the things I'd like to start offering in my shop, now that I have a more accessible source for materials:
Crocheted items such as hats, scarfs, and mittens
Hand-painted shirts & tote bags
Original artwork and paintings
Custom molds
Handcrafted jewelry (perhaps using my handcrafted beads!)
Placemats? Hellz yeah, the catalog has blank canvas placemats!
Candles...someday...when I have money
Decorative trinket boxes
Clocks could be fun...
they also have the stuff for learning to do lampwork, but considering how hazardous I am to myself, molten glass is probably a bad idea...
Wood & stone carvings...

The list goes on.

Keep dreaming, avid readers!