Andorinha

Damn!

Well, the shop isn't opening today - obviously. I miscalculated the date and the alcohol consumption of the day before Halloween, and now I have the mother of all hangovers. Bad Vanda. Bad, bad Vanda.

There's a lot to take photos of, and complete, and then the really boring bit to do with Paypal codes and cart and so forth. I think I might also be a bit reticent to put my things out there, since I'm afraid nobody will like them or buy them. It's something I must face.

Why is it that when I have a hangover all I want to do is eat cheese?

I just found, on-line, a person selling very similar things to a collection I was about to start producing. This keeps happening! I don't care. Mine are more interesting and pretty. So what if we had the same idea? Just carry on, Vanda. Carry on.

Gah. Hopefully, I'll be able to write a more coherent entry tomorrow.

Blogs and Accomplishments

I haven't crafted today, because it's Mr. Cisco's special day - we have a special day each every fortnight where we get to do exactly what we want, and make the other do what we want (within limits, of course). Obviously, his involves lingerie and so forth, and mine crafting while watching Gilmore Girls and having the dishes done for me. I'm a girl of simple pleasures.

Actually, I haven't crafted because I feel lazy and I spent the whole time Cisco has been gaming surfing the Internets for more blogs for my collection.

I love blogs. LOVE blogs, especially those of a crafty persuasion. Both these blogs and Craftster give me a little bit of crafting anxiety; no, make that a lot. I'm always kicking myself for not thinking of some things first, from seeing other people making things I thought only I had thought of, etc. I've never come across this feeling anywhere else. Maybe I'm alone in this, maybe nobody wants to admit it - I don't know.

Alicia posted a link today to a wonderful entry, and I feel a little bit confused now. On the one hand, in most blogs I read people show absolutely no doubt about what they're doing. They seem incredibly confident in their abilities, and in their creativity. On the other hand, most crafters (such as the entry shows) will play down their work when given praise, which seems a little bit bizarre and contradictory to me. I really don't understand how such beautiful, talented women, who seem so very secure when they write and show their accomplishments, would then play them down.

Actually, I get it. This sort of dismissal is what you do to be polite, to not come across as arrogant, to be nice. This does make them more approachable, and I get it, which is why I'm confused.

Also, the authors of the blogs I read every day (links to the right) all seem to know each other. That also confuses me. How does that happen?

Sorry. I might be feeling a little lonely right now in Blogland.

Busy Tape Bee

Have I mentioned how much I love
my glue? I really really love it.

I've been making these cute measuring tape rosettes, trying out new styles, and so far, I like all of them! Just got more colourful thin tapes today, so more production. Huzzah! I hope to finish all the Retrotastic pins today as well - they just need their brooch backs glued on at the back.

By Tuesday I want to have several Silhouette pins finished as well, and am working on a new set made of felt, embroidery and sequins, which I'm really loving so far. I'm making swallows and horse's heads so far, but birds are everywhere, and I like to do slightly more original things. On the other hand, I love birds. I'm at a creative loss of what to do at the moment. Maybe apples! Ooh, I like apples.

Hopefully, tomorrow I'll post more things!

Glue and Melted Beads

It's amazing how such a little thing as my glue arriving in the post can make me so happy - I feel like curling up and taking a nap with it. Yes, I am that ridiculous.

The truth is, this whole glue thing was positively a saga! I ordered it on-line, waited a week, e-mailed the shop, no answer. Another week, no answer. They finally answered me 23 days after I had placed my original order to tell me they didn't have it in stock! Argh!

So, ordered from another shop, it's finally here, and I can finally complete oh, I don't know, about 30 things I had waiting for the god-forsaken glue!

I'm also melting beads at the moment, in an experiment I hope does not set fire to the house or poison the cat. If it works, oh, the possibilities.

Yesterday me and Mr. Cisco the Boyfriend decided to revive Paraphernalia, a name which has quite a story to it. It started as the name of my very short-lived company that produced candles and incense for a pagan shop in Portugal. The candles were beeswax, colour-coordinated to widely used spell associations (green for money, blue for healing, etc), with related herbs already inside the wax. I also created my own incense mixes that were sold in test tubes with vintage illustrations, and strips of inflammable paper of various colours that you could burn loose incense on top of. It was quite fun, but the shop was in Portugal and I mostly here in Manchester, and after I spent my birthday putting incense inside test tubes and running around like an idiot to deliver it and see all my family and friends I was coming back to Manchester the next day, to boot), and decided that enough is enough.

The second incarnation of Paraphernalia happened earlier this year, when I decided that it would be a great idea to make and sell jewellery and accessories. Paraphernalia was Luna Parc's original name, and I had a domain, and business cards, and everything. But when I started making cuter, nicer stuff, I decided I needed a new name - and Luna Parc was born. I was having trouble letting go of Para, though, and of weirder stuff that did not fit in at all at Luna, so - brilliantly original idea - why not have both?

So, we're keeping it more design-oriented, as opposed to handcrafted-oriented. We're setting up a t-shirt boutique, and a button boutique. The prodigal son of Paraphernalia, the Anatomica Collection, is also returning home from Luna Parc.

God, plastic stinks. I had to get the cat out of here.

Yey for Swaps

I've joined! I'm quite looking forward to it, and already know (almost) exactly what I'll make. I'm looking forward to getting presents as well. My first swap! How exciting. These things are really an excellent idea, and the networking potential seems quite fantastic.

If you'd like to join, (and you should) please head up here!

This also got me thinking about Christmas presents for friends and family, and I already know what to give some of them. I still have to try my hand at making some felt birds (I really don't know what I'm waiting for), and I'm really lusting after some Agile Rabbit books with floral and Japanese patterns and such. I'm not horribly terrible at embroidery, considering I usually just wing it and have no idea of what I'm doing. Also, I can't wait to try them on the good old plastic.

Halloween is approaching and my store is not nearly ready. Must get act together. Must take photos! (It's always the photos).

Work now. (One must!)

Relief and warm bread

Just came back from my PhD review.

I passed! I'd be doing a little happy dance right now if I wasn't so very, very tired. I slept terribly last night, and am just coming down from all the stress. I feel just like curling up in a warm bed and taking a nap. I'll probably be doing that after lunch!

Ordered some little supplies to try out a couple of new projects. Maybe in time for the shop opening? I need to get cracking on that as well; I have so many balls in the air I don't think I even remember most of them sometimes. Also, coming up with names for different collections can be tricky, and I've scrapped some of them altogether until I get a proper sewing machine and, most importantly, I learn how to use it.

Time to go put some bread to cook in the oven, and get out the cheese and patê!

Craft Fairs and Pagan Heads

For all my readers (and I'm sure that by now my readership is a virtual behemoth ;) from the Northwest, go forth and attend PrettyCraftyThings Market in Leeds, on the 3rd of November. Please?

I was going to attend - my first craft fair! - but circumstances dictate otherwise, unfortunately. It's a shame, too, since decent craft fairs around here are almost non-existent. When things look up a bit, I'll lobby the nice lady that runs the Manchester Uni's Student Market to see if she can finally get me a place.

In the meantime, I've decided to open Luna Parc on Halloween. I still have a pagan root or two in me, it seems, and it usually rears it's ivy-clad head during Autumn, every year. There is still some sun around here, and all the trees are violently orange, with the exception (always the exception) of the four cypresses on the front garden, which stay mercifully green during the whole year. I need that; in a city where grey becomes the main colour all through winter, perennials should be the way to go.

I have a PhD meeting tomorrow for which I have to prepare, prepare, and then prepare some more. After lunch, I think.

Posie Does it Again

Follow a link follow a link follow a link...and the Great Gods of the Internet will take you where you need.

In this case, this wonderful entry.

Wadda you know...

O Primeiro

It seems Typepad is worth the money, after all. I signed up for the free trial, but I think it will be difficult to part with this blog. This one, I truly intend to fill up. It feels strange to be so.. disconnected I believe is the word (is it even a word..?), being used to Livejournal for such a number of years (5, I believe). Still, Typepad still feels more like a community than Blogger. And as it is the home of those blogs which I read (or at least check) everyday, I wanted in. To be part of the club, so to speak.

It took me two days but I think I finally reached a design that I like, and works. I can never do anything simple, and make it look beautiful. It's a curse, of sorts.

I'm hoping that with a payed blog I will want to update more; I will want to create more. I have a million craft projects, and they are never as easy as I think they will be, they are never exactly what I imagined in my mind. Felt is too floppy, my sewing skills too bad, my drawing skills non-existent, plastic too...plastic, the spray paint never works as well as I want it to, the glue becomes unstuck, the things that work are too blah. To be honest with myself, I shouldn't be doing this crafty business thing. I'm too..imperfect. But I want it, so much, that I delude myself that all it takes is persistence, and that I'll get there. I have the ideas, but not the skills. This drives me crazy.

I guess that is the whole point of this blog; to chart a map, to force myself to make, create, instead of just imagining, of ooh-ing and aah-ing over other people's blogs instead of writing on my own (and there have been several). Stop being lazy of taking photographs, get out of this slump.

There. I actually feel better now!

testing

Testing, 1 2 3

I wonder if this worth the money!