And Now For Something Completely Different

But, unfortunately, not funny (I do love me some Monty Python, though).
I was just looking through my past blog posts and I have noticed that they are about my adventures in crafting and my etsy shop, which is awesome, but today I want to share a little about what I have learned this past year as a student, a little to tell you something about me, and in hopes that you could glean some information that might help you out a little.
I am in the process of learning all about Marriage and Family Therapy in the end hope of becoming a counselor someday. I wasn't all that sure when I started the program whether or not I would be a good counselor someday. I mean, I have really bad days, I don't have all my stuff together, and I'm still a little mad at various people from my formative years and maybe my ex-boyfriends.
Well, I have learned through this process two things.
1. God has given me the right personality, temperament, and past to be a counselor.
2. There isn't a single counselor in the world who has all their stuff together. After all, they are human too.
Disabling sadness or depression is something that many people deal with on a semi-regular basis, including myself. It can destroy a person's daily life, interrupting their ability to problem solve and even complete normal tasks. It is really the most common problem brought to counselors because it is so invasive and it really affects the person with depression and the people that they regularly interact with.
A few days ago, I was at the start of a slightly stressful day, I had a paper to research, write, and proofread in a tight but manageable time frame when I received a phone call from my university. They were returning my call from the week before about changing campuses when my husband and I are scheduled to move. The news wasn't good. I thought that I had planned out my choice of school well, a nationwide school with campuses everywhere so if and when my husband received orders to another base, my education could move with us with little interruption. I was wrong. The campus near the new base doesn't offer my program and it isn't available online either. There seemed to be very few options open to me, start a new program (no), or look for schools in the area that do offer my program and apply for a transfer.
The phone exchange acted like a domino push. I was already stressed about my tight schedule for the day and blaming myself for poor time management skills when the phone exchange fired off other negative thoughts like "is this worth it, I've wasted a ton of money now, why even try when this path is blocked off to me anyway". I recognized the thoughts and the domino effect spiral into depression, but even knowing everything I do about depression, myself, and thought patterns, I couldn't pull myself out of the funk I went into. I didn't write the paper, I skipped class, and I stayed up way too late fighting every negative thought in my head with a reasonable and true argument. The next day I woke up exhausted and defeated and determined to not fight with myself that day. I still had a crappy day. That night, I picked up a textbook that I needed to finish reading.
I started reading out of habit and duty, but was soon impressed by a passage in the book. The author, a therapist, is relating a story that happened after a year of counseling a family. Most of the family has stopped coming to counseling, but the wife is still coming in. She is doing mostly well, but struggling with depression from time to time. The therapist tells her to stop fighting the depression and let it happen. He recognizes that her intense anger and sadness that she had long repressed was gone, but she was still grieving the wounds of her past and she needed to allow herself to feel that pain.
It struck me then. We all need to allow ourselves to feel pain and grief, even if we don't know the source. Holding the door shut to negative feelings because we don't understand them only causes more negative feeling to pile up behind the door and then one day, we lose our ability to hold the door shut and we are flooded with grief and pain and depression sets in. After reading that, I gave up. I blasted out a short incoherent prayer containing my struggle and I went to sleep. I slept the sleep of a terribly exhausted person, and when I woke up, I was ready. I was ready to live, to pick up the pieces I had dropped and to move on out of the dark and into the day.

My Sore Fingers!!

Ever since the fall of mankind, humans have been wearing clothes. And clothing requires someone to make it, and the generally accepted way to make clothes is to sew them. Therefor, sewing has been around for a very long time.
Now there are a lot of gadgets to make the task of sewing a lot easier. The sewing machine and serger come to mind. One of the simplest little sewing accoutrement's is the pincushion, the device to hold the sewist's pins and needles in one neat and organized place. The pincushion is so universal that when I started sewing at the age of 8, my very first sewing project was making a small pincushion with an elastic strap so I could wear a pincushion on my wrist and have easy access to my pins at all times. The pincushion is a great invention, and I still have that first little pincushion I made over twenty years ago.
My problem with pincushions is a very simple one though. I don't use them. When I sew, I will take the pins out of the pincushion, pin my fabric together and sit down at the machine. Then I will start to sew, removing the pins as I go along. I never ever return those pins into the pincushion as I sew, though. I prefer to drop the pins directly in front of the sewing machine as I go along. The sewing machine that I learned to sew on even had a small well-like impression in the front of the machine, neatly collecting my pins and reinforcing my tendency to not return the pins to the cushion, and when I finish sewing, returning those pins to the pincushion just annoys me.

My current machine doesn't have that little well-like impression in it though, currently causing my discarded pins to roll all over my sewing table and quite frequently my pins fall onto the floor, creating a little danger zone in my sewing area.

I decided to remedy this problem and get a little bowl to set by my machine in order to collect my discarded sewing pins. I looked on etsy for small bowls and found a great variety, some just completely adorable, but I haven't made an etsy sale in about a month now, so my paypal account is drained, and I really couldn't justify the expense. So I did what any crafty gal in their right brain would do, I made a bowl. I gathered up some little scrap pieces of fabric that were destined for the trash can, twisted them up and started hand-stitching them together.

The result is a wobbly, wonky bowl that tortured my fingers and took three hours to make (in my defense of time wasting, for the three hours I was hand sewing this silly thing, DH was playing a video game). I ended with a little rolled up bit of knit at the end that I decided to embellish with a few stray beads and two blue "leaves" to give the impression of a little flower.

Yep, it's all frayed looking, lopsided, and the stitches are less than pristine, but I think it's kinda cute. And it works as a pin bowl and a pincushion! Also, it collects other stray stuff from my sewing table. A win/win/win situation if you ask me.

P.S. Yes, I will probably jab my fingers with pins using this method, but that's really nothing new for me. :)

Christmas 2008 Recap

I realize that I might be a day late and a dollar short with this entry, but I look at it more like extending some Christmas cheer a little longer into this winter.
I got so caught up in preparing for Christmas that I didn't take all the pictures that I intended or promised to. I made 4 very different little plushies for Christmas and only managed to get a picture of one, my very first attempt. Yep, this lion's arms and legs are lopsided and he's just a little wierd looking, but my nephew is just kooky enough to appreciate him. The superhero dog plushie that I gave to his older brother was pronounced a "doll" and thrown back into the box with a "no thank you". Well, at least the kid is honest. :)


My niece was pleased with the little tutu I made for her, she put it on immmediately and wore it for the rest of the present opening. The tutu is not quite as cute as she is, I have to say.

I wanted to capture the, um, warmth and intimacy of having 20+ people in one room. We've gotten quite good at lining the walls of my parents living room. We've also gotten rather good at clearing out as soon as all the presents are opened. Even on a cold Wisconsin winter day, that many people in one room quickly makes for a more than comfortable temperature.

The one other great highlight of this Christmas adventure was the flu, which was great fun had by all. Trips were postponed, events were canceled, and we all eventually survived, some of us a little thinner than we started.

When DH and I returned to Las Vegas we were given yet another gift, this one more welcome than the flu. We learned that we are going to be moving to a different Air Force base at the end of March, this time we will be back in the Midwest and much closer to my family (and marginally closer to his. I am looking forward to missing the upcoming Las Vegas summer!

A Homemade Christmas

Ok, so I think I'm pretty safe posting on here, seeing since 2 people read this blog and neither of them are family.
I'm stoked about this Christmas. I'm giving out pretty humble presents to my side of the family, but the majority of everything I am giving out was either purchased on etsy or it is something that I am making with my own two hands, and most of it is not jewelry. In fact I think I'm going to wear out my sewing machine this week!
Making presents is hard, fun, exciting and tiring. But what says "you're important to me" more than a gift made just for the recipient? I mean, a lot of what I'm making could be described as "cheap" or "cheesy", but I prefer to think of the presents I'm making as "thoughtful". I hope to take pictures of what I've done and post them up here after Christmas. In the meantime, enjoy your holidays!
Merry Christmas!

ACH! I'm leaving town for Black Friday!

I'm having a Black Friday through Cyber Monday sale at my etsy shop! I might be a little slower than usual getting back to my fabulous buyers, since I'll be in Florida with my in-laws for most of it, but I am charging ahead with the sale anyway. :) Check it out and have a great Thanksgiving! www.wastenotwhimsy.etsy.com

A New Look....Eventually

I've started retaking all the pictures in my Etsy shop. The ultimate goal is a new, unified look.
My husband is out of town this week and he has the camera with him, so I have to wait to take more pictures, but here is the start.

Taking pictures is tiring for me after a while, but I think it will be worth it in the end.

I hope you like it, and even more importantly, I hope it makes my jewelry more attractive and ultimately more buyable (that's not a word). :)

Pumpkin Olympics

Permit me to reminisce a bit. Not too long ago, but kind of far away, I was once a Youth Ministry Coordinator. One of the programs I ran every fall was an event I called the Pumpkin Olympics. Every year, I planned this big event for the first weekend after Halloween. It was great, because as soon as Halloween ended, the local farmers market was more than willing to donate all of their leftover pumpkins for this event.
We did all sorts of sporting events with a pumpkin twist. There were pumpkin relays and shuttle runs, pumpkin basketball, and of course, pumpkin shot put, perfect for those pumpkins that were getting a little soft. We capped off the day with an elaborate pumpkin obstacle course. My very first year was quite memorable, too. It was a rainy day, and part of my obstacle course included crossing the monkey bars on the playground (it was optional, with a 10 second penalty). One of the girls, a fourth grader who knew that monkey bars weren't her strong suite, decided to try the crossing them anyway. She slipped and fell halfway across and fractured her forearm. I was new, and she was the principals daughter. I was mortified. Fortunately, her parents were understanding and forgiving.
Pumpkin season is over now, and if I were still in Wisconsin, come Saturday I would be shoveling broken pumpkins off of asphalt basketball course at the church and school that I once worked at. This might not be true for you, but you may be in the position to snag a few end-of-season pumpkins at a good price. If you are lucky enough to get some sugar pumpkins, I encourage you to cook them up and leave the canned pumpkin on the shelf this Thanksgiving.
Cooking a small sugar (or pie) pumpkin is easier than pie, pardon the pun. All you need is a pumpkin, a baking sheet, a sharp knife, and a large spoon. Simply cut your pumpkin into two equal halves and scoop out all of the seeds and stringy pulp from the inside of the pumpkin. If you make sure to give the pumpkin a good scraping to ensure that you get out as many strings as possible, your end product will be that much smoother. Place the pumpkin halves cut side down on a baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for about an hour or until the pumpkin is totally soft. Let the pumpkin cool for a bit, and then simply scoop the flesh from the skin of the pumpkin and store in an airtight container. Baked pumpkin freezes and thaws very easily, and a small sugar pumpkin will give you about 2 cups of pumpkin puree.
Then, if you want to separate the pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin guts and make delicious homemade pumpkin seeds, go for it. In my opinion, there is nothing better than freshly made pumpkin seeds in the fall, and you can experiment and season your seeds with whatever seasonings trigger your fancy. Enjoy your late fall cooking!

Handmade Soap = Heaven!

Etsy is a great place full of handmade treasures, but in my humble opinion, the greatest thing available on etsy is handmade soap. There are a ton of friendly and knowledgeable soapers on Etsy willing to answer your every question about soap. Search the forums for these people, and you might find you learn more about soap than you ever wanted to know!
Learning about handmade soap is great, but using handmade soap is an experience not to be missed. I have purchased soap from several soapers on etsy and I will never use commercially made soap again. I've never had sensitive or dry skin, so I never realized what I was missing until now.
I am currently using Cranberry Orange Soap from Swan Mountain Soaps available at http://www.swanmountainsoaps.etsy.com/ Swan also makes other wonderful bath and body products and some seasonal jellies that are incredibly delicious! This is my second bar of soap from this shop, and I am a huge fan. When I get out of the shower, my skin doesn't feel tight or dry or oily, it simply feels clean and wonderful! The scent in the shower is delicious, and the lather is incredible!

I have been wanting to purchase some Alaskan beer soap from Swan Mountain for my husband, but he is proving to be a tough convert to handmade soap. I'm going to keep buying it for him, though. Eventually he will come to the dark side.

I did purchase this soap, Bay Rum, from the incredible soaper Dennis Anderson available at http://www.dennisanderson.etsy.com/ It smells incredible, and I can't wait for my husband's supply of body wash to run out so that he will actually use it.

Dennis has an incredible selection of soaps and other bath and body products available in his shop. If you are a lip balm addict, I recommend checking this shop out!

I highly recommend that you check out all the available soaps on etsy, ask questions and try different soaps. Eventually, you too will find soap nirvana.

And if you are on my Christmas list, you just might be getting some awesome handmade soap for Christmas, you never know.

Homefront Team Winter Challenge!

One of the fun parts of being on Etsy is being a part of the Homefront Team, a team of military spouses and such. Right now, we have a Homefront Team Winter Challenge going on. Check it out here: http://www.etsyhomefront.com/2008/10/20/homefront-team-winter-challenge/

I promised an update

So, I bet you're all wondering how the vendor booth thing went on Saturday, aren't you? Ah, I know you forgot all about it, it's ok. :)
Saturday morning I woke up bright and early at 5:00. Ok, it was early, but there was nothing bright about it! I got myself all gussied up and finished loading the car before setting off to my friends house. We met up, and things were going great. We had everything we needed and we were a little ahead of schedule so we stopped at a coffee shop to grab a morning pick-me-up, make mine decaf. When we got to the venue, things were up and going and they were ready for us to check in.
They took us to our vendor spot, where I had to stand and scratch my head for a minute. My friend had taken care of all of the getting and going and had really invited me along to fill out her booth a little more. She had purchased two spots, each spot was supposed to be for an 8 foot table, so we brought two eight foot tables. The lady told us at that time that the additional spot which was purchased at the same price as the original was only supposed to be a 6 foot table, "but they'd let it slide". OOOkayyy. Then we couldn't for the life of us figure out the configuration they wanted our tables in. We were squeezed in behind two other vendor booths, and they explained that the shoppers were to come into our little "U" shape, except the top of the U was over half covered by another table. Yes, we were hidden in the back of this stupid little place.
Well, we set up, and unfortunately, I forgot my camera. Fortunately, the booth turned out kind of cute. We had muslin draped to the floor and the tops of the tables were covered in a purple velvet. I had one half of a table, and I hung my necklaces from branches stuck in two banana leaf vases and arranged my earrings on a wooden lazy susan. It was very organic looking.
The conference started and the organizers came to chase us out of our booths to "participate". I'm sorry, but I came to sell jewelry and I wasn't very comfortable leaving a table full of merchandise behind. They insisted that there was security and that we needed to leave our booth, so we did. We didn't go participate either.
Let me explain about not participating. This was a women's conference based on sharing Christian faith and growing in that faith. I'm cool with that. It's just that I am of the slightly more conservative Lutheran flavor, and this conference was of the Southern Baptist/Pentecostal/charismatic flavor. I have nothing against different flavors of religion, but I'd rather not participate in things that I might not necessarily agree with or feel comfortable doing.
So my booth partner and I went outside and talked, and then went inside and found an inconspicuous place to stand and talk and watch our booth. Then the vendors were fed lunch, a lunch which we were required to buy for $10. A lunch that consisted of a mayo-pasta-chicken salad and a roll. It was like purchasing food at the airport.
The conference broke for lunch and the ladies were given 45 minutes to lunch and shop. I think two people came by during the lunch break. One bought a cell phone charm from my booth partner. Another asked for my business card.
After lunch we looked at the program and saw that the conference lasted two more hours then ended with "shopping" again at the very end. Some vendors started breaking down right away, but our booth was too complicated to break down without disturbing the conference, so my booth partner and I went to Goodwill for a half hour.
We came back as the conference was wrapping up and I fervently held out the hope that someone would come by the booth at the end of the conference. HA!
Lesson learned. We won't be participating in that conference again, but we did figure out a really cute booth set-up and I have a bunch more inventory now that I can add to my etsy shop. It wasn't a total bust. (At least that's what I keep telling myself.)

A Show Tomorrow.

Tomorrow I am sharing a vendor booth with a friend of mine at a women's conference. I'm looking forward to the opportunity, but I'm also a bit nervous. I'll tell you how it went on Tuesday!

Craft Show Display, Yea or Nay?

I'm not gonna lie, I'm broke. I have a small part of a vendor table at a conference this weekend and I'm trying to come up with a cute and economical way to display my small amount of wares. I tried this idea this morning. What do you think? (Oh yeah, there will be a tablecloth.)

My blog, someone else's blog

I decided the other day that I was a little tired of my blog layout. I have tried and tried to change my blog by using free templates I've found on the web to no avail. I'm thisclose to paying someone to spiffy up this dang blog!
Here's a pretty blog on the interwebs, featuring my etsy shop.
http://www.1ahh.com/blog/
After you read it, go check out America's Handmade Homefront's lovely shops on Hyena cart. There's some really cool stuff there!

Am I a slacker?

I can't figure out where my time has gone lately. My regular schedule over the last few weeks has been interrupted, and it has affected this poor blog. I have been blessed to have an item appear on Etsy's front page (WOOHOO!!!!) and I've been busy with photo editing, creating, and schoolwork.
I have to mention another little happy milestone for me this week. Last night I went to a yoga class at my gym. I haven't been there in a while because of school, but last night I was going no matter what! The instructor is great, very soothing, and she doesn't even seem to care that I absolutely can't do yoga. I try and struggle through the class, but I kind of look like a fool. You are no doubt wondering why I go. My theory is that eventually, with thousands of years of practice, I will be able to sort of do some yoga, so I keep trying. Well, last night, the whole class (except me) is holding a downward dog position, and the instructor tells us to go into the plank position. Normally, at this point, I will attempt a plank position and utterly fail. My elbows and shoulders will go all jelly-like, and I'll fall into the mat. Last night, I went into plank position, and to my utter surprise, I stayed there! I was so excited, I had to show DH again when I went home. I don't think he was that impressed, but me, I take the little things. :) I have to give proper credit to my personal trainer, Josette, for this little milestone. She loves to torture me with all sorts of upper body strength exercises, and I am very grateful for that!

I'm featured here!

Check out this neat interview with me, the indie designer! (you can laugh a little.)

http://www.stylelist.com/blog/2008/09/22/indie-designer-interviews-waste-not-whimsy/

Etsy Front Page 9/19/08 wastenotwhimsy

Etsy Front Page 9/19/08 wastenotwhimsy, originally uploaded by Etsy Front Pagers.

Oh my! I curated a treasury and it made the front page of Etsy! I'm so stoked! Seriously awesome!

I Heart Project Runway.

If you know me, you know that I'm a little bit of a PR fan. I really like Leanne on this season of PR, and am going so far to predict her for the win. Leanne sells on Etsy (so cool!) I had to create a treasury celebrating her designs and her color palette that she used for her Bryant Park collection. It's up until sometime on Sunday, please check it out!
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=9800

So Behind

I promised last week that I would share my Grand Canyon weekend with everyone. Yes, it was two weekends ago, but I keep my promises, if not exactly in the timeliest fashion.
Yes, the Grand Canyon is big and stunning. I really don't think there are words left to be said about it's beauty. There are plenty of words left about the insanity of people who arrive at the top of the canyon and say, "I wonder what's down there? Let's go check."
It gets hotter the further you go down, and the climb back up is hard. And I didn't even go that far down.

I wasn't smart enough to take a mule ride either, I just took a picture of the people who were.
Yes, that's a picture of a squirrel right next to my foot. Next to people, there were an insane amount of squirrels on the trail, and they were not shy about getting in there and picking up any dropped food. They were also very well fed.

On a second note, I was very grateful for my hiking boots and very flummoxed by the people hiking in flip-flops, skirts, and other clothing meant more for sitting than walking down and then back up a rather steep climb.
Sunset at the Grand Canyon=totally beautiful and worth the walk back to the rim even though I was sore and tired. It was a great experience, and I'm even more sold on hiking than I was before.

Apron Swap

I participated in an apron swap this summer. The theme was Fall because we were all to receive our aprons at the beginning of the fall season. My apron is out and has been graciously received by my swap partner. It was fun making it, I think I really do need to sew a little more, and not just t-shirt bags. My sewing skills are still not that great, but practice makes perfect!
Next post: my weekend at the Grand Canyon. I'll try not to bore you, I promise!

My Photography "Studio"

Welcome to my photography studio! It's my apartment patio. It faces west, so for most of the morning I get bright indirect natural light. It helps that I live in Las Vegas so a morning without sun is an extreme oddity.

I have a few "go-to" props, including my backdrops, the cut-off bottoms of two t-shirts, one cream and the other navy. Also, I rely very heavily on a white frosted vase, which incidentally was the vase that came with the very first flowers (and present of any sort) that my husband sent to me when we first started dating. I have a small collection of rocks also, some from the shores of Lake Michigan, some I picked up in Alaska, and others from the National Petrified Forest in Arizona. I like the texture and interest that rocks add to my photos.

Other things I also use are the patio wall itself, with its distinctive stucco texture, some dry black beans, dry branches, and some pink silk lilies (which were a part of my hometown wedding reception). Taking photos is quite romantic for me. :)

I shoot my pictures with a rather standard Kodak Easy Share camera on the Close Up setting (otherwise known as macro). I think that I happen to be the lucky victim of great circumstances for decent photo shoots. I am also a person who has always thought in macro. I love texture and color and getting right up close to it to really experience the fullness of sensation.

My photo studio, camera, backdrops, and props aren't completely ideal. For instance, I sweat a lot while taking photos (it's HOT in Vegas!), and just recently came upon the revelation of sitting while I take some shots in order to help steady my hands. I would love a tripod and maybe a light tent, but the concept of my jewelry really came about making the most of what is available, and my photography is the same way.

I really enjoy taking pictures, and for those who struggle with it, I encourage you to make it true to yourself. You never know, you might begin to enjoy photography, too!