Saturday, November 14, 2009
This year (so far) is a perfect example of why I tell people never to put all their eggs in one basket and depend on making money at craft shows--for rent, or for bills, or whatever. It's hard--really hard--to do anything about the weather. Even inside craft shows are subject to the sunny weather theory--people don't go to craft shows when it's nice outside.
The good side? I can continue playing with granny squares, weaving, and what-have-you with no pressure whatsoever.
The even better side? I am saving money every day in November that it's nice outside, because my heating bill will be teeny tiny this month, and I've had $400 November heating bills before. I. Am. So. Not. Complaining.
So anyway, today I sold greeting cards (about a dozen and a half), one book, a pack of dishcloths, a scrubbie or two (I have three left; I really need to make more, or decide if I'm going to make more since they're so annoying), um... and something else I can't remember offhand. I made my table money back, at least, so that's fine. I did not sell a thing at Anderson. Jess and Shannon made about $70 and $100 respectively. Personally, I felt that was low, too. But they said with the vast amount of crafters there--about 100--there were just too many crafters vs. shoppers. And that's one of the reasons why I probably won't ever go to the larger shows.
There is one lady who has been at both craft shows and looked at my scarves both times. Now, I'm willing to go down a bit on the prices of the more expensive ones, but I won't go below $20 each, and I guess she thinks that's too expensive. Oh well.
Extended forecasts for next Saturday (which is the St. George craft show) is cloudy with a high of 58, which sounds very promising. We'll see.
My purchases at the craft show: a cereal bowl from the pottery lady that has cobalt blue glass in the bottom--it's really cool--and two things of goat milk lotion from the goat milk lady who was there.Labels: craft show stuff
Jennifer 4:33 PM
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Craft show report: SLOOOOWWW. Dismally slow. I've made $14. This stinks. It's just too nice and sunny outside, and I'm sticking to that explanation (from long-tradition, if it is nice and sunny, people don't come to craft shows. If it is cold and sunny, or with flurries and sunny, that is perfect weather for craft shows.) Jess and her friend Shannon are at Anderson High School today, so hopefully they will sell everything I sent with them and I will feel better.
But in good news, 4 out of 7 items (so far) I have up for auction on ebay have bids. So, yay for decluttering a tiny little bit! I'll post more auctions tomorrow, regardless. I need some empty space in this house!
Otherwise, I had to cut six pages of dialogue in Deadfall, because--believe me--six pages of dialogue was a bit much. Of course, they are riding in a carriage. What else can you do in a carriage but talk? ;)
Anyway, I'm reworking Part 11 to fix the dialogue issue. And now I have to go eat breakfast. I did not reach 20k yesterday because of the cutting, but I'm aiming for that today.
Jennifer 7:30 AM
(2) considerations
Friday, November 13, 2009
The craft show at St. Mary Church in Bethel is today and tomorrow--stop by if you're local and want to shop for some nice handmade items!
My table is all set up. All I have to do this morning is decide what to bring with me to work on--granny squares? Something else? (I'm leaning towards granny squares; I have my bag 'o mohair as well as a hatbox of mohair) and take a shower and get dressed. I even wrote a bit this morning, which brought me up to 19,166 19,366 words*. Goal for today is 20k, of course. I should be able to do that tonight if I'm not too tired.
The craft show runs today from 11-7, and tomorrow from 9-4 (or 3? I don't remember.) So I won't be online much either day.
*Argh, argh, argh, I could sit here and make 20k easily with this chapter! But I should leave at 10am! Argh! Maybe I will break tradition and bring my netbook with me.... hmmmmmmmm.
Jennifer 9:02 AM
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Thursday, November 12, 2009
18,628 words, and I'm done for the night.Labels: alesander, deadfall
Jennifer 10:25 PM
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Shawl is done, and of course I came up with a title for my storydream, and of course I had to make up a little logo thingy. Not sure why my one graphic went all pixel-y on me*.
Edit, later: Okay, I took off the top bit. This will work.
*I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that I transferred the graphic from one program to another (and the various programs don't talk to each other.)Labels: alesander, deadfall, so anyway, storydreams
Jennifer 1:49 PM
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17,164. What a nice number!
I decided to sit down and finish this scene this morning; I know a little more of the background, now, but it's sketchy in places. You'll get to meet an important character tomorrow, for those of you reading. For what it's worth, I am just getting glimpses of what-will-come; it's not going to be pretty. My poor characters.
I've mentioned this before, but I don't write with outlines or any ideas of what comes next until it comes to me. So by reading this, you can seriously see how I write. It's scary sometimes, what my subconscious will come up with. :)
And now, I'm going to finish the shawl and the scarf, and rewarp Junior to take with me tomorrow. I'm also still making granny squares; my gauge is off a bit for the scarf I wanted to make because I'm not using the same kinds of yarn, so I'm aiming for a smaller one and a larger one, so I have quite a few to make. Luckily, I have plenty of mohair yarn to play with. I even found some angora, yummy warm angora! So I could make a scarf out of my cobalt blue angora with two (maybe three) squares of bright aqua blue, too. We'll see.Labels: alesander, getting ready for the craft show
Jennifer 11:32 AM
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And Part 5 is up. In which there is a bit of horse poop, among other things.
I highly doubt I will write 4k today; I have to finish the shawl and the scarf, rewarp Junior to bring tomorrow to the craft show, pack my car again, set up this evening, and do all sort of other mundane things, like dishes.
I don't bring my WIP to the craft show, because it's pointless to write there and get interrupted often. So I'm looking for a more manageable daily goal. A section (chapter) a day would be nice. So far, I know--vaguely, so that might change--what happens in the future. My biggest challenge will be making Katriena not boring and not helpless, since she doesn't seem to have any magical talent and almost everyone else (at least, main character-wise) does.Labels: alesander, getting ready for the craft show
Jennifer 8:44 AM
(2) considerations
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
16,194 in four days. Sheesh!
Up to Part 9, so I will be posting this daily so far. :)Labels: alesander, storydreams
Jennifer 10:16 PM
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14,120 words right now on Alesander's story and it's just 6pm! Even so, I'm not sure I want to push much farther tonight. I may finish this scene (it's Part 7 for those of you reading, so it will be a couple of days before it's posted), but we'll see. I'm not quite sure what happens after this, which isn't good.
(And isn't terrible, either, because I have to get through this scene first, after all. And look! An idea just appeared! Ha!)Labels: alesander, storydreams
Jennifer 5:21 PM
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This was the auction with over 100 rolling pins; I kid you not. I've never seen so many rolling pins in one place at the same time in my entire life.
Twenty-seven of them came home with me. (I actually thought I had more, but I just counted, so. No. 'Just' twenty-seven, which is bad enough. An instant collection, haha.) Thankfully, quite a few of them will be at Burlington next year--the highest price I paid for one was $7 (a really nice big maple one that I intend to keep) and the lowest price was $2, so it wasn't breaking the bank or anything. There were two ravioli pins there; they went for $20/each, and not many people knew what they were, so I told them. :)
The only other things I bought was a taller copper teapot, not really old, but nice, and this:
 It is a stacking tea set.
 Unmarked, and it might have been silverplated at one time, but I'm not sure, because the brass bits are around the bottom of the sugar and creamer, etc.
 The lid doubles as a bell, how cute! There is one on ebay marked Mexico, but I think mine is older. I didn't stay for the violin, because they were busy with the furniture, I'd already spent my budget, and I doubt it would have gone for $5 or something anyway. It was a nice violin, though. Before I left for the auction, I finished part 5 and started in on Part 6 of the story-with-no-title. (Which really needs a title, hint, hint!) I'll be writing here in a bit after I eat something for lunch (or during lunch, for that matter.) I have to sort through rolling pins, too... :) Labels: auctions
Jennifer 1:26 PM
(2) considerations
There is an auction today in Georgetown, so of course I am going! But even so, I didn't really have to wake up so early this morning. Oh well. Maybe I'll get some writing done while I eat breakfast. :)
I didn't quite make it to 12k last night; I kept drifting off over the keyboard and decided it was time for bed.
I'm bringing yarn and crocheting implements with me to the auction (along with a thermos of tea) because I can sit and make granny squares for my scarf while I am there. Or big ones for my whatevers--I have an idea about potholders, but we'll see. I am probably going to bring the mohair for the scarf, though, and not the cotton.
Anyway. Part 4: In which Katriena and Jeril have a conversation.Labels: alesander, auctions, storydreams
Jennifer 7:24 AM
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Tuesday, November 10, 2009
My wrists are tingling. That usually means I'm on the right track.Labels: alesander
Jennifer 8:33 PM
(2) considerations
Oh, look, it's Tuesday. Already!
What have I been doing? Well, Alesander's story has hijacked my mind and will not let it go, so I am posting it on Livejournal. I'll post links to it here, too. Here is Part 3. Writing-wise, I am up to Part 5 and 30 pages, which is--over 10,000 words in three days. Yikes. I'd really like to hit 12k tonight, which might actually happen. It seems to go very quickly.
I still haven't finished the shawl or the scarf, but I should be able to do both in the next day or so, because I'm off work until Monday.Labels: storydreams
Jennifer 5:50 PM
(2) considerations
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Holy cow! I wrote 6,239 words today in about 4 hours!
And I have no title; I know what happens in Part 4, and boy, I sure didn't intend to write a novel with this, but it sure feels like it could become one!Labels: storydreams
Jennifer 9:54 PM
(0) considerations
And part 2 of Alesander's story, since it wouldn't leave me alone!Labels: storydreams
Jennifer 8:09 PM
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I've been crocheting for years, but I've never been able to do granny squares. In my opinion, they aren't as 'simple' as some people say they are.
So last night, I decided to sit down and learn how to do granny squares. (It was a "once and for all" thing.)
Here was my first attempt:
 can you say "Use different yarn next time?"
Second attempt, cotton yarn. Getting better, but not right yet:
 At least I could see what I did wrong here.
Third attempt, in progress, cotton yarn again:
 Hmm, looks pretty good to me!
Third attempt, finished:
 Okay, that's more like it!
Now maybe I can figure out how to make this scarf.Labels: crocheting
Jennifer 10:11 AM
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I woke up with this in my head this morning.
Which, I might add, it took me an hour and a half to write this--five pages' worth of story--and I haven't had breakfast yet or any tea, for that matter! I guess it was a good thing I got up early this morning. :)Labels: storydreams
Jennifer 9:01 AM
(0) considerations
Saturday, November 07, 2009
When you set up at a craft show, the best kind of weather is cold and sunny, or with snow flurries, not sunny and almost 70 degrees outside. (I am not kidding!)
Needless to say, I didn't sell all that much. People don't buy many scarves when it's 70 degrees outside! I sold one ornament, half the scrubbies I made (which means I need to decide if I want to make more of those for next weekend), one pack of dishcloths, and that's about it. (And of course, the most annoying things to make would sell well. Oh well.)
Grey, you sold one collar, though, to a lady who is giving it to her 96 year old mother for Christmas and was very pleased to have found something so nice (her words!) to give to her mother. :)
There was another lady there selling scrubbies, and she was only charging $1.00/each for them. I sold mine for $2.00/each, and honestly, with the trouble they give my fingers, I wouldn't sell them for less. If I was an unethical person, I could have purchased scrubbies from the other lady and resold them. (I am not an unethical person, though, so I did not do that.)
I bought Elsa two pairs of felted wool booties for way too low of a price (They were $2.50/pair, and I would have charged at least $4), and a rug for my bedroom from one of the weavers for $28. I had a bit of spending money, though, and I didn't go overbudget, although I did drool over the lovely wooden bowls. (The bowls were priced well; the largest, a black walnut one, was $60, and that was a decent price (and probably too cheap, really.) Dad bought something woven for Mom for Christmas, too. I think she'll like them. :)
But hey, I'm not complaining. It was my first time there, my stuff was a bit more expensive than the other stuff there, and I almost finished the other shawl by the end of the day. I should finish it tonight, I think. I'm definitely writing up the pattern. And I might print it out and see if it sells at the craft shows, too. Who knows? It might. I probably could have sold a dozen bear patterns, so that's another thing to think about, too.
I still have to unpack my car. I might just bring some inside tonight and leave the rest for tomorrow.Labels: craft shows
Jennifer 5:17 PM
(2) considerations
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