Soldier on with Codral

I'm a bit concerned that my rate of production has been a bit slow. I'm not putting new items up onto my shop as often as I'd like. So I've decided I'd like to make things in batches for a while. It's all about the batch. So on Monday night, in between the snorking and the whorfing of the phlegm, I made these:

ACEO swirliesI went back to a style of drawing that I find easy and relaxing for these. I just wasn't up for a challenge. It was quite fun. They just need to be covered in sealant (probably followed by a stint in the flower press as I imagine they'll curl) and they'll be done. I've had a lot of issues with paper warping or curling when I try to fix pencil drawings or do painting with watercolour. I'm not deeply enough into doing art at a professional standard to be bothered doing any research on it at the moment.

I've also been looking at all the unfinished knitting and crochet projects I have on my list. 13 at the moment. Oops. But whenever I try to work on one, I just can't be bothered. I thought it was a bit of a shame that I got so excited about some projects, like the kokeshi dolls and then they never got finished because I got bogged down in the details. I had a think about it, and I realised that the reason I got stuck on the second one was that I needed to cut out some felt flowers, and I was too scared to. I didn't want to ruin some perfectly good felt by cutting out dodgy, wonky flowers. So I went on Ebay and bought some felt flowers. As you do. They arrived today! Yippee!

Stash EnhancementThey also came with some wierd felt rope stuff that I'm not sure what to do with, and 5 balls of Moda Vera yarn that accidentally fell into the shopping trolley. Oops. But the more you order, the more cost-effective the postage is, right??

Also, as a result of being an impulsive shopper, I now have to make cat blankets. Long story. I'm subscribed to the blog Etsy Secrets. Etsy shop owners can advertise when they have special deals by posting to the blog. I just read it to keep up with what's happening in the online craft marketing world. (*shifty, sideways look*) Ahem. Anyway, a few days ago, a seller that I know and love - PopArtCafe - was having a deal on her prints. In addition to a buy one, get one free deal, she was also offering all her cat paintings for half price if you promise to donate to your local cat shelter. If you message her the name of the shelter, she will also add it to the list on her website. I thought this was massively cool, and I couldn't resist. I bought *mphphmphph* prints. More than one, let's just say. And I promised to donate to the Lost Dog's Home in Carlton. I checked out their website and they'd like blankets (home-made is most appreciated) and food as well. I thought making a couple of blankets and donating them would be a lot more personal and heart-felt than just sending money. Also the fact that these places often tend to spend more money on trying to get more money from you than they got from you in the first place (did that make sense?) tends to put me off simply just giving money as well. So, in that spirit, I started making a cat blanket the other night:

It's a giant granny square!I did all of that in one night, plus about 15 minutes at work yesterday. So I reckon it won't take me too long. Plus, it'll help me whittle down my giant, bulging, self-reproducing (I'm sure!) pile of acrylic yarn. That isn't the main reason though. Really.

A couple of extra things:

- Ravelry, despite having 127,000 users, is still in Beta mode so non-members can't link to their brand new shop with logo merchandise and wittily-quipped t-shirts. Where's my credit card???

- There's a new blog called Sweet Figments, run by one of my favourite Etsy sellers, The Tiny Fig. It's logo is over on my sidebar there. I bought two pairs of earrings from her a few weeks ago, and I just adore them immensely. (They came in adorable gift boxes with free stickers.) Sweet Figments is all about highlighting smaller Etsy sellers, with interviews, news and tips. I wanted to spread the word because her personal/shop blog is so helpful and fun to read, and she was a real pleasure to deal with as a buyer.

Yes, I have been buying a lot lately, it's true. I've still spent far more on Etsy than I've made! But I have a few semi-goals (yeah, the G-word again!) for the next month. Say, till the end of June:
* get my Works In Progress list down from 15 (yeah it went up since I started this post!) to 12
* get the number of items for sale in my shop up from 32 to 40.
* Tidy up the hobby room. I can't really put a number on that.