Thursday To-Do July 28, 2011

It has been one wild ride of a week.  After my blog post last Tuesday, I was contacted by Four Green Fields Gallery in Summerville, SC through Etsy.  From looking at their website, I would just love to go in here, and probably will make Hubs stop there next time we're on our way to Charleston.  They try their best to use South Carolina artists.   

After email conversations back and forth with them, and a phone conversation on Saturday morning, I'm going to be doing a wholesale order of 12 wallets for them!  I'm super excited about doing the order, but as always, I've been spinning my wheels because of my work schedule.  I first had to wait on my snaps to come in, now I'm waiting on some zippers, but even if I had these things, I'd still be just sitting on them.  I've got the rest of today (til 10:30 PM), tomorrow and then two 12 hour shifts on Saturday and Sunday, then I'm free for Monday and Tuesday!  That's when I'll get the wallets made and hopefully mailed out by Wednesday.  If not, they'll get out by Friday. 

The lovely ladies at Four Green Fields also asked if I could make roll up market bags and jewlery cases.  They said they've seen these products around and would like to carry them, so I'll be working up an example of each too in the near future.  I had to buy some clasps and D-rings for these. 

Buying all these supplies finally got to me though.  I decided that I had reached the point where I would pay for all of my supplies with money that I've made from my shop.  Tuesday, I spent half of what was in my Paypal account on supplies.  Luckily when this wholesale order comes through, it will be more than replenished, but I keep thinking of things that I think I need.  Until then, I'm just gonna have to wait. 

I did start using Wave Accounting online to help manage my expenses, and I think this will be a good thing.  It makes graphs and charts for me (things I know Excel can do, but I don't want to make it do it).  I like graphs and charts.  I hope that the fun doesn't wear off too quickly. 

So my To-Do List looks like this:
~Finish Zinnia Head Band for Adrina--Due Tomorrow

~Finish Brown and Pink Grayson Leigh Hat for Kim--Due Tomorrow

~Do wholesale order of wallets--Due Tuesday

~Make examples of Roll Up Market Bag and Jewelry Case--Due Friday (this is tentative, just so I'll get it done)

~Take up the Girls' skirts--Due ASAP

~Get my hair highlighted by one of my best friends--Friday @ 5:30 PM :)

~Maybe take Hubs out on a date Friday after highlights

~Finish the duffel bag that has become a major hurdle in my life.  I just don't want to finish it for some reason.--Due September 15

~Make my jacket for the mountain trip in October--Due October 27--As an aside, I bought this pattern to make a canvas jacket with a flannel lining.  I'm using black canvas to make a jacket like the yellow one on the bottom.  I've never sewed with a pattern before.  This could be interesting.

~Make a matching hat for the jacket--Due October 27

~Make the plaid peasant dress using a fabric very similar to this that I've been dreaming of--Due October 27

And there is, of course, finishing the organization of my studio.  It's coming along rather well.  I'm still not entirely proud of the outcome, but Hubs seems to like it.  I guess it looks good for my usual state of craft-fairy-threw-up-in-here-ness.  I'll get pics and post some helpful tips on organizing stuff on a budget in small spaces that may need to move.

I guess the good news is that my To-Do list is cycling pretty well.  There are only a couple of things lingering there that I need to finish.  But it's just tough when you don't have a "real" deadline.  The duffel bag, for example, doesn't have to get done.  It's for my own personal use.  I'm gonna finish that thing or die.  Whichever comes firt.

Finally Another Freebie Friday!

Yeah, I've been slack with Freebie Fridays.  I have so many dreams and ideas that it's hard for me to figure out which to do first.  I have time management issues outside of my "real job." 

A few weeks ago in a To-Do post, I said that I cut out some shapes with my Cricut and SCAL software for our church youth group to make cards with.  I finally got around to pulling those SVG files together and I think that since there are three, I will post one a week for this week and the next two weeks. 

First up, is the ever popular Jesus Fish or Ichthus.  They are used to mark common objects to indicate that the person it belongs to is a Christian.  They are on cars, jewelry, stationery and many, many more things.  Now that you have an SVG file for one, you can put it on just about anything you would like.  It would probably come in handy for Vacation Bible School, GAs, RAs, AWANA or any number of different church crafts.  For the cards that the kids made, I used a length of about 2 inches and they came out nicely, although I will say that one too much smaller may have lines that are too thin to easily work with.  I have included both my SVG and JPEG files below. 

Jesus Fish SVG--This is a Google Docs File.  To download, click "File" in the upper left hand corner and then click "Download Original." 

Jesus Fish JPEG--Also a Google Docs File.  To download, click "Download" in the upper left hand corner. 

Let me know if you have any trouble with either and enjoy the Fish!