Author: erinreeve

Well, it’s finally Friday.  Also, it’s finally after noon.  I can now say that I’m counting down the hours until the weekend…just over 3.5 to go.

I have not been as productive with leather as I wanted to be this week; I am close to being finished with the custom request i have from like a month ago, but still need to stop at Michael’s for some things this weekend.  Provided that I don’t get too caught up doing other things this weekend, I need to finish the bag and then start trying to stock up my shop again.  I swear, every time I feel good about the amount of items I have listed, they sell and I’m left with like 3 or 4 again.  Guh.  I mean it’s not a bad problem, and I’m not exactly complaining.  Just saying.

So, there’s that.  Also the weather has been cooler this last week, and it’s reminding me that autumn is not a pipe dream but is in fact an eventuality, and soon the trees will be turning colors and the air will be crisp and sometimes nippy, and all will be good.  I do not want to squander a single autumn weekend inside.  We recently (as in last week) purchased a 2-person tent which cuts down on excuses for not taking weekend camping trips.  I’m envisioning lots and lots of camping this fall.  Oh I do SO love the fall, and being outside to enjoy it.  Mm.  I’m getting excited just typing all of this — and it’s still mid-August, my Least Favorite Month.

Speaking of it being mid-August, Matt’s birthday is tomorrow.  And he would be 31, which seems like so much older than he was when he died.  Today is two years and six months since he died, which…which I have thoughts about.  Three years ago would have been the last time we celebrated his birthday (me and him, I mean), and it was a very bittersweet celebration.  I was so afraid that whole year.  I felt like something terrible was always below the surface, and I strongly suspected that it would not lie low forever and that there would be nothing I could do about it when it did rise above the surface.  And I was right, of course.  As awful as that year was, there were so many bright spots.  It’s hard to wrap my head around.

Life, man.  What can you even say.  Nothing that hasn’t been said a million times and in a million different ways already.

It’s been a really good week on Etsy.  Obviously it was an inspired idea to make a bunch of business card holders/wallets, because I just sold the last envelope-type one that I made, and someone is waiting for me to make a few more of one of the other types so that he can buy a couple at once.  These are easy to make, too, and they turn out looking very nice.  I made one for myself to hold business cards and really like it.

The really exciting Etsy sell this week was this custom Skyrim mage’s bag and belt —-

I know, the one on the right isn’t a great picture, but it gives you a pretty good idea of how it turned out.  The guy who bought it said that he’s cosplaying as a Skyrim mage, so this was pretty much perfect for that.  I think the burned pattern is slightly off, but I just made it to match the actual apothecary satchel so whatever.

Anyway, I decided to use the money I made off of this to renew my subscription to the New Yorker.  Have been going without for, um, a really long time now.  I think it’s been less than a year, but I can’t remember for sure.  The subscription price used to be around $50 (which was still pretty high) but has gone up to more like $100 now — waaay out of my price range.  However, I will gladly trade some leather workings for a subscription, which is basically what this turned out to be.  😀  Very exciting.

So yeah.  There you have it.  I’m starting to wonder if I need a new workspace — like maybe I should re-do my library to make it a library/leatherings studio.  My living room is pretty much a constant mess and I’d like to be able to keep it orderly.  Makes me feel better to walk into a clean house – plus i need to use my library more.  Hmmmm.

Because I know Katie is tired of me griping to her: I am so ready for this week to be over.  It’s been stressful at work; schools are starting back up and people are rushing to get last-minute cleaning projects done, and to stock their janitors’ closets before all the kids get there.  The office has been a bit of a mad-house, and the warehouse has really had it bad – especially the drivers and the routing department.  I do not envy them their jobs this week.  I have been having to try to put out fires and apologize to people all week for various things, and Thank God It’s Thursday because that just means tomorrow is Friday.

I will say that largely, the clientele here is omg so many worlds better than the clientele at B&C.

Good things about this week: have done cardio every day so far, and have been getting to bed early too which means that I’m not dragging every morning.  It’s nice!  I haven’t been snoozing my alarm until the last possible minute all week!

I have to make it a priority to finish these custom bags over the weekend.  I have two people waiting…neither are in a rush, which is good and bad.  I’m terrible without deadlines.

I’m feeling pretty good this Thursday!

First of all, for lunch today I have fresh-from-our-CSA honeydew, and a slice of Boston Creme Pie.  Furthermore, Michael just showed up with some banana pudding.  So….looks like it’s going to be a healthy lunch.

Also, I’m getting my business cards today, and am awfully excited about seeing them.  Will update with a picture later, probably.

Plus, I’m at a very good (for me) level of busy-ness when it comes to leatherings.  I just finished that laptop bag for Stephen, which is just gorgeous, and am now turning my attention to a custom request via Etsy.  I really have fun figuring out patterns for these things, and then turning the pattern into a three-dimensional object.  I also feel like my techniques are improving A LOT and that I’m already a ton better than I was 6 months ago when I started on all this.  Er, 7 months ago.  It’s nearly August.

Stephen’s about to leave for like a long time, so I’m trying to come up with things to do in the evenings (that don’t involve spending money).

(SIDE NOTE: someone came over to my desk for about 2 minutes to ask me a question, and I can STILL smell him.  Stale smokey smell – like I imagine bartenders at the Villager smell.  I think I have some scented lotion somewhere around here…..)

Anyway, so in my free time next week, I’m going to work on churning out a bunch of items for my inventory; I sold the minimalist leather wallet that I listed in just a few weeks, and it was almost nothing in materials, so I need to make about  more of those.  Plus I will occasionally decide that I want to make journals, and sew/glue the insides together, but run out of steam before I actually make a cover and finish the project.  So I will probably throw together a few of those, as well.  I should put up some new Moleskine covers as well, and add some different pyrographic art to them.

So yeah.  Goal for next week is to make more money than I spend – or at least list items that will eventually sell for more than I spend.  Yep.  I would, in fact, like to go home right now and start working on some of them.

(s

Been trying to knock out some leather projects lately, so that I can make that laptop bag for Stephen.  Finally I have everything finished up, so I can start on the bag any time.  If I have time I’ll draw the layout and make up a template today, but that might have to wait.

Thought I’d put up some pictures of the stuff I’ve just finished, though.  I’m trying to update my FB page too, but I don’t want to post too much there as it probably just gets annoying, so!

I finished this commissioned saddle bag for a coworker (FINALLY – took me forever), and when I sent him the pictures this morning to let him know it was all done, he called back and asked me what on earth I was doing working in an office when I could make leather bags like this!!  I was duly flattered.  If anyone wants to give me some space in their rent-free studio, let me know.  Wouldn’t that be fun?  To go to work in a studio every day?  Designing and making leather things?  Man.

So I’m going to buy new leather with the money I make off of these things, I think.

Also had someone request a custom Moleskine cover, and just sent this off yesterday.

Was pretty pleased with how this turned out.  I want to list one of these and add a customization option – so like charge an extra dollar amount to do custom pyrography.  Need to figure out how to list that.

ALSO I decided to cave and order some business cards.  I just ordered 50, which is the smallest quantity that you could order them in, but it’s something!  I’m excited about getting them (in probably 1-2 weeks…).

I’m still trying to finish up the saddle bag I’ve been “working on” for like a month.  I either need to suck it up and get over my resistance towards doing commissioned work, or just stop accepting commissions.  I’ve gotten emails on Etsy this morning asking for custom items though, so I think I’m going to go the former route.  One of these should be really easy to churn out – it’s a Moleskine cover with a tree burned into the front.  Should be able to get it done tonight, as long as I actually work on it.  Not sure what I’m doing tonight.  So I guess I should make the Moleskine cover.

Last night I was going to work while I watched a movie, but I picked this German film and forgot that it’s impossible to work while watching foreign movies (subtitles, duh)…so the movie won out.  It was a pretty good movie, too.  But this is why Wes Anderson movies are perfect for watching while I work on projects – I’ve already seen them so many times that I can pretty much enjoy the whole movie while barely even watching it.

But really I need to finish the saddle bag, and then make Stephen’s laptop bag.  I have about two weeks, which I can do, but only if I stop dilly-dallying around and watching German movies when I should be sewing or burnishing.

Did I mention that I’ve made two Etsy sales this week?  So I ALSO need to restock my inventory.  For heavens sake.

First thing on my mind this morning?  Disappointment that it was already morning, and that I had been so absolutely unproductive with my free time last night.  YES it’s true that I lengthened a purse handle for someone on Etsy, who then bought the purse.  But I did that in bed, over a couple of episodes of Criminal Minds, so I don’t really even know if that counts.  Otherwise though, I did not clean the kitchen, the litter boxes, the living room, or change my sheets.  I didn’t do laundry or mow the lawn.  I didn’t sweep any floors.

So!  Tonight I’m going to do at least SOME of those things.  If I don’t mow the lawn, I’ll do some kind of cardio, because dammit I feel better when I do.  Also I’m definitely going to wash the dishes, and do at least one load of laundry.  I need to dedicate a good hour or so to cleaning out my closet at some point, though I’d sorta like to get one of those over-the-door shoe holders first, so that I can get rid of the milk crates that I am currently pretending to use for shoe organization.  (Not pretending very hard.)

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned, but Stephen is just the best and I am beyond thankful that I’ve been able to spend the last year with him.  *sigh*  I could go on about how wonderful he is, but my words aren’t seeming adequate and anyway, this is sort of a public blog, so I’m not going to.  But.  I could.

I could also tell you about all the stuff we did last weekend, and how many times we’ve been to McKay’s in the last month to buy new amazing books that we don’t technically need, and about how I am having a serious bookshelf shortage at my house right now, but I’ll also leave this topic since I really only came here to make a list (of sorts) of the things that I need to do when I get home tonight…and also to post these two pictures.