My Opinion Monday - Getting back to me.

As you faithful 19 blog followers know, I opened an Etsy shop last November. And then I stopped blogging. And then in the name of trying to create a brand, I moved all my "My Opinion Monday" posts to another blog - myopinionmonday.blogspot.com (oh you didn't notice that...well, I did). I didn't want people to not like my stuff because sometimes my opinion isn't the nicest or with the majority or very tactfully written.

Over the past 6 months I have not crafted my way to being a millionaire - or hundred-aire really - I'd like to think that I just NOW broke even (although adding up all the receipts that I've misplaced and refuse to try and find might tell me otherwise) and you know what, it's a lot of work. A lot of time. A lot of sacrifice. A lot of money. A lot of stress. And I knew it was going to be a lot of time, work and money when I went into it so blindly. But what I didn't realize is that it was going to be more  of all those things than I had expected. Oh you want to throw me a surprise birthday party? I need to go home after work and sew up a couple wine holders for a prize tomorrow for a show I just decided I'd be in! (No joke people, I screwed up my boyfriend and friends plan of throwing me a surprise 29th birthday party this year - I felt like a total loser...and the show was the day after a Wilson Phillips concert, so you can imagine how amazing I was feeling....). Shows are a lot of work. I only did 2. Mad props to the handmakers out there that do that every weekend!

To add to the level of stress, my sewing machine took a nose dive a few weeks ago. Not a colossal one, but enough for me to know that I should stop using it. My machine is from 1975 and it's a solid piece of metal. All the parts are metal - even the foot petal is metal - and when metal parts are not oiled and maintained as they should be for 38 years, they're bound to stop at some point. I felt like that point was a few weekends ago when I was in the middle of a large order for a bride - she had ordered 7 clutches for bridesmaids. I threw out a bunch of cuss words and borrowed my lovely friend Summer's machine and finished the order. Just in the nick of time for Etsy to tell me that I was right on time shipping it; thank gawd because I don't need another stat going in the red. Stress me out.

On top of this, I have a full time job. So after my day job, I'd come home and retreat to my basement where I'd taken over all but the laundry area and do work (son). It was miserable. Well, it was fine when it was snowing out but now that the weather is finally getting nicer and the sun is out and I'm lazy on Monday and  I'm playing volleyball on Tuesdays and I've got a standing date with Summer every Thursday and then it's Happy Hours on Friday...and Wednesday should be laundry night. So that left me with weekends to do work (son). Just what I wanted to do. Hole up in the basement for 7 long hours of work. eeeffffff!!

So where am I going with this? Well, when I'm at my day job and my computer shuts itself down for no reason (or because I have 100 files and screens open and haven't restarted in 19 days), I figure it's telling me it needs and break and I'll do some organizing of my desk and filing and maybe pick up some things in the main office area and tidy things up. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to let my sewing machine rest (and get it tuned up too). I'm going to organize some items in my craft room and make room for a bit of a man cave as the boyfriend has requested to use some of the space (I guess the entire upstairs is not enough for his lounging needs?? Who knows, it's technically his house so I feel like I need to oblige). I'm going to take a step back and figure out what I liked about doing so many orders and what I didn't like. I'm going to take an impromptu weekend trip without worrying about finishing orders on Sunday because I've procrastinated enough and need to ship something on Monday. I'm going to enjoy the weather and sit outside on our awesome deck and sip a cocktail. I might even get myself up for my 5AM workout (I have been telling myself that since February, perhaps writing it down will help).

Most importantly (as cheesy as this sounds), I'm going to get back to me. I love being creative and doing projects - I just don't know if I love doing it all the time and under certain deadlines and concerns the feedback isn't going to be what I want. Criticism gets me down and I take it so very personal and have a really hard time letting bad/rude comments/feedback go. One bad comment makes me forget that I had 20 good ones. It's just how I am. They say you have to give this business 100% and right now, I'm just not in it 100%. I want to be able to give it 100% because that's when I do my best work. I can't have a bunch of items out there with my cute little tags on them that only got 60% of me because I had other orders I had to finish at the same time. I don't to create a brand that way.

So here's what you can expect of me. I'll be importing my My Opinion Monday (or MOM as I so lovingly call them - because my Mom does read them - Hi Mom!! -..and because it's the acronym) posts back into this blog - because this is who I am. I'll be posting more MOM's because that is who I am. I'll be doing a few things here and there and posting them on the blog. I'll be working on getting organized because I know that will make me less stressed. And again, just working on getting back to me.

Thanks to everyone that has supported me, "liked" my Facebook page (which I'm keeping up and will post some projects from time to time) and helped me with this venture. As Arnold once said, "I'll be back!"

Check out my Etsy shop!

You can now purchase any of my items via Etsy at http://www.etsy.com/shop/tgdesignsbytraci.

{Holiday 2012}

Well we had a great show at the Ankeny Art Center sponsored Santa's North Pole vendor show! Here are a few of the holiday items that are either ready or can be replicated at your request!

You can contact me via my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/tgdesignsbytraci, commenting on the blog post or emailing me at tgdesignsbytraci{at}gmail{.}com.

Find me on Facebook!

Hey friends, find me on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/tgdesignsbytraci

My Opinion Monday - Runners on the left, walkers to the right...

please.

I found myself saying this a few times this weekend. I mean, I did participate in 2 5k's this weekend! Okay okay, the first one was just a walk but the second one, well, Val and I went balls to the wall and ran the whole damn thing. Yeah, we're pretty proud of ourselves. We celebrated with lots of booze and fried food...and by missing our morning workout today. I'll take credit for that, I sent the "I'm not going to make it" text. Whateves, we ran 3.2 miles and to us, it was like running a full marathon. We've only been "running" - I use that word loosely, I've been tripping and falling more than running - for a few weeks now but have managed to take a whole minute off our mile time. MILE, not 3.2 MILES. This is the furthest we've run together. And like we told the boys after the race, we always finish together. Novel idea, right boys?

Anyways, so my peeve this weekend was dealing with slow ass people in the left lanes of the race. I mean, if they read the 10 page packet they would know that they should scoot themselves to the right of the path to let those that are actually trying to finish the race running pass by without having to give them elbows and want to push them down. And even if they didn't read the packet, come on people - it's common sense. Pretend you're driving on the interstate. You pass on the left and drive super slow in the right lane. That same theory applies here too. 

I'm not an avid runner, but I was trying to prove to myboyfriendself that I could actually finish something and was kind of excited to see my boyfriend not show up to the finish line. I just felt like the people that gave me dirty looks for saying "excuse me" in the nicest possible way - I was at the happiest 5k on the planet - were being real assholes. I tried my best to be polite and I think I did do that. But I think the next time I plan to actually run the entire race, I'm going to get a shirt that says "If you're walking and I just had to dodge around you, move to the right." I might through a cuss word in there, people tend to respond to cursing quite well. 

Anyways, here's proof that Val and I finished The Color Run:

Yes, this photo is named lightenup.jpg. Not because I need
to lighten up, but because I lightened the picture up. 

So anyways, read the pre-race packets or just use some common sense and move over if you're walking. That way I don't have to get in a big tizzy about it. 

Gettin' busy...

in the craft room people, geesh. You know my mom reads this, I have to keep it pretty G rated. 

Look what I just received:

You'll notice the quality of this picture is much better than you're use to seeing. Also, it's from
my new CELL phone camera!! New camera AND new phone - whoop whoop!

These are about to be made into Christmas stockings, wreaths and pillows. Get excited!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Well, not everywhere you go, but most places. If you walked into my house you'd see this hanging from the mantel:

Oh, did I mention, I got a new camera. I'm learning how to use it and make my pictures look better than they did on the cell phone. Work in progress people. But anyways, you'll be seeing more of these. I grabbed some gray and cream chevron fabric too, expect to see a few of those on the 'ol blog too. and wreaths, and pillows, and whatever else I can dream up!