I’m posting on Etsy.

Go have a look!

While I’m at it, my latest show opens this weekend.

I promise a “real” update soon!!

After all this talk, I’m finally trying to kick myself into action on this etsy thing. I made my account nearly four years ago, and I’ve never listed anything. As a student there was no time for starting a “business”, but now I’m hoping I can work something out.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/mousenest

Original patterns, high quality materials, totally handmade.

The problem with selling handknits is that no one will ever pay accurately for the time and materials, and I’m pretty unwilling to sell sub-par pieces. So, under-priced items it is until I find a working system. Hopefully I can be affordable/accessible without sacrificing fair compensation for my work.

Fortunately, it’s a little easier to charge accurately for sewing. Next up? I’ll be listing handmade elephants. Other creatures to come!!

Who’s this?

Oh, hello! I am an elephant prototype. My pattern is really cute, but I need some small adjustments to the trunk, ears, and belly piece.

Still, I am very very cute. Do you think I need tusks?

Amanda taunted me for weeks leading up to my eighteenth birthday, insisting that she had the most appropriate gift for me. She was also terrified that I’d hate her for it, which made everything more frightening and suspicious. And it was…wait for it…a rocking chair. Because I am an old woman.

It’s a wonderful chair, but the time has come for re-upholstery.

Yes, that would be giant purple paisley. I’m content. Originally I was planning to simply cover the old cushions, but in removing the old fabric I discovered two things:

First, the cushions had been hand-covered twice already. Second, when I ripped open the seams there was a dust cloud large enough to engulf me completely. Uhm…As cute as iit was…new cushions.

I realize that the two pieces on the right are not identical; because of the pattern I was afraid of running out of material. I’ll just keep the less centered side on the back, and no one will ever know. In retrospect, I could have used a complimentary canvas for the cushion backs. The pillow fillings are made from bamboo/rayon batting. Finished photos soon!

Live on, little chair.

Emily says hello!!

See, see? Sometimes things actually get finished.

Made from my own pattern, as designed three years ago for Kelsey.

No, those aren’t all of them. Yes, I’m still having fun. Hooray!!

I was a brilliant author when I was small. Do you need proof?

Ah, childhood. How I miss you.

I think it’s a good decision on her part; she’s mad at me for failing to post anything I’ve finished over the past few months. At this point, I’m simply trying to figure out what it is that I’ve been doing. Hopefully that means there will be more photos to come? For now you get this:

My Picasso-era travel socks, done since November. For detail:

 Now I’m mass producing handwarmers “for sale”, but how many times have I said that in the past?! We’ll see.

It’s tough to get a detail shot in low light:

Perhaps the next project will have something to do with this:

In other news, I had an infection in one of my molars last March/April. The Kalamazoo dentists told me that my tooth was rotting around a filling, while my Ann Arbor dentist told me there were no visible problems. The first opinion suggested a root canal, while the second said “wait and see”.

Well, guess who was right? Over the holidays that infection flared up again. Basically, it’s been working away at a low level for nine or ten months and I now have significant bone damage. (We won’t even talk about the abscess…yeah.) I’m having a root canal on Wednesday because they can see a likely cause (the decay around the filling), but there’s a good chance it won’t stabilize and I’ll have to lose the tooth anyway. I also have a small crack in the tooth, and if it turns out to be the actual cause I’ll definitely have to lose the tooth.

So. What do you do when your lifelong dentist tells you “I’ve never worked on that tooth”, and you see clear evidence to the contrary? There is definitely a filling, and definitely decay around it. It’s also really helpful that I’m totally uninsured…

For now, the best I can do is to keep making stuff. Hooray, activities?

Next up, I’m reupholstering my rocking chair!!

It turns out there’s only so much cleaning you can do in one day. Not long after my last post, I suddenly ran out of motivation for sorting through everything I’ve ever owned (EXCEPT for Purple Mouse, just to add insult to injury). Odd how that works, don’t you think?

Instead, you get a glimpse of recent times. There’s either “so much more” or “so much less”, depending on your standpoint.

I’ll have to start with this squirrel, because it made me laugh so hard I nearly peed myself:

Clearly, it has yet to discover the Courtois Café. (Free Birdseed! Not just for birds anymore!! Open all day and all night! Watch out for crazy men with helicopters!) I was absently walking to the car when it suddenly rushed past me, tripping over its foil. I was sure I’d never get my camera out in time, but fortunately its destination was within range.

Alright, let’s go back a bit. Picasso was fantastic. (Did I talk about this? Not sure what to say anyway.) I very much miss the whole company, meaning we must have had a little too much fun.

Flowers from my male counterpart, who is probably the nicest man in the world.

My father was not to be outdone:

I feel very well loved.

Okay, this is sort of random selection as I’m an unreliable photographer. Maybe this is only exciting to me, but come on.

67,676. I could hardly believe that it happened while I had the odometer on this setting (I often leave the trip odometer set out of gas mileage curiosity), while I had a camera on me, and while I could reasonably pull over to take a picture in the first place.

What else…OH! I guess you could call this important, huh:

My Sneak came home for the holidays, at least for a while. She eventually left, because Pittsburgh is clearly cooler than sniffly little sisters who crash all your outings. (Yes, I did.)

Next came the (unplanned, almost–) annual G4 Finlayson cousin photo.

I’ll bet you can’t guess how many tries it took to capture us all a)Looking at the camera, b)Making decent faces, and c)Dogless.

Squeaky had a wonderful Christmas.

Oddly enough, so did Pengie…

I never heard them discussing this…It must run in the family.

We modestly supported the local (Sault Ste. Siberia) economy:

Shush, they’re birds. Of course I wanted it?

I’m a softie for anything with feathers and/or giant ears.

Aside from that?

I’m going to make stuff until my hands fall off; thanks for asking.

I’m around…

I have a new camera. Exciting, but it takes HUGE photos. That means I have to downsize them before my version of Photoshop deems them worthy of attention. (As in, Photoshop crashes every time I open one. Urgh.)

For now, you get my most important creature and a promise of updates sometime down the road. (The “soon” kind.)

Well, I’ve gone and done it again. The last two buttons for my sister’s gift are languishing sneakily beneath an auditorium chair in Dexter High School. At least they’re together, and therefore not lonely? I’m hoping to retrieve them after the break, provided that the janitors don’t toss them unknowingly. It’s embarrassing to admit how upset I was upon discovering their truancy, so we’ll just skip over that bit.

So, here I am, impulsively starting a new project. I’m still in the gleeful beginning stage in which I severely underestimate how much time I’ll need to complete it…

It’s going to be awesome. I can feel it. So what if I just now drafted the first element of the design; I’m invincible!

*small voice from the corner* Isn’t that what you said about not taking your broken foot to the doctor? Doesn’t it still ache 18 months later??

Common sense is for ninnies.