Morning Rainbow

I was greeted with a splash of unexpected color this morning along with a bright sunrise.

Still Here and Working!

I haven’t quite disappeared.  Between working on items for the shop, designing a logo for a friend and dealing with the duties of being a parent, I haven’t had much time to stop in here.

Even though I’ve been really busy, I’m really excited about it.  One of the new product ideas for Shades has begun to take on a life of its own.  Everything should be on its way shortly and hopefully listed in the shop by next week.

My daughter’s birthday is coming up as well.  I’m going to be digging in and getting creative on her cake once again.  I’m just not sure what direction I’m going to go with it just yet.  How sad is it that I have no idea what I’m going to do with her cake and it is only days away, yet I have a full plan and design in my head for the cake I’m making a month from now?

I’m hoping that once all of the new products are made up, here and listed that I’ll actually have a few moments to sit and breathe.  I’ve still had my lazy days amongst the busy, but even those have had the pressure of knowing about all the things I should be doing hanging over my head.  There is the very real possibility that those few moments of quiet will just lead to me clearing out enough of the clutter in my head to daydream about even more product ideas.  I’m not sure if that is good or bad at this point.

Felted Goddesses

The first new line of products are finally listed over at Shades of Midnight.  They are these amazing Felted Goddesses.  The gorgeous little creations come from a wonderfully talented woman and friend.

The goddesses come in a variety of luscious colors and some are scented with essential oils.  They are made out wool with a bit of metallic fibers for a bit of whimsy.  All of them hang from a string and are accented with glass and gemstone beads.

Oak Felted Goddess

I had the pleasure of being gifted one of these over the holidays and decided they were too wonderful and convinced the creator to add them to Shades.  I’m thrilled to be carrying her wonderful work!

First New Products…

The first batch of one of the new product lines arrived yesterday.  I’m so very excited about these.  Cute!  Adorable!  Amazing!  I should be getting them photographed and listed in the next week or so.  I’ll post again once I’ve gotten them up and ready to go!

Growing Again

We are still very much in the heart of winter outside, but inside, there is a lot of growth going on.  At least for Shades of Midnight anyway.

I had an indication that this year was going to be a busy one for Shades when I started out the year with a custom order.  It was amazingly exciting to get to work on it and it did a wonderful job of shoving me out of my sluggishness as far as creativity goes.  In the next week or so, I should be in full swing working on restocking the shop and adding a few new things.

Not only am I going to be adding a few new things of my own, but I have two potential partners coming on board with their creations.  The first one is a very creative woman that makes the most beautiful little felted goddesses.  I was privileged enough to receive one as a gift this past holiday season and couldn’t resist recruiting her and her talents.

The second one is a wonderfully talented and amazing woman.  She is the one that really kind of got me started with all of this to begin with.  Her knowledge of crystals and herbs is beyond excellent.  I have been trying to convince her for a while to bring that excellence to Shades.  We are finally working towards that goal and hope to introduce a line of herbal bath and body products, starting with an amazing creation of hers – an herbal muscle rub.

There are still lots of little, boring details to try and get worked out before any of this actually hits the shop, but we are getting close.  I also hope to expand on the Grandma Blankets line with a few new baby items done up by my mom and yesterday I received an order of material for my first trial run of another potential product line.

It is an exciting time right now.  I have a feeling that I’m going to have a very busy year.  I cannot wait to see what other new growth is coming my way.

So Long 2009, Hello 2010

Another year down and the promise of a new one just beginning.  Things have finally seemed to start slowing down around here.  We aren’t completely there yet and I’m honestly not sure that will ever actually happen.  Having three kids isn’t conducive to slow.  It always seems as though there is just one more thing I have to start thinking about and preparing for, most of the time before I’ve even gotten to sit down and rest after the last event.

I’m not really one for resolutions.  They just seem to always be more a way to mark failures rather than accomplishments.  There are lots of things that I should be working on or changing, but I also know that none of them will happen before they need to so me trying to force the issue is just going to make me miserable.

I am setting a few goals that are more short term and attainable.  Sort of like a daily “to do” list, but for things I can accomplish over a period of time.  Most of them are things I’m looking to get done for Shades of Midnight.  The obvious and most basic is going to be restocking the things that have either sold out or I’m very low on stock, which is a lot of things this year.  I’m also in talks with a good friend to add a fun little line of her creations to the shop.  That isn’t so much my goal as it is hers because she is the one doing most of the work, but it is on my list to help keep her motivated.  This coming March will mark the 2 year anniversary of Shades.  I would like to do something to mark that milestone, but I’m not yet sure what or how.  That is something I will need to be working on over the coming months as well.

There are lots of ideas floating around in my head of things that I’d like to try and add to the shop, but I’m having to really think about the time involved in making them and whether or not the interest is there.  I have some things on the way to work on a couple of prototypes to see if it is something I can even do, but I am pretty excited about the concept.  The goal with that is to do the prototype, not add the item to the shop.  If I make something wonderful and it works out and I do get to add it to the shop, that is a bonus.  A couple of the new additions are going to just be a bit of an expansion on things I already have, so those are a bit easier goals to hit.

I have considered setting some sort of personal goal to waste less time playing around on the internet, but I’m really not sure that is something I will be able to do.  I really enjoy playing, but at the same time, I get frustrated when I have had a ton of things to get done in a day and look up and find that half the day is gone and all I’ve accomplished is playing with a virtual pet or harvesting on a virtual farm.  Maybe I can bring myself to at least cut out one or two of the games I play, I won’t feel so bad.  Then again, that also means that my friends have to quit sending me requests for new fun games to steal my time.

I would especially love it if I could find more time for a spiritual focus.  I think my biggest issue with that has always been the fact that I struggle to really connect with many of the typical things people do on a daily or weekly basis.  I enjoy doing the occasional meditation and would like to do more of it.  I always feel more comfortable doing them at night, but it is never quiet enough around here unless I get up hours before everyone else or stay up hours later.  That really isn’t an option for me.  I also know I’m really good at coming up with excuses to not do anything because it feels a bit selfish to want the time alone and away from everyone to do it.  I think I may need to work on that.

All in all, it is promising to be another busy and productive year.  It is already showing how busy I’m going to be considering I started the year off with a custom order.  I am really looking forward to what this new year is going to bring and it seems there will be quite a bit.  The Shades anniversary, a long weekend visit from a very dear friend, the potential for some exciting new product lines, and all the usual fun family events like the kids birthdays.  It is going to be a very good year indeed.

Still Quiet

There still isn’t much to say.  This time it is because I’ve actually been really busy instead of lazy.  I’m in full holiday mode and things have gotten crazy around here.  I decided to make many of my gifts this year and have been working on that and getting the house all decked out for the holidays.  There just hasn’t been much time for anything else and probably won’t be until after the first of the year.

What little time I do have seems to be getting eaten up from all directions.  My faithful graphics client has asked me to rework his logo and signs because he has changed the company name.  I’ve also volunteered to help out the art teacher at the kids school.  They are starting to put the students artwork online and I get to take the photos of all the pieces.  I was hoping they wouldn’t be ready to get started on that until after the first of the year, but I got called the other day and the first batch of projects is now ready for me to pick up.

I have lots of new materials that have come in over the last several weeks so I’ll be working on more pieces for the shop.  Even if I do have time to sit down and create something that isn’t a gift, I won’t be able to get any pictures taken until after all the holiday decorations are down.  The area I use for my product shoots now has a tree in it.

It feels good to be busy, though.  It would just be nice that my busy times and my lazy times would balance out just a bit so I’m not all one or the other at any given time.

Not Much to Say

Things have been incredibly quiet around here, mostly because I just haven’t found that I’ve had very much to say.  I’ve been in a state of extreme laziness with the exception of preparing for the party we had on Halloween.  The only thing I’ve been motivated to do beyond the daily necessities is to waste enormous amounts of time playing a stupid game.

I did scrounge up the energy to participate in an online ritual with my sisters by choice.  It was by far one of the most emotional rituals I’ve ever been a part of, either alone or with others.  I nearly canceled because I was so worn out from the party and preparations for it, that I didn’t think I’d have the energy to join in.  Thankfully, the Universe decided that I wasn’t going to be allowed to make excuses to avoid doing what I needed the most.

It seems as though the Universe isn’t quite done with shoving me in the direction She wants me to go.  I’ve been getting some pretty heavy duty shoves towards getting off my lazy butt and getting creative, especially with creating things for the shop.  It is a good thing, too.  Being lazy was starting to get really boring.

Blah!

It is beginning to look like a repeat of earlier this year.  I once again have the never ending cough that is keeping me feeling like ick.  I’ve already been to the doctor twice and will probably be going again in the next day or so if I’m still not feeling better.

Even though I’ve been sick, I managed to get all the materials I needed and my Halloween costume made.  It is pretty versatile, so I haven’t completely settled in on what I’m going to be, either a witch or a vampire.  At the moment, I’m leaning more towards the vampire so I can fit in with Hubby’s vampire costume.

I’ve also managed to get a Halloween party planned and invitations mostly passed out.  We are doing this mainly for the kids because the holiday falls on a Saturday this year and figured we’d actually have the time to set up for it.  Hopefully it will be as fun and exciting as we think it is going to be.  Along with the party, we are setting up a haunted garage for the trick-or-treaters.

Halloween is probably one of my favorite holidays and I tend to go all out for it.  We didn’t do much last year because it was right after my MIL passed away and none of us had much to give to the celebration.  As long as everyone is actually healthy, it should be a wonderful time.

Now if I could just get up the energy to do something other than be lazy like I have been the last several days, I could actually begin to enjoy the fact that it feels like winter and we are barely into fall. *sigh*

October Sale!

Shades of Midnight will be having a sale for the month of October.  All products will be on sale for 10% off from October 1st through November 1st.