Trying to take inventory

Not an inventory of merchandise or supplies or anything tangible.  I'm trying to take an inventory of my business options.  And it's all wide open.  I can continue in the direction I've started (and which has been a lot of work, but successful).  But a lot of the work is tedious and I would really like to have an assistant to take on the tedious, less than artful, tasks.  And in addition to my online presence, I would love, Love, LOVE! to have a brick & mortar store.  And then there are all my other interests.  I just want to do it all!

Now to find a way to successfully combine my love of fiber (dyeing, knitting, spinning), my love of papercrafts (stamping, scrapping, bookmaking), my love of sewing (quilting, fashion), my love of photography (portrait, landscape, stock), my love of vintage (particularly vintage Pyrex), and bath & spa products (hand made soap, candles, etc.) Oh, and throw in the occasional jewelry making and whatever else strikes my fancy at the time.

Can you picture a shop that would include all, or maybe just most, of these interests?  Would you shop at my store?  Would I be trying to do too much?

I need to get my thoughts written down.  And organized. Any suggestions for organization tools to make sense of this stuff?

Comments are most welcome.  Please share a link to my blog so your friends can give me some input, too.

300 Days of Dyeing - Day 3

Well, I made it to day three.  Let's see if I can come up with something for Day 4 before it's over.

Day 3's experiment turned out quite nice, I think.  It is a fat quarter of 100% Cotton print, suggested use: quilting. For those of you not into quilting, a fat quarter is a quarter of a yard of fabric in which the yard was cut or torn in half in one direction and then the halves were cut or torn in half in the other direction.  Instead of having a quarter of yard that measures 9" X 44" (that's one quarter length X the typical width of quilting cotton), you have a rectangle that is 18" X 22".  This is a good size for quilters who need just a small amount of a particular color or pattern. Some quilters will use a lot of different fat quarters to make a quilt with a 'scrappy' personality.

Anyway. This is what I started with:

And this is what I finished with:

The white printed hearts did not take the dye, just as I suspected.  (Did you notice that they were photographed right side up this time? Woohoo! ) The shading is irregular.  It almost seems that the brown dye 'split'.  Most dyes are made up of mixtures of primary color dyes.  Depending on many factors (insert lots of chemistry here), the dye may split or break and the results are unpredictable.  I rather like the variation in this and changing from one shade to another. This could be very useful in an applique application. The changing shades could give dimension and life to quilt or mixed media art ware instead of a flat monotone image.

I've been on the computer a lot today.  I'm still trying to learn as much as I can about the business side of an art oriented business.  There is a vast amount of information out on the internet, but only a small part of it is directly applicable to me.  Some is more general in nature and some information can be skewed to apply to me.  So I'm slowly sifting through it, trying to find the gems among the stones.

One gem I've already found is "The Creative Empire."  If you have your own creative business or you are contemplating beginning one, I highly recommend The Creative Empire as a place to connect with other similar to you and who are willing to share ideas and information. It's a great group of small business owners who are there to motivate and support one another.


Now, I think I'm going to throw another piece of cotton fabric in the dye pot (or baggie) and see what comes out tomorrow. Y'all take care and enjoy!

Deeper Roots

Have you ever been thinking about something and your mind just goes from one thought to the next?  The thoughts are all tied together.  But the first has nothing to do with the last. That happened to me a couple of days ago.  And suddenly that light bulb over my head lit up and I thought, "I'm going to have to write a blog post about this!"

Now, as I said, that was a couple of days ago, so I have no idea what I was thinking about at the time.  But I do remember the part about the roots. And watering the garden.  Maybe that's where it started.

Our garden is about to take over.  Once again, I planted the tomatoes way too close.  And as usual, during the very hot and dry weather this summer, we only watered them two or three times.  The pepper plants in the containers got watered more often. But the tomatoes were left to their own devices, to survive or die as they might.  And they survived.  Every single stinkin' last one of them.

Do you know why they survived? Not because we watered them, but because we didn't.  The tomato plants had to sink deeper roots to draw moisture from deep in the soil.  The deep roots received not only moisture and nutrients from the soil, they also received stability.  The plants grew slower during the dry spells.  But they grew stronger with the nourishment they received and the stability provided by the deep roots.

What has this got to do with anything?  Well, I'm not sure now what it had to do with what I was thinking of a couple of days ago.  But this concept can be applied to many aspects of our lives.  The similarity between the tomato plant story and the support provided by our families is pretty obvious.  And I'm sure you can find ways to apply it to other areas of your life.

I see similarities in our knitting/spinning/quilting/love of arts and crafts communities, too.  I'll tell you a little about my situation and how it applies to me.  I work from home and don't get out much.  For the most part that's fine.  But when I started knitting again, I missed the companionship of other knitters.  When I wanted to learn a new method of casting on, I didn't have a friend close by that I could ask to show me. I was in a 'knitting' drought.  I had to look elsewhere for what I wanted.  That 'elsewhere' was the internet.  Then I discovered a great river of knitting.  I sank my roots deep into that moist soil and began to grow. And get stronger.  And more confident.  The nourishment I received from putting down those deep roots to get what I needed where it was (rather than waiting for it to come to me) gave me stability.

I now see the knitting/spinning/quilting/love of arts and crafts communities growing and spreading.  People like me, who once made our way to the internet to find what we couldn't find in our home towns, are now meeting in person to share their love of their crafts.  Because of the deep roots, nourishment, and stability, we are now finding one another and adding to our numbers.

And my tomatoes are, too.  Adding to their numbers, I mean.  There are quite a few ripe tomatoes that need to be picked and canned. I better get busy!