Expanding the Biz

Well, it's official, so I can tell you: Beginning tomorrow, one of the little coffee shops near my Saturday market will carry my cards. Yep, for real! I approached the owner to see if they'd consider it for the Winter months when I am not doing the market, and if so, I'd start telling people that the cards will be available while at the same time promoting their shop. I walked in this evening and the owner walked up to me and said, "Yes!" How cool is that?!?!?!

This is the box I put together a week ago:

Tonight I need to make a sign with the price, and I think I'll also put a little pocket on it to hold my business cards, then I'll drop it all off tomorrow before the market opens. I am soooo excited! So, if you live in the Gaithersburg, MD, area and you are looking for a nice cuppa joe with the opportunity to buy some cards at the same time, stop by Chloe's Coffee Cafe and Gallery on Main Street in the Kentlands!

Another little project I've been working on this week will probably not pan out. Back in the days when I could actually see, I did cross-stitch. Counted cross-stitch. We counted cross-stitch types can get a little snooty sometimes. I mean, c'mon, if I can take single threads of floss and make little detailed store windows over single threads of 32-count linen, where you have to count the number of threads to skip before you can make the next stitch, you cannot compare that to someone who does a pre-printed pattern on 11-count Aida cloth, now can you? See, snooty.

So one step below pre-printed on 11-count is Plastic Canvas. Heck, that's not even cross-stitch; you only do half stitches on plastic canvas. So I would never, never (never) stoop so low as to actually buy plastic canvas, much less admitting to using it.

Then I got old and lost the ability to see straight. And I bought plastic canvas. And I made chintzy little patterns with precious floss from my Every Color Floss collection. Then I got over it when I discovered stamping.

[Pardon me while I guffaw! The cat just laid down next to me and she has the hiccups! OMG, this is funny. She is trying to fall asleep, and she cannot figure out why her body is lurching. This is hysterical!!!]

So I had this idea that I'd resurrect the ole plastic canvas and floss and make little magnets to ... stick to the front of cards! Cool idea, huh? A home-made embellishment! I went in search of my supplies in The Other Room earlier this week, but there was no plastic canvas to be found; only perforated paper, which is a half-step up from plastic canvas. Or maybe a quarter step. After a few false starts, I made this:

First, please get past the fact that the color combo needs work. Let's talk instead about the mistakes. As is my nature, I always (always) make a mistake in any cross-stitch piece I do. Heck, if it were perfect, anyone could do that! It takes real skill to make a mistake and hide it! Do you see a pattern here as I moved from cross-stitch to stamping? It's all about recovering from your mistakes. I told you I was good at it.

Anyway, my grevious mistake with this little project was the breaking of Rule #1 in cross-stitch: all of your stitches have to go in the same direction. Can you see my boo-boo? This is a nine-square pattern, so look at the middle left square - the one with part white and part yellow. That whole square has its stitches going in the opposite direction from the rest of the piece. Sigh.

When (if) I finish this, I plan(ned) to put a piece of fabric from my fabric stash onto the back and slip-stitch it to the mesh, thus covering the rough edges and making it look finished. Then somehow I'd attach a magnet to the backing. Hmm, this is beginning to sound like work, so maybe not. Perhaps I should just put all of the supplies back into their bag and back into the little cupboard from whence they were retrieved, and we'll just pretend none of this ever happened.

Considering I need to start the Clean Sweep tonight, I think that sounds like a fine plan!