a sneak peak at some new work for the NYIGF plus working with the stars

Right now we are all in the middle of an eclipse tunnel that started May 20th (new moon, new beginnings) and ends June 4th with the full moon (endings) - so there are alot of breakdowns and breakthroughs going on!

This tunnel acts like a kind of birth canal and is a great time to get creative work done if we can get in the flow of it -

I once had a mystical fertility counselor advise that if you have trouble starting a baby - start something else, if you have trouble finishing a baby - finish something else and this feels like good advice for our creative babies, too.

what part of our project/business is stuck? Leave it. Do some other creative something - either starting, developing or finishing - from a hand written letter to a from scratch cake to a garden.

It unblocks the creative flow that is always there for all of us .....

Then we have alot of Venus stuff going on in early June and you can google this if interested where astrologers can interpret it much better than I can - but things are definitely happening above us this summer folks!

Anyhoo, I have been working on these little cork backed washer book necklaces and a new fabric hinged locket style for New York International Gift Fair and my shops -

(these look awesome when worn - I am so happy with them)

after discovering these hoops in hubby's shop that I have been cutting and drilling and hammering and sanding and got things just about how I wanted them and then I ask hubs to get me some more and he says

"huh - what hoops" and I show him and he says "those are hose stabilizers, we can't get them without the hoses" and I'm all "what?!"

(this is the crafty girls nightmare scenario with supplies that we have to deal with again and again, but it keeps us on our crafty toes - this is probably why mine look like hobbit's)

but I will figure this out, have to talk to the junk guys at the salvage yards we deal with - they know everything (want to figure this out before the full moon on Monday).

Hoping everyone is having a wonderful week - I cannot believe tomorrow is June already - time has definitely sped up folks! xo

letting our message dictate our direction ...

We know that the internet is gigundo immense and that selling things here and creating a business here requires niche thinking.

(niche as in not everybody is going to love us - sniffle - and that is ok, more than ok in fact - it is necessary -

and this is actually a life lesson the internet has reflected back to us that we should have learned in grade school, but if you were like me you were maybe absent that day decorating plastic headbands with puffy paint)

This thinking isn't about our target market or our products or anything as tangible at any of that.

Niche thinking is all about our message.

And I am not really talking about the finding our voice thing that comes with or without the many off-key choruses of do-re-mi when we are alone in the shower.

This message is the very root of our business, the essence really - the part that all things amazing spring from

(and spring is not the right word here, because maker's makings do not "spring" - they meander like weeds in all kinds of directions while we run around behind them with trimmers and miracle grow until we have ... something)

the roots that define why we do what we do and when we get this part straight - and get a focus on this 

then deciding which makings to make, which people to connect with, how to attract our peeps and how to get in the money flow with this thing we have made becomes alot easier.

(and if we are thinking we are doing this to be making money, well, there are lots of things we could be doing to be making money - why are we doing this thing)

* does this poster .... print by 618love

Happy Memorial Day Weekend All - summer is official

This photo makes me want to put all the politicians everywhere into a room and spin them around and poke them with sticks until they get their heads and priorities straight - yes, that includes you Mr. Obama.

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend - hubs and I had a nice dinner out last night that actually included a for-real photographer taking a picture of us.

He, of course, looks like he fell out of the Brooks Brothers catalog. I look wild-eyed and unkempt, like I’d arrived at the restaurant by clinging to the bottom of the car.

(I may link to this pic one day ... but I would have to be bribed with a new pair of gladiator sandals and a years supply of Bobby's Burger Palace sweet potato fries and I am thinking that none of you have access to these things so my secrets are safe for now)

xo all

caine's arcade - do what you love and the money ... and the flash mobs will follow - jealous maker tuesday without the jealous maker

This is the story of how Caine Monroy’s hand-built cardboard arcade in his father’s auto parts store led to a flash mob, a $60,000 scholarship fund and an inspiration to makers everywhere to do what we love!

(I especially love how his game pays off in tickets for his customers when they win - pure genius!)