The holidays are looming on the horizon, and though I don’t really celebrate most of them, I do look forward to the crafting events they bring. It seems like every local school or special interest group has a craft fair or bazaar planned this or next month, and I intend to attend at a least a few.

Around this time last year, I wasn’t working and had plenty of time to stop by a number of craft fairs. Of course, the items sold at most of them were pretty much the same sort of handmade items I don’t care for, the cutesy stuff that grannies make and love. There were a few exceptions, of course, like the few Japanese organization shows, but for the most part I didn’t really see anything I liked or wanted to buy.

This year, I’ve decided not to visit as many, but there are definitely a few that look pretty good. This weekend, there’ll be a few Japanese organization craft boutiques in San Jose Japantown and San Mateo, and another in December up in San Francisco Japantown. The San Francisco Craft Mafia is having a trunk show for the holidays, and Amytha wants to organize something for local Craftster members and crafters in general.

I’m also trying to plan for going to some shows down in LA next month, including Felt Club: XL Holiday Edition and Bazaar Bizarre. Though I’ve lived in California for 6 1/2 years, I’ve never actually spent time down in LA, besides driving through on my way to Arizona a few years ago. I’m hoping to make a few weekends of it and see some other things down there, and I’m definitely open to suggestions (hint, hint).

If you’re local and want to find out what other events are going on, I’ve been trying to track them all in the South Bay Craft Group site, so feel free to join and check that out.

In other craft fair news, I found out that there’s going to be employee craft fair in December at work. When I first saw the flier, I got excited and wanted to participate, but then I kept going back and forth about whether or not I could get ready by then. I have about 4 weeks to put some stuff together, but I know there might be a lot of things going on between now and then. Last night, I was also worrying that I might not sell anything and my stuff might not be that good. However, I’ve decided to sign up and see how it goes. Even if I don’t sell anything, at least I’ll have tried, right? And it’ll be fun to see what others are selling.

Now comes all the preparation though, and I’m already learning that there’s more to do than I first expected. I figured that I’d mainly sell some card/envelope sets, like the mini square ones I make all the time, as well as some separate envelope sets and maybe postcards as well. But I was told that I can decorate my table/booth area however I want, and I’m not entirely sure how to go about that, though I have a few ideas. Perhaps some Japanese fabric as a spread, along with Japanese dishes to hold my items? I also found out that I’ll need to donate a prize for a raffle at the end of the fair, and I’m trying to decide what sort of item to make for that. Maybe something like the framed kimono art piece I did for the recent Craftster swap?

So much to do! I am very open to advice on this sort of thing though, so if you have any tips, please post them!

One of the things that comes with having a full-time job again is that I only have so much free time outside of work. Since that time is so limited, I’ve had to be a lot more careful about how I spend it, including including what sort of events you choose to attend and what projects I can commit to and actually complete. Having spent a year and a half taking time off between jobs, I’m definitely having to re-learn this, especially since I’ve picked up a number of hobbies and interests in that time.

When I wasn’t working, going to crafty events was something I felt I almost had to do, whether it was a craft group meeting or a craft fair. I needed some good social things to do, and so whenever I found an event, I went. Now though, I’m having to set limits for myself, based on the time and energy involved in attending anything. I’ve had to pass on a few recent crafting events, even though there were some I initially wanted to attend.

Similarly, I’ve had to limit myself when it comes to craft projects, despite finding plenty of new things I’d love to try. I haven’t really worked on much since my last post, beyond a silly Halloween costume and a few swaps I got involved in despite telling myself I wouldn’t.

I just finished up my items for a Japanese-themed swap on Craftster, and here are a few photos:

The first is a padded or “quilted” kimono art piece, made using chipboard, thin layers of foam, and various papers, plus plenty of glue. I got the supplies as part of a kit from Hanko Designs, and it was actually a lot easier to do than I thought. Some of my measurements were a bit off, but I thing it turned out all right.

The box was originally going to be decoupaged, but then I didn’t feel like doing that after all, so I just painted it. I tried to replicate a very delicate design I found on a piece of origami paper, but it was a lot harder to do than I thought. It takes a lot of patience and a steady hand, and I wasn’t doing too well on either of those. I think it still looks all right though.

And, of course, the final item was one of my standard envelope and card sets, made using origami paper in various colors. A nice tiny item to include, and there’ll be a few store-bought items included as well.

I actually received my swap items from my partner already, and unfortunately, there seemed to be some misunderstanding about what is Japanese and what is Chinese. My partner sent some interesting items, but they were mainly Chinese in pattern and design. That’s ok, but not really my thing.

There were also some issues with the organization of the swap overall, so my disappointment in Craftster swaps continues. As much as I like that the site exists, the swaps are hard to organize and follow and I almost never am satisfied with how they turn out. As a result, I think I’m going to give up on the site, especially swaps there, for the time being. I never post there anyway, so it’s not a big deal, but still disappointing that it has come to this.

I have one more swap to finish up by next week, but this one is a one-on-one swap with another crafter who participated in some of the Coloriffic Swap-O-Rama swaps. I love the color themed swaps there, and the organizers are great, but I keep missing the sign-up deadlines lately. Fortunately, I received a message from Helena, who had also missed the deadline, asking if I’d be interested in a direct swap. We’re following the same color themes as everyone else, but with a little more knowledge of who we’re swapping with.

After this swap though, I think I’m through for awhile. Lately, whenever I sign up for a swap, I go through this minor freak-out about whether or not I’ll be able to make the deadline. It’s mostly due to not having any good ideas about what to make, though usually I figure something out and manage to finish in time. For now though, I’d rather do without the pressure and just take it easy. I don’t know how much I’ll post here as a result, but I will try to keep it up as much as I can.

Man, this going back to work thing has been kicking my ass in a major way! Well, at least when it comes to trying to do things when I have some free time. On weekdays, my brain seems to have turned to mush by the time I arrive home, and I’m still working on pushing myself to do fun things on weekends. We’ll see if this keeps up though, but I’m trying to be crafty, I really am.

On Labor Day, I got together with Amytha and some other crafty friends to help her prepare some Halloween decorations for a party she’s going to throw. I mostly worked on painting a cardboard cutout of a scary clown, as part of a gory circus theme, and it was fun to just dive in and go to town with a paintbrush. There’s more work to be done, so we may have to gather again sometime before Halloween.

The painting continued at our September South Bay Craft Group meeting, with a demonstration on decoupaging wooden boxes, led by Amytha. Painting was optional, of course, but I thought the cut-outs I chose would look better on color than on plain wood. Here are a few photos of what I created:

Here are a few more photos of the box, if you’re interested.

Otherwise, I’ve mostly been buying more craft supplies I really don’t need. Amytha and I went to a rubber stamp show in San Jose, and I left with a pile of more origami paper (for making small envelopes) and some Japanese stickers from Hanko Designs. I bought some supplies to make some of these cotton webbing keychains, though I have yet to actually try to make one. I just haven’t felt like sewing much lately.

Instead of sewing, I really want to work on another cross-stitch or embroidery project, even if it takes awhile to complete. I have plenty of floss and various pieces of Aida fabric, so it all comes down to the pattern, which is the most difficult part of it all. I’d rather not create my own design, just due to the extra work, but then everything I see at local stores is just awful. I’ve lamented about this before, but there really needs to be a total revival of cross-stitch, and with better designs than the crap that’s out there now. There are plenty of cool things being crafted these days (just look at all the stuff on Craftster), but not enough in cross-stitch patterns. I don’t think it’s because there’s anything inherent about cross-stitch that prevents it, but someone needs to get the ball rolling, and with something more than just phrases. I want images and colors, people!

Anyway, enough ranting for now. I’ll just have to work on my own patterns in the meantime, and I’ll make sure to post anything I come up with. I’ve got some swaps to work on in the meantime though…

Before I go, I just want to thank Alicia at Posie Gets Cozy for linking to me this week. I’ve noticed a huge spike in my traffic, with lots of referrals from her site. Thanks to her and hello to anyone coming from there!

Yesterday marked the first full year that this blog has been in existence. Unfortunately, I missed posting then due to access problems at home, but I was definitely thinking about it!

I don’t really have anything prepared to celebrate it, other than to note that it happened and say that I continue to keep Being Crafty going beyond this point. I think this might be the longest I’ve kept an online journal or blog without deciding to change it in some way, either in format or design, but I think things are working pretty well as they are.

Anyway, here’s a link back to my first entry. Short, but sweet.

Phew! I made it through the heat ok for the most part. I think my brain may have melted a bit, but I’m starting to get back to normal so far, and fortunately the weather should be a lot nicer for awhile.

I’ve knocked out a few of the swaps that I had due, though I realize I didn’t take any photos of them before packaging them up. Two were varieties of paper, and since they weren’t handmade by me, I didn’t feel as compelled to photograph them. A third swap was for items that correspond to the five senses, and I did include a print of some digital artwork and a wrapped postcard, but nothing handmade otherwise.

Now, my focus is on my package for the August round of Coloriffic Swap-O-Rama, and it’s been fun to work on so far. Usually, there are one or two theme colors, but this month, it’s been bumped up to six to make a rainbow effect: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. It’s nice to expand a bit, but then it makes me want to include more items, just to cover all of the colors.

For my handmade items, I decided to stick with paper, mostly because I didn’t feel like sewing, and I made an envelope/card set (the envelopes are primary to me, what can I say?) and more “square” postcards.

I’m really pleased with how the postcards turned out, and I’ve received a lot of nice comments from people who viewed the scans on Flickr. They’re really pretty easy to make, only requiring paper scraps large enough to cut 1-inch squares from, a bit of glue, and a postcard (4×6 inches) to paste the squares onto. I have a thing about squares, I guess, or so you’d think looking through some of my previous work. Maybe too easy, but they’re simple enough to work with.

Speaking of squares, I attended a scrapbooking workshop at the library last night, where we created the 6×6-inch accordion books. It wasn’t too difficult to follow, especially with all the components provided, but it did feel a bit too specific for me. There’s a follow-up session next week, when we’ll start decorating the books, and it seems that there is an exact order of different layouts in mind for us to create. Not that I don’t mind the occasional kit or guided instruction, but I like to have a bit more openness for projects like this. I’m more interested in learning techniques from others than in replicating the exact project they already made many times before. At the very least, now I know how to make a book like this, even if I don’t use the one I made for anything in particular.

Along the lines of teaching classes, I still need to prepare for giving a cross-stitch demo at next week’s South Bay Craft Group meeting. I have the basic supplies, but I have to figure out how to demonstrate it all, especially with something so small. Maybe everyone will have to gather around and look over me as I work, though I’m going to see if I can find some diagrams that I can use. It should be interesting at least.