Lazy Day

So, it’s after 2:00 in the afternoon and I’m still in my pj’s. I got up at 7:30 to help my younger son in the the bathroom, crawled back into bed and didn’t emerge until 3 hours later. That’s so unlike me! I think I really needed the sleep, and as it turns out, I have needed this lazy day, too. Today it’s been a month since we lost our baby, so the last 4 weeks have been an uphill battle in terms of getting my emotional footing back, and catching up on everything that I had let fall by the wayside when I was at my worst. Add to that a craft show and a class to prepare for last week, and it’s just been a nonstop whirlwind of Things To Do lately. Add to that the late late night I had last night chatting with clarkesworld, and I think maybe I’m thoroughly worn out. Pooped, in fact. Surprisingly, I am welcoming the excuse the current Nor’easter has given me to stay inside and kick back a little. I’m not going anywhere today.

As far as the craft show goes, it was a combination Basket Auction and Vendor Night sponsored by the local school district. Last year I had some encouraging success at their Vendor Night event (minus the Basket Auction) so this year I tapped my sister to lend me a hand and I sprung for an extra table. Wouldn’t you know it, I sold less than half of what I sold last year, plus I had the added expenses of the extra table and my “hired help.” I had a decent time, chatted with some friends, garnered plenty of compliments and unloaded a whole pile of business cards, so it wasn’t a dismal failure. It just would have been nice to have ended up with more than $50 in my pocket after expenses were paid. I’m considering taking one of the organizers up on her offer of hosting a home party. I am not a great salesperson, nor am I particularly outgoing, so the idea of being the focus of a party is a bit intimidating. Still, after all of the prep work I did last week and minimal payoff I received for it, the idea of having another outlet right now is pretty appealing.

That was my Friday night. Saturday morning, I hopped in the car & drove the nearly 2 hours to Phildelphia for a workshop with Jana Roberts Benzon. Very cool. I made my first (two) Arabesque Cane(s) there. It was a complicated process that took the entire day, but she had excellent written instructions in case I want to try it again at home. I reduced one of the canes this morning into two different kaleidoscopic squares that are very attractive. I want to apply them to something – a pen, or a barrette maybe, and then I plan to scan everything and post about it over in the Craft Room of the Polka Dot Cottage. Or here. Hopefully later today. Since I tend to work quickly, I had brought extra clay with me to the workshop so that I could work on a second version of the cane. I wanted to try one in Sculpey III and see if I could handle doing something *that* precise in clay *that* soft. So far so good – I was able to construct all of the components with no problem. I have yet to try and reduce the cane, though. That will be the real test. I do all of my caning in Sculpey, but most of my patterns don’t involve much precision and are very forgiving. An Arabesque cane is a challenge to do in Sculpey. I’ll try and post some of the results of that experiment later, too. The best part of any workshop for me is when something that the instructor shows us sparks an idea that I can use in my own work. I was lucky yesterday in that one of the components Jana showed us gave me an idea for something I’d like to try. The best part? When I am through adapting it, it will look nothing like her work and everything like mine. That, to me, is worth the price of admission (and parking, and 4 hours in the car). That’s another thing I’ll have to post when I’m through.

So, what I have done today? Reduced a big triangle cane, defrosted and ate an everything bagel from the best bagel place I know of for lunch, cracked open a Dr. Pepper, read all of my email (although I have yet to reply/deal with most of it), caught up on the blogs, tweaked the settings on my own blog a bit, and then sat down with some rainbow goldfish to munch and post. Basically, if you say I’ve been snacking and geeking all day, you’d be right on target. I’ve decided that is all I’m going to expect of myself today. Tomorrow I can get back to the business of processing orders and cleaning the house. Oh, and a BIG CHEER to clarkesworld for his bang-up cleaning job while I was out all day yesterday. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you what a disaster area we’ve been living in lately, but I was just so busy last week with everything I was trying to accomplish that I just couldn’t find the time for housework. I spent all week whining about how I hated to live in those conditions but I didn’t have the time or energy to fix it. And when I came home from my class yesterday, he had made a sizeable dent in the work. Yay! What a nice husband. There’s still a lot to do, but it seems a lot easier to deal with now than it did a few days ago.

Now, if I can peel myself out of this chair, I have a big Sculpey cane to reduce. Either that or I’ll stay in the chair and see what other geeky things I can do. I suspect I’m going to have to get up, though – it’s the only way I’m going to get a piece of candy out of son #2’s easter basket, which he so innocently left here in my room. Good thing he doesn’t keep track of his candy inventory… over the last week, he’s incurred several losses

If you’ve made it this far, you must have been really bored today – are you in your pj’s too, by any chance?

Lisa