What's On Your Job Description?

Do you ever wonder how a high school guidance counselor would describe what you do to a student who wants to follow a similar (ahem) "career path"?

On Saturday, I made willow heart ornaments to include with orders in my Etsy shop between now and Valentine's Day. That was in the "Marketing" column of my to-do list. Throughout my careers (three, as best I can count), I've done a lot of making that went into the marketing column. A few examples come to mind:

• dyeing Easter eggs (30 dozen at a time)
• building retail display fixtures
• painting signs
• fusing fabric to paper for product hang tags
• sewing garments

(OK, that last one's a stretch, but I put wardrobe in the marketing column because it's part of an artist's brand. Otherwise, I'd probably wear jeans to everything except weddings and funerals.)

Several of the young people in our life are just starting their first careers. On Saturday while I was making willow hearts, I was pondering what they may end up doing in those careers.

I got no answers, just a pile of willow hearts. I have no idea whatsoever what will happen even in the next chapter of the lives of these young adults. We're just staying tuned, a loyal audience waiting to see what they make of the world.

How about you? What's the most unusual thing on your job description?


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Does This Revise Your To-Do List?

December is a month for impossible to-do lists that look something like this:

• Select and/or make perfect gifts for everyone.
• Wrap those perfect gifts creatively, beautifully, inspired-ly.
• Decorate home (interior and exterior) perfectly so it accurately reflects a) love of family, b) love of season, and c) love of Martha.
• Turn oven to preheat for perfect baking every time you enter the kitchen.
• Spend time with family and friends making perfect memories.

We all know that's impossible, don't we? Does that stop us from trying to attain at least a few of those impossible goals -- and work, too? Um, don't answer that.

This year, I decided to post a Daily Doodle on my Facebook page every day in December. It was my commitment to myself to spend five minutes a day during the season of impossible goals to do something that's doesn't aspire to perfection -- just a simple little doodle on a 3x5 index card. I missed one day, which I blame on the sugar coma induced by overconsumption of Christmas cookies. But on the whole it started off as a very do-able and enjoyable routine in a month where routine is turned on its head.

And then I did something insane: I thought, "Why not take this opportunity to practice doodling with the Wacom tablet I bought last summer and haven't taken out of the box?"

On the one hand, I've enjoyed spending a few minutes a day away from Etsy selling and gift making and preparations for an upcoming eCourse -- just starting to learn how to use this new tool. On the other hand, I find myself on a slippery slope that leads toward a midden pile of impossible goals: I seem to expect more perfection from something made using an unfamiliar device that has to be plugged in than from something made by my own hand in the few minutes it takes for the oven to preheat.

Over the weekend, I put away the tablet, went back to index cards, and got some perspective. I may still be insane, but I have some perspective on my craziness. In other words, I got my tongue unstuck from the frozen lamp post that pops up when I double dog dare myself to try something new in the presence of witnesses.

And then today, a holiday miracle arrived, via Liz Massey's Creative Liberty: Liz shared The Done Manifesto by Bre Pettis and Kio Stark. Here are my favorite elements.

#6 -- The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.

#10 - Failure counts as done. So do mistakes. And

#13 - Done is the engine of more.

It may be impossible to be perfectly at peace with imperfection and failure to achieve the impossible. I wouldn't be able to diagram that sentence perfectly, but I'm OK with that, too.

Have you recently recovered from some impossible expectation? Hit the comments button below, or tell us on Facebook. I double dog dare you!

5 Tips For Holiday Shopping On Etsy

Etsy is a great place to shop and support independent artists, but it can be a little overwhelming to some people (cough/guys). Bill, for example, looked like a deer caught in headlights when I first showed him the site. (He finds malls even more frightening.)

If you know someone who freezes at the thought of shopping for gifts (probably not just online), I'd love it if you shared these tips:

5 Tips For Holiday Shopping On Etsy

1. Start somewhere specific. Ask for a specific Etsy shop URL (like donnakallnerfiberart.etsy.com) and start shopping there. When you don't know exactly what to look for, it's hard to come up with Search parameters that don't bring up thousands of results. Your friends and family would be happy to suggest some shops. Just tell them who you're shopping for, and they'll point you to a good place to start.
2.  Look at the shop announcement. At this time of year, many sellers include a shipping deadline announcement just below the banner. And when you click on an item, look for phrases like "ready to ship." Things that are "made especially for you" are better saved for some other gift occasion (for which you will shop earlier).
3. Look at the listings. The shop may have several pages of thumbnail images. Click on a thumbnail to see the full listing. On the full listing page, you'll probably see several smaller thumbnail photos to the right of the main image. Click those to see different views of the item. There's also a zoom lens below the lower right corner of the photo, when you need a closer look. Read the full description, including where the item ships from. You'll find the price and the "Add To Cart" button in the right-hand column. You can buy with a credit card: You don't have to have a PayPal account.
4. Get advice from the seller. If you don't find just the right gift in that first shop, click on the shop owner's profile link. I'm about to tell you how to get free advice that can lead you painlessly from your starting point to other Etsy shops with the coolest stuff.
5. Look for the seller's Treasuries. Below the "About" box on the seller's profile page, look for a box that says "Treasury lists." Some Etsy sellers curate collections called Treasuries. Generally, a seller won't include their own items in their own Treasuries. Instead, they showcase other work they admire. Click "See More" to open a listing of all the seller's Treasuries. Click on a thumbnail within a Treasury, and it will take you to the listing in another seller's shop.

I've curated several Treasury collections, including this one of hostess gifts.

I hope that helps, Bill. And Charlie. And Bob, Jim, Austin, Tony, Clay, Shawn, Larry, Al, Craig, Dan, Alex, Dave, Don, Wayne, Herm, Mo, Jay, Jef, Mike, Steve, Tom...

What's On Your Year-End Inventory?

With 2012 garden catalogs starting to arrive, it won't be long before well-meaning people start talking about New Year's resolutions and creative goal-setting. Bless their hearts. That's way down my list of things to do right now. But I think I am going to take a little time to inventory some of what I've learned this year. That should make me feel better about how much is still on my to-do list. Could the same be true for you?

December Daily Doodle for 12-7-11 done on tablet

For me, the past six months have been one big roller coaster ride on the Great Technology Learning Curve, which included the purchase of a new laptop with a new operating system and all new open-source software. At that time, I also bought an inexpensive Wacom pen tablet for digital drawing.

Last night, I finally loaded the software and started practicing with with the tablet. I figured my December Daily Doodle project on Facebook would be good incentive to work with this new tool. I forgot that my December Daily Doodle project was intended to be a few minutes of creative relaxation in the midst of the hectic holiday season.  I'm sure doodling on the tablet will be relaxing. Eventually.

Willow-dyed scarves by Donna Kallner on Etsy.com

I've learned other things this year, too. Like tagging and SEO. Until recently, my New Age Looping book was the only item in my Etsy shop, and most people found it because they had the link from my web site or blog. When I decided to get serious about selling other things on Etsy, I knew there would be a learning curve. Understatement. It feels like learning a whole new language. Choosing tags that help search engines help shoppers find you is as important as learning to ask "Where's the bathroom" in a foreign country. There may also be a secret handshake. I haven't learned that yet.

And then there's the stuff that's so easy once I learn it that I can't fathom why it took me so long. Like today: I saw on another Etsy seller's web site a Page that goes directly to her Etsy shop, and thought I'd add a similar Page on my blog. I figured it wouldn't take more than a half-hour. What a pleasant surprise to find it was as simple as clicking one box I never noticed before. In fact, it was so easy I made a Page link to my Spoonflower fabric shop, and one to my web site, too. Those are on the bar at the top of the page. OK, this is not earth-shattering stuff, but I can see what I got done today.

And a lot of days, you can't see what you got done. I'm lucky to have Bill to remind me that I didn't do X because I did Y and Z and I had to learn A through W to get those done.

Next time you consult your December To-Do list, think about all that you could put on a To-Done list. What's on your year-end inventory?

Willow, Indigo, Discharge And Free Shipping

The turkey carcass isn't cold before thoughts start turning to the holiday after Thanksgiving. If you'll be doing some shopping over the next few days, I want to let you know about what's happening in my Etsy shop.

You can use coupon code 2REDTHREADS to get free shipping on willow, indigo, and discharge dyed scarves. If you're in Wisconsin (as I am) and want to support a Wisconsin artist, I've added another coupon code for you: Enter SHOPWIS at checkout and I'll pick up the shipping and the state sales tax.

You'll find indigo-dyed circle scarves, discharge-dyed silk scarves, and more willow-dyed scarves in my shop (including the 35"x35" square silk scarves like the one shown above).

I've also added a few scarf pairs to wear separately or together, like I showed in this post. 

You can find it all at www.etsy.com/shop/donnakallner. Happy shopping and have a great weekend!

Giving Thanks

With the clock ticking down toward Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, I've been pretty focused on getting listings added to my Etsy shop and getting ready for some family time. But I want to take a short time-out from all that to say something important:

Thank you! Thank you for reading. Thanks for your comments. Thanks for sharing your ideas and inspirations and even your frustrations, because those often lead to more ideas and inspirations.

I appreciate your interest in my wild notions about willow-dyed fabrics, your support of my quest to make looping and netting common again, and your enthusiasm for all things fibery.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. And if you decide to do a little online shopping over the holiday, please use coupon code 2REDTHREADS in my Etsy shop to get free shipping through Cyber Monday. I appreciate every purchase. But most of all, I appreciate each and every one of you.

How Do You Explain To The Neighbors?

This was a week for simmering, dipping, wrapping, rinsing, ironing, and catching the light to get pictures of more willow-dyed scarves to go in my Etsy shop.

This afternoon, I cleaned up a bit and got Bill to take a picture of me in the willow bed. There's a local show coming up next week, and I needed a photo to for some PR.

Shows like this give me a chance to tell the neighbors what that is growing behind my house. And why I grow it. And how cool it is. I even get to throw in "sustainable" and "renewable."

How do you explain your obsessions to the neighbors?

Window Shopping

One of my favorite things to do when we visit friends in southern Iowa is to drive past an old garage in their small town (smaller even than our small town) and peek in the windows.

If you were to peek inside my windows right now, what you would see is a mess. In the push to finish products for holiday sales, well, you know what happens to horizontal surfaces.


Yesterday I pushed back the piles up by the window where I take photos. I needed shots of proofing swatches to post with the new designs for sale in my Spoonflower shop. If you click News in the left panel on Spoonflower now, you'll see the designer's fabric photos and pictures of products made from their fabrics.

 

Here's the fabric from the design I made with repperpatterns.com and talked about in this post.

Before the wave of debris rolled back into that area, I got some shots of willow-dyed scarves for my Etsy shop. I have the first few items posted now, and will be adding more as I get them photographed. It's gray and gloomy today with snow in the forecast. Snow cover actually makes it easier for me to photograph, so I'm all for it (with apologies to those out east who could have done without snow so early).

Our recent warm weather made holiday stuff that appeared in stores before Halloween, for Pete's sake, seem just wrong. But now, it feels like time for a little window shopping, some in town, some online.

But before I can wrap gifts, I'll have to move a pile of books off the table downstairs. That's a window I really don't want anyone to peek into.

Cyber Swoop But No Shopping Bag Story

There's a dusting of snow on the ground, the Salvation Army bellringers are back in town, and I'm in a holiday mood. To share the joy, I've added a special bonus to orders of my book New Age Looping. Through December 17, each book order in my Etsy shop ships with 30 yards of hand-painted Irish waxed linen and coordinating beads. That $10 value is really priceless, because the painted thread adds such depth and richness to even a simple looping project.

If you're hunting for other gifts online, here are a couple more places you might look: (Blogger is feeling fussy and I'm having trouble posting images, but you have a great imagination and links to click.)

•  I added a Swoop Page to the blog recently to let you know when I have things for sale -- like the two small art quilts I just placed in my Etsy shop.
• I don't know about you, but I have no trouble coming up with gift ideas for women but get stumped on some of the guys. Our neighbors Shawn and Stephanie can solve that problem for you. They use absolutely stunning, high-quality fabrics to create hammocks and messenger bags. Right now in-stock items are 33 percent off, and they're offering free shipping. Here's a peek at one of their messenger bags.
•  Spoonflower is offering two-for-one pricing on fat quarter tea towels through Friday. There are a few I might have to add to my collection of vintage linen calendar towels bought at thrift stores!

I spent the weekend working on holiday gifts I'm making from fabric I dyed in the indigo vat last week. If you're interested in indigo, I tagged a post from Japanese Textile Workshops in the Loose Ends box on this blog's far right sidebar. I'll post the tote bag story and picture I promised last time next time when Blogger is behaving better.