Whoo-hoo! First full work-week of the year! Do mid-week holidays mess you up as much as they do me? I mean, I already have - at most - a tenuous idea of what day of the week it is. When everyone else I know is suddenly off work Tuesday and Wednesday one week, and then Wednesday and Thursday the next week...? I'm lucky to know if it's a day that ends in "y"! Hahaha. Anyway. What are y'all up to?
In ceramics, I'm getting started on the Mardi Gras HaldeCrate ceramics (whiskey cups and soap dishes), I've got a couple of mug custom orders I'm finishing up, and I'm working on making the replacement ceramics for the Snow Flurries pieces that broke in the mail (I'm still heartbroken about that).
In soap, I'm making a huge list of everything I'm out of (spoilers: almost everything) and I'm getting ready to make a lot of soap next week. I have enough base to make about... twenty pounds each of goat's milk and oatmeal. That should get me close to a full stock of soap. Plus I'm going to make the soap for the Mardi Gras HaldeCrate, and you bet I'm making an extra bar for myself. For, uh, research. Yeah. For science! Anyway, start looking for restocks in soap in two or three weeks, as I can get stuff made and wrapped.
In yarn... even as I write this I am watching yarn dry. I've got all but Yolen dyed up in the new Mardi Gras HaldeCrate colorway (I didn't notice but I ran out of Yolen and so I have some more on order... I didn't want to hold up the yarn dyeing process though so I went ahead and did everything else. I've also got a list of a few restocks to dye up... and of course most of them are in the Yolen base, so I'll be waiting on those for just a week or two. Boy, whoever is in charge of doing inventory around here....? * gives self the side-eye *
In knitting, I found where I've been tossing things as I've finished knitting them, and I have a handful of finished objects to talk about over the next few weeks. Currently on the needles I have a pair of armwarmers in the new colorway coming out next week, and a hat for a friend of mine. Oh, and I need to just do the heel on a pair of socks and I'll be done with those as well!
In HaldeCrate, like I said, I'm working on ceramics and yarn, and getting ready to make the soap sets (and the stitch markers). I may extend the pre-order date by a week, just to give people some extra time to get in there.
In Patreon, I am running a little late with last Sunday's chapter. But I have a map to show for it, that came as a little side-bonus for the chapter. I don't know about y'all, but I love me some books that come with maps. They can be real places, they can be inspired by real places, they can be entirely made-up... it doesn't matter. I blame those early Tolkien books I read, that came with maps of Middle Earth. I could pour over maps for hours, and so of course I want to make the kind of maps for my story that people can also pour over for hours. Turns out... it takes hours and hours to make maps like that, and, uh, I am definitely suffering from the learning curve with this program. I did get the Bonus chapter up on time, the last Sunday in December. And here's your reminder that whenever you subscribe to my Patreon account, you get immediate access to all the back posts - meaning you can join at any time, but start reading at the beginning!
In craft market news, this Friday I'll be back at the Melrose Farmer's Market. I started vending there in November, and then stepped back from it the Friday after Christmas and after New Year's - with family and social obligations it would have just been too much for me to get there as well. In the spirit of not pushing myself so hard this season that I get sick again (and so far that's worked, knock on wood), I decided that stepping back, although my least favorite thing to do, was necessary. But I'll be back there this coming Friday, from 3-6! Locals, feel free to give me a shout any time before 1 PM on Friday to let me know if there's something specific you'd like me to bring so you can see it in person.
In other news... our old dog has an ear infection, so she's getting a lot of extra attention and treats (well, "treats" as in "pills put in pill pockets") and boy howdy she is not a fan of the ear cleaning. She didn't mind it the first couple of times but now that she's catching on about it being a regular, twice-a-day occurrence...? She's less than thrilled. And the cats are getting a little jealous of the extra attention, because that means less time for them. Oh, cats.
Oh! And this week is Quarterly Sales Tax Figuring Week. Yay! My favorite! (Spoiler: not really my favorite.)
I think that's about it for me. Like that's not enough? Starting the year hitting the ground running, yo. How about you? What are you working on? Or how are your hobbies and projects? What are you stalling out on or what is setting your heart on fire? Do tell!