September through December, 2014

A few months ago one of my best friends made the very big and very brave move of moving in with her boyfriend. All of my friends are becoming real adults and it scares me a lot. As everyone knows, a big move requires a housewarming gift. My mom didn’t think it was terribly appropriate, but I know Sarah and even if I don’t know her boyfriend as well, I know that she would never date a guy who couldn’t appreciate a good patriarchy smashing.

Most of my fall was spent getting ready for my first ever craft fair- the Indie Craft Experience in Atlanta- the weekend before Thanksgiving. Aren’t my mom and I cute? Also notice the picture of me making my first ever sale using a Square reader. It took some figuring out. Craft fairs are very different than internet selling, but I loved the immediate feedback and seeing who gravitated towards what. The fair was super well organized and all of the other vendors I met were so kind and excited to be there. I also learned a whole lot about how I need to change up my booth and approach for future craft fair success. Let’s see what improvements we can make in 2015!

And a quick picture of my last 2014 project. Cat shoes for a wonderful friend that took far more doing than initially anticipated.

That’s all folks! I’ll be back next week with some individual project posts…

May through August, 2014

I started taking pottery classes in May and I quickly got obsessed. I’m not very good which, as someone who is usually pretty intuitive when it comes to crafty stuff, was hard for me to accept. But I love it so much. A lot of the thing I do involve me at a desk or on my couch, hunched over and paying attention to very painstaking detail. Pottery lets me be big and messy (much to my teacher’s dismay) and since I’ve been doing a lot of screen printing onto clay, my pottery classes have also encouraged me to draw more- another thing I’m not particularly good at but am really growing to love.

    

My second big knitting project of the year was a lace sweater. Just for the hell of it. Again, I like knitting projects where I can learn a new skill, and I like knitting projects that look really impressive. This one fit both of those criteria. And just like the last one, I gave it away as soon as it was finished, but that’s okay-it looks a lot better on my friend Rebecca than it did on me.

    

    

Self care has never been something I’m very good at. I can be exceedingly hard and demanding on myself and unforgiving when I don’t meet self-imposed standards. This past year, with all of it’s new stresses and anxieties, only served to further a lot of my bad habits and fingernail biting tendencies. Sometime in June my friend Nico sent me an e-mail and told me that I needed to practice being kind to myself. I’m not great at self care, by any means, but I am practicing and now I have a reminder to hang on my wall.

January through April, 2014

  
About twice a year I forget how much I hate knitting and I commit myself to a big project. My first big knit in 2014 was a shawl that doubled as a constellation map of the Northern Hemisphere. I learned enough new skills- chart reading, adding beads, edging- to keep myself going through even the most awful,boring, never ending parts and when it was done, I promptly gave it away.Happy Birthday Nico!

    

No craft defined my 2014 like the Punk Ass Book Jockey papercut. I made the first one in late January and it set off a string of my now kinda signature silhouettes, paid homage to my love of both Parks and Rec AND librarians and helped me figure out my drawing to draft to final product process. The Punk Ass Book Jockey evolved into it’s final form over the course of a few months, it was a hit on the internet, my number 1 Etsy seller and in November Buzzfeed even featured it in a listicle of 33 Parks and Rec items to Treat Yo’Self to. It was the best of times. That Buzzfeed article is also how it got on NBC legal’s radar and how I got hit with my very first cease and desist letter.

I grew up going to a lot of church camps. Like, a lot. And the most camp like church camp (and therefore the most fun) was Camp Glisson: 1 summer week sessions with, like, actual cabins and college kids as counselors and swimming pools and nature hikes and whatnot. At the end of each week the counselors would surround the campers and sing them a song. “My friend, I think of you daily” they sang as they promised to remember us, love us and pray for us from afar. It was an emotional moment, so much so that I can’t even watch youtube videos of much more recent Camp Glisson send-offs without tearing up a little. My favorite counselor from Camp Glisson grew up to become a pastor at my parent’s church and at the end of last year, she and her husband welcome their first baby, a beautiful girl and a future Camp Glisson camper.

When Sean and Larnie got married last year I made them 100 napkins. For their first anniversary I went with tradition and a paper gift- a papercut, featuring silhouettes with Sean’s signature hat and Larnie’s signature bun, and their first dance song. This one got there on time.

    

The Lost Year

And I’m back. Let’s just all agree to call 2014 the lost year and pretend it never happened.

Deal? Deal.

2014 was a rough year for so many people and I was no exception. Moving to an entirely new place, where I knew no one, proved to be more challenging and isolating than I anticipated. I had such a loving community of friends and found family in DC and leaving them hurt in ways both expected and unanticipated. 2014 was a pretty solitary year and at times a lonely one. But it did force me to learn more about myself, to ask the hard questions about what will make me happy, both personally and professionally. I don’t have any real answers yet, but at least I’m getting more comfortable asking the questions.

Here’s to 2015 being a better year. To traveling more and beating up on myself less. To making things that I want to make for the people that I love. And to keeping a blog again.

2014 wasn’t a complete wash: I did make a lot of things this year that I truly loved, so over the next few weeks I’ll be showcasing some of those projects before moving on to newer and brighter things.

Happy 2015 y’all, I’m glad it’s here and I’m glad to be back.

A sneak peak of what’s coming next week…