yacoba

I want to thank all of you for your opinions on whether I should take the trip to Holland. I'd meant to post before now that you'd helped me to make my decision. If the opportunity came I would definitely be on the next plane out of Canada.

Unfortunately my cousin didn't realize that a $300+ ticket still had at least $300+ worth of taxes which need to be added. I wanted to be sure he knew that, 'cause as much as I want to go and experience this adventure, I wouldn't be comfortable with him spending more money than he should just because I'm excited about going.

I heard back from him today, only to find out he's sending the $200 we'd agreed on, which means no trip in February. I'm not disappointed in Alwin as I said, his offer was far to generous to begin with. But unfortunately it's easy to say don't get your hopes up, whether you like it or not they're probably already up, so disappointment is bound to happen.

Hasn't been the best of days for me to begin with so I know my mood is just feeding my disappointment. I wish I could say that I'll be able to save up for this trip at some point, but I think so long as I'm suffering from depression and therefore on disability it's unlikely I'll ever be able to save up enough to make this trip.

Best to understand that, than get my hopes up again.

I've made some little progress on my new project. [I've had a hard time getting into it but since I have a deadline looming over my head I can't be all that lazy about it. Not that I ever was with my other projects]

As you can see this looks remarkably like a hippo in water or perhaps a car up on a lift. I'd bet money you'd never actually guess that it is in fact a wolf. [I'll let that sink in for a moment]


You see it now right?

No?

Clearly you lack imagination!

Since finishing Romeo for my mum I've been told by a lot of people that I should start selling my finished patterns. Legally I don't know if store bought pattern could be sold. I believe the woman who runs the cross-stitching store in Peterborough sells them, and for a pretty penny too. Personally I prefer to work on my own pictures which I don't have to worry about copy rights or what have you.

I know this isn't something I could do to live off of, not unless I was charging people $10 bucks an hour for the work. For Romeo that would have worked out to $1000+ as it took me 17 days and several of those days were close to if not over 16 hours. As it stand with all the patterns people would like for me to do [this doesn't include pictures I'm making as gifts] I've asked that they at least pay for the supplies which isn't a lot and it keeps me from going broke trying to do something I love.

Wendy suggested selling them [obviously depending on size and what not] for $200 like she said no matter what I charged I would be up. I really have no idea how this would work out for me. I know my sister's boss has already offered to let me sell my work in her clothing store. But I have no idea what sort of market there is in the area for buying this sort of thing. As I've always seen it people prefer to make these themselves rather than buy them completed [although I'll be the first to admit my view is incredibly limited]

I'm eager to see what sort of interest my work might catch at the local Christmas teas and bazaars next year. That might give me a better idea of whether or not this is something I could actually make some money on as a hobby. I figure so long as I have the spare time I might as well make the most of it.

And I'll put this out here, though I'm not expecting too much interest [but feel free to surprise me!]

Announcement

If you have a photo you'd like to have made into a cross-stitch [whether a pattern you'd like to make yourself or something you'd like me to do] Please feel free to contact me.

At minimum I'd ask you to pay for the supplies, this includes fabric [which you'd have your choice of] and thread. Depending on the fabric you want the price could vary a lot [linen costs more than the Aida. example: Romeo is on linen, Kiba on 18ct Aida] but I'd tentatively say the price would be in the $40 range. Though of course I'd certainly know better once I had the pattern made.

My program allows for a lot of various sizes and the number of colors I use. I won't have time to do anything before Christmas as I'm working on Kiba for Makenna and I'll soon be starting Whiskers for Shuffles [these are the two patterns with real deadlines] I'm pretty sure once I'm not worried about meeting a deadline I shouldn't have any problem at all working on a few patterns at once [but I guess I'll have to wait and see]

Merry Christmas!