How Far By the Seat Of My Pants!

I'm about to update my shop profile, and I thought it would be appropriate to comment on my first Etsy profile.

I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. After college, I found myself living in Wooster, Ohio, where my college sweetheart and I were married in 2003. I taught English and writing in area schools for 3.5 years before our sweet curly-haired son was born. When he was a year old, I returned to teach one more class in the high school setting.

I love being at home with my little guy now. I can't imagine it being any other way, and I know we are fortunate to be able to raise him this way.

* His hair has turned out to be more wavy than curly--I'm sure that won't drive him crazy when he gets older. And he has a sister, who is 9.5 months old. They get along swimmingly! Recently I've taken on a couple at-home jobs: freelance writing for www.handmadenews.org and serving on a volunteer basis as an associate editor of The Artful Dodge.

Since I don't give homework anymore, I have some time to fill (you know, naptime, bedtime...), and I fill it with SeatOfMyPants.etsy.com and grad school courses. In 2 years, I plan to graduate with my MFA in creative writing. Who knows where SeatOfMyPants will be then?

* Ha! I think the big guy must have stopped napping altogether about 5 minutes after I wrote that! He hangs out with me in the workshop while the babe naps, though, which works out well most of the time.

And the end of those 2 years is upon us! My thesis is Bloomington Avenue, a book of poems, and as I've mentioned here before, my reading and defense is July 31. I am SO glad to have been a part of the MFA program--I thought I knew a lot about poetry when I started, and I have learned so much more. I hope to get on board at a college to teach some creative writing.

As far as where SeatOfMyPants is now--if my estimation is worth anything, I have made over 200 bags of various sizes in the last 2 years. Here's another area where I have gained mountains of knowledge! It's amazing what a vintage resale shop sewing machine can do once you get to know its intricacies.

My hobbies besides mommying and sewing include reading, writing, swimming feebly, hanging out with my husband, taking and enjoying photos, and playing the piano. I also love home improvement projects and paint your own pottery places.

* ::sigh:: I haven't been to a paint your own pottery place in ages... sadly... in place of swimming I now have bike riding, and in place of playing the piano, I have being climbed on when I attempt to play the piano. Reading and writing remain solidly.

My favorite food is one I can't buy in Wooster: pierogis! Yes, pierogis, the things I miss most about Cleveland, besides my buds from high school and public transportation.

* Oh fine, you CAN buy them here after all, but frozen does not begin to compare. Can you even CALL those pierogis? We had some mind-bendingly beautiful pierogi in Chicago this spring. They began to compare.

I always dreamed of having my own business--I never thought it would start out as easily as sending an email to all my friends and posting pictures on Etsy.com. I'm so glad to have found Etsy. I hope you enjoy my shop!

* I've given this a lot of thought. This spring I applied for and was not offered a high school teaching job. I had prayed all along that if it wasn't the job for me--that if I was to be doing something else (like making bags for people), the job wouldn't even be offered. When it wasn't, I prayed again, something like, "OK, God, I hear you--but if this is going to work, I'm going to need some customers." And you know what? They have been steady since then. Since I started saving for the big guy's preschool costs no more than a month ago, I have saved over $500--that is 6 months of tuition--profits only!--and it's only June.

And I HAVE always wanted to have my own business! In the 1st grade, I tried to sell tent-making instructions. Throughout elementary school, I opened my own beauty salon (complete with a gigantic sign on our front porch that announced "SALOON" to the neighborhood), my greeting card business--J & J Cards, run with my buddy from day care--oh, and my bracelet making business (I even typed up order forms--on a TYPEWRITER--and brought a box to my 8th grade classroom)--and a handful of others, too. So it's fitting that I'm where I am now.

Starting out was easy. Anybody can open an Etsy shop. Now I know that it takes awesome pictures, a good network--real-life and online--of friends and fans, CONSTANT sewing--and for me, a tremendously supportive family and a prayer--literally!--to make it work.

So here's SeatOfMyPants--

--then















--and now!

Poems

On Friday, I will be submitting my thesis book, Bloomington Avenue.

What a tremendous sentence that is! Do you know what this means? This means that I am DONE!

Well, not quite. I am very nearly done though. This evening I am doing some final revisions (I feel like "final revisions" have included revisions that were far from final!) and preparing a draft to send off to a contest. In particular, there's this one poem about a tree that used to be across the street. One day a couple of summers ago, it started changing into its fall foliage in the middle of July--obviously it had died, or had been slowly dying over a long, long time. It was pretty remarkable to see a tree change that quickly in the middle of summer. Anyway, the poem has felt about half done since I wrote it and did initial revising back at the beginning of my MFA program experience. And last night, as I was contemplating a panel of instructors reading through my book, I realized that the poem was still very far from being done, and that if I turned in that draft, I would regret it. So I wrote some more! I think I took it a little bit too far--I have, evidently, this tendency to wax a little sentimental, particularly about the demise of things in the natural world--so I will be cleaning up a little excess from that poem tonight.

Then there's the task of page numbering. I somehow made it to the end of grad school without knowing how to properly format the page numbers in a paper where the first page needs no number, the table of contents need roman numerals, and the arabic numerals don't begin until page 4 or 5. I hate to resort to this, but I am not too proud to make a document that contains strictly page numbers and print them onto the already-printed draft.

I have high hopes for Bloomington Avenue. I think it is pretty solid as a book. I went with sections, which is something that I didn't think I would do! I had a working order of poems for quite a while, and as a strict academic exercise, I decided to shuffle them in to sections. What emerged were three sections that give the book some structure for its somewhat whimsical--and sometimes very short--poems.

So--off to revise. And then maybe sew.

Open House

Yesterday, I held my very first Seat Of My Pants Open House.  I'd say about 20 people came, which is about what I was expecting (you know, because of that old saying: 1/3 of the people you invite will show up).  It was blazing hot of course, about 90 out, but it seemed like my guests had a nice time.

I made zipper pulls as a thanks for coming gift, and gave away pocket mirrors as a thanks for purchasing gift.  (ChristineRenee's Etsy shop is full of great stuff like that.)  And for fall hostesses, I have a really sweet thank you gift that includes a zippy pouch, a mirror, lotion, and lip balm--all Etsy artists--as well as a coupon for 10% of their party total off their purchase.  (Ivaart makes the lip balm, and StinkyDs makes the lotion--both are phenomenal!)

One thing I was extremely pleased about was the number of already-made items I was able to sell.  I love custom work--I always learn something new when I do it--but I am really kind of running out of time to make stuff this summer!  Not complaining--just stating the facts!  It was also really reassuring to see some of my creations find homes.  It made me think that maybe my taste in fabrics is not as strange as I was starting to think it must be!  Yippee!

Speaking of running low on time: today is the first day of my MFA Summer Residency at Ashland University.  8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for 2 weeks.  It's sort of like a vacation... sort of!  It'll be challenging because I am not in the school mindset yet!  But it will also be really good to get into that mindset once again.