End of the year update

 

There has been so much going on over here in the foothills. The holidays came and are finally over, so things are starting to settle down.

Somehow I managed to get all my Christmas orders out in time, including some hats I designed and donated to a family in New Jersey. I don’t know how I got all that done, but I do know that by the time I was done, my fingers and wrists hurt so bad I wanted to cry, but it was all worth it!

And now for some pics! I have two WIPs this week. One is some selfish crochet –arm warmers just for me, made from   My new favourite yarn!  I got it in the November colourway, Harvest Sweets. I’ve not finished it yet because I’ve had so many orders coming in lately, but I try to work on it when I can steal a few minutes for myself!

Yes, those are crochet cables! From what I can gather, not too many people think they can do them, but I’m here to tell you, they are WAY easier to do than you might think!

 

And now for the other WIP! This one is for a client and it’s a super special one, but that’s all I can/will tell you for right now.

 

And that’s how the end of my year is shaping up over here. Hope yours ends as well!

 

Michele 

LiveJournal Tags: crochet,yarn,handmade,baby,blanket,wristers,arm warmers,caps,hats

Something I never thought I’d do!

 

Well, this morning I did something I never thought I would ever in a million years do!

I made my first appearance as a vendor at a craft bazaar! OMG! I really wasn’t sure how my designs would be received, that’s always one of my biggest worries, even though everyone tells me I have some awesome ideas.

Anyway, I was blessed with my own cheering squad: Skyler and Lily and my incredibly supportive and funny sister-in-law Tara (who hates having her picture taken, so you’ll have to take my word that she’s beautiful inside and out and has an amazing spirit). We had a great time!

And boy was I surprised when my Uglee Little Elf Hats completely sold out! I danced a little jig on the inside, and I think Tara saw it. And the Ethan design wasn’t far behind, as well as a couple of scarves and my donut dog toys. THEN I was told that people were touching the hat & scarf set I donated for the door prizes and that everyone was waiting for that one to be drawn and hoping they would win! When they finally got to mine, they announced that it was donated by Uglee Little Things, but that it certainly wasn’t ugly, that nothing I had was ugly. That, ladies and gentlemen absolutely made my day.

So, I don’t think I need to tell you all that I have been on cloud nine all day and I think I should just go ahead and place the Vendors Market at India Hook United Methodist Church on my yearly calendar, since it’s my first, and you never forget your first. Or the amazing people we met there.

Finally, here’s a look at my table, and a lot of respect:

See those beautiful brochures and the super cool table sign? Those were designed by my DH Danny, since he wanted to pitch in and help, even though he’s on tour in Australia. How incredible is he?! He needs a cape I tell you! I should probably make him one . . .

 

The only other news I have, and this is pretty big, is that I’m setting up the online shop and my Artfire  for Cyber Monday. So, once I’m done with all the back side work on that, I’ll post about it and then you guys can come clean out the rest of my stock! LOL

Now to enjoy the evening with the bonus kids!

MWAH!

Michele

Technorati Tags: crochet,hats,caps,scarf,scarves,craft bazaars,craft fairs

I wasn’t joking!

 

Remember in yesterday’s post how I was talking about it almost being Thanksgiving and the leaves were changing but I still had flowers in bloom? Well, here are pictures. And yes, the Confederate Rose blooms at this time of year, so that’s normal, but the Hibiscus? A tropical plant still in bud, in the foothills, in November? It’s like I have my own weird little weather microclimate in my yard.

Across the street

Our front yard

The view down the street

Our barn, no livestock in there, Danny (DH) stores his guitar stuff and spiders in there, although I think it would be a nice place for miniature goats or chickens . . .

Our backyard, with a little Confederate Rose peeking into the corner.

The bare-nekkid tree is the one that was half taken down in the spring storms this year, you can still see the fallen half on the ground, as well as the scar left when it fell. It narrowly missed our house. It was a nerve-wracking night, to say the least!

And here are my lovely knockout roses, which absolutely refused to bloom this entire summer, but decided to give the yard a little Thanksgiving colour

This is the Hibiscus I was talking about above, see the HUGE buds all over it? Another one that didn’t want to be a summer bloomer, along with one frazzled little dragon-wing begonia still blooming.

This is our gorgeous Confederate Rose. These are hard to come by and this one is HUGE! I was so incredibly happy to find it in our backyard, right next to the house.

Confederate Roses bloom white and over the course of a couple of days, they darken to pink, then to purple then they fall. It looks like a giant confetti party in the back yard.

And this is what the blooms look like in pink. I don’t have any that have gone purple yet, but when I find some, I will post a picture here for you to see.

That’s what my yard looks like this morning. Pretty nice, huh? Yeah, I think so too.

Now, here is what I have on my hook:

It’s called entrelac and it looks more complicated than it is. I discovered it on Ravelry and decided to try it and I’ve fallen in love with it. It’s a basic Tunisian Simple Stitch, worked in two colours, but you can do it in as many as you want, so I’d say this could be a good stash buster!

And now, I return you to your regularly scheduled programming, or loafing, whichever . . .

MWAH!

Michele

Technorati Tags: autumn,fall,barn,livestock,crochet,entrelac,cowl,roses,hibiscus,confederate rose,blooms,caps,hats,scarf,scarves,baby

A little bit about me . . .

I usually post about things that I’ve made, or that interest me, or general stuff about me. I’m not really sure why that is, it just seems that sometimes I would rather hide behind those things than admit that I am human.

But here it is. I think I’m ready to admit I’m not a Vulcan, or a Romulan, or a Klingon. I am something of a Trekker, as well as a HUGE Star Wars geek (in fact, when I walked down the aisle 2 weeks ago, it was to “The Imperial March” aka Darth Vader’s intro music). And in case you’ve not noticed, I am in love with crochet. I like the way the yarn feels in my hands, I love seeing things come to life at the end of my hooks. And there is nothing better than seeing the smile on the face of someone who has received one of my Uglee Little Things.

And there are people out there who think this blog should be all about shameless self-promotion (I could be the Poison of the handmade world I’ve been told.) But I think it should be about more than that. I think it should be about me and my world and my life. In short, I want to use it so you can get to know me. And then you can understand where I am coming from.

So, here goes. Even though it’s not a secret among my family & close friends, I don’t generally broadcast things about my health to the general public. This makes what I am about to tell you a huge thing. I have fibromyalgia.

I know, not a shattering diagnosis. It’s not like it’s going to kill me. Nope, sometimes, I think that would be preferable to the constant pain. No, I’m not suicidal, so don’t get bent out of shape and leave comments about how much I have to offer and how much life I have left. I know all that. Besides, as anyone who knows the real me will tell you, I’m more homicidal than suicidal LOL!

I deal with this thing every single day. I get that I don’t look sick, therefore people outside my close circle don’t know that every morning it’s a miracle I can get out of bed and get downstairs to take care of the fur-kids, work on my budding business and then go to my “real” job. I’ve even had family members question my status. And that hurts.

I’m pretty tough, I can get things done. But this thing has sucked away my energy, I stay exhausted and have had to learn to deal with stabbing, shooting pains all the time, just in different parts of my body. Right now, they are centered in the arches of my feet. You can imagine how fun that is, can’t you?

And still I get up every single day and force myself to get through the day, and take care of the people around me. And I still put up this front of being completely self-reliant. Asking my husband to put commonly used pots and pans on a shelf in the pantry was a huge blow to my ego, but I could no longer climb up to get them out of the cabinet above the stove.

The fibro is one of the biggest reasons I started Uglee Little Things. I’m pretty sure eventually I won’t be able to work much at all, and as long as the pains stay out of my hands, I can crochet. That gives me a certain amount of freedom, knowing I can create these beautiful things to help bring in some extra money. I am something of a boot-strapper, I don’t want to have to go on disability, I don’t want to live off the government, not when I can do something.

So, this is the extent of my whining. I try to not do much of it, I don’t like it. Not only coming from me, but coming at me as well. We all have the freedom to choose, to decide how we are going to react to certain things. Notice, I said above that I have fibromyalgia, it doesn’t have me. I know it’s a thoroughly modern ailment and I wonder what causes it, if there will ever be a cure. But I can’t live in what-if, I have to live in the here-and-now, and that means finding relief for myself somehow, some way. Perhaps this blog will turn into a chronicle of that journey, maybe it will just be a way to let you see the world through my eyes. I don’t know yet. I will continue to post things I’ve made, and the smiles they’ve brought to the faces of others.

In short, I think this blog will turn out to be about Michele and her life, not how her disease has ruined it. I hope you’ll hang around and enjoy it with me.

Maybe you can also answer why I have new growth on my roses, and why they are still blooming while everything else except my camellia is dying off. It’s almost Thanksgiving and I have roses blooming. That makes me laugh . . .

MWAH!

Michele

Technorati Tags: crochet,kids,children,hats,caps,scarf,scarves,handmade,fibromyalgia

Now that the madness has ended . . .

Now that all the insanity surrounding the wedding has ended and I’ve had a chance to breathe, I’m back to work on Uglee Little Things! WOO HOO!

 

First up, I finally finished Trinity’s hoodie! *happy dance* It only took me a month because I was having such a hard time keeping everything straight with the wedding, but this is why I am SO grateful: Trinity’s mother Sarah was so very understanding, and was happy to receive updates on how it was coming along. She also understood that I was having to heavily modify my usual pattern and that that sometimes takes a little time. Sarah is a truly amazing woman and I can hardly wait to deliver this gem to Trinity!

And now, I have some time between orders, so I decided to make something for myself! I’ve not had much time to do this for a while, since I’m always designing and making things that immediately go to new homes to be loved. And what did I choose to make for myself? Origami Socks!

I don’t know what it is about handmade socks that makes me so happy. There’s just something about them. And I love sock yarn, but my fingers and hands generally don’t, by the time I’m done, they’re all cramped up and begging for relief, but I love the finished project!

I’ve not done the seaming yet, and I still have the second one to make, but here is what it looks like before doing the actual origami part:

 

I know you’re looking at that picture wondering just how something that looks like that will become a sock, but believe me, it will! I’ll post another picture as soon as I have them both finished and you’ll go “Oh yeah! That makes sense now!”

So, let me get back to work on them!

Technorati Tags: hoodie,socks,origami,crochet,sock yarn,yarn,blue,purple,handmade

New beginnings

 

Things here have been insane and stressful and enlightening and wonderful and nightmarish and I am so ready for this to be done so we can all relax and enjoy each other’s company.

 

Just what am I talking about, you ask? Simple. Our wedding. Everything is slowly falling into place, but there have been times when it’s felt like we’ve been trying to re-engineer and re-build the Pyramids, using Lincoln Logs.

 

Fortunately, all the dresses my bridesmaids and flower girl are wearing showed up and they are all gorgeous! I did something different. I’ve always loved sumptuous sarees, with their bright colours and sparkling, intricate embroidery, so all of us girls are wearing sarees. Mine is bright red, which is a lucky colour for a bride to wear; Tracey (who introduced me to Danny), my sis Samantha, my friend Alecia and my beautiful daughter Bethany (who models all my Uglee Little Things creations on the website) are all wearing purple sarees with bursts of green and other colours. Lily, my simply adorable step-daughter, is wearing a burgundy embroidered a sparkly salwar kameez that she says makes her feel like a princess. Which is kind of the point, if you ask me. This is where I found all the sarees & salwar kameez: The most beautiful, exotic clothing

 

Weddings aren’t just for/about the bride, there are a lot of other people who need to be recognised as well. All the people who help plan, take time out of their day to help make decorations, in our case, help carve pumpkins, make cupcakes, all the minutea that goes into this particular celebration.

 

And our wedding is going to be as different as we are! It’s a costume wedding, from the beginning we’ve always said that we want our friends and family to relax and enjoy themselves, and since no one ever seems to know exactly what to wear to a wedding, we put out the word that everyone should wear costumes. Basically, it boils down to this: we’re having a costume party, kicked off with a marriage ceremony!

 

That’s the biggest news here . . .

 

Now on to something else, something about Uglee Little Things!

 

Here is my WIPW (Work In Progress Wednesday):

 

It’s a hoodie for my friend Sarah’s daughter Trinity (such a beautiful name for a beautiful little girl!). Last year Trinity was really in to pink, so I made her a pink pom-pom Uglee Elf Hat. This year her favourite colour is apparently purple, so here is her purple hoodie. I’m hoping to have it finished and assembled in time for Finished Object Friday!

 

And that’s all for today folks! Enjoy the rest of your humpday!

 

Technorati Tags: crochet,hoodie,kids,child,children,purple,wedding,Halloween,costume,saree,salwar kameez

Such a great weekend!

 

 

 

For those of you who don’t know, my sweetie is a luthier. He can design, build and repair just about any stringed instrument. And even though he says he has no problem with me asking question about this that and the other thing in his shop – Fret No More Instrument Repair – I can never keep anything straight in my head. All the strings and electronics and tuners make my head spin. I’m sure it’s that same with him when I talk about yarn and hooks and stitches and gauge swatches.

 

Anyway, one of the downfalls of his job is that he goes on tour with different bands and is gone for a good part of every year. Which, really, is why I have so much time to work on Uglee Little Things.

 

And every so often, he works for a band which is an awesome band. Mostly they’re on what I call “heritage tours” (I’m sure that’s not the industry name, but they’re bands who’ve been around forever, this time it’s Journey/Foreigner/Night Ranger) and those guys have kids and long standing marriages and value family, so they schedule blocks of time off in interesting cities and encourage their crews to fly in wives for romantic weekends. And that’s what happened this past weekend!

 

PHILADELPHIA! WOO HOO!

Of course we had Pat’s Cheesesteaks, which are only the best sandwiches ever anywhere in the whole entire world! Danny’s tour manager, Todd, ordered in bags full of sandwiches for the bus ride to the Hotel Palomar, where we were staying for the weekend (stay there when you go to Philadelphia, it’s amazing and the staff is so good at spoiling guests & their watermelon sangria cannot be beat). Yes, bus ride, as in the tour bus, which most people think is super glamourous, but I can assure you, it’s really not. Tour buses are just super lived in RVs! LOL!

 

One of the things Danny and I like to do is find out of the way restaurants to try out in each city and on a rainy Sunday afternoon, we found just such a place – Pietro’s. Really good, unpretentious Italian food. Here’s how happy Danny was:

 

And then later that night, Todd and his girlfriend, Lois (who was super awesome and the newest member of the Road Crew Widow club) invited us, Eric & his wife Wendy and another crew member, Glenn, to Morimoto’s for sushi. And that was also amazing! Tim there took such good care of us. This is another place I would recommend checking out when you get to the city!

And yes, of course we took the tour at Independence Hall and saw the Liberty Bell! Danny was more interested in the Masonic history of the city, since he is a Mason.

 

Here are some pictures of the Masonic Temple, I think Danny said it’s the one of the oldest, if not the oldest Temples in the country, not the building mind you, but the group. I love architecture, and to say that this is a beautiful building is an understatement, I adore the attention to detail in every part of the facade.

 

And finally, a picture of how I feel about Danny:

 

 

It was a great weekend! So, big thanks to Night Ranger, Journey, Foreigner for scheduling and another big thanks to Todd for sending out a day sheet that told everyone to relax and enjoy a weekend on the road with their wives and girlfriends, since those are few and far between in a life on the road!

 

And with that, much love from Danny and me:

 

Technorati Tags: Philadelphia,Pat's,cheesesteaks,Independence Hall,Liberty Bell,Masons,Masonic Temple,sushi,Morimoto's,road crew,touring

Just a little aside . . .

THIS:  To permissive parents from the rest of the world.

Every once in a while, I come across a story that rings true with me. Like this one.

When my girls were growing up, I was what is now considered a Free-range parent. Same with my step-children now. I don't like people hovering over me, so I certainly don't want to have to hover over little people who are supposed to be exploring the world around them and learning how to live in it. However, that doesn't mean that I let them get away with being rude or acting out. I was lucky enough to have The Look and more than enough military training and bearing to keep them in check without having to lay a hand on them.

But permissive parents just irritate me to no end. They make me want to scream. Obviously, I am all for leting children explore, but there is a time and a place for everything and that time/place is not where you can inflict your ill-behaved child on the rest of us because you don't want to deal with him/her. As I told a lady in the grocery store (after scaring her child with the story of Krampusz after he hit me with a box of cake mix) if you consider your children your pets (meaning favourite little thing, not a literal pet) then you should at least learn to control them in public.

Rant over.

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July, I know I did! I will be posting pictures of completed projects in the next few days, as soon as I get them done!

Let's all attack a very good program. NOT

I know I posted yesterday, but today, as I was reading the news, I came across this little nugget:

Does the 4H desensitize children to killing?

Now I don't know how many of you grew up on a farm or are currently living on a farm, but this makes no sense to me. The 4H program is solely to blame for the desensitization of our society's children? What about TV, movies, video games, the local news, the international news? There is a whole slew of things that are contributing to this problem, but this writer, and the commenters, choose to focus on a program developed for and geared toward rural kids who are growing up on and around living, breathing, working farms.

Guess it's better to let the little ones believe (like more than a few kids I've met recently, who've never even been on a farm, much less lived and worked on one) that meat magically appears, shrink wrapped, in the cooler at the super market. Gotta protect them from everything in the world all the time.

Personally, I would prefer to live on a farm and actually see where my food comes from and have a hand in producing it so it would be as safe and as a healthy as possible!

Work In Progress Wednesday

Technorati Tags: handmade,one of a kind,crochet,work in progress wednesday,beanies,skullhugger,skullie,scarf,Piedmont,foothills

Hello again everyone! Well, those who know about this blog anyway!

Things here in the foothills have been a little hectic, to say the very least. At the moment, we have yet another storm brewing outside, but that’s pretty common for this time of year around here.

What’s getting on my nerves is that our power company seems to be having such a hard time with what seems to be a failing infrastructure. But I won’t talk about that today, since I don’t know how long the power will be on, I better get to it, huh?

I’ve been busier than a one armed paper hanger these past two weeks, I updated the website, Welcome to the World of Uglee Little Things, and made the shop more user friendly. Everyone seems to like the new format. I also added a few things, a new hat, couple of new scarves, a toy section. I’m trying to keep the creativity going!

I’ve also been working on some brand new designs for ULT, keeping up more with the Twitter, Uglee Little Twitter and Uglee Little FaceBook.

In short, I’ve been busting my butt getting this empire to get up and run. It’s taking quite a lot, and I usually get my best ideas when I’m designing something new, and since I’ve not been feeling 100% lately, I’ve been whipping up quite a few new things.

Which leads me to Work In Progress Wednesday! WOO HOO!

I know it doesn’t look like much of anything in this picture, but what it turned in to is a puff stitch slouchy beanie! I used the pink yarn I got from a focus group I did a couple of months ago and made it feminine, but I’m sure that in a darker colour, it could be just as cool for guys. In fact, I think I might make DH one, in purple, his favourite colour. Maybe he’ll remember to take this one on the road with him when he goes on tour, since he tends to “forget” the other stuff I made for him to take along LOL!

In other news, I also realised I have a 6’ long x 3’ deep x 2’ high sideboard stuffed to the gills with yarn. So it seems I need to go on a yarn diet! Only I can’t seem to make it stick, since I’m always finding gorgeous yarns on sale and I never know when I might need that yarn for a quickie project. So, I’m working on busting the stash so I don’t end up on A&E’s Hoarders, which seems to be a fear of DH. And since everything I need to make ULT the ruler of the crochet universe is in this sideboard, I tend to put my finished projects there to await having their picture taken while the stitch lock dries. This is what it looks like right at this very moment:

There are 7 scarves, 2 hats and a chignon waiting for their portraits to be done. All that in the space of a week. Mainly because every time there’s a storm here in the foothills, the power goes out and I can’t do anything else other than create, so that’s what I do!

Now I have to figure out how to use SEO so everyone will think of me as the go-to person when it comes to trendy, up-to-date and funky crochet doings!

MWAH!

Chel

Technorati Tags: handmade,one of a kind,crochet,beanies,skullhugger,scarf,Piedmont,foothills

What a week!

Technorati Tags: crochet,storms,one of a kind,handmade,koi

 

Now technically, I live in the South. Normally I have no problems with this. I actually grew up here and have spent the majority of my life here.

Where I do have a problem though is when the weather gets stupid.

Growing up, we always had afternoon thunderstorms. My cousins and I used to play in the rain and it was great fun!

These days, those thunderstorms seem to be a lot worse.

Take Tuesday night for example. We had a line of storm come through, like always in the spring and summer. But this time it was something otherwordly. There are 4 ways into our neighbourhood. Of those 4, three were completely blocked by fallen trees. Not small trees mind you, these were anywhere from 4 to 5 feet around, completely covering the road.

Then, when I get home, my dogs are freaked out (which in all honesty, was to be expected). I let them outside and discover that about half of the oak tree in our back yard is now laying in the yard, less than 10 feet away from our house.

The next day, I discover that the electrical system on the koi pond was hit by lightning.

As of today, the koi pond is back up and running and all the fish survived and have been fed, so they’re happy  I’m sure.

And now that everything is almost back to normal, the tree is still laying in the yard, I can get back to work!

Here are the pics of the damage:

Spring is here, sort of!

 

Things here have been insane! Just as I get over one thing, another pops up. It’s been almost like a death of a thousand cuts, to be honest.

But I’m back, and I’m working on stuff for the shop. New designs, new colours, new kinds of things. Lately  I’ve been working on some bigger projects, baby blankets and such, plus teaching my adopted sister, Samantha, how to crochet. I tried teaching my other sister, Stacey, but she has absolutely no patience and on top of that, she has carpal tunnel, so that was a no-go.

Sam, on the other hand, took to it like a duck takes to water and she already completed two projects while visiting me for my birthday week! I even showed her the super secret recipe for my signature Uglee Elf Hats and she whipped one up for her hubby Daniel.

And I have to say, it was so nice to have someone to chill with and work through skeins of yarn and just chat.

I think that with all the connectivity and speed and desire to be bigger, better and badder than everyone else, people have forgotten the simple things. And that makes me sad on so many levels.

I know that I get tired of running all over creation, trying to keep up with the Joneses. I really don’t care what the neighbours have or say about me. If they want to have a house full of flat screen TVs and computers so they don’t have a chance to connect on a more human, simpler level, that’s their choice. I personally can’t stand that choice anymore.

Yes, I have a cell phone, yes, I have a laptop and a desktop and two flat screens. But at the moment, all the TVs do is give me background noise, I don’t really pay attention to them, especially when my own hubby is on tour. The sound of  another human voice can be soothing to an extent. I wish I could turn off the cell phones and not be connected all the time, but like many of you may know, I have fibromyalgia and a weakened immune system and when Danny is on tour, he likes to be able to get in touch with me when he has a down moment, and since we never know for sure when that is, it’s impossible for me to completely disconnect the cell phones, unless I’m actually physically asleep.

And I use the computers for my business, but I try to not stay on them all day, and I really don’t have a set in stone schedule for updating the webstore or this blog. I tend to run out of things to write about, so when I have something to say, that’s when I blog or update.

But none of things are absolutely necessary for my survival. They are nice to have, they can make life easier. But I’ve lived longer without them than I have with them. And I think that makes me uniquely qualified to enjoy simple things like glasses of ice water and teaching my sister a new craft while we catch up with each other’s lives. And when I get to enjoy those small things, I end up missing them more when they are gone, and I can hardly wait until they come back.

Sometimes I just want to tell everyone to slow the hell down, literally smell the roses (my Almost Blacks have bloomed into these huge fragrant blooms that are breathtaking) or the coffee or whatever it is that makes you smile and then sit down with a friend or a sibling. With Sam, we can sit and work on our projects and not even say a word, and still be close. And there is nothing wrong with that. I think that’s the mark of a true friendship, being able to say everything without saying anything.

So, if I am asked about the key to true happiness, I’d have say, being surrounded by nature and having friends who understand what you’re saying when you’re saying nothing at all. And not thinking that you’re so important that everyone and everything else in the world needs to revolve around you. It’s a lot of stress and bother, being the center of the Universe. Sucking all that light and sound out of the lives of others can really wear you down, you know? 

Personally, I’m happy being out here in the Universal sticks, on my own spiral arm,  having coffee with my dogs and playing in my yarn stash. A lot less stress, believe me!

And now I’m done with this rant. Why don’t you grab something cool and refreshing to drink and go sit on the porch, rub the ears of a cat or dog or bunny, and enjoy the sun and the silence. Then let me know how you feel while doing it!

MWAH!

Michele

 

The biggest step has been taken, now what?

Well, over the weekend, I bought my domain name! And then found a hosting site and began building my own online shop. WHEW!

Never thought I would take that step, but I did and now I have a whole new world of things to think about and plan for and to be honest, it is daunting, but with all the help and assistance and praise I've been getting from my family and friends, I know I can do this! 

Of course I am still worried that this may not be as successful as I hope, I know the statistics about new businesses. But you never know until you try, so here I am, trying. What's the worst that could happen? Yeah, nevermind, don't answer that! LOL

But the best thing for me right now is seeing my hit stats go up every day! I keep telling myself that the more traffic I drive to the site, the better people will get to know my talent and then the business will take off, so that's what I am doing these days. It's a modest start, but as of last night, I'd had almost 300 hits, which isn't bad, considering I only launched it Friday afternoon!  

So, I am keeping my chin up and reading about marketing (my friend Tom swears by "Guerrilla Marketing") and figuring out new ways to get the ball rolling!

Last, but not least, to all those who've asked for specially customised things, you guys rock! Keep telling all your friends about me, please!

Meanwhile, here's the link to the shop, feel free to leave comments, any feedback will be greatly appreciated! 

The World of Uglee Little Things

xoxox

Michele

Big things are happening here in the land of Uglee Little Things!

There's been so much going on here the last few days! I've tried my hand at making dog sweaters, with my pooch Eddie as the model for the prototype. As you can see, he is absolutely thrilled with his sweater. Actually, he just flopped over and stared at me sideways, then found a way to pull it off by dragging his back along the underside of the coffee table. Back to the drawing board, need to make it fit better!

And in other news, I was talking with Danny about where I'm going in life and what my passion is and how the fibromyalgia affects my other job and he looked at me and said, very simply "You make some of the nicest things I've ever seen, the colours can be strange, but you are so good at all this design and crochet stuff. You should follow your passion."

So, after some serious thought about whether or not I have the fortitude and desire to make this work (I decided I do, by the way), last night I bought the ugleelittlethings.com domain. He's been helping me work on it this morning, since I am not the most computer literate person on the planet. I will be honest, I am nervous, worried about failing, wondering if people will come to the shop . . . all sorts of things. I've not really sold anything out of the ArtFire shop, but people have looked through and contacted me about making custom pieces based on what they have seen, so it's not as though nothing has moved out of the house.

I just have so many concerns and worried and all the rest that goes along with starting a business! But, with some help from my friends, I will give it a serious try and just promote myself and my work to death!

xoxox

Myscza

Spring is here! In case you didn't know it!

Well, as we all know, spring is finally breaking in many places around the country. Here in the foothills, we've had some particularly gorgeous days! Although today was awfully windy, it was still warm and sunny, and that's what I like, warm, sunny weather!

The holidays were surreal. We had to cancel our Thanksgiving plans to volunteer at the church when Mom was rushed to the hospital. She had to have emergency surgery but she is beyond fine now. So, that left Thanksgiving dinner in the hands of me and my sister! OH NO! It turned out to be awesome though! Danny made his famous stuffing, Roddy made the trifle, and we all had a decent time, although we missed Mom, and Dad, very much!

Christmas was better! I made Mom what I like to call a "Box of Love." Her being rushed to the hospital made me realise just how much she means to me, and to keep my hands busy, I started making hearts. In all colours, shapes & sizes and designs. I even figured out how to make a Dutch Heart, which turned out beautifully. Then I put them all into a very happy little hat box and presented it to her. It now sits on the hearth in their living room, for all to see. Next time I am over there, I should remember to take my camera so I can sneak a few shots to post here!

And now it's warming up. And this makes me very happy! The only bad news I have is that I've finally reached a diagnosis for all the pain I've been feeling all these years. I have Fibromyalgia. Yes, it's painful, and yes that hit me like a ton of bricks. But, I have started treatment, and although I am in the middle of a flare-up, I can deal with knowing that people now understand that it's not all in my head and that there is a course that can be followed to help me have more better days than crying days!

 And through all this amazing chaos, I have two babies to crochet for. Our godson, Christian, Jr will be here in June and our good friends Jill & PJ have their first little one coming in August! I'm already working on Junior's first blanket, and I am looking for a super special pattern and yarn for Jill & PJ's first born. I am a firm believer that all new babies, and some grown ones (like Danny) deserve to have handmade blankies and bears to comfort them.

 And now it's time for a special picture before dinner. This is my friend Sarah's daughter, Trinity, wearing her very own custom ordered pink pom-pom Uglee Elf Hat! Her mom says she LOVES it! And that, my friends, is just one of many, many little happies in my life!

 xoxox

 Myscza