Preparations

You may have noticed that I changed the banner at the top of my page this last week. Please let me know what you think of it. I'm concerned that it still needs tweaking.

The banner is part of the work I have been doing to get ready to set up a shop. One of the things I have been finding is that it is taking an awfully long time to deal with all the details necessary. At the same time, I have been trying to work through a bit of angst over fears raised by the idea of setting up and running a shop online.

While many of the artists who have shops on Etsy are very happy with their experiences, there are questions being raised as a result of changes Etsy has made in its policies over the last year or so. Abby Glassenberg has a blog post at https://whileshenaps.com/ about Three Bird Nest in which she talks about some of the issues highlighted as a result of those changes. It is the kind of thing that makes me stop and consider exactly what my best options are, what I want to get out of an online shop, and whether it will be possible given those options.

Some of my fears are, I'm sure, simply coming up because it is a new prospect for me. I tend to spend a lot of time planning things before feeling ready to move forward. In some ways, this can be detrimental. In other ways, I find it helps because I encounter fewer surprises along the way. The difficulty is in maintaining a balance so that I don't freeze in my tracks.

Speaking of freezing, I was thinking about the difference between Niagara Falls now http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/deep-freeze-creates-winter-beauty-niagara-falls-29074903 and how it was last summer, when we visited.

I'm sure most of us in the deep freeze are looking forward to warmer temperatures and more colorful horizons.

Wishing you peace and all good things.

Bridges from Past to Future

When I was a small child, my grandmother did a lot of embroidery work. Around the same time, she showed me how to sew on buttons and tried to show me how to darn socks. After she died, I inherited many of her supplies, including embroidery threads, buttons, needles, and darners.

From my other grandmother's supplies, I inherited a sewing basket my aunt had made.

These things bring me great joy, as I use the supplies and remember the women whose hands touched them in the past. I have also had the pleasure of showing my children how to do the things my grandmother taught me, and thus, had the opportunity to talk about her and my experiences with them.

It pleases me, too, to be able to sit quietly during weather like we have been having feeling connected with the past and creating anew for the future. I hope you have the chance to sit and enjoy quiet moments.

Wishing you peace.