Many changes have been happening since last post!

March 19th 2010..So many changes have been happening since I did away with the other ,older blogs and am starting this new one! First of all, I now have a fantastically talented partner, Grace Lafflin http://www.gracelafflin.com/ who is an artist of many mediums but a superior fiber artist too..and my student Linda S. who literally started getting tutored weeks ago and is already phenominally gifted! We are now selling yarns, soon needles,hooks, and perhaps other "stuff" too, and therefore we have the lovely and super "meaty" sport weight alpaca yarns of Michelle from http://www.midlakecavaliers.com/ -So, at the moment Grace and I have been busy with various projects and soon will be posting them to the website, also Linda and I by myself have various sewing projects we are working on...Sorry to be a tease so I will give some hints: crocheting includes spring clothing for all ages, home decor and sewing includes home decor and pet projects! Please fill out the survery form at the page called "feedback" as not only will you get a discount but we do love having our customers and potential customers input, and don't forget to frequesntly recheck our latest "buy yarn and more" page for more items! Thank you and one more thing, I have had great success in teaching a few ladies via webcam: one from NH, another in Arizona, and a third in VA! So, it works!! May you have a blessed day and week!

Great compliment today from Etsy team member

9/16/09..Here is a wonderful compliment I received from a member of the Etsy design team today:
Sent by MysticSilks on September 16, 2009:We saw your store and we love your work. We feel that you would be a valuable addition to our team and we would like to invite you to apply to join the DesignStyleGuide - Etsy Team. We focus on presenting ourselves as a team to Interior Designers, Decorators and Home Stagers. DSG is the perfect companion to quality Etsy Home Décor sellers' stores. We have over thousand members who are a part of our very active private community where we network and support each other.WOW!! Also, I received word that I passed part one of my official CGOA certification today! I WILL be joining asap!!

More catchup

9/14/09..A quick note..I am soooo busy with customer orders, e-bay and redecorating my 7 almost 8 year old daughter's room, that I really haven't even thought of blogging..I hope everyone out there is hanging in there during these crazy, tough economic times, and may God bless you...This table runner (burgundy, navy and white) is a special order done in shell stitch for a special friend who is giving it to another special friend for Christmas...make sense? Lol, seriously though, it will probably appear at the top of the page somewhere even though I want to paste it HERE! More as soon as I can, with cool afghans coming up in the next few months..

9/15/09..Just a brief note about my crochet class tonight (Simple crochet at BOCES in Liverpool,NY, see my "shows" page for more information)...I was told there would be 8 students and there are 12! We are off to a great start working on a double-stranded potholder already on night #1, I took a vote and the majority wanted to get into a project first before learning new stitches so we did, and it was fantastic. During the day I was crazy with redecorating my littlest one's bedroom before she sees it tomorrow (kind of pre-birthday gift), and working on my usual several crochet projects at once (actually I tamed it down to: an alpaca sweater for myself that is 2/3rd's done, a last dishcloth for a customer, beginning a cute, design it myself as I go along pixie-ish hat for another customer and a few squares for a new bathrobe for the 7 year old.. I just couldn't bring myself to work with anything smaller than an "F" hook today, as there is a gorgeous pair of socks I am doing for anotehr daughter with a "D" hook, but my hands were hurting too much...they won't ALWAYS hurt like this I have to tell myself, and I will work them on another day! God bless everyone in internet, facebook, twitter,and blogger land!

Sorry, it is time to play catchup!

8/29/09..My Gosh, I haven't written in any blogs in the longest time and I apologize, I vow to be "on top of my game" from tonight onwards! For an update, in my personal life I (like everyone else) am having some major stressors and am turning to more prayer to cope, and also am having tough times financially, but I know that they could be worse and God is awesome because through prayer and inspiration by the Holy Spirit I have been brainstorming and will let you all know what happens with my ideas the moment they come to fruition so I can give the glory to God and also perhaps give other folks out there ideas and hope! One think I am finishing up that is very time consuming but I am sure well worth it, is the CGOA certification program...also, through persistence, my site is finally climbing up there slowly but surely in search engine ranking and I belong to organizations like Q flea and NYS crafters that have a plethora of information and truly wise business people...so I gleen much form paying attention to folks on those sites plus common sense. For examle, currently 30% of my sales come from the search engine/website iteslf, 70% through business cards and friends/church aquaintances, word of mouth and just plain wearing stuff that people see and like and order that way. However, craft fairs are a dead zone for me, the last 4 that I did were a severe disappointment. So I will be avoiding them like the plague...My desire besides other things I can't ,mention until prayers are answered is for more webcam lessons/tutoring formally even in other subjects like Spanish and such at local universities...Well lastly before my husband has a ahissy as he wants my attention, my latest projects are: bathrobe for my 7 year old, hooded poncho for her too,a set of curtains for the bedroom (crocheted), 3 different and gorgeous sweaters for myself, a new purse, 2 rugs,several pairs of socks in diferent styles and legwarmers, and several afghans...More soon, I promise, and God bless you and keep you!!

Haven't written in a while

8/29/09..My Gosh, I haven't written in any blogs in the longest time and I apologize, I vow to be "on top of my game" from tonight onwards! For an update, in my personal life I (like everyone else) am having some major stressors and am turning to more rayer to cope, and also am having tough times financially, but I know that they could be worse and God is awesome because through prayer and inspiration by the Holy Spirit I have been brainstorming and will let you all know what happens with my ideas the moment they come to fruition so I can give the glory to God and also perhaps give other folks out there ideas and hope! One think I am finishing up that is very time consuming but I am sure well worth it, is the CGOA certification program...also, through persistence, my site is finally climbing up there slowly but surely in search engine ranking and I belong to organizations like Q flea and NYS crafters that have a plethora of information and truly wise business people...so I gleen much form paying attention to folks on those sites plus common sense. For examle, currently 30% of my sales come from the search engine/website iteslf, 70% through business cards and friends/church aquaintances, word of mouth and just plain wearing stuff that people see and like and order that way. However, craft fairs are a dead zone for me, the last 4 that I did were a severe disappointment. So I will be avoiding them like the plague...My desire besides other things I can't ,mention until prayers are answered is for more webcam lessons/tutoring formally even in other subjects like Spanish and such at local universities...Well lastly before my husband has a ahissy as he wants my attention, my latest projects are: bathrobe for my 7 year old, hooded poncho for her too,a set of curtains for the bedroom (crocheted), 3 different and gorgeous sweaters for myself, a new purse, 2 rugs,several pairs of socks in diferent styles and legwarmers, and several afghans...More soon, I promise, and God bless you and keep you!!

Check out my Facebook page too please!

http://sewcrochetions.com --Hi friends!! So sorrythat I have not written in so long, I vow to get writing again...Recently my 2nd youngest daughter moved out to go move in with sis and my hisband came back this past Sunday after being gone for two weeks working in Canada...so essentially I was alone recuperating from a pretty major surgery: cystocele repair with sling placement,rectocele repair, rebuilding of the vaginal wal and displacement of an enterocele that was stuck in tmy vaginal vault...needless to say embarrasing and painful,but I sghall share more soon along with commentary on my surgery, experience, and new pics of my workks amonst other interesting topics :))

How it feels to teach a crochet class-Part Two

As I ended yesterday, I finished by recounting that: I had to hear from the truly lovely secretary how much my class thought I was a "terrible teacher"...yes, even the lady who was from my beginner class now was disgusted with me. But my story doesn't end here! Part two tomorrow....
So, as I was trying to process this knife-like sensation in my stomach, the sweet secretary went on to tell me that I could just go on home and that I would be hearing from the lady who hired me soon. It is probably needless to say, but I sobbed all the way home. I went over and over what I had done wrong to these people to deserve such cold treatment and of course, I already pictured my immediate firing. I prayed for God to give me the right words when I called the office the next morning, but no one answered nor did they call back that day. Time seemed to tick backwards, and when I called the following day, the lady who I spoke with, in charge, I will call "Cindy", said that I would be receiving disciplinary action but they weren't sure what it would be at that point. The same day I received a copy of a complaint filed by the "sweet lady who did bead crochet". It was chock full of venom, and basically she tore me to shreds not about the granny square issue, but the prior episode where the directions for the pattern were wrong, I hadn't caught it earlier, so I said that we should scrap that and move onto another topic and I would research the problem later....wow, that was a true shocker to me. But, ok, now I had to accept and move on from here, make this a learning experience, and not dwell on the negative. I felt I should be grateful that I wasn't fired, and I was(am), and ask for and gladly accept whatever the "consequences" were for this debacle.
The remainder of the month, (yes, that is the time table this had taken on) I worked on other aspects of my life, my online business websites, etc...had taken a backseat to the crochet course, so I began to upgrade my sites, take on and complete new projects,began studying for web designing so I could create another website entirely on my own. Finally the word came, I was to take a class at BOCES and observe another instructor and how they taught...I had choices and I chose knitting. I really enjoyed it and what I learned besides some neat knitting techniques were as follows: this instructor was confident and authoritative but flexible-I wanted to mirror that more so than I thought I was. I also learned that I was teaching enough content, that it was perfectly acceptable to work on the concepts that I had in my class syllabus, and not go any further for students that felt that they "had this" and are/were impatient to move on when the majority clearly did not "have this". The students who excelled could look over materials that I always brought with me, or they could work on projects that they had been encouraged to choose themselves. Overall, this very frightening experience turned into a positive one.
In March, I will be taking a correspondence course offered though the CGOA (Crocheter's Guild of America) to become a "certified" crochet instructor. I know that for me, I need to have that extra confidence that the certification will bring. I have taught several classes successfully at BOCES since this incident, however, I have never been able to fully put the feeling of trauma/fear/distrust past me yet, but I am working on it and I keep on crocheting!