What's with this editor?  Every time  I try to go back one space the whole thing erases.  I'd better not make any mistakes!

We're heading out to a movie in a couple minutes, not much to write about.  And I haven't tried to upload photos - not sure I remember how to do that.  Listed 2 new switch plates in my Etsy shop yesterday and joined the PCAGOE June Challenge.

Xanga sent a feedback report!  Which was quite a surprise since I haven't gotten one for about 3 years.  And my last entry was a year and a half ago.  Without the feedback reports, I'd forget to come over to Xanga.  Looks like there have been some changes since I last logged on.  I hope things are more organized than they used to be.  (I wasn't sure Xanga still existed and wasn't interested enough to check it out.)

Still doing polymer clay - not so much in the last couple months, but still doing it.  Clutter in my work area makes it less appealing to try to get anything other than cleanup done.  And cleanup is just not very appealing.  So not much gets done.  I've got an order for some custom switch plates that I need to get started on, but Tom's recent (mild, thank heaven) stroke sort of put a halt to many things.

We've recently been to Santa Barbara to see my granddaughter Kristin's college graduation, and to Chicago for my son Eric's PhD graduation ceremony.  I'm bursting with pride over both of them!  Next trip will be a visit to Andy in Eau Claire, WI.

Stars - for Chanakuh or Christmas ornaments, in gold, with ghost images. Got the first side done, need to get to the other side, then sand and polish - and drill. I found a container of gold clay from last year's Cabin Fever Clay Festival class with Grant Diffendaffer. He was teaching a number of techniques for using mica shift and I still had all the clay with these techniques applied to it ready for application to something. How convenient!

So today I listed the last (almost) of this year's switch plates on etsy (www.marcympc.etsy.com). It's always my wild guess as to what people might search for besides the word "switchplate" or the words "switch plate". So I try things like "wall decor" and "toggle switch cover". If anyone out there has ideas, please let me know!!

So here is a sample of today's listing work:

I have a really big craft fair coming up this weekend at St. Louise deMarillac on McMurray Road in Upper St. Clair (or is it Bethel Park?) (It's where the 2 communities come together, anyway.)
Stayed home this afternoon to finish up some things and also to get started on the next PCAGOE (Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy) challenge - ATCs, otherwise known as Artists' Trading Cards. Not sure what they're good for, but that's what the challenge is and I've not handled raw clay for a while. It's time.

So I'd better get away from the computer or the whole afternoon will be gone without me even noticing 'til it's too late.

Just finished my first Craft Show this past weekend, getting ready for the really big one coming up. It'll be at St. Louise deMarillac Church in Bethel Park/Upper St. Clair this coming weekend. In honor of this show and the demand it may put on my resources, I've finally completed work on switch plates and on 7 clocks, sanding and installing clock parts.

Then I photographed and listed both the clocks and (most of) the switch plates on Etsy yesterday. Some of the clocks are pictured above.

Followers of my Facebook shop page, marcympc, must have felt bombarded with new listings yesterday. I'd be doing more this morning, but Etsy was acting up when I tried. So here I am blogging instead.

With Thanksgiving only a little more than a week away, things are getting kind of hectic. We'll be seeing lots of family members, which means playing lots of board games. I'm looking forward to this. And it's a weekend off from Craft Fairs!

It's getting to be that time of year again - Fall Craft Shows. And to prepare - I'm finishing projects at last! For example: assembling pens and pencils and letter openers -

Getting ready: the medieval torture device in the center of the photo is a pen press - squeezes the pieces together, one by one - a loooong, slooowww process.

Got a few assembled above...

Just a couple of the finished product before the photos are cleaned up for posting on my etsy shop (www.marcympc.etsy.com).

Finally have my craft show schedule together for this fall:

November 12, 2011 – Bethel Presbyterian Church - Holiday-A-Fair, 2999 Bethel Church Road, Bethel Park, PA

November 19, 2011 - St. Louise deMarillac, 310 McMurray Road, Upper St. Clair, PA

December 3, 2011 – St. Margaret School, 915 Alice St., Greentree

December 10, 2011 – Mt. Lebanon United Methodist Church Christmas Cookie and Gift Bazaar, 3319 W. Liberty Ave., Mt. Lebanon

all in the Pittsburgh, PA, area, of course.

This is the pendant that took an entire 6-day workshop to create! And here is the other side:

But I also have a large supply of slices from the cane we learned to build - lots more kaleidoscope items will be coming. And not all of them will be pendants.

The workshop itself was very intensive - 7 AM to 8 or 9 PM with a short break for lunch and a longer one for supper. It was held in Shake Rag Alley - an historical preservation site and art colony in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. A pretty area with very nice people.

I got home last Sunday, but it's taken me this long to organize the pictures I took and to catch up on the email and snail mail that had accumulated during the week I was gone!

Now it's snowing and I've got the fireplace doing its thing - very warm and cozy.

Etsy has come out with a new search engine for the shops. Just this week I decided to learn more to try to increase the traffic to marcympc - my shop. Now I've learned why all the titles of items read like a key word list - that's pretty much what they are. This clock, for example:

was originally titled: A Unique Desk Clock - Black and White and Red All Over.

Now it's:
Clock, black, red, white, desk, wall, by marcympc on Etsy.

Not my favorite title, but it's what Google picks up.

So, two or three at a time, I'm updating all 60 items in my shop, and also considering something called shopads or something like that. You buy space on searches so your items appear near the top of the search. Guess I'll wait until after I get back from the Carol Simmons Kaliedoscope Cane Workshop to decide whether to invest in this kind of advertising.

Since I've posted anything here. Don't even remember the last time.

My first craft show of the season was Sunday - in a greenhouse, no less. Combining art and gardening, I guess. Fortunately, I was busy watching my table, not buying plants. I've been finding it difficult to "finish" my polymer clay items - working with the clay, then curing it is fine, but sanding, varnishing, adding embellishments are all things I procrastinate about. With the fall selling season upon us, best I get busy with those things. After all, a clock without clock works isn't really a clock - it's just a pretty tile.

Next week I'm going to Mineral Point, WI, (Shake Rag Alley) for a week long class with Carol Simmons on making kaleidoscope canes. Her work is amazing - I'm hoping to get at least ideas from the class (and also a cane of my very own).

Just listed this clock on Etsy. Using random effects sometimes creates an an image - or at least the hint of one.

We visited with Dan and Karen for Tim's high school graduation a couple weekends ago. He was home schooled, but there is a ceremony for these kids. There were 21 graduating. Got to visit with Eric and Lori, who also came out for the event. The graduation went smoothly although I surely did NOT appreciate the speaker's remarks.

And the amaryllis have been blooming: