"Shakespeare" is the Etsy search term for today!

I'm headed to Shakespeare in the Park tonight, for Richard III with a bus full of teens who enjoy such outings. It's a last-day-of-school tradition I started when I took over the sponsorship of Literary Guild.
JBlackdesigns is a new favorite shop of mine, filled with literary treats. This photocard bears a message well worth delivering.
I adore this quotation. In fact, it's one of my tattoos. EasyLifeProductions lets you choose: art print, mini-print, card---no matter what, it's yours for a low, low price.

Urbanbead offers this groovy pendant. Wear it to publicly demonstrate your affection for The Bard.

Scattered Thoughts

I haven't made the time to create anything new in more than a week. Between grading papers and attending holiday functions with my family, I'd have to sacrifice a lot of sleep to work on my crafts, and with all the viruses floating around at work, I know I need to sleep each night.

Fortunately, I have inventory galore from craft show prep, and can list one or two items a day for a while. Key fobs and pendants (like those pictured above) are now on my Etsy page, http://grayeyedscorpio.etsy.com.

I have a snow day (ice day, actually) today and am all caught up on grading, so if Booper naps this afternoon, I'll begin work on a custom purse order. My sister-in-law gave me a beautiful cape made of a woven suiting material that she wants transformed into a bag. I've been rolling ideas around in my brain for more than a month now and feel ready to begin. I am enthusiastic about it, though I generally dislike custom work. I don't mean to sound ungrateful, for I'm flattered by requests, but the constraints of an assignment take the fun out of the process--just like with reading. I love to read and will often finish a book in days, but if it's assigned reading I approach each page with reluctance.

Also, with a custom order, there is fear about "messing up". When I make my one-offs, I'm just playing around with fabric and seeing what happens, but when I'm working on something specific, there's pressure.

On an unrelated note, I recently discovered that seat belts are expensive. I had planned to integrate seat belts from wrecked cars into my designs as straps, handles, and embellishment, but a trip to a salvage yard demolished that plan. To cut one seat belt from a wrecked car was going to run me $30 or more. No thanks, I'll stick with my suppliers of nylon and cotton webbing. Seriously--$30!?