A Love Story (Cliff Notes)

I've been a very poor excuse for a blog writer, but I'm back to try again. My life has changed radically in the past 6 months - had major surgery and 2 more hospitalizations. Now healthier than I've been in years, I feel really good. The nightmare home environment I've written about is rapidly changing and I owe it all to this guy named Gene.

Besides getting things done, he inspires and encourages me. He also never criticizes, never contributes to my tendency to feel bad about myself. Quite the opposite: when I see myself through his eyes, I'm not half bad. I was okay with the concept of living alone for the rest of my life, but this is a nice alternative.

It's very hard to explain how we got together, because the whole event seemed to be guided by some other entity. We both had been alone for about 10 years with part of those years spent at the end of unproductive, unloving relationships. I had to move through my own life's journey where I finally learned that I deserve to be loved and that living alone is much better than living with someone who isn't crazy about me.

Garlic Baskets Nov. '12

At the same time, unknowingly I was waiting for Gene to be free of his unhappy life in New Hampshire where he lost virtually everything he owned and took a bus and a train to the west to re-connect with his family and eventually to find me. As if fate had been waiting for the two of us to be free at the same time, our paths crossed and we managed to recognize each other against all odds...

 My basket weaving seems to be getting better - certainly more productive. I just got into a holiday show at Marylhust. The house is coming together and basketry will be headquartered in the room across from my new sewing room which is currently being prepped for paint. The loom room is well on the way to having room for actual looms and supplies to move in and warp up for the winter...The old site for my basketry work? It will become Gene's workshop. He's doesn't sit around watching TV feeling sorry for himself. Like me, he has to create to be happy.

Small Onion Baskets 11/2012

Small Fruit Basket

  This happiness is showing up in my baskets - better work and a happy balance.

Large Onion Baskets

Fanny Basket!

Totes

There's Gotta Be A Pony In There Somewhere...

Success is elusive. I've been chasing it for years and I'm relentless. I think a lot of people would have given up by now, but I'm like the kid who just got a  pile of horse-dung under the Christmas tree who, rather than complain, just starts shoveling, declaring: "there's gotta be a pony in there somewhere...." I keep on trying and I try everything I hear about, (everything that's within my abilities) that is supposed to promote my Etsy shops online - if I can figure out how - I do it..... the blog as a promotion tool comes highly rated...

The best thing I've ever done for myself may just be disabling my television. I can't afford cable and I can't figure out how to hook up the converter box (no, no, no! do not try to tell me how...) so I gave it up. Immediately, I began to get things done that I'd whined about for far too long. Most of my current baskets are listed now. I have maybe a dozen more to list. I'll pop in and blog my progress at least once a week and announce new productions and any shows I may be doing.

I also have added most of my crocheted fingerless gloves, hats, scarves and neck warmers in my 2nd Etsy shop (athenasbohotique.etsy.com) and I've managed to list over 80 books in my bookstore (creativebrainworks.etsy.com) where I sell primarily collectibles, art, craft and instructional books and patterns. I have lots more to list in the last 2 shops and do so almost daily.

One of the benefits of giving up TV is being able to listen to music or public radio while I work. I haven't missed Prairie Home Companion in months. I catch enough news between NPR and the Internet and I don't miss the gossipy sensationalized excuse we have for TV news - not at all. It's beginning to seem possible that I'll get my house cleaned up, my new sewing room painted and moved into...maybe a new reed rack and shelves in my new indoor basketry room. I love to dream about it ....that and the day my son finally moves out allll the boxes of things he can't part with but refuses to move to his new apartment. I love the boy more than life itself, but he just does not grasp the necessity of moving out of Mom's sewing room (because it used to be HIS room).

 I'll be changing my focus at the Hillsboro and Orenco Farmer's Markets this year. No more assorted, miscellaneous lovely splint woven baskets (see Etsy shop!). Those will be available only in the Etsy shop and can be purchased online and picked up at the market (or shipped anywhere). My market booth will focus on just kitchen baskets  - garlic, onion and fruit baskets, specifically. I'm not closing the door to other ideas (raffia hats, anyone?), but I want to focus on my bestsellers and will still use the market to test market new ideas - one at a time.

Okay - let's build a readership in my little blog - what should I give away first? How about a free garlic basket? I'll even pay for the shipping. Be the 15th NEW subscriber to this blog and win a garlic basket (regularly $15-16).I'll announce the winner... as soon as it happens....HURRRY

Coming soon - My favorite Etsy shops and my local Etsy friends...

I'm back ....I think....

I spent the month of December in the hospital, healing. Glad to be home, but everything is different now. The baskets in my Etsy shop may be in limited supply, except for the garlic and onion baskets. I'm still healing and have daily nurse visits, so there are some limitations on what I can do. However, I feel good about getting well. Don't know how well I'll get to be, but I sure feel better than I did before I landed in the hospital. That however, is overshadowed by the angst and anxiety of living on SSI, which is far behind reality as far as "cost of living". I'm not complaining - I own my manufactured home and only pay a space rental for it and I have food stamps. I still come up short for covering my utilities. There is no allowance for other household expenses or transportation.

Okay, that's enough belly aching. If I don't cheer up and start laughing, I'll end up back in the hospital, if I'm lucky. I need humor now more than ever. The highlight of most of my days seems to be the nurse's visit.

Studio Here SOON

My farmers market booth is looking good. I've simplified the display and it looks far more professional than it did last year.




I haven't finished the studio yet, but I've thought it through so much that I know I can get it done in a couple of days. I really need that dedicated space and I need all this basketry OUT of my house. I'm just kind of overwhelmed right now with too much that has to get done.

Made my first antler baskets. Huge things....

Birth of a Basketry Studio

Sure, weaving baskets is very cool... It's an unusual hobby, even more so as a profession, and when told what I do, people sometimes act like they've just met an anachronism. But, it's not all good...let me tell you how uncool it is to live with basket weaving.

Without a studio space, my home has been a living hell for years. Basketry is messy and doesn't belong in the house, but that's where I've been doing it. It's a disaster. With materials disorganized and in every room, except my son's. There's been no place to relax and get away from work.

I've had space available, but it's been buried under a lot of crap for the past 5 years. I am serious when I say buried. I turned into a packrat, but I'll let that indictment go for now, because I'm doing a great job of changing all that. The space in the photo was, at one time, heaped, with only a narrow space to reach the stairs going into my house. As you can see, I'm close to my first goal of an empty space that I can clean and paint before moving in every last piece of reed, tools, assorted materials and work furniture.

The room is long and narrow - about half of it is on the other side of the camera. In the back corner of the room in the photo is the door to a smaller studio space - a converted storage shed where basketry materials have tended to languish for up to 5 years, because the shed is too far from the sun room in my house where I've been weaving. I tend to forget what is there, while some of the supplies in the house get buried and forgotten as well. I have become somewhat appalled with the realization that I've been carrying on activities in my house that belong in a rustic workshop.

I am so thankful for Craigslist and Freecycle. I managed to get rid of all the huge stuff that was in my way - including a pile of 111 ceramic floor tiles, a bulky storage cabinet, camping tent, propane heaters, lanterns, campstove and a lot of other things that have faded in memory. I made a little extra cash off the tiles and heaters - which is great since I lost my backup job 2 weeks ago.

AND, I am excited about this new space - or old about to be made into new. It becomes closer to reality every day, as more stuff is carried away, thrown away or put away. It's not a pipe dream anymore - I'm actually doing it - setting up that studio. Brings me closer to that peaceful home on the other side of the door. It will happen...