A New Way to Look at Sheep Ornaments and Other Things

It pays to tell others about what you're doing sometimes.

The other day I was enjoying the Yarn Harlot's blog, and she had a picture of an old-fashioned, blown glass sheep ornament on her tree, with a link to where to buy one. I was telling my husband about how the linked ornament was sold out, and he had a great idea: make the sheep in my Nativity Set an ornament to sell. I think that I could sell quite a few, if only it weren't so close to Christmas.
During the new year, in my spare time, I'll be making as many as I can for next Christmas. I also plan on adding a donkey, shepherds, wise men, and camels to the Nativity Set.
At work I was telling a colleague about the whole amigurumi-style animals I was making, and she had a good idea, too. But I'll save it for when the design is realized and I have pictures.
I often get good ideas for creative Christmas presents too close to the day to actually accomplish them reasonably. It's not quite close enough yet for that good idea to hit, but I'm looking forward to them, now that I'm thinking a year ahead instead of staying up past midnight to make whatever it's going to be.

In other news, I've hired a college student to help me turn Mes Amis into a non-profit corporation. That puts me one step closer to accomplishing my goal, which I described in an earlier entry.

Sometimes I don't know where an idea comes from at all. I've been teaching a medical ethics class to nursing students, and before finals at Christmas I wanted to give them a little something, but not just candy or bringing cookies. They sacrifice their time by coming to school at night and studying during the week while holding down a job and trying to have a life as well--that takes commitment, patience, and persistence. I was playing around crocheting, and came up with the idea for a permanent fortune cookie. That way I could type what I wanted on slips of paper and they'd have something to perhaps encourage them. Their fortunes read, "Your persistence will pay off."


Now I've decided to do a whole book of crochet items that can be done in anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours; my tentative title is "Instant Crochet." This will be the first item and I have 50 more planned: