Rainy Day Memories

The SD card in my phone died a couple of days ago. Fortunately, I've got photos backed up on Google+, Facebook, and Flickr with my best photos on 500px. But while checking to make sure I hadn't lost anything I really wanted to keep I ran across this one and I just had to stop and look at it again.

I took it while spending the weekend in New York City with some very special friends in July, 2012, when we were surprised by a summer shower. Ducking into a doorway to get out of the rain and wait until the storm had passed, I snapped this photo. I'm not even sure why but it's become one of my all time favorites. 

Maybe it's because I've always loved rain and it takes me back to playing in puddles when I was a kid. Maybe it helps me remember to stop and look for the beauty and serenity that might be right in front of us when we're surprised by life's little inconveniences. 

Or maybe it just reminds me of the company I was keeping that day.

Mt. Lebanon: A Picture of Love

I took a picture 32 years ago of a little girl sitting on her daddy's lap. It wasn't posed, it was just something I noticed happening. They knew I was there with my camera but they were paying attention to each other, not to me. And in that moment, I tried to capture an image of their love for each other.

Last week I found out it worked.....

It's summertime so I've been thinking about Mt. Lebanon lately. That's a Baptist camp south of Dallas where I worked every summer during my college years. It's also where I took that picture 32 years ago. Most recreation staffers for the Dallas Baptist Association youth and preteen camps worked only one or two summers. I think I may have set a record with my five. Now I can't help but think of Mt Lebanon when schools let out for summer and the temperatures rise above 90 degrees.

I've posted a few Mt. Lebanon photos on Facebook and some of the kids I met there all those years ago have found me there. I am honored that they remember me and surprised at all the stories that come tumbling out of us as we talk about our time there.

This past week I took the time to tag some of my Mt. Lebanon photos with the names of some people I've found on Facebook and that started a conversation with Gary and Valleta Lanier and their daughter, Leah. Gary was my youth minister at the First Baptist Church of Oak Cliff in Dallas when I was a teenager. Valleta was my Sunday School teacher and friend and Leah was a cute little kid who loved running around with all of us teenagers, frequently getting passed from lap to lap at all of our parties and retreats. We were delighted to find each other and started sharing memories of Mt. Lebanon where Gary had frequently served as Music Director, bringing Valleta and Leah along with him.

While we were chatting I posted the photo of that little girl sitting on her daddy's lap. Here it is, along with some of the Lanier family's comments:

Leah: Awe....I'm crying! I'm such a daddys girl! Thank you Donna!... I remember this....I remember my little shirt and I remember the wonderful staff @ camp who made a name tag for me so I could be just like them! ;)

Gary: That sure is a cute little girl.

Leah: She's a Daddys Girl all the way! Was then and still is!....These are all such beautiful memories for me...absolutely beautiful!! And I am still pretty much that same little girl!!!! :) Thank you all for sharing all of this, so very much!!!!!!!!!!! Love and blessings to all of you!!!!

Gary: What fun days in Cedar Hill at Mt. Lebanon. My youth has been renewed.

Valleta: I am OVERWHELMED... so many emotions. She LOVES her daddy and has followed in his footsteps with her incredible voice and songwriting gift... this is an incredible picture. Thank you for posting it....You will NEVER know how precious they are to us.... They love each other so much. This picture is beyond words to all of us. Thank you.

For 32 years that photo stayed in a box, shuffled from closet to attic to basement. Why did it take me so long to share it?

Why did it take years to recognize that the ability to see and capture that moment is a gift, meant to be exercised and shared?

I have so many stories and photos of my experiences, places I've been, people I've learned from. I've been keeping them to myself. It's time to share them, so I've started writing a book. Hopefully, they will touch hearts, spread hope and open eyes to new possibilities.

What are you keeping hidden away that could be a blessing to someone?

Isn't it time you shared?

You never know what kind of blessing you may receive in return. To see what I mean, just listen to this song, by the little girl in that picture, Leah Lanier. Thank you, Leah!

NYC October 2010 Part One

It's been a month since my trip to New York City for Crystal Chappell's fan luncheon and I'm just now blogging about it. It took me a while to come back down to earth and edit all the photos I took there and decide what to share online. But more about that later. First, let me tell you how the weekend unfolded.

I met my friend, Jill Lorie Hurst in front of Brother Jimmy's restaurant on E 16^th St. I'd first met Jill, former Headwriter of Guiding Light, via Twitter and Facebook and finally met her in person when we took our daughter, Jackie, to New York City to celebrate her 18^th birthday a couple of months ago. Jill met our train at Penn Station and spent the day with us and we couldn't have had a better tour guide. Jill has become a wonderful friend and an honorary member of the family. I could say more about her, but I'll save that for another blog post!

Brother Jimmy's on E 16^th street is a great barbecue restaurant run by Jessica Leccia's husband, Brian Malloy and that's where the Venice and CcandFriends fan luncheons were being held. I saw Brian there and he called me by name when he spotted me. He recognized me from my picture on Facebook (he accepted my friend request after I'd sent a handsewn purple teddy bear for Ivy) He talked to me about the teddy bear and how he liked the photos I'd included of it in progress as a sort of biography of the bear. He also talked about the "Dimples" design I did for my Zazzle shop. He said when he first saw it he thought it was really cute, then he did a double take and said, "Wait... that IS Jessica's smile!" I told him how I'd done a pencil sketch of Jessica's smile from a photograph first and then finished it up in my graphics program. He told me Jessica would be at the CCandFriends luncheon the next day. I was hoping she would be because I really wanted to meet her.

The Venice luncheon had been over for a while but some of the fans were still there. I saw some people I knew from Twitter and Jill and I talked with them for a while, then she took me out to dinner at one of her favorite restaurants. I have no idea where we were walking but it's always fun to wander and explore and my favorite thing to do in New York City now is to just spend time with Jill! We walked through Washington Square Park and I could have spent a day or two just taking pictures there but I didn't take even one. I had my new DSLR, but I was trying not to go into "crazy photographer" mode too soon!

After a lovely dinner and delightful conversation, Jill walked me to the RF Lounge, the lesbian bar where the free Venice event was held. (She wasn't staying for that but we planned to meet at Brother Jimmy's again after the luncheon the next day.) We had just arrived and were standing at the top of the stairs in front when Kimmy and Crystal came in right behind us. I tugged on Kimmy's coat sleeve because I've talked with her a bit on Twitter and via email and I didn't think she'd mind but I didn't want to bother Crystal. Kimmy turned around and recognized me, presumably from my Twitter avatar, called me by name and gave me a big hug. She thanked me for everything I'm doing to help Crystal. Then Crystal turned around to see who Kimmy was talking to, saw it was me and she also knew who I was and gave me a big hug. She thanked me for everything, saying she sees what I'm doing, that she's keeping an eye on everything (and I have no doubt she is... she's a very smart lady). If I'd had to leave right then, after an afternoon and dinner with Jill, plus hugs from Kimmy and Crystal, I would have gone home happy, but the weekend had just begun!

Outside in front of the RF Lounge I found Sasha (@Cubfnatic) the CcandFriends president, and @Winwitter and @catikins9 (who might actually be a cousin of mine!), longtime supporters of Crystal. I also met @oliviagotjokes (Venice Fan Club president). She was dancing around and talking to other Venice fans. I went up to her and said "Hi, I'm Donna". She stopped and just looked at me for a second and said in a little voice, "You're Donna?" Then she grabbed me up in a big hug, lifting me off the ground, and said "You're so tiny!" OK, she's about a foot taller than me, so I'll give her that! It was great to finally meet all of them in person because we've had some amazing heart to heart talks via Twitter and email and the CcandFriends weekend chats.

As I made my way through the crowd at the RF Lounge now and then somebody would say, "Hey, you're Donna!", again, recognizing me from my avatar on Twitter. I recognized most of their Twitter names when they identified themselves. I had a couple of really interesting talks with girls there (and also at Brother Jimmy's earlier) thanking me for being involved with this fanbase, since I'm a minister's wife, telling me about the issues they'd had with their faith and their churches when they came out to their families. I really appreciated what they shared and told them there are a lot more accepting "church people" like me around, you just don't hear as much about them as the anti-gay ones.

I also met Leslie Penny, Crystal's publicist and Cindy Tingley, who is part of the technical/website part of Team Venice (aka "Team WeFixSh*t"). They found me before I had a chance to look for them and introduced themselves. They were very gracious and I was delighted to meet them. Each person I met who works closely with Crystal was really as sweet as could be. Very welcoming, too, putting everybody at ease, making sure everything was taken care of at the events. And all my new friends took very good care of me as I was looking for the lady who was letting me share her hotel room. We had planned to meet there but as it turned out, she'd gone on to the hotel. But my new friend and native New Yorker, Betty, got a cab for me (thank you, Betty!) and it whisked me away to the hotel where I met my very generous roommate, Valerie. We stayed up talking for at least a couple more hours about Otalia, Guiding Light, Venice, politcs, religion, and horse farms (she manages one in Kentucky)! 

This only covers my first few hours in New York City that weekend and there's plenty more come! But for now, I'll leave you with a few of the photos I took at the RF Lounge. I decided to shoot with available light as much as possible to try to capture the feel of the place and show what it looked like if you were really there.

 

 

Charlotte

I had a visitor yesterday.

Ordinarily she would be an unwelcome one but this time she didn't bother me at all since she never came in. I didn't even know she was there until I opened the curtains and looked outside. I don't know much about spiders, so I can't say for sure if my visitor was a she or a he but but my daughter said we should call her Charlotte and I don't think she'd mind.

When I opened the curtain I saw the spider web covering most of the bottom half of the glass door. The photographer in me couldn't resist grabbing my camera and taking some pictures. Moving furniture around to minimize reflections, crouching and then lying down on the floor to find the best angles (because a good photographer will do whatever it takes to get the shot) I took a dozen or so photos. My subject didn't seem at all self-conscious.

Sometimes nature amazes me.



So delicate

So intricate



Functional

Beautiful



Just a spider doing what spiders do. Nothing special.



Is this web a trap...

...or is it a home?

The answer is


Yes.



This morning I opened the curtain, thinking I would take more pictures in the morning light.

The web was gone.

Without a trace.

It must have taken a great deal of Charlotte's time and energy to construct something so large and so detailed. I wonder where it went. But school and jobs and appointments won't wait for me to spin any more webs in my mind and it's time to face the day .


I'm glad I took those pictures when I had the chance. Now I have evidence that it did, indeed, exist.

What if I hadn't taken the pictures... or even taken the time to notice Charlotte?


What is

valuable

beautiful

useful...?



Is something more precious because it lasts a long time or

is it more precious because it is so fleeting?



The answer is


Yes

A Significant Investment

I bought a camera.

Let me say that again.... I bought a camera.

I hardly ever spend any significant amount on anything, mainly because I never have any significant cash.


About 25 years ago I took a leap of faith and bought a Minolta X-700 and a couple of lenses. As time went on I was able to add a couple more lenses and a flash to my camera bag, too, often by buying and selling vintage cameras. I'd been using an old Miranda G camera outfit that had belonged to my father and felt sure that I could be a better photographer if I could only get past the limitations of my equipment.

I was right. My images improved along with my confidence and I eventually worked for several years as a freelance photographer.I shot portraits and covered campus events for the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor's public relations department (including darkroom work). On a volunteer basis I documented the life of my church for the eleven years we lived in Belton, Texas, too.


But the industry passed me by as I was taking a little break, having relocated from Texas to Maryland. The cost of investing in a digital single lens reflex camera and related equipment was well beyond my budget. I did what I could with a couple of point-and-shoot and "pro-sumer" cameras while saving up my pennies from my Etsy and Zazzle shops and researching each new model of camera and finally....

I bought a camera. 

A Canon T2i. I'll spare you the details, but you can read all about it here.

This is a significant leap of faith for me, as I can think of lots of other things I could have done with the same amount of money. But I know that this camera will be able to shoot as fast as I can see. It will enable me to shoot in low light without using a flash, which I love to do. It will even shoot video in full HD...not that I even have an HD TV yet, but one thing at a time!

I confess that I'm the kind of techie geek who reads the whole instruction book from cover to cover and I've still got a few chapters to go. But I've already been putting it through its paces and you can be sure that I'll be posting more photos here in the days to come.

I think you ought to make a significant investment in yourself every twenty-five years or so, don't you?

Something Bigger Than Ourselves

I finally kicked my cold and was able to attend church yesterday. I'm on my church's audio-visual committee, so before the worship service begins I'm busy setting up microphones, doing sound checks and sometimes getting a projector ready with a multimedia presentation, too. Once we've got that done the crew will do general troubleshooting and planning for the future.

This might seem like what happens before the worship starts but to me, it's all part of worship. It's showing up with...

an awareness of God's presence...

a willingness to make my particularly gifts, abilities and perspective available to Him...

and a sense of expectation for what God will do this day,



Some days I worship by plugging in microphones and taping down cables. Sometimes I worship by taking pictures.


Once I was covering a Baptist Student Union prayer retreat, trying to get photographs that illustrated what the weekend was all about. Taking pictures during a worship service I noticed some students who worked with the deaf community. They were signing the hymns and worship songs as they sang. Since I knew them and they knew what I was there for, they just ignored me and were not disturbed as I zoomed in on them to take their pictures.

I knew that my pictures would be submitted with an article about the event and they might be included in the Baptist Standard, the newspaper for Texas Baptists. I kept my eye out for that one shot that would illustrate the weekend event best. As I was walking toward the prayer garden with a friend of mine I looked up and there it was. One of my student friends was signing her prayer. I dropped my camera bag and started shooting, though the friend I'd been walking with was in mid-sentence... she knows me well, knew exactly what was happening, and patiently waited until I was finished (thank you, Kendi!). I took a couple of shots as the student was signing and praying and then, just for a moment, she clasped her hands together in the classic "praying hands" pose and I got the shot. It made the cover:

This wasn't like making the cover of Time magazine or something, but it was a wonderful affirmation for me at the time, since I was just beginning my career as a photographer. It was nice to know that what I saw and captured in that moment was also seen and appreciated by someone else.

For me, taking pictures of that student, praying, was a worshipful moment. I was aware of God's presence and aware that I was making my gifts and abilities available to Him.


I took pictures of Jami Smith in concert about 12 years ago. Jami recently released a new CD, "Verse", and my copy (autographed, thank you, Jami!) arrived a few days ago and I love it! It reminded me of the time I met Jami when she came to the University of Mary Hardin Baylor to sing for a youth camp. My husband had met her during a previous visit, but he was off with our older daughter at her youth camp so my younger daughter & I took a walk to the campus to greet Jami with a batch of still-warm chocolate chip cookies.

Jami graciously gave me permission to come back that afternoon and photograph her during rehearsal and also during the concert that evening. (I think the cookies sealed the deal!)

This was back when I was using a 35mm camera, slinging my 20lb camera bag, switching lenses and changing film on the fly, shooting with available light only. I loved that!

As Jami sang, I began to get a feel for her style and knowing the songs well, I was able to anticipate her expressions and watch for the best shots. But more than that, I got a feel for God's spirit working through Jami and was carried along with it.

And when the right moment came and I got the shot I wanted...it was a worshipful moment for me. I knew that Jami was using her gifts and I was using mine and I had a photograph that showed the joy of that moment.



Sometimes a moment is filled with something bigger than ourselves and we can open ourselves to new possibilities.

There's no telling where it may take us.



*To see more photos of Jami Smith, go here.

How to Photograph Reflective Ornaments

Last year when I listed my Pocket Mirror Christmas ornaments in my Etsy shop I was able to hang them on my Christmas tree to take pictures of them. I wanted to list some a little earlier this year, though, and since I don't have my Christmas tree up yet, I had to think of another way to photograph them.

I've detailed in an earlier post my creative solution to product photography with a limited budget and small living space. I started with the same basic plan to shoot in front of the glass door leading to the deck of my town house. I get good, open lighting for several hours of the day there.

I used pieces of foamboard again, standing one scored board on end and laying another one across the top. I grabbed one of my pin-back button parts and stuck it in the top board and draped the ribbon of the ornament over it, letting it hang freely, like this:



Since these ornaments are highly reflective it takes a little creative positioning to compensate for that. I've found that a strategically place black board can take care of the problem. Watch what the light is doing and how the reflection changes as you reposition this black board in front of the item you're shooting, varying the angle as necessary. Don't worry if you have to get a little of the foamboards in the picture because you can crop that out later.



I think these pictures turned out pretty well. What do you think? These ornaments were all made with Christmas print fabrics I've collected. I'll be listing these and others in my Etsy shop soon.

Aunt Fiesty's Camera

One thing I've learned how to do since opening my Etsy shop is to take pictures of the things I make. I worked as a freelance photographer for several years, so I have experience in journalistic and documentary photography and black & white darkroom work, too. I also used to do a lot of casual portraits. But product photography was new to me.

In a couple of other posts on this blog I showed you how I take my pictures using window light and reflectors (see "Taking Pictures" and "Taking Pictures Part 2: Reflections") so I won't elaborate on that here.

I decided to apply those techniques to my collection of vintage cameras. One of my most recent acquisitions is this Argus C3 35mm rangefinder camera.

This particular camera once belonged to my Aunt Fiesty. That wasn't her real name. We just called her that because she was. I heard that the nickname came from my grandmother, a classmate of Aunt Fiesty's in college, but that was before she married my grandfather, Aunt Fiesty's brother. My grandfather's nickname was "Speedy". Yeah, it's that kind of family!

My family is aware of my fascination with vintage cameras, so when my Aunt Fiesty passed away, they knew I would give this camera a place of honor in my collection. It was kept in a leather case that barely had a mark on it. I thought if the case was that pristine, what must the camera inside look like! And I wasn't disappointed.

As you can see from these pictures, it looks almost like brand new.










If you'd be interested in getting a photo of this Argus C3 camera, I have it available in my Etsy shop as a 5x7 photo and an ACEO.

If you've had some experience with the Argus C3, leave a comment and tell me about it. And if you have an "Aunt Fiesty" of your own, I'd love to hear from you, too!

Taking Pictures Part 2: Reflections

I've written before about my creative solution to taking pictures of small products, like the buttons and small crafts I sell from my Etsy shop. I know a lot of Etsy sellers use a light tent for this, like this home made one. But anything I do has to fit in my tiny townhouse so setting up a light tent and finding a place to keep the equipment when not in use didn't seem to be a viable option for me.

Instead, I use a couple of foamboards, scored and folded and set up as both backdrop and reflector. When not in use, these are folded flat and stored behind a bookshelf, conveniently out of the way. I made another makeshift reflector out of half of a large can, too, which works very well for small objects.

It's all about the light...where it's coming from...and where you want to put it.

One challenge for me was controlling reflections, since the buttons I make have a shiny surface. A little maneuvering, a slight change of angle and a healthy dose of trial and error can make all the difference.

But pocket mirrors were a particular challenge not only because of the shiny surface of the button, but also because of the image reflected by the mirror. After all, you want to show the mirror, not what the mirror sees. In this photo the reflection of my reflector (a foil-covered piece of foamboard) can clearly be seen:



That's not a photo I'd want to post in my Etsy shop, even after cropping out the edge of my background and the reflector set up on the left side.

Sometimes the best solution is the simplest. Here's what I did to fix that:



By tilting the angle of the folded piece of foamboard that was serving as my background, I made sure that the only thing reflected in my pocket mirror was the white surface of the foamboard.

Since I'm using window light, which can vary according to the time of day or weather, I usually tweak the brightness and contrast of these product shots with graphics software. (I use an old version of Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop Elements to do this, although free programs like Gimp or Picasa are favored by many Etsy crafters.)

Here's the final result:



By the way, the pocket mirror I've used in this example isn't available in my Etsy shop. It's a personal project for some friends of mine. But you can check out the Imaginary Bitches website and a very funny new web series written by Andrew Miller and starring Eden Riegel, Elizabeth Hendrickson and some other familiar faces from TV. It's getting some great attention from the press., including raves from People Magazine and TV Guide. Better yet, go to their YouTube channel and watch all the webisodes for yourself and if you enjoy it as much as I do, subscribe and share it with your friends.

Taking Pictures

Soon after setting up my shop on Etsy.com it became apparent that one of the biggest challenges would be taking good pictures of the products I hoped to sell. I've mentioned before in my blog that I've been a photographer for quite a while, but small-product or table-top photography was never my specialty.

The key to any good photograph is the lighting, though, and I've had a lot of practice being aware of what the light is doing before I ever push that shutter button. So I thought I'd show you what I've been doing to get pictures like these:





I've seen where others have posted instructions for making your own light box or tent for small product photography and I've tried doing that, but my set up is simpler. I live in a very small house and I'm operating on a very small budget, so I needed something cheap that I could set up and take down quickly and store in a very small space. Here's what I came up with:



I use the light coming in through the sliding glass doors to my deck (which means I have certain times of the day that work best for this). I bought a couple of pieces of foamboard and scored one down the middle with an exacto knife, then folded it in half. One serves as the surface I place my object on as well as bouncing some light from the top of the frame. Another piece of foamboard, trimmed and scored and standing on end serves as a reflector when place opposite the light source, filling in shadows on the left side of the object. I can easily reposition the reflector as needed depending on the light coming from outside and the size of my subject. When I'm done, I can fold these pieces of foamboard flat and store them easily, even in my small house.

Here's another reflector I use that bounces a little more light. I recycled an old cannister of Instant Breakfast that has a silvered interior, cut the rims off , then cut it in half. When I set that opposite the light source I get more light wrapping around a small object like this:



Here's another view of the same thing:



I cropped this photo to take out the reflector on the left of the frame and used it for this listing in my Etsy shop:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6587120
(Edited to add: Since the link to this blog is still being shared from time to time, I'll try to keep this link updated to always show something currently listed in my shop.)


It's all about being aware of the light. It might help to set your camera to use the spot meter, if it has that capability (if you don't know what that means, leave me a comment and I'll explain further). You can also cover your foamboard reflector with aluminum foil if you need more light. If you try these tips, leave me a comment and let me know how it worked for you.

My cat, Sebastian

Sebastian has made a brief appearance in this blog once before, in my previous entry about ACEO's but I think it's time to make a formal introduction.

Sebastian and his sister, Snowflake (she'll be the subject of my next entry) were rescued from neglectful next-door neighbors when they were just a few weeks old. We could tell that Sebastian would be the larger of the two, but we didn't know that he would grow into a beautiful Maine Coon cat, or as close as you can get to it without the pedigree.

I always thought Sebastian was a little like a 10-year-old boy. He'd let you pet him, and he'd enjoy it for awhile. But then he'd shake it off and go his own way like a kid wiping off the lipstick kiss of an overbearing distant relative. He was also my watch-cat...yes, like a watch-dog. When he heard someone coming to the door, he'd come running as if to say "Who are you and why are you coming to my house?!"

And when Sebastian was truly satisfied he'd smile. I explained to my daughter that this is the way cats smile...they slowly close and open their eyes. That's all. They'll look right at you, then slowly, their eyes will close and you can almost here them saying "Aahhhhh".

That's what Sebastian was doing when he posed for this first photograph. Oh, he seemed to enjoy having his picture taken when he saw me take out my camera. I did my best to do him justice. I've included photos of the keychains I made with these, too, which are now available in my etsy shop.

My Dad's Cameras

A few posts back I mentioned my dad and all the pictures he took of my family when I was a kid. As Father's Day approached this year I wanted to make something special for him. I'd been combing through all my old photography magazines I'd collected, looking for small images of cameras and other paraphenalia that I could use to make buttons, magnets and thumb tacks for my etsy site. So I went digging again to see if I could find the cameras Dad used.

I found them.

A beautiful full page ad for the Yashica 44.

A smaller image of the Leicaflex SLR and an even smaller one of the Miranda G from old annual buyer's guides included in the magazines.

Not wanting to take a chance on ruining my only copies of these images during the construction of my projects, I opted to scan these into my computer, tweak the brightness and contrast and sharpen them up a bit. Then I used printouts of them instead of the originals.

For each camera, I carefully cut out the entire image, leaving only the camera itself and no background. I glued these to green cardstock and cut mats for each out of black matboard. The Yashica 44, matted, is 5 x 7 inches and each of the others are the standard ACEO size of 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches, like others I've posted on my Etsy site.

I had called Dad to warn him that his Father's Day present would be arriving late, but he said he didn't mind. We've been spreading out our holidays lately, making them last a long time after letting the dates slip up on us too late for gifts and cards to arrive on time. Mom was the one who always remembered such things and since her death a little over a year ago the rest of us have been trying to play catch-up. Oh, well...it makes those special occasions last a little longer.

I finally mailed these today.

I hope he likes them. I think he will.

New ACEOs

The puzzle ball is still in progress, but I hope to finish it today.

I got distracted making some new ACEO's that I had a lot of fun with. I've printed out lots of my photographs in tiny sizes so I can make more soon. Here's what I've added to my etsy site:




Here are two others I made, too. I've given these to a couple of friends of mine, but I'll probably make some similar ones to post on etsy, too:






And here's another one that's not listed on etsy yet, but will be soon:



Now if I can keep from getting distracted by ACEO possibilities, I'll get that puzzle ball finished!