Part 2 of the perpetual birthday calendar video went live last night.  I’ve gotten several nice comments, mostly focused on the fact that I didn’t quit when I could have, and that I left the mistakes intact.  I didn’t think it was right for me to have a YouTube channel for persons with physical limitations and create videos where every project is perfect and easy to make.  That’s not the reality of crafting and if other crafting YouTubers were honest, they would admit that they have deleted a lot of their videos before putting them online.  Of course they do, otherwise there would be a lot more videos like mine online and I have NEVER seen one.   EVER.  I’d love to see Jennifer McGuire say something like, well here is the card I made but it failed and here’s how I corrected the problem.  We would all learn so much more from a video like that than we do from one where she shows this lovely card and talked about how she made it.  Hey, I could have deleted all of my mistakes and said that I planned on putting the ribbon on the back.  I could have, but wouldn’t.

Maybe I’m taking this honesty thing too far, but I think people want to know there is bad with the good and they also want to know they are not the only ones who make mistakes.  It’s only fair that someone show them the bad.  So here I am, bringing some bad, but more importantly, showing exactly what I did to fix it.  So if someone else has a Zutter and sees my video, they will know exactly what not to do.  I’m a trailblazer (and MacGyver.).  Who would have guessed?

Every once in a while, I’m motivated to get things done.  Today was one of those days.  I have so many craft things that I’ve bought that are either duplicates, (not sure why or how that happened), or are things I just don’t or can’t (mainly can’t), use.  I decided to box them up and I listed a lot of them on Splitcoast Stampers.  I’m so proud of myself.  Even if I don’t sell anything, at least I gave it a shot.  I really just wanted to be able to say I tried.

So I typed a lot of information onto the site.  Somehow I deleted all of it.  So I typed it again and only deleted part of it this time.  I am starting to remember why I don’t like to do things like this.  I’m just not very good at it.  Now my friend Linda is a wizard and took one look at my listing and knew exactly how to fix it.  I’m so lucky to have her in my corner.  She definitely made it look easy.  It doesn’t surprise me though, because that’s where I met her, through Splitcoast Stampers.  She’s very active on their site and has helped me with it more times than I can count.  She’s also one of the first people to get others to check out my YouTube channel.  She’s terrific.

So we are at 492 subscribers.  I’m still hoping to hit 500 by April 15th.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed.  It could happen, it will happen.  Will it?  Yes, it definitely will!

I finally finished the video for binding the birthday calendar book.  I have to say that I’m proud that I persevered, because I really wanted to throw in the towel on numerous occasions.  I think it’s a sign of my age that I refused to give up.  Maybe I have more patience now (no, I don’t).  Or maybe, I just didn’t want to look like a failure (that’s more me.)  I just couldn’t live with a project that was so bad and not try (at least) to fix it.

So I did.  And now it is laying under my Vagabond, which has turned out to be the greatest tool to flatten things. Note to self, buy a Vagabond to flatten things.  I should have included that in the tutorial for the Vagabond.  One of its many uses.

I’m relieved the video is in the bag. In the bag, another saying that I just have to know it’s origin.  Here it is.

Origin: This expression comes from American baseball. It dates back to the early 20^th century, specifically to the old New York Giants (later the San Francisco Giants, since the 1950’s). In 1916, the Giants won 26 games in a row. This is a very difficult thing to do and baseball players are naturally superstitious. As they were winning games they wanted to “ensure” that the streak would continue. At the start of every game a large bag full of the baseballs to be used for the game is brought out onto the playing field. If a ball is hit into the seats as a foul, or out of the park as a home run, or if it just gets too dirty, it will be replaced by a new ball. Every game begins with 72 balls.  During their winning streak, the Giants somehow came to believe that if they were ahead in the ninth (last) inning, and someone carried the bag off the field, the Giants would win the game. So if a game is “in the bag” then it’s “certain” the Giants will win. Eventually the expression came to mean anything that you’re very positive about.

Huh, I’m still a little confused but apparently it’s baseball superstition.  Enough said.

So what does my birthday calendar have to do with baseball?  We’ll just have to wait and see.  (It really is still in the bag.)

My girlfriend loved her presents, especially the license plate with the photo of her puppy on it.  She also really liked the album that included pull outs for her grandkids to write stories or draw pictures of her puppy on.  It was a good day.  Weirdly enough, it made me want to color.  I haven’t felt like coloring Mandalas for a long time.  I used to get so much relaxation from them, but now I find some of the same relaxation in making videos.

When I started this YouTube venture in October, I hoped that people would like it and respond well, but I never imagined it would start to grow at the pace it is currently growing at.  I’m so thrilled that people are telling others and that the momentum of the channel is really picking up.  I thought if we had 5o0 subscribers by June 1st, it would be unbelievable.  I’m pretty sure we will be at 500 before April 15th, and who would have ever imagined that?  I know 500 isn’t many in the grand scheme of things, but to me, it’s an incredible number.  We’re  going to celebrate by giving five crafty prizes to five viewers.  I can’t thank them enough.  This has been such a wonderful experience and I have met so many truly wonderful people.  I’m so lucky to have found something that brings both Rich and I so much happiness.  We are in this together.  Without his tech skills, there would not be a channel.  He does everything except make the project on camera.  He’s amazing and so patient with the problems I create for him. You can’t even begin to conceive of the mistakes he has to correct.  He’s definitely a keeper.  So thanks for watching and reading the blog, because you have no idea how much it means to us!

Tomorrow is one of my closest friend’s birthday.  She’s hard to buy for, but this year I’ve got the perfect gift and I can’t wait to give it to her.  She has a new Bullmastiff puppy and Rich took a bunch of photos and I made an album for her.  I included four pockets, for each of her young grandkids to write their favorite story about the puppy and include it in the album.  I also had a license plate made with one of the photos of her puppy’s face.  I know she’ll be thrilled with it.  I did try to make a video of the making of the album, but it was way too complicated and I just didn’t have the time to do a tutorial, so in the end I just showed the album and recapped what I had done to make it.  I’m glad it’s done and I’m exhausted.  I think it took about eight hours to complete.  I was really committed, or maybe I just should be committed for thinking I could whip the album out in a couple of hours.  Who was I kidding?

I’ve gotten really creative in the last couple of days.  My close friend, Lynn, is having her birthday on Saturday.  I couldn’t think of anything to do for her. She just got a Bullmastiff puppy a couple of weeks ago, so I had Rich photograph him and am making a photo album as well as decorating it.  I really think she will be thrilled with it as she wanted to get a photo of him while he’s still young.  Now she’ll have an entire album.  We went to a photo shop to have the prints made and they custom make license plates with photos on them, so I had one of the prints made into a license plate for the front of her car.  I know she will love it because she’s really crazy about her puppy.  I love making gifts for people when I know they will appreciate them and I’m sure she will appreciate these.

Tomorrow my new Oring should come for the binding tutorial, so I should be able to finally finish that video and get it put online.  I really hope we can figure out a way to fix the problems I created with the album.  I would hate to put up a video where I have a complete fail and do nothing to try to save it.  This is me trying to save the album.