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OK, maybe not respite. I did a few things that were refreshing, but they were also tiring.

While I didn’t finish the Spiderweb package as quickly as I had wanted to, it is available in the store now. They presented a challenge that surprised me a bit, but I love how the package cam together.

I also put together this cute Shield kite to put in a birthday card for another friend. I have worked with the print before, but had only used two colors on a smaller kite. I think that I like the larger kite with three colors better.

I thought that I was about to close out a slow week when I came across yet another package of napkins. I really don’t need any more stock right now, but I was pleased to find these. They reminded me a touch of one that I had received in a grab bag from Ninny’s Napkins, but also I’ve had a friend on my mind that owns the Maui Toy Works, which was destroyed in the shocking wildfire in Lahaina. Some folks in the kiting community have set up a gofundme to help, but I’m tempted to mail them some minis from this print as my little gesture of aid.

So, with my youngest away at Scout camp, I did indeed manage to spend a little more time in the kite room. I never get as much done as I want to, but I did keep things rolling along this week.

I started things off with a joke to send off to Scout camp, . Food at the camps is usually good enough, but I got a kick out of the idea of teasing my youngest with the idea of a doughnut, and the napkin that I’ve been playing with let me get this.

I also had fun putting more paper behind the kite than others that I’ve done.

After I got that one ready to mail out, I went back to other parts on that napkin and cut out a veritable flock of flamingos, and then a herd of unicorns to match.

I’ll store some of these away to finish up at another time.

Next, I put together some floral shields for some birthdays over the next week. I managed to get a quick video before sending any of them out.

The ones that are mailed will wind up being a day or so late, but I’m told that it is the thought that counts. Before

Earlier in the week I had made a supply run, in search of something that I couldn’t remember the name of, and tripped across a new glue that I tried out on these florals. I fell in love with the way it works between the bristles that I use for my framing and the tissue of the sail on the miniature kite. I want to see it I can get away with thinning it with water, but will not be put off if that fails to work as well.

I also managed to run myself out of the thread that I use for the bow and flying lines. At about a yard per kite, a spool means about 500 kites.

Next I set about one of the napkins that I found a few weeks ago for Halloween. I really want to have these ready before the holiday, instead of just in time to be late like I have been lately.

I was tickled to discover that the print on this spiderweb pattern is one single graphic, not a repeating print. It has a huge embossed border, but I’m still excited about it.

I considered just dropping a pattern onto the folded napkin and whacking out piles of kites, but I decided to be more judicious with the pattern placement.

This means that each of the kites that will go into these packages will be different. Also, since I got 15 kites from the print, there with probably be a different assortment in each of the boxes of 13 kites.

I’ll try to have the package available within the next week.

Next, I turned to a napkin that my aunt salvaged for me from an event. I had put it aside thinking that I wouldn’t be able to get anything that I liked out of the very full graphics. Turns out that I love the way that part of the text fit the Shield sail.

I also wanted to try this one with some bamboo that my friend Dan Kurahashi had split for me and that new glue. This very successful experiment will go out to that aunt with an apology for my dubiousness and for missing her birthday.

That may be it for now, but I  am pretty happy with all that I managed to get my hands on this week.

I was pleased to get moving on creative projects again last week, but I wasn’t certain about maintaining that momentum.

After work on Monday, I spent the night at my son’s Scout meeting, and then the bulk of Tuesday was spent on Independence Day activities with his unit as well.
I managed to put in some time in the kite room on each of the rest of the weekday evenings, putting along on the new grab bag. I was tickled with the way a couple of the kites turned out, especially this Koala shield.

2.5 inch miniature shield kite from cocktail napkin mounted on easel card

After wrapping up that package on Saturday, I returned to a birthday themed napkin that I’ve posted about before. Earlier in the week, I had noticed in passing that there was a small part of the graphic that I hadn’t noticed before. It pleased me that I would get to use a little more of this material, but irritated me that I had already tossed what I had considered scraps at the time. I won’t get to make a package with them, but they will make a fun on to include in future grab bags.

Also on Saturday, I was a bit surprised to realize that I needed to liberate more sparring from the whisk broom that it was sold as. Here are a couple pictures of the remnants of the broom, and a bundle of the bristles. I was also pleased to take a little time from the creative work to tidy up the kite room and make it a bit of a better work space.

Sunday started out with me writing up this review of the week, and if I have any energy left after some chores, I’ll return to cut out some more kites.

I’m glad to have maintained some momentum this week, but I’m starting to get concerned over lack of sales. I know that it is summer and many of my kiting friends are busy at festivals hither & yon, but I need to work on grabbing some attention and getting these out the door so that I have better justification for the time and space.

Well, I was on a roll, and THEN…
The week before Memorial Day rolls around and everybody needed to get their summer projects done. That week at work, besides after-hours calls, needing some of my energy, pretty well wiped me out.

Then the next week saw the last steps in a project that took more than a decade to make happen. While I didn’t have much to do with that project it still took some of me energy, and left me in a funk that prevented me from even trying to be creative.

The next couple of weeks involved lots more hours for the day job, a scout outing that I was told I needed to go on (it energized me on some levels, but left me tired), another trip down to dad’s to move some his renovation forward (again, a good feeling, but golly was I tired, and lots of yard work that required attention before it got further out of hand. All of this left very little energy or time to stop in the kite room, much less get anything done. Add that no one has been placing any orders, and I really have been absent.

I have tripped across a handful of things that made me look forward to getting back to work, though.

In a trip to the grocery store, I was greeted near the door by this cute and colorful napkin.

The unicorn grabbed my attention, because it reminded me of a napkin that I once had from a Ninnys Napkins grab-bag that I had used up for a little girl’s birthday. I was also excited because I had recently started carrying negative templates of the kite patterns, so that I could check them against napkins before I buy them (and to let me know if I needed to buy more than one package).

The dark card that I chose also helps for snapping a quick sketch like these.

While I was toying with the idea of the unicorns, This Flamingo jumped out for some attention, making me think of a former boss of mine. I bought several packages of the napkins, and later learned that they’re printed on all 4 folds, so I’ll get to play with these a whole bunch.

In the mean time, with the creative energy still feeling dim and the reminder of the grab-bags, I decided to gather up several of the odds and ends of miniature kites that I have completed and put together a package that instead of all one pattern, had 13 miniature kites with differing sizes, shapes, and prints. These grab-bag packages will also be $200, even though they can take a little more creative energy.
I managed to put 2 packages together so far, and for the third I’m digging back into that grab-bag for some of the unique prints that I’ve received from Ninnys.

Selection of shapes, sizes, and prints in the next grab-bag that I’ll be putting together soon.

Another trip to the grocery store showed me these two prints. I look forward to seeing just what I can do around the watermelon seeds, and I’m always looking for a patriotic/flag print to make available for the civic holidays. I’ve no idea when I’ll use them, it’s certainly too late to do anything about either of them for this summer’s holidays.

On a trip to the craft store last week for some floss (I always need another color for tails), I made the mistake of turning down an aisle and found brand new product for fall and HALLOWEEN! I’ve never really like Halloween that much (it’s too close to my birthday for my taste), but I do find myself resonating with some of its iconography lately, and have struggled to find prints that I like to work with.
I wound up picking out several napkins that will have varying utility, but I’m excited to have some fun stuff to offer with just about enough time to work them up.

By that point the creative energy was starting to return, but more after-hours calls kept me from doing much with it. Then the weekend started with a long day trip to one of our Scout camps to finish a project (and start 2 more) for the camp rangers. Despite their invitation (and attempts at persuasion) I made it a point to get home, so that I could start using whatever I had left to make some progress in the kite room on Sunday morning.

Some of that energy was used to gather up the grab-bag shown above, and some to finish the Pretty on Pink package, so that I could take that off of backorder.

So clearly, I failed to keep to posting every week. I think that there were perfectly good reasons, but if I’m going to get attention here, I’m going to need to find some fillers to have ready when I just can’t make it to the keyboard.

2 inch Sotich Shield kite mounted on easel card

Well, I managed to sneak into the kite room last Friday before heading out to my father’s property, but didn’t update the post.

Here’s the one-off that I made to post for Revenge of the Sixth (the day in May that follows Cinco de Mayo, and any revelry that might entail).

Naturally, I didn’t get any work done while I was away from home, but as my son’s Scout meeting was cancelled on Monday, I did make it into the kite room for a bit (after some yard work). A bit more to do on the Full of Stars shields, and a step or two on the last of the Star Wars themed kites, before I start in on a batch of the Tulip shields.

Tuesday evening, despite digging into the stove to see why it wasn’t lighting (frigging igniter again), and another stab at yard work, I managed to make it into the kite room. Not just made it in, but got to spend a couple hours, before I pooped out.

I finished this cutey, and the Full of Stars shield kites before calling it a night.

Wednesday morning I managed to cut a few of the Tulips before I was called to cut out a 2 inch sail from some of the tissue reaming from that print. I’m excited to get even more out of that package of napkins. Then Wednesday evening, after getting home a few minutes late from a last minute lockout and a bit of time over dinner, I managed a couple hours to finish cutting out the sails from that napkin and even started framing them. My back said that it needed some attention before I got too tired from working, so I didn’t get as much time as I wanted in the kite room.

Thursday morning, I put in a few minutes between getting the kiddo off to school and getting ready for my day at work. I probably wont get much more done this week, as I’m likely to spend all of Thursday night prepping to head back down to my dad’s property for my “weekend off”, but I might get a couple minutes on Friday morning.

Turns out that I made a few minutes on Thursday evening to finish the first of the kites from the aforementioned scrap (pictures will follow) and frame up the last of the Tulips, I hope to have them mounted on cards next week, but didn’t leave time on Friday morning. That’s it for this week, then.

So the question stands.
Is this the Way? Maybe it’s just the May.

So, I’m told that I need to start a mailing list. And to have something to send out to that mailing list on the regular. So, I’m gonna try writing a post up every week with what’s coming out of my kite room (and probably some excuses why there isn’t more).

Monday night there was some good light after work, and since I was still spluttering from my cold, I bowed out of the Scout meeting and spent most of the evening hacking up a lung and tending to some yard work that my kids have been unable to get after for me. Then in a fit of raw spite, I made it into the kite room and cut out the rest of a batch from the lovely floral print I’ve been working with.

Set of 2.5 inch pentagon sails

I finished out my brief session in the kite room putting the finishing touches on a new template for the 2.5 inch pentagon sails, and the mask to go with it.

Tuesday started out strong with slipping into the kite room while getting the youngest off to school, and me ready for the “day-job” to select a sail for a one-off to use as a card for an ailing family member. It won’t be all that I want it to be, but I’m so particular, and I’m feeling done with letting such things slow me down much. I’ll try to have it framed up tonight, but while I was waiting to have access to my wife’s trove of cross-stitch floss, I went back to work on some of the kites that I started last week.

I took a moment to enjoy a view that I’m not often exposed to while a job. The wind kicking up waves was calling to the power kite junkie far into my past.

Despite a lockout call that interrupted dinner, fatigue (from the day at work and the cold that just won’t go away), and participating in the call from my oldest, I made it back to the kite room Tuesday evening to continue on the kites from the morning.

Here’s how the one-off turned out.

The work Wednesday morning was hardly worth mentioning. I might have got more than one kite on a card, if not for sleeping up to the alarm and a string of coughing fits. We’ll see how I feel after work. While off at the “day-job” I listened through yet another episode of the Cathy Heller podcast and found her discussion with Donald Miller fascinating. I’ll have to try applying a few of the ideas he brought up, and probably buy his new book.
Wednesday evening started out strong despite the call of yard work. Once I got the kids started on that project, I made my way to the kite room and finished putting the last of the Spring picket Pentagons on cards. I meant to be back after a brief break for dinner, but a couple of lockout calls had me up way past my bedtime.

2 inch miniature pentagon kite from cocktail napkin

Thursday started out strong, not on kites, rather with errands. A trip after groceries for dinner, and a quick post to Facebook over a local traffic issue used up any time that I might have before heading out to spend my day waiting.
After the “day-job” on Thursday, I managed to get the youngest started on some chores, and the myself into the kite room. I had a lot more energy than I’ve had recently, but it was frenetic, so I made some progress on a batch of the floral print that I had cut out earlier in the week, but I always want 110% and I didn’t give it.

Friday morning I only made it in to the kite room for a moment before heading out for a short day with the day-job, a check in with my wife’s oncologist, and couple other errands. I spent a fair amount of time putting frames on more of the floral prints, and cut out a batch of the next Rainbow stripe Shield kites between a couple of lockout calls in the evening.

2.5 inch miniature shield kite from cocktail napkin mounted on easel cards

Saturday morning I slept in longer than I wanted, so I started in on my steps at first light, and then got back to the Floral prints. After getting all of them on cards, I made progress on the Rainbow stripes and the Full of Stars print which I’ve had for a while.

2.5 inch miniature shield kite from cocktail napkin mounted on easel cards

I stayed up too far past bed time, but I felt very good about the productivity. I was still abuzz with that positivity when I woke on Sunday morning and started out to get my step well before it was light. It took a while to get the Rainbow stripes  onto their cards after a lockout call threw my off my stride, but with some persistence I finished those, got to work framing the Full of Stars Shields, and cut out a batch of the Pretty on Pink shield kites.

2.5 inch miniature shield kite from cocktail napkin mounted on easel cards

I’m glad to be feeling better. Clearly it helped me get quite a bit done this week.