Haven't been posting much here, but still working in the background. Finally got my replacement phone yesterday, and I will tell verily you this:
The past 13 days, I have practically slept like a cough syrup'd baby each and every night. Hardly any wake-ups or restlessness.
So I get my phone yesterday, and like your average crack addict, right back to surfin' right up until lights out. Found myself tossing
and turning all damn night long. Geez... I wonder if there's a correlation? It's actually crazy. Anyway, just a short PSA.
So I sent away this monster a couple days ago... maybe it was yesterday? It's all been a blur. Terrible photo... Had to fire up an ancient
digicam here with a broken view screen from my newsgatherin' days, so I couldn't really see much of what I was taking -
Shock & Awe, Space Warrior theme!
Full leather body outside and in, padded and a bunch of spacey patches. Can't see the Space X mission patch, the Star Trek Enterprise crew, or the second more official looking Space Force patch, but it turned out pretty cool. It's good to know there will be a militia member now on watch from above. Did it in dark brown "aviator" leather. One other theme strap I did was for a Zombie Hunter dude years back. So much fun to hunt down the patches on like ebay and such and plan the straps out for some fellas - but the patches can really add up fa$t.
Got a few other things complete too... a set of black basket cases, a really cool white strap with black tooled Iommi crosses all up and down, some new Downtown Brown Devil's Leash straps. Won't bother showing those until fresh after the holidays. Don't make sense to do a bunch of promo then close up my store, because I will be traveling for the season. Start the new year off with some fresh ready-made goods!
Of course that whole other Event thing going on elsewhere here on TTR is eating up a bunch of time too, but that's fun/play time, and I look at
it as a way to give something back to the community here, which has been so supportive of what I do. Plus I think it helps us all bond and
forge better relationships. It's been weird though, because I'm used to running these things and not being a participant. So leading into this one I had it in my mind to come up with something where I could also join in the fun and share your experience.
One other thing I just finished minutes ago was a gift for my daughter's boyfriend for a Christmas gift. Jed's an interesting cat, plays a little guitar, but is much more into "beats" which he says he manages to sell somewhere online. A bit of a side hustle for him. Anyway, he has a black Squier Bullet, with one of those 2" shoulder pounder poly things on it, so i figured I'd make him something a bit more substantial, and personal-like.
I'm looking forward to watching his face carefully when he opens the gift - LOL! If there is one thing he does NOT exude is cowboy vibes. Might even hate it. But the wild west style always works in my opinion, and it's a gorgeous hand-tooled beast, 3" wide, padded, in mahogany brown + black antiquey detailing - We shall see.
My apologies for not posting much this last little bit - I know there are some folks watching this thread. Losing my phone really set me back and many thanks to Jethro for jumping in like a champ to help me get it back. That's a real brother for ya! He was under duress too!
I can happily report I crunched the numbers, and the sales goal I made for myself at the beginning of this year was hit late last week, though sales have off fallen real sharp the past ten days. Not really the Nov. / December I was hoping for, but the rest of the year was kind of a win. Overall positive news for me... Means I'm good on my hopeful promise to my wife, and can keep doing this for another year, instead of working for the man. Hopefully I may have a chance to go to work for those now reading this during 2024!
A bit of a bump will go on my quota for 2024, of course, and I'd sure like to find a way to cut some costs, but man inflation is just kicking
the poo out of all of us ain't it? Four years ago a gallon of the glue I use for leather was $54. Picked up another recently at $99, and leather
sure ain't getting cheaper either!