Friday, February 13, 2015

Arm Warmers! I've still got 'em!

Arm Warmers
I'm still selling arm-warmers to help my mom fix the exceedingly cheap used car she bought. Help her not get stranded on the side of the road!
I still have these styles left and enough to make more of most of them if you're interested.
I'm asking for $10 per pair, which includes shipping from Japan. 
If that's too steep, email me at j.elaine.fleming@gmail.com or message me on facebook to negotiate.
I am really interested in getting these to people who can use them before the weather warms up too much.
Take care, all!
Super light weight rock-star type. Good for places where you want sweater sleeves on you forearms. Not bad for Texas.


Thick as two layers of broadcloth. Lightweight with ancient, illegible kanji.


Short. 1 layer of textures pink fleece. Fun and funky!


Dragons on white fleece. Smokey and fun.


Dark, inky dragons on gray fleece. Warm and stretchy.


Sakura on pink fleece. Cute, warm and fuzzy.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

New Years Goals, Arm Warmers, and Progress

Hello universe. Welcome to near the end of the first week of February. Having a good one? I hope so.
Sorry for the weird color choice today. Something has gone strange in the coding and this was the only way I could think of to get the text to show up.
I have not posted a new list of funk-fighting techniques as I have not had time to finish performing the acts on the previous list here. Also, it is slowly warming up and my funk is slowly lifting. One awesome thing about being in Japan is knowing that the cherry blossoms are coming just as soon as it stops freezing.

Things out here are good. Specifically, my attempts to save the day with arm warmers and work toward publishing this year are moving in a good direction. I have only sold a few arm warmers. Here are the remaining ones. I have the fabric remaining to make new/bigger/smaller versions of any of these (excluding the pink textured fleece) if they catch your fancy.




Again, if you're interested in any of these, the cost is $10 (free shipping!) and all proceeds go to my mom's car fund for college. 
In related news, my mother had acquired a very cheap and fairly-reliable car. Hopefully it will continue to work but there is no telling what will happen when you get one so cheap. I am still running this fundraiser to help her get to the finish line.
Now, on the New Years Goal.
One of my goals for the last few years had been to get back into publishing my work and actually pursue this writing thing I have been claiming to have been doing for so long. So this year I am going to do it. I am going to make it happen. here's how:
Every month I will submit my work to contests and publications. The number of submissions must match or be greater than the number of the month. For instance, last month I submitted one piece to a travel writing contest. This month I must submit 2 pieces to some kind of publications and/or contests. Next month, 3. etc. The type of publication or size of the prize are of no consequence save for the fact that until I win something that pays I have not allowed myself to enter anything with an entry or reading fee. I don't know that I could afford to lose until I win some of the free options. Once I win one, I can use part or all of my winnings to enter the next one. Until then, it has to be free.
I've already got one down for this month, and I am allowing myself to work ahead. If I continue on this trend for the whole year, I will have submitted 73 pieces by the end of December and will average around 6 submissions per month. So if I feel up to submitting a bunch this month, I might not have to work as hard in November or December, when I already have so many other things going on.
That's my goal. What's yours?

I don't do New Years resolutions because they are easy to break and feel bad about. "I will not have a coke this year." might be quite beneficial to both my waistline and general health, but I'd rather focus on objectives I can win over things to avoid. So eating healthier? Great goal, and it can happen at any point over the course of the year.

This year, my goals are as follows:
  • 1.     Potty train my daughter, who is actively entertained by her potty, so this should be in motion soon.
  • 2.   Get published again (as many times as possible). If I make it to 2016 with 73 rejections and no more publishing credits than I have to my name right now, I will still feel that I have given it my best shot. Not a reason to give up, mind you, but definitely not a reason to feel defeated, either.
  • 3.    Get rid of the excess. Mostly this refers to my clothing  and cloth stash. I need to use up the cloth and other vcrafting bits I tend to hoard and simultaneously transform the wardrobe of things I almost never wear for whatever reason into something wearable, usable, or invisable. If that means I give it to charity, sell it to a second hand store, or turn it into a throw rug. So be it. The things need to be done.
  • 4.    Get into the habit of cleaning properly and frequently. I recently spend 3 days taking down lace curtains, bleaching the crap out of them, washing them, drying them, and hanging them back up. This could be avoided with regular condensation removal. Being so close to the ocean and in a country known for deep humidity, the struggles of keeping a home clean have been pretty foreign to me, a woman from nice, hot, dry Texas. Not to mention the fact that I am lazy and have natural hoarding tendencies anyway.

So there's my list. 4 things I want to accomplish by the end of the year. Let's go!