against the grain.

So, last week, I ditched my casting class to go to an "Etsy Craft Party."
One of my biggest fears of owning my own business is that I will always struggle to make new friends. That I wont have a job to go to (which is where I feel a lot of people meet), that I'll be sad and crafty and lonely. ALONE.
No thank you.

I felt like this would be a good opportunity to get out and meet some new, local friends, with the same set of interests.
Finding people interested in what I do seems equally hard sometimes.
Except for men at bars, which I have 1. No interest in. 2. No need for. 3... still no interest in.
Plus, the first response I always get is, "Wait? You're a metalsmith? So then you play with like hammers and torches 'n' thingys?" Yup..
You're a genius, that's what I do.
Too bad I don't have one with me in my purse, I could show you how well I swing it.

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At the party we made comfort dolls for a local womens shelter.
Do I love the idea of bringing together creative talent to help others? Yes.
Do I think these dolls were the right approach? ...clears throat, looks around... well, lets just say I'm not convinced that my doll isn't better suited as a dog toy.

I feel like I should preface the following pictures with the statement or fact that:
I cannot sew.
Maybe then you can grant me some kind of leniency... or just pity me.
I'll take either.

Let me clarify something else, I did not sew the body of my doll.
I outsourced.
I tried to use the sewing machine, really, I did.
...the lines were something between a Picasso and an EKG.
There was no way I could have lived with myself giving a doll any worse than the one that I did.

Anyways, lets not read too far into this. 
And in any case, I achieved exactly what I had set out to do.
I met and made, some really wonderful, new friends.

It was the most fun I have had in a really long time.