Telly - My Sixth Elephant

Mr. Telly was a trying fellow.  He wasn't any more difficult than the others, I just couldn't make myself work on him non-stop.  I had to walk away and do something else every once in awhile.

Telly was commissioned by a fellow Etsy user that wanted him for her son's nursery.  She had found someone else's posting, but I don't think that shop had enough time to do a special order for her.  She contacted me from my posting for Horton.  She wanted him to be lighter than my other elephants.  I found the light grey yarn on another website and sent her a picture of a swatch of the yarn.  She said it was great!  Almost immediately I received her order and payment.  Her only request was the lighter grey yarn and try to do the eyes as close to the example as possible.  So, I told her I would get the yarn and start on him right away.  Well, who knew that a standard grey yarn from a popular company would be so hard to find!  None of my craft stores carried it and I was too scared to try another color because I had sent her a picture of the yarn and she approved.  The defeated shopper that I was, went home yarnless. (I know, it's not a word!)  I jumped online and ordered it from Amazon and it was delivered two days later.  I was so mad at myself because I felt I could be almost done with it by then.  My buyer was not upset in the least.  She knew it was going to take some time and she wasn't in a hurry.

Here is the picture that she sent me to work from:

I worked on him on and off for a week and a half and he was finally finished.  I had just put on the finishing touches and took my final picture.  I then opened her original picture to make my final comparisons to see if something needed to be changed.....I almost lost it.  The eyes were so WRONG!!!  They were huge in comparison!  I panicked and send her a picture cautiously asked what she thought and told her that the eyes would not be very hard to change out.  (It really wasn't that big of a deal to change them, I was just so irritated at myself that I could get to this point without noticing the difference.)

Here are the pictures of Telly:

As you can see, the eyes are huge.  I do know how I messed up, I just can't believe I didn't notice.

Well, her response was an amazing "I like yours better!!  I think the eyes are adorable!!"

Would you just look at those extra exclamation points!?!  I was over the moon happy!  She liked it, she really liked it.

She is my first real sale on Etsy!  I wanted her to be beyond happy with Mr. Telly!  He is going out in the mail today. Here's hoping for a great review!

My next project is....surprise!  Another elephant!  I will be working on a few smaller projects while I am working on her.  So, who knows what my next post will be.  I have a few things in the works that you are all just going to LOVE!

RR

Bright Eyes - My First Retro Owl Rug

After I finished my fourth elephant, I created a Facebook page to showcase some of my work.  My sister commented that she is looking for an owl for a baby shower.  I showed her this pattern from Ira Rott Designs and she loved it.  I had free reign on the color pattern, it just needed to be grey, white and yellow.  I initially intended on more yellow around the ruffles, but was quickly running out of that color.  So I improvised and made the ruffles a solid grey instead.  I mean, who was going to tell me it was wrong!?! LOL!

So here I am introducing you all to Bright Eyes!  She is very far from perfect.  I just didn't have the time, or yarn, to do a test run on her.  So, don't look too closely.  As I was photographing her, I also realized how hard it is to take a decent picture in my house.  There is just not enough light to give the colors any justice.  I tried to lighten it up a bit in the picture settings, but it just messes up other colors.  At some point, I may have to invest in some better lighting.  But for now, you get the idea.  It wasn't as noticeable on the elephants.  They always looked a shade or two darker than they really are, but for a solid color, it wasn't so bad.








My next project will be another elephant. I have received a request from my first paying customer that is not friend or family.  Initially, I was not going to do custom orders for the elephants, but she really wanted one in a lighter grey color.  So, after some discussion and planning, I am going to do it. The yarn had to be ordered, so I won't be able to start on it until it gets here on Thursday. (Who knew I wouldn't be able to find light grey in a store?!?)  It will be my weekend project and I will post pictures as soon as it is finished.