The Law in Plain English for Crafts book

If you are a crafter, artist, pattern designer, photographer, or in any cottage industry type of employment whom sells one's own work for profit, you need this book The Law for Crafts.  That is if you don't have it already.  Although, if you are a lawyer or have access to one, you probably can do without the book.  However, lets just assume you are like me and the only law knowledge you possess is from the many John Grisham books you've read, which unfortunately isn't going to cut it.

The author, Leonard D. DuBoff, is a practicing attorney and wrote this book to help aid the independent craftsperson in regards to sound business practices.  The book includes information about contracts, licensing, consignment, copyrights, how to keep your taxes low, and perhaps best of all, the book also includes legal forms that the reader can copy and use.

The author engages the reader with what would otherwise be extremely dry reading.  DuBoff explains the historical background of certain laws and provides examples of how the law is applied to situations that the reader can relate to.   For example, in Chapter 3 Contracts, he discusses what are implied contracts and what's not implied by using an example of a fictional weaver and the situations she may find herself in when discussing her works for sale.

The chapters aren't too long, because Duboff gets right to the point of the subject matter.  And if you don't have time to read, you can just flip to the chapter that relates to your particular area of interest, such as Trademarks, and go from there.  Definitely a valuable book to have on hand...along with John Grisham's The King of Torts.  I consider myself an expert in Tort law since reading that book ;)

I should mention that DeBoff authored 2 other similar books: The Law for Photographers and The Law for Galleries.

Jamie

My sweet Mika

Over Christmas break, we had to say goodbye to our dog Mika.  Mika was a part of our family for almost 15 years.  I knew it would be hard, but still I was not prepared for the huge void she left.  I still catch myself consciously stepping over her in the morning when I wake up.  She always slept right beside my bed.  It's a sad feeling to realize I don't have to look out for her anymore. 

In 1996 My husband and I adopted her from the humane society.  We were so excited to have spent only $30 for a really cute dog.  Three days after we took her home she became very sick and lethargic.  Like good new parents, we immediately took her to the vet.  I was at work when I received the call that she had Parvo, a life threatening illness.  As I hung up the phone I began to SOB!  I cancelled all of my clients for the rest of the day and drove to my husbands work to tell him the bad news.  With tears and snot running down my face I told my husband the bad news and how we needed to move forward with intravenous treatment for her.  "How much is the treatment," he asked?  "It doesn't matter how much!"  

"We're her parents," I exclaimed!  He pretty much knew right then that it would take longer for me to forgive him than it would take to pay off the credit card had he said no to treatment.  So $500 and four days later, Mika survived Parvo and was worth every penny.

I always said that she knew we saved her life, because of just how great a dog she turned out to be.  She wasn't a chewer, only had one accident in the house (unlike other dogs of ours... ahem), and she was always on watch for suspicious characters.  I don't think there will ever be another dog like her.  I bet she could have learned to sew had I taught her =)

Well I can't leave you all sad here, so I'll share a recent pic of Shoog the Boog.

She's grown... a lot!  Sometimes we don't know how big she is until we take her for a walk and people stop us to say, "Your dog is huge!"  I politely tell them she is sensitive about her weight and that she prefers the term "big boned" thank you very much.

Dogs!  They are the best =)

Jamie

A quick giveaway

Hey!  Shawnee over at Flirty Apron Swap is having a Jamie Christina sewing pattern giveaway.  The giveaway includes The Pretty Ditty Apron pattern, The Palooza Apron pattern, and The Cupcake Apron pattern.  The giveaway closes tomorrow, so click on over.  Here's the link. Good luck =)

Jamie 

Clara and Glory Peg Dolls

This Christmas I made a couple of peg dolls for my sister and aunt.  As you can see they are peacefully housed in doodled bakery boxes (idea from Emily Martin of The Black Apple).  I purchased the blank boxes at Michaels and whimsically doodled on them.

This is Mademoiselle Clara.  She is awkwardly shy, but full of strange curiosities.

I experimented with Clara's hair by using a fine point felt pen to stipple her hair.  I'm not sure if stipple is the correct term.  I've always enjoyed the texture look when artists draw the hair similar to Clara's hair, but better of course :-)  I tried to research the technique online, but I have no idea what the correct terminology is.  If you know what I'm trying to describe and can point me in the right direction, please leave a comment or email me.  

She lies on a bed of moss in her box house.  I told you she had strange curiosities.  And that's not the half of it!  She insists on wearing shoes made of a woman's obituary.  The woman's name in the obituary is (gulp)....CLARA!  Duh duh DUNNN! The mystery continues...

I gave her to my sister.

And here we have Glory.  Ahhhhh.  A sweet angel indeed.

I used paper clay to make the wings.  I would like to make another angel and maybe try a different technique for the wings in the hope of making them with even more edge texture.  Her shoes are made of text from the bible verse Luke 2:13,14.  She lies on a bed of clouds (cotton balls) in her doodle box.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to take a pic of the inside of her box.  She was a gift to my aunt, who is an angel to me.

Cheers,

Jamie 

Balboa Island

Happy 2011!
A new year already?!  I haven't even found the time to make any New Year's resolutions yet. However, I do want to reorganize this blog.  I'd like to try some new layouts and add a tutorial page with all of my tutorials nicely organized into categories.  So just a heads up that things may look a little weird around here for a wee bit or at least until I figure out what the heck I'm doing.

*** 

During the Christmas break my family and I went to Balboa Island.  It was a beautiful day to say the least.

Yep that guy is trunkin it while paddle boarding in December.

An artist painting.

A house ready for Santa.

A ferry ride to the other side of the Island.  Ferry rides make me nervous due to a horrible experience I had on a water taxi in Lofland once.  Long story short it almost tipped over into the water.  It doesn't sound that scary, but at the time it was dark and stormy on the river.  Not cool!

Hooray we made it to the other side!

What is it about Ferris wheels that make them so interesting?

Newport Pier at sunset.

Then we had to go back onto the ferry.  OH NO!

Thankfully we made it back to land and continued to tour the brightly lit homes for Christmas.  I hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

Cheers,

Jamie