So you think my work is exciting . . .

I am always amazed when one of my friends or relatives talks about my home-based business in glowing terms. I hardly make more than $13,000 a year, never get out of the house, and I'm constantly behind on getting out my orders.

Yet, someone always thinks I am so "cool" or "creative" or "capable" . . . lots of "c" words. It just seems funny to me. Most of the work I do is tedious in the extreme. And when I am working on a new project, I spend ten times more time on it than you can ever imagine.

For instance . . .

I am currently doing a custom order for a young man here in town. He wants leather slippers for him and his wife that have appliques of their pet Chihuahuas on them. And oh yeah, their Chihuahuas look totally different.

One of the things many people are surprised to find out about me is that I can't draw. Truly, I am about the level of a standards 3rd grader in drawing skills. Which is ironic considering my job is design and laying out patterns -- you would think there is a lot of drawing in that. But there's not.

Usually when I am creating a new pattern I will cut out pieces and make up dummies until I get exactly what I want. Then I take it apart and use the measurements and layout to create a pattern online in a drawing program. I'm not so much drawing my patterns as tracing them really. I'll print out the pattern I draw and compare it to my finished piece 4, 6, 10 times as needed.

My ability to fake draw is put to it's limits when I have a special request for an applique. I will search the Internet for hours looking for something similar to what I want. I'll search toys, color book pages, clip art, photos, icons, buttons, appliques, stickers, ANYTHING that might work out. But occasionally, nothing is exactly right.

But I paste what I can find into my drawing program and trace each piece of the item; nose, eyes, ears, head, etc. Then I have to perfect it.

The graphics at the top of this post will be cut up and used as patterns for the shoes I will be making this weekend. So far, in the design of the dogs alone, I have in over 6 hours of labor. When an applique is this detailed it can take an hour to cut it out and paste it together from leather (+ 2 more hours) and the general construction of the shoes will take an average of an hour a piece to piece together (+2 more hours).

When completed, I will have close to 10 hours in these shoes.

Still think my work sounds exciting?