I recently shared a booth at the Bella Vista Arts & Crafts Festival with my uber-talented sister. We met a terrific young woman named Jennifer who works at Denali State Park during summers, and winters with her mom or with friends who live in the lower-48. I am totally envious of her and wish I had been aware of cool jobs like that when I was in my 20s... but I probably wouldn't have taken advantage of them. I'm so not the person now that I was then... thankfully.
But I digress... the cool bohemian girl loved one of the bags I had at the show, but it sold. I wandered by her mom's booth on the final day, and was asked if I wanted to trade a bag for something she had there. I picked an adorable star-shaped candle box with a painted snowman on it, and yesterday I mailed off the bag I made for Jennifer. It's almost like the one she liked - except that it has the buttons from the front of the sweater it was made from. The original was made from the back of the garment.
I would be happy to get to the point where people asked me to make custom pieces for them more often.
Sorry - this is a pretty boring post... I'm in a bit of a funk.