Painted Elephant Pincushion

I finished these pincushions last night and have listed one in my Etsy shop.  You can see it here.  Last night I updated the software on my laptop only to discover that Apple had completely redesigned the photo software.  Usually I love their software, it is intuitive.  Sadly this update is terrible, lots of irritating things and they have made editing photos (which used to be simple to do) complicated and time consuming.  I even emailed Apple this morning with my opinion, which is something I never usually do!  So if my photos today look a bit rough around the edges, that is why....blame Apple.

In my previous post I wrote about the inspiration for these pincushions but I felt I had to add bigger versions of these photos for you.  The second one is what inspired the idea of the elephant spouting flowers!

One of the less glamorous aspects of running an Etsy shop is organizing shipping materials.  All my orders are wrapped in white tissue paper and placed in a hand printed brown bag.  Pincushions are protected on their travels by some cardboard.  This morning, before I could ship out an order, I had to cut strips of 2inch wide cardboard.  It takes a little while to do it, and I have to watch I stay on the mat and don't cut the hardwood floor with my stanley knife!