Up and running

For most, starting a new business is a real bitch.

I have found my experience thus far quite enjoyable.

I am up and running my jewelry business through Etsy.com, which by the way is an amazing website. I can get myself a one of a kind piece and feel good about supporting an undiscovered artist.

When I sat on those long, boring flights, I would find myself doodling, inadvertently designing jewelry. So over the last few months I have been working on my line and now it's open to the public. I simply loaded photos up, wrote out descriptions and there it was, up and running. Etsy doesn't take a huge cut like ebay does and the community is much more supportive.

Got any handmade wonders at your house? Sign up and go for it on Etsy. I love it and you will too.

That creativity kick

I think of myself as a modern woman.

I travel extensively, I speak several languages (some more poorly than others), I volunteer, I work, I play. I'm independent. I have my degree and have more than one fascinating job. I do the things most 'modern' women do.

But I have a dirty little secret. I love to craft.

Knitting, sewing, origami, painting, sculpting, cooking and just creating. Those activities that are so often associated with "woman's work" but to me that has nothing to do with it. (Do I have to mention the tons of guys out there that love to knit?)

There is a sense of grand satisfaction that comes with creating something from almost nothing. This feeling connects you to all other creators too because they feel the exact same thing. The woman on the prairie making a quilt or baking a pie. The soon to be grandma knitting booties for her daughter's daughter. Or me, sewing a chew toy for my doggy in the shape of a monster with a long skinny neck and pink pointy teeth. Making duct tape roses for my brother's grave; the roses that never die. Silk screening a picture of a chicken on a tshirt for my friend Brian's birthday present.

It makes me so happy to give my little projects to people, even to people I don't know very well. My favorite thing is to take a duct tape rose and tie a little note to it. "This rose is for you, whomever you are. You are so special and loved. Take me and remember that always." I like to leave them at the library. (Probably because there has been times when I have been sad, wandering the stacks restlessly. Those little surprises are everything.)

So I challenge you to create something today. Write a story. Cook something. Paint. Sew. Sculpt. Dance. Create.

Sexist article that's funny as hell

• 1968 ad" "Women of the future will make the Moon a cleaner place to live."