The first step to recovery...

is admitting you have an addiction. I confess, I'm addicted to Twilight. (*I know, never say never...). I've seen the first movie several times and am currently re-reading the series, having almost literally devoured the entire four books in less than 4 days time last month, and am eagerly anticipating the next movie installment in November (countdown to 11/20 anyone?). As a recovering academic, I've tried to break down the cultural reason for the seemingly national obsession and my own addiction, but can't seem to pin-point why the series resonates so strongly with me (and clearly with many millions of others). Maybe we all secretly long for immortality and perfection and the trade-off of being a slave to blood-thirst seems a reasonable one. I mainly think about how much I could get accomplished if I never had to sleep!

All of this is to say that last spring, before I was ever bit by the vampire bug (ha-ha), I considered launching a line of Twilight-inspired items for the etsy store. I noticed a lot of people making custom requests for Twilight-themed items and thought it a good business decision. Then I got hooked myself and thought it would be fun in addition to good business. I mentioned the new line to my sister in mid-August, who promptly ordered two items from the as-yet-undeveloped-line for a birthday gift for her best friend.

That spurred me to put action to words and get the line going. I ordered a couple of custom word stamps from an online vendor I use for these things in order to have a few Twilight-inspired quotes and then hunted around for some good images to use (not hard--there are a lot of crazy fans out there!) I made the items for my sister first (a journal and card) and was pleased with the results (as was she) and then kept on going! The return address labels have been a hit.

A German Twilight fan found me a few weeks ago and kept ordering things almost as quickly as I posted them, so I've been poking away at new items for the line, including some canvas bags with iron-on transfer sayings.

Anyway, it's been a lot of fun to work on this stuff and just thought I'd share.