urge... to kill... rising

I have learned a valuable lesson. Its good to reach out on the internet and try and form connections with other crafters. Doing so by calling people bitchy on Twitter is probably not the best way, though sometimes it works out. Here ends the story of how I got my most recent ArtFire sale.

Speaking of ArtFire, I freaking love ArtFire. I get no screaming headaches from it, it doesn't make me want to break stuff, and I don't want to throw my computer out the window in frustration when trying to figure out how and why it does the things it does. I can't say the same for other handmade selling venues - I don't even sell there anymore and I still find my urge to kill rising when I hear about what's going on. Its best for me not to even think about it.

I've been working on some new early stage prototype-type pieces, figuring out patterns and colors and trying to decide what new pieces to start making. I also made a tiny little penguin but I'm giving that sample piece to Elisa since it was her idea and all.

Bacteria plush. Pink one looks kind of like a uterus. Not my intention.



Octopus plush. I love his goofy legs.

I picked up some pieces to use as part of my show table display this weekend. Little step stools to add height, a foot-high shadow box-type wood cube, an oval scalloped wood frame, and some paper mache boxes with pretty scalloped lids. I painted everything white, lime, and turquoise (making a tremendous mess in the process) while watching all of season 2 of Frisky Dingo. I love that show, tasteless jokes and all. I need to work on my table banner next, probably outlining the Heat 'N Bonded fabric letters in black split stitch to make them pop a little more. I also found 2 yards of this tiny felt bunting in lime, turquoise and red for 99 cents. I might have to make some more to dress up the table. Really I should be using this time to make new product, but after checking out pictures of my last show table, I have lots and lots of ideas for improvements.

Now its off to work where hopefully I have a day free of dog bites, humped legs, and Great Dane headbutts.

It is raining, yet again.

It is raining, yet again. Stuck inside with 15 bored and needy dogs is not my ideal way to spend an afternoon. Especially with all the sewing I really really need to get started on, what with at least 5 shows coming up in the next couple months. Its wonderful but a little overwhelming as I have so much to do to get ready, although my goal has always been to do shows full time. Selling online has its perks, but mostly I'm not the world's biggest fan of it. Probably has something to do with the 15 years of retail sales experience, but interacting with real, live customers is my favorite thing in the world (behind actually creating the stuff I'm selling), especially if I'm selling something that I really love and am excited about. Strangely, I never was that excited when I sold shoes for a living.

I joined Handmade Philly yesterday. They have forums and monthly meetups where I can meet other crafters and artists in the area, which is probably the most awesome thing about it. Sometimes it feels like I'm living in a little bubble (aside from the occasional show), so it will be nice to meet some people with common interests and experiences.

So here's kind of a depressing story. The other week I recalled that upon my graduation my beloved high school art teacher gifted me with a copy of Audrey Flack's Art & Soul : Notes on Creating. I knew the book was somewhere at my parent's house, so I drove right over and scoured my old room, then the basement for it and finally found it wedged between some Calvin & Hobbes collections. The reason I suddenly wanted it so badly was that I remember she had written an inspiring and encouraging inscription in it, and I was in dire need of some inspiration and encouragement. I grabbed the book and opened it and... no inscription anywhere. Did I totally make it up? Did she give me a different book? Did someone else give me this book? What the hell happened to my memory? After reading the book again, I find it resonates with me less than it once did since I've sort of moved on from fine art and could seriously give a shit about the "art world." But I am still very disappointed and confused with the memory of that inscription. My many art classes were the only bright spot in an otherwise miserable and painful high school experience. I can't help but feel that bright spot has been somewhat dimmed by this inscriptionless book. It doesn't quite make sense, but there it is.

Sigh. That was depressing.

Um... about a month until Harry Potter comes out. That's a cheerful thought.

CuteBot3000

I've been spending a lot of time lately researching and applying for local craft shows where my stuff will get a better response than just a quizzical glance. What a pain. Its usually hard to find the info unless you get a paid membership to an event listing website. But I have found some in the area, so it will be a busy end of summer and fall for me. And it looks like Indiemade will be back in December, so that's exciting, I love that there's a show like that in Allentown. I'll be posting all the show dates on my Facebook page as they are confirmed.

I had a nice feature of some of my animal-themed goodies in a very cute blog. Libertydoll has these really cute mini Moo card holders with a keychain attached in her Artfire shop, and I seriously am considering getting the cards (or making some myself) just so I can get the card holder! This is the way my shopping mind works. See how cute though? I love these colors.



Have to mention this - went to a family graduation picnic this past weekend and saw this band Revelation. To be perfectly honest, nobody really expected much from a bunch of unassuming 13 and 14 year olds... but then they launch into this set of almost note-perfect classic and hard rock covers, with a lead guitarist who tears through these complex solos (including Enter Sandman) looking as casual and bored as if he's standing in line for something. And any group of 13 year old boys who can get into Heart's Barracuda is cool with me. Check them out on MySpace:

Now its time to take Odie to the vet for his millionth skin scraping. If those mites aren't gone by now I'm going to scream. Most expensive free dog ever!

I very much like bees

Made a couple ads today for Handmade News and a few other sites. Considering selling at the Popped! music fest in Philly since I missed out on a table for the Punk Rock Flea Market (kicking myself repeatedly over that one for sure). Debating whether or not to invest in a pop up tent when the spring/summer season is already half over. I'll probably wait until next year and stick to indoor shows for the time being. I have a couple other show ideas in the works too, including the Philly Independent Craft Market later this month, and also hosting a little mini craft fair/flea market in our enormous back yard... gotta work on getting the husband to approve that one first.

Artfire unveiled their new home page today - I happened to be refreshing Twitter the second they announced it and hopped right over to look. I wasn't immediately sold on the green and orange, but its grown on me. I really do like it. I guess I'm an Artfire cheerleader now.

The adorable story I was going to post pics with? I was so excited to get the thing shipped out to its new owner that I forgot all about the pictures. I will tell the story eventually, I just want to see if he likes it or not first haha!

all Odie's fault

Is anyone else all excited for this new Artfire home page that debuts today? I keep refreshing but it hasn't shown up yet (I'm so impatient). I loved the sample version they posted (I'd link it but I can't find it for some reason) so I'm excited to see the finished version. Artfire just keeps getting better and better!

The dogs (ok, it was probably all Odie's fault) have been having a field day today, chewing first the case to a Playstation game, then the box that Peter's Nintendo DS came in, then unravelling and chewing up a 50 yard ball of hemp twine all over the living room. No pictures as evidence because I was too busy scolding them while picking up the mess! So here's a springy cute one of Odie:

Speaking of pictures, something is wonky with the card in my camera, so I have to figure out how to use Peter's Olympus for some new product shots to add to Artfire. I don't have the best photo set up in the studio (ok, I don't have any set up - I plunk down a 12x12" piece of white scrapbook cardstock on my desk, turn the macro setting and flash on, and shoot away. Everything gets fixed in Photoshop or Gimp. Kinda cheating, I know, but I never had the patience for dragging out a light box and big set up every time I want to shoot. One of these days I'll come up with something that works better, but for now its all I got!

Fun With Widgets!

Revamped Artfire studio with over 100 new items added! I'm loving the new fusion studio options. I added flash widgets for my blog, flickr, and twitter and I've been having fun tweaking them and playing around with all the options. No sales yet, but I'm still really happy with Artfire and really glad I switched. Joined the Northeast Network of Independent Artists Guild too.

I'm trying to keep on top of all my internets stuff - I tend to neglect it all and get into a rut of just refreshing my personal Facebook page 50 times a day and not really doing anything productive. Case in point: this blog. But I'm trying!

I've crafted a few new things in the past few weeks, my favorite being these:

They worked up pretty quickly and I love the little touch of the black bow and trim. I really like working with the pencil on muslin, I'm currently dreaming up more ways I can utilize that technique.

I'm off for more Fun With Widgets, but here's a pic of my new hair. Peter seems to really like it, my mom, not so much. 32 isn't too old for blue hair, is it?

"I say an empty desk means... and empty mind"

We cleaned the studio/office yesterday so I wanted to show it off before it returns to its normal state of chaos, craft supplies, computer parts, and chewed up dog toys.


This is Peter's side, with some of my supplies on the left (mostly paint and glue):



This is my corner, with my jewelry, painting and office supplies, finished pieces, and a bunch of other random odds and ends:


My Ikea wardrobe, with clipped-from-magazines paintings from some of my favorite artists, and a chest of drawers on the right for all my hand sewing, embroidery, punch needle and needle felting supplies, ribbon spools, and paper craft supplies:



The inside of the wardrobe, with my felt, some books, and all the rest of the odds and ends:

questionable content

Going through old bookmarks and right now I'm really really wishing some of my favorite Harry Potter fanartists did some "legitimate" art. I was a crazed, rabid Harry Potter fan between the releases of books 4 -7, and filled the time between book and movie releases and reading the books in order over and over again with fanfiction and fanart. Quickly, here are some favorites whose work I could still find on the internets:

hibiscus



accio brain

sherant

It looks like quite a lot of my favorite artists have disappeared, given up on fandom, and/or are trying to distance themselves from the, um, somewhat questionable content of their work. I think I'm over fandom for good and will remain a casual HP fan, but it was fun while it lasted.

the bike room

We spent all of Saturday working on the house. It is coming along nicely - we still have some arranging and cleaning to do, along with a tremendous amount of yard work, but it is definitely getting there. We moved in my very favorite piece of furniture around the corner from our increasingly coordinating black and yellow and white kitchen:

I found it at the Salvation Army for $50, and its been sitting in storage for the past 4-5 years. It is white enameled metal, in mostly great condition, with cabinets on the bottom for not so frequently used kitchen stuff, drawers in the middle, and sliding glass-doored shelves on top for my ever-growing collection of knick knacks. I'm still in the process of filling and arranging the shelves, but I have everything from old family tin types from the 1800s to a ceramic poodle named ChiChi painted in the 1970s by my late Aunt Sandi. It is also a nice dust-free place to display our (almost 1 year anniversary!) wedding bears.

Can we talk about this:
This was/could be my beautiful dining room. Currently it is functioning as a bike workshop. Won't someone intervene on my (and the dining room table's) behalf? Please?
Also... slot cars? Really?

We've been hiking a bit with Odie (you know, to prep for Everest) and took him to Jordan Creek Parkway a few days ago. The mountain bikers and disc golfers weren't out yet in full force and it was a nice little mini hike without too many human obstacles. Plus we found these trees near the creek with exposed roots.

We're going to attempt to hike to the Pinnacle on the Appalachian trail this weekend with Odie in tow, assuming he (and I) can make it. Should be an adventure.

I didn't get much craftiness accomplished today, just took some more product photos and organized the ones that need editing. I did have a nice visit with my brother, and we took Odie for his second skin scraping (still some mites there, but at least they are dead). I then attempted to make curtains with about $4 worth of white-on-white polka dot fabric from JoAnns using the sewing machine that's been gathering dust for about 2 years. Spent about an hour cursing and banging things around before I gave up and made a channel for the curtain rod by ironing on some fusible web tape and left the other edges raw. I feel like a crafty failure for not being able to make stupid simple curtains. Well. At least we are no longer using a lime green Ikea duvet cover as a window treatment.

Hopefully tomorrow will be more productive. And less rainy.

Everest

I have the cheapest Netflix plan there is, because I don't really care about the DVDs, I just want the stuff I can watch instantly. We have the XBox set up so I can watch Netflix on the big tv downstairs, or I can watch it on Peter's computer in the studio, or on the one in the bedroom, so the whole house is covered. Who needs cable? They don't actually have a super great selection of movies and tv, but what they do have is a lot of documentaries. That's what I tend to watch most when I'm working, and every night before bed we put one on to fall asleep to. Well the other night we were wide awake at 3AM, desperate to see the end of Storm Over Everest. Its a Frontline special about the 1996 Everest climbing disaster when a freak storm killed 8 people and injured many others in one night. And now Peter is becoming slightly obsessed with Mount Everest, watching the first season of the Discovery channel show Everest: Beyond the Limit in 2 nights and reading everything he can find about it. I think he's entertaining crazy notions about summiting Everest with Odie in tow. Hopefully a nice safe hike up a local mountain will get it out of his system.



We took all three dogs to the dog park yesterday after Peter got home from work. Odie had his usual great time, Lily followed Odie around, and Hailey didn't quite know what to do with herself. Peter is determined to get one of them to go through the tube, but I just don't think its going to happen.


I went to the good Dollar Tree at the Trexlertown Mall yesterday, not really needing anything but wanting to pick up some cheap cleaning supplies and batteries. I ended up with a cart full of crap, including 5 bunches of yellow and lime green fake flowers and a big reed wreath. I covered the wreath with white latex spray paint, and used every single flower to make this:

Not too shabby for $6 worth of materials. It adds a little springy-ness to the house.


Today I am working on revamping and retaking my product photos. I have a tendency to take really, really boring photos, with the piece prefectly centered, looking straight on, with a pure white background. I'm going to try a few different things, but even if I just angle the photo 15º and crop it close up, its much better than what I have going on now. I'm a little embarassed looking at the last time I listed new items on Artfire. I've been on such a roll making new stuff that I haven't bothered to photograph or list any of it. Guess I better go get on that now.

Egg salad

I haven't colored eggs since I was about 6 years old, and I'm not sure why because I absolutely loved doing it, getting all messy and spilling cups of dye on the kitchen table. Peter worked until about 11PM the other night, and when I get bored sometimes I get impulsive ideas for things I need to do IMMEDIATELY. I had bought the PAAS kit weeks ago with the dye tablets, little shrinky sleeves, stickers and such, so I was prepared. I threw in a dozen eggs to boil and couldn't wait until they were completely cool to draw on them with the clear wax crayon that came with the kit, which is why the resist lines are all wonky. I was going to do layered resists with several colors of overdyes, but I just got so excited to dunk them in the little cups that I quick did some scribbles and got to coloring. They are a little messy and sloppy, but I like them. They made me feel springy. And they are just going to turn into egg salad anyway. I don't think the dogs are sharp enough to figure out an Easter egg hunt.




I work at a dog day care part time, and bonus, I get to take my dogs for free. I took Odie yesterday, and because there was a teacup Yorkie in the group he's usually with, he had to go with the big dogs so he wouldn't squish her, even though I'm pretty sure little Tink is tough enough to hold her own. Odie wasn't terribly thrilled about his situation - he loves little fluffy dogs and pretty much just pees on himself around the big dogs. But when he wasn't sulking in the corner or on top of the ramp, he did get some playing in. Zeus, the St Bernard puppy (shown here chewing on Odie's face) pretty much just chewed on Odie's face all afternoon. Bailey the Goldendoodle tried to hump him all day, and Rylee the Weimereiner chased him in circles. Poor guy. Today we might be taking him and his sisters to the dog park if the weather doesn't take a turn for the crappy.

I got my Artstar rejection email, and while its disappointing, I'll suppose I'll get over it. I know how competitive that show is, and I also know my submission pictures weren't the greatest. Something to work on for next year. I think I am just going to step up my efforts on ArtFire, and try and hunt down some local craft shows and other local opportunities to get my work seen by people. I'm still trying to sell Peter on the idea of an open house/open studio event after we get the house all fixed up, but so far its not really working. I also need to revamp my online presence a bit with a new visual identity. The old one was fine a year ago, but I think I can do better now. I have tons of new merchandise to photograph and some pieces to finsih (oh shrinky dinks, one day I will get you out of the drawer you were banished to). Lots to do, but first, coffee.

Is there anything more fun than going to 5 Below when you're bored, and buying just about everything you want, and only spending like $20? I mean, other than going to Dollar Tree. I might be the only person I know who will drive past the one that is 5 minutes from my house to go to the good Dollar Tree that is 30 minutes away.

I'll leave you with the song I'm completely obsessed with at the moment. I love 70s Linda Ronstadt.

Welcome to the Bordello of Blood

Yesterday ending up being beautiful, so we took Odie to the dog park again. His sisters are going to kill us in our sleep one of these days because we never take them anywhere fun. We made an impromptu stop at the Monocacy creek for a little walk. Odie barked at the geese and ducks and the people fishing along the creek, and generally had an awesome time.



I want to know the name of this dense ground cover - shiny little leaves that look like lily pads, the brightest emerald green! We have a rampant ivy problem in all the shady areas of the yard, and I'd much prefer this stuff!

We spent a good part of the weekend switching rooms with Dan. We will (crosses fingers) soon have all three rooms on the second floor to ourselves - the studio/office, the bedroom, and the library/gym/possible future baby's room. The bedroom is pretty much moved, though it seems a little bare to me. Last time we lived in that room we had EVERYthing crammed in there, our tv, computer desks, all my supplies, a huge wardrobe full of clothing... Now its just the bed, 3 dressers, and a clothing rack, with room to actually move and breathe and relax. Kind of a funny story about our first almost completely sleepless night in the room, but it would probably be inappropriate to share. Lets just say we'd forgotten about the joys of sharing a wall with someone who likes to stay up until 6AM entertaining. And when I say 'joys', what I mean of course is 'horrors.'

I painted a new house number sign for by the front door. I'd had enough of the old cruddy one:Purple was not high on Peter and Dan's list for the new one, but I stand by my decision. Now visitors will think they are entering a goth bordello:

The font is ExtraOrnamentalNo2 from daFont.com or some other such free fonts site, and I think it is awesome. I put the hardware on all by myself and hung it on the brick. My work is done for the day and its not even 11.

That is in fact a lie, I do have inventory and listing on my agenda for the day. I've pretty much almost positively decided on Artfire over Etsy. I want to like Etsy, I really do, I just disagree with so much of their policy, written and unwritten-yet-enforced, that I just can't justify giving up a good chunk of my profits to them month after month. So much about them makes me want to scream and pull my hair out, so why in the world should I put myself through that just for a few extra hits on my listings? I'm a Charter Artisan on Artfire for both my handmade and supply shops, meaning I snapped up the $7 a month for life deal before they sold out, so financially it just makes a tremendous amount of sense to concentrate my listing and promotional efforts there. Artfire isn't perfect, I just happen to think it is going to be better than Etsy if I stick with it. I much prefer, and sell much better at, in-person shows, but I'd like to have some kind of online venue to compliment that and give somewhere for people with my business cards and URL to go between shows.

Speaking of shows, I think they release the Artstar vendor list this week. There's also the Doylestown punk rock flea market in May and the Philly Independent Craft Market monthly shows to get in on. Hopefully I can get some things lined up in the next few weeks.

One last thought...

Dear Dan,
I love you, but when you drink the coffee and leave me two drops for my second cup, I want to cut you.
Sincerely,
Your Sister-In-Law

the Xanadu sountrack finished downloading...

and no one was home, and that meant SING ALONG! I also downloaded this 200-song twee pop mix so right now I'm just kind of relaxing to it, drinking store brand V-8 and sharing peanut butter crackers with the dogs in lieu of an actual healthy late lunch.



I think I'm going to stop buying the dogs stuffed toys. Besides the fact that I am really sick of there being a fine coating of white stuffing on every floor surface in the house (especially since the vacuum is broken, as you can clearly see), they are just as happy with knotted fleece toys. I have polar fleece left over from an old project, so I just cut some strips off and knotted them and they can fight over those instead.



Last night at the last minute we decided to have a fire, the first one of the year, so Peter and Adrian got the pizza while I chopped some veggies quick for a salad. It was drizzling off and on all night but for the most part it was quite nice out. Instead of drinking cheap beer we had various flavors of hot tea. Dan came home and we made some really awesome plans for the house. It is going to be like a real live grown up's house when we're done with it! I can finally move some pieces out of storage, and once we get all the room-switching completed I think everyone will be much happier. We're going to really try and fix up the yard this year - Peter has a chainsaw to get rid of all the random green crap that keeps popping up everywhere, and I am going to try flowers again and try not to get completely bored with watering them. I got gardening gloves from the dollar store, so you know how serious I am. And with the help of the internets, I will trim that killer rose bush. I do kind of like it growing all wild, but Peter does not like it trying to drag him under when he's mowing the lawn.

I started the process of inventory of all my handmade items. It could not be more of a pain, but I need to know what I have, what is photographed, what I need to make more of... Also, and this is dumb, but I got these nice little round price tags that I like much better than the rounded rectangles I was using, so I feel like I want to go and relabel everything. I am also adjusting my prices on some things, and udpating old packaging on other things. I love making more work for myself. It seems weird to me, but some things I made that used to be so dear to me are now just "meh, throw it in the swag bag giveaway pile."

Time to go buy some potting soil and finish this inventory.

what to do on yet another day off

Peter can just like pick her up by one leg, swing her around, catch her in mid air and hold her like this and she just gazes lovingly at him. I can scratch her under the chin and give her hugs and that's it, that's the only way I don't get my nose bitten off. She is sweet, she really is, just can just kind of be, um, a jerk.

On the crafty front, I'm still trying to work up the motivation to finish these like 6 sheets of shrinky dinks I drew out about a week ago.


The lines need to be thickened up a bit and then the painstaking coloring and blending begins. Then the cutting, shrinking, edging, finishing, and stringing. No wonder I can't seem to muster the motivation to get started.

I'm having a tough time deciding on venues - what to list on Etsy, what to list on Artfire, do I give up one entirely in favor of the other, do I list supplies on one and handmade on the other, do I give up selling online and just concentrate on shows? So confusing. I like both and am frustrated by both for different reasons, so it is difficult to come to any kind of decision. I'm just halfheartedly listing here and there. I figure I'll wait and see if I get into the ArtStar, and then decide.

Last night I made breakfast for dinner - awesome french toast sandwiches stuffed with cream cheese and strawberries topped with sliced bananas and strawberries and syrup. I would have taken a picture to post, but last time I took a picture of food I cooked to put on the internets Peter was like "You're not going to be one of those people, are you?" I just started really cooking lately, and I'm proud of my food! Way to crush my dreams, baby.

Off to make a mess eating a blood orange and get down to some kind of work!

this dog

I love this dog, really, but today, THIS DOG is getting on my last nerve.