Featured Etsy Blogger: The Fab Miss B!

Well, heck, in the midst of my not being well, I nearly missed noting our Etsy Blogger of the month! And that would be a shame, because not only does the Fab Miss B host giveaways, she stocks aprons in her store! Giveaways are of course a nigh-surefire sign of a good blogger; anyone giving away Loot is invested in their project, after all.

As for aprons-- well, they make everyone, of either gender, instantly cuter AND classier. And they're terribly useful. They protect more extensive clothing, and yet often outshine the very items they're sacrificing themselves for. In short, aprons are one of the truest signs of Civilization, and any shop stocking them should be encouraged as being a standard bearer for our times.

So, you know. Go visit Miss B!

Carapace Versus the Orange Gourds of Doooom

Time to bust out my ethnocentrism and wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving! Even if you don't live in the US. Happy..um..late November? Or you could join us in eating ourselves sick on big plates of food; it's really one of the easiest holidays to play along with. I'll join in yours!

I mean it. I love the holidays. Any holidays. All Arbor's Day of the Chrimukwanukah Solstivus Eve, whatever you got, I'll take it. Every Thanksgiving I can lay my hands on (did you know the first American Thanksgiving was actually in Texas? No? It's true!), Halloween and Day of the Dead, I don't care. Any excuse for strange foods and rituals is a good one!

But there is an element of the latter-month holidays that fills me with dread, one nasty nigh-inescapable blight on this shiniest of seasons. One nasty ORANGE blight.

See, I'm allergic to orange foods. It's not that I dislike them. I *dislike* canned peas. Canned peas do not make me throw the heck up, or break out in hives, or have trouble breathing. But pumpkin, sweet potatoes, even humble carrots, when cooked...they bring the doom upon me. And most of the year, they are easy to avoid. But today, on this festive holiday occasion, they are everywhere. And so I have learned earlier than most to cook my own holiday dinner, and hold Thanksgiving only with those close companions who have shown an understanding of concepts like "anaphylactic shock" and "next time the mess goes in YOUR shoes".

So today, armed with turkey and pecan pie, I go once more to brave the trials of Family Fun. I'm grateful to be able to go to a fairly safe place; and I'll be even more grateful to return home, if I can sneak by the well meaning relatives and stealth pies once again.

May your Thanksgivings be fun, and less full of danger!

Thank You

Time for another Etsy Texas Challenge! This month's theme was Gratitude, which is noble as heck, but awfully abstract and hard to portray.

I think the team may actually have gone too abstract, and I'm not sure there's going to be enough entries here to run the challenge. But for you, my bloggy faithful, a picture:



There is nothing more hideously critical to the learning process than an audience. So thank you, mysterious people of the internet, for hanging around this rather infrequent blog. Your comments and encouragement are more appreciated than you know.

Look! A Distraction!

Though I do the wonderful Folk of Etsy a great disservice to call her such....

I'm trying very hard to have a fun post for ya'll tonight, but for now, why not check out my interview with Folk over here:

http://folkcraft.blogspot.com/2009/11/in-craftlight-carapace.html


She asks a lot of fun questions, and I took my own verbose time answering them, so that should keep everyone busy for quite a while. Look over there, while I remember how to type!

Fair Notice With a Turtle

I am not well.
There's no punchline here; it's not a joke about me being crazy. I have some serious health issues, and they're rearing up to bite me lately. So I may be a bit quieter than usual. A whole big bit. I'll try to keep the blog lively though, and when I post I'm liable to not be in my right mind, so stick around! And if it's ever quiet for two weeks at a go, you can call the Marines. Or the Coast Guard. Or the Glee Club. You know, whatever.
I don't like to talk about it, because it is complicated and boring. But I felt my hypothetical blog readers, needed some explanation for my occasional long quietus. So, there it is.

Hey! Check it out, I'm drawing a turtle!:

Cephalopod Rodeo

I don't talk about other blogs a lot. This is a shame. And weird. There are many very cool blogs out there, and talking about the good work of other people is always easier than coming up with my own stuff.

For instance, Cephalopod Tea Party, a fantastic blog about cephalopods and only cephalopods (pronuounced SEFalopods, not, like kep-halo-pods or anything weird), dedicated entirely to the awesomeness of our headfooted friends. No random self-promotion, no craft talk-- this blog is for octopods, and squids, and other similar awesome things. And the Tea Party is having a potluck, inviting other people to contribute things Cephish! These being some of the neatest and most artistic beings in the world, I couldn't resist:



Though I of course can't do the chromatophores justice. I did a lot of image study here, though it wildly and profoundly does not show. Now I want a Cephalopod Photo Album.

However, I did not draw a Cephalopod Rodeo. I did not think of it until I had to title this blog post. But I think I now know what the next thing in my Etsy shop will be.

Thank You, Etsy Texas Crafters!

Oh boy, I won the Etsy Texas Crafters Dia de los Muertos challenge! Well, I came in fourth. Which is better. No, really! See, the challenge has prizes, and every challenge I've entered, the prize I really wanted has been third place or later. It is bizarre, but true! This month it was a pair of luxury washcloths from the lovely Laine, of Cradle And All, who even let me choose my pattern!



Don't those look amazing? It's just the sort of thing I always sigh after and never buy, because I am a sensible responsible household budgeter who is saving all my money for patching the roof. No fun, and not nearly as luxy as these washcloths. I think that's the best sort of prize or present, really, something useful and loveable but not...quite..in the budget. So big thank yous, Laine! And it goes really well with my prize from last time!

Last time? I was in the lower-place prizes again! And I won a Pink Sugar Whipped Soap from Amanda of Fairy Bubbles.



Which is pretty great all on its own, right? But then she went and double-sized the prize just because she's that cool! I love using this stuff; it's like showering in an ice cream sundae, but somehow getting clean, instead of just sticky. And then I smell good, but somehow don't attract ants. Fantastic! You really should try it out. But only if you like smelling good.