Resolutions, only a little late

Well, obviously I did not resolve to be more punctual this year.

I did, however, microwave several bars of soap.

And join a sample box with Best of Etsy.

And participate in hosting a treasure hunt.

Because my New Year's resolution, belated as it is, is to try at least one new thing every week. In this I am being aided vastly by the internet's vast store of home chemistry experiments, and the wonderful array of artists on Etsy who are so generous with their knowledge and suggestions.

So, besides microwaving soap, I have attempted my first object collages, one still in progress:




and one finished and awesome and listed on my Etsy shop, which you should totally check out, if you haven't-- I put a lot of neat stuff there!

You should also microwave some soap. I'm not gonna tell you what happens, but it's pretty dang keen.

Any new things you're trying this year?

Just for Fun, to Pay it Forward

The Play of Light and Shadow has this little Halloween PIF going on:

And has generously capped it at three people, so the shy weird kid in class who only has three real blog readers can still play! Whew!
Having just survived our end-of-semester rush, I am feeling rather undead myself, and very much in the mood for some Halloweenness. So here's the deal: You be one of the first three commenters on this post, you get a big of Halloweeny suprise, drawn by me meyself. I do not promise it will be awesome, only original. Er. I will need to contact you for your mailing address, but worry not, I will not be mailing you dead fish or anything.
Then-of course-- you must go forth and Pay! Bwahaha! By offering a similar small bit of early Halloween to three readers on your blog! And linking back to me. Theoretically, if everyone did this faithfully, I guess a PIF could last forever! The sociologist in me is very interested to see that. Alack for proper network tracking software!
Ahem.Anyway.
Leave your comment, let me know you do want a bit o' art from me, and share your own Halloween spirit. Easy, right?
Now, I'm not gonna advertise this post. This is for long-timers, says me. So comment, I wanna know who I'm working for!

Keeping Busy

One of the quirks of my brain issues (yes, I have brain issues, not in the "oh, I'm so wacky" way, but in the "Hey, I can't see out my right eye!" way) is that often my verbal circuitry will short out. You who have seen me write can guess how much being forced to go incommunicado pains me.

But when I can't write I have to do SOMEthing, so the irony of my bloglife is that usually when I'm not blogging I'm doing scads of stuff I'd like to blog about. Like this!:




Yes, I'm modding an altoids box. This one's gonna be for me and me alone; I've laid some transparent clay along the backside, which I'll paint, and I'm going to have me a nifty unique earplug box (it's a dinky tin). But I'm thinking of making a couple for my shop. What do ya'll think?

I'm a Feature!

Check it out! I'm giving away a pretty on Mannie Mandible's wonderful feature blog:

http://thefeaturecafe.blogspot.com/

I love Mannie's features because she lets artists talk as long as they want. More rope, blogger!

Going to be quiet tonight and tomorrow-- I'm visiting Staple!, and independent comics expo. If you think comics are all superheroes and biff-boom-pow, well, you're probably a newspaper features editor. The rest of you know there's a lot more than that going on, right? RIGHT? Anyway, it's that everything else I love and go to celebrate tomorrow. Funtime for me!

Yikes, I'm Exposed!

My Creatability team-- about whom I really really have to write, some day when I have world enough and brains-- has an Etsy Exposed treasury, and I'm in it! Which means, for as long as the treasury is up, I'm showing my face! And for that long *only*, because this is seriously wigging me out. So for those who wonder what I look like, here y'are:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=45593&show_panel=true

On the plus side, I like how my hair looks. And I think I got some pretty good photos, considering I was the photographer and the model, and sometimes an unspectacled blind model at that.

Still. I'm all visible. Unsettling.

Madness! I have Madness!

My brains are hurting, and my blog has suffered for it. I'm sorry, blog!
But the blogmind is having its revenge through One World One Heart. Have you heard of it? If not, then I am sorry, for lo, I am passing the curse on to you.

OWOH is a massive, massive blog giveaway carnival. I mean 911 blogs massive.

It wasn't that big when I started following it. I saw it linked from some friend-blogs, and thought, oh fun, a giveaway trail! New blogs to read! Shinies to win!

And then the voice at the back of my head, the stupid one, the one that I think must have been a competitve athlete in another game session (a MALE competitive athlete) said: Hey, let's go to every blog on the list!

Have I mentioned lately I have dialup?

Did I point out that there over 900 blogs in this caravan?

Whimper.

But I'm not giving up! I may pass out and forget when I am on a regular basis, but I never give up! I just break down, it's different. And more annoying. Giving up would make more sense. But I'm halfway through, so hopefully I can quit being stubborn soon, and get back to being productive.

Anyway!
I'm posting stuff up on my Etsy site, at least--like for instance the unfinished version of this Cephalady:



to explain why I love the Precious aka my Cintiq 12WX.

See that picture? It's a neat idea, on sketch paper. With cruddy inking. It's the sort of picture that says "look, I had a neat idea!". And with most of my ideas, that's as far as I would ever get, because transferring them to a real media meant either tracing with carbon (at which I am fail) or copying, cleaning up the concept art by hand, laying down a clear medium on a good work surface, and then painting it, and hoping it all came out ok. Just prepping took hours, and I have very few ideas that are THAT good.

But now? Scan, retrace, color, all in one go. Takes..well, embarassingly less time. And there it is, all ready to print and listed up! Go look and see how cool it is now!

Check back later this week, when I explain how to wear a corset! Or something. Now, back to the OWOH...

Absurdity Day: Turkey Hat!

He wasn't sure what the problem was, but he knew there was something on his head. Never mind the way everyone was looking at him, he could feel the extra weight! But he kept going about his business, hopeful that, whatever it was, it would soon go away.

The turkey just figured no one was going to get a better vantage point than this.



Today is Absurdity Day! Apparently. And so there's another absurd Etsy Texas contest, goin' on over hyar:

http://etsytx.blogspot.com/

And this time I'm totally going to say "Vote for me!"! Or, you know, vote for someone else! Because I like that creeepy pinhead, I do....

Etsybloggers Featured Crafter: Mama's Magic!

I do believe mine is the very last blog to feature Mama's Magic, the very cool maker of baby-safe jewelry (and other things!) but that's on purpose-- a month should be a month, gosh darn it, and it's no fun to have your features all over in the first week! So here you go, Mama!


Now, before I get going, I should mention that Mama's Magic is actually a sister shop to Baby Friendly Beads. And I like BFBeads, with its very neat necklaces. Pieces like Planet Baby and Clarity would look good on anyone, and be a standout piece in the too-often rumpled and food-covered wardrobe of early motherhood (hey, I don't have children, but I know those who do!). But I don't have babies, and after the Summer of the Child on Etsy, I'm a bit tired of childcare specialties, so let' go back over to Mama's Magic, where the Mama goes to party while the baby stays at home!

What I really like about Mama's is the asymmetric theme paired earrings. It seems like such an obvious idea, but I see it very rarely. But check out this filigree fairy tale:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=16181761
Or this take on an old quote:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=14213182
And the standout diva of the shop, perfect for any knitter, crochet queen, or other yarn crafter:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=15096013

The artist of the hour calls them fraternal earrings, and I can only hope she makes more such twins. Go look! But do it soon, because I suspect these earrings will soon be gone into a certain bug's gifting stash.

Monday, Monday, Monday

For those who don't know, my beloved Texas Crafters Team celebrates every Monday with some sort of promotional event. First Mondays are a big sale!

I'm offering free shipping until 1 am Eastern/Midnight Central-- see what my neighbors* are doing over here:

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5842381

*Standard Disclaimer: Neighbors here merely means fellow Texans. I have never met most of them; many are several days of hard driving away.

Unlike my actual neighbors, who are merely twenty minutes away.

In Which I am Forgetful

Looked at my shop today and was maaaaaagically missing an item.

"Hey!" I thought will ill-founded optimism, "Maybe I have a sale!" But no, I am a dope, and what I have is a poor head for dates. And an expired listing.

On the plus side, this makes it easier to catch up with my one-a-day listing challenge, and I needed to update my tags anyway. On the down side, phoo, I like the description I had on that one, and now I have to rewrite it, and I don't write short descriptions these days, so it'll probably take about an hour to relist, and that's not even counting the bizarro picture loading time, and I can't believe you're still reading this sentence, seriously,it must be the commas making it possible, I know when I read a sentence this long I end up out of breathe because I experience words physically, so if you're like me and you need a pause there should be a period coming up at any point now and you can BREATHE.

There.

More postying tomorrow, when I am not sneaking blog time from the day job.

Friday Five: One A Day Challenge!

You may have noticed, if you follow my shop, that I've been updating much more this month. Why, it's as though I have something new every day!

And indeed I do, thanks to the inspiration of my fellow Etsiers at the One A Day Challenge! I could go on and on about how brilliant the idea and the people are, but instead I'll just show you some of the results:


Magpie's Daughter has an eye for the shiny. Just don't accept her food!

Cricket's Creations include scarves of sheer glamour:



And scarves you will steal from your husband:

Yarrow1 has her own style. Check out these gourds, which are not quite like anything else I've seen on Etsy--and do you know how rare that is? Look!



And can you believe the work on this ACEO?


The Gaudy Goddess works big, bold and beautiful:





Last but never ever least, our glorious founder, the brain behind the boom, Bittersweeets!

I think all avocados look like this:



Clarence lies, but I can hardly blame him:



This hardly even touches on the challengey goodness! For more, go to Etsy and search under "tags" for "oneadaychallenge". Really! Do it!

Go, Team Etsy!

That's Team Etsy Texas, for those who don't know (have I mentioned I'm Texan? What? Not in the last ten minutes? Scandalous!)

Every monthish, Etsy TX has a nifty design challenge. For this month, it was either back to school (which I ain't touchin' wiht a ten foot horse-killing compass needle) or decorations for the home of Our Fearless Leader, Thistlecraft. You've seen my work, you can guess how that went:



Go look at it! Tell me what I can do with five views on one wee painting.

But I pulled my act together and made something non-fay, too.


And I'm not the only one who got inspired. Go check it out!