Category: A year to get things done

In a year I want to:
– participate in the community
– create art regularly
– lose weight
– sell art at Keycon
– have a good sized portfolio

It’s Hard to Turn Over a New Leaf

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…when electric cars don’t have gas engines ;)

Signed my life away for a 2017 Nissan Leaf. According to the dealership, this is probably the first 2017 model sold in Canada. Pretty cool factoid, if you ask me!

The weather has become ridiculously warm. At 2°C for the past couple of days, the snow has been melting and to add insult to injury, it rained for the latter part of the day. Rather than complain, I reminded the girls it made for perfect snowball weather, with heavy, sticky snow. Snowballs also meant snowmen, and ‘Phee decided snowdragons were more impressive creations within the realm of possibility ::grins::

I’ve been feeling kind of scattered lately.

I cranked out more earrings for Strange Things Emporium. I think she said she has a venue this weekend, so fingers crossed for both of us! I should have kept a few pairs to photograph for Etsy, but I rushed them to the store while I had time to. Malachite with silver, steampunk gears… carnelian that looks like dripping  blood. All kinds of stuff.

They also need traditional painters/artists, so I spoke to the fellow running that part of the store. I’m hopeful. I just need to focus and draw.

But I’m also knitting… just seems the easiest thing to pick up and manage at the moment. I am also… obsessive sometimes. I started a project and I want to see it done, so while I might have a larger chunk of time to draw, now my mind is on knitting. There are dragons in the background too, hehe. They need to come to the forefront, as I probably have another craft sale lined up in March.

Lastly, I’ve been wrestling with taming my crafting space. There’s no way to work on some of these things (save the knitting) because I have no space to work! I bought a million shelves on clearance from Chapters, (hey, I’m surprised too!) They are floating shelves, so trying to find the right sort of things to put on them have been a challenge in the art room. They made a great spice rack in the kitchen, and cleaned up the clutter in both bathrooms very nicely! I just… have a lot of large things :P

 

Maybe some photos next update. I have lots and lots of goodies arriving in the mail ::smiles::

Small steps in the right direction

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Firstly, new earrings available at Strange Things Emporium!

Not my usual style, but they fit in with the theme of the shop. I believe they are reasonably priced, so even better if they sell ;)

Next up, incorporating upcycling into my business model. I’ve become an avid tea drinker since discovering Earl’s Valentine (a seasonal black tea blend from  David’s Tea), and winter has bestowed upon me several of these beautiful display tins. I am thinking I can re-purpose them for earring containers, or possibly art. I used to have an interest in tiny dioramas, but stopped because I had no way to seal them away from dust. (I wonder if these will work, aesthetically speaking. Hrm… )

For kicks, I started priming the cases a few of them came in. They will either make great display cases… or they won’t. Either way I’ll have learned something, and the cases are still good for storage.

Not the direction I expected to take myself in, but art (ok, and possible sales!) pleases me :D There might be room to sell my traditional artwork at Strange Things Emporium, as well. I need to make inquiries and crank out some drawings if it works for me.

Until later <3
~ElvenAssassin

Excited About Plans <3

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None of this “New Years resolutions” stuff, just the necessity of new agendas and calendars, haha.

Waiting on my Petit Prince agenda by Moleskine. Super, super excited about that! While my day-planning skills last year were the pits, I absolutely adored carrying around my little pocket agenda. (Can I be honest and say it was for the ruler?)

New year necessitates new time keeping paper. To that end, I also found some blank daily time keeping sheets by Happy Planner. Personally I’ve found it a challenge to find an hourly break-down of the day that goes beyond the supper hour. Their sheets break down the day from 6am to 10pm, which suits my eclectic schedule well. So I can now track long-term stuff in my day planner, and plan out my time for productivity around sleeping/mothering/appointments. Go me!

In theory, I rock ;)

Business cards arrived from Moo.com, and to top it all off, they gave me free card holders. ::grins:: Very pretty, and very nice of them. I’m so impressed I plan to place an order for custom labels in the near future. That’s going to take some serious planning this week, I suppose.

Speaking of, my girls are on Winter Break for another week. They will be having their first sleep-over at their grandparents tomorrow; I worry ‘Phee will be homesick, so it might be best not to stray far from a phone.

As with many other people, I’m also waiting on several Boxing Day orders to arrive in the mail. ::laughs:: I bought some beautiful, unique picture frames to showcase my drawings. I’m positively beside myself with excitement! ::grins:: I’ve got a vague idea of what I want to draw, but wonder if that will change once the frames are in hand. Hopefully they will entice buyers… we’ll see.

Hrm, what else has happened over the holiday season?

Sold a necklace at Strange Things Emporium.

I  made a custom cremation pendant for a lady I’d met at one of my craft sales. She liked it enough to say she she might order more. I hope so; I had her permission to photograph the first one but didn’t get the opportunity to do so.

The girls enjoyed their gifts… I got a typewriter ::laughs:: and other goodies. I’ll have to split my down time between artwork and playing The Last Guardian. ;)

Anyway, enough rambling from me. Hoping to keep this upward feeling momentum.

Business Cards! (and craft sales)

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There I go, disappearing again…

November brings with it an extra year on my driver’s licence.

I was brave, and signed up for two more craft sales. I’ve attended one and broke even, so I should not complain. (I’ll be honest, it’s difficult not to question what I’m doing!) The second is set for the end of the week. Nothing has been unpacked, so set-up should be relatively easy, in theory. I’m nervous to find out there is a larger venue scheduled the same day, but the last one had a great turn out for being in a suburb at the far end of town.  I can only do better, right?

I’ve been knitting to pass the time… it’s been good for me. With my phone broken, (again!) I have something to keep busy while traveling. I actually replaced it with an old one while I wait for the Note 8 to come out, but it has limitations :P I spoke with the office staff at my daughters’ school and if none of my scarves sell this weekend, they are more than happy to accept the donations. So win-win for me in a way. I either recoup my costs, or I help my community. Even better if I can do both ;)

With Black Friday creeping into the Canadian shopping calendar, I scored a deal on business cards from Moo.com <3 What do you think?

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Granted, I should have had this design sitting and waiting, but I didn’t actually figure out what I wanted in a business card, until a couple of days ago, so… the digital version was flung together in a few hours. I think it’s good for what it is. (although I just realized there’s a typo. Can you see it? Oh dear.) 400 typos being sent off to the printer… nothing to do now but grin and bear it. ::laughs:: 400 typos at a 30% discount at least! I have two weeks to mull over what kind of white-out works best, heh. The nifty thing about Moo is being able to upload up to 50 different designs. I managed 33, so I’ve got quite the variety to hand out. I’m still rather happy.

Lastly, on the general topic of dragons… I made several dragon-be-speckled ornaments to sell. The girls have picked out which ones to decorate for themselves, and the very worst case scenario is keeping them for myself? (Oh, the hardship!)

Fingers crossed I do well this weekend!

 

Craft Sales Are… Learning Experiences

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So I showed my work at a craft sale over the weekend.
~~~~

Standing in the thick of it, I was worried it wasn’t a strong presentation, but I felt differently after reviewing this photo.

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Truthfully, I find it almost easy to forget this was my table. ::laughs:: Silly, but true.

Positives, to take away from the experience would be…

  • I earned enough to cover my table fee
  • I made business cards, and a few were taken by potential customers
  • Practice making a nice display and getting a feel for next time
  • learning from a very experienced artist that KeyCon’s art show will probably be a bad venue, unfortunately, so be cautious there.
  • I met some really nice other artists

Negatives are:

  • I barely earned enough to cover my table fee
  • There was hardly any foot traffic, which is almost a neutral, as I may have sold more, if more people had come through.

I made some new things that no one batted an eyelash at; I’m not terribly worried. Not sure if they weren’t well displayed, or thought to be over priced… I think I’ll turn my little “witch potions” into necklaces, and then they’ll be more attractive. Worst case  scenario, the snakes become dragons ::coughs::

Speaking of dragons… I’m working on custom USB keys.

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I don’t remember if I mentioned that? This is my second one, which is a work in progress. I think the side with the red dragon is a little… empty, and it’s the front, so I need to do a bit more before I can post it to Etsy. Already some love for it on Instagram, so that’s heartening. I have a second one waiting to be varnished at the same time. I have one pre-sold, so I shall let my customer pick their favourite, and list the other.

I am going to try very hard to post here at least every week. ::nods:: No guarantees, of course, but I shall try.