Musings

Everything’s Coming Up Milhouse!

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It sure feels like it is, anyway ::grins::

Prints (and stickers!) arrived last night. (One is pre-sold, and soon to be dropped in the post! <3) Did I say? Moo.com even corrected my ridiculous typo on my business cards and resent them. O.o I will love them forever! You can now find my cards at the shop. (Houray!)

Kay, the shop owner, agrees that it’s worth a trial run to see how well tote bags in this print might perform at the shop. What do you think of a pre-order sale? Say, 10-15% off and signed by me? (Timely delivery will be the major issue, since printing won’t be local.)

I really need to buy a new camera… or something. My Etsy storefront is stalled until I can upload quality photos. (How else will I sell my prints?) I’m also thinking of adding a shopping cart to here as well; it would be of greater benefit in the long run.

My knitting has paid off in a small way… Friend of a family member saw me knitting and I now have a modest order to fill. Makes me happy ::smiles:: Of course with the 15 dish cloths and counting… I am sorely tempted to turn a serious eye to soap making, so I can make little gift sets instead. ‘Phee has a small mold that makes gem shapes. I think it would be right about… perfect.

And the best news of all for last? I will be at the Fairy Girls Market: Spring Has Sprung event, Saturday April 22nd. Would be lovely to see you there!

Modest Sales! Exciting Developments?

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Very excited to hear my items have been selling locally in the shop! They are hosting an event tonight, and it appears that what I brought with me yesterday is on trend as it were. Some of it will even be featured as “exclusive early access.” ::grins::  Definitely excited to hear how that goes.

Seems I will have to keep an eye on what sells, and what sells quickly. The “monster” earrings were fun, and so were the mermaid scales, although let my stupidity be a lesson. Always wear the correct protective equipment for the job. I thought I was working in a well ventilated area and… nope. I’ve got the ventilator and forget safety glasses, I should buy goggles. Ouch, my eyes smart long after the fact. Rather worrisome, actually. Dragonet caught pink eye; wondered for a while if it was going to develop into that but instead it remains sore and gritty, and no other telltale signs. Perhaps time to be a grown up, yes? (But who likes going to a walk-in?)

Mostly excited that I may have “regular” items to make and keep in stock.

In other great news, the prints I mentioned last entry have been printed and mailed ::grins again:: My stickers for labels as well as… ::drumroll:: corrected business cards! MOO is so awesome and fixed them for me! I cannot say enough good things about them; they are fantastic!

I’m also thinking I should have bought… more stickers than I did :P Probably going to do that once they arrive, too.  See if I can get a few more drawings done before the end of March to make it worth ordering again.

Lastly, some of my supplies arrived earlier than expected in the mail, so I am back to designing packaging for it. Fingers crossed my file didn’t get eaten with the random virus I caught on my computer… I can’t seem to find it. Sigh.

Life happens.

Hope you’re having a great weekend :)

Art Prints, and… RedBubble

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It is nice to be drawing again… even if it’s only to finish old artwork. <3

5×7″ prints will be available for sale by the end of the month, I’m just waiting on the printers to complete and mail out my order. I am thinking $11USD shipped to anywhere in the world is decent, no? Let me know what you think!

I’ve also rediscovered RedBubble! I had signed up with them and then… stopped drawing (which is an utter shame). While I recommend buying prints directly ::wink wink:: I think it’s really neat to see my stuff printed on… stuff ::laughs::

You can find this and other items (phone covers, notebooks, etc) here. Most of the cost goes to the on-demand printing, but hey, it’s cool and every little bit supports me! :D

In other news, I am now the proud owner of a Nissan Leaf! (whoah!) It drives very nicely but the breaks are extremely sensitive, and take some getting used to. Still, I like it. Exclusive to Canadians… heated front and back seats as a default option, something the girls definitely appreciate. What car do you know of has command start from your phone? (Technology these days!)

Otherwise I continue to knit, knit, knit… which helps with my crazy anxiety. I’d rather draw, but it takes time to get into the rhythm, and I can knit while travelling to work, for example. Easier than a sketchbook.

Well, back to knitting ;)

 

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