Happy Spring!

The sky turned gray as soon as spring sprung - but I am encouraged, none-the-less.

I have been in the hospital for 5 days now, with no real idea of when they are going to let me out of here ... maybe today, maybe a week from now?

I am a little stronger, so I will try to update when I can, if only to pop in and say hi.

Hi...

=D

This was a fp treasury, yesterday [by KohnDesigns], that I thought was particularly well-done...

Down

Readers:
Unfortunately, a family crisis has made it necessary for all of us to be unavailable for a few weeks. We hope to return sometime in early April.

~Kathryn, Michaela-Cerridwen, & Joseph

Featured Crafter

I finally posted our first featured craftsman ... I've been battling an illness that has left me feverish for the better part of the last two months, it started to take it's toll on me the past couple of weeks and I have lapsed on my updating and trying to keep up with everything, but here it finally is!

Slow...

Sorry I am a bit slow on the update - awful toothache has been preoccupying my time, will try to catch up this afternoon! In the meanwhile, this was a rather cool looking fp treasury:

Making

I saw a few designs in my head of projects I want to sew and thought it would be good to make a journal I could use for that purpose. I like the way it came out and I have already put a dress design in it. I have to make one for Butterfly, tomorrow.

Something I'm Working On...

A new line, actually ... still playing with it.

It just struck me how different this type of journaling is from what I am used to. I journal a LOT. I have been online journaling for about 10 years. I have several under different identities - depends what I am using a particular journal to write about. I mean, one of my journals is via the perspective of one of my neopets! Still, even with a lot of online journaling experience, this is different. I like it. There's a learning curve I need to grow into but it is a fun trip!

Writing of journals - my first featured crafter is going to be a master journal maker: Leather Druid. His craftsmanship is awesome so definitely check back in later this week for the in-depth feature of Alexander and his work.

There are a lot of great journal makers on etsy. In fact, I myself make journals. But there are several bookbinders on etsy that I just really, really admire. I honestly wish I could buy from them all! Lebratt is one of these journalmakers, and she and I have recently collaborated together on a b2b venture that we are hoping will bode well for us each.

I have discovered the folks I will feature in the featured artist and featured writer sections, as well. Will work to get those all posted up by mid-week.

Woo-hoo -Good Trade

I made a great trade! It came in the mail, today. Traded with jellyjellyjellybean for this cool necklace she had in her shop that is so quintessentially ME ... I had to have it.

Here's a picture.

She has a vintage shop, too. From there I got a book that I still can't believe I have. I mean, it's this book originally printed in '69, I have the 4th printing published in '79 and it is exactly what I needed. Poof! WOW.

Anyway - trading is awesome.

LOVE This Treasury by Oktak...

Latest Treasury: EMPATHY

This is to all the lonely people...

Wholesaling

I am interested in branching out into wholesale options in the near future. I came across an article (by chance), on the topic. Skimming it, it looks worth reading. But I am too bleary-eyed at the moment to even see it clearly, let alone grok it, properly, so I'll stash it here for now.

When I was at the beginning of this project, it struck me how bowl-ish this is ... very cute, so I took photos.



And then I finally finished it...

Treasure!

Little Tree asked for a tealight candle and I pointed to the hutch where I thought I had some. He started looking through an old box of stuff I had in there and lo and behold -the master prints from some artwork and business plans I had put together almost 10 years ago! Stuff very close to my heart that would have been a great business. I simply did not have the resources then to bring it into fruition. NOW everything is available and it is extremely DO-ABLE! So there I finally have the root and the heart of this family business tree!

I am very excited. So much so that I wrote an introductory poem that I think is fabulous!

Anyway, I started soaking some pinto beans about 8.5 hours ago that should be well ready for me to go in and cook up, now. It'll be ready right around the time the sun will be risen... Just in time to have some before starting an early Saturday morning BNR.

Up All Night

I don't know if every creative person is this way, but my creativity keeps me awake at night. Of course there may come a time in the months ahead when I may discover that it is really only a secondary condition of having hypothyroidism, and that once treatment is regulated and working, my creativity may, perhaps, not keep me awake any longer. Whatever the case may be -primary, secondary- I am often awake all night when my creative juices are flowing. When I am in a beading frenzy [that is the only way to describe my beading and jewelry making phases] I typically awaken 2-4 times in the night to sketch down design ideas that come to me while I sleep. Recently this has been extending toward other design that I may be pondering about.

Last night I took some time to get a fair amount of reading done regarding optimizing marketing and that kind of thing. Etsy is running a 4-part feature this month on revamping one's shop. There is some good material in that series. I'll most likely come back later, maybe even later today, and elaborate on that more. Right now sleep is finally beginning to catch up with me and I am feeling a need to get myself to sleep sooner than later - don't want to push for a 2nd wind because I need to be up this evening to do a BNR.

Looks Interesting...

I believe I'll get it.

Nice FP Treasury

This was a good front page treasury

I like these beads, especially...

Dolls

Tonight I planned to do some work on the series of dolls I started a couple of months ago and wound up starting a whole new doll - a different type, I mean. The limbs are done and the body is cut out but I still have no idea of how I want to do the head... That's kind of strange...

Love the Tags!

I made the most adorable tags this evening from some cards I ordered from Iris at http://yesterdaysmemories09.etsy.com - they came out mad cute. Kind of want to keep them. =]

2011 - Our Year

This year has started off with a bang for us. Almost anything would seem great after 2010, but it actually is. Not least is that I have finally decided that I actually do want to take my art and writing seriously and as my sole means of livelihood. It was hard to let go of the marketing projects I was working on but you can't do everything. And I have a couple of marketing projects in mind that correlate directly with the artsy bits. No disclosure here or now, however.

Looks like I haven't updated since Kathrin and Ernest were here. Wow. Well, I'll be getting on the ball, now.

Cerridwen has her own etsy shop now and is doing FABULOUS over there! She is hosting BNR's and teaching me how to. My attention span for that kind of thing is not as great but I am trying; I do like the women that I am meeting over there via that endeavor, and that alone makes it worth the while. To me.

Kinda blah today - did too much yesterday, I think - especially because I have been a bit under the weather this week. So I guess I'll take the evening off. That seems the prudent thing to do.