Progress

One month into the new year, I think I am about 1 and a half resolutions into my five crafty resolutions. This week, on the same day I broke 100 sales and 400 hearts on Etsy. Selling 100 things before March was one of my goals, it felt good to do. Maybe I will try to sell 200 things in my second year on Etsy. It might be a little dangerous picking a resolution that is partly out of my hands. I can make all the cards I want, but I can't necessarily make a horse drink.

I think I will work through The Etsy Seller Handbook to see if there is anything I can do to attract customers or improve my shop. This ties in to one of my other resolutions, reorganizing my shop. That is my half. I have re-photographed some items, made a sale section, and as some listings expire, I will make some other small changes.

I think I will also have a crazy sale to celebrate my 1 year anniversary on Etsy in March, I will keep you posted. For now I am off to some of my favorite places - York, ME and Portsmouth, NH.

Cards for a Song

I am working on my new year's resolutions, slowly chipping away at them each weekend, and have been organizing my Etsy shop. I have a new sale section where you can find some cards for a song.

Speaking of deals, gypsy and twink is offering seven (yes seven!) adorable lithographed owl cards for $10.00! What a deal! I am desperately trying to come up with a witticism involving hooting (cards for a hoot?) but it is a little too early on a Saturday morning, and I will spare you all this time...

Friday Find - Simmer

Primordial elements stewing. My high-school lab project on diatoms. Lichen, rain drops and fungus. All of this comes to mind when looking at yellena's art. Especially my favorite print, Simmer.

I love the incredible detail and colors. Be sure to visit yellena's shop. I just bought my 2009 calendar from her, I can't wait to get it!

My Poor Tooth

I just had a very long and arduous root canal. According to the dentist my 4 roots were long and lean like me. While I appreciated the compliment, I was really wishing they were short and stumpy. I have feeling back in my face now, and am on the road to recovery. I'm just glad it is over.

Etsy is the best distraction from pain. So, in honor of the ordeal, and since I have teeth on the brain, I found these adorable little Tooth Fairy Tooth Pillows in VetrinaGirl's shop. These teeth definitely look much more cuddly than mine. Check out the other cute items in her shop!

New Freebies - Gift Tags!

One of the many fun things about Etsy, is that often when you buy something you get a free little gift with your purchase. I had been printing out little business card sized thank you cards, with tiny envelopes. But, I was glad that I ran out recently because I really didn't like them (hence no photo of them).

For Christmas I bought my husband a card from sushipot. I was inspired by the cute little freebie she included in my purchase. It was a little gift tag punched out of a bit of vintage ephemera.

When I print cards, I almost always end up with a few that are not quite good enough to sell. Whether it be because on spot smudged, a bare spot in the print, or that I printed the card upside-down (it happens more than I'd like to admit), I have been accumulating less than perfect cards for quite some time.

Now we get to the "ah ha" moment. I decided to make use of these cards by punching them out into tags and including them as the freebie with purchases. Something free for my buyers and I get to reduce, reuse and recycle - it's a win win! These are a couple of the tags I made this weekend:

Bits of my "You float my boat" card.

Bits of some wedding invitations.

President Obama!

No, I am not in DC getting ready for an inaugural ball. But today made me wistfully remember April of 07 when I saw Obama speak in Boston and got to shake his hand. Twice. I am really tall and so is he so we shook hands over a mass of crushed undergrads. I caught him at the beginning of the line and then one more time for good luck at the end of the line. This is a photo I took during my encounter.

Today was amazing. At work I helped organize a pizza/viewing party. The internet was overloaded and so we ended up listening 1930's style around a radio. I made some truly patriotic cupcakes for the occasion.

I have never been so proud of this country or so hopeful for the future. Hearing the national anthem was more meaningful today than ever before. Now let's get to work!

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PS- Be sure to read Skinny laMinx's post about Shine-Shine's commemorative Obama cloth. I followed a link from that post to another commemorative cloth posting of hers and learned a lot about the tradition of African commemorative cloths in politics. Very cool and very interesting. Thanks Skinny laMinx!

New Card - Valentine's Day

I have a new card up in my shop. 

Ask someone to be your funny valentine!

ICA Between the Acts

Last week my husband and I went to the free Thursday Night at the ICA. I love the building and the space, the only bad thing was that we picked a night between main exhibits. They were taking down the Tara Donovan and didn't have the Shepard Fairey up yet.

So we ate ate the cafe and then explored the permanent collection. I have been before and as always, my favorite was Cornelia Parker's Hanging Fire. This is a photo of it by Charles Mayer from the ICA's website. It is really stunning up close, it is fire frozen and suspended.

I have a very love hate relationship with some contemporary art sometimes. I guess my internal response is that if the description is more interesting to me than the piece itself, then I don't find that piece as successful as others where the reverse is true.

I want to go back soon and see the Fairey exhibit. Next time I also want to get a fancy dessert from the cafe. Food and art, you can't go wrong.

Friday Find - Queen Anne's Lace

Wow. Has it really been a week since my last post? How did that happen? I had more good intentions than I knew what to do with, and at least three things I wanted to blog about, but daily life got the best of me. I think this 3 day weekend and a new president will help recharge my batteries.

Anyway, I fell in love with this fabric the moment I saw it. Gorgeous...

It is Queen Anne's Lace by Cicada Studio. Really, all of her fabric designs are beautiful. Be sure to see the others in her shop.

I think I am back on the blog wagon, so check back soon for some more posts.

Friday Find - Emma Klingbeil

I love, love, love Emma Klingbeil's art. I usually feature an item in a seller's shop for the Friday Find, but I couldn't pick just one so I decided to feature several of her pieces. They speak to me in dream language, or some kind of vague childhood memory of a story that was read to me as I was falling asleep.

And I love the people and animal's tiny teeth.

Check out her Etsy shop and website. These are three of my (many) favorites...

The Mycologist

My Junkyard Robot

Sending a Letter

Blue Cape Cod

I was at the Cotuit Center for the Arts yesterday and saw the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod's exhibit ROY G BIV. The exhibit features over 50 artists, and there were many wonderful pieces. But one of them stuck with me and I am still thinking about it now.

John Dowd's piece (I think it was called Summer Night) was really amazing. It was of two cottages next to each other on a summer night, and you could just tell there were some lights on inside. But what was amazing was the atmosphere of the painting. You could smell the air, feel it, almost hear the sounds. It reminded me of renting tiny little cabins in York, Maine in the summer and after a day at the beach, the cabin was quiet and cozy. I'd have on PJ's and have that happy, worn-out feeling after a day of swimming.

I couldn't find the exact painting online, but I found this similar painting, Summer Night, East End, on the William Scott Gallery's website. They have a lot of his work, you should check it out. All of his paintings have an amazing quality of light. You can really feel the place in them.

A New Year

A new year means new resolutions. This year I have a few crafty resolutions:

• Reorganize and clean up my Etsy shop (and re-photograph some items)
  
• Sell 100 hundred items by my 1 year Etsy anniversary
  
• Try a new art/craft (traditional screenprinting?)
  
• Take one of the classes I have been thinking about taking
  
• Make time to design/print at least once a week

I think that should keep me busy in 2009. Do you have any crafty resolutions you'd like to share?

Sweet Christmas

Christmas was a while ago, I know, but I am finally back among the blogging and back home unpacking. I had a great Christmas with my husband, family and friends. We were in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and New Jersey over 11 days. I am definitely spoiled and got more great stuff than I can mention here (books, a beautiful wrap, a sweet card, etc.), but I wanted to share some of the handmade and vintage items I received. I am one lucky lady!

My mom gave me this vintage turquoise bird cage and a Remington Rand Model 1 1930's typewriter (like this one). The typewriter is in the black case under the birdcage, it is for me and my husband since he is a writer. I am bringing it in for cleaning and repairs today and will post some before and after photos later.

My mother-in-law gave me one of my favorite prints - melissakate's Colorful Kingfisher Linocut. I can't wait to frame it and hang it. She also gave me some beautiful earrings from Cymbaline's Designs. She has given me a number of earrings from her shop and they are all well worn.


My sister-in-law gave me a handmade purse featuring these sweet little fabric yo-yo's and my 3 and 1/2 year old niece painted this little birdhouse for me. So cute!
When we were visiting our friends L and J from Hungry Gringos we were well fed and well gifted. L gave me a gorgeous canvas print she found at an estate sale. The photo doesn't do it justice, I want to frame it or stretch it over a frame, and will post photos once I do.

I had such a wonderful holiday, I can't believe it is already over. Thank you everyone! Next I work on my New Year's resolutions...