back to basics

Today, in between household chores and hanging out with the kids, I think I'm going to start an embroidery sampler, so that I can practice all of the stitches.

I finished a very simple piece this morning, but it's not quite as good as I wanted it to be, so yeah, a sampler to build my skills and play with color and technique.

I'll post it when I'm done. I've never done one of those follow the instructions embroidery pattern dealies either, I have some vintage transfers, so maybe I'll try that too.

new artwork

I got all excited and inspired this morning with sort of a twinkling flash of an idea about where to take my embroidery artwork. I really hope that I can make it turn out the way I saw it in my brain. I've always done stuff with textiles. Dyeing, sewing, quiltmaking, feltmaking, embroidery, etc.

Last fall I had a couple of pieces of my embroidery in a show at Roshambo, and I've been thinking of ways to expand on what I had going on with that stuff.

I did a bit of work on it today, and it's kind of alright, but not what I want it to be yet.

After I get my kids to bed, which should be very soon, Spring is going to come over to do projects, drink beer, and watch a movie. Yay!

my ebay fairy godmother

I've been selling things on ebay for a few years now, it's been my main source of income aside from child support, since my ex and I split up. I go to thrift shops mostly, find things that are interesting, and sell them on ebay, mostly vintage clothes, purses, pottery, fabric, books, and random strange little collectible things.

I really like it, it's a bit like gambling.

I have a good friend who doesn't like objects at all, and wants as few of them as possible in her life. This friend has an extremely wealthy mother who loves to buy strange things and send them to her, and sometimes my friend will hand me something and tell me to just get rid of it. Last year she gave me these strange clothes, by Etro Milano. A suit jacket, a hideous lime green silk shirt that had two super pointy collars and double super pointy cuffs, and a pair of circus looking wide legged bright stripey wool pants. The original retail prices of the things were $2,000 for the jacket, $650 for the shirt and $800 for the pants. I think I made almost $1,000 selling those things on ebay.

Her mom just randomly orders things, she'll send a few thousand dollars worth of clothing, and sometimes she even sends huge pieces of furniture through the mail. One time she got a buffet and two dressers.

So anyway, this week she gave me this hideous fur thing, and told me "oh it's some designer thing it's worth like $200, just sell it." but it turns out that it is worth $700! So I listed it for 199, and now I'm compulsively checking my ebay every five minutes. No bids so far, but 5 watchers. I'll let you know if it sells.

don't think I can resist....

I did my taxes last night and I'm getting a big refund. This is so exciting, I'm getting a nearly overwhelming urge to drive to the Japanese book store in the city and buy a ton of art and craft books. Shiny pretty Japanese books.

Hurry up tax refund....

I Heart Meredith

My friend Carey is doing an art project that is super funny and sweet. She's having t-shirts printed up that say "I <3 Meredith" (that's supposed to be a heart), and she's selling them at Martina's store.

It makes me laugh, and makes me feel all warm inside.

She says, "Well, who doesn't love you? I'm going to make so much money, and even if they don't know you they'll think it's cool and random to wear a shirt that says I heart Meredith"

I went with her and her twins today to pick out the shirts and then she took them to the printer, so they should be done by Feb. 1st.

teehee

little bag for Moxie that I made today, screenprinted patch pocket on the outside, another pocket on the inside. No closure yet for it, maybe a snap? 

Today's valentines. This is a scan of two cards, They are a print on linen paper, sewn onto flat cardstock. They come with an envelope too. I'm thinking $2.50 each. 

thinking about lists

I've been making lots of lists lately. Long long lists. And, I found this website called tadalist, where you can make all kinds of lists and check things off when they're completed. I like it! Besides satisfying the compulsion to post to do lists on the internet, it also doesn't support Explorer, which is something that I admire. Explorer is a stinky browser.

If you don't already have it, you should get Firefox

I made a list first thing this morning, and I've already checked off three items!

My desk is so clean!!! I can't remember the last time I saw it like this! 

First attempt at valentine....not too pleased with it, for some reason the screen didn't fully burn where in the middle of the hearts. 

art frustration!!!!

I've been working, and not working on these silly valentines for about a month for my friend Martina's store. I just can't seem to come up with anything that I like. I feel like I can't draw.

So after about 2.5 hours this morning of drawing I came up with something that I didn't hate, put it in my gocco to burn a screen and.......nothing! It flashed, but didn't burn the screen. grrrrrr........

I think I'm going to eat lunch and go for a walk now.

I found these shelves, made by Vivavi, on metaefficient.com. I am going to make a set of them for my office space. They are made from industrial paperboard. I love this kind of thing, taking cast off waste and making some cool designer-y thing from it.  

the birth of a small business

Things are beginning to come together for my first small business project of the year. It's almost weird to talk about, because I don't want to jinx myself or something. But I've filed my business name paperwork, applied for a wholesale license, designed a logo, found a vendor for the main thing I'll need, hired a web designer, and I'm working on finishing up my instruction books.

I'm very excited about it, I think it will feel great to focus on just one main project for a while. Well, of course I'll still be parenting my kids and doing my artwork, but one main money type project.

I still have so much to do to get to the point where I'm actually selling stuff, but I hope to be in business by March.

This week-
Business
finish 3 instruction books
design cool and eco-friendly packaging----hmm, maybe for web orders I don't need packaging, that's pretty eco-friendly!
send more design info to designer
take some photos
set up storage and efficient work space

Kids
help them finish up their projects on Holidays
Z is doing Hina Matsuri
and S is doing Holi

Other
masked girl painting for EB
start paintings for Feb. show
ebay the rest of my ebay inventory
get sad broken sewing machine fixed
ship ebay packages

*I apologize for the dull list, I swear I'll spice up this blog soon.

ouch

I hurt myself. My left shoulder and arm to be specific. Even turning the steering wheel on my car hurts, like a jarring pain through the bone of my forearm.

It is making it very very difficult to do all of the things I needed to do today.

Origami Club

I found a very cool origami website. I used to do a lot of origami, cranes only. I had a strict, cranes only policy I made mobiles of them for my babies when they were babies.

This website, Origami-Club is entirely in Japanese, but that shouldn't be a problem for people who can't read Japanese. It's pretty intuitive, it shows how to fold tons of things, either with traditional instructions, or little step by step movies. Also it has tons of printable origami papers. Yay!

cold

I can't get warm. It's not even really cold out, and I can't seem to shake this chill. It's actually pretty pleasant outside for January, the sun is shining. It's probably over 50 degrees out. Strange. I think I'd better have some tea.

#@$%@#$%@#^

Against my better judgment, I listened to npr coverage of the inauguration yesterday and I have to say it was horrifying to me. The president's speech was scary and just wrong. If he has it in his mind that ending tyranny in the world is what our country is supposed to do...well that is just not good. No one likes tyranny, that is true. But no one likes imperialism either.

font websites

Two good font websites, www.dafont.com is really good, everything is nicely categorized for easy searching, and it has the nice feature of letting you type in a word, that you can then see written out in all the fonts. Very cool and useful.

The other one I like is www.fontfreak.com . They have lots and lots of fonts.

And fonts are good.

computer repair

I fixed my son's computer! All by myself.

It was simple, just replacing a broken disc drive, but still...

And in other computer related news, I've decided not to learn how to make my own website. I am going to take some of my financial aid money and hire someone else to do it. Yay!

Little Night Monsters 

A closer view. If you want one, leave a comment, or email me monstertown at sbcglobal dot net 

Pins for Moxie that I made today. 

just going to keep going

I'm just going to keep posting my usual stream of consciousness stuff, until I figure out what I'd really like to write about. I've stumbled onto blogs about all sorts of things, and it's fascinating. There are blogs and blog communities about everything you can imagine. I used to read lots of mom/homeschooling/unschooling blogs. Now I read lots of craft and art blogs, and the ones my friends write.

Tonight I found an interesting one, Manolo's Shoe Blog
which is a funny blog about designer shoes. Which surprisingly, I'm actually interested in. Even though I am not a super fantastico dresser, I do quite love well made Italian leather shoes. I don't wear them, but I have a few pairs of them. I only own about 8 pairs of shoes, and I wear only a few of them. My black Dansko's, my comfy black Born's and my oxblood Doc Marten Mary Jane's. But when I'm thrift shopping for things to sell on ebay, I sometimes will come across gorgeous shoes that are too well made and lovely to sell. Maybe I'll post some photos of my small nice shoe collection.

today=

Today I'm working on making things for Moxie, and a few things for ebay I suppose. I'm going to silkscreen a bunch of fabric to make bags, and I'm going to design some new screens for Valentine's day. Martina wants hearts, lots of hearts. I'll post some photos later if I get anything actually all the way made. No internet distractions for me today, just work work work.

thinking and looking

I found this website, My Paper Crane
and her stuff is like mine in a lot of ways. She even does wood block paintings like mine! And she does silk screening, and makes zines and little stuffed creatures, and she spins yarn. I don't spin yarn, but I make felt. And then I looked at her live journal, and she gets tons of comments, somewhere around 30-40 on each post! And she showed a photo of a tower of priority mail boxes full of orders that need shipping. Very exciting! I wonder if I can have the same kind of success that she appears to be having.

I need to get to work on building my website!!!

another zippered pouch I made 

the kids on xmas morning 

The inside of it. The last thing I was able to make before my sewing machine decided to break....darn... 

masked girl zippered pouch  

A Painting a Day

A Painting a Day
This artist, Duane Keiser is doing one painting a day, and posting it to his blog. I'm thinking of doing something similar, only less good.

What do you think???

ack....ick...

My son made this spritzer stuff at school, he likes to spray it all around the house and it's choking me. He used ylang ylang oil in it which is a scent that I detest. Yuk. I think tomorrow while he's at school, it might get "lost".

hi again

Well, I haven't updated in a long time. I'm trying to come up with a new direction, and purpose for this little blog. The to do lists and what I did reports that I naturally write aren't really good for reading. It probably will be an art/photo/project blog still, but hopefully more entertaining.

I want to take many many more photos this year than I did last year. My kids are growing up so fast.

Anyway, our holidays were good Christmas was much like Thanksgiving. Quiet and lovely. The kids went with their dad at 11, and I went to Petaluma and had a boat ride with Scott and his family. It felt strange to not have the kids with me, but it's all part of being a single parent I suppose.

Sylvan got the Sims 2 for Christmas, and we have all been playing that way way too much.

New Years weekend was very good. Damn, I do love my boyfriend.

Today, I'm sick with a cold, and so is Zelia. If she's feeling better tomorrow, it's back to school for them, and back to work for me.