...from the desk of...

I have mixed feelings about March. I'll be honest, its not my favorite month. In fact, if Spring and all its good graces were *not* floating through the air throughout Portland I think I would be in a pretty sorry state about entering into a new month. However, we do have flowers blooming (chin up little camper!), and other than that there have been many, many little treasures showing up in my days this past few that remind me good things are indeed in the works.

One of these glimmers has been the kind and exciting inclusion of the above Black Umbrellas in the Bugs and Fishes blog. See Lupin's article on loveliness here! I owe her a debt of gratitude not only for her continued support and sweet words but also for some inspiration. I am working on some colorful designs for April, and of course the Gocco should be back in action this Spring season, but though I want to bring new designs into the shop I had been at a loss as to what to do for March. After showing up on Lupin's blog I've been thinking- wouldn't it be fun to end the winter with tea, cocoa, and steamy drinks that first got me started on Etsy? Yes, themes are good, and I'm thinking March for ouou will be the Month of Tea. I may even try my first ever *BLOG GIVE-AWAY*!

Otherwise I'm happy to say that the shop seems to be holding its own. I just recently packed up and shipped out the last of the hand-drawn ACEO size Valentines- all sold in just a month! I'm really grateful for everyone who showed their support for those, whether or not you count the Gocco prints it was the first time I've offerend original pen & ink drawings. Two of the designs were of tea, so I'm hopeful to get another line going and begin listing soon. Before that, though, will be new printed cards~ they're at the end of their production this weekend. It has been since last Spring that I've had a new A4 card design... Oh what a month March will be!

~On the Homefront~
My nephews are still going through the throes of teething. This means a couple things; first, that my sister is dealing with some pretty irratic sleep (that's a nice way of saying "no sleep for mama") and also, days consist of pretty short attention span for all of us, babies making teeth included. SL has gotten not one but two teeth, while MNJ is growing ever more adventurous in the gnawing preoccupation.

The thing about the last few weeks is there is certainly an up-tempo in keeping them entertained and the rest of the house going. The good news is it seems as though the packaging, printing, cutting, assembling, listing, wrapping, burnishing involved in my Etsy life breaks down into a hundred little tasks, and these hundreds of little tasks spread throughout the day...? It's a good feeling to know that it may be a lot of work, but it is working.

cheer up, buttercup

Since coming back into my Etsy shop, I've been trying on occasion to explore things on the site that may have changed in the last 6 months while I was away from the internet. I'm not sure if this feature was around in the past, but I just found something else I knew nothing about... this time in Feedback (buyers/sellers leave each other feedback- don't forget!) where you can add an "appreciation photo".
Oh my gosh!
I had a hoot seeing these old appreciation photos Lupin posted there for me last year, so so good to see tonight. I feel another felty blog post coming on, but in the mean time share the love and saunter on over to bugs and fishes to visit her blog, where Lupin has been keeping us all entranced with gift wrapping tutorials (droolworthy). It was this guy that especially dazzled me although this is probably how it would translate in my craft-ability.
Thanks for the cheer-up, Lupin, even if it took me 10 months to find it. :)

Laughter Gifts Children

With the fishbowl in the window because it is so warm these days, we get these lovely rainbows in the house for about an hour each day. When it isn't raining around here. Usually, it's raining.
Other than rainbows, this means I finally got to take pictures again (contented sigh). The newly re-printed Monkey tags are really happy about this!

Hi all! Fun things from this past week. It somehow became the week of conversations with people on Etsy about projects and possibilities... I met some amazing people, got blogged again by the incredible felt artisan Lupin (who, by the way, is featuring artists in her blog these days & her profiles are fantastic), and somewhere in the middle there finished a couple new designs!
But, you don't get to see those quite yet as our new order of *Gocco* screens arrives on Tuesday & they may be used to become Gocco prints. So, yes, I'm just wigglin' in my seat waiting for Tuesday.

We just got back from another lovely walk on the Wissahickon Trail, another week of what can no longer be described as "moderate" ...there should be a new term for this. I propose "eerily distemperate". When we first got outside it was cold, but I mean like 40 degrees cold... and I realized I'm still wearing my spring jacket in mid-January! Relatively, then, not-cold but eerily distemperate for mid-January.

There is a great article in this month's ID Magazine about the phenomena of "going green" itself, called "Too Yellow to be Green" by Barbara Flanagan. Not sure if I can post that link, so here is one just to ID. Enjoy!

Fun treasury report from last week (or, the week before?) is that Snow Day got into this fantastic treasury ... and made it's way to the front page! This was on a particularly grumpy day (I think the broken toe was playing a role in that- all better now!) and still up when I went to work, so really a jolt of emotional shift into excitement!

Other than family, I sold my first two Gocco prints that day! Since I have been planning to bring more Gocco into the shop, but wavering and unsure about new designs, I've also been looking at a lot of printmaking artists. Yep, getting pretty freaked out, too, about their level of skill and the altitude of my own learning curve. Those sales were a big boost to morale in Team OU!

One of the lovely ladies that purchased a Snow Day wrote one of the most generous and kind emails when she (finally!... packaging has it's own learning curve) received her print. At the bottom she attached a link to a video that she & her friends had posted on YouTube that I have been itching to blog about! You wanna see it? Okay, I hope this works:



Did you watch it? How adorable is that!? Just makes you feel happy inside and somewhat curious and goofy? Well, right, as it should be :) You can tell, so much love went into that project, the end result is a joy to have received!

These are the unexpected gifts of opening on Etsy, it is just priceless seeing what other people are working on! Thank you so, so much to Jacinta for the heart, Catherine Please for this amazing claymation treat & Dave End for the incredible music. Also (with hearts) to Mary Jane who was so sweet~ you guys look like you are having lots of fun!

And hold up, yo~ the fun just keeps going!
I also crossed paths with the owner of MayaBella on Etsy, who fits into three of my favorite categories:

• plush
• felt
• awesome!
  

Be prepared in your dealings with Etsy's felt artisans to be blown away by their sweetness! (Plus, you know I'm happy when I start itemizing things) Shannon of MayaBella dropped by to say hello right about the time I began some research for an upcoming blog post about plush stuffies. She hails from Oregon, destination April 2008, and has a bright, cheerful shop full of colorful stuffed animals, ornaments, and broaches! Check out Jack the Rabbit and his fluffy ears... talk about cute overload!

I had to make a note of her & her shop even before my Plush Issue, take a mosey on over to her shop for much more goodness than I can squeeze in here! She sent me this link of a great new blog to explore: theneedle.blogspot.org that previously featured her work, too! Sew much fun. (: I have yet to find a way to make prints, this is where many of my recent conversations on Etsy have come from, and have been grateful for everyone's patience on that note. Hopefully soon there will not only be new Gocco, but larger reproductions of some of the card images!

Thanks Everybody, and hopefully I'll catch up with all of this soon. :P Until then, watch that YouTube video again and have yourself a happy chuckle. Awwe, that's the ticket!


PS, almost forgot (whispering)... ninja treasury... (now thats genius!)... :)