bah humbug-type sentiments

It has been a while since I consistently blogged, so let's catch up:
My sister and her sons are back on the East coast for their twice-a-year visit with our family there. This means I've had the house to myself (yay!) in order to work hard on my Etsy shop, but it also means I've missed the opportunity to be together with my family (boo!). Little MNJ and SL just turned one year old a couple days ago, a really touching time to be celebrating back east. I'll put up a "one year!" post when they return and we have our party here, but meanwhile I'm glad that they had a fun time eating cupcakes and having their first birthday party celebration.

Around here I've started off the downtime with more drawing than production of new items, although there are introductions to be had. I realized its hard for me to enjoy blogging without photographs~ I'm an illustrator at heart and really rely on visual interpretations to express what I see, think, feel. Posts may be spotty for a while due to my broken camera, but I'll do my best to keep stopping by. :)

I am, it must be said, not having the best summer ever... although many of my friends who are having similar frustrations are encountering much larger challenges than myself. The year after uprooting everything and moving cross-country, I was bound to dig my heels into the ground with some consequences. It is no surprise that my irritations are showing up in my drawings. Anyway, the good news is that I'm able to amuse myself with these little Phooey sketches, and hope they cause you to have a little chuckle through life's inevitable unpleasantness's as well.

DRAT!

goods

Around these parts there have been developments upon developments. There's a comfort to sitting down to a Monday blog post and feel the good energy pouring into another string of days! I'm happy to say I'm going back to work, like a break in the clouds this is more relief than I can remember feeling in ages.

Wouldn't you know I'll be back at the company I'd left in the New Year. I feel truly lucky about this. As my readers know, my sudden unemployment right as I was getting ready to move in with C and her twin boys, and just a few months after re-opening my Etsy shop, was not planned for. In my (initially) lackadaisical way, I didn't expect finding a new job to be the challenge it has been, even as months have gone by I've felt "you've got to be kidding me" exasperation at the job hunt. On the other side of that search, the Etsy shop and my own work to expand my business is hitting a nice, steady pace. The last month alone has been loaded with so much effective change, and I can thank my friends, family, and those of you online that keep me in that space.

new Gocco Rainy Day cards and Bobby stationary

More good news is that our fantastic new *printer* arrived, C made a lovely investment knowing she is going to be printing up professional marketing media (and, you know, we take some pretty good photographs of the twins). I'm excited at the opportunity for home printing this opens up, although my summer will be concentrating on more by-hand Gocco work. Speaking of Gocco, among other things, there is an ever-expanding selection of Gocco coming into the Etsy shop these days. I'm printing for the shop, as well as stock that does not appear on Etsy, limited editions that I'll be using at craft fairs or for give aways and promotions. Stay tuned here and on Facebook for updates!

I'll also be selling cards in more Portland locations in the coming weeks. Right now I'm selling single cards at Piccolina on se Clinton, Children's Exchange on Division (where I have Gocco cards, too!), and se Stark at Paperdoll. All of these locations are fun and family friendly, so if you are in the Portland area, shop local and stop by! :)

update

Sky layer from Larger than the Sky Gocco print

In taking a moment to pull together new Gocco printed items that need photographs, I realized I've been something of a Gocco whirlwind over here. Should I even bother anymore saying "Well, I live in Portland, so... you know... it rains a lot." golly its hard to find the right day (hour?) to take pictures. Not that I'm complaining- this place has amazing weather. I'm still in the production stage on many of these, back-printing or whatever assembly I've got to finish, but I feel pretty accomplished for the couple of print runs around our home busyness.

One, Two, Three new watercolor aceos now in!

One, Two and Three are in the shop as of tonight. I'm finally willing to admit that my computer is having problems with Etsy - another reason I'm freeing up time from being there is I can't seem to use it. Don't worry, I'm still fulfilling orders and being a good shop keep, lucky for us we have 2 computers in the house. For Etsy, I'm using my sister's computer throughout the day, and brought in these three (finally!) tonight after everybody went to bed. I'm feeling ambivalent about the roadblock since I'm finding I had once spent a *lot* of time on Etsy, time spent mostly...? I hear that's pretty common.
Without a clear channel to it now I find I'm much more focused there when I log in from C's laptop.
Funny, life.

I do feel relieved to bring in new aceo's, though, as they've been finished and waiting patiently for about a month. I've got another Robot themed card (related, but not the same as Land of Cupcakes) that has also been waiting on my desk since April- I'll be bringing that one in toward the end of the week. Otherwise, get your Gocco boots on kiddies cause I've been elbow-deep in printing ink and will be bringing you news as often as the aperture lets in any light at all. Portland, Portland- time for the sun to shine again! Pretty please?

Land of Cupcakes, make room for more Robots.

Knitty

I've got some new ACEOs for the shop, but since I haven't had much photo editing time, I thought I'd continue on the Gocco theme. These shoulder tee's are the newest incarnation of Knitting Otter before his screen disintegrated. For now, all the baby clothes are one of a kind editions. The next step will be to collect several shirts of the same style and print all of those- but I've got a stack of mis-matched baby clothes standing next to the Gocco. At the end of the lives of these screens from last year, I'll be going through those and listing "Limited Edition" styles.

update

A few more notes on Spring Cleaning~ today I listed Puddles and Dragons back in the shop. This design shows Girl in her rain slicker, romping through spring puddles with her best imaginary friend, Green Dragon. I have also changed the photographs back on the Gocco version of Sofie and the Bird, since my updated photograph that's been up all winter is not so clear.

Sofie, Shine and Steam(er)!

Steamer

Alright! What a weekend. I'm proud to announce several changes in the shop, as well as some new faces! Because I am irresistibly drawn to warm drinks and scarves as subject matter, I thought it was high time I bring in Steamer, a lovely friend drinking a warm cuppa. Classic ouou drawing, but without the Dragon. :)

Sofie and the Bird

I've brought back one of my personal favorites from last year, Sofie, in her printed version. I have the same design in silkscreen Gocco version, but these (along with the green envelopes I've got right now) printed cards are such a necessary piece of Spring in my shop.

Shine

And finally, also new today is Shine~ this wonderfully celebratory new card. I've begun announcing new designs on Flickr a few days before they appear in my shop. For me, this is great because I'm not able to blog every day, so check it out! There you can see the other projects I'm working on, and notes from my sketchbook too.

But there are a few more changes this week at ouou. I've consolidated several winter card designs into Mixed Sets here. So, cards like Smarty and Red Dragon Drinks Tea are now only listed as parts of Mixed Sets throughout the spring and summer. All card designs are available upon request, however, so no worries if mid-June you really need a set of bundly, cocoa drinking Dragons or something.



Lastly, I've brought back the Monkey products, in all his wiley forms. I'm planning a blog post about Gocco later in the week, so for now you can take a look at tags and the Moleskine selection in the Gocco Silkscreen section.

...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.

some endings, some beginnings

Oh what a crunch, getting everything into the shop before Valentine's day! How is it going with all of you? I hope everybody is having a good week, and looking forward to tomorrow's historic inauguration.

Yesterday was Sunday, and on Sundays I like to take advantage of the slow and quiet nature of the day~ going into work hours early (I'm a weekend worker) to paint and draw. These are leisurely hours with a whole building to myself, and one of the more anticipated parts of my week. I usually camp out in the printmaking studio, or in the back at the Production desk, listening to music and slowly nursing my coffee. After a little reading or doodling, this week it was straight into painting, those final touches on the originals I've been posting about these days. Finally finished!

Tea 2

Today was much more focused on home & Etsy. I finished all the painting I'll be doing for the next couple of weeks and took tons and tons of photos. Although it is windy and blustery here, we are still enjoying days of sunshine. From there is was hours of fun-filled photo editing, breaking up the monotony with some cleaning & organizing of the house. From there it was packaging the rest of my outstanding orders and posting my framed pieces! All of this as a build-up to tomorrow, my last day before vacation.

In order to make sure I'm still able to fulfill orders within the 3-5 business days I've promised in my Shipping section, I have decided to go on Vacation Mode for this time:

Wednesday January 21st to Friday January 23rd

Just a small string of days, and by its end I will still be in MA and can figure out at that time if I should wait out the remainder of my own vacation or open back up.

In this, my first year in Portland, it has been 8 months of moving (three times now!) ,transition, new friends and new family. Leaving for Massachusetts kicks off the end of yet another chapter in those months and the beginning of an all new adventure once we get back. I'm really looking forward to the upcoming months where I intend to~

1. get myself a studio space in our new home
2. learn letterpress and hopefully new skills in silkscreening
3. explore the state of Oregon and take a trip to California, too
4. grow some potted plants (oh how I miss you)
5. get back into reading, knitting, sewing and *cooking*!
6. begin serious work in freelance illustration

...and that makes up for not having posted a New Year * New Leaf post here on the blog. I'll be home with my family in a matter of days, catching up on all of the changes my nephews have gone through in the last month (the words "crawing" and "teething" and "laughing" are still too hard to believe). It has been heartwarming spending the last months in the company of the R Family, being a part of their day to day pattern of living. I'm so completely grateful for all of the help and friendship they have shown and all the new friends I've made in this exciting new city. A break will be good, seeing family will be great, and then taking the next steps into becoming established in Portland will be all the beter with these sweet people in my heart.

Thank you friends, thank you readers, thank you Etsy, and happy new year.

Tea tea tea, all these little framed drawings of tea. No, they're not in the shop yet because they're getting all purdied up with some watercolor, but I'm really happy with them. I have these small square frames that go just right with these small works I've been tinkering with.

This one up here is my housewarming gift to myself- tea for me! I don't always keep these things, or I do but they end up in a drawer somewhere. I am looking forward to decorating my new home with Etsy prints, and will no doubt keep you all in the loop on the decorating schemes. Oh, and speaking of decoration- look who is in the window! Well hello little lady!

Hello from the windy and cold corners of Oregon, where the Spring-like days that blessed us throughout this past week are gone but not forgotten. The sun has been wild this week, after rain rain rain we were all a bit dazzled by 4 sunny days strung together in yellowy hues. We woke one morning to a magical, crystalline frost right about when it started getting cold again.

I'm packing my bags and getting ready for a trip home to my original coast, the Eastern one, so all these fluctuations in temperature have me thinking of my new home, and all the differences here, maybe hyper-aware of small changes or details. I'm pretty sure the shop will remain open through the vacation since I have people to help me with shipping. I am very much looking forward to going home (also because I have this place to come back to) and feel for some reason that it will prove to be a very inspirational trip.

I was able to get some pretty good shots of the frosty morning while out on a walk...

Alright, back to business: there are some changes going on in the shop as we enter 2009. Now that the Holiday season is over, I've taken out USPS Priority Shipping as my shipping method. I was thoroughly disappointed in Priority (this year was my first year using it as my primary shipping option) and saw no significant improvement. I bet "5.00" under shipping probably had some people scratching their heads, too, although my motivation was to have as little concern as possible for items arriving punctually. I'm putting my faith back in old reliable First Class and checking out my options in tracking... more on that beginning February.

As for now, there is an option in the shop to "order" Priority Shipping~ and that will include the cost of tracking/ insurance. I figure people ordering large orders or Gocco prints will like having this option and am more than happy to provide expedited shipping. Hopefully this will ease the shipping confusion of this past season, as well as get me back into one of the fun parts of this whole Etsy project for me: making packaging! Believe it or not, a lot of love went into my mailers last year. I'm particularly proud that when you order an ouou item, the whole production is a unified project.

together - hand drawn Valentine

Oh, and also- I've listed another Valentine- this one on a folded (and larger) card tonight. I was happy with the clarity of the photos, too! Next up are the little framed originals, but for tonight I'm considering whether or not I want to go into those with watercolor or leave them black and white in pen. Hmmm. Maybe I'll sleep on it.
:)

Here is a sneak peek at some other things I'm working on. Behind the scenes over here I had struggled with these scans (can you tell? fuzzy) until I realized it was a paper issue. Ive been re-drawing the small hoard of finished drawings from this month in the evenings when I'm able to set up at the light table. I feel happier when I know my night table is around- do you have tools like that? My bone folder, my favorite eraser, my Zebra mechanical pencil, and my beat-up light box I've been carting around for 13 years.

Am I on a tangent tonight? Probably just excited about setting up a work space again, daydreaming of that glorious afternoon of setting out my pencil jars and paint boxes. I'm sure you understand. Anyway, so these guys won't be the finished product for another couple of weeks. I'm also working on some framed small drawings and the Valentines in several other sizes. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Walk

Two newer additions to the Valentine line are here! I've just finished some packing and am on my way to do a little mailing, but first I thought I would pop by the blog for a few introductions. Walk and Sweet Music are in the shop as of last night/ this morning. The smaller card sets that I introduced after Christmas also seem to be holding their own, so I'll be releasing a few new designs in those styles later in the week. Whew! Lots going on around here- and I've got to scoot if I'm going to hit the Post Office before work- hope everybody is having a good week! :)

Sweet Music

The lovely lady Lupin (of Etsy, Dawanda, Folksy...) has opened up ad space on her blog Bugs and Fishes, and guess who came along for the ride?

Lupin was one of the first felt artists I came across on Etsy in my early days of looking around before opening a shop. I am totally smitten with both her work and her blog, and really thrilled to be appearing there as a sponsor. I'm even planning on some new tea-themed designs in the month ahead, a common thread we have in both of our art... the more the merrier!

photo shoot!

Ninja v Big Octo gets his picture taken

More photos that came out very satisfactorily from today's attempts playing around with my camera settings. I'm particularly excited about these because I'm introducing a new card size to my shop as of today. The understated A2 card size, smallest of the mailable card sizes, is now in the shop in a new section here. These will be select designs with smart colored or dark envelopes to match. Since this card size does waste some paper in production (more on that in a later post) I'll be keeping the A2 family pretty small, but they really are quite charming little guys.

Black Umbrellas - small version

You are my...

I love that Etsy has added a Vacation Mode. I'm tempted to go on "Vacation" just to try it out. A lot of shops are temporarily closed right now- and that's wise if you had a busy Christmas. I had a good holiday season this year but will be taking an actual vacation mid-winter. I'll save the learning experience of Vacation Mode for that.

My hope is that today I'll be able to come out with two new cards. I printed them last night & have them prepped and ready to go this morning. I'm even up, drinking my coffee and furiously typing away at 6 a.m. because I'm so giddy about having new items for the shop! Next week I'll introduce new designs, too. Definitely *not* in vacation mode over here.

Other than the drawing, scanning, cropping, printing, cutting, scoring, packaging, mailing that goes into the card making aspect of ouou, I've been changing around my freebies once again. The winter, spring, summer, bunny tags I made last year are perfect little give-aways... and after some awkward packaging phases I think I've found the one I'm sticking with. Now all I need is a new set of Moo cards and I'll be golden.