Everything Day & What Inspires You?

Today has been one of those Everything Days where it seems like every 30 minutes to an hour I'm off doing something different. Let's see if I have the attention span to get a blog post done:

Today's listing in a week of listing (forgot yesterday, so maybe I'll sneak one in tonight after my internet cut-off) is a collection of Gocco printed envelopes. I think I mentioned my serious addiction to paper goods a few entries ago... well it actually has worked out in my favor, really it has, since I've been using those precious papers for "extra ink" printings. I've amassed quite a collection by now and listed a grab-bag type collection today in the shop. I figure someone out there still writes letters. yes?
...yes?

This girl and lion have been kicking around my room for months. She was actually going to be the beginning of my alphabet series, but then I decided to watercolor those. Its weird because I have a strong desire to see this pattern on a pillow* but may offer her as an iron-on in the shop along with other not-on-card designs.
(*this information is useful later) Still need to broaden that DIY section, as the secret project for it won't be unveiled until late summer or fall. What do you think... is she iron-on material? Hmm...

Other than that today was more mailing and further sketches for a sticker project that is way off in the distance. In the afternoon I spontaneously went along with my sis to Philadelphia for one of her doctor visits and am lucky I did because we got to see another ultrasound! Thats just the most amazing thing.

I came home to a wonderful email from Amy over at Pikaland, who has set up a barter system for her ad space that I think is a great way to get people involved. I'm participating in a more free-form version since I don't yet know when my shop will re-open but still have all the proper information to fill out. One of her interview questions is "What inspires you?". I thought this would be a fun addition to the blog. I've spotlighted artists and Etsyians here before, but to take maybe a subject instead?

So this week I'll begin in textiles, with embroidery. Embroidery is something I've been wanting to get back into for the past 2 years. Its showing up everywhere in the fine art world and a beautiful canvas for the minimal art people are creating currently. Above is Littlebonbon by Takashi Iwasaki, whose images set off all those energized synapses in my brain.

Flickr has tons of groups for the embroidery nerd in me: check out embroidery and science! But one with a bright future is Children's Embroidery, where I got the above picture from. Check out this guy- I love it that children's embroidery ends up looking the same as their Crayola drawings. Way to be! Embroidery would also be a fun project to get that girl and lion on a pillow- but I'm gonna need some granny glasses before agreeing to that mission!

Teeny Insomnia

Tuesday and I'm just about all caught up with the mailing, finally! This will just be a quick post as I think I may be posting another entry tonight. For now, I'm just eager to get the organizational tasks under control and really looking forward to some good solid hours drawing. I've been working on these little neighborhoods... fun to draw... but also I owe one of my friends a new design, too. Ideas kept me up all night last night, and what do you do at 3 a.m... get up? So here I am, catching up with myself.

In the rest of the world of fun news, did you know theres a parallel moving story going on? The amazing Kitty Genius, Ashley G, just recently announced on her blog that she and her beau are picking up and moving out to Portland, OR in (you guessed it) May! I'm a huge fan of her work and she has one of the best written Profiles in all of Etsydom. So strange to read her blog and think, "Wow, am I really doing that too?".

In OUOU news, Sophie made an cameo yesterday in the indie shopping site Wickedly Chic. Thanks, guys! Scroll down a bit and you'll see cards from Macaroni and Glue, too. Its always great to see a familiar face. :) A little pic of "ouou loveliness" showed up on King Carmen's photo stream over on Flickr the other day: so cool. I go over there and just stare at this pic for long moments- such incredible work and 3D books just rock the free world. Seriously.

Oh, Hai.

(stretches arms) Good afternoon. Still here and its time to come back to the fun bits: hello again blog! :)

Recovery is going steadily along... little did I realize I would have to recover all over again Saturday when I began emerging from my drug-haze to find epic chaos had taken over my room. Sorry for that bad picture, but it was just remarkable I got any mailings out last week. Yikes!
The fun part was, I had sent away for new supplies from several companies in the beginning of the week, so while sipping my Jello and, well, staring off into space (I did a lot of that), little by little over the days all of the Moleskines and envelopes and such that keep the shop going marched into the home. I love mail. I really do.

The first thing to do (after calling my friends and telling them all of my not-so-gruesome tooth related drama, more driving practice and putting together some corn bread on Sunday) ...okay the first thing to do after all that was to get up to date with the Gocco items in my shop. This weekend the Gocco moved into my room as we get rid of furniture and pack the crafts up. It is not really the best space for it so I may have to sell out of Gocco and stop re-listing/ re-printing those soon. I spent a lot of time thinking about when to close up shop before the move and I'm aiming for either Monday, April 21st or Wednesday the 23rd.

While organizing and packing before the surgery last week I found these lovely green note cards left over from my college shopping adventures to Paper Source in Porter Square, outside Boston. (When it comes to paper goods, I really am a pack rat). I was printing up some Butterfly Sky cards anyway so I tried the image out on them... aren't they sweet? You can still see the true color here at Paper Source itself, my colors I believe are chartreuse and jadeite, and the listing in ouou here.

I think I have enough new items to list something new every day this week. No new Gocco print designs, its just a bit too close to packing up shop for that, but some fun things for the emerging springtime. My sister and I only have 21 days left in PA... and currently still deliberating over the details of this major move, but pretty soon I'll introduce you to all the characters on this journey and the route and such. I may not be blogging for those 2 weeks on the road, but I'll be keeping busy through my journals, postcards, and photos. There will be plenty to report over the next few months.

Thanks to everyone who kept me cheerful through this last rough bit. Between that and my awesome sister providing the most loveliest cheesecake in the universe (no lactose intolerance could keep me from it) it was a pretty darn good week after all!

Hide My Teeth

Hello all! It feels like a while since blogging, or maybe its just been days since not blogging about something involving food*. (* this blog post will also probably involve food... or at least coffee).

Tonight I'm breaking my No Computer At Night rule since I won't be posting for the rest of the week. I'm having a marathon print-clip-Gocco night while catching up with The Wire on DVD. Finishing my outstanding orders and doing any of the really complicated work for the shop after printing this morning and drawing this afternoon.


I'll be out of blog range this week because tomorrow I'm having my wisdom teeth out... there are 5!... and some other work done. I haven't had teeth taken out since childhood (I know, what a post, huh?) but I have always had some anxiety about my teeth. I'm sure many people do.

This year has been one of many changes, at the end of last year I finally quit smoking, too. So, for me, this is sort of a big leaf to turn over. I really feel we all have these places where we tend to hold negative impressions or energy in our bodies, so I'm extremely relieved that such a positive change is happening.

I'll spare you my blog posts from the percocet-o-sphere ; ) and just pick up next week, all recovered and cheerful.

Otherwise it was a weird day here, in the 70's after a very chilly weekend but raining, windy, muggy and gross. I spent some time this afternoon at a lovely little cafe in Wayne, PA... several towns away from where I live. Theres a hoppin' place called The Gryphon that reminds me of, say, the Inman 1369 (where I used to live).
After 3 months of working from home it was the most simple and wonderful pleasure to be out for a carefree afternoon!

Here in Philly springtime is in its slow unfurling. The Forsythia are all glowing gold and the flowering trees are on their way. I'm from Massachusetts, where winter winds down raw and miserable for these months. Spring itself explodes in MA in about a month between late April and May. Not that I don't love the muddy March and earthy April, but spring here is actually a season- in my shock thats why it keeps ending up in my posts. There were the most amazing clouds when I came out of the cafe, as the storms (and humidity- whew!) moved away.

Have a really great week, everyone!