Thursday (Midwest)

So, yesterday I had a friend come over to chat and learn how to use her Gocco. I hauled out the inks and other crafty stuff and we talked (geeked) out about art, design, crafting, etc. I find myself up early with a head full of ideas about what could be a next project. And, since my desk is clean I'm sketching and thinking. It's a nice way to begin the day. Miss K. thanks for the playdate. I'm so pleased to connect with someone with similar interests. :)

OK. Now I need to gripe about my keyboard. It seems the nine/left parenthesis button has pooched. Argh! I had to go into one of Laurie's posts to copy and paste a parenthesis. And (as you know) I use them all the time. I will try to clean and examine the keyboard today. I have weak McGuyver skills, so I'm fairly confident this will not be fixed. Rats.

I hear kids upstairs. Soon three children and 2 rats will descend and need to be prepared for school so I need to go slam another cup of coffee.

Happy Thursday everyone!

It's a bee thing (West Coast)

For the past 15 or so years, Amy and I have been collecting bee things. Now that I have a letterpress, and a Gocco, it has given me a new way to put a bee on everything around me. I have had a week of stinging little objects in my office with my latest bee. For the longest time, I have had only my rubber stamp collection to mark things. This week I put likely things into my letterpress to see what would work. My favorite was this little notepad. I did 10 of them for the upcoming Renegade Fair in Chicago that we be at. The pearl yellow ink background was Gocco printed first. The photo doesn't show that part well, but you can see the look.

Murphy's Law (Midwest)

Laurie knows that I am a true believer in Murphy's Law. The true definition of Murphy's Law is pretty bleak: if anything can go wrong, it will. Over the years, I have adopted my own definition for Murphy's Law. Mine is sort of a when it rains it pours approach to Murphy's Law. Y'know, if you are on a deadline (me) more work will fall onto your plate. Or, if you have all the time in the world you will have nothing you need to get done. This week is a Murphy's Law week for me (in a good way). I'm on deadline. Almost done. But, all this extra work is coming my way. Also, I've had several Etsy orders and one wholesale order to Malaysia. Sheesh.

I owe one of my Etsy orders to the beautiful treasury above by hhopper. It hit the front page and brought me an immediate sale.



On the Etsy front, today I photographed 3 card/tag/misc stuff sets to list on Etsy. Sort of an inventory reduction idea I had. I'm having fun picking out items that fit together based on color, and texture. Here's a photo of my first listing that went up today. The theme is red and yellow. I priced the set so it would be a good deal.

Alright, I've been up since 4:30 working. I must now go choose between caffeine or napping. I'm leaning towards the caffeine. I'll have to re-evaluate my situation in a few hours.

Art and Etc. (Midwest)

Good Morning people. I'm organizing my desk today for a psuedo client meeting. I have so many things in my office that are waiting to find a home. A mini art quilt, three knitted cupcakes, stuff like that. Oh, and the big print that I bought at an estate sale (I posted about this before). We are somewhat limited on wall space in this house. Plus, my husband has this phobia about nailing into old walls. The permanence of putting a hole somewhere that might not be exactly the right spot. Me, I would nail away.



So, back to the print. I found out very little about the artist, Gabrielle Brill. What I learned is that she is from Germany, lives or lived most recently in Hollywood and her etchings often reflect embryonic life and visuals. I spoke with Jan, my step mother who used to run and maintain the UW Madison Union's Art Collection, and she said this type of thing sounds like the art done in the 70s, which is when this print was likely created. Hmm. I'm still undecided about it. It may join the other prints I have stashed in my art collection.

Finally, I am planning on being on press tomorrow. I received my Boxcar plate order and I have about a dozen card design options I can create, depending on how I cut the plate apart. The themes relate to the spring and my deadline is to have items ready for posting this weekend. If I get 3 designs printed I'll be happy. Plus, I have two related gocco cards ready. I finished those last night. Busy bee = me.