Happy ^%*#$ Holidays

Well, the economy is dumping on everyone, it seems. The thought is handily illustrated by the lovely origami piece to the left, an original design by Won Park (*orudorumagi11) and you can see more of his awesome dollar bill origami on his deviantart page.

This week I found out that I am not getting a holiday bonus. The holiday party was cancelled. And to top it all off, the office is closed without pay on December 24 and 31. So I get to flush nearly $200 down the drain, right at Christmas when I need it the most. 

I am grateful to have a job. I am grateful to have a great boss who will go to bat for me and my coworker. I am grateful to have wonderful coworkers and a job that I enjoy doing, every day. I am grateful for an opportunity to work at a newspaper, express my creative freedom, expand my portfolio, have a flexible schedule... 

But damn, does that $200 loss feel like a kick in the teeth this time of year. 

NPR, my eternal companion, isn't doing much better. The excellent and very informative daily show, Day to Day, was cancelled, and Madeleine Brand, the host of the show was laid off today. Along with two other excellent reporters. 

I'm so upset. Happy holidays, humbug! My Etsy sales have paid for Christmas presents this year, and I'm shopping with the thought of struggling craftspeople in my head. I bought all but two of my presents on Etsy this year, and I have more to buy if my day job pays me some back mileage checks and boosts my budget a bit. I took the handmade pledge a few months ago and I did quite well! 

You'll remember the little garden I'm starting from the photos I put up in my last post. I'm sure glad about it. I now have rosemary, licorice basil, carrots, bell peppers, spearmint, beans, peas, spinach, lettuce, and some bee-attracting, pest-repelling marigolds and chocolate flowers. So in a few months I should be eating largely from my own garden. Hooray! Just about all my food comes from the farmers market now, and my grocery store shopping is all for staples like rice, beans, soup supplies, etc. 

Sigh. I hope all of you are doing better... Christmas looks to be pretty dismal this year. Best of luck to you, friends. 

Holiday Fairs

Whew. 

I just finished two hours of searching for local holiday craft fairs, with little to show for it. I emailed one person about an early November show, and there's a show here in my city in 2 weeks, but that's so soon! I'm worried I won't be ready. And they might be full already! 

There's so much information that it's really overwhelming. I mean, I'm not set up as a real business yet - so sales tax is a mystery, and what the devil is a California Seller's Certificate? They mention these things as if everyone will know about them. I'm so new to this! 

I might just have to wait until next year. 

Damn, it's so frustrating! 

Edit: At least I am looking into ordering some big boxes of paper for journal insides. I'm so tired of buying Strathmore drawing pads and cutting them up, then ending up with drawing pad bits that I'm unwilling to toss but unsure about what to make of them. So I went to the Paper Mill Store and found great prices. I ordered some sample packs, because it is oh-so-important for me to touch the paper and see how it takes ink and paint before buying it in bulk. 

Recent Things

Well, it's been another busy week. But a good one. The fall is finally (finally!) here, in classic California style. The season changes between one evening and the next morning, and suddenly you're thinking about rain boots and scarves and pumpkin pie. I know I sure have been thinking about pumpkin pie. Mmmmm.

Anyway, some shop happenings. I listed this journal, which I made a few weeks ago but never got around to putting up. It's one of my favorites so far. Different lizard skins beneath vertical windows in the cover. Very textural. It was a real killer to make - those thin windows are so hard to cover properly! I had to slice the leather vertically over the windows, then super tiny little angled slices toward the corners. The lizard skins are glued to the back of the bookboard around the windows, then covered by the endpages, further securing them. I'm quite happy with the way it came out - though I did end up with a few small glue spots on the cover. Darn! 

But oh well. Each book is a learning experience! You can check out more photos in the Etsy listing. 

I also made a custom peapod pendant for Pat (TattooDreams), and that shipped out today. 

I had been jonesing to make some more pod jewelry lately, so I was happy to oblige Pat when she contacted me late last month. She wanted a simple little pod of spiced clay with two green beads. I didn't have any on hand, but after a little shopping I located this lovely pair of green speckled stone. Add a little brass jump ring a ta-da! Peapod. I think it's very cute. On a nice brass chain, it will be so adorable. I hope she enjoys it. I might just make myself a similar one. 

So making my first custom order was very fun indeed. And here are some other things I made while I was noodling around with clay. 

There are some pods there, a couple little mushrooms, flowers and other doodads that I'm not sure what to do with yet, and some faux stone cairn pendants-to-be. 
I have been meaning to post up some photos of my business cards and the custom stamp I ordered from terbearco. Here we are: 

See, it's very well made, with a handy place to put a label for your stamp, and as you can see below, it prints quite well, too! 

And here are my business cards, from greenerprinter.com. They came out so nicely. Very simple. That's how I wanted them - too much junk or fancy images and the business information is lost. Name, phone, shop address, email - why do I need more than that?

They even have this nice recycled content label on the back. It's optional - you can get cards without it, but I'm all for recycling and especially post-consumer content, so I left it on. 

All in all, a good week! 

Shipping and Packaging for the Holidays

Well, I'm starting to gather all my packaging supplies together for the holidays - since I have already started shopping, I figure others have too and I should be ready. I'm considering adding gift wrap to the shop, but I'm not sure how that will work. I can make the inside of the package pretty, but USPS and UPS stick labels and stickers and such all over the outside, so how can I pretty that up? Hmm.....
I still need to buy some plain brown boxes. I'm going with the natural, organic palette for packaging. I think it's classy. :)

I received this message in an email from Karen Allen, e-Consignment representative of Florence LLC, when I bought something from them on Ebay. I thought it was really funny and charming.

We do our best to hold true to a time tested shipping tradition passed down for over 5000 years :). This very intensive practice is only achieved after years of training, meditation, and deep breathing but mostly by holding our mouth just right while we concentrate. We donned special gloves and placed it into a fancy box made of magic, lined with KuKu bird feathers, tied the box with a few strands of Unicorn hair, and wrapped the whole thing in a sparkly looking faux gold leaf paper, with elm leaf inlay from Wal-Mart. Unfortunately, by the time it gets to you, that fancy stuff will most likely have been picked clean by the curious package handlers along the way. Please do not be surprised to see a plain package with your purchase inside :)

Today It Is My Birthday

Hooray! I have lots of photos to post - of the new stamp and business cards I bought for the shop recently, two or three from our recent vacation (i shot almost exclusively pinholes on Fuji 160, so those will have to wait for a while), and miscellaneous others too. I'll get them up soon. I thought I wouldn't have much to do after I returned from vacation, but boy was I wrong. So much to get done....

Too bad I have to work today, but least the weather is delightfully stormy. Finally feels like fall! I do love October, and not just because there is chocolate cake involved. :D

To celebrate, here are a few fun birthday goodies from Etsy. Pictures are clickable and take you to the Etsy listing. 

A simple and just downright cool card from tracychong, $4. 

Two cute candles from Candle Confections, $8.99. Nice touch with the sprinkles!

A squishable and snuggly slice of birthday cake from crazydaisy60, $21.95. I wonder if they come in chocolate....

The most adorable birthday hat, EVER! From CrashCanStudio, $17. I totally want one!!

A very cool card-alternative, with a candle, matches, and even a built-in candle holder. From dippylulu, $11.50 for a set of three. :)

A birthday card with an awful lot of work put into it. This is the ultimate in handmade cards! $4, from AJK Artistry. 

And finally, an adorable little wooden cake or cupcake-topper from kiwihandmade, $15. Too cute. 

Happy birthday to me! :D

Terbearco stamp!

I must say I am frankly astonished at the great custom stamp I just received from terbearco. The package was full of discount cards, goodies from other Etsy shops, nicely shipped inside a little cotton pouch and packed with tips for stamping... definitely one of the best Etsy packages I've ever received. Unbelievably nice. The stamp works brilliantly and she even included a little pumpkin stamp just in time for Halloween! 

I can't recommend her highly enough!

Exciting and Frightening!

It's heeee-eeere! My lovely new little miata. Silver and sexy. I'm thrilled, just thrilled. Joe and I took her out last night, and we were out until 12:30, teaching me to drive stick shift. I don't know how well I will do today, driving stick for the first time in traffic and with people around. It makes me slightly queasy. We'll see. I just hope I don't crash!

Also, my business cards came in! They're beautiful! I will post up some pictures soon so you can all see.

:D

Extra goodies!

Woo, and I forgot! I finally ordered a logo stamp from terbearco, and some business cards from greenerprinter.com!
I really wanted to use an Etsy shop to buy my business cards from, but I couldn't find any shop that listed clear instructions for submitting artwork, or any that clearly described paper options and design options. I found a million "business card design" listings, but I already had a design. I just need the printing done! Preferably on recycled paper. So I'm glad I found greenerprinter. They use 100% recycled paper with 50% post-consumer, and paper whitened with a non-chlorine bleaching process. Hooray! 

I'll be posting photos when they arrive. :D