Second Custom Piece Done!

I finished my second custom piece this weekend. It's waiting review and if approved, I will ship it off to its new home. I included the words from an Edwin McCain song on the painting as requested. This was the couple's first dance.

My work was featured!!!

One of my pieces, Measurements: Waist, was featured in the etsy blog. I was really excited to see it featured, as it is part of a series that I listed a while ago and was started to crawl down in my shop list. This brought new attention to the series!

Project:Puppy Indie Craft Show

The wonderful MsKittyFantastico informed me that on Sunday, July 13th, she, along with the Connecticut Etsy Street Team will be holding a crafts fair to benefit the sato dogs. Sato is a Puerto Rican slang term for street dogs. Puerto Rico suffers from a sato problem. Many of the satos are starving and die. Amigos de los Animales, helps provide kennels and adoption for these animals as well as education about neutering and spaying them. Money from the Project:Puppy Fundraiser will go to Amigos.

I donated a set of postcards to be raffled off. Raffle tickets are $1! For more information on the show click here.

Custom Painting II

I am now working on a custom painting of Jen and Gaby's first dance. Check it out!

Upcycled Envelopes

I just made these awesome envelopes out of magazines and catalogs. The first series is dedicated to one of my passions: shoes. I am embarking on a beer ad series and have already made two of those envelopes, but hope to make many more:)

Anyway, I'm still deciding whether I should sell them with plain white labels to address them. Should I include a sender label and a return address label? Should I already stick the label on the envelopes or let the buyer stick them on themselves?
Decisions...

Fuerza Bruta

It was my birthday Wednesday, but I didn't really get to celebrate as Davey (my husband) had a sprained ankle for which he insisted on spending the day in the emergency room at the city's best mental hospital. Needless to say, it was very entertaining, from the chain gang, to the floor kissing patients, I was amused.

Luckily, Davey's ankle improved enough to take me to go see Fuerza Bruta Saturday night after a disgusting amount of Mac N Cheese at Smac (the Parisienne with brie and figs was my favorite) split between Davey his brother and sister-in-law.

Fuerza Bruta is really an amazing show. I would attempt to describe it to you, but it's really an indescribable experience. We all kind of took away a different meaning. The show kept me on my toes (literally as I was straining to see everything going on around me). And best of all: I got wet. It made me feel like a kid again. Or at least like a college kid when I knew I looked great even with my hair was wet and my makeup runny. (It's dark enough inside the theatre to not care).

The show keeps you constantly moving mixing with different parts of the crowd, the actors become part of the audience, and the audience becomes part of the action. Some of the action occurrs right in front of you, while some above you. It was an entirely stimulating experience. (I guess after I said I wasn't going to attempt to explain the show, I did. I could easily go up there and edit my former statement out, but then you wouldn't see my thought process and well, what fun would that be?)

With that I leave you with a few pictures from the show and a strong recommendation to go see it...NOW!

The unveiling of my first custom painting...

Here it is in its completed state...

I'm already at work on my second custom piece, which I'm really excited about because I am using colors that I love. It is a painting of another dear friend's first dance using a warm color palette. Pictures of that to come...

Anniversary Gift

So I left this uncanny print of Michael Scott from the Office on my husband's pillow for him to find when he came home from work yesterday. The oh so talented elloh of Etsy created this funny guy. She does tons of pop culture prints. I spent at least 15 mins looking through them at her booth at the Brooklyn Renegade Arts Fair this weekend.

We still haven't decided whether he's going to take it to his office or whether we will frame it in a cluster of other prints from artists on etsy here in our bedroom.

Charity Custom Dress

Fifteen year old Eleigh Lecates passed away after a car accident on June 4, 2008. Moved by the Lecates family's loss, the talented Deconstructress is auctioning off a custom dress. 100% of the sale will be donated to the Lecates family.

The current bid is only $187.50! Deconstructress will work with the winning bidder to create whatever design the winner wants. Please check out the auction by clicking here. The auction ends June 23.

On another note, it is my 3 month wedding anniversary today. I got my husband a great little treat, but I'll save posting that until tomorrow since I haven't yet given it to him.

My Fountain

Having grown up on a peninsula, I love the sound of water. That's why my husband got me a fountain for my birthday (my birthday is this coming Wednesday, but I was extra good this year so the gifts started flowing early).

We spent about 2 hours deciphering the Chinese translated instructions on putting the thing together. We almost gave up...twice. But we preservered. And now I have to pee every 10 minutes because of the constant sound of water running in my home. Ok, just kidding. Actually, that was a serious concern of ours when we were debating whether to get the fountain. But so far, no overactive bladder here.

Now I just need to figure out how to disguise the unsightly wires...

Bookmarks

Today is my 1 month-aversary on Etsy. To date, I have 9 sales and more than 90 hearts. I'm really proud of the work I have done, but I know this is a constant endeavor so I need to keep coming up with new ideas. Currently, I am working on two bookmarks. One will be of my print Dancing and the other will be of my print Rooftop. I'm really excited about these and am looking forward to their reception.

My most recent addition to the store, my journals, have been selling like hotcakes! I got my first foreign sale, to the lovely Jasmin of United Kingdom!

Custom Work, Winner, and The Muse Factory!

I am almost done with my first custom piece. It was more work than I expected, but I'm very happy with it and found the process very rewarding.

You can see the beginnings here .

Congratulations to Elizabeth, who won the contest for my postcards on Simply Sentimental's blog!

Finally, I wanted to let all my readers know that I have started a group blog with 5 other etsyans. We each have an assigned day to write and mine is Wednesday. Check it out here . I will post this evening about my latest venture, my journals.

Stressful Life Events

There are several tiers of stressful life events. I'm not going to dedicate this post to the top tier, but instead to a particular stressful life event that falls into the second tier.


The second tier of stressful life events includes things like (1) moving, (2) the first time you babysit for more than one toddler, and (3) hanging picture frames. Usually, these events are accompanied by lots of cursing, frustration, and kicking or punching walls.


This weekend with much apprehension my husband and I hung 10 picture frames in our bedroom! It was not quite as stressful as it could have been, which proves that practice makes perfect. We have now hung things several times. This time around there was minimal cursing, suppressed frustration and no kicking or punching walls. The frustration was mostly in the form of deep deep sighs. And we are happy with the results.

Baseball

My husband is HUGE baseball fan. I, myself, cannot stand the game. It is not action-packed enough, the players are not fit enough to distract me, and I'm terrified of being hit by a foul ball.

However, since I am the perfect wife, I went with my husband to a Yankees game yesterday. Apparently, it was a historic event since this is the last year Yankee stadium will be open. My husband is actually a Mets fan (and he wore a Mets hat to the Yankee game), but the historic significance of this season attracted him.

We stayed for the entire game, which luckily only lasted 9 innings. Who thought 9 was an appropriate amount of innings? 3 is plenty if you ask me. The Yankees won.

During the 9 innings that we sat about even with 3rd base, 5 foul balls darted towards us and were caught by people in our section. I froze every time. I kinda started to figure out that lefty batters tend to hit the ball towards my section so I would prepare myself, yet when the ball started coming towards me I couldn't move. Somehow, I managed not to get hit.

Although I'm not a huge fan of the beer bellied, crotch grabbing, tobacco spitting players, I do kinda have a mini-crush on Johnny Damon. He seems really nice, his beer belly isn't as big as most the other players, and he's got dreamy eyes (yes, I just used the word "dreamy"). However, he doesn't strike me as the smartest of baseball players. Good thing I just want to look at him and not talk to him. So I basically spent the 9 innings counting the minutes between Johnny Damon's at bats.

Heat Wave

Man it is hot outside. Not only is it hot, but it is humid. Today, my husband and I went to a block party BBQ at a local park. We ate tons of good food and got some sun. Check out how messy it was...thank God for wetnaps!


My wedding coordinator, who just got back from her own wedding, just posted pictures of my wedding to her blog. Check out her blog .

I'm working on some new stuff for shop, plus I'm finishing up my first custom piece, so come back this week for sneak peaks!

Custom Work

I got my first custom painting request. This is really exciting for me because it is for a couple I know and love. My friend, Stephanie, wanted to get her husband something really special for their first wedding anniversary. The first anniversary is the paper anniversary so she figured that a canvas is kinda like paper:)

She requested a painting of their first dance. I already started today as I was anxious. This is what I have so far. I'm also going to incorporate some lines from the song they danced to at their wedding: John Legend » Stay With You.

Treaty

My husband has a stinky bear named Treaty. He has had Treaty since he was a baby. When I met Treaty four years ago he was already showing signs of age. He had some male pattern baldness. And he was a cyclops.


In February, my mother-in-law, discovered Treaty's long lost eye. My husband took it upon himself to perform surgery on Treaty so that he could see in 3D once again. My husband is not a licensed surgeon. He did not go to med school. But we could not afford to take Treaty to a "real" doctor. It is now more than 3 months post-surgery and Treaty is doing great. His vision is as a good as new.


This is my husband's documentation of the surgery:


"Today I performed heavy surgery on my lifelong friend. As you can see in the first picture Treaty is laying all alone with only one eye."



"In the second picture he is waving goodbye, perhaps for the last time in case something goes wrong, under the heavy operating table lighting."



"In the third picture you will notice that the surgery was a complete success. Treaty now has two healthy and functional eyes once again. He says he is 'simply thrilled, but tired.'"

On another note, I am being featured in a blog. You can win my postcards by going to: Simply Sentimental's blog and following the contest rules!

Blister Solution!

Maybe, I have sensitive feet, but I rarely break-in a pair of shoes without suffering. This past winter I had a blister so big and painful that I could not walk. I will spare you the details.

I walk a lot as I live in NYC. I'm car-less, not a huge fan of the stench in the subway, too poor for cabs and need the exercise. Thus I am in constant search for a solution to my blisters. My latest and most successful remedy is Blister Block:




This baby looks like a mini-stick of deodorant. You rub the "deodorant" all over spots where you anticipate your shoes rubbing and it prevents a blister! It really works. However when I'm out all day and on my feet in a new pair of shoes, I have to reapply it. Good thing the little stick is small enough to carry around in my purse. Another downside is that you have to be able to predict where your shoes are going to cause blisters. This takes a lot of experience and observation. The second I feel any rubbing I pull off my shoes and apply Blister Block. You have to be really disciplined about it. It only works as a preventative and it not so helpful once a blister has formed.

Coming soon...

So I'm pretty sure I am going to add a set to my shop. It will include two 5x7s. One will be the photograph, Rooftop. The second will be the print of my painting by the same name. I'm thinking of selling them both together for $20. I'm pretty excited because both of these items have tons of views and hearts in my shop.