Signed up for Twitter and Plurk

I don't have a clue what I'm doing on those sites or how to find anyone (I did manage to find Eddie Izzard, though, lol!), I'm not sure what exactly to update (exciting my life is not), and a limit of 140 characters a post is a pain (I'm very verbose; goes with having an English degree, methinks), but hey, I finally signed up! Really, it was my fellow ABST teammates being on there that gave me the push to join. ;)

Anyway, please friend me/add me/whatever it's called there if you're on either site (goodness knows I'm having a heck of a time finding anyone!). My Twitter is here and my Plurk is here.

Was able to spin today!

Yay, I finally had both the time to do and the feeling up to doing something artsy today! Today was a break in moving; I have most of my stuff here now and tomorrow we're going to get the rest of it. That means the rest of my art supplies (my sewing stuff is the last) will be here with me finally. :D

Anyway, today I was able to spin more of the yarn I started back in the fall. I'm really happy because even though it's been six or seven months since I touched my spindles last, I picked up pretty much where I left off. The only problem is that I don't remember how much of this specific roving I've used so far; I'd like to save half of it to use as the second skein to ply with this one, but I don't know how much left I'd need for that. I guess I'm just going to have to wing it, or try spinning up some more on a different spindle and try to get an even amount that way. I'm leaning more towards the winging it because I'm not sure if I'd be able to get the same thickness on a different spindle. I may change my mind though, lol. I'll take pictures of the yarn at some point.

Also, the weather this evening/late afternoon was really nice (it was very hot- low 90's- earlier today, though), and it wasn't at all windy so it was the perfect weather for sitting outside and spinning. Now if only I can get all the bees flying around to go away. I'm so terrified of getting stung!

I'm hoping that I'll be feeling up to making things this week once I've finished unpacking and all. I still have to finish all the crochet things I was working on.

Anyone want to recommend funny books to me?

I guess to make up for the fact that I was feeling pretty decent on Saturday (well, as decent as I can get right now), I've been having an awful week, both physically and mentally. Basically, I'm just doing the best I can to concentrate on funny things (my mind is not in a good place this week), and I've also just been too dizzy and sick to even be on the computer for more than briefly checking my email. Ugh, I'll be so glad when this medication experience is behind me and I can feel myself again. I'm still looking for that time machine to take me to the future where I'm feeling better. ;)

I don't want to get too in depth here at the risk of sounding whiny, so I'm just going to ask the question of the title of this post. Does anyone know of any funny books (fantasy, preferably, but I'm up for anything) that you can recommend to me? I don't know where to start to find things that are lighthearted, funny, and silly, since other than Discworld, Hitchhiker's, and Mark Twain, I've never read much funny. (I can't read my usual mysteries and deeper fantasy stuff now because I can't handle death and murder and upsetting things like that anymore). I got some recommendations on Ravelry, but since reading is one of the few things I can handle right now, the more books I can read to take my mind off things, the better! :)

So if anyone has any funny books to recommend to me, that would be great and I'll be super appreciative.

Yay for my family, good weather, crochet, and a few bucks!

Well, I had some luck at the yard sale; I made $14. Since that's $14 more than I had, that works for me, lol. I had the price of my things marked down a bit since it was a yard sale and I was okay with selling my less labor intensive stuff for pretty cheap. I sold one of the first bracelets I ever made for $4 (it hasn't been in my Etsy shop for a while since I was self-conscious about it not being as good as the rest of my jewelry. It wasn't bad, just not up to par with my current bracelets)... I think I have a picture saved in my website folder... *checks* Yup, it's this one:


And I sold two of my hemp necklaces:



I also sold my pink dreamcatcher to my sister, but I didn't actually get money for that since I owed my sister the same amount. Bartering, I guess!

So all in all, not too bad for a yard sale where we didn't get that many people (not as many people as in previous years, even though it was a community yard sale). And the weather was amazing today- almost 80 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. I got to spend the day with my family (Josh and my grandmother came to help, too) while sitting under a beach umbrella and crocheting. That's the life! I decided that when the weather is nice like this, I'll sit under the umbrella and work on art- that way I get to enjoy the nice weather without getting sunburned. :D Unfortuantely, my back is hurting again, so I know that means that it's either going to get cold or rainy (or both) sometime in the next few hours. I make a great barometer, lol.

And today I managed to finish the blanket I've been working on for my mom:

This is probably the most boring thing I've ever crocheted, lol. My mom wanted a small blanket to put on the driver's seat of her car, and she needed it crocheted in a pretty tight stitch (her jeans were getting blue on the seat of the car), and this was the color yarn she handed me to do it with- a beige (almost the color of the carpet in the house, as I see now) that matches the interior of said car. So I ended up doing a half-double stitch so it would take less time than a single crochet and so it would look slightly more interesting than the single, yet still be a closed stitch. It's 24" x 24".

This took me a few days of working on to finish, but I didn't spend those days working *too* long with it, or it would have taken a little less time. But yay, a finished project, finally!

And my grandmother and sister both want me to crochet them beaded summer anklets (like those necklaces I just posted), and I'm going to make small beads out of polymer clay for them, since I don't have a lot of beads with holes large enough for the yarn. So that'll be fun! :D

Going to try selling things tomorrow...

Not much to update on my end; still feeling pretty crappy (today especially so, but it's been a bad few days), still don't have my things moved here from the apartment so I can finish the art I started (we're going to try to get more of my stuff on Sunday), still working on listing things in my Artfire shop. So far I have about 21 listings up there, but not so many views. I hope I get some sort of sales there because I really love the site and want to be able to justify having the paid account.

Anyway, my parents are having a yard sale tomorrow, so I'm going to set up a table with some of my more cheap items on it (because I do not want to sell things like plushies I spent a week working on at a yard sale where people expect something for nothing). I think I'm going to put up a sign saying something like "Artisan Jewelry and Accessories" and underneath it "non-negotiable" so people don't try to offer a nickle for a pair of earrings or something. One of my friends had pretty good luck selling her jewelry at her yard sale, but mine is a bit specific and on the fantasy side of things, so I'm not sure if my target demographic would be at a yard sale. Ah well- if I don't sell anything I won't be any worse off than I am now, and if I do manage to sell some earrings or a purse, at least I'd have a few bucks.

I think I'll put out my jewelry (well, probably not the chainmaille or the cartilage earrings, but the earrings, crocheted hemp necklaces and bracelet, and maybe my other bracelets, but they're all $25 and above, so probably not), my purses and pouches (minus my handspun one- no one at a yard sale would appreciate a handspun/handdyed/crocheted purse), my dreamcatchers, and my crocheted wristbands/cuffs/bracelets- pretty much anything under $20. My plushies, felt and crochet blanket, chainmaille, horns, runestones, waist cinchers, and handpainted crocheted things are unlikely to be appreciated by anyone looking for a deal, so I'm just going to keep those inside.

You know, maybe I'd make more money if I made things that weren't fantasy-themed, but then I'd just feel cheap and not enjoy the things I make; this is my niche, and I like it here. Maybe someday I'll be able to sell at the Renfaire or something- that's really my target demographic. I have been planning out new designs (ears, other style horns, wings, etc), and my mom said she'd teach me how to use her sewing machine, so I'd finally be able to offer up fabric corsets and cinchers as well as crocheted ones. (Right now I only hand sew and it would take forever to sew up a corset by hand.) I just wish I could have have more sales than none, but I'm not really healthy enough to spend a lot of time online promoting my shop and I'm definitely not up to doing craft fairs. Ah well, I'm sure I'll have some eventually.

I signed up for Artfire!

I finally got a chance to sign up for Artfire (I wanted to sooner but this year has been kicking me around something awful), and wow, it's such a cool site! I think I already like it better than Etsy (and that's saying a lot because I love Etsy). Here's a link to my shop. I decided to call it Elfling Creations, rather than Elbit Enterprises (my Etsy shop name) because that's what I'm eventually going to make my business name. (Eventually my Etsy shop name will switch to that, too, but I just haven't felt up to changing the links everywhere and stuff.) Anyway, my account name on there is merigreenleaf (like it is everywhere), since I figure it'll make me easier to find if I keep my same account name everywhere. ...Er... except for my livejournal, since I have my art blog there as elbit_blog (merigreenleaf is my personal account since I had it for years and years before I started the art stuff). But I digress.

Like I was saying, Artfire looks really cool, and I think as soon as I get all my supplies and finished things moved over here, I'll get the paid account. It just seems like a good goal to wait until I have that stuff with me, you know? I'm probably going to list the same things as are in my Etsy shop, at least for now. Maybe when I have more things made up, I can put some in one and some in the other.

Anyway, I've been working on my new shop all day and now my eyes are going crazy from staring at the screen, so I'm going to stop the entry here. I'm still not finished the art I've been working on because I haven't been able to go to the apartment to get the rest of the supplies I need. Ah, the joys of moving. When I finish them, I'll post pictures.

New Ravelry group!

If you happen to be on Ravelry and read Order of the Stick (I know, that really narrows it down to a small target demographic, lol), then please join the OotS group that I created today. :D

I also changed my ravatar temporarily over there because the April Fools penguin fit far too well with an Elan icon:


Anyway, sorry for the lack of art updates. I haven't been able to work on my sleeves for the FAST March challenge because I ran out of yarn and Josh hasn't been able to get me more yet, and I finished crocheting the March Pratchgan square, but said fiancé also hasn't had a chance to chart the design out for me so I can cross stitch it. I still don't have the rest of my art supplies (or most of my possessions, for that matter) here yet, so I can't even work on a custom order of earrings that someone on Etsy wants. It keeps raining every day we have planned to get my stuff, and since my dad's picking it up in an open trailer, we need a sunny day.