I think I invented Lawn Spinning

While spinning outside today and not seeming to be able to get it right, I invented a new outdoor sport that combines lawn darts with yarn- basically you spin on a spindle like normal, but every so often you drop the spindle into the grass so it gets stuck point down in the dirt, with the whorl and yarn safely above the ground. LOL! I'm just glad I wasn't using one of my bottom whorls today; that could have been disastrous! I think the problem was that I was trying to feed the roving in too quickly, or maybe the spindle wasn't spinning fast enough, because it just wouldn't hold the twist. Ah well, at least I got some done, and hopefully the rest will hold.

I just want to finish up this one so I can get to work on the AWESOME roving I got from Jazzturtle on Etsy. I have such a habit of starting yarns and not finishing them that I'm determined to finish this one I started back in the Fall. Heh.


And now it's time for your regularly scheduled hemp necklace update! (Seriously I still have about five of these things left to list from the last batch I made, lol!)

My "In the Heart of the Forest" Necklace/Anklet:

It's here in my Etsy shop and here in my Artfire shop.

I'm really surprised that this is my first really Woodland thing that I've made, and it's definitely the first thing I made that was inspired by Mirkwood. I mean, I'm a Thranduiliell; Mirkwood's my thing (I think I mentioned before that I've loved that place ever since my dad read me The Hobbit when I was six ...actually, that probably explains my extreme fear of spiders, LOL!). But now after making this (as well as those Shieldmaiden sleeves recently), I want to make more LotR or literature-inspired things. I'm still trying to decide if I should make the tags Lord of the Rings related or mention it in the listing, since it's inspired by it, not really related, you know? What do you think?

And to make this even dorkier, I keep typing "Forst" instead of "Forest"; that one totally comes from roleplaying a certain Herald for way too long when I was younger. ;)


I also wanted to mention that my crocheted kitty got featured on the ABST team blog on Friday. Thanks, Brenda! I know I still haven't made a post about that kitty- I'll do that sometime before the challenge I made her for goes up on the EtsyHookers blog.

Methinks I have techno-imps living in my computer

Ugh, I think I'm having issues with my mouse- or maybe Firefox? For some reason when I try to type off and on for the past day or so, it'll put the curser on the wrong side and make me type backwards. I thought it was the clicker on my mouse sticking, but I seem to be able to use Opera okay. WTF? I guess I'll have my computer-savvy fiancé look at it tomorrow. I just hate that it's making me feel like I'm a techno-idiot (like I'm pushing the wrong key or something) when I'm not. Arg. I bet there are imps living in my computer, moving my mouse around.

Anyway, I wanted to share two new necklaces that I finished and listed. Both of these can also be worn as an anklet. :)


This one is my "Summer Sun" necklace- it's crocheted from hemp/wool yarn and has red and yellow wood, plastic, and glass beads. It's here in my Etsy shop and here in my Artfire shop.

This is the other necklace I listed today:

This one is "Take a Chance"- named by viridianmuse on Plurk (she also came up with another name that I'm going to use on a different necklace). I'm just so horrible at coming up with creative names! This necklace/anklet is crocheted from tan hemp cord and has green, blue, and purple glass dice beads. It's here in my Etsy shop and here in my Artfire shop.


Also, I wanted to share in my blog that I was doing the happy dance today! I sold my first thing on Artfire this morning; it was double special because it was also my first sold plushie/doll. :D The girl who bought the fairy doll sounds nice, so I'm sure she's going to a great home!


And hey, speaking of Artfire, is anyone planning on signing up to sell there? (I'd totally recommend it- the site is so nice and easy to use and the admin seem so competent and informative.) Anyway, what I'm getting at is that if 12 people sign up for the $12 a month paid account and use me as their referring member, I'd get my account free for life. How cool is that? I really could use that considering how scarce money is (since I can't work, so have no income and lots of student loans), but I'm not sure if I can find that many people who want to sign up for a paid account and haven't already. :( But hey, if you do, use this link to sign up. I also have a link over on the side of my blog. :)


Oops, and I also forgot to blog about the Fairy Cat I made for the Etsyhookers challenge. I'll do that tomorrow. :) Speaking of cats, mine's not feeling so well today; she keeps running away from me and hiding under the bed, neither of which are things she does normally. I hope she feels better tomorrow- I miss having my fuzzbutt purring and rubbing against my leg.

Website ramblings and yet more necklaces

First, the new Artfire fusion studios? They're awesome! I love being able to change the color and appearance of my shop. And now that I know that iframe codes don't work yet, I got the widget to the right working. :D The only thing I don't really like is when you click on an item, the bio trails off and looks weird. I'd also love it if I could make the whole page green, but as it is it looks great, too! Otherwise, great job, Artfire! Major love for letting me make my studio look foresty! :D My shop is here, if you want to see what I mean.

And since I was working on banners and icons for Artfire, I figured "what the heck, I should update my Etsy ones, too", since I'd been thinking about making them match for a while now. So tada! It's a bit different, but I figure it's close enough that people will recognize both as being me. I still want to change my Etsy shop name eventually to match everything else, but I'm putting that off because it would involve finding all the sites that link to me and getting those changed. Plus I'd like to use up the business cards I have before changing it. On the other hand, if I keep my Etsy shop as "Elbit Enterprises" it matches the "Elbit" in my blogs; if I change the Etsy name, then my blogs will be all alone (and I really don't want to change the banner I use in them since it's awesome, and my livejournal's address is http://elbit_blog.livejournal.com, so I can't really change that). But I'm just rambling- I'm sure I'll figure something out.

Anyway, I haven't really been working on anything new for a few days because I haven't been feeling well, but fortunately I had made all those necklaces last week so I've been at least able to add a new one of those every day or so. Here are my two most recent ones:

This one can be found here on Etsy and Artfire.


And this one is here on Etsy and Artfire. Both of these double as anklets, too, so that's fun! Except silly me just realized today why this batch of modeled necklace photos came out so dark- my sister had her black hair down instead of in a ponytail. Duh, me!

Hopefully I'll start feeling better soon so I can work on more things. I also want to sign up for a few more art websites, but I just haven't been feeling up to that yet, either.

A necklace, crocheted kitty, and costume ramblings

I listed yet another beaded hemp necklace tonight- and this one isn't even one of the dozen I made yesterday, lol! These are just so much fun to make! :D It's here on Etsy and here on Artfire.


The only problem with these necklaces is that I'm running out of names for them! There's only so many ways I can use "beach", "sand", "ocean", "summer", and "vacation" creatively without repeating myself. Maybe I should poll my family to see what I should name the next batch of them, although I doubt it would be much help since I got most of the creative and verbose genes alloted for my family. ;)

And hey, another sneak peak! This is the cat I've been working on for the EtsyHookers "A Walk on the Wild Side" animals challenge.

This is going to be a faerie-cat, but I took this picture before I added wings. I still have to add a collar with a bell and some whiskers (I'm still planning how those will work- thin wire, I think). This is the first ever animal I designed, so it's a bit wonky; the next one I make the front legs will be shorter and the back end will be wider. Still, I think she's cute for my first attempt at writing an animal pattern! :)


And now for costume rambling:
I've also been thinking a lot about costumes lately, yet again. Nevermind that I have two or three costumes I really want to make (a Smash Bros one and two Order of the Stick ones), and a few others on the very back burner (another Smash bros, a second Herald costume, and another Discworld). Now I'm really itching for an elfling/elbit costume. It's weird- that's the creature/persona/character I've related to for so long (about eight years, I think), but I never actually made a costume for it. On the plus side (I guess it's a plus) I can't afford to make it right now, so I have plenty of time to sketch and design it!

I kind of want it to look like this drawing I did way back around 2002 of that persona:

You know, based off a kinda woodland/Mirkwood ensemble (my character is a halfbreed daughter of Thranduil- yeah yeah, not a fangirl, just always loved Mirkwood ever since I had The Hobbit read to me when I was six) in lots of shades of green and brown, but I want it to be slightly more... well, detailed and embellished than just a regular traveling outfit, but I also don't want skirts or anything feminine (I have way too many feminine costumes with long skirts and bodices- I'd like pants and a tunic for a change!). I'd love to incorporate leaves into it somehow, too, and maybe a plain circlet with a leaf design. The bow is obviously not necessary (it's going to be costly enough to get one for my Smash Bros cosplay), although I would love matching bracers. The halfling side of this persona rarely comes into play (she was raised by elves, and as such dresses like one), so other than the curly hair (which I have, lol), I'm not going to include anything for that.

And geez, this probably makes me sound like a dork, and just utterly strange because I don't roleplay this character anymore, but this elfling has been kinda like a parallel version of me for a long time and I'd love to finally be able to dress as her. I swear, I'm not delusional or crazy or something. Much, anyway- just the usual amount of crazy needed for a fantasy artist. ;)

And I bet this is just utterly confusing, especially since I have a feeling most people think the red haired faerie with wings that I use almost everywhere is the "elfling" or "elbit" in my shop names. Nope, she's just my muse, so she's taken over everything artistic where I need some sort of avatar. What it's actually referring to is this fantasy version of myself.

Sneak peek at some hemp necklaces

This is going to be an extremely short post because I'm feeling really crummy right now and just want to go to sleep. Basically I just want to share this sneak peek at what I was working on all day today- about 12 crocheted/beaded necklaces (although I think one's going to be more of an anklet).




Sorry for the poor quality of photo; I took this with my phone, since I didn't have a camera handy (a camera is never handy- that's why I need my own, but I digress). These'll get photographed individually and with an actual camera in the near future. :)

Isn't my mannequin pretty?

The weather is really nice today (not a cloud in the sky! Although it is a bit chilly), so I'm going to go outside and read and work on a crossword in a minute, so I'm going to make this post pretty short.

First, a chain earring that I listed yesterday:



It's here in my Etsy shop and here on Artfire. This one has a pierced post on both ends (rather than a cuff on top) and is pretty black and purple. I'm not sure why the bead looks such a different color in these photos- in actuality, it's almost the same purple as the chain.

And I also want to share the prettiness that is my mannequin. :D I decided recently that I needed to make her look more unique because while she's pretty, didn't really match the fantasy things I make and have her wear. So this is what my sister and I came up with:

(If you're curious, this is what she looked like before.) My sister glued on the black and purple eyelashes I had ordered (and which she had picked out- my sister has great taste!), then glued pink and blue hair extensions into the mannequins hair; my sister went to beauty school, so she knows how to do all kinds of neat stuff like that! And since those are actual hair extensions glued in with actual glue made for them, if I want to change up that part of the mannequins hair, I'd just have to wash the glue out.

My sister even gave me an old turtleneck that she doesn't wear so I could cut it up and use it to hide the name on the mannquin's neck (when said sister was in beauty school she had to write her name on it in large letters so it wouldn't get stolen). I'd like to paint some swirls on it, though, so it's not such a plain brown.

I also need to finish the polymer clay ears I made for the mannequin- I still have to epoxy those onto two barrettes. I made those so she can look like a fairy even when she's not modeling the crocheted ears I sell (which are actually a sneak peak at a new pair in that picture, that I'll post about tonight or tomorrow).


And hey, yesterday I sold an anklet to my grandmother, and made $15! Of course, that money is going straight into what I'm making for my fiancé for his birthday, but at least I got a few bucks. :D I didn't photograph it, though, because it looks exactly like the one I made for my mom for Mother's Day, only with a different clasp.

So yeah, that's all I have to blog about right now, but I'll share more art in the next update, as well as probably some ramblings about a costume I want to design. :)

A post filled with happy/amusing things!

LOL! I'm so amused over here! I was checking out statcounter like I do every night, just out of curiosity to see if people have found my site, and I saw that I had gotten 40 hits today (err... yesterday now). I was like "huh? That's out of the ordinary!" and checked to see where the recent visitors came from.

Turns out someone had posted a picture of my Death plushie (and linked to my plushie page, too- thanks for that, mystery person who found me! Otherwise I never would have known!) on the message board on the Order of the Stick website, because the latest comic had one of the characters holding a doll of another character who happens to be a skeleton (well, lich), hence the Death plushie. It's just extra amusing because I'm not a member of that specific board (instead I chat about OotS on Ravelry or Livejournal), but it's my favorite webcomic (well, 2nd favorite, if my fiancé would ever update his, lol). And it's made even more ironic because I've been planning out OotS plushies for myself for months. So yeah, when I saw that I just gaped at the screen (you know, at all those unexpected views), then started laughing my head off. XD

Anyway, the real reason I wanted to blog today (before I found the amusing second topic) was to mention that I got featured in the Artisan Beaders "Feature Friday" blog post. Thanks for picking my necklace, Brenda! :D

It's this one, my Blue Ocean Beaded Hemp Necklace:



This crocheted and beaded necklace is also the most recent addition to my Etsy and Artfire shops. I still have one more hemp necklace to list that I've finished (need to get more pictures of it, if the sun would come out again!), but I also want to work on a few more. These are fun to make and perfect for summer. :)

Also, I've been thinking about what to make for presents for my fiancé, sister, and best friend (they all have summer birthdays) and I think I've finally figured out what I'm going to do. The all know what they're getting, though (well, Josh may be slightly surprised- he doesn't know the one thing I'm doing). My sister is getting a pink crocheted bolero (she picked out the pattern last night), and my best friend is getting some plushies. I've still got time until her birthday (that's not until August), so I'll probably think of something else for her, too. ;)

Challenge entry, inspired jewelry, and custom listings, oh my!

I was going to put off this post until tomorrow, but I figured that since I already have so much to post about, it would be crazy to shove even more info into a later post. LOL!

So I'll get right into things. The first thing I wanted to talk about are the sleeves I finally finished! Yeah, the sleeves I started way back in March for the EtsyFAST "books" challenge. I was very lucky that May's challenge is "movies" or else I'd have had an extremely late entry! ;) I was also lucky enough to get my sister to model them for me, so hooray! That meant that I didn't have to try to get pictures of myself or get someone else to photograph me while I tried to direct them. ;)



Of course I picked "Lord of the Rings" as my inspiration for these themes ("The Two Towers" is my favorite of the trilogy), and since Eowyn is one of my favorite characters (what can I say, I love a feisty female Rohirrim!), I decided to make something in kind of her style. I ended up choosing sleeves because I love the long, flowing sleeves on her dresses (although these aren't exactly the same; these are my interpretation). The little white flowers are my version of Simbelmynë, the flower that grows on the tombs of Rohan and is pretty much the flower of Rohan. They can be found in three of my shops (I know, I know, I have to be careful in case they sell twice), my Etsy, Artfire, and iCraft.

Now I really would love to try to make more LotR-inspired things! :D

The next thing I wanted to share is this cartilage chain earring:


This one is special because one of my livejournal friends give me the inspiration to make it. She mentioned how her roomate would likely think my chain earrings with a cuff would be cool, and since I've also had a few friends mention that they love the style but don't have their cartilage pierced, I finally decided to try one out (I had bought the metal cuffs probably a year ago, but never got around to it). This was pretty much the kick in the butt I needed to get started, lol. I'll guess I'll start alternate making this kind of earring with the pierced kind so I get a few of both in my shops. :) This earring can be found on Etsy and Artfire.


And the last thing I wanted to talk about is that I decided to put listings in my shops for custom dolls/plushies. This week it occured to me "hey, people probably don't realize the kinds of plushies I can make, and probably don't know how to request things on Etsy/Artfire", so with the help of some of my teammates in EtsyFAST (thanks, guys!), I was able to put together two sorts of listings for my 6" plushies. The one is just for fairies and elves, and is cheaper because it isn't as customizable (that can be found here on Etsy and here on Artfire), and the other one is more expensive, but can be for anything (here on Etsy and here on Artfire). I'm also going to later make up those listings for 12" plushies, but I'm not quite sure how I'm going to price them (because customizing ones that large can be very time consuming) and I'm also out of large eyes (I just ordered those, though). Hopefully by the time those eyes get here I will have sorted it out.

I am making an exception to the "free-for-all" completely customizable plushies, though; I refuse to make anything from horror movies or that are disturbing, gross, maimed, or otherwise not pleasant. I just don't want to look at those photos to base the plushies off of, and I don't want to have to crochet it. Art is my release and the thing that keeps me happy and cheerful, and I don't want to do anything to compromise that (because of my current health problem, it bothers me way too much to be around anything even remotely disturbing). Hopefully this won't be a problem, though, and people will just want cute things. :)

Oh hey, and my best friend signed up for Plurk! :D

And my internet isn't loading very well right now (did Dad forget to pay the cable bill? ;) ), so if I can get this to post, I should probably just go to bed.

Picspam of cute animals and some presents

My sister was around today (she goes out a lot with friends and the boyfriend) and it was sunny all day so I was finally able to get some pictures that I've been needing! (Namely sleeves, some necklaces, and a pair of dreadfalls.) I'll be listing those this week, but right now I wanted to share a few things. There will be lots of pictures in this post!

First, a new pair of earrings that I listed today:

Okay, not really "new" because I had made them probably a year ago and forgotten about them until I found them in my finished bin a few weeks ago, but they're new because I hadn't photographed or listed them yet. They're in both my Etsy shop and my Artfire shop.

And now onto some presents I made!



Since my sister asked (and was awesome for modeling for me today), I made her an anklet like the one I made for my mom that I posted yesterday. She wanted the same style, only in pink (my sister is as obsessed with pink as I am with green. Seriously, it's weird, lol) and she picked out a heart clasp for it.




Sorry the picture quality isn't so great- by then it was getting dark and I didn't feel like staging something I wasn't going to list. Anyway, I made this anklet for my grandmother who wanted one of my beachy type ones in neutral colors and with small beads. Hopefully this is what she'll want (my sister's the one modeling it). If it's too hard for her to tie or something, I'll keep this for myself or sell, and make her a chain one with a toggle clasp. :)

And now onto much animal cuteness! The dog is constantly annoying the cat, which means the cat is constantly chasing the dog (which is what the dog wants, of course, but the cat doesn't realize that). I got some pictures of the antics tonight:


Chloe is starting to get all up in Clara's face...


Clara's glaring at her (and growling- I never knew cats made these kinds of noises until I put the cat in a house with a dog) now...


And they're off! I think at this point Clara chased the dog into the wall. LOL!


After being chased, my sister picked up the dog for a picture. The dog looks quite happy about that.


The cat however... not so much. She always looks terrified in pictures- it's hilarious! It probably doesn't help that the dog was jumping up and trying to get the cat at this point. XD

And that's all the cute animal pictures I have for you today. I'm sure I'll get lots more later- I'm always taking pictures of those two. ;) And speaking of pictures, I used my sister's digital camera today, and it was awesome! Some of the pictures were somewhat washed out from the sun, but I think I figured out how to adjust that. The camera has extreme macro settings, so it's a good art camera. I'm going to ask for it for my birthday, I think- it's only about $160, so hopefully that's in the price range for my fiancé to buy me. I just really need a camera of my own- having to borrow my dad's or sister's is a real pain. The only downside of that camera is that it doesn't come in green (even my iPod is green, lol), but it comes in blue, so that's cool. Needless to say, my sister's is pink. ;)

Oh! And before I forget, one of my EtsyFAST teammates featured me on her blog yesterday! Thanks, Sarabee! (Her Etsy shop is here- you should visit it!) Except I realized too late that I forgot to mention one of my favorite street teams in the interview! (I'm in six- can I be blamed? I feel so guilty, though!) I replied to the post with ABST, but it didn't take away the guilt, lol.

Happy (early) Mother's Day!

Happy early Mother's Day to all the moms out there! I'm only a mom to a cat, and I doubt she knows what day it is. ;) I did make something for my mom, though! She wanted a pretty anklet, so I tried to make her a pretty and normal one (instead of something chainmaille or fantasyish- she doesn't share my love of fantasy. In fact she usually makes fun of me for it, lol). This is what I came up with:







I tried to get a picture of it on her ankle, but it was getting dark out by then and those pictures didn't come out well (that and I had a dog pouncing on me since I was sitting on the floor to get the pictures, which didn't help either). Anyway, I used a whole bunch of pretty purple and blue glass beads and some purple and blue glass seed beads and strung them on a silver colored metal chain (the package didn't say what kind- aluminum, maybe?). It clasps with a toggle with cute blue flowers on it. I know mom loves blue, so I picked that color, and I had her pick out the clasp from my stash. She really seems to like it! :)

I still have to make crocheted hemp/beaded anklets for my grandmother and sister, so I'll try to work on those tomorrow.

Oh, and I also wanted to share that I finally (after months and months) managed to snag a treasury on Etsy today! I filled it with pretty blue and green things (because those are my colors of choice, of course!), and picked items from members of all six of my street teams. :)

Another faerie plushie and a question about Google Analytics

I made another thing for the FAE team's (that's the Fantasy Artists of Etsy) "May Queens" exhibition. Or, rather, I started/planned this one first before my chainmaille circlet; I just didn't have a chance to finish or photograph it until now.


She's currently living in my Etsy shop, although I'll be listing her in my Artfire shop (and maybe some others) later this week. I made her to look like a young faerie maiden, dressed up for Spring and May Day/Beltane with an off the shoulder green dress and a silvery circlet (the circlet isn't in that photo, though- it's in some of the other ones in the listing). I really love how bright her eyes came out! I painted the plastic eyes with acrylics (like I usually do), and these came out really nicely. :)

She's crocheted from acrylic yarn, her dress is wool yarn, she has a ribbon belt, green plastic safety eyes, green streaks in her hair, the aforementioned silvery circlet, and her mouth, dots around her eyes, and jewelry are painted on. She's 6" tall with a wingspan of 6 1/2".

I just love making plushies (I think with all the ones I've made for gifts and myself I've made well over a dozen by now), and I'm especially obsessed with making faeries and elves and the like. I've crocheted elves, faeries, and dragons, so it's probably time I crocheted my other favorite fantasy thing of a unicorn. I'd also love to crochet a gryphon (I love those, too), but I'd have no idea how to design one. I wonder if there's a pattern somewhere for a crocheted gryphon?

I'm still working on various ears- I'm almost done another crocheted pair (just have to sew the ears to the headband), and my polymer clay ones that I made earlier are a bit of a disaster. They look pretty nice (or they did before I baked them. Now they've got some lighter spots, but they still look pretty good), but the real problem is that I put the holes in slightly the wrong angle so they won't stay up when I put a cord through them like I do my horns. I'm going to try epoxying the ears to a hair clip and see if they stay up that way. Maybe polymer clay ears won't become a regular thing I make to sell if I can't even get the pair I made for my smaller than human sized mannequin to work. XD


And now for a regularly sceduled question (I have a lot of questions recently, lol). How do you add seperate pages of a website to Google Analytics? It's only pulling up my index page right now. I have it working with StatCounter (the program I usually use) but I'd also like it to work with Google Analytics.

Remind me not to do major edits on my site again

Well, I got most of my website fixed. At least, I think it's functioning correctly- there may be a few stray links that lead to the old pages, and the banner on the main page is blurry, but I'll get those later. Right now it's after midnight and I've been working on the dumb thing for six hours. Remind me not to do a major overhaul of my website again, lol. Let me know if anything looks too weird, though, please.

I managed to get a few pictures of finished things today in between downpours (seriously, this has been a week and a half of rain. Ugh), but definitely haven't had the inclination to try to list things tonight. I'll try to do some tomorrow. :) Right now, I need to get to bed before I fall over.

Oh, and big big thanks to my friend Deb (she's crysalliscreations on Etsy) for giving me advice on how to change my site around. :)

Can I get some advice about my website?

This post really isn't a subtle way of pimping my website, I promise. I genuinely need help/advice. I know my site is really hard to navigate and I have a feeling people probably get confused while looking for my art. So how should I move things around or put the links to my pages so they can find it?

I really like having all the art links on one page (the "shop and policies" one), but they're not that obvious, and I have a feeling people don't want to have to hunt for what they're looking for. I suppose I could put those links up at the top of all the pages, but I have 8 subcategories, and those would take up a lot of room at the top of the screen. Also, are the links named well enough to attract people? I'm thinking mostly "crocheted accessories" since that's kinda obscure and people probably aren't hunting for crochet specifically, but I'm not sure what else to call it.

So please help- I want to make it more reader-friendly, but I'm at a loss of how to do that.

Hooray for sales! Also, starting on more art shops

Today I had my first sale in a very long time (and I mean very- I think I sold one thing in February and that was it). Needless to say, I was over here doing the happy dance! Literally- my mom started making fun of me because I was dancing. ;) So now this necklace and this necklace will be going to a new home- hopefully she'll like them!

This means that all my beachy necklaces have sold, though (between those two and two I sold at the yard sale last month). This means it's time to break out the hemp and wood and shell beads! My sister, mom, and grandmother all want summery anklets like that, so I'll make those at the same time. :) This is good because I haven't made any crocheted jewelry in a while and I'm itching to make more. :)


Today I also worked on more shop things- I updated my website, added more things to my Ecrater shop and I also listed a few things over in my iCraft shop. And I have a question: have any of you guys had experience with iCraft? How are sales there? Would it be worth getting the paid account so I can list more than five things? Sales have just been really really slow this year, so I'm trying to figure out what I can do to get more. I'm networking my poor fingers off!

Oh! And I also lowered the price on some of my bracelets on Etsy and Artfire, because after giving it some thought, I think they were a bit overpriced. So now three of them are $20 and another is $28 (instead of $25 and $35).


And another thing! (Wow, am I forgetful tonight!) I updated the EtsyFAST blog (that's the Etsy Fiber Arts Street team) this morning with another member interview, so check that out to learn about the awesome fiber artist behind http://ccdzs.etsy.com.

And geez, it's already 6:30 and I haven't even started working on any art today (I had to run some errands with Mom earlier, then got stuck updating aforementioned websites). I'm going to try to finish that Spring faerie plushie tonight, and maybe those other pair of crocheted ears I finished the headband for last night. I also wanted to work on some jewelry, so maybe I'll do that first. Expect more art updates in the near future (or whenever the sun decides to come out so I can get some pictures...).

I love finding finished things in my stash

While going through my bin of finished art for that yard sale last month, I came across two pairs of earrings that I never listed or photographed and had completely forgotten about. Whoops! I have no idea how they vanished for that long (a trip to Narnia, perhaps? That's my usual answer for things like this), especially since they're both green, and I adore green. Maybe I unconsciously hid them since I love the color so much. ;)

Anyway, the one pair is going to have to wait for another day because the batteries in the camera stopped working and it started raining before I could finish taking the pictures (it has been cloudy and/or raining for a week straight with more rain until this weekend, but I'll save that rant for another time). The other earring pair isn't a pair, though, but one of my chain cartilage earrings:

It's listed in both my Etsy and Artfire shops. I figure with earrings like these it's cool to list them in both at the same time because if it sells twice, it's a cinch to remake.


Next up will probably by that other stray pair of earrings, or those sleeves I'm finished but haven't photographed, or maybe the Spring faerie I'm almost done crocheting, or maybe the other pair of elf ears that I started crocheting the headband for today. I really like making those elf ears, so I hope people want them. :) I'm also waiting on Josh to chart out the designs for a few Pratchgan squares so I can work on those.

Quick question for those on ecrater

I started listing items in my shop on ecrater (you know, trying to spread out my presence on the internet), but I'm utterly baffled by that site. I think I have the shipping okay (I pretty much copied and pasted it from Artfire), but I'm at a loss as to what to put for the "Google Attributes" page to get people to be able to actually, you know, find my stuff since that site doesn't have a tag option where you can post words that are relevant to the item. And the examples on ecrater don't help me because they don't have anything to do with handmade items.

So I'm asking if anyone knows how to use ecrater and can explain that "Google Attributes" mess to me. I thought that site was pretty cool (I mean, free to list and easy listing process- awesome!), but this might be a not so good thing about the site (also, when I click on my items to view them, it counts as a hit which is really annoying). At least the search option seems to function pretty well, which is always a plus.

Dragons apparently live in vending machines

Okay, here's a definite plus side to living with my parents- game night. I just played Scattergories with my mom, my sister, and her boyfriend and had a blast with all the silly answers. My favorites were mom putting down "dragons" for "things in a vending machine" (methinks I'm rubbing off on her, although not in a successful way, lol!) and "giraffes" for "things you give as gifts", and when I put down "frankenberry" for "fruits" but didn't think to put Frankenstein's monster for "monsters" on the same sheet. LOL! However, I did get to use "Enter the Haggis" (one of my favorite bands) and "Inkyrius" (my favorite minor Order of the Stick character), so it evened out. ;) So yeah, it was nice to get a good laugh tonight after a rather crappy week.

And hey, I get to share more art! I listed a pair of crocheted elf/fairy ears today- I based the design off this hat with ears that I had sold earlier this year, but I decided to use a headband/scarf rather than a hat so it's cooler for the summer.






The ears and headband are acrylic yarns, and there are pipecleaners crocheted around the ears to make them stand up and so they can be adjusted some in shape. There's also a green jump ring as an earring in the one ear. :)

They're listed here in my Artfire shop, although later this week I'm going to also list them on Etsy (and list the circlet from my last post on Artfire). I don't want to list them on both at the same time in case they sell double (haha, very unlikely). I'm itching to make another pair, though- it was fun and pretty easy to do. Maybe I'll put them on a purple headband next?

I've still got some earrings to list/post about later (seriously, I found two pairs in my finished bin that hadn't been listed and I had completely forgotten about. There must be a door to Narnia in there or something), I'm still working on another fairy plushie, and if the sun would ever come out I could get a picture of the sleeves I made for the EtsyFAST March challenge (yeah, I'm a bit behind).

Also, I felt like an idiot today- I had no idea you could put some items on Artfire at the top as featured things. It was a very facepalm moment then. ;)

Some ranting, but some art, too!

Well, I've found some definite downsides to living with my parents again. One is that I have absolutely no room for crafting anymore- I can only work at the dining room table, and as soon as someone needs to eat, I get booted and have to move my stuff now, which is a complete pain when working on something intricate like chainmaille where I can't stop in the middle of a pattern, and will likely be disastrous when I start painting things (I'll have to have a flat free space handy so paint doesn't smear).

The other downside is that my parents don't take my art seriously and think I can just put it aside at the drop of a hat. I got yelled at for being on the computer all day (I wasn't, but I was on it a pretty long time between taking pictures of some new art) and when I tried to explain that it's my job my mom said that it wasn't and that it's a hobby since I don't sell anything. Thanks, Mom. She doesn't understand that to sell things I need to make and list new things constantly, and I haven't sold anything in months because I haven't made anything new since November or had much of a chance to network before this week. I'm trying to sell things; it's not my fault the economy is crappy.

Fortunately I managed to photograph and edit the pictures of three new things; one is listed and the other two will be quick to list now that the photos are done. I really need a new camera, though; the old hand me down from my sister doesn't take micro pictures (whenever I select the micro option, it shuts down) so it's practically useless. Dad let me use his camera, but it would really be easier if I had my own since I'd need permission whenever I need to use it. I'm hoping I can get a new camera for my birthday; I think I'm probably due one since my last two cameras (and only digital ones I've ever had) have been outdated hand me downs and the other one I used to use for my art is Josh's and since I don't live with him now, it's really hard to get.

So yeah, sorry for the ranting. I wanted to share one of the things I've finished and just listed.





I made this chainmaille and beaded circlet for the FAE team's "May Queens" exhibition. Boy, did it feel good to finally be able to make some jewelry again! I missed making maille and going through my bead stash!

And you can tell from the pictures that there is one good side to living with my parents- the awesome prettiness of their backyard! Expect lots of trees and green in my photos now, lol.