Art ramblings

Yet another post filled with unconnected and random things. ;)

-It's my birthday! Hooray! The day started off crummy but it's gotten a bit better. :) I get to see my awesome fiancé tonight and my bestest friend tomorrow, so that's even better! And since it's my birthday, that means tonight at midnight my Artfire sale ends. It's also your last chance to enter my giveaway drawing! So please check that out if you haven't already. :) I'll announce the winner (or maybe winners) tomorrow.

-My first "Technique Tuesday" tutorial is up on the Artisan Beaders team blog- I wrote about the tools I use for chainmaille. Part two will be posted once I can get Josh to take pictures of me making maille so I can show how to weave it.

-Please vote in the Artfire Artisan Jewelers Guild's Summer Solstice challenge! It's here on the team blog- just vote in the poll on the right of the blog. You don't have to vote for me, just your favorite. :)

-I wanted to spread word about the awesome earring/cuff I bought recently from Thyme2dream on Etsy:



It's so pretty and lightweight and Elveny! (Goes with my Hobbity hair, actually, lol.) In the second picture you can't see it too well because of all my piercings behind it. Yeah, I have a thing for earrings- I have three holes in each ear so far. Anyway, I'm definitely wanting more of these, and I highly recommend them. :D

-Things I've been working on:
~Custom set of skull runes (Almost done these- they just need another layer of varnish sealer stuff)
~Chess Queen Faerie (need to finish her hair and paint/add embellishments)
~More hemp necklaces and a maille necklace (look for those to be listed in the next few days). I don't think I showed the peek at that one yet on my blog:

Poor quality photo, but you get the gist.
~And I think I have another custom order, this time for a maille handflower, so I'll be starting that tonight.

So yeah, look for photos of the new things in my next update or so. :)

Tomorrow's the last day of my giveaway/sale!

Not too much to talk about today- I'm mostly been working on projects, but haven't finished them yet so no sneak peeks yet. I'm almost done the Chess Queen Faerie I'm working on (just need to finish her hair and then add paint and accessories) and I'm going to go work on a custom set of runes in a second. I'm not feeling well today, so hopefully I'll be able to finish them; I also have to get to the post office to mail orders out, but I'm not sure if I'm up to going out today- at the latest, I'll have to mail those tomorrow.


Basically, I just wanted to remind everyone about my giveaway and sale- check out this blog post for details.

I haven't had too many people enter the giveaway drawing, so you have a good chance at winning and it's FREE to enter; just spread word of my sale/giveaway (link to that blog post or my Artfire shop) and let me know where you talked about it.

Also, while I'm pimping sales, check out the sale my friend Ruthie has going in her Artfire shop- she's doing 15% off and makes some lovely jewelry! :)

Wreck This Journal Catch-up!

(My WTJ when it was still new)

I mentioned yesterday that I'm joining in a group "Wreck This Journal" thing here, and will try to post new updates about it once a week (I'm going to try my hardest to work on it again- I've been neglecting it for a few months).

Here's a recap of my pages so far- click them to go to the flickr page to see them larger.

Add Your Own Page Numbers:


Pour/Fling/Etc Coffee (or tea, in my case) Page:


Burn This Page:


Scratch Page:


White Things Page:


Write On The Side Of The Pages Page:


Trace Things in Bag Page:


And that's where I am as of now. :)

And since I'm making an entry, I'll post about this here (but I'll also mention it again later so it won't get lost). One of my guilds on Artfire (the Artisan Jeweler Guild) did a "Summer Solstice" challenge, and the voting for it is now up on the guild blog. Please check it out here to view the entries and vote on the right hand side of the blog.

I've been interviewed!

Some random things to post about today!

~My interview is back up on handmadenews.org! You can find it here- please check it out! It had been mistakenly posted for about a day a few weeks ago, but now it's up and supposed to be up, lol. So yeah, check out the interview to find out more about me and my art. :D

~I'm in a treasury! Well, my elf ears are, I mean. ;) It's a treasury of items from the Fantasy Artists of Etsy "Midsummer Revelry" exhibition, so click either link to see great fantasy items from talented artists.

~I'm joining in with the Ankh-Morpork Knitters' Guild (our team is "Team What Duck?") in the Ravelry "WIPs Wrestling Championships" in July. My wrestling name (thanks to a name generator) is "Wild Blossom", and I'm going to try to catch up on the five or so Pratchgan squares I have to finish, three plushies that are half-done, and the bolero sweater for my sister that I've barely finished- for those who don't know the lingo, "WIP" means "work in progress" or something like that. I always have a lot of those laying around!).

~Still pimping my Artfire birthday sale and giveaway (remember, no purchase necessary to enter the giveaway drawing!). Info can be found here.


~I found a group that works on the "Wreck This Journal" together (it's here), so I'll be making a post tomorrow recapping where I was when I stopped messing with mine a few months ago, then after that my updates about it will be new. Hopefully this'll get me started working on it again!

~And randomly, we had to take Clara to the vet for a checkup today (or as Josh said "a tune up and she needs her tires rotated"). She's perfectly healthy, but just a bit fat from the food she used to have to be on for her bladder. She doesn't much like the cat bag we have to put her in to get her there, but she's such a good girl that all she did was meow a few times in the car.

Happy Fairy Day!

First, don't forget about my big birthday sale, freebie giveaway, and drawing to win a custom item of your choice that I mentioned in my last post! You don't even have to buy anything to enter that drawing- just spread word about my sale and giveaway and let me know where you linked to it. :)


Next, I wanted to wish everyone a happy Fairy Day!

Although I suppose for me most days are Fairy Days. ;) I'm going to spend today doing what I often do- crochet a faerie plushie (in this case, a faerie Black Queen from chess).


And third, I wanted to share my latest set of runes:



These are my "Tropical Breeze" runes- these are the ones that I made to be Air but they ended up morphing into Water as I was making them (the yellow clay really mixed with the blue to make them bluegreenish).

These are in my Artfire shop but are actually reserved for my Plurk friend Elaine/Tollykit. If you have your heart set on them, though, I could definitely make another set! (They wouldn't be exactly the same colors and swirls, though, of course, since they're handmade.)

Major birthday sale and giveaway!

Here's the post I'm sure you've all been waiting for! (I know I've been watching the clock all day for a logical time to post this; I didn't want to post about it too early!) In honor of my 557th... wait, that's my Elfling age 26th birthday on June 30th, I'm having a major celebration sale and giveaway on Artfire!

Here's the scoop!
-Everything in my Artfire shop will be 26% off from midnight the morning of June 23rd until midnight the morning of July 1st (Tuesday morning until late Tuesday night of the following week). The prices will already be adjusted in the listings, so all you have to do is check-out normally. :)

-With every purchase (well, for every person who purchases something from my shop, not for every item you purchase) you'll get a FREE crocheted hemp bracelet or bookmark in your choice of color (see info below).

-As well as that freebie, everyone who purchases something from my shop is also put in a drawing to win a FREE:
(a)Pair of horns (can look like that one for sale, this pair, or this pair in style)
(b)Crocheted elf ears on a hairscarf/headband
(c)Beaded hemp necklace (scroll down a bit)
(d)Pair of regular earrings
or (e)Single cartilage chain earring (can be pierced or with a cuff at the top)
Any of which would be in your color(s) of choice!

***There's also another way to be entered into that drawing; spread word about my sale and giveaway! Post about it in your blog (feel free to use one of those images at the top of this post and link back to this blog post or my Artfire shop), Plurk, Tweet, etc, and then come back here and reply with the link to where you posted about it. No purchase necessary!***

The winner will be randomly drawn and I'll make a blog post on July 1st letting you know who won- then the winner can email (merigreenleaf@gmail.com) me their item and color preference and mailing address. If I get enough sales, I'll likely do more than one big giveaway, so your chances will improve. :D

I'll be posting about this on my blogspot blog as well as my livejournal; it doesn't matter which one you reply in or link to, you'll be entered into the same drawing. :) I'll also be hanging out in a thread in the promo section of the Artfire Chatterbox (you can find me here), so feel free to keep me company there- and keep my thread bumped, of course! ;)


~~~FREEBIE BRACELET OR BOOKMARK INFO~~~
-After you purchases something from my Artfire shop, send me an email (merigreenleaf@gmail.com) or a message via Artfire (make sure it says "merigreenleaf" in the "to" box) with your choice of bracelet or bookmark, and your top two color preferences (I'll try my hardest to make one with your first choice, but if I don't have the beads I'll make the second choice).

Here are some examples of what your bracelet would look like:

I'll randomly use hemp cord or hemp/wool yarn, and glass, wood, and/or plastic beads.

For the bookmark, it'll be yarn (acrylic, most likely) crocheted like the outside (not beaded) part of the bracelet so it can fit between the pages, with the beads at the end so they'd dangle on the outside of the book. I could also make it with a ribbon, sort of like this:

Only it would have more beads on the ends and be book length.


So please spread word about my sale and giveaway, and I hope this drawing and freebieness is fun! I know I'm getting excited! :D

My drawing from The Hobbit

I'm about to go to bed, but I wanted to share the drawing I did for my dad for Father's Day. I had no idea what to get/make for him until my fiancé gave me the idea to draw him something from Lord of the Rings (or maybe Josh gave me the drawing idea and I jumped to LotR? I can't remember; I'm tired). My dad is a big LotR fan (he's the one who got me into it when I was six, if that says anything!), and he loves The Hobbit, so I drew him the scene where Bilbo is stealing the cup from Smaug.

This is what my original looks like:

(Click it to see it larger.)

And this is the version that I'm going to print out to give Dad (the original is in my sketchbook):

(Click to see it larger.)
I used paintshop to edit in the background of the cave; originally I was just going to put it in the background and leave the tan floor I colored, but it looked weird that way, so I made it look like this. :) I'm really proud of how well this drawing came out because drawing isn't the kind of art I'm particularly good at.

Josh only helped me a little bit- he helped me with Smaug's front arms when I thought they looked a bit wonky, and the angle of the spikes on the tail (and he drew that little bust on the right; that's an "Easter Egg", a little homage to a goblin in his webcomic), for instance, but the drawing itself is mine. :D

I'm not too happy with how Bilbo's face came out, though; my pen was too thick, so it smeared his features. Still, I'm really proud of this drawing! And I know Smaug is huge and Bilbo would be about the size of his nostril or something, but I was having a hard enough time drawing Bilbo this small without making him smaller, and I didn't want to just draw Smaug as a nose. Artistic license, methinks. ;) Oh, and that diamond in the center is supposed to be the Arkenstone (Josh gave me the idea to add that).


And I think I got the best compliment from my mom ever on this- she's not usually very supportive of my art (she always just asks if I've sold anything yet, and complains that I spend all day on the computer "not getting any work done", but I'm not going to go into that annoyance of mine right now). However, this time when she saw my drawing she said it was good and said I should become an art teacher. From her, that's major praise indeed!

I'd actually like being an art teacher, I think, but I'm not that great at drawing which is probably the main art talent you'd need (plus, I don't think I'd feel right grading kids on how well they create- who am I to say what is good and what isn't? That and I've never had any kind of desire to go to art school- who are the professors to grade me, as the other flip of the coin, lol). I can draw passably, but I have to look off a model or a photo to get it right (like for Bilbo I had to find a photo online of a person kneeling). I guess that's not really too horrible, and I guess with enough practice I could do it from my memory, but drawing isn't the kind of art that I love enough to want to keep doing it over and over to get it right. I'll just be content with imperfect sketches and concentrate on my crochet and jewelry and all; I'll let Josh be the really talented drawer of the family. ;)

But hey, when/if we ever have kids, genetically and by environment they'll be the most artistic ones ever with all the kinds of art we can do. ;)

Check out my friend's charity listing!

Happy Father's Day and Summer Solstice! I'm still working on the drawing I'm doing for my dad; he's really into Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, too, so I'm going to do a drawing of Smaug and Bilbo. Hopefully it'll come out okay since drawing isn't really my thing as much as it is my fiancé's artistic skill. I can usually draw dragons, though. *crosses fingers*

A last reminder about my free shipping deal for the Summer Solstice going on in my Etsy shop- that ends tonight! Check out my last post here for more info and participating shops.


I've spent the past few hours doing a lot of behind the scenes stuff for my blog and website:
-I made some banners for my big Artfire birthday sale/giveaway next week- look for info on that sometime tomorrow. ;)
-I also made a little button and stuck it in the code for the bottom of my blogger blog posts. In theory, that'll help people RSS feed my blog- I hope it works! I used the link that was pretty much hidden in my mass of widgets in my sidebar (what can I say, I love my widgets!)
-I finally figured out how to embed my blog on my website and made a page for that (as well as added links to that page on the top of every page). Can you check it out here and let me know if it's working right? It should be a kind of small window within the window.


And last, I wanted to share what my friend Esty (yup, it looks like Etsy- because of her I spelled Etsy wrong for quite some time, lol!) is doing to help artists. She recently opened up an Etsy shop and is selling paper cranes (Esty is really good at making them!). You can check out the first listing of cranes here. So please check out her shop because it's a great cause!

Sale reminder and Wyvern bards

First, don't forget about the Etsy EarthPath Artisans Summer Solstice Sale going on this weekend only!

Here's my particular deal in my Etsy shop:
From Saturday 20th-Sunday 21st, I'm offering FREE shipping on all purchases of $10 or more in my Etsy shop! Just write "Summer Solstice Sale" in the "notes to seller" field when checking out, and I'll send you a refund (via PayPal) of the shipping after you pay.

Six shops are participating this time around, so check them out for some great deals from talented artists!
http://howlingcaterpillars.etsy.com
http://merigreenleaf.etsy.com
http://rainfeather13.etsy.com
http://rainsews.etsy.com
http://sagehealer.etsy.com
http://theomintention.etsy.com


And second, I wanted to share my new necklace. I'll admit, this was fun to make because I love the theme I was using for it. ;) This is my "Underwater Wyvern" hemp necklace/anklet:



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

There's a fun story behind this one, although it's probably pretty boring to anyone not in my "Dungeons and Dragons" group, lol. In one of our adventures, we came to an underground cavern containing a large pool fed by an underground river, and as we were resting by the pool the idea of a Wyvern in the pond popped into the Dungeon Master's head.

It went like this: the Wyvern was eyeing up the adventurers like he was going to eat them, then shifts his eyes to the audience and he starts singing a song about how he's a Wyvern that lives underwater and is going to get the adventurers- not withstanding that Wyverns, unlike dragons, cannot talk, let alone sing, and certainly aren't accompanied by a band. As the fantasy picks up, he gets more into it and is singing about how clever and stealthy he is, but at that point obviously the adventurers notice.

It's now become the top song of the campaign world. Number two is Vanne Hailenne's "Ye Beautifulle Gyrls", according to my fiancé (the aforementioned Dungeon Master). ;)



And hey, I think I may be getting better at photography! I'm still not, you know, a professional at it, but I'm getting slightly better at staging. I'm actually contemplating using my large fuzzy blue dragon (that actually looks like a dragon, albeit smaller) as a prop, but I'm not sure if he'll be distracting. I guess I'll just try it out the next time I get photos and post them here to see what you all think. :)

Summer Solstice Sale!

Woah, the sun just showed up for the first time in weeks! I wonder if it'll last long enough to get pictures?

Here's what I really wanted to mention....
***The EAST Summer Solstice Sale!***
I'm still having my big Artfire sale next week (look for info on that late this weekend), but I'm joining up with some of my teammates from the EarthPath Artisans Street Team in a group sale on Etsy.

Here's my specific sale:
From Saturday 20th-Sunday 21st, I'm offering FREE shipping on all purchases of $10 or more in my Etsy shop! Just write "Summer Solstice Sale" in the "notes to seller" field when checking out, and I'll send you a refund (via PayPal) of the shipping after you pay.

Here are the participating shops: (I'll add to the list as more people join in)
http://howlingcaterpillars.etsy.com
http://merigreenleaf.etsy.com
http://rainfeather13.etsy.com
http://rainsews.etsy.com
http://sagehealer.etsy.com
http://theomintention.etsy.com

So check out these awesome shops this weekend (June 20-21) for some great deals!


And to add some art to this post, I finally listed a pair of dreadfalls I made probably a year ago and added the beads to and photographed a month ago. These are my most delayed item ever!



These are my "Monochrome Falls" (if you can think of a better name for them, let me know!), made with cotton, alpaca/bamboo, and acrylic yarns, and with beads strung in them. They're in my Etsy shop and Artfire shop.

For a bit of random info about falls, I was really into making them a year or two ago- I made myself some awesome pairs (this pair, this pair, and this pair) that I only got to wear maybe once or twice before I got my hair cut short. I can't decide if I want to keep them for whenever I decide to grow my hair out again, or just clip them into my hair while it's short, or if I want to sell them. I'm leaning more towards keeping them because I really really love them, and I think technically I'm growing my hair out now since I've been too lazy to have my sister make it shorter again. ;)

Either way, do you think I should start making more to sell? Do you think they would sell? I've also been meaning to try to make some that go on hairclips for short hair, but I haven't gotten around to that yet.

Ents, runes, and mavenness

First, I want to share my newest hemp necklace/anklet; this one is in that new style, and it's also going to be my entry for the Artfire Artisan Jewelers Guild's "Summer Solstice" challenge.



When making this tree-inspired beaded hemp necklace/anklet I kept getting the thought that it would be perfect for a fae who protects the forest. From there my natural thought was "Hey, Ents protect the forest!", and when I realized that the center tree charm resembles a rowan, the logical name choice involved Bregalad (or Quickbeam), one of the Ents who are the shepherds of the trees in "Lord of the Rings". I can't believe I haven't made anything Ent-inspired before; they're one of my favorite fantasy races. (Josh asked why I didn't name it after the Deku tree in "Legend of Zelda"- that's a great idea, and one I'll use next time.)

It can be found here in my Etsy shop and here in my Artfire shop.

I really love this necklace (who didn't see that one coming?), but I think if I make one for myself I'd try to use beads that are more silver than gold.


And here's a sneak peek at the runes I've been working on:

Those are the runes that started off Air and sort of morphed into Water. I think I'll call them "Tropical Breeze" or something to combine the two- look for more pictures (and listings) of those in the next few days. Well, as soon as the sun decides to come out, so I can get the photos. It's been a very rainy and cold spring; it feels more like early April than mid-June.


And some random info, in neat numbered bits:
1.) I'm going to be an Artfire maven! I'm not entirely sure what it entails, but I'm super excited to get to help out Artfire because I love that site! :D

2.) I am going to run that sale in my Artfire shop next week that I was thinking about doing in honor of my birthday, and I'm pretty sure I'm also going to give away free hemp bracelets to whoever buys from me, too. Look for more info on this late this weekend or early Monday. :)

3.) I finished the charm for the chainmaille necklace I've been planning. However, I've been feeling pretty crummy (and my back has been hurting from all this cold and rain) so I haven't started the maille yet. I'm hoping I'll feel up to that tomorrow, because I also need to get pictures of the weave for the "Technique Tuesday" for the Artisan Beaders blog. Bleh, I wish the sun would come out- I'd feel a lot better, methinks.

I've definitely been on a jewelry making kick lately

Oh look, another beachy necklace/anklet! This one is my "Edge of the Bay" one- that name came from my fiancé. :)



It's crocheted from off-white (cream, I guess) hemp/wool yarn and has shell and wood beads. It's here in my Etsy shop and here in my Artfire shop.

And I think that may actually be the last of the huge batch of necklaces I made last month- there's one more, but I wasn't happy with how it came out so I'm going to redo it. Don't despair, though! I made three new ones the other day, one of which is going to be my Artisan Jewelers Guild's "Summer Solstice" challenge entry thing, so that'll probably be posted next. :) The only problem is that my sister is on vacation until the end of the month so the new batch of necklaces had to be taken on my own neck- I hope those came out because boy is it hard to take a picture of yourself!


I'm seriously thinking about having a sale in my Artfire shop next week in honor of my birthday on the 30th (maybe 26% off? I dunno). I'm just on the fence because I've never actually sold anything during a sale, and it's always so much work to have to edit everything into sale prices. That's the main reason I'm just going to do it on Artfire- that site has a sale mode that looks nice and easy to use. I feel so cheap when I try to sell things on sale (a lot of my things are pretty low priced to begin with, you know?) but I could really use the extra money because I need a camera and a few more art supplies (not to mention, you know, bills and loans to pay).

Do you think this sounds like a good idea? Is the sale mode on Artfire really as simple as it looks?


Anyway, I'm going to go work on that bottle charm I wanted to start the other day but was missing the epoxy for (Josh brought that over yesterday). I have no idea if it'll work, but if it does there will be a new chainmaille necklace in my shop sometime soon. ...although if it doesn't work, there will still be since I'll just go to Plan B and use other charms. I'm hoping this idea works, though!

Oh, and I did that username thing on facebook, so now you can find me easily at http://www.facebook.com/merigreenleaf.

An adventure for my cat

Well, if "adventure" means "grass sort of freaks her out and what's with all these weird noises?". As you can probably guess, we took her outside today. Dad had bought a harness for the puppy, and since she's about the same size as Clarabell (the cat's a bit fatter), we put it on the cat. She didn't like that harness one bit, but she got used it somewhat. We tied her to a steak outside and she slowly wandered around and sniffed the grass (and got tangled in not one but two lawnchairs- she didn't get the whole "tied up" thing). Mostly, though, she just lay there like a kitty loaf and looked around at all the noises.

I have no idea if this was a success or not, but hey, she's a pretty easy going cat- the most she did was meow and try to weasel out of my arms when we put the harness on her. We'll try again in a few days or something and see if she'll start getting used to sitting outside. She seems pretty good with it, though- at first she looked terrified, probably thinking that I was getting rid of her and she'd have to be a stray again (silly girl, she should know by now that I love her very much and would never ever part with her) but later just getting more annoyed that she had to be tethered and couldn't go sniff the grass five inches away.

But I did remember to take some pictures of my cutie:

Look at the awesome present I got!

I got the most awesome "Pay it Forward" gift in the mail yesterday! I was lucky enough to snag something from my FAE friend (I love calling her that, lol) Julie of mermaidencreations on Etsy from her Halloween PIF blog post last month.

This is what I saw when I opened the envelope:

Ack, a spider! Hey, Julie, was that an intentional joke off of Mirkwood? Was it that or the black squirrel cauldron? ;)

Anyway, the best part was what I saw when I looked inside the cauldron:

A Wood Elf pendant- how cool is that! This is honestly the most perfect thing she could have made me! :D That Elf may be Legolas; Julie is the friend I was talking about in this post who was afraid I hated Legolas and thought she might have to make me something else. I'm really glad that I caught her before she went on vacation to reassure her that I do not, because I absolutely LOVE this pendant! Julie, you are awesome and amazingly psychic in knowing that I love Wood Elves, green, and silver (okay, maybe not psychic per se since my likes are fairly obvious, lol).



I'm going to do my part of this Halloween PIF and make a post where I'll make things for three people, but it has to wait for a bit longer because early summer means lots and lots of presents that I have to make (luckily my fiancé's are finished, but I still have to make stuff for my sister, a plushie for my best friend to give her nephew, and more presents for my best friend). I may, however, make the PIF post before that last batch since her birthday isn't until August.

I won't Tweet or Plurk or anything about it, though! If you want to jump in, you'll have to look for the info likely tacked onto the bottom of a random blog post (since if I make it its seperate blog post, it'll show up in my Twitter stream). This'll be sometime in the next few weeks, maybe sooner, maybe a tad bit later (with my health and these presents, who knows?). So keep an eye out! ;) And since I crosspost this blog in three places (blogger, livejournal, and myspace), those three have to really be on the ball since I'm only going to make three, not nine. (You're lucky, though, in that I don't know if anyone reads the myspace version.) Remember, though- this isn't a free gift with no strings involved; you, too, have to pay it forward to three people!



Oh, and last chance to vote for the EtsyHookers challenge! The voting ends tomorrow, so if you haven't picked a favorite yet, please do! Like I said before, you don't have to vote for Kitty Clara, but please vote for something. :)

Rather geeky presents for my fiancé

First off, can I say how dumb I feel today? I couldn't figure out why the internet wasn't working this morning- I even checked the router a few times, but lights were lit, so I figured it was okay. After poking around on my computer and not being able to fix it that way, I finally decided to go poke the router box- I poked the "internet on/off" button and lo and behold the internet came back on.

But do you want to know what makes me feel so dumb about this? The cat's butt was the reason the button had got turned off in the first place. She was laying next to (well, practically on) the router this morning, and must have hit it. Yes, my cat is rather fat and none too graceful, but I had no idea she could hit it that easily. So yeah, I got a good laugh out of that this morning!



Anyway, the real thing that I wanted to post about (and was trying to an hour ago) is that I gave the birthday presents I made to my fiancé yesterday and he loved them! Yay! :D And since he has them now, I can share the rather geeky things I made him.

This is the one thing I made:

Meet Dwight the White, Josh's "Dungeons and Dragons" Paladin. He's sort of an NPC since Josh is the Dungeon Master, but he was a member of our adventuring party for a while before becoming a duke.

This was my first attempt at this kind of hair style- I combined the really short crochet in the round kind of thing with the usual kind of hair I do (only shorter), and got Dwight's hairstyle that's kind of like a bowl cut. I had to glue down the hair, though, because otherwise it would have stuck up. He's wearing a felt tabard with a stag head and diamond design, felt boots and gloves (gauntlets), and a crocheted belt. I also painted on the blue and silver trim, his eyebrows, mouth, and goatee, and painted those plastic safety eyes. :)

He doesn't have a weapon because I put Josh in charge of that so he'd get it right- he's either going to use a He-man sword or sculpt him one.

...and why is Firefox spell checking "tabard"? It's a word!


The other things I made Josh were iron-on transfer tshirts from his (much neglected) webcomic "Goblins Like These":



This one is a lineup of the three main Goblins on a white tshirt- Boss, Igik, and Gork.




And this one is Igik by himself because he's sort of the flagship Goblin, in that he's the one that most people love. For some reason this transfer came out with some lines on the side, but it's not that noticeable (it also looks crooked on the shirt, but I don't think it is).

I really love these shirts and want one for myself now! Mine would have Gork on it, though, because he's my favorite of the Goblins and the one I play in the D&D game based on the comic. I also want to make some of these shirts with actual comics on them, and hey, if Josh ever gets the comic updated on a regular basis (so it can get more of a fanbase) I think I'll try opening up a Cafe Press shop to sell the shirts. :)


Ack, and I just realized that I didn't post about the most recent item I listed, but it fits right in since it's also "Dungeons and Dragons" related. ;) This is my "Aldalion's Ardor" beaded hemp necklace/anklet:



Yup, I still have necklaces left from that HUGE batch I made last month, LOL! This necklace/anklet is named after my Gray Elf bard from an old D&D campaign. He had an obsession with purple (he was to purple what I am to green, if that explains it), and the purple and sepia tones in this necklace seem quite Elven. Here's the link on Etsy, and here's the listing on Artfire.

Heh, I've been on an especially geeky kick lately, haven't I? ;) Next up are hopefully going to be another set of runestones and some chainmaille necklaces. I had a great idea for one last night- I hope it'll work! I'm also going to do a "Technique Tuesday" post for the ABST blog with pictures from the next maille necklace I do, so look for that soon!

Roundabout blogging

I think that title is pretty accurate, lol! I just read on my ABST teammate Patty's blog that Silver Parrot is giving away beads on her blog. I think this is a really neat idea to spread the word around for a chance at winning them, so I jumped right on it. :D I'd love some beads! ;)

So go check out her blog- it's here.


I don't really have much to update today; I've been rushing today to get Josh's presents done for his birthday tomorrow. (Yeah yeah, I'm working last minute.) I've got two and a half of the three things done, so I think I'll be done in time. I'll get some pictures of them after I give them to him, and post about it. :)

The downside of making jewelry is you often want to keep it!

Woah, I've been all sorts of updating this blog recently! Two in one day sometimes, even. Now watch, I'll go a week without updating to make up for this, lol!

Anyway, I just wanted to share that I finished a cute pair of earrings for my mom tonight:

She told me she wanted a pair of pretty, not too long earrings, but since she's so picky about jewelry I had her pick out things from my stash. Of course she picked two of my few swarovski charms (that I had actually been kind of saving for myself). Gee, thanks, Mom. But hey, if she later decides she doesn't want them, they're my favorite color so I'll gladly take them off her hands. ;)

That picture is pretty dark; the beads are a bit lighter, and the seed beads are a sea green. But look! The loops are pretty darn even! I'm getting better! :D


And, randomly, today was a good day- I got to hang out with my best friend. Yay! We played the Lord of the Rings "The Third Age" game for hours- we really love that game, lol. Well, except when the stupid Uruk-hai wouldn't leave us alone at Helm's Deep. That was annoying! Oh, and when I had to spend an hour running around a rock in Rohan because it was the only place to trigger battles so we could level up. Turns out Orcs, Wargs, the occasional Uruk, and three random Wraiths hang out in that tiny patch of Rohan. I think we found the employee lounge, LOL!

But yeah, that game is surprisingly fun for all that you play characters who better belong in fanfiction- cheesy plots with made up characters. Seriously, my old Rohirrim roleplay character had a better backstory and more personality, and I didn't get paid to make him up. ;) And hey, I got to make fun of Legolas when he showed up in the game (I never miss an opportunity for that!). Good times, good times.

Edit the next day: LOL! I already created confusion with one of my friends who assumed that I didn't like Legolas from that comment of making fun of him. In actuality, I do; he's one of my favorite Lord of the Rings characters. I just roleplayed his little sister for a very long time (heck, that's even where my current Elfling persona comes from), so I get a good deal of kicks making fun of him. What can I say, there aren't a lot of interesting pastimes in Mirkwood; I've had to take what I can get. LOL!

Please vote!

I forgot to post this the other day, but my faerie kitty is in a challenge. This is Kitty Clara, named after my own black cat:



She's currently living in my Etsy shop, but will be staying in my Artfire shop, as well, after this challenge. She's the first of a new design- I think I still have to edit it some to make the body wider at the bottom and the front paws a little shorter, and I'd like to design my own wings (those are from a fairy pattern I have), but she's pretty cool for my first attempt at an animal pattern. :D

Like I was saying, she's currently in a challenge- the EtsyHookers Creative Challenge #6, "A Walk on the Wide Side", to be exact. :D Please check out the challenge entries here, then vote in the poll on the right hand side of the blog. You don't have to vote for me (I refuse to tell people to vote for me just because it's me- it cheapens all the work everyone put into the entries), but please vote for your favorite.

Honestly, Kitty Clara is just happy that she gets to spend time around such awesome animal friends. ;)

I seem to be obsessed with ocean-y things

Aha! I've figured out why my interview on handmadenews.org went missing; it turns out that I wasn't supposed to go up until later this month, so they took it down. I'm just relieved that it was a mistake, and not either (a) that they randomly hate me or (b) I'm just an idiot and lost the link. LOL! I just hope no one minds me posting the link again all over the place when it's back up. I hate feeling spammy, you know? So please forgive me when I post it later. *gives the cute puppy eyes*


But hey, I have those new runestones to share that I gave a peek to the other day. :) These are my "Under the Sea" runes:



It's a set of 24 runes, half in a water droplet shape, and half in a star shape, plus two blanks (one of each shape). They come with a handsewn matching pouch, too. They're here in my Etsy shop and here in my Artfire shop.

I had a heck of a time getting these colors to shop up right- the purple tint to parts of them just didn't want to come out right. They're just so pretty that the pictures won't do the colors justice! But then again, I'm partial to water- that's my element. That probably surprises people because of my obsession with green and forests, but Earth is my secondary element (granted a close secondary). I'm a Cancer, so I love all things water- oceans, lakes, streams, etc, and blues relax me and make me happy just as much as greens do. For me to feel the most comfortable, I think I'd need a house somewhere where the beach or a lake is around forests and trees; I long to one day have a house on the beach and a main house somewhere surrounded by lots of trees. :)

Anyway, I'm rambling. What I wanted to add was that I think I'll start making sets of runes in shapes and colors that represent the elements. I've been meaning to make more green leaves lately anyway, so I'll probably do something with those for Earth, and maybe some wispy blues and whites (and maybe yellow) for Air. I'm probably going to avoid Fire for as long as possible because I hate warm colors and I don't much like that element (I've actually always been kind of afraid of fire, which I guess fits in to my whole Water/Earth thing). So yeah, I have lots of runestones planned! :D


I'm still working on my fiancé's birthday presents- I hope I can get them done by Friday! I'm going to sew the plushie's hair on now, then do his clothes tomorrow. I can say this because this is the present he knows he's getting, but I don't want to post photos of it until he gets it, though.