Snow, snow go away

Zoey's thoughts --"more of this crap?"

Enough already. I know I'm whining but I am sick of the cold stuff and ready for spring. I especially know I'm whining when my friend Theresa keeps getting more and more of the white stuff. But I guess that's what you get when you live waaaaayy up there in the North East like she does. Here in the Ohio Valley, we're just supposed to get 15" a year. So it snows an inch here and the schools are closed.

It's just so gloomy. I made myself a crystal sun catcher and have only been able to see the rainbows it creates like twice since I made it a couple weeks ago!

Speaking of Theresa, (of Welcome to My World) she gave me some great advice about listing on Etsy. Did you know that they have this new feature that you can copy a current listing and just change a few things here and there which speeds up listing dramatically! I just listed my little stylish girl birthday card in no time! Thank you Theresa!!

Here's a look at the card:

Stylish Girlfriend Birthday Card

inside

You all wouldn't believe how big these kitten monsters are getting! I'll take a current photo and post that soon. I still call them monsters because they are still that way! I lock them up in the basement at night because they are so obnoxious. There's nothing like being woke up out of a deep sleep to a ninja cat bouncing off your head. They have wrecked my basement, strewn my seed collection everywhere down there and can single pawedly trash my pantry. Lightning actually has a weird obsession, he chews on my potatoes through their plastic! Who knew the damage they could do? I am shocked all the time at what they are able to demolish. Cleaning up the messes is never ending. Dare I say they rival the mess that Asher can make??? Maybe not that bad, but you get it.

OH, the picture above of Zoey. If only I had gotten the second afterwards when she looked up at me with this look on her face like "I have to go pee out in that? You're kidding, right?" Ha ha, poor girl. I don't blame her.

Listing takes forever

I spent a better part of Sunday listing and doing a little editing on my Etsy shop. Jeesh... it takes forever. I even had all my new photographs taken and resized and ready to list, because I had spent the better part of Saturday for that! I think I may have gotten 4 new things listed between the 2 shops, GeeJayCreations and ArtsyFartsyMe. I now need a serious neck massage from sitting here so long plus my butt hurts. I'm not very productive it seems. But I am doing a little something which is good and getting a flash of a little spark possible. A little spark of gumption that is. Could be I sit here peeling Hershey kisses all day in between each page on Etsy that is taking so long... hmmmm. Nah.

Oh, I did make my own cool smoke for one of the cards in Photoshop. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. I used Painter for the card above which is the front to this below.

cool smoke

Still trying to get used to our new "normal" with our new schedule. It still stinks and I am sick to death of the snow. If we have another dang snow day from school I may truly go outta my mind. That damn groundhog better do his thing and bring on the spring.

I'm a little pissy today... maybe it's the Kisses. Hah.. I will tell you that chunky chocolate chip cookies and Diet Coke don't taste very good together. Who can guess what time of the month it is???

And the Winner is...

I want to thank everyone who entered my very first give-away! I wish I had the extra money sitting around to send everybody who entered a prize! But there can only be one winner for this giveaway and the winner is... with no further delay... by a randomizer... STEPHANIE CORDER of Dragonfly Design Studios! Congratulations Stephanie! I hope you enjoy my Blue Santa and all the little goodies I'm sending along with him :)

I had a lot of fun with this little giveaway and I think I'll be doing another one before too long. So if you didn't win this time, I hope you keep coming back to my little corner of the blog world here and enter next time. If you really, really, really are bummed you didn't win my Blue Santa, you can purchase him as an ACEO here at my Etsy Shop and I'll give you a 25% discount if you just enter the code luckyme25 at checkout. This coupon code is good thru December 25, 2010 and good for anything in my shop.

Thanks again for entering and congrats again to Stephanie! Have a great weekend everyone.

1st GIVEAWAY & my 200th post!

Yay! It's my 200th post today! I've been blogging for a while but I don't post everyday so this is exciting for me. My 100th post kinda came and went without me realizing it, so I wanted to do something special for this milestone.

I've been going back and forth as to what to offer in my giveaway. I want it to be something nice and also something that people will actually want to receive and that is what has stumped me. I've won a couple things myself and have always been so pleased with the gift, that I feel I have some big shoes to fill. Since I don't make jewelry and I don't have anything for sale in my shop that you can wear I wonder if people will actually want anything I've got. So I've thought since it's the Christmas season and December 1st and who couldn't use another decoration. Plus, that isn't too taste specific well maybe a little, it's not traditional colors. I've decided to give away my mixed media "Blue Santa" 5x7 framed print. I also will send along some other goodies that I want to remain a surprise.  (see the Santa before it was finished here). This is just the right size for display on a counter or side table or the mantle, tucked in the tree, even the bathroom sink. It stands on it's own and also hangs. It is ready to display.

I was inspired to draw this Santa because of my grandmother, Elma, who is 94. She had an incredible Santa collection, I mean thousands. I was mesmerized as a child with her carefully laid out collection and many Santa trees throughout her warm and inviting home where I spent every Christmas Day. It is such a warm and fuzzy memory for me now. Her favorites were always a little bit quirky and she is going to love this one, since I plan to give her my original framed for her gift this year. She now has had to give up most all her earthly possessions because she lives in an Assisted Living apartment.

If the Santa isn't your thing, then you'll have a gift to give to a last minute drop in or a "Dirty Santa" party and at the very least you'll have a white frame with matte. ;)

I offer this Santa as an ACEO right now in my Artfire shop and my Etsy Shop and will be adding this larger size as soon as possible, hopefully this evening. What does everyone think about offering it for sale with the matt and frame?

Blue Santa 5x7 framed mixed media signed print

Deadline for entry is Friday, December 10th 2010 6 pm Central time. Winner will be picked by random and be notified by email so please make sure you have a way for me to contact you. I will mail it out right away so you can enjoy it displayed for Christmas. If you have trouble posting just contact me (my email is under my profile picture in "about me" along right side bar)

Here's what ya gotta do to enter (Rules of participation):

1. Leave a comment on this post; and
2. Follow me :)
3. For one additional entry, become a fan on facebook (like)

While it's not necessary to tell others about via twitter or on your blog or elsewhere, I'd appreciate it! I always like to return favors ;)

You need to have a place where it can be delivered, no post boxes unless you can receive a parcel there. Good luck!

Artfire or Etsy?

or

I've been tossing the idea around in my head to go pro on Artfire for a little while because they are running a special deal of a locked in rate of $5.95 a month and that deal expires tomorrow (click here for the deal). I usually only spend about $3 a month on Etsy (and sometimes not even that), but it sounds like Artfire may be better in the long run, I'm just not sure and even though it's only six bucks, I hate to commit. Of course on the other hand maybe the miser in me will force me to create new things more often to make use of that six bucks.

I do already have a free shop on Artfire with only one listing at the moment.  I haven't really taken the time to study how to use Artfire and it looks a little more intimidating than Etsy. What about any of you out there? Are you Artfire or Etsy? Or both? Does anyone have a words of wisdom for me?? Any and all comments about Artfire vs. Etsy are welcome!

Summer colds are the worst

Ugh... that's how I've felt the last few days. Our household has come down with a bug and we are all hacking, snotting, snoring, sluggish and miserable. Why do summer colds seem to last forever? I expect to get a cold in the winter, but I'm insulted to get sick in the beautiful summertime!

I have taken advantage of being inside and have created a few more things that I will hopefully have ready for my GeeJayCreations Etsy shop. Sales have been dreadful, but it's probably my fault at not keeping the shop fresh by adding new stuff all the time. Summer is for being outside, I say. Except when you're sick... ha ha. But today I got all doped up on cold meds that I had to sign my name for and got out there and watered and did a few things to cheer me up. My flowers are good at cheering me up. Tiny frogs jumping from their hiding places as I water and butterflies fluttering about. Hummingbirds dive bombing. Joy! If the snot wasn't flowing freely from my nose every time I bent down it would be a lot more enjoyable, but I'll take it. At least I'm not moping on the couch channel surfing. We were supposed to be enjoying a fun weekend with family in Chicago this weekend, but since we're all sick that's out. Hopefully another time.

Well, my movie is on Lifetime right now... hey at least I didn't mope on the couch all day! Besides, I need to catch up on Work of ARt, which I'm behind on. Have a fun weekend my friends!

working on more

Aren't these pretty flowers? I picked them from the side of the road yesterday not far from my house. They smell divine. I think they are some sort of wild phlox. They sort of smell like honeysuckle... mmmmmm

I am getting things ready for our show this Saturday and managed to list a new Mother's Day card for Single Mom's last night on Etsy. Printing cards and creating new images and will be matting and framing up stuff all week. I really wanted to have time to do a few more painted pots because I really enjoy painting them and think the show arena will be a better venue for the pots as apposed to Etsy because the shipping has to be so high. But I'm not sure I have enough time. I fear we are going to get rain on Saturday and that is a bummer. We've had an extremely dry April and now this weekend of all weekends, it might make up for it. :(

Gale has come up with two more Mother's Day poems, so I'll be making two more designs for sure. They are really sweet writings and I know they will be well received. Our stuff seems to be really liked in person, I guess people just can't understand how it will look in person when they see it on Etsy. We're not doing so well on Etsy.

Here is our Vietnam Soldier montage that I think turned out pretty nice. I am hoping to get it photographed today and possibly listed for Etsy by bedtime tonight. I think it will do well at the show. We are offering 2 versions, one will be like shown here and the other will be offered customized to have a soldier's photo and name and dates on it in the right hand corner. There is also a monument of our version of the "wall" in Evansville on the customized version.

Have a great day everyone!

GeeJayCreations Etsy is finally up

Good evening friends,

I had forgotten how long it takes to set up shop on Etsy! I've spent a better part of the day on it and only got 10 things listed. Oh well, it's good to spread it out a little I think. I've already had a few items get hearted and two people listed us as favorites... yippee! Gale is thrilled too. She is not used to all the wonder of the internet and she is very impressed... showing her all the razzle dazzle makes me feel like I know a thing or two... ha ha! If you have a chance and like our stuff we've created then please, check out our Etsy shop and heart our shop :) I will be adding more of our work daily.