The Nightmare Before Christmas

I admit I put off seeing this movie for a very long time. I saw it last year along with Tim Burton's Corpse Bride and I must say they are fantastic! I really love the characters and just the whole setting. If you haven't seen either movie before please do! Nightmare before Christmas is this wonderful story about Jack the pumpkin head and the denizens of Halloween town. It has adventure, a moral, song and dance, unforgettable characters, brilliant voices and Christmas all rolled up in one great package! Btw above is this pendant inspired by one of the scenes of Nightmare before Christmas made by http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5603276. I know a lot of girls that love this movie and this would be a great present for them. I have a Nightmare Before Christmas cotton tote bag that I use at college and many people commented on how much they loved the movie... even my Histology teacher told me how much his daughters loved the movie. Now that is kind of strange. Tim Burton has always been known for his quirky Gothic like style that range from the beloved Edward Scissor hands to the claymation works of Corpse Bride and I'm sure he did one of those Batman movies lolol. What is claymation? Claymation is a stop motion based animation. Basically you create a character out of clay, record a second, move the clay character a little bit and record another second. It keeps going and going until all the seconds are played and it seems like the clay character is moving. For more info click on Claymation and it leads to a wikipedia article. I have great respect for claymation movies because I've done claymation myself and trust me it takes a lot of time and patience to make a movie. My 2 minute animation took 6 months to complete. Not only do you have to move them in tiny amounts and record it, you have to make sure the clay character doesn't melt underneath the bright lights and your own warm touch. Also afterwards you have to do massive amounts of editing to zip out things you accidentally recorded like your hand or movements that don't seem to flow. Above picture is a felted Jack that is completely adorable! This little guy was made by http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6011251. Felting I heard is just as detailed as claymation.Speaking of Halloween and Christmas. It's getting chilly! I found this perfect little hoodie for your little ones to wear by http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5709381. I love hoodies because they're so comfortable and warm! They're also great for those days you just want to throw something on and not look like a mess. I think the skeleton Jack face on this one is great to be walking around the city with, in this fall weather. So if you haven't seen either movies please do so! Also they are great places to roam around in the video games Kingdom Hearts Series. They bring the world of Disney and Halloween town to life so you can interact, fight alongside and also wear costumes and such!

Have a great Halloween!

The Almost Halloween Post

Alright guys it's "almost" Halloween! Woot! Living in the city all my life I actually never went trick or treating until... college where I dormed in Long Island. It was kind of weird dressed up as a ninja (I heart ninjas) with a bunch of my college buddies running around Long Island houses trick or treating but I am so glad I did! It was so fun and it was like reclaiming a piece of my childhood that I was missing. Growing up I always watch all those shows about kids going trick or treating and boy was I darn envious! We made a killing with all our bags of candy! Though we did get a few queer looks. However our fun was broken up when some hooligans (yes I said it HOOLIGANS!) threw eggs at us and some other little kids. Come on... grow up. That really pisses me off are people that just do senseless things like that and people are just trying to have a good time... but back to the good part candy!!! Here are some pictures of my Meekiyu dressed up for Halloween! The one above is inspired by "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."Move over catwoman the Calico Meekiyus are in town!

And the popular Princess and Knight combo! All of these are still in my shop if you like to get them. I hope everyone is ready for Halloweeeeeen!!

BOOGA BOOGA BOOGA!

Rainy Day! Happy Day!

It's a rainy dreary day today. The wind is blow, a mix of snow and rain, low gray clouds and the occasional thunder and lightening combo. All in all... YUCKY DAY! It does not help that I have a huge midterm tomorrow and if I study any more I think my brain will implode upon itself. The material itself is not hard its just the vast quantity that is killer. Memorizing over 40 causes of anemia is not fun! Even with all this negativity ho hum..bah humbug feeling I can't help but look outside my window. The city takes on another life of it's own in the rain. The streets are slick, people with bright colored umbrellas and those rain boots hurrying along my street like flowers running to find the sun. I think the print by artsharkdesign.etsy.com is a great representation of that feeling. She has beautiful rainy day prints of other popular cities like San Fran and London.
Another reason why I am so happy is that I got great feedback for a custom made family I did. The ones above are those that I sent. It's one thing to be happy doing your work and another thing for someone to appreciate it! That definitely got me perked right up! I'm surprised it got there so fast two days from here to across the U.S. that's crazy. Another thing is I read a post on the forum about a frequent etsy buyer who was appalled by the lack of communication and basically any customer service from many sellers. I think I have the opposite problem as I always ask the customer are they completely satisfied with what they want... I send pictures... I send a message when I've got the payment, I send a message when I ship it and if I see nothing going on I send another message making sure if they got it and if there's anything wrong just tell me! I've worked a lot with retail and interacting, helping and taking questions from the general public so I try to my best to treat everyone the way I want to be treated. I think that's something everyone should do... regardless if you're buying or selling... just as people...

until next time! Be kind to others!

Family and Blood!

Good afternoon from NYC! I just updated to include my newest item the Meekiyu Family set that is fully customizable! I love doing custom made orders and half of my orders are custom made origami dolls of people based off their photos and a small blurb of likes and personalities! This is the only thing customizable. All the ones featured in my shop are customizable! I think it's always great to get something custom because you know no one else will have it! I think family ones are awesome! Maybe a best friends one would be super too! Well you know family... they are but extensions of ourselves since we are of the same blood!Speaking of family blood everyone knows our genes come 50/50 of our mom and dad. Well I'm taking a course in Hematology the study of blood and today we all got to figure out what type of hemoglobin we have in class! Hemoglobin is basically what makes blood red and transports oxygen around the body. It's made of four part two equal parts of Beta and Alpha. In a nutshell we separated the parts according to their differences in a method called electrophoresis. Remember the 50/50 from each parent? Well we get 50/50 of our hemoglobin genes and sometimes people inherit a defect from one of the parents. This fairly simple test can tell you what your genes basically are. The normal adult is HbAA but we all have traces of HbF (baby blood) and Hb A2 (another variation of HbA) but for people who have a disorder they might have HbS or HbC which causes sickle cell disease. Mine came out normal HbAA but there are students who found out they were carriers of HbC or HbS and never knew! Next up finding what my blood type is!
You know who to thank for your genes! MOM! DAD!

Till next time... do you know what your blood type is?

Chasing Pavement ... lalala...

I am completely in love with the song "Chasing Pavement" by Adele whose voice is so soulful and has this really nice quality. She is also very beautiful and in the music video shows it. Also another thing about this song besides the lyrics and song is the music video itself. It's very imaginative and so different that it blew me away! If you haven't heard of it or seen the MTV go to VH1 or youtube to find it. It is definitely worth listening to. There's a lot of music that's tickling my ears like Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" and the rockish I don't give a crap attitude of Pink's "So What" and also NYC inspired "The World Should Revolve Around Me" by Little Jackie.
This is my newest product inspired by my SHH SHH Baby signs and I think they're so cute. I love doing the baby. I always challenge myself by making the smallest possible art so don't be surprised if I have Mini Meekiyus out! After a while of no sales I got a custom order for a whole family Meekiyu set! They were awesome to make I'm planning to offer Family Set Meekiyus up for customization! I'm a bit lethargic so today's post is going to be short...

"Should I give up or just keep chasing pavement?"

It's Christmas In October!

That's what it felt like this morning when my sister finally came back from college with the etsy packages in tow! Since I was lucky to get a few sales myself I decided to spread the love and buy something from etsy. I've always been a bit cautious with the Internet and especially buying from it. I heard so many horror stories of being ripped off or things coming broken or things just not coming and they basically stolen your money! But I'm so very glad to say they went ABOVE AND BEYOND MY EXPECTATIONS.

This one above I didn't buy but won in a small contest type thing from Bethany'screations. It's this really golden Autumn yellow billed hat. It is incredibly warm. I don't know if its my head that's small or my mom and sister's head that's big but this hat fits snugly right over my ears, covers the back of my head and my forehead. Heck my whole head is so warm and I don't need those wacky earmuffs. Whats so nice is not only the truly great quality of the work but of the care that went into packaging it. For one it was in a plastic bag that was inside another bubble envelope take about safeness. There were two cute business cards pictured above and a handwritten thank you note. I don't know about you but I know this service doesn't exist anymore where I am from.

Remember WoolandMore? The felt earrings I raved about? Well she decided to make knitted bookmarks but to me they looked more like bracelets. So I ordered a custom made choker for myself. You know what it fits PERFECTLY around my small neck. Now anyone who knows me knows I'm extremely petite and its very hard to shop for anything that fits that doesn't make me look like a 12 year old girl. One of the things I've wanted were choker that doesn't end up looking like a gosh darn necklace. This thing is soft, a bit rigid and snugly fits without any discomfort. My sister said it is so my style. Then again she says I have no style so... I don't know whether that's a compliment or not. This came with a crocheted coaster that I'm using to put my bowls and drinks on. The choker came in a red box pictured with black ribbon, a thank you card and two cute business cards. I love my items and now I know why handmade has its definite perks! Speaking of business cards I just thought of a new one and printed these out. These four are just samples but I really like how they turned out! It's simple and tells exactly what I specialize in! Hopefully I can get more printed but that will wait after midterms. I'm still unsure about where to print... as Staples did a horrible job on my color prints of some gift tags. Here's a list of the most popular online card makers. I haven't tried them but complied them from what I have gleaned from reading forums.

My Mini Cards
123 Print
VistaPrint
OvernightPrints
Moo Cards

Each has it's benefits and drawbacks... also for most if not all you can find coupons and awesome deals!

Until next time.. good night.. good night... parting is such sweet sorrow!

How to work the NYC Subway...

Oh NYC! I want to go there! But wait! How to do get around?!
Warning Long Post!

Have you ever looked at a NYC subway map or any map and have those two punctuation marks come up over your head? Well you are definitely not alone! Well I've lived in NYC all my life and sometimes the subway still is confusing due to the numerous changes and weekend and late night changes etc. But don't fret because it's fairly easy to decipher. Why bother with the subway well that's because that's how most New Yorkers get around. You'll miss out on the subway entertainment and it's a WHOOPING 2 DOLLARS a ride that can take you almost anywhere in the city. BTW if you are confused and want to show it those nifty earrings in the first picture is by www.beadedfrog.etsy.com!! Check it out yo!
Say hi to the Metro Card. HI! This is how you get in and out of both the subway and bus lines. It's 2 bucks a ride and they sell metro cards in two ways. One is the pay per ride... you know pop in 4 bucks you get 2 rides etc. There is the unlimited ride which is you pay a certain amount and you can use it unlimited for how many days its set for (1 week, 1 day, 1 month) here's the tricky part with unlimited once you use it you cannot use it for another 19 minutes! So don't think you can just keep swiping you and your buddies though in one shot!

There are machines to get the cards and they come in different languages. There's the smaller machine for charge cards too. Which one should I get? Depends... for example I buy a monthly that's 81 bucks for 30 days. I use it a total of about 2x a day which is 30x 2 = 60 and times that by 2 bucks a ride = to $120 well I just saved myself a good 40 bucks there by getting the 81 monthly card. Get my drift?

Okay second off is where can I get those darn subway maps? Well for one there's one on the MTA NYC site... click it to get there... the site is simple to navigate. What's nifty is that they have pretty accurate updates on the subways like if there's a stalled subway or police investigation etc. Don't be too anxious about the police investigation NYC is relatively safe if you use some common sense.

You can print one out there or you can go to the manned booths and they usually give you one too. Also a lot of those NYC tourist books include a subway and bus map. Also there is a map at every subway station inside and outside and also in every car there is suppose to have a map too. Some of the newer subways trains have a lighted up projection on top that shows the stops and also tells you what stops it is on. Many of the subway stations look like the photo by www.eldphoto.etsy.com!! They have a green bulb that says its open or a red one that says its closed!
Here's a snippet of legend on the map. The full map is HERE. Basically the trains are categorized by color, number or letter and shape (diamond or circle). There are local trains which run every stop and express which only goes to the most busiest stops. The map is pretty self explanatory. If you read the legend... every black dot has the name and also any other subway lines that are found there, that also means you can transfer from those subway lines.

The subway station itself is a bit confusing but there are signs everywhere to tell you where to go. Note: Make sure you are on the right side of the platform Downtown vs. Uptown. For example: If you want to go from 42nd st. to 34th st. you would be going "downtown." Vice versa would be uptown. If you look at the map whatever stops are above a station are considered "uptown" and the ones below are considered "downtown."

The first thing to do is to locate where you are and locate where you want to go and find out which line connects them both. Note: there are streets that have multiple stops on them... i.e. 42nd street Times Square is different from 42nd street Grand Central! Double check if you are looking at the right stations. Second after you locate it, determine if you need to transfer or does that line go straight from point A to point B. Check that you're on the right platform (downtown/uptown) and that its the subway line you need.

Once the train comes which can vary from once every 10 minutes to once every hour depending on the line and whether its rush hour or not (rush hour times: mornings 8am-10am/ school times around 3pm/ evenings: 5pm - 8pm) those are the times I generally notice a lot more people. You are on your way! For those who want to look at a subway map and not want to look like they're completely lost get one of those nifty notebooks by www.brooklynbookbinder.etsy.com! There are two conductors in every train and the one that operates the doors is around the middle to lower half of the train. They also stick their heads out... so if you are still unsure you can ask them real quick "is this the train to so and so" and they will answer you. Love the photo of a conductor by berkleyillustration's shop! A lot of subway booths have 24 hour personal so you can ask them. Or if you're already in the train you can ask fellow New Yorkers... we're not as evil as people portray us! In fact almost every day someone asks about subway directions in the subway and people are actually more then happy to answer. Well maybe not like sunny cheerful with rainbows and gumdrops happy but they won't ignore you. Every where you go there's always help if you ask and know. I'm no expert but hopefully this helps! If anything is wrong with this or you have more questions you can comment etc!

Have fun in New York City Subway System!

For the Love of Soap!

La La La! After a long hard day at work who doesn't want a lovely lovely bubble bath or steaming hot shower! I know I do! Especially with the cold cold cold New York Winter. I tell you my bathroom is not fancy or anything. Thinking about it I was reminded of these awesome soaps made home made by etsy peeps! I actually saw their works though a chat room on etsy and they were simply wonderful! Oh and the above picture is a by www.shelbyhealey.etsy.com a wonderful little print called bubble time! Isn't it adorable?
What is this rocking thing? Why its a bar of soap from www.Alkalisoaps.etsy.com. If you check out the other soaps each one is like an abstract painting and they have all these unusual designs and scents. I absolutely adore them because first off I am a very visual person and the way it looks completely engulfed me in their designs. I'm planning on buying a bar for my sister because well I say she stinks and now I have the perfect soap for her! Btw I just learned to put a link on my posts... LOLOL! So go and check it out!
Doughnut in the bath? Why the heck not? This is one of the most unusual soaps I've ever seen and it's still lingering in my mind. If you can't go to Dunkin Doughnuts why not smell like one? Or if you really like doughnuts Krispy Kremes is the way to go... lolol... this is by www.treatsoap.etsy.com and the other stuff in the shop is delectable too! If you like these search for soap on the etsy website. There are hundreds of different shops that sell soap and bath and body products. There are too many to keep track of!
Remember these little gift tags? I realized they were way too expensive so I made smaller and cheaper prints of them! I'm going to package them into 10 a pack. I think its a good deal and don't get prints from Staples unless you have what you want scanned and fits on 8 x11 paper. They charge an ARM and a LEG for scanning. I'm looking for a smaller independent printing shop in NYC. Though with my midterms coming up I may have to push that a bit back.

Until next time! Etsy today! Support Handmade because just cuz you say you can make it... I doubt you will.... lolol....

Hidden NYC Paths

What's this? Traffic and roads in New York City? You better believe it! Well this weekend my friends and I along with my boyfriend went up to Roosevelt Mall in Garden City. Well the mall is the mall as my friends wanted to go there and I had to return something. What did strike me was the road we went up there. It is called the BELT parkway which is a series of roads that connects Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island. Typically when you think of parkway you think ho hum... traffic, cars, litter, bad drivers etc. Of course there were all of those and many more etc. but along almost the entire some odd 30 miles of the parkway was a wonderful park/boardwalk type thing called the Belt Parkway Promenade.
This is a view of Manhattan from Brooklyn along the Belt. But seriously I wish I had my camera! It was a beautiful day and from where we were driving we could see Manhattan and Staten Island. Most people that visit New York get enthralled with Manhattan and don't get me wrong its freaking awesome (I live there so I know). There are so many things in the other borough or even in the quieter parts of Manhattan that few people know about. So if all the lights and shopping and clubbing are not for you or you need a rest seriously visit the numerous parks along the edges of the boroughs. There's a great review of the Belt Park at http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-belt-parkway-promenade-brooklyn ... if you've never been I suggest you go.
Battery Park in lower Manhattan is also a very quiet and picturesque place. I have went there many times and there's always something new to look at. Like the Belt park this one is also very long and it goes to South Street Seaport and the ferry to Liberty Island and Ellis Island. But seriously after visiting those landmarks that EVERYONE visits take a walk in the park along the edges... It goes near the World Trade Center and there are a lot of things to do and see. In fact there's a mini golf course there, movie theater very close by and also get this a "Trapeze Class." If you ever watched Sex in the City there is one episode of Carrie swinging on a trapeze that is where it is I am sure. There are also paths for bikes and joggers. Here's another picture of Battery Park overlooking the Financial District. I say its really awesome. Mmm this is my Bit of New York which I'll do every so often. Next one I think will be about skating in Wollman's Rink... just the best place to ice skate in the city and it's right inside Central Park!

Ah no etsy chit chat today! I'll be back to it soon!

ACEO? What the??

I SEE YOU!
Lolol. Now what is that painted eye looking at you? That's something called an ACEO or Art Card Editions and Originals. They're basically really small artwork that are 2.5" x 3.5" and are considered collectibles or for more info here's a wikipedia article ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artist_trading_cards ). The above one is by 5erg at www.5erg.etsy.com and is actually one of my favorite artists on etsy. The detailed cards like the one above are awesome and well I was never good with oil painting and I like those a lot! Before etsy I had no idea what ACEO are or that they even existed! Here's another artist that I love too.

This one is by fatedveil at www.fatedveil.etsy.com... her are fantastic mixed media meaning they use a lot of different types of techniques and materials. The one above it stood out to me at first sight. I really love the blue color and the picture not to mention the extra gleaming gem! It's really an awesome piece of work! Depending on how intensive the process is ACEO prices range and frankly if you're cheap and poor.. i.e. me... you may want a print of the originals which are cheaper but well there's nothing better then having an ORIGINAL copy is there?
Well The above two are my attempts at ACEOs which I must say pales in comparison to the ones above me and what is so appealing is that I don't like making giant pieces of artwork. Reason... I got no space to work with in my tiny cramp room... so tiny cards of art are awesome! Plus I love using permanent markers and I think they turned out very well! Of course I'm still going to do my origami but this lets me expand on ideas and also take a nice rest! If you love art but have no space or money gander at ACEOS on www.etsy.com!

Art in your pocket... think about it!

Roving Randomness

Hmm what's that up there? Those are my new mini note cards and when I say mini they really are mini... each one is about 2" x 1" and has 12 sheets of tiny blank paper stapled inside. I created 12 to be sent to a freebie bag that is going to a children hospital and well maybe add a bit of promotion for me! For those that are interested here's the link to the forum... http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5813284 ... so hopefully I will send those out tomorrow and also hang out with my buddy JINGO!
She's coming back for the weekend from law school... maybe she should've picked up this nifty book I found on google. Now does it really work? If people have ever seen the movie Catch Me If You Can a biography of a conman with Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio. In this amusing film the main character "Frank Abagnale Jr" is this very smart conman that must've forged millions of dollars in checks. In one part of the movie he becomes a lawyer. The FBI agent played by Hanks asks how he cheated on the bar test... "Frank" or Dicaprio says he didn't... he studied super hard and he passed it. Now I wonder somewhere it might just be possible!What's that? Well that's the Otakon booths where people can sell their homemade anime related items! Each booth is about a hundred some odd dollars for basically 2.5 days. Next year I've decided to try my luck at a booth! So what popular anime/manga characters should I make? Probably the ones I like and are popular like Bleach, One Piece etc. I might be offering my art auction pieces that sold so well last year at the art auction but those actually take a lot of time to duplicate. Don't know how many I should make etc. In essence it's very much like a craft fair that caters to anime/manga lovers. Since I've been there, know my demographic and that thousands of people go in and out... I will try my luck!

Waiting till next year! Also cosplay away!

Ah-CHOO!

Yep that's me... this weekend with my significant other was fun but alas I caught a cold while there. I think the unusually warm weather caught me off guard. DRATS! I hate colds... nose a running, you feel achy and overall just plain crappy! Right now I'm loading up on fluids especially generous helpings of chrysanthemum tea with honey. It definitely brings me back to life. I would eat medicine but the only ones i have are those drowsy ones and I have lab work to do today. Not a good combination! Though that's only small thing. I ended up going to Micheals and A.C Moore to buy a good amount of Bristol paper and more Sharpies in new colors! I've decided to delve into ACEOs (Art, edition, originals and print) basically pocket sized art but alas I have no scanner so got to wait till tomorrow!
Also Also! I finally got my check from the art auction I did for Otakon! Otakon is basically the largest anime expo on the East Coast (www.otakon.com). This year was the third time and each time is fantastic! I saw live bands that play the music from several anime like Dragon Ball and One Piece. One of my favorite was the orchestral that played last year called Eminence. They are seriously good. It's basically a orchestral dedicated to gaming and anime music. Like when you listen to those musical scores in Final Fantasy Series... yep that's almost guaranteed to be them. They were so inviting and funny too! Totally broke my rigid idea of stuffy orchestras I've seen in music class and PBS etc. Anyways I'll save Otakon for another time because it's so much stuff to talk about. This time I set my art in a silent auction/gallery type thing. It's 15 bucks for 5 pieces of art and so I put in five and two sold... one for 7 dollars and the other for 40!!! I was BLOWN AWAY. I got to find the scan with this picture... When I was there just standing by my art I heard people say how different it was and boy was I proud as hecks! WOOT! Anyways that made my gosh damn moment of my life! Back to my weekend!We went to Philly to his cousin's place and played Rock Band for basically the entire day and night after a sushi buffet. Rock Band is seriously fun... I pretty much stink at drums so I did the guitar and sang. It was fun... though I don't have the voice to pull off more of the rockish tunes. Speaking of which I highly recommend this game... yes its very expensive because you need to buy the whole set to enjoy it but its really fun... almost up there with those wii games that make you move around. The version I played was on X-box 360 so when connected to the net you can upload old/new songs from all the versions of rockband I think for like a few bucks each or something? But yes its very fun!
And last but not least I was featured in a treasury today which is basically a fellow seller chooses and arranges their favorite pieces from other sellers. I heard it best compared to as a curator to one's gallery. Though that screen shot is pretty bad and for the life of me cannot get the whole darn thing but the little guy in the middle is mine! Woot! I hope people are taking care of themselves don't!

DON'T LET THE COMMON COLD SNEAK UP ON YOOOUUUUU!

Peace and Love ya'll

Charity and Me

Good morning from New York City! Ahh What a nice and sunny day! Why am I so very happy? Well for one I retook ALL and I mean ALL my One Wish Crane pictures and just posted number 2 of my cranes up on etsy. Check it out! I call this one "Blue Calm" even though her hair is flying in the wind... lolol but I like this one because she seems so carefree and calm. I only have oh 998 more cranes to go... but if i sell each one of them... that would be a whopping $4,000 to the ALS charity! Half of each I sell goes to it! I told my sister and she was very happy lolol. Besides that brightening up my day....
I'm going down to visit my other half this weekend! WOOT! I found a 25% off coupon for Micheal's... http://printable-coupons.blogspot.com/2008/02/michaels-coupons-arts-craft-store.html ... that's the link to a 25% and a 20% coupon! They work! I used a 50% off coupon and boy was I in love! Anyways besides making my usual trips to A.C Moore, Jo-Ann's and Micheal's we have the Friday sushi buffet at Minado's... in Philadelphia. He lives in South Jersey which is an hour away from Philly but three hours away from me in NYC. =(... anyways its an awesome place if you like sushi and Asian cuisines. It's not THE BEST but for the price and unlimited it's pretty damn worth it. I've never had food poisoning so... yeah must be good.

BTW I've decided to take all my pictures from etsy... the one above is this awesomely cute necklace from www.applepieorder.etsy.com! Check out her other jewelry they're very whimsical with flowers and leaves.

What are those two pictures? Well those are the two business cards I designed but not sure which one to pick... hmm.. I was going to go to Staples but many of people suggested the online ones... Vistaprint, Overnightprint, Moo cards... etc... still thinking... well I'm going to put a poll up and see what you guys think? Poll is on the upper left hand corner!

Thanks for everyone that commented! When I go to work I'll be sure to comment back and pour my eyes upon ye pages!

Till then te-te-da!

My One Wish!

My One Wish Cranes... it was something I was making for about two weeks now and I have five of them ready to be listed. For this series I will be making 1000 different One Wish Cranes and if you've never heard of the story... if you fold 1000 origami cranes you're granted one wish. Usually the one wish has something to do with speedy recovery from an illness. This was the case for my sister. Yes the one that was snoring away in one of my other posts. She made exactly 1000 cranes and hung it up in my Grandma's hospital room. My grandma was delighted and loved looking at them from her bed but even the 1000 cranes could not help her.

In tribute to my sister and my beloved grandma I've decided to launch this series. For every one of them I sell... I'll donate half of the money to ALS research... ALS or Lou Gehrig's is a horrible disease where you just lose all control of your muscles due to neurons just randomly dying in your brain... so you're fully conscious while this happens but your body is no longer your own. My grandma fought for three long years and I'm determined to donate the money to prevent this from happening or at least prolong and vitalize the years a person has.

http://www.als-ny.org/
That is the organization I will be donating to =D! I'm very excited and also nervous as I never donated before well unless you count those years of volunteering in the hospital. By the way if you've never read it or heard of it... Sadako and the Thousand Cranes is an excellent book to read... I read it in 6th grade.
Cherish each moment guys!

Is this Spray Safe?!

Hooopa! HOOOPA!
That's me this morning and I wish I had a gas mask on because the new spray I got stinks till high heaven. I'm fairly sure I got some kind of brain damage. Oh yeah the above image is a painting done by a fellow etsyian... at www.lemurpatrol.etsy.com. The stuff is fairly pricey this baby goes for 200 bucks so better get the big wallet out not the tiny change purse. What is the cause of my brain damage???

Ta-Da! Kryon Crystal Clear Acrylic Coating... says here..hmm... makes arts and crafts (paper included) moisture - resistant and non yellowing permanent, protective gloss finish... also dries in minutes. This stuff is toxic to use but once it completely dries in about 2 hours who knew it actually works? I sprayed three coats of this stuff on my new Hope Cranes... yet to be revealed! Left it over night to get rid of the smell and they do have this glossiness to them. I also sprayed some origami cranes first to see what happens. You know test for ruining... it seemed fine then i spritzed them with water... its not a miracle coating but yes it did make it water resistant to a DEGREE... not recommended for like dunking it in a sink full of water. It did a good enough job for me.
Here is an oh so shiny picture of my magnets that i sprayed three coats of this stuff... seems fine to me. They look nice and happy. One thing is that once it dries don't let people lick it or whatever as it's toxic... my art isn't meant to eat or handled by small kids. I've decided to only coat my magnets and Hope Cranes and leave my other origami alone... as I assume the first two would need that extra protection.

What time is it? Everybody say it with me... it's Etsy update time!

Okay I cheated... this whole post was about etsy but I added in the brain damage part for fun. Not fun on my part but hey its all for art! Okay today I chooooose.... www.WoolAndMore.etsy.com!!! GOOOOOOOOOO!!!Those ladies and gentlemen are felted earrings... What is felt? I don't know. But what I do know is that they are cute... and a steal for 10 bucks. They're also extremely light which is a super plus for me. For some reason whenever I switch earrings like from my usual zubric zirconium studs to my toast earrings I get a major headache! ARG! So even though I love the dangling stuff I can't wear it because it would so dampen my day! But these are are perfect... cute, flirty... and cost efficient... tee hee hee

Bai! Bai!