Sunday, November 30, 2008

isn't it always the way?

Sometimes it just seems that the minute you feel like you're getting ahead something pops up to dampen your spirits. A little extra cash come in and must go directly to some unexpected need. A small triumph is followed by a tumble to the floor and a bonked noggin. It kind of makes you wonder what lesson the universe is trying to get across.

I'll be meditating on that one for a while. In the meantime you should head over to my new Art Fire shop (I've kept the shop title the same as in Etsy for branding purposes) I've added Art Fire to my list of venues to sell my wares. It's a new site, still in Beta format so there are changes afoot but I kind of like being in on the ground floor so to speak. I've posted a couple of items on there that are also available in my Etsy shops TMCPhoto and PeanutButterPie but as time goes on I hope to be able to expand my inventory to have some different stuff in each.

I like the community that is on Etsy and I won't be leaving anytime soon but I'm feeling like I need to branch out a little and not have all my eggs in one basket. I'm hoping in the future to also start selling locally in some brick and mortar locations. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

Is anyone else out there trying out Art Fire or another handmade Internet venue? Share your experiences and your shop address here. I'd love to check you out. After all, no matter what grand message the universe is trying to send, forging new connections is always a positive.

Friday, November 28, 2008

The Perfect Light

I keep dreaming of the perfect photo-op. I mean real REM induced dreams and not the stare off into space and think about what you'd like; day dream kind of dream. Those are good too, but when they come from your subconscious I'm sure that there's a reason for them.

I must really need to get out with the camera.

So what am I dreaming of? The perfect foggy morning and/or evening, is enticing my unconscious brain. There's a certain quality of light when you're engulfed in a fog bank. The light is dispersed evenly and the landscape becomes dreamlike and mysterious.

In my dreams I'm looking out the window as a mist is descending and the world is dressed in a shroud of light. Miraculously, I have full batteries and an empty memory card or in some dreams an unlimited supply of film. I grab my tripod and camera and head out the door; at which point I wake up with an itchy shutter release finger.

I guess this means I have to plan a photography excursion; soon. With any luck I'll get a fog-filled landscape in the bargain.

And now (as the Python says,) for something completely different:
Visit PeanutButterPie and TMCPhoto and receive free shipping to any destination until December 2nd. I've added a listing for a set of custom cards for the holidays and there's an assortment of beautiful fine art photographs that will make a perfect holiday gift for your hard to buy for loved ones.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

I should get out my camera


I've been a busy little bee putting together a handful of new cards that should go into PeanutButterPie, but for the past two day's I've been focused on other things.

"For instance?" you ask? Well, there was the picnic under the table A la Bing Bunny we had yesterday, or the crazy collage-a-thon held the day before. I'm spending some quality time with my peanut butter pie and that would be my daughter and not the Etsy shop.

I guess that's really not so bad. It's great in fact. I am, as my Ma-In-Law told me last night an Excellent Mother. Start your gagging now, I'll allow you a few moments to make faces and pretend to retch. If I was reading this I would too; and I accept your mocking remarks and truly, I am turning red at all the attention your throwing this way. I have this thing about really despising the media's unrealistic portrayal of being a Mommy. More on that another time.

I replied to that powerful bit of compliment with "I try."

The truth is that I do try. Most of the time I feel like a big old faker with how much I have to try to be a good mother. The fun stuff is lots of fun but the not so fun stuff is just a big energy drainer. I mean I used to do laundry rarely, now it stacks up in the blink of an eye and with the potty training moving into the big girl underwear faze it's a lot quicker than that. If I don't blink I can actually see the mountain of wet clothes grow, almost as if through time elapsed photography. As the days fly by her wardrobe choices dwindle to nearly nothing but summer pants and jammy bottoms.

I spend a lot of time promoting TMCPhoto and PeanutButterPie and she spends a lot of time watching Kipper Movies and trying to crawl into my lap to get my attention. Honestly the picnic was to make up for two days of Kipper on automatic replay. And I enjoyed it.

Today the TV is off, the barn and tractor are out and we are playing giraffe, gorillilla, penguin and sheep farm. Good times all around

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

so much to do

I've been working on some custom orders of greeting cards for some friends and family this past little while and feel as though I'm neglecting my Photography and PeanutButterPie shops. I've been busy creating up a storm though. My goal this week has been to work on two cards a night and so far so good.

I was included in a wonderful treasury which was put together by Artmind last week; and I didn't have a chance to mention it here, although I did plaster the news all over my Facebook account and fan page as well as one or two tweets on twitter to get people to look at all the beautiful images I'd been surrounded by. It really was a fantastic mix of black, white and sepia toned photographs and it made my day brighter to have been included.

So I've been diving deep into the networking pool and driving traffic to my shops and raising the views and hearts on my photographs and cards. In the midst of all this I've been wrestling with the idea of venturing outside of Etsy with my stuff and onto other sites that sell. My one reservation is that I don't want to spread myself too thin and burn out. I'm stretched a bit thin as it is. Once the new year rolls around I'm going to revisit the idea again.

I know I said in the past that I'm not getting down about my lack of sales. I know they'll come. I really do and I'm being as patient as I can, but. But there's always a but and the but usually follows some sort of self doubt. Am I pricing too high? Are my shipping prices all wrong? Is my stuff sell-able? I'll blame it on the down in the dumpses I had last week, and try, try, try to focus on each view or heart as a step towards that first sale. I'm looking at the whole thing like climbing a ladder; a very, very tall kind of ladder that could, at any moment shrink down to a height that would allow me to see the top. Right now the top is shrouded in a thick bank of fluffy clouds. Above those clouds is a clear blue sky and the sun and the moon are sharing the sky.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

One of those people.

So I've become one of these people that writes and sends out a yearly holiday letter to friends and loved ones. How did this happen? I mean I always read them when they are sent to me but I have to admit that I also tend to pshaw them too. I mean a persons whole year wrapped up in no more than two pages with the focus on all the wonder-filled fabulous things everyone accomplished each year is usually enough for me to pretend to gag for a few seconds.

I suppose that it doesn't help that there are a few people in my life that tend to only tell you how fabulous everything is in their lives and then avidly hang on every word, pumping for gossip about how things are not so rosy for so and so and whosits. Out of all the letters I read last year only one was enjoyable and that was done by my Cousin Paul's wife Elizabeth. It was so well written with a sense of humour and play that it reminded me of how great that family is and how much I wish I was able to see them more often.

So if anything, my foray into the holiday letter club is most definitely Elizabeth's fault and if mine is as boring and gag inflicting, I'll be putting the blame on her. At the very least I'll be feeling a little green with envy. This letter writing thing isn't so easy. I know the idea is to pick a few memories to commemorate and add coorosponding photographs but what to choose? With a toddler underfoot there are too many adorable, amazing and hilarious things to sort through.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Decking our halls

As the 25th of November falls in the middle of the week this year, we are decorating our tree today. This is the first year Miranda will help with the decorating. I'm excited about sharing the experience with her and a little nervous about the aftermath.... What if helping to decorate the tree gives her the idea that she can pull on, yank, or knock over the tree at will? It's a very distinct possibility.

I've already started with the pro-active "tell the toddler what's expected" mantra and I'm hoping for the best. I'll keep you posted on how well that's working out. Or if it's a spectacular failure I'll post full descriptions and pictures.

One of our family traditions is to add a new ornament to the tree each year. Because we've decided to do our holidays handmade this year, the new ornament this year is one made by Funktionslust We ordered it last week and it arrived safely in the mail yesterday even prettier in person than it was in the shop. Funktionslust is a fairly new Etsy shop opened in May 2008 and is chock full of lovely glass pieces from abstract sun catchers to gorgeous pendants and earrings.

My personal favourites are Abstract Distraction no.3, Abstract Distraction no.1 and Mossy Pendant and her tree ornaments are little works of whimsy to add to your holiday decor. We'll be treasuring our blue tree ornament for years to come.

Friday, November 21, 2008

it was so obvious now that I think about it.


I don't know if it has been apparent in my last few months worth of posts or not, but I've been experiencing a little bout of the blues. I did write about my relationship with depression in October and unfortunately the fug has managed to stick around a little longer than I would have liked.

Normally I'm pretty aware of why I'm feeling any given feeling at any given time. I'm an internalizer who reads a lot and I often find therapy sessions (when I have them) to be troublesome because of this.

This time around I haven't been so aware of where my sadness is coming from. I thought it might have been sleep related, or possibly that it was my way of mourning for the lost time devoted to my art because of being a mother, or because I haven't seen a single member of my family since last January. I mean any one of those things and a hundred others would cause a bit of the Down In the Dumpses but really they were just extensions of the real cause.

So here's my moment of clarification, and it came to me as I was catching up on a few Blogs yesterday. I was reading about a the latest in a series of emotional sculptures by ArtMind (see photo to the left) and then I went on to read a very sad post from another one of my favourite Etsy artists The Dreamy Giraffe, she was writing a tribute to her recently lost pet Buddy and it occurred to me, that while this past Wednesday is the anniversary of the day we found out I was pregnant, it also happens to be the anniversary of the day my Dad passed away. This year is a little different for me because I am now the same age he was when he reached the end of his life. It's a bit of a bummer (Understatements are my speciality).

One of my Aunts once told me a story about a dream my Dad had. It affected his whole life and was eerily prophetic. In his dream, a tear-away calender began to flip through the days in a month. As it got closer to 30 and 31 it flipped faster and kept going until it reached 36, where it stopped.

For almost all of his life he lied about his age, even convincing my grandma at one point that he was in fact the youngest child in the family and his little sister (my youngest aunt, who is about ten years older than I am) was older than he was. He made it to his 36th birthday and then died in his sleep about a month later, while he was away working on an oil rig in Northern Alberta.

Now that I'm looking back at the last few months I should have known what the problem was and I'm feeling a little relieved that it's a naturally occurring sadness and not a chemical imbalance. So I've been missing my Dad and a have been a little freaked out over passing this age milestone myself.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

It's a sensory deprivation thing

So I've noticed that a lot of the photographs I really like, are the ones I take when I'm out of town, traveling, visiting. These are the ones I've posted on my Etsy shop. I guess it's because I'm seeing things with a fresh eye, noticing things that, if I lived there, would just be part of the background.

Part of the problem is that I work primarily in digital now, and spend no time in a dark room what so ever. I miss the dark room. I really do. When I was working in film I found that I had a different eye. Shooting and developing your own film means that you spend long hours in the dark or in deep amber lit rooms, with negative images flashing in tight beams onto light sensitive paper.

If there's a developing machine to print with, your images go in one end and slide out the other. There's a lapse where you are waiting for one thing to end, in order to move on to the next. It's a methodical way of working that forces you to slow down. Working with trays, you have the sound of constant running water and the sloshing sounds of chemical agitation. You keep a careful eye on the timer or clock. There are brief forays into the light to check your exposure, the focus, the contrast, and then it's back into the dark to get it right or start all over again with another negative.

Once you leave that environment, you begin to see your word differently. Time in the dark causes you to look on your environment as a new comer. Things catch your lens and before you know it you're back in the dark again to see what you've captured. It's a sensory deprivation thing.

Digital is different. There's no sense of surprise in seeing what pops up in the developing tray, but depending on the number of memory cards you carry with you an almost unlimited number of shots at your fingertips and you know what's working and what isn't. Your time is taken in front of a computer screen and there's no emergence from the dark once your image is printed.

Don't get me wrong, I love my digital camera, it's served me very well in my photography pursuits. I'm just longing for a little time in the dark and a chance to view my world in that way again.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

back to personal

Five things most people don't know about me. Or maybe they do, and I'm just fooling myself into thinking I'm all mysterious or whatever.

1: I'm an introvert who really lets loose when comfortable

2: I think I can sing, but don't in public just in case I'm wrong

3: If I didn't have to get out of the house (and by house I mean apartment) I would become a freaky shut-in (thank all Gods for a toddler and the need to buy food)

4: I like making lists and pretending I'm organized. (I am so definitely not organized. I am the exact middle of the spectrum of opposite of organized it's a little funny)

5: I have a craving for vanilla ice cream blended with hot chocolate powder and rice crispies right now at this very moment in time. Of course this craving could change at any time, into say, something like toasted pumpernickel bread with sweet pickles and cheese whiz. yup there it goes, now I'm jonesing for the sandwich..

Did I surprise you? Are you shocked at the depths of myself that I have opened up for your perusal?

I didn't think so. I'm a little white bread that way.

In case I'm wrong and your jaw is dangling and the words "well I'll be..." are echoing off your computer monitor, then I guess I feel a little vindicated.

Why not share with the class?
I'm off to make art for my shops PeanutButterPie and TMCPhoto

Sunday, November 16, 2008

A nice hot bath

I get it from my Mom I think, my love of a hot bath at the end of a day. There was a time when my day would end with the sound of water escaping down the drain and my skin puckered and wrinkled like a sultana raisin. Cliché I know but it’s truth so I’ll let it slide.

My daughter gets a bath every night and she uses this time to continue playing. Once she was big enough to sit by herself in the big bathtub this has become her modus operandi for bath time. And I wonder when her play will transform itself into the full submersion and meditation that bath time means for me. There’s a natural progression I think.

Growing up my sister and I bathed together up until the age of about 6 and 4 I think. I’m aging a little here so I could have misplaced actual dates but the point is that we spent this time constructing bubble bath garments, hairstyles and beards. We created tsunami splashes to make more bubbles and pretended to be in a canoe, paddling down a river with our hands or the back scrubber as paddles. Individual baths held the same activities. Bath time at my cousins house during overnight visits were riotous affairs with bath toys, boats and sharks, thinks we never had at our house and therefore a treat. And the tub at Grandma’s house had a shallow sloping back that was fun to slide down until Mom, Dad, or Grandma came in and told s to stop.

The older I got the less physical a bath became. Dunking my head under the water and trying to float transitioned into staring into space in a blissed out trance, complete with candles and aromatherapy oils. My mom now has an antique clawfoot tub that is super long and nice and high. Having a bath in there demands candles and bubbles and soothing music. Each of the grandchildren have been photographed in that tub and the day I got married I soaked in there for a good two hours before getting my hair done and the dress on. She has a bath every night, a luxury I take advantage of whenever we visit.

If you’re in the mood for a good soak or want a little fun in the tub try out these lavish and playful bath products from Etsy sellers.





Saturday, November 15, 2008

How to shop handmade this holiday season

OK, I know I've mentioned it and then mentioned it again, but I think it bears repeating. I'm buying all my holiday gifts from artists and artisans this year. that means I'll be trolling the talent on Etsy for everything from stocking stuffers to that major, blow them away with my thoughtfulness, gift.

In anticipation for this, I've started my shopping way earlier than previous years. Mainly because I find shopping this way to involve a lot more forethought. You aren't just browsing in the mall for something that catches your eye in order to get the best gift, you have to know a little about the person you're buying for. In fact the more you know the better your gift choices.

Here are some items that I'm eyeing up so far in my online shopping travels. Take a look at what's here and if you see something you like why not buy it out from under me? I promise, no hard feelings.


Thursday, November 13, 2008

How much?

I've been busy renewing items in TMCPhoto on Etsy and making new things for PeanutButterPie. And then there's the shopping and browsing that has started to take over my time too. One thing I 'm noticing on Etsy is the serious under pricing of photographs in some shops. There are some very beautiful images out there for a fraction of the price that they could or should be selling for.

I guess it's the same old story played out everywhere. Someone under values their work and then the value of the whole market seems to plummet. I've so far kept my prices at what I feel my work is worth, mainly because I feel that up until now I've really undervalued myself in general and don't want to continue the bad habit. Equally, the whole point of selling my art was to make money at it. If I factor in the costs of printing, camera and equipment maintenance, my time and talent as well as the materials used for packaging, the marketing and promotion work put in and costs for listing items and the percentage that goes to the website the prices I'm listing at allow me to make a little profit that I can in turn use to make more photographs and other art pieces.

When I see $10 8x10 photographs listed, I always wonder how much these artists are losing by selling so low.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Making that first sale

At least I know that I'm not all alone out there. I've been on Etsy for a little over 4 months now and not a sale in sight for me. Not that I'm complaining. I'm not, really. I know it will happen soon. I'm confident in my products and in my marketing plan, low key as it is so far.

At the moment I’m just pleased to gain another heart for my shops or individual items and ecstatic for the increase in traffic to my shops. It helps that there are others out there in Etsyland (like the creator of the Etsy Item That caught my Eye, Amethyst Bonsai Pendant) waiting for their first sale. Reading entries in the Forums from these talented artists and participating in Newbie Labs, gives me the feeling that I’m not alone out there.

Plus each new view of the Lady Bug ATC or the Electric 3rd in series Photograph in my two shops; brings me one view closer to that fateful first sale.

Am I aiming too low? Should I be more worried about being sale-less? With the holiday season in the crosshairs should I be more active in my marketing strategies more of a barracuda with flogging my stuff? I guess I’ll be more capable of answering that question next year. I have grand plans for the next holiday season and expansions in my creative output all mapped out…

OK there aren’t any maps, just a light pencil sketch on the back of a take out menu. Ok I wrote them on the palm of my hand in ballpoint (stupid sweaty hands!) but I have plans. Holiday ornaments, 3D decorative items, stacks and stacks of holiday greeting cards all hand stitched or embellished with seed beads for that unique touch. Yup, big, big plans, and I’ll even follow through on some of them too.

This year my inventory is a little on the small side. My plans for holiday ornaments were derailed by lack of funds (who knew that having a baby would be so expensive? And do they really need to grow like that? I mean all of her pants just keep shrinking up past the ankles and she’s too young to be made fun of for wearing floods….) again I digress. Where was I? Oh yeah, lack of funds. And finding a reasonable supplier for some of the brainstorms I’ve had, turned out to be more difficult than expected. And the health scare at the end of August kind pf put a damper on things too.

Health scare you ask? Nothing to get worked up about. It turned out to be nothing serious but that’s a topic for another day.

So with one thing and another I’m moving slow, working on climbing up the learning curve and putting myself out there a little at a time. As I get more comfortable and confident I’ll increase the effort, but this year is all about the seeing what’s what and tucking that knowledge away for next year. For now I’m just moving one view at a time until I make that first sale.

Oh look someone new just hearted my shop!

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Have a holly jolly....

This year we've decided to purchase all of our gifts for friends and family from local artisans and artists or on Etsy. In part it's because I'm now selling my photographs and other art on Etsy and I want to help promote the venue and other artists like myself. So it's in my karmic interest, what goes around comes around.

On another level I just want to be able to give gifts that can't be bought at the local mall. I want to be able to find something that just suits each person that I'm buying for. The great thing about a website like Etsy is that I can find something for everyone on my shopping list all unique and beautifully made.

I know it's sickeningly early to be talking about holiday shopping and gift giving. It seems like every year the holiday marketing starts earlier and earlier. Personally I don't like to think about it until at least after Remembrance Day if not later. However, I also like to have all my shopping done and over with before December, so that I can kick back and enjoy cookies and eggnog during the hectic rush and only have to shop if I really want to; not because I've still got two people to gift.

Also by the time December rolls around I'm so tired of holiday music I'm grumpy with and become anti-holiday in reaction. With a two year old that's just not where I want to be. It's the Mall Muzak that takes me 'round the bend, but I really like non-muzak holiday music especially the Pouges Fairytale of New York, The Raveonettes Christmas Song, the original Band Aid and Aimee Mann's version of You're A Mean One Mr Grinch. I could put those on repeat for weeks. I listen to them throughout the year. Speaking of which I think I'll play a little of it now...

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Minor Revelations

So I was sitting at the Italian coffee/gelato place by my place, waiting (but not really,'cuz I didn't think anyone was going to show) for some other mom's to have coffee/tea/gelato and some chat. I was reading Douglas Copeland's Hey Nostradamus and it hit me.

Why am reading books that are physically violent to me? Well not really, books are inanimate objects and incapable of any sort of autonomous actions but I digress. Perhaps saying that "it occurred to me" would make more sense.

What occurred to me? Well every once in a while I have a moment of the most deepest and profoundest thought. Mostly these moments revolve around bologna sandwiches and the addictive nature of chocolate and caffeine. Sometimes these moments center around the most paranoid of fears and other times they are actual philosophical revelations, that stop me in my tracks for a while to think about my deeply flawed personality or is that my intense genius?


Well since I'm no genius and I'm pretty sure that my personality isn't anymore flawed than anybody else that I know of; that last statement isn't very apt either. To get to the point; I stop what I'm doing and stare off into space while I investigate the thought, trace it back to it's origin and either discard it or tuck it away for further inspection.

What was this profound thought about? bologna? chocolate? Not this time. A few posts ago I mentioned my vivid dreams. Sometimes they are so vivid that I have had moments where I've had to stop and wonder if some strange thing I'm remembering actually happened or if that was something I had dreamed about.

The same thing happens when I read. In grade three I was punished for not hearing the teacher announce the end of reading time. I was so absorbed in the book I was reading (I'm thinking it was Tolkien, but not Lord of the Rings) that I hadn't heard the teacher, hadn't noticed everyone taking out their math books and missed most of the lesson. It was an honest mistake. that teacher didn't like me for some reason, not sure why because I remember really liking her. But I digress, back to the subject.

I get so involved with the narrative, the plot, the characters in some books that I start to identify with them. In a not so much crazy out of touch with reality kind of way; these things become a part of my personal experience. I sometimes have to stop myself in a situation and separate my personal experience from those which only happened between the covers of a book.

In the case of literature, I suppose I am the ideal reader. We all hear the literacy propaganda (and I'm not saying it's bad propaganda) talking about how reading can transport you to new worlds and ideas. I'd like to think that everyone feels that way when they read a good book but I wonder if anyone has the same experience of reality twisting with narrative that I do.

As for my brilliant insight? You didn't think I was going to share my findings on the meaning of life, the universe and everything else did you? The Answer is 42, the question still remains a mystery

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

on Politics and Narrative

What with all the excitement last night I didn’t get around to making anything, writing anything, or snacking on anything like I thought I was gonna. It was a pretty intense evening in any case.

For the first time in ever, I think, I was riveted to the television watching election results. Last night was a great bookend to the US election for me. I remember watching Obama make his first speech, declaring his intention to run for President of the United States. Of course I just knew that he’d win. Well, I can’t honestly say that, but I do remember thinking that I was watching a pretty important moment and that I really hoped that he’d be the first African American to take the White House. Watching Obama’s victory speech was something that I will be proud to tell my daughter, and grandchildren about.

I don’t follow politics too closely, which is something I feel guilty about on a regular basis. As an artist, there is a part of me that believes that I should be doing as artists have historically been doing in society; acting as a social critic, invoking dialogue and change with my work. My art, however isn’t overtly political, and I’m more interested in the narrative, the story than in politics. Maybe that’s why Obama was so interesting for me to watch. There was a narrative quality to his speeches and arguments that hooked me.

Like many people, I wished last night that I were able to cast my vote in the election too; to be an active participant in the story, instead of a passive observer. I’m only sorry that I didn’t feel as much excitement about our own recent election even though I made a point of casting my vote with my daughter in tow, hoping that a change would be made for us.

I think one of the reasons for the apathy and lack of excitement felt in Canadian elections is that we don’t vote for a singular candidate to take the top seat. We vote for the political party and the person leading the winning party is the leader of our country. Our vote goes to the candidate who will represent us in the House of Commons, our decisions on who to vote for (ideally) should be based on who represents our interests the most.

I won’t get into how perverted I feel our voting system has become; with strategic votes etc etc, mainly because I only know about those things, what I’ve managed to glean from reading and listening to the news. As I said earlier, I don’t follow politics too closely, I’m more interested in the story, and with that type of decision-making there’s not much of a narrative going on for me to follow.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

It's going to be a big night


With all the hype over the US election I'm starting to feel overwhelmed with the energies surrounding the decisions that will be made today. I'm not American but I live close by. I'm very hopeful about what could happen at the end of today.

Things are on the brink today and while I know which way I want things to go, ultimately I know that no matter who moves into the power position, tomorrow things will go back to business as usual for everyone.

That being said I'm very excited about this election in general, if only for the fact that there was a chance that a woman would be running for the top seat as well as an African American. Perhaps we're all starting to be as forward thinking as we'd like to believe ourselves to be?

What do you think?

Monday, November 3, 2008

Photography

It's been a while since I really got excited about trying something new with a camera and photography. The last time was during the Photo fabrication course at Emily Carr Institute.

I recently got a Kodak Duaflex on ebay and I'm sort of patiently awaiting delivery so that I can go out and take me some TTV Photo's (Through The Viewfinder). I'd like to do some portraits with this and some landscapes and really, the list goes on.

So until the Duaflex arrives I've put together a new treasury featuring TTV images: Terrific, Tasty, Vivid Treasury. Take a look at what I've chosen, take a closer look (or make a purchase) if something really jumps out at you.

All things sleep

I've been having crazy dreams lately. My dreams are pretty weird to begin with; with strange twists and turns and engaging story lines, but lately these have an added anxiety component. There's also the increase in activity at my work table lately. I've been making cards, paintings, and ATC's and I think a part of me wants to keep at it past my bedtime. The drive to make things and post them on Etsy is giving me a bit of the looming deadline for that big art history paper feeling, hence the increased anxiety.

Despite all my best efforts I've been unable to make it through a full nights sleep without having to get up for one thing or another. Last night was particularly bad. The Peanut fell out of bed and was pretty freaked out about it around 1:30. At 3:30 she woke up again. Not too much sleep for me last night. Good thing yesterday was my day to sleep in.

In anticipation for the time change we'd been altering The Peanut's bedtime so that we wouldn't have to be awake at 5:30 in the morning with the switch. To my chagrin I found that 9 times out of 10 during the last week, she was still getting up at 6 instead of 7 as our plan had called for. As October passed and her bedtime grew later and later and her wake up time stayed pretty much the same we've decided that next year we'd do what we did last year; grin and bear it for a few days until she gets on track.

In the meantime I'm posting some of the things I've been working on lately to pretty this entry up, seeing as how I'm unable to photograph my dreams with the considerable lack of technology.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Time's passing

So my daughter woke from her nap yesterday in a bad mood. She didn't want to dress up she didn't want to be a ladybug anymore. What to do what to do? I asked her what she wanted to be; thinking there was a possibility that I could improvise. As luck would have it she wanted to be a ladybug punk princess.

So we had the Ladybug T-shirt, a princess skirt with pretty purple tights and an old necklace I'd gotten at Lilith Fair in '98. That's some good improvising.

We had a busy night: Trick or Treating at the Lonsdale Quay, Party at the JBCC, Dinner at Memphis Blues more trick or treating in the hood and a night walk in the Community Gardens.

All that and I've been able to keep up with posting new items to PeanutButterPie.etsy.com

I've started a new line in the shop of Artist Trading Cards.
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