Thousand Words Thursday

They say a picture is worth them:

the most relaxing thing about last weekend

Come back tomorrow for this weeks 5 Questions featured artist.

I'm taking a bit of a break

from a Blog Give- a - way entereing frenzy.

The Laughing Vixen Lounge is holding a monster Halloween Goodie Bag Giveaway and the prizes included are creepy crawly and absolutely fantastic. there are many many ways to enter which is why the entering frenzy. Visit the blog post about the giveaway here

Now go, go and enter, enter as much as you want! I've gotta get back to adding my entries...

A little bit more about how I want to progress

On Friday I posted about how I see my Friday Features going, partially to set the stage for this weeks feature, to build up the anticipation so to speak. Also to give myself a little direction, something to refer to from time to time to keep things on track.

This post is something similar for my Monday Blog Share posts. I'm bringing those posts back too, starting today.

I seem to have an ever expanding list of blogs I like to drop in to on a regular basis. Some I pick up from the Etsy forums while I'm promoting my own features, others I stumble on as I read other people's blog comments. Still others are added as I feature an Etsy shop and add the link to a blog to the body the feature.

I follow because I've found something funny, something beautiful, something thought provoking, something that inspires me, something that makes me feel like a part of a community, something that makes me green with envy (because I just wish I had though of that first, or had done mine that way or that I was half as cool as that person is)... The reasons I follow blogs are many. The reasons I want to share these blogs are perhaps not so vast, I just want to share some of the good stuff I've been getting in my blog reader.


In the past my Monday Blog Sharing posts listed up to 3 blogs to check out. Thinking about it, 3 is too many. When I ask myself if I would check out all three blogs as a reader the answer is "no" so I'm scaling back. One blog recommendation per blog share post.

So the return of my Blog Share posts on Monday starts now; with Where Eagles Dare, a lush edgy blog with their own Friday Feature Q&A that falls under the green with envy heading. I love love love the questions asked in the features. They are the questions I love reading the answers to. Also Kate and her husband Johnny5; the voices behind Where Eagles Dare are such rock stars in her own right; they run Where Eagles Dare on Etsy which is full of tattoo inspired paintings and other magnificence. Right now their shop is in Vacation Mode (so you will have to wait to see what I'm talking about) but their blog is alive and kicking so go and check it out.

In addition to Where Eagles Dare Kate also has a second blog called Dear Johnny5, a collection of letter to her husband that really are an intimate portrait of their relationship and also make me wish that my husband had a little of Johnny5's flair for romance... not that I'm complaining.

We now return to our regularily scheduled programming

During my vacation from my regularly scheduled blog posts, I spent some time thinking about what direction I want to take this blog, what my goals are for it over the next few months and how I can possibly reach those goals.

That lead to me thinking about what my mission statement should be for my scheduled blogs. Which got me thinking harder and took me down a few paths that I backed right out of before taking more than one or two steps more than I wanted to.

I started doing a weekly feature because

A) I wanted to drive more traffic to my blog and hopefully further on to my Etsy shops, TMCPhoto and PeanutButterPie.

B) I wanted to showcase some of the artists that really caught my eye while browsing through Etsy

and

C) I wanted to send out some positive Etsy Karma and hopefully help some of these incredibly talented artists and artisans make a sale here and there; the idea being what goes around comes around. If I can help a fellow Etsian add to their income the positive energy would make its way back towards me.

I can honestly say that A has been achieved. My weekly 5 question features garners the highest traffic to my blog each week, sometimes in record numbers. There are one or two features that still get heavy hits. B, it goes without saying is also a goal well met. All my features are of people who's work I adore, In some cases they have work that I have paid for and in others they have work that I would gladly fork over cash for if I had it to spend. C was a bit of a tricky goal, I mean how do you know if something you've posted online has directly resulted in a sale unless the buyer or the seller lets you know. Fortunately In the case of my feature on TubbyTabby this was the case. I can't tell you how tickled I was to have had a hand in making a sale.

My goals for the next few months are more of the same with a little more thought put into it. I'm putting a little bit more lead time ahead of each live posting, hoping to have posts written, linked and ready to go live well ahead of schedule so that I'm not scrambling (yes even working two weeks in advance I was scrambling at some points) and in the case of unexpected speed bumps I'll have some wriggle room and possible ready to go features to tide me over until I can get back up to speed.

Abiding by a feature mission statement meant I've had to create one:

5 questions is a fun look into the mind of an Etsy artist or artisan who's work is something that I personally love. the work has to be something that I would buy for myself or as a gift, have bought for myself or as a gift or have on my personal wish list. The 5 questions asked will range from a growing list of questions I keep on file, chosen at random based on what I want to know about my chosen artist.

Making sure that I remind my readers that they can connect to any item featured in the post by clicking on it's image is also on my list. When I write up my features I always, always always link back not only to the Etsy shop but also to any of the items I've used to illustrate the feature with. In the few cases where the feature artist has requested or provided images that are not for sale in their Etsy shop I link to an appropriate Flickr page or personal website. In any case you can always click on an image of something you like to get more information.

Also a to do is a re-write of my request to feature convo. This is just something for me to help keep me organized. Asking for images and links to websites, blogs and fan pages so I'm not forgetting anything when I start to write.

With this post I'm priming the pump for the return of 5 questions next week. Next weeks feature is an artist and designer that I'm pleased to say falls into the category of some one I have bought from. I came across her while browsing Totally Tutorials blog exchange program. I liked her work so much, felt so inspired what she was offering and immediately had a handful of good ideas for projects that I applied for her exchange. Those ideas for a tutorial really got me excited and I happened to be in a particularly productive stage, I couldn't wait to see who would be accepted for the exchange and I bought a few sheets before she could even post her picks.......

But more about that next week.

Book Review: The Gruffalo

I love children's books and not just because I have the peanut to read to everyday but also because I just love, love, love the art, the story and the inspiration I can get from them.

I'll admit happily to being one of those people who pick a book based on the cover, especially in the case of a good children's book, where the illustrations are just as important as the story itself.

When we started reading to the Peanut we always chose and continue to choose books that have a good story, some kind of narrative, characters that are enjoyable to reading about, and of course there must be brilliant illustrations. This has meant that for the most part, the board books featuring a single word and illustration have been fairly rare in our house, when they do come in they are the Peanuts picks and we read them as many times as she wants to along with the other great story books that can be read over and over without turning our brains into mush.

This is what this feature is about*, those books we bring home (from the book store, from the library and from wherever we come across them) and fall in love with. A while ago a good friend gave us a copy of one of these.

click on the book cover to buy this book

The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler quickly became a rhyming success at quiet time and nap time with the Peanut. It has fun illustrations, a snappy rhythm; written in Iambic Pentameter making it fun to read aloud. The Peanut loves reading with repetition and we found that she jumped in and start telling us the story herself after one read.

The book tells the story of a little mouse who takes a stroll through the deep dark wood where he encounters a number of scary creatures who would like to take him home and make him their dinner, all pretty scary if you are a mouse but none so scary as the Gruffalo. Reading along to see what a Gruffalo is and how our mouse evades becoming a snack is a fun and entertaining book with a great twist that allows for the underdog of the story to put one over on the big guys! It's not easy to find a book that doesn't get boring to read after the first 20 re-reads and The Gruffalo fits happily in the read it over and over category with ease.

Julia Donaldson has written a number of other fabulous books including another current favourite Tyrannosaurus Drip and a past library re-renewal Night Monkey Day Monkey as well as a number of other equally lovable books, you can find out more at her website www.juliadonaldson.co.uk and more about the Gruffalo on his website www.gruffalo.com where you can find activities, games and become one of the Gruffalo Gang.

Now go read a book!

*None of the books I will review here are solicited by authors or publishing companies, they are just books that we can't get enough of. If this is not the case, and I have been given a book to review by anyone I will make it very clear at the beginning of a review that this is the case.

A little direction

I've been on hiatus from my weekly Q&A feature and I've been using the time to do a little shop tweaking and banner making for TMCPhoto and rethinking what I want this blog to be about and where I want to take it, not to mention working on ways to keep things fresh. I've been wondering if I've had enough focus here and whether I've veered off of the original track and onto another one running a little parallel but with a few more wide curves.

What got me thinking was the number of Mommy Bloggers I have been following. These women are smart funny and in some cases brutally honest about their lives. I've been known to laugh out loud at certain posts and to blow my nose and wipe dripping eyes after others. So I was wondering if I've started to slot myself into the Mommy-Blogger role.

Not that that's a bad thing, I am a Mommy, the Peanut is a pretty big part of my life and our days together make up quite a lot of blog fodder for me. When I started out, the purpose of writing was to let people get to know me, my art and hopefully lead them to my Etsy shops. So I've been thinking about how to balance out the art and the mommy stuff.

I'm hoping I've got it all worked out. In the meantime I'm gearing up for the return of the 5 question feature. I've got a list of shops and artists I want to feature and I'm truly excited about getting back into the swing of things.

Your questions please!

My original idea for my last post was to do what I'm doing in this post but when I sat down to write this post I couldn't concentrate on what I had planned on writing and instead you got my thoughts on a truly terrible situation that to be honest is still on my mind but I'm pushing past it and getting back down to business.

I'm gearing up for the return of the 5 question feature. I've got a list of shops and artists I want to feature and I'm truly excited about getting back into the swing of things.

The questions I use for this feature are a compilation of random questions that I find interesting to find out from artists I admire. To keep things fresh, fun and interesting I'd love to hear the questions that you'd ask the artists and artisans you admire.

Leave me a comment with your questions and I'll add them to my roster, with props to you of course!