Virginia Fleck

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Plastic Bag Art by Virginia Fleck.

Her work just knocks my socks off! This has Stefani written all over it: a mandala, colorful, circular, made from recycled materials. Check out Virginia's site for some of her public installations, especially the ones framed under Plexiglas on the front of Whole Foods stores. Perfect!

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Vintage

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Straw Flowers from Cathy of California.

This started out as an email to Mom and Gretchen but I found myself rambling my way into a blog entry. See why my blog is called, "And Another Thing . . ."?

Cathy specializes in crafts from the 60s and 70s. She sells these straw flowers and the kits to make them, among other things. I was sending the link to Mom & Gretchen because we used to make similar flowers decades ago, with yarn. (Did I just say decades?? Sigh.)

Side note to local readers - I was reading Cathy's blog and saw an entry about the clock at Midtown Plaza. Btw, I finally heard someone on the radio say the other day what I think every time I hear someone boo-hooin' about the demolition of Midtown Plaza: If it is such a great place and you're so upset that it is being torn down - why didn't you patronize it at least a couple of times in the last 20 years?? Then I calm down and try to think of something that would be relevant to me in that same vein. Some place that holds memories more than being part of my life today. Some place that would be so meaningful to me as to prompt me to write some sorry-ass whiny letter to the editor in the local paper. There must be some place, I just can't think of it at the moment.

I swear I must have been at the end of the line when sentimentality was being passed out. I'm such a big purger and declutterer, that I sometimes worry I'm throwing away stuff that might be meaningful to Simon in the way that I love some of my parents' every day things - like the stainless steel mixing bowls and . . . something else . . . you know, other stuff. I know there's stuff that I've told my parents, "So when you're dead & everything, can I have that?" And they are so shocked that I care, they say, "What?? Take it now. You're so silly."

Sort of like these but not exactly. And there are only 2. I still love them and use them all the time.

Etsy has a whole division, besides the handmade stuff, of "vintage" items. The rule is the items have to be 20+ years old. Twenty years ain't nuthin'! It's been within the last couple of years that I realized I've become one of those people that sees trends come around again and scratches her head at the "young people" getting excited about something we're all been there, done that about.

It's like my friend Mary calls herself seasoned, instead of senior, in terms of her work profile. I like that! At my day job, our CEO has said he doesn't care about titles. "Make up your own!" "Be whatever you want to be!" I know he's told people. Somewhere in the last few years, every sales rep and purchasing agent added senior to their title. It always makes me laugh because - now everyone is on the same level again. I've never seen a junior anything, in our company anyway.

I thought this entry was all over the place but looking back, I actually do have a common thread throughout. What a happy accident that turned out to be.

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Matchbooks - Part II

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I didn't post my first attempt and no time to do it now - but here's where I stand now on the matchbook notepads. I like the one on the left with the decorative contrasting line. I have to scoot off to work and consult my R & D Department. (That's my friend Jen.)

As usual, I'm down to a tiny patch of work space. I really have to straighten this up tonight so I can get busy. I've committed to a new (very small) show and I realized this morning - it's in just a couple of weeks! More about that later.

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Angie's List

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I thought this was a cool thing I saw in my Money magazine. It's a list you can join to read reviews of contractors in your area. I'm a big fan of customer reviews. I read them for everything from office supplies to hotels. And like I was pleased to learn about Consumer Reports recently, you can join Angie's List for just a month, for $2.60/month plus a one-time $5.00 set up fee. One year is only $20 so even that seems like a bargain if it saves you time and money from dealing with an inferior contractor.

From their website:

Get the real scoop: Angie's List members submit more than 15,000 reports each month about the companies they've hired. View a sample report. They describe their project (including the cost), and grade the company's response time, prices and quality of work - good or bad. In reading the reviews, you'll know if a crew was conscious of children and pets, cleaned up after themselves, or just totally botched the job.

Keeping it honest: Because Angie's List relies on its members' experiences, reviews aren't submitted anonymously. Of course members' information is kept confidential on the List, but reports are made available to the companies who have been reviewed. Since there are always two sides to every story, companies can respond to reviews, helping make sure that members get all the information they need to make a hiring decision. Additionally, members can only report on a specific company once every six months, ensuring no one can "stack the deck" in favor of or against a company. Finally, all reviews submitted by members go through a team of Angie's List staff who look for any irregularities or red flags. Occasionally, we can catch service companies reporting on their own businesses. Those companies are reprimanded and the reports are promptly and permanently removed from the List.

I proceeded as if I was going to join and it automatically asked me if I wanted to join the Rochester, NY group. I don't have a need for this right now but I'll bookmark the site, just in case.

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The Paper Home

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The Paper Home looks like it was written for me!

"From card stock to cardboard, and using techniques from papier-mâché to origami, this avant-garde book shows paper crafters looking for a new twist–or any designer eager to experiment with a new medium–how to create unique home accents."

When we eventually get the family room painted I've been wanting to put a giant clock on one wall. Since we have vaulted ceilings some of our walls are quite tall so the bigger the better. Part of my reasoning is that because Steve's eye site is kinda bad, it would be big enough that he could easily read it. I've seen them in stores but how cool to make my own!

Plus that design on the cover already has my head spinning with other ideas. It's so symmetrical - my middle name!

This book has been out since April but there are no customer reviews on Amazon yet. And you can't look inside, but I added it to my wish list anyway.

I found this through the Google Alert I set up to search all blogs once/day for the word paper. At least twice/week I find something artsy and interesting that way.

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Swirlies

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This framed paper mandala features a double layer Spirelli in the center and is embellished with tiny white seed beads. 7" x 7" red metal frame. $32

The dark blue scalloped border just before the white spirals is made from the bumps-out hearts I mentioned yesterday. The deckle edge, outside the spirals, is what I do when I don't have a circle cutter that can cut a big enough circle. It's absolutely impossible to cut a perfect circle with scissors (and I'm a pretty good cutter) so rather than try & miss, I use deckle scissors. I think it adds an unexpected edge to an otherwise precise piece.

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I received the two bestest pieces of news this week. I mentioned a couple of days ago hearing unofficially from my friend that I was accepted for this year's Rochester Museum & Science Center's Holiday Bazaar. The very next day, I received notification in the mail that I was accepted for the Junior League of Rochester's Holiday Market. It's the first annual show for them and it looks to be of the same caliber as the RMSC show. Those are the two biggest shows I wanted to do this year. So good news two days in a row, really made my week!

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Telephone Sheep

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Created by Jean Luc Cornec - Frankfurt Museum of Communications

Complete with one black sheep.

Art made out of odd things is definitely my favorite kind of art. Visiting the Extreme Materials exhibit at the Memorial Art Gallery on my birthday in 2006 was a huge turning point artistically for me. I'm not inspired to do that kind of work, yet one of my great joys in the paper art I make is finding unexpected ways to use my paper punches. Using a heart punch for the outside edge of a piece is still one of my favorites. I turn it bumps-out for a scalloped edge or points-out for a spiky edge. I guess that type of thing is my version of "extreme art".


Until I Googled 'extreme materials art' just now to get the date of the exhibit, I forgot about this piece by Devorah Sperber. It's spools of thread hung on vinyl tubing. Interesting enough, but when you look at it through the acrylic sphere, you see it's actually a scene. Seriously, check out some of her other art at her site. She has a vinyl shower curtain with 60,000 tiny flower stickers applied in a way that the shower curtain becomes a VW bus. She has map tacks stuck through clear vinyl in a way that it looks like a fabric bandanna, for instance. (Yes, her work is partially funded by the companies that make these components: Coats & Clark Thread and Moore Push Pin Company for example.) Wow, she's really great!

The 2 museums we visited on vacation this year fell in this same odd art materials category. At the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, we saw a very large ship made of toothpicks. At the Contemporary Art Center in Virginia Beach, we saw purses made from seat belts.

I love this stuff!

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You Had Me at Copper

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This mandala is full of hand stitched metallic copper thread detail on moss green cardstock. I embellished it with paper shapes, raku style beads and amber Swarovski crystals. The center is topped off with a copper sun button.

It's framed in a 8" x 8" wood frame with glass, ready to hang on your wall. $38.00

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One would think I just discovered the macro setting on my camera. Truthfully, I recently learned to use it consistently successfully!

I love how this piece turned out. I'm going to have to make one for myself, copper freak that I am. I was extra pleased at how nicely that frame goes with the copper stitching. I buy my frames online and it's sometimes hard to trust if what I'm seeing on my screen is the true color. I will be ordering more of these frames shortly for some custom pieces I'm working on. I met with the customer after work yesterday to give her some options in framing.

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Yesterday was to have been a busy day at the house. A guy was here to clean the gutters. Steve hasn't had time and cash poor Simon hasn't been motivated enough to do it. So I found someone through a local ad who came the next day. He'll come back today to fix a couple of downspouts for us. Money well spent.

I arranged for two Rochester ReUseIt (formerly Freecycle) people to come take away about a dozen landscape timbers and the bricks that make up our sidewalk. I told you we're downsizing our garden/landscape. We've battled with those bricks for 8 years. We've had the sidewalk rebuilt once and they laid down weed barrier first. All to no avail - the weeds keep popping through. The red brick sidewalk has looked nice. For about 5 minutes.

The woman that came for the bricks was unable to remove them, broke her "little shovel" in the process and gave up. I went out last night and was able to remove a couple, using a regular sized shovel. I liken it to getting that first brownie out of the pan. That first one is a challenge but the rest come out easily. (These bricks are not mortared in, but they are packed down and together very tightly.)

The woman who was to take the landscape timbers had a family emergency with her elderly father. So I drew new names for both projects and those people will come sometime this week or weekend.

Steve had already volunteered to find someone to pour us a cement sidewalk. We almost never use that door anyway, so I don't care when he gets to it.

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Steve worked late last night so I spent some quality studio time putting my framed art back together. I had removed the glass from each piece so I could photograph it for my shop. That's been on my to-do list for a long time so I'm very happy to have completed that task. I think the art looks much better than the scanned images I had been using.

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I received an application yesterday from a friend who is organizing a Holiday Craft Show at St. Jude's Church on Lyell Avenue on November 29. I do a lot of shows with her so I know this will be a quality show. It's juried and all hand-made. She's also on the board of the Rochester Museum & Science Center's Holiday Bazaar so she told me I was all set for this year's show too. Yay! That was my best show to date and I was really counting on getting into that one again.

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Wheel of Hearts

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12" x 12" Hand Stitched Mandala in a Black Metal Frame, $48

This thing took me forever and a day to make last year. That black lacy outside border was the toughest part to come up with. That's actually one piece of a snowflake die cut. I love using punches and die cuts in unexpected ways.

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I finished photographing all my framed art last night and replacing the previous photos in my Etsy shop. My studio is now littered with the framed art that needs to be reassembled with the glass in it.

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I'm so annoyed. We have the all-in-one plan with our cable company - Internet, cable TV and digital phone service. The digital phone service has been adequate at best. Every once in a while we lose service. Sometimes rebooting the cable modem fixes it. Sometimes the cable company can reset something on their end. And sometimes they have to come out to the house to fix it.

Our plan for sometime (a year or more) has been to get rid of our land line altogether and rely on our cell phones. Over time, I've changed records (family, friends, doctors, etc.) to my cell phone number. Steve has not been doing the same, or maybe he worries he's forgotten someone. But truthfully, the only calls we ever get on our land line are telemarketers.

Once again, we could get no dial tone. I suggested to Steve that this was a sign that it's time to get rid of the land line. He's not ready.

Because my patience has worn out on this subject, Steve called Time Warner and they scheduled to come to the house yesterday afternoon. We had hoped Simon would be available to hang out here waiting but he had to work. I considered asking one of my retired parents (hi Mom & Dad!) to come here but ultimately decided I would take the afternoon off from work to be available.

Usually that's definitely not a hardship but I'm super busy at work. But I have lots of Pine Tree Designs work to do too so it wasn't a horrible plan.

The window for the repair guy's arrival was 12:00 - 4:00. The Doofus showed up at 5:00, just minutes after Steve arrived home. I let him deal with The Doofus since I was feeling less than friendly by then. Turns out the phone in Steve's old office downstairs was fried. So that was removed and we're back in business.

After dinner, I picked up the phone to retrieve any voice mail that had been left in the few days we'd been without a phone. No dial tone. Ergggh. (Surely, this must be a sign to drop our land line!) Steve traced the problem to some wiring thing The Doofus had done in error. (Okay, seriously, this must be the sign, right??)

Deep breath. It's not my problem or decision. Steve will get there when he's ready. Meanwhile, I continue to not use the land line. (Steve pays for it, if you're wondering. I would not be as charitable if it were my money.)

Thanks for letting me vent. :-)

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Blueberry and Cherry Clafouti

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We went to Steve's brother's house for dinner Saturday night and this is the dessert I made. The recipe was in the newspaper last Tuesday. I'd never even heard of a clafouti before then. (Yet Google images comes up with 9660 images! Yep, I forgot to take a picture of mine.) (It's pronounced klah-foo-TEE.) It's sort of a puddingish cake. The recipe is too good not to pass along.

1 cup fresh blueberries
1 cup fresh cherries, stemmed and pitted
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup 1% low fat milk
1 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tablespoon confectioner's sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray an 8" square baking dish with cooking spray. Place blueberries and cherries in prepared baking dish.

Combine flour, milk, yogurt, sugar, salt, eggs and vanilla. Whisk until well-blended. Allow to stand 5 minutes. Pour over fruit.

Bake 40-45 minutes or until the clafouti is set to the touch in the center. Let cool 10 minutes and sprinkle with confectioner's sugar. Serve warm or at room temperature. Makes 8 servings.

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Ladybug Treasury

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My Ladybug Sticky Notes were included in this treasury. The actual treasury is here. (That link expires Monday, 7/21 at 6:21 PM.)

It's a rainy Sunday. I've canceled the garage cleaning project in order to get a full day's worth of Pine Tree Designs work done. I finished the "quilting" on the paper quilt and it's exceeded my expectations, I think. I'll put the finishing touches on it today and post it tomorrow, the before and after.
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The Crafts Report

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The Crafts Report is hands-down the #1 publication I can recommend for professional craft artists. That's the July issue above but I just received my August issue yesterday. This is one of the reasons I'm paring down some of the other art magazine subscriptions - so I have more time to stay caught up on this one. There is such a wealth of information, from booth makeovers to insurance for your home-based business to photographing your art. I find it 100% informational and inspirational.

I believe I've mentioned Luann Udell in a previous post. She has a regular columm in this magazine. Her blog is another fantastic source, full of advice and things to think about, from one professional to another.

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Post-It Tape

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This is the project that has taken up a ridiculous amount of time this week. I'll post before and after photos when I'm done. I used to use strips of cardstock to help me position quilt squares evenly. The other day I hit upon using Post-It Tape! I only had the one-line variety so I was piecing together 2 strips, which worked okay. But last night I was able to stop on the way home from work and buy the real deal. This is the 2-line variety and I bought a roll of 6-line variety too.

Seems to be working well. Stay tuned for the final result.

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It's not just information overload that has my head spinning, I've decided. It's in all areas of my life. I'll save the word overwhelmed for a bit later but I can see I might be heading in that direction.

We've lost one of our rock star employees in the accounting department to my friend Jen's human resources department. It's the right thing to do but it's a big thing. So 2 of us have taken on her former workload. The piece I've taken on is her biggest chunk and I have no idea how I'm going to fit it into my schedule, but the good news is that it's fun to take on some new unfamiliar tasks. I had finally divested myself of critical daily work so I could focus on projects. Guess not.

A couple of weeks ago I counted how many weekends until my next show. It was 11 then, and it's 9 now. That's just 1 show in September, then 3 in October, then the spit hits the fan in November with shows every weekend. (That's assuming I get accepted everywhere I've applied.)

Putting a number to the (allegedly) full workdays I'll have available between now and then is very intimidating. I have quantities in my head of each item that I'll need. Of course, I don't have to have them all made for that first show, but I'd like to start the season brimming with inventory.

Then there's the house. Steve and I have both been so busy the past year or two that we've neglected things that need doing. Nothing critical, mind you. But we love our house and I want us to keep up with stuff. There are rooms I'd love to paint, but can't imagine where I'd find the time in any given year. I did get a quote from a professional but I wasn't "feeling it" with these people so I'll keep looking. I can't quite make myself give up the dream that I can do it. I like painting. But give it up I must.

I've rounded up the troops to clean the garage this Sunday. That isn't something we've let slide for the last couple of years - we usually do it twice/year. This will be our "spring cleaning" - in July. Must be spring somewhere in the world. By troops, I mean Simon will be joining us since his car-related clutter is really what needs organizing. Otherwise, a wee bit of purging and good sweep should get us done in no time.

So, it's deep breaths and off to work early this morning. Steve's sister is arriving from Colorado tonight but Steve graciously offered me the choice of going with him and his mom to the airport to pick her up or not. I declined so it looks like I have a Stefani Night ahead of me. That means I'll pick up dinner on my way home, eat in my studio and dive in. I love those nights!

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Indiepublic

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Visit Indiepublic

I'm completely on information overload. First Facebook and Twitter, then this Indiepublic community. I can't wait until the new wears off and I get back to work. I don't honestly know if this will help generate sales but I'm enjoying meeting other artists. I know I can learn something, for sure.

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Meanwhile, I removed the glass from a 5" x 5" framed paper quilt so I could photograph it. Then I decided to rework it a bit. I can't get it perfect, nothing looks like "enough" and I'm frustrated by the amount of time I've spent on it. So I check Twitter one more time and look up people on Facebook. Errgh!

Before I fell asleep last night, I was trying to get my head right about this and decided to go big or go home. (I'm getting sick of that phrase, I need something comparable but not so cliche.) Anyway, I think now it's going to be in an 8" x 8" frame, with real stitching. I don't know.

I'm feeling overwhelmed by all I want to do: in the house, in my studio, at my day job. I need to stop whining and start doing. :-)

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Updates

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(I think you do have to join Facebook to see much of anything. I'm still not totally familiar with it.)

follow me on Twitter

(Click on the follow me link to see my updates.)

All the marketing advice I read says to take advantage of social networking so here are the two I've joined up with semi-recently.

I originally joined Facebook a while back so I could spy on Simon. What? He knows it. I told him I joined and he asked if I joined so I could spy on him and I said yes. He gave me a tour of his page then - and the other night he actually "friended" me.

I just joined Twitter this past weekend. I wasn't even sure what it was but I'd been hearing about it so I checked it out. It's totally addictive. It's such a sign of the times because you update it with only 140 characters, or something. At a glance, you can read your "followers" updates. We're such a short attention span nation - count me in!

I updated my 2008 craft show schedule a week or two ago. My participation in most of those have not been confirmed yet but I'm feeling confident.

This morning I updated the front page of Pine Tree Designs. I always have grandiose plans of updating that weekly and fall far short of that goal.


I absolutely love this macro shot of the framed piece I call Melon. Besides using it on the front page of the PTD website, I'm using it in my email sig and as my avatar in Etsy. I wish I thought of this long ago. It perfectly exemplifies my work. Hopefully people will click and want to see more.

Edited to add this image. Click on it to see it a bit more clearly, just to give you an idea.


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More Matchbooks

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I was poking around Flickr last night and saw these little matchbook notepads in one of my paper groups. I noticed Bridget folds the paper in a way that covers the staple - nice! Her Flickr page led me to ShopBub's Etsy shop. She has a lot of other nice work too - check it out.

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I still have a hankering to start a collaborative blog but I'm still letting the idea percolate a bit more. I think Hilari made a good point the other day about Flickr groups. I love Flickr groups and belong to a whole bunch (63 as of now), many of which are paper related.

• NEW I Made it Myself (10,383 members)
• NEW Catchy Colors (51,223 members)
• NEW Corners of My Home (5,430 members)
• NEW Crafter's Central (3,122 members)
• NEW IKEA Lovers (2,436 members)
• NEW Beadwork and Jewelry Making (2,420 members)
• NEW CRAFT (4,705 members)
• NEW get crafty! (5,379 members)
• Carve your stamps (934 members)
• Origami Tessellations (342 members)
• Bead Porn (1,541 members)
• Paper Craft (764 members)
• Use what you have (1,035 members)
• Tips for Recycling and Reusing (1,030 members)
• Color and Colors (9,826 members)
• Snail Mail Joy! (316 members)
• Beagles (1,170 members)
• Handmade Cards (1,284 members)
• stationery junkies (929 members)
• Paper Quilling (165 members)
• Arts & crafts fairs & shows (859 members)
• A world of origami (446 members)
• Beadaholics (1,150 members)
• Nice Package! (1,830 members)
• Foldingfreaks Origami (570 members)
• Good Paper Goods (1,065 members)
• Paper Lovers (192 members)
• Try It Tuesdays (388 members)
• Finish What You Have (137 members)
• Pretty Organized (2,156 members)
• Paper Crafting (1,308 members)
• Got Beagle? (358 members)
• Art Studio (1,933 members)
• Mail Art (656 members)
• Craft as Art (654 members)
• Origami (806 members)
• Craft Rooms (2,675 members)
• Handbound Books (750 members)
• Everything beaded (198 members)
• Haberdashery / Notions (383 members)
• Beautiful Boxes (353 members)
• Buttons (648 members)
• World Arts and Craft; clay, paper and more (486 members)
• Handmade (FOLLOW THE RULE, leave a comment on the shot on (1,273 members)
• Beads Beads Beads (1,005 members)
• Origami boxes (159 members)
• Paper Fetish (1,605 members)
• One Window to the World (449 members)
• Quickutz Creations (26 members)
• **beautiful shop** (441 members)
• Envelopes (184 members)
• Embroidery and science (130 members)
• artisans' exchange (210 members)
• Needle books (237 members)
• Paper Snowflakes (48 members)
• Surface Designs (167 members)
• Association Game! (58 members)
• Lost Pet Posters (154 members)
• DIY (Do-it-yourself) Holidays 2007 (173 members)
• origami army (73 members)
• Taylor Parker Fan Club (45 members)
• folding papers plane origami (14 members)

It's all photos, good traffic, already organized. Once I joined Etsy, my Flickr participation dropped significantly. I love Flickr, so at least for now, I'm going to delve back into that.

That's good news for you, because I always find cool stuff I want to show you.

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Yankee Candle

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Yankee Candle must have a katrillion R & D and product designers on staff. They have one of the very few paper catalogs I still enjoy getting. Every single issue has not only new fragrances in it, but new forms of the fragrances. (I love their scratch & sniff pages! It's fun to do, yet they aren't so strong as to offend people with sensitivities, I don't think.)

Maybe I've missed it before but here's a new one to me: an adjustable Pump & Go fragrance to clip to your car's dashboard vent. 'Bout time, I say. I used to buy their Car Jar Air Fresheners years ago. They were so freakin' strong that I devised a way to cut the plastic packaging from the bottom, pulling the string out through the top so only a bit of the air freshener was exposed. In fact, I seem to recall they suggested you do that. But it looked like hell hanging from your rear view mirror, plastic sleeve hanging off, all goofy looking.

Yankee Candle is always on the expensive side, to me, but they do offer a quality product. This Pump & Go deal is $10. The catalog says they last up to 6 weeks. And my car doesn't even stink! Still, I'm tempted to try it.

Gretchen, please note that I picked the leather scent to feature in the picture above. I figured you could get yourself one of those since you didn't pony up for the leather seats you kind of wanted in your new Prius.

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Christmas in July

.I added a sale section to my online shop in order to clear a few older items from inventory. These are old-school pieces, nothing hand-stitched. And the prices are insane. Really, I just want these cards to find good homes.

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My friend Linda and I went to see Menopause, the Musical yesterday at Geva Theatre. It was thoroughly enjoyable. It actually had a bit of a plot mixed in with the 25 re-lyricized songs, all of which we knew (in their original form). It's a toe-tapping good show!

We ate an early dinner at a new restaurant in Pittsford Plaza, Farm Fresh Kitchen. I wish the menu was a bit bigger, but they did just open within the last month or two, so perhaps it will increase. As the name implies, it's all fresh, organic, healthy food - served in an upscale contemporary style. The calories are listed next to each item, none of which is over 500 calories, including desserts.

The waitress said they are due to get their liquor license Friday. We saw the alcoholic offerings listed on the dessert menu, in preparation for Friday, and it looked to be a fairly extensive selection. I understand that certain wines can be good for you, but I'm not clear on why they serve all the different martinis, for example. They can't put a stinkin' salt shaker on the table but I could get schnockered on a watermelon martini, if I so choose. (I don't recall specific martinis listed but that sounds like a real martini, doesn't it?)

The food was very delicious and fully satisfying. (We opted not to have dessert, but crossing the street for a slice of cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory did cross our minds!)

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Looking for a Collaborative

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Sticky Notes, 3" x 3", $4.50

I've been looking for a paper art type collaborative to join.

I think the idea has been brewing for a while because I keep wondering if this blog should be strictly art-related and I should knock off the personal stuff. Or is it: my blog, my rules? I think the whole package works best for me because I know some people come here for the art and some come because we're friends, online or real life.

That led me to wonder if I should have two blogs - one for art, one for life. But even though I'd probably post the same number of entries as I do now, it feels like it would be twice as much work.

When the student is ready the teacher will appear, right? Yesterday I was listening to an IndieBizChicks.com podcast which interviewed one of the collaborators of TheNeedle.org, a collaborative for plush (the more popular word now for stuffed animals, etc.) Eureka! I need to start a collaborative blog where members post their projects, we link to our online stores, Etsy or otherwise.

So I started looking around for an existing one that perhaps I could join. Etsy has groups of like-minded sellers called Teams, that I've been investigating off and on for a while. Sometimes they are organized geographically, some by art medium, some by subject matter. I haven't found one that's just right for me but I'm still looking - because there are lots and lots of them.

I Googled, without much luck.

So here I am to ask my artsy friends who read this - got any leads for me? I'd like the collaborative to be as fairly narrowly focused on various forms of paper art. Quilling would fit in here, for example. (Hi Paula!) If I can't find an existing one to join, I'm not at all opposed to starting one.

I know it will mean more work, jurying artists into the collaborative but eventually it will more or less run on it's own, I think. I'm mainly looking at this as a way to direct more people to my Etsy shop. But I also love meeting other artists and sharing their work with other people. It will be like a virtual craft show of sorts.

So leave a note in the comments or email me if you know of any paper art related collaboratives in existence or if you'd be interested in forming a new one with me.

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Double Trouble

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Hi. We're sisters and we're here to buy Priuses please.


Here's mine.


Here's Gretchen's.

It sort of feels like a non-event since we only put down a (refundable) deposit and won't get the cars for up to six months. (And they'll be 2009s, by then.) But we did it and we could not be happier.

There about 50 people on the list ahead of us and this dealership receives 8-10 cars/month. Gretchen might get hers first because she is flexible in her color choice but I really want red and red only. (Lime green is really my new color of choice, but it's not offered, dammit.) But we told the guy we'd really like to get them on the same day, please sir. ;-) Merry Christmas to us!

My current car is a Saturn I've been driving for 13 years. Gretchen has been driving her Sebring for 11 years. And they are both in decent enough shape that ordering a car is not a problem for either of us.

Simon's been bugging me to buy a new car ever since he learned to drive, so yeah, I've been listening to that for 4 years now. (And it wasn't so he could have my Saturn. He drives it if he's desperate but he's embarrassed to be seen in it.) Steve bugs me less about it because he knows how I am. My standard answer is, "My car is perfectly good, paid for and I'll know when it's time." Part of me had a goal of 200,000 miles or 20 years, whichever came first. Wouldn't that be cool?? (I'm at 136,000 miles now.) (Do you know there are people who have never not had a car payment their entire adult life??)

I've always had to put oil in the car once/month, which seemed to annoy Simon and Steve, but it is just something I live with, not a big deal. (No mechanic has ever found out why I have this oil problem.) But a couple of months ago I noticed the car has lost it's oomph, especially driving up hills, which I do everyday, near work and near home.

Steve and I went out for ice cream last Friday night and we had to stop to buy oil for my car. (I usually buy it by the case, but was out.) He nudged me perhaps, but I knew it was time. He said, "And don't Dave this to death now." That means his brother is like someone in my family (hi Dad!), who will research something to the nth degree.

I went home and logged into Consumer Reports. I realized that I've never bought a car that hasn't been highly approved by Consumer Reports. To me, a car is just transportation, not a fun toy. (Hi Simon!) Obviously, I have to like the look and feel of it but it's really just transportation, not a statement of who I am. (Hi Simon!)

I was happy to find, btw, that I could subscribe to Consumer Reports online for just a month, for $5.95 I think it was. I rely on them so heavily for a car purchase, that I was willing to subscribe for a whole year if I had to, figuring it was a worthy investment. But the month thing is perfect for me - and lots of people, obviously. So my serious research took 2 hours. But I've been back to the site many times since.

Gretchen and I both knew we wanted our next cars to be hybrids, even well before gas went over $4.00/gallon. And Prius was our car of choice, but I really did research all hybrids and non-hybrids too. I narrowed it down to the Prius and the Honda Fit, which is a non-hybrid that is actually rated higher than the Prius. I planned to test drive them both so I could say I made a fair comparison but we all (Steve, Gretchen and I) really wanted the Prius to "win".

From all non-biased sources, consumer and personal reviews, we just couldn't find any downside to buying one. Once Gretchen and I started talking about it with each other, other people and finding more articles to support the Prius, we decided, yesterday afternoon, "The hell with it. We know what we want, let's go get on the waiting list. Want to go together? Yeah, let's do it!"

We could have bought it over the phone but we decided to go to the dealership, just because. They don't even have one to test drive. So yeah, we bought cars without driving them once.

The deposit is refundable so in the off-chance we don't like it when it comes in, we can get our money back and the car will go to the next person on the list. The Prius is best for those who do mostly around town driving and keep cars many years. That's us!

As we walked into the dealership yesterday I said to Gretchen, "I am 1000% confident in my choice. This feels so right, it's easy." She agreed.