There really isn't anything like pixel art. The closest thing is counted cross-stitch, but that takes about 50 times longer to do. And I'm way too impatient for that. Pixel art is just so relaxing.

I'm still slowly working on my cyberpet website, though not nearly as much as I used to. I have about 20 creatures I need to finish before I can open a new section, and I figure at this rate it'll take me the rest of the year. But it's fun. I did this cute little dragon yesterday:



He's not the most impressive piece of pixel art I've ever done, but I enjoyed it, and I know my cyberpet friends will as well.

Oh, but I've been having so much wrist pain lately that I know I shouldn't do any more for a while. Or any crafts, for that matter. It's even hard to be on my computer for any length of time. I'm not sure why I'm in so much pain, though, except maybe I haven't given myself enough time to fully heal. So maybe I'll take a couple of days and just goof off. The problem with that is that I don't know what to do when I'm trying to give my wrists a rest. I mean, you use your hands for almost everything. The only thing that makes my wrists feel better is walking, and I can't exactly do that for three days.

Ah well, I'm sure I'll think of something.

Here are some more great Etsians to check out!



LillyQueen is a shop of really lovely, elegant jewelry. She offers really nice, classic designs that will never go out of style. I just love the photos she takes, too!




Wallexpress's shop is full of really fun and funky original art. Like she says in her shop, it's like nothing you've seen before! I really love that she uses nontraditional ways of creating her art; it gives it real character.

I've decided that I'm just plain weird. And not just the normal flavor of weird, either, but really truly weird, and that's the reason I can't break into the business of selling my art/crafts.

The problem I have, that I just recently found out, is that I enjoy the thrill of the chase way more than whatever it is I'm chasing. It's so romantic, for instance, to say that I'm an aspiring artist and that I'm trying to break into the world of art. Or that I'm struggling to get my craft business off the ground.

And how did I find out that I have this problem? Well, last weekend, after selling five items in my Etsy shop in four days, I caught myself thinking, "Wow, I'm doing really well. I should stop." WHAT??!!? What the...??!!? WHY AM I STABBING MYSELF IN THE BACK?! ........

I just don't know. It's almost as if I'm addicted to the drama of starting something new. The work of actually keeping a business running is so boring and, frankly, hard for me to do. I can't focus on it at all. I'll get a sale and be like, "YEAH! ...time to play video games for three days and forget to send the package!" which is not a good way to get more sales, let me tell you.

But I think I'm improving. It makes me cocky when I get a spurt of sales all at once, and then I start panicking after that if I don't get any sales right away. Which in turns makes me feel like a failure, and I work less on the shop than I should. Oh, this is so difficult.

What I would do for someone to compete with right now! That always makes me try harder!

So. I bet a lot of you artist types that read my blog are getting pretty upset with all the crafty stuff I've been doing. I know, I know. My mind wanders all over the place, and you can never be sure what I'll get into next.

Well, I'm going to make you a little more angry with this post.

I've been thinking a while about Swiffer mops. I don't use a Swiffer, but rather a Clorox readymop (because I have some weird prejudice in their favor), but nevertheless, I've been wondering; is there a better way of doing things? I mean, Swiffer and Clorox offer those expensive little mop pads that already have the chemicals in them and you can throw away once you're done, but is that the best way to go?

Honestly, since I've been using a readymop, I've been using old rags in place of the store-bought pads. And the rags work. I mean, they do about as well a job as the store-bought kind do, but then how much can a thin little piece of stuff do on a large kitchen floor? Well, let me tell you, not as much as you might think.

I decided to make up some crocheted mop pads for my readymop (which fits most standard Swiffer mops; I did my homework), and then tried them out. Holy monkeys, was I surprised! Not only is it ten times better at picking up hair and lint than my expensive hardwood floor microfiber cleaner thingy, but it also is a much more absorbent mop head. And it's heavily textured, so it gets a lot more dirt and scrubs away those stains without needing as much elbow grease. Here's some pictures I got of it:




And if you don't have a Swiffer or a readymop, you can always use it to decorate your cats:



And not only that, but it's currently for sale! And with a special introductory price, too.

There's a reason they tell you to fill the jars within a 1/4th inch of the top when you're canning. If you fill them to the very top, and your contents weren't hot when you put them into the jars... well, let's just say that it's explosively fun.

I was processing some apples that I wanted to preserve. Like canned peaches, only apples. Well, Cat and I had so much fun packing the apples into the jars that I think we got too vigorous and forgot our brains somewhere. We packed the jars so tightly that we had to push on the lids to get the contents to stay in.

And then you process (or boil) for 8 minutes.

When they come out, the lids should be kind of sucked downward in a bowl shape. That's when you know that they're sealed, and that you should have no problem with air getting in. Well... when I pulled these jars out, the lids were push way out, like a ball rather than a bowl. That didn't look too happy, but I decided to let them cool a little to see if they'd go down.

No luck. Then I got a little smarter and decided to let the pressure off and reprocess them. That was kind of dumb right there. Two of them sprayed sticky sweet apple juice across the kitchen, and the third one just kind of gurgled at me.

So I've learned a pretty valuable lesson. This is what I get for not buying a canning book.

So I've been working pretty steadily on the plarn mesh bag, and it's been going pretty well. The only thing that's holding me up is the obscene amount of bags this thing is taking. I'm about 3/4 of the way through it and I think I've already gone through upwards of 30 bags. I've drained our bag supply, as wall as gone through two or three trips to the store (which I purposefully forgot our cloth shopping bags at home so I could get more plastic bags).

The problem, I think, is that I made the plarn too thick and I'm using a hook that's way too small. So the crochets end up being tight and close together, and use up more plarn. This especially stuck in my mind after seeing and handling a plarn bag at a local craft show. It was looser and not nearly as sturdy as my bag.

But anyway, here's the picture of how it's going! I actually made a little change purse while waiting for more bags for this monster, but I'll have to post pictures of that later.



I have a fresh supply of bags now, so hopefully this thing should be done in a couple more days. I plan on selling this one and donating some of the money toward a good cause. I'm just not sure which cause yet, though. One would think something involving the environment or plastic bags would be appropriate.

I decided it would be fun to feature a couple Etsian artists and sellers that I think are just great! To get a little practice, I decided to start with the ones I've been talking with in the Etsy forums They're great people and I think you should check out their shops.




Enyaeire is an Irish born and raised lady who has lots of beautiful knitted and crocheted hats, scarves and wraps, along with some beautiful brooches, purses, and really fun things like water bottle carriers and cell phone carriers. All of her items have a fun Celtic feel to them, and I personally think they have a warm old fashioned look to them that makes them very charming.

Enyaerie also has a blog.




MonkeyThreads has a really fun idea; why not make removable stickers you can put on your walls, laptop, mirrors and lots of other hard surfaces? That's exactly what she did, and they're just lovely. Not only are they cute and creative, but there are so many designs that you're bound to find something that fits you. And if you don't, she's probably more than happy to make something just for you.




Shelialk makes really cute and fresh jewelry. As she states in her shop a couple of times, her photos aren't the best but her jewelry is still wonderful, and I agree! It has such a playful feeling to it, and so many wonderful colors and charms. And I love how many pieces she has available. There are so many to choose from that it's almost too hard to pick just one.




Indigoarts has a beautiful collection of really wonderful and unique jewelry. There's something so special about the magnificent colors she gets in her little clay charms that instantly makes me go, "Oooh!". And the designs are so fun and whimsical.




Sarahinflorida has really funky, big and bold jewelry and accessories in her shop, and they're so much fun. She also has a bunch of items in her shop that are being sold to help pink ribbon charities, and I think that's just great.


That's my list of Etsians for the week. Enjoy!

I've known this bit of advice all of my internet life, but it's only been recently that I've stopped listening to myself. I'll be sitting around, asking, "Why doesn't anyone pay attention to my blog/gallery/shop?" Well, somewhere down the road I just stopped applying the advice and kernel of wisdom that I know works best.

You see, when I started out as a pixel artist and cyberpet person way back in '99, I was pretty unknown. But because of my continued participation in all sorts of things in the community, from forums to email lists and taking part in other people's websites (it was the 90s, for goodness sake; you didn't have much socializing options. Blogs were brand spanking new, and I didn't get my very first one until 2000). But I was very active, and I made sure to interact with all the well known people of the community. So after a while, I no longer needed to advertise my website. It was just known. People knew about me, and that was it.

And today I'm a legend because I'm older than dirt in that community. But I digress.

The point is that you need to network and socialize in order to get your name out there, and I've been totally ignoring that fact for several months now. It's just so much easier to sit around and do nothing. But trust me, it really does help.

The last two days, I've been talking on a continuing thread in one of the Etsy forums. It's nothing too special, but it's fun. A bunch of people chatting and promoting their wares. Well, I haven't gotten a sale in weeks now, it seems (which, since I've only been there a month, isn't surprising). But after two days of socializing, my views have gone up, people who are hearting my shop have gone up steeply, and I got a sale tonight on these cuties:



And it's not just the conversation I've been taking part in, but I also joined an Etsy team (EtsyVeg, baby!), I joined some Flickr groups, as well as the EtsyVeg google group. It's exciting stuff, and it all helps bring people into my blog, my art gallery, and my shop.

I could advertise with real life money, but why not use a little bit of energy (and have fun doing it) and advertise for free? Start with the free advertising, and then work your way up.

So I discovered "plarn" about a week ago, and was instantly interested. I mean, there's all these plastic bags laying around with no real use other than taking up space and using as a garbage bag for the bathroom trash basket. We were just recycling the extras that we couldn't use, but I knew that, in the end, plastic bags are hard to recycle and cost the recyclers more to recycle them than they actually get out of it.

So I thought, what the heck? Let's give this plarn thing a try and see what it's like! I decided to start with the same design as my pink bag of death, because it's a good, easy pattern and it's also a useful item! Imagine the irony of using a reusable bag at the store, made from plastic grocery bags, instead of plastic grocery bags.

And it's actually really easy to make the plarn. It's a little hard to work with, but that might be because I made the plarn too thick and am using a hook too small, but my bag is surprisingly pretty so far and really tough and sturdy. I'm excited to start using other bags to see what they'll look like as plarn. Walmart bags would be especially pretty, with their blue and white coloration.

Here's what I have done so far, using Wegmans bags.



I've already started the mesh part of the bag, and it looks great. I'm thinking about decorating it with brown ribbon when I'm done, to dress it up a little bit.

But I'll tell you one thing. We have cats who are afraid to death of plastic bags, and they'll be really happy when I'm done making this thing.

I have a secret love of felt. Not like the special handmade, hand dyed wool felt that someone spent hours making. Nope. My secret love is with the cheap acrylic/nylon/polyester felt that you can get at Walmart for 15 cents a sheet (which is, by the way, made of 100% recycled bottles, so I feel kind of nice about that). It just has so much potential, and it's so easy to work with, but most people totally ignore it. What do people actually make with felt anymore, honestly? The cheap kind of felt. Not much that I know of. I know wool felting is coming back into style, but I haven't seen anything made out of the cheap stuff lately.

So a week or more ago, I bought a huge stack of the stuff, getting every color they offered. There's something really satisfying about having a stock of crafting supplies, so that I can open a drawer and get what I need rather than going out to the store (which means my projects are also cheaper for me in the end, since prices go up over time). I actually got all that felt for fall and Halloween decorations, but as soon as I got it home, I knew what I wanted it for.



I made these cute little dragon dolls. They're full of wires so that they're perfectly posable, and really adorable. The blue one I kept for myself, but the green one was made for a friend's birthday and has already left my home. The blue dragon is feeling a bit lonely now.



I just can't wait to make more of them.

I made my first Etsy sale yesterday! Well, to be honest, I made $0 in the sale because it was a sample product, buuuuut... It's a start! And what's really amazing is that I haven't been promoting my shop or adding new items. I've just been letting it stew, and voila!

So I'm feeling much less discouraged than I was, and actually got up the energy to get all my crap together and pull out my homemade lightbox so that I could post more stuff up on etsy. The only problem I have with the lightbox is the fact that I don't have bright enough lights to really get it to work properly, sooooo.... But that's another post.

I'm just really excited. It's a super small step, but it's something.

It's rather amazing, this blogging thing. You start out as a nobody. No one knows you, cares about you, and probably wouldn't give a fly's rear end if you dropped off the face of the earth. It really makes you feel like it's not worth doing, because you're obviously going no where. And it's like being in high school again. There are cliques, and if you're new in town, you find it really nearly impossible to break through the tough shell of the group to become one of them. So you either give up or sit with the geeks.

But then an amazing thing starts to happen (well, if you're writing about anything worth reading). As you write more, you get a few readers here and there. Not enough for you to really pay attention, mind you. Just a couple. Then you pick up some more along the way, that you again promptly forget about. All of this is happening so gradually that you don't even notice that it's happened.

And I, being as silly as I am, gave my blog up for crap because "no one" was paying attention to it. But they were, and I was too silly to see it. I was especially silly for giving up on it only after a couple of months. Most people will tell you it can take years for a blog to take off, and I had readers after only a couple of months. That's pretty good stuff.

So there's my advice to you. With art and blogging, you have to be patient, and all the while continue to spread the word about yourself. It takes time to draw in people, but once you get that initial flow going, the blog and your readers advertise for you and you no longer have to be a slave to it.

Chin up.

Memories are a good way of bringing light back into your life, even for a moment. This poor dragon seems to have lost his love somewhere along the way, but at least he can still call back those memories.

Alright! I finally managed to get an Illustration Friday piece done before Thursday I have mixed feelings about this one, though. I like the idea of it, but I'm not sure I like how it actually turned out. BUT, I learned something from it, at any rate.


Click for larger view

Size: 9x12
Media: Prismacolor markers, pencils, white gel pen and watercolors
Status: For Sale

Cat and I took a trip to Erie the other day, to pick up his car after getting it fixed. After we got the car back, we headed over to Michael's so I could get some hard to find art crap (in particular, my lovely new masking fluid and organic cotton yarn), and then over to Borders.

I read PostSecret faithfully. I love how open people are when they get the chance to be anonymous, and I've loved the stories of people leaving their secrets in the PostSecret books in stores and libraries across the country. So I decided it was time to see if I could find any secrets.

I got into Borders and instantly wondered where on earth the books would be. A quick check on the computer told me they were in Art and Architecture. Which was worth at least a small laugh. I got over to the little section and got rid of Cat so I could start my search.

The first book I looked in contained this secret:

"My exboyfriend said I never told him anything. I bought the postsecret book, wrote down every secret I ever had on the pages, and sent him the book. I hope he takes me back."

I felt like I was looking at something sacred. It was almost like hearing someone's prayers and secret hopes. On the one hand I wanted to keep it because it was special and beautiful, but on the other hand I didn't feel like I had the right to. I set the secret aside and continued to look.

I went a couple more books deep and found this one:

"Sometimes I sit and wonder, why do they love me when I'm so horrible to them."

Again, I felt a little ashamed at looking at this piece of crinkled paper. I never had any problems reading the secrets on the website. But the physical papers, the torn edges and messy writing, made me realize that these are actual people leaving these notes.

I looked through a lot of the rest of the books until I dropped one rather noisily, and a few minutes later a lady came and sat down in the chair in my section. I was sure she was there to make sure I wasn't molesting the books. I didn't find any more secrets, but I was happy that I had found the ones I had, and took them off to the computer geek section where I knew I'd find Cat.

I sat down at one of the tables and demanded that he hand over his pen. I then wrote down a response to each secret, snuck back up to the Art and Architecture section, and put the secrets back where I found them. My responses?

"Even if he doesn't take you back, I hope you've learned to love yourself for who you are."

"Maybe they know how special and wonderful you are under there."

This wasn't a routine rest stop for the little bird, let me tell you. He was so scared that he dropped over backwards and just remembered to open his wings and fly away before he hit the pavement. The dragon, on the other hand, was a little embarrassed and a touch guilty, as well.

I finally got my hands on some masking fluid, and I had fun experimenting a little bit with this piece.


Click for larger view


Size: 9x12
Media: Prismacolor markers, pencils, white gel pen and watercolors
Status: For Sale