Thursday, January 26, 2012

It's nearly the weekend!

Another day down and I got nearly everything on my List done today too!

1. List 5 items in my Etsy shop  Check them out HERE. I was super happy to get them up there!
2. Find a home for the last pile of Studio boxes...yeah well they are still sitting here. :-(  I am short a craft armoire as we gave our oldest one of them for his computer. So I have to be creative about where this last bit of stuff is going. BUT it will find a home, eventually! lol

Polymer clay bracelet
 3. Photograph my new Monster High dress. This is an original design by me! =D  I used a super cute red tulip cotton and a bright green satin ribbon.  I gathered the ribbon at the shoulder to give the dress a toga-like feel.  This outfit included the dress, little black handbag, red polymer clay bracelet and the red edged rose hair pick. It can be found in my Etsy shop
Rose hair pick
Tiptoe through the Tulips
Gathered shoulder detail
























4. Make blueberry 'muffins' (in mini from clay)  Haven't gotten to these yet, but they are still on my list and it's still kind of early. ;-)
5. Make English muffins (real ones this time). I've kind of gotten addicted to Pinterest and I found this recipe a nd since we LOVE english muffins I knew this one was a must make.  I made them tonight and aside from not having cornmeal (and substituting grits...bad idea) these were AMAZING!  I will be making these often for sure!

So for the most part I accomplished what I set out to do! Now to start thinking about tomorrow's list!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

I feel accomplished today!

I am trying another something new...I am making myself a list of things I want to accomplish each day.  There is something wonderful about crossing an item off a list! Today I got all but one item on my list crossed off!
So what was on my list, you might ask?  Well, here it is:
1. Pack For Trade items
2. Mail     "        "
3. List candles in etsy shop
4. Finish Ghoulia's top
5. Make matching green skirt
6. Photograph the MH gang
6. Blog (and I suppose I can technically cross this one off to, since I'm doing it now! ;-D)

Bff's Ghoulia and Frankie
#1 and 2 came about after reading April's blog and discovering she had some Stardoll shoes and Monster High items she was looking to trade.  Turned out I had several items I would gladly trade her and a deal was struck. As the items going to her contained some of my hand crafted food items, she was willing to wait a few extra day, but went ahead and shipped me my items.  So her goodies went out in today's mail, and surprisingly I got my items FROM her today too!  We ended up trading for more than just the original shoes and MH stuff as she had a ton of Bratz clothes that she thought would fit the MH gals, so we added more items to her goody bag and I eagerly awaited mine!  (I hope she adores the things she's getting!





Ghoulia Ready to Strut
Sadly #3 didn't get done today, BUT it will become tomorrow's #1.
Clawd and Draculaura
  #4 and 5 go together.  Although I suppose I need to back up a little and explain where Ghoulia came in!  (oh and Frankie Stein arrived the same time too!) Forgive me for rambling, I tend to do that sometimes! lol  Oh yeah back to the ghouls.  When I bought Cleo back in November my intention was for her to simply be a model for me to expand my 1/6th scale fashion and accessory business.  I wanted a male and female Monster High as well as LIV dolls, plus of course Barbie and Ken.  I found the LIV pair on clearance and am happy with them. After Christmas I found Gil Webber (Monster High) at Wal-mart...I thought I was happy, I know had my 'couples' from each line I wanted to work on. Then I won Clawd and Draculuara... These 2 changed everything. I fell in love with the MH line, they are just so completely unique and different.  And gosh are they expressive too!!!  So I started perusing everything MH...back when they first came out I just adored the Home Ick Frankie Stein. I mean, Hello!  She's into sewing and cooking and crafty things...yep I wanted her!  However the stars never aligned (nor did our wallets) and Frankie stayed where she was.  Until...I stumbled upon another awesome doll blog by Emily. Turns out she had offered a Home Ick Frankie as a give away to the first person who wanted her!  That post had occured a day or so before I found her, but I thought what the heck...can't hurt to ask if she was still available!  SHE WAS!!!!  YEAH!!! I was stoked!

Then of course came Ghoulia. She has been one of those characters that never really called to me...except for one version.  Of course the version I really liked was the one that came ONLY in a 3 pack exclusive from ToysRus...with Cleo and Draculuara. (neither of which I wanted duplicates of.) So I trolled ebay and managed to find and win a nude Ghoul Spirit Ghoulia!!!!  By this time I was happy dancing in my chair!  
Gil and Cleo
Gil & Cleo, Clawd and Draculaura, Ghoulia, Frankie

Blowin' Kisses goodnight!
Oh geesh, sorry rambling again!  To make a long story short both of those girls arrived yesterday, bringing my total MH figs to 6!  So here are some pics of my gang

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Hey y'all!

Here it is the wee hours of Sunday and it's been a wonderful weekend. A little on the wild side too, but it's all been good!  I am so excited about the prospects for my shop.  I had a couple of orders last week that went into the mail on Friday, plus I sold off 2 of the Barbies that I have decided I no longer wanted. I included a couple 'samples' from my shop so hopefully that will help generate some business.  I am also doing a couple trades with some awesome ladies...I am getting some fabulous Monster High goodies in exchange for Barbie items and handmade goods from my shop. =D 
I've purchased several 'new' patterns for Barbie clothes (which hopefully I can modify for MH too) including a couple 1920s outfits and 3 japanese pattern PDFs that have LOADS of clothes! I have also been dabbling in miniature art work too.  I am honestly a terrible 'draw-er' but I like these! It interesting that many of my ideas come from area rug designs!
 This first design is patterned after some pallet art I saw HERE
 This one came from an area rug ,
As did this one . While I love the idea of this design, the execution was not what I was hoping for.  Not entirely sure how to manage a smooth solid background color, but the design is fun!

We got our first taste of winter  yesterday! And to say we got caught unawares is a bit of an understatement! There was a Winter Weather Warning from Midnight Friday night until 3pm yesterday.  Well when Hubby and I went to bed around 2am Saturday morning, there was still no snow on the ground.  It must've started snowing right after we went to bed, because I woke up to THIS!
There was atleast 4 inches on the ground with a steady flutter of snow.  It continued to snow until almost 3pm!  Remember me mentioning we got caught unawares...um yeah, how about no boots for anyone (but the oldest he's got a pair of my hubs' old combat boots) and no SNOWSHOVELS!  Eeeeep!  So off we ran to the PX (military shopping plaza) hoping they had something.  Well not only did they have plenty of shovels, we found GOOD boots for the rest of us and great prices AND the younger 2 got new shoes for school too!)

We were hoping to make a snowman, so my littlest one help me make some polymer clay snowman features.  Sadly the snow was too fluffy to make a snow man, but we will be ready to photograph the pieces we made as soon as we can make a snowman.  Since there was no snowman making to be had a giant snow fight ensued! =D  There was snow flying everywhere!
On the clay front, I've futzed around mostly, nothing has really been created although I've worked on 'parts' of several things.  Hopefully I can share more of those next week.

Well y'all it's almost 3 am, time to go curl up into bed with my hubby and snuggle away the rest of the night.  Until tomorrow!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Goals for 2012

I don't know about you, but I don't make New Year's Resolutions...they always seem to end up broken by the end of January. Seems like an exercise in futility to 'promise' myself that I'm going to do something if I pretty much know in my head it's not gonna happen.

That being said, I have decided I need to challenge myself this year.  I want my Etsy shop to do better this year than ever before! I've done ok in the past, but that was with minimal, heck NO, effort on my part.  Ok, just isn't good enough any more.  Now, I'm not looking to make a living off of my doll work, but I'd like to be able to contribute to the household in some way. Maybe pay a bill here and there or use my "OWN" money to buy the doll things I want.  (Not that my husband has any issues me buying things, but still...)

So this year I am challenging myself to weekly goals! I'm hoping if I share them here, maybe you all will hold me accountable!

Ok so here goes:
Weekly I NEED to:
1. Sew AND list one complete outfit in my shop, be it Barbie, LIV or Monster High.
2. Create AND list atleast 10 items, these can be foodstuffs, accessories or art work.
3. Photograph atleast 1 'scene' with the dolls. Just something fun to show off my collection

I don't think these are goals that are too lofty or unachievable.  I'm ready to get started and make 2012 craftily awesome! =D

Deborah

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

What to do, what to do?

So today I just putzed around fiddling with several different mini projects. I started some art work, none of which I am super-OMG-thrilled with, but it's nice.  I also made several polymer clay candles in orange, green and white (purely random colors! lol). I am trying to figure out what kind of project I want to work on tomorrow after my errands in the morning.

So I asked Draculaura to help me out, but it seems that she got more bewildered than I was at all the possible choices.  Hmm do you think you can help a couple of ghouls out?  What should we work on tomorrow.  Doll clothes sewing, mini-food baking (suggestions on foods would be helpful) or more mini art work?

(BTW the melted red candle and the dark green round candle were made by me from polymer clay! =D )

Monday, January 16, 2012

It's SNOWING!!!!!

About 2 hours ago my middle son Hunter went to let the dog out, only to discover that it was snowing. Now having heard this from him and his younger brother several times I was expecting to turn around and see a few random flurries as we've had in the past. But no, THIS was what greeted me!!!

About a quarter of an inch of the fluffy white stuff!  Now I'll be honest I am not a huge fan of it, since it makes driving a royal pain. (But secretly I'm almost as excited to see it as the younger 2 boys are!) It makes everything look so pretty.  It has continued to fall at a leisurely pace and the footprints (yes BARE footprints, the younger 2 just HAD to run out onto the patio to play in the 1st snow of 2012!) and dog's lead marks are now gone.  I am actually hoping that the snow will stick around enough so that the boys can go out and play in the snow after school!
I have been working on some little clay things, but nothing enough to share right now.  Hopefully tomorrow! =D
Hugs from snowy NY!
Deborah

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Um wow 2 months... (horridly wordy, sorry)

Geesh, it's been 2 months since my last blog post. And gosh how my life has changed! If we're friends on Facebook, you already know most of this so feel free to skip ahead! ;-)

oooh Hey you're still reading, cool! My last post was the 14th of November, we ended up leaving Georgia on the 10th of December. After a harrow ordeal with my husband trying to clear Post(get all his military stuff taken care of) and me trying to get our house in move-out condition nearly completely by myself, we finally made it. Although it would not have been possible without some amazing awesome dear friends! We left Saturday morning and headed to Kentucky. We stayed overnight at the campground where Hubby's family reunions take place. OMG it got so cold that we ended up shutting off the water so the hoses wouldn't freeze!!! (I totally understand the need to insulated or heated hoses now! Heck even with the water off the next morning as I was attempting to empty the sewer drain,(thankfully it was 99% sink water) the house was so cold and brittle it BROKE!

Sunday morning we headed on up the road to head to my Mom's in Ohio. They have several acres and graciously are letting us store our camper there for the winter. It was wonderful to get to visit with my Mom, Step-dad, brother and sister for a couple days. My mom has been in poor health lately and had only just recently come home from having a partial hip replacement done. My Father-in-Law came down to visit us that night and we had a lovely dinner.

Monday was spent running around trying to find everyone 'real' winter coats and such, as well as renting a Uhaul and having to buy another hitch since the ball on ours was much to large. It was a busy day, but after spending a couple hours in the cold we had everything (or atleast what we thought was everything! lol) that we wanted to bring with us to New York.

Tuesday morning we set off on the last leg of our journey. It was a wonderful trip, actually. Pennsylvania is gorgeous as is the portion of New York we drove through. The last hour was rather nerve wracking though as we never realized that the closer you get to the east coast the earlier the sun sets!!! Thathttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif day coming in it was pitch black by 4:30 in the afternoon!!! OMG!!! To make matters worse this area is very mountainous and having never driven these roads in the daylight, we pretty much had ourselves convinced that there were sheer cliffs and steep drop offs on both sides of the road! (While there are definitely those things here, the road we were on was actually very nice, after we saw it in the daytime! lol) But we made it to our hotel by 5 and settled in.

We ended up being in the hotel for about 5 days, and nobody killed any body! We didn't drive each other crazy and the dog and the cat didn't freak out...too much. We got into our house here at West Point, NY on the 19th and started settling in. Our household goods that had been in storage since the end of September were schedule to be delivered on the 23rd of December. Sadly that didn't happen...it almost did, but the truck driver drove 90 minutes from their base to our home only to realize he'd left his ID at home! If you know anything about military installations you know that getting onto one without ID is impossible...so all of our belongings were little sitting less than a quarter mile from our home! Sadly after making several attempts to find a way for them to either get a copy of the ID here, or finding a rental truck, the shipping company was forced to call their truck back and redeliver our stuff Christmas Eve morning.

Thankfully they showed up bright and early Saturday morning (with a NEW driver) and began to unload our goods. Sadly my dryer was badly mangled somewhere between Georgia and New York, so I am dealing with claims to try and get it replaced. And believe it or not I was actually looking forward to being able to do laundry. But other than a small dent in the control panel of the washer and the mangled control panel of the dryer, all the rest of our goods came through perfectly! It's taken me almost 3 weeks but I have nearly all of the boxes emptied and everything put away. The last things I need to do are the boxes in the Master Bedroom (todays chore) and a few more in my studio, doing slowly as I don't have nearly the storage space I used to, so I'm having to be creative!

On the doll front I have reopened my Etsy shop and happily made a sale within the first 30 minutes! I now have a permanent set up for taking pictures of my product so once I have it the way I want it I can start photographing items as soon as they are finished. Which means hopefully I can get them listed and up for sale right away as well. I have also added to my collection by 5 dolls. I found a LIV Sophie and red-haired wig on clearance for $8 for both, a Jake by LIV for $7, a Gil Webber from Monster High for $12 and oh my gosh my new faves Sweet 1600 Draculaura and Clawd Wolf also from the Monster High line. These are not only amazing to look at, their detailing is fabulous, but I WON them! Which makes them even better! =D Shuga Shug had a giveaway for them over on her (totally awesome BTW) blog...I honestly didn't think i had a chance or winning, but said what the heck, I'll enter anyways. So imagine my total shock and surprise when I got her email telling me I had won! I about fell out of my chair. I received them less than a week later and am totally in love! My hubby even thinks they are pretty neat.

I have decided that while I still intend to create for all three equally I am going to focus my collecting on just the MH figs, they are just so unique and different. My plan though is to only collect one of each character though. (although if I find the various heads out there I am not opposed to picking them up to be able to change looks without buying a TON of dolls.

So that about catches up my life and I will really try to post way more often! I miss all my pals! Have a wonderful long weekend if you've got one, if not, well take heart tomorrow is FRIDAY! =D