The Good, The Bad & The Darn Right Ugly Side Of Things...aka Life

These last few days have been good (and busy!) and things are falling into place after a few weeks of bummer news compounded by more bummer news. I found myself frequently thinking that I'd like to just go to sleep and start over, I was wearing a very cozy but unflattering self pity sweater. But the best recipe is to just DO SOMETHING. Anything. Look forward. (Another post with some artwork on this theme very soon).
So, here's what I've been you to:

I found a part time flexible job to help with the money worries and be able to invest back into my business (Yay!) Very empowering, though I have to use windows for part of it, and windows drives me C R A Z Y.

Brainstormed grandiose ideas for the shop and implementing 2 or 3 very soon. (Highly recommended)

Taking charge of getting some exposure for my creations, which I work hard and put my heart into, why not reach out to people a bit. Psst, I was a music publicist before I quit to become a starving artist, hello? (I know) but I've always been shy about pimping myself. I'm sure you have felt this too?

I woke up this morning to an email that made me smile, my new brooches are featured on Modish today!

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New Spring Brooch Collection

My first spring collection is in the shop now. I'm pretty darn over the moon with how they turned out.

Pencil and Acrylic on Stoneware Clay
1.5 x 1.25 inches (3.8 x 3.2 cm)
Each piece is one of a kind, so when it's gone it's gone for good!

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Painting and Drinking

These are what I'm working on today. I'm hoping to make them both brooches and pendants, or make them either or to order, not sure the direction yet. I'm watching movies all day while working, drinking hot beverages and already got a good walk in today. Feeling good and creative.

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A Spring Sale in my Etsy Shop.

Spring Sale!

I've caught the Spring bug and a Sale seems a good thing to do for the shop. Shake it up a bit. Now, it's time to do some Spring work on the house and backyard where the garden will grow. But first, another cup of coffee.

P.S. Battlestar Galactica is officially over. Sigh.

Have a good Saturday,
Sarah

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Pencil, Paint, Clay. Two New Brooches.

I have two new brooches in the shop. Please meet Sylvia and Henrietta. They are illustrated in pencil, then painted with acrylics and varnished. I love the natural texture of the stoneware clay and paints, it makes for a beautiful delicate piece.

One of a kind!

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The Tudors, Etsy, Show, New Listing and Feeling Lazy

"Charlotte, The Girls With Antlers"
Acrylic and pencil on paper and wood
3.25 x 3.25 inches x 1 inch (8.25cm x 8.25cm x 2.55cm)

This past week has been a real strange one. Very stressful, but it seems that a few things are about to settle into place. Two specific scenarios that I really need to happen or else I might lose my mind. I do not want to jinx anything before the ink drys, so I will keep my lips sealed till I can let the cat of the bag. Fingers crossed that within the next two days I can tell.

Moving on, I've been keeping my thoughts occupied with creative busy work. The paintings I had mentioned in my last post, Affordable Original Art Series: Part One are all in the shop as of now. They are quite charming I must say. I've added a new piece this morning, "Charlotte, The Girls With Antlers" to the shop. Now, I'm watching The Tudors, wishing I could type without looking at the keys, so I could watch and type at the same time:) Something to work towards. I was doing some online typing exercises, but fell out of it.

On the musical side, I'm playing a solo show tonight in Portland, so I must warm up and practice a bit before I head out this evening.

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Affordable Original Art Series : Part One

I've been wanting to get more affordable pieces into my shop, I don't have anything under $10 which I think would be a good thing for bringing in more customers, broke or otherwise. When making one of a kind pieces it can be hard to achieve a lower price point and make more than minimum wage. My resin pieces are very time intensive and the resin can be very temperamental. I wanted something a bit more off the cuff that I could churn out within a day. Eureka!

Here is the first installment of my Affordable Original Art Series.
Acrylic and Pencil on Wood. Alice The White Bear, Amabel The White Rabbit and Collette The White Rabbit will be up in the shop this evening.



Secondly, new magnets with little quips and characters. The sayings are quite autobiographical and make me smile, this is a fun way for me to express my appreciation of certain things and perhaps poke fun at a few friends. The first handful that I put up in the shop already sold, so I'm giving a heads up that I'll be posting these over the weekend in the shop.







Happy Friday the 13th folks. I do hope I get some really good news that I've been waiting on to be confirmed so that I can shout it from a mountain top to you:)

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I got duped by the promise of Spring.

I was fairly warned numerous times that Portland will give you a little taste of the beautiful spring feeling, then snatch it away when you least expect it and dump more winter on you. I completely fell for it, though I promised myself I wouldn't. Right in the middle of my garden making plans and homework on what plants to put in the ground in the next few weeks, grandiose ideas of me refurbishing some yard sale furniture out in the sunshine whilst sipping tea and wearing only 2 layers instead of 4...it snowed today, it also hailed and rained.

But I did add a few new fun things to the shop.




I've had a Michael McDonald song stuck in my head since last week. Justin Timberlake did a great impression of him on the Jimmy Fallon show last week and ever since I can't go more than 20 minutes without singing it... Thanks JT.

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Sundays are pretty cool.

I've really embraced the idea of Sundays being a day off, more of a mental day off than physical. I can work, lay around, stay in my pajamas all day, get up early or sleep past noon if I care to, whatever goes. Sundays are my day to not feel guilty about not doing enough, or just the feeling of not doing enough. I have also made it my day not to worry about money. I've been looking for a part-time job to feed my starving bank account, though the options are quite dim. I've applied for many less than savory jobs and not one bite, I've interviewed for one that I knew I'd be great at, but no dice it seems. It seems I'm either over or under qualified, I'm not looking for a career. Us artists need their time to create, all I want is a flexible steady slightly anonymous job that doesn't require customer service. I depleted my customer service reserves years ago. Anyone else in the same boat?

On a side note, I love Craftopolis that checks if you're in any Treasuries.

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Featured on Indie Fixx

It's nice to wake up and have emails that are good news, like sales throughout the night (sales? what are those? I barely remember the feeling you slow months of January and February). As much as sales feel nice, so do getting features from websites and blogs you enjoy. For us less established artists who have a small or zero budget for advertising, it's crucial for success. Word of mouth or word of keyboard nowadays is our life blood. Indie Fixx featured me for the Illustration Friday series and that makes me happy, very happy indeed. I invite you to visit and leave some comments...

Read here.



I'm having some newly relocated friends over for Battlestar Galactica and what we call Homemade Burrito Night, which even has a stupid jingle that goes with it. Stupid but catchy jingle that I sing to myself in the car at times when I'm hungry, then I get embarrassed. Embarrassing yourself when no one is around is a very strange feeling...

P.S. I'm digging my new banner.

Happy Friday Folks,
Sarah

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Building my website

I'm getting my website design together, it's hard work. Designing pages of content to convey who you are as an artist and that will grow with your style is no easy feat. My husband and I are working on this together, I'm doing the design and he's the coding master mind. Mixing a hand-hewn aesthetic with computer technology can be a magical coupling, the results will be unveiled in the not too distant future. One more step forward to checking off a big chunk of my growing To Do List.

Here's some of the sketches for my navigation bar -


Hoorah!

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