I start a clay class today, and I have no idea if I'll be able to make whatever I want but I'm lost for ideas.
Do you have any? I don't necessarily want to sell anything - I want to learn a lot and perhaps purchase the stuff to do it at home. My first sculpture idea came to me in a dream, but I'm fresh out of dreams.
bowls with kitties, a large sitting sculpture, little sculptures, something totally new and different?
It's been so so so so so busy around here, I just wanted to let everyone know that I am here and alive. After Wednesday things will cool down. I hope!
Read more...
Giving a shout out to Viva Le Chat's shop.
Viva's shop started when her kitten needed heart surgery and she was trying to find a way to 
raise some funds to pay for the surgery. Unfortunately her kitty, Viva le Chat, she passed away before she could have her surgery - but the shop lives on in her memory.
Viva donates one third of her earnings from Etsy to imom.org, an organization that helps pay for vet expenses for low income families.
Stoli and Luxor absolutely LOVED her catnip mice. We'll definitely be shopping there again. It's so nice to support other people who give back to charity.
I hope you enjoy these pictures of Stoli and Luxor - I took about 30 of them and there were so many good ones, I really liked these though.
Luxor has finally learned that fetching is fun. For the longest time he would just play with the crinkle ball all by himself. So, I worked with him one night when Stoli was fetching his mouse. I'd throw the ball and Luxor would bound after it. Then he'd pick it up. Usually he'd just take it somewhere else and play with it but I made a ruckus to get him to bring the ball to me. I ravished him with praise - "Luxor, you good boy, what a good boy, you brought the ball to me, wanna play fetch" a long with some good petting.
So I would throw the ball and he finally realized that if he brought the ball to me, he'd get loads of praise and lovin'!
Now on to today:
My husband was filling the cat's food canisters and when he does this, it's a spectacle. The cats sit on the table with the food containers and my husband carefully fills the bins. Well today, Luxor thought he'd step it up a notch.
He used to just swipe his paw through the stream of food and hope to grab a couple of pieces. Today!!!!! Well, he looked at the stream of food and proceeded to hover his open mouth under it. He actually got a couple of pieces! Imagine that!
I've always enjoyed painting and drawing. But I'm more of an architecture slash graphic artist. But I suppose that is apparent when looking at my sculptures. Modern lines, classic look, simple, minimalistic, that's me....
Except I'm high maintenance, ask my husband.
Here are my first attempts at smaller ACEO style works. I'm more of an acrylic person, but I have a beautiful piece in my In-Laws house of Venice with colored pencils. So I'm thinking of my overall theme - French. That's me. Cats. That's me. So I decided, to incorporate both ideas into my work. I'd love to have feedback on if you like......
Jake & Micah is a shop featuring handmade kitty toys, collars and other accessories. Mei is the human behind the kitties, she's a designer and has taken her love for design and sewing and put it to use for all trendy cats.
Mei makes catnip fortune cookies that you can get in just about any color combination. Her products have been featured on another Indie artist's site, Pattern and Paw. I'll be blogging again about Jake and Micah after I receive my fortune cookies. Some lucky friends of mine will receive these as presents!!
From Jake and Micah's site:
Read more...The idea for Jake & Micah began in 2007 when frustrated with the selection of cat products found in pet boutiques, Mei decided to design her own cat toys and accessories. The goal of Jake & Micah is to create products that are unique and fun but also safe from pesticides. All items are handcrafted with your pet's happiness in mind. We use only the freshest, sweetest certified organic catnip in all our toys. Your kitty will know the difference immediately. After much testing by Jake, Micah and their kitty family and friends, these products are now available for super lucky pets! We know you'll enjoy our products and know your pets will too!
The bulk of my sales at Endless Whimsy are custom orders. Someone comes into the shop and decides they would like to have a sculpture in a different color than is currently available; someone wants a sculpture to look like their pet; someone wants a special set of something.....
I love do work on custom orders but I've just now realized that they are very taxing to the brain. Especially the ones where it's imperative that the sculpture look very much like their pet. I should try to limit the amount that I'm working on so I still have time to make stock for the store.
<------Bode at PitelSpot
Bode custom sculpture ------>
So the ears were really important to get the size and placement just right. Also, this adorable pooch has incredible eyebrow patches. I love his white tummy and his pointy tail. I used solid black polymer with a gold/brown mix and white accents. I love this puppy and I love this pose. I guess things like this make custom worth totally worth while!
I love having my own work on my walls but I'm sad to say not many of my paintings are completely from my own imagination. Most of them are painted from portions or subjects of my own personal photographs. But at least it is still art!
Here is a painting I did with watercolor and acrylics of Venice. It's hanging above my bed, and I love it. Of course I'm a novice, but it's not too shabby!
Mr. Macintosh was on the front page of Etsy today, I missed it but was able to find a screen shot on the flickr front page group.
The current Maine Team promo was the brain child of Backwoods Creations - the idea: to blog about someone else on the Maine Team with the opposite letter in the alphabet as yours.
My shop: WHIMSIDOODLE
Jen is a self-titled "work at home mom" with a supportive husband and two girls at home.
Jen has been making origami lights for years. Her sister taught her how to make origami boxes when she was in high school. One day Jen went into her art supply closet to get origami paper and discovered wooden shapes purchased years ago with the intention of making a mobile - why not do both projects!
Jen purchases her origami paper from a fellow Etsian - Jasminejewels - and all of her wooden shapes for the ornaments/embellishments are milled by a husband/wife company Lindahl Woodcrafts.
Jen hand-paints each component to the mobile, all of the ornaments, furniture embellishments and other wooden goodies and then put a varnish specific for acrylic paint to protect.
Jen then began thinking about all of the people she knew who made beautiful things, but for one reason or another are not able to sell the items themselves.
This is where the dream of Whimsidoodle began. To sell whimsical beautiful works by New England artisans.
What a great idea Jen!
A friend of mine is pregnant and I had remembered this site - so I thought I'd share it with you..
Popularity of names starting with EMMA
HAAAALELUJAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!
Yeah I've been so keen on getting ttv into my photos I've done it now and I want to make my shop all cohesive with the first photo being that......whatcha think?????
Today was my lucky day, I just happened to have a Poster Sketch of a treasury ready to go and I clicked on the treasury link - and VOILA! The dialog box popped up!
Here ya go, Chocolate Cake with Harvest Icing for EFA! Click on the pic and it will take you directly to the treasury!
I now remember why I don't get coffee at Dunkin' Donuts. They are slower than molasses and they still get orders wrong. If you've followed the blog, you'll know that I had an episode last year with tea at DDs. You can check out that post here.
I got my Sunday morning coffee at the Freaky Bean, but they didn't have anything for breakfast there - so I decided to get an egg and cheese sandwich over at DDs. They double checked with me twice on my order, and got my order together incredibly slowly. All the while holding conversations with their drive-thru microphones on.......
Well, one of the things I hate most...
I hate having to tell children that they didn't make an auditioned singing group. About 60 students have auditioned for a select chorus that I direct in my school. I was able to take 42 last year, it really should have been 40..........I'd rather only take 35. The more students you have, the harder it is to keep attendance accurate and it's harder to keep everyone on pitch.
On one hand, do you take a student who's on the borderline? Or do you only take students who are 100% accurate. Either way you lose - the group suffers with one, or an individual is upset.
I currently have 32 I'd like to take and I still have one whole day of auditions left to hear!!!!!!!
Just giving a shout out to Lindsay at Pattern and Paw - she makes collars for cats and dogs and boy are they adorable! Stoli has a bunch from there, but Luxor doesn't like them - he tries to eat them.
PATTERN AND PAW
Check out the weekly pet featured on their blog, Stoli and Luxor's feature is HERE!
Here's what Stoli just ordered:
Take a look around her shop - you're sure to find the perfect accessory for your pet.
I like to keep a small notebook with me to make lists, take notes, sketch, etc. There are just some things you can't do on your iPod or Blackberry. Me: I like to write, I like my hand writing.
I've had this particular journal for 2 years and it's on its last leg. So I ordered 3 more of it. I had to find it in some hole in the wall webstores.
Here's the cover:
my lilac bush
Originally uploaded by Endless Whimsy
I got this bush in June/July. I watered it when it needed it but we've had a lot of rain this summer. It hasn't been that hot. For the past two weeks though it hasn't rained and I let it dry out before I watered it. Maybe I let it go too long, but I've been watering it since it turned brown.
Is it time for the leaves to drop? Does it look like it has a disease? I love this bush like it's my second/third baby next to my cats. It's a dwarf lilac.
I don't want it to die. I cut the blooms off when they died and it was fine for a long time. Now I just am worried that I under/over watered it.....
HELP!
Eiffel Power
Originally uploaded by Endless Whimsy
I found this fragment of Stoli and Luxor's Sisal/Carpet scratching post by Arubacat. It was on the floor and calling to me.
Doesn't it just look like th Eiffel Tower????
Lemon Drop
Originally uploaded by Endless Whimsy
Ahh, still frothy from the shaking.
yum yum yummy! More vodka than lemon of course!
I made a list, I've checked it twice and I think I've covered everyone. I've been searching all over the handmade treasures on Etsy to try to find stuff for the people on my list...I've been fairly successful so far.
By JessicaSharrah:
Start your holiday shopping early by taking the handmade pledge! Mass produced items are so 1999! Everyone loves receiving handmade gifts, especially when part of the proceeds goes to support a good cause:
Endless Whimsy is inviting you to a birthday party that supports homeless and needy animals. EFA Artists for Animals is celebrating their first birthday with the Birthday Bash Coupon for 20% off!
From Sept. 15th-30th, Endless Whimsy (along with over 100 other shops) will be participating in the EtsyForAnimals Team's birthday bash! (you can find all the participants on the EFA website here).
To use the coupon in ANY of those shops, use my coupon code, WHIMZ, and receive 20% off your order (excluding shipping). You can use the same code (WHIMZ) in every shop participating in the Birthday Bash, just be sure you get everything you want in one purchase for each shop because you can only use it once per shop.
To use the coupon put "EFA birthday bash coupon code WHIMZ" in the notes to seller for ANY participating shop and then either wait for a revised invoice or pay and get a refund. There are different coupon codes for every shop so EFA can keep track of who brings the most people to the sale. If you've already received a code from another shop, keep using theirs for every purchase you make between September 15 through the 30. If you are just hearing about this sale from my site - use mine WHIMZ. Please feel free to pass my code on to anyone else you know who might enjoy helping animals by purchasing handmade items. Please contact me if you have any questions.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
