Make way for Ducklings

just finished drawing and documenting this cute little guy. I don't know why I was in the mood to draw a duckling, but he is so adorable I am happy I did it.

I think the hardest part of trying to make a living with art is staying inspired. I have not had a true moment of inspiration in quite a few weeks now, though some would argue that my golf club covers were an inspired idea. I tend to only count my drawings and paintings in that list.

I also would like to take a moment to thank anyone who follows me on my blog/twitter/facebook. You guys are really spreading the word about my art and I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. Keep up the good work and I hope I can do the same for you!

Twitter Obsession

If you are actively trying to promote your etsy shop like I am, you may have found that twitter is a great resource. With one small sentence, I am able to reach as many people who follow me. The trick is getting those followers.

That being said, I have been using a few new tools. Firstly, twibes will connect you with anyone who lists themselves with your common interest. In order to use this successfully however, you must go on there site to post your tweet. Twibs is a great place to search through twitter based businesses. ifollow and wefollow are similar in some ways, they are both listings of people who will follow you back if you follow them. the major difference is that wefollow lists participants by 3 keywords of their choosing making it easier to search for others with similar interests. Lastly, I have been using huitter. The "mutuality" application is a great way to follow back all the people who follow you, or conversely, to unfollow those that have stopped following you.

2 weeks ago I started with about 30 people following me. As of this morning I have just shy of 600.

Day at the Beach

I forgot how nice it is just to sit and knit at the beach all day. Especially when the kids are entertaining themselves and i have a friend to hang out with.

I have been working on another blanket. This time instead of using 2 strands of worsted weight yarn, I am using 3 strands of sock weight. So far it is looking quite beautiful, but i am just on the first panel. I am not even sure if I have enough leftovers, I may have to (gasp) buy yarn!!!! A smarter idea would be to pay people to ship me their leftover yarns.

My great plan to have some greeting cards up on the site by tomorrow have been suspended. I did not get a chance to make any new ones over the weekend and I have yet to go and pick up my samples from Yarn-it. I have a couple of new ideas for father's day cards, but i still have not decided what the text inside should say.

Father's Day is coming!

Nothing makes it more evident that father's day is fast approaching then what happened on my Etsy page just yesterday. I knit a very cute Miami Dolphins golf club cover and put it up for sale. I tagged it as a present for a man. BAM! I got 35 views in the first day. I think this might have sparked some interest in my stuff, no?

The hubby is still lying in bed watching lots of movies. My job is to get him things from downstairs and help him get dressed. I am not loving this job.

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG Weekend

If it wasn't going to be stressful enough already, my DH decides to bump up his knee surgery to tomorrow. Now I don't want him to suffer, that is certainly not why I am complaining, I would like little notice so that I can get myself mentally prepared for taking care of the kids and him for a week straight. I know in life things get thrown at you you cant possibly be prepared for. I thought I was prepared for this. I had it all set up for the end of June. My mom was going to help me with the kids so I could take care of him. Now I am going to have to take on the task all by myself. Oh well, I have done it before I guess I can do it again.

I am so close to being done with a Miami Dolphins golf club cover. Of course I am totally distracted by this whole surgery thing. It will give me something to do later I guess, and tomorrow I may have a minute to take the photos before I pick him up at the hospital. Isn't it nice the way I prioritize?

I did get a chance to get to the new coach outlet in Jackson, NJ today. A little treat to calm my nerves. Almost everything in the store was 50% off of the already reduced prices. I got a very cool aqua leather bag with brass hardware for $130. It retailed (supposedly) for $359 so it was quite a steal. Ah, retail therapy.

Chocolate problems

I am a chocaholic. There is no debating this topic. In order to stay within an acceptable weight range, I have pretty much given it up. In order to compensate for that need I have discovered Stoneyfield Fat Free Chocolate Underground Yogurt. It fills that need and I dont have to feel guilty.

Now this is why I bring it up. Why are they the only brand that makes chocolate flavored yogurt? It is not so far fetched that someone on a diet would want to eat their yogurt rather then a candy bar. I guess it is good for Stoneyfield that they are the only ones making this flavor, but it is sometimes hard to find and can range in price from $.89 on sale to $1.20 at the natural market. And dont even try to find the Soy version!

Plugging Away

While I got alot of research done yesterday, that never feels like accomplishing anything. So I am making a point today to get out of the house and get tangible things done.

I have already put up a new item for sale on Etsy, and I may put up another one this afternoon, I am still not sure. I really should be creating but I still have things in my archives that I would love to sell before I start making new things; destash as the kids say.

My friend Bari at Yarn-It in Deal was telling me yesterday that sock yarn is flying off the shelves. A visit from the Navesink Knitters sold at least 10 skeins alone! I am not surprised, being a sock knitter myself, all her sock yarn is 30% off and it only takes one skein a pair so it is easy to stock up. I myself have at least 6 pairs awaiting my needles. When I make a sale I think I will treat myself to faster needles, get those socks done super quick!

I was contemplating posting my baby hat pattern, but there are about a billion of them available for free online so I will not bore you with that today. When i do something new and fabulous I will be sure to let you know :P

knitting another baby hat

It is almost like I am expecting a baby! I am currently working on my 5th baby hat this week. I decided they were easy, quick, and could use up all that sock yarn I have in buckets downstairs. Is there anything else you can make with half a ball of sock yarn?

I found a couple of cool websites i am going to try out:
hand made directory has tons of artists and crafters sharing their knowledge and merchandise
project wonderful is an on-line advertising site where you can bid on placement on participating sites. I have not bid yet, but it seems like an amazing idea

Family should come first

Let me start this by saying my FIL is in the hospital, again. The sad part of the whole thing is it was his own fault. Fearing a dependence on pain-killers, he decided, without speaking to his physician, that it would be a good idea to take himself off of the percocet prescribed to him only 2 weeks after surgery and instead load up on aspirin. Of course the result being that he started bleeding out through the ulcers in his stomach. Today was his second day in the hospital on a strictly liquid diet and it looks like he will be there for at least 2 more.

The reason I said family SHOULD come first is that I was very aggravated by having to add a hospital visit to my schedule today. I had intended to do my daily ritual, Facebook, Twitter, Etsy, Blog, then have some fun making my daughter a dress with some beautiful fabric I bought. Now with this new wrinkle I was lucky to have the time to photograph my new stuff! I am not mad at him, and I did go visit because I do care, I am just fearful that if I slow down for even a moment I will lose the momentum I have been working so hard on.

So its back to work, helping my daughter with her homework and then cooking dinner.

Today is the laundry

I have already done 3 loads of laundry and still need to do at least 3 more. It is not a difficult task, but I tend to have a hard time getting all of it folded afterwards. Ah, I dream of a day when everything is towels and it takes about 5 minutes to fold an entire load. That is a really pitiful dream, if I do say so myself.

On the positive side, last night I finished knitting this super cute baby set. It is purple and green, the colors of my favorite yarn shop in Deal, NJ. It is amazing how little yarn and time it takes to knit a baby hat. I got 5 hats (4 of which were donated to charity), a bib and a pair of booties out of the two balls of yarn I used, AND I have leftovers! Now I have to photograph it and put it up on Etsy. 

We will see if I have the will power to do all the stuff that needs to get done today.

what a weekend!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

What a long weekend. Of course, saturday we were busy all day with our usual errands, and on top of that I had to finish up all the loose ends for Sunday's festivities. Saturday night we had plans with my MIL for dinner. Thank goodness they decided we should sit outside on the deck because I am not sure I could have rangled the little ones successfully enough to have them sit through that meal. On top of that, my poor FIL was in a TERRIBLE mood and took it out on anyone within earshot. I drove up to my mother's apartment in the city immediately after dinner, which of course meant my little one had to hold in pee for the last half hour of the ride.

The next morning, during the quite hour between 6 and 7, I finished up the baby booties I am knitting for http://redlinc.etsy.com and watched Star Trek on TV Land. I can say that was definitely a nice way to start my day. Woke the kids up, got them dressed, walked a 1.5 mile race with my daughter, mother and step-grandmother, then had a picnic lunch in Central Park with the family. I think if my daughter hears the fraze "four generations" one more time her head will explode!

After relaxing in the park, we went up to my father's house to spend the afternoon with his family. Lots of cousins, aunts and uncles in attendance. Tons of food as usual. I probably should not have eaten as much as I did! Let me just say that I LOVE veal and peppers. Then off to home for some much needed sleep. I just wish I could have slept in today :(

The weather is not good for my health

While the rainy weather may be good for the plants, it is just not doing justice to my mental state. I have gotten tons done but I still feel like I have not made headway. It is certainly not helping that I have no motivation to get to the gym or leave the house in general.

In the meanwhile, I am now going to remind myself just how much I have gotten done. I now have 2 paintings listed for sale on Etsy. I finished my mother's day present for my step-mother and got it in the mail this morning with a beautiful card. I am almost done with a flower to adorn the purse I am giving to my grandmother, in-person so I have plenty of time. My MIL's present has been done for a while. Now I pretty much just need to sign the cards and throw them in gift bags. How does my husband get out of helping me with this?

sorry to be away for so long!

I have been knitting for mothers day. SHHHH! Don't tell the recipients! I made those adorable golf club covers for my Mother-in-law and just finished some pedicure socks which i must mail shortly for my step-mother. My poor mom gets the sort end of the stick, I knit her nothing. I wanted so much to do something extra special for her and ended up putting so much pressure on myself that I got nothing done. I am giving her some already done art and an IOU for the item of her choice.

My new shop is going up well. Red Linc Design Boutique now has a bunch of photographic items and the first of many paintings. I was told that putting up one item at a time is much smarter then putting everything on at once so I am trying to take it slow. We will see if I can stir up any interest with Twitter and Facebook.