Days Off

It's my day off today. Hooray!

And what to do on my day off?

Make stuff, of course.

Our friend Matt is in town, and he brought his wood-burning tool with him. So I thought I'd try my hand at it. (No pun intended.) It was harder than I thought it would be, but I did manage not to burn myself.

The difference between making stuff on my day off and making stuff the rest the week is that I keep the day-off stuff (or give it away), as opposed to selling it.

My beautiful cousin Abby and her equally beautiful (and very silly) little one Lucy are in town too. Lucy, who is almost 5, showed up bedecked in her finest princess attire and headed straight to the treadmill. It was rather surreal watching this tiny, sparkly, pink person walking in place for a good half hour. Then it was off to the hot tub, followed by a bath (did I mention she's a water bug?). When sleep was finally given in to, it was grown-up time! We all sat around the fire listening to Abby sing her beautiful songs and enjoying each other's company until sleep was finally given in to by all.

This morning, my dad is taking us girls out in his boat.

It's an old boat.

An old, small, rather neglected boat.

Wish us luck.

If I survive, I'll post pictures.

A Masked Managerie

First of all-

I'm so honored by all the entries so far into my giveaway!

Thank you all, and thanks for spreading the word!

☺

Meanwhile, back on The Cart-

Three new masked chitlins

joined the menagerie this week.

That makes 12 so far this year.

(But who's counting??? Me, apparently.)

I just had to bring them all together to make a little virtual quilt of sorts.

Oh, I'm just getting started! They're just too fun.

My favorite part to paint is the face, and these dollies get two.

How can I resist them?

I do need some more Halloweeny archetypes though.

(Not that I couldn't make a hundred more punkinheads, but variety is the spice of life.

And I like my life spicy! OK, Not too spicy.)

I've got a few more designs up my sleeve. Although, lots and lots of my designs never make it past the sketch book. I just tried (rather unsuccessfully I might add) to make a spider face. It was bad. I guess I'll try again. Spiders seem a Halloween necessity, don't you think?

200 Posts and a Giveaway (or two)

This is my 200th post. I don't know why that's a milestone, but it might as well be. So in celebration (and we must celebrate at any given opportunity, real or imagined) I'm giving stuff away! Yay, presents! I couldn't pick just one thing, so I picked two.

#1 is a dolly like this one here-

This exact dolly has gone to live in Australia, so I'll make the winner one that looks a lot like her. I'll let the winner choose her eye color.

#2 is a set of Cheater Quilt patterns-

The winner may choose any five patterns from our Etsy shop.

. . .

How to enter:

1) Leave a comment here and I'll throw your name in the hat. 2) If you're a follower, or become one, I'll throw your name in the hat again. 3) Mention this giveaway on your blog and I'll throw your name in the hat a third time.

Please indicate in your comment

if you want to win the dolly or the patterns.

. . .

Winners will be announced on October first.

Good luck!

All done now.

Who were those masked dollies anyway?

Got three more masked babes done yesterday.

○ ○ ○

This antique postcard inspired my favorite of this week's batch.

Tah-dah!

The rabbit didn't have any inspiration behind it,

except for the overall inspirational quality of bunnies in general.

This old Clapsaddle postcard inspired . . .

. . .this one-

Isn't it fun when inspiration strikes?

There is a noticeable lack of color in this week's goods. I don't know why. Guess I was just feeling
black and white and gray all over.
....................................
Hope you're having a more colorful week.

Before and After

I only got one thing done in time for Sunday night's shenanigans,

but she's a big one!

This pile of wood and skellies that graced Thursday's work table. . .

. . .turned into this-

Before-

After-

Before-

After-

I had to face my clown fears in the making of this. Researching through countless old postcards and circus posters for that just-right inspiration had me twitching, but I embraced my fears for the sake of art ☺ Ya know, I actually find clowns LESS scary with skull heads. It's those big red noses and painted faces that get me. *shudder* You can see more of it HERE.

What silliness are you afraid of?

WIP's and Marketing

Here's a little peek at what it is I'm up to today:

Skellies abound!

And I'm working on another trio of masked cuties.

They'll be joining this week's batch.

This one eats more than you'd think- And this one knows I don't allow smoking, but he thinks the pipe makes him look tough.

This little witch is a whiz in the kitchen. She did this thing with eye-of-newt and a little garlic that was delicious.

Remember how I lost a dozen or so mask designs a little while ago? Well, I did a thorough cleaning of the studio since then, and they were nowhere to be found. Grrrr! After stomping my feet and sticking out my bottom lip for a couple of hours I set to work on new designs. I like them better than the last ones (which is just as well, considering).

Heidi and Kitty want to know more "about marketing: do you also sell on other places apart from eBay? Art Fairs, galleries, what have you?"

What can I say about marketing? I know that we don't do enough of it, that's for sure. If we were smarter (or if there were more hours in the day) we'd be submitting stuff to magazines. That's a wonderful marketing opportunity! We got a lot of positive attention after being featured in the couple of magazines we've been in.

What I do do is to keep this here blog updated reasonably often, and I'm on Facebook too. Also, we have a simple website. We haven't done art shows or many gallery shows. We are lucky enough to sell stuff as quickly as we can make it, so we never have extra inventory for things like that. And while it's fun seeing our stuff in a gallery, I'd rather it be in someone's home. So we sell our goods fresh off The Cart on eBay, and now on Etsy.

I find that thinking too much about things like marketability takes away from my creativity, so I don't think on it much at all. I think that business stuff lives in a different part of the brain.

FAQ's

I asked for some suggestions for what to write about last time around, and got some wonderful questions-

Do you get a lot of custom orders? What's your favorite thing you ever created and did you keep it? How do you prepare for back to school? Whose art would you like to buy if you had the money? Thanks Heidi for all those writing prompts! Sometimes I need a little help getting my typing muscles moving.

And Jen wants to know how I manage to get so much done week after week ☺ I get asked that more than anything else! So I'll start with that-

I get so much done week after week primarily because I am half of a team. Dylan and I both put in about 40 hours a week on art and art-related busy-ness. That's 80 hours! I do the majority of the designing, all the painting and sculpting, and any final details (like clothing or any hand stitching). Dylan does the sewing & stuffing (woohoo! LOVE that man!) , the packing & shipping, the computer stuff, the photography, and he keeps track of all that pesky money business, which allows me to focus on the creative side of things more.

You can't give from an empty cup,

so I try to keep my brain well fed
on a diet of rich visual input.

It was no accident that we moved across the country to one of the most beautiful places in the world. Every day I'm treated to visual delights, and any hike or road trip yields a feast for the eyes. I also snack on other artist's blogs and websites, and picture-full books from the library. I dream a lot too, and make sure to get enough sleep so that that side of my brain is well rested. Yes, I do sleep.
Finally, something that I highly value which fuels those creative fires like nothing else, is communion with other artists (whether it's in-person or online). The internet allows me to make connections that never would have occurred otherwise. I'm very thankful for that!

I'll have to get to those other questions in future posts. Only 3 more posts until number 200! I'm still thinking on what to give away.

Thank you

to all my friends out there,

cyber or otherwise ♥

At a Loss for Words

Here's a peek at this week's batch-

It's been a lovely week here on the ole Cart. Beautiful days, late nights spent with friends, arty adventures. . .what more could a girl want?

Well, besides more hours in a day.

I just noticed that I'm almost at my 200th post! My, how time flies when you're chattering on. I'm certain a Giveaway is in order, but what to give away? Hmmm. . .I'll have to think on it. Meanwhile, I've got a few more posts to do.

Whatever shall I talk about?

Show & Tell

I love it when people who make stuff using our patterns

let me see their finished work.

Theresa used this Birds & B's pattern. . .

. . . and put her own unique twist on it,

turning it into a yummy Autumn feast for the eyes!

Isn't it cool? Love those crows.

You can see more of it, and her other creations, at her Etsy shop.

I got another e-mail recently from Michele.

She used this Storybook Girls pattern. . . . . .and made it using rug hook, needle-punch, and applique techniques.

So much wonderful texture!

If anybody else out there has finished a project from one of our patterns, and would like to play Show & Tell, please do!

I'd like to start a picture gallery of finished projects on our website, as soon as I figure out what to call it. Does Crafter's Corner sound too cheesy?

Boo Boo Boo

Inspired by those old German die-cuts and turn-of-the-century postcards, these three masked tidbits are my very favorites this week.

You can see more of them
(and even buy them if you'd like)
HERE.

WARNING:

The following is a pitiful tale of loss and injury.

Read on at your own risk.

I spent last Monday making 15 of those aforementioned little masks. Not the actual masks, mind you, just the design and template for Dylan to cut out of wood. I want to make at least a couple every week (on account of I love them so much), so we started with those three. Yesterday I went to retrieve the rest of the mask designs for Dylan to cut out the next 3, and they were nowhere to be found! We looked and looked. And pouted, truth be told. But alas, they have disappeared into the chaos that is my studio. Insert much crying and gnashing of teeth here.

That same day I broke the tip of my ring finger. I'm using that fact as an excuse to not do the major cleaning of my studio that is long over due.

So, boo.

○

I hope you all are having a better day.

Let's Go Halfsies

It's been a super productive week around here. Especially considering the amount of company we've had. OK, I'm a crappy hostess. I paint eyeballs while we chat, I admit it. But I make sure everyone has plenty of blankets and stuff.

Here are the eyeballs (etc.) that I painted this week-

Aren't these little half-girls cute? Maybe it's a little creepy that they're kinda cut in half and all, but at least it's the top half, right? I had too much fun making those tiny hats. The top hat was not as much fun though; paper mache-ing something that small was silly difficult. But I do love how they turned out, and my fingers took turns frolicking around with hats perched atop. I told my fingers that they really needed some sort of finger-puppet attire to be taken seriously, but they're a rebellious lot and love to go around naked.
♦

You can see the whole batch HERE, if you want a closer look.
♦
Hope you're all having a magical Monday.