Camping Trip, Giveaway Winner, and More News

Wow, the last couple weeks have been crazy. The two craft fairs I was in went very well, so thank you to everyone who stopped by! I loved doing the feather hair extensions. They're not exactly a very "creative" endeavor, but I enjoyed the look on girls' faces when they looked in the mirror after the extensions were in. That's why I enjoyed working in a salon; sometimes just the simple act of helping someone feel pretty can really light up your day. I'd love to work in a salon again. I'm not a cosmetologist, I just did the receptionist work, but it was a great experience.

I also took some time to go camping the week after I wrote the last blog. We went to Kettle Moraine State Park, only half an hour from us. It was so gorgeous out there. Our campsite was nice, with plenty of trees between us and the other campers, which is the way I like it. The only downside was because it was at the edge of the campground, it was close to the highway, so we were stuck with highway sounds all night. Oh well. During the day we did some hiking. Our favorite trails were the Nordic Trail loops. There were several different loops of varying difficulties and lengths. We chose a moderate one; it took us about an hour to do the 3 mile loop. It had some very gorgeous scenery and we stopped for a few photos. Our dog enjoyed it too!

I took these pics with my Retrocam app:

Last week, I did a very fun giveaway contest with Rachael of Talk 2 the Trees. She makes wonderful art herself, and hosts giveaways every Monday. The contests last for a week. You can enter right up until the following Monday morning. I decided to do a giveaway of this cute little item here:

It was a great experience, and brought many new friends and fans my way. Hello to all my new followers and thank you! And congratulations to Lillian Link, who was the winner of this giveaway! Check out Rachael's latest blog to enter in her next giveaway, and if you're an artist, I would definitely recommend contacting her about hosting a giveaway in the future! :)

I have a few more Halloween projects I'm sharing with you (pics below). I've kept very busy in between working on a few custom mask orders. If you want any custom orders for Halloween, please contact me soon; it looks like I'll be so busy I may not get my own costume done. Lol. For those of you who missed out on the giveaway, I have a few more skull clips available, as well as a couple new masks, new jewelry, and some knit items. I am still working on listing them all, so if they're not available at my Etsy shop yet, they will be shortly!

Listening to: Regina Spektor

Busiest Time of the Year!

So many things to blog about today! Let's start off with some treasury love:
The Perfect Pause Between Summer and Winter
Also, Peacocks
I Ain't No GIRLIE GIRL
Last of the Summer Blooms
Don't Flame Me For This, But....
Fallin Victorian
Hey Heat! Make Like a Tree and Leave
Birds of a Feather Flock Together
A Burnt Autumn
No Match for Kate Winslet
Crimson and Brown
Mmmmm... Pumpkin!
Fun for Girls, Fun for Boys
Fall into Love
The Colors of Fall
Falling Leaves 2011
Faeries of Etsy
Orange and Black
In the Light of the Halloween Moon
Autumn Colors

Thank you to everyone who featured me! Autumn and Halloween are definitely favorites for treasury-makers, and many of my items do fit right in.

Next on the list of things to blog about, a very fun announcement! I will now be doing FEATHER EXTENSIONS at my craft fairs! Feather extensions seemed a perfect fit with my love of feathers and hair accessories. I also have some hair "bling" (basically tinsel) for some extra fun. My feather extensions are just like the ones you see in salons. They can be washed, curled, or flat-ironed. They last a very long time in your hair. You will probably get bored of them before they start to look faded. The hair bling only lasts a few days; it comes out with a couple of washes and cannot be curled or flat-ironed. They're fun for festivals and one-day events.

Speaking of events, just a reminder of my upcoming events. Autumn is a very popular time, especially for my masks and costume pieces, so if you plan on coming to the events, try to get there early! If you are shopping online and are putting off that purchase, make sure you get it before the event, because things will be going fast! To see my events, please check my Facebook page or my Webs page.

Speaking of costuming, custom orders, and Halloween, if you plan on getting any custom costume pieces for Halloween, contact me soon! My time slots are already filling up! Yikes! Message me on my Etsy shop, the above links for my web page or Facebook page, or just comment right here! I'll see what I can do! :)

I have tons more things to talk about, but I also have tons more things on my to-do list today, so I better get to work! I promise more updates soon! I have several new projects to show off!

Listening to: Orion Rigel Domisse
Pics: more new autumn items!

Autumn Products and Craft Fairs

I have two imminent craft fairs:

Autumn Art on the Marsh on September 25th in Horicon,

and

Watertown Fall Festival on October 1st in Watertown.

Those are the Facebook event links. If you aren't a fan of Facebook, you can look at my Webs page for more information on the events. (My Webs page doesn't have much else going for it right now; I am frustrated with its lack of photo storage. Anyone have suggestions for free web page hosting sites, or should I suck it up and pay for a website?)

I am really excited for autumn. It took me a little while to let go of summer; sometimes I feel like we rush to the next holiday way too soon around here. Halloween stuff was up at the beginning of August, and Christmas stuff is already being put out. We see holiday items for so long, that by the time we get to the actual holiday, we're already sick of it!

But Halloween is something I don't ever think I could be sick of, even if it lasted all year. I love the creepy decorations and horror movies and haunted houses and most of all, the costumes. I wish we had excuses to wear costumes all the time. If I could throw a theme party to get people dressed up in costumes at least once a month, I'd be a happy happy girl.

So as you can guess, I'm really focusing on costume pieces right now. Of course there are the faerie wings; I'm even working on a pair with a matching mask and headband all made specifically for each other. I have many other ideas for matching costume pieces as well, which I'll hopefully be able to finish before Halloween. In addition to those, I'm working on several more masks. Leaf masks seem to be more popular at this time of year, but I'm also working on a super-secret project relating to masks that I'm not ready to talk about until I successfully finish a few.

In addition to all these projects, I'm also working on a few personal projects (as always). I am experimenting with terrariums, and when I complete my first one, I'll post a picture. I'm knitting like crazy as well. I decided that to be smart, I should start planning my Christmas gifts NOW since I like to make my gifts and I often don't finish all the gifts in time. If I start four months early, maybe I'll have a chance this year! As you can guess, with all the projects I'm working on, my sketch-of-the-day series has taken what seems to be a permanent vacation. I really do hope to get back into it, but with the projects plus work plus networking online plus an actual personal/social life, time is lacking. I will probably do some on-and-off sketching, and maybe I'll pick the habit up again during the slow winter months. (Ugh, I can't believe I just said the w-word... I'm so not ready for that one yet!)

As another personal side note, Kim Boekbinder of my earlier blog sent me a thank-you package! True to her unique style, I opened an envelope made from folded paper to find a handmade fabric envelope with a bright yellow flower, and I opened the fabric envelope to find a thank-you card with a cut-out picture of Kim that appears to be drawn by the talented Molly Crabapple. Inside is my name on sparkly paper and Kim's signature. Also inside the fabric envelope: a handdrawn notecard with a tree bearing golden leaves, small blue and white silk flowers, random buttons, and fabric scraps with extra-sparkly sequins. Let me just say that Kim is amazing. She is so personable with her fans, and her style, once again, is so unique and fun. In fact, here's a pic:

Ok, I'm done geeking out, I swear!

Here, to make up for my geeklove, have some photos of some of my new products! :)

Kim Boekbinder's Impossible Tour

Kim Boekbinder is one of my favorite artists. I know I've mentioned her at least once in the "Listening to" section I like to put at the bottom of my blogs. Kim is unique, both fashionably and in her style of music.

Every song on her album, The Impossible Girl, is unique and different from each other. Every song expresses a different emotion. There are some that make you laugh, some make you cry. Some are a bit creepy, some are sparkly bits of fun, and some are simply beautiful. Most of the links in this paragraph are to her videos, because her videos, no matter the content of the song, are visually stunning and magical. Kim Boekbinder is, in a word, amazing.

 
I could gush about simply this album for the entire blog, but I'll move on.

Kim has started a tour, named of course the Impossible Tour, and like her, it is unique and original. Let me borrow a bit from her press release to explain why this tour is so different:

"Iconoclastic New York musician, Kim Boekbinder, has set the internet abuzz with her passionate rant about the state of the music industry and how she’s decided to circumvent the broken system by using her vibrant social media presence to pre-sell her shows BEFORE they are even booked. Kim’s first test run of the idea was launched on Kickstarter and she got her funding for a show in New York City in under 24 hours.Now she's doing a 10 date US tour.

Here's a fun video of Kim explaining her tour:







What's best about Kim? Her connection to her fans. I've been waiting to do this, even though it's so silly, but.... *SQUEE!!* I got an email from Kim Boekbinder! To help promote bloggers to blog about her tour, she promised to answer three questions. I could only think of one. Here it is:

1) You have such a unique sense of fashion. What inspires you?

"I am inspired by shiny things, old rusty things, nature, decay, and the blueness of the sky. I love handmade things and things that are falling apart. Things with a story."

Thank you, Kim. You and I have that in common. I am actually working on a package for Kim, of hair clips and masks personalized to her sparkly tastes. I hope she likes them, and I hope you like this blog. Thank you for listening, and please, look into this tour. If you are anywhere close to her shows, please buy a ticket. I promise you won't be disappointed. If, like me, the shows are too far away, at least give her music a listen and watch some of her videos. Again, you won't be disappointed. Thank you!

Introducing: Faerie Wings!

I have been a busy bee since that last post. I went camping for a week and spent the rest of the time working on that "mysterious project" of mine. Well, I unveiled them at the Riverfest craft fair, and since then I've put the ones that didn't sell on my Etsy site. So here they are: Faerie Wings!

I have really enjoyed putting these together, and this is just the first batch. I have plans for many more. I am trying to make some that match some of the masks I have available, for stunning Halloween costumes and more. In my Etsy listings, I've already suggested matching masks and accessories right in the descriptions. It is such a joy for me to see people get excited about them. I love all of my accessories, but I think costuming is my absolute favorite. I've always loved Halloween, Mardi Gras, masquerades (hell, my wedding was a masquerade party) so this is definitely the way I love to do things.

Faerie Wings section of my Etsy shop

In other news, I made it about two weeks with my sketch-a-day commitment until I kind of took a break. (read: I haven't done a sketch in about a week.) This is mainly because of the stress of the craft fair, but it's been almost a week since the fair and I haven't really made an attempt to get back into it, so I need a kick in the butt. I finally have a full day off that I'm not spending cleaning or re-organizing or listing Etsy items, so I have no excuse not to get one done today. Keep an eye on my Twitpic feed to see my sketches, my new products, and more. I promise I'll get back to it!

I have two fairs coming up in September, so I'm looking at another busy month. Speaking of things I haven't been keeping up on... Remember the walk I vividly described in the last post? I haven't taken one since, unfortunately. I've been suffering with knee pain for awhile, but lately, it has gotten much worse. I've been managing it with a knee brace and naproxen, and I made it through camping and hiking just fine, but I haven't braved a nice long walk in awhile. I want to do more walking before the weather gets too cold. I love autumn very much, but it is a bit of a depressive season as we head into the frigid winter months.

~Segue~ Speaking of autumn (lol) I have been listed in a few more treasuries, and made one of my own. Here are the links:
Deep in the Forest
What do you MEAN that was POISON ivy???
Autumn
Fall is Comming [sic]
All Hallows Eve
And the one I made: New England Beach

That is it for today. I will tell you more details of how the Riverfest craft fair was and all about the upcoming craft fairs next time!

Listening to: A Particularly Vicious Rumor
Pics: I was going to post a few more autumn-themed items, but Blogger is being stupid at the moment, so I'll add them next time! :)