Dec 12th- REST!

Yesterdays Handcrafted Holiday Sale went wonderfully! I arrived to find that one of the boxes (my special Jaguar box with mosaic tiles) had already been reserved as a wedding present! How special! Met so many wonderful vendors with beautiful stuff to sell and the people who came in to buy were all in wonderful moods, sipping wine and nibbling Christmas cookies (the frosted cookies were like little cupcakes, I had to remind myself of Pilates and not go for seconds) and BUYING! It was great to see people walk out with little bags of this and that. I had a few painted records, record mirrors and boxes sell and the Christmas cards were a big hit. I did well!
So glad that small businesses and artists and artisans can still do a little business in this economy right now. I had so much fun, it was nice to get out and be social. I took some photos of everyones shop (some are a little blurry, I apologize) and bought some tiny affordable gifts as well. Here are some photos from the handcrafted Holiday show at TEATRO DALLAS.

Sara Cardona who coordinated the event was selling some wonderful original paintings by Bangladesh artist Ali Akbar for $15 (framed!)


total cute explosion at this very kid friendly booth!



Such beautiful jewelry in amazing color pairings, I loved the garnet and wine colors best:


Jim from Mimi's Bees treated everyone who passed by to a little spa for your hands with some amazing exfoliating scrub...needless to say EVERYONE was walking out with little tubs of that stuff. Amazing!



loved the Latin theme at this table, lots of stuff for little bebe's and cool stuff for adults too:



really loved the little "Pio Pio Pio" bebito shirt




My booth neighbor was Maria Teresa Pedroche and she made the most wonderful little milagro soaps, there were blessing hands, corazons, ojos (eyes) and all kinds of designs, some had shells and flowers pressed into them and irridescent food paint made them shimmer! Did I mention they smelled wonderful?



It was a great day full of busy-ness and business. Today I put my gridwall back up, put everything back into place in my studio and after getting my own Christmas cards ready to be mailed I'll be taking a break from the studio to REST and do real life stuff. It's been a busy and eventful week- this little bee needs a day to rest!

Monday Monday

Had a perfectly wonderful day yesterday at the Buddy Walk. I was glad that Aidans Angels were able to not only make their goal but surpass it! The weather was gorgeous and the family was in good spirits.
Buckling down now for a week of working hard in the studio. Preparing for the cold winter ahead and possible bad weather that will hinder me priming records so while the sun is shining I'll be priming.
Trying to navigate google analytics and other stat monitoring sites to see where my marketing needs some help. Thanks to everyone who has already shared my links to etsy and my website. Next stop some more business cards and such!
Started Monday with good karma and made another treasury on etsy, peep out other peoples cool stuff here: she comes in colors

Electric lollipop

So I took some time to revamp my website finally and you can view and give me some feedback on it if you wish. electriclollipop.com It's the poor mans website that doesn't have a fancy shopping cart feature and all that jazz but it should do for now. I need to figure out how to connect my Paypal to it for easier shopping. Learning as I'm going. Most of my customers just buy through my etsy or contact me on facebook and ask for things there. Really want this site to pay for itself at some point.
Would love to hear your feedback though!
http://www.electriclollipop.com

Happiness is a warm bun

I'm trying to be better about updating my blog as I work on getting my little business up and running. Yesterday I got my giant box of record mailing boxes! WOOHOO! Starting to look like a little biz around here. This morning I ordered my first roll of bubble wrap, a couple rolls of packing tape and my shipping supplies will be complete. Now I'm on the quest to research a good printer that will do some nice giclee printing so I can expand my shop into other areas and not just records. Going to learn screen printing this summer and branch out. Yesterday I got my first customer appreciation photo! So excited! That little bunny record was commissioned by a facebook friend who is starting his own little music lab and wanted it to be christened with a bunny art record. He sent me a great photo and it really made my day. The desire to do this for a living and make people happy with little pieces of my heart is in full swing.

Jacob and his bunny record

Hit Random

I'm all into my Operation Bruce Lee project right now. And this image on etsy made me smile. It's called "Carnival in Italy" and it can be found in the etsy shop called Martha Haskins who also goes by Alexandra Whatton? Maybe I'm confused but what a great image. She has some fun pineapple ACEOs I'm also quite fond of. Go have a looksee!
This is a random post so onward we go... (wait, maybe you want to know what an ACEO is and I'm being an etsy nerd...ACEO stands for Art Cards Editions and Originals)

On the first day of the new year I got good news in my inbox, which is rare...usually I just get SPAM and stupidness. But the good news was that my favorite sushi restaurant which went BYE BYE (sayonara!) in 2008 will resurface in 2009...in April to be exact. This makes me as happy as a little ハマグリ (Clam!)Sushi on Mckinney is making a comeback and I will for sure be there with my chopsticks come April reopening time.
Speaking of sushi, here is one novel idea I came across on etsy.com

His name is Sushi Ed and as it states on the site "Meet Sushi Ed
- a benevolent bean whose interest it is to show everyone a way to see the good fortune all around --- because it always is.


For just $1 ($1.75 international) - a fortune card meant just for you will be sent in the most cheer-packed mini package you ever saw. Your fortune will feature a teenie-tiny photo of your bean friend, Ed."
This is the cute creation of
Girlgolite whose got some cute felted stuff over at her etsy shop. Go peek!
More randomness from the random file- I've started a new book called "Beginning Mindfulness" by Andrew Weiss. It's like a ten week study in practicing being mindful. I really need this as my brain is always racing. ALWAYS. I know you can't tell by how cohesive todays blog was. Not random and scattered at all! I'll keep everyone posted on how the book works out for me.
The band is still finishing up the album at Hai Tex and it looks like we're getting our old practice room back so that means WOOHOO- NEW ROCK! New Rock is good. I've been experimenting with ads on myspace, let me know if you see this one around:

and the photos we took recently were all very beautifully and graciously done by David Mausey of Mausey Fashion Photography and were taken in the beautiful nowherelands of East Texas proper. Luckily no cows had left behind fan mail for us.
Ok, random is as random does. Sayonara sweeties!

FREE LOVE FRIDAYS!

Venus In Furs

How could I resist, it's one of my favorite Velvet Underground songs EVER! Let's shine a little love light on this shop run by two twin sisters (sweet!) who make these sweet little plushies (pictured above) as well as some nifty little ipod cozies, pendants and wallets. They even have some vintage threads up for grab in their shop. I like the little purple plushie monster named Calvin, any relation to the purple people eater? Did he eat purple people or was he purple? One of the great mysteries of the world. Check out Venus In Furs cute shop on etsy.com