just a short note

newest journal...

brrrr

i ended up binding 3 journals today. my goal was 4, but thats okay. i'm going to be adding a new journal to my shop every day, or at least thats the plan!

so how is everybody doing? i am doing alright...fall is almost over, sadly. today was kind of chilly. winter is right around the corner, which is good and bad.

good because:

spring comes right after winter.

it stays dark in my bedroom until a decent time every morning!

my 2 favorite holidays are in winter: thanksgiving and christmas.

i can wear mittens every day. (mittens are one of my favorite things ever.)

people wont look at me like im nuts for eating soup every day (soup is another one of my favorite things...ever. people thought i was crazy for eating it in the summer.)

my birthday is in the winter.

i just ordered some hot chocolate from the boy scouts and i cant wait to drink it.

i get to use my awesome heating blanket (thanks mom!!)

my frog slippers get a lot of attention.

i can wear cozy pajamas.

*****

bad because:

i dont have radiator fluid in my car right now...just water.

i hate when my nose turns red in the cold.

dry skin.

the snow plows dont come around much where i live (mom, i want to move back home for the winter, okay?)

scraping windshield...uuugh.

i HATE taking showers in the winter because im always so cold!

maragaritas dont sound as good.

i cant hear the roosters doodle in the winter (i LOVE the roosters!) :(

but worst of all, the bottoms of my pants get wet. a HUGE peeve of mine.

okay friends, thats all for now. i just got a new virus scan. it took 2 hours to scan my computer and it found 6 viruses...ew. i have to go take care of that now!

countdown

16 days till art vs. craft!

i have been working on journals and cards and all that kind of stuff, as you know, and i must say- i should have started this stuff a lot earlier! im so glad that i didnt end up going for any other shows as originally planned. i guess it was all just bad timing with the wedding and everything.

originally i wanted to have about 50 journals to offer but it looks like i will have closer to 25-30. not as fun but it keeps me much more sane and my finger wont be as raw from folding paper.

paper is the biggest issue right now. i work with 18"x24" artist pads, so there is a lot (okay, a ton) of x-acto goodness going on right now. im thinking about taking my paper to a print shop to have it cut. i figure that if i can even get the reams cut in half (which is the first step, every time) that alone will save me a bunch of hours. i would like it all to be cut for me so i wouldnt have to worry about it, but the measurements are weird. i cut the paper in half, put the two piles together, cut 2.25 inches off that stack and then cut that in half. thats for the large journals, the small ones have more steps than that. THIS is my main problem. the squares on my cutting mat are not 1" squares. they LOOK like they are, and they are measured to 1" squares on the cutting mat ruler. but they are like 1" rows and 15.5/16" the other way. you cant even tell just by looking, but oooh that really throws everything off when working on a large scale. and the artist paper isnt REALLY 24" long...its about 23 3/4" which throws everything else off. so i cant just line the paper up on my mat and cut 12" over, because it just doesnt work. uuugh im getting irritated just thinking about it all, and i hate numbers and math as it is. sorry about that tangent. im going back to bed.

its a little bit chilly

hello friends!

i finally got around to making a new card design for this holiday season! this morning my alarm clock went off but i was nice and toasty under my down comforter so i decided to stay in bed a little bit longer. we wont say how long, heh heh. when i got up i was freezing so thats what inspired me to make the new card design! i also made some new tags too.

yesterday i went to the store because i need more sweaters but i didnt find any. all the cuteness that was at target before my honeymoon is now gone- dang it. but i figure they are just clearing out for the second batch of good things. better luck next week maybe.

i waited for the mail lady today in hopes that she would bring my new ashley g. print but she did not. thats okay i guess, i need to buy some frames and shelves anyway. i have TOO much unframed art around the house. okay, not that i have a lot of art but the stuff that i do have is either unframed or in a CRAPPY plastic frame from the store. oh, or my favorite- the wooden veneer frame. uugh. my goal is to eliminate all those crap frames and replace them with wooden ones. the only thing that plastic is good for as far as frames is pop art because i feel that the two things would play off eachothers cheeseyness. sorry to all who like pop art. but im sure you could feel the same way too.

anyway, enough for today i have a lot of stuff to do before 3. holy smokes its already 1, i didnt realize that it was so late!! gotta run! i'll be listing the cards and stamps in my shop later this evening. as far as journals go, i wont get around to listing them until the mid week next week.

i leave you with a sneak peak at the new journal covers! if you see (part of) one that you like, feel free to email me for a price quote/info. they will be ranging in price from $28-$38 i think. they used to be cheaper, but for a few reasons i had to raise the prices. hopefully they are still considered reasonable prices.

cant sleep.

hello everyone! its 2:45 am and i cant sleep so im blogging. which is good since i meant to last night and never got around to it!

ive been working on journals (as you may know) and i cant wait to show them to you! with this new batch ive been kind of drifting towards my older ideas...the ones i had before i started with the whole journal thing. you see, i used to have a huge love for monsters. so lately ive been working little creatures into my designs here and there, and i must say that im excited about this. i kind of left them high and dry for a while, focusing more on nature. and while i still love nature more than anything because its so true and here and now, im finding that i need something that isnt so serious. the world that we live in is so serious that sometimes i just need an escape. my escape is crafting, as is most of yours, but ive noticed that sometimes my crafting just isnt exactly what i want it to be- there seemed to be a very small thing missing from it, something that i usually didnt notice. but now that my creatures are back, i think that i found the missing part. im thinking about even taking this all one step further. i know that a lot of people like to keep a journal, but i also realize that the world is a busy place and some people just dont have the time for one. i want to reach out to more people, and im thinking about turning my creatures into illustrations. (im currently thinking to myself: illustrations...okay, so i guess the whole screen printing set up and printmaking classes may be put on hiatus...again.) anyway, we'll see how it goes. i have a bunch of little drawings of robots and creatures hanging around that i never really DO anything with, and i think its the right time to introduce them (note to self: dont forget about all the holiday cards you are supposed to make this year, erin.)

anyway, im really thirsty and i think that was why i decided to get up in the first place. oh, and because i wanted to tell you guys about the new creatures.

a few new things

so im getting back into my crafting groove (slowly). ive spent most of the day cutting bookboard and deciding on new journal designs (7 new journals to be released around october 11th if all goes to plan!)
i need TONS of stuff to sell at art vs. craft in milwaukee. but im still going to list most of the things i make on etsy because its been SO long since ive been able to offer new journals on there!
here are a couple new things for the time being:

5"x7" art

card:
so today looks like a beautiful fall day. i want to go outside! maybe i will tell joe that we should throw the football around for a while today.

i have a stye in my eye. i get them a lot....too much, probably.

okay okay, i have to get back to my work! take care, everybody!

ooh i might go thrifting today! it's been SO long since we've had money for thrifting! hopefully i'll come home with something neat.

hello

hey everyone! im back from the honeymoon and extremely exhausted! i will be posting within the next couple of days, depending on how things go. take care!