Pickles, fish, peppers, corn, and pizza. So I got an idea for some silly gift tags, and here's the result. It all started when I was on the treadmill, walking...walking...walking... and I happened to look up at the ceiling (in the basement, so it was really looking at the floor joists) and see a silly gift I gave to my husband way back before he was my husband. The Super Pickle. It struck me funny at the time, and it still cracks me up when I see it. A pickle with little feet and a cape. Because he's Super Pickle.

That made me think of doing something with a pickle, and I had this cool green cardstock just waiting to become something neato. And so were born the food tags.

I think they're a hoot. A couple of people have already bought them (one bought some pickles, one bought some fish), so obviously I'm not the only one with this silly sense of humor. Check 'em out in my Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=63053&section_id=5006265

My newest bracelet is an explosion of shades of orange, yellow, and pink. I absolutely LOVE the way this turned out! It's freeform, which means I didn't really plan any of the splotches of color -- I just added them where they seemed right.

I'm gonna make another one of these! This one's on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5533895

I've been beading again! It seems like forever since I've sat down with my massive stash of beads and created anything, but now that I've started again I'm having such a great time. I'm always drawn to seed beads, so the creations so far use hundreds (thousands?) of these tiny wonders. I love all the patterns that can be created by weaving them together.

Here are two of the most recent projects, a Raspberry Wave bracelet that uses some of the prettiest magenta/purple beads I've seen. I mixed those with some iridescent lined beads that have a really pale lavendar tint and put everything together in an abstract pattern.

The other project uses matte gold seed beads and shiny silver bugle beads for a really strange and interesting cuff. I even found some great buttons that perfectly matched the gold beads to use for closures.

Both are listed in my Etsy shop:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5527588
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5533228

Insults. Sarcasm. Anyone who knows me knows what a sarcastic sense of humor I possess. The strangest things strike me as funny, and there are things that'll just make me laugh no matter how many times I see them (the Burger King guy, for example, in that video that's been floating around the internet forever).

So, being the anal-retentive person I am (and being such, I know when to put the hyphen in anal retentive), I've been saving a list of insults, weird humor, silly sayings, etc., that have come to me through various emails over the years. I read through the list and still crack up at some of them.

What to do with this massive list? How best to share its humor with the masses? Or with the one or two other people in the world who have warped senses of humor like mine?

The Answer: Create tiny greeting cards. Tiny. Small. Mini. Okay, you get the idea. But greeting cards need envelopes, so I first had to make tiny envelopes. I decided that 1-1/2" x 1" was a good size. Why? Because I had already created a template that size and because I had a bunch of paper lying around that would work wonderfully. Elegant little envelopes for my tiny greeting cards. And, since there's absolutely no use in giving a greeting card to someone unless they know who it's from, I decided to make them folded cards so there's room (granted, a small amount of room) on the inside for a signature, phone number, or just a smiley face (in case the sender wants to remain anonymous).

The picture's a sampling of the ones I created. I listed them on Etsy because I thought they might be enjoyed by some of the Etsyans roaming around there. I've encountered some great senses of humor on that site.

Here's the listing: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5515784

CONTEST Announcement!!! There are some really nice and talented people selling their handmade wares on Etsy, and zero (whose real name is Aija) is one of them. She purchased a bunch of my little recycled atlas envelopes and uses them when she ships out her creations. Aija makes the coolest little knitting stitch counters using all kinds of things -- freshwater pearls, natural gemstones, paper beads, and other stuff.

But the thing that really draws my attention is Aija's blog, sockpr0n, where she posts photos of the incredible things she knits.

And now... Aija's having a CONTEST! She's awarding gift certificates from a variety of Etsy shops, mine included. The contest ends on March 20, so be sure to check it out and enter!!!

Here's the link to the blog: http://www.sockpr0n.blogspot.com/
You can check out her shop here: http://zero.etsy.com/

This is the business card size.


And here's the smaller one. I offered the option of putting stickers inside.


New stuff! I've been making a few new things, using ideas that were squirreled away in the back of my brain. I have to find some way to use the piles of paper that are accumulating around here.

So I have a new style of envelope. It's shaped like a flower, with daisy-like petals, and when folded up the petals interlock so it doesn't need any glue or adhesive. I made two sizes -- one that will hold a business card and one that's a bit smaller. I think they're fun! Both are listed on Etsy. :-)

Happy birthday to me... happy birthday to me... happy birthday... Well, you get the idea. I'm a year older. It was painless, and I even got to pick out the restaurant for my birthday meal -- Red Lobster fit the bill just fine, and I snarfed down a platefull of lobster, crablegs, and shrimp. Yum yum.

I've been hanging out in the Etsy forums reading posts by a bunch of angry shopkeepers after the publication of the new Etsy Constitution. The biggest bones of contention are the elimination of the Vintage category, the limitations placed on selling Commercial Supplies, limitations placed on selling prints of artwork and/or digital images, and copying. The stance they initially took on copying was that it was 'okay' for one person to copy another's work as long as they didn't list more than three of the copied items and they gave credit to the originator. Good grief. Copyright lawyers were scrambling for their class-action lawsuit forms. The sellers of Vintage are all left out in the cold, and many of them mentioned that they had specifically contacted Etsy admin as recently as January and were told that selling vintage on the site was acceptable. Sellers of Commercial Supplies have been told they can only de-stash... but the number of listings per seller is now 100... personally, I could de-stash and list a few thousand items. Wonder how they're going to police that? It's just a sad state of affairs.

All that being said, I'm pretty heavily vested in the site now, with it on my business cards and all. And I just don't have the time or energy to try to move somewhere else. I've started to list a few things on eCrater (www.time2cre8.ecrater.com), but I'm not sure how much I'll move over there. One of the best things about eCrater is that there are NO FEES!!! And Google Checkout (the PayPal alternative) is free through the end of the year. So that's a nice way to experiment. I have a feeling they'll be getting a bunch of new business this week.

I've still been making some stuff. Specifically, some more little books. This time I decided to use some of the paper coasters I've filched from restaurants over the years and turn them into little accordian books. I think they're fun. Maybe not as much fun as the pointy-head guy, but fun nevertheless.