I made the Etsy front page! That's two or three times that I know of. Right after this made it up there, ArchipelagoArts bought the Paris Chic pendant. I've had Archipelago marked as a favorite for awhile, so it's flattering that she likes my stuff too.

And the winner is.... Lura! I held the drawing last night for the Bloggy Days Giveaway, and she won. I'm off to congratulate the winner and see which Captioned Critter she chooses!

I have a couple of new ones to post this morning, after I photograph them... a Pontificating Pufferfish and a Zebra. I have to find a good alliterative word to go with Zebra, though... out comes the dictionary!

So far, the llama's one of my favorites. I just love the expression on his little face!

I'm a big fan of recycling, and sometimes I wish I could suppress my urges to hang onto everything because I might "need" it someday.

Case in point. I decided I didn't like my filing system, which relied heavily on manila folders to keep everything organized. It seemed that every time I tried to pull one of those folders from the drawer the contents of the folder would wind up sprawled on the floor. Yes, I admit that I overstuff the folders, but I just got tired of picking stuff up.

New filing system? Envelopes. Big envelopes. Now everything stays contained. I also started using some of those plastic things with all the slots for sorting. They work nicely for things like taxes, insurance info, etc., that need to be kept safe and sound.

Now what to do with all those manila folders? Thank You tags. I cut the edges off, found a cool typewriter font, and ran them through my printer. Punch 'em, string 'em, and voila! Fun tags. Recycled. Don't ya love it?

Captioned Critters are filling up my computer. I just keep finding the neatest vintage images and then playing around with them to make captioned critters cards. Now I think I'm going to be making some tags from some of them... Hmmmm. Just look at these Cantankerous Crab mini cards I made today!

I keep thinking of all these things to do with paper and these images, and my stash of polymer clay is just sitting in a box waiting to be turned into something wonderful. I have so many polymer clay books, and I keep buying more, and I've only made a couple of things -- and that was only because I attended Christi Friesen's class at the Bead and Button show in June! I'm just compiling idease for now...

There are also some bead projects in the works, at least in the workings of my mind. That counts, right? I have some really pretty bracelets that are just waiting for buttons or closures, and I have some ideas for more bracelets.

I really need to learn to FOCUS!
But where's the fun in doing only one thing?!?!?

I do so like Alice in Wonderland! I've been busy making all those captioned critters cards and hunting down new and interesting critters every day. Did you see the skunk ones? With the rose-printed paper envelopes? How cool are these?!?!

Anyway, back to Alice... I decided to take some of the vintage Alice illustrations (those ones by Sir John Tenniel) and alter them (removing some background stuff and cropping out just the parts I wanted) and then add caption bubbles to them. What a hoot! Aren't these cute!?!? Hey, I rhymed.

It's a GIVEAWAY!!! I'm participating in the Rocks in My Dryer blogger giveaway promotion the week of July 23. A random drawing will be held on the 27th to award the prize to someone who left a comment during the week.

*** What do you need to comment about? Something you see (and hopefully love) in the Artwork.Prints.Originals or the Jewelry.Pendants.Beads or the Photography sections of my Etsy shop.

*** Where to comment? Right here. Only comments on this post (this one here, the one you're reading) will count. Remember to comment about something specific in one of the sections above!

*** What do you win? Your choice of greeting card from my Captioned Critters collection. You'll also receive a matching mini notecard with the same design! The Captioned Critters are cool -- all sorts of animals: octopus, seahorses, moose, ravens, fish, armadillo, llama, and more! You get to decide for yourself what they're saying or thinking so their caption bubbles aren't blank.

*** When's the drawing? Friday, July 27, late in the day. I'm not sure what time yet, but it'll be late enough to accommodate those last-minute commenters. So CHECK OUT MY ETSY SHOP and leave a comment! You might just win something fun!!

The Gnome Home is a photograph I took last summer of one of the weirdest houses I've ever seen. I don't think it's actually referred to as the Gnome Home by anyone but me, but it's just what I think of when I see it. That, or a Hobbit House. But I'm not sure Frodo, Bilbo, and company would want to live there -- too much glass.

This house is on private property in Door County, Wisconsin. Yes, I trespassed to get the photo, but I just couldn't resist. No one lives in the house, and it looks a bit the worse for wear. The windows are dirty, and there are some obvious cracks in the walls. It probably just goes to prove that building a house like that into a hillside requires careful planning and consideration... and the help of a structural engineer.

Like my Gnome Home? Buy one for yourself in my Etsy shop! :-)

I'm featured on the etsygreetings blog! Wahoooooooooooo!!! Actually, I'm not there, but one of my cards is. It's the A6 sized version of my Quoth the Raven greeting card, which is one of my favorites.

How could you not just LOVE this card!?!?!

I've been hunting down vintage images to use for a variety of creations lately, and I came across this one of Ophelia that's so hauntingly beautiful I couldn't stand it! I decided that Ophelia needed to grace a pendant, so I made one from shrink plastic. That stuff's so much fun, and I wind up crouched in front of the oven window watching as the pieces curl up and then flatten themselves back out during the shrinking process.

Don't you just love this?!

A bird flew into our patio door yesterday. I think it might have been a female robin. I heard a thunk and then a squawk, and when I opened the door the poor thing was flailing around trying to regain her footing.

My husband went for a towel -- we were going to try to hold her still so she didn't hurt herself any more -- but by the time he returned she had righted herself. Then she just sat there for about 20 minutes with her eyes closed most of the time.

And then she flew away! Granted, it was a wobbly flight at first, but we think she's okay. Whew.

My husband made lunch for me yesterday. Sometimes when he makes lunch he arranges the food into something fun. Just look what he did yesterday with my sandwich and veggies! :-)

I just snagged a picture of a Treasury that featured one of my favorite beadwoven bracelets -- the Raspberry Wave (it's in the bottom row in the center). The Treasury was put together by SandFibers, who's one of my favorite bead artisans. She does some awesome projects with those little seed beads of hers, so I was truly honored to be included in her treasury along with other members of the Etsy Beadweavers Street Team.

Scalloped Seahorses. Reading that, it sounds like an exotic seafood dish, but it's not. I found this image of a seahorse with lots of detail and shading, and I decided to turn him into scalloped tags. They're so cute!!!

And then I decided to make some tags using vintage Alice in Wonderland illustrations. After messing with them for awhile, I found that I just couldn't get them all to look right if I made them all round or all oval or all square, so I created an assortment of shapes and sizes.