WHOOOOOT! Got it working! Pretty Spiffy...if anyone out there needs an or would like a nifty animated something or other..give me a yell. I've got to learn somehow and there are only so many banners and avatars you can make for yourself. :)

Learned something new today! Whoot!

Working on animated banners and ads for my shops. I cannot however figure out why I can't get them to show on blogger....I'm cornfused. :) I'll figure it out though!

well this is the beginning of the looped images. I'm still not sure what I'm doing wrong. Guess it's back to the research stage. I can get them to list as ads correctly, but I cannot list them here on blogger to show the animation. Perhaps it should be an html break down to put it in here....I'm slowly gaining a bit of intelligence when it comes to this sort of thing. :)

Where has May gone?

It seems like only yesterday it was the end of April and I was looking forward to May with new hope of finishing projects in the works. Now it's nearly the end of May and I don't think I've even made a small dent in the goals I had in store for May. I've got a new pile of fairies that need photographed and set up for sale. I've also got another 30 bodies dressed and waiting a trip to the hair salon. I'm hoping to take some of my day tomorrow and get at least the photographs up and shown.

I really need to buckle down and get some serious cleaning done. I think I'll play the timer trick and set a timer for 15 minutes at a time and clean piles in 15 minute increments. That way I have very little time before I switch to the next thing. That will mean I have less time to get bored and distracted. I find when I'm searching through things that I get a bit distracted. The next thing I know, two hours have passed and I've been in some sort of cluttered trance and haven't done a thing!

We're gearing up for our annual trip to Charlotte, North Carolina in June. This means P's got to dig out the comics he's taking to the convention and that's beginning to involve a lot of moving around here in our cluttered four rooms. We always start talking about getting things done early this time, but it never works out that way. We're behind yet again. It's now literally a month away and we're no further ahead than we were when we first started talking about being ahead of the game this time around.

I've been watching my nieces the past couple of Friday's and I'm really enjoying the time I get to spend with them. They're such adorable girls. D came over last friday and spent time with us too. Dae is my 6 year old Nephew. He's spent a lot of time with me over the years. When he was a tiny baby he spent one or two days with me a week with me while his mom worked. We're really close which I absolutely love! I wish I were as close with the neices as I am with Dae. He's really intelligent and comes up with some amazing discussions and melt your heart statements.

So, May is almost gone and I sit here thinking of all the things i want to finish before the end. I'm not much of a list person, though I wish sometimes I were. I've tried lists in the past, but I usually write them,then lose them. If I don't lose them, I forget that I even wrote a list. There's something to be said for people who can write a list and slowly tick off the obligations. Then there are the obsessives...those list writers who list every second of their day from the moment they put foot to floor, to the shower times, to the breaks they're taking....I have one of these types in my life and it literally drives me NUTS! She'll write a list and it will have " get up, bathroom, laundry, make breakfast, swap laundry loads, get dressed, take break, go to store, home, unpack, go to post office, home, collect papers, go to church, drop off papers.....SERIOUSLY! If I needed a list and it starts out with GET UP and has to remind me to come home from the store!!!! that's tooooooooo MUCH! I'm much happier flying by the seat of my pants. It's much more fun to not plan my day to the second. I also thinks it makes the stress of a normal day a lot easier to handle. I don't have a list that is shouting at me from my pocket, screaming of all the things I hadn't got to in a day.

Well I think I've rambled on enough for the day. I guess I just needed to pour out my brain and clear it for a good nights sleep. Hopefully tomorrow will be a productive and satisfying day!

HAPPY MAY 19th! JUNE is COMING FAST!

Even more new fairies!

More new fairies, there are more to come! Soon to be listed for purchase. These are perhaps spoken for, but if you see something you like, contact me and we can talk.

I'll be announcing when the new listings go live. Until then I'll be peppering my blog and flickr, with fairy images.

New Fairies!

New Fairies, possibly spoken for. I've got a whole new batch in the works though, so there will be plenty more where these flew in from!
You will notice the new metal wings, some of the fairies are wearing! How exciting! These metal wings work for ornaments, but not for pins (yet)..I'm trying to work out the logistics on that still. However, they're stunning!
You'll also notice some of the fairies are wearing their finest laces. These few just have a bit of lace. It's been a real challenge figuring out how to make the lace work with the construction of the fairies. I've got some other fairies with peeks of lace under or over their skirts, some wearing veils. Who knows how I'll figure out how to make it work from here on out! The more I play with it the more ideas I come up with!


Keep your eyes peeled on etsy and artfire! The fairies will be making their debuts soon!

new fairy products.

working on new ideas for the flower fairy series. This is the begining. I don't like the base but it was a good place to start. I'll be most likely painting the bases from now own as the wood just sucks up the sharpie. I'll probably try to keep them pretty plain and simple compared to this one. I think the lines are distracting and take awa from the posed fairies. I don't think I'll be doing moss on all of them or maybe not at all. I think it's kind of cute as it adds a bit of natural feeling to the set up.

Nature Faries have been released!

Well the nature fairies have finally met their introduction to the world. They're up on cafe press now on various goods! I loved the way these turned out and was just waiting for the opportunity to get the onto something. They're just too perfect to leave hidden away in my stash of art

SQUIRREL ATTACK!

Well ok, now that I've got your attention, they're not really attacking. They haven't banded into an army yet...but it might happen! I've been on a squirrel kick and these guys are getting more adoable with every one I make! Here's a little grey squirrel and he's got four buddies just waiting to be stitched together. I've got brown squirrels in the works as well, but currently only have one of him sewn up. Oh and did I mention that they're irresistibly mini. They come in at just about 3.5 inches tall. Cute AND pocketsized!

I'm offering "unnatural" colored squirrels too! So if you've always wanted a pink squirrel, or a blue squirrel....let's have a chat! I'd love to make an odd colored squirrel for you! :)

P.S. FOR A LIMITED TIME FREEEEEEEEE SHIPPPPPPING! Don't miss out on the bargin!

100 ideas: A swap-bot challenge

These are things I did for the Swap-bot challenge. I'm going to be doing plenty more. We had to take Keri Smith's 100 ideas and work with them. We had to do at least five: here are my piece that are "digitally" recorded.
Map Everywhere you went in a day.
Well as you can see, I'm not a very good map maker. (cartographer?) This map is utterly boring and uninspired. I should have done different trips in different colors. That would have been at least a bit more exciting. I might try this again when I have an intersting day planned.

Create an image using dots. I had a blast doing this one and plan to do more dotty art. There's something very relaxing about doing art in dots.

#62 Write an entry in LARGE LETTERS: Ok this one was weird. It's like almost an incomplete though process. Fill an entry in large letters. That means it's got to be short sweet and to the point. So I think this sums it all up.

#100 Draw a Double Handed Mirror Image Drawing (this is one of my own..the last give are ideas of your own making)

#20 Write A Haiku: I like writing Haikus. This one is a bit simple, but i Wanted to play with the color/word play.


I've got another Haiku in a different book, but I can't find it. It's a tiny little portable book and it tends to slip under things and get lost.

So check out Keri Smith's blog and try the 100 ideas yourself. It's a lot of fun! I'm off to dig into the deeper more challenging of the ideas.

a new piece I did today!

I just completed this new piece of artwork. I think I'll be doing a series of these as I just loved the way it turned out! I'm thrilled with the image all together, the joy in the colors. A very happy piece I must say. Thrilled that it turned out so well!

It's a Spring Sprout-ackular!

Over the next few weeks the sprouts will be showing up en masse. Nothing kicks the winter blahs like a lovely shot of lime green, or any green for that matter! What better way to get your shot of green than with an adorable MINI SPROUT! Check out these cuties!







Plus a few shots of Sprouts who've been adopted!

Holy Moley!

Where does the time go!?!?! I swear, only yesterday I was saying to myself; I really need to buckle down and create for selling. It's now the second week of February, and it seems as if I've been dragging my feet. Oh sure, I'm doing tons of things for swaps, (which always help to inspire) but nothing is being done for me to sell online. I've been playing around with shrink plastic. Having a blast making sugar skull charms, fairy pendants, artsy graphic deisgn pendants...I've even been trying to figure out a good "art button" design and size. I've GOT to do more fairies...my poor little etsy shop is starting to look old and moldy. Not enough new things to perk up the masses. Not enough listing being done...not enough creating being done. I was hoping to get things to the gallery in the middle of January and now it's the middle of FEBRUARY! WHERE DOES THE TIME GO! I swear, I need to clone myself!


On the agenda for tomorrow...atcs, photographs of finised projects, uploading said photos, writing to a few friends, and about a million and one more creative things that I won't fit in, no matter how hard I try.....OH YEAH...and sleep!

Ok, I'm off to bed early so I don't waste tomorrow.

Does anyone have any good chicken recipes they'd like to share? I'm bored with my oldies.

working on new patterns!

I've been having so much fun playing around with felt creatures. I've come up with a great squirrel pattern and I'm now looking to work on a hedgehog, a new bat pattern, mini elephant... and then I've got to get to making another crocheted creature for my nephew. He announced last Friday that it was time for me to make him a new animal. Green Gregory Ra is fine, but he'd like something new. For those of you who don't know, Green Gregory Ra was my first attempt into the world of crocheted/knitted animals. He was a large knitted orange and gold lion. Yes, yes, I know...with the name Green Gregory Ra, you'd think he would have been a green lion, or at least would have had some green in him. Nope, not the case. Why my nephew named him Green Gregory Ra I have no idea, but that's what he'll always been named to me. D of course states now that his name is only Gregory Ra, that he's not Green Gregory Ra any longer, but I'll always refer to him as that, and have even been thinking of doing some cartoon panels a'la Calvin and Hobbs to hang in his room.

So my very first squirrel pattern worked out wonderfully well. So much so that I couldn't quit saying how proud of myself I was. I think I drove my husband nuts! He's just so darn cute though and as soon as I get pictures of him I'll be posting them. I'm hoping to do an art festival in May, and I think I'm going to do an army of Squirrels to sell there. I've been sewing them by hand but I think I'll try the next one on the machine. I also might try making them even smaller. He's almost three inches tall.

My Goddess ATCs

Made these for a swap. I think I'll be doing more of these paper profiles and faces. I just loved playing with it! Saraswati turned out to be one of my favorites of the batch. Brigid went missing. I'm not sure if I tucked her into someone else's envelope or if she's somehow slipped into a pile of my crafty bits...so Saraswati was made to take her place.

Octopus Amigurumi!

Well here he is finally! My little wee octopus amigurumi. I'm definately going to be making more of this guy! He's too cute! I sent him off to my swap partner the other day and he was well received. I also sent along a traveling companion for him, a little lime green fish friend. I forgot to take pictures of the fishy though. Doh! Oh well, I'll just have to make another.

Working on Custom work once again! YAY!

I had a special request for a poodle with butterfly wings. So here's my rendition. Pretty cute, in an overly pink girly way. :)

What's Stopping You From Taking a Self Portrait?

This question comes from an interview on Chrysti's blog Art By Chysti. She's taking on the 29 days of giving challenge. Quite a fascinating concept and one I'll most likely tackle myself soon. I like random acts of kindness, and feel that this might be the universe's way of pointing me in the "right direction".

So anyway, the first giveaway ( why haven't you gone and checked it out yet??) today was a very interesting looking book Mixed Media Self Portraits by Cate Coulacos Prato. Chrysti's blog held a lovely little interview with Cate and at the end Cate asked, "What's stopping you from taking a self portrait?"

So I thought long and hard about it. I never was really much of a self portrait person. I suppose a lot of it has to do with the fact I never felt myself much to look at, let alone pose myself in front of a camera for the good of all mankind type. Granted, I think everyone has those feelings of insecurity, but mine was heartily backed by years of being picked on as a teenager. I was from a large family, wore hand-me-downs from someone who was wearing them as hand-me-downs. (though I wouldn't change a thing about my formative years now...it's made me the person I am!) I didn't have the "cool" things. I was told I was fat A LOT by peers. Compared to my siblings, all tall lanky and beautifully structured, I was fat, squat and sloppy. At least that's how I felt. So why take a self portrait, when it just cements the fact that you look exactly what people have said you look like.

Over the years, I've gained more trust in my self-worth, my own special beauty. I noticed that over the past five years or so, I've been taking self portraits with more regularity. Most of the time I don't even know what inspires me to take them...but I do. Most are logged away in my digital photo albums, some make appearances in odd places, digitally altered and used as avatars or art. I think my progression into becoming a Self Portrait "Artist" is more about becoming comfortable with exactly who I am as an individual. I'm me, and that's a mighty fine thing to be! There's very little I'd change about me!!

Digitally Altered Me:


Goofy Me at Halloween:



So I ask you .... are you a self portrait artist?

Customized Fairy Pins Ornaments or clips.

Want a customized fairy. I'd love to make one for you. You can either shop through
my etsy shop or find me at my newest venue on ArtFire

New Westie Amigurumi!

A new westie amigurumi has been created! Check him out! So adorable! You can find him Here

Frog in our Hands

Frog in our Hands
Originally uploaded by Chel Morning

Adi and I found this most amazingly small toad on the 4th of July. I just adore this image and want to get prints of it! I wish the coloring were a bit less pink. Ahhh what can you do. Now I just have to see how a digital print will turn out. Then it's offffff to the races! I plan on playing around with a few different ideas. I saw someone some where post that they usually do their business cards as digital prints from wal-mart or target or any of those places that do digital prints. I'm quite happy with the way my business cards are now, but I'm going to need a new set soon and from what I hear vistaprint is ridiculous now. I always wondered why I wasn't getting any email from them anymore. Whom ever it was that said they're ridiculous also said that they require a monthly "membership" fee now. Bahhhh! I hate having to go search for good deals on business cards again.