A handful of things happened this weekend. Some creative, some not so much. The original plan was to lock myself in my room with the door barricaded for the length of the weekend only to emerge when I could proudly present at the least four completed Lil Dumplins. Sadly, that was not the outcome of this particular weekend.


Our friend Phil decided this weekend was the weekend of all weekends to come and visit. Now, don't get me wrong, I love when my friends visit. But visiting friends equals no time left for me to craft. I did, however, manage to work on my mom's blog layout before he came. So there's that. And true to form, I somehow found the time to "whip up" a large pot of homemade potato soup. Which Lou, unsurprisingly, did not enjoy as much as I did.

Sunday afternoon into night was all I had left to myself. So I pushed myself to make a batch of Lil Dumplins. And if all goes to plan, I'll be able to paint at least a couple of them tonight.



I also promised Lou that I would mention him in my blog post today. He was able to tear himself away from his video games long enough to cook us dinner Sunday night. BLTs. Although he likes to call them "The grocery stores close early on Sunday" sandwiches, or something like that. We had all of the ingredients, but they weren't in abundance. He chopped the little bit of tomato we had for "better surface area" as he liked to call it. And also microwaved some salami to make the sandwich have more to it. He also said I couldn't call my sandwich a BLT because I put mine on a roll. And according to Lou, rolls are not bread. hm. Either way, it's nice when he cooks. Lou also made something called Sweet and Sour Kielbasa a few nights ago and even though he didn't like it I thought it was really good. The recipe can be found here. The flavor is a tad overpowering, so the more rice mixed in, the better. I'm also thinking it would taste good with egg noodles.

snack foods...my second inanimate love

I haven't been crafting lately. As can been seen from my random posts about toilet seats and bobbleheads. With Easter this past weekend and my new "8 to 5" job, I haven't had a lot of time or energy left to devote to craftyness. But wait..you must be thinking...how do I have enough time to blog then? Tis what I do on my lunch break. It's an HOUR long. I've never in the history of forever had an hour lunch break from my job. It's a really strange thing. And I'm in love with it. In the same sense, I'd love to have no break and leave at 4, or come in at 9. But that's another story.

I may have no time to craft, but I always manage to find time to eat. It's interesting how these things occur. The other day I happened upon the most delicious of nuts, in..I'm going to say..the world. They're Blue Diamond almonds with wasabi & soy sauce seasoning. Imagine a medly of salty spicy tangy nuttyness. mmm. They were only $2.50 at Acme, which I find amazing because of the typical price of nuts. I can't seem to understand why the price of nuts is so high. Also, is it possible to grow nuts yourself? God forbid I want to make chocolate macadamia nut biscotti (which I did make yesterday actually..). A half a cup is the price of a hatchback (the standard model, of course). I've never heard of nut gardens, but I imagine it would be nice. Pecan pie for everybody! And who wants some oatmeal walnut cookies?

But back to my original thoughts. Seriously, these almonds, delish.

Hopefully by this weekend I'll have more time which will equal less posts about nuts.

waste not, want not?

Ok I must admit, every time I go into the bathroom at my job I stare at the disposable toilet seat covers hanging on the side of the stall and say "why?". Toilet seat covers seem like a needless piece of waste. What is wrong with all of these women that they can't hover? I refuse to plant my butt on anything that I don't know where it's been, especially in a public place, let alone contribute to MORE waste.
Everytime I'm in there, I can hear "swiiiiiish...crinkle crinkle". It never fails. I just don't understand how it's neccessary to waste the time to take out a paper toilet cover, position it on the toilet correctly, drape the inside flap piece into the toilet and sit down so as not to shift or tear it...just to pee. I do understand if you have more involved issues at hand. But a 7 second pee, c'mon.
I know I'm not the Saint of Environmentally Friendly, but I do know any little bit helps. Are people just too lazy to hover?? If I peed three times at work in one day and used a toilet seat cover each time that would be 15 toilet seat covers a week...roughly 60 a month...750 a year. If my company has 100 employees that do the same as me thats 75,000 disposable toilet seat covers a year! Is having the luxury of sitting down versus hovering really worth contributing to ruinning the environment?
I found an interesting article here on the topic also, stating that toilet seat covers don't even provide that much protection. It's more for piece of mind. And so I revert back to my original suggestion and all problems in life will be solved....HOVER.

nohohon!

I've developed a bit of an obsession with a certain toy. [perv]
Anyways, a couple of years ago I bought a solar-powered bobble head toy from Target. It was about $9 and I felt totally guilty buying something so useless for that much money, but it was the cutest thing I had ever seen! This little big-headed guy sat on a platform with a tinier guy laying next to him. Both smiling and looking like they were straight from Japan. Bright colors, made of hard plastic. He collected dust on the top shelf of my desk for the longest time until I decided to bring him to work and do some more desk sitting. I decided to look up where to get another from the series so he could have a buddy. Turns out these guys are a huge collectible. Not a money-maker, but a fun thing to collect. They're all over ebay and it's pretty hard to find the good ones. I found a bunch of Flickr group pages also, dedicated to these guys. In Japan they're called Nohohons. Which translates to "carefree", and makes perfect sense because they bob and sway their heads in a carefree manner. But they're also known as Sunshine Buddies, which also makes sense..


I think the obsession grew from seeing the MANY different and ADORABLE varieties that are out there. I would love to have an army of these guys just bobbing and swaying in unison along the windowsill. I find myself bobbing along with my Nohohon when I'm sitting at my desk staring at him. My little bobbing friend.
I actually purchased another one yesterday (as if I have the money), but it was free shipping, and I was weak with hunger for sunshine buddies. When it comes in (from overseas, which will probably take a trillion days) I'll be sure to take a picture of him and my other one together. Because I'm a cornball like that.
And something slightly different that I'd also like to get my paws on is this gold cat nohohon. I don't know why I'm so drawn to it. Actually, yes, I do know why. It's a cat and it's totally Japanese. Two of my favorite things. I need to go to Japan so I can buy everything. I need the cute overload!

chili, hair dye and lil dumplins...

I'll let you in on a little secret. Canned Hormel Chili plus pasta equals dinner! Add chopped fresh tomato and onion and suddenly you're a gourmet chef! I'm a genius, I know. Cost me $3..roughly. Ok, 4 with the tomato and onion. But those were froofy extras I had lying around. And I have leftovers also, which is nice. Oh! And I crushed up some semi-stale taco shells I had lying around also, for on top. I'm like MacGyver(sp?), I know.

Besides my chili pasta gourmet chef status, I also managed to dye my hair this weekend. It only took two boxes of bleach, three boxes of blonde, and one highlight kit. And I'm not entirely sure I'm satisfied. It wouldn't have taken so many god damn boxes if my hair didn't reach below my bra line. I feel like a low-watt light bulb. My roots are SO light that I can see my scalp.
I'm usually a lot better at this dying thing. Hair, not life.
At least I'm still a chili pasta gourmet chef.

I also managed to list a few more Lil Dumplins in my shop! I didn't get a chance to take a "group shot", but there are four left as of now. And I'll be starting a new batch probably tomorrow, so by the end of this week I'll have a few more listed! It's on the top of my to-do list, so here's hoping!

the life of a crafter...

...is not easily understood by outsiders.

I feel like the most anti-social individual EVER. I never hang out with my roommates and Lou. I'm always too busy making something, packing orders up, researching/networking. They're all playing video games in the living room and I'm baking/painting these:



Don't get me wrong..I actually prefer to work on my crafts. I think they're a lot of fun. But I don't think non-crafters get that. My job isn't over when I come home at 5 from my "real job" like everyone else. I have to use that "free time" to work on what I would hope would one day turn into my "real job". I have to put the time into it for it to grow. Anything else feels like a waste of time.

On that note, my oven is beeping to tell me my dumplins are done baking!

xo

Front page what what!

Guess who was on the front page of Etsy today? This girl! I'm pretty sure I've never been on the front page in all the history of my Etsyness so this is a spectacular event. Three people sent me convos to let me know and SugarToppers was even nice enough to send me a screenshot! Double awesome! I'm a little disappointed I was at work all day and missed it. I would have loved to see it in all of it's realness. I recognize a lot of the other sellers that are on the front page with me and they all have awesome stuff as well so I'm glad I was grouped with them.

In case you didn't quite know...my item is the purple cookie-topped Lil Dumpin on the bottom left.



What a nice surprise to come home to on a typically dreary Monday.

dumplin listing...check

I did it, I'm finished...and it only took ALL of my Sunday. Seriously...I started around 9 this morning and finished about 9 at night.

Six dumplins listed. Well, five now because my Peeps Dumplin sold already. Which is a good thing because I was trying my hardest to get it out and listed before Easter passed me by. Lou said I should make more. And here I was thinking I could get a break for a second. But dumplin making never rests! I'll probably be making more on Monday after work. I just don't know if they'll be ready in time for Easter. It took me a lot of trial and error to figure out what to use for the "sugar" on the Peep. It was nearly impossible to find a super fine glitter that was colorless. But the glitter I settled on looks pretty good I think. It's still a little irridescent and sparkly, but I think it actually looks nice. Not as sugary as I originally wanted, but still super cute.


In other news, I'm planning on considering possibly dying my hair back to blonde. Usually in winter I get the urge to dye my hair dark, and then by the first sign of fair weather I'm missing my blonde. I can't make up my mind, ever. I've had black, brown, various reds, and blonde. I don't think I'll be going red again because I think I look too much like my nana and it freaks Lou out. It's actually kind of funny. But then when I have blonde hair I feel like I look too much like my mom. Hmm...I don't know. I was thinking of trying a platinum blonde. Usually I stick to dirty blonde, but I really hate the gold tones in my hair. I'm a fan of ashy shades. When I first dyed my hair dark brown this winter it was this awesome deep ash brown and, of course, like every brown I've dyed it before it had faded to what I would call a shade of mousy brown. Mousy doesn't suit me.

I was thinking of weighing the pros and cons of blonde versus brown because I have to go one way or the other...either by going blonde or refreshing my brown. I haven't really organized my thoughts yet, but one thing is true is that brown is much less maintenance than blonde in terms of my roots showing, but fades SO much faster than blonde. And especially if I go really light my roots are going to be showing in literally a week. My hair grows like dandelions in an open field.

I also started taking a poll of which color people prefer. It's split down the middle, so of course, that's no help.

My summer look.

My winter look.

dumplin production.

Keep on the lookout in my shop (probably by Monday) for five new Lil Dumplins I've been working on allllll weekend. Ever since I picked up this new "9 to 5" job I haven't had much time to work on the fun things. My Dumplin collection has been dwindling down. I think I have two listed..? Plus a custom reserved one. Something like that. Wait...six..I'll actually have six done. I have them scattered all over my desk in different stages of completion. Eh, I'm an artist, not a math teacher. hehe.
I've also been trying to work on my new "series" of dumplins. They're slightly bigger in size than the original Lil Dumplin. There's some other creative aspects that make them special, but I'll leave that for later. It's tough because I want to get the original dumplins made and listed, but I also want to develop the new dumplins. There's never enough time!
And on top of that I have Lou looking whiny and attention-deprived all the time because I'm cooped up in my craft corner for days. I keep assuring him that when I'm a millionaire (hah..) he'll be thanking me for my lack of hanging out with him 24/7.
But is it so much to ask for him to put his dirty dishes in the dishwasher? I can't do everything around here.

I was featured!

I was featured in a magazine! And all it took was having my jewelry listed on Etsy. At least that's what I believe it was. At the time I wasn't promoting my shop too much, so really there was no way for someone to find me except by possibly luck or word of mouth. Sometime in November I had a buyer that purchased a handful of all green-themed jewelry from me. I distinctly remembered it because I thought it was awesome that there was another green lover out there somewhere.

Then recently I was contacted by a lady to let me know some of my jewelry was being used in their magazine! Once I saw what it was, that's when I realized it was this same buyer! How super crazy awesome amazing! I received a hard copy in the mail yesterday. It was only then that I realized this was totally for real! There's so many scammers out there, it's hard to be trusting. My first instinct was "ok...where do I enter my credit card number.."

It's such a great opportunity for free advertising, and the magazine looks awesome. It's a young teen type of mag. More wholesome than say CosmoGirl, and a lot more interesting in my opinion. This is exactly the type of audience I like to market my jewelry to. On one of the pages there's a girl with a big poofy tutu and colorful rainboots wearing one of my necklaces in the fashion section. It's so surreal to see my creation being worn in print! You can find the magazinehere.