Halloween Updates

I think the last time I made some new Plini figurines in time for Halloween was 2 years ago. I don't know why I can't plan ahead! The holiday-themed figurines are my favorite, and I just forget about them for no good reason. But not this year! I just updated the shop with a whole bunch of Halloween-themed Plini figurines (and a few black pocket kitties!). I'm a big fan of the witch with her bright green face!

I have a few more figurines sculpted out and ready for painting, that I also want to make Halloween-themed. Some cupcake-topped gals specifically. Hopefully I can get to them in time!

I also recently finished up a custom doggy figurine. I typically only take custom requests on dog figurines because, unlike most cats (which my shop is jam-packed with), dogs look so different from one another. Kitties have a basic shape, but dogs are all over the place. Long snouts, short snouts, pointy snouts, smushy faces, big ears, short ears, ears that stick up, cropped ears, big tails, curly tails, fluffy fur, short fur, underbites, overbites, etc etc etc. I do try to stick to my style of figurine though! How did I do?

And now for some precious new kitty pictures because I'm in love with her. She's the bestest kitty ever! I couldn't have found a better cuddly addition. And she loves to play with my hair.

Death of a Plini

I try my hardest to pack my figurines with as much protection as I possibly can. A mountain of tissue, a gift box, more tissue around it, bubble wrap if needed, and all nestled deep inside a fairly large "crush-proof" cardboard box.

You can imagine my horror when a customer (who was super nice and understanding) sent me this monstrosity back. Did the Post Office run this over with a MAC truck? Was there a postal employee with a hatred for figurines working that day? (not that he'd know what was inside).

I am laughing, however, at the giant green sticker they placed upon the package stating it's been damaged. Ah yes...all is forgiven now.



Should I have a funeral? I'll invite the neighbors. Or maybe just the cats.

summer sale update!

ya heard.

vacation is over!

I’ve really been trying my best to blog more often. I guess the only bright side of this is my excuse for lack of steady blogging is I’m spending the majority of my time busily crafting. If I was sitting in front of the tv like a lump doing nothing, then I’d have reason to guilt myself to death. But I’m being productive, and that’s what matters! [right?] I will admit though that I was on vacation all of last week and there was definitely no crafting of any kind going on. Sun, sand and margaritas galore. Plus I finished a whole book in two days! [Towelhead. It was really good! But really intense] Sadly…now it’s back to reality.





I’ve still been investigating what the best sealant is for shrinky dink pieces. There’s tons of suggestions, but overall I can’t seem to find a source saying “yes..this absolutely always works 100%”. Actually, the most successful sealant I’ve read about still seems to be resin. But honestly…I can’t go and mix up a batch of resin just to seal maybe 5 pieces? It seems like overkill to me. Also, I just recently threw away a container of resin that I bought months ago in my “I want to try resin phase” that I hadn’t used yet. I hate buying stuff that I threw away the day before. This is why I’m a packrat. I might need it! I have to keep it! I’ve been trying to follow the “Have you used it in the past 2-3 months?” reasoning when it comes to getting rid of stuff. It’s usually a good method.

Sales have been slow this past month, which is understandable with the *gasp* economy (I hate that word. I’ve heard it so many times I want to hurl) and it being summer also. I’ve been brainstorming where I should spend more time promoting my Plini figurines. I’ve noticed that a good majority of my customers are doll house or Blythe/Pullip doll collectors. They use my figurines to decorate their houses or as an accessory for their collectible dolls. I’m thinking it would be a good idea to promote more where the doll house miniature and doll collectors get together. I’m having a hard time though. I’m not sure where to look, and when I do find a site that looks like a good place to check out, I get worried that I might come off spammy. Which is what I definitely do not want to do.



Hopefully today or tomorrow (or Wednesday…I don’t know) I can get around to listing the handful of ACEOs I made not too long ago. They’re all ready to go. I just have to muster up the energy to list each one. I really wish Etsy would come up with a batch listing option. I know that might just encourage more resellers, but I also think it would be a valuable addition for the real sellers. Why leave us all high and dry because Etsy as a site can’t monitor their user’s content enough? How about give us batch listing and hire more flagging staff?

That’s enough whining for one day I think.

Oh! And I also have a handful of summery Plinis and two or so kittehs to list also. That won’t be for a little while though since I still have to finish taking all of the photos. But I can’t wait to list them. They’re really cute!

cake topper madness!

Next on my neverending list of things to do is whip up some cake toppers. With everything else going on, I haven't had a chance to make any wedding cake toppers to list, aside from the custom ones I've been making for people. Originally I had five sets sculpted out, but in one brilliant and swift move I accidentally decapitated one of the grooms. So now I have 4 sets and 1 lonely bride. I'll make her a new husband soon enough and all will be well and good.



The other day one of my shipping supplies I ordered online arrived.. I was super excited. Finally..I had more shipping boxes to mail my figurines in. Unfortunately, they're a bit smaller than I had anticipated. Perhaps next time I'll actually read the dimension description thoroughly. Here I was expecting something along the lines of 4x4x4 inches and received something more like a third the size of that. I have no idea how I managed that mix up. But I DO know, that these teeny boxes are so freaking adorable that I'll find something to do with them. They're definitely way too small to use as shipping boxes.

wedding cake toppers....!

Bah! Why do I always have the worst timing/luck? Etsy has a section of their site dedicated to articles about craftiness and whatnot. I happened to take a glance and noticed a "vote for your favorite wedding cake topper!" article here

I come back from my hiatus...I haven't yet listed my new wedding sets and the next day Etsy goes and holds a vote for best wedding toppers. darnit. I miss all the fun. *pouts*


These are some previous sets I've made...

My hiatus is officially over.

Hello!

I'm back. Okay, I never really left...but my computer did. It was in a "coma" for a solid month, until I was able to get it fixed. In that time when I had limited computer access, I really felt a void in my daily routine. Sad and pathetic, but true. I have a lot of blog reading and catching up to do. All of my networking and promoting has been lacking with lack of internet access.

On the bright side, I was able to take that time to temporarily put my Etsy shop in vacation mode and devote my time to making a huge new batch of Plinis and other figurines. It was relaxing indeed.



I've also been working on photographing some ACEOs to list that I made a little while ago. I've been feeling a little self conscious to list them though. Will they groove alright in my shop with my Plinis? Will other people like them they way I do? I guess the only way to see is to list them!



On top of that, I've been working with shrinky dinks again. I made a small pile of adorable charms that I can't wait to list, but now I'm dealing with the problem of how to seal them. I've tried all kinds of glosses. Some smear the ink, melt away the plastic, peel away the design. It's a pile of shrinky dink drama. I don't want to sell charms that aren't going to last. I have to do some more digging.

Cupcake Plinis

I just finished listing a handful of more cupcake Plinis. *phew* I feel accomplished. I'll be listing more tomorrow, but for now...that'll do.

This one is my favorite of the batch. I almost didn't want to list her!

Yay for snowdays!

I'm super excited today. Not only is there a flipping blizzard going on outside, but my mini pastry stands (2 of em) came in the mail today from Gingerbread Supplies. This was a total impulse buy, but I'm so glad I did! These little stands are perfect for Plini photoshoots! I can't wait to play with them some more.




As for the blizzard...this is the glorious view of the side of the other apartment building that I have 24 hours a day. Luckily for today...it's kind of pretty with the snow.



Spike was really anxious to go outside too. This is his first snowstorm!

I'm never good at titles.

Well as you may have guessed by now, I've been busy. But instead of alerting the internet world that I have seven Easter related Plinis still available in my shop, I thought I'd take the time to reflect on other happenings in my life.

For starters, Comic Con was this last weekend! I went on Saturday with Lou and our friends Yesenia and Neil. It was an adventure to say the least. We took the train in to NY where it was taking place and got some great "swag" and photos. I think perhaps the best part was the kitty ears I made for Yesenia and I to wear. Besides at the convention, we wore them to the train, on the train, and from the train. People's faces were priceless. I concluded that I should wear cat ears all the time. I haven't really lived up to that statement yet. Perhaps on Monday.

Lou took pictures of Yesenia playing the sometime to be released GTA game for Nintendo DS, but he wasn't allowed to take photos of the actual game. Also, one of the guys in charge of the station had a heart attack when he saw Yesenia and I playing. "Whoa...whoa!!! Are you guys 18?!?". I can't understand why he thought we looked like we were 12. Couldn't be the kitty ears, could it? Yesenia's response was even more priceless... "Yeah I'm 26! That's my husband over there."





Some of my "swag". I also bought a Munny doll which I'm VERY excited about! For those not in the know...it's a vinyl doll that you can paint and decorate yourself. It's all the rage...teehee.



And finally...being at a comic book convention, one would think that there'd be comic book purchasing of some sort involved. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time...and/or I didn't speak up when we were trudging through the huge crowds past the aisles upon aisles of comic book artists. Either way, it inspired me to complete my collection of the comic book I've been reading/collecting for a while now - Kabuki: The Alchemy. I bought the final 3 issues of the series online and they came today (right in time for the weekend) to my excitement!
It's a really beautifully illustrated comic by David Mack (also the Daredevil artist).

updates!

Sunday consisted of laundry, laundry, listing some Plinis, laundry, oh...and some more laundry. And yes, I'm still doing laundry. I'm in laundry hell I'd say. But the good part out of all of that is I actually got some of the little girls (and some kittehs) up in the shop awaiting new homes. So I feel accomplished. Pat on the back for me!

spider murder.

I was just catching up on my mom's blog posts and it reminded me about the monster Lou and I encountered yesterday on our way to work. We opened the door to leave and right at the frame of the door was a spider. Ok, this was not just any spider. This was the size of half my hand. It was a MONSTER. And it was trying to get in!! I was afraid it was going to eat the cats. Lou did the manly thing and stepped on it. I can still hear the c-r-u-n-c-h-h-h sound replaying over and over in my head. And the horrible vision of its half-crushed body spasing out, slowly dying. We slammed the door and ran for work. Lou couldn't bear to step on it again, as the one time traumatized him enough. I felt bad. But I tried to convince myself it would have eaten the cats if we hadn't lethally injured it.
Then when we got home later that day, we were expecting to find the body. But there was nothing. No signs of a struggle. Nothing at all. So Lou and I are convinced the spider crawled back to his spider friends and with his dying breath he told all the spiders how we tried to murder him. Now I envision that all of the other spiders are assembling for a surprise super secret ninja attack on us.
Seriously though...this was like tarantula sized.
And the reason I thought of this when I was reading my mom's blog was because knowing her she would have tried to save it. "Spiders are our friends, they eat the other bugs". That's what she would have said. Yes, but with this particular spider, it was either him or us. He surely eats cats..or humans. I wasn't about to wait and see.
Either way...the spiders are forming an alliance against Lou and I as I speak. Maybe they'll go easy on me since I didn't do the actual stomping.

Anyways...other than spider extermination, I've been rather busy! I started early with preparations for my Easter themed items for my shop. And I'm also finishing up a batch of teeny plinis and things. Hopefully I can pull myself together and get those listed by the end of this weekend.






Oh! And I almost forgot...I made a really tasty soup the other day. Lou thinks I'm the MacGyver of cooks. I think it might scare him sometimes. Somehow I make something out of nothing. We'll literally have a piece of lettuce and a pack of ramen noodles in the apartment and suddenly there's a Thanksgiving meal on the table.
So we had a pile of leftover bacon cheese fries from the pizza place we ordered from a few nights ago. I cut them up into cubes and dumped them in the blender with some milk and blended it until it was nice and chunky. Then I put that concoction with some water, corn, lots of butter and spices in a pot and cooked it until it was hot and I liked the consistency. I added more milk if it got too thick. Instant "french fry" soup! Lou didn't like it...but then again he doesn't like anything that's kind of weird.
It was nice not having the fries go to waste. Because otherwise they would have just gotten thrown out. Money and food wasted is never good.

xo

Polka dots it is

As if anyone wants to see one more post about my Plini backgrounds. Fortunately for those wondering, this will be the last as I've made my final decision. Polka dots it is! I'm about 75% done re-shooting the photos and color-correcting them. I don't know why I didn't think the polka dots were a good idea at first. They're exactly the feel I wanted the Plini figurines to have. Whaddyathink?

a tarnished weekend

I had big plans for the weekend. big. HUGE. Okay, not that huge. But some other important family drama went down and I lost a whole day. That may not sound like much, but when you put off your work all week with the plan to get things in order come the weekend, it can really throw things off. I should probably stop putting things off, and just do them when I have the chance, because you just never know what is right around the corner.

I'm still trying to come up with a new background for my Plinis. I have more to list, but I've been putting it off until I can find a background to settle on. I'm still a fan of the recipe page. But overall I'm just really undecided. I have to play around with the angles.


My mom suggested a ball jar for a vintage retro feel. I really like the idea. I'm just not sure now if it's too distracting. Maybe minus the lacy doily. Or if I could find/think of another vintage-y item that would be nice.



This last photo I was kind of just joking. I used a ceramic bird candle holder I have. It looks like he's spying on my Plini. But I think it would make for a confusing photo to use. Is it just the Plini for sale? Is that weird bird included? I don't want to cause any confusion in what is actually for sale...if that makes sense.



Or maybe I'll just stick with an all polka dot background. No props. Hmm..that's a thought.

Also, while searching the apartment for props I found this vintage metal server my mom gave me. It was so tarnished it was almost entirely black. I cleaned it up using some tarnish remover cloths thinking I could use it in my Plini photos. But it looked weird. My hands got really dirty though!

a new background, me thinks maybe

Oh my gracious dear me...it's been way too long since my last post. I can't say I haven't been busy though. More Plinis, finishing up my custom order for a wedding set, making a birthday card for my Nana, feeding the "outside cat" (see my previous post), and other various things.

But today, what's weighing heavily on my mind is my wanting to change up the way I photograph my Plinis. I've always had them on a bright white background. But it's really very time consuming and sometimes I don't think I capture the natural color of certain Plinis as good as it could be.

I don't know if that's a good idea though. I do like a white background because there's no distractions and nothing to influence your opinion of the Plini besides the Plini itself. Plus, I think it gives a teeny artsy gallery type of feel. I don't want my Plini figurines to be translated as disposable toys, but rather teeny works of "non-hoity-toity" art. If that makes any sense.

So I've been playing around with some backgrounds and weighing the pros and cons in terms of how long it takes me to prepare the lighting as well as edit the photo.


For the first one I photographed a Plini on a recipe page of a book. I was thinking it might be interesting if the page related to the plini. So say I had a Plini with cookies on her head, she could be sitting on a cookie recipe page. The lighting was pretty easy to deal with and I think it looks interesting with some of the text in focus and some not. But I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. Mind you, I took these pictures really quickly so they're not perfect. Just for comparison.



This second one is photographed on artist canvas. It still sticks closely to my orignal white backgrounds, but has a little texture. Is texture a good thing? I don't know. The lighting was a little harder to work with and I had to play with the color balance because it mostly picked up blues. But overall it didn't effect the color of the Plini in a bad way.



My third try I went with what appeared to be a black background. But when I photographed it I realized it had a teensy bit of sheen on the paper which equals instant dull gray on camera. I played with the contrast and the photo got very grainy. Then I had to tweak the coloring of everything for a while. I don't think I like the black at all though. I was thinking it might make the bright colors pop and it just might if I manage to find a better piece of black for the background and photograph it better. But for now, I don't feel like dealing with it. I have enough to deal with with the white backgrounds.



The fourth photo I went with this "pretend lace" cardstock paper I have. I loooooove lacey things and back when I was taking pictures of my food-themed jewelry I'd usually photograph them on a doily. But this looks kind of fake and strange I think. The color was a bit of a pain to deal with too. It picked up a lot of blue and when I tried to fix it the photo got a little grainy. Also, I'm not sure if I like that pink shows through the eyelets of the lace. Will pink match with every one of my Plinis? Hmm...



And lastly, I thought maybe a solid color would look nice. I've been using solid colors for other various things in my shop, why not my Plinis too? Question is...do I stick with just one solid color for all of them (for uniformity) or whatever color compliments the Plini at the time? The problem I have with colors is that they react strangely with the Plini colors sometimes and I end up having to color correct them a lot.




Well that's what I have so far. Overall I like the book pages the most. But I've seen that technique a good amount of times. Is it too unoriginal? I've been pacing around my apartment looking for other surfaces and things to try out. I guess I'll keep brainstorming and let some ideas percolate.

The Mother Teresa of stray cats?

There's been a new stray kitty hanging outside on my porch. This one I feel particularly attached to because he/she reminds me of my other cat Ein. I guess most torie cats look similar, but this one bugs me out sometimes. I'll see him/her (still can't figure out if it's a girl or a boy..I'm assuming girl because most tories are) stroll by and freak out thinking Ein has escaped to the outside. I also feel bad for it because it's not a full grown cat, more like a teenager. And I imagine that this cat doesn't know what kind of hardships it really has ahead of it. I have a discarded cat scratching post in the corner on my porch that she likes to sit on until 4 in the morning, then disappears until the next evening.
She's really friendly too. The other day I was thinking about a news story I read about a young kid that set a cat on fire and I really got worried. Was I doing a disservice to the cat by being friendly to it and getting her used to humans? I can't protect every stray in the area. Is being feral the only way to protect themselves from heartless human beings? Lou said no, it'll be fine. But I can't help worrying.

This is my inside kitty Ein. Doesn't she look like my stray friend?







Aside from being the Mother Teresa of cats I've been trying hard to stay motivated and get my pictures uploaded, edited, and listed. I have almost all of my Halloween Plini figurines up and then a few more to go, and one custom order I've still been working on. I can't wait to get that one finished. It's coming out really cute! Pictures to follow soon.

Halloween Preview

Just a quick preview of things to come very soon! I'm busy taking and uploading some photos of new things for the shop. And as usual, it's taking forever because taking photos is like homework for me.
I'm pleasantly pleased with myself for actually getting some things created in due time for it's corresponding holiday. That never happens! Time management..not usually one of my strong points.

amigurumi...yes please.

I've been trying to teach myself amigurumi on my lunchbreak for the past few days (because it's the only time I have to myself lately!). Why didn't anyone tell me amigurumi equals instant arthritis?? The tips of my fingertips are KILLING me. All of this yarn pulling and wrapping and grabbing and sliding and yadda yadda. The plan is...once I manage to teach myself the basics, I'll be able to whip up some crocheted versions of my Plinis. How adorable would that be? At least in my head they look adorable. For those not in the know (mom) amigurumi is the japanese art of knitting or crocheting small adorable creatures or other inanimate objects with anthropomorphic features. Back in the day..my first glimpse into the amigurumi world was the work of Roxy Craft to show you an example of awesomeness.
So here's how far I've gotten...



..mind you, this is after many attempts at getting the hang of increasing and decreasing my stitches so as not to make a lopsided mess.

In other news....look what has matured! The first fruits of my labor from my jalepeno plant! I immediately made salsa (naturally), which is now currently "brewing" in the fridge. mmm..I can't wait!



Oh, and can you see my toe in the bottom right of the photo near my wrist? Yeah...I took this picture with my chin. I'm skilled like that.

a word about hamsters.

..well kind of. There's one in my shop! I don't know why it took me so long to get some photos going of these lil hamsters. I have two more not listed yet. Actually, I do know why it's taken me so long. My camera is insisting on throwing a temper tantrum after five or so pictures. I don't think it's a fan of the macro setting. Speaking of the macro setting...am I in the minority when it comes to knowing what the macro setting is? You know, the little tulip setting as opposed to the mountain setting on your camera? I was casually taking about it to Lou the other day and he had no idea that was what it was called.
Anyways, I think my camera needs a new rechargeable battery. I've been avoiding it because I'm lazy and don't feel like looking up the one I need. But now that it's come to the point where I actually have time to list more items, but can't because my camera won't stay alive for longer than five minutes I believe it's time to "bite the bullet" as my mom would say and get a new one.

I started making more wedding figures today as well. They're all sculpted out and ready to be painted. I'll be working on that tomorrow, along with hunting down a camera battery.

*sigh* In a perfect world...my creations would take their own pictures and list themselves.