Halloween

This year is my daughters third halloween. She was too young to really do anything the first two, but this year she has told me she wants to be a Bee, and that I am supposed to be a pirate. LOL. I may don the hat to make her happy, but I got to work on her costume. So twenty yards of tulle later this is what I came up with:

This is the finished dress. I had to re-do the lower line on it bacause I didnt like how it was looking. as i got further and further down the row it kept getting closer and closer  together. Trial and error is all I have to say. this is the first one i ever made like this, so it came out pretty good.

This is what the wings look like. When i ordered the wings they came with silver glitter on them so with the help of modge podge glue and some gold martha stewart glitter, the wings now match the "fufu" as my daughter calls it. She is going to be the prettyest bee out there!

And here she is. She is a bit obcessed with "poofys" as she calls them. I give this credit to her auntie Branny.

Homemade watercolors for kids!

My daughter is 2.5 years old and I have recently introduced her to the wonderfulness of watercolors. She is hilarious. She ends up with more paint on her then she does on the paper which is pretty typical. Like any parent I went to the store and bought her some paints and they were gone in three uses. Pretty typical if you ask me. Since I make alot of stuff for her already, I scowered the internet for a home made recipe that I could use and I found the one below.

To make homemade watercolor paints for kids you will need:
Liquid food coloring,
3 teaspoons of light corn syrup
6 tablespoons of cornstarch
6 tablespoons of baking soda
6 tablespoons of ordinary white vinegar
You will also need several small jar lids to hold the paints. Soda pop lids and foam egg cartons work great for storing paints. For larger containers of a single color, consider using peanut butter jar lids. You will be amazed by the quality of these homemade watercolor paints, and your kids will have more of the colors they use most often.

Begin by combining the cornstarch, baking soda, vinegar, and corn syrup in a bowl. It will fizz and foam at first, but when the mixture stops foaming and fizzing it can be separated into small containers to create various colors. Add as much food coloring as necessary to create the colors you want in the separate containers, and have fun mixing the food coloring to create a rainbow of paints. Allow the finished paints to dry completely, or cover the containers to keep them moist


http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/739741/homemade_watercolor_paints_for_kids.html

I didnt actually wait for the paints to completely dry so My daughter went gung ho on using them. LOL. What a mess. I highly reccomend plastic to cover your table. I got my "tablecloth" that I use at Joanns and you can get as much or as little of the plastic as you want and just using water to hose it off is all the cleanup you need to do. I hang mine on the clothes line and then spray it down, and then leave it to dry. Works well for us. LOL.

 I have some of those miniture muffin pans, and I never use them so I went ahead and filled up the pans with her paint and they are currently sitting on top of my mircowave to dry. It was perfect to keep the paints in and contained. I know that if I had more then one kid trying to paint they would each need their own containers. So This idea dawned on me. For anyone with more then a single kid, try hitting the doller store for ice cube trays and then filling the trays with your newly made paints and letting them dry out a few days before you try painting with the kids. The other nice thing about the ice cube trays is that they have a flat hand holds, and just use a permamnenet marker and write the kids name on there. We hang out with a couple of ladies who are daycare providers and I thought this would be especially great for them, cause they have alot of kids they work with.

So theres something to try and enjoy! My daughter is officially in Love!

Barettes, Clippies and Bows OH MY!

One of the things I have learned how to make recently are clippies and bows. Oh my goodness how fun are these? I have a daughter who has the most gorgeous red hair. Downside to this.......Ok your asking is there really a downside? Yup. With her there is. She wont let me put stuff in her hair 99% of the time and the 1% of the time she does, its usually pulled out before we get out of the car! Heartbraking I know. So heres what I did. Started making them to sell. The reception of them hasnt been that great. The market seems to be inundated with boutique bows and whatnot. And I get it. My philosophy. Keep it cute and the costs low. And thats what I have done. I do my level best to get good deals on my ribbon, even getting hand me downs from people including my mom who probably has enough to circle the globe a few times. I want my customers to be getting a solid item that wont fall apart the next day. And my product tester? My daughter. If it survives her then I know I did good. So all of my bows and clippies (while not the exact ones pictured in my etsy shop and FB page, no need to spread cooties) have been kid tested and me approved. So leave me some feedback and let me know what you think :-)

I really love this one. Great for an adult or a teenager. $4

Now here is something I havent seen ANYWHERE else. The SQUARE korker. Thats right SQUARE! ! You would not believe how much ribbon is in just 1!

$2 small

$3 Medium

$4 Large

$5 piggy set

I call these ones my Micro Korkers. Super small korkers on clips with a decorative center. They range in price from $2.50-$3.50 per set (This one is $3.50.)

These particular ones are $2.50 per set. I have them in a wide variety of styles. I love gingham!

Triple Layer Stacked Bow $3.50

Doppelgänger!

Cheshire and Morgan Best and worst buds since Morgan was born.

In my hunt for good stars to use in my wands I stumbled across a shop on Etsy called http://www.etsy.com/shop/ClickityClack Clickity Clack. Yes they have wonderful stuff, but take a look at their profile image. I had to do a double take cause I thought I was looking at my cat. So in working with Phyllis to figure out what I needed, we talked about our cats. (Yes, I talk about my cats.) Her cat Miss Lydia Lionheart and My Barnabus Day-Lee look almost identical. There are a few difeerences, but WOW. The color of their nose, eyes, and gender are the main differences. Plus they are 2000 miles appart. I find it interesting what you learn when you talk to people. LOL

Barnabus Day-Lee

Miss Lydia Lionheart of Clickity Clack.









Can you see the resemblance? They could be siblings!

Heres the rest of my brood :-)

Simon (black)
Cheshire (orange)
Barney (Tabby)
I call this "Appatizer, Entree and Dessert" All we were missing was the post dinner Cognac.

Oh Wait, There she is. Sweety playing chess. She is Barneys sister.

I have as house of hams!

Liftoff!

Its amazing what networking can do for a business! By meeting some wonderful crafters and like minded women my Facebook Fan Page for Ravenfire Designs has taken off! I have gone from 70 fans to 544! I am extatic! i dont think there are words to explain how happy I am. I have met some wonderful people and bought some awesome products while networking. I want to thank all of the wonderful people who have liked my page and made what I do all that much better!

Necklace Pendants and Inchies

I have been having allot of fun making tile necklace pendants and the images that I use in them. I have been editing my own photographic images to fit in these little squares and also building some from the ground up. They have turned out super cute.

 This is a family favorite quote.
And it is oh so true!

This is one of my own photographs edited down to fit the pendant size I am using.

I have also been looking for inspirational quotes. Quotes that speak to people. This is one of the ones that I liked the best and it is so true. Growth is optional.

A friend from High School started her own business with her husband rebuilding classic cars. She is a wonderful artist as well and she drew this image for her business to have t-shirts made with it. The original image didn't have any color (or the words Springfield Oregon) so I worked it in my editing program then made her and her husband each a necklace pendant to help promote their wonderful business. They turned out better then I could have hoped!

Come over to my Facebook page to check out all the different pendants I have available. If you see one you like but not in the color you were hoping for, just let me know. Color options are available, you just have to ask.

Reviews and Giveaways

There is a woman who has a wonderful blog where she reviews peoples work and various products provided by different companies. Her blog link is http://www.sparklingreviews.com/ She will be doing a review of my etsy shop in a few weeks. I am sending her a few of my products to review and provide feedback. Some of the items will be up for a giveaway. Right now one of the products that she is reviewing is a soda machine for making soda at home. This is cool. I have never even herd of one before. I am interested and a bit curious. The company provided one for her to give away via her blog. So go to the above link if you are interested. I will let you all know when she does the review for my shop. I am very excited!!

Wedding invitations!

I am super excited to be doing the invitations for my brother and soon-to-be-sister in law. I have been having fun experimenting with the style and feel of what they are looking for and I whipped up this one on mothers day on a whim.

I mailed a few mock-ups to her on Monday so that she can see them in person, and I left this one as a surprise. I was hoping that the package would get to her on Thursday but it took till Saturday to get there. I was so happy that she liked it! And I am very excited and privileged to be making the invitations for two very wonderful people! Its going to be fun!

Opportunity has nocked!

In March we had our family photos done (my husbands side of the family) by a local photographer named Aneesha Montez (she is based in Junction City, and traveled to may in-laws home to do our pictures.) Turns out the world is incredibly small as she is the sister in law to a woman I went to school with. We laughed about it while we waited on the stragglers to finish getting ready for the shoot. She did such a fabulous job and she was a blast to work with. It was allot of fun, and even my stick in the mud husband (he HATES having his picture taken) had a great time. That speaks allot about the photographer. (I always look awful in pictures) So I highly recommend her to anyone looking for a wonderful photographer.

But on to the knocking opportunity. Doing some copying and editing I used some pictures that Annesha took to make some very special necklace pendants for some wonderful new mommies. I was pleased at how the pendants turned out, but I wanted to make sure that it was OK with her that I used her images.

She loved them so much that she asked if I could make up a few more to put on display in her studio as an option for her customers. I was absolutely flabbergasted and floored at the offer! I have 4 pendants ready. One picture was giving me so much trouble, I tried it about 20 times before I could get it "right." I wanted them to be PERFECT. OK as close to perfect as I could get them. But I am so excited. I will be dropping them off with her next weekend, so here's hoping that this works out and that people like and enjoy these wearable pieces of art!

The one of the the legs I edited and added text as an option/idea for brides looking for a keepsake for the ladies in their bridal party. Of course I can edit the text to read other words. This is a totally new idea, I haven't even pitched to Annesha yet. Tell me what you think!

New Idea

Ok So I have a new idea. I am wanting to make charms using some of my photographic images. I have made a few so far and I think they look really great. I think its a nice way for people to purchase an image they like and be able to wear it too. A true piece of wearable art? We shall see. These are the three pieces that I have made already.

So I need some opinions. Tell me what you think!

Captivity: Oregon Zoo

Today we had a fun and eventful day. We went to the Oregon Zoo. OK. So maybe Morgan is a bit young for it, but she had some enjoyable moments. She found the hairy pigs to be the most entertaining telling us "piggy sleep." It was so adorable to hear her say it!

And sure enough since it was nice and sunny out all of the animals were enjoying a lazy day. I loved these hairy pigs too. So adorable. One of the other places that we enjoyed is the Laurakeet Landing where you can hold cups full of nectar for the birds to drink. My husband had three of them on one arm, and my daughter enjoyed watching daddy and the "birdys." They were very sweet animals and very accustomed to people and screaming children. Granted Justin was just a tad nervous.

Notice the look on his face: PRICELESS! I was even graced by one of these feathered creatures as well. They  were very inquisitive.

We also had two cases of "wardrobe malfunction" on Morgans part. We had just gotten to the zoo and daddy got her out of the car, she was soaked. The car seat was soaked everything was soaked. Luckily I had brought a spare pair of pants. And about halfway through the zoo daddy felt something warm, on his side. Sure enough cause of him carrying her she missed the diaper and soaked her second pair of pants. So she got bundled in her blanket while mommy fanned her pants to get them to dry.            

She hardly noticed, and since it was sunny she wasn't terribly cold. We kept her as bundled as we could. We saw allot of great things and I don't want to boar you with more hot air, so I will mention this one last thing. While in the Pacific northwest exhibits we were able to see the cougar. Such a gorgeous creature. She was, however more interested in the bear that was shimmying down one of the trees in the exhibit across from her. The look on her face says "hunter." I couldn't have asked for a better shot of this magnificent creature! And she wanted to go and eat that bear. Woo, even though there was steel mesh between us and her, people were very spooked by her. Morgan, Justin and I just enjoyed watching her.



So all in all we had a great time and even got out of there before the traffic got bad. I think I said the lords prayer, or the parts of it I know till we got past Salem. There is some crazy drivers up in Portland. WOW.

Promos.

I am part of a local Etsy team and one of the members had a wonderful idea: Promos! OK so I sat here scratching my head going "what could I do?" OK, beads were a given since I have a few stored here and there, so I made some promos with my business card and a fancier bead or two spacer beads. But I was at a loss as to what to do to promote my art images. I was so stumped there. Then I remembered (pretend a light bulb went on) Ah-ha! I have some 4x6 images that I had printed up to get and idea of what the final image would look like. Well while going through my pictures I found the wallet sized ones I had printed up to make a memory match game for Morgan. I hadn't made all of them into the game so I used the remainder for my promos! It worked out so beautifully! I am very happy with the promos that I have made. These will be mailed to other members of the team so that they can include a little something in the packages they send out to their customers. I cant thank the ladies of the local Corvallis Etsy Team enough for being so helpful and wonderful! Here are a few images of my "work" surface (this means the kitchen since Morgan is blocked from my work room now.)

Getting ready to put my business cards and the wallet sized promo images together. I actually enjoy doing the extra work to promote my etsy shop.
Now all I need to do is get off my rump and get the magnets on the car. Maybe after we go to the zoo tomorrow.

This counter looks worse most days. I am constantly doing work on it, and not of the cooking variety. And we always have coffee in the pot. I cant survive without my coffee each day.                                      

Here is the finished product! I made a good amount so that if anyone else asked for some they would be ready to rock and roll!

The Tulip Terror

My daughter, bless her little heart, loves flowers. She also love ripping them from their stems. I find this annoying because 1) she shouldn't be doing it, and 2) I want my yard to look nice! And how can that be achieved if she rips my flowers to shreds? It Cant. LOL. But I will say that for each flower she decided to terrorize and shred, I get at least 1 nice picture of it, POST SHRED. I never let an opportunity go, when it involves mangled flowers. So here are a few pictures of today's destruction and revival.

A Hotness treasury

Last night one of my images (below) was selected to be in a new treasury, and it is on the first page of the treasury listings. For me this is pretty big. It might not seem like much, but I think it is! (column 4 row 4.)

I have provided a link to the treasury below and I wanted to highlight the shop that put me in it. Prettwoman101 has a wonderful selection of art images including some of her originals. The one I love is "Burning Sky." It reminds me of one of my fave Monet's. So if you are looking for some great images for your home or personal collection, stop into her shop. She has something for everyone that is sure to please and delight!

Treasury link:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4daae5f3326b8eef8646526e/who-said-sexy-and-didnt-get

Treasury Curator Shop Link:
http://www.etsy.com/people/prettywoman101?ref=af_shop_tre

Image selected:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/71879695/inner-parts-2-tulip-purple-spring-floral

Treasury in Etsy!

The last 24 hours for my etsy shop has been crazy! Not for sales, still working on those, but for treasuries! I have had 4 of my images selected for treasuries! This is so wonderful I cant even begin to think! So In order from first to last (over the last 24 hours) here are the treasuries for your enjoyment.

The Curator who put this treasury together doesn't have a shop on etsy, but she has made some great treasuries. Here is a link to her etsy profile. My image is in column 2 row 3.
http://www.etsy.com/people/maclh?ref=af_shop_tre

This is a great treasury that was inspired by "the joys of childhood." This wonderful Curator included my post cards. Column3 row 2. In her Etsy shop she has a wonderful offering of jewelry and handbags!

http://www.etsy.com/people/HiGirls?ref=af_shop_tre
 

This treasury was put together with other "fine art flowers." I feel privileged to have been included in her treasury. She selected my Dance collection. Column 3 row 3. Her shop has wonderful paintings, jewelry ans stationary items. A link to her shop is below. http://www.etsy.com/people/favoriteflower?ref=af_shop_tre

 This treasury was put together highlighting "Beautiful bold spring colors." The curator of this treasury WildWoolFarm did a great job selecting lots of bright and vibrant colors! She selected one of my Daisy images. Column 3 row 2. Her shop has a variety of wool items. Here is a link to her Etsy shop:
http://www.etsy.com/people/wildwoolfarm?ref=af_shop_tre


Thank you to all of you for selecting my images for your treasuries! I feel very privileged to be included.