The Games

Tonight I am going to see the Hunger Games at midnight with my girlfriends. I must say I'm very excited but I don't know how I'm possibly going to stay up that late. In my younger days I could stay up til three, sometimes four AM no problem. But nowadays by 12am I'm usually ready to board the Sleepy Train. I plan on dressing up a little bit since it is the midnight premiere after all. I'm going to wear my neon blue wig and I bought this Rimmel blue eye shadow quad yesterday that I'm excited to test out. I painted my nails yellow to create a nice contrast with the blue but I managed to fudge it up already by being gross and eating Cookie Butter straight out of the jar. Speaking of Cookie Butter...oh, man! I'm totally addicted. That stuff is like crack (from what I've surmised crack would be like). They have it at Trader Joe's and you can pretty much put it on anything (anything includes your fingers, btw). I'm wee bit upset that I didn't find out about Trader Joe's until just recently. Think of all the years of deliciousness I could have had. Better late than never though, isn't that what people say? 


I haven't had that much time to craft as of late but here's my most recent creations:

"Ponyo Eating Ham"

6 inches

Felt and Embroidery Floss

"Pug Life"

6 inches

Felt, Glass Beads, Embroidery Floss

"Totoro, Mushrooms and Dust Bunnies"

6 inches

Felt, Glass Bead, Embroidery Floss

Assorted Fruits and Veggies Brooches

Felt, Glass Beads, Embroidery Floss

I also finished my newest charcoal illustration as well. I just need to have it photographed. I'm very happy with it and am pleased that I finished it pretty quickly (my illustrations usually take around 2 months to complete and this one only took about a month). I don't work on them everyday mind you, only about 2 times a week so that's why they take me so long --not to mention they're also quite large. 

Business has been a little slow on Etsy this month and I'm hoping that'll change in the near future. The thing about Etsy is that there's so much stuff on there that it's really hard to get "found" unless people are looking for something very very specific. I'm happy that my hoops are relatively easy find since there's not that much hoop art available. Last time I did a search two of my hoops came up on the first page. AND my work as been on the homepage a few times. For now I just need to keep making new work and I think the sales will follow in time. 

Oh! More news! Only about 6 1/2 more weeks til the big move. I can't believe the time is going by so fast. Too fast. I don't feel prepared at all. I still don't even own a map of Seattle yet! I really need to get more on top of things. My dad on the other hand is confident that everything will just "work itself out" and has been telling me not to worry about it so much. If only it were that easy. Moving to a new city by yourself is really stressful. I wouldn't be as worried if I had a job lined up and had a lot of friends there. But it'll be a good experience. I'm ready for an adventure. Like Bilbo says, "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." 

I won't miss Phoenix but I will miss all of the people I love here. In the past 3 years I've met some of the most wonderful people I've ever known in my 27 years. They've all become like family to me so it's going to be very hard to leave them. If only I could've met them sooner and would have had more time. Le sigh...I guess what's important though is that I did meet all of them and that they know who they are ;)

The Return of the Blogger

So I'm pretty much the worst blogger of all time. It's been almost a year since my last post. So what have I been doing all of this time? Well, a lot actually. Thanks for asking! I graduated summa cum laude from ASU in May of 2011. I was told that my GPA was in the top percentage of my graduating class so I'm very proud of that. Graduating from college was my greatest accomplishment thus far and I'm very happy that I went back after such a long absence. Although it was hard to return to school knowing that I would be older than the majority of my classmates I think that I went at the perfect point in my life. I was more mature, had some life experiences under my belt and felt really motivated to prove myself as an artist. I even surprised myself with my art; I've always been really insecure about my abilities as an artist and was lacking confidence. However, after every semester my style emerged just a little bit more and my skills developed further with each new drawing. Since graduation I've been working on my portfolio and even discovered some new crafts. Here's some examples of my post graduation work:

"The Queen"

22 x 30 inches

charcoal on paper

"Selena and Bruce"

22 x 30 inches

charcoal on paper

"Mee and Myne"

22 x 30 inches

charcoal on paper

"Dear Harry"

22 x 30 inches

charcoal on paper

I'm about 60% finished with a new piece which will be my first illustration of the new year so I'm excited to post that when it's complete. Back in November a coworker of mine saw that I dabbled in polymer clay and asked me if I could make a cupcake brooch for her daughter. I've never been good with any type of ceramics and didn't feel comfortable enough with the materials to make her a piece so I opted to make a felt cupcake brooch instead. I make plushies so I have a lot of experience working with felt but I'd never made a brooch before so I had to do some internet research first. It turns out that felt brooches are really simple to make so I whipped her up a little cuppie cake brooch. She loved it and told everyone at work about it and before I knew it, I had a small business going! I've sold dozens of brooches and found a talent that I didn't know I had. It's also really rewarding being able to complete a piece from start to finish in 2 1/2 hours (my illustrations take much longer--around 30-35 hours). Sure, I'm not getting rich off of my art (yet...) but it makes me so happy knowing that people like my art enough to buy it. Here's a few examples of my pins:

Psyduck Brooch

Meowth Brooch

Butterfree Brooch

Koffing Brooch

Lately I've been making Pokemon pins exclusively. They're so much fun to make and there's so many Pokemon now to choose from. I've recently discovered embroidery hoop art as well so tomorrow I'm going to take a crack at it. I'm really excited to try something new. Also, I just got in all of my shipping supplies so tomorrow I also plan to FINALLY open up my Etsy shop. I will have prints and pins for sale and hopefully some hoops soon too. So so excited to start using my degree and pursue my dream of someday being a full-time artist. I hope people like my art and that my items will sell. Cross your fingers! I have more developments that I'd like to catch everyone up on but that'll have to wait til another day. I'm getting ice-hands from typing too much >__< 


P.S. you can find my Etsy shop at: www.iggystarpup.etsy.com