Bye Bye Birdie

Welp, only one more week until I leave for Seattle. And to be honest, I'm freaking out. Like, REALLY freaking out. I just can't believe it's here already. I know I've been planning on this move for years but the time just went by so fast. Being a Taurus, change has always been pretty difficult for me and even though I know I don't want to stay in Phoenix, all of this change is causing a wee bit of a meltdown. 

In the past three years I've met so many amazing people and it's scary to know that soon I'll have to essentially start from scratch and meet all new people. I am looking forward to making new friends but at the same time I'm going to miss everyone back home so much. The friends I have in AZ are like family to me and it's going to be weird not to see them all the time anymore. However, I know that all of them will always be in my life. And I'll still see them, just not as often as I'm used to. It's going to be rough being so far away from my fam as well. My family has been a major source of drama in my life but I adore them (minus my brother). When I moved to Oregon my mom and dad called me EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. They had to always know where I was, what I was doing, etc. It was pretty intense but it showed me how much they cared about me. I hope they won't be as crazy this time since I'm nearly 30 years old now but I know I'll be lonely for the first few months so it'll be nice to have them to talk to on the phone. 

For a while I was worried that I wasn't going to get to Seattle this summer at all. It was kind of up in the air for a while because I had a really difficult time finding a roommate. I must have emailed dozens of people in the past month. Just when I thought I'd found the perfect room the person would find someone else to fill it or they'd turn out to be a weirdo and I'd have to back out. It got down to 2 weeks before my tentative moving day before I found a place. I know, cuttin' it pretty close. I'll be living in a 2 bedroom apartment in the U-District with a lady roommate (and one kitty cat). It's funny because after all of my searching and worrying and freaking out, the room I found was EXACTLY what I wanted from the beginning. My original plan was to live in a 2 bedroom apartment in the U-District with a girl roommate (preferably someone bookish) and that's just what I found. The place is tiny but it's affordable and centrally located. If I get a job at the university I'll be able to walk to work too! It's all very exciting but simultaneously anxiety inducing. 

I hope it won't take me too long to find a job. In Portland it took me 3 months to find employment and I had to go back to hospitality which I swore I'd never do again. But that was  back when the economy was really bad and jobs were scarce. And I have a degree now so I think that'll help a lot. It would be nice to find a job that I actually enjoyed doing. I get so jealous when people brag about how much they loooooove their job. I've yet to have a job that I love (other than art). I've had jobs where I enjoy the people that I work with (or most of the people that I work with) but I've never had a job where I actually loved what I did. That's probably due to the fact that I've only worked in customer service and I don't really care for John Q. Public. I'm more task-oriented. Just give me a job or project to do and watch me go. However, if you ask me to sell something or schmooze the public, watch how awkward I can get! 

Oh, I almost forgot! ART NEWS! Lately business has been boomin' in my Esty shop! I don't know what happened but this past month I've been having tons of sales. I think I sold 10 pieces this month, one being an original illustration. It's so motivating for an artist to sell a piece. I just want to work on new projects all day. Just thinking about crafting causes a surge of excitement. Here's a look at some of my most recent work.

Appa Hoop

6 inches

fabric, felt and embroidery floss

Drifblim Hoop

6 inches

fabric, felt and embroidery floss

Makar with Violin Hoop

6 inches

fabric, felt and embroidery floss

Togepi Hoop

6 inches

fabric, felt, glass beads and embroidery floss

Once I get settled in Seattle I'd like to start a new drawing. I'm thinking I might do a self-portrait. I don't think I've done one in a year. I'm overdue. I'd also like to start writing again for my comic strip. It's been on hiatus for a year while I've been focusing on my illustration and fibers work. I miss my comic very much. 

Despite all of my worrying , I am looking forward to this summer. There's going to be SOOO much to do in Seattle during the summer months. It's going to be great. It'll all be new to me too so I can do all of the corny touristy stuff. I can't wait to see the ocean, the aquarium, the tulip fields, the library, the space needle, the university, the rain forest...everything. It's going to be an adventure!

Next time you hear from me I'll be in my new home in the Pacific Northwest. Wish me luck!

Laters!

Stitchin' and Bitchin'

So things are going well on Etsy. I've made two sales since opening up my shop and I must say this pleases me immensely. I recently signed up on deviantART as well in hopes of generating more exposure. I'd like to get my work on as many sites as I can to get my name out there. Mama needs more sales! If you have an account on deviantART, please feel free to check out my profile at: www.iggystarpup.deviantart.com


I also caved and signed up with Twitter (again). This time my account will be dedicated solely to my artwork. Follow me if you like! www.twitter.com/iggystarpup


I've been a busy little bee lately and done a few more embroidery hoops. I simply can't get enough of them. They're all I want to do! This is BAD! I mustn't neglect my illustration too much. That is what I went to school for after all. But I just love being able to have a piece completed in less than 3 hours. Also, it's not as easy to sell very large illustrations unless you have them up in a gallery. Anyway, here's some recent hoops I've done.

"Psyduck, I Choose You!"

6 inches

Felt, Fabric, Glass Beads, Embroidery Floss

"Stitch: Ohana"

6 inches

Fabric, Felt, Embroidery Floss

"No Face"

6 inches

Fabric, Felt, Embroidery Floss

"Kodama"

5 inches

Fabric, Felt, Embroidery Floss

I would like to do a Ponyo or a Jiji hoop next but alas, I am out of hoops at the moment. I'd like to work on my fox drawing today but that might not happen. I've been having so much car drama lately and I'd like to get it taken care of today. For the past year I've had a problem with my tire. The "Low Tire" light has been coming on steadily and more frequently since I bought the cursed tire last July.  I've been to Discount Tire nearly a dozen times and every time they have some lame explanation of why the tire is leaking air but not once have they admitted that it's the defective tire they sold me. I even paid for the free tire replacement so you'd think that they'd have no problem just giving me a new tire just to get rid of me. But NOOOOOOO. My tire has gone flat countless times recently and since I don't have a cell phone it's been extremely stressful. I never know when I go somewhere if my tire is going to go flat and leave me stranded. It started out as a slow leak but now it's going flat in 2 days or less. For weeks they've been insisting that my wheel was the culprit so 3 days ago I was hoodwinked into buying a brand new $100 wheel (and given my current financial situation, that is a LOT of money). The dude told me that my tire should be just fine now and that I shouldn't have any more trouble with it...

WRONG!

The next day my "Low Tire" light came on yet again. I had them check the tires again and in less than 24 hours I'd lost 3 lbs of air. Interesting. I thought the new wheel was supposed to fix everything. All the guy could say was, "Huh, that's weird." and THEN he tried to blame it on my car's sensors. Oh, yes, it's the SENSORS now. UGH! When I came home and told my father that the new wheel didn't fix the problem and he went bat-shit crazy (he didn't think it was the wheel from the beginning--but a shitty tire).  So today we're going back and he's going to go mental in the store until they agree to 1.) Give me my money back for the wheel 2.) Put my original wheel back on and 3.) Install a brand new tire. If these conditions are not met he wants to drive to Discount Tire's headquarters (which is located in Scottsdale) and go bat-shit crazy on the President of the company. Naturally, I'm very stressed about this situation and am experiencing considerable intestinal discomfort at the moment. 

Le sigh...

Well, I guess that's what Dad's are for.

Wish us luck!

Laterz!

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