Monday, May 31, 2010

Orange and Blue



Monday Magic... Orange & Blue!

quirkydame
ChanningGraceStudio
PrishaJewels
octaviabloom

GarrettWeider
JaidaLouisa
Mamadeesboutique
creaturecomforts
plasticfantastic74
TowheeHillStudio
TheSpacesInBetween
cchanart

Introducing my 33rd installment of my weekly feature, Monday Magic! These Etsy.com sellers all share something special... Fabulous work! Yet, somehow like many sellers on Etsy are wondering where all their admirers are! So this is where I feel it's time to showcase the undiscovered talent of Etsy, on Monday each week so they have a chance to shine like the best of Etsy do :)


All of the sellers names can be typed into the navigation bar on your browser followed with ".etsy.com" (dot etsy dot com) to take you to their stores. Otherwise click on an image to go directly to their listing!


I am now taking requests for next weeks Monday Magic Expo. If you would like to be a part of it, you are required to 0-19 sales in your Etsy store, and the theme is 'Sunshine!' Contact me via convo @ http://moonangelnay.etsy.com to send in your requests, plus a link to your suitable item :)

Sunday, May 30, 2010

First Week Down



Sunday - Coffee and Cake
weekly musings, articles and mostly babble...

HandmadeSpark NEW TUTORIAL POST...

My article on Handmade Spark is up!


Finding your Spark : Product Photography - Layering And It's Benefits

You can still catch my previous posts here:
* Finding Your Spark - Product Photography - Lighting
* Finding your spark : Product Photography - Getting The Best Out Of Your Photography
* Finding your spark : Product Photography - Making A Lightbox
* Finding Your Spark - Photo Composition
* Finding Your Spark - Got The Shakes?
* Finding Your Spark - Easy Post Production - Contrast Adjustment


My Week ... I am just about here... in one piece! I hate to be all theatrical about it but i NEVER expected the difficulty I've had trying to function normally, following having my baby girl. And funnily enough it's nothing to do with my recovery or the baby at all LOL! My son is nearly 3 and we always figured that having another baby when he was this age would be a lot easier than having them closer together... Ohhhh were we wrong about that! I think I'd have more luck trying to bag the Tazmanian Devil in his tracks LOL! It's rather sweet how much he loves his little sister, but my gosh the enthusiasm he has for her hasn't waned since the first time he met her. You'd think that isn't a bad thing, but it has translated into him never allowing her to sleep, feed or even just have a little much deserved space from human contact for just a second. It's difficult as we can't punish him for loving her, but boundary setting this week hasn't been very successful at all, and as a result we have a very naughty little monkey swinging around our house causing chaos!

I'm hoping when my partner is back at work from his paternity leave that he'll settle down. He always seems to be more hyper when we're all at home together so a change of setting may do the trick, fingers crossed!

So the other side to the madness, I have to say has been really easy to settle back into. It helps knowing what we're doing this time round, so the sleepless nights, mass nappy changes, feeding etc seem a lot less harsh on our poor shrivelling brains lol! But to be fair, our little girl is REALLY calm and a happy little thing so that helps a lot. We're lucky that she's so good. She's taken to life in the mad house really well actually LOL! I'm enjoying it whilst I can, I know with her brother as a role model, it won't be long before the "changes" start rolling in *eek!* :)


Recent Photography Posted to moonangelnay.etsy.com...


NEW STUFF ... I have been using the odd spare few hours to work on some new prints... well 2 to be precise. One of them is up and the other I will list tomorrow. Hopefully there will be more to come eventually, but at the moment I'm focusing on some photography away from Etsy involving form so it'll be a bit of a balancing act when it comes to digital designs. I'm considering bringing form into my store which is primarily nature photography at the moment. We'll see about that one in time!

That's it for now. Have a great weekend all!


moonangelnay x

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Kindness In My Absence



Wednesday...Gratitude!

No.13 Here are some of my favourite handmade items, from the kind artists that have featured some of my work in the past 2 weeks!


My favorite treasury! 'Gothic Pinque...' by 'NightOwlBooks'


TREASURIES AND FEATURES


Item - Miss Suzy Vintage Childrens Book
Etsy seller - NightOwlBooks Vintage Childrens Books
Treasury - Gothic Pinque


Item - Purple Octopus Stuffed Animal Ball
Etsy seller - ZadyBall Handmade Toys
Treasury - Those Summer Nights


Item - Paper Craft Supplies
Etsy seller - ScrapAddict Scrapbooking Supplies
Treasury - Cool Colors


Item - Gwendolyn (reduction linocut)
Etsy seller - VictoriaFineArt Hand Pulled Prints and Paintings
Treasury - Treasury Main


Item - Mint Ice Cream Princess Pearls
Etsy seller - JulessabJewelry Jewelry Designs
BESTeam Feature - JujuBee's Blog



Item - 6 Dichroic Glass Buttons
Etsy seller - BeaderyDestash Destash Jewelry Supplies
BESTeam Feature - Alexander's Designs Blog


Thanks again for the features everyone :)

moonangelnay x


Double Up!



Tuesday - BESTeam Mosaic x2
weekly shoutout to the dedicated workers that like to help other handmade artists...


As some of you know, I had to take a necessary week away from my computer to have my baby! I'm back and slowly getting back into a routine.
Having missed out on featuring a BESTeam member last week I thought it'd be nice to double up this week!

LoveElycia on Etsy (for last week!) ... One of today's Etsy artists from the Etsy BESTeam is LoveElycia on Etsy. She hand makes a wonderful selection of whimsical accessories, moustache inspired! I particularly love the little speech bubble headbands!
I have included 6 of my favourites from her store in the mosaic below, and encourage you all to visit this store to see what else is available!

And LoveElycia's Blog
... Is fabulous! Full of enthusiasm, entertaining, bright and unique to Elycia's outgoing nature! You can visit LoveElycia's blog here!

All items are clickable and will take you directly to LoveElycia's listings...

ConduitPress on Etsy... I am in love with this store! ConduitPress on Etsy is the place to visit if you're looking for great quality, rustic and artistic looking journals. I think they look amazing and could see how they could be enjoyed even as sketch books (with style!). Other items in store include badges (buttons), upcycled vintage notebooks, handbound albums, baby books and cards
Check out this store to see what else is available!

And
ConduitPress's Blog... WOW the layout is just monotoned loveliness! I am always excited when I see sharp colors within a simple layout. However there is nothing simple about this blog as it is full of wonderful handmade related posts and musings from ConduitPress. You can visit ConduitPress' blog here!

All items are clickable and will take you directly to ConduitPress' listings...

Sunday, May 23, 2010

♥ Baby Love ♥



Sunday - Coffee and Cake
weekly musings, articles and mostly babble...

Sorry For being absent the past week... I do have good reason though...

My Little Girl is here!!! - Meet my little Aayla :)



WELL PHEW!... What a week! it's been a long week and LONG labor, but finally as of Friday my little baby girl arrived naturally, without pain relief on my part (BELIEVE me there was no time!) and both myself and the little squidge are happy and healthy :)

I actually went into labor last Saturday night... yep... allllllllll the way back on the 15th. The reason things didnt progress was mainly the fact that like me generally, my body want to show everyone just how awkward it could be by keeping my cervix posterior up until the last 2 hours LOL! But yes, as of Thursday I found that instead of relying on the dayshift midwives (who by that point were not really sure just what to say to myself and my partner), i took my own initiative of making the darned thing move to an anterior position, and voila managed to finally progress to active labor! Thank goodness for 3G and the wonderous birthing info across the web! It all happened 2 hours after my waters broke so i was glad to have a speedy end to it all... but wow what an experience! One I shall never forget thanks to the amazing night staff that supported me through my best moments and quite pathetic ones too lol :) Baby Aayla arrived into the world on the 21st, and we have been enjoying her cuteness since!

Besides not blogging, I also haven't checked into the Etsy forums nor my other networks including any updates for Handmade Spark the past week, although I hope to have everything back to normal this week. For now you can still catch my previous photography HS posts here:

* Finding Your Spark - Product Photography - Lighting
* Finding your spark : Product Photography - Getting The Best Out Of Your Photography
* Finding your spark : Product Photography - Making A Lightbox
* Finding Your Spark - Photo Composition
* Finding Your Spark - Got The Shakes?
* Finding your spark : Product Photography - Easy Post Production : Contrast Adjustment

Recent Photography Posted to moonangelnay.etsy.com...

That's it for now. Have a great weekend all!


moonangelnay x

Thursday, May 13, 2010

KikiMerdie on Etsy



Friday Finds... KikiMerdie


This is my 28th interview of the amazing not-so-well-known artists of Etsy!

Today I have a very talented crochet crafter known as Keely from Etsy store KikiMerdie, that lovingly threads and weaves together fine metals to make up her impressive crochet jewelry collection. It's so amazing to see the art of crocheting in such a development as Keely's intricate style, I know that when visiting her store you won't be disappointed!


(Just click the images to go direct to the listings)







-- Tell me a bit about you! (Name, Age, Location, and give us a random fact whilst you're at it.) My name is Keely. I’m 25 and I live in Coon Rapids, MN. I have two wonderful children; Kacy, who is 6, and Luke, who is 7 months. I let my husband name the little one, and being the Dukes of Hazzard enthusiast that he is, he named him after Luke Duke. I guess it’s to go along with his General Lee, a 1969 Dodge Charger painted up and souped up like the one in the show. He’s a little fanatical to say the least. But, who knows. Maybe Luke will think it’s pretty cool when he gets older.


-- What is your business about then? My shop offers wire crochet jewelry and accessories as well as kits and patterns to make wire crochet pieces yourself. All of my pieces are my own designs and are unique from all other wire crochet that I’ve seen. Wire crochet is a unique craft to begin with, but most wire crochet jewelry you will find involves threading beads onto a wire and crocheting them into a chained strand. Pretty boring, right?
What I’ve done is used a thinner gauge wire and omitted the beads in turn for intricate pattern stitches to create textures and designs in the jewelry. The finished piece looks like a delicate lace or mesh, but is very strong.


-- How did Etsy come into your life? I discovered Etsy a few years ago while searching for crochet patterns online. I remember the first thing I came across were the amigurumi patterns. I thought they were so clever and cute and I purchased a few to try. Over the next couple of years I made occasional purchases from Etsy, but mostly enjoyed browsing. It seems each time I log on I find a new great product that I wish I had thought of first and I’m consistently impressed with the talent and craftsmanship exhibited by my fellow Etsiers.


-- Are you working a day job too? Yes, I do have a full-time day job in addition to running my shop. I work at a local manufacturer of electrical enclosures as a mechanical drafter. I create 3D models in a computer animated drafting software and make drawings of the models for our shop workers to follow when building the enclosures. I guess it sounds a bit more interesting than it really is.


-- How long has the artist in you been 'unleashed' for? I’ve always tended to be artistic one way or another. I remember as a child using materials from around my house to make dolls, or Barbie accessories, or even a prototype spitball shooter at one time.
My mother taught me the basics of crochet when I was very young and the rest I picked up as I gained more experience. It wasn’t until last year that I started experimenting with crocheting wire. I played with a few designs and decided to create a whole line of jewelry with it. By then I was very familiar with Etsy and I new this would be my niche to start my own shop. It took me several months on experimenting to find what would work with wire and what wouldn’t, and I finally launched my shop right before Easter on this year.


-- What has been the inspiration behind your business? After finishing my first few pieces I kept thinking they looked like lace. So with that in mind I concentrated a lot of my designs on lacy, openwork stitches and ruffles. I found inspiration in other lacy textiles from the craft store.
Many of my ideas, however, just come to me, one by one. I’ll see a pattern I like in a piece of fabric or an object I think would look neat, and I recreate it with wire.

-- If you could describe your products in three words, what would you tell me? Intricate metal lace


-- What would an average working day for you be like from dawn til dusk? My days are pretty hectic, especially the mornings. I usually wake up to the baby around 5 am. We get up, get my daughter up, and all get ready for the day. We try to leave the house by 6:30. I drop my daughter off at school, my son off at daycare and get myself into work by 7 am. I work until 3 and pick up the kids. I get home, feed the baby and make dinner. After that we play and do housework until the kids go to bed at 8. Then it’s my time for a shower and finally some time to work on my shop or a personal project until about 10 pm. Then its lights out and we start all over the next day.


-- What's your favourite material and techniques to work with? I love the way wire looks when I’m finished with a piece of jewelry, but I actually favor working with yarn. It’s a lot easier on my fingertips and you can work a lot faster with it. I also just taught myself how to knit a couple weeks ago so I’ve been obsessed with that lately. I’ve got a stack of knitting patterns about an inch thick that I want to try. I just need more hours in my day.


-- What is your ideal vision for the future for you and your work? I would be happy to make two or three sales per week in my shop. Enough for some extra spending money, but I wouldn’t want to make it my full-time job. I’d be afraid that if I did that it would ruin the hobby for me and become work.


-- Away from work, what do you like to do for fun or to wind down? When I get spare time, I like to work on personal crochet and knit projects or spend grown up time with my husband. We try to make it a point to have a date night at least once a month where we send the kids to Grandma and Grandpa’s house and go out to a nice restaurant. We also attend a lot of car shows in the summer; sometimes with and sometimes without the General Lee.


-- What are you likely to search for on Etsy? Most of my searches are still for patterns on Etsy. But, as of late I’ve been looking for knitting patterns to feed my newest addiction.


-- Any last words? I think many of us Etsy sellers come from the same stock that feel the urge to constantly create. We lack the ability to sit in front of the tv without something in our hands to work on. I guess I find it most interesting all the different ideas and projects we come up with to satiate that urge.