Holiday!

Its that time of year!

Both my Etsy Shops (blacklilypie and blackforestcake) are closed until after Christmas!

I closed earlier than many other shops chose to this year. I think its the right decision for me, but it feels very strange to have complete freedom. Its weird to not get so much email. haha

Right now is kind of a prep period before the New Year when I think a few changes will take place.

I am going to be posting some progress of new projects and items that will be ready in the New Year, hope you come by to see.

Christmas already?

I am so not in the Christmas mood yet, but I am actually late on all my Christmas items this year! Being a Canadian selling mostly to Americans and overseas, means Christmas is actually super close!! Eeep.

Hope this isn't a sign of how this Holiday Season is going to unfold. Must organize!

I put the Spooky Christmas Pin Set back in my shop.

I often get a request for it about this time of year and go "Oh yeah!" to myself...

I also made two sets of gift tag stickers this year from previous years illustrations.

In an effort to make them as affordable as possible, I chose to laser print them this year on glossy sticker paper and they came out great. I wanted to do a bigger set, because everyone hates scrambling for labels while you are wrapping. There are 28 stickers in each set.

Spooky but subtle.

You could use them on Grannies gift and she would be ok with it, right?

And a "Bad Cat" set for my second shop, Blackforestcake.

I am not sure if I will do any more "Christmas" themed items this year. That might be it. Unless the Holiday spirit somehow infects me. ;-) You never know, I am already dying to bake Christmas cookies and cakes and cupcakes...But I have to wait, as I still have Halloween baked goods!!

Tonight I am off to see AFI and Gallows. Um YAY! Hopefully everyone is 15 and short so I can see something. *Off to find tallest boots I own.*

Already the New Year

Even though tonight is New Years, I already feel like it has happened.

Why? I ate a real breakfast not consisting of just chocolate and cookies and listed a new item in my shop, which is open again!

The Winterwoods.

I have plans for these two. The Winterwoods may return in other prints or items. They already have a back story in my head.

And I have a few pictures from my Christmas visit to my home town, Capreol. (In Ontario, Canada) Prepare to be cold.

Isn't it flat and that special kind of bright cold? Eep.

My parents house all tucked into snow. We had just arrived and I wanted to take pics before getting my Christmas on.

Had to climb it!

I got a bit snowy. Good thing I had just bought boots when I got to town. Go kids boots!

Most of my pictures of actual Christmas are blurred with the excitement of opening gifts and lauging and family. Plus no one wants to be in their pjs on the internet. :-) Let me sum up my Christmas for you...

Eat, visit, eat, Christmas eve, gifts, snow, photos, garage doors, stuck cars, kitty litter, Finnish exchange students, wii battles, gift exchange games, cookies, sweaters, lost cell phones, chasing cats, Levack, thickest fog ever, gravy, shovelling, and cheesecake.

I have big plans for the New Year. Most of which include bat wings. :-)

Off we go!

Its time to visit, eat and hug your parents!

Off to visit family and friends who live in Northern Ontario, where its not just cold but "DAMN that is COLD." Presents are wrapped (well, the ones that arrived by mail in time. grr!) Cookies are baked (and mostly eaten) and batteries charged for dorky family photos. See you in the new year!

Christmas hobo

Its that time of year!I closed my Etsy shop! Not forever, just for the Holidays.

Its a bit like a vacation, in that I don't get up every morning and get to work emailing and packing and making stuff. But its a weird busy time of year for me. I make Christmas gifts, have baby's and birthdays and all sorts of projects on the go for launch in the new year. Its crazy busy, but I still don't have to answer to the man. I guess the man is really just my inbox...

Its just a weird time of year, where I am loosing money and spending money and being busy and not having a job all at the same time. PHEW. :-) But its nice to have a change, and I always end up making some cool stuff this time of year, so I can't complain.

I have the tree up and I cannot take a nice picture of it.
Its a black tree with only a few pink and white lights and purple and silver decorations. Add heavily patterned curtains and carpet and you get a mess. It looks nice in real life, but its just a blurry blob in all the million photos I took of it. I don't think we *tried* too hard to decorate it this year, we just threw the decorations at it. It shows. Its shows how awesome we are.

Once the tree is up its all holiday around here. No meal shall be cookie free.

Free!

Starting today!
I am giving away free Spooky Christmas gift tags with my Etsy orders!

I will throw in a few in each order, the more items, the more tags! (Duh!) They are matte sticker paper, some are bigger, some are teeny tiny, perfect for little stocking sized gifts.

I was going to sell them, but nah. Free is so much more fun.

I am probably finished making Christmas items for my shop now. I had high hopes, but I got all Grinch-y about it, and started painting high contrast male models instead of Santas. Haha.

I am reading Twilight right now, and so far its making my 14 year old self turn the pages and my 28 year old self gag and roll my eyes. I will have to wait until I finish it to officially rip it up. (Uhh.. I mean, give it an unbiased review!)

I don' think I will see the movie in theatres though, I might slap some kids. I guess it wasn't that long ago that I was am impressionable teenage girl, but I shudder when I see how lame some teenage girls can be. They turn into squealing mindless romance zombies. Its gross. Oh wait, this is so turning into a review....must stop.

So I leave you with a pic of Rocko the Cat. Its been far too long since I spammed this blog with catness.

You can hardly tell he is fat. Its like a myspace shot. haha

How long until next Halloween?

Halloween is OVER. How depressing!! I am sad.

It was awesome though.

We were sort of rockabilly/psychobilly zombies of some sort. We had already forgotten or abandoned parts of our costume by this point. The flash makes us look less zombie-ish than we really were. We left accidental tattoo prints on the rental car, each other, animals, and furniture. Wahaha.

We were at a party called BOOzefest. BOOzefest V to be exact. Five years of awesome parties. Hosted by two awesome friends that pretty much went Halloween crazy, and spared no expense to make sure everyone had a great time. They have a nice big house that was packed with decorations, food, and many,many drinks. Their parties are always good, but this one was really great. I feel lucky to not only have generous friends, but friends who also like Halloween as much as I do!

Good turnout too! We won third prize in the costume contest. Cheeeers!

So I sit here listening to my Halloween playlist while I begin to switch to Christmas mode. Its not an easy transition!! I would trade in Christmas for a second Halloween in a second. *grumble* Ok, trying not to be a grinch...

I listed my first Christmas item.

Spooky Christmas pin set.

I always have this set in my shop at Christmas. This years version's images are a touch larger and a teeny bit more saturated.

I don't really know if I will make any more specifically Christmas themed items. Its such a gamble, and I am not a gambler I guess. ;-) I do have some little things started, and will probably try to get some of them listed this week.

I am shutting down my shop for Christmas on December 10th, so I pretty much only have ONE MONTH. Guess I better got on it.

I think its going to snow...

Ugh. I forgot what it was like to be cold.

But it does help get me in the mood for winter things. Like listing this little dude!
Haha! Is he an evil elf? Or a good elf? Who cares. The hat says evil but the scarf says not evil. I never want to sell these little critters, but if I kept them all I would have to eat them so its not a very good option. Haha.

I am working on Holiday cards and have stockings to list and more more more stuff. You would think I am a Christmas nut or something. I *thought* I wasn't...Am I?

And with all this self imposed rush-rush, my little cat dude has become increasingly naughty ,loud and demanding. He hates his food, he hates his bed and he hates me for not spending enough time looking at his cat-face. So annoying!! He sounds like a lost sheep, bleating and bleating all day.

You think I could get a picture of him being bad??? NO, of course not. My "little cat" knows when I am trying to catch him being bad to prove he is the baddest cat in history. He is too smart for that.
He just curls his enormous body into his beer box (where it came from we have no idea) and refuses to perform his devil deeds on film. ARGH.