Do not read if in a good mood.

Ok, stuff sucks. Phew! At least I got that out of the way right away.

Its summer, Toronto garbage strike, Etsy problems, wedding screw ups, traveling, job hunting, sensitive skin, people being idiots, my computer imploding...GAH!!! I could go on and on. WOE IS ME.

Here is a painting that has been sitting unfinished for weeks...

Its currently wet with its first coat of varnish and its at its most screw-upable. Little fuzzies, blobs, smears and bubbles stay the heck away from my varnish. I am SO not in the mood for it!!!

If it wasn't for the nightly baby raccoon party directly outside my window, I would be kicking puppies and slapping old ladies.

Can't all be sweetness and cakes can it? :-P

FREE SHIPPING SURPRISE!

Yep! FREE.


I have never offered free shipping in my shop EVER before!

This is a surprise sale, and it won't last for long. So if you have been holding off getting that spooky special something, now is the time!

EDIT: My free shipping promotion is now over! Thanks to all those who took part.

Friday. Yesss.

The two new sticker sets for blacklilypie are in the shop!



Monogram Sticker Set (Customizable!) and Gothic Girl Set.

I received my birthday gift a day early! Mostly because it was in a big box and my dude had no where to hide it...Ok, and because I was bouncing around asking for it constantly like a spoiled child.



KitchenAid mixer! Isn't it cute? Even with my greasy fingerprints all over it and photographed lazily at night... I was just complaining that many of the dessert recipes I want to make need a mixer. It looks small in the photo, but in reality its a monster to someone with 2 square feet of counter space.
I teased dude that it was sort of a weird and "wifely" gift to get for your birthday. He said it was this or a gift certificate for an expensive tattoo. Both gifts will last forever. ;-)

I will have to buy myself something immature with my birthday gift spoils. (Thanks Mum!) Makeup! Clothes! OOh, or maybe some imported good from the chinese mall next weekend. *Drools*

Cake and Pie

I have been focusing on adding new products to my cutesy shop, blackforestcake. But I have not forgotten about blacklilypie!

This is a sticker set that is waiting to have its photoshoot. I just snapped this one as I was re-shooting some other items. *EDIT* They are now listed here. I have a few other sticker sets on the board too.

I designed this topper to be used with multiple sets, making it easier and faster to produce with just a few elements that change. I am working on a monogram set this afternoon. :-)

I have been posting links to some books I am in love with on Twitter, but I don't want anyone missing out, so here they are:


..

-Martha Stewart's Cupcakes-I liked the Cookies book she did so much I had to have the cupcake one. I can't wait to try some of them. Plus there is vampire bat cupcake. I pretty much squealed. Love her or hate her, she has good people working on her books.

-Gothic and Lolita by Phaidon-There is just something so awesome about seeing real people wearing clothes like this with all their little DIY additions and attention to detail. I just get a fuzzy feeling when people are weirdos, and they go to weirdo bars and cafes with their weirdo friends and don't care if you think they are silly. I also love seeing peoples rooms.

-Japanese Goth-Illustration,fashion,dolls,bands, and everything in between. Would have made a really great huge coffee table book. I just eat up some of those beautiful pictures. Here is an interview with one of the authors and some examples from the book...

I like books. There are stacks of them I should mention here. Maybe I should try to keep on that. ;-)

blackforestcake!!

SOOOOO....

My new shop is live!

The idea behind opening a new shop is so I can eventually separate my items into cute and kid friendly items and spookier and darker items. I know many peoples cute and spooky axis cross, but many peoples don't. So instead of limiting myself to create things that ride the middle, I can feel free to be as sweet or as dark as I like. Ahhh, thats better! :-)

This new shop will focus on animals, cakes and sweets, items for kids (and big kids.) I will be adding lots of affordable paper goods, some prints for kids rooms, original art...

The new shop will never be as large as blacklilypie, which is my true love. But its nice to have more space to stretch, and bouncing back and forth between dark and light will be great for fighting creative fatigue.

Thanks for looking! Now everyone go eat some cake.

Mini Trip

Zoomed home to my parents on the weekend. It was a crazy fast trip, there and back powered by ice cream, Tim Hortons and chocolate mini eggs.

Zip! I saw a moose but I was too slow.

I spent my weekend lounging on the deck with my parents, soaking up that tiny sliver of time in Northern Ontario that you can be outside when its warm and the bugs are not biting you yet. I even ate a hamburger from the BBQ, which is the thing I pine for the most each summer. I don;t even care about meat at all, but the BBQ smell and the summer feeling just makes me so happy.

Their lawn is a mass of these tiny flowers. They look so organized in batches of colours...Love them. I think everyone agreed it was a shame to mow them, so no one did.

So you can see that I obviously didn't get any work done.

I am continuing to work on my second Etsy shop items, I keep having to push back my shop opening date and its making me grumpy. But it will happen soon. I will finally commit to a day and start sneak peeking items. Just not today. :-)

Now if the delivery man would arrive with the supplies I ordered, I can get to printing cute creatures!

Sweet Secrets...

I mentioned in my last post that I am working on opening a second Etsy shop...

Its still not open, because I want to have a nice little starter set of items to stock it. I also am working on the branding, graphics and other things that ones worries about.

I can give you some sneak peeks of my progress though...

Cakes!

Strawberries!

And doodles!
(You have no idea how many time I have held up these guys and said "SO KEY-YUTE!!" I am in love with them.)

I think the shop might be open next week. I have to buy some specific supplies to finish some items and its my dudes b-day AND a long weekend with lots of plans, so I don't know how much time I will have available to me. So I am not giving an opening date yet. But its coming!! :-)

I call him Lefty.

So my work-on-stuff-and-post-it plans got a bit messed up when my dude decided he is a sports superhero and dislocated his shoulder.

He tells me he was making a totally amazing catch in softball and somehow fell. So Lefty and I spent time at a tiny walk-in clinic (which was majorly depressing and full of sad poor people.) I have been babying him a bit evn though he isn't even being a baby about the whole thing. he is just kind of useless at doing anything!

But he is back at work with flashy red arm sling, so I can work again.

I finished my calendar (Which Cathy totally guessed it would be!)



I decided to add colour after all and I think I like it. If you are not a "write stuff on a calendar" type person, I have also made one without the grid, which I will be listing tomorrow. It has a slightly different colour scheme.*EDIT* Here!

I also snatched up a second Etsy shop username, which I am going to start planning on setting up and filling up in the near future. Its still sort of a secret I guess. ;-)

Working on something new...

Spiders like flowers.

Can you tell what it will be?

I had this illustration board hanging around that is not the usual surface that I like to paint on. Its slick, and even has a bit of a shine. It seemed perfect for ink.

The surprising thing is that I actually did a pretty organized and complete sketch. I often just go "EH, I will figure it out as I go" and that is sometimes a horrible idea. I then decided to use an ink pen instead of the acrylic ink and brush I have been favoring lately.



This is actually a test print of the drawing, after it was scanned and Photoshopped. I was going to add digital colour, but once it got to the completed ink stage, I just liked it as is. Its not a secret that I always like line art better then the coloured versions. I bet I had a lot of blank colouring books as a kid.

I am not even going to pretend that this is going to be finished before monday. Its the weekend! No one wants paper goods with Cheetos fingerprints on them. :-)

New dolls!

I have two little guys to show today.

The shadow has been revealed. Its a smartly dressed mini-cat. I used a version of my larger cat pattern. I just wanted to make the tiny clothes...He has a little tie, vest and a walking stick with a glass bead. Smartly dressed gent. I almost gave him a little bowler or top hat, but it seemed like overkill.

And this little scamp (or vamp?) is the first of the crew of cemetery bats I have been sneak-peeking for you.

He wanted his coffin to match his eyes. I mean, who doesn't?

I have 5 other undead bats to work on photos for. Each is a bit different. Making a ton of little dolls on stands wasn't as easy at I thought it would be, it took really long. The hint in that statement is that these guys may not be a regular feature in my shop...My favorite part was making the little tombstones. That was SO FUN. :-)

More tomorrow.

Sneak Peek. Still.

So instead of finishing my new creations today I did laundry and dishes and made muffins and other boring things that the wife of a house does.

Then I decided to work on some little bat beasties, maybe take a photo to show their progress...

BUT SOMETHING WEIRD HAPPENED!

AHHHH! A strange shadow appeared in my photo! OMG GUYS! I am so scared. The shadow looks so....dapper and dashing. What could it BE? I am too scared to work anymore tonight.

I am betting the source of the mystery shadow, some beastie bats and some other spooky creations will show up on Thursday or Friday on this blog and in the shop. I hope I can make it till then without more terror!

EDIT: The project is growing! I need some more spooky components that I will seek out on the weekend. MONDAY!

Junk and Stuff

Working on new mini-items...



I am making some mini-animals on little stands. Its a messy job, because I need SO many different materials to make them and their homes. Felt,beads,cardboard,glue,thread,fabric,paper...PHEW!

Some are sweet and some are spoooooky. :-)

Prom!

Prom!

The Winterwoods at their prom, before they were The Winterwoods of course.

Because the subject matter, I felt like it was ok to have a bit more fun, and not worry as much about the stuff I usually do. Its more cartoon, right? Fast and furious.

Being a Canadian, I didn't have a "prom." I had a semi-formal (whatever that was for) and a "Grad" when I graduated. Both were crappy. I think I went to both, even though my internal voice screamed nooooo! Live and Learn. I skipped my high school and university graduations ceremonies, so I guess I learned my lesson. Since I have also decided not to have a wedding, I am home free for "everyone look at me and my big dress" events for life. WooHOOO!

Sneak Peek.

Working. Doodling. Sniffling.



Prom.

Big bad black cat.

Ok, maybe not bad, maybe just naughty?

This stationery set is available in my shop today.

He is the perfect amount of cute but not sugary that I like so much.

Black cats always seem to have a touch more of that cat evilness to me. They can't help it, they are just born bad right? I shouldn't make claims like that, my cat is gray and he is a nightmare. Big fat fuzzy nightmare.

I have fought the urge to use black envelopes for things I create and sell for some unknown reason. Maybe I thought people would be put off buying black envelopes? I have no idea why I think these things. Sometimes you just don't question things you decide, then realize later its idiotic. Black envelopes for ALL.

I am not going to pull and April Fool's Day crap on you. I generally hate that shit. But Trent Reznor's was a good one. I laughed. Those glasses have went from trend to joke so swiftly. haw haw.

cat-ish things...

I put two stationery sets in my shop today. I have been doing some gloomy or dark stuff lately, so I bet some people will be happy to see something fluffier for a change.

This batcat stationery is a modern makeover of one I designed in university. Batcat has gotten a 2009 update, but everything else is pretty much the same. I packaged them nice and small to make them easier to ship. (Easier means cheaper too!)

Not really all that proud of my photography on these babies, but what else is new. I guess I shouldn't publicly point out that they are photographed poorly. Forget I said anything. The overcast days make my photos so dreary. Which is fine when they are supposed to be dreary!

So now I am working on something new. Look at this bad boy!

Heee heee! My favorite part is the chewed ears! I might have to make that more of a feature.

This is just the first rough part of blocking in the shapes. He will have his fur and features tweaked soon enough...He is an Illustrator drawing, and I will show you the rest of him when the project comes together... P.S. Think I have enough icons in my dock??? Haha.

Peek!

Despite lots of goofing off this week, lunching and shopping and kitten visiting, I am making progress on my stationery sets...

Here is a peek of what I am packaging right now.

Pink and purple...Will probably be ready by Monday, because I have more goofing off to do since its the weekend!

Nocturnal Notes Stationery Set

A new stationery set is complete!

Nocturnal Note Set!

YES, its the same image that you have seen one billion times before in my shop. Haha. This is actually my test stationery. To see if I could print something balancing quality and cost. I think it came out quite cute!

I would love to just send them out to the printers like some other stationery sellers do, but you have to do such large volumes...If I did work that was a teeny tiny bit more salable to a wider audience, I would be all over that. I hope gravestones come into fashion.

The set has 6 printed papers, three blank, three lined. And then I added some little stickers!

The stickers were initially added for addressing the envelopes, but then I added some useless ones just for a fun extra.

I am thinking of getting purple or even gray or black envelopes to try out with this set. I think half of the reason I am doing stationery is so I can buy envelopes. (YAY!!) I wonder if I should design the stationery first, or buy the envelopes first?

I have another stationery set (a batcat one!) that is still in the development stage, but its almost there. I am just fussing with the printing and colours.

Off to draw something new to show you. I promise not to recycle any old artwork. hee hee.

Spring!

Its so sunny and bright outside and little squirrels and birdies are squeaking to each other outside my window. So cheery!

So of course the item I made is the complete opposite. Bloooood! Ok, its only a teeny, tiny drip of blood. Hardly even visible unless you look.

This bookmark is possibly the MOST annoying item I have ever produced for my shop.

I fought tooth and nail to make these. My laminator ate some, and the rest were plagued with fuzzies and lumps and bumps. I have a HUGE stack of them that are unsellable. Depending on how long my memories of the rage that I felt trying to make these things, they might not ever be made again.

The junk.The success.
After these photos were taken I tried to make more and failed miserably again! The failure pile is a mile high! Plus I look like a dork.

I will definitely use the bookmark image for something else though. I have plans for it.

Its a productive day, with grocery shopping, photographing new items, laser printing (new printer!) and buying Nine Inch Nails tickets for June. I am working on stationary sets this afternoon, so hopefully they will be available some time this week. Should probably keep moving before my Monday-steam runs out....

Good intentions don't always make for good outcomes.

Sometimes things just don't work out the way you want them to.



Every project I started for the last little while has turned to crap at some point. I spent a lot of time trying to make myself like them by repainting, tweaking, cutting up and gluing back together...But at this point, I think its best to just let them go in peace.

So all my papier mache stuff is junked, my paintings trashed, and my experiments won't see the light of day. Oh well.

Its kind of a weird, messy time right now for a lot of people I know and interact with. And yeah that includes me. Being an person with an extremely low-drama life I find even a bit of conflict strange and tiring. I am just so used to nothing happening! Sorry if this seems like typical cryptic internet crap, but I do have a life outside of making bats in hats. ;-P

So today I am starting new projects. I am going to try to be more selfish and make things I don't want to sell. :-)