Messing around

Decided to start some new little projects today, as I wasn't feeling the paintings I had started.

What could this black bat shape be for? hmmm?

I have been off to a slow start this year with completing projects. I start them then I hate them. Its so easy to get distracted. But when I am laying in bed thinking a project, and I can't stop and go to sleep, like I was last night, I know I am on the right track.

Oh, did you see my bobcat print? Its listed at blackforestcake. I think I see many more animal paintings in my future. I want to to do a wolf next. That will be challenging...

But right now, its Friday, and I have to go and play Mini Ninjas. (I spend a lot of time awwing over turning into foxes and raccoon dogs!)

Blackforestcake!

This little raccoon was just added to my Blackforestcake shop!

He's waving.

My parents found this amazing wool, which I think was intended for clothing production. May mens suiting or coats... It probably is vintage actually, but I guess I can't say that unless I actually know...but I bet it is.

This wool is perfect for critters! Its so sad that I can only make a few of them then its gone forever. SIGH.

When people touch this raccoon in real life, the first thing they say is "Wow, He is sturdy!" That sturdiness is why sewing felt dolls is only an intermittent thing for me. Its tough! :-)

More critters listed tomorrow I think...

Blackforestcake

I made a new little print available at my "cute shop" blackforestcake!

Little squirrel having a lunch break.

I did this painting before the Holiday madness set in, and its been sitting around my studio. I am varnishing the original today, and depending on how it turns out, I may sell it too. :-)

I am having a hard time getting back into my normal routine because something is going on with the heat in my studio. Its not broken, but its not working either! I am usually always complaining about being cold, but it is actually cold in here this time. The heat is cranked up and the heaters are merely warm.  My apartment building is really old and has no insulation.

Its making me grumpy. Grumpier than usual!!

P.S. Tomorrow is photo day for the wool critters I made before Christmas.

See ya 2009...

Not going to sugar coat it. 2009 was a crapfest.

I usually don't care about the New Year, much like I don't care about birthdays or anniversaries. This year I feel different, like I can't wait for 2009 to bite it. It was terrible.

You can't have really good years without bad ones, right?

So see you in 2010. I hope it will be a totally different kind of year than 2009, and bad or good, at least its will be new.

Look at this!

Prezzies!
Originally uploaded by Kyestera

Hey guys, do do remember a sneak peek I did a while ago with a picture of a sock creature? Here he is completed and at his new home! Thanks for posting pics of him L! :-)

He was a birthday git for an awesome friend. For a while he was lost in the mail, I was scared he had escaped.

So is he a cat, or is he a monster? Who knows...

Peek!

Sneaky peek!

New stuffed wool guys, sitting in a box, waiting for their makeup and accessories!

Orange Cat is a gift, but the others will be in the shop in the New Year.

Keeping busy. :-)

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.

Rocko the Cat

Rocko the Cat learned a new trick. He has decided he no longer meows, he just squeaks.

This is amusing because he is a massive fat man cat.

Fearsome, no?

Happy Friday the 13th. :-)

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.*

New on Thursday

I am super lucky, and was chosen to be interviewed on a blog!

To check out my interview, go on over to To Paraphrase, or click here to go right to my interview...

Its always nice to have someone be interested in your work, especially other artists. (And especially ones who understand when you take forever to do the interview!) I think she made me look good, choosing really nice images of my work. Thanks so much!!

Also new today, added a item to the shop.

Meghan is now a bookmark!

I worked on how to crop this painting for quite some time, trying many different shapes. I think the slender oval with a border suits the image and I am very happy with how it came out. And the glossy lamination really makes the colours look rich. :-)

Its so close to Halloween I am vibrating with spooky happiness. I started making cookies (multiple kinds!) and I might get to visit with foster kitties on Halloween too. *Plus* I might even get to go to Ikea to feed my buying-jars-to-put-baking-ingredients-in fetish. Busy!!

New print!

A new matted print in the shop today.

Meghan. A 5 by 7 inch print in an 8 by 10 mat.

There are parts of this painting I looove, and parts I haaate.

Her face in the original is so pretty with such subtle layers, and some of the background splotches are so perfect...But she has major proportional problems. Haha. I don't feel bad about tweaking her a bit in Photoshop, because I like the final outcome. I think the print looks great. The colours look really rich and warm in the off white mat.

I am also assembling some bookmarks this afternoon with this image on them, and they look really nice so far. Will probably post them later today.

And, I started a winter/Christmas/Holiday project! It was hard to do it before Halloween, but I am responsible like that. ;-)

Friday is not a day for stress

Sewing sucked my will to live.

So I moved onto something else.

Sometimes your plans change. I was struggling with sewing, and everything was going wrong. So I just put it all away for another day and started something new. Much better!

We shall see how this goes...

Sock thing.

This is a sock creature being born in my studio.

What will he be? His little personality is forming...Life as a pair of pink socks can't be easy, he might be a tough-ass. haha

I will see what he wants to be tomorrow morning.

Sparkle.

Sparkled!

A little painting in the studio getting its final touches...Notice a similarity in someones hair colour? HEE HEEEE.

Black Sparkle.

This little painting has a hand painted frame too. It has been hanging around in my studio for months and months! So I thought I should actually get around to filling it. Adding the little black sparkle necklace and bow on top of the varnish was fun. I know the idea of adding sparkle to anything could make it a cheap piece of junk so it was a gamble...but I think it looks cute. Cute junk!

Its available in the shop right now...

Ok, now to clean up a billion tiny sparkle flecks from everything...

New in the shop...

I have two new little items for my shops today!

This is "Little Kay"

This little original painting is on a handmade polymer clay ornament. I am always experimenting with painting of different surfaces. I haven't decided if I am going to do more of these or not, it was fun, but sometimes fun isn't a good business decision. haha.

I made this little fox for my Blackforestcake Etsy shop. Aw, isn't he sweet?

And...

I got my cookie cake for 1500 sales! That baby was eaten so fast. Sure, I like to make real homemade cookies from scratch, but sometimes an overly sweet mall-made treat is just what you need. JUNK! :-)

I somehow hurt my back like a sad old woman, and sitting in my studio chair is killing me. Hopefully I heal and can get pack to work, because the next two weeks are a basically the best time of year. I have so many plans for things I want to make!! CakesCookiesDecorationsCostumesCoffins! :-D Can you tell I am excited?!

Montreal

I went to Montreal!

And ate poutine.

Won a trip to POP Montreal, a music festival all over the city. Went by train! I put some pics as a Flickr set.

Here is a quick description of the trip:
-So many screw ups by the newspaper we won the trip from, they sent us someone else's train ticket, then only sent one ticket instead of two! UGH.
-SO bloody cold.
-everyone was super nice, even when I was like "Pardon me?" when they spoke French to me. (I kept feeling so rude!)
-gorgeous architecture *whimpers*
-one billion new bands, one billion indie kids
-booze at supermarket and gas stations (so WEIRD!)
-should have brought a black towel for my hair (sorry hotel!)
-Want to go back.

Sweet!

Ok, important stuff first.

I made sweet lemon poppy seed cakes.

YUM. I used a recipe from The Martha Stewart Livings Cookbook: The Original Classicsbut no one tell Martha that I added poppy seeds to the cake. Like really, lemon cakes are supposed to have poppy seeds in the cake, not just on top. Really!

They are super good, with a blast of lemon syrup that is supposed to seep through the cake but just really stays on top just under the sugar drizzle. Trying hard not to just scarf down both cakes in one day.

Next sweet thing..

Two paintings that I have been slowly finishing for the last few days. I might have to do one hundred more of these, as there are so many cat faces that need representation. They are available in my Etsy shop.

Third super sweet thing is:

Won a trip to Montreal!

Going to Pop Montreal on a TRAIN. Can you tell what part I am excited about? Haha. I lived in a "train town" most of my life and never went on a train. It just sounds fun to me. I don't know any of the bands at this festival, but there are so many i am sure I will like some of them. Never been to Montreal before, it will be *so* interesting.

AND

1500 sales at my Etsy!!!! SWEEEET.

Thanks to all my customers, you guys are big buckets of sweet sugar and stuff. Big thanks to Lynds the Crazy Cat Lady for the purchase that put me over the top. :-) YAY.

Oh yeah, and last sweet thing is that its getting colder and I can wear coats. YES. This is a big deal to me. Coat addiction activate! :-)

Halloween fever.

They are back!

Halloweeeeen Pins!

I decided to bring back my two little halloween pins again this year. I am just offering them until Halloween (duh!) I think I am more excited about Halloween than usual, maybe I am just embracing my dorkiness earlier than I usually do. :-)

Halloween is great.

New black things...

New things in my shop this week...

Glittery bat! A hanging clay bat covered in the finest black glitter. He has little orange glitter eyes too. Black glitter is EVERYWHERE!

Glittery Coffin! This little clay coffin has both silver and black glitter. Its really quite tiny in real life.

And this new Bad Black Cat Bookmark. I had another black cat bookmark, but since that has been sent off to blackforestcake, I thought I needed another one. This one is a bit more of an evil little black cat. Not that black cats are ever evil. No. Never....

I have a few more things that I am editing photographs for too!

I will raise it from the boneyard.

Its kind of dead around here...

There comes a time in every blogs life when they sit un-updated and boring. Its inevitable! I can't help it! So its not even my fault or anything... (haha, I think they bought it.)

Ok, so I have made up a bunch of little sets of mini gravestones. I already listed a set of four, and a set of two. I could have made them all day, its so FUN.

I have been keeping busy doing nothing. Buying books, making terrible cookies, trying to eat veggies and nerding out over halloween. This weekend my neighbourhood has a street festival, so much food and drink will be had. I will have to try to make more of an effort to take pics and post them. Its a cute festival.

Blog entry! Hah. I did it!