Halloween sales!

Mid-August is when Halloween starts to seriously kick into gear, since the decorations are up for sale in stores, and people are getting ready to stock up on Halloween goodies before they get too distracted by back-to-school shenanigans. So I'm going to try to put more of my classic Halloween art in my Etsy shop, as I'm doing new versions of old favorites. Please visit my Facebook fan page and "like" it for a new coupon code!

Around Sept. 18 I won't have an ArtFire shop any more -- I had a pro account and went back to a basic account, but those no longer exist, so once my current month's subscription runs out I am not going to renew and will just focus on Etsy.

In the meantime I have a 10% off storewide sale on ArtFire, so check it out by clicking the owl painting above! I mostly have prints available there and a few paintings not available elsewhere. The sales prices will be live, no need for a coupon code. If there's enough interest I might be able to keep the shop around longer.

That's all for now, going to get back to working on some crisp, cool autumn art from a 107-degree day in Texas!

Happy spring!

It's been awhile since I posted -- lots of new knitting crafts to share but on the business end of things, I have spring sales at my Etsy and Artfire shops.

On Etsy, I have a new free shipping coupon code. The code is MEOWMEOW and you can enter that at checkout.

On Artfire, I have a 10% off sale going on.

Art will be flowing again soon, with the spring thaw -- I spent the entire winter knitting/crocheting since it seemed to be the only way to keep warm!

I'll be back on the blog wagon soon too so thanks for everyone who is still looking for following. :)

ArtFire sale extended, new items

I'm extending my 25% off sale at my ArtFire sale through the week, which includes lots of art and a couple of knit/crocheted items. The autumn tree painting you see above, and the crocheted fingerless gloves below, are among the items that are for sale at a considerable discount.
Adorned with a red flower and a little robin. I definitely prefer crocheting, I've decided, after fighting with dropped stitches on a different project this week that was knit...but I will continue to do both. I think everyone who does this stuff has one method that they prefer, so I'd have to say that crocheting appears to be my preference.

I visited Woolbearers in Mount Holly, NJ today and got some beautiful yarn, including this below, a variety called Cornucopia in the color Provence. It made me think of something regal -- like a queen in a palace overlooking a cloudy cliff at the edge of the sea. I have no idea what I'd do with it but I have to have some.

And continuing my fixation on rainbows, some beautiful rainbow yarn...I wish I had an endless supply, everything I owned would be made of it! Another thing I prefer about yarn crafts to sewing, is that you don't need to plug anything in -- you don't need a machine. I hand sewed garments for years, but it was very time consuming, and the end results weren't quite as neat as I'd like them to be. Knitting and crocheting seem to come out very neatly. And you don't have all these little pins falling all over the place too. Oh I still sew, don't worry -- I am going to set up a machine in a permanent spot and use it whenever inspiration strikes me, but the rat-a-tat of the machine is something you can't do in bed at night or in a waiting room. Wouldn't it be interesting if you DID do it in a waiting room though?

Cyber Monday sale at ArtFire

I'm not usually the sales/promotion type but I like that ArtFire has a "sale" function so here we go! My shop is 25% off today and...well maybe longer, we'll see. I have prints and original paintings for sale but I'm also adding a few knit/crocheted items. For instance, this pair of fingerless crocheted gloves. I started with a star pattern that I liked, made a band of single crochet and finished with a shell pattern to make a unique, bohemian little eclectic design with this multi-colored yarn. I am very happy with them! They are super cheap with this sale, too, and they are one of a kind.

I'll try to have some more items up today but I have imported a couple of Etsy items over to ArtFire for the time being to give special deals on them as well. Check back to see what i have in stock!

Chunky yarn and granny squares

Among the many gifts I've been making lately (which I'm still not posting pics of, ha!) I managed to make something out of some fantastic chunky yarn I got, with a simple knit stitch that shows off the interesting textures. This is my first knit item that I'm putting up for sale, it's on ArtFire. I like ArtFire a lot, you can put stuff on the site on your Amazon wish list and you can purchase without having an account on the site itself. I know that the arts and crafts sites are overflowing with knit and crocheted items but I'm going to be pretty picky about the things I offer -- it's going to be all things I'd want to keep for myself if I needed this many scarves and things!

Meanwhile, I am working on two or three paintings that will also be gifts, so I also can't share pictures of them yet!! Oh my goodness! It's going to be such a relief after Dec. 25 when I can finally share these things. I did crochet seven squares for my afghan though which I talked about here. I didn't finish my flower scarf yet though, I got sidetracked. It's hard to make things for myself when there's so much else to do. But I am very devoted to my afghan project!

Here's a pile of unfinished squares...


And a slight close-up. I was very happy to be able to follow the instructions and actually make these happen, having never done anything like them before. The instructions for doing a "cluster" were confusing...as long as you have 5 loops on your hook at the end of each go-around you're good, but the instructions just say "pull through all loops on hook" without specifying how many. Well it's five. So there you go!

Gothic horror for Halloween

"The Crypt of the Blue Woman," on ArtFire.

"Terror in the Crimson Castle" on etsy.

Normally at this time of year I'd be taking pictures of changing leaves at the parks that I frequent, and bundling up as the temperatures drop. This year however I am in Texas as Halloween approaches, though it has not changed my haunted Halloween feeling one bit! Instead of watching the geese fly south and the animals curl up for their winter naps, I have been watching armadillos amble about at night when I'm lucky enough to spy one -- and watching nutria gnash their orange teeth. The leaves aren't really turning, but there are palm trees, and I love the way they tower over everything -- I've always had a place in my heart for palm trees since they can't grow where I usually reside.

One thing I've been doing a lot of though this month is watching horror movies, and reading ghost stories. My devotion to these things (and a growing love for 1960s gothic mystery/romance book covers as I've detailed previously) has yielded quite a few new paintings. One of my newest, above, is on Etsy right now. I am also stocking my new Pro Artfire shop -- I've had a storefront there for awhile but as of this month I have a "pro" account. This means more to me than it does to you. For me it means lots of bells and whistles! For you it means I will hopefully have a more attractive and navigable shop full of neato things to peruse. And some original art not available anywhere else.

The first painting listed above, "The Crypt of the Blue Woman," is a 3 x 5 painting and ships for free. The second, "Terror in the Crimson Castle," ix 7 x 9 and is on Etsy. I like trying these different canvas sizes because they all suggest different angles and subject matter. I have a 6 x 12 I'm working on, and some square canvases as well. The art supply stores here are fantastic! I expect to be on the gothic horror thing for quite some time as I am in no danger of running out of inspirational material.

items on artfire

I have just a couple of items on artfire right now, because i'm trying to figure out how to use the site.  But I'm a bit more focused right now on trying to figure out why I already forget how to make watermarks, when I was doing it just fine earlier today!

Halloween begins...and also, Artfire

"Emeraude Feels Festive" is the first of my small (6 x 8) Halloween pieces I hope to have completed this year well in advance of Halloween.  It happens every year -- I mean to get a lot of stuff together before fall, but I suddenly look up and it's October and the stores have already switched over to Christmas.  

The little Egyptian symbols on her sleeve are a nod to the fact that I've been reading "The Jewel of the Seven Stars" by Bram Stoker, his mummy book -- I finally got a copy with both endings, as oposed to an "abridged" version.  There's a nice little reprint available under the title Return From The Dead .

Otherwise, although these are in the Etsy shop, I hope to start a small Artfire store as well under the name Sarada.  I thought I had already registered there but I guess I didn't!  I thought their monthly fee was a requirement, but apparently that's only for a premium membership.

I don't know if anyone reads this, but if anyone does, and has any thoughts -- I'm trying to determine whether it's worth posting any art at all on eBay, which used to be the main place that I sold stuff.  But now I can tell no one is even looking, when I list art.  I miss my old customers!  I wonder if I should have just kept listing stuff every week, even when no one was buying, but it was really hard to keep it up.  Inspiration only comes in bursts, and it's hard to force it.