photo pilfered from the lovely Christi of Buenostyle

My crafty social  schedule has been quite the whirlwind as of late with the screening of Handmade Nation and then the big Etsy meet & greet tour a few days later. It’s been so great seeing familiar faces from the local craft shows without the busyness that goes along with setting up & actually working a craft show. I rarely get a chance to talk to folks other than the ones at the tables beside me!

Since my mom was in town, she tagged along despite my warnings that it would probably be really boring for a non-Etsy seller. She says she had a good time though (I’m sure the free wine helped!) & it was really nice for her to meet all of my “co-workers” & get a better understanding of what it is exactly I do. I think she learned a lot & since she was wearing one of my Bee Girl scrabble tile necklaces, I had her pimping my work too. hehe

Hearing about how Etsy started was very cool. I don’t think there were many surprises about what the Etsy admins have been working on (server speed, redundancy, search) or surprise requests from the sellers. Tanis Alexis made a great suggestion about making better use of the favoriting hearts system. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to sort your favorites so you can actually *find* that particular shop you’re thinking of? Or make wish lists? Why not a baby shower or wedding registry? The functionality is already there & already being used, it’s just not very functional.

Amanda from pomomama was one of the organizers along with Melanie from a Farmer’s Daughter. They both did a great job putting the whole thing together, but I had to my camera out to snap a shot of Amanda when she pulled her knitting out in the middle of the meeting. Crafters are always multi-tasking!

It was great to see Rob & Andrea from Got Craft. Their fronts too!

I won’t go through the entire list of lovely folks I got to chat with, but suffice to say it was a very nice evening. It was one of those moments that confirmed for me (again) how happy I am to be painting for a living & how RIGHT this feels for me. Every day I feel more & more sure that I’m on the right path, a path that’s been laid out just for me. Being surrounded by people who inspire me? Who are crafting creative lives for themselves too? So. Freaking. Awesome.

I remember reading one of those affirmation books years ago that under the “work” category said something along the lines of:

I earn good money doing a job that fulfills me creatively working with and for people I love.

I do work with and for people I love – my fellow sellers, my AMAZING customers, the staff at Etsy & ArtFire & the post office I visit so regularly. I know people have their complaints about Etsy, but I have to say that any time I’ve had to contact them for anything, they’ve been nothing but helpful & supportive. And the ArtFire guys with their weekly podcasts? Totally rock.

Yup, I’m a lucky girl.

Thank you.

The studio has become a regular zoo this past week with all sorts of critters popping up on the tip of my paintbrush. Excuse the terrible pictures – it’s already too dark to get good natural lighting, but they were too cute NOT to share.

The new gang will be up in my Etsy shop soon & I’ll also post the Paypal link directly on the blog for folks who don’t want to create an Etsy account. They are all 6″ x 6″ on beechwood blocks that are 3/4″ thick. These guys are thinner than the other critters I’ve painted which means they won’t stand as easily on a window ledge or bookshelf, but they also don’t stick out from the wall so much. Potato potahto.

And now? Off to catch a breath of fresh air before it gets completely dark outside! Have a fantabulous weekend lovelies!

My mom flew out to BC a few days ago for a quick visit before heading down to see my sister. My sister is having surgery & with a retired nurse for a mom, who better to look after you! Her hubby is great & all, but with 2 little boys on summer holidays, I’m sure he’ll have his hands full.

Before we packed my mom off for bedside duty, the boy & I got to spend the afternoon with her wandering around Stanley Park. Walking along the sea wall is usually very beautiful & often crowded in the summer, but with the tide out & a rather grey looking day, it was just us & the hordes of tourists! hehe

I love that my mom is so easy to entertain. We literally spent 3 hours walking, exploring the rocks, hunting tiny crabs & then walking through the trees picking berries. It must be blackberry season because we picked (& ate) enough to make an entire pie. Yum!

The pug was in heaven too. Rocks? That look like balls? IN THE WATER??? Digdigdigdigdigdig. I swear he could stay there all day just running around & digging at random rocks, trying to get them out of the water where surely they will magically transform themselves into balls.

On this particular day, the pug was right; he found a pool ball! A Kelly green number 6 billiard ball, right on the rocks, in the ocean. You find the strangest things when you’re beachcombing.

Hope you’re having a lovely summer too!

The Opossum Family
acrylic on beechwood
6″ x 6″ (3/4″ thick)

Momma Bee is buzzing into Vancouver early tomorrow morning, so we’ve been quite busy ’round the hive trying to get things ready. Washing sheets, clearing the living room of bikes & bike parts so that it resembles an actual living room instead of a bike repair shop…you know…the usual! I didn’t get nearly as much done as I would’ve liked, but I did steal some time to finish up 3 small critter paintings that are making me very happy. One is for a custom order, so as soon as I know which one my lovely customer decides on, I’ll be adding the other to the shop.

Kaila scrabble tile pendant

Another thing making me happy these days is my shiny box full of Scrabble tile pendants. I’m slowly, but surely getting them all listed in the shop & they are seriously just too cute for words. I’m particularly excited about how well the tiny 3″ x 3″ paintings I did for the Art House Gallery project turned out when shrunk down a teeny bit more!

Why hello there country squirrel! How freaking cute are you??

Off to finish up a bit more work, take the dogs for a quickie walk around the block & then bed. Phew! Can’t wait until my mom gets here so I can actually relax!

Have a great week peas!

It finally rained! It’s been a crazy hot summer in Vancouver & momma was missing her rainy afternoons & shiny yellow boots. We broke some kind of record for the most days without rain in over 40 years which means all the lush green that I so love about living on the wet coast was brown and dying. Fortunately it doesn’t take much to get the green going again! It’s another hot day today, but since I somehow managed to come down with an icky summer flu, I’ll be sticking to lemonade on the patio instead of doing anything too strenous this weekend.

My body somehow knew how to time this nasty bug perfectly, so I should be grateful for that. This is the only weekend in all of July & most of August that I’m not working a craft show. I keep madly flipping through my day planner, sure that I’m forgetting something. I have plenty of the usual workload & deadlines that are fast approaching, but no in person events scheduled. Which means I get to spend my mister’s entire day off with him! Huzzah!

I have heaps of other stuff to tell you, but all require accompanying photos which I just don’t have the energy to edit right now. Maybe after another lemonade.

Have a happy weekend sweet peas!