Where did the week go?

The first thing that happened was getting sick. (Me, not the dog. She was just sympathizing. What a good dog!)

Which delayed my releasing the new goats into the shop...

But, I did wind up doing this custom order, which reminded me of how much fun these cuties are to make...
Anyway, here's to a better week next week for all of us!

Tuesday is the New Monday

I've just rescheduled it.
Because:

KA-BOXES-FULL-OF-SHOW-STUFF-BOOM! (there's actually a third very large blue box that is also full...and more in the studio!)
A real post once I've dug out from under the show and reassembled the entire house.
I'll be back with plush goats.
^-^

Why not head to San Francisco tomorrow?

Because if you do you can catch Absolutely Small in person this Sunday the 24th at the Mission Indie Mart. I'll be there with my whole herd of creatures.
Come on by and say hello! Bring your friends. There will be indie fashion, snacks, and oh yeah, drinks.
details:
Sunday 2/24, 12-5pm @ 12 Galaxies
2565 Mission Street @ 23rd Street
www.12galaxies.com
www.indie-mart.com

Overwhelm! The Artist's Toolkit for Dealing With It All

So, before we get to the actual useful information...there have been a couple of changes around here! There's the new banner at the top. And I've put a link for you to join the Absolutely Small List up in the upper right hand corner. The Absolutely Small List is a short monthly email about where you can see my work in person, fun new developments, and general chickenful Absolutely Small news. It's different from the blog in that there will be coupons! It's the only place where I am releasing any sort of discount on my work. So, by all means, please sign up! Just shoot an email to absolutelysmall@yahoo.com, and you're in! (And of course, your info will be super duper double dog top secret, and you can unsubscribe any time, etc etc.) Now, onto the overwhelm!

Confession time: I often get completely overwhelmed! I loose sight of the big picture and get lost in the details on a fairly regular basis. Now, while my coping mechanisms for this do involve crawling into bed and trying to sleep it off (Eh, that's about 33% effective), I've also figured out some other ways to get back to the surface.
Here goes:

1. Make a list. Write down everything that must get done. Everything! From all parts of your life. I panic when I think I'm forgetting things. Writing it down gets it out of your head, out of the worry zone, and plus, then you have a list of things to do. And when you can cross things off, you get that tiny endorphin rush!
2. Clean up. Not shockingly, when I find myself overwhelmed, the environment around me has usually turned to utter chaos. Putting things back where they need to go helps me get my mind back in order, too.
3. Get out! Get out of the studio. Get out of the house if you can. Go for a walk. Take a bath/ shower. Try your best to do something completely unrelated to everything to clear the junk out of your mind. You'll come back refreshed, and able to see clearly.
4. Be grateful. It's easy to look at everything we don't have. And it doesn't matter if it's material goods, blog traffic, accomplishments...whatever. When I find myself doing this (all too often!), I get (surprise!) overwhelmed. Once you've stepped out of the panic zone, you can remind yourself to focus on what you do have. Appreciate even the small things, and it will make your life immediately so much nicer.

That's it. Anyone else have some tips they'd like to share? By all means, leave a comment.
(And sign up for the Absolutely Small List. Because it does not contribute to overwhelm AT ALL. Chickenpants are nature's own anti-overwhelm pills.)

And the winner is...

Tall Giraffe, commenter #1! How odd is that that the number one was picked. That's randomness for you, I guess.
Thanks to everyone for commenting! These contests are a lot of fun. I really think they should happen more often...hmmm...
More creature updates later. I'm working on some seriously prosh goodies here!

Chickenpants! The Movie!

Ok, perhaps calling it a "movie" is a bit much. Let's call it a "featurette" or a "filmlet" or a "tiny bit of rough stop animation". Yeah, let's go with that last one. In any case, I am pleased to present the following:

I'm Absolutely Small, and I approve this message.

Anyway... I have wanted to make stop motion animation movies literally since I was a little kid. (I saw the Muppet Babies do it, and I was hooked. What can I say?) You know how they say a little information is a dangerous thing...well, I found out that I had everything I needed to make a stop motion movie. (except, perhaps, a tripod. Oh well!)
And thus, the Chickenpants Adventures were born.

Looks like we've managed to knock that contest post ever further towards the bottom of the page. Anyway, there's still time- if you haven't yet, please leave a comment down there if you'd like to win.

Claude!

I hate to knock a contest post off the top...but I also hate not to post. So:

Bonjour! Claude is here, with a fresh baguette for you! Hnuh hnuh hnuh!
*ahem*
Sorry, got bad French stereotypes caught in my throat there.
Anyway, this friendly little chap is named Claude. So friendly is he that he waves "hello". Perpetually. Toujours Claude!

He's lingering in the cafe, sipping a thimblefull of espresso.
Thank you everyone for all the comments! Please, keep on commenting on the previous post- there's still time! (Of course, feel free to comment here, too!) If the total comment count reaches twenty, I'll award TWO Chickenpants Limited prints to TWO separate peeps. Invite your friends! Comment like there's no tomorrow!
Sorry...it wasn't Claude who was drinking all that espresso this morning...it was me!

It's my Etsy-versary!

One year ago today, I took the leap and opened up my very own Etsy shop. It's been a nail-biting, slow and painful, fast and exciting, crazy oxymoron willy-nilly punctuation learning experience of a year! It has been great. I want to officially thank everyone for all the support, hearts, and of course sales!
So, in honor of one year of Etsy-ness, it's time for another raffle!
This time it's for a February 2008 Chickenpants Limited print- "Kitchen Invasion".


Chickenpants Limited prints are released every month in
editions of only 30. They measure 5 x 7 inches (12.7 cm x 17.8 cm). Each one is signed and numbered by the artist (me!).
So, in order to enter to win this cute little print, just leave a comment below. I'll have a random number generator pick a winner on Tuesday, Feb. 19th.

Thanks again everyone- for reading my blog, checking out my shop, and coming along for the ride. I wouldn't have anything at all to write about today if it wasn't for each one of you.

Sweet!

Here's a new little creature:


Every so often comes a creature from the Absolutely Small labs that is so pure, so innocent, so tooth-achingly cute, that they eschew all formal given names and instead take on endearments, and at the same time they form tremendous run on sentences, for the artist simply cannot bring herself to end this indulgent sentence. There we go.
This is one of those creatures.
It's name: Oh Sweetie.
It's in the shop, gathering awesomeness as we speak.
In other sweet news, Absolutely Small was mentioned on both Cuteable(today) and Softies Central(yesterday).
And in other, other sweet news- it hasn't rained all week! And the sunlight is infecting my heart. (In a good way!) So I bought my very first tree ever! It's a peach tree, and I have named it Willy-Nilly. ('cause that's the way I bought it.) Oh, false spring- I fall for you every year, willy-nilly, head over heels.
Have a great, and hopefully sunny, weekend, everyone!

Drawing, drawing, drawing. Drawing. Draaaawing...

If I had more time to draw, I would love to make comics. Not superhero comics, but comics that deal with the little things in life. And probably, they would star chickens. Here's a few pages from my sketchbook- I know they're just about impossible to see, but if you click on them, they get larger, and then they are almost possible to see.


Special thanks to Dan for saying "Families love cake". He's always saying things that strike me as funny in a dada-ist sense. Another classic Dan random expression: "I remember no bears."
Oh, right: so- I'm trying to draw a lot more. I now actually have the time, I just have to give it to myself.
A new obstacle to drawing: a certain little brother happens to have left a giant keyboard on my kitchen table. And it can make drumrolls and other fabulous sound effects.
ba-dump-cha!

Chickenpants Limited for February

I am happy to release the next print in the Chickenpants Limited series- Kitchen Invasion!
They all crept into the warm kitchen to escape the cold outside. "Hey, a chicken could get used to this..."
It's up in the shop as we speak.

Thank you everyone for making the first Chickenpants Limited print such a success! There are only a few left, so if you'd fancy owning one of your own, do pop over to the shop.