Top Ten Things To Do When It Is Suddenly Cold Again And Really Should Just Give Up And Be Warm, Already

10. Don't work! Go on protest that the cold dries up your creativity!
9. Drink mug after mug of hot liquids!
8. Stay in bed!
7. Weep!
6. Then take a nap!
5. Watch a junk movie!
4. Curl in upon yourself like all those flowers you planted prematurely are!
3. Read something fluffy and stupid!
2. Eat soup, and remember how last week you were eating salad and it was so great!
1. Crank up the heater and pour your self some rum and PRETEND that it is warm!


Some of us don't deal well with cold.

Mmmmmmonday News!

Hello my lovlies! How was your weekend? Me? Not bad. I found a pair of dark purple velvet Docs at a thrift shop...so fantastic!

This Monday I have exciting Absolutely Small news, though:
I have marked way down ALL the original paintings in the shop. ALL of them. Bad Dog paintings? Framed paintings? Tiny paintings? YES!
I need to free up some space in my studio and shop. 250+ listings is exhausting! I never seem to have the table space for them at shows, either. And I have so many new Chickenpants to share with you.
So grab them while you can. You can find them all in the Creature Closeout section of the shop.



New Chickenpants? You bet! Here's a few of the new additions.
Burt!


Carlos!


William Eggerston!


And some nifty new pouches, including this chicken-y one:


I'll be adding new Chickepants and other goodies every day this week, so stay tuned. (You can subscribe to the shop's RSS feed, if you're so inclined and don't want anyone to snipe you out of a brand new CP!)

Inspiration Friday!

Woo hoo! We all made it through another week!

I don't usually talk about makeup on this blog, but I have recently become obsessed with Glittersniffer Cosmetics. Her colors are simply amazing. Wild and amazing:

(photo by Glittersniffer Cosmetics)
If you enjoy makeup, you simply must check her out!

Behold: the Cutest Photobomb Ever!

And finally, the latest in bizzare Japanese commercials:

So...they're ear shaped chips...that are consomme flavored? And...dog men like them? Oh, Japan.

A little procrastination - good for the soul, bad for the pocket book

This is what procrastination sounds like for me(this time around, anyway):

• Hey, look at her eyeshadow. I like that. I want that.



• I'll just take a peek at this Etsy seller's shop.



• (45 mins later) MUST. HAVE. COSMETICS.



• ($45 dollars later) Ahhh. That felt good. I am so excited to get some new cosmetics. You know, I really needed these. My eyelids have been so boring, my whole life.



• You know what else is boring? My blond hair. So...conformist. Maybe I should dye it black, like the girl in these goth makeup tutorials I've been watching on YouTube for the past hour and a half.



• Or red. Fire engine red!



• I think I need some more foundation.



• (after searching on Ebay for an hour) What? The kind I bought at Costco in a sample kit two years ago is now going for $25? That's crazy! If I'm going to spend that sort of money, I'll do it on Etsy.



• (After searching on Etsy for 2 hours) So...many...choices. What color is my skin? So many beiges...Undercolor? I DON'T KNOW! I'm an ARTIST and I don't know!!



• (Scrutinize face in the mirror, freak out over emerging wrinkles) Oh, that's what color it is. Very...pink.



• Hey, the sample kit I wanted to buy sold! There aren't any left in the shop! Poo.



• Wait a minute...do I have anything to exfoliate with?

AND SO IT GOES.


(If my beloved custom customers are reading this, fear not! Your custom CPs are well under way, and will be all finished up very soon! Like...later today, probably!)

We're taking this show on the road!

I am very happy to announce that the Chickenpants and I will be at Unique Los Angeles this April! It's April 24th & 25th, and you can see all the other pertinent details here. I hope I get to meet some of you in person! That's always an amazing treat.
We were at the December 2008 show, too. Here's a few photos I dredged up:


Note to self: start taking more photos at shows!
More updates later. Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Monday Creature Roundup!

A whole bunch of new cuties made it into the shop last week. Such as:
The NINJAPANTS BABIES!


Chickenpants stickers!


and...pug & bunny stickers! This is such a departure for me, but it's good to try new things, right?


Bones Chickenpants


and two new pompom headed guys - The New Yorker


and Scully!


Click on any of the pictures to be taken to them in the coop!

Inspiration Friday

One of the constant treats on my contacts page in Flickr:

70/365
Originally uploaded by milk & kisses

Anything by Milk & Kisses. She takes Sonny Angels and Re-Ment and photographs them in such a way that it makes my wallet ache. (With...hunger. For all the spending. On cute toys.)

There is now a site devoted to MST3K Haiku!! And it is quite fun. Although this begs the question: Which is more fun, humorous haiku or limericks?


75
Originally uploaded by bedside diagnosis

Gorgeous, amazing visual journals by Bedside Diagnosis on Flickr.
No seriously, they're amazing. At first glance, they're just inspiring: "Hey! Look at all the fun sorts of things I could be doing in my own sketchbook! Look how much a sketchbook can be!" But after looking at just how many pages there are, and the great variations...honestly, it's just stunning.
Check them out here and here.

And finally, Boba Fett playing the Zelda theme on accordion:

Oh Boba. What happened to you?

I'm thinking...

I need to go wordless today. So here's a visual snapshot of things right now.

On commenting

I have been thinking about this for awhile. Each and every one of us has the power to make someone feel noticed. You can make someone's day. You can encourage them to keep going with whatever it is they're doing. All it takes is a moment, and a few thoughtful words.
And of course, each and every one of us also has the power to crush and maim and hurt...all with a moment and a few words.
I've been thinking a lot about the positive power of commenting. It's really amazing and wonderful that we can touch someone who lives very far away from us, who we've never met in real life, and probably never will.
A lot has been said about commenting on other blogs as away of getting people to come to your blog. I'm not talking about that. This is commenting as a form of reaching out to people authentically.
For those of you who blog yourselves, or have Flickr pages or what have you, you know how good it feels when someone comments. It's practically life affirming. "Hey!" you think, "Maybe I'm not wasting my life online!"
Oh, those lonely, commentless posts. Practically deserts. When you first start blogging, you know it well. (Unless you're one of the lucky ones!) And sometimes, you still know it well, after years of blogging.
Finding blogs to comment on is easy. (Etsy forum posts like "Who blogged today" abound.) We may not be as polished as the big guys who have been doing this for years, but that doesn't mean we won't become polished later. Little words of encouragement along the way help so much.
I'm not the best at leaving comments, but I want to get better. I've set it on my daily task list - comment!!
What are your thoughts on commenting? I'd love to hear what you have to say.

What kind of person forgets to blog?

Uh, yeah, that would be me. Hi.
I'm in a swirl of making things. The weather has warmed up a little too. We've even started excavating the junk under the house again. Woot!
All this adds up to: forgotten blog post. And this post. Which is so much with the scintillating words.
So! In true Monday tradition, here's a round up of Chickenpants goodness. These chickens are already in the shop.
Have you met Suzy?


Super Pale Terry:


Fancypants!


Tartan:

Cashmere pants!! Sooooo soft.

Marianne:

Vintage pants!

Turducken:


and finally, Morty:

Again with the vintage pants! I am a little in love with this new-to-me fabric.

Inspiration Friday

If this isn't inspiring, I don't know what is.
ZeFrank has put together a photo contest called Young Me, Now Me. The idea is to recreate a photo of yourself when you were wee. Some of the results are just amazing. Anyway, go check it out! http://www.zefrank.com/youngmenowme/


(photo by Petit Plat)
I love eating macarons, but I've heard (from professional bakers, no less) that making them is nothing but trouble. Leave it to the amazing Emily Martin to find a promising recipie. She declares it to be nearly bulletproof, which makes me *almost* brave enough to try it. Here's the scoop!

I liked this post about diy headboards. Hey, I could DO some of those things! And then maybe the bedroom wouldn't look like such a bleak place.

And finally, Darth Vader riding a cat:

(via Geekologie)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

300

I'd like to start the festivities by saying HOLY COW. 300! Three hundred. Three hundey! Chickenpants!
How did this happen?
I gave a lot of thought to how I wanted to commemorate this. A special Chickenpants was a given.

(click on him for more info)
I thought about doing a giveaway, too. The problem with giveaways is that only one person wins. I hate picking a winner. I want everyone to win!

So here's what we're going to do. Special surprise-ish gift with purchase for everyone who buys something at the shop between now and next Friday, March 19th. (It'll be either a Chickenpants print, or Chickenpants baby, or something along those lines. Keeping the surprise part alive!) Just mention "300" or the blog in the "Message to seller" portion of the checkout, and you're good to go.

Okay. But what if you don't want to buy something, or it's just not the right time, or whatever? I thought of that too. So here, for your viewing enjoyment, is a brand new Chickenpants video!

(watch it on YouTube!)

Finally, I just want to say thank you to everyone who has helped me to get to this point. There would not be 300 Chickenpants if it wasn't for your comments, photos, purchases!, and general awesomeness. Thank you very much!

And the winner is...

Random.org has spoken. It's commenter #12! Mika-Chan!

Thank you everyone for commenting, tweeting, blogging, etc! ^-^

New Chickenpants Round Up!

It's Monday! Time to account for what I've been doing all week. (Sort of.)
I've started illustrating portraits of the Chickenpants. Have I mentioned that yet? Anyway, here's the latest one:

It's Big Jim Chickenpants, No. 2! My goal with these is to create a portrait of every.SINGLE.Chickenpants.EVER. However, this last portrait has taught me that sometimes this is really hard. So, we'll see. (Click on him to see him larger so you can actually read the poem.) But I did just buy a bunch of new Prismacolor pencils, so I'd better use them. (For those of you who know me well enough to read between the lines, you know that this means: encourage me! compliment me! send me happy thoughts & comments! i'm a total baby! wah, wah, wah!)
To help with this crazy endeavor, I've updated the HALL OF CHICKENPANTS:
the Flickr page where I try very hard to put a copy of every Chickenpants ever made. If you don't see your CP there, it's probably because I don't have his/her photo for some reason. Help me out, drop me a line!
This post has dragged on long enough, so no individual CP recaps today! Several new Chickenpants were released last week, and the total number is perilously close to 300. THREE. HUNDRED. CHICKENPANTS. Holy cow, that's a lot of chickens. Additionally, the shop itself is perilously close to 350 sales. (Again, HOLY COW!)
I think you know what this means. Festivities, fireworks, etc etc. More on that soon. Stay tuned!

(Also, psst! There's still time to enter our Craft Leftovers giveaway!)

Inspiration Friday

I am in love with the blog EatYourKimchi.
Two Canadians living in South Korea, and bringing you cultural gems like this:


I love the idea of making a growing mini dioarama. 8 Skeins of Danger's lady made this one, and I think it is perfect:

Dana's Window Sill
Originally uploaded by 8 Skeins of Danger

Fascinating artist Jack Olson took us on a tour of his new studio this week via his blog. Fun!

And finally:
Cutest laundry day ever!

Via Cute Overload

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Craft Leftovers Giveaway!

I have something fun to share with you! The super generous Kristin of Craft Leftovers Monthly has given me a few copies again to give away to YOU lovely lovely readers.
The March issue is jam packed with awesomeness, including a pattern by yours truly.

Ok! Wanna win? Here's the scoop:
Simply leave a comment below to be entered. We'll pick a winner on Wednesday, March 10th.


For extra points, (that is, extra comments + increased chances to win), you can also do any of the following:

1. Blog about the contest! 2 extra comments!
2. Tweet about the contest! 1 extra comment!

To get those points, do one (or more!) of the things mentioned, then come back here and leave an extra comment(s).

And I did mention I had more than one of these to give away. We're giving a copy away on The Needle, too! Hop on over there and leave a comment! Double your chances.

Leave me comments. Win things. Yay!

Big Rock Ranch Recap

Last Friday, I got to do something that made my geeky little heart go pitter patter. I got to walk the hallowed halls of one of George Lucas's ranches!
And oh, my gosh, the secrecy! That man likes his privacy. Signing in at the lobby, you have to agree that you will not take any photos. (Or probably blab about it on the internet. I should have read that thing more closely.)
So in lieu of photos, I made this:

And now, unfortunately, we must rely on my story telling skills.
The first thing I noticed was the fence. The county girl in me said "Sheee-yoot. That there fence cost some money. We must be here." It's an extremely nondescript, albeit quite nice, fence. Then there's a nice, but very low profile gate. There are no signs. It would be very easy to just drive past. You can't see a darn thing from the main road.
So, anyway, the buildings. Oh my gosh, the buildings! They're gorgeous. And huge. Huge perfect Craftsman style buildings.
Everything inside was done in impeccable Craftsman style. It was like walking into an art history textbook. The lobby had some amazing Japanese antiques. The hallways are lined with gorgeous old movie posters.
We wound up basically just eating lunch there. In a ginormous, beautiful room. They had a guest chef that day (Indian food!), and all the microbrewed sodas you could shake a stick at. It seemed like everyone ate together. "See that guy over there with the backwards baseball cap?" Our host said. "He's the director."
When I was a geeky teenager, working or Lucasfilm was my number one impossible dream. (Er, okay, maybe that was two or three down the list, somewhere after getting to marry Han Solo, but still.) Seeing it in real life was just...amazing. And I really wish I had photos to show you.

Marchtacular begins!

Hey! It's March! Bulbs are starting to pop up everywhere. Buds are back on trees where they belong.
And Ninjapants are getting back in the coop again. Oh, almost spring!

That's right, Ninjapants are back! And they are in the shop right now. Click on any of the pictures to learn more about that particular Ninjapants.
O. Snap Ninjapants - #287

Haiku Ninjapants - #286

Takai Ninjapants - #288

Sakura, The Deadly Blossom Ninjapants - #290

and finally
Togarashi the Red Ninjpants!

This is just the start of Marchtacular. There will be more new goodies coming soon. Stay tuned!