Inspiration...Hey Wait!

Okay, look. I'm not really here. Right now, as this thing posts I am...
At Big Rock Ranch!
Okay, I know that doesn't mean anything to most of you. And they don't even have cows, so what sort of a ranch is it?
It's...one of George Lucas's ranches! It's right next door to Skywalker Ranch! (So to speak. The George owns an awful lot of land.)
What do they do there? I don't really know! But, I'll have my camera & a Chickenpants handy, and I'll be back with a full report soon.
(The odds are pretty excellent that I'll be posting things to Twitter and Flickr as I go. Live reportage!)
See you next week!

Ode to bread

I once ate a simple lunch with a friend. Just salad and some nice french bread. My friend took a bite of the bread, and then let out a deep sigh. "Why do women love bread so much?" she mused. If I was Dave Barry, I would say at this point "I am not making this up!" Well, I'm not.

I don't know. In our house, everyone loves fresh bread. The healthy, presliced 12 grain stuff we could care less about. But the gorgeous still warm round loaves from bakeries...holy cow.

We feel like we have to eat the whole loaf in one sitting. "Hey, it won't be any good tomorrow. We might as well enjoy it! It's what the baker would have wanted."

You know the saying "Wine is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy"? I think that could just as easily apply to bread. Hey, it's in the bible. "Give us this day our daily bread." BREAD! Not cereal, or meat, or booze, or bacon - delightful as those things may be.

I love bread so much that I decided to try to bake my own bread. In loaves. Whole grain! Because...um...health. It turned out like doorstops. I had two of them. The dog wouldn't even touch it.

I gave up on the whole grain flour and moved on the the hardcore powdered white stuff. Sweet success! After just one try, I made a passable foccacia.

There's a lesson in here somewhere, but it'll take more coffee for me to figure it out.
Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Tuesday. Chicken Day.

I was tempting fate with that post last week. And it makes sense, too. You can't write a post that's all "I loooove you I looooove you I looooove you Sunshine don't ever go awaaaaay" without making Murphy's Law kick in.
Yes, the sun is gone. Winter is back. Unbecoming sweatshirts are back. Open weeping is back, too.

But! I have some awesome things to share with you! First up, I was sent an awesome card by Terry Janes.

Chickens! At work! Ahhh! Yes, my studio needed this.
If you want to see more of her quirky photography, she's got an Etsy shop, of course!

In other chicken news:

I don't have a caption for this. All that's coming out is squealing. Cute Overload's got your back, though.

Stay warm, everybody!

New Chickenpants Round Up!

Yes, it's that time again. Time to lasso together all the new Chickenpants, line them up, and present them to the internets.
And there's a very special animated treat at the end of the post! Woo!
New this week:

Rocco, #216

Sporty!

Honey, #215


Julian, #212


Gus, #210

There's just something about that belt buckle...

and
Michael, #244

The release numbers are a little odd because these guys spent some time at shows. I've just recently got them back, so now it's really time for their debuts.

And finally, the long awaited new Chickenpants stop motion short: 2 Fast, 2 Furious: Living Room Drift!

You can also watch the video on YouTube or Flickr, if you prefer.

Inspiration Friday

❀ Cartoons on post its= brilliant. Cartoons on post its about CHICKENS? Love.


✿The Photojojo newsletter brought http://noticin.gs/ to my attention. An online game where you take photos of things around your neighborhood, and then there are scores. I'm on my first cup of coffee here, and the words doing isn't. Is cool!

❀ Amazing article about project planning over at Craft Leftovers. No, seriously. Worth memorizing.

✿Flaming Lips house! Fab! When can I move in?

And finally: the cutest video ever.


Have a great weekend, everyone!

In which there is sun

We've had four days of perfect, brilliant sun and no clouds. Oh, and it's warm. This, my friends, is the false spring that hits the foothills every year. I will not be taken in this time!
Oh, who am I kidding? I'm taken in every time. The sun sticks around just long enough that you begin to form a fragile sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe, winter is over. Maybe global warming is working for YOU.
And somehow, this never works out.
Whatever! I've bought a couple of (cold hardy!) plants, and lo! I have planted them. And, because spring fever has hit me ferociously, I have photographed them:


I need more plants.
I was going to plant some bulbs in the front yard yesterday, when I looked at this*:

I put down my shovel and declared "You have mocked me for the last time, lattice! Nay, you have mocked the neighborhood for the last time! You are done, sir!"
That nasty falling apart lattice has been bugging me ever since we moved in. So yesterday, I put on some gloves and did something about it.
Behold the results of three hours of hammering, breaking, and kicking:

So much better!

Here's hoping that some sun finds you, where ever you are. ^-^


*Photographed right after we moved in. Hence the many trashbags. Believe it or not, the lattice looked even worse yesterday.

When I was little I used to believe...

That falling in love literally meant two people falling down.

I used to believe that in Chinese restaurants they salted the dishes before putting food on them. I always looked for grains of salt, but never saw any. This was based on mishearing something my Dad said.

I misheard a lot of stuff. Still do, actually. For instance, remember the old Juicy Fruit commercials? The ones where young people would be skiing, or surfing, or some outdoorsy activity, all while chewing gum? Right. I was convinced that the tag line was "Juicy Fruit: the taste is Gunamooga." I thought this was just a word they came up with to desrcibe the flavor of the gum.

I was convinced for the longest time that if you accidentally ate a fishbone it would travel through your bloodstream, pierce your heart, and you would die. No, seriously. I swear my parents told me this. They swear differently. They are wrong. The really embarrassing part is that I believed this until I was 17 or 18.

What did you used to think when you were little? You are all hereby tagged! Please leave it in the comments below! (If you wind up writing a blog post about it, tell me in the comments. I want to read it!)

And if you want to kill half a day laughing until you cry, go visit iusedtobelieve.com It's old, but still one of the funniest sites ever.

And the winner is...

Random Number Generator has spoken! The winner is...

Commenter #8 who is...holy cow, it's Teddy Started It! The gal who said "THAT CHICKENPANTS IS MINE!" very early on. Well, congratulations, missy!

Thank you for all the comments, everyone! And for helping me to hang in there for three whole years. ^-^ I wish I could send you all gifts!

Also, can I just say thank goodness for Random.org? Because how on earth could I choose? Yikes. Especially with Flickr friends upping the ante with photos like this:

and this:

and this!

You all amaze me constantly. Thank you!

Three years!

We interrupt Inspiration Friday to bring you something else. Today, as previously mentioned, is the anniversary of the day I opened an Etsy shop...three years ago!
THREE YEARS!
I am not one who is known for sticking with a vocation. The term "serial-temp" has been applied to me in the past.
Well, WHO'S TEMPING NOW? THREE YEARS!
In honor of this milestone, a video:

And that's right, A GIVEAWAY! (I can't stop with the all caps today!) This is my little way of trying to say thank you for three great years.
Simply leave a comment below to be entered. We'll pick a winner on Monday, Feb. 15th.


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

1. Buy something from me! 5 extra points!
2. Join the mailing list! 1 extra point!
3. Upload a photo to the Chickenpants fan page! 2 extra points!
4. Join the Chickenpants Fan Page! 1 extra point!
5. Blog about the contest! 2 extra points!
6. Tweet about the contest! 1 extra point!

To get those points, do one (or more!) of the things mentioned, then come back here and leave an extra comment(or...five. or however many. Does that make sense? I need more coffee.) Leave me comments. Win things. Yay!

On learning to be brave

I am now, and have always been a chicken. Here's the thing about chickens, though: we either see them as scared little creatures or chest-puffed-out, strutting, crowing things. It's always one or the other. Well, I am here to tell you that being a chicken is actually both of these things.

I've been drawing, "seriously" drawing, since I was 12. Or writing. Or painting. Or silk dying. Whatever. I did all these things and more. I knew that I wanted to do something creative with my life, but I lacked the guts to actually share my work. I became an expert at getting just about proficient in one media, just to burn out, drop the ball, and jump to another. And then repeat. Repeat. Repeat. For years.

Right. So jump forward a ways. I'm 23ish. I need to find work. I'm not qualified for much except office work, which is so dull it makes me want to die. I answered an ad in the paper for "Design Consultant - No experience needed!". It turned out to be a commission only closet design job. The job was far away, and quite frankly terrifying. I knew I had to take it. I wanted to learn to be brave.

After a week long training course, they started sending me out on sales calls. It was scary. During this time period, the economy started to slow down. Sales calls were few and far between. The pressure to sell on these few precious calls was enormous. I threw my back into it. I read everything I could about sales. I had goals. Affirmations. Palm pilots. Loafers. Everything. I tried my hardest. It was semi-terrible.

I would come home from a sales call, flop on the couch, and cry. Oh! The stress! (I was selling about 3 out 5 calls, if anyone's counting. Not good enough!)
It was one of the most intense learning experiences of my life.

I did not become a sales virtuoso. In fact, I had a breakdown and went back to being a secretary. But somehow, little by little, I did learn to be braver. That was the start. I'm still learning. There's a lot of backsliding. There are also a lot of leaps forward.

A year-ish later, working at a horrible (yet not scary!) temp job, I discovered Etsy.
After the sales job, and during the temp job, I founded Absolutely Small.
Tomorrow, February 12th marks my third year anniversary of having an Etsy shop. Obviously, lot happened in between TEMP and CHICKENPANTS, but that's another long, photoless blog post.

Hey there, new plush.

This post is being written whilst jumping up every two minutes to check...
and see if those dogs are still in the...
yard. You see, we're having some fence issues. Just yesterday, the neigh...
bor came up and told me that they were around the corner. Escaped pugs!

And I had to chase them down. Anyway!
Hey, new work. Let's look, won't we?
New birds! Made with the goodness of genuine Regretsy fabrics.

New pompom dogs, too.
I am especially in love with the Dingleberry dog. That pompom head of his? Kid mohair yarn, baby. So soft!!
Spoonflower cotton is pretty nice to work with, if you were wondering.
(Pug/fence update: I just checked. They're in the very corner of the front yard. As close to the neighbors as they can get.)

And in case you missed the original Regretsy 5 Chickenpants and simply won't be happy again until you can have one for yourself:

I am now offering design your own Regretsy Chickenpants.

Anyway, you can find all these creatures and more in the Regretsy Plush section of ye olde etsy shoppe.

Now I have to go and see where those dogs are.

Relevancy comes to Etsy

Anyone else scared by the whole Relevancy search thing on Etsy? Obviously I am. I can see it as being a great thing in the long run, but in order for it to not crush me, I need to get with the times. My shop has been hovering around 250+ items for the past couple of months though...so this is a bit overwhelming.
Couple this with the fact that I've been rolling my eyes at SEO anything, and you've got yourself the perfect storm.
However! Not to fret, the internet has got your back.

I enjoyed this article by Handmade Spark on how to optimize your content for relevancy. It really made relevancy seem simple and doable.

And if you're looking for something more in depth, Etsy has your back with a 25 page pdf about SEO. SEO for Etsy Shops.

Statsy is a wonderful tool. You can check what page your items are at with it. (Among many other things!)

This is actually a little far of the mark for Etsy relevancy, but it's too good not to post. It's a very excellent forum post about increasing your blog traffic, and then hopefully sales.

It must be meme season!

There have been tags on Flickr. Sunshine awards (thank you Sweet Harper!)
And now, I've been tagged twice for the Kreativ Blogger award, so I guess it's time I actually did this. (Maybe for kreativ spelling?)
Both Teddy Started It and Acrylic and Steel tagged me. Thank you, ladies!
(Un)lucky for you, I've been reading memoirs lately, and feeling wordy.

So, here goes. Seven things you may not know about me:

1. I have a love/hate relationship with routines. On the one hand, I need them to function well. On the other hand, I hate them and they make me feel bored. As a result, I have half filled out calendars and to-do lists and post it notes all over the place.

2. Winter is really hard for me, as I tend to want to hibernate. No, seriously. I start sleeping like 12+ hours a day just to function. It's insane.

3. I talk about the pugs and bunny here all the time, but we also have a tortoise named Henry. He lives in the mister's office, so he doesn't wind up in photos too often. But he is in the new (soon to be released) Chickenpants short!


4. I would really like to work on a low budget tv show, ala Mystery Science Theater.

5. I like the taste of licorice.

6. I don't eat meat, but I think the smell of barbecuing meat is divine.

7. I'd really like to make a comic book some day. But I'm afraid of the fabled 500 pages of pure drivel it takes to get decent. That's a lot of badness!


I'm doing a pretty poor job of following the rules lately, but here are the rules for the above meme:

Here are the Rules to Pay it Forward (If you want to participate):
1. Copy/paste the Kreativ Blogger Award picture onto your blog

2. Thank the person who awarded it to you and post a link to her/his blog

3. Write 7 things about yourself we might not know

4. Choose 7 other bloggers to award

5. Link to them

6. Notify your 7 bloggers of their awards

Passing the torch of memeness to these seven:
1.Art Tales
2.Cabin + Cub
3.Siansburys
4.The Curious Pug
5.Yummy Pancake
6.Art Kitten
7.Fluffy Flowers

Have a great Monday, everyone!

Inspiration Friday

Hey! Remember how I used to update this blog every day? Ha ha, good times. Well, not especially. But anyway! It's been a little bit of a crazy week. Instead of writing blog posts and scouring the internet for goodies (read: wasting time online), I've been packing up orders and working on custom Chickenpants. In other words, actually working.

Now, on to the fun stuff!

♛ Finslippy wrote the most amazing post about fear of putting yourself out there, ever. It just about brought a tear to my eye. In a good way.


Office Task No. 115: Cereal Server
Originally uploaded by Pocket Edward

I've been enjoying the antics of Pocket Edward on Flickr. The caption on this one reads "I spend half the morning just trying to get the bowl to the dispenser."

♕ Tina of the fabulous Hi Tree shared a story about rescuing baby hummingbirds If that doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will.

For those of you enjoy the geeky as I do, behold!

It's baby Link! And he's out of hearts AND Lon Lon milk!
Thank you, Geekologie.

And finally: finches playing guitar:

Anything is possible? Eh, sort of.

(Wow. That IS inspiring. I need to go take a nap or something.)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

New stuff round up!

It's been quite a week so far. Geez. Yesterday saw the release and near immediate sell out of the Regretsy 5 Chickenpants:

Pretty much what I dream of every day, actually. :)
Anyway, the original 5 may be gone, but I'm taking orders for similar Chickenpants made with Regretsy fabric. If the one you had your eye on is gone, no worries. I can make you a similar one. Like magic! Or, robots!

In other news, after an evening spent at Kinkos, I'm happy to announce that the Make a Bunny Head and Squid.RO zines are back in stock. Woo!

And in other, other news I've started to illustrate the Chickenpants:


More about that later.
*Hopefully!* *If I rememeber!* *Comments might help me remember!*

Hamster Car...part two!

As promised, here's a brand new Hamster Car/Chickenpants video:

(And you can watch HamsterCar on YouTube, if you're so inclined.)