Boom!

Oh dear. I appear to have run out of maternity leave posts. I wrote a bunch of them (though not nearly as many as I'd hoped) and scheduled them out, and they have run their course.
Baby Olive arrived four weeks earlier than expected, and that blew my carefully crafted schedule to smithereens. I am totally okay with that.

Smithereens, I tell you!
Things have naturally been a blur since then (January 13th), and I'm just now starting to put the pieces back together. Things have changed dramatically, and I don't want things to be the same as they were pre-Olive, anyway. Honestly, I'm not sure what this means for the blog. Yes, I just reformatted it. Yes, I spent tons of time and energy on that. And yes, now I am thinking of scrapping it all and starting over. Or stopping. Whatever.
Not that I have any intention (or indeed, ability) to stop creating stuff. I've been working on a new collaborative project over at The Year of Living Sketchily. The Etsy shop is back up now, too.
I need time to figure out how all these older pieces fit into my new, busier life. Traditionally, taking time has sent me into a panic. I need to be doing! Constantly! Or else! Olive, however, is forcing me to take a different approach. "You need to hold me! Constantly! Or else!" And I am happy to.
All this is really just a long winded way of saying that change is afoot. Silence in the meantime. Bear with me. See you soon.

Slight Change of Plans!

Hello everyone! I write to you today from the midst of a not-quite-properly-medicated cold on this my 35th week of pregnancy. Expect a lot of sentences like that in this post.
I had every intention of hanging in there, and waiting until January 24th to start maternity leave. (That would have been a very reasonable 2 weeks before my due date.) This cold, and the sudden massive weight gain, and the ensuing pain, and the barely being able to move, etc etc etc has sort of broken me. (Plus, there's the tiny issue of all the stuff that still needs to get done around here...and the tinier issue of hey, how am I going to do that stuff if I can't stand for more than 20 minutes at a time/bend over/drive?)
Maternity leave begins now!
SO.
What this means for the blog is less posts per week. I've been writing them ahead of time and storing them up. Why am I even announcing this? The blog will be almost normal! Hooray!

The shop will be going on maternity leave soon, too. Honestly, that scares me more than anything. (Well, not labor. Or delivery. Or living with a newborn. Or the possibility of never fitting into my perfect jeans again.) Still, scary.
The shop goes on maternity leave Monday, January 10th.

That's it for the announcements. I would end this post on a pithy note but, you know, snot. See you next post!

Time for a fresh start

It's time! I can finally reveal to you why this blog has been so quiet lately.
I've picked Absolutely Small up by the roots, shaken it out, and replanted it over here:
http://absolutelysmall.com/blog
Come on over and check it out!
And please update your links and bookmarks accordingly.
This new blog will actually be updated REGULARLY! Like..daily, almost!

Welcome to the new Absolutely Small blog!

Hello and welcome! Can I get you anything? Cup of coffee? Cookie? Fresh leaf to turn over?

That's what I wanted. A fresh leaf. Oh, and of course the cookie and coffee. Hopefully, some of you have followed me over here from my other blog. You get an extra large cookie.

Why am I starting over? Frankly, I needed a fresh start. Plus, I've been dying to try out Wordpress for ages. In addition, I have a new intention for this blog. What better way to commit to that than a fresh new canvas? So what is this high falutin' new intention?

*ahem*

The new Absolutely Small blog will be about sharing the joy of making stuff, sparking imagination, and appreciating the world around us. Even if (especially if) these attempts are not exactly perfect.



That's it in a nutshell. I'm excited. It reflects how I've been living, and what gives me the most energy to create. I've copied a few of the very best posts from the old Absolutely Small over here. So it's a fresh start...but I've still got some roots.

I'm also launching this new blog in a sort of warts-and-all phase. I don't have everything in the template set perfectly yet. I knew that if I waited for that to happen, this blog might never see the light of day.

What do you think? In particular, if you've followed me here from the old blog, is there anything you'll miss? I do hope you'll stick around!

*** Chickenpants fans! Worry not! Chickenpants will still be made, and I'll still occasionally share their updates here. For the most part though, all CP business will be over on the Chickenpants Facebook fan page. If you're not already a fan there, by all means hit the like button. We keep it pithy. And chickeny.

New Affiliations

Hello, lovelies! I am writing to you today from the land of not-quite-enough-sleep. Delightful place. I've been living there for the past week or so. I should probably just start getting my mail forwarded here, actually.
ANYWAY.
All that is just my way of saying, hey, I have something new to tell you, but on account of the lack of sleep, it may or may not make sense!
Here we go.
Craft Leftovers, my most favorite of zines, approached me to test out something new. An affiliate program! It's new for them, and new for me since I've never tried out anything like this before.
Basically, if you click over to their site from here and wind up buying something, I get a small cut. Woo! Baby needs a new pair of shoes! Shameless merchandising? You bet!
Let's start off with the September issue, which I could not be more excited about.

It's all about miniature crafting! Check out the table of contents:

Hi Ya - Notes from me to you
Smitten Knitten - a knit kitty for your littlest friends
A few of My Favorite Things
Mini Fabric Banner by Claire Chambers of Absolutely Small (hey, that's me!)
Chatting with Denise of Denise's Shop - the maker of the cutest tiny amigruimi creations around
The Crafty Life
Make a Matchbox by Su Mwamba of Tangle Crafts
On the Web
Stitch up a Mini Tie Quilt for your mini bed
Color IT!
Make Your Own Borrowers Rug
Dwelling on Dollhouses
Thrift Kitchen: Mini Chocolate Cheesecakes
Mini CLM
Find the Words
Tiny Reading Chair
Knitting on the Smallest Scale with the Smallest Hands
Until Next Time

Fun stuff, right? If you're so inclined, hop on over and check it out! There we go! That was the affiliate link!

Still with me? Ok, cool. I'll be back (hopefully soonish) with more tales of buffoonery.
(Did you know buffoonery is a real word? Me neither. Oh man I need a nap.)

The big reveal

Eventful week so far! I released the 80's Chickenpants collection on Monday, an interview with me posted on Plush You on Tuesday, and now...it's Wednesday.
You may be wondering what is up with this blog lately. I was so regular about posting! Or maybe you haven't noticed anything amiss, which is hopefully the case.
Well, things are about to get different. As hinted at in the Plush You interview, change is a comin'! Come July 1st, Chickenpants.net is not only getting a full face lift, it's getting a content change. I'm shifting from personal-ish business-y craft-y blog (that vauge, vauge blog that everyone has enough of already) to Chickenpants comics! And some other good Chickenpants stuff. All interesting* content, all** the time!
So, it's going to be pretty quiet around this blog for a few weeks, to be directly followed by loud explosions. Stay tuned!
Okay, so in the meantime, I'm updating the Chickenpants Fan Page on Facebook very regularly, and it's not going anywhere. So by all means, follow our chickeny exploits there if you're not already. Apparently, you don't have to be a member of Facebook to see the page, so that's good. (Facebook still sort of mystifies me. And annoys me. But the fan page is really fun.)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chickenpants-by-Absolutely-Small/
See you on the other side!



*Interesting content may be subject to change.

**Well, by "all" the time, we mean like four days a week.