DZ Fantasy Feature

I just got featured on DZ Fantasy's blog. Check it out!

In other good news, my boss gave me an extra day off! That's exciting because I get to spend some more time at my parent's and with some friends.

Today's favorites from Etsy!

Jupita makes some awesome bracelets out of beads and recycled Starbucks gift cards.

I really like Coffee Talk and I adore Star(bucks) in Her Eyes.

Maybe it's mostly because I adore the artwork on most Starbucks brochures, pamphlets, & gift cards, but I'm also a fan of the way Jupita cuts them up and there certainly is an art to how she strings them together with other beads.

And while I have never held one in my hand the quality looks stellar.

Lily Queen also has some lovely jewelry. I don't know if it's the most unique stuff I've seen around, but I just think it's put together beautifully.

I adore the clasp on the Berry Bracelet. And these Toffee Drop Earrings manage to be orginal and elegant at the same time. My absolute favorite, the one I would buy if I actually had extra money (oh how I wish I had extra money!) is this beautiful Flying Across the Lawn Bracelet.

She has TWO in stock which I find immensely comforting.

That Silly Girl is somewhat limited in her selection, but I love the Amy Butler Lotus Pouch. A little bit Retro, a little bit Modern. A lot orange. Just great all together really. So many things that look 70s also look tacky, but this looks 70s to me and it looks really, really class as well.

Vaca!

Mostly I'm not doing anything interesting on my vacation. I draw, watch movies and put up with my sibling's Fable obsession.

Last night Holly, Bethy & I went to see Valkyrie. We were out so late that I nearly suggested Bethy and I skip Sunday School because I was so tired. I wish we had, the whole thing was more than usually frustrating.

Tommorow, Bethy and I are going shopping because a beloved aunt sent us gift cards to Barne's & Noble. Bliss.

I've also been spending a fair amount of time promoting my etsy store because...well I'd like to sell things. But promoting it has also made me realizing how HARD it is to get exposure, so in the interest of helping others, here are a few of my current favorites:


The Pair A Birds makes lovely (and pricey) prints that I adore. The style is just amazing. I might be a little bit jealous - actually.
My favorites are Orson and Melba in the Field of Marshmallows, Ruby, and Poison Ivy.

I love the Whirl Ring by Rafya. I love the color and it just seems unique. The beauty of handmade. The "whirl" is made of cold clay (I have no idea what that is) but the base is adjustable. And $12 is a pretty sweet price.

The only reason I'm mentioning Faeried Treasures in this post is that I feel confident that the impressive lady who makes them will make more should the items I adore be bought up. If I did not believe this I would hide it from you all.
I think these little owl earrings are the cutest ever. Forget that owls are a fad - I would love them no matter what (and so should you!). These are actually made of vintage beads and come in a variety of colors.
I also love these In the Tall Trees earrings. They're so elegant!

That's it for today. I don't want to be overwhelming, but I do think I'll keep posting my favorites. Not many people read my blog, but some exposure is better than none - I think.

Wave Jumping

My latest drawing. I did the actual line work while I was on the cruise, but I've only just now finished it up. The girl's swimsuit was inspired by one of the little girls on the boat, but sadly there was no wave jumping during the cruise. That was my one let down about the cruise...no beach. I love to swim in the ocean.

Also, I've posted a new card on Etsy, so check it out!

Greeting Cards and Fun Stuff like that

My new Etsy shop is up at EverybodyElse.etsy.com - I'm excited about it. Tell your family and friends. And, any feedback you have would be appreciated because I'm new at this and I don't know what the heck I'm doing!

Etsy Shop Name?

I'm getting ready to set up my online card shop. I'm having trouble deciding what to name it though. I'm thinking that my current log on name of "littlecynicism" (which under etsy would also be my shop name) is not such a good pick. For one thing, my drawings aren't cynical at all. People usually coo things like "sweet", "dear" or "precious". For another, I've found that most people can't type the word cynicism correctly more than 5 times out of ten.

So, I know I should have my own ideas, but I'm kinda unsure.

Just to be clear, anything along the lines of "Melody's Art & Cards" or "Designs by Melody" is not going to happen. The trouble is coming up with something unique...but not so unique that people can't remember it.

Holdays are delicious

Actually, I'm not all that big a fan of gingerbread. I like my sweets sweet. But, while I'm more of a sugar cookie girl, I like the idea of gingerbread.

I think I usually draw my people by themselves lately. It used to be I drew a lot of people together. One of my favorite things to draw was a whole crowd of people at a fair or the mall or skating rink. But lately they've been on their own. It's sort of understood that the person they're smiling at is just off the page, but even so...maybe I'll try putting a bunch of people together in my next card piece. Family togetherness and all that.

I'm going to try and print at least these two designs this next week. I'll be selling stuff at a little holiday craft fair on December 6 (get in touch if you want details, there should be a lot of good vendors) and hopefully getting up on etsy.com in the next week or so.

Good morning, to you

Yesterday I was in such a pathetic mood. I just didn't care at all about my work. I think I was just too tired to care. I was trying to get through my day without an energy drink, which I did, but it was not a good day to give that a go. So this morning I've had two full nights of sleep in a row and I had an energy drink and thankfully I'm actually excited about designing ads today. Good thing too because we're doing a special section for a local sale and the ads are all full color and different sizes than we normally do so they're pretty much adorable and it would just be such a shame to be apathetoc about that.

Greeting Cards by Melody

My cards finally got printed today. They turned out really well so I think I might draw up some Christmas cards for myself too. Eventually I'd like to sell these on Etsy, but before I can do that I need to get my printer to commit to a faster turn around time...and I need to figure out how to best ship them.

Maybe I'll think about that after the cruise.

Ooh Expo!

After hiking through the woods a couple dozen times this weekend I was a bit worried about how I would hold up at the Graph Expo today. I shouldn't have worried. By the time we got to the McCormick Center I was already giddy.

Being the sole representative of my company at the expo might have made me feel really grown up...except for my "business casual" attire of a hoody & jeans...and the fact that my objective for the expo was to grab as many freebies as possible.

So mostly it was like college, except that being with people from our split off company I sometimes had to actually listen to what vendors were saying. But that was fun too because I got to play pretend and act like maybe I actually knew what was going on. Even more amusing was when I actually did!

The only sad moment in my day was when we were driving up to the center and I thought about how funny it would be if I ran into Prof. Davis with a new group of graphic design majors going to their first expo. Oh yeah. That can't happen.



The rest of the day was, literally, a bunch of giggles. Leslie and I laughed. All. Day. Long.
I don't know the last time was that I've laughed so much. All the other attendees looked serious and bored the whole time. We laughed about ev-er-y-thing. Vendors, freebies, other attendees, demonstrations. All funny.



And I did get a ton of cool freebies. Mostly posters, but I got a nice pen, a usb-multi-port, a bag & some spiffy die-cuts too. A lot of the posters I had no interest in because mostly they were just pictures of pretty, often scantily clad, women. Could it be because most expo attendees are men? But towards the end we visited the HP booth and, whatever HP lacks in service (it's a lot) they make up in posters.

right now

Just a random office doodle. I colored it a bit. Just for kicks.

Today was a good day. I think doodles help my mood.

Is your boyfriend a soldier

Ok, way back I posted about my roommate's boyfriend being a soldier and the shirt I designed. Well, that shirt hasn't been printed, but at cafepress I now have available a whole host of shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, buttons, pins & so forth. There are two designs,"My boyfriend is a Soldier" & "My Boyfriend is in the Army".

Because of the way that cafepress is set up I have to set up different shops for each design - so this should be, well interesting. But, given the excessive number of people who are dating boys in the armed forces I think that at least some people will be interested in buying my stuff. My actual art work might be a bit harder to sell.

This is not my life

Currently trying to come up with a logo for column in the mag. You know, I think unpaid writers may be the most pretentious people in the world?

Now, I don't use this word lightly as I think that it is mainly abused by pretentious unpaid writers (it's right up there with misanthropic, which is fun to say but shouldn't pop up nearly as often as it does), but it fits.

Note that this is not about paid writers. These people have to actually work to come up with something that pleases their client or boss, just like the rest of us. Because when the paid writer receives their work back with red ink all over it they can ramble all they want about compromising the integrity of their work, but to receive payment they will make those changes.

The unpaid writer has no reason to not ramble. And ramble they will. Frequently about inane topics such as who they handed a safety pin to twenty years ago or, in fits of absurd superciliousness, quoting themselves.

But it doesn't end there. One ill fated day they will send you an e-mail suggesting that they need their own logo and a column header three inches high.

Since all we pay our writers is the ego boost of seeing their name in print I suppose this is something akin to a raise in pay.So perhaps this could all be solved by handing our writers a couple of dollars every month. Just as long as we never pay them by the word.

Today

Star light, star bright

I don't exactly get bored in meetings, but my hands need something to do. And, somehow when I'm thinking about something other than drawing, I draw better. I do some of my best sketching in work meetings or church (while I'm also taking notes).

I also like to sketch while I'm watching tv, but that doesn't take much thought and it also involves looking at the screen so the quality level varies.

Of course sometimes I do delightful drawings when nothing much is going on, so maybe the difference is all in my head. It probably has nothing to do with my setting and everything to do with something silly like what I ate the night before.

At work I draw illustrations for a collection of stories we're printing. Those can be quite hard. The office is great for designing advertisements, but not so conducive to illustrating. Lately I've been having a hard time doing quality work on those illustrations.

Debatable Debates

I'm watching the candidate debate right now.

I'm pretty pleased with what McCain has to say, but I think it would be more interesting if I had someone to watch it with. I'm recording it, so maybe I'll turn down the volume and read a book!

research

I was just taking a quick break from my current illustration and scanning the Relevant news slices when I saw this story about a stamp depicting the American flag with one white stripe too many. I'm not sure how the artist managed to paint her flag this way. As a kid growing up in America I remember painstakingly counting stars and stripes in a futile attempt to depict our nation's flag accurately. How is it possible that Laura Stutzman, a professional artist, didn't take the time?

Since I'm in the middle of illustrating a book full of short stories that are largely from another time and culture than I live in I've been spending a lot of time in online research. My current project (the one I'm taking a break from) is a picture of a tramp eating dinner with a family in the 1930s.

I had no idea what tramps or farming families were wearing at the time, so I googled tramps, 1930, the Great Depression, and To Kill a Mockingbird. Films are great for getting details about another era if there aren't many pictures of the actual period. I like to assume that the costume department at Universal did its homework.

Before that I was working on a story with three women careening down the road in a car in the 1950s, but most of the stories involve Amish, which are easier and harder to depict. Easier, because they haven't changed much in the last 50-70 years, so a photo from last week is often just as good as one from the actual year the story took place. Harder, because I've only been around Amish people for a couple of years and I don't really know the culture.

For example, Amish have different wedding traditions that we do, so if I drew an Amish wedding I'd have some issues (we've already had this problem in advertising).

Half the time I can't figure out if the story is about an Amish family or not so I end up quizzing my boss on Amish customs, traditions, and names to figure out what I should be drawing.

Some of the stories I simply can't draw. Most of them take place on farms, which I have less experience with than I do with either the Amish or the 1930s!

3-on-3

Our company sponsors this every year. You can click on the picture to see it bigger.

The photos are from www.makemeaprint.com.

It's a Party!

I don't normally write about graphic design sites on here, but PhotoShopStar is having a sweet give away to celebrate it's second birthday. Posting a comment gives you a chance at winning some minor goodies, but linking back to the site and the sponsors lets you win some much cooler stuff.

The prize I'm drooling over most is the free 1 page design by psd2html. Basically I would design my web page and they would make it work. For someone, like me, who consistantly fails to understand web coding, this would be amazing.

Ok, so that's the only prize I want.

The Blubs Wordpress theme liscence might be amazing - but I don't Wordpress.

And I don't have actually have anything I want to advertise on PhotoShopStar (though freelancers are probably getting giddy at the very thought).

Even so, it's pretty cool.

Field Trip

Today the office went on a field trip to the printers. My boss thought it would be cool for us to see how our publications get put together. So we spent most of our morning on a tour.

I've been on a lot of newspaper field trips, but watching the web-press never gets old. Even so, the best part of the field trip was seeing the offices. They were dingy and cramped and their computers were old enough to remind you why Macs took such a long time to gain popularity.
The workers looked like sad little gerbils.

We came away loving our jobs, thinking our office wasn't so squished after all, and being incredibly greatful for our office's frequent equipment updates.

Repent!

It fascinates me to live in a country where the most hated sub groups are non-environmentalists, the Bush family, and street preachers. Seriously, ethnic minorities can complain all they want, but the only racist remarks I have ever heard, were said on television...by the bad character. But just try admitting that the only reason you want to "go green" - is because the merchandise is cute...or that you don't actually think Bush committed as many atrocities as Hitler, Stalin or Kim Jong-il.

Now, there are probably some conservatives who would rally behind me on those last two, but everyone loves to hate street preachers...they're loud, angry and usually carry a sign encouraging the viewer to "Turn or burn!" or some such variation...what's not to hate?

Plus, there's the added bonus that no one will ever think you are bad for hating a street preacher. Most likely you'll be hailed as some kind of Gandhi-like figure, because you love people so much you just can't stand to see someone hold a sign at them.

In the town where I work we have our very own street preacher. I've never had the pleasure of seeing him work, but office gossip has me informed that he shows up at public events with the usual signage and catchy slogans.

Well, a few days ago I was helping a nice lady figure out how to design her ad.

I hate helping people design their ads. What I always, always, always want for my customers to do is to tell me what they want, leave the verbage, and come back when it's done. Always. I can't be creative with some nervous Nelly peering over my shoulder and whispering, "Wha-what if you moved it a little to the left? No, not there, not there, yes, no, no, no-" It can't be done.

But, like I said, this lady was nice. I was feeling pretty good about the episode when my boss walked in and said, "I see Random-Name's wife was here." This elicited a, "Oh my goodness, that was his wife?" from everyone else, but mere raised eyebrows from myself.

Turns out she's the wife of the fellow who harasses people about eternity in his spare time. So I joined in the gaping - because how could this lovely person be married to someone who makes people wish stoning had never been outlawed?

"Yeah," my boss continued, "didn't you see the big 'REPENT!' painting on the side of the van?"

No, I had not. So then I just had to wonder how this lady felt about it all. Does she wish she had a normal van or maybe even a smart looking four door? Is she embarrassed when her husband starts every conversation with, "You're going to hell," ?

They left their name off the advertisement. My coworkers suggested that it was so potentially buyers wouldn't be scared off at the thought of buying the street preacher's house. I think it's so people won't see where they live and decide to egg it - or worse. I have to wonder if it bothers her that either possibility is even something they have to consider.

On the other hand, is it possible that she's proud of what her husband does? It seems mildly unfathomable, but what if she really thinks he's...what, winning souls? Does it hurt her that other people don't see him the same way?

I know, these are random things to be thinking about, I guess I'd just never thought about street preachers having wives and children and the whole thing set me wondering.

On my way to the dentist yesterday I passed a house that said, "Adulters will be judged!" My first thought was, "That would make them different from...?" my second was, "Could that be the street preacher's house?"