EmoSeal's CREATIONS!

LIFE UPDATE...oh, and maybe a monster or two

2011-10-15T17:26:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been up in Northern California for about a month and half now, and grad school is going pretty well. I'm at the California College of the Arts in the writing program, and it really is amazing. I've made a cool group of friends, the campus itself is really neat, and I've been going out and exploring Oakland and San Francisco as much as I can manage. I've gotten to do some pretty damn cool things as well. So far the most brag-worthy were being in a Zoe Boekbinder music video, getting to be a volunteer for a Mythbusters experiment, sitting in the front row of a Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket) reading, and meeting Tim Schafer (creator of such games as Psychonauts and Brutal Legend) at APE. THE BAY AREA IS REALLY COOL, YOU GUYS.

My room! Or, most of it, at least.

No big deal, just the Mythbusters and I...

I'm also really excited about Joshua coming to visit next weekend. That whole Kentucky thing really didn't work out, so he's back in Wisconsin, working and hoping to be in his own apartment by next month. It's been five months since we last saw each other, which is driving me (and him) completely nuts, so I'm so happy I finally get to see him. Not ever going this long without being around him again...ugh. I'll be spending my winter break with him, too, which I'm really looking forward to (you know, except for that whole freezing-in-the-snow part...haha).

I've been trying to get some sewing done while settling in as well, and there are a couple of new things in the shop, including a monster hood and what I hope is the first in a serious of "art school" monsters. In addition to my writing classes, I'm taking a textiles class called Franken Fabrics. Basically we're using unconventional methods to manipulate fabrics in interesting ways, and it's completely awesome. The first thing we learned was how to rust dye fabric, and I decided to make a monster out of some of what I had from that...

I think these were my first pieces, and they are definitely what I used to make the guy below

Rust-dyed monster!

Our first project was to make a tissue box cover...haha. He just wanted to prove that some of the weird stuff he was teaching us could have practical/commercial applications as well, so I used some rusted fabric and image transfer techniques to make this:

I'll try to get a better picture, but you get the idea

So yeah! That's a little bit of a glimpse into what's been going on with me...Hopefully I'll be updating again soon with some new monsters =)

Change sucks, patch-covered blazers are cool

2011-06-15T18:45:00.000-07:00

So, after more than a year of living together and continuing to enjoy each other's company excessively, Joshua left today to stay in Kentucky for a while with our friend, Steven. Steven is in the process of getting out of the army and Joshua is more or less going to keep him company and help him stay sane until they can both make their way back to California. Could be anywhere from a few months to a year or so before they're officially back, and even though I plan to go visit in December, I'm definitely having a less than great day.

In any case, before Steven came for his two-week visit here, I finished up the patches I was making for Joshua and got them all hand sewn onto his blazer. I thought I'd post a couple action shots and close-ups of how it turned out for you all:


Hanging out downtown...

Look at how mature I am!


Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Man Man, Ween, Modest Mouse, Queens of the Stone Age, Atmosphere // The Features, Nine Inch Nails, The Pixies

Gogol Bordello, The Clash, buttons // The Unicorns, Tilly and the Wall, Spoon, Dead Kennedys, Grandaddy

Madness and Specials armbands // Leonard Cohen back patch


Arcade Fire, Okkervil River

I'm pretty proud of having pushed myself further than I've gone before in terms of making patches (thanks for not being easy on me, jerkface). With a somewhat replenished fabric marker supply, I should be starting on more soon - I already have another ten commissioned by another friend.
As upsetting as it is to not have Joshua here anymore (I really don't think it has sunk in yet...ugh), I've definitely got a lot to keep me distracted this summer. I want to make a whole bunch of new things and I've got to get rid of a bunch of stuff to get ready for moving to San Francisco for grad school, plus I have at least three concerts and Comic-Con to look forward to. Even still, I'm pretty sure I've never looked forward to December so much...

Patches, patches, and more patches...

2011-05-30T16:02:00.000-07:00

Lately all I feel like I've been doing is stenciling and sewing up patches. I've made them before for sure, but this whole bout of creativity started with an urge to channel all of my Portal 2 love into something. I started with a turret and an outline of Chell for myself, but my friends took an interest in them and I ended up making more:

Turret, two versions of Wheatley, two Companion Cubes, Chell, and GlaD0S!

After that, I figured it only made sense to try to get some patches into my shop, and what better way than by sketching up some monsters and stenciling them?

Currently available =)

But as great as keeping things simple and black and white is, there would have to be some color, too...

Yay, bright colors!

After that, some friends started making some special requests since they liked my Portal patches so much:

Pokemon badges, a Pokeball, and the Assassin's Creed symbol

And ALL THAT left me with a big pile of patches and designs on my desk...so I decided to make a listing in my shop for anyone who liked the things I had already made and wanted one, or who had their own idea in mind and wanted a custom patch. Now you can click here to check that out =)

So many patches...

Oh, but even that wasn't the end...because then Joshua asked me if I would help make his dream of a patched up blazer come true. Needless to say, I obliged, and I am now little more than a band-logo-patch-making machine:

Not even all of them...

Please don't let my fabric markers run dry too soon.

<3

Giveaway #1: Results

2011-01-24T13:41:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone who participated in my first giveaway! Without any further ado, the winner as chosen by Random.org is:

Danica of The Nerdy Penguin!

I'll be getting in touch with her so that she can pick out $15 worth of excitement from my shop =)

Don't worry, I'll be plotting another one of these sometime soon...

Giveaway #1!

2011-01-18T12:35:00.000-08:00

Alright, I'm excited to be running my very first giveaway! I've been saying for a while on my Facebook fanpage that when I got to 100 fans/"likes", I would run a contest, and seeing as I'm at 101 now, it's definitely time =) It took me some time to figure out what I wanted to do, but I finally settled on giving the winner $15 worth of credit in my shop to spend on whatever they want!

Since this is my first time running something like this, I'm going to do things pretty similarly to how I've seen others do it... To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment here about your favorite item in the shop. Pretty easy, right? You can also get in some extra entries by doing any of the following and leaving another comment for each thing that you do:

Mention this giveaway on Twitter and link me to your tweet (+1 entry)
Blog about this giveaway and/or my shop (+2 entries)
Make any purchase from the shop (+5 entries)
Post about this giveaway on Facebook, Tumblr, your bathroom wall...basically anywhere you go to spread information as long as you can link me to it or provide a picture =) (+1 entry, maybe more if you're creative)
Tell me I'm pretty ;n; (hahaha, just kidding)

You have from today, Tuesday, January 18 until Sunday, January 23 to enter. On Monday, I'll be posting the randomly selected winner (using Random.org), so get going and good luck!

Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale!

2010-11-25T15:31:00.000-08:00

I should be waiting until tomorrow to do this, but WHATEVER - I'm having a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale in my shop! Starting now, just use the coupon code "BLACKFRI2010" and you'll get 35% off of your order. I'll be discounting some other things here and there, so keep an eye out and you might catch an excellent deal. I don't have sales too often, so take advantage of this!

Other than that...hmm...haha. My birthday was on the 20th - I'm 22 now, what the hell! My gift was taking a random trip to Chicago to meet up with my dad while he was on a work trip and getting to see The Dresden Dolls play a show there - it was unbelievably awesome and I almost cried a billion times because I was so overwhelmed at being there at all. The actual day-of was spent with Joshua - it was a kind of strange, rainy, day, but we ended up at the thrift store, having dinner at Black Angus with our friend Andrew, and going to see Harry Potter. Not a bad day.

Today is the first Thanksgiving where I've really been on my own - my dad had to make a last minute trip up to Northern California, so it's just Joshua and I. We're cooking since we already had everything ready to go, and so far it's going alright. It's just odd not to be going somewhere or around more people. I wish we could have gotten some friends to come over and enjoy this with us, but of course they're busy with their own families today. Oh well. Once the turkey's done, I can start doing some baking, which is always fun. I hope your Thanksgiving is going well if you celebrate it as well - otherwise, happy Thursday =)

Anyway, I of course got the idea to make monster ornaments kind of late...I'll probably still try some, but it would have been better to have already gotten some listed. Alas...been a little bit slow on making new things, but I did come up with a poor, sad, zombified creature (already claimed, but still visible in the shop) - meet Molly!

In more Etsy related news, I'm now a proud member of a few different teams! Check them out - a few are trying to organize their own Black Friday/Cyber Monday specials, so check out the members and the awesome things they make as well:

Etsy Ugly Cute
CCCOEteam
Etsy Teens and Young Adults
EtsyU
Smoke Free Sellers
Facebook Fans of Etsy Team

A Halloween Review...

2010-11-03T16:55:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

So, I spent most of October agonizing over not knowing what to be, then at the very last minute deciding to make a Charizard costume. Basically, the last week of the month was full of sewing, sewing, and more sewing. I didn't even stop to shower I was so determined to finish...haha. Still didn't, but I got a decent amount done and it came out far better that I had dared to hope.

The hood! It's a little bit tight, but it came out much nicer than expected

The shirts are from the thrift store and the pants used to be Joshua's...haha

Side view...

Wings!

I still need to finish up some things - I want to cover the elastic straps for the wings and then properly attach them, maybe work on making the center piece a bit sturdier, make gloves/legwarmers, finish the tail and find a better way to attach it than safety pinning it to the bottom of my shirt (haha), possibly come up with a better overall outfit...I'm telling myself that this is really just an early start to a Comic-Con outfit for next year.

It's all made out of different colors of fleece, some pipe cleaners in the wings, and lots of polyfil. I did much more handsewing than I originally anticipated and that's probably what slowed me down, but oh well. I don't feel like I have the same amount of control with my machine just yet, but I'm sure that will come with more experience. I didn't have a pattern for any of this - just kind of winged it. I referenced the pattern I used to make this dog a little to help with getting some of the three-dimensional aspects right and traced the basic shape of my monster hood, but otherwise, I just drew out pattern pieces on junk mail based on pictures I found of Charizard and traced them onto fabric.

Examples of my pattern pieces...JUNK MAIL IS GOOD FOR SOMETHING AFTER ALL!

My signature inside of the hood...you can also see the ridges I sewed into the top of the mouth.

Besides that, there's not a lot going on in my part of the world...I did make a new bat named Tim that one of my friends has claimed (you can still see him up on Etsy, though):

Tim the blue and green bat! With eyes from 6060.etsy.com

I figured since it was Halloween, I was due to make another bat...haha. Still haven't made a regular old black one though...that might be next on the agenda.

It's also worth noting that I've started using my Artfire account again, meaning there is some jewelry up in my shop there! I thought I'd give some things a second chance on there and expand my web presence. Go check it out here: http://www.artfire.com/users/EmoSeal

Oh! And before I forget, enter The Dainty Squid's latest giveaway!

In the meantime, let me know how your Halloween was! I'll be updating again when I get something new made =)

Help SimplyHibiscus! New plush! I get mail! Etc!

2010-09-19T16:45:00.001-07:00

I've got lots to talk to you about!

First things first: pleaseeee help me assist a fellow plush maker on Etsy! SimplyHibiscus a.k.a. Little Felt Hearts a.k.a. Thea makes super cute little creatures that I've loved for a while now, but due to some personal issues (see her blog HERE to learn more), she has lost ALL of her supplies and ALL of her already-made plushies, and she hasn't been able to make anything new for four months.

Now, I've definitely had times where I haven't made much, but I can't imagine being absolutely unable to be creative and make things. Please, if you have any extra fabric, supplies, or have a few dollars you could send her way, do it! She hasn't set up any kind of PayPal or anything as of writing this, but if you can help in any way, leave a comment on her blog, her Facebook fan page, send her a convo on Etsy - anything to let her know that you're willing to help. I'm going to get together a care package of my own shortly here, so if you prefer to donate anonymously, you can also send something to her through me (email me at TheEmoSeal[at]gmail.com and we can set something up!). I know I don't have the biggest influence, but if you could spread the word and help Thea start making cute things again, it would be very much appreciated.

As for me, I've finally been productive lately - I made two new monsters in a row =) The first is Thelma the Giant Skullbelly, who was made from black and white fleece and a skull and crossbones design from a shirt that never fit well (I don't think I even wore it more than twice). I got the idea when I came across the shirt while going through some old stuff...I didn't think about how big it was going to end up being because of the size of the design, but it turned out pretty good in the end.

Thelma the Giant Skullbelly!

The day after I got Thelma listed, I started messing around with some of the scraps leftover from making her, and ended up deciding I wanted to make a mummy monster. The bandages are all made from scraps of white fleece that I layered on and I used some SUPER soft green fleece that I'm excited to use more of for other projects for the horns. I just listed her last night and she's already made it into a Halloween treasury, which was really exciting to see. Here is Matilda the Mummified monster!

Matilda the Mummified Monster!

Hmm...well, besides that, I've gotten some cool mail recently from two different Etsians. Both of these arrived on the same day (I think right around the day I did the last post?) and I wanted to just do a little bit of a write-up about them both. The first is a DVD from RedPanda (a.k.a. Jessica) - she posted on Facebook that she had just finished watching two documentaries and she wanted to pass them along to other people to see as well, so I claimed one and she sent it to me for free, which was AWESOME of her. I haven't sat down to watch it yet, but I'm excited to check out each of the mini-stories.

I am dumb and hold things upside down...

The second thing I received was some dry shampoo from DoctorSweetTooth, which is something I've been wanting to try out for a while now...I've seen it suggested for people who dye their hair and want to delay washing their hair to keep it from fading as quickly. So far, I've only tried it really quickly on my way out of the house, so I'm not totally sure if it's as effective as I had hoped, but I'm going to properly give it a shot once my hair seems to need it next.

Jasmine Vanilla scented, wooo

Alright, well, that's about it for now....talk to you again soon!

Some heavy happenings and bits of inspiration

2010-09-09T16:33:00.000-07:00

Oh, hello there...

So much and yet so little going on...haha. I recently made an *official* email for my whole creative mess - I can now be reached at TheEmoSeal(at)gmail.com, woo. Previously, everything was connected to a personal email address, which was fine, but I thought having something more specialized (and actually using the name I go by) would be a good thing. Switched the blog over to that address as well, which changes nothing for you, dear readers, and is really just a fun fact. Have had to work on transferring the blogs I wanted to stay subscribed to over to the new account - that's been kind of fun as I've been finding new interesting people and getting back into reading all of your cool blogs. So yes, small bit of progress I suppose.

Making things is still not an activity done frequently enough around here because I suck or something, I don't know. I really used this summer as a full-blown laziness fest, but I guess I needed/deserved it/probably not/something or other...I did actually make one particularly cool thing in the spirit of Comic-Con (where I wore my awesome monster hood all weekend):

Click HERE to see the Etsy listing: it's a rainbow horn headband!

I made this because my monster hood can get pretty warm, and since Comic-Con happens right in the middle of summer, it's usually not ideal weather for furry hats. Something lightweight seemed like a good plan...except I didn't end up finishing it until after the convention...haha. I really like it a lot, though, and I think it's one of the few things I've made without running into any major issues and that I actually had come out exactly as I pictured it. I decided to list it since I really want to start getting new things up in the shop and I'm planning to make more. And now, it's time for a collage of Comic-Con pictures that I spent too long putting together!:

Comic-Con 2010! Click to make it bigger!

So very much fun...got more free stuff than usual, met James Urbaniak and Chris Parnell and we got to talk to Edgar Wright a little (haha, he remembered Joshua and I from two years ago), enjoyed so many Scott Pilgrim things (like TWO FREE ADVANCED SCREENINGS!, free shirts that got handed out and that we got to screen print ourselves, free garlic bread, flipbooks, etc etc)...I don't know, it's too much awesome to condense into a small space, so just enjoy the sampling of my pictures =)

Oh, and my hair changed again, if you noticed...I ended up dyeing it back to my natural dark brown not long after graduation, then getting it cut even shorter sometime last month, and then bleaching and dyeing it blue and green! Here's a few pictures of the process (and proof that I always take the same damn picture...haha):

Brown with the red I dyed over showing through, natural dark brown, bleached, and then BLUE!

It's a bit hard to see the green part...it's sort of an underlayer at the front, here's a better picture:

Yayyy, too many pictures of me!

In other personal news, I got my wisdom teeth out about a month ago (it suckedddd) and I've started trying to do some serious cleaning and organizing of everything I own (it also suckssss). Oh, and my college sent me a letter informing me that I am still three credits (a.k.a. one class) short from graduating...I'm pretty pissed about that because before my last semester, I went in to talk to someone from the English department to see if I was really going to be able to graduate on time. She looked at my records and told me all I needed was five more classes (which is a normal full schedule for a semester for me)...when I looked back over everything I realized she missed a class, which is why I ended up taking summer school. How she missed TWO classes I needed is beyond me, and it really just frustrates me. I actually went to someone for help and still ended up screwed...sigh. Anyways, I read that after Joshua got some bad news of his own - a man that was a big father-figure to him just died. Basically, the mood was already heavy around here and it just seems like more things keep getting added to the pile. I know we'll be alright, but things could definitely be better at the moment.

Alright, I hate to end this on a negative note, so have a drawing I did recently! We've been going nuts over Threadless.com (Joshua and I have bought more shirts combined within the past couple of weeks than I care to admit to, haha) and I'm all inspired to try to design a shirt for the site and this is the first thing I drew while on that kick...it's just a picture of someone I follow on Twitter:

Talk to you again soon!

THE SEMESTER IS OVER!

2010-05-24T20:59:00.000-07:00

Oh man, my stressful, final full semester of college as an undergraduate is DONE! I still have to take one class during the summer to officially graduate, but still, YAY! I'm not sure finals week has ever stressed me out so much...haha. Hopefully this means that I will AT LAST be back on track with my shop and with this blog. I haven't made anything at all for quite a long time with the exception of a mouse that I got to sew for a final project...yes, my teacher was awesome =) Here it is!:

This is Anja, one of the characters in the graphic novel Maus by Artie Spiegelman. I HIGHLY recommend it if you haven't read it. Anyway, I altered a pattern I found to make her look more like the art in the book and just kind of winged it with the clothes. On the last day of class when we were asked to share what we did for our final, there was this ridiculous audible gasp from the class when I pulled her out of my backpack so I guess I did alright...haha.

Here are a couple of graduation pictures as well...my ceremony was on May 21 and my dad, sister, niece, Joshua, and my best friend Michele were all there:

Ultimate graduation picture with my best friend

Tried to get a nice picture with Joshua but he just kept making weird faces =)

Making my niece cry...AS A FAMILY! Haha.

And uh, yeah, I got a haircut...haha. I have decided that I'm done with long hair...it just doesn't suit me as well as short hair does. I'll probably post better pictures of it the next time I update (which will hopefully be soon!).

Alright, that's about it for now. Like I said, I hope to get back on track and start making things again very soon, so I'll let you know what I come up with...

<3!

Oh dear - have a collage!

2010-04-22T12:11:00.001-07:00

COLLAGE OF STUFFED THINGS!, originally uploaded by days were never dull.

Once again I have waited too long in between blog posts and now I hardly know where to begin...so I will share this collage I made recently of some things I've sewn and never really said much about ^^ If you go to the actual Flickr page, you can hover over each stuffed creation and learn a little more about it. Most of them are in my Etsy shop so you can definitely check there for more pictures and details and such as well.

I promise, I will make a good entry soon! School is beating my brain up and...well...Joshua lives with me again =D He's been here since April 5 and he's all settled into the room down the hall from mine (it is a fantastic room). We've been seeing a lot of friends and hanging out with each other and such, so on top of not getting much done lately anyways, I've been pretty distracted by that...haha.

Hope you are all doing well and I will talk more to you later!

Catching up: Custom dog, self-portrait, and a skirt

2010-03-10T23:35:00.000-08:00

Oh blog, you are so neglected...To be fair, school has had me in a bit of a bind. It's not as if I don't have some free time, but I'm usually just tired and meh or else distracting myself from such things by talking to Joshua. Haven't been extremely crafty this month, but I do indeed have some things to show you! Things I should have shown you a while ago!

First things first: I believe I told you about the custom dog I was working on...it came out pretty nifty, though I do wish I had made the legs longer =/ Here are some pictures:

Shortly after completion...

Labeled ear!

With collar ^^

WITH THE ORIGINAL WINNY!

Woo, so that was exciting =) Glad that the real Winny seems to like her stuffed version...haha.

So shortly after that project was done, I got an assignment in a class to make a self-portrait. I immediately decided to make a stuffed version of myself because, uh, that's the kind of thing I like to do. Now, I wasn't going to be in class on the actual day that it was due, so I got it done early...only to find out that it was supposed to be non-representational (or non-literal) because it is an Avant Garde history class and she wanted us to try imitating the people we learned about -_- Ah well, my teacher still really liked it and uh, now I have a tiny stuffed version of myself that I don't know what to do with...haha. I do sort of wish I had known/realized ahead of time though because it would have been fun to make some really weird abstract mess of fabric...maybe some other time!

TWINS! KIND OF! NOT REALLY!

It was made with brown, blue, and purple fleece, black felt for the vest and wristband, little jewelry jump rings for the piercings, colored tooth pick ends for the gauges (with real tiny o-rings!), and black plastic safety eyes from 6060. Entirely hand-sewn since it was so small...and I decided not to give myself green bangs because 1) I was planning on dyeing them (the very next day in fact) and 2) because I change my hair so often that even the cut would be outdated soon enough and I thought it'd be best to just stick with my natural hair color...haha. And I just want you all to know that I really do have a shirt and pants in almost those exact colors. Cos I'm cool like that.

So on the subject of vanity...this is what I look like now with my new bangs!

I also did a bleached under-layer in the back, how exciting. And uh, yeah, as you can see I tried wearing a weird scarf the other day. I never wear scarves like that...usually only for actual neck-warmth, not just like HEY GUYS I'M WEARING THIS SCARF TODAY. I am making a bigger deal of the damn scarf than I should...haha. In any case WHY YES I am wearing the Amanda Palmer shirt I made all by myself in that picture! How neat! I keep meaning to make some AFP-themed pillowcases but I haven't done it yet. Sigh.

Okay, back to the craftiness at hand!

I have been trying to make a skirt based on an Urban Threads tutorial (which you can find HERE), but that came to a standstill after I realized that I made it too wide and also when I realized I for some reason could not make any sense out of how they say to make the waistband...keep meaning to ask someone else to read it and see if I'm just really dumb...haha. In any case, here's a progress picture of it a bit before I got stuck:

It will be pretty awesome...once I figure out how to finish it...

Alright...I've got more things to show you, but I am going to wait on it in the hopes that it will encourage me to blog again soon! PESTER ME IF IT TAKES TOO LONG! And remember, if you have any questions for me, craft-related or otherwise, you can ask them here: http://www.formspring.me/EmoSeal and, if they're relevant, I'll post the answers here as well. Hope you have an awesome day =)

A block of creativity won't stop an update!

2010-01-28T22:58:00.000-08:00

Hellooo...not much new to report, but I felt like trying to be at least a little more consistent in updating here. I just started school again last Wednesday (don't ask, we always start on weird days for some reason) and it has been both consuming my time and making me a bit too tired to feel like doing much sewing or other creative stuff once I'm done with it, and it's totally getting on my nerves...haha. I have a pile of fabric bits that are going to make up a stuffed dog and only the ears sewn together! Sigh! I did use my sewing maching for the very first time this weekend though in order to sew those ears and it was SUPER EXCITING! Here is me with my sewing machine...not the greatest picture, but alas:

I HAVE A REAL SEWING MACHINE!

So yes! That is an incredibly good development in my life! I'm going at a snail's pace with it while I sew, but I think once I get used to it, I'll get to sewing faster. Even going slowly, it's far faster than I could ever hand-sew (obviously) which is kind of nice because big projects don't have to take forEVER...though there is something nice to just using your own hands to make something from bits of fabric and thread. I'm sure I'll continue to hand-sew every once in a while, but really, I'm truly happy to have the option to use a good sewing machine to get things done.

The first thing ever sewed with my new machine =) Cleaned up the angles I didn't get so well after.

Like I said, I haven't gotten much of anything done for the custom project I'm working on, but I did order some eyes from 6060.etsy.com specifically for it and they showed up yesterday - they are PERFECT. I've ordered some black eyes from 6060 before after seeing someone who makes some cool plushes link to their store and I think that since I won't always be able to restock my plastic safety eye supplies at Ax-Man in Minneapolis (have I mentioned that store before? IT IS AMAZING AND MAGICAL! and they sell eyes at fantastic prices) for obvious reasons (I do not regularly reside in the Midwest and Joshua hopefully won't forever either), I will definitely make a habit of buying from them when my supplies run low or I have a specific need for something like this. Again, not the best picture, but here are the eyes I got:

Dear 6060, you are awesome.

Alright...that's really it for now. Hopefully after this weekend I will have made a lot more progress and I'll have more exciting things to show you! Until then...I made a formspring account earlier where you can go to ask me about quite literally anything you like - if you've ever had any questions about me personally or about some of the myriad things I do, this is your chance =) If I get any particularly interesting craft-related questions (or anything I think might be appropriate for this blog), I'll post the questions and answers here for you all to see. You can even ask things anonymously so you don't have to be shy...haha. Anyways, here's my link: http://www.formspring.me/EmoSeal

Alright! Good night everyone!

I am the worst at keeping up blogs...

2010-01-15T23:37:00.000-08:00

Sorry everyone...haha, SIGH. I always think "Hmm, I should update my blog..." and then I forget about it. Because I am a terrible person. Ah well, I'm here now!

I've been spending a month in the Midwest in order to hang out with my dear Joshua. I had my first white Christmas and finally kissed someone at midnight on New Year's Eve! Otherwise, we've done a lot of lounging, eating out (so much breakfast!), staying up horribly late, watching movies (so far we've gone out to see Sherlock Holmes, Avatar, Youth in Revolt, and The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, all of which I recommend, plus we've watched a bunch at home), awkwardly hanging around bars (he works at one as a DJ and his roommate works at another - we were not awkward when we went to Donny Dirk's Zombie Den last night though, that place was AWESOME), and the like. Here is a super cheesy picture of us from Christmas day:

The infamous MOOSE HAT!

Haha, so yeah, things have been good. Leaving on Monday though...sigh. I'm going to miss him. School starts on the 20th though, and I'm nearly done! Sort of! This is my last full semester of my four years of college, but I'm going to be one class short to graduate so I'm going to have to do summer school. Which sucks, but alas. I'm just really reallyyyy hoping that the budget cuts don't screw me too badly and leave me without the last class I need. I'll just have to wait and see. Then I have to decide what I want to do about graduate school...I thought I was just going to stay at the school I'm currently at, but then I found out about the California College of the Arts up in Northern California and I'm kind of intrigued...not really sure if I actually want to move - it'll take a bit more research and thought - but it's an idea.

On the subject of making things, I've done a little sewing since I've been here. Joshua's mom said all she wanted for Christmas was for me to make her something, so he commissioned me to make a one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater =) I didn't get any super great pictures of it before we gave it to her, but here it is!

Fleece, felt, and a random textured yellow fabric Joshua picked out for the wings =)

And: Joshua and the monster checking each other out...haha

She really liked it and I'm actually pretty proud of how it came out. Joshua also has one of the bartenders at the place he works for interested in having me make a stuffed version of her dog (and potentially her other pets depending on how that goes). I think I'm going to have to consult a pattern or tutorial of some sort to get it right, but I'm excited to get started on it. THANK YOU FOR ALL THE BUSINESS, JOSHUA!

Anyways, since I am now just ONE sale away from 30 overall in my shop, I've decided that my 30th customer will receive 30% off of their next order from me! Please spread the word and/or consider buying that special someone a monster that they can cuddle with =)

I also suggest that you enter The Dainty Squid's latest contest for three of her super cute coin pouches! You've got until January 23 to tell her what your favorite animal is here on her blog.

Click here to enter!

Let's see...well, I'm sure I've got tons of other things to update you on - I've been making more monsters and such - but I don't want to overload you. Maybe the next entry will just be a big monster party! And perhaps I'll have even more things to show you once I'm back in San Diego, because I will finally have a legitimate sewing machine! My dad got me one for Christmas because he is amazing. I really love hand-sewing things, but having the ability to do more and do things quicker will be so great. I'll definitely be letting you know how it works =)

Until then, I hope that 2010 is going well for you!

<3

Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale! Plus my b-day and those secret projects...

2009-11-28T00:24:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know, I just had a birthday sale of sorts...but now it's Black Friday (and soon to be Cyber Monday), which means an even bigger sale!

I made a brand new HOLIDAY SALE section - more than half of the items in my shop have migrated over into it and they are all 25% off! And the rest of the items in my shop now have FREE shipping =D I rarely have sales throughout the year and this is an especially big one for me, so take advantage of it while you can - the sale ends Monday night at midnight (or, well, Tuesday morning if you want to be technical).

Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale!

11/26 -- 11/30

In other news, last Friday was my 21st birthday and it was AWESOME. I went to Disneyland with Joshua, my friend Cat, who I share my birthday with (I'm older by 2 years and 1 hour ^^), her sister, and our friends Nick, Jen, and Hayden. We had far more fun than people our age should there...haha. Here's a picture!

See my hooded-cat friend there at the front? I totally made that ^^

Joshua stayed to visit for a few days besides that and we had a lot of fun running around with all of our friends, seeing two concerts (The Features and Say Anything) and Boondock Saints 2 (so good), and just getting to spend time together again. All and all a good time.

Now! Secret projects! Haha, I haven't been able to tell you guys about the past two things I've made because they were both birthday presents - one for Joshua (Nov. 15) and one for Cat! Cat really liked the bat I made back in October and I decided to make her one similar - I don't have a picture of her and her new friend together just yet, but here he is right after I finished him:

Cat was very pleased with her bat...haha.

And as for Joshua...Joshua is very hard to get things for. Even harder to make things for...but I decided to risk it and try something new. I ended up asking him to tell me a design of some sort that he really liked that I could put onto something and that he wouldn't mind seeing a lot...because I wanted to try making him a new wallet =) He told me to use the Pixies "P-wing" logo and I went to work. I used fabric markers and hand-cut stencils to get the design onto some fabric, sewed up the edges and attached some backing fabric, and then sewed vinyl pockets to the inside (and, being the cheesy person I am, I stitched "I love you" into the inside...haha). I gave it to him on the bus shortly after he arrived and...he really liked it =) I was super excited and I got this really cute picture of him holding it before he left:

He rarely smiles or looks at the camera in pictures, so this is just AMAZING =D

And here's a look at the inside...and my cheesiness...haha.

He said he really liked it and immediately switched out his old wallet (and proceeded to show it off during the rest of the visit to everyone he could), so YAY! I think I may attempt more wallets in the future now.

Alllright...I considered writing about two other recent projects here as well, but I think I'll save those for another blog soon. Good night and please do check out my Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale!

BIRTHDAY! Free shipping in the shop through the weekend =D

2009-11-19T11:55:00.000-08:00

SO! Tomorrow is my birthday! Woooo! This is going to be a pretty brief update, but I just wanted to let you guys know that I am offering FREE SHIPPING on everything in my shop starting now as my gift to you =)

FREE SHIPPING!

on everything in the shop =D

11/19 - 11/23

I've been working on a few different secret projects that I don't want to post about just yet because they are birthday presents for two friends - Joshua's birthday was on November 15 and my friend Cat and I share the same birthday (we are exactly two years and one hour apart). Hopefully I'll get some pictures of both of them with what I made and I'll be able to show off then. One will look a bit familiar and the other is something I've never attempted before...we'll see how that goes over...haha.

Alright, next time I promise you will be getting a super exciting, picture-filled entry! For now, I have one more class to get through for today and then I am heading to the airport to pick up Joshua - we're going to Disneyland tomorrow with a bunch of friends and then spending a few days just hanging out together and I am super excited =D Hope things are going well for you too!

<3

HALLOWEEN! + She's BATTY + Custom Order Excitement

2009-11-02T19:06:00.000-08:00

Ahhhh, Halloween! My favorite holiday!

Furry green monster costume = SUCCESS!

Haha, so I was totally working on my costume right up until the very last second. I don't know what happened, I was being pretty consistent about getting things done for a little bit there... School perhaps? Ugh, school. Also more frequent hang-out time with my friends. Oh! And I've been visiting my friend Mike (you know, the one who is in A City Serene? you read that entry right?) in the hospital! He's got a long way to go before things approach normal again, but he's talking and joking and being a jerk, so we're all pretty hopeful =)

Here's a slightly better picture of my costume:

I hand-sewed the hood, the gloves, the fur on the shirt, and legwarmers that you obviously can't see in this picture. The blazer was a $4 thrift store find and I found the scarf abandoned on the floor after a concert a few years back...haha. Besides that, I wore purple pants and pink shoes. I've got some picture from the party I went to here where you can see things a little better - don't mind my weird friends and I =)

Yay, Halloween party! And yes, I got my monstery-blood sucked by a vampire...haha

NOW TELL ME HOW YOUR HALLOWEEN WAS! I seriously want to know, I'm still kind of hyped up about it even though it's over...haha. And in that spirit, I'd like to feature someone who seems to be even more into Halloween than me - She's Batty Designs =)

She makes some really awesome cards, as you can see - I really really like the owl one on the right. Go check out her shop - in her own words, Jamie "specializes in greeting cards, invitations and other paper products such as gift tags" and she, like me, is up for custom orders!

Speaking of custom orders...I worked on one for the lovely Poison Ivy you can see in the collage up there =) She requested two bracelets and these:

BOB-OMB EARRINGS!

I am pretty proud of them and she seemed excited, so woo! As usual, please do take these kinds of things as encouragement to request custom work from me - I'm definitely up for it =)

Alright, this took me a lot longer to put together than I meant for it to...so many pictures! Haha...I'll be writing again soon.

Random Late Night Entry: Halloween, Custom Things, ACEOs, and Me

2009-10-17T01:03:00.000-07:00

Just feeling the need to update this...

Hmm, well, I finished the hood to my Halloween costume! I would normally post a picture, but I think I'd like to wait until it's all done to show off =) It came out a lot better than I expected - haha, I was really nervous about it, I've never attempted something like this before. The fur is glorious, the horns stay up and stick out perfectly, and the clasp I used works great. I'm really proud of it!

I have also been commissioned by a friend once again to make some things - jewelry this time. Haven't started yet, but I may tomorrow (er, later today...oh midnight, how confusing you are - personally, I have trouble considering it the next day til I've actually slept). Ordered some supplies for the project off of Etsy (of course), but I think I already have most of what I need. We'll see if I'm missing anything else... I'm excited about this! As scary and challenging as custom orders are, they're fun. I do things I wouldn't normally attempt and so far, the results have been good. I seriously encourage you to frighten me with your ideas anytime =)

I'm also slowly starting to work on the ACEOs I started drawing forever ago - I think I explained this before (with links even!) but if you don't know, they're basically just trading card sized art. I cut out the ones I finished and signed them and started to work on a couple more. Perhaps another project for tomorrow will be taking good pictures of the ones that are done and getting some of them listed. Ugh, it's going to be hard for me to part with them...I rarely give away things I draw (well, unless you count the birthday cards I make) because I get so attached to them...haha, sigh. What can I tell you, I am ridiculous. Anyway, here's a horrible tease of the finished cards:

The first eight of fifteen cards I plan to draw...just doing random things and hoping for the best =)

Besides that, I made some sales this week and I was SUPER EXCITED! It's been a while...haha. I've been more consistent about working on my shop though (and I have awesome friends), so that was pretty sweet. The only problem is now I'm itching to spend the money I just got...sigh, terrible. So far I'm resisting the urge. I'd be much better off saving for my birthday, for a Comic-Con ticket (ugh, they're $100 now, so lame), for getting my tattoo already, etc...but since when has being responsible been fun? Haha, just wish me luck.

In other random news, today(/yesterday), I got my real live driver's license in the mail! Woo! I took my test last Wednesday and it showed up in the mail today. Pretty exciting. My dad also brought me to pick out some new glasses, which should be ready in about 5 days - this is really really REALLY awesome because my current glasses are SUPER scratched up and it's been getting harder and harder to see out of them...haha. I have no idea if this picture truly does the damage justice, but it's worth a shot:

I absolutely insist you click on this to see it bigger and truly witness the horror! You know, if you want to...

The new glasses really aren't the different from the ones I have now (similarly shaped plastic frame, etc - we were on a tight budget or else I might have been a bit more experimental in my choice) except that they're a nice dark red. I promise you that there will be pictures when they arrive even if you do not want them!

It's funny how I always think I have nothing to say in this blog, and yet when I try, I always write so much.

Alright, I will leave you with one final note: GO SEE WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE! As a maker of monsters and a lover of unconventional movies (who happened to catch an early screening ^^), I must insist you see it now that it's out!

This was all probably just an excuse to show off my awesome crown from the free screening...and my green hair! =D

GOOD NIGHT, BLOGGERS! <3

Winning a Giveaway Pt. 2, New Polymer Clay Things, and Fabric!

2009-10-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

Okay! Back to posting! Seriously!

As a brief update on my friends in A City Serene, all but two of the members are out of the hospital - my friend Marc is out, but Mike is still in there. Haven't gotten any specific updates on him lately so I can't say much besides that, really. Donations are still needed to help their families out, and I am still sending 40% from all Etsy purchases in my shop to them.

Now, for one of the things I meant to post before all that happened: I won a giveaway! 5erg had a giveaway on her blog a few weeks ago and I left a comment and WON! Haha...I got to spend $20 in her shop and I got an opalite bracelet, opalite earrings, and an ACEO. Look at how happy I am!

The opalite bracelet! I wear this almost everyday now...

Opalite earrings! So pretty!

In case you didn't notice, I really really like opalite...haha. The plugs I've got in my ears with the earrings are also opalite. It's just so damn pretty! Thank you again, 5erg!

Hmm, what else...well, I finally made some more polymer clay stuff on Monday. I decided to try making some slightly different kinds of horns and I also made some plugs for myself that I can fit through my silicone earskins (since polymer clay is porous, it's really not ideal for putting straight into your ears) after looking around at the kinds of things other people are making. Lately I've been getting all kinds of cool ideas from other Etsian's shops and various websites and so on - there's so much I want to make and try that it's kind of ridiculous...but that's the usual state of things with me. Anyways, here's a look at what I did:

Wooo, new polymer clay stuff! Just uh, hanging out on my messy desk...

I meant to start getting proper pictures taken of the horns yesterday, but ended up going to the thrift and fabric stores with my friend Hayden, so I didn't accomplish much on that front...hopefully tomorrow! What I did accomplish was getting black corduroy pants for $1.75 and some fabric, woo. Got fabric because 1) I love fabric, 2) I'm trying to build up a good collection of different kinds of fabric for the random projects I think up, and 3) I AM GOING TO TRY MAKING MY OWN HALLOWEEN COSTUME THIS YEAR!

Haha...I've definitely worn handmade costumes before as a kid - I had a glorious velvety vampire cape that used to choke me but I still loved it, I was once the pink Power Ranger (all felt outfit, if I recall), etc - but I've never made one on my own, so I'm pretty excited and really hoping I get it right. My plan is to be a monster! I'm thinking I'll use some awesome green fur I bought a while back to make a hood/hat/type thing with horns, armwarmers, and legwarmers. Not positive what I'll be wearing with them just yet though...might make something or might just look through my clothes/thrift stores to find something that will match it. I will keep you updated on my progress =) Here's the fabric I have so far:

Here's the green I bought a while back...

And this is what I got yesterday! I'm thinking the green and white spot cotton will be the lining for the hood and the pink fleece will be the underside of the armwarmers and maybe the horns. And uh, then there's some awesome pink fur =)

Alright, well I think that's it for today...I'll be posting again soon =)

Help Me Help My Friends from A City Serene

2009-09-17T23:11:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone...well, I was planning to write another post a lot sooner than this, but in addition to being busy with school and, well, my usual state of tiredness (haha, seriously), this weekend I found out that two of my friends got into a really serious car accident while three days into their band's first big tour. There's lots of news articles floating around, but I think this is a pretty good one: http://tinyurl.com/acityserene

They have tons of AWESOME quality photos on MySpace, but I had to post this one because it's classic Mike (big arms) and Marc (huge smile and pointing) to me...sigh.

Basically what happened is that the tour bus they were driving got hit head on. All six of them were seriously hurt - they each have at least one broken bone - and even the best of them is still in the hospital five days later and is going to need months of rehabilitation to recover. Two of them are friends of mine from high school - one's actually my ex of two years who I'm still friends with, though I wish we had talked more often. Hearing what happened shook me up a lot more than expected, and I feel like I've spent most of my free time lately trying to see if there's any updates on their conditions from a friend of ours who's basically camping out at the hospital and re-posting news articles about what happened as more information comes out. I actually got a bit upset today about a post MySpace Music made on the accident because of some people posting unnecessary negative comments...ah, will I ever learn not to read comments on articles online? I mean, I do understand it's the nature of the internet, and I understand that it's easy to be desensitized to news and things that affect people you don't even know, but it's still amazing how insensitive people can be. I guess that's something I always knew, but it's become very personal now. But enough about that.

What I want to do right now is just to ask you to help them out, whether that be through donating money to them through a PayPal account set up on their MySpace page, buying their new EP or a shirt, or sending some encouraging words to them. I am going to be donating a percentage from any sales I make in my Etsy shop to them, so that's another way that you can help out if you have the money to spare, or have been waiting for a good time to get something from me. Honestly, I'm pretty broke myself right now (I actually don't have textbooks for most of my classes yet and we're three weeks into the semester - thank you internet for having a good chunk of my readings so far), and sales on Etsy are about the only way I'm going to get together any money to send them myself, so they would be doubly appreciated.

I promise to get back on track with this blog soon, but for now, please send my friends and the rest of A City Serene some positive vibes - they really need them right now. Thank you <3

Adventures with Fabric Markers and My Day of Fame!

2009-09-10T21:17:00.000-07:00

Hello again. See, I really am going to try to write more often! Haha...now, what to talk about...

There's a few different projects I've worked on over the past months, but I think today we'll talk about my fabric marker shirts. I've actually been messing around with fabric markers for a few years (I think I first got some in 2006), but I didn't start attempting to sell anything I did until the summer of 2008. I made four Elliott Smith shirts - he was an amazing musician, check him out - and sold three of them on eBay (the fourth went to the always awesome Joshua).

These are the first four shirts I made to sell - Joshua got the one at the bottom, which was my favorite.

I didn't make any shirts again until about a year later, a.k.a. earlier this summer, and I decided to put those ones on Etsy. Here's my favorite one:

Click on it to see it better, or check out the official Etsy listing.

Joshua actually gave me the idea for this one, but I came up with using the balloon string to write out Elliott's name. If you want to see the rest of the newer shirts, check out the Stenciled and Shaded Shirts section in my Etsy shop!

The original reason for making Elliott shirts came about after I made one for myself from a stencil I cut out from a picture. I posted it in an Elliott Smith community and got lots of positive responses and offers to buy any if I made more. Since Elliott is gone, there aren't exactly a ton of shirt options for fans, and I thought it would be something cool to do for the community.

The basic process for these shirts starts with finding a picture I like and then messing with it on the computer to make a grayscale stencil. From there, I print it out and then start cutting out small sections at a time to fill in with fabric marker on a shirt. I started experimenting with shading in the first batch of shirts when one of my markers started to go dead and it's been a pretty effective technique ever since =) Of course, dying markers only last for so long though...I'm thinking when I get the chance, I might try to just get a lightish gray fabric marker (I used Marvy fabric markers, by the way - they dry pretty quickly and hold up well and I love them).

Elliott Smith isn't the only person who's face I've put on a shirt though...I actually made an Amanda Palmer shirt in between the two sets of Elliott ones. If you don't know who Amanda is, please do yourself a favor and listen to her music and read her blogs - she's pretty fantastic =) Anyways, I made an AFP shirt and tried to submit it to be sold on her independent merch site, Post War Trade, but they felt like they had too many t-shirts as it was, so I ended up keeping it for myself. And, one day she announced that she would be in Hermosa Beach hosting a meet-up/photo shoot and after somehow miraculously convincing my friend Hayden to give me a ride the night before, we were off on an adventure! I even got to be in an impromptu music video with a ton of other fans, as you can see here!:

I'm the one holding up a giant yellow rubber duck =D

After the shoot, Amanda said she would hang out until everyone she met everyone who wanted to talk and have her sign things and take pictures and so on had gotten their chance. Because she's just that awesome. I had decided to bring along the shirt I made and I asked her if she would write something on the back for me..:

The shirt, me holding the shirt as Amanda wrote, and her mysterious addition to the back.

It is probably now one of my favorite shirts ever...I also got a hug and a kiss on the cheek and a fabric marker stolen by Amanda Effing Palmer. It was a pretty good day...=)

And uh, that's my awesome fabric marker shirt story! To think it all started one depressing summer when I decided to write lyrics all over a blank white shirt with a stain on it! And shortly after learned that Sharpie doesn't hold up well on shirts! Haha...

I'm hoping in the future to make more, different sorts of shirts, as well as some patches to put into my Etsy shop, but for now, there is Elliott. And who knows, maybe one day one of your custom requests?

I'M NOT DEAD! And I've made new things!

2009-09-02T19:34:00.000-07:00

Oh my...it has been a long time...haha.

I'm really sorry I started failing at this blog. My whole Etsy shop went into a lull for a while, really, so the blog went down with it. I've been getting better with my shop though, and I'm FINALLY going to do the same here!

So! Where to start? Uh, I've started making stuffed things, that's pretty exciting. So far, it's mostly monsters, but I've also made a whale and a bunny. I've done two custom stuffed things for friends as well - both came out pretty well and they've gotten lots of compliments, which is awesome. The first was a doll version of my friend Chris for his girlfriend...yeah...haha... He's got a handmade brown corduroy shirt with a pin that says "I Am Loved" in French attached to it and pants made from an old pair of jeans!

The Chris doll, shortly after I finished him...

And attending his first party with his namesake =)

The other was a character from an old computer game called Day of the Tentacle for Tien. She found a picture of a stuffed version the purple tentacle someone had made online, and after seeing the Chris doll, asked if I might be able to make her one that fit her specifications a little better.

Here he is! (click the picture to see him better)

Tien and the tentacle, being evil together.

Both were 100% hand sewn...which was horribly difficult...haha, but it makes me that much more proud of them. I actually hand sew pretty much everything I do because the only sewing machine I've got came from a bargain store and cost less than $10. It is as horrible as it sounds, but better than nothing. One day!

To see more of the stuffed things I've made, you can go to the Punk Rock Plush section in my shop and/or check out the photo albums on my Facebook fan page!

Alright, well! I have a few things in mind for future blog entries, so hopefully I'll stay on track here. One last thing though - I want to say thanks to 5erg! I won her giveaway and now I pick out $20 worth of stuff from her shop =D Still haven't decided on what I want, but it definitely made my day.

Talk to you later!

New pictures coming soon for my listings!

2008-12-28T19:14:00.000-08:00

This morning when I threw out the box for the Frosted Flakes, I hesistated - "I could do something with this cardboard, seriously...paint on it, make something out of it...something...nooo, just throw the damn thing away, it'll sit in your room forever and nothing will happen." So into the trash it went.

Then, later in my room, I came across these neat little tutorials for taking better pictures and editing them on KMC designs blog: How to take great photos and How to create knockout photos for Etsy using Photoshop. And suddenly, I felt inspired - I dug the cereal box out of the trash, pulled it apart, taped two pieces of white paper to the inside, and placed near the window - voila! Natural light box!

Not pretty by any means, but it does the job =) Put that together with the second tutorial (though I played around with the instructions a little) and next thing you know I have the most professional looking pictures I have ever taken in my life. Here's the original first picture for my Glittery Green Frosted Polymer Clay Cupcake Earrings :

And here's the new one:

HUGE improvement if you ask me! Unfortunately, this means I have a lottttttttt of new pictures to take and edit...which has the potential to take over my life...sigh.

Speaking of my life - my fiancé started the drive back to Wisconsin yesterday morning and he'll most likely be back there sometime tomorrow. I miss him more than I could tell you...and not to say that California winter nights are much to complain about, but my bed was freezing last night without him! I thought I was joking about losing my own personal human heater, but it was serious business - I'm going to have to get another blanket on my bed (haha, yes, I am a wuss, I get cold super easy). In all seriousness though, it sucks very much to not have him here anymore and to not be sure when he'll be able to come back. I've got to take my month off of school as an opportunity to get myself together and start doing all of the adult things I've been putting off - job, license, etc - and to get rid of all of the excess stuff I have to do my part in getting him back here as soon as possible.

My fiancé Joshua eating at a Chinese buffet on Christmas...haha

In other crafty news: I am going to try to take up crocheting! Woot. I bought some yarn and a hook about a week or so ago and didn't do so well on my first attempt, but I have a friend who crochets and he promised to help get me started the next time we hang out, so that is exciting. I really can't wait to be able to make hats and scarves and all kinds of crazy stuff. If any of you out there crochet and have some tips or good websites to check out, let me know!

Alright, that's it for now...<3

Bad news...

2008-12-16T12:17:00.000-08:00

So. Been busy with school and spending a lot of time with my fiance and friends in my spare time. Unfortunately, I have some really bad news...well, for me at least. Joshua, my fiance, is going to have to go back to Wisconsin for an indefinite period of time. Basically, he wasn't able to get a job in the time that he needed to, so he's going back to regroup. It's a time for me to get my stuff together as well...I've got to get a job and finally get my license, as well as get rid of a lot of stuff that is just sitting around in my room so that when he can come back, I'll be ready to move out and be with him.

It's just very hard to deal with right now because we thought that we were done having to deal with being in a long distance relationship and now it turns out we have to be apart again.

He's probably leaving on Sunday, so I don't really have a lot of time left before he goes...

It's been hard to balance making things with school and being with Joshua, and now even though I'll be on break, I'm going to have a LOT to do...sigh. I am by no means giving up on Etsy and Artfire, but I'm not sure if things will get better or worse with them now. We'll see.

Anyways, I continue to renew things on Etsy and I'm very very slowly adding to ArtFire...haha, if you want to help me out with getting myself straight, buy some things! Maybe even request something custom...that might be fun to try out. I'm going to need all the help I can get!

<3

ArtFire!

2008-12-04T19:46:00.001-08:00

I just opened an ArtFire shop! I've been hearing a lot of buzz about it on the Etsy forums and Twitter and figured, what the heck, it's free, let's give it a shot. So far I've got two items up, might be adding more soon...check out my new shop!: http://www.EmoSeal.artfire.com/

My first two ArtFire items!

Haven't had any problems with the site yet, and I'm pretty excited to see what happens...

In other news, I tried out some Facebook advertising this week due to some advice from the Etsy forums...got some decent views out of it, but no sales. Might try it again sometime when I feel like spending the money - you can set how much you'd like to spend in a day to get your ad posted, which is really neat (I made my budget $6 a day and it charged me about 25 cents per click), but I just don't have a lot of cash to burn right now, so I limited myself to a two day trial.

Also - I FINALLY GOT MY SEPTUM PIERCED! A week ago tomorrow =) I've been waiting for over two years to do this and I'm really really reallyyyyy happy with it...it's like it was always meant to be here! Haha. Hurts a bit, but it's already much better. My daily routine for it is to wash it with some special soap in the morning and do a sea salt soak at night. So far I've been pretty consistent about it, too, yay. It really feels it's best right after cleaning it, so I imagine I'll be keeping it up just fine.

Awwww, me and my fiance at the beach last weekend =)

P.S. click on that picture to go to my Flikr!

<3!

Free shipping!

2008-11-26T16:13:00.000-08:00

FREE SHIPPING
on everything in my shop!

{EmoSeal.Etsy.com}

From 11/26 thru 12/1

Check it out, and be on the lookout for a new SALE section =D

NEW STUFF!

2008-11-24T19:25:00.000-08:00

Yay, new jewelry! I've got a couple more things to list tomorrow and I'll hopefully be working on some more during my break as well =) Click on each picture to go to the listing on Etsy and check them out!

And I'm thinkingggggg...there might be some sort of sale coming up in a couple of days...so keep your eyes open =)

A couple of birthday pictures...

2008-11-21T19:25:00.000-08:00

I thought you guys might like to see my awesome birthday hair...=)

Haha...there's this awesome restaurant around here called the Corvette Diner (click those links to learn more about it) where they will put your hair up in straws if you'd like. I've alwaysss wanted them to do it (because I am a huge nerd), but my hair has been too short every time I've gone...clearly my wish finally came true yesterday thanks to our fantastic waitress, Scarlet! I was way more excited than I should have been...especially for a twenty year old...haha. After we took the straws out, though, something else amazing happened:

My other secret wish as of late for curly/wavy hair came true too! Sloppy, yes, but still really cool! It has calmed down a bit since sleeping on it, though, as you can see here:

To always have hair this awesome...sigh. I'm just going to make my fiance put straws in my hair at night from now on =)

And thus concludes my adventure in being vain and random and showing off my hair...=)

<3!

It's my birthdayyyyyy!

2008-11-20T09:59:00.001-08:00

Sigh, I am terrible at updating this lately =/ Haven't been making/posting a lot of things so I guess there isn't much creative-talk to be had...I've got a small pile of things I've made over the past two or three months beginning to form, though - I really need to take the time to take pictures and start adding new things to the shop instead of just renewing. Maybe this weekend if my homework doesn't take up all of my time...

In more exciting news: today is my birthday! I'm twenty! Kind of scary! I'm stuck at school for now, but tonight my parents are taking me out to dinner and this weekend, my fiance and I might try to do something...probably nothing big though. If no real plans form, I'd like to just hang out on the beach for a little bit - it's been forever and ever and EVER since I've done that.

Oh, and I just entered BeatBlack's contest for a $50 gift certificate! She's got a really cool shop that I've been watching for a while, so this would be a pretty cool thing to win...there's only one day left after today to enter though, so get on it =) Click on the banner below to find out the details!

http://beatblack.blogspot.com/2008/11/by-now-weve-all-accepted-that-christmas.html

Alright, well, hopefully I'll have some new things to talk about here after this weekend...<3!

Featured on Simply Chimica's Blog!

2008-10-27T19:02:00.000-07:00

AWESOME!

Learn some random stuff about me, including the epically long story of the origin of the EmoSeal name, and check out some other cool people who have been featured as well.

Thank you to Simply Chimica for the feature =D

CLICK HERE to read the blog entry
(or copy this link http://simplychimica.co.cc/?p=181)

Not much else to report...just renewing things here and there and trying to make some new jewelry...inspiration comes and goes, but I made a really really neat pair of earrings between last night and this afternoon that I will hopefully be able to list soon. I also really want to start making some cell phone charms! I have a bunch of little cell phone straps that I ordered a while ago and so far I've only made one...haha, sigh, going to have to get on that.

And of course, my fiancé is on his way here as we speak! AHH! He started the drive from Wisconsin to California on Sunday - he's in Utah now. SO EXCITED! Haha, I cleaned my room and everything (though my desk is still looking a little chaotic...but when doesn't it) and I can't wait until he's here. If all continues to go well, he'll be here sometime on Wednesday afternoon =)

Alright, that's all I've got for tonight...just a reminder that all horns have a free upgrade to Priority shipping to make sure they get to you in time for Halloween! Oh, and if you Twitter, you can follow me now - http://twitter.com/EmoSeal - I'll definitely follow you back.

<3!

Free upgrade to Priority shipping on horns!

2008-10-25T21:01:00.001-07:00

Yay! Free upgrade to Priority shipping for all horns in my shop to make sure they arrive in time for Halloween =)

<3!

Collegeee

2008-10-24T07:34:00.000-07:00

School is eating me alive =/

I feel like I just don't have time or the energy to be very creative now...both for Etsy and just for myself. I decided the other day after finding this site, UrbanThreads.com, that I wanted to mess around with some hand embroidery, but when am I going to have that much free time? (Sidenote: I also want to make a sock monkey now, or perhaps a glove chipmunk? haha, two very cool how-to's). I more or less spend my free time catching up on things online and trying to destress, and by the time I'm relaxed and ready to start something, it's time to go to bed. It's just very discouraging.

Sigh, and now it's time for me to go to class! Haha...have a test to take today and another one to do tomorrow for a school-wide requirment...and then lots and lots of cleaning at home!

Talk to you later...<3

Steampunk Rings contest!

2008-10-18T14:17:00.000-07:00

Today I am here to tell you about some awesome rings =)

I had seen CatherinetteRings's shop before, back when her avatar was of one of her Cube rings (still think those are amazing). I recently rediscovered her over on Twitter (sigh, Twitter!...haha, my fiance calls it a 'lazy person's blog' and wishes I'd stop using it, but it's kinda fun...turns out I joined it right as a lot of other Etsians did too so there's been quite a lot of Etsy-connection going on there for me) and have started checking out her blog as well as her new Steampunk rings...if you don't know, Steampunk is a pretty interesting subculture that's getting a bit more attention lately (click on that first "Steampunk"back there to get some background on it).

Anyways, CatherinetteRings has just started a new contest on her blog and I am making this entry not only to spread the awesome, but in the hopes of winning some of the awesome myself...haha. She plans to give away two of her rings at the end of November, which would make a pretty sweet 20th birthday present if you ask me...=D

I actually had a much harder time picking a favorite ring than I thought I would...haha, seriously. I looked through all of CatherinetteRings's Steampunk rings and just found so many really neat things that it took me a while to narrow it down. I think I'd have to go with her Golden Rutilated Quartz ring though:

(photo by CatherinetteRings)

...Can't help but to also mention this Indian Agate ring and this Smoky Agate ring - haha, it's hard enough to limit myself to only those. Back on topic - I'm not typically a fan of gold-tone things, but for some reason I love that ring...it's just so bright and lovely (for the record, CatherinetteRings takes some great pictures of everything she makes - it all seems to glow a little =])

So! Make sure you take a look around CatherinetteRings's shop and enter the contest with me - take a look at her blog, there's a few different ways to enter, all of which are simple - maybe we can both win a fantastic ring together =)

Renewing =/

2008-10-11T22:19:00.001-07:00

So a lotttt of my items are coming up to their expirations dates and I just started to renew some things for the very first time...ahhh. I don't know why but that makes me feel very weird. I guess I'm just feeling that thing some people on the forums seem to get sometimes, where they start worrying that they're wasting their money...I just don't have a ton of money to work with right now so it makes me paranoid to spend any of it...haha. I'm not going to renew everything that's expiring - at least not right now - but it's stressing me out a little regardless.

Anyways, I'm working on some jewelry right now for a friend - she bought some buttons and beads today and asked if I'd make some earrings and necklaces out of them for her. I think she's going to make me some things in return, so yay...I got one pair of earrings done before she had to go, and this is her modeling them:

I personally think she makes a very good model =)

Alright...be on the lookout for some new pairs of horns to go up soon...and look at my freshly renewed items as well!

<3

Exciting things and a cute kid!

2008-10-10T22:57:00.001-07:00

I really need to be better about updating this!

Okay, exciting thing #1 - I had TWO sales in one day last Sunday! I was really really happy because I hadn't sold anything in about a month, plus I sold some stuff I was pretty proud of - a pair of horns and some Pokeball earrings (my first polymer clay sales, yay). I also had a last minute awesome idea for the earrings...

They are stuck into a piece of canvas paper that has my logo printed onto it =) Haha...it was actually a failed experiment at making a patch of my logo to put on my jacket (turns out printer ink washes off of canvas in the washing machine, sigh) but I think it worked out alright in the end. The earrings were a gift for someone else, so I wasn't sure how to go about my usual thank-you-note/reciept-thing...this turned out to be a pretty good compromise because I still got my name out there without feeling too weird about it, and I was able to write on the back that I hoped she liked them and to be sure to thank the person who got them for her =) Plus it's sturdy enough to be a good backing! All around goodness.

What is exciting thing #2, you ask? I got a convo earlier from someone asking about another pair of horns that they are thinking of buying to be a part of their dog's Halloween costume =) Tell me that doesn't sound completely adorable! A tiny little dog with horns on! MY horns! Haha...hoping to hear back from them on whether or not they'll work out after all - seems promising so far!

Besides all that business...I took the day off from school today! Which felt extremely nice! At least the sleeping in part was good, I spent most of the rest of the day going through boxes and trying to get rid of things - I have a terrible problem with holding on to farrrr too much paper, not to mention lots of strange random things...sigh. Made some progress but I've got a lot more to do, both for my peace of mind AND to make room for my fiancé - in about two weeks, he will be driving down from Wisconsin to stay for good! =D! My dad is going to let him stay with us for a little bit to give him a chance to find a job and get an apartment, which is very very awesome. I'm going to have to try to get a good job myself as well so that I have a shot at being able to move out with him very soon...

And now, because he is cute and I saw him on Sunday, check out my nephew Jacob!

He always makes me take him out by the pool when he comes over...he really likes the water (and the duck). And I don't think you can tell in this picture, but he has Wall-E shoes! Awesome =) Haha, and by the way, his mom liked the jewelry I made for her after all, so yay for that.

Okay...I think I am all caught up now...good night!

<3>

New plugs and my latest personal project...

2008-10-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

Man, I meant to make this entry like a week ago...haha...sigh. Last Thursday I recieved my most recent Etsy purchase: a pair of 6 gauge glass plugs from iriejen! I got really excited when I realized that there are actually lots of plugs on Etsy and had been doing a lot of shopping around when I found iriejen, and I just thought these were a really neat, and not too expensive either...

(photo by iriejen)

And of course, the obligatory vain-happy-customer picture:

Yayyyy, now I am up another gauge size...haha. I don't intend to go any higher than 4 gauge because I don't want my ears to be permanently stretched, but it is a little addicting...plus, some of the most interesting plugs only come in bigger sizes! Sigh. I think I was always destined to be a modified individual...seeing my older sister get her first piercing when I was little and my dad with his couple of tattoos got body modification into my head early. So far, it's just a lip ring on the right side of my lower lip and the stretched ears (haha, and that actually started out of boredom...). When I have the money, though? Septum piercing for sureeee and some tattoos, the first of which will be something for my nephew (see last entry). Really really need to get that done soon...but alas, Etsy is my only job right now and I only had one sale last month. Hopefully things will pick up soon with the holiday season...that's what I keep hearing is supposed to happen on the forums...haha.

ANYWAYS! Personal project! Yay! Haha, so I have this jacket for a band whose music I like, but whose overall reputation and image I do not...I got it at a show of theirs that I got into for free because, quite frankly, it's practically impossible for me to go to a concert and not bring back some sort of merch. Plus I was in need of a smaller jacket at the time...anyways, the point is, because wearing said jacket now makes me feel like a jerk, I decided to cover up the part that has the band's name on it with a patch I made! And after doing that I figured, hey, I should just cover this whole damn thing with homemade patches! It'll be soooo punk rock! ...haha. See, I'm very serious about that "punk-rock poser" thing. Because Pokemon patches and the kinds of things and bands that I'm really into...are not punk rock. They are just dorky. And, well, the music isn't very punk at all.

I am rambling a lot today...back to the point! The patch I originally put on the jacket was one of three Pokemon patches I made a while back with an old shirt and fabric markers. I ended up safety pinning it and the other two onto the jacket in various places. A couple days ago, I made a patch of a red balloon on some new fabric I bought a 1/2 yard of, and last night, I took another old patch I made and put onto something else off of that something else (haha, yeah, make sense of that) and sewed it to the back of the jacket under the screen printed picture that's there that is really, seriously, not really all that related to the band - it's Ferdinand the Bull sitting under his cork tree. Strangely, this is also the same exact picture that my fiancé has tattooed onto his shoulder in honor of another musician who has a somewhat more logical (and less forced) connection to Ferdinand than this...other band...haha. I'm not sure why I am so adamant about not mentioning their name here, but it's kind of just for fun now. Okay, okay: PICTURES NOW!

Alllllrighttttt...that's more than enough for one day! Talk to you all later <3>

Lots of horns and something for my sister...

2008-09-28T17:10:00.001-07:00

This is a picture of all of the horns I've made so far (minus the ones I sent to my friend recently...)

(you can click the picture to make it bigger)

The first two are the original pairs I made this summer, and the rest have been made over the past week or so...haha, I think I've gotten better already, and each pair is getting harder to part with. Still have to list the last two, but I've heard that around 7pm on weekdays is the best time to list, so I might wait until tomorrow for that...you know, unless I get impatient =)

I also started on something last night that I've been meaning to make for my sister for a while now...it's got a bit of a story behind it. My nephew Eythan died this past January after fighting cancer for six years...he was ten. He was a big fan of The Legend of Zelda and he used to draw triforces on everything. When he died, his parents really got into the whole triforce thing and it's just kind of synonymous with Eythan for them (and for me) now. Anyways, my sister requested that I make her some triforce-related jewelry for her and this is what I ended up coming up with last night and earlier today:

I had been hesistant to start working on this because I wasn't sure I'd be able to do it at all, but I finally just sat down and started and acted like I knew what I was doing...haha, it worked for the most part. I know I could have done a better job, but overall I'm okay with how it turned out, and my sister is excited about getting them.

Alright...hopefully I'll be posting again tomorrow!

<3

FINALLY! Horns on Etsy =)

2008-09-23T15:52:00.000-07:00

It has taken me farrrrrr too long to do this, but at last, I have a pair of horns up for sale on Etsy! Yay!

Orange and Black Swirl Horns

I'm pretty excited and I've really got to make another pair or two - I'm offering to do custom orders, but you know, Halloween is probably the best time to get this sort of thing started and I want to have a few pairs on hand in the shop.

I also uploaded two more rings:

Orange and Pink Stacked Ring / Blue and Purple Twist Ring

Other than that...just stressing out like mad. I'm worried about school, I didn't get this little online job I was hoping to have, and I'm worried about my fiancé moving down here (money is tight, etc.). This whole growing-up business is terribly overrated and I'm just hoping to be able to do it without killing myself in the process...

Until later...<3!

Rings and a lollipop...

2008-09-21T00:50:00.000-07:00

Got two of my rings and the lollipop pendant posted on Etsy =)

---------------Pink Swirl Ring--------------Rainbow Mushroom Ring-----------------Lollipop Pendant-------------

And as we speak, I am baking a pair of slightly shimmery orange and black horns and a ring with pink and purple stars. Sweeeeet. I'll try to get pictures of them up tomorrow.

Oh, and tonight, perhaps in an effort to make myself feel better, I bought something new off of Etsy...haha, sigh. Expect a full report when they arrive...

<3

Polymer rings =)

2008-09-18T10:31:00.000-07:00

So I've been doing a LOT this week...last Friday, I got the supplies I ordered from shareliving - some adjustable ring bases, cell phone straps for charms, and some earring backs. I started making rings on Sunday and have been making a couple each day, as well as a few other things...here's everything I've done so far:

Haha, I've made ten rings ( 4 on adjustable rings and 6 made purely of polymer clay), a mushroom for a friend of mine (still needs a bit of work), a lollipop charm, a blue and white pendant, and a flying eyeball for my dad because yesterday was his birthday =) Here's a better picture of it...

Man, the wings took forever to do - I mixed up some yellow, orange, and some of that new pearly white clay I got recently and made each little feather individually - but I'm satisfied with how they came out in the end and my dad likes it, which is what really matters =)

Anyways, as far as the rings go...mixed nearly all of them with my pearly white clay as well so they each have a bit of shimmer. Haha, I'm still trying to decide which ones I'm going to keep and which ones I'm going to list because I like them so much! I suppose I could always remake them, but I tend to dislike repeating myself, so who knows what I'll do.

School has been keeping me pretty busy otherwise - I actually have to go to a play tonight for one of my literature classes - but I'm hoping to keep making new things and start getting them listed this weekend. Sigh, can't wait to sleep in! Waking up at 5am has never been for me...

Alright, well, I'm off...gotta get ready for my next class!

Horns, new clay, and my second Etsy purchase

2008-09-09T21:02:00.000-07:00

So a lot happened yesterday! ...sort of...haha.

First of all, I finally sent out a gift I made for a friend of mine who just transferred from here to Portland for college. I actually made them earlier in the summer, but we never ended up getting to see each other before she left...here they are:

Haha, yeah, I made her some polymer clay horns! I had made myself two pairs back in July (that you can see HERE) and she saw pictures and wanted some too (not a surprise - she has a reputation for being "the girl with the horns" because she has a couple pairs she wears on a regular basis; I believe one pair is fabric and the other is plastic). I figured they'd make a good going-away/just-because present. Oh, and in case you were wondering, they are sitting on the letter I wrote to go along with them...anyways, I've been thinking for a while that I ought to start trying to make horns like this for Etsy - maybe start off with a set or two and offer to do custom orders - and since Halloween is coming up, I think I might finally get on it...suggestions for what colors to start with are welcome!

On the subject of polymer clay, I also recieved four new blocks of clay that I ordered yesterday!

Now I have blue, black, more white, and a shimmery white, as you can (hopefully) see in the second picture...this adds to the red, purple, orange, yellow, green, and older white that I actually originally got from a really wonderful lady who had it all sitting around and thought I could make some use of it...it actually took quite a while for me to do so, but once I got on Etsy and realized all the amazing things that can be done with polymer clay, I dug it out and got to work =)

And FINALLY - I recieved my second Etsy purchase ever in the mail as well! Haha, it was an excellent day for mail. I bought a hat from anatomyofatooth (who blogs HERE) that made me smile before I even opened the package...

Best packaging ever =) (btw...ignore my Little Mermaid bed sheet...haha, I have problems with that whole growing up thing). On top of that? She included a second hat and a pair of gummy bear earrings as extras! Totally unexpected! I had read in her feedback that she gave out extras with purchases, but I expected really small things...alright, vain-happy-customer-picture time!

The first picture is the hat I originally bought...it makes me feel like I have little zebra ears =) And, it fits perfectly! Sweet. The second hat is a bit snugger but still neat, and the earrings are sooooo coooooooool...as proven by all the extra o's. Extra bonus points - that holder you see them poked into? It's a paint sample from a store. Seriously, what an awesome idea - it's the perfect size and everything. Haha, I am clearly happy with my purchase...can't wait for it to stop being so damn HOT out so I can start wearing the hat!

Alright...that's it for today!

<3

Hello, Blogger...

2008-09-07T17:42:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone =)

So I've been keeping up something of a creative blog on WeLoveEtsy.com (that link will take you to my profile, which has lots of pictures and my creative-type blogs posts to date), but I figured I should get in with all the cool kids and move over to Blogger/Blogspot/whatever-the-hell-you-are...haha. I'm sure I'll post in both places, but since I've realized that I can in fact keep up two blogs (a personal one and a Etsy-related one), I decided I might as well do this one right.

And now I'm not sure where to begin! Haha...I think I'll just look back on my We Love Etsy posts and try to give you an idea of who I am and what I've been doing.

I started off this whole Etsy thing making hemp and metal chain jewelry, but I have since gotten into making charms and pendants with polymer clay - I've got a mix of all of that going in my shop now, and I'm constantly getting more ideas from all of the amazing shops I see. I also like working with fabric markers, doing small sewing projects, drawing, painting - all kinds of arts and crafts. Lately I've been thinking of trying to do some ACEOs and maybe start trying to make some hair stuff (bows, barettes, etc.), and I'm waiting on some supplies so I can start making rings and cell phone charms...haha, I'm all over the place.

As far as my personal life, I'm a full time college student majoring in English and currently still living at home, which will hopefully change in a few months...haha, not that I'm looking forward to balancing bills and homework, but, well, I've got a pretty good reason to move out. I'm (recently) engaged to the most amazing jerk I've ever met, who unfortunately lives 2,000 miles away but will be moving down here to California stay in October. And, uh, well, I kinda wanna live with him =) I actually spent most of last month up in Wisconsin with him and having to be without him now is absolutely miserable...but I've got school and crafting to keep me occupied and help me make it through the last few weeks we ever have to spend apart....haha, yeah, I get really cheesy when I talk about him...

Now, to get back on track, here are some of the things I've been working on lately!

Two of my recent Etsy listings:

Glittery Green Cupcake Earrings
-I decided I wanted to try to make some cupcakes out of polymer clay (it may have a little to do with the fact that I have been craving some good cupcakes for MONTHS and I still haven't gotten any...sigh!) and after making some pink ones (one of which you can see below), I mixed the brightest green I could and made these guys. It's a little unclear in this picture, but they are actually sprinkled with green glitter, so they're very sparkly. They are topped with matching glittery green beads I made as well and attached to a pair of lever-back earrings.

Glittery Pink Cupcake Necklace
-I actually made some pink cupcakes first...cos, well, pink just seemed like a logical frosting color, haha. At first, I had no intention of adding faces or anything like that to my cupcakes, but two small pieces of fuzz got onto the base of one of them and they looked just like a little eye and a perfect tiny smile - I figured it was just meant to be and went for it =) This pink cupcake also has some glitter on it, though not as much as the green ones do, and some matching glittery polymer clay beads along with some seed beads to complete the necklace.

Alright...I was planning to get into some more stuff I've been doing lately, but I think I've overloaded you enough for one day...haha, I'll be back soon with another post!

<3