Preeeeettyyyy...

*_*

Picture taken from Steampunk Cruise's FB page. Their first annual cruise will be held on March 16-23 2013. Head over there and like 'em, mebbe book some tickets if you're planning a vacation next year.

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2012 holiday shipping dates and other important stuff

It's that time of year when everything picks up and gets uber hectic. For those shopping handmade during the holidays, I've posted mailing deadlines for Christmas delivery from the USPS website:

Domestic Mail
First Class Mail–Dec. 20th
Priority Mail–Dec. 21st
Express Mail*–Dec. 22nd
Parcel Post–Dec. 14th
Destination Network Distribution Center (DNDC) Drop Ship–Dec. 19th
Destination Delivery Unit (DDU) Drop Ship–Dec. 21st
* Some Express Mail destinations may have extended service commitments.

International Mail
First Class Mail:
-Africa, Central/South America–Dec. 3rd
-Asia/Pac. Rim, Australia/New Zealand, Canada, Caribbean, Mexico, Europe, Middle East–Dec. 10th

Priority Mail:
-Africa, Central/South America–Dec. 3rd <--- 1st="1st" as="as" class="class" don="don" it="it" know="know" p="p" s="s" same="same" t="t" the="the" why="why">-Asia/Pac. Rim, Australia/New Zealand, Mexico–Dec. 10th
-Canada, Caribbean, Europe, Middle East–Dec. 13th

Express Mail:
-Africa, Central/South America–Dec. 11th
-Asia/Pac. Rim, Australia/New Zealand, Caribbean, Mexico, Mexico, Europe, Middle East–Dec. 15th
-Canada–Dec. 17th

Global Express Guaranteed*:
-Asia/Pac. Rim, Australia/New Zealand–Dec. 18th
-Africa, Caribbean, Australia/New Zealand, Europe, Middle East–Dec. 19th
-Canada, Mexico–Dec. 20th
* GXG® Notes:

1. Cutoff date does not take into account time needed for customs clearance.
2. Should allocate extra transit day(s) for delivery outside major cities.
3. Last date to ship to Afghanistan is December 18. Last date to ship to Iraq is December 17. GXG does not deliver to APO and FPO addresses.

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CUSTOM T-SHIRT ORDERS:
Due to the fact that the American Apparel factory is located on the opposite end of the country and that shipped blanks can take a while for arrival, I'm advising all of my lovely customers to place their custom t-shirt orders in advance if you wish to have them arrive in time for Christmas. Below are the deadlines for getting your orders in:

United States–Dec. 7th
Africa, Central/South America– Nov. 23rd
Asia/Pac. Rim, Australia/New Zealand, Canada, Caribbean, Mexico, Europe, Middle East–Nov. 27th

This is for orders that are being shipped First Class only! Expedited orders will incur extra shipping charges for the buyer.

Please understand that I cannot give a 100% guarantee for Christmas delivery due to potential delays from bad weather, possible defects in merchandise, and/or human error. Many thanks for your patience!

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Running short on time? I can ship directly to the gift recipient AND I also offer gift wrapping and handwritten note services at no extra charge! Simply mention that the order is a gift in "Note to Seller" box and enter said recipient's name/address in the shipping address fields. You can also request the free gift wrapping/handwritten note in said "Note to Seller," and indicate what you'd like written in note. Copy of invoice will NOT be included in package, of course.

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New Print!

"A Very Corgman Christmas" 8x10" Illustration Print

Bob Corgman the Welsh Corgi is back, and he's brought his family! It's that time of year when the Corgman family is decked out in kitschy, holiday-themed sweaters for their annual Christmas family portrait. Afterwards, Bob will shudder off the tackiness via sipping on a large glass of vanilla brandy and smoking his favorite pipe. All while listening to some good ol' Bing Crosby and The Andrew Sisters on the radio.

Also, Junior is NOT amused.

This is a limited edition print available only during November and December. After that, it'll be gone 'til next holiday season, so snap it up while it lasts! I also have a 5x7" version available.

(The oval shaping on the print itself isn't actually cut off on the top and left - it's just some weird cropping on the listing pic).

Also, until November 22nd, take 10% off your entire order by using coupon code EARLYSHOPPER.

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Tasty Chili

Whipped up some homemade chili last night, along with some corbread:

I also had some shredded cheddar sprinkled on top of my serving of chili. Totally good eatin', especially for cold weather. You can check out the recipe for the cornbread here.

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Boalsburg Day Trip and Movie Night

NOTE: Sorry if my writing below seems all wonky. I was still dizzy from the spray paint fumes at the time (was working on my Morokei dragon priest mask). 

Yesterday, I popped over to the quaint, little Victorian village of Boalsburg for their Fall Colors Open House to check out the local businesses, bad weather be damned. Unfortunately, I only had less than an hour to browse, due to spending an earlier chunk of the afternoon packing orders and had a scheduled movie date with a friend later in the evening. I've also realized that I forgot to charge my camera battery, so only a few shots were taken at the time (sorry, everyone).

Summer House...I'm assuming this a B&B?

Riley on Main

I'm kinda kicking myself for not checking out the above boutique sooner - I was totally drooling over all the cute accessories and vintage furniture. The accessories were very reasonably priced and I'm pretty sure I'll be coming back to pick up a pair of cute armwarmers. The gorgeous furniture, on the other hand, were waaaay out of my price range. *sadpanda* Oh well, a Pokey can dream.

Adjacent to Riley's was Duffy's Tavern. I've never been inside yet, but I will make some time to stop by there for a pint, come hell or high water.

Duffy's Tavern.

Boalsburg Chocolate Co.

A little further down the street, I was like, "ERMAHGERD, CHERCLET!" and made a bee-line toward the little shop (pictured above), which was offering tastings of wine and chocolate pairings. Seeing that the tasting area was kind of packed, I've stuck to just browsing the display case of wonderful, delectable confectioneries. Couple minutes later, I strode out the door with a white box of newly purchased orange cream-filled and coconut cream-filled morsels (half-dozen each).

Luckily, it only started raining while I was driving back home to pick up Connor. Right before we left for the movie, we each helped ourselves to a few pieces of the tastiness....they were pleasing to our palates - not overbearingly sweet, which is a mistake that a lot of chocolatiers tend to make. The dark chocolate shells were smooth without being too soft; just the right bit of thickness in that it did not require us to gnaw our way to get to the gooey center like you'd expect with mass-manufactured variants (I'm lookin' at you, See's Candies). The fillings were velvety, rich with flavor from start to finish and did not gum up our teeth, which was also an added bonus.

Delicious chocolates aside, Connor and I went and saw the new movie Sinister. As an avid horror fan who's difficult to scare, I have to say that I did not leave the theater disappointed. Without mentioning any spoilers of course, it had its genuinely creepy moments and I loved how they stuck with subtleties throughout much of the film. The distorted soundtrack paired with certain scenes also added a nice touch. I would say the ending could be improved some, but that's my only complaint. I highly recommend that you guys watch this film. Better yet, wait a few weeks and watch it when you're completely alone in the theater. >:D

Upon arriving home from the movie theater, I set forth on spray painting my Morokei dragon priest mask in its distinctive deep shade of blue with a slight metallic sheen. I bought the can of spray paint (I don't even remember the brand) at Ollies for only 60 cents...it's times like this where I wished that I drove the extra six miles to Home Depot and bought a can of Krylon instead. Despite working in a well-ventilated area and wearing a respirator, the fumes from that discount shit were uber powerful. Spent much of the night with the windows open to air out the stench. EDIT: I'm just gonna use acrylic paint this time, since it'd be a pain in the bum to get all the nooks-n-crannies. 

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Ombre Love

I made a treasury. Check it out.

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A little bit of motivation to start your Wednesday morning

Image from Eat More 2 Weigh Less

Yup, pretty much. So sack up and GET YER ASS MOVIN'!

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New Shop Items!

I think I'll just regulate all new items in the shop to just one post a week (provided I have any available at the time), to avoid the spammy-spam-spam.

Black Japanese Pine Tree Screen Printed Deep V-Neck T-Shirt - Size XS (OOPS)

"The Plague Doctor" Size A2 Blank Greeting Card

Navy Blue and White Ume Upcycled Kanzashi - OOAK

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Weight loss update

During my hiatus, I've been sticking to my diet and exercise regimen faithfully. Unfortunately, shortly after my last post prior to said hiatus, my weight plateaued. Over a month later, I gradually packed on an extra seven pounds. I didn't know what was causing the weight gain at the time, but no matter how much I exercised and how careful I was with my diet, the scale wouldn't budge in the right direction.

I almost resigned myself, believing that maybe my body was meant to stay in the mid-140s range. Then one day, while I was perusing My Fitness Pal's forums (lurking as usual), I stumbled upon a few threads with members complaining about weight plateaus. Turns out that before mine started, I wasn't netting enough calories - well below my BMR. The Basal Metabolic Rate is the amount of calories you burn if you were to stay in bed all day. That number is the minimum amount of calories you must consume daily in order to survive, otherwise your body goes into "starvation mode" in order to preserve itself. That subsequently leads to the metabolism slowing, thus foiling one's attempt to lose weight.

Going back over a month's worth in entries, I realized that I've been netting less than 1,000 calories a day for, uh, quite a while actually. Oops.

After another month of packing on more calories and netting 1,500-1,800 calories per day (exercise included), I was delighted to see the numbers on my scale finally go down. Granted, the weight loss has been much slower this year compared to last (apparently it's supposed to be a bit more difficult to drop the pounds the thinner you get), but it's still pleasing to find my clothes fit looser these days. Not to mention that I've also been feeling stronger and more healthy. Huzzah!

Below are my measurements as well as my current weight:

5.1.12
Bust: 35" (lose 1")
Waist: 28" (lose 1.5")
Hips: 35.5" (reached goal)
Thigh: 20" (lose 1")
Arm Cir.: 11" (lose 1")

5.15.12
Bust: 35" (lose 1")
Waist: 27.75" (lose 1.25")
Hips: 35.5" (reached goal)
Thigh: 19.5" (lose .5")
Arm Cir.: 11" (lose 1")

9.23.12 (weight 131.8 lbs.)
Bust: 34.5" (lose .5")
Waist: 27" (lose 1")
Hips: 35.5" (reached goal)
Thigh: 19" (reached goal)
Arm Cir.: 10.5" (lose .5")
 

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Up for bids!

Hey guys, I'm currently selling my Tokina 28-105mm lens on Ebay, compatible with Canon EOS digital cameras. I've originally used it on my Canon Digital Kiss X/Rebel XTi/400D - first and only owner. If you guys can spare a minute, can you please pass on the link to others who may be lens shopping? There should be social media buttons at the bottom of this blog post for easy sharing. Thanks!
 

Click the image to view listing.

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Playing catch-up

Okay, I can explain my unannounced absence from the blogging world over the past several months.

SKYRIM.

Sorta. I didn't exactly spend every moment parked in front of the XBox playing the incredibly addicting game, but what time that could have been spent blogging was wasted on killing dragons and raiding dungeons. I started playing said game after Christmas, but it was only very brief (my first character was some Breton mage chick) as I had to hunker down and work on my dreaded taxes. It took me until about a week before the tax deadline that I finished and submitted all of my paperwork, leaving me free to pick up Skyrim once more. This time, I started anew with a female Khajiit warrior-thief (currently level 60). Then Dawnguard came out, followed by Hearthfire. I powered through the former about a week after downloading it and haven't really delved into the latter due to an annoying glitch with the Falkreath house. Oh well. There's still Assassin's Creed III to look forward to.

Skyrim aside, I was invited by the lovely Holly Foy of the band Callanish to sell my Ireland photography prints at the St. Patrick's Day festival. Spent the week prior running on very little sleep while printing out my photos, mounting and packaging them. My partner unfortunately wound up with the flu so I had to work my booth solo. Luckily, I managed to do fine that day. I even got to chat with some of the other wonderful vendors and musicians during downtime.

There's not much else in regards to shop-related news. I mostly worked my screen printing press, producing a variety of t-shirts and very gradually sketching out concept art of Bob Corgman's family. Sorry I haven't been putting out many new designs this year, as I've recently acquired a part-time temp job with the local university as a graphic designer. So far, I'm loving my new job as it's actually more relaxing compared to running an entire business by yourself. Plus, I like my co-workers. :)

Work-stuff aside, I've also been painting my formal living room a nice, pale shade of grey, with the accent wall, interior of front door and built-in shelving in charcoal grey. Most of the effort was concentrated on said built-in shelving as they required a variety of uncomfortable maneuvering to get at the nooks and crannies. I still also have to Mod Podge some asanoha-print paper over the switch plate and outlet covers, and more importantly, furnish the damn room.

For one of the guest bedrooms, I've been planning and bugeting to replace the old carpeting with North American cherry hardwood flooring. Since out-of-town guest visits are few and far in-between, I'll probably turn that room into my office/sewing room since I'm wary of the reliability of my art studio heaters during the harshest period of winter. Not very interesting to mention, but it's part of why I was busy. Even less interesting were the occasional days I spent curled up under the blankets with my laptop playing various shows on Hulu because I didn't feel like doing jack.

That's basically it so far. More posts to come. :)

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Uhh...I'm back.

And I brought cupcakes with me.

Pumpkin cupcakes.

With whipped cream and cinnamon on top.

Here's the link to the recipe. Ignore the Argo brand ingredients and use whatever ya got, of course. The only difference was that I replaced the vegetable oil with 1/2 stick of light butter and 1/2 a banana.

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New Photography Pieces

Much of yesterday and today's "downtime" were spent tinkering around with some older photos I took during my 2008 Ireland trip. Two are finished, not sure if I'm going to bother with the others.

If you notice in my shop, much of my pieces have a dreamy, washed out, lo-fi feel, so I'm trying to keep with the general theme. I don't own an iPhone, nor have I ever used Instagram - all of the effects you see below were made from scratch.

The Irish landscape images were altered using adjustment layers for contrast, saturation, vignetting, and curves. Extra layers were used for overlaying airbrushing (one layer per color), which were then blurred and set in varying modes to achieve the light leaks one would get from old Holga cameras. The black "viewfinder" frame in the first image was actually an original stock pic I took through my Kodak Duaflex II camera, layered over the image.

Thoughts? Critiques? I'll try to get them listed in my photography shop later tonight and will post the links here.

"Drifting Through the Haze"

"Road Tripping Across the Countryside"

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Post-Valentine's Day Post

Hope everyone's Valentine's Day went well. The SO and I agreed that we shouldn't be arsed with getting each other flowers, cards, etc. this time around, so we stayed in all day relaxing. We started the early afternoon (yes, we got to sleep in!) with breakfast in bed of bacon, eggs, and french toast with a bit of honey (my guy took his bread regular toasted).

For dinner, we whipped up some champ w/ sauteed onions and mushroom, and grilled big-ass slabs of steak.

Totally conquered, like a BAWSS.

For dessert, which happened a few hours later due to being too stuffed, I made chocolate-dipped strawberries. They didn't look as presentable as I'd hoped, but they still tasted groin-grabbingly good.

And to cap off the night after a nice massage, a glass of this:


One would think that after omnomming on so much calorie-laden food, an extra couple of pounds would be expected on the scale the following day, but...nope. Lost about .4 lbs and down to my lowest weight so far. :D Go me.

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I haz been featured!

Or rather, Mr. Llwynog, the fancy red fox has been. Many thanks to Rachel W.K.! Also, check out the fantastic prints made by talented Etsy artists.

Click the image to check out the "Foxy Love" blog entry by RWKrafts. To purchase the print, go here.

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Haven't done this in a while...

O look, I actually drew something that's not work-related. I rarely get to kick back with my sketchbook and draw for fun. Recently, I've been playing catch-up with orders and tons of messages that have been unfortunately neglected due to some bug I caught last week. Spent much of my time trying to keep warm either by curling up under tons of blankets or hobbling around the house layered in coats and sweaters like a hobo.

Many apologies to those who had their orders delayed. I did not wish to get my nasty germs all over your items. Hopefully in the future, illness will not rear its ugly head in my household often.

So yup, I was inspired to make a relatively quick/crappy sketch (shown below) after being amused by what the admin said (as quoted in said pic) in a comment on J'zargo's FB page.



Sorry if J'zargo looks wonky here, it's been years since I drew any anthropomorphic-related art. Hopefully the kitty-mage of awesomeness won't go all Palpatine on my arse.

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Kimono Photo Shoot!

Recently, I got my coveted shishi nagoya obi in the mail:

Awww yeeeah!

...and I took some time off to get dolled up in kimono and do a little photo shoot. I wore my red/cream yabane komon with my new obi, accessorized 'em with a navy/white han eri, pale green shibori obiage and dusty red/green obijime. I also wore my white zori with mustard yellow floral print hanao (thong straps of the zori sandals), but those aren't pictured due to the room wasn't big enough to get all of me in frame.

Also, I really need to buy more obi accessories and zori, because I'm severely lacking in those departments.


EDIT: It's been so long since I wore kimono that I forgot to keep the sleeve openings at the back, not leave them at the front. *headdesk* My bad. Will definitely keep that in mind next time.

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100th Fan Giveaway!

Okay, so my last giveaway with the Temple Bar print wasn't successful. Perhaps this Bob Corgman scarf will be more enticing:

You can win the scarf simply by doing this: "Like" my Yay for Fidget Art! FB page.

The 100th person to fan my page eez de winnar.

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New Prints

It's been a while since I've listed new photography prints. I was rifling through the hundreds of pics I took during my previous trips to Ireland and stumbled on a few that I couldn't resist tinkering with in Photoshop.

Click the images to head over to their listings.

"Clock Tower" 8x8" Print (5x5" version coming soon)

"Irish Summer at Dawn" 8x8" Print

5x5" version available here

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