moving

I'm moving this blog to tumblr, hopefully, this will get me to blog more...

Day 2

She woke up about half an hour after we all fall asleep, and cried, Ned woke up, open the box, stroked her and she fell asleep right back. In the morning we woke up at 7:00 and took her out. Then back home for food, and out, back home for water - and out…

She was really scared at first, every car or person is a reason for both excitement and fear. Her head and front legs want to play and investigate, but the tail and back legs wants to bolt - so she’s running to and away at the same time. Every few steps she stops and sits or want to run back to the direction she came from.

After 3 walks we all fall asleep for a couple more hours.

In the afternoon we went together to the pet store to get her a brush and a chewing toy, and she met a whole bunch of other dogs - she was so excited and so scared and so happy all at the same time - running and jumping and falling and being both timid and aggressive at the same time.

There were a lot of successes today - no peeing or shitting in the house at all, which is pretty amazing. A nice play with other people and dogs, some running and jumping and general friskiness both in the apartment and outside for a few moment, when she forgot to be scared.

In the morning her name was Molly, then in the afternoon it was Ginger. I’m not a 100% sure, but it might stay Ginger.

I’m having a lot of fun, but I’m also exhausted, and I just started to get back into getting some work done though really all I want is to play with the puppy and look at the puppy.

Cicada

A submission for a book cover titled "metamorphosis"

Here's the original that's listed as doodle of the day

First piece of work that actually got done since the puppy came in.

home

A really horrible morning, in which I had a scary dream, woke up early and then lifting a box I haven't touched in a long time, discovering a nest of baby cockroaches then throwing out half the food in the house just in case, and putting borax on everything else.

Then the shelter called at about 1:00 PM and told us we can come pick her up at 5:00. We went through a cleaning frenzy trying to get the studio ready, getting rid of a lot of stuff and trying to find proper places for a lot of stuff that's usually just piled up.

I went into the city to pick up a dog crate and those piss pads for puppies, then we went into the city together.

It's very very strange - she's beautiful and sweet, but a real baby, and we don't know her yet, it's hard to figure out what she needs and want, why she's crying what is interesting for her.

She was really scared to be outside, but after 3 attempts at walks, she circled the block, with many stops to smell stuff, wanting to run after each person, and freaking out from car noises and the vibrations of the train.

After the 3rd walk and a big piss and shit success, she was running, skipping and playing and looked perfectly happy. then fell asleep and haven't moved since.

I'm really scared to make mistakes, and somehow hurt or mess up the training. Ned and I keep saying "she needs to learn" or "she needs to know". I know it's not going to be easy, and that it's going to be frustrating in the next couple of weeks, but for today, I'm so happy and feel very accomplished even though I didn't do any work or took care of anything aside of feeding, walking and making a dog take a shit.

Waiting

Ned and I are getting a puppy!!! I repeat, Ned and I are getting a puppy!!! I'm so excited, and I just can't wait till our approval form come through and we can take her home.
The problem is that now, I don't really feel like doing anything till the puppy get here and can't focus on anything.

So what do I do? what i usually do when I have no patient and don't feel inspired - cook.


Homemade Pastrami


Roasted peppers


Roasted beets


Tahini cookies


Pickled Lemons

Serving plates

I like those so much, I'm almost tempted to keep them for myself. But, I am listing them in the store, since I don't really hold enough dinner party to justify keeping them.

bootcamp day 3

so I messed up yesterday and didn't post anything on Etsy.... What can you do, it doesn't always work, I did make stuff, shot it and was distracted before I photoshopped and posted and then it was way too late to do anything about that.

So I took care of it this morning - 3 glasses for my Christmas collection.

Bootcamp, Day 1

So I had big plans, but we were shooting today, and I'm feeling crappy. So most of them didn't happened, however I did finish 4 paintings I really love and posted them in the store.

Etsy Holiday Boot camp

Well first of all, I don't like the word "boot camp" to me is associate with lack of sleep, taking showers in very odd times and a strange story about a girl who thought her stuff kept being stolen, while eventually it turned out she was putting it in the bag of the girl in a neighboring bed... But since Etsy is having their own Holiday boot camp for sellers, and I know that no folding blankets is involved, I decided to participate!

I'm going to follow their tasks and see if this can boost my sales, and also, write everything here so I can keep track of things and share what I've learned.

Well, the first thing is the very cute mascot for the boot camp - the most awesome Lou the monster that Ruti made! I'm really proud of her for winning this competition! that's one success story already!

OK, Now for business... The first thing to do is make a connection with another Etsy seller who caught my attention to partner for this. I chose Sharona, who I know for ages, though we never met in person, but, since I read her 2 blogs, follow her different Etsy stores and follow her on Facebook and flickr - meeting in person is basically small change...
and this is why I picked her - first of all, cause she's very nice and makes me laugh, and second of all, because she shares a lot of stuff online, both personal and Etsy wise and I feel like I neglected that part of promotion, so I would like to bring that more into my store and blog.

Second assignment was to check what are you best selling \ most viewed items. So I checked and actually - no surprises the best selling things are: Tapas plates, cup and saucer sets and little pill bottles. Also, drawings and paintings sells pretty well. As far as motifs - anything with birds trumps all, but (and this is the only surprise octopus comes pretty close behind).

The next question is deciding on merchandising, or rather creating a line of products for the holiday season.

I'm going to try and not do anything too Christmas like, since most of what I'm making now is going to a few trunk shows and fairs in NYC, which have a lot of people from a lot of different religions.

The past couple of years,  had a nice success with the little bottles and the cups, and the most sellable pattern (aside of birds) was polar bears in gray and red. I'm definitely going to make those again. But I would love to have another something special for the holidays, I'm trying to decide between penguin, chipmunks and owls - any ideas?! I'm going to have to decide in the next week and start working...

Also, I'm hoping to make a line of glasses for booze in more manly designs \ colors and try reach a men market with them.

The other thing I want to have ready is a small inexpensive item which isn't a glass \ ceramic, I'm hoping for a small stocking stuffer style gift that will be priced at about 10$. I'm debating between a small notebook, a set of bookmarks or a small art print. again - any preferences?!

Last thing - I have 20 glass ornaments I'm going to paint and have ready. and I have an idea I'm going to show in an Etsy craft night on December, so I want to make a couple for my shop as well.

Wow! this is going to be a lot of work....

A couple of extra ideas

1) I really want to list more till the holidays, It's going to be difficult, cause I'm so busy with so much stuff. but I think that from tomorrow, I'm going to try and list 1 thing each day - who wants to join me?

2) how about a small Etsy sellers secret Santa game. Maybe getting about 10 people who will swap handmade presents in December. Who wants in?

Fall Fashion Accessories

First day of real fall in NYC, it was rainy, very gray and cold! all my winter cloths are still in boxes and I wore my only sweater and a rather summery jacket today, and were still chilly. Due to the rain, the chill and me being too easily impressed by the notion of being warm, I went into a Feiline's  Basement to get some towels and end up coming out with a new hat (17$), a new pair of gloves (10$), a little faux fur scarf (12$), and 3 pairs of stripy socks (6$).

Now I just need to take the sweaters out of the boxes, ro I'll go into a shopping rampage...

First blood...

Remember when I got a new box of watercolors last October? so now, almost a year afterward, I really really finished the first half pan. Of course it was black (cause it's always black...) pretty far behind and the next one to be replaced is probably purple (who knew I use so much purple...) the greens are barely touched, I like mixing it from yellow and blue.

cooking day

It's been a very domestic day of cooking, eating and sorting out the closets trying to make some sense of a huge pile of shoot cloths.

Panyhose

I was commenting of a fashion forum thread about how to wear skirts in the winter and still not freeze today, but then realized it'll be easier and quicker to take pictures instead of trying to explain this in words.
From left to right:
Leg warmers and thick pantyhose
fishnet pantyhose over pantyhose
skirt over skinny jeans
socks over pantyhose

Some new Tumblers

Special for Halloween...

Micheal Book for Moleskine exchange

And the winner is...

Line Nord! who won the doodle a day raffle today!

Immediate gratification

 

At around 9:30, I read this recipe for whole wheat honey cake in a cooking forum, an hour and a half later I already eat one and were color correcting the images...

moleskine exchange - funny train story

I got Micheal's book from Heidi a couple of days ago, in the middle of fashion week. Ned and I were shooting some of the shows, and at the same time, I was also working on the biggest illustration project I nailed since moving to NY (it's secret, so I can't talk about it...) basically, no sleep and just work for about a week.

On Thursday it was basically all over, and I was left with a lot of errands I had no time to do over the week. So, I went on a long ride to IKEA to get some cheap dishes for a paint on porcelain class I'm teaching next month. Since it's about 45 minutes on the train, I took Micheal's book to start working on it.

I started drawings and one stop after me this cool looking girl came on the train and sat by me - she started asking about my drawings and said she just moved to a new apartment and it trying to find the right art for her bedroom and I gave her my card and we went on chatting. Then, right before she took off, I realized that all this time what she really liked on the page was Heidi's garlic on the other side of the page!

So Heidi - if you are getting an e-mail from an excited new Yorker looking to buy some paintings, that's how she found you...

today was the first rest day after everything was over and so, I finished my first double spread on Micheal book.

Fashion week

Ned and I are shooting Fashion week again! I'm having so much fun and very little sleep, and we have it easy... We did 2 shows on Friday and 3 on Saturday. I think tomorrow we have nothing so we'll edit everything we shot so far.

It's such an interesting experience. I'm learning a lot about fashion, about myself, about photography and about accepting the fact that I am a professional photographer and have as much right to be there as everyone else (which I don't really feel just yet).