The online course is up

This a photo of me. At my computer. It's where I'll be for most of September.

If you have been following me for awhile, you know that I taught a Multiple Streams of Income Workshop for artists and crafters in June. I had a quite a few people request that I offer an online version and I'm pleased to announce that I'm introducing it today. The class starts on September 7th. I'm teaching you everything I know about turning your arts & crafts into money. I have some super fantastic guest experts who are going to talk about their specialized areas of income as artists and crafters. To check-out everything you get in the course, and to sign-up visit my website at www.katydid-designs.com.

I'm really excited about teaching this class and I hope you'll sign-up. If you could help spread the word, that would be nice too!

Okay, I have to get back to work, but I promise to be back next week with fun posts and eye candy. Have a great weekend.

photo fridays

before
after

Where: Legoland, Carlsbad, California, July 2009
Photoshop Lessons: Gsussian Blur & the Eraser tool

cupcake toes

My daughter is always begging me to paint her toes, so last week, I decided to give her the works. A cupcake pedicure! She had so much fun! (Who wouldn't have fun be given a pedicure?)

I dragged out the foot bath that was purchased and used way back when I was pregnant with her and my feet had swollen to the size of grapefruits. As a special treat, I even broke-out my cake batter sugar scrub by Dylan's Candy Bar. It smells delicious!

As the final treat, I painted cupcakes on her toes. A challenge with a squirmy four year old. I couldn't even get a decent photo because of all the toe wiggling that was going on!

It was a bit of work, but it was worth the smile on her face. She shows everyone her cupcake "toesies" and proudly tells them, "My mommy did this for me!"

So worth it.

If you are looking for other ideas on how to pass the summer with your children, check-out The Crafty Crow blog. I LOVE this blog. It's jam packed with great, crafty ideas. I use it as my primary happy kid resource. (Even if you don't have children, you might want to check it out-I've pulled a lot of inspiration for my "grown-up" art on this site too!)

Etsy Tips!

(Photo courtesy of Laura Baillie, Copyright 2009)

My newsletter went out this morning. If you are subscriber, you should have it in your email inbox. My blog buddy, Laura Baillie, was nice enough to share the results of her Etsy Experiment. It's chock full of great information. I know that I tried her tips for one day and had a lot of action in my Etsy shop as a result. You can read the article here.

My husband is off work this week. We decided that we would have a "staycation" for our family vacation. (Which, not to complain too much, isn't really a vacation for me. It just means I have my daughter and my husband underfoot this week!) Anyway, we are off to Legoland for the day.

P.S. I LOVE the necklace in the photo on this post. It's a Laura Baillie creation and is for sale in her shop. Just in case someone wants to buy me a present...

you like me, you really like me

Isn't that what Sally Fields said at the Academy Awards one year?

I'm so filled with gratitude, I can barely express it. I had a truly wonderful week. On Thursday, I came home from a playdate with my daughter to an Inbox filled with Etsy orders and blog comments. I wondered why I was suddenly getting so much attention and after a little investigating, I discovered that Danielle from Etsy pulled one of the articles I wrote for The Storque in 2008 and put it in her Etsy Success newsletter! The exposure was incredible for me and I can't thank her enough and Etsy enough for being so supportive of their sellers!

As the day wore on, I received many comments and emails from people thanking me for the tips I wrote. Some purchased my ebooks and took the time to tell me how grateful they were to me for sharing my knowledge. I am touched that these sweet people would take time out of their busy lives to tell someone they don't even know, that they appreciate them. Since many of you are working on your own too, I'm sure you understand how nice it is to get positive feedback. When I used to work out in an office, I would get reviews and comments that kept me going, but when you work from home you often wonder if anyone out there even notices you exist. I want to especially thank these kind people for their very kind words:

Jewels On Whim

SimaG Jewelry (Vote for her in the Martha Stewart Wedding Contest!)

Fashion Is My Muse

Tiges & Weince

Dreams by Machine

(I really do feel like I'm writing an Academy Award speech here and am terrified I left someone out. If I did I can't apologize enough. I'm so grateful to everyone that I'm a little overwhelmed.)

But the fun didn't stop there! On Friday, one of my favorite bloggers, Zakka Life, let me know she featured my blog on her Facebook Fan Friday feature.

Needless to say, I'm completely overwhelmed by this outpouring of attention and I feel very loved. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

photo friday

Fenced In

I really want to get better at Photoshop. So in order to stay motivated, I'm thinking I'll just post a photo every Friday. It will force me to pick a photo and then work on it in Photoshop. I probably won't post much text on photo Fridays.

I got a book on digital photography editing from the library and am going to loosely follow along the lessons. So today, I present my first lesson. I experimented with layers and color and b&w. The right upper corner needs some work, but I'll deal with that later.

pillow talk

I've been making pillows like crazy around here. (It's part of the whole "embellishment is better" kick I'm on right now.) I mean, I'm making a lot of pillows. Like one a day! So, here's a little known fact about me. Way back, about 8 or 9 years ago, I thought about starting a little crafty business. I was going to call it katydid designs (sound familiar?) and I was going to make and sell pillows. The only problem? I didn't really know how to sew. And between not being confident in my sewing skills and still having some major issues about whether or not it was "okay" to be crafty, and thinking I had no talent, I dropped the idea. A few years later, I recovered my crafty self, but decided to ease into my creative journey by doing paper crafting. But it all comes full circle, doesn't it? First collage, then painting and sketching and then I took that quilt class and the next thing I know I'm back where I originally started-making pillows! What a meandering path I took to get back here. Next time I should probably drop breadcrumbs. But I know I had to take the journey to get here. In fact, I know my work is better for it. Take my "Portrait Pillow" (the one in the middle of the above photo). That's an original watercolor that I scanned into my computer and printed on fabric. If I hadn't explored all these other mediums, like painting and sketching, I wouldn't have that pillow. I'm not saying that katydid designs is only going to be about pillows now, but I do think sewing is definately added to the mix. Talk about meandering-what was I originally posting about? Oh yeah, my embellishment craze. This time the couch was my latest victim, but can you really argue with the results after seeing the before and after photos?



I think not. Of course, that darling little girl on the couch adds a little something too. And did she ever send me on journey when she arrived! But that's a story for another day.

keep moving

Keep moving-that's what I'm telling my husband, daughter and dog. It's the only way they can be sure that I won't embellish them. I'm on a tear. If it doesn't move, it's being painted, glittered or stitched. I don't know why I'm suddenly "updating" my surroundings, but I am.

The lovely galvanized bucket you see in the photo today was my latest victim. It started out galvanized, then it was painted a lovely blue (you can see it in it's blue era in this post) and now I've gone and painted a bird on it. I'm serious. I'm sick. If you come to visit, wear a raincoat and keep moving.

6:06 PM:Our Patio

On the menu? Leftover BBQ chicken and homemade pesto on angel hair pasta. The pesto was made using our home grown basil. Seriously good eats. Made in less time than it takes to cook a frozen pizza or get take-out. Do you know how much I love summer nights like these?

what i'm doing instead of blogging

I've pretty much been away from computer. I'm trying to enjoy my summer and have fun with my little one. One of the things I've been doing is working on my embroidery skills. I have been very inspired by Amy Powers (I'm admitting here the cute little girl with the button head was COMPLETELY Amy's idea! I also loved her grid idea since I'm kind of a stay between the lines girl myself. I'm not selling this, so I hope she doesn't mind that her inspiration is all over this piece!) Pam Garrison's stitching sampler also played a part in my inspiration.

In addition to stitching away, I've also decided to read all the children's classics I missed reading in my childhood. I don't know how these got by me, but they did, and I'm enjoying spending the summer reading something light and easy. Although, so far both Mary Poppins and Peter Pan have turned out to be a tad darker than Disney portrayed. Who knew Mary drank and Tink swore? Seriously, both have given me nightmares. In Mary Poppins, I was frightened by the midnight visit to the zoo where there was a strange ritual to celebrate Mary's birthday and all the people were in the cages and the animals were out. There was a snake involved. And Peter Pan! Well, it's pretty frightening and he does quite a bit of killing. Let's just say I'm glad I decided to do a run through these before I started reading them to my four year old. She'll definitely need to grow up a bit before approaching these. On a softer note, I have just finished A Little Princess and was charmed. I'd love to here what your favorite childhood classic was. You can go here if you want to see my summer reading list. Yes! I know Alice in Wonderland isn't on the list! I have already read that one.

If you want a snack while you are reading, I highly recommend Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer. It's by Jane Brocket (remember my post about her other book here?) and it has recipes that she bases on the food that is eaten in an extensive list of children's classics.

So that's my excuse for being a sporadic blogger these days. Now, I'm off to have an iced tea and read a bit more...