My first commission! W00t!
Amber set for Stefani
Space and other oddities
Today is a watershed day both personally and for mankind.
This morning Nick and I went to the lawyer, signed a bunch of paperwork and left a large check behind to bring to an end our struggles with debt. Starting now, our money is our own and we can make decisions that will begin to construct the rest of our lives – rather than constantly trying to get ahead of the curve. This is an all round good thing, but still stressful and very guilt inducing. Very. I know this is totally a first world problem, but it’s still difficult.
For mankind, today is the end of an era of space flight. Atlantis STS-135 has taken its last flight. I’m sad that our country has abandoned space. Russia and China will step in, but I think the United States’ willingness to walk away from leadership in space travel/exploration is just one more step towards the end of the US as a global power. One more link in the chain that will lead the United States to be just another voice in a world that is ruled by China.
Overall, I’m tired. I’m tired of the stress of our personal crap and I’m tired in general.
The good news is that despite my malaise, I’ve updated my Etsy Shop with lots of new stuff and there’ll be more new stuff soon. I’ve been getting in my bead shipments, so there’s more purple and amber on the way!
Now, it’s time for lunch and perhaps a short nap. I feel like I’ve run a marathon today. Buh.
Referrals, Knoxville con and more!
I love digging through referrals. Let’s see what weirdness awaits us this time:
– Someone from the Securities and Exchange Dept. in D.C. perusing my Smashed Cauliflower recipe.
– Lots of recipe hits, as usual. Is Italian Chili that hard? Man! Tons of hits.
– A google.de hit for Nina Hartley.
– Cox in Las Vegas! Hi, Heather!! :)
– COOL! Someone in Derio, Pais Vasco Spain translated a post into Spanish with Google translate! It seems to work VERY well! Look at my site in Spanish.
– Lots of Budget, Bibi Chen, Neat Receipts and Atala, as usual.
– The obligatory Dragon*Con sucks and Heroes hits.
– Rendi’s comment seems to lead many searches for her to my blog. Meh!
– And last, someone from Comcast biz office is very interested in my blog, apparently.
We will be in Knoxville for a small con this weekend, the Knoxville Comics and Anime Con. I hope it’s a good show. The tables are pricey for a small show and this is a test to see if it’s worth it. My guess: probably not. We shall see.
Continue reading “Referrals, Knoxville con and more!”
Heroes Con 2011
What an awesome con! We <3 Heroes! This year was so fun and so exhausting. Whew!
First off, BIG shout outs to Dave for the room and Miracole & Chris for being FAB roomies! Let's do it again next year, shall we?
The load in this year was SO much better than last year. We drove right up to the gate that was 20ft from our table. SWEET! Our block had some awesome artists in it! We sat next to Michael Watkins (and Brynn, his lady and an artist in her own right), Christian Sager, Eric Steiner and Chrissie Zullo amongst others. GREAT BUNCH!
Saturday night was a blast. We descended upon Rock Bottom brew pub with a group of 11 nerds which included Mike Elrod, John Bintz, Eric Menge, Brittany Michel and the rest of the posse.
We had dinner with the lovely Echo Chernik and family on Sunday night. It’s always great to see Echo, but a rare treat to hang with the whole clan! Hugs to Lazarus and the girls!
The show was pretty busy but we’re so new, we don’t usually sell much. The Duo 280 on the table got more attention than the comics, sadly. Some jerk actually said, “Oh, wow! A Duo! Who cares about that crap (indicates the comics) when you’ve got this!” Fortunately for him, he moved along quickly when I gave him the Stank Eye. Fucker. Anyway, we don’t do shows for the money at this point, we do them to meet people and get some recognition. I think the Duo will have to go. It draws people to the table, but it also distracts from the comics. We’re gonna try it again at the next con then decide.
My jewelry did ok. Apparently I was one of only a handful of jewelry vendors at the con. I sold more jewelry than Nick did comics, which does not please me. But money is money. The coasters did not sell because the freaky lights in the convention hall made the polyurethane look yellow. I knew as soon as I unpacked them that they wouldn’t sell. They looked hideous in that lighting. Meh. They look FINE in normal lighting, you can’t see the poly or the decals. I’ll have to find another way to make them.
I’ll have to ramp up jewelry production for the Knoxville con. It’s probably the only way we’ll make a buck. We have low expectations for Knoxville.
Nick will have pix up at some point.
We did the NASCAR Museum on Monday before coming back. It was OK. Seeing the old cars was great, but the tech they tried to implement was lame. At $19.99 a pop, I think it’s pretty pricey for what you get, but I’m glad they are preserving the history of NASCAR nonetheless.
It was again a wonderful con and we can’t wait for next year. :D
Party, DnD, New stuff
The party was smashing! Just enough ppl to have great convos, not so many as to crowd the place. Perfect! Thanks to all who journeyed from Far Far Away to join us! I was very pleased by the amount of food put away. You know us Southerners, clean plates = happiness. :)
We attended Decatur Drink n Draw at Mellow Mushroom last night. Very fun! It was good to catch up with Miracole and Chris before they disappear for 5 months doing a gig. I love MM pizza! We had the Greek one and it was TASTY!
There’s always stuff knocking around in our heads for Weasel merch and such. The current ideas are, in no particular order:
– Larry the Llama (Alpaca, actually) shirts
– Weasel Pair shirts
– some sort of Weasel character Shrinky Dinks. Keychains? Earrings? Suggestions welcome!
– comic strip templates. People ask Nick about this all the time, so we’ve decided to sell them in hard copy form as well as a pdf download on the site. We’ll sell them at Cons, too.
– new pins! Not sure of which characters yet, but probably 3 more
Also, we are going to roll out two new comic sites before Heroes Con (June 3-5). We are rolling out Drama Llamas, Inc and Awkward Ninja Squad. The Intermission Comics folks will have their own space eventually as well. :)
As for my personal projects, I’ve made a ton more earrings for my Etsy shop, which I need to photograph and get up. I’ve also procured some magic marker brush pens so I can make colourful art on my jewelry boxes. These are not as good as the Japanese brush pen, of course, but fine for small stuff and in colour!! I practiced my calligraphy and art at the DnD last night. I also got some Lazertran decal paper to make coasters. I’m going to use my flower photography to make decals for tiles. Should be a fun project.
Heroes will be cool this year. Just us at the table, doing our respective artsy things. I’m going to have the jewelry displayed as well as the boxes. If the boxes get interest, I may get assorted sizes and sell those. I plan to have some coasters ready to go as well. I may give the hand painted flowers a go once more, but I tell you, I just can’t get the pure lines that I want out of Photoshop. There’s always too much grayscale. We’ll see about that one. Or I may just print them full color onto watercolor paper and sell them that way. Ooo, which gives me another idea for the shrinky dinks! I could print the flowers and make earrings out of those! :)
The stupid storms kept me up practically all night, so I’m a bit out of it today. I’ll probably collapse later. Nick overslept and when he finally got to work, most of the power was out there. They must’ve gotten it back up since he’s not been back here for extension cords.
Welp, that’s the state of Mrs Weasel. Hope ya’ll have a great day!