Catching Up on Life - And Other Things

In an effort to finally get caught up on blogging, I'm making this one catch-up post about the many of things I feel like I need to blog about, so that I can mention it all and then move on with everything else I should be doing. If you're not into what you're reading, feel free to scroll down until you find something more interesting. ^_^

(I would also like it known that I have just about caught up on my blog reading, but to catch up on my reading-and everything else-I really couldn't leave comments on many of them. I do read them all though)

1. Update on the Market I took my work to;

I'm not saying it went badly, but it could've gone better. Compared to the last time I had a booth somewhere, I think I was more prepared and professional, I even remembered to take photos of my setup this time;

There was some wind, and the tear down had to happen in the rain, 

but it all held together pretty well.

Because I was basically trying to sell my work in the same location as last time, and I already know it's not a great market for my work, I really wasn't expecting much, but the one sale I made more than covered the entrance fee and quite a few people took my business cards, so it wasn't a loss.

Honestly though, I wish I had more of a budget for shows. I'd like to try some outside of Lockport, but I keep picking paying my bills over entry fees and other overhead. Stupid me, right? I dunno, I'm hoping that either I finally snag a long term job in my field or this freelance designer/artist/craft-person thing I do starts getting more regular business. Getting to the point where even a minimum wage job anywhere wouldn't be a terrible option, but it's going to take tons of time away from what I actually want to do, so I keep dragging my feet on that one.

2. Every year my church has this sale called, "Trash and Treasures", which I can only describe as a great way to clear all the junk out of your house(donating it to a church) and a great opportunity to get some neat stuff for dirt cheap (other peoples' junk-that you want), because unlike a garage sale, the church is the seller AND they're in charge of donating/recycling/giving away/throwing out whatever is left when the sale is over.

I love going to Trash and Treasures, but I purposely skipped it this year, waaay to much budget breaking temptation. The sale goes on during a yearly picnic/car show that I volunteer at, which makes avoiding it tricky, and wasting money at the picnic really wasn't any better that spending it at the sale, so instead of what I usually do at this thing, I skipped it and stopped by afterwards to help clean up (which went well with the church people because they have a tough time getting volunteers for that).

Well, my Mother did volunteer during the picnic and she spent some time at the sale, where she found and bought me this;

It's a weird little house! (That blue disk is a turntable/base for the house to sit on) I say it's weird because it's a bird house at the top, the front is one big out of scale tole painting, and it's part lazy Susan. I like it. A week before all this I was looking at the Steampunk House thinking about how much I enjoyed Undersized Urbanite and wishing I had another house on hand because, whether or not that Challenge becomes a yearly thing, bloggers are always coming up with things that a spare house would come in handy for. Now I have one. (Thank you Mom!) 

3. Clay-A-Palooza!

This was already a few weeks ago, so I'm going to save some time and direct you to a journal explanation I posted over on DeviantArt >>> Here.

 

Here's the results;

 

Miniature Pumpkins,

micro miniature pumpkins,

 

And micro miniature Penguins!

Out of season stuff, but it's what I felt like making. And look how tiny it all is! It's all up on Etsy now if anyone's interested. (The photos are linked to their listings).

4. After seeing my new micro miniature penguins, someone placed a custom order for some equally tiny charms.

 

If anyone in the U.S. wants to a custom order of miniatures/jewelry pieces, 

Seriously, just ask.

The order was for 4, I ended up making a batch of 7 though. I was planning on posting the extras on Etsy, but the shop's pretty full right now and a friend just reserved one of them. So I guess the 2 left are for sale online by request only.

(2 for $9 USD + shipping, if you're interested-feel free to contact me about them)

5. While I'm talking about Etsy, I'll mention these too;

A year and a half ago I opened my Etsy shop and the first thing I posted for sale were these miniature caramel apples. They sat in the shop, weren't selling, but they got tons of views and brought people to the shop so I kept renewing the listing. They weren't super expensive or anything, more expensive pieces were being bought up, but not theses apples. I guess the right person needed to see them or something, because right before that awful thunderstorm came through a couple weeks ago-someone finally bought them!

Normally  wouldn't just post about a sale, but being the first thing I ever tried to sell online, I dunno, It's kind of a bittersweet sign of progress. :)


6. Pumpkins

They're back again. ^_^

Yay, pumpkins!

(I love pumpkins)

Boo, whatever did this! It can have that one,  

but I'm hoping this isn't the year of the groundhog all over again.

It even ate the seeds this time.

Bonus photos;

City People: This is a field being harvested

This is a slug, 

which of course is crawling across my brother's arm

(Check out that slime trail)

And This...

...was probably a bad idea, 

but hanging out with some friends 

and figuring out how to use this canoe without paddles was pretty fun.

7. County Fairs

I usually go to two of them. Niagara County (Remember this?), where I mostly just hang out with the 4-H members I know, and Erie County, where I spent all of yesterday enjoying dorky things like the pig races. ("Swifty Swine Racing Pigs")

Winner gets a cookie. They're so cute.

And that my friends, brings us to today. There all caught up, woo-hoo. ^_^

 

Updates: Weather, Undersized Urbanite, Etc.

It's 2 am, but I feel like it's time for a new post, and I'll sleep better not putting off some things so it's list time again;

1. What is April doing? One day, it feels like summer, then it rains. Fine. Then it's summer again and sunny (^_^), BUT THEN-

Weather, please get your snow out of my sunny day.

Granted, it is really pretty, but I'm done with the cold, thank you.

2. Went to a baby shower, about 1 1/2 hours away, and on the way back was basically antiquing with my mother again, except it was more country stores/gift shops this time. Ended up with a few things, that will probably show up here someday, but my two picks would have to be,

Another witty sign, it's a Dr. Suess quote that you can't argue with.

(This is sign #2. That's it, no more room. Please remind me of that if I post a #3)

&

This ginormous pendant necklace! It's so heavy, it actually hurt my neck to wear it. It was on sale, probably because it's so distractingly big and heavy. Not planning to use it as jewelry. It just seemed like something interesting I could put some where in the Steampunk house. Or save for one of the other houses. It was too cool of a found object to pass up, ya know?

 

3. Undersized Urbanite Update-Last update was me just announcing that I was spending a few days putting together all the finished pieces. It was progressing, but then I got to sections that needed to be painted, or something else that had to be done before the next part could go in. And then I realized that the kitchen/living room didn't have much room for guessing when it came to cutting the wallpaper, and I needed to make doors and floors and back splashes. No I didn't get overwhelmed and end up behind, actually I made a ton of progress, but with most of the gluing happening on the exterior, the inside looks more disheveled than I though it would've at this point;

Double checking the layout here. 

The walls should all be in place next post.

Look, new doors!

Oh, and did I ever tell you the plan for the bedroom? No? Well that's because today was the first day I actually put any real thought into it. Don't worry, I had that mini-panic attack 3 weeks ago (ha-mini XD) but then I remembered that I made some twin beds as part of a temp scene for the Cubebot Challenge that I decided to save just in case, so half the furniture is already done (bunk beds coming soon).

As I said, I'm cutting out the wallpaper for the kitchen/living room and it's a tight fit. The scrapbook paper's 1/4 in. too short, and there's a faux-worn spot that I was planning to cut out of it, which makes it more like a full inch too short. I knew that from the beginning though, and I was also planning to make a backsplash for the fireplace, which would fix everything. So along with making the rest of the doors, that was today's mini project;

It's the same paper I've been using for the roof singles, cut into much smaller pieces.

A little paint, and we're good to go.

4. While I was working on the Steampunk house, my little brother was doing yard work for a neighbor, found some garden snakes, decided to move them out to the nearby woods where they wouldn't bother anyone, but first-

He brought them inside to show everyone...yay...

 

5. The Curious Concepts Project is 89% Funded! 

So, so close. Just $64 short but only 11 days left, so it's really coming down to the wire now.

I'm just going to link to my DA journal for this update (I just posted it); http://kyle-lefort.deviantart.com/art/Only-11-Days-Left-The-Curious-Concepts-Project-367138420

 

And if you haven't found your way to the project on Kickstarter yet, I encourage you to follow this link and check it out; http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/690850738/the-curious-concepts-project

Thank you!

6. ...Is there a 6? No? Ok, well I guess that's it for now. Looking forward to sleeping. Tomorrow's another work on the Steampunk house day, there have been a lot of those lately, and oh hey, it's 3 am now, and I'm just rambling, so bye. :)

Day Trip - And I Took Photos

Thanks to an unintentional coincidence in the timing, the end of The Curious Concepts Project Campaign and the deadline to complete entries for Undersized Urbanite are  both May 4th. So starting after this post, this blog is going to be nothing, but stuff related to those projects until May. I say, "after this post" because, well, did you read this post's title?

My mom, her friend, and I went antiquing on a Monday. Do not go antiquing on a Monday, most antique stores will not be open, but it was just meant to be a wandering around looking for cool stuff kind of day, so it actually went really well for us.

First photo worthy moment, driving through the Alabama swamps (Alabama, NY, btw). It's a great birdwatching spot this time of year (migration birds), and after pulling over to look at the third Great Blue Heron on our way, we pulled into an observation area.

We saw at least five herons, most of them were flying around and catching fish, this is the only one that stayed put long enough for me to grab my camera and get out of the car.

Poor attempt at a close up-you're welcome

Probably the most heron I've seen in an outing that didn't involve a kayak.

So then we went driving around the middle of nowhere, which led to the next photo-op;

Ah, alternative energy

First time I saw wind turbines, it was at night, during a snow storm, just creepy. Up against a blue sky backdrop though, kind of pretty.

That and several country stores, was my day. Ended up with some dime-sized mini Cardinal birds,

Probably too big to be 1:12 scale birds, but home decor pieces, that could work.

And in a world where who you are and what you do can always be defined by a clever sign or two, my mother gave me this;

That sounds about right.

Catching Up

13 days, no posts, I know.

Still working on stuff with nothing finished, but my house for Undersized Urbanite is supposed to be a blog challenge, so I really need to keep posting about it.

As I've mentioned, I'm working on some other things that are really eating up my time. Realized that I actually went a week without working on my little Steampunk house (not good), but I had computer things to do...

...Or at least I did until I tried to install an update for a certain freeware video file converter(never again). Used it for years on a couple different computers, never had a problem, but this time I got a notice about "Complimentary third party software" being auto-installed (uh-oh). Then AVG pops up saying stuff about viruses (great), and after three attempts lets me know that it couldn't remove the threat (disconnect the wi-fi and shut down the laptop-quickly). Restarted and ran a full computer scan with Malwarebytes: anti-malware, which both found/removed the Adware/bad cookies and gave me 3 1/2 hours to kill while it did that. I don't know if anyone else has ever tried this, but when I'm frustrated with work, life,or anything really, I go work on a dollhouse. Pretty sure that's what I used to do when I was little, but it still works. It gets you away from the stuff you can't control long enough for things to work themselves out and you end with a cool looking dollhouse. Win-win situation.


This time it was finishing the mortar on the two large side exterior walls, and I figured out how to do the chimneys;

Cereal box bits, graph paper, and more egg carton

A few weeks ago, I took the black corrugated paper from the Michaels sale, and started cutting it into shingle pieces.

Now that the chimneys have been worked out, I can shingle the roof.

I have run into a few problems though.

The double-sided tape I used for the basement is holding the walls in place really well, but the floor and ceiling, not so much;

Looks like it's time for some glue.

The gears and such I have are actually way too big to work as gears in a 1:12 scene, so I made some at the sizes I need;

Paper, acrylic paint medium, gold metallic paint, & Polycrylic

(they should work)

And what I think is the most interesting issue so far, the living room carpet. It was some remnant upholstery fabric that went well with the scrapbook paper walls. Knowing what it looked like, I color matched some paint to it for the furniture and other things, from memory. This week I pulled the fabric out of storage to see if the furniture still matched the color;

Oh yes, it matches. It's practically camouflage!

Luckily I planned on tile by the fridge, so it's going to be on the opposite side of the room, and the fireplace is getting a few more coats of paint-darker paint. Glad I checked.

I'm getting close to finishing the exterior. I thought that, because it's outside, the mortar needed to be darker than the ashy, gray-ish brown I used in the basement, so I ended up using the same color that I painted the stone pieces. Most of it looks good although I went back an scratched out some super dark spots and have to touch up a couple of light spots too. The space around the emblem stone detail got some gold paint, but the end results of this paint job look a little flat. Since back when I sketched it all out, I've been thnking that it needed another color, like green or something. Sounds like a weird choice, but with the metallic parts, a tarnished metal type of green might not be such a bad idea. Anyway, here's where I am with the exterior;

(it can't sit upright until I tape down the siding)

Doesn't look too bad, if I do say so myself. Needs some more work, mostly paint though. The door/windows are not staying that splotchy black color, the edges of the walls probably shouldn't be white, and then there's the green that I just mentioned (maybe).

You have now been caught up (yay!).

-------------

And just a follow up on my birthday-The party was on Sunday, I got my pudding, and all was well (like I knew it would be). A couple people commented on my statement about not knowing what season to expect, saying that it is Spring, and that the weather was going to act like Spring. Well it did on Sunday. I was walking along the canal without a coat, it was nice, but then it got cold again and it's been snowing pretty good for the past couple days...I know my March.

Glad That's Done With

Hope I didn't scare anyone off with that last post (actually, it looks like I've got another follower-Hi! ). After about two weeks of working on this advertising thing, I found that I needed a privacy policy & a disclosure policy. So while I was at it, I threw in a Copyright notice too. I hope it wasn't as painful to read it as was for me to write it (Spend a whole day writing up legal stuff, and see how your brain feels, I dare you).

Now that that's done though, I can get back to the stuff I actually want to blog about. This post is just to say a few things to help make up for some lost time, and so I can jump right into my next post without rambling for the first two paragraphs;

1. Thanks to everyone (online and offline) who gave me their input in regards to blog ads.
I appreciate the encouragement and understanding (and yes, the third party ads are coming soon).


2. I'm behind on reading blog comments, but I'll get back to you all soon.

3. Next post will be a mini-tutorial! because I received a request and promised that it would happen this week. When I promised this, I was thinking Wed. , but that was before I found out about the need to write my last post, so Friday it is!...Assuming that Nemo doesn't knock out the power, of course.

Yeah, I know I just went off topic, but, "Nemo"? Who named the storm system, "Nemo"?

That's an adorable clown fish, not a snowstorm.

4. Undersized Urbanite-I did make some progress this week, but I don't think it was enough to warrant a post, so I'll just hold off on that this week.


Uh...I think that's it for now...stay tuned...

Design, Minis, Photos, & A Lot of Talking

Most of my posts lately have been all about my entry for Undersize Urbanite , so I think it's time that I talk about some other stuff (I'm waiting for some U.U. things to dry anyways). I've got a small list of things I should talk about so...

...1. If you don't follow my blog/read all of my posts, then you may not know it, but I'm a Graphic Designer. Freelancing at the moment, I recently wrapped up a project designing a logo and some web banners for a new client.

(You can see more of my work on Facebook, btw)

Bon AppetEats work can be found several places online(and Florida), and is worth a look if you're in the market for some polymer clay miniatures or jewelry.


2. Happy Birthday Jazzi!

As one of the first people I've met through blogging: I thank you for being the nice, friendly person that you are. Best of wishes to you, (and mini Jazzi on her globe trotting, postal adventure).

3. In a previous post  I mentioned that I was going to post new items on Etsy.
If you've been keeping an eye on my shop via the sidebar to your right, then you may have seen a couple new things pop-up, followed by my shop being closed for several days. Sorry about that. I went with my family out to Indiana to celebrate a special someone's birthday (the Big #1), and at the last minute decided that trying to keep tabs on the shop would've taken away valuable peek-a-boo time. XD

The shop's been re-opened, and to restart the current wave of new listings, I've added this lovely necklace;

The non-jewelry, dollhouse version has already been listed (along with a couple of other chocolate boxes),

but I like this photo, so there you go.

You can find more in my Etsy shop.

Moving on...

4. Neen of the blog, "Universe in Miniature", recently acquired a vintage dollhouse, but is having trouble identify the model/brand. If you're a collector (or even just curious about these things), that can be frustrating. I told her that I'd keep an eye out for info on this house.

This is a photo of Neen's house, more on her blog.

If you've been following the progress on my Van Buren rehab, then you may remember that it took some work to find out that I did indeed have a Van Buren. Nice people online and a stock photo helped to end my search, so I'm posting this hoping that someone out there can help with Neen's. It's 1:16 scale and made of fiberboard. If you've got any ideas, either contact Neen or just comment on this post and I'll pass the info along to her. Thank you. :)

...That was going to be it for this post, but then my mother showed up with some photos she just took over at Niagara Falls today, and that inspired me to dig through my old files and share some of my neat winter photos with you;

Frozen Lake Erie, 2010. We went to a winter festival at Evengola State Park in Feb. that year. First two photos are of the frozen and snow covered waves you can find along the shore this time of year. The third photo is of some random people walking out on the lake. Personally, I wouldn't go to far from the shore, but some people were out ice fishing well beyond the horizon line, so it's safe to say that the ice was pretty solid that year.

And then we have the aforementioned Niagara Falls. Just the United State's side because I don't think I've ever gone to the Canadian side during the winter. Customs and more mist to deal with, not worth the trouble for photos when it's that cold. Winter 2008. These were taken in January, I think. The falls don't freeze over often but the mist does. The ice can build up on everything the mist can reach, including my camera, so I remember not staying on the observation deck for very long. Top photo is just the American falls, while the bottom photo also has the Horseshoe falls in the background.

One misconception about the WNY area is that it's a snowy frozen wasteland for most of the year. Not true, we get all of the seasons (sometimes all in one week-twice) and a lot of beautiful things to see throughout the year.