squirrel momma

The Head Elf Is Feeling Rather Cranky

I am very greatful that we are getting new doors and windows on the first floor of our house, because I will finally have my own studio. But the fact that the project is WAY over schedule and is now entering the Christmas production season is making me rather cross. So yesterday, extremely peeved to find out that the messiest part of the project has been delayed yet another week, I dragged our dining room table out from under drop cloths and shoved it back towards the window. Yeah, it takes me twice as long to find a spool of thread, and I keep tripping on the various pieces of lumber. But the outlet still works, and the lighting is actually brighter now that the light fixture above the table is just bare, slightly cobwebby bulbs.

 

And an elf's gotta do what an elf's gotta do, 'cause the sew must go on.

Rube Goldberg Is My Middle Name

WARNING: This post will be incredibly boring unless you a) have a Mac and are interested in making a banner for your Etsy shop without a graphics program or b) you love laughing at how complicated Squirrel Momma can make things if she puts her mind to it.

I really enjoy putting fresh banners up for my Etsy shop as the seasons change. Unfortunately, that means I needed to make new banners, which, given the fact that the only graphics program on my Mac is Inkscape and I am a bear of very little brain when it comes to Inkscape, used to be a mighty painful process.

But awhile back I read a post in the Etsy forums about using word processing programs to create banners. Basically, an Etsy banner needs to be 760 pixels wide and 100 pixels high.

Yeah, I know. Pixels? I can't do pixels with Pages for the Mac!

But the forum post pointed out that if I make something 27 centimeters wide and 3.55 centimeters high it will be the right size!  So to make an Etsy banner in Mac Pages you simply:

1. Change Page Setup to sideways.

2. In Preferences change the ruler units to centimeters, and enable the vertical ruler.

3. Open a blank page and create a graphics box that is 27 cm by 3.55 cm (I usually make it a smidge smaller, as part can get cropped off later on in this process).

4. Create your banner.

5. Export to your desktop as a PDF.

6. Open the PDF and use Grab...Selection to exactly outline your banner (keep the crosshairs just outside your banner so that you don't cut off your border if you have one).

7. Save your "grabbed selection" as a JPEG.  Congratulations--your new banner is ready to upload!

Quite impressive in its Rube Goldberg convolutions, right?  But don't get too impressed--I still haven't figured out this fancy schmancy Typepad yet.

That's How I Know It's Monday

So I stripped the sheets off Nut Boy's bed, schlepped them down two flights of stairs, and was proceeding to stuff them into the washing machine when a soccer ball fell out and rolled across the basement floor.

?!?

Definitely Monday.

Spooky Good Reading

I just finished listening to Sarah Water's new book, The Little Stranger.  Now, to be honest, it was read by Simon Vance, and I would happily listen to Simon Vance reading the phone book to me.  But Sarah Waters is an amazing authoress of literary historical mysteries, and this, I have to say, is my favorite of her novels.

 

Set in post-WWII England, The Little Stranger is narrated by Doctor Faraday, a lonely bachelor who practices in the country village he grew up in.  When he's called out to Hundred's Hall, the crumbling estate where his mother once worked as a maid, the gothic suspense begins to build almost immediately. Not since The Minotaur by Barbara Vine (another gothic goodie, but without the spice of supernatural that The Little Stranger has) have I enjoyed such a long, slow building of suspense.  Definitely a book to read under the covers.  Or with the lights on and the closet doors open, if you're more of a scaredy cat.

Of course, you still can't be sure of what's inside the walls.  Heh, heh.

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot like Christmas...

...especially on my back deck, where I took this picture.  45 degrees Fahrenheit in the sun (that's 7 degrees celsius, folks)--no wonder I'm making Snow Elves.  Brrrr!

Just One More

Okay, I had to make just one more.

 

I had bought the black plush fur for Karloff a couple of weeks ago, and once I finished his little friends I couldn't stop thinking about another bat.  Bigger.  Stronger.  Faster.  Okay, maybe not stronger and faster, but definitely bigger. And with the black plush, furrier.

...Is Halloweenier a word?

Last Bat

Months before every holiday (that is, the ones I need to stock my shop for) I have the fantasy that this time I will be organized, that my virtual shelves will be overflowing with goods for potential shoppers.

This pre-Halloween was no different.  I had the best of intentions, really I did.  But, as always, my conscious mind ignored the time I would spend packing school lunches, helping with homework, scrubbing mud out of cross country and football uniforms, driving nearly halfway across the state to said cross country and football events, and all the other stuff that the start of school and fall sports brings with it.

So, 3 weeks before the holiday, I have exactly one Halloween bat left in my shop.  Meet Lord Ruthven.

 

Due to his massive ego, Lord Ruthven doesn't mind in the least that he's the only bat in the shop these days. But I'm finishing up a custom order, and then I need to decide what to do next (besides Nut Boy's Halloween costume). More bats? A sensible, early start to Christmas? One of the twenty gazillion other projects on my to do list?

Obviously I need some Halloween candy to help me figure this one out.

Save the Boobs!

Now that I have your attention (and probably the attention of a whole slew of bottom dwelling web crawlers--go away! shoo! not that kind of blog!) I want to let you know about the current project of the Etsy Plush Team.

October is breast cancer awareness month and we are holding a fundraiser in the Plush Team store, with 80% of the proceeds from specially created pieces being donated to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  We chose this charity because so many of our members have been touched by this horrible disease, some losing friends and mothers, while others have battled it themselves.

But of course we're Plush Team, so we chose to fight back with humor.  I created Magda the Harpy, because I like the idea of a woman who isn't afraid to take her shirt off and battle tooth and nail (although I think Magda has more of a goofy grin than a fierce snarl).

 

 

If you want to see the full line-up check out the team blog. Big, little, bouncy, and yes, covered in fur, they're all there. Go look, laugh, and most importantly, talk about it.

Save the boobs!

Stickermania, Part II

I have two projects that I need to finish in the next week, so of course today I made stickers with my new Xyron instead. (Is it just me, or does that name sound like something from Battlestar Gallactica?)

I have to confess, I bought a 1.5 inch circle punch to make the job easier.  Way easier. It actually took me longer to find the squirrel on Dafonts than it did to make the stickers. Love, love, love my new toy.

Stickermania

You know your local grocery store is carrying the necessities of life when not only do they stock organic baby spinach, imported cheese and 99% butterfat ice cream, but also, for half the price of the craft store chains:

I had been eyeing the Xyron sticker makers for awhile, but I was skeptical. I mean, you drop a scrap of paper in at one end and it comes out the other, a sticker? How is that even possible? Well, take it from me, it actually works!  There are two layers of film in the machine, with an adhesive sandwiched in between them (where your piece of paper ends up).  When you remove the top layer, the extra sticky stuff not covered by your "sticker" comes off too, and you're left with a brand spankin' new sticker ready to peel off its backing, just like the ones at the store. For customer orders. Gifts. Envelopes. Shirts. Telephone poles. Payphones. Well, not payphones, as there aren't any of those anymore. But you know.

Trying not to get too giddy here. But...stickers!