New Stuffffffff

So MsItoMosquito has a taken a turn for the time being. I needed to do something new just to shake things up a bit. My friend Julie carves her own stamps for her Etsy shop, www.mailday.etsy.com. and I talked to her about carving my own. The first time I did it I absolutely hated it. Hated. IT. Then while watching her make stamps at the craft fair (remember we had some down time...) I realized that I was doing it all wrong. Figures. So I decided to give it another shot...and I love it.

The only problem is I can't think of things to carve. I'm wanting simple, quirky things to stamp in the lower right corner of cards. Simple, just one stamp and that's it. I'm only going to sell them as sets and because they take a lot less time making them (once the stamp is carve) I'm going to sell them for a lot less than my other cards. Just trying to shake things up since while sales on Etsy have stopped completely.

So shoot me some ideas for stamps, something that you would want on a card, or just an idea you have. If I make a stamp with yours suggestion I'll give you a free card. Deal? I'm expecting ideas to start pouring in now...

Here is one of my first run of cards...

I'm so sorry to all my blog readers, all 6 of you. I have kept you waiting on the edge of your seat for my next installment of msitomosquito musings. But wait no more..

As many or all of you know I was preparing for my first craft show. Well that show has come and gone and only two of you showed up. Rude. Ha. And don't try to tell me that you came and I just must have not seen you, because believe me I know everyone that was there, all 15 of them.

So ya it was a slow day..but not a total lost. At least in my eyes. Mom would stop giggling at the whole situation and cracking jokes which at least she thought were funny. Kidding mom.

I'd been stockpiling all my cards and gift tags to make sure I had enough of an inventory for the big day. I did, with an extra 100 left over. I was asking my twitter friends for advice and got some great advice and encouragement from a talented, sweetheart that I talk to from somewhere in Canada, PEI I think, I'll have to google. Her main advice was to be organized. And I think I was, especially for my first event.

We set up the table in the house hallway the night before. Dad was my only customer and he almost fell over when I told him my prices, but then again he's probably never bought a card in his life.

I made an adorable banner that I found on a website at 11 the night before. We packed up the table and tried to sleep. I knew I had an early morning, for me at least, but couldn't fall asleep with jitters and ideas for the next day.

Amanda went with me to set up which I definitely appreciate, she was the best helper/salesperson I could have asked for. Except when she gave a 90 yr old woman my business card and encouraged her to shop on my online etsy shop. Mom joked that she'd be trying to find it on her TV that night.

We set up shop with tons of time to spare...especially since there wasn't a customer in sight until two hours after the fair opened.

The customers trickled in throughout the day, most everyone belonged to someone vending at the fair. I'm guessing most everyone's sales came from someone else selling at the show. But the vendors could not be any nicer! It was so nice to meet so many talented local crafters. I sat across from my good friend and coworker Julie and we had a lot of fun talking back and forth while crafting with our spare time.

I sold a whopping $21.00 worth of cards. And paid the library my measly 20% of my sales. Thankfully the table was free or I wouldn't be so cheery about the situation. It was a learning experience and am still happy I did it. It was nice to see people appreciate my cards and nice to get most of the kinks out my table set-up etc.

Special thanks to my Mom for all her hard work the night before and for bringing me food. To Amanda for ALL her help, couldn't have done it without you thanks for not burning my cards. To Joe, if you read this for coming to my crap fair and for working your clean up shift. To Tarynne and Doreen for coming to the last 10 minutes of the fair when everyone was cleaning up. I'm glad you got to shop on NSD when I didn't. Thanks for buying my infamous Tricycle card, and for the adorable eraser/soap.






I'm sure there are more stories I could tell about this event but I can't think of anymore and I've been hassled about getting a blog post up.

Here are a few pics of my table and Julie's, the lighting was kinda crappy.

Inside all of us...

is a WILD THING.

Can't wait for this movie to come out. It will be one of the few that will actually get me in the theater...too bad it'll be in October. It looks amazing and I'm really interested to see how they make a whole movie our of the short story with limited words. Can't WAIT. And I hope it's not as perverted as my Children's Literature professor made it out to be, really I think he was the pervert.

Here's a trailer... (edit: apparently the embedded link only worked for me...you lazy people could have just googled it!)

http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/where-the-wild-things-are/trailer

Encore

Straight out of the camera. No photo editing, whatsoever. Pinkie Promise!

These flowers were absolutely gorgeous. 

When I grow up...

t.m.i

A couple AZ stories from today...

Here's a convo I had with two of my girls in my Thurs. art class.

A: "Teacher Ali, how old are you?"

Me: "How old do you think I am?"

A: "I don't know...."

R: "73!!!!!"

Me: 73!?!?!? A is that how hold you think I am?

A: Uhhh......dramatic pause while studying my face.....ya!!! Flashing big toothless smile.

Love them.

A somewhat loud conversation between two girls during my "Hello Meeting" 

A: "H, were you sick last week."

H: "Nope I had diarrhea." (All matter of factly)

Uhh TMI H, TMI.

Mole Update:

H in his daily studying of my BEAUTY MARK, referred to it as Mole-e. Because I didn't already think of the Austin Powers scene every time we talked about it.

It's a MOLE!

Kids at the ArtZone are very observant. Any time I wear my hair a different way or wear different shoes they say something to me. Like when I wore my hair down, half the kids didn't know who I was..ok so maybe they aren't that observant. This was the same day that one of the kids said I smelled like a dog. Maybe looked like one, but I DID NOT smell like one.

Anyways there is one kid, "H" who is basically obsessed with my mole. It never fails ,everytime he comes in on Monday he says something about it. Most of the time it is the first thing he says to me. While pointing at my face,"It's a MOLE." He knows what it is because I've had to explain it to him many times, like no H you cannot pick it off my face, it's a mole and it's there all the time. He still pokes at it from time to time, which totally grosses Stef out. :) 

Well I tend to refer to it as a beauty mark, because that's what it is and it sounds a lot better than a mole. I figured explaining it as a mole would be easier to kids. Though H did make a comment about it being like an animal. So I think he thinks the thing on my face is the same thing as the animal digging holes in the ground.

Anyways, "O" noticed it recently, enough at least to ask about it. It's usually when I pick them up and they are right in my face that the notice the "chocolate chip." Anyways I tell her it's a beauty mark. And she looks at it and goes, in the sweetest, most angelic voice (that a girl with snot coming out of her nose can have) "IT'S BEAUTIFUL!! I nearly cried. It was so cute.

Just another reason I love my job.