Taking Part

via diaryofamodhousewife/ellemoss

Jumping In: Elle Moss 21 Day Photography Challenge

Do you remember me telling you about the fabulous Mother's Day Giveaway that my etsy friend Elle Moss was having on her blog, diaryofamodhousewife? And that my Grow Love print is just one part of this over the top giveaway?  It makes me smile to be in such good company. Look at all this great stuff!

via diaryofamodhousewife/ellemoss

Well, apparently hosting this super giveaway wasn't enough for Elle. She has begun the 21 Day Photo Challenge on her blog. Today is day three. You can jump in anytime and participate as time allows. I love this challenge already and I haven't even submitted an entry in the challenge yet!  I missed days one and two, but in a round about way, Kathy from DoubleKnickelsandBeyond led me to it so I can participate in day three.

Today's theme is 'little things'.

These champagne corks sit on the bookshelf next to my desk. Remnants of bookclub/champagne ladies, and mine and Gar's annual Christmas morning toast I believe.  I do love Champagne. The bubbles tickle my nose and it makes me giddy.

See that one in the front.............the Gloria Ferrer? LOVE it. One of my favorites. If you like dry, you must get some.

In our game cabinet we have remnants of an old Parcheesi game. Oh how many hours I spent playing Parcheesi. The playing pieces are actually wood. Yup, it's that old.

In addition to my little champagne cork collection, I also collect feathers that I find on my walks. I love these two because they're tiny and they have polkadots. What's not to love?



Decisions, decisions. Which to include in Day 3 of Elle's challenge? I think the feathers.

Kathy decided way before me. Check out her lovely pins.  I love the dark background, the pink fabric and the pretty little pearls atop the pins. Nice one Kath!



So, what are you waiting for? Grab your camera and join the fun at Elle's place.  Elle posts entries to each day's challenge on her home page if you want to have a look.

Not So Little

While I was taking pictures, Gar said, "Look, there's a hawk in the tree!" To which I exclaimed, "where? where?". He was right at the bottom of our apple tree. 

Big beautiful bird.

Probably a Coopers Hawk.  He sat like that for a few minutes, then hopped on over to the wheelbarrow. I couldn't resist trying to get another picture of him and was eeking the door open bit by bit, but it failed. He flew the coop.

Hope your day is full of good stuff.  I am juggling a few things today including shipping off another Grow Love print to Ontario.  It's packed and ready to go when I head to Exeter for a meeting.  Have a wonderful Wednesday in your corner of the world.

Ciao for now,

PS- I love Elle's giveaway idea AND photo challenge so much, I may have tweak it a bit and do my own versions! Go Elle Go!  By the way, if you participate in Elle's photo challenge, feel free to leave a link to any of your entries in your comments here on the Muse.

Hustle and Bustle of the Hoildays

Christmas Cheer

Crazy, busy holiday hustle bustle kind of day. So I thought I'd just recap some of the color in our house this Christmas. This is just a taste.

Holly on what I call my 'window alter'. It's in front of me when I stand at the kitchen sink. It has wish bones, a glass from my Gram, a picture of my Great Grandmother and a beautiful wood cutting board that serves as the altar that was made by my friend's son.  I think, dream, pray and wish when looking at it.

It's all topped off with a little holly right now.

My 'original' stocking from childhood. It's the only one up right now.  I love it's little jingle bells.

My snowman colletion overflows to the beautiful cabinet my Dad made for me.  It alsohas my holidy tea pots.

I know I've shown you this before, but I really love the vintage ornament tree my mom gave me last year as she whittled her own colletion.

Last, but not least, our tree.

Have a wonderful day.

It's Raining, It's Pouring

Can't Complain About The Rain

We've been quite lucky this summer. The rain drops have been few and far between. This week though, lots of it. Probably can't hurt.

I'm embracing the wet weather today. Then again, I'm not working in it. 

Here's some wonderful rainy day finds from other etsy shops. They're sure to brighten  your day, even if it's not raining where you are:

Check it out......great vintage rain coat complete with hood to cover your noggin'. Look at the details on the arms and hem. Sensible, yet stylish.

copyright cookiesandcream

Classic ducks in raincoat yellow. See, the sun is already shining.

copyright AlicjaVintage

But what if you're going 'out' in the rain? You know, 'out' to dinner, or dancing, or a party. Pow!

copyright crazyhotclothes

Shouldn't your pooch be covered too? Just had to include this. It makes me laugh.

copyright TyTzu

Hey! Who turned off the sun?

copyright idillard

If all else fails.  Me me me me me.............just warmin' up.

copyright funnyfaceart

You can always hope for a rainbow.

copyright mixko

Almost forgot. Bates Mercantile Co. has one that fits into this category.

If there's no rainbow, you can hope it's only raining posies.

Havin' fun at CraftyScrappyHappy!

Jaime at CraftyScrappyHappy was nice enough to give me the floor for the day. I've posted this really easy chair makeover on Mercantile Muse before, but if you missed it, by all means check it out. Be sure to take a look around while you're there because Jaime is one serious project master. She's a peach of a gal too!  LOVE her projects and her blog.

More FREE Printables On The Way

Be on the lookout. I've been working on some more free printables for you all.  They're not quite done yet though, but they will be soon. They'll include more gift tags and a blog planner for those of you who are 'bloggin fools', among other things. You're so kind for hanging out at the Muse, that I think it's the least I can do.

Thanks again for being here, smack dab in the middle of the week. Hope it's great wherever you are. See you on the flip side.

So, what do you think?

Headstrong

I've been thinking about my esty shop header lately. I just felt like it was a little 'too' much and perhaps taking away from what is in our store. Now, although I like the background a lot, I like it better on its own as one of my illustrations rather than as a header.

So I've been tweaking. Not wigging out, tweaking. The adjusting sort of tweaking.

Here's where I'm at:

I am pretty happy with the way the new Bates Mercantile Header is working with what we've got in the store. Though I value others' opinions. 

Our shop isn't what you'd call 'serious', so I wanted something that spoke to the vintage items that we carry, yet had a fun feel to it in order to convey what my illustrations are about.

Give it to me straight..............

Do you like it? Here's a screen shot.

And here's a link to Bates Mercantile Co. so you can see it 'live' so to speak. Check it out before you give me your honest opinion.  Better before or after?

Question Two: Print vs. Printable

I've been mulling this one over since I listed my first illustration. I've, for the most part, been offering wall art and such as printable files. You purchase the file. I send it to you via email. You print on your end and frame and hang as you wish. Instant gratification.

The quandary is this, I've done lots of research and it appears that actual 'prints' of wall art rather than printables, are selling like hotcakes. So, not wanting to miss the boat (actually it's more about giving the people what they want), I've been wondering whether I should be offering wall art as prints or printables. I know my current customers have appreciated the immediacy of printables, they buy and viola it's in their inbox. In fact, this has been a great 'last minute gift' selling point for different occasions. Still, I wonder if more customers would like it already printed and sent to their real mailbox so all they have to do is frame?

Obviously, having prints made up and packaging and shipping them will be more work on my end, but I'm ok with that if it will bring more people to shop at Bates Mercantile Co.

Now, the twenty thousand dollar question (no, you are not going to get $20,000 if you answer this question, it's just a figure of speech).......should I offer each design both ways, as a print and/or as a printable? Or just one or the other?

I'd appreciate any feedback you have to offer. Really. I would.

Sunset Meadows

Last night there weren't any flamingos in the sky, CourtneyJo's description of our sunsets, but it was still awful pretty.

A melow orange glow. Got out of the pool just in time to snap this. Didn't want to get out, but I did. Just for your viewing pleasure. OK, and to fix dinner, but for you too. 

Make it a fantabulous Wednesday in your part of the world.



The Moon Is Blue

Blue, Teal, and Turquoise On My Mind

I am not a 'shopper' so to speak. Malls aren't my thing. Clothes shopping generally isn't my thing.  Vintage shopping, yes. Vintage clothes shopping, sure. Used to be a thrift store nut. Well, yesterday I stopped into Marshall's on my way home. Again, something that doesn't happen too often round these parts.  Just making a quick stop to see if they had any end of the season bathing suits since mine is just about toast from all my pool time. Hardly anything. Bummer. Then I saw this skirt. Number one, I haven't bought a skirt in years. Number two, not for lack of trying. Been looking for a parachute skirt for a couple of years to no avail. Then there was this one staring me in the face. Anyone who knows me, knows this tie-dyed beauty was screaming 'me'.  (Yes, Susie, I bought something new tie-dyed. Could not resist.)

I think I love the transition of hues in tie-dyed things. Well, this little number tickled my fancy and was on sale. Woohoo. Don't you know I love the word sale?

What I also love are the colors. Seriously LOVE. Reminds me of the ocean or the Mediterranean.

Let's recap. This is not about the fact that my foot looks eency weency, and my hand looks huge. It's about the colors. Did I tell you my kitchen was painted the dark Mediterranean blue in my skirt for 13 years? Couldn't find the color I wanted on any paint chip. Then I looked at the legal pad I was writing on one day realized the top was the color I wanted. I ripped the legal pad header off and had the paint store match it. Yup. Told you I loved theses colors.

They were still on my brain this morning when I created The Moon Is Blue treasury for etsy's treasury island team (Hi team!). I'm the captain and we put treasuries, a sort of curated shopping flyer, together to pay it forward and help fellow etsy shops get noticed.

Gorgeous colors, right?

(Feel free to click on the picture to explore the shops that are featured.)

Here's a few other things, some by Treasury Island teammates, that give me the blues in the most wonderful way. 

Copyright, Rubya100 2011

A blue rose, so very pretty. And I do love a brooch.



Copyright LunaTerra, 2011

I love the opalescent quality of these earrings.

Copyright Rumina, 2011

Dainty and feminine.

 

Copyright SFreedPhotography, 2011

The natural beauty of hydrangeas.



Copyright StoryTellersVintage, 2011

Head over heels.

Copyright SYMBOLICinteraction2, 2011

The exact coloring and feel of the aforementioned skirt find!

Copyright jcrabbit, 2011

Love turquoise, especially with the worn edges. So much depth.

Copyright MyLittleNaturalSoapCompany, 2011

Such elegant colors for packaging.

Copyright 3Pearls, 2011

Another lovely blue rose to end on.

What colors are you drawn to over and over again?  Do you have a favorite? I'd find it hard to chose, but these would be right up there.

Aahhhhhhh, middle of the week already. Seize the day and enjoy your Wednesday!

Pam

A Sofa, Louis & Rachael

Etsy, for those of you who don't know, is an online marketplace for handmade/designed goods, vintage, and supplies for making handmade goods. Etsy is, quite frankly, chock full of inspiration.  I've designed note cards inspired by Pamela Angus' stained glass. I drew a sofa that my friend Susie had in her shop. I coveted that sofa. When Susie saw the drawing of the sofa she said "How on earth did you do that?" I said with a wink, "I drew it."  I know, very smarmy. Let's get more specific, though I do have  drawing pad and pencils, you will most often find me working on my computer. Illustrator is my program of choice. I drew her sofa in Illustrator, in part with my mouse and in part with my Bamboo computer pencil. 

I really liked the simple line drawing style that it embodies.  Susie liked it too. Which got me to thinking, maybe others would like it. I spring boarded from there. Perhaps a Louis XI chair?

Then I found some more inspiration on Decor8 in their feature on neon bright colors. I transformed the classic line drawing of the Louis XV chair with bright colors and and patterns (one of my paper designs to be exact).  This might be the piece my sister Di has been waiting for to go in her guest room with her 'happy' color comforter.

I had fun with inspiration and creation yesterday. I needed some 'just create' time big-time-a-rooney. It made my day.

Rachael Ray

Now, I like Rachael Ray, though her show and cutesy words can get a little much for me at times. I bought her magazine a couple years ago from the girl next door who was raising money for girl scouts. I wouldn't consider Rachael a 'chef' so to speak, but she doesn't consider herself one either.  That said, I could do without the sections that feature the products RR loves or can't live without. Doesn't mean that much to me. But I continue to get this magazine each year from the neighborhood girl scout because I like her recipes. She had a couple of grilled pizza recipes in this month and having not tried grilling pizza before, I thought it was about time.  I didn't stick to her recipe, just the general idea.

Got pizza dough from the store (shout out to my bil Niall who is shaking his head as he reads this.......he makes his own dough). Easy. Made two rounds. Grilled up some of the Lebanese squash we got at Farmers Market this weekend.  Grilled the pizza dough on a cookie sheet with some greased foil. Flipped it and grilled longer. Brought it all in to top it off. One we topped with sauce, the grilled squash, prosciutto and mozz. The second we topped with the rest of the grilled squash, baby bella shrooms, yes- more prosciutto (what can I say, we love the stuff and it still left me some for the cantaloupe this week), and mozz.  Brought back out to the grill, but cheese wasn't melting good so popped under the broiler. Mighty fine meal.

Now, it looks like there is more cheese on the pizza then there really was. What really shined was the squash and prosciutto. We will definitely do that again.

Another hot day here. Our friend Charlie just stopped by with his granddaughter Makennna. She needed some pool time. Pictures tomorrow.

Proof of the heat. One sprawled out, zonked dog. (yes, that's a fur ball behind him).

Forecast for tomorrow..........hotter. Good thing my parents have an air conditioner they're not using. Well, my father would be, but Mom isn't big on them. I'm not either to be honest, but the hot-dog above will be very happy and will breathe a bit easier the next few days.

Wow, Wednesday already! Hope it's great in your corner of the world.