Memorial Day Sale

 

From now until Midnight on Monday MST, I will be offering 20% off of anything on my website as a thank you to my blog readers and facebook friends.  This will be the LAST sale all summer, so take advantage of it while you can!  If you would like a piece just e-mail me with your paypal address and the piece you want.   It's first come first serve.

You can see all available pieces at www.blondheart.com

Happy weekend!  K. <3

Cute Shoes For A Cause

 

When I was 19 years old, I worked for Target.  Just one of those thousand jobs I had.  I got two things from that job.  I got a very cute boyfriend named Pete, and I developed a love of Target. 

While Pete went by the wayside...the love of Target never waned.  They were a good company to work for.  In fact every morning the store manager would come by and make sure that all of us kids were eating our free meal so that we had energy and were healthy.  He was a really nice, caring man.  But that is what Target is about.  They actually care.  They do things to support charity all the time, and they were one of the first ones to jump on the  recycling bandwagon.

So naturally now that they have incorporated groceries...I go there more often than Safeway.  Lately with all my weight loss I have been buying "interim" clothes there.  I don't want to buy anything too expensive until I am done losing weight.  But I find myself with nothing that fits right anymore.  In fact this weekend I am going to go through all my clothes and send a big pile to Goodwill.  Someone a size larger than I am is going to be really happy.

At any rate while I was at Target last week I decided to look for some brown or tan sandals.  I couldn't really find any, but I did run across the sandals shown above.  I wasn't too sure I wanted to buy them, because I really didn't need another pair of flip flops, until I read the tag.  They are from a company called Buyamba Soles.  

On the tag it said that they are giving $100,000.00 to help underprivileged children in Uganda.  Naturally I bought a pair.  They are cute, they are comfy, they are leather, and they were 14.99.

I decided to look at their website.  This is an amazing project.  The company was created for the sole (no pun intended) purpose of giving jobs to single and unwed Mothers in Uganda.  The Mothers are paid a fair wage to create the beads.  The beads are made of rolled recycled paper.  They are cute, they almost look like seashells.  Through doing this, it has really given these women a purpose and hope where so many of them didn't have any.  Many of these women are HIV positive or have AIDS.  They have been outcast from their community and they have children they couldn't support.  Through this project these women now have jobs, some of them have been able to build houses, buy meds and even come together to form a community.  The kids get to eat and go to school. 

There is a very heartwarming video on their Facebook page.  You should check it out.  I also shared it to mine.  I think this is a great thing to do, because not only are they giving them money, but they are also giving them job security and allowing them to feel a sense of accomplishment.

I bought a second pair this week. 

So go to Target, spend the 15 bucks, get cute sandals, help people...it's a win/win!

Postcard

I have just been playing around a bit with my camera.

Stuck

 

I think that whatever we do in this world, we are always going to be faced with challenges.  Even when it's something you love.  When it's not something you love, it's even harder when those challenges present themselves.   I know that when we are presented with them, they are tests and we need to do all we can to pass through the difficulty in the best way possible.  But sometimes it can seem overwhelming.

I find myself  in that position right now.  I know I recently went through some true challenges with everything my family was going through, but that's different.  In those situations you have to be strong.  It's not even a question.

Nope I am having difficulty with some smaller challenges right now.  The first one is cleaning.  The problem is I am an artist.  Artists tend to amass stuff.  STUFF! I don't even know how it happens.  You just go out innocently into the world and you find a little thing here and there and you bring it home.  All of a sudden you have a ridiculous amount of stuff!  I have been trying to clean the spare room/photography studio/overflow closet/library.  I keep trying to sort through it and get rid of what I don't need, but it's so overwhelming.  My whole house is like that.  

But this brings me to my second challenge, which is tied in with all the rest.  My diet.  As you know if you have been reading my blog and/or facebook I am doing this HA2CG diet and detox.  I am not finding it that hard to eat healthy.  But I am finding it hard to only eat 500 calories a day.  They said I wouldn't be hungry with the drops.  Everyone says it's so much easier to do it than I think it will be.  Well you know what...it's not.  I am HUNGRY.  Plus I get light headed and I have absolutely no energy.  I don't like that feeling.  But I paid a lot to do this, and it is working.  It's just that some days I don't know if I can do this.  I have three more weeks of it.  That is a long time when you're hungry and fatigued.  Plus when R is home, he is eating things in front of me that I can't have.  I have never wanted a hot dog so bad in all my life.  I don't like hot dogs very much.  I got sick on one as a kid once, and went years without eating one.  Now...I would rick roll your Mother for one!  Do people really make it through six weeks of this diet on 500 calories a day without ever cheating?  I can't imagine how they do it.

My third challenge is that I feel old.  Not just old, but old and fat and unappealing.  Normally that's not something I ever worry about.  But Saturday I had R take a pic of me in my new dress.  I was feeling pretty spiffy.  I had lost weight, gone down a size...and I was feeling good. I was going to show off my progress to my Mother.  Then I had him take a pic.  Ugh!  I didn't look anywhere near as good in the pic as I did in my mirrors.  It's amazing how your perception can change in an instant.  I know this is a side effect of all the other challenges I am facing and it will pass.  I will go back to my normal self soon enough.  But it really tore down my usually good self esteem.  =/  In order to try to combat that I posted the picture to Facebook.  It was hard and it took me a couple hours to get up the nerve to do it.  Plus I cropped it so you can't see my big ole backside!

Lastly, I am facing a challenge in trying to work.  I know that again it's a side effect of all the other challenges.  I am so overwhelmed by all the other things I need to do that I can't seem to clear my head and focus on work.  I haven't made anything in a couple weeks.  I have ideas, I just can't seem to get there.  I feel guilty working when I know I have to finish cleaning.  But I don't have the energy to clean from the diet, then I feel useless...it's a viscous circle.  I am just stuck.  It's making me crazy because I am usually always in motion.

I know this too shall all pass, and I will eventually get everything done.  As long as I don't pass out from starvation first.

To leave you on a cheery note...I have been dancing around the 400 followers mark for a while.  When I finally hit it, I am going to do a give away!  So stay tuned for that.

At least now you know what's going on with me.  I will try to post again soon, but I want to be in a better and less challenging frame of mind when I do it!  Being stuck makes Kelly feel negative.  Sigh~

 

Summer Movies & Books

One of the fun things about summer are the blockbuster larger than life action/adventure movies that come out.  I was going over the list of up and coming movies.  I have to tell you, this year seems like a bit of a let down.  There was very little that caught my attention.  R cannot wait until the new MIB3 comes out.  I will go and most likely enjoy it...but I am not quite as excited as he is. 

I went through the list, and I was rather surprised at what all they are offering this year.  For starters...how many Spiderman, Batman, and Bourne movies are they going to make?  Just for the record, the character of Jason Bourne isn't even in this one.  I also read that Spiderman had a low budget.  On top of that, the new Total Recall movie doesn't take place on Mars at all.  Ho hum.

I would go see Rock Of Ages since I am from that era if it had anybody else starring in it besides Tom Cruise.  Seriously...anybody else at all. Anybody!

I am rather interested in seeing Prometheus, and possibly Dark Shadows...although I am not sure on the latter.  Lets face it, most of us love Johnny Depp, but I am nervous this is going to be another Willy Wonka-esque fiasco.  I have a vague recollection of the original Dark Shadows, and I think this will be a huge departure.  They both have their campy aspects, but in very different ways.  Plus to be honest, I am so seriously over this vampire fad.  Vampires were never my thing anyway.  I actually tried to watch the first Twilight movie on TV one night to see what all the fuss was about, but I couldn't make it through it.  Maybe I am too old?  But Dark Shadows isn't the only vampire fare this summer.  They also have "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" coming out.  Really?  I will pass.

The other thing I enjoy are new summer books.  I will tell you I simply cannot wait for the new James Rollins novel, "Bloodline"  to hit next month.  I love that man's books with a passion, and I will be waiting as they unpack the boxes at Barnes & Noble.

I did find a list of new books that have either just come out, or are about to.  With the popularity of Fifty Shades Of Grey, naturally there is a ton of deviant erotica about to hit and ride it's coat tails.  Now I have to level with you, I am no fan of erotica, and I have not read Fifty Shades...nor do I intend to. I do know several people who have read it, and they weren't impressed and even called it tedious.  To me reading that sort of thing is like spectator sports...I would rather play than watch (or in this case read) from the sidelines.  But I find this rash of new books disturbing.  Whatever happened to good old fashioned romance?  You know the kind that doesn't involve BDSM?  I am not judging...if you like to read it or participate in it, that's up to you.  I am just saying when it comes to books...mix it up a little.  Besides give me adventure any day over erotica.  Don't get me wrong, I am still a girl, and I like romance in books and movies now and again.  But I prefer it in real life!

So if any of you stumble across some good movies or books this summer...let me know.  What I found was pretty disappointing.  Oh well at least I won't be tempted to eat movie theater popcorn and ruin my diet!

Images From Around The House

I was just practicing my photography.  But now you know why it takes me forever to clean!  (I have wayyyy too much stuff!  There is no rhyme or reason to the photos...if you want to know what anything is, just ask!

Blinded By The White...A Little Follow Up

I decided to work with this a little more instead of doing my housework like a good girl.  I took into account your comments, and I think I figured out why most of us don't like the stark white background.  It's because there is very little depth or dimension to the image.  There is nothing to draw us into the photo and the world of that bear.  It's just there on top of a blank page so to speak.  My Little Prince was such a willing subject.  Bears are patient that way!

Most of us like to picture how that piece would fit into our lives, our homes or if it's a jewelry piece or something...on our body.  When it's floating on a white background it makes it hard to imagine that.  As artists we like to be visually stimulated and have something that tells a story. I believe that most of our customers have that same mind set.  I could be wrong.

I decided to try the "white room effect" like they do in many decorating magazines.  Most of us wouldn't actually like to live in a pure white house because we are real people who don't stay hermetically clean.  Especially if you make bears.  But there is a certain ideal to that.  I actually like the photo shown above, because it does have depth and a little context.  However the background is too busy to ever satisfy Etsy's current minimalist ethos.

I haven't entirely decided if I want to re-photograph everything in this setting or not.  I will wait for your feedback before I decide.  So there are my conclusions to this little experiment.

I also feel that it's important for Etsy to figure out with so many varieties of art that we must learn and cater to our target audience first and foremost, and consider fads as a mere afterthought.   They can dictate what they want, but if they homogenize the front page in this way they are turning off a large part of their audience, like myself who is never going to be inspired to buy something floating in thin air.  That's a lesson they need to learn.

Thank you all for taking time to comment and give me your thoughts on this.  It was a learning experience...and that is always valuable!

The Unbearable Whiteness Of Being

 Before I launch into my post, I want to put a disclaimer.  These pics aren't that great, they were snapped really fast for the sake of experimentation.  I will explain below.

It's no secret that I have a love/hate relationship with Etsy.  I love buying from and supporting other artists.  I also love having something a little more unique.  Etsy is a great place to find that.  There isn't much that you can't find on there.

  However, Etsy themselves make me crazy.  They do things that are so counter intuitive at times, and they feel it's their right to dictate what artists do sometimes.  I realize it's their site and they can do that if they want, and we have the right to not sell there.  But in so doing all too often they tend to homogenize and suppress artist's right to express themselves how they want, charge what they want, and even in some instances to dictate what artists should make...not to mention how they run their businesses.  

The latest mandate handed down from the powers that be is that if you want to have even the tiniest hope of making the front page you have to photograph your work on a plain white background.  Now for the most part this doesn't really affect me because artist bears rarely make the front page anyway.  We aren't hipster enough for Etsy.  That aside, it still makes me crazy.

I know that white backgrounds are the fad right now.  In fact I play into that a little bit by currently  having a white background for both my blog and website.   I do not have it for my photos though.  I have been watching the front page of Etsy for a while since they started doing this and I don't really feel that it enhances anything overall.  There are too many shades of white that don't mesh.  Without consistency, which is impossible since you have so many cameras, backgrounds and photographers...they can't achieve the look they truly want.  Sometimes I can't even tell what an item is unless I click on it because there is no context.  Even if I can tell what it is, I can't always get a feel for the size of the item, or what exactly the artist was going for.  I also went through all my purchases and discovered that I haven't bought a single thing from Etsy that was displayed on plain white.  I find that I am clicking those front page items a lot less than I used to.

Certain items do look good on a white background, but others just don't.  A distressed, old looking teddy bear looks strange floating on a white background in my opinion.  I think the setting sometimes helps tell the story of your piece.  It's an important component in displaying your art.  You wouldn't go to a show and put everything on a white table cloth or white shelves.  That would be odd, and people would probably stroll past your table to get to a cuter display that draws them in.

However, I will let you give your honest feedback.  I am curious which image you prefer?  I have done plain white, sorta white and a background with a prop.  Maybe I am in the minority in thinking this.  Again keep in mind that the pics were taken really fast for the sake of this experiment.  Thanks in advance for your feedback!

~*~ Lula ~*~

 

Life is settling down a bit finally!  My Step Dad had his surgery Wednesday and he is doing well.   The lost package situation is finally under control, and R is home.  That left me with enough ambition to finish my little elephant.  So meet Lula!  She is available on my website at www.blondheart.com

I hope you have a lovely and stress free day!

Hugs, K. <3