tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-214056742024-03-23T13:49:04.136-04:00ottoblotto's blogArtistic offerings and personal ramblings of North Carolina artist, Natalie Schorr, AKA ottoblotto.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger128125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-8176237129269052502015-10-31T23:17:00.001-04:002015-10-31T23:17:32.289-04:00Stencil Art - Illustration Friday: BouquetI've never really done stencil art before, so this portrait of a woman in a flower hat is new for me.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqOqzjL4dy6cJhRz9a-a4yKsFUNe-C4f6Rqj0z6_fDTdLyDZIvru6y9i0fyFWt2lZSA7vz3QPodFH7YI1iboy3p2ND4VAL8a-ggoNiqkFsjuWadf-bgqPxb7xyIv6IuzdUoSeM/s1600/MMS4+blog.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Stencil art portrait of a woman in a flower hat by North Carolina artist Natalie Schorr" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqOqzjL4dy6cJhRz9a-a4yKsFUNe-C4f6Rqj0z6_fDTdLyDZIvru6y9i0fyFWt2lZSA7vz3QPodFH7YI1iboy3p2ND4VAL8a-ggoNiqkFsjuWadf-bgqPxb7xyIv6IuzdUoSeM/s400/MMS4+blog.png" title="Stencil art portrait of a woman in a flower hat by North Carolina artist Natalie Schorr" width="327" /></a></div>
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I was inspired by the wonderful flowered hats that Ashley Nell Tipton from this season's Project Runway featured in her runway show. They seemed to be the right inspiration for this week's word, "bouquet."<br />
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Stencils are kind of like block printing, and there are a number of ways to approach stenciling. It can get quite complicated, especially when you start getting into multiple stencil layers.<br />
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It's going to take a while to get the hang of it. However, it was a great day to play with stenciling because I was actually off work, and because I warned everyone that if I didn't get in some art therapy, I would be way too stressed to make it through another week.<br />
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They wisely chose to give me that time.<br />
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This piece is done with 2 stencils, then colored with acrylics and watercolors, and printed on heavy vintage paper with printing.<br />
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Like a lot of my current drawings, you can purchase this piece at ottoblotto on Etsy.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-56649188952468448972015-09-13T17:40:00.000-04:002015-09-13T17:40:21.935-04:00Illustration Friday: VillainPeople often ask me if I know the people I draw. The answer is no. I mostly draw from mug shots.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTdf1V8IekZ6tGCJ07M2w2S-8wJnenmX7APObkcXwltD4ZXVVh8rjoC5QTnwiCct_glPzej_J_E1QgmAWU6OAoW5TVax1mtzau9r456XU3WusSjs82d-u6oYHfbuNsIGUmfWYs/s1600/library146.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Library People #146, a graphite drawing by Nortth Carolina portrait artist Natalie Schorr" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTdf1V8IekZ6tGCJ07M2w2S-8wJnenmX7APObkcXwltD4ZXVVh8rjoC5QTnwiCct_glPzej_J_E1QgmAWU6OAoW5TVax1mtzau9r456XU3WusSjs82d-u6oYHfbuNsIGUmfWYs/s320/library146.jpg" title="Library People #146, a graphite drawing by Nortth Carolina portrait artist Natalie Schorr" width="211" /></a>Mug shots are in the public domain, so there is no worry that someone will come after you for use of the image. Still, one never knows how people will feel about these things.<br />
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The word for Illustration Friday this week is Villain. While a few of the people I draw could definitely be classified as villains, most are just your garden variety public drunk-and-disorderly types. Would you know a villain if you saw one?<br />
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I kind of doubt I could spot a villain in a lineup. Sometimes the tattooed stranger is really an OK guy, while the little grandmother type turns out to be the villain.<br />
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Life is funny that way.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4North Carolina, USA35.7595731 -79.01929969999997629.126375599999996 -89.346448199999969 42.3927706 -68.692151199999984tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-16103297082790432312015-08-29T04:27:00.000-04:002015-08-29T04:27:35.904-04:00The Work of DrawingDrawing is my comfort food. My hips might have a different opinion, so I will call drawing comfort food for my brain, and maybe my soul. And while I work at it, it doesn't feel like work.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2VEfFfPk_1HsrJ-wiYgD11QpwFzggKAEgR4UbhT62AMijkQNNKV7xQCG-t3ekp4fqLTMqo7kcUqEwfxmcxiKTXU1MYlJ7o-T2D98HLeTD-F0f2vmBQG6OhjWui4b-FQqNfol1/s1600/Library+People+139+smaller.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Library People #139, a pencil portrait drawing by Natalie Schorr" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2VEfFfPk_1HsrJ-wiYgD11QpwFzggKAEgR4UbhT62AMijkQNNKV7xQCG-t3ekp4fqLTMqo7kcUqEwfxmcxiKTXU1MYlJ7o-T2D98HLeTD-F0f2vmBQG6OhjWui4b-FQqNfol1/s320/Library+People+139+smaller.jpg" title="Library People #139, a pencil portrait drawing by Natalie Schorr" width="213" /></a>One of the best things about drawing is that it requires very little equipment, is generally not messy, and you can always walk away from it and come back later, and things will be exactly the same as when you left. No worries about things drying and not being easy to rework the way you have with painting, and no monumental cleanup the way you have with printmaking.<br />
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Being able to walk away so you attend to the less enjoyable things in life, like work that actually pays you money, is important too. And so it is with my life.<br />
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Because my life is so filled with work these days, I have decided to let drawing off the hook, so to speak, by not taking any more commissions. I have decided to draw what I want, when I want, and leave the rest of life to be the work part.<br />
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This has been one of the best decisions I have made in a long time. I have quit worrying about trying to make something that has the potential to sell, and just started making things that speak to me in whatever whispered tones they have at the moment.<br />
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Of course, I do still like to make a little extra money with art, so I have revisited Etsy, and started putting some of my drawings into products on Zazzle. You can share my joy if you like, but please don't ask me to work for you.<br />
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<a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/ottoblotto" target="_blank">ottoblotto</a> on Etsy<br />
<a href="http://www.zazzle.com/incompletethoughts*" target="_blank">Incomplete Thoughts</a> on ZazzleUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0North Carolina, USA35.7595731 -79.01929969999997629.124975099999997 -89.346448199999969 42.394171099999994 -68.692151199999984tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-88985466400610070172014-03-08T09:30:00.000-05:002014-03-08T09:30:47.449-05:00I Wear My Grandad's Clothes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgip5bQo2Dh8t3NI9Nk2RbQjW_dDIRC-DXIosX96xoX0stsIOCuPvI8BLgpysFCvwBl3Rq0ID9Nwt1muOqIE28CrHHfRvdm8MxVmWyIpQspGVs0Cmgb59Mjg8Ghls_80bcBYGKY/s1600/Grandadscoatforblog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgip5bQo2Dh8t3NI9Nk2RbQjW_dDIRC-DXIosX96xoX0stsIOCuPvI8BLgpysFCvwBl3Rq0ID9Nwt1muOqIE28CrHHfRvdm8MxVmWyIpQspGVs0Cmgb59Mjg8Ghls_80bcBYGKY/s1600/Grandadscoatforblog.jpg" height="320" width="164" /></a></div>
My grandmother died recently; she was 96. She was my last remaining grandparent, my father's stepmother. Arrangements were made to have us all meet at her home on the morning of the funeral to read the will and divide up a few things. It sounded like the tedious sort of thing you would normally equate with preparing one's taxes or having a colonoscopy. But it's all part of the life cycle.<br />
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My daughter was away at college, but I got my son and husband, and pep-talked them into getting on board with this activity. We found a pair of pants my husband could get on over all the bandage/drainage stuff that wasn't a pair of sweats, and my son coaxed his dad into a red bow tie from TJ Maxx as compensation for having to endure a day of funerary festivities.<br />
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We made it to the house with seconds to spare. We all exchanged the normal niceties and enjoyed coffee, Danishes, and grapes, courtesy of the assisted living folks who really just wanted us to get everything out so they could rent her house to someone else.<br />
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Now, I had never actually been to a "reading of the will" event, and had no idea what to expect. And really, I wasn't expecting anything beyond a free lunch and the opportunity to visit with a couple of cousins I had not seen in decades. The will was read. Some paintings and photographs were divided up with the key players getting to make a choice according to the numbers they had drawn. Then, we were introduced to "the bags." Take a bag, fill it with whatever was left. Put it in your car. Get another bag. Do the same. Basically, it all had to go.<br />
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The will calls this stuff "residue." If I were to die now, the amount of residue would be insane, but my grandparents had a very manageable amount. So everyone started to go through their stuff. And that's where the fun began.<br />
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I went to my grandmother's closet, and we pulled out hats and scarves and handbags galore. At the amusing suggestion of my aunt, all the women picked a hat, and we wore her hats to the funeral. I think she would have been amused. But it was not until we dug into my grandfather's closet that I found this gem: a circa 1976 textured polyester coat in a patriotic red, white, and blue pattern. How cool is that? I think it was the find of the day, personally.<br />
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The real find of the day, however, was the laughter we were able to enjoy. It turned out to not be weepy, or tense, or morbid. It was fun, and perhaps even a bit healing. My grandfather and I had not had any relationship for the last decade of so of his life because of his refusal to accept my decision to adopt a child of color. So I wonder how he feels, looking from beyond the grave at my son, lounging in the satin pajamas of a grandfather he never knew. Or at me, strutting about in my grandad's clothes like a hip hop star?<br />
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I guess we'll have to wait and see.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-22742723736949969882014-03-03T06:47:00.000-05:002014-03-03T06:47:32.223-05:00Fun With Anthropomorphics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPYRB5-wP0Xd0PVlylLPIhyjgA54xjFDITDLKySLF_jbPQNeMzVDWyLAyI5dJXJZ6GQUWJEiqVKZYmvVq73VH0uKrR_dyBldbJ86eTY0ENJHbxe1TbK52kHvEU9giduVDmz9NR/s1600/mehbird.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPYRB5-wP0Xd0PVlylLPIhyjgA54xjFDITDLKySLF_jbPQNeMzVDWyLAyI5dJXJZ6GQUWJEiqVKZYmvVq73VH0uKrR_dyBldbJ86eTY0ENJHbxe1TbK52kHvEU9giduVDmz9NR/s1600/mehbird.jpg" height="290" width="320" /></a></div>
I actually engaged in a little art therapy a couple of weeks ago, which resulted in this indifferent little harpy. She started with a digital collage, then a drawing with a sharpie that was scanned and reworked in Photoshop. I liked her so much I used her for some fun products that will never sell on <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/ottoblotto*/gifts?cg=196406670602718043" target="_blank">Zazzle</a>.<br />
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Zazzle is great to work with, and I have over 60,000 products there. Sadly, it doesn't come close to making me a living, which is why I also work at the Christian place and the Big Box. It is like a giant vortex, sucking the life out of me. Meh.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-56302234791293682782014-02-11T05:13:00.000-05:002014-02-11T05:13:49.214-05:00The Quiet Face of CancerI did a drawing of my husband recently, which is not really unusual. I've been drawing pictures of him for the last 20 years we've been married. He is one of those rare people that, seriously, never changes. Until this time.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZwbp61S1wsd1OyqQhBwkSkckrG2fA5box8l1qvpwJ-1YZozLc1yOPRgUzXAgTRGgGKlN-DiafJBD1BJlVT22368ZiEydlp0YBtMu-IciEXhj67qouqGO9P3X7Md8BhkpaUyLO/s1600/Mike.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZwbp61S1wsd1OyqQhBwkSkckrG2fA5box8l1qvpwJ-1YZozLc1yOPRgUzXAgTRGgGKlN-DiafJBD1BJlVT22368ZiEydlp0YBtMu-IciEXhj67qouqGO9P3X7Md8BhkpaUyLO/s1600/Mike.png" height="320" width="231" /></a><br />
It was only going to be a little sketch, drawn on the inside of a discarded library book. A face I had seen for so long. Something, somehow, had changed this time. It was almost imperceptible. His lips were not as full. His look was a little harder. Very quiet differences.<br />
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I would probably never have noticed the changes had I not studied his face so many times before. I remarked to him, almost quizzically, that he had suddenly become old. Now, I am thinking it wasn't the old that I was seeing. Now I think it was the cancer.<br />
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I think it would be interesting to have a morning selfie every day for 10, 20, even 50 years, to see the differences. Would you pick up on the changes? Would it be possible to see cancer coming, like an early warning system?<br />
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I dunno.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1McLeansville, NC, USA36.1073575 -79.658638336.0560405 -79.7393193 36.1586745 -79.577957300000008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-42504728291036931072014-02-09T21:29:00.000-05:002014-02-09T21:29:28.623-05:00And I Think It's Gonna Be a Long Long Time...Yes, it's been a long time since I blogged. I'm sorry about that. The past year has not been overly kind to me, and this year is not shaping up all that well so far, but I am determined to get back on track at least a little.<br />
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I was asked back in the fall to do a show of drawings for a gallery at a small local college, which actually got me to drawing again, only to have the show abruptly cancelled because they "didn't have time to do the publicity right," and could I maybe do the show next year.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhF3REAtRDdMW1vIik9BbTKa7JUYDNKuLhAB4CVaiEWrZELS9qLdxmhRJ3h4j8DcMJ0YiPtWpq8s98lWzUbqGSq-AS6uraRrKCmx8g8vJg4iv4erHIAJSgcQlHuJ_c1nblDfzD/s1600/Veretta.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhF3REAtRDdMW1vIik9BbTKa7JUYDNKuLhAB4CVaiEWrZELS9qLdxmhRJ3h4j8DcMJ0YiPtWpq8s98lWzUbqGSq-AS6uraRrKCmx8g8vJg4iv4erHIAJSgcQlHuJ_c1nblDfzD/s1600/Veretta.png" height="264" width="320" /></a>Huh?<br />
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As it was, I had been drawing all these people I work with down at the Big Box Store, and had promised them their portraits once the show was over with. So I just gave the drawings away and moved on. Here's my favorite from the group, Veretta, a cashier at the Pro Services desk. I think she looks like a modern day Mona Lisa.<br />
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You can see a selected collection of the drawings from the show that wasn't here online at <a href="http://ottoblotto.squidoo.com/crooked-smile-an-online-art-exhibit" target="_blank">Crooked Smile</a>. I am still working on them, especially since I no longer have a deadline, and also since my life has gotten a little bit sidetracked by my husband's cancer diagnosis and because I work 2 jobs now trying to make ends meet. Art has sort of by necessity had to take a back seat as it is not really a great way to make a living. I wish it were different. And if wishes were rocket ships, we could all visit the stars.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0McLeansville, NC, USA36.1073575 -79.658638336.0560405 -79.7393193 36.1586745 -79.577957300000008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-28022168571803028772012-02-17T16:06:00.002-05:002012-02-17T16:13:28.201-05:00Too Much Tequila<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.zazzle.com/too_much_tequila_art_collage_poster_print-228006540621113533" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ6UMHeuKQU_Ao3s6ROFwbQwUvD4L_7HNVcyjLsJOmmmF_s2OUY-9hAc7c_4u4KvwhMWKeHUKup0vyz_N3JtHNfEyPF2OHKeP6GvD6rPqYqIgCQkUrpQosoUopiaEK49zf-8Go/s320/toomuchtequila.jpg" width="241" /></a>I did some collages for the Christmas show at the Center for Visual Arts in Greensboro, NC. They had some funny little sayings on them. I had scanned them before I added the sayings, so I could go into a program like Zazzle and add or change the sayings and type. This is one I did called Too Much Tequila. It seemed right for this darling debutante.</div>
<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-3594606208541679462010-05-14T21:47:00.007-04:002010-05-14T22:05:31.849-04:00Fun With New Art Dolls<a href="http://www.ottoblotto.com/"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 103px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471309293575668466" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnnjeV6FHnOpnUD0NsPTYylQz2Awmprlr4DJ5aXxnCbATE7B3zHHt-h0_u4eL8q9OZpAF8u_dEj6m0GLkG-seY-HGGPyDcJCwCe0ZhEk1pxy3YPwgv94PvDlzM8sdHTusyNtyw/s320/Maid+Marian+Doll.jpg" /></a>
<div><a href="http://www.ottoblotto.com/"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 176px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471309087593516530" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHLuRU1F3qZK0d2pucNjFdhATDF2bnFMzOV_IMwEd48gX-NHnN1r3c-Q4bmkJCuUEZZA5M7hRyJ1-w9pXpxH8x1uBMTVJv6cgBfuWztXgaLeMm5o91kk3RBGYk3rjAT4cZwQzM/s320/Hoochie+Mama+Doll.jpg" /></a>
<div><a href="http://www.ottoblotto.com/"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 111px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471308893689595378" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigvovlow4qCSJRe2fwAGebMfiNv48Nt-OVfGIF0jtZQzI6bvhVsQoK5wehNF6sqbBtZm0EeIM02TaUTd0kgDHZFqwtfNj3v7DvwYqOQm0MSioET9NCBKC4O0VufxvYgRlPJxRC/s320/Flower+Child+Doll.jpg" /></a> </div><div></div><div>I made some new art dolls; a Maid Marian doll, a Hoochie Mama doll, and a Flower Child doll. They are made from shoe stretchers, collage, and a variety of hardware and kitchen items I picked up from yard sales and the local Habitat ReStore. </div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-71759098942350795952010-05-12T20:38:00.004-04:002010-05-12T20:51:03.538-04:00Repurposing Salvaged TV Antennas<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLncYWa5cQGoSGP0EGh6oVb8MlT91P1TgaUbEbbBif6rbIzThwl8l9f8SUZR4g8-BbAZG9kfQy0Yad9RNhqhy_znGLyjUWT4BYyIXyjwz-mxwm9QulEds-4B13rv5_NfcNFLCI/s1600/TV+Antenna+Bean+Pole.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 245px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470548024747668642" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLncYWa5cQGoSGP0EGh6oVb8MlT91P1TgaUbEbbBif6rbIzThwl8l9f8SUZR4g8-BbAZG9kfQy0Yad9RNhqhy_znGLyjUWT4BYyIXyjwz-mxwm9QulEds-4B13rv5_NfcNFLCI/s320/TV+Antenna+Bean+Pole.jpg" /></a>
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In the attic of my house there were two TV antennas thoughtfully left behind by the previous owners. I was reacquainted with them this week while working on some insulation issues in the attic. I decided it was time they got repurposed.
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I mounted the more complete one on top of a 4x4, and used parts from the other one around the base. All around the poles I planted some pole beans. I'll post some pictures once the beans have climbed on it. Hopefully the birds will like it as well as a place to watch for bugs on the pond, too.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-91766691950684095472010-04-23T14:37:00.007-04:002010-04-23T15:23:27.399-04:00Illustration Friday: Ahead<a href="http://www.ottoblotto.com/artforsale.html"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 218px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5463404480187291410" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiXq1W-ASgcI6WAQV5VQdL9oWuy-ptgNnjMaHTyr-RA4COh_J8BeBthihX0lG7TKiJVICSDqrUWaeMbGfn2p5WI5zVyezpvpbf7yM4PnvowbmynVzu_FZyqLDL1WVVoSYhqpeP/s320/library126.jpg" /></a>
I've done these Library People drawings for years, and I've always sold them on eBay, but I've decided not to auction them anymore. Since everyone is suffering through the Great Recession, I think it is unlikely I'll get decent bids, so I am going to move <strong>ahead</strong> and just sell them on my <a href="http://www.ottoblotto.com/artforsale.html">website</a>. Sure, my website gets a hit once in awhile at best, but I remain hopeful that things will pick up. This is Library People 126, and she is for sale at the aforementioned website, <a href="http://www.ottoblotto.com/artforsale.html">ottoblotto.com</a>.<br />
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I also sell my work now in my Zazzle store, <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/incompletethoughts">Incomplete Thoughts</a>. Yes, it's reproductions. I have to make a living somehow.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-28017434095366750602010-04-17T16:30:00.002-04:002010-04-17T16:42:02.795-04:00New Uses for Old Golf Clubs<div>
<div><a href="http://www.ottoblotto.com/"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 240px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461207010909750930" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRUxNruVDTd5gECwO5ISEiFLNuyrk4HXhbiCqKjG_-uStl8oYa8CQg46hxuQHN9yw-tR1c9xkK8xUgp3NZGuCzN8avdNnBpW_oGJi85kQjj_8sc1j-9qdYoTSsoWqBeOGZXlV9/s320/Golf+clubs+1.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.ottoblotto.com/"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 240px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461207004537292146" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6rlDaPLThLSstGOhX_V6Cj4Z5SXOvu0n1NUBOq3wDKa7q7Pt3jxJDloT1dl60guUCFDJhRAO_C5WcFT2aLcNFdM3Ew-u73v8Pu_fTqhq4CgzFz2GO333Menm3eLEgl5tjBgSt/s320/Golf+Clubs+2.jpg" /></a></div><div>I don't golf. I don't even follow the sordid details of Tiger Woods' life apart from what I read in line at the grocery store. So it comes as no real surprise that I have no real need for a set of golf clubs. However, I have managed to collect a slew of them from various places. Habitat for Humanity stores are a great place to go if you have need of such things. I really needed a way to put them to work in the garden, and trellising looked like just the right spot. I used old golf clubs and mason's line in some raised beds next to a chain link fence to make this excellent support for my sugar snap peas to grow on. Their weight makes them very stable with the addition of some rock anchors. I'm going to look for some other ways to make use of the remainder of my club collection. If you have pictures of some other uses for old golf clubs, post the links in the comments.</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-39243585875065940262010-04-17T14:54:00.005-04:002010-04-17T15:12:39.034-04:00Repurposing Vintage Postcards<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><a href="http://www.zazzle.com/vintage_save_the_date_postage-172854913955107535?gl=VintageGreetings&rf=238239856450836849"><img style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px" alt="Vintage Save the Date Postage stamp" src="http://rlv.zcache.com/vintage_save_the_date_postage-p172854913955107535anr9r_325.jpg" /></a>
<a href="http://www.zazzle.com/vintage_save_the_date_postage-172854913955107535?gl=VintageGreetings&rf=238239856450836849">Vintage Save the Date Postage</a> by <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/vintagegreetings?rf=238239856450836849">VintageGreetings</a>
See more <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/vintage+stamps">Vintage Postage</a> </div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"></div><p>
I've won a number of awards on Zazzle, which is nice. Really nice. Yesterday I got two awards; a TBA [Today's Best Award] for the stamp you see here, and a Zazzle Artist Award [my first] for this postcard design I Photoshopped together from an old postcard. </p><p></p>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><a href="http://www.zazzle.com/good_luck_vintage_horseshoe_postcard-239100172955479191?gl=VintageGreetings&rf=238598743167727285"><img style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px" alt="Good Luck Vintage Horseshoe postcard" src="http://rlv.zcache.com/good_luck_vintage_horseshoe_postcard-p2391001729554791917mpi_325.jpg" /></a>
<a href="http://www.zazzle.com/good_luck_vintage_horseshoe_postcard-239100172955479191?gl=VintageGreetings&rf=238598743167727285">Good Luck Vintage Horseshoe</a> by <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/vintagegreetings*">VintageGreetings</a>
Browse <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/vintage+postcards?rf=238598743167727285">Vintage cards Postcards</a> </div>
The Zazzle Artist Award gets me a feature on the front page of vintage - postcards. I'm not sure how much attention it will attract. I do like taking old postcards and repurposing them with the magic of Photoshop. That's what I did with the Save the Date postage stamp. I don't think Save the Date cards were even around back when I got married, so surely they weren't around at the time of these designs. There is, of course, a matching card to go with the postage. Check out my <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/vintagegreetings*">Vintage Greetings Store</a> for other repurposed vintage cards, thank you's, and invitations. Great stuff from vintage wallpapers, too.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-33345918930205449712010-03-27T06:28:00.004-04:002010-03-27T06:56:38.440-04:00Cafepress vs Zazzle Revisited<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-OXTkmuu1OcO5AOQGKO_2BFWS6xgdJHwdd0IODUe-LTp0rU49wpQQ1c48by2L5CkyPhAax6yaL0gpTMOEH3wgUloVO3Bnt8TwBwTzkHTbB6OlPDnh7sh6pItwl_NM0mVUrzK5/s1600/proSellerBadge_125_lv1.png"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 125px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 63px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453259426444452690" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-OXTkmuu1OcO5AOQGKO_2BFWS6xgdJHwdd0IODUe-LTp0rU49wpQQ1c48by2L5CkyPhAax6yaL0gpTMOEH3wgUloVO3Bnt8TwBwTzkHTbB6OlPDnh7sh6pItwl_NM0mVUrzK5/s320/proSellerBadge_125_lv1.png" /></a>
It's been a long time since I wrote a review of my Cafepress and Zazzle experiences, as an anonymous blogger pointed out just yesterday. Since I achieved ProSeller status on Zazzle yesterday as well, I thought maybe they were right, so let me share my more recent experiences. <br /><br />
I have done very little work on Cafepress over the last year, having concentrated primarily on Zazzle. The reason for this is pretty simple: Zazzle stores are free. Bottom line: FREE. [Cafepress, are you listening?] Furthermore, I can set my price at anything I please on Zazzle, and that's the price it is everywhere on Zazzle. Not so on Cafepress, which no longer links back to your store that you spent so much time building, and where you control the prices. Unless you spend a lot of time getting people directly to your store, you will end up with all your sales coming from the price controlled Cafepress marketplace. It's pretty good business, but not great since I am still paying for the privilege of having the store, which also has limits on how many sections you can build. No limits with Zazzle.<br /><br />
Zazzle allows you to build as many stores as you like, so you can have small, very focused shops. I find that putting up a big shop full of every design idea that spills from my head is a little like walking into WalMart. When a do a focused shop like <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/socialbutterflies">Social Butterflies</a>, which only sells butterfly designs, I get fewer visitors, but I have a higher purchase per visitor result. The bottom line being, if they come to look at butterfly designs, then they are more likely to stay and ultimately buy something since that is all the shop carries.<br /><br />
I now have 17 shops on Zazzle, with no shop fees eating into my profits. Because I can gang them all together for volume bonuses and such, that makes Zazzle a good deal. At this time, I make a little more on Zazzle per month than I do on Cafepress, but because I pay no shop fees, a lot more of it ends up in my pocket. Also, since I can decide what my markup can be, I can control how much I make.<br /><br />
The good news overall is that the economy is picking up ever so slowly, so sales are slowly improving on both sites. And I will probably keep doing business with both sites since I do make a profit on both, but my loyalty has definitely shifted somewhat to Zazzle, because free is still a very good thing.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-76557754540789696042010-03-23T14:41:00.004-04:002010-03-23T15:18:05.234-04:00Adam and Eve and the Children of Eden<a href="http://www.ottoblotto.com/"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 246px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451901639442286242" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYAI0oT_pJVw7zCDu88t_IQVifzBM6m50wKBacy0rpg1uxZBXMm3yn6j08tWzyoVFwLbyYYL0CqX3CAuIZ-NCoTJ1f02mMqBy6-mCOpSB_GnNGIOpdzRKbzypPxFOVo7SivBUo/s320/Adam+and+Eve+-+facing+front.jpg" /></a>
My kids were recently in a production of <em>Children of Eden</em>, a musical of questionable theology set roughly in the book of Genesis. Aside from the names of the characters, there is little that refers accurately to anything Biblical, but if you like theatrical interpretation, you may really enjoy it. Or not.<br /><br />
I am of the impression that pretty much all plays and concerts are about 3 songs too long. Even with the relief of an intermission, they always seem to surpass my attention span by the aforementioned 3 songs, and Children of Eden is no exception.<br /><br />
Children of Eden starts in the first act with the creation story, and somewhere along the way we end up at Stonehenge. [Hello? How did we get from naming animals to a ring of giant stones?] In case you are not up on your Old Testament, Stonehenge does not appear in the Bible.<br /><br />
By midway through the second act, which is the story of Noah and the flood, I was ready to start pitching all the characters off the ark and begging God to please let the musical end. I make a lousy thespian, especially in light of the two theatre degrees I have collecting dust in a bookshelf somewhere. Let me be clear, though; the people who put on the play did an admirable job; it is the musical itself I find tedious.<br /><br />
My most recent trip to the Habitat Restore, however, yielded some very inspirational bits of hardware, so I decided that an Adam and Eve sculpture would be an amusing task. Since I had been a slave to my children's rehearsal schedule for the last few months, I must have a bad case of Genesis on the brain.<br /><br />
I hope you like my doll sculpture. It, like the play, is suggestive of the apple eating contest between Adam and Eve that resulted in their both catching cold from the sudden draftiness one frequently experiences when camping out. Or something like that. You can look it up.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-63171723473402228602010-03-23T11:22:00.007-04:002010-03-23T15:22:02.902-04:00This is Dolls; We're Not Making Construction<a href="http://www.ottoblotto.com/"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 317px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451853927502443218" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkuWlCqw08u7vBFtEbsDTy2UHCX5MG_eft5a7LiF9nqDolQ8bxFTJiFEusM8V2ewsgLpPNKjEuzEQjh_RA4m4Up6p6Gs6J7A6Zytgakm1PzyOwXiyzQ9RMoZ40Pws3iK3bIJAf/s320/Bovine+doll+pair.jpg" /></a>
I watched a bit of that new show on HGTV called <em>Tough as Nails</em>. You've likely seen the ads where Cindy Stumpo snidely declares, "This is construction; we're not making dolls." Why would I want to spend my time watching someone revel in their ability to be rude and abrasive to everyone they meet? It's an easy show to turn off.<br /><br />
I, on the other hand, am making dolls. My supply of shoe stretchers is holding up, so I took out another heap of them yesterday and got to work on some much needed art therapy. I had been meaning to make a bovine inspired doll for my friend, John, whose <a href="http://www.stickam.com/thefieldlab">stickam site</a> is much more engaging than an evening with Cindy Stumpo. John lives off the grid in a desolate area of Texas, and has longhorn cows that wander in and out of the premises all day. Evidently, they aren't his cows, but he doesn't seem to mind, and has become pretty good friends with one named Benita, who now has her own <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Longhorn-Benita/329879618962">Facebook page</a>.<br /><br />
This pair of bovine beauties is made from two shoe stretchers. The legs are spindles from a local textile mill, the facial collage is from some women's magazines from the 50's and 60's, and the various other parts are scavenged from the Habitat ReStore here in Greensboro, NC. They include various cabinet hardwares, hooks, nails, brads, leather strips, and wooden spoons.<br /><br />
The people over at Habitat were beginning to get curious over my frequent purchases of piles of apparently unmatched hardware jetsom and flotsam. So I shared this blog address with them. I hope they will be pleased, but there is no telling what people will really think.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-58902574942476283342010-02-19T19:50:00.003-05:002010-02-19T20:00:02.562-05:00Recycled Materials Birdhouses 4<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCFSiOh89VDJ9j-pFLC-QGXy7JH3TW_bk0kvbLp_o7K5KwQLl8degP_NR3rWwWz1kVH4U4pB3T6hIHsmWu2Tw0vXyk5z0Rhd2mEcJwOugKGywV6zuLwZ1yuRfG5JkZCUy6kR9h/s1600-h/Meter+house+3.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 275px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440121839285860642" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCFSiOh89VDJ9j-pFLC-QGXy7JH3TW_bk0kvbLp_o7K5KwQLl8degP_NR3rWwWz1kVH4U4pB3T6hIHsmWu2Tw0vXyk5z0Rhd2mEcJwOugKGywV6zuLwZ1yuRfG5JkZCUy6kR9h/s320/Meter+house+3.jpg" /></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSRL9mWC6EyEuiiR8vRERRYpd5mZffhRNsc-7AUtJAVGWDWHVe-wqqhg3c55ycPcR90yaZVRCifHOqzHu5uUThl5Gopj9peE3e7U9D79tWLk34jHw9U-LNsBU4TC9QJrtNiGN6/s1600-h/Meter+house+2.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 314px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440121836957159986" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSRL9mWC6EyEuiiR8vRERRYpd5mZffhRNsc-7AUtJAVGWDWHVe-wqqhg3c55ycPcR90yaZVRCifHOqzHu5uUThl5Gopj9peE3e7U9D79tWLk34jHw9U-LNsBU4TC9QJrtNiGN6/s320/Meter+house+2.jpg" /></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSyZFg9Vf8k8aDykmyQkbtTYLR6Inho2fC-O1c8_qUmy7HODKnbQUzdp9mqD3NvAeG8B1gd76VFeeQ2_FtljyF6e5-8bg90kgyNF-YwrXRDOHrytYaZswRpsfe-G49CIbuyJ_m/s1600-h/Meter+house+1.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 317px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440121827383155010" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSyZFg9Vf8k8aDykmyQkbtTYLR6Inho2fC-O1c8_qUmy7HODKnbQUzdp9mqD3NvAeG8B1gd76VFeeQ2_FtljyF6e5-8bg90kgyNF-YwrXRDOHrytYaZswRpsfe-G49CIbuyJ_m/s320/Meter+house+1.jpg" /></a>
This birdhouse is one I call The Meter House. This house uses side cuts and regular 1X lumber. I used old tin roofing for the roof. There is a large gas meter kind of randomly screwed to the side, because I really liked how it looked.
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The opposite side has some ventilation holes covered with screening and a ceramic outlet cover. The perch is ceramic as well, with a silver toned beauty ring and a piece of rusted metal roofing.
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The house is asymmetrical in design, but I figure the birds won't mind too much. Maybe they'll have creative offspring.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-52174837196073129522010-02-19T19:42:00.002-05:002010-02-19T19:49:33.646-05:00Recycled Materials Birdhouses 3<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJy_BizzpMPVx1wtmVcsTbPnJL1PN4AxijCnt3iGZMRU4LM2RNrXRKiVjaLV8JUFwEnsJngg8pIgX7a2dggFoD-SG9pXY_nGq3gKzrY2lu_5w9VLwgYhLQlgJSAPdTJ6HO8H14/s1600-h/Key+house+2.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 275px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440119880042207874" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJy_BizzpMPVx1wtmVcsTbPnJL1PN4AxijCnt3iGZMRU4LM2RNrXRKiVjaLV8JUFwEnsJngg8pIgX7a2dggFoD-SG9pXY_nGq3gKzrY2lu_5w9VLwgYhLQlgJSAPdTJ6HO8H14/s320/Key+house+2.jpg" /></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuPfzKB8CzHH2waI2O1n_Qj1khVcf0w23306fJhta8fEWt36RCGn92RFF43eX4EzfTdWCJQH32EZhCuhajpHt4BRf1cem3l3JblnbwsNRGKdUsMhom6uBrcsfu4qKHjb7ZGpWB/s1600-h/Key+house+1.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 267px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440119874577825202" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuPfzKB8CzHH2waI2O1n_Qj1khVcf0w23306fJhta8fEWt36RCGn92RFF43eX4EzfTdWCJQH32EZhCuhajpHt4BRf1cem3l3JblnbwsNRGKdUsMhom6uBrcsfu4qKHjb7ZGpWB/s320/Key+house+1.jpg" /></a> This is another of my recycled materials birdhouses. I'm pretty fond of this one. It uses 1X lumber along with side cuts from some old logs.
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There are some key ornaments, along with drawer hardware and a door stop that is doing duty as a perch. The side hole has screening in it to protect against anything getting in through the side, but it still offers some ventilation.
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The roof is made from a piece of old tin roofing from a dismantled barn. I can't wait to get it up on a tree where I can watch for future tenants.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-37346479644209431132010-02-19T19:32:00.005-05:002010-02-19T19:42:08.319-05:00Recycled Materials Birdhouses 2<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSk28lguSkypUD4x-C_N_ccyalGLMvSLxRTe8RLuf0mZktjnhS0T57hhqzQg77BoveDhDklz_Hn8QHW-Z9LO2jbR4qVDBHK75EmYBXclKORs-ALzjaF0MhtuN25SwTLlV82jxA/s1600-h/Arizona+house+3.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 193px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440117300311137010" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSk28lguSkypUD4x-C_N_ccyalGLMvSLxRTe8RLuf0mZktjnhS0T57hhqzQg77BoveDhDklz_Hn8QHW-Z9LO2jbR4qVDBHK75EmYBXclKORs-ALzjaF0MhtuN25SwTLlV82jxA/s320/Arizona+house+3.jpg" /></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbEIc9oCRW-cGsimufCgulit-AZ7KHtnjEDn_F-5FyGP6eNmc0Rt8HQBHv5dSwLjqyPtxp7_Higa2MDBLGHqXb_00sMuTwkhwIFXS9ZfHWVrODGpMW8fgtQOlNu4A97S3n2_O7/s1600-h/Arizona+house+2.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 192px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440117293222340578" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbEIc9oCRW-cGsimufCgulit-AZ7KHtnjEDn_F-5FyGP6eNmc0Rt8HQBHv5dSwLjqyPtxp7_Higa2MDBLGHqXb_00sMuTwkhwIFXS9ZfHWVrODGpMW8fgtQOlNu4A97S3n2_O7/s320/Arizona+house+2.jpg" /></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlbekAJ6GkJ_6oj0Bv0l7zuMjKVtYn0tzh5Rn23WEC7EmPleypQo4Yk8lVHHDxuhKS2RJyNiVFGKIXalS9S-MWvnsvBLd5VOVM6T7moRJeHQBt0qv5OT-ChGus446rhz9-GiDo/s1600-h/Arizona+house+1.jpg"></a>I call this birdhouse the Arizona house, as it uses my no longer needed Arizona license plate, among other things.
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We found an awesome metal scrapyard the other day. They had all these bins of old brass junk, much of which I have used on this house. It includes three different styles of drawer pulls, along with escutcheon plates, beauty rings, a key, a dog tag, and a plastic outlet cover.
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My favorite part is the unusual top ornament. I just hope it doesn't act as a lightning rod.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-2528047280065987292010-02-19T19:27:00.001-05:002010-02-19T19:27:57.063-05:00Recycled Materials Birdhouses<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4tjGla6F0sR4po3ovcpjJH2YIejLAOIgHUgpBlmLEz1e6Vi2nRXzVqiBN6AP2wzOrDpjvAADb9LTKKUPal8qb5ePFN9SWNOdyrTnkkgniikjX08huR55EjYNnkOR-9loUquGFug/s1600-h/House+5+3.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 240px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440111884636760818" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4tjGla6F0sR4po3ovcpjJH2YIejLAOIgHUgpBlmLEz1e6Vi2nRXzVqiBN6AP2wzOrDpjvAADb9LTKKUPal8qb5ePFN9SWNOdyrTnkkgniikjX08huR55EjYNnkOR-9loUquGFug/s320/House+5+3.jpg" /></a>
<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinC08iu7zed9PtZWYNMVie-whMtQY9zAFre3A20a_J-vuE0ami1q4Hr7SKOdT_jYdLXZOZo_z97XQdpHTprP_t5CWaNAB1DgLg6I3-3BpB5TzyoXcyR7ibFQb3dKMPsPujk8Qntg/s1600-h/House+5+2.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 254px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440111881172424802" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinC08iu7zed9PtZWYNMVie-whMtQY9zAFre3A20a_J-vuE0ami1q4Hr7SKOdT_jYdLXZOZo_z97XQdpHTprP_t5CWaNAB1DgLg6I3-3BpB5TzyoXcyR7ibFQb3dKMPsPujk8Qntg/s320/House+5+2.jpg" /></a>
<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA09gxKmo_4xV_F96Z7tDmd4ZmFCtPb1TPUOnAZPGw-KfeNnFd3dRDMIRoRjohUZdVHDgyOJTmRcvod2zWmHJgMmotBUxyYl6mLu5VS9oGoBvBIslsgng-sloLNd7Dyq1G6O_xxw/s1600-h/House+5+1.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 315px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440108570070394018" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA09gxKmo_4xV_F96Z7tDmd4ZmFCtPb1TPUOnAZPGw-KfeNnFd3dRDMIRoRjohUZdVHDgyOJTmRcvod2zWmHJgMmotBUxyYl6mLu5VS9oGoBvBIslsgng-sloLNd7Dyq1G6O_xxw/s320/House+5+1.jpg" /></a>
For the last few days I have been doing some birdhouses. We have had an unusually cold winter, and I have been trying hard to keep all the neighborhood birds fed. Since spring is on the way, I figured birdhouses would be a good idea for my little feathered friends.</div><div><br /> </div><div>My husband and I spent the better part of a day collecting some birdhouse inspirations. We got some very cool items at the local Habitat Home Re-Store, a metal salvage yard, and the junk heap where a barn had been not so recently re-roofed. </div><div> <br /></div><div>It was just uncommon fortune that Illustration Friday chose "Propogation" for it's word of the week. I figured I would be contributing to the propogation of baby birds, so I decided to post some pictures. </div><div> <br /></div><div>This particular house uses the side cuts from some logs, some regular 1X lumber, a portion of a license plate, a metal house number, a valve stem, an electrical plate of some sort, and a sculptural head that had taken a bad fall. I still have a little caulking and weatherproofing to do, but I am pleased with my results.
</div><div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-57531712953461994782009-09-29T23:11:00.003-04:002009-12-02T08:48:08.883-05:00Outsider Art Doll #2<a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=370266707929&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 180px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387093386589712514" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMBMnHG5LBVKxTFOaTrsp_G72seQsvYn1PRXzQ4tIFdh9SsTOlKIFs-hsG-ygpF9v6KG27zXNdqGnS7JG8yaUFpr841n44SjFCI2eHoQdt4MUnGGhvoYOD06YThE5N3fpDWDB7/s320/Doll+2A+copy.jpg" /></a>
This is the second art doll in the series. She's a little wacky, as evidenced by the split mouth and the spring pigtails. She's also pregnant, which may account for the cookie cutter belly. She has white porcelain knob breasts, and textile spindle legs. Her arms are made from 1/2 of a salad serving tong. The main body is an old shoe stretcher.<br /><br />
I'm having the distinct feeling that I'm going to have these things hanging around a long time, as they are gathering very little attention so far. Just what I need, more art.<br /><br />
Purchase shoe stretchers for your own dolls at <a href="http://www.myshoestretcher.com/">MyShoeStretcher.com</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-57022254762234225322009-09-27T21:40:00.005-04:002009-12-02T08:47:26.016-05:00Outsider Art Doll #1<a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370266595726"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 154px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5386328214400697314" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8SsZKoCWUmoFekDVV56sgUbVTz79GBfySofmn25PRi5vYod_AxzdZvVNrME6Q2h2F59YJ8IW4IRitsELxd-WHUekEKqU4_th0R4lYMHmNn7MOAFHVqo9BgMyq-ULfLIP0pb0q/s320/Doll+1A+copy.jpg" /></a>
So, I did these 11 art dolls. Personally, I love to make stuff, draw stuff, create stuff. I can do it all day and night, and frequently do. I did these dolls, and decided to list them for sale on eBay, one per night for 11 nights. It seemed like fun. This is Doll #1.
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The main body of the doll is an old cedar shoe stretcher. I collaged the face from pictures in some old Ladies Home Journals I got off of eBay. The eyebrow is made from some headless nails, and the hair is from copper tacks that have been wrapped in blue coated wire. There are a pair of tiny screw breasts and a porcelain knob "bun in the oven." The legs are made from spindles discarded from an area textile mill.
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I enjoyed making these dolls, as I have no social life whatsoever, so doing art kind of compensates for that, but not really. In any event, you can check back here for Doll #2 tomorrow, and you can bid on <a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370266595726">Doll #1 on eBay</a> right now. Go ahead. Really. Why wait?
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Purchase shoe stretchers for your own dolls at <a href="http://www.myshoestretcher.com/">MyShoeStretcher.com</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-68894081699926180782009-09-25T18:52:00.009-04:002009-12-02T08:51:33.354-05:00Illustration Friday: Pattern<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS3702uyP6MjkLpOIMeXRUQnK0TZgmI3DD4uyJYZAuvkvKJ3rhfNuo21CrYQlQS18e_DKMEQB-pvyQ7Rjq_de44abO5GTE43Wlc0kZkINmjTHqA0kgUH3XrrGDmq3TcvpDEvI8/s1600-h/Doll+5.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 197px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385544824007013042" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS3702uyP6MjkLpOIMeXRUQnK0TZgmI3DD4uyJYZAuvkvKJ3rhfNuo21CrYQlQS18e_DKMEQB-pvyQ7Rjq_de44abO5GTE43Wlc0kZkINmjTHqA0kgUH3XrrGDmq3TcvpDEvI8/s320/Doll+5.jpg" /></a>
“Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern.” - Alfred North Whitehead <br /><br />
I haven't done an Illustration Friday piece in a long time, but today's theme seemed appropriate to my latest project. Art Dolls.<br /><br />
My father passed back in January. The last several months have found my mother and I sorting through a mountain of my father's stuff. One of the things my father was bog on was shoes. He had over 300 pairs of shoes, which we have ebayed and consigned and given away. In the process, we pulled out dozens and dozens of these shoe stretcher things. I was packing them up when I was seized by an art idea, which usually assures that my own children will have as much stuff to sort through when I die as my mother and I have since my father's death.<br /><br />
I brought home several boxes of these shoe stretchers. A trip to the local Habitat Re-Store and Goodwill added lots of other odds and ends, and Michael's and Lowe's rounded out the project needs. So far, I am having a lot of fun cobbling together [no pun intended] these funky dolls.<br /><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8daEPye6bVvGcTE1kiOkhAd-owaLeqoRgPRCyJR08OO1DJ-kACj8K6kPnWiq0CDtGYmnj-C6WkRNGRwDYF8cxD6Refm5EjvH0wQrbHaLUAxZeTqv7z01_euYqLjNELQ3Kf3s3/s1600-h/006.JPG"></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVlDy1Q9cRU7ZPW-hDGjHwDtQST0j3gtCvBL0FtMO0PBYE_6at4qK6-RRI6IsRG3wkYaCEDZrQrug2BnllzIRMB7RzxLa5CGzQAq2h00jOYyYLBA1G0k67IclnJB_7Sb8K2Ouf/s1600-h/Doll+4.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 157px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385546801712502818" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVlDy1Q9cRU7ZPW-hDGjHwDtQST0j3gtCvBL0FtMO0PBYE_6at4qK6-RRI6IsRG3wkYaCEDZrQrug2BnllzIRMB7RzxLa5CGzQAq2h00jOYyYLBA1G0k67IclnJB_7Sb8K2Ouf/s320/Doll+4.jpg" /></a>
They are built on wooden shoe stretchers with spindles from a textile plant for the legs. The eyes and mouth are collaged from Ladies Home Journal magazines from the 50's and 60's. There are also curtain rod finials, a wrought iron drawer pull, handmade nails, leather scraps, plastic and metal serving spoons, a cabinet hardware backplate, string, screws, matte varnish and tacks. I plan to eBay them starting next week. I hope you'll stay tuned.<br /><br />
So what is the pattern? For me, I am almost always drawing people, usually portraits. These dolls are kind of like portraits for me, albeit in an obvious departure from my usual work. So I suppose people are my pattern, the thing to which I continuously return, the thing that makes me feel connected.<br /><br />
Purchase shoe stretchers for your own dolls at <a href="http://www.myshoestretcher.com/">MyShoeStretcher.com</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-43545125844859365542009-08-22T15:09:00.007-04:002009-08-22T16:49:46.943-04:00Allure Flooring StinksI don't usually write product reviews here, but I want to do an informational post on the Allure Trafficmaster Flooring from Home Depot because I suspect it is important. <br /><br />
Recently, I bought a new house. OK, not really new, as it was built in 1986, but it is a place to live. Anyway, it is a HUGE renovation project, and I don't exactly have tons of money. I needed to put down a floor in my bedroom after ripping out the old carpet that was there. I wanted a non-carpeted surface. While wandering through the Home Depot, I came across this vinyl floating floor from Halstead Industries called Allure Trafficmaster. It comes in boxes of plank strips that stick to one another, not your subfloor, and it looked really good. Better yet, it was reasonably priced, so I decided to go with it. <br /><br />
I bought 12 boxes. Eleven boxes were batch #10-10-2009, and one was #10-03-2009. I took it home and let it acclimate in its boxes for a couple of days, as one usually does with flooring. Then, in the space of only a few hours, my husband and I laid the entire 12 boxes. It looked fantastic. We moved in our furniture, closed the skylights and turned on the air conditioning, and prepared to spend our first night in the new bedroom. <br /><br />
As I was laying in bed, I noticed the bad odor. I opened a skylight part way, but left on the air. By morning, the smell was really bad. I turned off the air and turned on the ceiling fans, opening windows all over the house. Surely it was like a new car smell, and would dissipate quickly. It didn't. <br /><br />
I grew concerned, so I called the Customer Service line at Halstead. The woman registered my name and concerns, and told me that if I would wash it down a couple of times with some vinegar, it should take care of the problem. An odd idea, but I tried it. For 3 days I mopped the floor with vinegar. Now, it smelled more like a pickle factory, but that was somehow better than the strange chemical odor alternative. However, as soon as the vinegar smell dissipated, the chemical smell was back. <br /><br />
I Googled Allure Flooring to see if anyone else had this problem. There were a few angry complaints on various forums, but many people said the smell went away very quickly, and they loved their new floor. The only people with serious complaints seemed to be the ones who had installed it over concrete below grade who were having issues with it coming apart, and with mold trapped underneath. I had installed mine on a second floor over very dry plywood, so that wasn't it. <br /><br />
I had asked for an MSDS sheet on the flooring when I called, and the woman very kindly sent it to me via email. There are a lot of interesting items there. First, the MSDS sheet says it is for Metroflor Vinly Sheet Flooring and Metroflor Resilient Tile Flooring. Then, over to the side, it has a box that says Allure Vinyl Sheet Flooring and Resilient Tile Flooring. So which is it? It's hard to say. Metroflor is an upgraded product that is also manufactured by Halstead, but it is not the same product. That seemed odd. The MSDS seemed to indicate that the product was pretty innocuous though, which I tried hard to find relieving. There was a second "MSDS" sheet on the adhesive that is used to lock the floor pieces together. This didn't really look like a MSDS, rather it was a report from the Fu Hong Chemical Company, Ltd. of Taiwan. It showed a spectacular list of chemicals that sounded scary but were not detected in the sample of the adhesive. So I knew what it <em>wasn't</em>, but that didn't tell me exactly what it <em>was</em>.Hmmm.... <br /><br />
The room got worse. It was always strangely humid in the room. My bed sheets felt cold and clammy. I was already keeping the air handler for the house going around the clock, along with a ceiling fan. I kept the adjoining bathroom window open. I added an Ionic Pro and a de-humidifier. Nothing helped. I woke up each morning with a sore throat, and sometimes my eyes would run in the night. After about a month, my daughter said, "this room is unhealthy." She's 13. Maybe she'll be a scientist. <br /><br />
I emailed my brother, who <em>is</em> a noted polymer scientist, and forwarded him the MSDS sheets Halstead had sent me. He told me that they had sent an SGS [contract testing organization] report, and he couldn't tell me what was wrong because all the report showed was a list of chemicals that were NOT found in the adhesive. <br /><br />
It was time to call Halstead again. The nice Customer Service woman listened to my story very patiently. She asked if I would like an "abatement kit." I asked her what that was, and she said it was a neutralizer I could apply, and then a sealer. [Alarm bells are beginning to go off in my head.] She went on to say that the product was made from recycled vinyl from China [Red flag! Red flag!] and that most batches had no odor at all, but some batches did seem to have a bad smell and she didn't know why. <br /><br />
OK, when you start saying that something was manufactured in China, that's when I start to get worried. It's not like the Chinese have such a great track record these days when it comes to the safety of their products. Who knows what could be hidden in this stuff? I was about to enter full panic attack mode when I heard her say "... or would you just like me to issue you a credit?" Excuse me? <br /><br />
The Customer Service representative asked me how many boxes I had bought. I told her I had bought 12 boxes in mid June. She said to just take my receipt to Home Depot, have them call the Halstead Customer Service line and reference my name, and they would take care of the credit. I was stunned, but I decided not to waste any time on this, so I jumped in my car and headed for the Home Depot. <br /><br />
At the Home Depot, the woman in returns had me speak with the Assistant Manager, who called Halstead and confirmed that I was due a $550.00 refund. They promptly credited it back to my Discover card and apologized for the inconvenience. <br /><br />
"Don't they want the flooring back?" I asked. Apparently not. No company rep would visit or call, no return the defective product hassle, just take the money and be on your way. It all seemed so suspiciously easy. I asked my brother the scientist about it. His take was that they knew they had an issue of some sort, and that it would be easier to pay me off rather than risk a lawsuit. Interesting. <br /><br />
I went home and ripped out the flooring and hauled it out of my house as quickly as I could. It took about 3 hours to rip it all up and haul it out. I opened the windows and ventilated everything. I also stripped all the sheets and bedclothes from the bed and washed them thoroughly. That was Thursday. It is now Saturday. The smell is gone, and the humidity levels have evened out considerably. I slept much more easily, and haven't had any sore throats or runny eyes since. <br /><br />
So exactly what is the issue with Allure Flooring? It's hard to say, as I cannot afford to test the stuff to see what it actually contained. I am extremely grateful to have it out of my home, though. And while I wasn't compensated for the time I spent laying or removing it, I really don't care. What is a few hours compared with the exposure to something terribly toxic, which is what I believe was happening with the Allure I bought. <br /><br />
Now, in fairness, the Assistant Manager at Home Depot said that they sell this stuff every day, and mine was the first complaint they'd ever had. So maybe not all batches are smelly. But if you think you want this flooring, be really cautious. You might get more than you bargained for. <br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com204tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21405674.post-27287155249327179152009-08-17T18:33:00.008-04:002009-08-17T20:07:20.065-04:00Cafepress' New Prices Spell Trouble for ShopkeepersAwhile back, Cafepress decided to make some changes to their marketplace; they decided to price everything in the marketplace exactly the same. I suppose this makes some sense, but the way they've gone about it hasn't exactly been great. We should look at how things are panning out. <br /><br />
Cafepress has always let the shopkeepers set their own prices. They have also always strongly suggested using the "Premium" price tier. That's Ok by me, so all my shops have been set up that way. Recently, though, when they decided that for the marketplace all products should be priced exactly the same, they went against their previous notion of premium pricing, and priced everything rock bottom. <br /><br />
I am looking at my August sales here. I have sold 11 items between 5 shops on Cafepress. That's not exactly enough to make anyone dance a jig. But it's when I compare pricing that things get really ugly. <br /><br />
So far in August, I have made $14.30 from these 11 items, all sold from the Marketplace. With a cost of $25 per month for my 5 Cafepress shops, I am in deep doo-doo. [a highly technical term for a losing venture] Had these same items sold a few months ago when they were priced at the Premium tier, they would have brought me $37.53. Not a lot of money, but I would at least not be losing money. [the aforementioned "deep doo-doo"] So that really sucks. <br /><br />
Then the question is, would those items still have sold had they been priced a few bucks higher? Maybe, maybe not. It's hard to know what the tipping point is these days. Perhaps people are not spending quite so freely anymore. Still, it is a significantly smaller amount. Is Cafepress just looking for an increase in volume, which helps them, but at these prices, it doesn't help the shopkeepers. Which brings me back to the inevitable comparison with Zazzle. <br /><br />
Shops are free on Zazzle, which means it costs me absolutely nothing for the 14,000+ products I have listed there in 12 different, thematically focused shops. Those shops are <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/birdsofparadise">Birds of Paradise</a>, <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/biblicaltshirts">Biblical T-Shirts</a>, <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/celticdreams">Celtic Dreams</a>, <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/Godblesstheusa">God Bless the USA</a>, <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/ottoblotto">ottoblotto</a>, <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/livesimply">Live Simply</a>, <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/sunandshadows">Sun and Shadows</a>, <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/turtlehero">Turtle Hero</a>, <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/zodiacattack">Zodiac Attack</a>, <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/halloweentime">Halloween Time</a>, <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/atotalflake">A Total Flake</a>, and <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/obsessions">Obsessions</a>. Whenever I get another idea for a design group, I can just open another shop. I sure couldn't afford to do that on Cafepress, which is making me re-think that relationship just a bit. <br /><br />
In the same time frame, I have made $24.95 in sales through Zazzle. Cost to me, $0. It's a big difference, and since Google Trends shows Zazzle still leading in searches over Cafepress, I wonder...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1