merry christmas and gocco!

so i posted some christmas pics over on flickr (link) for everyone to see. russ and i had christmas alone this year and i made gingerbread, pot roast with herb mashed potatoes and sour cream apple pie... all from scratch. i miss cooking. i've gotten so busy lately i hadn't been trying new things, but today reminded me how much fun it is.

so i only asked for one thing this year: gocco. today i made my first prints, an edition of 30 (in the shop). part of the girl's arm didn't come out all the way, but i'm pretty happy with them. i really love the clean-up process, which is pretty much non-existent thanks to the tidy gocco set up.

i'm hoping that this screen printer will help me distribute more art in an accessible way, while allowing me to stockpile originals for a show sometime in the future.

that said, please PLEASE let me know if there are any daily drawings or other drawings of mine that you'd like to see in print form....

merry christmas all!
sam

tagged: 5 things you may not know about me

sarah (http://hi--howareyou.blogspot.com/) tagged me for this, so here goes!

1. i don't own a t.v. i haven't had one in a few years and although i waste a good amount of time online, i enjoy not having it staring at me when i sit on my couch.

2. i don't like coffee. can't stand it really, unless i mix it with half water. i will always be a tea girl.

3. i am a slightly-more-intense-than-average-harry-potter-fan. i don't dress up, but i do read fan websites regularly and read the books through about once a year. i didn't even get into them until just after the 6th book came out and haven't been able to put them down since. i don't think i've written about it too much on here, although i think i posted a couple of times about it.

4. i have a "monica" closet. monica geller on friends, who is a total neat freak, has this one closet that is completely chaotic. (see pic above) i have a closet like this. no matter how many times i clean it out, it always remains dangerously close to taking out your eye if you open the door.

5. i don't "sketch" drawings out before i draw them. sometimes i sketch paintings. i just always found that sketching and working out the idea was the fun part and re-doing it all seemed boring to me. i have since learned that sometimes you really should sketch, but still on my little drawings and for my daily drawings, i always just shoot from the hip with my black pen. it's more fun for me to figure out how to make the mistakes look intentional than to trace pencil lines.

okay. so i also don't have a ton of friends doing this blog thing, so i tag michelle at freeandliving.

love to you all!
sam

little poem

the tinkling of glasses
the merriment of a group of friends
i hear it from afar
it cannot reach me
i am within.

site redesign

it was time for a fresh face. i'm not sure how long i will love the sunshine yellow, but for now it makes me happy.

i'm still ironing out some kinks with the blog layout. i'd like it to look a little more integrated with the site, but it's getting there.

also, i updated my ETSY shop (see the link on the left sidebar) with some plush. it's just in time for the holidays!

cheers!
sam

p.s.

so i thought i should address the obnoxious failure that was my "daily posting", which, as you might notice, did not happen.

there are a few reasons (excuses) for this.

first, i mostly write on here to share my arts and crafts or if i have something really important to say, which honestly rarely happens on a daily basis. i get really insecure and anxious when i feel forced to write something and feel as though i have nothing to say. i cannot tell you how many times i composed posts and deleted them because they were just pointless blabbering.

second, i have been so busy with life and holidays and work and trying to keep the laundry done and the dishes clean that i haven't been making daily art.

so there. i feel better having at least apologized for the disparaging lack of posts in november, but feel confident that i might be posting more in december as things are slowing down a bit at work and with russell's school.

love to you all!
sam

kraftworks

so i did pretty well at the craft fair yesterday. i love going just because i meet so many cool people and because people get excited about handmade arts and crafts.

i was so busy every night this week sewing and making merchandise to sell. the things that didn't go will be put up on etsy later tonight, so if you need to do some holiday shopping (hint hint!)....

now i'm a little sleepy, but excited that i get to eat the chocolate out of my advent calendar because it's finally december! (thanks ash!)

-sam