A-kon went smoothly and well, even tho Im still pretty tired.

Got 10 new artworks done, and all that product!

Im surrounded by piles of stuff right nao - too tired to put it all away.

Want to see my new art? They are all listed on my DA page : http://starrydance.deviantart.com/ but I will try to list them here later.

More talking later once Im untired. If you want a longer convention report its also on my DA! <3

If you care. =p

http://www.flickr.com/photos/starrydance

Check em out!

Have 5 of the 10 Sketches started on the Backgrounds. =3

They are looking pretty great, Im pleased with them so far. I wont take pictures or anything (I doubt it) just because of the pointless color shifts of my camera.

Other than that, for Akon, Im pretty much on track. I have a busy out of the house weekend this weekend. Im prolly gonna bring my artwork with me and try to paint there, I dont really have time to do anything else. I should prolly have told my D&D group I couldnt make it this weekend but oh well. Ill just be REALLY out of it that day. I wish I could bring them with me and get anything done. I doubt I could tho ....

Cosplay is on hold till Memorial Day - after all the artwork and product is more or less done. Have the display more or less ready. Going good.

Feeling REALLY lonely all of the sudden for no good reason. I think depression always makes a last second attack on me during painting. No idea why.

*Mopes while paint dries*

Sketch Dump for Akon!( Sketches Inside )

Im digging around for two new art ideas for Akon.

So far doing:

1) Moogle
2) Pikachu
3) Chocobo
4) Prinny
5) Kitsune
6) Chinese Dragon
7) Kirin of the Dawn
8) Twilight Kirin (not the vampire kind ~ )
9) ???
10) ???

Printer Update:

So Epsons being pretty cool but its still a pain. They apparently know that the Artisan 800s paper tray/grabbers arent working up to snuff so they basically are just saying hey - get a new one when it breaks. Thats good, cept ... it takes about 3/4 sets of ink to really get it down from $1-$2 a page down to .50 or so a page color. I literally cant afford to restart the priming the printer process every few months when it gives up - it just kills me! So, were gonna nurse this one till it dies and if it starts acting up (even once!) Im just gonna use down the inks and after Akon either get the 1400 or new 1900 and just replace the current one. The 1400, apparently, can get down to about .30 a page and the 1900 is about .65 a page. About half of what my current 1800 is! So its almost worth just having the one 1900 and grin and bearing .60 a page. Then again, once you have a problem its NICE to have a backup available. Meh. We'll see how the cards fall on that one.

Cosplay Update:

Moogle - Hubby rocked working on the wings frame tonight. Its basically done! Its so awesome! Tomorrow night we are gonna attack it with my perfect purple velvet and my new high temp glue gun with some stuffing and make me squishy purple moogle wings. Woot-ga! We also got the uber-Pom on my headband - just gotta measure and cut the arm sleeves and legs sleeves so I can cut out the headband pieces and glue them together.

I need to still make the mock-test shirt. I hope to do that tomorrow and have the real-shirt finished by the end of the week. And the petticoat! The underskirt is done cept needing elastic waist and some trimming of seams (I didnt know you were supposed to! ^_^;;) so lots to do there but still more or less on course.

Still to do for Moogle : Overskirt, Sleeves for Arms/Legs, Star Necklace, find a white undershirt.

Lucky Cat - Kimono is done and beautiful, due to my friend just flat out rocking. I need to make the underskirt for the petticoat and sew that on, thats to do this week. And then its headband and tail can be made after I cut out all the pieces for it and its sleeves too!

Still to do for it : The Obi, The Coin, the Necklace, and the Sleeves.

Fairy - Wings ordered! Woot! Im fairly certain Im just gonna wear my purple toga for this costume this year - although I need to go dig through my outfits and see if theres something more skirty to wear. Otherwise, just going to make a belt and cute fleece hat for my fairy! Easy peasy!

Display:

I have the Gridwall purchased (ouch!) and were gonna set it up and sew the castle pieces this weekend - and make the tower tops! They should be easy as long as we can somehow borrow a power saw thing. Hubbys friend has one, never minds us using it. Prolly gonna grab a staple gun too to finish those up! Then we just need to go grab one of each kind of product and go to Container Store/Target/Walmart etc and get display parts. Since Im gonna start putting some products on little cards, I need to make a demo page of those so I can get the right containers!

Art:

Oh yeah, Art! With the printer-malfunctions looming and display being a more important factor this year Im cutting the art down to 7. A GOOD 7, I have rough sketches! A Wonderful (pink!) Eastern Dragon, A Moogle (Maybe even 2 >.>), Chocobo, Prinny, Pikachu, Kitsune, and a Kirin. So maybe 8 if both Moogle sketches pan out (although itd be silly to do so!)


Personal:

Feeling a little more up now - amazing what an overwhelming todo lists can do to your state of being! Also, hubby got WiiFit hooked up and weve been doing that everyday. I really like it more than I thought I would - so I aim at 15-30 mins a day and we'll see if it helps out at all! <3

Thank goodness we were RANDOMLY printing ahead of akon. Our new Printer is NOT PLAYING NICE. )@#$*@#)_$@_#$@#$! Hubbies calling tomorrow and raising hell - we called on our warranty and they send a new one and the VERY FIRST PRINT is even doing worse than the old one.

I cant have a printer that messes up after 100 prints (or 1)! And of course, I have two full sets of inks now for it so ..... Just tossing them were out more than the printer was anyway!

I also cant afford to do 10 new artwork full prints off the big fella - I dont have ink refills for it. So basically, Akon new artwork, etc, is hanging by a THREAD right now.

If we call tomorrow and they tell us to bugger off I suppose Im going to just have to run all this ink dry while I BABY! the printer. Gaaaah. Then have to buy another new printer after this, basically just writing this $250 totally off.


More bad words. MAN. Maybe I should just sell originals and screw all this crappity crappity crap.

Today Im working on my two cat-ear'd headbands for Moogle and Lucky Cat. Im also making the shirt for my moogle custome, and starting the wings too! Woo!

Its official - Im feeling better from my brief fever/sickness and now all the way into depression. NO time for this...

Ok theres a lot to do for Akon and its screaming up on me. What all do I need to do?

Display: Im getting gridwall upgrade for my display for several reasons - mostly durability and stability. So I'll need to get a new 'slipcover' for the gridwall to recreate the purple castle theme. =3 Then making new tower tops and a new table cloth too. Even MORE purple sparkly castle go!

Also working on streamlining all the products into the correct sized and labelled baskets and other things so my table isnt so 'super clutter' as it kinda is right now. ^_^;;

Artwork: I have a list of 20 artworks Ill be doing for Akon! I can do it! Then need to turn around and make all that product. And make sure all the 'old' artwork product is caught up and up to date. I have just enough supplies (hopefully) to do that but after Akon Ill be out or low on a lot of raw supplies.

Costumes: Im making/accessorizing three costumes. I have a beautiful purple toga Im buying the worlds perfect fairy wings for, and trying to make a flower and sparkly headdress for it. This should be the easiest costume. Im going to upgrade my moogle costume but getting better wings, making a white outfit to wear, and remaking my ears/pom into a headband for easier wearing. My last (and hardest) costume is a Druid - I need to make a peasant skirt and shirt, Bodice/Corset, buy these cute little antlers and make a leafy/butterfly headdress, and maybe even a cloak too! Gonna be hard to do all this with my few hours of sewing experience!

I have an earlier cut off of art than ever before for this year so I have time to do product, display, and all that. So hopefully! *fingers crossed*. Im still good on time other than being worried about being able to do the costumes and keeping (and getting!) the house clean enough that I dont die during Akon stress!

My Aunt requested a large oversized ring that 'matched' all of her other artwork stuff so I ordered in some Silver Adjustable Rings, Acrylic Cabs, and Silver Flat settings.

I admit, I really think they are adorable.  I dont know if theyd have a wide market but *I* like them!


( More Pictures! )

I got some lovely shinies in this week! I ordered two sets of, well, two necklaces!

First up from Heterodyning! She was having a half off sale and I could NOT help myself. Another one of those ironies is I realize theyd be PERFECT hanging up next to Sol and Moonlit Magic, but!

( Pictures of many shinies! <3 )

A Photo journey through the first (almost totally finished!) finished room in the house! Unicorn Loft! <3




The Inspiration and main view of Unicorn Loft - these two framed lovelies! I got Selina Fenech's Moonlit Magic as the room inspiration image! However, as the room continued Sol (Michelle Lee Phelans!) insisted HE got to go there too.  That makes me happy, however, as I was pairing Unicorns and Lions along the way.  It always was one of my favorite nursery rhymes! However - its still more unicorns than lions so were still calling it Unicorn Loft! 

You can see the rest of the pictures in my Flickr:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/starrydance/

Hey everyone! Thanks for the happy warm thoughts, Im feeling much better now. I have the start of my sketch list for Akon starting up! 20 is the goal! I can do it!

Have still a few new products Im working on to share and need to still take pictures of all the old stuff.

Ive been working hard on the house lately. Lots of cleaning, organizing, and decorating. Now I remember why I didnt do any of this - its expensive!

I will try to start taking some pictures, I promise! <3

Feeling down and overwhelmed and bleh in majorness.

Got the new computer finally set up - on it now! It had to be delayed for some stuff. We hope to go out tomorrow night and get some picture ledges to finish up this room so I can take pictures! Gotta clean, sketch, and finish some other busy work this week.

If I can get over the meh =[

8 More Work weeks to go. Got a lot to do for this year! <3

Gonna order some supplies today - and finalize the art list. At the moment I have 40 ideas. >_< I think I could acutally do that many but the product might literally kill me.

Akon is coming up fast and furious! Its only like 10ish weeks away. So time to do a big blast of artwork and maybe a few more new products....

I have a few neat ideas for products! Id love to get some fabric transfer paper and get some tote bags/tshirts. Not very original, albeit, but still! <3 I have a idea my aunt gave me that Im gonna do next week, keepin it under wraps till then tho! Hehe!

Got my new computer in today, and my inks for my new Epson. Life is pretty good on that front. I have some sketches Im doing for my DMs birthday - a neat technique I learned from Meredith Dillman - pen and ink and white ink/pencil on Toned Paper. Gonna finish those up tomorrow!

Still working here and there on cleaning. Its such a big job to clean and organize a whole house from a disaster area stage! Its ok, gotta get through it.

On the art idea front - I have 36 ideas currently for Akon. Thats not even counting all the 'rejected' ideas! Plus Id LOVE to do the Animal Zodiac for the Chinese Zodiac but prolly not before Akon - thats a great post convention project. And my webcomic/story too.... Sigh!

36 is prolly way too many, its not the art itself its the product that goes along with it! Especially since I still have 13 new arts basically untried in a market. A few favorites on DA and a few sales doesnt really help me know if they are good or not! Also I worry about over doing my 'portfolio' of artwork at a show. Is there some kind of rule about how many arts per table or something? =p

Next week Ill get up and moving again - Etsy still needs a lot of work. Website needs to be finished. On and on!

I had a wonderful spring break with my Uncle, Aunt, and their two kids (6 and 8). I got a sunburn on the last day - I think thats becoming a tradition for me sadly. =p

Im back home now and were looking at our lives and our future. Hubby was at work all week last week so I was 'alone' for it - and both of us were much more internet free than normal that week. I remember when I lived and breathed on the internet - I was never more than 5 feet from it! Over the last year or so as Ive gotten more busy as an artist Ive let a lot of things slide in it.

The strangest part is I thought it would matter if I did. Guess it doesnt, really. I can go a week without internet and 'catch up' in two or three hours max. That says quite a bit doesnt it? I still love playing online games but .......

I dunno. We did kinda light on the idea that its time for us to get serious with weight loss and house cleaning (my "job" hehe!) so we can look towards having kiddos soon. Its always been a nebulous maybe that was shifting towards no.....

Why you say? Because all we ever hear are the bad stories - know what I mean? Rude kids, kids that broke or ruined something - never the good stuff. Never how it improves the lives of their parents. Maybe thats partially what I feel is 'missing' in our lives sometimes. You cant just fill it with video games and internet.

Its a funny loop weve caught ourselves in. Were not nuts about just 'going outside' he burns too easily and I get so tired! So we stay inside. Ok, well weve almost always been on some kind of budget or another so cant just run around town shopping! So if you leave that out - you stay home most of the time.

So, you read, play on games or in the internet - but then you cant not do that till you either have to go outside and/or spend some kind of money. Or just spend days watching TV! As much as I like a good drama this cant be 'all' your life is.

And so we get to buckle down a budget that allows for spending on the house - you need to spend some money on it eventually after all! Weve got a great start upstairs but need to finish it all off. Then move downstairs!

I also need to find some way to lose weight and keep it off. I dont lose easily, or well. I can stick to any diet on the planet and lose MAYBE 1 lb every two weeks. Thats just never motivating enough to stick to it long term. I have a horrible metabolism. Even if I walk, or do light weights it doesnt really change anything. Very frusterating! My aunt and uncle commented mid week that I "eat like a bird" and were confused -- they didnt think I eat like a pig or anything but they were surprised at how little, overall comparatively, I eat to others. And still nothing! =p So we get to struggle with that.

My struggle is with housework. I dont mind being a 'stay at home' at all! But keeping the house nice, perfect, whatever its the same overall trap. You cant clean and organize and decorate without spending money. But you cant get it cleaned OR organized EVER if you dont. Round and round.

But gotta have a much more clean, maintained house to have a kiddo. Gotta have less debt to afford to, I dunno, feed it! Gotta spend money to get there. Its all very frustrating! =p

Ah well, we will get there together! <3

Welcome to the final part of the New Starry Arts! <3 For today we have the Sci-fi selections!

These are all still 8x10 Watercolors and this is the final new arts for the beginning of the year! Upcoming in this week is a refreshing and relisting in my Etsy store - all these new art on products, my new and updated products, and all other Starry things!<3


The Gargoyle!
( More SciFi Arts!  )
And for the final part of product talk, Im gonna talk quickly about what Ive updated and changed!

- All my Necklaces now come on nice Suede and Velvet with clasps necklaces! They are a beautiful upgrade! My Square Glass Tile Necklaces are $10, my Long Rectangle Glass Tile necklaces are $15.

- My Original Cameo necklaces will be on sale for $5! These will be discontinued, so whatevers left is all thats left! They will come on a Chinese Silk Cord for a chain!

- My Beautiful and Archival Cameo necklaces will come on Silver chains still!

- My Sticker prices have all been lowered! More mini stickers per pack! Now 25 for $3! Woooo!

I will share some pictures of products starting later in the week as I get them listed!

Welcome back to Part 2 of 3 of New Art and stuff from me, Starrydance! <3



First up is my Favorite: Firebird! This was a holiday present to my mom - who loves bright oranges and reds. Its a companion piece to Firelizard - a matching pair for my parents!
( The rest of the Magical Creature Arts!  )

The rest of the new art upcoming in part 3!

Today Ill talk about all my new upcoming new hair accessories!

All my hair accessories have a beautiful bright and shiney 1" button accent!

- More ribbon covered alligator hair clips! These are so cute! $4 for a pair, and bigger sets will be available!

- New Hair Snaps, on bright silver colored snaps! These are fantastic! Also $4 a pair!

- Ponytail Holders - these are fantastic! They will be $3 each and 2 for $5!

- I have beautiful silver bobby pins! This is my favorite of the product - you can be stylish and fancy yet still so young at heart with shiney Starry arts! As they are silver plated, they are a bit more at $7 a pair!

Pictures coming as soon as my camera stops being a pain!