I just have to share this!

This video made me so happy! What a cool dad! ^-^

Merry Christmas and Happy New year

Remember these two from last year? They are back again singing us Jingle Bell. They really crack me up! Hopefully they bring a smile on your face during this crazy busy time. I hope you're all having a joyful Christmas time with family and friends, travel safe, and come back rested and renewed for the brand new year. Merry Christmas! xx



(Thanks Jeanee for letting me about the video! :P)

Woodland Cluster Necklace

Just added to my shop!

Shop Update: Brass Interchangeable Necklace

Here is the latest version of my interchangeable necklace, just added into my shop. It has antique brass details, a sweet little birdie and a pearl white bead, and the length is 24", a little longer so you can wear it over your winter turtleneck shirt. It drapes really beautifully around your neck, too. This is the only one I've made right now. Hopefully I will have supplies to make more. :)

Quick Shop Update

Just added this little mushroom necklace into my shop. It's dainty and really sweet. It will make a perfect Christmas gift! (PS: For domestic U.S. order, the last day to ship for Christmas is 12/19, so make sure you order before that so I have time to pack and ship your items.)

Shop Update: Chunky Bubble Necklaces

Just added these bubble necklaces in my Etsy shop. I really love them (wearing one right now). The length is about 11" on each side, and the beads rest comfortably about 3" below the collar bone. They make a real statement (it's about 3.5" wide across all beads). I have them in limited quantity since I use whatever beads I can find to craft my jewelries. If you like it, please get it now. :)

Little Necklaces for Friends

Ok today I gave away all the necklaces I made for my girlfriends, so now I can post some photos and not ruin the surprise. I had fun making these; it was even more fun to see my friends' reaction. Here they are. :)

New Necklaces

Now that all the craft shows were done for the year, I finally got some time to play with new ideas for my jewelries. I've been wanting to embellish them with warm and fun findings, and here are two of the latest ones I came up with during the weekend. They are now both in my shop.


During the week, I also took a lampworking workshop at work (sounds like a tongue twister) and made some glass beads. It was so much fun!!! It's probably one of my favorite workshop so far and makes me want to set up a little studio at home, although the idea of a gas tank freaks me out. I can't sell those beads, but I am making them into necklaces for my friends. I will show them once I give them away, since I don't want to ruin the surprise. PS: If you are not familiar with lampworking, here is a nice YouTube video. It's a very nice and therapeutic activity, especially now it's cold and the fire really warms me up.

Cyber Week Sale

Cyber Monday is for wimps! Thanks to Etsy for their new coupon feature, instead of one day only, I am going to run a 6-day sale for my shop. Everything will be 10% off during the next 6 days, from 11/29, 1 am until 12/5 , 1 am (central U.S.A. standard time). Please use coupon code: HDLCW2010 when you check out and receive 10% off your entire order. Happy shopping! : )

Also, I have re-listed some of my original artworks on my Etsy with reduced price, in order to free up some space in my studio. They are included in the Cyber Week sale, too. Wink wink.

Last Craft Show in 2010 - Crafty Chicks (It's tomorrow!)

Yay! Long Thanksgiving weekend over here! Did you get to spend Thanksgiving with friends or family and eat a lot of yummy foods yesterday? No matter where you are, I am thankful for you and wish you all have many many blessings to come. (And if you are one of the brave souls who dared to challenge the Black Friday sales, I am thankful that you've survived the possible human stampede and are reading this right now.)



I just came back from setting up my table for the Crafty Chicks sale tomorrow. This will be my last craft show in 2010. The sale is tomorrow (11/27/2010) from 9 am - 4 pm, at Heritage Hall (117 West Kansas Street, Liberty, Missouri). There are SO MANY cool stuff! Come by if you are in town, even just to say hi. : )

Where I am at this weekend...

I will be at the 9th Annual Cool Stuff sale tonight and tomorrow. As you can see, I've been busy cranking up stuff (also I've been really busy at work too)... The sale will be officially open tonight from 5-9 and continues tomorrow from 9-4. There are lots of fun stuff, made by 13 local artists. If you are in the greater Kansas City area, come by, make some friends, and do some fun holiday shopping with us. Hope to see you there!

Rug Hooking Workshop

I attended a rug hooking workshop at work. It's my first try, though I've wanted to take it for the longest time. My first attempt is a design that's 9.5" x 12"; had to simplify the design when I actually started to do it. I love folk art + colors, so this is the perfect workshop for me. I had lots of fun! : )





This is 1.5-day worth of work. We have a follow up workshop in 2 weeks; hopefully I can finish my piece by then.

Free October Desktop Wallpaper

Sorry guys, this is 10 days late since I was so swamped preparing for the art fair last week. Well, here it is! I had to use an old illustration I did years ago... hope you wouldn't mind. : )

1600x1200 wallpaper

1920x1080 wallpaper

Shop Update

Finally I had a little time to update my Etsy and added bunch of new interchangeable jewelries (also now there is a interchangeable brooch!) I had these during the art fair last weekend and they were a hit. On top of my original doodle buttons, I added new colorful fabric buttons which are more grown-up and will coordinate with different outfits nicely (pick any 4 buttons to create a unique set.) Come take a peek! :)

Create Your Own Free Owl Calendar at My Owl Barn

A while back Shivani from My Owl Barn invited me, along with other 29 artists, to be part of this really cool owl calendar project. Of course I had to sat yes! Today she emailed us and let us know that the free calendar is ready for you to customize and download on her blog. Please go take a look! You can choose a different owl for each month, download it and print it out on nice card stocks and use it yourself or give away as gift; the possibilities are endless! Also don't forget to click on artists' names which will lead you to their personal sites for more illustrated awesomeness! Thanks Shivani for letting me be part of this! :)

More Hallmarkets Photos

(photo by Jeanee)

My pal Jeanee Duval from Dirty Laundry (also a Hallmarker) wrote about the event on her blog. If you would like to see more photos, please check out her posts here and here. Also I will share them with you later if more related posts pop up among my friends.

Add: here is Jen's post with photos; commentary to come soon.

Hallmarket

We had our very first Hallmarker art fair on Saturday, and it's called "Hallmarket", perfect, right? It was a great success and totally worth all the sweatshop action leading to the event. I slept only one hour the night before, stood up for 11 hours with only one egg McMuffin, a cup of mocha, and a banana in my stomach, but it was SO MUCH fun! I really enjoyed talking to people. Thank you all so much if you made to the event; I might not remember all your names or who bought what, but I really appreciate all of you! Hopefully we will get to do it again next year. :)

Here are more photos of my booth. I really wish I could break away from my area and take photos of other artists' works because everything looked so FABULOUS!

HILARIOUS!!!

I DIED when I saw these! My buddies at work threw me a greencard lunch party and made me this hilarious card and photo montage board (lots of bizarre photos of me indeed, don't ask). Love the bald eagle with a hog dog and the fancy American flag nails! Isn't it so great to have creative friends? :)

And again...

All right, I do have something else to share with you. First, this weekend was the annual Plaza Art Fair, one of my favorite event. Every year I try to buy a piece from a different artist. This is what I got yesterday: a Fobot (meaning "found object robot). His name is Geisler, and his birthday is 7/17/2010, about 10" tall. He is created by North Carolina artist Amy Flynn. Check out her fobot website. There are so many incredible robots, and I already know I can't only have just one. Waiting patiently for their annual sale at the end of the year. :)



I put him on my piano so I can look at him when I play.



Also here is a funny doodle that my buddy Steph Allen (who also made this card for me last year) drew and stuck on my windshield 2 weeks ago. It was regarding me receiving my greencard. Isn't it hilarious?



Now i really must return to my sweatshop. See you later!

Oh well...

...I wish I have more to share with you, but I've been so busy preparing for three coming art fairs (one of them will be this coming Saturday; I will tell you more about it) that I don't even have time to take a break. I think I need to change my shop name to "Happy Sweatshop" instead... -_- Also we have been battling against little mousies in my garage in the past 2 weeks. At first my boyfriend found mouse poops all over my garage (how could I not notice those poops? Maybe I did but I was in denial...) So mouse traps were set all over the garage and we caught 7 during the period of 4 days. Also we found the mousies have gnawed through my garage door and created a very convenient opening for them to get in and out. I might as well put a neon WELCOME sign with an arrow pointing at it. (We did seal it since then.) Anyhoo, eventually the mouse traps stop catching any more critters, but it doesn't mean that they are gone, because we found out on 2 of the traps, instead of getting inside to eat the peanut butter bait, it looked like somebody had tried to peel the sticker off the top instead. Very smart mousies I must say. Also, just now, I think I saw 3 tiny poops in my basement laundry room. 3!!!!!! 3 tiny poops that can drive a human crazy. So pathetic. Maybe it's time to call the exterminator.

Enough said, here is a funny photo to entertain you. It's my real life Engrish encounter at the Asian market today. It a packaging for slim tea, and the name is meant to be saying "I need to stop getting fatter". Look at the translation... And being a fattie of course I bought it.


And here is the whole collection. From left to right their names are: "I've been working too hard", "I need to stop getting fatter", and "I can't fall asleep". Nice... I definitely need the pink one, too.

Shop Update

Just added this slim version of my interchangeable Happy Poppie ring into my shop. If you prefer wearing a smaller ring with a setting that's not as high, this might be the right one for you. : )

Also I have decided to add a layer of mylar on all my interchangeable fabric buttons. This is to protect them from getting dirty from frequent handling. The mylar doesn't take away the beauty of the fabric; as the matter of fact, I prefer them with the mylar. They look quite like ceramic buttons at a glance and the glossy surface makes the line drawings pop even more.

Tonight

Testing a new, slimmer setting for my interchangeable ring with the hedgehog badge. Talk about hedgehog, check out this link... melting.

Shop Update: Yarn Love Badge Set

Just added these fun little badges into my shop. If you love to play with yarns, then these are perfect for you! They can also be made into interchangeable necklace or ring; just let me know if that's what you want.

PS: Thank you so much for all your sweet congrats regarding my previous post! ♥ ♥ ♥

What I Received In Mail Today...

This is not design related, but I just want to share with you because it is a HUGE deal, at least for me. Today, on the anniversary of 9/11, I received my green card in the mail! After being in America for 12 years (3 years of studying and 9 years of working), I finally got real freedom, freedom that most people take for granted. It was a long journey... and it wasn't easy. I am so excited and and so grateful, for I'm finally an official part of this country. Next step: citizenship in 5 years.

I haven't seen most of my family for more than 11 years because traveling is just a big hassle (and risk) for me. Now I think I might have a travel to plan in the near future. :)

Just Playing Tonight

I found out that I had 3 packs of un-opened Shrinky Dinks on my shelf. I bought them about 2 years ago but haven't played with them at all. So I tried tonight. It's not an exact science, but it's definitely fun. They are so tiny after shrinking! Should I make them into little rings? They look so dainty. :)

PS: The real things actually look better then the photo. The lineworks becomes really thin and dark after shrinking.

Free September Desktop Wallpaper

I can't believe it's already September??? Where did my time go?

Click the photo above for the 1920x1080 wallpaper
Click the photo below for the 1600x1200 wallpaper

PS: I realized that by uploading the 1920x1080 wallpaper image directly to my blog, it doesn't really show up as 1920x1080 when you click the image because it's too big. But I don't know what else to do.

Shop Update: Button Button

Do you like vintage buttons? I do! They are like candies to me especially those that come in soft cotton candy colors!!! I just can't resist them. So I've decided to doodle up some vintage style buttons and make them into... buttons. Button Button... sounds funny. Haha! :)

Each pack comes with 6 designs. Just added in my shop.

New Print: Yarn Hair

Just added this new print into my shop. It's from an old doodle that I did in year 2008 for Illustration Friday. It's for all knitting lovers out there; are you one of them?. :)