Green soaps

Good Night soap. B&BW duplicate of Tranquil Sleep but the name isn't so fussy and I made it and stuff.










Mermaid Soap. I love this scent it's very Transatlantic Cruise Ship . But you know, without having to worry about mysteriously falling overboard. Seems to be happening a lot lately.



Both just listed, mention this blog when you buy and get one free soap with purchase of any two or more, your choice.

How cool are these?

Unbleached tea towels.

Just listed.

It's a little embarassing.

To be on a venue that says things like...

"Inspired by Equestrian Goth"

I told you the vampire thing was getting out of hand. Oh, Etsy. Is there nary an editor in site?

This has got to be an inside joke, right?

Always wondered what diseased rabbits look like? Probably a result of those carrots.

Um, I'm not seeing whimsical wonderland as much as I'm seeing really bad acid trip. Check out the chick in the nest and the two eating the green worm.

Jay McCarrol fabric, for the quilt that says 'Hey, I'm totally f*cking with you.'

Hmm, would you beleive it's on sale?

Fun with support

So I want to open another shop on a venue. Actually I don' t, I want to make sure no one else does because it will be on Artfire. When I entered my contact mail I entered it with *******mailto:*******bakery@aol.com not ********baker@aol.com as it should have been.


Here is the following exchange as a result of me asking them to fix the email for me.
---------------------------
Yes, it's true, I entered my email wrong twice when signing up and now I can't get in. My user name is ***** and my email should be mailto:vanillabeanbaker@aol.com" NOT mailto:vanillabeanbakery@aol.com

Please let me know what you need from me to fix this.

holly"Waiting for The Great Leap Forward"
-----------------------
Hello there,

I'm seeing that vanillabeanbaker@aol.com is already registered to "bakery53". Please let me know how you'd like to proceed.

All the best


--------------------
Well for starters I'd like to know who is using my email addy.

holly

-------------------

Would you like me to swap the email addresses and you can use that one for this account instead"

All the best,

-------------

Does that have any information at all? I did NOT open that account. vanillabeanbakerY doesn't work it's too long to be an email addy of AOL. I don't want to swap anything.

What I would like is my email address that someone else used for who knows why to be returned to me. Is my personal info there? I never, ever opened that account.

Look at goatmountainarts. That is my acount, since 2006.

holly


See, here is my bakery vanillabeanbaker.com

---------------------------------

Hello Holly,

The address that I'm seeing on the "bakery53" account is:
bob
mather st
San Diego, CO 92109 (United States)

It was only logged in to on the day it was created.

All the best,
--------------------------------

That isn't me. Please, give me back my email address. That isn't even a real address. Who do I have to talk to to have this accomplished because i don't think you understand the issue here. It's MY email address, cancel 'bob's account' because BOB isn't ME.

-----------------------------------------

I'm getting a little frustrated here, I have given you ample proof that the email address is mine. Please fix this problem because that account is fraudulent and I'm sure you wouldn't keep an account knowing this, right?

holly

"Waiting for The Great Leap Forward

------------------------------------
Hello,

This email is to notify you that your account has been closed. If this is an error, please contact Support at support to have it corrected. Otherwise, we have enjoyed your company and wish you all the best.

All the best,
-------------------

Dear Support,

WHICH account was closed?


holly

"Waiting for The Great Leap Forward
--------------------

Hello Holly,

I closed "bakery53".

All the best,
------------------


Now, wasn't that easy?

The undead are getting on my nerves.

Why is everyone a vampire wannebe these days? I get the whole 'Twilight' thing although in my regard it's more like "Beverly Hills 90210 Get's Gothic With It". Whatever, ok.

But to walk into every bookstore these days is the equivalent of trying to dodge sprayers at the perfume counters. Except is slayers and the vampires who love them. So far the only thing missing is "Marley and Me: Marley Lives...." the story about an untrainable vampire dog and the high hilarity that follows.

Undead teens abound. Although anyone who has one (a teen that is) will attest that it's hard to distinguish at times between the living and the undead teenager. Vampire writers, vampire families, some chick on a flying coffin, it's out of control.

I even think there was an undead Nancy Drew kind of thing going on with one series. Hard to solve a mystery when all your work is done in the evening, I'd imagine. It must be a bitch trying to keep your suspects awake enough to answer questions.

So, dear authors, enough already, put a stake in it, I'm done.

At least they weren't naked.

WASHINGTON — The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants the flyswatter in chief to try taking a more humane attitude the next time he's bedeviled by a fly in the White House.

PETA is sending President Barack Obama a Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher, a device that allows users to trap a house fly and then release it outside.

"We support compassion even for the most curious, smallest and least sympathetic animals," PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich said Wednesday. "We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals."

During an interview for CNBC at the White House on Tuesday, a fly intruded on Obama's conversation with correspondent John Harwood.

"Get out of here," the president told the pesky insect. When it didn't, he waited for the fly to settle, put his hand up and then smacked it dead.

"Now, where were we?" Obama asked Harwood. Then he added: "That was pretty impressive, wasn't it? I got the sucker."

Friedrich said that PETA was pleased with Obama's voting record in the Senate on behalf of animal rights and noted that he has been outspoken against animal abuses.

Still, "swatting a fly on TV indicates he's not perfect," Friedrich said, "and we're happy to say that we wish he hadn't."

Deputy press secretary Josh Earnest said the White House has no comment on the matter.

Sneak peek from the pot.

Mocha with vanilla chips. Only seven of these.

This will stay a one shot batch until the Winter.


They pretty up once they cure and get smoothed out a bit.

Orange Ginger, this soap turned out really well and the fragrance is fantastic. The two scents really complement each other to make something very special.

The ginger takes the citrus edge off and leaves a very creamy, rich sort of smell rather than that tart citrus orange usually carries.

So far there's just these six. I do a trial run before bringing out the big pots.

Dante's Spirit at Etsy

Dante's Spirit is a shop on Etsy that is currently placing 50 percent of it's profits to Akita rescue:

*** FROM NOW UNTIL THE END OF THE YEAR, 50% OF ALL SALES WILL BE DONATED TO AKITA RESCUE. IN HONOR OF DANTE-INU AND MY NEW RESCUE AKITA, CAENA. ***

If you click on the shop profile you will also see she is active in rescue. So buy some stuff!

Also take a gander at Artists Helping Animals

A Soap for Every Season

I'm going to offer a year round soap sampling through my Artfire Shop. For $16.00 I will send you five to six ounces of a selection of the next season's offering.

For example, Late this Summer I have Ginger Orange (to die for) and Indian Summer, a Honey Apple and something else I haven't decided on.

So, you'd get about one ounce or more of each scent. Fall would include your Holiday scents as would Winter and Spring, well you get the idea.

The $16 includes shipping and soap. I'll be posting some pictures soon, seriously, Orange Ginger *swoon*.

Differant values, one pot.

As I mentioned before I don't have a very precise method in regard to dyeing. I'd herald you with some drivel about how my creativity cannot be bridled, blah, blah, but the truth is I just don't care that much.

It's easy not to, of course when you dye pretty much project to project and if you need a LOT of fabric, then by all means write it down.

Anyhow, I decided the orange that makes up the mouth was to subdued for it's surroundings. So I needed to dye up some really bright orange. I sprinkled some scarlet and some yellow until the hue suited me.

The first two pieces I left for hours and distributed the dye throughout, pretty much. The second I left a bit less and the lighter values were really dunked for a few seconds. The trick here it to work before the dye is exhausted. My technical way of doing that it to add more dye then I would rather than watch the pot.

I won't be needing all of this, of course, but a nice orange isn't as easy as it sounds and since I work with kid's art, it comes up pretty regularly.

I used acid dye because while I have Procion orange, it stays in a bit and you run the risk of it bleeding when steamed. Not a big deal with most pieces but more so when you have a lot of contrast.

Here are some pictures of the fabric once it's been dried, or rather hung out to dry. I know some folks advocate washing it hot and then drying to really felt the fabric but you lose so much yardage that way. I prefer to wash and then hang dry.

Here we have all of them.

Then the darker followed by the light. You'll notice the lighter hues are more mottled. While I prefer to have all my fabric mottles to a degree, the lights I prefer more so.

Why? It seems to prevent the lighter shades from looking insipid and washed out. With a lighter hue you lose some of the depth that contrast provides in and of itself. So the remedy is to provide that contrast withing the hue.

Any questions?

Your post here.

This is where your post from me would have been. It is not here because I have spent hours the last couple days trying to wrangle with Etsy, it's painfully hip avatarred staff and the random dart throwing way in which logic is applied (applied being a generous term).

I won't bore you with details but that last time I checked I didn't agree to have my shop rearranged, nor did I ever really need to know what Meta Tags were and how Etsy's keyword stuffing is illegal, and now thier name is before my item as if i produce for them, etc.

What I will ask is that if you don't mind, purchase from my Artfire store. In fact, I am having a 15 percent off everything sale just to make it that much more attractive.

Get a room already.

So people are like, buying stuff from me. I think I' have pissed enough people off that they link my thread posts which links to my shop and then the nice person goes "She is NOT Satan!" and buys something.

For the record I am not Satan. No, for real. Shut up.

But the thing is you have to leave feedback as a seller. on Ebay you could just leave "Does'nt suck that bad." or my personal fav "A++++++!!" . But here there's like I don't know, legions of sellers who's feedback makes that look like you just said you'd devour thier children alive while kicking kitties.

So I posted this on the Forum. I'm not kidding. I'm going to leave feeback like that. yes I will. No, I am NOT Satan, we went over that already like five times. Post is under the dot's, pretty fancy, huh?

..................................................................................................................................................................

Normally I leave feedback like, Fast pay, great to do business with. But in the heaving bosom verbiage that IS Etsy I'm feeling a bit bland. I've been reading other seller's feedback and have garnered that the only feedback that can hold a handmade organic soy candle to the frothy prose is: "This buyer changed my life and gave me a pony and I lost weight and everything!!! She paid pretty darn quick too!" But see, now I'm under pressure because apparently one must leave multiple feedback for an order with (gasp!) more than one item. If I copy and paste, will that be a callous show of complacency? It pains me to use an exclamation point in a forces attempt to sound like this sale has buoyed me over a sparkling rainbow set beside a pond of love where unicorns sip and kitties frolic. I'm a matter of fact girl living in an over the top world. I'm sure there are more of you here, hiding behind that organic life sized Hello Kitty. Do you feel like just plain of plain speaking isn't enough?

Coming this Fall.

Now I feel like this is being read in the movie announcer's voice.

"They were feeling dirty, nothing could make them was away the grime and dust of that Summer afternoon..."

Anyhow, Fall you say? But It's just now Summer! Yeah, but do you have any idea how long it takes soap to cure in this humidity?

That's kind of a silly question, isn't it?

Anyhow it takes a long, long time. I like the bars to set up until they are hard. They last longer. So without further ado ( or adon't for that matter):

Indian Summer

A tawny, golden, fruity blend with top notes of apple, green fig, Italian bergamot, bourgeon de cassis, and lemon. A spicy midsection of Ceylonese cinnamon, cassia, and nutmeg leads to a drydown of oakmoss and musk. Beautifully captures the feeling of the waning days of summer.

Hey, that's me!

I am just tickeled to be here Quilting on a Budget it's the first time I've been featured. The author was kind enough to let me know so I could brag a bit.

New Soap Up.

Sweet, pink sugar lemon drops in a sweet vanilla-musk base. You may be fast, but you sure smell good.

For the weekend..

Moving right along.

This is my current project an is an example of my Kid's Custom Art offering. Note that I did not replace the 'C' with a 'K' in Custom. That would be wrong.

Here is the original art.





This is a close up of the mouth. I've used Costwold and Mohair. The Cotswold keeps the Mohair from slipping all over the place.

This is important when you work with linen, which is slippery on it's own.




It's important to take the backing off and rotate it when you have areas that radiate out.

If you watch kids draw, they do this naturally and turn the paper often. It's sort of a pain, but the radius will flow much more effectively then if you try and approach it all at once.


This is more of the design. In the end it will be about 22 by 25 inches. Maybe a bit more.















Close up that I just thought was kinda cool.

What I would like to be doing.

Click on the picture and see the title of the book next to Kinley. I'll have new stuff for you tomorrow but this will have to do for today.

New Soaps Up

This is one I really like Gingerbread Man Soap .

Must Have Dolls - Pocomedio at Etsy

I ran across this shop on Etsy. I'll say it right now, how I wish I'd made these. Not only are they fantastic but the stories are done well without an iota of the cute factor that makes one roll eyes halfway down a paragraph.

This is the shop Pocomedia at Etsy. To make it even more envy inducing she has three other shops with wonderful things in them as well.

The bio's are worth reading. There's someone in every story we've known or been at one time or the other. Or wished we were. Or weren't depending on the day.

Want to buy something

but not sure which shop? If you look to your right you'll see a link to my Artfire shop. Easier and concise checkout, same products and you don't have to sign up for an account.

I still list on Etsy, but am focusing more on building up my Artfire shop. Artfire is still very new but I am most impressed with it's buyer and seller friendly practices. Eventually this will be my one shop.

See something that's in one store but not the other? Email me at goatmountainarts@aol.com and we'll sort that out.

Of course, if you'd prefer to buy through Etsy, please do.

Hang Tag How To

This is how make my hang tags. I use Vista Print because they have the most user friendly designer. Be forewarned that checking out is a bit like trying to make it through the perfume section unscented. Read everything, click on nothing you don't want. I've used them for years with no problem.

You don't need glossy or anything fancy, in this case thin and matte is better as you may want to write on the inside and it's easier to fold. Also looks more like a tag, not so much like a business card folded in half.

This is assuming you have a business card layout already. If not, I've used Studio Chic Design and Accentuate and was thrilled with the price and the result. Not sure if these sellers have Artfire Stores, worth a check though.

Take what would be the image on the front of your card and turn it sideways placing it all the way to the right end of the template. Place the image/info you would use on the back, turn it sideways and place it all the way to the end of the left side of the business card template.

You will be placing all the information on the front template, leave the back template blank. If you have stock that is always the same and are wanting to price the item, you can add that information to the BACK template.

To add the price/whatever take your text, again, turn it sideways. Place it all the way to the LEFT of the back template so that when you open the card, the pricing info is facing you.

Double check this, please. It's worth printing a preview so you can make sure the inside is correct. I've not printed them out this way, print a preview.

Do some fiddling to make it fit. I added text to make it more like a gift tag. You can see here I shrunk the front image a bit and added it to the back of the gift tage.

Double check to make sure you have the text and images facing the right way, I normally print a preview and fold it.

When your cards arrive, simply fold them in half and punch a hole in the corner. You'll have a nice blank space inside (this would have been the back of the business card) to write a note or price or whatever.

Case in point

Remember the limbless plushies? Ok, so the whales don't have limbs, but they also don't have a face. This could be problematic.

The pattern is going to be a hooked rug. You can purchase the pattern on my site.

Yes, the next time you see these poor mammals, they will be whole. Soon. Really.

So,

that's a bit of it. Over the next couple of days I'll be adding more pictures and information. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Tour, sorta

This is Frosty (RIP). He wasn't my goat. If he was he wouldn't be alone and chained. But he looked like a goat I would have liked very much.

I thought you might like to see where the stuff that gets made, gets made. Well, not the soap and dyeing, that's downstairs and for another day. You'll note the strategic pictures that avoid the big mess made moving yesterday.

This is some of the work that will be cut into strips for hooking. "Some" alludes to the fact that there is a lot more. Most of it waiting to be dyed downstairs.

These are some strips waiting to be used in my next project. I prefer to use mottled fabric as it allows for more depth and shading.

It's also a lot easier to dye..

I use mostly acid but am trying to use up the Procion dyes as well. My method is very precise. I take quarter yards and smash them in a crock pot, turn it on low and then pour some vinegar on top.

I'm not a very good project planner so I find it best to have enough of the 'general idea' at hand to see me through.


This was part of the big organising yesterday and replaces a huge dresser that was used to store some of this and basically take up way to much space.

At the bottom is one of Gabriel's pictures, you can see the finished project on my shop, links the the right.

These are some (note usage) of my yarns and weaving threads, spindles, bobbins and general what not. The baskets hold various fleece that I use for whatever when the feeling takes hold. I find Cotswold to be very hook friendly, it has the sheen of Mohair without all the slip.

There's a few niddy noddys and buried there is a small iPod stereo.

My Majacraft Suzi Pro. When we go downstairs I'll show you the carders and other things that help Suzi work.

These are parts of two closets. There are a few more all containing yet more fiber, fabric and weaving supplies. I am nothing, if not prepared.

This is some (see, you are getting it now..)of my fleece that I've had put into roving by Spinderella.