Tuesday, September 23, 2008




I've been busy, making hats mostly...Got an order for 4 of them I just finished up and I'm working on a hat and mitten set for another request. And I need to get some inventory together for when I send items to that store in VA to sell my stuff! I bought a whole slew of yarn from Hancock Fabrics that was 30% off. Score.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Fantastic News!


I got an email through my etsy store from an art studio owner in Virginia. She loved my hats so much that she wants to sell them in her gift shop! How exciting is that? I'm so stoked! She said really nice things about my work and I'm really flattered. She charges $15 a month to rent space in her shop and sends 100% of purchases back to the artists! I'm planning on sending her 8 hats to start with.

I asked her if I needed a cute basket or hat rack to disply my items and she thought a hat rack would really be a good display, so now I'm on the hunt to find something that will work, and be something I could fairly easily ship to her.

My Uncle Cozzy owns a screen printing business and I stopped by there today to brainstorm with him on who I could make labels with my website information to sew into each hat. Why is all ribbon made out of 10% Polyester? His ink needs to be heat set and that would just melt in his ink oven thing. I need to do some searching for what to make the tags out of...

Then tonight I went out for dinner with my sisterinlaw and her buddies. I brought two of my hats for her or her friends to model for a couple of pictures...The acorn hat above is one of them. And one of them fell in love with a bear ear hat and bought it! Score!

Wednesday, September 17, 2008


I made another ghost hat to replace the one that sold...Hopefully I'll finish another item to post today. I'm thinking an adult sized hat, with a felt acorn on it. Needs more thought.

Otherwise I've been playing a lot of World of Warcraft. I got invited to the beta testing of their new expansion WotLK! And it's so fun! I can't wait for the real game to come out. I'm going to level a death knight class first. For those that don't speak WoW, just skip this information entirely, you won't care a thing about it. I'd say that about 40% of the DKs running around the beta DK starting area are girl gnomes with pigtails, me included! Most are humans, sometimes you see a dranei, but rarely ever do you see a dwarf. The quests are fun too. Northrend is insanely fun just to fly around on a premade lvl 80. I chose a hunter to play with the talent tree stuff. It costs only 1c to respec and the premades come with 5000g to start with!

I think we're off to visit a friend today. She's due with her 3rd child on October 14th and is at home bored. They have two boys and this one is a girl, they're going to name her Violet and I LOVE the name!

Monday, September 15, 2008

The Anniversary


It's our 7th wedding anniversary. No special activities planned, the hubby actually had to leave for work this morning around 5am and will be gone all week. I think our only exchange was him apologizing for waking the baby as he tried to tuck him into bed with me because he was crying and having a bit of a fit.

7 years ago I slept over night at my Mom's apartment the night before the wedding. We were up until 3am I think working on making the bouquets. A friend of mine who owns a flower business gave me 100 roses for our gift. My brother and I passed out on the futon mattress in the living room talking about when we were kids and the stupid things we did.

The night of our wedding we spent at a beautifully expensive suite paid for by his parents. We were dead asleep by around midnight, we were exhausted from the wedding I think. My friends reported later that they all went out after we took off and had a fabulous night of partying without us.

In etsy news, I sold the baby ghost hat! I'm making another which I'll post tonight, I hope the pumpkin one and spider sell too!

Friday, September 12, 2008

I made it onto someone's treasury!


A treasury is a thing on etsy. Members can make a list of their favorite items and post their lists on the treasury. People then browse through the treasuries to see the items. Here is the treasury I made it onto! I thought it was pretty cool anyways. So that baby spider hat is getting some good traffic to my store. I finished the baby ghost hat and listed it this morning. I hope the pictures for the item turned out cute.

In other big news, I got an email from Blizzard inviting me for beta testing for the World of Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King Expansion!!! Oh my gosh though, the download is taking forever! The main file I downloaded last night while I was sleeping but now there's a patch as well and it's been going for 1 1/2 hours and is at only 52%! So once the baby is awake, we're going to head to the store and wait for it to finish.

This afternoon a dude my mother found is coming over to do the lawn because of our lawn mower problems. It'll be awesome!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Perkins Nutritional Information

So last weekend the baby and I went for a quick breakfast with my sister-in-law to Perkins. I knew what I wanted to order but I hit up their website to find out just how many calories are in that sandwich. And I couldn't find any nutritional information anywhere! I emailed the website and asked if they could provide the information or if it was there and I just wasn't finding it. This was their response:

"We are currently compiling this information. Once it is complete, it
will be available on our web site. Thank you for your loyal patronage.

Web Master"

Seriously? They don't have the nutritional information for their own menu? They're a huge nation wide chain! I'm flabbergasted.

Etsy's Halloween Gift Guide


My baby spider halloween hat made it to etsy's Halloween Gift Guide! On their front page is a link to their holiday guide and I'm on it! It appears they add a few new ones everyday, so eventually mine will get pushed off, but it's awesome anyways. The hat is getting some decent traffic. I'm almost done with my second one, a baby ghost hat.

What else are my plans today? Hmmm. My mother is sending some old guy over here to give an estimate to mow the lawn. Our mower only works for up to 5 minutes at a time and then stalls and is unstartable. So frustrating. I hope he doesn't charge much. It's not that the lawn is really long, but some weeds have moved in. Not that I mind all that much, but I think the neighbors with their perfect chemical treated lawns are going to start getting cranky.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008


Who do I need to hurt just to get a part time job? I'm totally hire-able. Great resume, and I've been hunting everyday online in all sorts of places looking for, applying and dropping of resumes. Anyways, I think the baby is getting his first baby molar. I can't feel anything yet, but just his general crankiness tipped me off to the issue. He's usually such a mellow guy. I need to put him to bed and get working on a new etsy item, I wanted to do 4 this week and so far I've only done one.

What else did I do today other than job hunt? I cleaned the downstairs pretty well, my mother even complimented me on how cute the house looks. The picture is of the scarflet thing I made. Mom loved it, but I'm not going to list it until I can get her to model it for the photo. Otherwise I surfed the internet a bit, here's some cool places I went:

A cool 'How To' video on etsy on making natural dyes.
My favorite bitch fest - The Duluth Citizen's Blog
Danny's podcast - Danny Does Duluth

Monday, September 8, 2008



I had to run to the Reader Weekly office today. Dennis is their new editor, he agreed to fill out this referral form for me. I needed it for the Americorps Vista application I turned in. The job sounds perfect for me. I'd be working with lower income families and kids hooking them up with the UW-Extension programs and 4H. Doing grant writing for them and working with the school district to establish after school programs. It's a one year volunteer position, but it does have a $833 living expense. It also comes with childcare assistance, health insurance and an almost $5,000 scholarship. But it's a full time job although I've been told that a lot of the work I'll be able to do from home. My interview is scheduled for Wednesday at 3pm. It's all going to boil down to how much time the baby will need childcare for. I'll need to pick something out to wear!

The Reader Weekly is a free local weekly edition paper that I used to write a cartoon for. I also helped out in the office with their ads and community calendar. That's one of my old cartoons above. I really feel a nap coming on...

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Avoiding the kitchen.


I've got to tackle the kitchen but I just don't want to.

I always thought I'd be a great Mom/housewife, I'm a great Mom, just not that awesome of a housewife. But maybe no one's house looks like a magazine inside.

Goal for this week:
1. Keep up on the kitchen (my least favorite room to do chores in).
2. Create 4 things to post on my etsy page.
3. Sew something with the great sewing machine my Grandma left me.
4. Get the baby's 1st birthday party invitations out in the mail.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

The Green Expo


We went to the 'Green Expo' today. A huge farmer's market and inside the convention center there were tons of booths about everything green from recycling electronics to green construction techniques to organic baby clothes and toys. Outside the convention center there were dozens of displayed children's artwork about saving the environment and conserving energy. I loved this one.

Creatively I accomplished a couple things today. A baby pumpkin halloween hat I put up for sale on etsy. And I also made an awesome scarflet mini scarf thing, but I'm really unhappy with how I'm photographing it. The color looks all wrong and I kind of want someone to model it, but just not me. My pictures make the yarn loose it's fuzzy quality too which makes it really a nice item. I'll have to work on it.

Friday, September 5, 2008

My Food Diary Anxiety


I use myfooddiary.com and I generally like it. Although when I'm eating complete crap I just avoid logging my meals altogether. I like going to the forums at that site and browsing through the before and after photos people post of themselves. I wouldn't do such a post even if I were to loose a significant amount of weight for fear that someone I know would see it. Which is ridiculous. Only people who pay for and use that site can view the forums and if that person was there they'd be there for the same reason as me, so why am I so worried about being judged?

It may be that I have a slight anxiety when it comes to knowing I might be watched by others. I cannot mow my lawn if the old man across the street is sitting on his porch. He's always out there, he's probably judging how horrible our lawn is. It's pretty weedy and unkept around the edges. There's a big pile of old sticks and clippings with half a broken wood chair next to the garage and I'm always the last person on the block to retract my garbage cans after the garbage trucks come. Sometimes even 2 days.

I had an insane dream last night. I went to this huge center that helped mentally handicapped people get jobs. I was there because I thought they would help me get a job too. As I was waiting in line to talk to one of their counselors I saw that one of my ex's was sitting in a row of chairs watching a television behind me. I didn't want him to notice me, I was wishing I wasn't there. Somehow he found me and I couldn't believe how great he looked. Super great, like I didn't care if I was married, the chemistry was insane and I had to talk to him. We sat on the floor facing eachother to talk. I don't remember what we said, but I looked down when his foot accidentally touched my leg and I saw that my other leg had been amputated! I just had a stump and next to me was my fake leg that apparently had fallen off.

Oh yes, the picture. The green hat I just knitted for my 8 year old nephew and the flower could be made into a pin or barrette, I couldn't decide, so I just listed it on etsy.com for $4.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Dream Journal

07-30-08

I was in a small dumpy apartment with three other people, two Mexican immigrants and one old man. I was also a Mexican immigrant or illegal alien. The old man had a coffin in the middle of the room which was for some reason totally normal to the rest of us. Everyone was bickering about what to watch for a movie that night. The old man was upset that there was a metal book shelf in his view of the tv. None of us offered to move it so he did it himself. As he was tilting the shelf forward to move it, a sharp support of the shelf from the other side tilted behind him and stabbed him right through the head almost instantly killing him. He staggered for a bit and wobbled and fell right into the green coffin closing the lid of it with a slam.

The tall skinny Mexican said, “oh shit now what do we do” and one of the Mexicans was already on the phone calling the police. I walked into the breakfast nook of the apartment and turned the stove off so the pizza wouldn’t burn and I remember hoping that the police wouldn’t discover it and eat it. The police came really fast and knocked on the door, I approached but just a second after they knocked they busted the door down and were handcuffing all of us. The shorter fatter Mexican was upset because he knew he would be deported back and was telling us that this is not how he wanted to return to his family, that most people return with something to show for it, not poor and deported, but they bring back nice things to give their families.

The short Mexican was holding a stack of postcard like advertisements from magazines and was ripping them. First he’d rip them in half and them into equal third parts and make a neat stack of them. I held these ripped cards and I remember squaring them up in my left hand like a deck of cards getting them straightened up. (The handcuffs disappeared somehow for this part)

07-28-08

Rodney, Jason, Bob and I were off for a long weekend trip to stay at Oprah’s mansion. It was a very tall white building overlooking a bunch of freeways with lots of multi-leveled decks off of one side. Inside it was a beautiful place. The boys stayed in one large room and my guest room was very small with a twin bed and shelves attached to the walls high up, but it was a luxurious room with reds, pinks, golds and yellows. That night I woke up from sleeping and realized that my room must be up against Oprah’s bathroom. I could clearly hear her pooping! It was a really farty poop too. I couldn’t wait for morning to come so that I could tell the boys all about the Oprah poop.

The next day I went out on the decks to find the boys. On one level was a caged huge angry black wolf. The cage had white squared shaped thick bars but no top on it. The wolf didn’t jump out but I thought he could have. I found Bob and told him about the Oprah loud pooping.

I don’t remember what his reaction was and I never saw Oprah in the dream.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

I never post.


So what if I haven't posted a blog in four months? What business is it of yours? At least I still remembered I had started a blog.

Well, what have I been up to...Mostly just a whole lot of mother stuff. Quincy is hitting 9 months old in a couple weeks. He's got 5 teeth and is mastering sitting up on his own.

Artwise I've been lazy, or preoccupied with other projects. Mostly my craft projects. I've learned to knit and it's way fun. I've sold a few more items from my etsy store and that rules. I don't want to be some big seller, my real goal is to sell a handful of projects a month, just enough to cover the DSL bill, that would be ideal. Then at least I could justify the time spent knitting and shopping for fun yarns to the hubby. My brother has surpassed me in motivation for our art show with an actual finished piece or two. Maybe I can pull it together. I have had a painting request from a couple of friends. They want a long painting to hang above their headboard that has bamboo in it. Bamboo? I'll have to think on it.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

02/06/08


It's pretty cutesy and commercial, but that's what I thought would work best for the Animal Shelter auction. It's done, turned in and ahead of schedule. So I'm glad.

Monday, February 4, 2008

02/04/08 III


It's hella late, I played WoW too long with the boys tonight, but I hit 68 (Yes, I have a slight nerd issue). So far I've got this planned. I moved it around and drew a few different versions, but this one is working the best. I need to work on the details for the eyes. The eyes tell it all. :) Goodnight.

02/04/08 II


Okay, step two, I added birch trees and smoothed out the backround adding more green, made it a bit more spring like.

02/04/08

OH no! I've got just today and maybe tomorrow to finish the painting I'm donating to the 'Paws for Love 2008' auction! Here's what I did so far, it's kinda big, a 20x30 inch painting.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

01/31/08

So I've been working on a painting idea that I need to hash out and get done by 02/06 to turn in to the auction people for the "Paws for Love" dinner in mid February. I donated a painting last year that brought in some money for them so they asked me if I'd do another similar one. I agreed. So last year the scene was a wintery one (see one of my previous posts for a picture of it) and this year I'll do a spring one.

I thought using rubber cement or contact paper would work to cover one layer of the painting to later reveal the branch/tree backround I wanted. I'm looking for it to turn out with a very 2 dimensional look. I made a practice painting and I'm not happy, or very disappointed either, just kinda blah. The idea needs help.

So first I just started with a backround, some springy colors:



And I added contact paper branches and some rubber cement to see if that would work:



And finally I used some old paint I found in the basement to cover it and I started to peel the contact paper away while still wet:



But honestly I don't insanely love it, and I let it dry sitting up and the old house paint was pretty thick and ran in a few spots, but I think overall the contact paper and rubber cement worked and I'll try it on the painting for the auction and of course add a cute main object of a girl in a kitty hat like they want.

01/31/08

Take some old shoes and draw a bird, hedgehog, some bunnies and some owls.



Then take some old paint and paint it up and finish with some markers.





Sunday, January 27, 2008

01/27/08

So our long time neighbors, we'll call them the 'Smiths' (not their name), have been dumping bags of garbage behind their fence onto our property that is a thin strip of land behind our garage. I went out there today and picked up 2 large garbage bags and 8-10 Walmart like bags filled with garbage. It has to be them, it's a secluded area that only we or they would really ever go near. Last spring I spent a bunch of time cleaning that area up of their garbage and I don't want to have to do it again, so I put all the garbage into their can and left them this note taped to their garbage can. In retrospect, I should have photographed the garbage too, oh well. I'm hoping it does the trick.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

01/22/08

Today I've been tackling my studio. I seriously need to rearrange in here. It's a fairly big room, I love the bay windows, but I've got so much to fit in here...Sewing desk, Computer desk, art supplies, easel and I'd like to get the baby's playpen in here too so he can sleep in here when I'm working. But so far I've just been busy going through all the crap I've accumulated and deciding what will have to be sent down to the basement.

I did brainstorm an idea for the painting I need to hand over by Feb. 6th for the ARF auction. I want to try and use rubber cement to create a spring leaf/tree design over a painted backround to cover with a darker solid color. Hopefully the rubber cement will release nicely and create a cool mod print like backround for the piece. I'm going to experiment on a smaller canvas first in case it doesn't turn out like I hope for. Maybe I'll have pictures to share with by tomorrow.

But the baby seems to have learned to smile in only 2 days. He's adorable, so I'll give you this for now...

Monday, January 21, 2008

01/21/08

I've created a blog before, written a handful of posts and added pictures but I eventually deleted it after reviewing my posts and coming to the conclusion that it was lame, pointless and uninteresting. But now, with the support of my brother Tyler, and our new 2008 year long pact/goal/resolution I've got more than enough to blog about on a regular basis.

Tyler called me today and we both expressed disappointment in ourselves because of our lack of productivity when it comes to our artwork. He suggested an art pact, to motivate us with an end goal in mind, to have our own brother/sister art show in 12 months, in February 2009. We're putting a minimum of 20 pieces each together. The venue, even the city of our show is yet to be determined as he lives down south in Madison, WI and I'm up north in Superior, next to Duluth, MN.

He put together an email outlining our resolution:

Happy New Year!

We have successfully completed 2004- Year of the Holly (met Michele and Johnny- successfully kick started my adult life) and 2007- Year of the Panda (enter: Quincy). Now, feast your eyes on 2008- Year of the Art Show! That's right folks, the sister brother duo, Heidi and Tyler, have teamed up to create the most kick ass event of the next 12 months!

Long Term Goal:
To put on a real Art Show by Feb. 2009.
Each artist must have 20 pieces- any size, any medium (except photography)

In July, the half-way point: meet to discuss the layout of the show, the show's title, date and location. We will also plan our take away items, invitations, business cards and flyers.

Every 2 weeks, a keyword will be decided on. Artists are encouraged to use this key word to guide/encourage/harass them into working on and completing a piece. Artists may complete more than 1 piece every two weeks.

Every week, artists must blog about something regarding this show. Whether it's a few sentences about how much they rock and/or suck, or post pics of sketches or works in progress. Artists may include photos of completed pieces, but not very many, as to not blow our loads too early you see.

This weeks' keyword: Seasons

Tyler's blogspot: http://thenotalentkid.blogspot.com/
Heidi's blogspot: http://galuchka.blogspot.com/

I don't want to look too far ahead, but I'm hoping we can expand this idea by adding goals in selling, and new customers, and maintaining our levels of productivity and blogging.Good luck!

So we've got "Seasons" to work with this week. I picked it and am now almost regretting it. It could lead to some really cliche ideas. I picked it because of a piece I'm working on for the ARF auction/dinner fundraiser that I donated a painting to last year. I did a medium sized painting that was a winter scene, it was very 'Russian-Holly Hobby-Lost in the Woods.' It sold for $85 if I remember right and had lots of bids. So when Kathy called me to request if I'd do another one she asked if I'd put together another one like the last, but maybe change up the season of the painting, make it like a series.



I wasn't necessarily even proud of that painting. It was pretty different than any of my other paintings over the last few years, but I thought that making something a bit more commercial, cute and crafty would bring in more bids. It did, so apparently I'm doing another one. I don't know why I feel it's important to explain why this painting was so commercial and crafty, I like crafty. That why I've been working on my hats so much lately, it's fun. I fell in love with etsy.com and opened my own store selling my cute crocheted hats of all sizes. I've sold 3 so far on the site!


http://www.hellogaluchka.etsy.com/


Okay, that enough blogging for today, I think I'll work on my project/studio room, it's a mess.