Awesome T-Shirt Friday Day

Today is awesome T-shirt Friday day! I wanted to share this rad shirt that was given to me by a friend. Not only does it have rainbows on it, but unicorns!

What really throws me off is that this shirt is an X-Large! I mean, wow! For most of my life I could fit into a small, and then I gained some weight (being a full fledged, 34 year old adult, it's bound to happen), and I've grown into wearing mediums, sometimes larges (depending on the store).

Those jeans are one of my faves. Everywhere there's a patch there's a hole. They're not like the fashionably holey like the ones you can buy in the store. These jeans have incredible amounts of stretch, and the holes don't help. The backside of my jeans have even more patches, and I don't think you'd want to see that. :)

See how sunny it is in my bedroom? I wish the whole apartment had this much sun. Sometimes I wish I could move my art room into this room. I think working in here would make me so happy. I don't think my downstairs neighbor would like me any more than he does now. The floors/ceilings are apparently very thin in this building (seeing as all the apts on the whole block are about 100 years old). I think he would be very angry if he heard me sewing on my machine at 11 pm (like most days when I'm busy I work late). I suppose if I worked here, I'd no longer have access to my computer, so I wouldn't be able to watch shows or movies, or listen to music.

Heh, I just noticed there are 2 pill bottles in the background. No, I'm not that kind of woman. :) They're melatonin and Valerian. Both to help me relax, and get a decent sleep schedule going. Sometimes I'll work 12-14 hour days, and go straight to bed, and I need these to help me wind down. Crazy!

I'd like to know if you're wearing anything fun, awesome or special today! :)

Art Attack!

Just a little piece of art I drew in my new Moleskin recently. I'm still getting used to the really thin paper this company uses for their books. I only bought a Moleskin because the sketchbooks I normally buy haven't been in stock in the art store for a year. This is sad because Moleskins are ridiculously overpriced. Plus, the fact that a simple drawing felt tip pen bleeds through to the other side really bothers me. None of my other sketchbooks do that. So.... I now have to rethink the drawing tool I have to use.

In this case above, I was annoyed with the bleed through, so I painted two pages and then drew over them with my felt tipped Chinese pen. I will start fresh on the other pages. :-D

I think my Moleskin drawing tool will have to be a regular pen like this, sad, I know.

I LOVE drawing with felt tip pens, but alas, not this book. Oh well.

I'd be surprised if by the last page of my Moleskin I never want to go back to the other book. We'll just wait and see. <wink>

March Giveaway Winner

The March Giveaway Winner is ....

Margaret of Tranifer's Wonky Critters !!!  She chose Chaucer as her one and only!

Congratulations Margaret! I look forward to seeing photos of Chaucer in his new home.

Next month, mid-April, I will be doing another giveaway. :-) Stay tuned!

Random Tidbit

A old man approached me once at a grocery store as I was checking the eggs to make sure none were broken in the carton, and he told me this. He said that the eggs that had a lot of calcium were the ones that had the rough, bumpy shells. He then walked away. It stuck with me ever since.

Since that day, every time I go to the grocery store to buy eggs, and I'm moving them in the carton to check if they're broken, I notice how smooth the eggs feel, and I wonder how delicate those shells must be, and how lacking they are in calcium. I think of that old man who told me this random tidbit.

Food for thought....

It's Tuesday...Now What?

For the past few weeks I've been wracking my brain at what to blog about. I know a few people like the woman who writes the Dainty Squid actually keeps a blogging journal, and I'm starting to think that might be a good idea. She has weekly things, like Monday she talks about nails, Tuesday she'll talk about things she likes? I don't really pay that much attention, but I know she does things weekly. I'm starting to think I should too. This way I'll know what to talk about. :-)

Honestly there hasn't been anything exciting happening this month, hence the lack of posts. As a plush creator, I don't create 1 new unique doll every few days like some of the part timers I've seen on Facebook. I have my set, and I just remake those when I need to. Occasionally if I buy new fur (like last month), I will have a few new ones, but they might end up my regular monsters if they sell.

Here's a new monster I did yesterday for a customer. She lives in Australia, and she's my first Aussie customer. It's very exciting. This monster was made, and then my customer had asked me to make it with a happy face, so I kept this one hoping to find her a nice home. My Facebook fans have named her Cherry.

Cherry the pink monster

• • • •

Alright, so on to today's subject. It's Tuesday. Tomorrow I have a 15 minute presentation at 4 pm of my business plan in front of this committee. I'm to sell myself and my project to them, to hopefully win this grant so I can grow my business. I haven't even started working on my presentation, and it's already 11:30 am.  I should really make breakfast (yeah, I know it's late but I haven't been sleeping well this week) and get cracking on this. I honestly don't want to do this, but I do want the money.

The biggest thing I need to do is advertising to get people to my new store on Big Cartel It's not like Etsy at all. Big Cartel is for professional artists to sell their products. Etsy is a community, and an expensive one at that (one I'm trying to move away from cause it's making me poor). Currently I have 3 Facebook ads circulating the world of Facebook, and I've managed to get over 100 fans in a week which is great, but how many of those people will actually buy something from me? I need to reach even more people. So money is what I need.

I'm really hoping that tomorrow's presentation will go well. I always get nervous in front of people. Wish me luck for this...


• • • •

So there are people out there who blog regularly. They do posts like "What I wore..." and I find that kind of funny. It's funny to know that people reading these blogs like this. Nothing wrong with that, don't get me wrong, it's just funny. So I want to do a quick entry entitled....

What I Didn't Wear

Today I didn't wear my brown suede boots, my Levi Silver jeans with all the funky patches, a stylish t-shirt and a really comfy sweater.

----

I tend to work at home, and I don't feel like I should dress up to sit down and sew or cut fur. But yesterday I did go out to buy more felt, and I did wear most of what I mentioned above, except take away the suede boots and replace them with black and red plaid Rocketdog boots.

(I'd add photos, but it's so hard to photograph one's self without a tripod).


• • • •

As a closing statement, I'd like to post something cute. Of course it'll be of my boys, the kitties. :)

Littleone is sitting on said suede boots. I find this cute when he does this.

This is Squeak's favorite couch spot for relaxing.

I bought some pesticide-free cat nip, and Littleone just went crazy for it (he's currently rolling around in it). Squeak thinks this stuff is no good and would prefer the stuff with pesticides. What a weirdo.

This is Squeak's sitting time. He comes up here at night and will sit like this before lying down for a nap.

Have a great Tuesday!

PS: I would love suggestions of what you'd like to read about in upcoming posts. Maybe I can do joke posts like "What I would be wearing if I went out today" or something. Hahaha

A Peek At My Studio

As per my fans requests, here's a post about my workspace or studio! This is where all the monster making magic happens!

I live and work in a 2 bedroom apartment, and my studio is set up in the 'dining room' part of my place. It's a shame I have no windows in this room. I'd love to turn my bedroom into my studio, it'd be perfect, but as I work late into the wee hours at times, I don't think the people downstairs who go to bed at 9 pm would appreciate that too much. It's bad enough they have to deal with the deaf 88 year old lady who lives below them, and watches her TV in the kitchen very loudly, and until 4 am (or so I'm told).

My irregular shelf my dad made for me. It's my scale, sticker, button and Burton monster holder.

My desk/sewing area. This desk squeaks!! Drives me nuts. Oiling it doesn't seem to work. My paintings!

My wall of fabric. Everything is stored in huge ziploc bags to keep it cat hair free. It's important because I have 2 cats.

This is my paint and canvas section. Not so big. :)

Well there you have it. It's not a fancy space by any means, but as long as I keep it neat, it does the trick! I could totally spend hundreds of dollars on some fancy shelving, but I think I'll save that setup for the day I buy my own place.

 Someday I'll have a setup like this....

I know this is a kid's room, but how awesome would this be as a workspace???? AWESOME!!!!

And this too....

Or this room would totally rock too. I love that green hutch, or whatever you want to call it.

These last 2 rooms are so bright and colourful compared to my drab and very uninspiring studio! LOL  It's probably the flash on my camera, and the lack of windows. I'm not worried though. I know one day I'll be rolling in the dough, and I'll be able to do what I really want. I'll do a combo of the two pictures, throw in a few awesome vintage pieces of furniture, and a comfy chair for a little relaxation.

Voilà!

48 Hours Left until the Giveaway

Just a little reminder that the giveaway is 2 days away, and is ending on March 24th at midnight!!

A little recap of what you could win! :)

 

 

To win, all you have to do is comment on the original blog post for MARCH GIVEAWAY

You can increase your chances of winning if you follow my blog (and comment that you have), and the same with Facebook and Twitter. If you blog about my giveaway and post the link, that's yet another entry. 

On Sunday, March 25th I will be announcing the winner via my blog, as well as on Facebook and Twitter. You will have to send me a private email with your full name and address, and I will have you send me the shipping cost via PayPal.

Good luck everyone!!

Wednesday Around The House

I've asked my fans on Facebook for what they'd like to read about, so I decided to grab my camera and take some pictures around my apartment, as well as inside, to show you where I live, and what I like.

A tiny egg I found broken on my outdoor chair. The poor embryo is the yellow blurry stuff you see. :(

Some random art. On the left I copied the image that was on the flip side because apparently Moleskin paper is thin, and felt tip pens bleed through a bit (I'm disappointed in that), and on the right I decided to draw part of a rainbow and some randomness around it.

The view of my street from my front balcony. All those steps are the outdoor steps to get to the 2nd & 3rd floor apts. This is very typical of Montréal, Québec, Canada. Nowhere else in Canada have I ever seen apt buildings like this. Also, the trees haven't started to bud ... yet!

The recycling truck is passing by, and as you can see people are getting impatient as the line grows longer.

The hallway of my apt. I'm standing in the tiny bdrm in the front, and the kitchen is the sunny room in the back. It's a bit messy! :)

 

The church on my street. There's a store where they take in used clothing, and I've found sweaters and very awesome vintage suitcases for $1! This is the view of the back alley. Lots of power lines, or squirrel highways! :)

The view from my back balcony inside. This back area is so nice when it's cold out because it's sheltered and warm.

My kitchen art! The kitties are Littleone (top left) and Squeak (bottom right).

These are my favorite. Two birthday cards I got in 2010, and some rainbow fabric I'll never see again.

I believe this is a bullet hole in some very old glass in the spare room. The landlord said the glass was pretty, so he left it. This apartment is about 100 years old. Maybe the ghost who lives here did that... or he/she died by gunfire?

Living room art! My first painting of Tank Girl done in 2001, and the art on the right is done by Marie-Noëlle Wurm. I love it.

My Japanese (and Australian) corner. The geta sandals were bought in Japan (city unknown). The wooden cat painting was purchased in Kyoto at a farmer's market. The artist painted this on Sakura wood, and it's technically a house sign with my name on it. The Buddha sculpture I bought on Miyajima Island, just off of Hiroshima, and the pink haired Geisha is a lucky charm, supposed to bring me wealth. In the back is another piece of artwork by Marie-Noëlle Wurm. Can't forget my beautiful boys in the picture frame, or my real Australian boomerang (brought to me by my dad when he was in the air force).

A very heavy, all metal Buddha mask I also bought at the Kyoto market. I think I paid $25 for this or something.

This is my ukelele which I love to play when I don't feel like working. I usually play "Creep" by Radiohead, or some other song. That's my hand painted Russian Nesting dolls (from Russia!), and my lovely plastic cherry blossoms from the dollar store.

My third piece of artwork by Marie-Noëlle (left), and my floating Buddha painting I did back in 2008. That was my first attempt at abstract, and it was unsuccessful so I added my own style to it. You can see my little bunnies on the bottom left still haven't yet found a home! They're quite sad. :(

Lastly my Russian Egg and a tiny crocodile head (very real) from New Orleans, both given to me by my dad.

I hope you enjoyed a trip around my place and neighborhood! Happy Wednesday!

March Giveaway

 Hi Everyone! Thanks for following my fan page on Facebook. As a thank you, I'd like to hold a contest, giveaway for 1 of the 6 following monsters and one eyed owls I have.

Chaucer the owl.

 
Rules: The rules are simple. Valid entries to this giveaway will be on the blog only. Any tweets or blog posts you do must be linked back to this post with a comment. One lucky winner will win the monster or owl of their choice, but will have to pay for the shipping of the plush to their country or province. Those who live in Montreal will not have to pay shipping, but can come and pick it up.

(left) Gregg the pillow monster  •  (right) Bort - with fleece and faux fur

What can you win? One lucky winner gets the one eyed owl or monster of their choice!

Who can enter? This giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere in the world!

How to enter: Visit Curious Little Bird's website and leave a comment on this post telling us your favorite item.

Want extra entries? Post a separate comment for any of the following:

♥ Like Curious Little Bird on Facebook.
♥ Tweet this about the giveaway on Twitter:
@ardwinna_m of Curious Little Bird is giving away a plushie! Go here to enter: http://www.curiouslittlebird.ca/2012/03/march-giveaway.html
♥ Follow Curious Little Bird on Twitter.
♥ Follow the Curious Little Bird blog.
♥ Post about this giveaway on your blog (leave your link in the comment).

 

Jess the owl.

Entries will be accepted until Midnight on Saturday, March 24th. The winner will be chosen at random and announced soon after!

Blog URL will be changing...

In less than 2 months my www.curiouslittlebird.ca URL will be expiring, and when I renew it, I will be removing it from the blog, and reinstating my blogspot URL which is melanieaudet.blogspot.com. My store on Big Cartel will be taking over the curiouslittlebird.ca URL, so all of you who follow this blog, or have the feed in Google Reader, please take note that you will have to re-follow me when the URL changes, and you'll have to change your feeds.

Don't worry though, it won't happen until May, and when it gets closer to the date, I'll let you know again.

I simply wanted to warn you all in advance. If you would like to start now, the regular URL is http://www.melanieaudet.blogspot.com  You can change your google readers to that link, and it'll redirect you.

Thanks a lot for your understanding. :) If you have any questions, feel free to post them. I love comments. :)

Keep reading!

Limited Styles Available

Hello! It's ... oh, it's already 12 am on Thursday morning. I've been working hard to add to my store, and thought I'd take a break and write a post. I noticed I haven't written one in a few days, cause not much has happened really.

I do have some new monsters from new furs (some furs I had for a while but was hesitant to use - but now glad). These will be a limited edition, as I may not go back and buy more, or I might. It really all depends on how popular they are.

The following monsters will be available at Perfide, and Tah-Dah!. I can also take special orders for these guys. Just send me message with the monster you prefer, and I can certainly work out something for you. :)

My fave. I call him "Puffy"

He's awesome. :)

This silver fur is so soft, and I love the pattern on his arms and legs.

This fur I wasn't sure about, but it turned out to be pretty awesome!

Some really cool fuzzy, matted-looking shaggy fur in a shiny silver.

The softest, cushiest orange fur ever!

This is a dark teal green-blue fur that's really fine.

My New Store Is Ready!

I know you've all heard me talking about Big Cartel, and how I wanted to make that my main store, right? Well I took the jump and upgraded to a Diamond site which gives me 100 items at the low price of $19.99. What I love about Big Cartel is the fact it's completely customizable! I've worked 8 long hours last night adding photos, a "Shop Indie" flag, Facebook and Twitter buttons so that everything on the web is connected. Now my blog, store, Facebook, and Twitter account all connect and have no connection to Etsy (unless I post a link). I'm really hoping to drive my business there. I'm still trying to figure that out, really. If I can get business to go to my new store before Christmas, I won't have to pay as many fees. The only fees Big Cartel charges are none! Only PayPal would charge me a fee, and I like that.

Here's a sneaky peak at some awesome parts of my new store...

You see that green flag that says "Shop Indie"? That helps to distinguish me from other stores, and tell the buyers I'm independent, not some corporate chain creating mass-produced products, and uninspired junk.

I've added the Twitter and Facebook buttons to link back to both accounts. :)

I noticed on another person's shop they added a screen shot of the shipping costs, and I thought that was a good idea. Unlike Etsy, here you don't find out how much the shipping is until checkout time. I don't want any surprises, so I've added them as the 5th image. Pretty smart! All shipping costs are the same, and accurate for their locations.

Eventually I'd like to add a hyperlink bar at the top to make it more of a website, but I need a few days for that. Working on websites takes a lot of time. All the changes I just posted in this post took me 8 hours last night!! I started around 7 pm, and by the time I was sort of satisfied, it was 3 am. It's insane how time flies when I do web stuff.

Well, today is Saturday, so I must get back to finishing all my monsters! Have a great weekend everyone! :-D

Monday Madness

Well, I had a good weekend. I found out that all my furry monsters have sold out at Perfide, and I think they'll be sold out at Tah-Dah! very soon as well (since I only had 4 in the store the last time I spoke to the owner). This is very exciting news! I am so happy to hear that they're doing so well! I knew they would. :) The furry guys are by far my most popular monster. I'm also selling Harolds, foxes, bunnies and furry monsters at Minizabies. Check it out!!

I made some new monsters a few weeks ago, and have been busy with finishing my business plan, so I didn't get around to blogging about them. One of the new monsters got featured in a blog by i only like monsters, and it's really awesome! Follow this link to check what other monsters were included in the blog. :-D  My feature on this really awesome, monsterific blog!

This is the romantic Victor. He wears his heart on his belly, to show he loves you!

This is Tim, Burton's twin. He loves gothic films, and random things.

This is the furry bellied monster. She's fancy, and very rare!

This is Pinky. She's made out of some really funky, vintage fabric from a smock.

This is the non-smoking monster. His fabric is a very rare printed "How To Stop Smoking" fabric. He is definitely one of a kind, and very rare. Non-smoking monster encourages you to quit while you're still healthy.

This is Jesse, the batik monster. She's got some crazy fabric and some crazy colours going on.

This is Eddie. He's a monster that loves to pose, and can sit any way you want him to!

 Well there you have it! These are my newest additions. I've recently bought some new furs....

Silver shag - This is shimmery (hard to photograph)

Baby blue - Totally awesome

This is really a dark teal greeny blue. For some reason the camera made it lighter.

With these new furs I'm going to have new monsters made, and will be for sale in 3 places...

1- Perfide    2 - Tah-Dah!    3 - Under The Snow Music and Arts fair 

If you're in Montreal, stop by one and grab yourself a monster. Because everyone needs a monster, remember?

I should have them up for sale in my Big Cartel shop by the 3rd week of March. They may not be for sale on Etsy. I'm finding that website is becoming a very costly place, and will not be uploading as many new items. My Big Cartel shop is attached to my Facebook page, and is better because you don't have to log in, or have an account to buy. :-)  I know that that is very important for some people.

Have a great evening and Monday!! xx