Desperately seeking sunglasses

I am desperately looking for mini buttons/pins/charms like these, size about 1.5 Inches (about 4cm) with lenses that can be taken out. I know they exist, because I had two and used them. I need them in all colors I can get. All I found so far are one piece with nondetachable lenses, which won't do. I have been looking for days now.

(Note, the above photo is from eBay, I did not shoot it myself or have any rights to it).

What I need is to use them as I did with my Mini Me (photo below). Please let me know if you sell these or know where I can buy them online, thanks!!!

Rubber stamp

Every aspiring dictator needs a rubber stamp. I already have one for my Etsy shop, but it is in English and I have plans for Israel too. So I was shopping for a Hebrew stamp and that brought me to the amazing, talented and oh so nice Mekoopelet.

After I initiated contact ("Hello I plan to control the world, and need a rubber stamp") Mekoopelet and I started a correspondence where I described what I am looking for, she sends me a draft  and so forth. We worked on several options, including either my website address or my phone number. Combining both would create a big stamp, and I wanted a relatively small one. She also suggested several illustrations, based on photos I sent her. It was quite clear from the get go, that Pinky would have to appear as my logo.

 

An advanced draft

Eventually, I decided I want to go with the smaller stamp, with my name and the Pinky sketch only and asked Mekoopelet to create two separate mini stamps - one with my URL (for business purposes) and one with my phone number (for stamping my books and taking over the world) and so she did! Yesterday, I received this wonderful wrap in the mail.

Next Pinky and I did some test stamping. Needless to say, he was very excited. Mekoopelet also sent the beautiful mounted stamp card you can see on the photo.

Finally, when we agreed we are satisfied, Pinky called Shafani (Pinky's stuffed bunny) to help with an official rubber stamp portrait. Remember this portrait well, for it may flutter on the flags of our proud nation one day soon (you would expect my portrait wouldn't you? But I know Pinky, and I know who is really having the last word around this house).

Are you a megalomaniac freak or a handmade artist? Do you sell vintage clothing you need to label or maybe would simply like to get your books back when you lend them? Email Mekoopelet today, order a stamp and tell her Pinky sent you.

Am I still ill? Oh no

Oh yes, I am still ill damn it. A week and a half now, and it hasn't been a month since the last time. I am going to see a specialist next week in hopes of findings why I am getting bad colds so often. So I am stuck at home blowing my nose silly and cursing the minute I was born. My huge stash of aloe lotion Kleenex is about to expire and I missed God knows how many days at work. But as Morrissey says, there's a brighter side to life.

First off, I got word that Tzipi the world traveling Flutterbutt finally arrived to the UK. Her host will blog about her soon, as well as knit her a sweater (poor thing is reportedly freezing). On top of that news, a wonderful package of miniature shoes arrived from Hong Kong today, bearing among other things, a little surprise I got for Erez who is also sick as a bat these past few days. Low and behold his highness's new donkey slippers!

I better get back to coughing and twitting. It's good I can speak without opening my mouth and infecting innocent people. But before I do, one excellent new site for Etsy sellers. Cr8tivity is loaded with stats and useful tools which exceed Craftcult by far. Enter your Etsy username and see all it has to offer. I wonder how many people use it, and if it is a good idea to advertise on it. Enjoy!

Good teachers are costly, but bad teachers cost more

I am not sure that Bob Talbert said the above about my latest creation, but ain't that the truth!

I was recently approached by a most wonderful teacher, who asked me to make her a hand puppet look alike pal to use in her classrooms. What an awesome request! She commissioned a blond, blue eyed full size puppet wearing a cool blouse and skirt, and a pair of glasses.

I used the gorgeous blond hair that was leftover from Marissa the puppet, which I cut to shoulder length. It has a beautiful natural hair color (ash blond, sort of grayish) and texture. I added blush and big red lips and long black lashes on her hand drawn eyes.

I had the perfect pale pink blouse waiting on my puppet apparel stock, but I had to go shop for a matching skirt. I was looking for a nice denim skirt, but ended up finding a cute brown skirt with a floral embroidery, which matched perfectly.

Since she is a teacher, I gave her a comfy pair of tennis shoes, then finished her up with some nice accessories - a pair of reading eyeglasses hanging on a beaded chain, some cute dangling earrings, and a pink sequin headband et voila! An excellent little teacher, who may be costly but is definitely cheaper than a bad one.

I hope the kids will enjoy their new teacher, I sure had fun making her and  also added a little extra feature the kids may appreciate - an inherent hate for homework.

So many custom orders, so little time

Believe it or not, I spent almost half of the past couple of months ill. I had a flu, an ongoing sinus infection and now another head cold. I missed almost 3 workweeks at the office! This is driving me nuts. I guess my bad eating habits are catching up with me, not to mention biting my back. I am taking care of that.

In any case, all these sicknesses cost me in terms of promoting my shop and creating new products. I also had several custom orders that dragged and dragged and were completed in great delays (thank God for my sweet understanding customers, who agreed to wait for their orders to be completed).

Finally, this week I managed to catch up on my custom orders. All apart for one, who is waiting for me to shop for cloths, which will have to wait till next week.

First is this sexy little hand puppet. She is made after a very rich successful gorgeous blond lady. Therefore, I had to create a chic designer outfit for her with elegant accessories. I made her a backless collar dress in coral toned lace. The neck is decorated with clear rhinestones. The gladiator sandals are also decorated with rhinestones and compliment the satin back straps of the dress.

Next, we have a lady who ordered a look alike hand puppet of her brother. He is a very handsome young man, and I did my best to make him a worthy mini me.

 

I also had a very nice man, who ordered a look alike Flutterbutt of himself as a birthday gift for his girlfriend. The drawn whiskers are a  memento of a romantic event they shared, which I find very sweet. I packed him is a transparent bag, so he can see the complete work before giving it to his beloved (obviously, he received photos while I was working, and approved them). I think the gift wrapped boyfriend is very cute.

Now, I am very eager to 1) be healthy 2) create a Flutterbutt of my own liking. Custom orders are wonderful, but I didn't update my shop in so long, I feel it's time to refresh. After all, it is apparent spring is approaching.

And the apple giveaway winner is...

The randomizer randomized and the winner is..

Shira, Lior's aunt

Please send me your shipping address to the following email addrss, so I can pass it on to Shay, who made these lovely earrings.


Thank you for all the participants!

Pansies

This morning I woke up bright and early. It's very warm here these past couple of days (I even saw a cockroach last night, what's up with that?), the sun is shining and the birds are singing. Our roof garden is coming to life with all sorts of flowers and even a brand new strawberry plant I bought the other day. I decided to show off my pansies, after seeing Ayelet do so on her blog!

Have a nice weekend, and don't forget to join my giveaway

So many promos, so little time

Once I got home from work and grocery shopping, I started the evening with arranging my new promo packs.

I received some beautiful magnets from Karen and amazing mini art prints from Jenny. This, along with leftover promos from Shay, discount coupons I got from Katie, my new Moo cards and stickers and some more leftover promos turned into a lovely new batch of promo packs for my customers.

I can always use more promos, so if you want to send me some, please let me know! My customers love getting these little gift packs, and it is a great way to promote and get exposed to new potential customers, especially if we share a similar target audience.

Apple giveaway

This month, I am giving away on apple. And not just any apple, apple earrings made by the handsome, witty and extremely talented Shay Aaron, known from his whimsy miniature market Etsy shop.

 
What do you have to do in order to win these lovely earrings?

1. Follow my blog
2. Comment here
3. Want to increase your chances? Twitt the following message
   Join @shayaaron apple giveaway on @Raisinlike blog at - http://raisinlike.blogspot.com/2010/02/apple-giveaway.html

 That's it! You can enlist to win these earrings till Saturday the 12th. On that date I will use a randomizer to select a winner. Yay!

Here comes the Flutterbride all dressed in white

Thursday was the birthday of my relatively new and most beloved friend, D. Not only did this fine, sweet and beautiful lady turn 26 but she is also about to get married. Since I am the wedding attire stylist (dress check, jewelry and shoes on the way) I know what wedding gown she chose, and I know the wedding gown designer (Fish'n'dag) so I decided to make her a Flutterbride in her own image as a gift.

D's most striking feature is her long silky black hair. So of course, mini D had to have the same hair. It took me almost an hour working on it alone. Hard work, but don't you want to use her shampoo?

I took some artistic liberty with her wedding gown, since D has a very clean and elegant taste but Flutterbrides are a bit more fru-fru in nature. I added some lace and trimmings D would rather wed in a garbage bag than wearing. The red and fuchsia ribbon, though, is after the designer's style.

Finally, since D has a silly doggy who likes to eat things (and people) I decided to make her into a puppet mobile she can hang out of her reach. I decorated the wire with shiny transparent Czech glass and plastic beads, and Murano heart beads in silver and red.

I think D was pleased to get her fancy little Mini Me. She put her in the middle of the open space for everyone in the office to see, and placed a nice pink flowerpot right next to her, to compliment her gown. Later on, she realized something is missing to make her Mini Me really convincing as a double, so she added a final touch, which everybody agreed did the trick.

Mini D smoking a pretzel. Taken with my cell phone camera

A very exciting day

Today, as the title suggests, was a very exciting day!

It started with this article, featuring four Israeli Etsians on one of the biggest financial magazines in Israel with my big picture spread all over the title. I had a nice big part of the article, telling about my creations, Tzipi the World Traveling Flutterbutt, my Etsy tutorials in Hebrew, and my role as Etsy Israel Team leader.

לכתבה באתר כלכליסט, לחצו כאן

I also got a phone call asking me to appear on the morning show today. Luckily, that didn't turn out so I was able to be interviewed by one of Israel's prominent journalists on his daily radio show instead (you can listen to it here). I was interviewed by phone at work, while the entire office stood listening to the online broadcast and cheering behind my door.

 להאזנה לראיון אצל גבי גזית לחצו על האיור

And then I got a phone call from the producer of another tv morning show, hosted by my favorite Israeli media person (אברי גלעד) asking me to appear on one of the show next week.

So tell me, is that an exciting day or what?