Featured Seller: Sharon Foster Art

I'm no literary critic, but My Sweet Audrina rocks.

No, I'm not just discovering this fiction gem. I read this book more than 20 years ago. Loved it then, love it now.

Poor Audrina. It's not easy growing up in a house full of wackos. but at least she has pretty hair and fabulous eyes, and, in the end, isn't that what it's all about?

Speaking of beauty, check this out:



Sharon Foster Art has the most beautiful things. I love her bold colors and choice of subjects. So let's learn more about her!

Your Shop Name
Sharon Foster Art --- More descriptive than creative. Have to save all that creativity for the paintings and art.

Your real name
Sharon Gee, I hope all the questions are this easy.

Fifth grade teacher?
Anabelle Shivers - she was also my 3rd grade teacher. She graduated to the 5th grade too. We thought she was incredibly cool and she was. Single, tall and pretty and drove a convertible. She loved to read to us. Since retiring from teaching, Miss Shivers is a story teller and performs at those storytelling festivals.



When did you first start crafting?
Age 5 or 6 --I always loved the crayons, the scissors, the paper, making stuff and clay and playdough, etc. I went to a great school on the campus of the university that I work at now. We had art classes all the time and wonderful projects and art teachers & student teachers. Very progressive.

Got a day job?
Oh, yeah. Human Resources Professional at a university.

What creation are you most proud of and why?
It changes all the time. Right now it is a painting that I worked at when I went to a painting workshop with Kaffe Fassett. It's loaded with color. He's wonderful! He works in several different medias - we share a love of color. Google him! Buy his books. I love the process of creating and painting.

What's the ugliest thing you ever made?
Too many to count. The ugliest was probably a milk can -those big metal cans that farmers used to get the milk to the dairy that I painted some horrible picture on. I hope by now it has rusted away in some landfill and is resting in peace. It also could be in some haunted house scaring children. There is also a bad painting at my mom's house. It is hung to the right of the Bad Hair Photo Wall of Shame. I keep meaning to redo it.



Explain your etsy shop name.
It's easy. My user id on Ebay is the name of my former two fish and I wanted something more descriptive.

Angelina or Jen?
Jen. I still miss the Rachel haircut from "Friends".

Final words?
Etsy is extremely fun and a super vehicle by which to introduce others to your art. I have meet the best people - both customers and artists & crafters and artist customers amd crafter customers. And BLOG writers. I could spend all my time just looking at the wonderful things on etsy. Thanks for letting me be on your blog.

Featured Seller: Halflyng

Mean people suck. And today, I was one of them.

God the etsy forums have been on fire lately, huh? And some people have no idea how to express themselves without being complete jerks.

So today, I was a jerk in the forums too. I'm not particulary proud of myself. Usually I try to be funny or thoughtful when I post something for public consumption. I'm not going to say anything that's going to change the world, so why bother being negative?

But today... Eh. Threw caution to the wind. Acted like an ass.

So now I must change my ways. I must not fall into the pit of forum darkness.

I think I can change by looking at beautiful things like this:



Ahhhh... I feel better already. Check out the creator of these and other lovely soaps made by Halflyng

Your Shop Name
Halflyng

Your real name
Jenn (normally spelled jeNN, so people will see it has 2 N's)

First boyfriend (or girlfriend)?
Eric Ashbrook in 3rd grade when I lived in Fenwick, Michigan near
Ionia. We went out/broke up 19 times :)

When did you first start crafting?
Valentine's Day last year. My husband bought me a crapload of soap
stuff for V-day :)



Got a day job? What is it?
Currently unemployed. So I'm a full time housewife and mom to our 3
cats.

Smurfs or Barbies?
Screw that sissy stuff, I'm all about Transformers :D

What creation are you most proud of and why?
Any one of my ducks or embeds. They make kids happy and in turn make
me happy :)



What's the ugliest thing you ever made?
I make ugly things all the time, that's why i have "Sampler Packs"


Explain your etsy shop name.
Most idiots think that it's because of Dungeons and Dragons, but it
goes back farther then that. It's from Lord of the Rings... you know, the
Hobbits? I just gave it a special twist with the Y. So.. It's not
Half lying, or Hal flying... THERE IS NO I! It's like Halfling, but with
a Y.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
I would want to be like Clayface from the Batman Animated Series :D

Final words?
You'll find a ton of people doing embeds in their soaps.. I wasn't the
first and I sure as hell won't be the last. But I can promise you one
thing, I will have the most :) Whenever you need a custom order for
your munchkins, I will bend over backwards to provide you with the
greatest soaps possible :)

It's not you, it's me

I thought I could juggle it. I really did. But I can't.

I wanted to be able to blog about some new seller every day. You know, spread the good will and karma and all that. But I just don't have time.

Each post takes about 20-30 minutes to get up. I have to code things, then pluck pictures and load them on to this site.

That's 20 or 30 minutes I could be cleaning my house. Or rescuing my husband from a screaming toddler.

Don't cry. What we had is not all gone.

Sadly, I won't be here as much. Once or twice a week, max. But those one or two entries will be the butt-kickiest entries EVER.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled cleaning...

Featured Seller: POQAdotted

What a crappy day.

The bosses are loading work on all of us in their slave labor camp. My coworker asked me to crochet him a monster, then didn't pay, telling people he thought it was a "gift." And my diet is failing miserably.

I need to buy something, STAT. And lemme tell ya, this is pretty tempting:



I will not think about bad things. I. Will. NOT.

Instead, I will drool over (but not ON) the beautiful things in the shop of POQAdotted

Shop Name:
POQAdotted

Your real name
Nicole

Fifth grade teacher?
I think it was Mrs Cordero. Its hard to remember when you changed schools every six months or so

When did you first start crafting?
Gosh before I could walk I would imagine. I come from a super crafty family.

Got a day job? What is it?
I'm a nurse but I'm taking some time off to be with my family.

What creation are you most proud of and why?
My Kids!




What's the ugliest thing you ever made?
I honestly dont know. Maybe some of my early sewing projects when I though patterns and pins were not a necessity

Explain your etsy shop name.
It stems from something my dad used to say to me and I blended it with one of my favorite things..polka-dots so it came out as POQA(princess of quite alot)-dotted




Angelina or Jen?
hmm maybe if June or Johnny Cash reincarnated into one of them

Final words?
Create! Inspire! Craft!

Featured Seller: Creative Sparkle

I am such a dope.

Would you believe that I stayed up until almost 3 a.m. this morning watching-- of all things -- The Burning Bed? I can not express how that movie transfixes me. No one does Sick-Of-Being-Beat-Up-Gonna-Light-My-Man-On-Fire like Farrah. The woman is my hero.

I do, however, wonder if the actor playing her hubby got a few real shots in there during shooting. Farrah, cancer aside, is looking pretty rough these days.

But you know what DOES NOT look like hell? Anything in the shop of Creative Sparkle



I love this lady's stuff. Let's learn more about her, shall we?

Your shop name
Creative Sparkle


Your real name
Christina (My friends call me Stina)

Fifth grade teacher?
Ms. Cory. She loved pigs and chocolate. She was a very quirky lady. I gave her a drawing of a pig and a hershey bar and I was set.



When did you first start crafting?
I've been crafting since I could use scissors. I used to cut out pieces of felt, construction paper, and other things and glue them together. Everything was topped with mountains of glitter, of course.

Got a day job? What is it?
I run an after school program for elementary school kids. That group has taught me patience, definitely. The kids inspire me every day.

What creation are you most proud of and why?
My Cinderella Story Box



The colors matched the illustration so perfectly.

What's the ugliest thing you ever made?
When I was about nine years old, I cut strips of paper and made a "woven" basket. I couldn't get the pieces to stay so I covered the entire thing in scotch tape. I thought I was a genius. Thank goodness I don't have any pictures of it.

Explain your etsy shop name.
Pretty straight forward. My mother always called me creative, and I believe that when you find an item that is perfect for you, it has a certain sparkle to it. Plus its a homage to all the glitter I used as a child.

Angelina or Jen?
Neither, I'm not big on celebrities in general.

Final words?
Do what you love, love what you do. Have fun, and don't settle, ever.

Featured seller: Carrie Scott

I want to look like this:



I know it's wrong. I'm 35 years old. I should be embracing the unbraceable me. Hugging my womanhood. Loving my lard all that.

But no. I want to be a fabulously blond cartoon character created by Carrie Scott. Don't hate me because I'm ridiculous.

Your Shop Name
Carrie Scott

Your real name
Carrie

Fifth grade teacher?
I honestly can't remember, which is horrible because it was not that long ago.

When did you first start crafting?
If I can consider my first crafting experience as coloring books, then I think I was two. If we're talking actually creating something from scratch, then I'd have to go with the age of six or seven. I would create custom cards and comic strips for my parents out of the same character. He had a spike mo-hawk and a lot of piercings and would say all of the things in the comics that I wasn't allowed to say or was too afraid to. Better than an imaginary friend, right?




Got a day job? What is it?
I'm an insurance agent. When people ask me where I work, I tell them to close their eyes and imagine the most boring place they have ever been. Now multiply that by ten.

What creation are you most proud of and why?
I was pretty proud of the last mural I did. Here's a pic:



The people that I painted it for have a beautiful custom home. I was so proud that they allowed me to be a part of creating a permanant piece of art on their wall.

What's the ugliest thing you ever made?
Anything ugly I have ever made has been thrown away to erase all proof that it ever existed. Therefore, I have NEVER made anything ugly.

Explain your etsy shop name.
It's my name! (I thought long and hard about it)

Angelina or Jen?
Jen because she's the underdog. Everyone loves the lady who adopts all the orphans!




Final words?
I find that I'm bipolar when it comes to inspiration. I'm bone dry or spilling over the edges with ideas. This is why I love creating custom work. You get to tell me what you want. This way I don't end up walking around the house in circles with painters-block. (It IS a word)

Featured Seller: Jared KS

Well, it's been almost two months since I started this blog and I've decided to shake things up.

Be afraid.

Today, instead of doing the usual interview feature, I've picked a featured seller at random from the ranks of Etsy. I just clicked on a few names until I found some cool stuff. It took about 3 seconds.

Seriously. Etsy has the best stuff. From the moment I saw this photo by Jared KS , I could not take my eyes off it.



And look at this:



And this:



And this!



Bravo Jared KS . Your beautiful art has made my day!