In the cozy forest

Inspired by papercutting, Q. Cassetti, 2010, pen and inkWe got a load of snow for the last two days. My clients did not. So,being remote only meant that the work kept coming and my employee was home also being remote...but it was less good on my end as he wasn't right here. However, buckets of work done later. Two kids still happy to be home with no reason Not to watch the Olympics and more bread raising on my radiator. I counted well over a dozen deer in the side yard nibbling away at the green stuff burdened by all the wet snow. They were wading through the snow with the little ones close by (snow well over top of them).

I posted a bunch of new SHOES to Zazzle/Artsprojekt. The big news there is that you can customize Keds High Tops and low tops (mens) so the cool factor goes up. I wish they had cooler rubber choices--but I do think some of my work looks pretty "fresh" (not my words, Alex's). It would be great if I could sell a few of these....who knows?

Speaking of cool, on demand fabric... Here is Spoonflower. They have a grid to design to, along with the general on-demand fabulousness such as no minimum order, ecofriendly textile printing, all sorts of fabric choices, weekly fabric design contests, and  $5. swatches to see your work before you get the stuff done. Talk about opportunities for comping or for just getting your illustration out, on a chair and on antiques...and selling through one offs. Am so psyched about this. Need to download this grid to see what I can do with this. Here are the specs>> Race you! There might be something here...really.

I found this other interesting thing that looks like it could be fun to try. Its called "Artisteer", not the best name but they are promoting themselves as a way to create Blogger Templates easily (Blogger is the place I started in this wild journey of blogging and a place I recommend anyone to start...not much to go wrong, easy to manipulate, the "Why not? What if" factor is high). 

Here's another one: Widgetbox. Widgetbox allows you to make personal widgets for your blog/website that is about slides, videos, youtube, Vimeo, twitter, blogfeeds...and assign images etc. Its free for to start...and they have a pro feature if you want more. Seems interesting and worth looking into.

Thats it for the geekdom now. Am surfacing all sorts of interesting things to keep from focusing on death and taxes...though what with my new found understanding of Biga, it all seems to have a different place.

It continues to snow. As I look at these little happy forest scenes, I thought that maybe I should morph to some little houses, candy houses that is in the forest and see if Hansel and Gretel could emerge out of this mix. Rob thinks I should do a series called Grimm: name of the story....and bring my less than happy point of view to some less than happy children's tales. Hansel and Gretel could fit? No?

We were invited to an outdoor (in the snow) cookout at a friend's blacksmith shop...I hope the snow stops...but it seems unlikely....Kitty is charged about it. Alex is sour and sardonic...but I love him nonetheless.Can't hold his being a teenager against him, can we? After all, we were teenagers too.