Blog Routine, Plans, and WIPs

Hi there, blogging types!

I've decided that I'm going to try and do this bit every Sunday. That leaves the other nine websites "on a whim" and means this will be my consistent update. Occasionally I won't have internet access and it may have to be scheduled ahead of time or late, but I'd like to try to keep a routine. It'll keep me on my toes and it will give a steady answer to the question, "why hasn't anything been posted in a while?". So on that plan of action, I'd like to give you my weekly thoughts-that-keep-me-awake and works in progress.

(on deviantART here)

My current artsy plans are lots and lots of dresses! This past month, admittedly, I've been in quite the slump. My last dress based on the USA flag has very little attention where it counts (Etsy) and it brought my inspiration down. Originally when I posted the concept art on Facebook she got a really positive response. Throughout all the progress shots and even to the final photos, Facebook pulled through for me, and even got me another feature on bead-patterns.com's newsletter! When she finally got to my main gallery on deviantART however, it's like I never even posted her... she's totally overlooked. I'm trying to look at the best parts of it: like how Facebook loved her, how I cut eleven hours off my previous time doing that pattern, or how posting artsy shots of her on Instagram brought me new followers there. But it still dug into my side that I'd spent all this time with a dress that doesn't look like it will sell.

I started Alicia, a custom character from my partner-in-crime, deviantART's GraniteFire. The beads were custom ordered to match the blue-grey that Alicia's apron is made up of and other colors are coming from my stash. She's using Eumelia as a starter base but will require custom sleeves and a heavily modified skirt from the Ballerina to fill out the length. The apron is going to be a faux layer and the bow will be anything but what Eumelia put me through!

I started her and stopped at the collar because I just had to step away from her. Now, as I write this, I'm super excited - but then I was in such a mood that anything else seemed more appealing. I went back to my long-term project, Mirabilia's Dressmaker's Daughter, which is a cross-stitch piece spanning over a hundred hours already and is less than half way finished! I have an extremely long piece-by-piece WIP of the project [here] if you are interested in all the details. I tried to include as many pointers as possible for someone who may not know what to expect from a Mirabilia kit (as I had no idea what I was getting myself into). I have started Summer but the last full photo was of just Winter and Autumn spread out:

The Dresses have been a getaway for me for the past few months, and I definitely needed the cool-down. Working on the background for the past twenty hours hasn't been exactly fun but it is entirely relaxing and gave me all that time to think. I flipped back and forth to my contest-entry to deviantART's stitchingpirates contest for Spring, a pair of bunnies sitting on some purple flowers. It should be done before the week is, posted and ready to compete!

As for the new-found inspiration, I visited Sedona for the past two days with my mom and found an absolutely wonderful bead shop! They're called The Bead Garden and they were very nice, but more importantly they had entire wall dedicated to seed beads! My dresses are limited to what color size 15's I can get, but it didn't stop me from getting overly excited and coming up with more ideas than I could keep track of for dresses! I'm entirely out of my slump now... I have many plans for dresses, very specifically the Mermaid types, and I have enough beads to make the next eight dresses! And oh, do I have plans...! There's going to be a lot of gold involved and I got some more confetti tubes so there's going to be some verrrry pretty dresses coming in the next few months.

Until next week!

Pinky