Here’s the view, “Lookin’ out my back door” this morning. Now I’ll have that song stuck in my head all day. 
I’m not a big fan of snow. However, there is something so peaceful about a fresh blanket of white. The world seems to be more quiet and calm. The snow covered tree branches above create a winter wonderland effect.
The morning sun is still low in the sky, casting long shadows across the landscape. Once the sun is higher, everything will sparkle like it’s covered in diamonds.
My business up to this point has been built on word-of-mouth referrals. I decided this year to step it up with some advertising. I’m starting small…small is definitely the key word here. Grabbing someone’s attention with a 125 by 125 pixel ad is not an easy thing to do.
Here’s what I’ve come up with so far, but I’m not sure I’m happy with either one.
So, which ad grabs your attention? Or do you not like either of them? Leave me a comment and let me know what you think…I can take it.
Switching gears here, I pulled a muscle in my back and along my rib cage which had me on pain pills and laying on ice packs most of last week. It happened while exercising. Yes, exercising is dangerous to your health. 
When they say if an exercise hurts, to stop doing it…well, I continued on and paid the price. I’m up and around this week, but still moving slow. I managed 6 color mixes yesterday before my back was screaming at me to stop. So, while I am working on finishing up the Kato color recipes ebook, it is slow going.
Update:
Other ad ideas
Where you purchase your polymer clay is important. Case in point, I was in the middle of working on color mixes for the Kato Spring 2012 color recipe ebook and opened a “new” package of magenta. The first thing I noticed was that the color in the middle of block of clay was much pinker than the outside. I thought maybe it will be ok once I condition it. Nope, the color cured a totally different shade.
So, now I’m beginning to panic, thinking that the magenta color had changed drastically and that all my color recipes were wrong. Sent a message to Tony Aquino from Van Aken, the makers of Kato Polyclay. Excellent customer service! Found out that this block of magenta was 3 years old. Huh? I just bought it a couple months ago at a local Hobby Lobby. I’m guessing this Hobby Lobby doesn’t have a very high turnover of their clay and/or someone found an old box buried in their store room. I definitely won’t be purchasing clay from them again.
This means that the Kato color recipes won’t be available as soon as I had hoped. Once my clay order arrives I will get them finished.
February’s Monthly Muse inspiration is all about tribal prints in neutral colors like black, white and tan (Nomad). If you’re feeling bold… try adding a pop of color, like Tangerine Tango or Deep Orchid. Or add rich gold for a luxurious look.
I did manage to find a little time to make something for January’s Monthly Muse inspiration…
I’ve been hard at work on the color mixes for the Kato Spring 2012 polymer clay color recipe ebook and hope to have it ready to go soon. Next on the agenda is working on taxes 
and cleaning my studio. It’s amazing how quickly the mess gets out of hand. What are your plans for the month of February? Anyone working on something new and exciting?
Yes! The FIMO Spring 2012 color recipes are done and the ebook is now available right here on my website and in my Etsy shop.
The blast from the past happened a couple of days ago on Facebook. My friend Amy posted a couple photos….
…These were the beads that were on the cover of of Polymer Cafe magazine (Summer 2006). The frenzy refers to the good ole days of eBay when bidding frenzies often occurred.
It’s Friday the 13th! My day started out a little frantic…rolled over, looked at the clock and I had overslept. So, I had to hustle to get my youngest ready for school and drive him there, since I slept late enough that he missed his bus. I’m sure this had more to do with the fact that I haven’t been getting enough sleep, than the fact that it’s Friday the 13th.
Onto learning new things. I think it’s important to continually learn new things, whether or not you do something with that knowledge is another matter. My journey with polymer clay began when I took a couple local adult ed classes from a local art teacher one winter for something to do….I tend to be a hermit in the winter. One of the classes was making cutesy Christmas ornaments out of polymer clay. Cutesy isn’t really my style, but I fell in love with the material. The other class I took that winter was painting a paint stick Santa. I enjoyed the class and my Santa turned out very cute, if I do say so myself. It wasn’t something I wanted to pursue, but I’m still glad I took the class.
The only other art/craft related class I’ve taken was for a beaded caterpillar bracelet several years ago (shown above). Again, I enjoyed the class and learned some new skills, but it wasn’t something I wanted to pursue. I really enjoyed the few classes that I’ve taken, limited as they are. So, why haven’t I taken more classes? Mainly due to lack of local availability and/or lack of funds.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that a local shop (really local as in 3 blocks from my house), offers classes in lampworking, fused glass, wire wrapping, mosaics, stained glass and more. The best part is that the classes are very reasonably priced. Oh yeah, I see many classes in my future. Now, where did that money tree get to?
At the moment, I’m lovin’ the spring pastels. As you may remember, the last color palette of the week (CPAW) for 2011, consisted of Margarita, Sweet Lilac and cockatoo.
Today I wanted to share what Veronique Hoffmann (Fimomaus) created with this color palette.
The combination of the crackle look with the flowers (in the photo below) is very eye catching. Veronique definitely wins the prize for participation in the color palette a week challenge. Ok, there’s not really a prize, but if there were, she would win it. She was far and away the best at keeping up. Be sure to check out Veronique’s other work.
