What a Wonderful Treasury

Well...it was a wonderful Treasury.
It has ended now, so the link no longer works.
It's too bad they don't switch up what makes the front page more often than they do because, this Treasury was really one of the best I'd ever seen...and, I never thought about getting the store name of the person who put it together...for some reason, I thought the link would be permanent..guess I'll know better next time!
I did have a piece in this Treasury..which was the reason I ran acrossed it in the first place...
too bad I don't know how to capture these little diddies...I sure would have liked to have shared it with you.

Sharing the Love....

I ran across this picture and had to share...homely or not...I think these guys are too sweet!

Speaking of sharing...I have been including the Etsy shops of artists whose work I admire, on my Rustic Goth Squidoo Lens. Check them out..

This lens has really been climbing up in the 'Arts and Literature' ranks so, I've decided I'm going to do a new lens JUST for the shops of others.

Like getting hit in the gut with a speeding paint bullet...

...it might be great fun, but it looks painful as heck!

Kind of like, self marketing!
Whew!!!
I'd rather be painting!

I am Weak...I'll admit it!!!

I have this adorable little tote bag available in my Cafe Press Shop. I am especially proud of my Summer Poppy painting that I used as decor.

So...I had decided that I was going to do my very, very best to only put a positive foot forward. And, I think I've been doing pretty darned good...ah..then this evening I ran across a 'Monkeybrain' eBay debate in Squidoo and fell to temptation.

I just HAD to add my two cents!!! Shame on me!

I do love to browse through Squidoo and read the lens' though!

I think my own lens' are worth a read as well...

have a look at my first one....

Did you see...?

...I'm out there on Trunkt!

I've included a 'widget' that links to my Trunkt site. I still need to do some work on it...but I was only JUST approved, so I haven't had a chance to finish it.

I've made three trips to Omaha in just over a week...this from someone who rarely leaves the house...talk about messing with my routine!!!

It has put me behind though...so, I'm hoping I can spend the rest of the week getting everything 'back to normal'...at least, normal for me! My house is 'trashed'...I haven't painted in a week...I've got shipping to do...and I've started up several new sites...........WOW! No wonder I feel tired!!

I'm Getting Around

"Bella's Bat" appeared for a brief time in my Rustic Goth Etsy Shop, as a Limited Edition ACEO Print.

She's baaaack...this time on Art Cards Wanted. Com.

I am offering only a few select pieces on that site and this is one of them.

I've included a link to that site in my Favorite Links.

Do try to check out my Rustic Goth Squidoo Lens. I update it several times throughout the day and I have included a growing list of links to other talented artists on that site. You just might find some new and emerging talent on one of my list links.

In the meantime, I will continue to add pieces from my late husband's 'Barren Trees' series, as Limited Edition ACEO prints on my http://cmzart.etsy.com/ site.

Check it out!!! I noticed there are some new pieces just available at http://www.trunkt.org/BellatrixArt. These are some really great pieces.

While I am at it, if you love jewelry, you'll simply love http://distinque.etsy.com/. I'm especially fond of her 'leaf' pieces. I think they are absolutely exquisite.

xxx

Participating in Art Against Aids - Chicago

Once against I am participating in the Art Against Aids - Chicago. Unfortunately I won't be able to attend the event in person, but I was able to again give one of my favorite paintings to the event in the hopes they might be able to raise money for this cause.
We have sent paintings for the past two or three years. This was Jaime's painting from last year, now on display at the Illinois Institute of Art.
Check out this link...it is the third painting down...
http://www.gallery180.com/collection.html

What's Love Got To Do With It?

I don't put together too many videos and the one's I do are few and far between. Every so often I have to do one, just to 'refresh' my memory. I didn't save this one correctly, so I couldn't upload it to You Tube, unless I wanted to re-do the whole thing...I didn't!

Hopefully it came out alright without saving it as an mv file.

What's New....?

Had a wonderful night out! Since this doesn't happen too often it is a big deal to me!!

I'll preface this by saying, a year ago Christmas, one of my children bought 'Lion King' tickets...the musical...for several of us to go. I had never been to any kind of Broadway show --- granted it was the Orpheum Theatre in Omaha NE and not Broadway in New York---but wonderful none the less.

This year, another of my children bought 'Phantom of the Opera' tickets for Christmas...(they now know what to get me---I'm not a material person so I'm not that easy to buy for.)

Tonight was the play!!!!

It was great!!

Since, I seldom leave the house, I usually think I'd rather be doing almost anything else...and I'm always so very...very happy when we go! Tonight was no exception!!! Woo Hoo!!!

Seriously, the play was great...the music fabulous...and the company priceless!!!

===================================================================

So, now back to some 'business'.

I did want to share my new 'Squidoo' lens.

I've got more work to do to it, but it's coming along, so I thought I'd share...

here is the link....

http://www.squidoo.com/bugsear

Fixed prices vs auction prices

I sell my Etsy items for a fixed price that is 50% higher than the starting auction prices I charged when I was on eBay.
Etsy prices are fixed...so, when a collector finds something that he or she really likes, they can just 'buy it now' for the listed price.
On eBay, starting prices are lower, to give room for bidders to give their maximum bids. Some pieces go for less than what the fixed price would have been, while others go much higher.
The fixed prices I have placed on all of my Etsy pieces, are 'average' prices from sales made on both eBay and on Etsy.
I also 'rounded' my Etsy prices to even dollar amounts, to do away with those odd cents I have been using.

A note of thanks....

I have had several of my collectors email me to find out where they can find my art.
I do want to thank everyone who emailed me.

I've done well enough on Etsy that I think it might have been too 'ambitious' for me to try to add any new sites to my plate at this time.

I try very hard to provide good customer service and with every new site I take on, that just gets a little harder to do.

Here are a few of the new ACEOs and paintings I will be listing on Rustic Goth Etsy this coming week, (actually two of the ACEOs and one painting are already listed...but the rest will be listed by the end of the week.)
To see everything I currently have listed, just click on to any of the pictures in the right hand corner of this blog.

Heeding 'unasked for' advice...

I used to be on eBay but, I've been on Etsy for several months and I LOVE IT there!!!
I ran across a conversation in the Etsy forums discussing eBay members, disgruntled with the changes on eBay, using Etsy as a way of staging some sort of 'blackout' protest against eBay.

I was somewhat dismayed at learning this.

I love Etsy...eBay not so much. But, to use the wonderful Etsy site to try to change things on eBay is just plain wrong! I think if one is disgruntled with eBay they have three choices...try to change things ON eBay, accept the changes that have been made and continue to list there, or (as I did) just LEAVE eBay and be very happy that you have found a new site that is as viable as Etsy and build your business there.

I had my first eBay listing pulled in early 2005, because I had used wording---sent to me by the eBay charity group I was part of, as eBay deemed it 'keyword spamming'. I had bids...it was a feature plus listing...but, what really upset me was that, some of the bigger sellers did not have their listings pulled (using the exact wording...which we were TOLD to use.)
Unfortunately, there wasn't an Etsy to go to at that time...so I just had to 'grin and bear it'.

I've had listings pulled for having links to EBSQ...even though almost everyone I know on EBSQ who uses the EBSQ templates had links back to EBSQ, I was pulled and no one else was. Still, no Etsy to turn to.

I could go on and on about the injustices suffered at the hands of eBay...it just 'is what it is'. I no longer have an eBay account...but, I would never use Etsy as a 'forum' to voice my opinion of eBay. I learned, many years ago, that any attention 'positive or negative', given to your competition is like 'free advertising' for them! Personally, I don't want to give eBay a penny's worth of 'advertising'. So this is the very last time I will include the company name in any of my posts.
I had to read someone else's view to see my own shortcomings.

ACEOs listings coming to Etsy

Here are a few of the ACEO originals that I will be listing, in the next week or two on Etsy. It's not all that I am planning to list....it's all that I currently have finished.

Paintings on Etsy and Art By Us...

I now have a couple of 'non-ACEO' paintings listed on Etsy and one on Art by Us.
The two paintings at the top of this picture are each on gallery wrapped pre-stretched canvas...one is 11x14 and the other is 6x12.
The painting at the bottom is a 4.5x6" painting done on cotton canvas sheet, without wooden frame support.

I plan to do paintings on both kinds of support...as the canvas sheet paintings do look good matted and framed...it's not as easy to do that with the pre-stretched pieces...thus my reasoning for doing both.

Moving On Up....

.

I started on Etsy, offering mostly ACEOs and those have done well. I take nothing away from my ACEOs as I am very proud and very pleased with the ones I have painted. They take me longer than one would think...just because they're smaller doesn't mean they're easier to paint.

It is probably easier, for me anyway, to paint on larger surfaces. I think they 'translate' better in photos and they are certainly easier to see.

Look for, at least, one new painting...some on canvas sheets and some on prestretched canvas...every week.