shop updates....

lots of new additions to the miniature rhino shop, which by the way has a new look.  find postcards, cards, books made for mailing and a whole bunch of miniature cabinets of curiosity.  i'm loving the new goods and all the pretty photographs....

DON"T FORGET- tonight is the craft night with me & Etsy at the south street seaport!

making and listening....

the weekend flew by! when doesn't it i guess? i was busy photographing, updating my esty shop with new things, cleaning and taking a brief break from the nfl (no fun league) to see a movie, land of the lost. i'm a sucker for will ferrel.

this is one of the new color schemes for the custom heart samplers. i tried to make themes for the colors to make them more interesting. the red and navy of this one create a nautical theme, so it's called Hold Fast. choosing the colors was a challenge, but i like the way they turned out and the themes that go with each one, like Plum Tree on the top left.
when i was choosing these sample names to illustrate the colors i went with a theme too. all but one set of names adhere to this theme. can you guess it? ***i should do a give away or something, like if you can guess the theme/connection you get a free heart. hmmmm... who wants to play?!*** 

if you do want to guess send me an email here: miniaturerhino@gmail.com  instead of commenting so the answer isn't revealed to anyone who wants to guess.

i also added some photo encaustics of my favorite vintage images i collect. right now only the horses are in the shop, but i have a few other images to add like the one below, which has to be my all time favorite found image.  the horse image has a tee pee like structure in the background which makes the image for me. 
 the original of this image is really small, maybe a little larger than a quarter. its a tin type too. the reproduction came out so well and i love all the little cracks that you can see from the emulsion of the tin type and their clothes are amazing. she's wearing a polka dot blouse! 

while i worked i was listening to podcasts. i like music, but sometimes i want a story or just to hear someone talk. i listened this craft sanity podcast about Jenna Woginrich's book "Made from Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life." she becomes a homesteader, living off the land. i daydreaming every day of moving to a small town, in the middle of nowhere so this really appealed to me. 

later, Tobias Wolf read me short stories on the New Yorker Fiction Podcast. it was nice.... 

do you know of any good podcasts that i should try?

my little opening...

i'm proud of the all the hard work i did putting together my "grand reopening". i have to laugh when i say that, because i hear that loud, crazy "Sunday, Sunday, Sunday" voice. so here's a sampling of some of my new pieces that you can find in the shop.warning i'm about to get just a little photo geeky...
shout outs to vannessa for introducing me to zack arias's blog and photo critiques, which inspired me to use my little flash unit- all manual- screw you ttl, and i'm really happy with the photographs, if i say so myself.

i was also inspired after watching the photo critiques to do a little update on my website, but it needs lots of work on the "arts" section, which is all old stuff. what i'm excited about is that i finally added my "craft" work. represent.

updates...

...finally! to my etsy shop. i've listed a new batch of books for mailing with some Valentiney imagery and some new Samplers.
its so hard for me to keep up with my shop. working full time and making on my off time leaves little time for eating and sleeping. i recently "met" Amy of the etsy shop ameliamae, and she described it as needing to find a balance between work and etsy. i'm not there yet. slowly, slowly but for now a little update to the shop... and a thanks to Amy! here's one of her lovely pieces...