Last May I felt like my boutique was taking over my original blog, which was originally dedicated to faeries and magic, and decided a third blog was needed.

Since then, I’ve realized maintaining three blogs, a boutique, trying to keep up a Twitter account and a FaceBook page, along with belonging to various artistic groups, was burning me out.  I quit all but my Fantasy Artists of Etsy team, and I’m closing this blog, as well as my writing blog, and reincorporating them into my original blog, which already has strayed into areas such as Hereditary Angio Edema, various causes, my family and pets, quizzes and funnies, poetry, stories and articles, politic and recipes, lyrics and videos, in fact everything that interests me and my art is part of me, as is my writing.

So back into the mystic soup they shall go and you, dear readers, shall have to stir and pick through the sludge of flotsom that makes up the slurry of my life to find what interests you.  I think it will be interesting.

I made some real progress today!

I really like the rustic look of these journals, and I think I’ll do the cover designs in sepia brown and gold..  While I ponder the exact designs, I’ll be working on writing and filling in your raspberry journal.

Your Faerie Niece,

But, happily, you can see some of the amazing lacey texture created by my new “paper soup” recipe and even some of the sparkle in the last two photos.

I also finished some other less dramatic, but really great smelling, handmade pieces and finished the bronzed hand decorated sheets, too.

Time to start hand-ripping these sheets and turning them into pages for more signatures.

I created these brown and gold flecked hand decorated pages yesterday and ripped them today:

I’m going to create some brown and bronze flecked pages next.

I created these handmade organic pages yesterday and ripped them today:

I now have seven completed signatures for the two caramel journals; only five more to go!

I also finally crafted some beaded pens to pair with the jeweled pen charms I had for sale on Faerie Fabulous Finds at Etsy.  The three on the right are listed here.  I still need to make charms for the ones on the left.

I purchased some ad space on ArtFire and here’s how the stats fall out thus far (which is pretty dismal):

Necklace Sub Category:  Runs 12/22/2009-01/19/2010, Chance to Be Seen 10,186 Times, 4 Clicks

Earring Sub Category:  Runs 12/25/2009-01/22/2010, Chance to Be Seen 4,253 Times, 2 Clicks

Bracelet Sub Category:  Runs 12/25/2009-01/22/2010, Chance to Be Seen 2,748 Times, 1 Click

Pouch Sub Category:  Runs 12/25/2009-01/22/2010, Chance to Be Seen 123 Times, 0 Clicks

I’ll have a spot running in the main Jewelry category from 01/04/2010-02/01/2010 and another in the top Handmade category from 01/01/2010-01/29/2010, which will definitely have higher chances of being seen, but whether they will get higher click-thrus remains to be seen.  The “chance to be seen” means someone from somewhere viewed the page my ad was on, but whether they even noticed it, well, that is the advertising game.

I’m also going to be participating in Etsy’s version of advertising on December 31st and January 1st in the Jewelry Bracelet Showcase.

I guess I can’t be accused of not trying, but I’m annoyed all the same that I haven’t had a sale since the 20th of December.  And tired.  And ill to boot, which makes it a bad day to look at statistics, especially after not getting a cost of living adjustment.  And I’m way behind in reading everyone else’s blogs, which makes me feel lonely and guilty and teary-eyed.  And once again I haven’t eaten anything today and I’m late doing my infusion—very bad Kat.  Sigh.

as compared to these photos which were accepted?

Personally, I don’t think so, so someone new/different must have started choosing photos starting December 20th, the day the love affair between CraftGawker and Faerie Fabulous Finds ended.

IndieSpotting has given me one nod so far, but submissions are limited to once a week; we’ll see how long that love affair lasts.

This bag will soon be added to one my on-line boutiques, Faerie Fabulous Finds at Etsy.