New Journal

Ok, so what happened to me blogging at least once a week? I had a lot of momentum going there for a while!

One interesting thing I did on the art front was start a new journal.

My sister gave me a ~*BEAUTIFUL*~ Papyrus journal for Christmas that I have been waiting to use ever since. But I was in the middle of another journal and had to force myself to finish that one first. Ok, so I got close to finshing and decided that was good enough. :) I tend to do that anyways--I don't think I have ever gotten to the point where I finish a journal to literally the last page.

Anyway, this gorgeous journal with all differently colored handmade papers inside in shades of pinks was just waiting for me. Except, I was a little intimated by it because it was so beautiful, you know? I decided I needed to just have at it and alter it a little. "Ruin" it, if you will.

I put lots of layers of paint and papers on the outside covers and the inside front and back covers. Now it feels like I can work in it a little bit. I've only done one entry so far, which I haven't taken a picture of yet.

But this is what the journal looks like:

Etsy Update! & some other stuff

I updated my Etsy shop this afternoon with more art. I will be getting my art back from the Springfield Cultural Council soon and I highly doubt anything is going to sell from their exhibit. And if by some weird coincidence someone makes an inquiry by email for something that has already sold--oh well. So, back into the shop it goes! Along with three new paintings that I am really proud of:





Another exciting thing is that I heard through the grapevine 1000 Artist Journal Pages in now available on Amazon.com! I cannot wait to see this book, seriously. I still haven't ordered a copy. They have been in the publisher's warehouse for like a month and I have had the forms to get my discounted copy for about that long. Ooops! I better do that this week. Or, at least go visit it in Barnes & Noble or something.

Lastly, I am pleased to say that I finally bought two domain names. I am still trying to figure out hosting and how to actually build a web site, but I needed to just go ahead and get my domain names now. Because one of the ones I originally wanted was taken! Boo! Couldn't let that happen again. For 20 bucks it was worth it.

I bought one for an art website which will just be my name (www.julieayotte.com) and another which will be a stationery web site, name to be revealed at a later date. I will be selling brand-name kawaii stationery as well as my own designs. I even registered myself as a business, if you can believe that. I now have an EIN number and a Massachusetts tax ID number which permits me to collect sales tax. I'm all official. I need to call this week and see what other permits I need to be selling things over the interent. Honestly, it will be such a small thing to start that I can't imagine anyone would give me trouble even if I didn't have a resale permit. But I figure better to get it now, right?

I've looked into a few ecommerce options that would get a web site up and running pretty easily and inexpensively. I need to learn more about web design at some point, but there are options for those of us with little knowledge about html and coding and all that other lovely stuff. The problem now is coming up with a little money to buy a few initial products. Oh, and I will need a scanner and printer. This crap about giving me 4 hours a week at my job just isn't going to cut it. I mean, are they really serious? Are they kidding? Are they waiting to see if I will notice and be like, ok I figured out your joke and this has gone far enough!

I'll keep you posted when all of this starts shaping up more. I have been playing around with a logo for my stationery shop already. ;)

My moo cards came today!

For those of you who don't know what moo mini cards are, you should check out the link. They are little mini business card type things. The cool part, though, is that they will print high-quality photos on the front of them. I have seen pictures of other moo cards artists have made and I really like them. They have pics of my art on the front and all my contact info on the back. Usually when I tell people I am an artist they ask what type of work I do. And most people are kind of in the dark about what, exactly, mixed media art is. Plus I feel like my art can be kind of hard to explain. So now I can just whip out my mini cards and show them!

I chose ten different paintings to use. You get 100 cards so I got ten of each one. The photos get cropped, but you get to choose the position of the crop, and still I think people will be able to get a good idea of what I do. When they say mini cards, they really mean mini! They were a lot smaller than I had even expected. But something people will remember, I think. The cards are kind of expensive at $19.99 for 100. Especially when you consider you can get business cards made at vistaprint for free. I really like how unique they are, though!

I figure I can start including them in swaps and send them to my pen pals and things like that. And hand them out to people I meet. Just to get the word out about my art a little bit more. I will probably end up having to order more soon because I suspect I will run through them quicker than I originally thought.

Heat Wave

It's too hot! Too hot to sleep, too hot to eat, too hot to paint.

My "Studio"

I bought my table! I didn't buy a chair because there was an extra one in the dining room, so I just snagged that. I did, however, buy some wire shelving. The kind that comes in cubes and you can configure however you want. It was a pain in the ass to put together, let me tell you. I spent the better part of Thursday and some of Friday rearranging my whole room and getting things set up.


Here's my table. I have a painting I started on it, as well as a huge mess of art supplies. Thank god I didn't have to put it all back before starting again! I actually worked on the painting last night and it's close to being done now.


The PIA shelves I got with all my art supplies and paintings on top.


Shelves, again.


Swaps from swapbot ready to go in the mail. If you haven't checked this place out, you need to. It's fun and totally addicting. I have been swapping mostly altered matchboxes and kawaii stationery. Don't mind my sock monkey sheets. :)