greenbeanbaby art

midnight!!!

in less than 10 hours, all the goodies will be up in the shop and ready for sale... at 12:01 -12:20am central timezone on march 28th, the greenbean etsy shop will be stocked to the brim... please understand that it does take a bit to load all items in the shop...

there will be unique notebooks and a few retro notecards too... hopefully all the prices are reasonable for everyone... and hopefully there is something for YOU!!! if by chance, something has already been sold, and you wanted it, let me know... i will see what i can do but there are no promises...

this is short and sweet, as my mom is watching the kids downstairs... and i am working on art all day to make as much as i can for the shop... coffee is brewing, and while i am extremely tired, there is plenty of excitement left in my system :)...

you can see more goodies here... i won't be blogging anymore today but will upload pix on flickr as time permits... otherwise, check out the etsy shop!! see you in a few hours!!!

is it morning yet? few words....

E is for the Etsy shop that'll open in two days...

N is for the New thought that there won't be enough made

E is for espresso... the stuff needed to create

R is for Rest... a luxury to anticipate

G is for the Greenbean website a few days delayed...

Y is for the Year when we'll take a trip thanks to goods made...

ENERGY.... it's what we all need to create beautiful things...

see you soon and don't forget more sneak peek photos are right here...

2 hours for you, 6 hours for me...

dividing our time is not an easy task, especially if you are a mother who illustrates and crafts but refuses to do so in a dirty house... as ramel has been home more, he gets even less time to himself and thankfully won't complain... there are 4 days until the grand re-re-reopening of the etsy shop... the minute ramel gets home from work, he offers his help... from cooking to bathing the kids to running to the store to get me more glue, ramel deserves an award... of course, it does give him time to enjoy the kids but sadly, our own time is sacrificed...

in the meantime, i've been working hard to make the illustrations and etsy goods in the midst of spring break... diego is home from school for a week and to prevent us from having cabin fever, we may make rice krispie treats... [not like either of us needs more sweets, eh?!] we read books and chase isabella and play a few games... it's a fun time for us but my own time is even more scarce.... blogging is done in spurts as i am interrupted with his potty breaks, snack breaks, his questionnaires of what i'm doing, and his request to use the computer.... my, how my sweet diego has grown and learned to chat up a storm... i wonder where he got that from?!

it looks like my website won't be officially up on march 28th... please forgive me!! as i've said, there are many things on my to-do list to complete and each require care, time, and precision... we can't forget the children's book... or the abc project... or blogging about other paper artists.... or my niece's birthday illustration... my plate is full... each project deserves the appropriate time, so i don't want to rush things too much... by friday, i will have a new date for the website opening.... and it will be worth the wait [yes?!]

there are still 30 more items to make for the shop... magnets... framed illustrations... photo albums... notebooks... i don't think i'll have the time to make notcards this time... you can see a few more sneak peeks here... i will be TRYING to do a quarterly restocking of the etsy shop.... this way, i won't have to call it the "grand re Re re RE opening"... [i lose tracks of all those "re's"]... by that next quarter, ramel's website should be up too... he has such an awesome idea for his site, he has ME on edge, anticipating... so once april comes along, it will be his turn to get his art time... and my turn to not complain :) hehe...

 

side topic: i got a new camera!! and it works like a charm... around christmas time, ramel bought me a digital polaroid that was just a beauty!!! shortly after the computer catastrophes and sewage issues [and various 2008 dilemmas], my brand new camera just fritzed out... on january 25th, it was sent back for a replacement... a box with my NEW camera was sent here thursday [over 8wks later]... did i say, it works like a charm?! now you can see more of my cute isabella and handsome diego here...

 

and now, it's time to make us all something to eat...

static shock, etsy, and current news...

do you like getting shocked?! i am sure the answer is no, unless you enjoy that jolt of unnerving pain racing thru your body and down your spine... i've only been shocked [without the assistance of static] a few times... plugging something in with wet hands, using a metal hook to hang a decoration onto a light runner, cleaning something electrical with a wet cloth, etc... it never felt good and if it'd been a cartoon, you'd have seen my head turn into a donkey from feeling like one... after all, these incidents were all caused from doing something stupid...

but static shock is another matter... i get shocked daily and have learned to live with it [although it's not to be enjoyed]... instinctively, i cringe when i turn on a lamp, or flick a light switch on... and vacuuming is an ordeal that requires preparation... you see, i have a cyclonic vacuum cleaner so the dust/garbage collected needs to be emptied daily... this means getting shocked... the other day, there was dust caught in the bottom of the container... banging it against the garbage bin wasn't cutting it... so i grabbed a butter knife [mind you, the vacuum is unplugged... the container wasn't even connected to the vacuum!]... and whadda know, i got the worst shock of all! i felt the surge of electricity go through one arm and out the other... it made my body jump!!! [gosh, i wonder how frankenstein's monster felt!!!]

so that was a bad idea... did you know that it is possible to be embarrassed even when no one is around??!! keep in mind, that was a STATIC SHOCK!!!! anyhow, eventually all the dust/garbage came loose but now the container was a wee bit dusty... like monica in friends, i do NOT like a dirty vacuum cleaner!!! you'd think using a normal DRY rag to clean some dust would be safe, right?! no sirree!!!! i got another shock that made me mad! good grief, it shouldn't be a painful experience to clean your house, eh?!  on the bright side, my carpet was clean and my hair was just a tad fluffier than when i began...

aside from being shocked, i've played xbox live more often than i should have... sadly my membership expired so playing online with other halo 3 buddies is no longer an option... it's all for the better anyhow, as there is less than 10 days to my grand re-re-reopening of the etsy shop... there are oodles of notebooks, mini blank books, some cards, and magnets to be available... all of the above photos are previews for what will be available at that time although the batgirl is a sneak peek for my website... you can see more etsy sneak peeks here... stay tuned for more, as this weekend will be filled with creating goodies!

lastly, isabella is now 11 months!!! coincidentally, she finally got her first tooth!!!! yes, you read that right! my baby girl began walking long before a tooth sprouted... in less than a week, the second one is popping out... her top gums look incredibly swollen so no doubt, her big front teeth will be cutting in a month or so... there are plenty more pictures to see of her here...

have a great weekend!!!

advertising, anyone?

with my new website coming up, i'm looking on ways to make it a bit more beneficial.... google offers a way for you to include ads on your site and you get a teeny bit of money for it... i tried throwing a couple on here for a split second [to test it out] and the ads were all for green bean casserole.... phooey... i was kinda hoping that there'd be ads on paper and such... now, i don't want to throw a bazillion annoying ads on there, but i am curious on your opinion on the overall matter... considering that i am all for promoting artists and their art, do you think the google ads would counteract that idea?!

have any of you used google ads? and have any of you gone onto a site and was turned off by all the ads??? personally, i like a clutter-free website and blog... i like things organized and easy for people to go through... that means i enjoy going to other sites with the same organizational qualities... in saying so, i don't want a thousand ads telling you to go here and there and never back to the greenbeanbaby site... considering how life is so full of chaos and things to do and places to go, i actually want my site to be a wonderful place to sit down and relax... drink a cup of coffee and browse through the world of cut paper... be inspired and motivated... high hopes for this site, ya know? and yet, there is so much to complete on there too >sigh<

i've been working very hard on the etsy stuff... probably not as hard as i should though... i can't tell you how many notebooks i've gotta illustrate... and the magnets... and the notecards... and a couple of surprise goodies... i've lost count... to be honest, i am just plum tired and considered on extending the date... however, i refuse to do that because we all know that nobody likes a procrastinator... come march 27th, that night is going to be filled with putting all the goodies up in the shop, adding descriptions, and tags, and leaving them in the inactive listings spot... then at midnight, each item will be added in... hopefully ramel won't mind giving this greenbean a helping hand....

on a completely different topic, check this out... there is my mom on the far left... isabella is on the right... don't they look so much alike?! between that hair and cheeks [and the serious face they give], you can tell isabella and my mom are related...  it's one of the 2 pictures i've ever seen of my mom in her childhood years... it's always amazing to see how much our kids resemble the people we love most...

now, time to get diego on the school bus, isabella down for a nap, work on some art, and go to a school meeting [and make it home in time for LOST]

side note: pretty soon, that abc project [like the letter z in the first image] i've been working on will be unveiled... just waiting on a couple more pieces... i've received so much help from many talented artists, you will all enjoy it, no doubt!

a very LOST birthday...

ramel turned 27 on march 5th and we threw him a party this past saturday... it wasn't a surprise party however, the THEME was a mystery to him... it wasn't until the party began, that he found out it was a very LOST birthday... boy, was it fun!! we all had a wonderful time..

prizes:
there were 20 items available for prizes... they ranged from dharma mac and cheese to dharma water to dharma crisps... there was medicine, first aid kits, and even dog food... each item was numbered... every time a person won, they picked a number and would receive the prize that matched... this is an old time favorite method of my family's.... it's a good way for people to be surprised at what they are receiving as well as give away inexpensive items that are fun and useful [like peroxide- hehe]...

operation: LOST
i redesigned the entire game to fit the overall theme... browsing online was a good way to get ideas on how to create the black smoke, and descriptions for each item... with the  help of photoshop and an x-acto blade [and coffee], this game was a success...

i even made the cards [although, most of us didn't really read them... we just wanted our chance to operate]... from sayid's torture tools to hurley's bucket o' chicken to jack's broken heart, each piece related to a LOST character...

find that hatch symbol...
thanks to lostpedia, i found out there were over 8 different symbols for the various hatches in LOST... we had 8 wooden fish with magnets and 2 fishing poles... on the back of each fish, i put a different hatch symbol...8 cards were made and one person had to pull a card... the other two people took a fishing pole and had to find the fish with the matching symbol... whoever found it first, won... the loser received a mini dharma chocolate... this was a fast and easy [and fun] game to play...

target practice:
we all know how much hurley enjoyed his ranch composite... but do you remember when michael wanted to get his son back?! and locke taught him how to shoot a giant jug of ranch?! [check out this photo for reference] thus my revised rendition of pin the tail on the donkey turned pin the bullet on the ranch jug... the giant ranch jug was cut out of thick illustration board and painted by yours truly... the bullets were cut out of paper and we used tape instead of pins [the board was too hard since i painted the thickest layer in town]

it was mine first:
this game is similar to musical chairs only no chairs are involved... we go around the table and when the lost music stopped [yes, you read it right- i found the LOST cd on amazon... to note: it is AWESOME]... there were fruit, a computer with the infamous numbers, a teddy bear, a plane, and a polar bear to snatch... it was mostly adults playing along with the diego and ananda... we are serious when it comes to games so there was no mercy on the kiddos and they were the first to be out... hehe... we did play a kid friendly version later on though...

connect four:
i didn't change a thing for this game... we wanted to be like hurley when he was in the institution... we had several tournaments and played before all of us were tired out...  it was quite fun watching ramel and my dad play for wins...

what's for dinner?
there was wild boar [aka rib tips] and fruit for everyone... crackers with cheese spread [since smoked fish spread didn't seem to be something everyone would eat].... and of course, there were LOST fish biscuits made by sarah... there were also questionable cookies which were all eaten and enjoyed by everyone... there was even a LOST chocolate cake with buttercream frosting for ramel [and i] for the following day... talk about a wild sugar rush...

YOU CAN SEE A TON MORE PHOTOS HERE IN MY FLICKR SET... it was a complete blast...

big huge thanks to:
www.lostpedia.com and www.losthatch.com for having even more awesome stuff and info

sahbapasta who emailed me the dharma label files since the originators insanely great tees had to take them down from their site

max pictures' blather for having extra dharma labels available

sarah of rubber city cakes and cookies for making the most yummy cookies...

amber of my aim is true for giving me ideas and inspiration for LOST themed food and kungfoodie for the idea of the dharma fish biscuit cookies

my mom for taking all the photos

bullies have a future...

normally, i don't blog on things of the world... philosophical viewpoints on the variations of religion are not my genre... nor are my theories on the 2008 political race in the states [although i will vote!].... i haven't even been able to blog about my theories on LOST.... and lastly, rarely do i blog about rants and raves that don't pertain directly to the greenbean household... but today, i would like to...

there is a local commercial  that comes on daily and it took me a few times to get it... it's for a law firm... it asks "do you ever wonder what happened to those bullies who shook people down for money? [not an exact quote].... it shows a boy stealing a little girl's sandwich and complaining it's peanut butter again... it shows this same boy pushing another kid and demanding money... then it eventually it pans out to this boy all grown up and being a lawyer... the bully lawyer...

so while kid bullies CAN grow up and BE lawyers, the fact that it promotes bullying irks me.... while most kids are at school and not watching this commercial, it still insinuates that nothing is wrong with bullying... and to me, that is a horrible misconception... after all, how many of us were bullied? how many of us had to ask adults for assistance in dealing with this issue, only to get bullied further because you couldn't handle the situation alone...

this commercial bothered me because once i was a victim of bullying... i remember my mom coming to the bus stop, with her stern look and telling the girls to leave me alone... another time she followed that girl home and told her mother about the situation... this was grade school... [in middle school, that same girl was very nice to me]... my mom always came to my rescue and i was embarrassed because, here, this short skinny curly haired nerd gal couldn't fight her own battle... later on, i realized why she fought for me... i mean, i look at diego and think "how dare ANYONE be mean to him"... and i think of how one day he may have to go thru the teasing and how one day i will have NO PROBLEM waiting at that bus stop to tell those kids to knock it off...

while i was teased from grade school on up, i didn't end up hating the world... my mom and dad were there to always encourage and uplift... if they teased me about not hitting puberty early enough, my mom was there to tell that eventually i will... if they teased me for not being fully developed, my mom was there to tell me that i won't have barbie's voluptuousness... if they teased me about my hair, she'd buy me dolls and toys that ironically dealt with the same issue...

i am sure many of us were teased growing up... after all, most artists tend to dress differently... some darker... some more retro... either they dressed before their time... or dressed to accentuate their uniquness... and with that, the bullies came around the corner and asked if you were wearing your gramma's dress... they asked if you shopped at kmart... they poked fun at you because you liked the pair of shoes that weren't to be in style until two years later...

sometimes i wonder if my children will go through similar situations as i... and so watching this commercial bothers me... i don't find comfort that bullies can become lawyers... after all, they could be the next jeffrey dahlmer too... there will always be mean children on the playground... there will always be a bully and there will always be a victim... how is having a commercial about lawyers bullying the little people reassuring? okay, they can get your money for you but at what cost? i am sure i'm taking this all too literal... the "bully lawyer" even says he's not really a bully and that he has a sense of humor...

i'm not laughing...