new adventure

seems like my sister and i will try out making some crafty and artsy things in the next few months and see if we'd like to try and sell 'em. i think it will be a good experience for the both of us. people have always told us we should try and sell our pieces - why not now? none of us have received much training in the things we make and do, though we have taken several years lessons in acrylic painting, but neither of us do that for a hobby. i like to make paper goods for the most part and the occasional plush toy or doll. my sister does great manga/japanese anime, water colors, and felt objects, among other things. sisterly collaboration! how fun!

another fave site

I found this site while site hopping and i love the bags and the fabrics they use. makes me want to draw my own birdies. i'm still in the process of trying to create a few simple images and transfer them into cards. might use moo to print them or some other service to print my own cards to see how they'd turn out. i certainly can't afford to go to a publisher or big printing company. gotta do it the cheapo d-i-y upload a photo to a photo website kind of thing. haha.

Anyway the website i'm referring to is Prickly Pear. They have a lot of really nice handmade totes and bags and pouches. It's really neat. You can visit them here: http://www.pricklypear.biz/

I'll have to take some pictures of the notebooks I made this past month.

Now how does a girl get some foot traffic into her site so she doesn't feel so lonely?

Toodles!

Pictures!

As promised, I finally have some pictures to show of some crafty things I did in the past year. During Valentine's Day, I decided to make a few valentines for close friends, as well as regular note cards. Here are a few snapshots (I apologize for the blurriness):


















I made all of these note cards on blank peach-cream folded notecards I had purchased on clearance from Papyrus using bits and pieces of craft supplies from Castle in the Air (4th Street Shopping, Berkeley, CA) and littles bits I find around the house - ribbons, cut-outs from magazines and catalogs, etc.

Below is a little rag doll I made out of discarded clothing I found at my co-op's "free pile" in the basement. The skin color fabric came from a really huge nightie, the dress came from the sleeve of some hideous tunic and the stuffing from cut up pieces from the skin color fabric (I had no cotton stuffing available). And the hair came from some yarn I had with me. It's a wonder what you can do with the bits of resources around you. Didn't even have to venture out to purchase supplies for this doll.

new things take time

I am still trying to get used to this thing. I like my xanga a lot. Only because I am so used to it. Though I hate the new fancy features on that site. I prefer simplicity. Speaking of which, I'll have to learn how to change the layout on this. The dots are a cute touch, but not the colors. I'm not much of a fall person. prefer spring-y colors.

As promised, I will have pictures up soon! Once I learn how to use this thing and add html... hmm...

Shir Me!: First post!

kirin notebook by lara cameron - check it out!

First post!

Yay! This is my first official post on blogger. I have used several blogging sites in the past and to this day still maintain one on xanga.com, but I've decided that I need a new one, to showcase my artistic side. I was really inspired by the blog KirinCo (sp?) (will have to find it and add it to my list of faves or whatever you call it here), so here is mine! I didn't realize how many crafty blogs there are around here.

I think my former art teacher showed me a bunch of links to crafty blogs, and it's probably still archived under all my old e-mails. Ah well... as long as it's still there, I'll find it again.

Anyway, a little about me. Name is Shirley, decided to call this blog "Shir Me!" using the first syllable of my name and then just added the "me!" part for fun! I was dallying with Shiri (nickname from a former friend), ShirLei (after my own name, Shirley Lei), but came up with Shir Me! (I like the 'small' hint of self-centeredness that this name gives). What do you think?

Continuing on... I'm currently a third year studying social welfare at UC Berkeley and if you ask me, I don't know what I'm going to do with my B.A. in social welfare because you need AT LEAST a B.S.W. (not a B.A.) to hold a job as a real, semi-real social worker. I guess I could be a counselor. Poo-poo. Although I'm all for social justice, liberation, freedom, equality (gender, racial, what have you), rights for the underprivileged, and what not, my first passion lies in the arts. Not so much fine art, but the crafts. Some may call it the 'lesser' of the arts, but I think it is a fine type of art.

So you've got a bit on me, in the days to come (when I am not busy managing a household of 40 women - myself included - at my cooperative house, or attending classes and attempting to catch up on zillions of hundreds of pages of reading), I will be putting up of same artsy fartsy things I've created in the past year. I wish I were home right now so I could take more pix of things I've created this summer. Oh well. Your eyes will just have to feast on less for now.

Toodles!