Sandy Claws is coming to town...

Hello Lovelies!

Hope your Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it) was exemplary. Mine was very nice, I spent time with family and friends, had great food and many laughs. It was kinda like this:

Only less peace pipe/nudity.

The holidays are fast approaching and I have tons of stuff that's going to make your holidays easier! First, I just listed gift tags. These vintage-inspired macro tags are just the thing to take your presents to the next level. Ooo and Aaaah.

And speaking of presents, I am also offering $3 gift wrapping on everything in my store (including original paintings and larger items). Kraft paper, baker's twine and a free gift tag will make gift-giving a snap! So, see if you can't rustle something special up for your loved ones from Stapelia.

Lastly, to stuff those stockings, the Old Salts buttons are finished, listed and available. And they're pretty cute you guys.

I mentioned in my last weekly post that I was decorating my gallery's window for the holidays. Well, the Santa Worm Train is finished, installed and running!

Take a peek at this video of him in action HERE.

As promised, I have more Weekly Holiday Gift Guide suggestions for you! The shop this week hails from the other Portland. Verabel's jewelry is mind-blowing. I can't pick a favorite and I don't know how they do it. Look at some of their lockets, amazing.

The item of the week is this argyle paper tape from Little Happy Things. Perfect for wrapping, it was all I could do not to buy all their tape basically.

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

Candy Apples...

Hello Lovelies!

Hope you are all well. I have been working furiously on the Icarus series and I have the third piece to show you, it's entitled Candy Apple. I have 2 more paintings to do in this series for a holiday show at the RISE Gallery in South Portland, Maine December 17-23rd. If you're in the area during that time, stop by. A lot of wonderful artists, photographers and jewelers will be on display.

I submitted my Skydiver piece to Craftgawker recently and it was posted, which is neat. (From what I understand, it's pretty tough to be selected for that pretty picky site.) If you're not familiar with the site, it's worth your while to check it out, there is some top knotch stuff on there.

I found a really neat site the other day called Sketch Theatre. To start, there are the great sketch videos which show artists doing quick sketches. (I thought these were fascinating to watch.) Plus, if you're an artist, they have a monthly illustration contest for prizes. Pretty neat. (The image below is a video by the artist Apricot Mantle, who does some really neat colored pencil work.)

Well, the holiday season is upon us, and it's been awhile since I did a Covetable list, so I thought I'd do a Gift Guide instead. These are some of my favorites, and I mixed them up so there should be something for everyone. (There are shop links directly beneath the Guide.)

1. thesmallobjects

2. thecandythief

3. studiotempera

4. starforeman

5. letterpress

6. glasfaden

7. ethanollie

8. dollybirddesign

9. baroqueandroll

Let's wrap up with some crazy news, shall we? On a holiday note, a man in Georgia, dressed up as an elf, waited in line to uh, sit on Santa's lap and have his picture taken. But that's not the crazy part (believe it or not), when he got to the front of the line, he became a bad elf and told Santa he had dynamite in his coat and was going to blow him up. Whew. What the?! Well, he didn't have dynamite (luckily), and he was promptly arrested. I guess the holiday stress got to Santa's elf, eh?

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...