Fellow Crafters and Art Fans... Have you seen this piece of embroidery?

Have you seen either of these art pieces?

These two works were stolen from The Drake Hotel in Toronto following an art exhibition called Wrap Your Head Around This. The artist, Jenny Hart, has obviously put a lot of hard work and love into these two pieces, and her attempts to find them have been fruitless.

If you have seen either of these art pieces, you can contact Jenny at jenny@jennyhart.net.

Her original post is here: Embroidery as Art

If you are attending any art shows, keep your eyes open for these two pieces, and know they are stolen material!

A Taste of What's to Come!

I'm back from visiting Jon in Delaware! I had a great time, as usual!
We went to the mall, the supermarket, went for walks, watched the first two Lord of the Rings movies, and played videogames.
I didn't get to catch any frogs sadly, but we got to watch egrets, barn swallows, geese, red-winged blackbirds, bluebirds, and turkey vultures! We even saw a lone killdeer.

But don't worry, it wasn't all fun and games and bird-watching.
While we were there, we also visited craft stores.

Now that I'm back at home, I can finally put the supplies I purchased to good use!
So, what am I going to be working on next?
Here's a teaser list!

• PINS!!! Yes, I bought a nice bag of pin-backs to attach to two clay flowers that I've already made, and will be making more soon! Don't worry, I'm not going to just make more flowers... Expect some fun and possibly geeky pins too.
• ACEOs!!! I got my blanks in the mail, complete with protective sleeves! They're sturdy and nice quality paper, so they'll be perfect for whatever I decide to do with them.
• MORE EARRINGS!!! I bought some more dangling earring hooks, all silver-plated and ready to attach clay charms to! Since summer is here, expect more fruit and bright things. Even better, thanks to the awesomeness of eBay, I will soon be making post-style earrings! The posts will be silver-plated as well, so no worries about nickel allergies.
• NEEDLE-FELTED ANIMALS!!! I have two that are ready to sell already, but I'm waiting until I have a good bunch before posting them. The bluebird that I originally made for Jon will be sold, since I stupidly forgot to bring it with me to Delaware, and ended up making a whole new one on the train ride there. I also made a turtle while I was in DE, and started a parakeet on the way back home.
• AND MORE CLAY THINGS!!! Jon, being the awesome person he is, bought me a nice set of colored clays! I finally have black, brown, and tan clays to work with, so I may finally make some animals. In addition to that, I also bought some glow-in-the-dark clay that was on clearance. I'm going to have a ton of fun with all of those clays. I also just made my first clay cane today! It features a glow pawprint with a purple and blue border. I need a razor blade to cut it with, but hopefully I'll get one this week.
• PRINTS!!! I still have to finish my owl-person drawing, but after that, I will be scanning in some of my old drawings and editing them on the computer to add color, and also to eliminate any imperfections. Once I figure out the best method for printing (and most cost-efficient, seeing that I'm just a fledgling crafter and all) this will finally become a reality!

To put it simply, keep your eye on this blog for new crafty developments! :)
Until next time!

Pokederp #4

We'll start this post of Pokederp with a few plushes that aren't messed up. Look at them closely, because you'll need this for comparison.

In birds, the soft, fleshy part above the beak is called the "cere." It usually has two holes, which are the bird's nostrils.

This Pokemon, Pidove, clearly has a pink cere.

Now...

Here are the offending plushes.

Chinese bootleggers don't really care about facial features, as long as they are there. Pink blobby things above the beak? Can do, and we'll attach them with one piece of pink thread. Who cares if they look like facial testicles.

How much for one of these? $8.



Where does its face end, and body begin? Honestly, who knows? This cheaply made Pikachu will put an $8 dent in your pocket, if you have a thing for awful toys, that is.

This Pokemon is Munna. Nothing wrong with this plush.

BUT...

...you see, Chinese bootleggers are greedy people. If their items are defective, they still want to sell.

This, too, is supposed to be Munna. You can see the outline of where the head-gem-thing is supposed to be, but there is nothing there. In other words, this thing is just a light pink blob with eyes.

The worst part is that these morons have the balls to ask $9 for this piece of trash. I guess they assume it'll be your next DIY project, or something.

Until next time...

YOU'RE FIRED!

Sooo, yeah. I got fired yesterday.
BY TEXT.
(Technology, what have you done? People don't even have the decency to call anymore.)

I could rant about how bad the management was there, how they are technically breaking laws, and how that job was close to being slave labor... but I would end up ranting for ages.

Let's just sum up everything to some life lessons I have learned...

1) Ask more questions about a job before you sign anything.
If I had known that I would be mopping floors until 1am whenever I had the closing shift, I wouldn't have taken the job. Heck, I wish they would have at least told me I was going to be a janitor. Looking back now, I probably should have asked what exactly the job entailed before signing all the necessary papers. Because I didn't ask, I got stuck doing backbreaking work nearly nonstop for 7-9 hour shifts for minimum wage... I could have just been sitting on my butt and managing phone calls and appointments as a receptionist somewhere, to the sweet tune of $12 an hour. Instead I was on my feet all day, cleaning sticky yogurt and toppings.

2) Stupid people don't like it when you make them look stupid... especially when that person is your manager.
I'm going to be blunt... my manager was an idiot. The very first weekend I worked, he changed my shift without notifying me, and proceeded to blame me when I didn't show up. This led to him being scolded at our employee meeting by the owner himself. You see, the manager was supposed to email us the schedule every single time there was an edit made. He didn't do that, and the owner embarrassed him in front of all of us by telling us it was "his mistake" and to do that next time. I believe this was the beginning of his grudge against me. When I tried to take a sick day and he accused me of all these crazy things, like not working for two days the previous week, and calling "every day" to take a day off (neither of which were true at all), I emailed the owner to clear up any problems. That must have embarrassed him again, seeing that he probably was getting his own employees mixed up. Pointing out discrepancies between what he said about breaks and the Employee Handbook was probably the last straw. People just don't like being wrong, and I guess being upstaged by someone more than ten years younger than you AND someone lower on the employee ladder probably led to some anger.

3) Customer service is the key to success, and good tips.
During my short employment, I was astounded how much a good attitude could affect the behavior of your customers. If you took the time to explain how the shop worked to new customers, greet them as they approached the register, and told them to "have a nice day" after their transaction, they were a lot more likely to leave tips. They also were more likely to return, recognize you the next time, and even talk to you while you were getting them their change. Incredibly enough, neither the owner or manager cared about customer service. They were more focused on cleanliness and how much money they made. After a lot of observation though, it was easy to see the difference in behavior between the customers who interacted with a bored cashier, and those that I was tending to. Making the kids happy was the most important part. Kids are sometimes intimidated by people who are older than them. If you can break down that barrier by asking them what flavor they got, commenting on their stack of gummi worm toppings, or just being nice, they start gaining an attachment to the store. One kid whose family I had spoken to on a few occasions exclaimed to me that he was at the store 4 times already, and it was his favorite place. Customer service really is where the money lies, not in having the store spot-free.

At least I learned something from being fired, haha.

Back to looking for jobs... and hey, at least I have cashiering experience now. That'll hopefully open up some more avenues of employment.

In other news, I'm going to Delaware to visit Jon tomorrow!
Hey, it's not like I have to worry about a work schedule anymore, right?
This is exactly what I needed... a nice, relaxing break with my favorite person in the world! <3
Definitely looking forward to it.

Until next time!

A Little Birdie Told Me

Yes, it finally happened... A STORE UPDATE!
I have just added all my bird figurines to the Hello Interloper Etsy shop for you to view and enjoy! (And hopefully purchase? Hehe!)

Here's my personal favorite...

Isn't he cute? (and a bit crazy...)

Here's one that was inspired by... what else? Father's Day!

The little guy wants to grow up to be just like his dad! Don't worry, you'll one day have a fancy head-crest like your father... or not, since you're made of clay.

Also, my needle-felted tiger in a tie that I mentioned earlier is also up for sale!

He's ready for SRS BSNS.

 Check out the rest of the clay insanity by visiting my Etsy shop!

-=Click HERE to take a look!=-