Infinite Cosmos

Patriotic Duty Sale!!

2009-03-28T22:54:00.000-07:00

As Joe Biden once said, "It's time to be patriotic ... time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut." I'm sure he wasn't referring to humble artists such as us when he made this buzz-stirring statement but nevertheless, it is that time of year when we all must do our patriotic duty as Americans and.....pay taxes :-( Not fun. But hey! Let's turn lemons to lemonade, whaddya say? We're having a Supra Patriotic Sale over at the Infinite Cosmos shops!
Infinite Cosmos Glass - 10% off all orders! 15% off orders of $100 or more!
Infinite Cosmos Hemp - 10% off all orders!

Just convo through Etsy or email me ( infinitecosmos420@yahoo.com ) to receive a revised invoice for your purchase. Or if you prefer, you can go ahead and pay for your order and shoot me a convo asking for the discount and I will refund you within 24 hours.

Sale ends at midnight on tax day: April 15th, 2009!

In the barnyard this month.....

2009-02-18T10:09:00.000-08:00

LOTS has changed in the barnyard this month! It's been a bittersweet (mostly sweet!) change. So you remember my last barnyard post about our new horse friend, Roxy, right? Well due to a couple of incidents that have compromised the safety of Todd and the other animals, we decided that she needed to find a new home :-( I was super bummed about this at first because I was EXTREMELY pumped and motivated to start training her. I had already bought some equipment and gear to help me start the process but in the end we decided that the most important thing was to have a safe, harmonious barnyard and unfortunately, Roxy made things a little tense for the other animals. I put up an ad on Craigslist just to see what kind of people would respond and I found her the most perfect home almost instantly! She now lives on a 50+ acre ranch (that is backed by 1000s of acres of BLM land with lots of riding trails). Her new owners are a horse shoer/horse trainer/rodeo bareback rider and his very horse savvy wife. It was the wife that wanted a project horse and Roxy is exactly that! She is very smart and will pose a fun challenge for her new family. I'm glad that she found a great home.
So I decided that even though Roxy was no longer with us, I still wanted to be around horses so I took a short walk to a horse boarding facility around the corner from our house and met the most awesome trainer/instructor ever! Her and I clicked instantly and I have really been enjoying taking lessons from her. I've learned so much about handling, grooming and training horses in the past couple weeks and I decided to apply what I have learned to our donkey, Berry. I was a little skeptical at first about how well he would respond to these training techniques but after buying a couple inexpensive training aids, WOW!!! The difference is like night and day!! He responds to my cues to move forward and back up even without a halter on! I no longer have to pull him along to walk with me, he just walks like a gentleman right beside me. I'm blown away and so impressed with my furry buddy. I have been having so much fun with him lately and I think he is having fun learning some new stuff. I don't know exactly where our training will lead us but he is coming along so well and quickly that I better figure out something quick! He's good with a saddle on his back so I think I may either fix up Leona's saddle and at least have him take her around the field every so often or maybe get some packing gear and plan some hiking trips this summer that he could come along on with us. I am still in shock about how smart he is! It's like I've all of a sudden learned to speak his language or something. I'll keep you posted on our progress ;-)

Infinite Cosmos on Ebay and Artfire

2009-02-11T22:16:00.000-08:00

This year Todd and I decided we wanted to further expand our reach on the web so I have opened a couple new shops! I had heard about Artfire in the Etsy forums so I figured I would check it out and see what all the hubbub was about. I was instantly captivated by the free listings and stats. After looking around a bit I said to myself "What the heck! Why not open a shop!" So that's what I did :-) Check it out!
Our Artfire Shop
I also opened an Ebay shop! Here's the link:
http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Infinite-Cosmos-Glass
All I have to say is that Ebay sure has changed since last time I sold there a few years ago! There's lots to re-learn.
Anyways, with two more shops to tend to, I have my hands full online, as you can imagine! I'll update you all soon about how it's going!
Also, much has changed in the barnyard, but again, that is a tale for another day ;-)

Winter musings and Etsy goodness....

2009-01-17T10:00:00.000-08:00

Winter in the Northwest, what a drag! (???!!)

It always seems like the cool thing to do this time of year is to complain about the weather and about how much winter stinks and how you wish the sun would just come out and stay out but honestly, I REALLY LOVE WINTER!! I love getting bundled up, I really don't mind the rain (although I don't love the threat of the river flooding our neighborhood!), and I seem to get so much done during the winter months. When the weather is too nice during the summer, all I want to do is hang out at the river with my family and the animals, so very little in the way of work gets done. But in the winter, I have no excuse but to get busy.
I think one of the main reasons people in the Northwest (especially the Willamette Valley) don't love winter is because of the lack of sunlight, which can lead to depression. I see it happen to so many people this time of year. They get this wistful look in their eyes and they start talking about jumping in the car and driving south until the sun is warming them and tanning their skin. Tempting as that sounds, it's usually not possible for our family because of all the things that bind us here this time of year (the animals, mostly!) so I try not to start thinking like that. I am always determined not to let the winter blues get the best of me. The way I chase them away is to have a goal or project that takes me all winter to work on. The last couple years have been great because I have had many things keeping me busy (again, mainly the animals). This year my project is training this beautiful lady:

Meet Roxy! She's a 1 year old quarter horse filly and she's got sass and brains to boot! She's incredibly beautiful and has an alpha attitude so all the barnyard friends have been adjusting to that, slowly but surely. She's definitely the largest animal that I have had to deal with yet so I am determined to learn all that I can about how horses think and how to keep them in line. I can see that with too much freedom and too little discipline, Roxy would canter all over me if she got the chance! So next month, I am starting a course on training young horses. I'm so excited!! It's a hands on course that will last 8 weeks with a trainer with almost 20 years experience. I can't wait to get started on training!! My goal for Roxy (which is a long term goal, but I'm willing to be patient!) is for her to be a reliable, respectful, and trustworthy trail horse that I will feel comfortable riding and letting Leona ride. So as long as keep my mind set on that end result and set realistic training goals for her over the next couple years, and invest enough time, patience and effort into training her, I think Roxy will be the perfect trail horse. She's smart as a whip and is super sweet so I'm sure she is ready and willing to start towards that goal.

Ok, anyways, onto business stuff for this week! I am always telling Todd to make more "girly" stuff for the etsy shop and he has been taking my advice lately. Here's a couple examples of what we have to offer this week. Click any of the pics to bring you to their listings:

As far as fabric goes, I've been dying fabric again so I have lots of pretty colors in my fabric shop. Check it out!
I hope you all are keeping warm and safe this winter so far! Remember: chase away those winter blues with a project to keep you busy! That or a good book (I've been obsessing over the Twilight series lately....Don't even get me started on that because it has sucked me in and I can't escape! I love it!).

Holiday Craziness....Finally catching up on some relaxation!

2008-12-30T15:51:00.000-08:00

Our sheep Hoho enjoying the snow

As you can tell from my long absence, we had a pretty intensely busy holiday season this year (THANK YOU to all who bought from us!!). It seemed like all my online time was spent checking our etsy shop and adding new items and packing up orders. Which is awesome but that left very little time for screwing around online.
This year (like every year!) we set up shop at the Eugene Holiday Market every weekend from the weekend before Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve (and that last weekend lasts from December 20th- December 24th!). Let me tell you, by the time it's all over, we all collapse onto the couch and enjoy the silence! Now we finally have time to hang out with the animals, catch up on some crafts (I've been dying fabric like crazy the last few days!! Check my Etsy fabric shop to see!), and do various kid-friendly activities with our daughter (mostly crafty stuff so far, she's a true Infinite Cosmos kid!).
Todd has been working on lots of new designs this season. One of his most popular at the Holiday Market this year has been his Sea Horse pendants/ornaments.
Another super popular item at the booth was his Squid Ornaments (available for custom orders anytime!).

Also, tomorrow we will be adding a new animal friend to our menagerie! Can you guess what kind of animal it will be?
Anyways, here's a few pics from our snowy day a few weeks back. The animals really enjoyed it! I hope you enjoy them too :-)

Barnyard Tales Fall '08 edition!

2008-10-23T14:19:00.000-07:00

It has been an amazing fall so far this year! I just can't get enough of the changing colors and the crisp air.....There's something magical about it! Check out the view from the barnyard (ignore the power lines!)
Stunning, isn't it? I'm blown away by its beauty every time I venture out to the barn.
I think the animals really enjoy and welcome the fall as well! The grass is finally starting to green up a bit and they don't have to rely on us as much to give them fresh hay because they have so much greenage to munch on in the field. Since the weather is a little cooler they don't have to retreat to the bottom area of the barn to keep cool, which I bet is a huge relief. Here's a cute and typical scene at the barn when I arrive.
Everyone suddenly stands at attention, their cud-chewing trance abruptly broken. Berry is sticking his head out of the barn innocently so I stroll over to him to give him some love.

He needed his mask on today because the flies decided to make a comeback just for a couple days (hopefully!) before it starts to get cold. Thankfully Berry is a good sport about wearing it! Around the corner, the lambs (who aren't really lambs anymore but they're the young'uns so that's what I still call them) are laying around chewing their cud (big surprise!):
In the garden, things are in transition. Most of the summer stuff has come to an end and the fall/winter plants are still being put in the ground. But one of the most prolific plants that we have enjoyed this year has definitely been.....

CARROTS!! They have been so delicious. We all have been enjoying them, including big buddy Berry!

All is tranquil and pastoral in the barnyard as you can see!

We can't forget about the goats and chickens! Let's see what they're up to:

Looks like more of the same on this side!
Well there's a typical visit with the animals on a crisp fall day. Hope you enjoyed!

Pendants on sale this week!!

2008-10-04T11:37:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!! We're having a sale on all pendants this week (October 4th-11th) at Infinite Cosmos Glass! Take 15% off all pendants! If you buy more than one, I will take 15% off the total cost of the pendants only (does not apply to other items in your purchase). Convo or email us at infinitecosmos420@yahoo.com for a revised invoice at the time of purchase or if you prefer, you can go ahead and pay for your purchase and I can refund you the amount of the discount.

Crazy, Sexy new boyfriends!!

2008-09-26T12:33:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not talking about a new paramour in my life! Shush you, get your mind out of the gutter and don't be starting any rumors! I'm talking about Todd's lovely new boyfriend styles! They are seriously gorgeous, I squealed with delight when I first saw them. Check them out:

I haven't added them all to our etsy shop just yet, but over the next few days I will be slowly adding them. I just don't want the entire first page of our shop filled with adult items!

But you know, I just have to say something about these boyfriends. They are not just for the bedroom! They work wonders on back aches (Todd used one on my back just last night and it was heavenly!) and the mini pocket pals work great for your sore hands and for someone like me, who is constantly typing on the computer, they are perfect for my poor paws. Also, they are just too beautiful to keep tucked away for just you and your partner to see, why not display them somewhere in the living room or ....?? What I'm getting at is that they are just gorgeous and they have more than one use. Get creative with them! Ok hopefully now I can stop blushing....

ICHemp featured in Eco Blog today!

2008-09-07T14:41:00.000-07:00

The title says it all!

http://earthyfinds.blogspot.com/2008/09/infinite-cosmos-hemp.html

Go ahead and comment too!

Summers end and what have I to show for it?

2008-09-06T13:34:00.000-07:00

LOTS!!!!
It has been a fruitful summer my friends, hence the lack of updates (sorry 'bout that!). This has been one of the best summers of my life. We have been spending long, lazy days down at the river with our animals and our daughter, tending our vast garden, spending time with good friends and family, and of course working into the wee hours of the night updating our glass and fabric shops.
A couple months ago we adopted a new family member: Berry the donkey.

He is the sweetest, most mellow donkey you have ever met. I never in a million years would have ever thought that I would enjoy the company of a donkey so much..... he is truly a blessing and a such a fun addition to our animal family! Only thing is that he gets a little possessive when the grain and orchard grass comes out. He doesn't mind sharing it with the sheep as much but he absolutely REFUSES to share it with the alpacas. Feeding time takes a little more coordination these days but that's ok. Everyone gets their fair share and that's all that matters!
Speaking of new family members, Todd also adopted about 10,000 new family members this summer! We got a hive of bees and they are just great!!

They work all day long out in the field and are incredibly easy to care for. The best part:

The golden, delectable honey, of course! Todd is somewhat of a "bee charmer".

He has a way of getting into the hive at just the right time of day and getting into the honey with as little affect on the bees as possible. He only got stung once but he was such a trooper about it. It was worth it for the sweet honey! We'll have a good amount of honey for the rest of the fall at least. We tend to use a lot in this household!

My parents also came to visit from the east coast so that was lots of fun too. We went to the beach, aquarium, the high desert, the woods and just hung out and worked on home projects together. For an 8 day visit, we parted on surprisingly civil terms!

Visiting the ocean inspired Todd to work on a new line of aquatic creatures such as this shark:

this fish:

and this Orca whale:

On the fabric front, I have been having a ball with this new bamboo woven fabric! It is so wonderfully soft and versatile. I've been dying it up in many different colors. I have listed lots of it in my fabric etsy shop and will be adding more soon! My new shipment of bamboo/organic cotton knit blend fabrics should be here in about a week and a half! I'm so excited! I will have velour, jersey, fleece and 2 different wovens. Yeah, you already know that though, as I have mentioned it a million times already! Can you tell i'm excited?

Anyways, now that the weather will be turning soon, I will make more of an effort to keep you all abreast on the Infinite Cosmos happenings! Love you all!

IT'S HERE! 100% bamboo fabric and lots more fabric tales!

2008-08-16T09:09:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, I have been looking into sources for more fabric and I had decided on a wonderful 100% bamboo woven fabric. Well the long waiting is finally over and the fabric is here! I can now call myself a successful importer! It was quite a learning experience figuring out things like harmonized tariff codes, import fees, duties and taxes and talking to people like import brokers and mill representatives. You can't even imagine how insanely complicated it is to figure out a harmonized tariff code if you don't know where to look, especially on things like textiles.
So anyways, the fabric is finally here and it is just fabulous! I'm super excited about it. I just wish I had more time to actually use some myself! In the next couple days I'm sure I'll be able to finally sit down and sew something beautiful with it. But for now, I'm offering it to all you wonderful sewists out there for $6.25/yd for up to 10 yds, 11-25 yards the price drops to $6/yd and 26 yds+ the price is $5.90/yard. You can either email me at infinitecosmos420@yahoo.com and place your order that way or check out my etsy shop: http://InfiniteCosmosHemp.etsy.com. Believe me when I say I have enough for everyone who wants some! I am also working with the mill from whom I bought this fabric to produce some hemp fabrics too so be on the look out in the next couple months for that. It has been difficult finding just the right mill and fabric for my inventory but I have a lot of confidence in the mill that produced this bamboo fabric so I'll keep you all updated on the production of the new hemp fabrics as the weeks go by.
In other fabric news, I found another bamboo fabric supplier that produces wonderful knit fabrics! So next month I will have a stock of various bamboo/organic cotton blend fabrics including velour, fleece (I decided that there was enough interest in the black fleece so you can expect to see that in the future), jersey, and a couple other luxurious woven fabrics such as an EXTRA wide (230cm!!) sheeting fabric that will be perfect to make sheets and bed linens! I can't wait to make myself some awesome sheets and pillow cases with that stuff. Since these fabrics will be made from the highest quality fibers, the prices will be slightly higher, but still competitive. The fleece will be around $10/yard (I haven't seen it for less than that online, especially the black!), the jersey will be around $7/yard and the velour will also be around $10/yard. But I will crunch the numbers after I figure out all the duties, taxes and fees when it arrives and see what kind of prices will be reasonable after all that.
If you've made it this far, thank you! Not the most exciting post if you have no interest in my fabrics, but since I'm obsessed with fabric, I'm pretty excited about all the new stuff coming my way! Talk to y'all later!

Life for a Glassblowing family in the summer....

2008-07-06T22:04:00.000-07:00

Little Miss Infinite Cosmos and her daddy (Todd)

can be pretty laid back. We get up, make some coffee, give the animals some food/love, check and answer emails, pack up orders that need to be sent out that day, graze in the garden, hang out by the river, Todd goes to "work" (to the shop :-)...what I'm getting at is that we are not schedule people. We don't get up to an alarm clock every morning, we don't have a boss telling us we need to be in the office by a certain time and that sort of thing. Running an online shop takes dedication and a certain amount of discipline and I have to admit, my friends, that the latter is something I greatly lack at times. When I first started getting into blogging, I really tried to make it part of daily routine and use it as a way for our customers/fans/friends to get a closer look into our world. But then I realized that blogging ISN'T EASY! Well I guess it can be easy but what isn't easy (for me, at least) is being consistent with it and really making your blog visible to people who would want to read it....That in itself is like a full time job! My hat goes off to all of you who find the time to run a successful online/etsy shop AND maintain a blog! What I mean to say, folks, is that I'm sorry for being a neglectful blogger once again (I think I've apologized for this already but that's ok!)
So anyways, let me catch you up to speed on what's been happening with us since last we spoke. For the most part, the summer has been pretty laid back (as I mentioned earlier) and we have been selling down at the Eugene Saturday Market and of course, maintaining our etsy shop. Todd has been busy with lots and lots of custom orders and a few wholesale orders as well, which has been great. I have been doing my best to be a really useful engine (yes, we watch too much Thomas the Tank Engine in this household!) so I just try to keep all emails answered, promote online whenever I have a free moment, and keep the etsy shop stocked to the gills!
Oh and to any of you who stop into my fabric shop on etsy, you may have noticed that it's looking a little bare in there these days. That is because I am finally starting to run dangerously low on my hemp fabrics *sniffle*. It's so sad!! I really hate to see my seemingly endless supply dwindle to a few measly yards per bolt! But on the bright side, my bamboo fabric order is in the works (just finished being milled!) and it should be about another month before I have it in my possession and ready to sell! I'm so excited! I have also started looking around for more hemp fabrics too. I'd like to keep a large supply of both hemp and bamboo to start with and then slowly add in more and more new knit soy and possibly organic cotton fabrics.
I also tried a new and exciting craft last month with my best frien Gillianne (her etsy shop is Indigo Inspired, check her out!! She has some amazing hemp and organic cotton clothing!). We had a batiking party (ok so it was just me, her and her roommate so it wasn't a huge party or nothin')! It was so much fun and I made a couple really cute flags.

Here's our inspiration, Indigo (I'm somewhere in the background!)

It was so fun!! I want to do it again soon.
For the most part, our summer has mostly been hanging out at the river or in the garden all day with brief intervals of work here and there. But hey, that's fine with me! I wouldn't have it any other way :-)

Our new sheep!

2008-05-31T10:38:00.000-07:00

I've been really sick all week, my friends, so I apologize for my lack of enthusiasm in regards to my blog lately!
So on Wednesday of this week (yes, I was sick, but I scrounged up enough energy to get out to a farm!) we decided that we needed to increase our flock a bit. I had seen an ad on Craigslist for Jacob lambs so I figured since Cowboy and Kenzie are both 1/4 jacob, these new lambs would fit in just fine. So we went out to some property in Cheshire (about 45 minutes from us) and instantly fell in love with these adorable sheepies! There were a couple ram lambs and a couple ewe lambs to choose from. We decided to bring the ewes home because they had the softest and most colorful coats. Here they are!

It was so cute to see the other animals' reactions to the new girls! Furio and Cortez were the first ones to notice them and came running from the field to see them. They chased and sniffed them for about a minute before Cowboy and Kenzie showed up.

Cowboy seemed very interested in them and gave them a warm welcome (meaning he gave them a couple soft kicks in the rumps and tried to mount both of them).

Kenzie on the other hand seemed very insecure and chased and head-butted them for about an hour. We had to monitor them and make sure that she wasn't hurting them (she wasn't, I think it was more of an initiation or rite of passage for the new girls!).
After all the introductions, the original group all went down to the river and the new girls wanted to come with but they kept their distance because Kenzie was not quite ready to accept them into the group yet. The alpacas at this point seemed pretty indifferent either way and Cowboy was loving them but again, Kenzie was the complicating factor.
Fast forward a few days later to today. They all seem to be getting along great! They graze together and sit around and chew cud together, good times! Now if we can only think up some names for them. I thought of Bella and Donna but Todd wasn't too keen on those names. It gets hard naming animals after you have so many! So if you have any ideas, please let us know.

On the business front, I'm still looking into the new fabrics and trying to make some decisions. I have a ton of samples and am waiting on some others so once I have all of them in front of me and I can compare quality and price on them all, I will order. I'm so excited~!! I just love buying fabric, especially yummy sustainable fibers like bamboo, organic cotton and soy fabrics!!! Patience is not one of my virtues but unfortunately I am being forced to wait. Wait for samples, wait for UPS and DHL to get back to me and make my life easier in terms of accepting samples/shipments from overseas, wait for money, wait for it all to be shipped....*sigh* so it will be about a month or 2 before all this fabric stuff comes together but it's in the works and I'll keep you all posted!!
Much love my blog friends!

Etsy friends at the Eugene Saturday Market.....

2008-05-25T09:12:00.000-07:00

It was a perfect day at the Market yesterday! The forecast predicted thunderstorms but it was partly sunny all day long! The rain only started at about 7pm yesterday so we were super thankful about that.
I realized yesterday that there are a lot of Etsy artists who set up shop at the Eugene Saturday Market each weekend. I decided to take some pics of a few of them and feature them here on Infinite Cosmos.
First we have Gillianne of Indigo Inspired. She was set up next to the stage and she said it was so much fun watching everyone dance yesterday!

Here she is posing with my demanding and somewhat cranky daughter. Notice the HUGE pink doggy ballon animal *rolls eyes*

Next we have Kim of Watermelon Kidz. She was set up right next to us. Her set up is so colorful and inviting, don't you think?

And then the wonderful Practical Rabbit. I just love her style! Such gorgeous and professional looking screen prints.

Oh and we can't forget Willy and Shari of Bead Art by Shari. Shari is an amazing bead artist! And Willy makes beautiful flower presses. He's also great on the computer and helped us with our original websites! We love these guys <3

I bought a beautiful hair pin from Enchanted Designz. They don't have an Etsy shop or website yet but I really think they would fit in nicely at Etsy, don't you? Check out some of their beautiful creations! Here's the hairpin my daughter got:

and here's some awesome fimo sculptures.

There is so much undiscovered talent at the Market! I'm so happy to be part of such a beautiful community!

My poor babies! The shearing......

2008-05-20T20:20:00.000-07:00

I've been really reluctant to post about the shearing day of our sheep and alpacas, but I figure that if you can't laugh at yourself (or your animals!) then you're taking yourself too seriously. When you look at the pictures you will see what I mean!
My friends, it was it was a bittersweet event. I am glad that they don't have those big fluffy coats on anymore and I can tell that they are completely relieved to be all lightened up and cool on the super hot days. BUT.....*sigh*......they look, well......silly. There I said it! Ok well to be fair, Cowboy and Kenzie (the sheep) look fine but Furio and Cortez, not so good. First, let me remind you of what our majestic friends looked like at their fluffiest. See this post here.
The shearers started with Furio and he was pretty compliant and mellow with just a couple moments of jerking and kicking.

You can see Cortez looking on nervously in the background behind the gate.
But they got through it and he was fine. No nicks or anything (THANKFULLY!) but he does look rather silly. Next was Kenzie and she was surprisingly calm! Though she did jab the shearer in the boob with her horn. She (the shearer) was none too happy about that! Kenzie did get a little nick on the neck that I was worried about but here it is a couple days later and it's healing quickly and she is doing great.
Next was Cortez and that's when things started going downhill. Cortez is the sensitive, skittish one of the bunch. He would not stay still, he was jumping, kicking and getting himself very very exhausted and since it was such a hot day, this was particularly dangerous. He had to be restrained and they pretty much had to rush through it because he was getting himself so stressed, exhausted and overheated. They didn't really finish his legs (you can imagine that it is pretty difficult to shear kicking legs!) and his new 'do really needs to be "cleaned up", which we plan on doing when they are gelded later this month or early next month (they will be sedated during the gelding and when that is over with, Todd and I will quickly clean up his scruffy 'do. That's the plan at least, lets see how it all works out!). He has gained a few new nicknames since the shearing including: Shambles, Disgrace, and Patches. All of which are said in a very endearing way and Cortez has a great sense of humor about it. Love you, Patches!!
Cowboy was also quite a pain. He was extremely squirmy and just not having it. He got a couple nicks also but, like Kenzie, they have pretty much all but healed. He feels great I'm sure. His coat was probably the thickest and hottest of them all, him being black and all.
So without further ado, here are my hideous beasts (don't laugh!.....Ok laugh but be gentle!) Here is Furio galloping, light as a feather!

and here is the rest of our ragged gang:

Furio is hiding behind Cortez and you can really see just how silly Cortez looks. Kenzie is the one who looks the best out of the bunch. Needless to say that our animals are the laughing stock of the neighborhood at the moment.

So there are a couple of things for which I am thankful regarding this shearing.
1. No one was hurt. I was really scared that Cortez was going to get himself some gashes by flailing around as much as he was, but thankfully he is just fine. Kenzie and Cowboy got a couple nicks but they are all but healed a couple days later.
2. Furio has all of a sudden decided that I am his new best friend! He has always been a little reluctant to cuddle in any way (same goes for all of the fluffy bunch) but now that he doesn't have all that extra fluff, I think he really appreciates me rubbing his neck and back. He used to only let me pet him for a split second while feeding him a cup of grain but now I don't even need the grain, I can just walk up to him and give him some love. This makes me so happy, you can't even imagine! He even let me pet him while he was laying down yesterday!! That is a huge step in the right direction. He's finally warming up to me!! Now Cortez and Kenzie are a totally different story. We'll work on that I guess!
3. The alpacas don't intimidate me as much as they once did. I think I thought that the animals were a lot larger than they actually are because they were under all that fluff. It's hard to be intimidated by a face like this:

4. Their fur will grow back very quickly. Within about a month, they will start to fill back in and all the patchiness will start to fade away. But hopefully by then, we will have a chance to "spot clean" the alpacas so they will look slightly better.
5. This experience has motivated me to learn more about shearing and eventually learn how to do it myself. The animals are a heck of a lot calmer around my husband and me and since the act of getting sheared is already stressful to an animal, I think it would ease their minds if it were my husband and me doing it rather than a stranger.

So our first shearing experience was somewhat of a flop but also a great learning experience. I learned a lot of things I should NOT do next time!
Oh, almost forgot to show you the huge pile of fleece!

No, that's not a garbage bag, that is an 8' by 10' tarp! Here's a closer look at Cortez' fleece:

I have already spun up a bobbin of it on my spinning wheel! It spins like a dream! I look forward to making some hats and mittens out of the yarn!

Hope you enjoyed!

Pretty Much the Best Painting I Have Ever Seen......

2008-05-15T22:48:00.000-07:00

It may even be the most important and brilliant painting in the history of civilization! My best friend Gillianne, told me the other day that her dad painted a picture of her child and mine.....and the alpacas! I was instantly intrigued and told her to bring it over so I could look at it. Well, she came by today and my jaw just dropped to the floor in awe and reverence when I saw the perfect likenesses of my daughter, her son, and our alpacas, Furio and Cortez depicted in this beautiful work of art. Check it out (be sure to click on the pics to enlarge them!):

What I like most about this painting is that my daughter and Gillianne's son are driving in a shiny blue (it really is shiny! The paint is kind of metallic so it shines when you catch it at just the right angle) old school vehicle. They look like they're having a grand ol' time, don't they? Heehee! I also love the fact that you can really tell which alpaca is which! Jay was really able to capture the expressions and attitudes of our boys. And they're orange and pink!!!! Love it!

And please excuse my less than professional picture of this beautiful painting. I should have waited till the light of day to take a picture of it (and maybe I will tomorrow~!) but I just had to share this with you all!

Oh and don't forget to check out more of Jay Smithline's creations here: Jay's Gallery

A Wonderful Etsyer......

2008-05-11T23:31:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know, I need my daily dose of yummy smelling bath and beauty products from Etsy! A store that I have been checking frequently is Toadstool Soaps. I decided to purchase from her when we reached our 500th sale from our etsy shop. I figured that was reason to celebrate so I searched out Cheryl's store because I had visited it many times before and really wanted to get some shampoo from her. I was looking through her store to find the Warm Amber scented shampoo and Pina Colada conditioner. I immediately bought them and then realized that I was HER 500th sale too! Pretty cool, huh?
My hair is very finicky and I am always a little reluctant to try a new shampoo or conditioner because my hair gets greasy and heavy really easily. Either that or I just feel like some shampoos don't really clean my hair enough. That is not the case with this stuff! My hair is bouncy, shiny and it smells wonderful!! All in all, it was a wonderful trade and I will definitely be back to Toadstool Soaps!

Happy Goats.....

2008-05-07T09:05:00.000-07:00

Goats are so funny! They are probably the most fun barn animals out there. Our goats are no exception. They are just like little dogs and have such spunky personalities. Todd and I made them a new little obstacle course yesterday. They love to be up high and walk across walkways and that sort of thing so we gathered some scrap wood and put this together for them:

They had to make sure to "mark" every piece of wood. They do this by rubbing their head and body against it. A lot of the wood had some moss on it and you can see that it gave Dexter a punk rocker look. I think green is a good color on him!

And here is the finished course! I wanted to get an action shot of them but Ellie and Dexter were feeling a bit shy. I doubt Dexter will be using it as much. He was definitely a bit reluctant to get up on the ramp for some reason. So I think this will mostly be Ellie's playground.

Hope you enjoyed! Ok, now off to add a couple things to our shop~!

Been Tagged and Spring Awakenings......

2008-05-04T20:54:00.000-07:00

I know I said this a couple months ago, but now it really IS finally starting to feel like spring here in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. It's been absolutely glorious and that means more time at the river, with the animals, out hiking and less time at the computer. So that is why my postings have been fewer and farther between. But, as any Oregonian knows, the weather can change at the drop of a hat so as soon as it starts raining again (and I'm sure it will here soon, I don't like to get my hopes up too much with weather like this!) you'll be seeing more of me on this here blog :-D

So, first let me share with you the wonderful day we had today. We got up super early and went out to a place aptly named Shotgun Creek. The reason I say it is aptly named so is because you can't go anywhere in this tens of thousand square acre park without hearing gun shots in the background. Either that or dirt bikes/ATV's. Nonetheless, it is still a beautiful area and you can always find a secluded trail to hike. It's also only a quick 10 minute drive so that is a plus as well.
We went down some winding logging roads and found ourselves at the top of a mountain. Not a huge one but it was big enough to see for miles and miles. We also saw some big ol' snow peaks in the background so that was nice.

And then we found a nice wooded spot to take a family portrait (after I figured out how to use the timer!)

Such a wonderful day we had today!!
Moving on, as I mentioned in the title of today's post, I've been tagged (by the beautiful Michelle from my home town!!). Since I'm like the only blogger in existence who hasn't been tagged before, I'm sure you all know the rules/guidelines but nevertheless I will post them :-)
1. Post 3 random things about yourself.
2. Link to the person who tagged you in your post.
3. Tag at least 5 other bloggers.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by commenting on their blog with an invite to participate.

Ok here's my 3 random facts:
1. I was the first person in my family (by family I'm referring to my parents and siblings) to be born in America. Mom was born in Poland, Dad in Brazil and my older brother in Germany.
2. My favorite leafy green is kale and I eat it on an almost daily basis (especially now that we have it growing in the garden!!)
3. I have an extreme weak spot for talk radio, doesn't matter what kind, be it Air America, Bill O'Reilly or Car Talk.

Alrighty, now who shall I tag? Hmmmm......
http://intergalcticrose.blogspot.com/
http://potomacrivergoods.blogspot.com/
http://earthandsunfolk.blogspot.com/

I think I'll only tag these three lovely ladies :-) They're all very interesting mamas and I'm sure you'll all enjoy their random facts!

Ok, now I absolutely MUST get to listing some new items in our shop packing up some orders
to send out tomorrow. Blissings all!

Great Minds Think Alike.....

2008-04-30T22:34:00.000-07:00

I have found that our sales come in waves, do yours? What I mean by that is that some days we are selling all the same kinds of items. For example, yesterday we sold 4 items that featured frogs. Come to think of it, over the past week, it seems that people have had frogs on the mind! Our frog beads and jars have been our big sellers lately and I'm sure you can understand why. Check out some of our recently sold froggy friends!

I sent Todd into the shop yesterday to work on some new frogs so you can expect to see at least a few more this week! Here's a sneak peek at some of the new friends to be added to our shop:

What have your customers been loving from your shop lately? Or, if you are a shopper/window shopper, what have you been loving lately?

Saturday Market and a quick update

2008-04-27T09:40:00.000-07:00

I've been a bad, neglectful blogger lately and for that I apologize. I've been super busy with the new etsy shop, which has started out great! I've already made 6 sales and gatehred 28 hearts! I'm very happy about that.
In other news, our trip to Poland has been canceled/postponed :-( I'm pretty bummed about that but oh well. We'll just have to plan for big trip next year.
Another event that has been postponed is the shearing of our animals. That will probably happen next month once it starts to dry out a little bit. The morning we had originally planned on getting the animals sheared, we woke up to snow on the ground! Brrrr! The animals would not have liked being freezing cold and would not have been very happy about sleeping naked in snow so I guess it was a good thing that their shearing was postponed.
Yesterday was a Market day and it was definitely the most perfect, glorious market day so far this month. You may think that the best market days are those that are hot and sunny all day long but in reality, it's the days that are ever so slightly cloudy and about 70 degrees which is what yesterday was like. So here's a few shots of our booth and the courthouse at the Eugene Saturday Market yesterday! Enjoy!

Have a blessed day, friends!

New shop for our hemp fabrics.....

2008-04-21T14:33:00.000-07:00

So I just realized the other day why I haven't felt like sewing very much lately. I think the reason is that I have had the same fabric in my sewing room, staring me in the face, going on a couple years now. It dawned on me that it is time for a Spring cleaning of sorts. I have decided to sell off most of my hemp fabric stash and start fresh. This will take me well into the summer and fall to do, I'm sure, but I need to do it in order to feel some inspiration again. I know there are many people who could be putting this fabric to better use than I have, so without further ado, let me introduce the newest member of the Infinite Cosmos team:
Infinite Cosmos Hemp!

I'll try to add at least a few new things to the shop everyday in addition to the new items added at Infinite Cosmos Glass .
Wish me luck and sanity trying to keep two shops in line! Take care friends!

Promotion tips and musings from an Etsy-er.......

2008-04-17T20:55:00.000-07:00

I see endless amounts of threads in the etsy forums about promoting and it got me to thinking about my promoting style. I'd like to share with you all some things I do and have learned about promoting.

There are some promoting opportunities that are very simple and are a one time deal sort of thing, like submitting your link to a directory, but others such as facebook, indiepublic, myspace and other networking sites require a lot of upkeep. I don't keep a schedule or anything on when to post a bulletin or blog on myspace or when to add new pictures to my flikr account but I do try to visit one of my various networking accounts each night.

One thing I have noticed with Myspace is that people respond negatively to overkill. It is absolutely not a good idea (again, this is just my opinion!) to post 10 bulletins a day saying COME LOOK AT MY SHOP!! or to post a huge etsy mini in a new friends comment section. The bulletin thing definitely took me a while to figure out. I went through a phase of posting one or two bulletins a day and I began to notice that my friends count would drop little by little. Then it dawned on me that some people don't have a ton of myspace "friends" so they were just seeing my bulletins over and over again and eventually it got to the point where they must have gotten fed up and "dumped" me. Which is understandable, I do it too. I don't like to see 10 bulletins in a row twice a day from the same person. It's obnoxious and eventually people are going to shut you out. Nowadays, I post *maybe* one bulletin every couple weeks and a new myspace blog every few weeks. I mostly just send lots of friend requests.

I tend to be labeled as "laid back" and that is the kind of promoting that I like to do. I will never send you a friend request and the moment you accept it, put a big self promoting comment on your page. It's just not my style. Though I don't mind it so much when others do it so long as it is a modest sized comment and it's not a slideshow or a huge, takes-forever-to-load banner. Links and small clickable pics I'm ok with though. Anyways, back to my laid back promoting style. Some of the things that I consider promoting, others may just see as just normal business tasks (for example just adding new items to your shop) or even wasting a few minutes before dinner time (hearting an item). But I like to think of it as simple, common sense promoting. Here are the tactics that I have found get me the most noticeable results:

*Add 2-4 new items to our etsy shop every day (I have a feeling this accounts for most of our sales on Etsy. The more often you add items, the more spread-out exposure you get in the categories)

*Post in the etsy forums (though I mostly lurk!)

*Join Yahoo groups of like minded folks and post an ad on spam/ad days

*I heart lots of etsy shops and items (I obsessively look at (and browse the shops of) all our new hearts on a daily basis so I assume that there are other etsy-ers out there who do the same thing!)

*I buy lots of stuff on etsy (may not sound like promoting, but I believe it is at least a good idea to give back to the etsy community, what goes around comes around, know what I mean?)

*I put my shop link in my signature in emails and in other forums

*I blog and read/comment on other blogs (I have definitely found some great crafters this way!)

*Add a few new myspace/indiepublic/flikr friends a couple times a week and comment on friends' pages/pictures

*I leave business cards on bulletin boards around town at places where I think our potential customers might hang out

*I buy (very) inexpensive ad space on other blogs and add my banner to plugboards

If you want to know the truth, I believe that the number one reason our sales have increased over the past few months is that we adopted this adorable golden kitty friend:

Her name is Maneki Neko and she works extremely hard beckoning sales for us night and day. I know that when sales start to get slow, it is because beckoning kitty's battery is getting low and she needs a recharge. Once that new battery is in, it usually takes about 24 hours for the sales to start coming in again and there is almost always a "surge" of sales when she is rejuvenated. Don't believe me? Go get one and see for yourself!

So there are a bunch of simple, free or very inexpensive ways to promote your shop. Hopefully some of you learned something new!

Gee I wish I had the guts to dress steampunk....

2008-04-14T09:07:00.000-07:00

I love browsing through the steampunk stuff on etsy. I don't know why I love this style so much, I just find it so classy and unique. Someday I will work up the courage to get all decked out like a steampunk mama. Here are some of the items on etsy that I am lusting over at the moment:
These awesome glasses from Qacreate

I would also wear these spats from Straight Razor Slasher

I would also wear this necklace from Rivkasmom

And of course I would need this hat from Boring Sydney

And as for an outfit, I would probably wear something like this from Crescent Wench's shop.

I would probably wear all these lovely items to the post office or to feed the goats or something like that. I really don't go anywhere super spectacular on a regular basis that would warrant such glamor. I guess I would have to have steampunk parties or find steampunk events to go to. What do you think?

Before they get sheared....

2008-04-10T20:57:00.000-07:00

I wanted to get a few pics of the alpacas and sheep before they all get sheared on the 20th. It was kind of shocking to look at these pictures of them because they don't seem so incredibly fluffy to me in person, but I guess they really are that fluffy! This is what they looked like a couple days after we brought them home (early july '07):

and this was them on April 10th:

Oh deary me, oh deary me! I sure do hope this dry spell continues until the day they get sheared. If it decides to get all rainy and icky, I really don't know what we will do. There is no way to keep Furio (the dirtier one) from rolling around in the mud/dirt and I'm guessing it is near to impossible to shear a muddy, wet alpaca.

Just look at this guy! He is definitely the dirtiest one of the bunch. The sheep manage to stay pretty clean somehow (especially Kenzie, the white ewe).

I'll be interested to see how the shearing goes. We've never dealt with shearing them before because, as you can see in the first picture, the alpacas were sheared before we got them last year and the sheep were too young to be sheared so this will be their first shearing as well. Wish us luck!

Planning our trip to Poland....

2008-04-07T20:18:00.000-07:00

Dzien` dobry, frinds! In September, my husband, daughter and I will be going to Poland with my parents. I'm so excited!!! My mom has family there (my mom was born there and moved here when she was about 6) so we will be visiting them while we're there. I have been kind of scared and overwhelmed at the thought of learning a little Polish before we go, but last week Todd got us a couple of books and tapes to help us start. I remember listening to my mom speaking it to her parents when I was young and it is such a beautiful and complicated sounding language. It really helps to have the tapes and to be able to ask my mom on pronunciation of certain words. My mom says that a lot of people speak English there so I shouldn't worry too much.

I've never been to another country where I don't know the language (well, I did go to Tijuana for a night almost 10 years ago, but that doesn't count!) so it should be interesting to try and communicate with the locals in their language.
So here's my Polish phrase of the day:
Co za piekny dzien`! (Translation: what a lovely day!)
It's exciting to learn something new like this. It's been forever since I've really challenged myself intellectually! Anyways, wish us luck learning a few key phrases! Next we have to think of some fun things to do while we're there. I'll tell you all about our plans when we get some figured out!

As promised, first day of market pics!

2008-04-06T13:41:00.000-07:00

The first day of the Saturday Market went great! It may have been raining but that never keeps a true Eugenian inside ;-) It always feels so good to see all the new glass out in the open again after a long winter. I think it likes to "breath" the fresh spring air, heehee! Anyways, here's some shots from yesterday, enjoy!

It felt really great to see old vendor friends again and eat some market food! Oh how i've missed my weekly mocha from the crepes booth!!
Hope you all enjoyed!

Saturday Market starts this weekend!!

2008-04-03T14:52:00.000-07:00

Hello friends!! I am so excited right now. The REAL tell tale sign that spring is finally here (at least for us Oregonians/Eugenians) is that the Eugene Saturday Market is about to start! In 2 short days, the park blocks of downtown Eugene will be bustling with lots of crafters and musicians and food vendors and all-around colorful characters, all selling their wares and/or shopping for hand crafted goods. I love the Saturday Market because it feels like going to a festival downtown every weekend. Here's some pics from the ESM Flikr account

And here's some pics of us at the market about 5 years ago:

And here's some pics of our booth at the Holiday Market last year:

I'll definitely snap some shots of our set up on Saturday. It is so hard to believe that the winter is already over and Market is starting so soon! Yay!!

Featured Etsy Seller: Freda of Mykonos

2008-04-01T11:13:00.000-07:00

There are so many beautiful jewelry designers on Etsy, but one that really stood out to me was Freda of Mykonos. Based out of Hong Kong, she creates beautiful, one of a kind jewelry pieces that have a whimsical, romantic feel to them.

She has a very extensive selection of pieces in her store, and even though I usually don't make it past the first 3 pages of a shop, I found myself going through all 11 pages just to see what beautiful creations the next page held!

1) Give us 3 words that would best describe you and/or your personality, with a brief explanation of why each of these words describe you.
"individual" - I work individually and make unique things, "romantic" - dream in my heart and that's why I choose "mykonos" to be my shop name and "quiet" - actually I am really a good listener to my friends

2) What kinds of crafts do you sell?
you can find unique handmade jewelery such as necklaces, bracelets and earrings, some softies and paper goods in my shop. And also my newest creations for wedding doggie cake toppers and ring bearer items too!!

3) How long have you been making your crafts?
I started my crafting in 2004, then moved onto consignment at stores and establishing my etsy shop in 2005. Crafting is fun, interesting and I love being in control of all aspects of my business!!

4) What inspires you?
Everything around me, sometimes it may be an art exhibition or someone's blog will also inspire me!!

5) Where can we all find you and your work (etsy shop, blog, website, etc)?
You can find me through my shop: http://mykonos.etsy.com or my blog: http://mykonos.wordpress.com to see my latest work and updates.

6) Stand on your soapbox and tell us anything else you feel we should know about you or what you believe!
I am a dreamer and I hope everyone has a dream in their heart and keep working toward it. And, I hope other sellers will re-use materials for packing to save our planet when sending out orders like me!!

I definitely agree about recycling packaging! I'm always happy when I receive a package using recycled materials :-)
Hope you all enjoyed~

Worlds colliding....

2008-03-30T09:23:00.000-07:00

The other night, Todd and I went out for a night on the town to see my old friends from high school in concert. It hasn't been ages since I had seen these old friends, but it has definitely been almost 10 years, so it felt like forever! But isn't it funny how you can go that long without seeing someone, and when you do see each other again, you can pick up right where you left off? That's how it was to see my friends from Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad. I was having such a wonderful time and I really wasn't used to having my camera with me, I forgot to snap a shot of me and my friends together :-( But I did get some shots of me and Todd together and me with my other friends. Here's a look at our fun night (please excuse the quality of the pics, we had a couple drinks!):

So anyways, onto the reason why I am calling this post "Worlds Colliding". Back in the days before I knew Todd and was traveling somewhat on my own, I would go back home to New York by myself and stay in my parents house, see my friends with whom I grew up and do things that I did while living in my home town. During such visits, I would think back on my adventures on the road or out west and wonder "Did that really happen? Did I really meet those people and have all those experiences?" It's a strange feeling and very hard to describe (do I sound crazy :-P ?) but unless you have some kind of physical proof of sorts (for example, bringing home a friend from your travels) it's almost as if those experiences could all be figments of your imagination. I got that same feeling when I went to that concert the other night and saw my friends from high school. I have this life out here on the west coast, where I have lived since 2001, and sometimes I think back to my life back on the east coast and wonder if it was all just a dream (not really, but my childhood/teen years was a whole different "world", so to speak). Seeing friends from my old life and friends from my new life together in the same room definitely feels like my 2 worlds (past and present) are colliding! Very strange feeling!!
Also, I'd quickly like to plug a wonderful store on Etsy from which I have recently purchased. It's called Zaja Natural Handmade Confections and they sell bath and body products. I got the New Orleans scent of her deodorant and it smells absolutely lovely!

It also came with a hefty sample of chocolate soap (super yummy smelling as well!). So go check out her shop: Zaja Natural Handmade Confections.
Have a blessed day everyone!

Come see the newest memebers of our family...

2008-03-28T10:21:00.000-07:00

We were at the feed store the other day to pick up some scratch grains for the chickens and we noticed some of those large containers with the baby chicks in them. We went up to them to check out the different varieties of chicks they had and to our surprise, we saw a different type of bird: baby ducks!! They were so cute, Todd couldn't resist taking a few home.

One of the types we got is the Pekin. This breed originates from China and is the most common duck used for commercial meat production (our ducks sure lucked out! We're vegetarians).

The other breed we got is the runner duck. They stand upright and look kinda goofy, but are good layers and foragers. They should be interesting!

Our ducks have about another month of being under their heat lamp and once it warms up, they'll be able to go out in the back with the chickens and goats. Hopefully everyone will get along!

Oh, and none of them have names yet so if you think of a good name, write it in the comment section of this post and if we pick your name, we'll send you a free pendant!

So I think i should include some kind of crafty content in this post, don't you :-) Here's a look at my latest feed bag purse and a couple wallets that I recently made. The dog chow bag is definitely my favorite!

I'm pretty proud of these!
Well I hope you all enjoyed!

Hooray! New camera!!

2008-03-26T18:22:00.000-07:00

We have had the same camera for about 5 years now (no joke!!) and I love it dearly. It is a Sony DSC-S85 and it has worked wonderfully for the entire time we've had it. It is our workhorse that I use on a daily basis to take photos for every item you see in our etsy shop and it was also the camera we used for every trip Todd and I have taken together since we got together 5 + years ago and it was there to capture all the gory but beautiful pictures of my daughter's birth. So as you can tell, it's pretty much a member of our family! I'm sure you can understand my reluctance to get a new camera when this one has been with us for so long. Here she is:

But after much thought, I decided that, because I am now blogging and in need a more portable camera, it was time we invested in a smaller camera. Here's our new baby, the Kodak Easyshare V803, isn't she pretty?!

I haven't done much with it yet, though I did test it out a little. I don't have the memory card yet (ordered it online and it should be here tomorrow, hopefully!) but the awesome thing about this camera is that it has internal memory!! I was able to get a few shots in which was nice. I still have to learn all the tricks to using it, but it definitely takes a fine looking pic (albeit they are HUGE!!! I still can't figure out how to make the pictures smaller!). Here's the only decent shot I took today.

Those are the pygmy goats and chickens, in case you can't tell ;-)
It was definitely an eyeopener looking at "modern" cameras (our workhorse is practically considered a dinosaur!). For example, our Sony was about $500 5 years ago with 4.1mp and back then, the memory cards only held about 28-256mb of memory and they were about $100-200. I got this camera for about $100 and the 2G memory card was only $13!!! Crazy!!
Well, I better get testing this baby out a little more this evening. Till next time, my lovely friends!

Want to attract repeat customers to your Etsy shop?

2008-03-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

Or any kind of shop for that matter! I have noticed that since I started including discount coupons to all of my orders, we have gained a lot of repeat business. I'm so thankful that our customers really want to come back to us!! And I think that a 15% discount on their next order is definitely a motivating factor ;-) It was really easy to create this coupon. I made it on this program called The Print Shop using the business card layout. It took me all of about 20 minutes to get it just right. I got a bunch of the micro perforated business card paper from Office Depot (about $25 for 1000) so I can print them out at home. Nothing super fancy but it has definitely helped our sales quite a bit over the past month.
Just something to think about!

Best. Goodwill Score. EVER!

2008-03-22T17:21:00.000-07:00

My husband and I are obsessed with thrift stores and we visit them at least once or twice a week.
So I was browsing the toy isle with my daughter today and my heart just about stopped when I saw this:

Don't recognize her? Maybe if I put her in context you're recall who she is:

Thats right my fellow 20something friends! It's Rainbow Brite's horse, Starlite!
I would have KILLED for this horse when I was little and now she is mine! Uh...I mean she's for my daughter, heehee! This is one of the reasons that I am infinitely happy that I had a little girl, I get to relive my childhood vicariously through her with all my favorite toys. Check out how I arranged all the stuffed animals on her bed (just the way I used to do when I was little!):

It's so fun! My daughter is way into My Little Pony, Carebears, and Hello Kitty. Truth be told, she doesn't care much for her (my) Rainbow Bright and I don't think she'll mind if I sneak some snuggles with Starlite either.
Hope you enjoyed!

The coolest thing about being married to a glassblower.....

2008-03-21T09:30:00.001-07:00

Is that I get first dibs on EVERYTHING that comes out of the kiln! Jealous? Yeah, I would be too if I were you! Heehee!
Todd has been making these wonderful rings lately, and I am pretty obsessed with them. I like to wear at least 2 everyday. Sometimes its fun to go a little crazy and try on as many as possible.

Ok, fine, I'll tone it down a bit.

And no, I didn't keep all of those rings. I have about 5 in my collection right now, so even though I CAN keep as many as I want, I do exercise some amount of restraint.

So all of these rings are for you lovely people out there!

:-)

Featured Etsy Artist: Elle of Elle Moss Photography

2008-03-20T07:50:00.000-07:00

Truth be told, I don't look for photographs on Etsy much. Every once in a while, I will find some that strike a cord with me but never really find myself searching them out. I came across the photography of Elle Moss and I fell instantly in love! Her photographs are so evocative and surreal, classic and mysterious. I knew this talented artist had a story to tell so I was very excited to feature here on my blog!

1) Give us 3 words that would best describe you and/or your personality, with a brief explanation of why each of these words describe you.

dreamy- as in big daydreamer. I've lived a lot inside my head since i was a child. I love books and quiet and well, drifting off!

perfectionist- my worst quality. It leads me to be a serious over-achiever or total slack off (whats the use if it wont turn out perfect). I've been actively trying to rid myself of it, but it's ever so hard.

bohemian or gypsy is the next word that comes to mind. Im definitely not your typical 30 something suburban mom. Im a bit of a nonconformist and free spirit, or at least I like to think so!

2) What kinds of crafts do you sell?
I sell photographs. Dreamy, nostalgic, feminine photographs that are heavily "worked" until I'm satisfied with them.

3) How long have you been making your crafts?
I started taking photography seriously about a year ago and have been in school for almost as long.

4) What inspires you?
Music, movies, old cinema, old postcards, Remedios Varo, Frida Kahlo, Marilyn Monroe, Peter Sellers, Cindy Sherman, The Beatles, Loretta Lux, Dolly Parton, Bette Davis, my grandmothers, fashion old and new... I could go on and on!

5) Where can we all find you and your work (etsy shop, blog, website, etc)?
ellemoss.etsy.com
flickr.com/photos/torchlightlms
ellemoss.blogspot.com
www.trunkt.org/ellemoss

6) Stand on your soapbox and tell us anything else you feel we should know about you or what you believe.

I love what I do and am a firm believer in doing what you love no matter what. I plan on making my own path and doing things my way for, like, ever.

I will definitely be buying some prints from Elle in the near future. Definitely my kind of photography! This one here is probably my favorite:

I just love the colors in it!
Hope you all enjoyed and be sure to check her out!!

Down on the farm...

2008-03-18T08:53:00.000-07:00

The other day we got it in our heads that we needed more animals. Basically it was a moment of insanity! So we went out to a farm in Dexter, Oregon and visited with all the furry friends. In the end, we decided against bringing anyone home but it sure was fun seeing all the baby animals! Take a look:

These baby pygmy goats were seriously THE CUTEST things I have ever seen! They had these super high pitched voices that could melt your heart. It was REALLY hard to say no to these little cuties. They were so small, you could hold them as if they were a bunny or kitty!

To be honest, it was hard to get a good picture of these guys because they were always hopping and skipping around.

Now onto the sheep. We originally came out to this farm to look at the sheep and decide if we wanted to get a few. There was a group of 3 sheep (a ewe and her 2 lambs) that we particularly came out to see. They were super cute and seemed very friendly. In the end, we decided that our best bet would probably be to get the female sheep and and goat that we already have at home pregnant rather than buying more sheep. But, oh man! was it ever hard to deny these fluffy friends!

They call this breed the southdown. They are mostly bred for slaughter :-( It would have been nice to save a family from being someone's dinner.... but in all practicality, it's just not wise for us to buy more animals at this time. The ones we have are already a ball and chain (a cuddly and friendly ball and chain, though ;-)!
Well I hope you enjoyed our pics!

Filthy, filthy beasts!

2008-03-16T09:50:00.000-07:00

It's been pretty rainy around here lately and when it rains, the alpacas get FILTHY! They really enjoy rolling around in the dirt and when the dirt turns to mud, they obviously don't mind ;-) Check out these filthy beggers, here's what they look like on a sunny dry day:

Ok so they aren't completely pristine on a dry day, but they're still pettable!

And here they were yesterday:

It's strange how Cortez is the super fluffy one (in the pic directly above) but he never seems to be quite as dirty as Furio. You'd think with all that extra fluff, Cortez would be the dirty dude! But, even covered with mud, Furio is still charming :-)

As you can see from these pics, the sun decided to show its shining face while we were out, and you know what that means!

It was actually way brighter than shown in this pic, but, if you've ever tried to photograph a rainbow, i'm sure you know how hard it is to capture that magical rainbow shot ;-)
So anyways, today we will be going to a sheep and pygmy goat farm and decide if we need to increase our flock. We'll see! Either way, I'll get some pics.
Ok folks! Until next time!!

Featured Etsy Artist: Saloni of Orange Bead

2008-03-15T08:12:00.000-07:00

I never thought I would admit this (especially in a very public place for all the world to see!) but, thanks to my 3 year old daughter, I have grown to really like Hello Kitty. There I said it!
So when I looked around in Orange Bead on Etsy, I was just smitten to see my favorite cartoon kitty dressed up in such cute costumes!

1) Give us 3 words/phrases that would best describe you and/or your personality
1)Funny-I love to cheer people up when they are having bad day!
2)Stay home mom- i am full time stay home mom
3)shop a holic- i love toooooo shop on line..hehe

2) What kinds of crafts do you sell
I started with crocheted toys, then moved on to sewn felted toys, and now, my new hobby, needle felting

3) How long have you been making your crafts and how did you get started on it?
I have been making toys for 6 months now

4) What inspires you?
my baby :)

5) Where can we all find you and your work (etsy shop, blog, website, etc)
You can find me at:
http://Orangebead.etsy.com
http://orangebead.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/orangebead11/

6) Stand on your soapbox and tell us anything else you feel we should know about you or what you believe.
I Love my family and friends!
and I also love to make new friends!

Here's my personal favorite from her store, this is just too cute!

My daughter would love this! It's her 2 favorite animals (kitty and bunny) all in one!
Hope you all enjoyed!

How has your crafting business evolved over the years?

2008-03-14T07:50:00.000-07:00

It's so amusing (and slightly embarrassing!) to think back to the early days of Infinite Cosmos, back in 2003. I actually remember the first time I told Todd (it was like a couple months after we got together) that I wanted to have a website and sell my clothing and crafts online and that we should join forces. We had such high hopes and big dreams for our online business! It was such a trial and error process for us. I had pretty minimal computer skills (Todd barely even knew what email was at that time!! heehee!) so you can imagine what a laborious process it was for me to build a website from the ground up and figure out about things like web hosting, advertising, and networking.
We bought a digital camera (which we still use today! It is such a work horse, I absolutely love it though I do wish I could store more than 2000 pics on a memory stick!) and basically played around trying to figure out how to use the thing. We really didn't have a clue as to how to effectively photograph our products. Let's compare!
Here's an old school pic

And here's a more recent pic to demonstrate our slightly better photography skills! At least I think so ;-)

Definitely looks a lot nicer in the natural light with an appropriate background.

Neither of us ever took any courses on website design, small business management, bookkeeping or anything like that that would have helped us when we were first starting out. Everything we learned about selling online was through trial and error. Lots of error! But hey, that's how you learn the importance of things like return policies, payment systems for custom orders, packaging orders well and pretty, and professionalism without being cold and starchy.
Well, I think it's time to reveal my never ending resource for business etiquette and such: the Etsy forums. I feel like I learn a something vital to my business' wellbeing there everyday!
So tell me: how has your crafting business evolved since the beginning? What are some great tips you would give to those who are just starting out their crafting business?

I'm getting sucked in! I can't stop Stumbling!

2008-03-13T00:20:00.000-07:00

Stumble Upon is so friggin' awesome. I have found sooooo many amazing websites since I signed up for it a couple days ago. Like this one and this one and this one , for example! Only problem is, I'm not getting enough work done!! It's just like the pounce feature at Etsy. I get sucked into pouncing for like an hour or something and then all my motivation to work has left me because my senses are just so overly stimulated.
Stumbling is much more addicting though. You just never know what will pop up next!!

Tonight has been very unproductive for me because of stumbling. I just now, in another browser window, decided to do a quick stumble and look at this awesome site I just found! See what I mean??

Well I guess the one semi productive thing I did this evening was that I added a few new items to our etsy shop. Check them out if you feel like it!

Ok lovelies, until tomorrow!

I miss the ocean......

2008-03-11T08:57:00.000-07:00

These sunny days get me thinking about the ocean. It's been way too long since we've been! The last time we went was probably back in September....geez, 6 months can fly by in the blink of an eye!
Anyways, I'm sure we'll eventually get to the ocean one of these days, but until them, I'll live vicariously through our pictures of our trips to Mama Ocean throughout the years.

Pregnant on my wedding day in the above pic!

California coast

Sunset in Yachats (taken the day before our wedding)

Looking for shells and agates

Sharing a beautiful sunset with friends

Leona's first trip to the ocean

Somewhere in Cali

My 21st birthday

Ahhh....happiness!

Hope you enjoyed my ocean pics! Hopefully we'll have some new ones soon. I don't think I can stay away much longer!

Yay! Spring! Time to garden!!

2008-03-09T13:40:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, the unmistakable signs of spring!

We've been having an unusually warm couple months here in the Mohawk valley, so that has made for some great early gardening conditions. Todd and I have already cleared out all our beds in the backyard and filled them with onions, peas, greens, potatoes, radishes, and beets.

We put some chicken wire across the tops to stop the chickens from eating up all the starts and seeds. It's a pretty cheap way to do it, but it seems to be working just fine for now!

Todd also got some fruit trees today. A stella cherry and a nectarine. I can't wait to make some cherry pie and eat fresh, tree ripened nectarines! Here's Todd digging a hole for a tree.

On the property across the street, where we house our alpacas and sheep, there are also 5 huge raised beds so we cleared those out and put in celery, kale, broccoli and lots of other yummy veggies.

At the garden store today, I was feeling really indecisive about what to put in my herb bed. It was so hard to find something that we didn't already have planted in the yard!

The picture above is of chocolate mint.....or is it rosemary mint? I'll have to double check with Todd, he knows these things better than I~!
Well I eventually decided on some curly parsley. Leona LOVES this stuff!

Hope you enjoyed our gardening pics!

Are you sick of my crafts yet??

2008-03-08T07:38:00.000-08:00

I hope not! I never get sick of them at least, and that's all that matters, right?? So here is one of our many fun crafting adventures that Todd and I undertook a few years ago: Soapmaking! We also made salve and lip balm too (in the little containers in the foreground of the picture). Over the course of a few days, Todd and I made lots of different melt and pour soaps (both goats milk and glycerine) using herbs from our very own garden! It was really fun (unfortunately, I don't have any pics of us going through the process :-( and I hope to do it again someday soon. I'd like to made soap using the cold press method, but i'm kind of scared of lye. I have heard the horror stories of children getting into a pitcher of lye solution and it did NOT sound pretty! I have a very busy 3 year old who likes to help with all things crafty so that is one project I don't think I'd like her to help with just yet!
Making salve was really fun too. We invested in lots of different butters and oils and concocted our own recipe as we went along. It was really satisfying to make salve and lip balm because I use them a lot (I'm slightly obsessed with having supple skin and lips!).
Oh, and one other craft that we dappled in during this craft binge was candle making. I don't have any pics of the candles we made, and to be honest, I'm glad! The ones we made came out pretty silly looking. I just assumed candle making was easy for some reason (no idea why I had that assumption!) but that is one craft I will leave to the seasoned masters! We made a huge mess and there was wax EVERYWHERE when we were done. I think we still have all the equipment just sitting around somewhere collecting dust if anyone is interested in taking it off our hands!
Well I hope you enjoyed this week's installment of "The Many Crafts of the Infinite Cosmos Family" . Thanks for reading!

I'm running a bit behind today!

2008-03-07T15:13:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the delayed post today! I've had a busy day, we brought our daughter to the gymnastics place in town and tumbled around for a bit and then had lunch with some friends while Todd went to the garden store and got some plant starts. It will be so awesome not to have to worry about buying veggies!! I'll definitely post some pics of our gardening progress soon, possibly tomorrow.
Anyways, today I just wanted to share a couple o' fun things I saw on Etsy today. This really awesome speckled black flower lantern

and this awesome crocheted necklace. I really want to get one! They are so reasonable priced too! It's only $35!!

and this amazingly beautiful dress. I'm so in love with it!!!

Ok well that's all for today friends! Now off to get some items listed in our shop!

Enough about me and my crafts....

2008-03-06T00:11:00.000-08:00

My husband, Todd, is the REALLY talented one! I usually just get to hog the spotlight since I am the computer geek for our business ;-)
One of Todd's little known talents and (what I would consider to be) crafts is photography. No, not for our business, I take all those pictures. Todd is the master at capturing pictures of plants and wildlife. Well, at least I consider him to be a master at it. Here are a few amazing pictures he has taken over the years.

That's just a taste of Todd's amazing talent for capturing beauty in nature. Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoyed!

Trashion! Yeah!

2008-03-05T08:59:00.000-08:00

My husband was flipping through the channels just now and he came across this show about trashion (trash + fashion = Trashion) and there were these two guys talking about their company in Barcelona, Spain that makes bags, purses and aprons from recycled advertising banners! I was instantly in love with these awesome purses (I'm kind of a purse freak!) and I just thought I'd share them with y'all. Their company is Vaho.ws .
They also make these totally sweet chairs out of shopping carts! I felt an instant love for these guys and their items because I, too, love to make things out of would-be trash (like my feedbag purses and wallets). So please check these guys out and support the eco revolution!

Needle Felting, yet another one of my many crafts!

2008-03-04T08:09:00.000-08:00

Needle felting has to be one of the most satisfying crafts ever. It's so instantly gratifying! The thing that I liked best was that, even though I can't draw for crap, I still managed to come up with some really cute designs. Check out some of the bags I made last year:

Seeing all these old needle felted creations is inspiring me to bust out my wool and needles and get stabbing! I think this week I may add a couple of purses to our etsy shop and I will definitely add one of my needle felted bags. Here's one of my all time favorites. This was a wool messenger bag:

I hope you all enjoyed!

Etsy Featured Artist: Carrie from Morning Star Natural Soaps...

2008-03-02T13:24:00.000-08:00

I love to buy soaps and body care stuff on Etsy. You all probably know this already~! So I was really happy when Carrie from Morning Star Natural Soaps, Lotions, and Soy Candles ordered from us. She makes soaps and body care products using goats milk. The best part? The goats milk comes from the nanny goats on her very own ranch! I convo'ed her and asked her if she wanted to trade. I instantly felt an "etsy sister" bond with her because my family, just like Carrie's, has pygmy goats, too! She very willingly agreed, lucky for me! We did a partial trade for her order, and let me tell you, she hooked us up! I expected a jar of body butter and *maybe* if I was lucky, a couple extra little samples, but she sent me 2 jars of body butter, 4 little samples of different body butters (I told her about my obsession with body butters so it looks like she kept that in mind when she put my package together!) and lots of different soaps and bath soaks. I was so extremely happy! After receiving a wonderful package like this, I knew I had to give this amazing Etsy friend some major props on our blog :-)

Carrie not only takes care of all the goats and makes all the lovely products in Morning Star Natural Soaps, but she is also a mom and has a full time job as a paramedic on an ambulance. How she has enough hours in the day to do all of this, I have no idea, but somehow she makes it work!

Buying bath and body care items over the internet can be kind of a sketchy thing sometimes because you just never know what kind of experience or knowledge the person who makes their products has. I definitely trust that Carrie knows what she is doing because she has studied herbal & botanical medicinal properties for 13 years. On her profile she states:
"The company was derived out of a quest for pure and natural skin care management. Healthy product ingredients come solely from Mother nature. They should all be recognizable."

So basically, this woman knows what she is doing and her products smell and work great! Be sure to check her out:
Lunastar.etsy.com
Hope you enjoyed!

Spinning, spinning, spinning......

2008-03-01T10:06:00.000-08:00

Continuing with the "how many crafts?" idea, today I'd like to talk about my short-lived love affair with the art of spinning. About 4 or 5 years ago, I got it into my head that I would make a great spinner. I loved crocheting and I loved yarn, why not take it one step further and create my own beautiful yarn? For some reason, I really didn't want to mess with a simple drop spindle, I had to have a NICE spinning wheel to learn on. Before I had ever even tried it, I had dreams about sitting at my beautiful spinning wheel, wearing a delicate medieval style flowy dress, effortlessly spinning up the most beautiful fine yarn imaginable. I assumed it would be easy as pie! So I looked online and found the perfect spinning wheel (a Kromski Mazurka) and Todd buy it for me for my birthday/solstice/christmas whatever. I was so happy!

But of course, I had no idea what I was doing. With some raw fleece from a fellow spinning friend and some practice, soon I was able to spin.....sort of. The yarn I produced was pretty lumpy and imperfect, but it was more the meditative process of it that I enjoyed rather than the physical outcome. I continued spinning for about...maybe 6 months?
I think I will pick it up again soon, once the sheep and alpacas get sheared this spring. I will have no choice but to spin, really! What else would I do with all that fluffy fiber? I guess I could use it all for needle felting......yet another one of my crafting adventures to share with you all!

How many crafts do you do or have you taken up?

2008-02-29T15:32:00.000-08:00

I was reading in the etsy forums yesterday about being a "jack of all trades" and it really got me thinking about all the different crafts I have take up over the years. Some have been constant (sewing for example) and others have been very short lived (I knitted a couple headbands before I decided it was completely impossible).
So, over the next few days I'd like to share a few of the different crafts I do or have done. Today's will be crochet. I absolutely love to crochet! And guess who taught me? Todd! Believe it or not, he used to crochet a lot before he learned how to blow glass. He made mostly hemp hats and bags and that sort of thing. He rarely crochets anymore but I do off and on for fun. Here are a few of my latest crochet projects. Here's a lovely wool scarflette, (excuse the reflection picture!):

Some of the wool (the off white) is hand spun by me (another craft of mine!)!

And here is a pair of fingerless gloves I made for myself last month:

I used to crochet all kinds of things, mostly purses, hats and these cute halter tops!

The second one has a few panels of cotton calico fabric sewn to the bottom. I made so many of those but then eventually stopped. They took a long time and I never seemed to make any profit selling them (you can get the imported ones for like $10 or $15 so it was pretty hard to compete with that!).
I know I will probably always crochet. Most likely, I will never sell my crocheted items again but I do enjoy making cute things for me and my family.
Stay tuned for more crafting adventures from Infinite Cosmos!

Oh yeah, and please share your little known talents/ crafts in the comments section! I'd love to know what else you talented folks do besides your "main craft" :-)

All About Infinite Cosmos...

2008-02-28T08:37:00.000-08:00

We're featured in the 88 words: Say it, Don't Spray it! blog today!! It's an in-depth look into how Todd got started with his craft.
Say it, Don't Spray it!
Enjoy!

Infinite Cosmos, the Next Generation....

2008-02-27T08:31:00.000-08:00

Well my friends, Infinite Cosmos is going to be undergoing some changes in the coming months. Todd and I have been thinking about ways to make things easier on ourselves and for all of you lovely folks out there who enjoy our wares. We've decided that ICGlass and ICGear will be getting makeovers. One change will be that I will be closing down ICGear. With the glass business going so well for us these days, I barely have any time to sew, much less keep an entire website afloat. I will still be offering some of my items in our etsy shop, but I will no longer be making clothing (to sell, at least) and will be focusing more on accessories such as purses, wallets, belts, pouches, that sort of thing.
Another big change will be that we will no longer be selling items from ICOregonGlass.com. It will mostly act as a gallery/gateway to our etsy shop. So all the items you see at ICGlass will be transfered over to our etsy shop over the next month or 2.
I will keep you all updated as these changes occur. Be sure to become our myspace friend if you haven't already!
Blissings!
Marlena
Infinite Cosmos on Etsy
Infinite Cosmos on Myspace

Rockhounding with goats and other adventures....

2008-02-26T13:35:00.000-08:00

It's a gorgeous day today, clear, sunny and sort of warm (for February!) and on days like this, we like to bring the dogs and goats over to the sheep and alpaca barn. The alpacas and sheep have a fenced in area of about 1/2 an acre or so, but on the other side of that fence is about 4 acres and today we brought everyone in the back acreage. They all love it out there because they can really stretch their legs and gallop and horse around.

I love the above picture because you can see Ellie rearing up and getting wild! Her and Cowboy (our black shetland/jacob sheep) love to face off except Ellie is always rearing up while Cowboy likes to just head-butt so Ellie gets rammed in the ribs usually. She doesn't seem to mind though!
So anyways, onto today's adventure. With the dogs and goats with us, the alpacas and sheep will usually keep their distance and stay near the barn.

We went down to the river behind the property (here's a view of the barn from the top of the river bank)

and poked around along the shore for some agates. We found a lot! This is just after a couple minutes of looking:

It's pretty satisfying searching for agates over there because they are almost everywhere you look! And not just milky white but mostly red, orange and yellow pieces. Here was a pretty sweet sparkley piece I found:

There was also a lot of this type of rock that looks really interesting but we can't seem to identify it. Can you?

The goats were pretty unsure about the river, they don't come down there with us very often so they stayed close to Todd the whole time.

Come to think of it, the goats stick with Todd most of the time, no matter what! (he's the one who usually has the food!)

So anyways, it was a pretty fun morning. It's so nice to be able to see beautiful views like this everyday. I thought that after living here for a while (we've been here for a year and a half) that I would begin to take it for granted, but it still amazes me every time. We're so blessed! Here's Dooderbug drying off in the grass after swimming, I just thought this was so dand cute!

Hope you enjoyed!

Beautiful things.....

2008-02-25T08:41:00.000-08:00

Well, I don't have anything really clever planned out for today's blog, so I thought I'd just post some pics of some beautiful things I've seen today.
This is just gorgeous, from dbabcock:

This bag is also amazing. Love it! It's from Blue Sky Knits

I have a soft spot in my heart for robots as well. This is from Creative Apples

I also like this picture because it looks like our beloved chicken, Pretty Bird. This is from Amber Alexander

Alright friends! Those are my fun finds for today! Have a blessed day, see ya tomorrow :-)

Oh my! It must be true, what they say....

2008-02-24T10:09:00.000-08:00

....about diamonds being a gal's best friend!

My husband and I got married when I was pregnant (yeah, yeah, shotgun wedding, what of it?!!) so I got my wedding ring a little bigger so I could wear it while I was all big from my pregnancy. My grandma also gave me her mother's wedding ring, which was also much too big. Well, they fit fine when I was pregnant, but they definitely became very loose after my daughter was born and I just never got around to resizing them, until a few weeks ago. Before that I either just didn't wear it (jeez, I sound like a horrible wife, don't I?) or I wore it with a piece of tape around the part that you don't see, but that was really uncomfortable.
I went to pick them up the other day after being resized and oh my Goddess! They are SO incredibly shiny (they must have professionally cleaned both of them) and sparkley, I just can't stop looking at them! They make my heart go all aflutter when I catch a glimpse of those sparkling diamonds and the bright blue topaz! They look like completely different rings to me. It's so nice to finally be able to comfortably wear my wedding rings.

Just to add a touch of crafty content to this post, here's our latest listing in our etsy shop :-) Just click on the pics to go see this lovely amanita muscaria mushroom.

Ok, until tomorrow everyone! Much love!

Our Booth Set Up for the Eugene Holiday Market

2008-02-23T10:07:00.000-08:00

I always see questions about craft shows in the etsy forums so I thought I'd share with you all our booth set up at last year's Eugene Holiday Market. We really put a lot of time (and some money, but not so much that we broke the bank or anything) into the set up last year. Todd and I planned and discussed and sketched for at least a couple months before we came up with a good set up. Well anyways, before I go too far in depth about the process, here it is:

Todd has been vending at the Eugene Saturday Market as well as the Holiday Market for many years (since well before he met me!) and his/our set up has gone through many transformations over the years. He said that when he first started vending at the market, he just had a blanket on the ground with some crystals, pipes, and carved items as well as a box of beads and string to do hair wraps (jeez I totally wish I had a picture to help you visualize that!) but over the years, his set up became more and more elaborate. This last Holiday Market season was our most elaborate yet with the built in wooden shelving. That really seemed to make a HUGE difference in the amount of space for items in the booth as well as the over all "look" of the booth. We used to have these plastic storage shelves covered with cloth on every level and from afar, it looked a little jumbley. But the wooden shelves made it so the GLASS was the first thing you saw from afar, rather than storage shelves!
We really tried to make the booth as 3 dimensional as possible with all the levels and the hanging ornaments. Lighting played a big role too. Having lights pointing at the glass from almost every angle really made things pop out at you.
So you may be wondering if all this extra effort and materials made a difference in sales. Yes, it most CERTAINLY did! It was a pretty dramatic difference, in fact. I won't get into the numbers of it all, but yes, it was most definitely worth a few hundred dollars to invest in a better set up.
But you never know. Some vendors do really well with just a table, nice table cloth and a pretty lamp as their lighting. I guess it just all depends on your products, too. But for the most part, I believe it really IS worth it to spend a little more and make your booth look as beautiful as can be :-)
The 2 most important things to have at your vending booth, no matter what you sell? A SMILE AND AN UPBEAT ATTITUDE! Seriously....
If you have any questions about vending, the Eugene Saturday Market, or the meaning of life, feel free to ask!

Beautiful Moon....

2008-02-22T08:38:00.000-08:00

My husband and I decided to take a late night soak in the hot tub last night. It was a clear night with just a few thin clouds and the moon was looking so magical through the tall spindly trees. I couldn't settle into the tub and relax until I got a few good pics. Unfortunately, because of the limitations of our camera, I couldn't capture the lovely contrast between the huge, bright moon and the dark and mysterious woods next to our house. The only thing that was missing was the coyote howling in the background!

You should have seen it! These pics just do not do it's beauty justice. The thin clouds drifting by the moon created an almost fractal looking orange and blue ring around it and the contrast between the shadowy trees and the hazy blue clouds was amazing. I may have missed the eclipse the day before, but I definitely got my moon worship on last night!

Featured Etsy Artist: Stacey Perry of Hodgepodgerie

2008-02-21T08:50:00.000-08:00

I always try to include a personal note to each of our customers when we send out an order and in that note, I ask our customers to let us know what they think of their items. About 75% of the time, we don't hear back from our customers except with their feedback. But it is always a welcome and lovely surprise when one of our happy customers writes back to tell us how they like their items, and it is even more thrilling when they show us what they have made with one of our pieces. This is how I became acquainted with Stacey Perry of Hodgepodgerie. Now at first glance, you may think that Stacey is just one of the many jewelry supplies sellers on etsy, but when she showed me what she made with one of the beads she had bought from us, I knew there was more to her than just supplies!

I immediately knew I wanted to feature her in our blog because this piece is such a work of art! Stacey gave me the link to her website (www.Hodgepodgerie.com and I instantly fell in love with her pieces.

Taken from Stacey's website:

Stacey's fascination with pretty rocks stems all the way back to her childhood in California, so it's no surprise that she eventually became a gemstone broker between mines and wholesalers, which inspired her to become a gemologist. She also worked as a manager for several high volume independent jewelry stores where she offered her custom jewelry services. She eventually retired from the retail business because of breast cancer (which is now if full remission) and, with the encouragement of her supportive husband, became a full time jewelry artist. She also teaches jewelry classes at the Dunedin Fine Art Center in Dunedin, Florida. She says that she likes this best of all because she loves to enable others to make beautiful creations for themselves.

She also says that her Muse is her constant companion and when she is on "vacation", she enjoys lunch with a friend, a walk in the woods or on the beach, and there she will eventually find inspiration for her next piece.
So where can you find Stacey's lovely works of art?
www.Hodgepodgerie.com
Her Ebay Store
Her Etsy Shop
Thanks so much Stacey for letting me feature you and for creating such unique and lovely jewelry!

Ok people, Lets talk Project Runway!

2008-02-19T16:15:00.000-08:00

So I'm just going to give you all a quick synopsis of my thoughts on this season's Project Runway. This was the first season that I actually got to watch it before it became reruns. My friend (who just happens to be named Gillianne!) comes over every Wednesday and we eat dinner, drink wine and watch PR together while our children run wild in the background. It's been so much fun!
Anyways, first let me give you my favorite designers from the show. In terms of personality, my favorite would absolutely, hands down be Chris. He is just so funny and has such a contagious laugh and is really humble.

As far as actual designs go, I would have to say that I really like Christian. I started out really wanting him to win but as the season went on I decided that he is COMPLETELY obnoxious and condescending and acts all entitled and shit. But his styles are just so friggin' cute! I would love to say that I am a classy and avant gard (I can't even spell that word, that's how fashion savvy I am!) enough to wear some of the gorgeous clothing that he makes but I wouldn't have the guts. I hate to admit that but it's true! I really loved this outfit he made (maybe minus the skirt, it's kinda boring for my taste):

It's just so cute!! I would definitely wear that jacket.
So who do I think is actually going to win? I really think it will be Jillian.

She's very consistent, pays very close attention to detail and all around makes gorgeous clothing that would appeal to almost any woman. Her pallet is diverse and her pieces look modern and flattering. I absolutely LOVED this:

Again, nothing that I would actually wear but still, it's just so beautiful. She always has the excellent linings in her coats! I love it!
I also must say that Rami really has a chance to win if he just explores the non-draped realm of his abilities. But still, looking through all his pieces, I was thinking that they are all so visually appealing and just look extremely well made and meticulous.

He, too, has a wonderfully refreshing humble personality that I admire. He seems like a sweet guy.
I'm sure you're wondering who I did NOT like. Well I don't like to focus on the negatives, and I'm sure she has a wonderful personality but I think this outfit should have been the end for Sweet P:

Anyways, that's my take on this season's Project Runway!! Feel free to leave your comments about the season!
*Bless*

My Craigslist score and my recent sewing projects

2008-02-18T21:34:00.000-08:00

I am such a bargain hunter, especially when it comes to supplies for our business. I also love Craigslist! But I will come back to these points in a moment.
As some of you know, I (Marlena) am the computer goddess of Infinite Cosmos and Todd is the glass god. But I also have a (very much neglected) website full of my sewn hemp items. I have decided this year that I no longer have an interest in making clothing to sell but have still been sewing up a storm! Only now, I mostly make purses, pouches, belt pouches, and all that kind of stuff. But I just haven't had a ton of time to put any energy towards my sewing as a business since Infinite Cosmos Glass has taken off over the past few months. But I do sell my hemp fabric on the side and am always sewing.
So anyways, back to my Craigslist score. I obsessively look on craigslist and a few days ago I saw a post for TONS of fabric and sewing notions for an amazing price. Of course I jumped on it, regardless of the fact that I barely have enough space to store all of this stuff. The lot of goodies included lots of waleless corduroy (really soft and high quality) as well as lots of goretex and other waterproof fabrics (if you are interested in buying any of this, please let me know!!) but also tons of black nylon webbing, snap clips, tri-glide sliders, and tons of thread, scissors, cording and other awesome stuff. The guy from whom I bought all these goodies used to make sporty type messenger bags like the Timbuktu kind. So all the fabric and notions he sold to me would be suitable to make that type of bag.
At first I planned on reselling some of the stuff but the more I looked at it, the less I wanted to part with any of it! I got inspired last night to use the corduroy and webbing and some other goodies I scored to make this gorgeous purse:

The corduroy is paired with a tweed wool fabric. I love it because the strap is extremely adjustable (made of the black webbing with a tri-glide and d-ring) you can wear it really short or around your hip level.
So here's the dilemma I'm having. I'm debating about whether I should add some of my purses and such into our already well established etsy shop or if I should open a whole new shop for my sewn items. It is so much work promoting one store, and the thought of promoting 2 stores is, well, insane! What should I do? Go weigh in at my poll on the top right of the page!
*Bless*

Ever wonder what glass blowing looks like?

2008-02-18T08:44:00.000-08:00

Well, wonder no more! Here's a peek into Todd's shop while he makes one of his gorgeous amanita mushrooms.

Hope you liked it!
*Bless*

Our first giveaway at Infinite Cosmos!!

2008-02-17T11:10:00.000-08:00

After reading lots and lots of blogs over the past week or so I've come to the conclusion that people like giveaways :-) Who doesn't like free stuff? So I have decided to give a $20 shopping spree to the 1000th person to heart our etsy shop! That means you can pick an item(s) worth $20 and we will cover shipping :-)
*Lovins*
Marlena

We're featured!

2008-02-16T14:06:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to share with you all that we have been featured in the Earth Sun Folk blog!! Go check us out!! Thanks so much to Jenny for featuring us :-)

Also, everyone, Infinite Cosmos will be giving away a $20 shopping spree at our etsy shop very soon! Details coming tomorrow so check in then to see more details!!

A tribute to Floozies

2008-02-15T17:56:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, the front page of Etsy was adorned with gorgeous Victorian and Edwardian inspired wares. I was smitten because recently I have become slightly obsessed with anything that symbolizes that time in history, especially the fashion and etiquette. I eagerly visited all the stores and hearted many of them.
Fast forward a few weeks and, like I do everyday, I was browsing again and came across one of the shops I had visited that day a couple weeks earlier, Grandma Was a Floozy. For some reason I didn't heart the shop the first time so I made sure to heart it that second time I visited. So, imagine my delight when I was contacted by Evie soon after about winning a 20% discount along with free shipping for being her 400th heart! It was so hard to choose from all the lovely wares in her shop but I eventually decided on these Floozy Be Mine Lace cuffs.

These will look so awesome under a nice button up shirt! I think next time i visit her shop I will get either this:

or this

But I know it's just a pipe dream to think that my husband will ever wear something so sophisticated! Heehee!
The thing about Grandma Was a Floozy that really caught my attention (besides her obvious talent!) was this (taken from her profile):

"I love steampunk, which I feel is a potent answer to the disposable nature of the objects with which we’re constantly surrounded. The things we buy, the tools we use, the clothes we wear, are just one of a limitless and identical supply. We take them for granted because they don’t deserve any more respect than that. If we lose one or throw it away, we can always get another one."

I feel the same way about how, in our society powered by Wal-mart and Exxon-Mobil, so many things are treated with little respect or appreciation because of that "if I lose it, I'll run to the nearest department store and buy another one" mentality. You can tell by looking at Evie's handy-work that she puts a lot of time, respect, and love into every piece she makes and I'm sure that all her customers treat her creations with the appreciation they deserve.

Ok my Lovelies! Take care until tomorrow! *Muah*

Happy Heart Day!

2008-02-14T08:56:00.000-08:00

Hello friends! I hope you are doing well on this here Valentines day 2008.
I was looking through some old pictures last night and came across some of us on Valentines day 2003. That was back when Todd and I had only been together for a little less than a year and looking at these got me all nostolgic :) Here they are, Enjoy!

So there's a look at our outing to Blue River on Valentines day 2003. Hope you enjoyed it!
Oh, and let me just quickly show you the awesome new jar style that Todd has been making recently. What do you think?

Pretty awesome,huh? Go check it out at our etsy shop: Infinite Cosmos
Ok lovelies! Go smooch your honey today!
*Blessings*
Marlena

A new crafty adventure....

2008-02-13T08:17:00.000-08:00

When winter hits, I always find myself hungry for a new craft to try out. A few years ago it was spinning, last year was wet felting, and this year I decided to try my hand at journal making! I looked around on the net and found this tutorial a few weeks ago and since then I have made 8 journals! It's so fun and instantly gratifying! Well maybe not instantly since you have to let it sit under a weight for 24 hours (I usually can't wait that long though, I try to let it sit for about 12 hours at least though). Bear in mind that I'm no expert yet so they aren't exactly "perfect" but I still love them .

It was really fun picking out different fabrics in which to bind them but I learned the hard way that it is really important to pick fabrics that are the right thickness. Here's what it looks like if you choose a fabric that is too thin:

The glue leaks through and looks all sticky like that.
Another really fun part of making these is picking a cover page. I looked for fun pictures in old issues of National Geographic.

I am not really one to keep a journal of my thoughts or dreams or anything like that (though I wish I were, I usually try to but just don't keep with it for more than a couple weeks) so I'm not quite sure what I will do with all of these journals. I'm sure I will give some away as gifts but I, of course, would like to keep some for myself. Maybe I'll just stack them all up and bask in their glory. Aren't they awesome??!!

So if you have any suggestions as to what I can do with these lovely books, please let me know!

A few more pics of our animals....

2008-02-12T16:47:00.000-08:00

It has been forever since we had a good "photo shoot" with our animals because it has been a long, dreary winter thus far. They all look pretty ragged and filthy during the rainy season so i never bothered taking pics of them looking less than handsome (though I should because they may not look very pretty, but they sure look funny!).
The last few days around here have been absolutely glorious and sunny so they all have had a few days to dry off. It was kind of surprising to see the sheep and alpacas, especially, because their coats have fluffed out soooooo much after a few sunny days!! The pics in the re-introduction post are from last summer. Take a look at these fluffy beasts today!

Can you believe that?? We're going to have a LOT of fiber on our hands when shearing time comes this spring! Looks like I will have no excuse not to dust off my long neglected spinning wheel and get making some hats, mittens, and whatever else I can crochet with this fluffy fur. So if any of my local readers want some fiber (or know of someone who can show us how/shear them for us) please let me know! Thanks for reading!!

Best friends.....

2008-02-12T09:07:00.000-08:00

Today I would like to share with you one of my very favorite clothing designers. Her name is Gillianne (said with a "j" sound ;-) of Indigo Inspired and she just so happens to be my best friend! She is a super sassy single mama to a beautiful little boy named Indigo and has a very innovative fashion sense. Her claim to fame is her Womyn Wraps, as shown here:

The best thing about her clothing? She uses all natural fibers such as hemp, silk and organic cotton! She also dyes all the fabrics herself. Here's some more views of her Womyn Wrap.

And here she is being cute:

So if you get a chance, check her out! She will be adding more of her wrap shirts and wrap skirts very soon!

So as you can tell by now, I like to shop......

2008-02-11T13:50:00.000-08:00

But not only that, I also LOVE to trade!! Here is my most recent trade. A protection necklace from Moon Lit Creations on Etsy.

I love everything in her store but this really spoke to me. I guess I don't feel like I need a super lot of protection (I have 2 tough dogs and a strapping young husband! heehee!) but I really loved the craftsmanship in this necklace. It looks even more lovely in person! It arrived incredibly fast too and was all around one of the nicest trades I've done on Etsy! Just thought I'd share :-)

We all do it......

2008-02-11T09:27:00.000-08:00

Hey Nerd Boxer (AKA Computer Geek)! We all have something online that we check neurotically (please tell me I'm not the only one!). Especially during these winter months when it's too cold to play outside. I have a few things that I check obsessively: my etsy store and my hearts/views, my email (don't we all?), the etsy forums, and lately, the bath and beauty category on etsy as well. Yes, I am Etsy obsessed, what of it?
Here are some stores I love to frequent:
Flame Works
South Pacific Body
Pixie Potions
Spa Therapy
Gudonya Too
Pink Quartz Minerals
Sweet Gracie Bath and Body

So there's just a taste of some of the shops that I check in on often. Have I ordered from all of them? No, not yet but I will eventually, I'm sure!
So what about you? What do you check obsessively? (Don't worry, your secret obsessions are safe with me!).
~~~

Sooo..... Do tell....

2008-02-10T09:44:00.001-08:00

I need your help. Since I'm kinda clueless when it comes to blogging, I am interested to know what brings you back to someones blog. Is it pretty pictures? Interesting stories about the life of the blogger? Interviews of other crafters/artists? Latest updates on what is new in the crafter's shop? News commentary? Or is it the fact that you have no idea what tomorrow will bring?
I'm just curious! Whatever brings you back to a blog, I would like to make this blog comfy for you. So feel free to pull up a chair and lets talk! Here's an interesting tidbit about me: we have a menagerie of pretty animals. Here are some pics of them:

Thanks for looking and there will be more interesting things to come, promise ;-)

A re-introduction

2008-02-09T10:17:00.000-08:00

So it's been a while, friends. I have been thinking about this blog space of ours and keep saying to myself "I really need to update!" and just gussy this place up and keep it interesting. I feel like you all barely know me if all you read about me is this blog!
So I would like to re-introduce myself. I'm Marlena :) I am the wife of an extremely talented glassblower Todd Kelly and the mother of a crazy, wild 3 year old, Leona. We live in Oregon with our many animals (dogs, cat, alpacas, chickens, goats and sheep) and we spend our days tending to our garden, animals, daughter and our crafts. We make a living solely on our crafts. I spend lots of time on this here nerd box responding to emails, convos, myspace messages and comments and figuring out new ways of sharing our lovely crafts with all of you. Here are a few places that you can find our crafts:
Infinite Cosmos on Etsy
Infinite Cosmos Glass
Infinite Cosmos on Myspace
Infinite Cosmos on Flikr
and the very neglected and in limbo
Infinite Cosmos Gear

So there you have it! I pledge to keep you all a little more (ok, a LOT MORE) informed about the haps in this here Infinite Cosmos.
Ok, that's all for now! Love to all my Infinite Cosmosians out there!
Marlena

A beautiful sight...

2007-10-17T17:13:00.000-07:00

One of the coolest parts of the day is when Todd walks out to the shop and comes back with this:

and this

and this

So I guess I have my work cut out for me this week! I will be adding tons of new stuff to our etsy shop. Come by and see if you haven't already!

Infinite Comsos Etsy shop
Infinite Cosmos Glass
Infinite Cosmos Gear
Something

Blessings and fall greeting to all my IC friends!

2007-10-10T20:49:00.000-07:00

Wow! This fall has been an amazing one for us at the Infinite Cosmos family! I have just been loving the fall weather. The rain has brought out the mushrooms (we've already gone chantrelle picking twice!) and all this cool weather means less time outside : ( But that's ok with me. It just means we'll have more time to work on beautiful creations for all my beautiful people out there! Todd has been making some amazing glass creations. Here's a couple of examples:
Of course we all need ornaments for the quickly approaching holiday season! But these lovely ornaments can be enjoyed all year long hung in a window, garden, bathroom....anywhere really!

This pendant is so gorgeous! It has so much depth to it.
As some of you may know, we have lots of animals (alpacas, sheep, goats, chickens along with the household pets, dogs and cats) and the feed bags really add up after a while! I decided i needed to do something creative with all these bags so they wouldn't end up in a landfill. So here is what i made: a new purse!
And I also made a cool wallet out of the left overs.
So there you have it! That's what we've been up to! You can see all our new glass at our etsy shop: http:infinitecosmosgirl.etsy.com
I add new items every day!

Thanks for looking!

We're on Etsy now!

2007-09-19T23:32:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! It's been a while :) We've had an amazing summer doing tons of gardening and crafting (of course!).
I set up an Etsy store the other day so you should check it out! Here's a taste of what's available over there right now:

Please let us know what you think of the store!
infinitecosmosgirl.etsy.com

A quick update on the Infinite Cosmos family : )

2007-08-05T16:38:00.000-07:00

I just thought I'd quickly check in with y'all and give you the scoop on the Infinite Cosmos happenings :)
This summer has been super busy for us! We have had our hands full with lots of customs (THANK YOU!!) and getting items made for the Eugene Saturday Market (an outdoor handcraft market we attend weekly) and getting ready for our ONE AND ONLY festival that WE will be vending at this summer: the Northwest World Reggae Festival in Marcola, Oregon! This festival will be August 10-12 and is sure to be loads of fun. We don't do a lot of vending (although we send our wares with many of our festival vending friends all year round, so you are bound to see Infinite Cosmos Glass at many happening west coast festies!) outside the Saturday Market, so if you have ever wanted to meet the artists behind Infinite Cosmos, this will be your one and only chance this summer!
So these are the reasons the IC sites have been slightly neglected this summer. After the NWWRF we will be putting more energy into making and adding more items to our websites so please check back around the end of August and beginning of September.
Many Blessings and thank you so much for all the support!
Marlena
www.ICOregonGear.com
www.ICOregonGlass.com

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been a while....

2007-05-07T21:43:00.000-07:00

Hey there! Spring is here and that means that the Eugene Saturday Market has begun!! Now you can see us every Saturday at 8th and Oak in downtown Eugene for the country's oldest open air crafters' market. The great thing about this market is that they only allow artists with their handcrafts to vend. So that means you won't find any imports or tube socks from Walmart, only local artists and their handy work!

Todd has been vending at the market for over 10 years and you can be sure to find something new every week. Not only that, but his selection of beads, jars, pendants and everything else he makes is EXTREMELY extensive! It is definitely worth a stop if you are ever in the area. You can meet the Infinite Cosmos team in the flesh!!
My friend Gillian and I will also be setting up a booth with our hemp clothing as well so you can see all my new spring 07 creations!
Here's a taste of what's new at the Infinite Cosmos:

See all Todd's hand blown boro glass creations at www.ICOregonGlass.com See all my hemp and natural fiber creations at www.ICOregonGear.com
Thanks so much for stopping in!!

Lots of new stuff at ICOregonGlass.com!!

2007-02-08T12:45:00.000-08:00

I just added lots and lots of sweet new items at www.ICOregonGlass.com. Here are just a few things you'll find:

-gagued earplugs

-New pendants

-New Jars

And a few surprises! Come see! www.ICOregonGlass.com

New Hemp Fabrics Coming Soon!!

2007-01-17T10:39:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up and let y'all know that I will be adding new hemp fabrics in the next week! I will be offering a hemp/silk herringbone (mid-heavy weight and sooooo luxuriously soft! I LOVE this stuff!), a sage green hemp silk, and a sand colored hemp cotton. They are all wovens. I will let you all know when they are available!
*Blessings*

Lots of new glass!!

2007-01-14T18:37:00.000-08:00

I added lots of new glass items at www.icoregonglass.com today! Here are some things now available for purchase:

This is a fun vessle with many uses. I imagine someone at a Renaissance faire or concert using it to hold water or wine. But you can decide what you want it to be for!

This is one of the many unique styles of gagued earrings that Todd makes. These are a 4g.

Here is another set of gagued ear plugs. These are a 00g.

This is a super sweet new jar.

This is just a sample of the newly added items, there's lots more, so go see!! Click here to check it out!!

*Bless*

yay! We've finally joined the 21st century!!

2007-01-13T15:54:00.000-08:00

Infinite Cosmos is now in the blogosphere!! Oh God, I did NOT just use that word did I!?

Well anyways, thanks so much for visiting yet another of our little nooks on the web! The Infinite Cosmos family has really stepped things up a notch or 2 over the past year. We have made a lot of changes and additions to our business and on this blog you will get the latest info on all the updates and such.

One of the main changes in our business is with the website. Infinite Cosmos has now split into 2 entities: www.ICOregonGlass.com is where you will find all the beautiful glass creations, and www.ICOregonGear.com is the new home of all the clothing and accessories.

We have also just been invited to join the wonderful world of Hyena Cart!! For those of you who do not know about Hyena Cart, go there and check it out: www.hyenacart.com . It is definetly worth a look!

Our Hyena Cart items will be available in early March, so we will definetly keep you posted on when that happens.

So for those of you who have randomly come upon this blog and want to get a preview of what we make, here's a little taste of Infinite Cosmos!

This is a cute fish jar, which isn't yet available on the site but will be very soon!!

These pants are available now on www.icoregongear.com !!

Yes, this is an amanita muscaria!!

Well, I hope you enjoyed looking at our creations!! If you like what you see, please go check out our websites: www.icoregonglass.com and www.icoregongear.com. And spread the word about Infinite Cosmos!!