this is going around LJ like a bad case of the herp, I succumbed to it today.

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me" or something of an equally pithy nature.
2. I will respond by asking you 5 questions of a very personal nature. Be warned!
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions, or there will be trouble.
4. You will include this and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them 5 questions.

1. If you could paint an object for anyone, who would you do it for and why?
I would paint a boat, and it would be for my Great Grandfather. He's the one I named Neil after, and holds a very strong piece of my heart. I would just paint a picture of a boat, I'd paint an actual boat, and not plane and ordinary, it'd be wild, & he would love it I'm sure. In fact, this just inspired me a bit, I might come up with something once I unbury my stuff again.

2. When you were little, what did you want to be?
I wanted to be an artist from day one. I always struggled to find something else I wanted to be, because I'd always heard about "starving artists" and I didn't want to starve. For a while I wanted to be a music teacher, physical therapist, a news anchor, and, finally, an art teacher, which was really just an artist, masked as a "real job". I would enjoy teaching an art class, but I have no interest in saddling the $ and time that becoming a "certified" art teacher requires. I kind of think it's all a joke, the whole certification process for creative positions like art, jewelry making, etc.

3. Do you ever want to hit some art festivals with me?
Hell Yeah! I am ALWAYS looking for people to go to festivals with, none of my friends are really into it, I have to pull teeth to get them to come to mine!

4. Which ones, in all the world, would you most want to go to?
Oh man, it's so sad because they're practically in my back yard, I just haven't been able to make it - Renegade Craft Fair & Bust Craftacular are two that I'm jealous of! And, though it would never happen and it's a Music Festival, I have dreams of going to the original Woodstock, I swear I was there in a past life, I have such a connection to it.

5. Why haven't you gone down to Redbank and taken pictures for me, yet?
I grew up about 20 minutes from Redbank, I was there a lot as there is an Irish pub that my parents held a session at every week, plus, my sis and bro were born in Red Bank - it never occurred to me that it was special!

It's been almost 8 years since I've moved into South Jersey from Central Jersey, and thus, I get Philadelphia news rather than New York news now, and yet still, every time I hear the news mention news that happened in West Philadelphia, in my mind, I still say

"innnnnnnn West Philadelphia"


will I ever be cured of this, or will I be 90 humming along to the imaginary Fresh Prince?

Print Gocco is being officially discontinued, they claim they will continue production of ink, screens, bulbs, etc for "the time being" Now, it's time for somebody to step up and produce these supplies longterm, so our gocco's don't become paper weights.

Save Gocco!


Article
Text:
Tokyo, May 30, 2008 (Jiji Press) - Riso Kagaku Corp. <6413> said Friday that it will discontinue shipments of its Print Gocco home-use greeting card printer in June because increasing use of personal computers has shrunk its demand sharply.

Cumulative sales of the Print Gocco topped 10 million units since its launch in September 1977. Sales of the product and related supplies reached 15.2 billion yen in the year to March 1994.

But sales sank to less than one pct of the company's group sales of 92.6 billion yen in the year to March 2008, as home-use PCs and ink-jet printers have been popular since the late 1990s.

Riso Kagaku said it will continue sales of related supplies, such as inks, for the time being.

The company mainly sells digital printers to schools and public institutions and high-speed ink-jet printers to companies.

By Jiji Press, (c) Jiji Press

Copyright © 2008 JCN. All rights reserved. A division of Japan Corporate News Network KK.

On June 1, 2008 you will find me at the Barnegat Bay Festival in Island Heights (Toms River) NJ!

It's a "Go Green" theme, and I'll be debuting a newly designed tshirt too! If you didn't see my first design in my new line of shirts - check out my "Buy Handmade" shirt!

Come on by, word is this year there's a full stock of new, more hip vendors! I know some of my pal's from my Handmade Faire, and the EtsyNJ Street Team will be there as well!

In other news, it's almost summer in Jersey, I'm feeling the Spring Fever. Totally looking forward to this summer with the little one, the pool, etc. I'm also looking for an awesomely bad ringtone, probably 80's or something like that. I'd thought maybe something like "You Shook Me" by AC/DC but...I dunno, just not feeling it. I'd thought maybe some Bruce, since it IS Jersey and all.....but, meh, any suggestions?

Attention to my NJ readers! I don't know about you, but I am always shopping locally and see these "voted best _____ in South Jersey!" signs in the window. While I agree, the places usually are the best - I always wanted to be a part of the vote. This year I did!
Here is the form you just have to fill it out and you'll be all set. I didn't fill all entry's in, as certain things I have no clue about - hair dresser, nails, manicure, massage, I don't do that stuff haha, well, I do, but I do it myself!

My main votes were for Creative Genius, the best (and newly expanded) art gallery - I put them in for "Best Gift Shop" as well as "Best Main Street Experience" You know I'm all about buying handmade stuff, and promoting it, so getting Creative Genius in there under Best Gift Shop would be awesome!

my other one I feel strongly about is Tarantella's Restaurant in Medford, NJ - I voted them Best BYOB, and Best Pizza. They rock in all area's, their chicken parm and stuffed filet is awesome as well.

Best Health club, I did NOT vote for Active Fitness, mainly because they suck at life, and should be called "My skin is orange from over tanning and I'm so built my head looks like it goes directly into my shoulders" but, that was probably too big to fit on the sign. I voted for Cuts, because hubby loves it and they're good to the local firemen here in Medford.

So, if you're in South Jersey go vote! Now I want some pizza. Tarantella's makes a fantastic stromboli as well.

Abbie

There's not much on youtube that can capture my attention for over 3 minutes, better yet 8 minutes, normally I'll quit halfway through something - but this - this is just amazing! What an amazing animal. I want one of those prints!



Abbie

I do not have a green thumb, I have a terrible time keeping plants alive and the mere thought of weeding makes me cringe. That said, the landscaping is freaking ugly as all hell and I need help. I love daisies. I'm thinking Heirloom Daisies, Black Eyed Susans, Cosmo's, and Mexican Daisies.....basically I'm thinking, they're pretty, they reseed every year, and they will grow tall enough that I won't have to weed meticulously.
I'm thinking of also doing a small "container garden" in some of my painted pots on the front steps / porch. Mainly just basil, mint, sage, and I want to plant a tomato cause I'm pretty sure I'll get tossed out of Jersey if I don't grow my own tomatoes, plus, I love a good tomato & basil sandwich in the summer, mmm I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. I get a decent 50/50 blend of shade/sun.
So, yeah. There is also the issue of the two ugliest tree's available being planted in my front yard already. They're two pine tree's, ugly misshapen sporatic goofy looking things. I think I'm just going to chainsaw them babies down and plan stuff over it. I'd thought of doing 2 lilacs or a butterfly bush, hydrangias or something....but I don't know. I don't want to take on too much haha.

Then I have two little flower boxes that I bought on sale at the end of the year last year @ Joanns. Once the tree's are down from the front yard I'm going to attach the boxes to the railings. I'm at a loss as to what to plant in the boxes cause I feel like they should be shorter than daisies. Geraniums, maybe Zinias, or impatients?

Also, obviously I'm on an artist's budget here, so I gotta keep it tight. This may sound like the dumbest question ever, but does stuff really grow from seeds if I just go out and plant seeds, or will it be a huge waste of time? Like, what do I do? Do I have to like single plant each and every one or can I just sprinkle them around and hose it down? I told you, I'm a complete idiot with trying to keep plants around. The only plant that I've been able to keep alive for real is a bamboo my friend Julie gave me a few years ago, and even there I suppose it's only because Bamboo is an invasive species and it pretty much refuses to die. Would it be unreasonable to expect a full grown flower if I planted the seeds this weekend or next? I have no clue! Educate me!

Looking for something fun to do on Sunday?
Come down to the Handmade Faire in Waretown, NJ

more info:
http://www.handmadefaire.com

Directions

I'm running it! Come out and do some shopping for Mother's Day! We'll have over 55 vendors, all handpicked for their uniqueness and originality, plus Cajun food catering by the Bayou Cafe out of Manasquan.

It'll be a ton of fun, we're having goody bags while supplies last, plus give aways!



PLEASE repost this and I'll love you forever!

As most of you guys know, myself along with my MIL are organizing a 100% Handmade Faire on April 20th of this year. This explains for my lack of posts, because it's keeping me busy as ever.
Anyway this Handmade Faire is juried, 100% Handmade, and is going to be completely awesome. We already have over 50 Vendors (and nearly 20 on the waiting list) though our application deadline was April 20th, the applications continue to fly in, it's heart breaking turning some of these people down, I really wish they'd gotten to me earlier!
The good news is, everyone is welcome to participate in the goody bags. I'm want to have at least 50 goody bags, but ideally I'd like to have 100.

Here's the nitty gritty details:

This Handmade Faire is to benefit the Natural Resource Education Foundation, and we are a registered 501(c)(3) charity. We could provide you with a donation letter for your taxes for what you donate, so you can write it off. I'm not being too picky about what we are accepting really, as long as it's some kind of promotion, but no business cards alone. Whatever you send has to offer something to the recipient. Once we have everything together we'll mix and match into 3 categories:

Door prizes - any item that can be a sufficient door prize by it self!
Smaller items, that we will group with other small items for a basket style door prize
Small items in a quantity to be put into goody bags
Business Cards, Coupons, Promo's, samples, etc for the goody bags. (We are encouraging people who are only sending business cards / a promo offer on it to include a door prize, or something to make the cards relevant to lots of the shoppers!)

Some ppl are sending 20, some 50, some 100. Obviously the more you send the more advertising it is for you hehe, so I'm leaving that up to the individual!

The soft deadline is April 10th, but the Faire is April 20th, so the sooner the better!

If you are interested in participating -contact me through here, comment, or email me.

I just made my ringtone "Small Town Girl" by Journey.

I will officially stop talking on my phone in public, instead, I will spontaneously break into song.

Abbie

Wow. Demon child has made an appearance. I knew it was just a matter of time. Well, now I can say for my birthday, Neil threw me a giant temper tantrum!

It's pretty nice out today, sunny but brisk, and I took Neil to the park about 4 blocks from our house. It didn't start out as a walk to the park, it was just going to be around the block but Neil was being a trooper (first long walk without the stroller) he really seemed to be liking the walk so we took a detour to the park.


Park was fantastic, there was nobody else there which I love, because I hate having to play nice and make small talk with the self proclaimed Super Mommies that habitually hang out at the park. Neil had a great time and he does love having the place to himself, as much as other kids crack him up - he gets she and just prefers to watch other kids play as opposed to actually getting in there and having a blast.

We spent a good 45 minutes there, and then I realized it was 3:00 and time for a nap, the nap is extremely crucial today because we're going to my fav restaurant Tarantella's for my birthday dinner tonight, and it's note exactly a place you can take a child who's Iron Manning it and over due on sleep.
Then comes the "I don't want to leave the park" syndrome. I think my parents' probably cursed this on me, because this was apparently my specialty as a child. I walked him about 20 feet away and he stops, turns and runs back for the slides. I didn't entirely push the issue, trying to avoid a freak out, so (after snapping a photo)

I calmly walked over, said to him that it was nap time, time to go, and that I'd take him back to the park in a few days. Ahhh this is where the fun began.
He reluctantly walked, me holding his hand for about 30 feet saying "no no no, ohhhhhhhh noooooooooo!!!!!!" , just to the exit of the park, then the real guns came out. He went limp, I picked him up and carried him, he twisted, kicked, writhing, screaming. Oh, it was joy. This went on all the way home. Once we were out of sight distance of the park, I let go of him to see if he would walk with me, he turned around and started right back for the park.
I just love causing a public scene like that lol. So I carried him/drug him/pulled him the rest of the way home, it was just lovely. Hey though, I wanted to get out and get some exercise, and I certainly achieved that. A simple walk is probably what - like 250 calories burned? I wonder how many calories you burn from carrying a screaming, writhing, kicking, hair pulling, pinching, noodle of a 30lb toddler along the way?

Well, I was going to work on some Graphic stuff I have to do, but I think I'm going to watch an episode of Big Love instead. I rented season 1 from Netflix cause I liked season 2 so much. BTW, all the pics in this entry are taken w/ my new iPhone! Sean got it for me for my Birthday, it's more awesome than I even though. I am smitten. It takes pretty decent pics too! I added an application that allows me to send the pics I take straight to my Flickr account! I'm in love The best part was, Sean knows how to "jail break" them, so they work with T Mobile. I didn't have to switch to At&t which I was totally against. So if anybody needs their iPhone jail broken, talk to Sean, he did a couple guys' phone's at work for $50 a pop....less than the fee you'd get charged to break your cell contract & switch to AT&T!

I've totally revamped my site, if you check out: www.OriginalAbbie.com you'll see a completely redecorated, hopefully easier to navigate and shop website!

I got an exposure unit for my birthday, I could not be more excited! I've been wild about screen printing since the summer, but the whole burning the screen with the pie tin method - yeah, not so hot. We would burn about 2-3 screens before getting one that was OK to use - and I say OK, because usually we would have to compromise somehow to use it.

So - it's here! It's HUGE! Seriously it's sitting on my kitchen table and it's just about the same exact size! I can not wait to get moving on this! Hubby has been sick so we haven't coated screens in a bit, but I'm seriously chomping at the bit to get some things printed!

Abbie

Ahh I've been having major issues with my site. It would act as if nothing was wrong, publish my updates -but lo and behold nothing was showing up on my actual website since November! I gave up on it for a bit, got busy with Christmas, & Neil's 2nd Birthday, but I finally figured it out!

I'm not exactly sure how or what happened, but I think I fixed it! You can expect regular updates from me again starting..........now!


I've missed updating!
Abbie

You will find me this year at the Handmade Faire in Waretown, NJ. This is an awesome, handmade only event. All vendors are hand picked so you know the products will be fantastic! This is April 20, 2008 - just in time to find some great Mother's Day presents! I know I'll be bringing some cash along with having my own table there!