pinkfairywand and her boring blog

Etsy Dallas Jingle Bash - November 22!

2008-11-18T11:33:00.000-08:00

WHEN: Saturday, November 22, 3pm - 10pm
WHERE: Sons of Hermann Hall, 3414 Elm Street Dallas, TX 75226
WHAT: Hand-made crafts of all types for sale, live music, karaoke, full bar and food, make-and-take crafts!

I will be a vendor! I will be downstairs! Anyone who delivers me booze from the bar will get free stuff! :D

Ooooo, stats! (for buttonslol.etsy.com)

2008-10-13T23:53:00.000-07:00

I have noticed over time that my Obama buttons over at buttonslol (my alternate etsy shop) are mostly being bought by women. Hence the stats below, born of research into my etsy sales!

My Obama button customers are comprised of:

79% women

and

21% men

And here's a neato map I painstakingly put together from zipcodes of all of my Obama button orders! Ooooo fancy.

View Larger Map

Hooray, I'm on someone's blog!

2008-10-07T14:22:00.000-07:00

The lovely Damaris over at her blog, Within The Corners Of My Kitchen, liked my buttons enough (for some strange reason) to include them in a giveaway she's hosting on her blog.

Comment on the post about my Halloween buttons and get a chance to win them. AWESOME.

Printer, TAKE TWO

2008-10-07T13:16:00.000-07:00

So, the printer in my last post was a piece of crap. Don't even consider buying it. It was awful. Terrible. I took a gamble, and remembered while I don't like gambling. Took it back this morning.

BUT. I have another new printer, one I'm already very happy with. No, it's not a laser, it's just an inkjet, and actually it's a PIXMA like my last printer so I'm already familiar with the series. One of the reasons I decided on it (aside from the hundreds of positive reviews on Amazon) was because I called Canon and asked if their ink was in any way waterproof. The guy told me that if I "were to drop a photo [from the printer] in a puddle of water and picked it up right away, it would be fine." Well, I tested it when I got home, and no, that's not true at all. Why do people lie? Still, it's a good printer, I'm just a little miffed that I was misled.

Which brings me to a short tangent: I called Brother yesterday asking after one of the color laser printers I was looking at, and asked them to confirm or deny a rumor for me. I'd read in a review that if any of the color cartridges were low, it wouldn't print black and white. The lady on the phone assured me that even if a color cartridge was empty, I could print black and white. But just to be sure, I emailed them too and asked the same question... and was told that no, it wouldn't print black and white if a color cartridge was empty. I mean really?

Anyway here's the new printer/scanner/copier and hooray I have a scanner again!

I screwed around with some of the color settings and tried some different papers and got some really, really impressive results. I'm stoked. Just wish the ink was waterproof like other photo printers have started to do. (That way when my good friend Stu spills a cup of water in my button bowl they won't be ruined!)

Okay and to continue the printer shenanigans, I needed to find the perfect paper for my buttons. The Matte Photo Paper included with my printer was really pretty, but too thick -- the mylar couldn't wrap around all the way on a few buttons I made with that (expensive) stock. Enter Canon High Resolution Paper, (which no stores actually carry I might add) the cheaper alternative. I'm pretty confident it'll be a great paper, but I wanted to make sure that it wasn't thick paper. So what do I do? I call Canon. Why? Because their website is useless and Amazon doesn't list the paper weight. But also because I'm an idiot a masochist.

Spoke with one Canon representative who put me on hold twice and finally concluded that it was between 17# and 28# since that's the printer's range of capabilities (nevermind that the Canon matte photo paper was at least 60#). I pose the question that if Canon doesn't know how thick its paper is, who could I ask? She put me on hold and actually transferred me (8 minutes on the phone so far) to Jennifer, who spent most of our ten minutes being silent, putting me on hold or telling me the same thing the first lady told me. FINALLY, after wagering a wild guess at the thickness and putting me on hold again, she came back with a solid answer (or at least a lie in the form of an answer): 28#.

So for anyone wondering, Canon High Resolution Paper has a weight of 28#, just a bit thicker than normal printer paper. Took me 21 minutes on the phone with Canon but dammit now I know! And now I can order it and wait for it to get here hooray.

Also I'm really digging the track "When The Day Met The Night" on Panic! At the Disco's newest album, Pretty. Odd.

Printerage

2008-10-04T19:20:00.000-07:00

God I hate shopping for printers. It's just lots of tiny headaches that combine into one large headache, kind of like Power Rangers.

I'm on a tight budget, we have no space, but I'm looking for a laser color printer... which are expensive and large. GREAT IDEA.

I found this cute little model by Samsung, listed as one of the smallest color lasers out there, and boasting some fancy NOIS(TM) reducing technology -- SO QUIET that it loses a letter I guess, I dunno, I got nothin.

The model is the CLP-315, and at 15.3" wide and 12.3" deep, it's a good size. The reviews on Amazon aren't shining, but they sound like manufacturing issues rather than an issue with how the printer is supposed to work. If it sucks, I guess I'll just take it back, but the price is right and the size is great.

Anyone have any experience with this guy? I'm gonna grab him on sale tomorrow for $140.

September!

2008-10-04T10:11:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know it's October now. But September was awesome. It had the cutest cat so far in my cats with hats calendar (sometimes I buy things because they're just awful), it had some nice weather, and most importantly I made more etsy sales in September than any other month so far. Yay!

Here's the sales breakdown of my 1" buttons (for September) for anyone interested:

Dr. Horrible sets: 10
Portal Pack: 5
Food buttons: 3
Halloween set: 3
Pootcat: 3
GLaDOS / Companion Cube: 2
Harry Potter: 2
Katamari: 1
Cake is a lie: 1

(If you combine all of the Portal related button sales, they were really 8 sales total.)

Thanks, Dr. Horrible! :D

Oh, and I'll be choosing the winner of my etsy giveaway at some point today (for anyone who bought any buttons from me last month!)

Shoyeido Incense

2008-09-30T15:48:00.000-07:00

I gotta say, I love incense. It's just awesome. Candles are cool -- I sell them around the holidays every year, so I burn my fair share of them -- but incense is, well, cooler. TOO BAD SO SAD, CANDLES.

And the king of incense is no doubt Shoyeido Japanese Incense. We had a chance to visit them in Kyoto during our last visit but navigating that city is a nightmare. Ugh.

Anyway, my personal favorite is from the Jewel Series: Amethyst.

It's just awesome. My dad (also an incense enthusiast and 100% pure hippie) prefers Kin-Kaku from the Daily Incense line, claiming that it smells like what was burned during a brief trip he took to Okinawa while enlisted in the Army.

Damn I love this incense. They also have sampler packs for you to try, which is fun but I never remember to write down which ones I liked, so I always just end up coming back to Amethyst. Which is fine. Because it's AWESOME.

pinkfairywandlol you say?

2008-09-30T11:46:00.000-07:00

I don't think I ever explained why my username here on blogspot is "pinkfairywandlol" and not "pinkfairywand."

Well, simply put, a spam squatter has pinkfairywand. They used to have spam gibberish up, but I flagged the blog, and now the content is removed but the name is still being squatted. Their other blog names include:

"ACETAMINOPHEN E HYDROCODONE"

and

"Cash free game keno play prize win"

Lovely.

GIVEAWAYS and FLICKR and NEWSLETTERNESS

2008-09-29T19:28:00.000-07:00

Sup dudes and dudettes. All none of you!

DUDE DO YOU OWN ANY PINKFAIRYWAND STUFF?

If you do, I would LOVE YOU FOREVER if you could snap a photo of your pinkfairywand stuff and upload it onto Flickr. 1" buttons, laminated badges, bookmarks, t-shirts, plush Gaaras... anything!

I created a flickr group with the sole purpose of letting people show off their pinkfairywand junk so come on, join up!

Just snap a picture with your cellphone or hey even your real camera, and if you could upload it to my new flickr group THAT WOULD BE AWESOME. PLEASE? :3 I want to see everyone's stuff, and you guys can see what everyone else is doing with their 1" buttons and other stuff!

Who doesn't like giveaways? Nobody, that's who.

I already do a monthly giveaway in my etsy shop for every month's worth of customers. But maybe you want something for nothing!

Soon I'll be hosting monthly, super easy, free, no-strings-attached giveaways over on my livejournal AND here on this blog, open to everyone and anyone! All you'll have to do is leave a comment on the giveaway post (when I make it), and I'll draw a random name from the comments (one comment per person!)

Who doesn't like getting spam I MEAN EMAIL?

I just KNOW you guys want coupons, updates and information all about me and the cons I sell at and my etsy shop. (Please?) You can use the coupons either in person at a con or on my etsy shop, or you can print them out and use them as a wallpaper in your room. Doesn't matter to me!

To join my MONTHLY newsletter (one email a month, I promise) please email:

newsletter AT pinkfairywand.com

NO SPAM I PROMISEEEE.

Thanks everyone!

Jotter Notebooks!

2008-09-06T16:02:00.000-07:00

My grandfather's birthday is today, so yesterday I made up five jotter notebooks for him. He takes a lot of notes and wears an old person vest with tons of pockets, so I made them in varying sizes for various uses.

I used old paper samples for the covers (medium-to-thick stock, depending on the jotter), then printed out his initials/name and a date line (he dates EVERYTHING).

It was all just trial-and-error but it was a lot of fun.

And, of course, Soda had to get in on the fun:

etsy etsy puddin' 'n' pie

2008-06-23T14:59:00.000-07:00

When it comes to my etsy shop, I have been EXTREMELY LAX with updates, cleaning up, advertising... and even shipping, ouch. I guess shipping isn't really a big deal because I was lightning quick before, but still it makes me feel dirty to get an order out two days after it was put in, even if it was over a weekend.

Part of the problem is that a lot of my buttons sold out at A-Kon and I don't have an intelligent inventory system let alone a crude one. It's just so hard when you have so many tiny products. But I'm working on it. I see a lot of button people at cons with the little plastic boxes with little tiny compartments, but they don't seem to hold more than eight buttons. Depending on the design I may make a bunch in one sitting, or have a bunch left over from a con, sooooo. I don't know.

Today I was going to be a good girl and photograph my new GLITTER BUTTONS and then realized the camera is in my husband's car. Fffff. Tomorrow I'm DEFINITELY taking photos of my buttons and my dashing, mohawked cousin is going to model my new shirts. I'm excited. I think we may try in front of the dumpster because hey that's cool and gritty and people seem to dig that. Or it'll look like we hang out by the garbage and uh, in 98 degree heat it kind of smells like fermented butts.

Because of my deep hatred of Kinko's and every small print shop screwing me, I'd like to get my grubby hands on a nice color printer. The problem there is that I like the color-fastness of laser and yet cannot afford a laser color printer (or the toner for that matter.) I just hate having to drive (GAS) to Kinko's (HATE) every time I need another sheet of buttons printed (OFTEN).

It's so hard getting organized and, for me, harder to STAY organized. I have this tiny awful drafting table that's just covered in junk, but I'd like to clean it off and have all of my button tools on it. It's gonna be so cool when I stop blogging about doing it and actually do it.

I'm always looking for interesting/crafty organizing ideas, and I've already taken a cue from piratecore over on DA to store my button pieces in clear jars. It looks pretty swank plus I don't have five different plastic baggies filled with button parts scattered around the house.

So much to dooooooooooo

howwww is this acceptable, again?

2008-03-20T13:48:00.001-07:00

So, the local print shop that I've been using has gotten my stuff done late for the last time; has cut my crop marks .25" off for the last time; has printed on the wrong stock despite the detailed .txt file named REAME.TXT I provided with my order. They charged more than Kinko's does for color copies (Kinko's is only $.50/sheet), but they cut my stuff for free -- albeit wrong (Kinko's charged $1.49 per cut -- that's $14 tacked on to every business card order.)

I hate using Kinko's for many reasons, but they are cheap, and I don't have to wait very long. While I find a new print shop, I'm using them in the interim.

I have NEVER had a problem with bringing my own stock (paper) to be printed on while using the other print shop, or even while working at the other one. Kinko's always, ALWAYS has a problem with it. Regardless, I went and bought some bright white 110# cover weight (it's very thick, but not too thick to run through a printer.) Brought it to Kinko's, with a few extra sheets, because I anticipated that their printer would eat at least one sheet, considering it eats the 80# shit I bring in regardless of the fact that they offer 80# paper in the store and askldjasdjsjjsjs

ANYWAY

The one on the left is the Kinko's stock, some crappy text weight. The one on the right is my nice stock, 110#.

I told the Kinko's lady that it was a "little magenta." She said it was because my paper was thicker.

The Hunt for Red Jobtober

2008-03-17T22:54:00.000-07:00

I'd spend more time hating interviews if I got more of them.

Actually right now I'm in the middle of packaging some samples of my work into a .pdf so I can apply for this job. Who is "passionate about editorial layouts?" I mean seriously. I think it's a joke, personally, which means my potential future employer has a good sense of humor. (Nevermind the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed doing page layout for the school paper.)

It's a pretty shitty situation I'm in. I don't even mean monetarily or jobily; mainly I'm referring to my interests.

All of those kids who wear their Naruto headbands in public and somehow worm their way into interviews and design positions have doomed anyone who happens to draw things with far-apart eyes, kitty "3" mouths or pink hair. The second a potential employer -- or ANYONE who can judge me for that matter -- learns that I have ties to JAPANIMATION, they suddenly and completely re-asses everything I've said or done up until that point. Kind of like when you find out a co-worker is an ex-con, or that someone you otherwise liked owns a fursuit. You can see it in their eyes as they politely smile. In a job interview, I might as well knock the table over and leave like nothing happened. In a social situation, I try desperately to explain that NO I'M NOT LIKE ALL THOSE TEENAGERS YOU'VE SEEN AT HOT TOPIC, I PROMISE but it just doesn't work.

Here is an honest-to-God conversation I had the other day with a guy who runs a Japanese crepe shop:

Him: "So what do you do?"
Me: "I'm a graphic designer."
Him: "Oh, so you like anime?"

OKAY OKAY OKAY WAIT.

WHAT.

How did we get from bauhaus to Sailormoon, again? What sucked even more than his assumption was my answer:

Me: "...Yes."

So, to all of the Naruto headband-wearing teens; to all of the greasy, hairy girls with portfolios full of your fanart; to all of the design students out there who base all of your projects on anime, beware. The next time I see you, I'm going to punch you in the face... IN MY MIND. In reality I will just glower at you darkly.

Back to making sure that not a shred of my pinkfairywand stuff can be found through my professional portfolio site.

JERKS.

Font Rage

2008-03-17T22:51:00.000-07:00

For anyone who has gone through the font creation or editing process, maybe you'll sympathize:

But everyone else can probably use their imagination.

2008-02-06T23:33:00.000-08:00

oh no kitty

2007-12-03T22:32:00.000-08:00

Whenever I see signs for lost cats/dogs/ferrets/hamsters, I always want to write the number down to call them. Did they find the cat? Was it lost in the first place, or was it an intricate lie to protect their child from the cold hard truth? How long has the sign been there, anyway? There's a sign at my apartment complex for a lost chihuahua that's been up for months. Well, I'm not inclined to call that number, but in general I am.

(SAD FACE.)

Like this one. HOW SAD IS THAT? Health needs?? Really? I wanted to cry when I saw it. And yet, if I called, it might be a sore spot for them if they never found the cat. Or if they found it DEAD. Or if it died and it was an intricate lie to protect their child from the cold hard truth of kitten-death.

I really hope they found that kitty.

Makes me want to donate to an animal rescue group or something charitable.