News, and Mario Mushrooms

First of all, the big news I alluded to in my last post:

Graduate school plans have been decided! This summer, I will be moving to Berkeley, CA to do the Physics PhD program for the next 6 years. (Give or take...) I'll still come back to St. Louis every so often to visit family and friends, and I'm hoping that once or twice a year that will align with some local conventions. ^_^ As for conventions in CA, I definitely plan to attend a few, but there might be a bit of a hiatus in my Artist Alley adventures. (I hear the first year of grad school is especially heinous!)

In the meantime, I'm going to try to get a Paypal store set up here before I move, with the buttons and cart and everything, so stay tuned!

I've also just completed a little project for my roommate. We've been playing entirely too much old school Super Mario Bros - and some occasional Duck Hunt - and thus, her (exceedingly late) birthday present was born! Small mushroom pillows, shown below with cat for scale. And added cuteness. Now kitty has 10 lives instead of 9!

Anime St. Louis was a blast!

Last weekend was ASTL 2011, and it was great fun! I barely left my table at all, and unfortunately didn't stay for any of the evening activities after the dealer's room closed. :( But, lots of fabulous and entertaining people stopped by and shopped at my table, so the weekend was a success overall. I also hung out with my fellow artist buddies Handmade Geek and Black Paladin during and after the con - I see Handmade Geek all the time at taiko practice (if you don't know what that is, go here), but the rest of the group are people I only see at cons, so it was a lovely time!

A HUGE shoutout to everyone who fulfilled my quest - I have never eaten so well (on so little money) at a convention before!! A few people were especially awesome.. you know who you are. ~_^

I also grabbed a couple pictures of people who bought my hair clips, and promptly wore them around. I know there were more people, but these three I happened to catch on camera. They've been added to my "Hair Clips in Action" album too.

(The other 2 after the break.)

New Stuff! - Hair Clips, PlushyPillowPurses, and Roses

Finally, a post! I have several pictures of shiny new items for sale, some of which I took to Kawa Kon, and some of which will be brand shiny new at Anime StL.

First of all, the new hair clips! The cat, lightning, and onigiri were all ready in time for Kawa Kon. The cherry blossoms, available in pink and white, will be new for Anime StL. Perfect for the "hanami" theme of the formal dance, no? ;) I also posted 2 new pictures in the "Hair Clips In Action" album, so check that out if you'd like to see these flowers actually attached to a head.

Lots more after the jump!

Kawa Kon

Super quick update before I hit the sewing machine for some extra Cheese-kun making: Kawa Kon is awesome so far! Much love to everyone who has hung out at our table, bought our stuff, or completed our quest.

I had intended to post pictures of new stuff before the convention, but completely ran out of time. But there are quite a few new items for sale at the table, and yes they will all be offered online as well! (Just in case anyone who just picked up my business card is reading this.) As soon as the convention is over so I have time to post them, that is. ^_^

Hair Clip Pictures

Here's me playing with my new camera some more. I had my lovely friend Liz model the anime emotion hair clips, and put those in a new album on Picasa. Click below to see all 4 pictures.

If anybody wants to send me pictures of yourself/your friends wearing these hair clips, or with any other items you've purchased from me, I would love to post those on my blog! This announcement is going up on the Conventions page as well.

Hair Clips in Action

I've decided to add links to any Picasa albums I create over on the sidebar, too, so they will be easy to find.

In other news, only 2 weeks left before Kawa Kon!! I'm nearly finished re-stocking the items I sold at Bishie Con, and have a few new ideas in progress too. There will be more pictures coming soon!

New Pictures Up!

I've finally put up some new pictures on the merchandise page! My photography skills are not so fabulous, but these picture are still a vast improvement thanks to my new camera.

I have also changed the design of the "depressed" hair clip, to make it look more cloud-like. Behold!

The rest of the new pictures are after the jump.

New "About" Page

Well, it's been an awfully long time since my last post. >.> I still haven't gotten very far with my new camera, and replacing the current not-so-pretty pictures on the site, but that will happen soon!

Today's big news is that I've finally typed out a blurb about me, to be found on the new "About" page at the top. I hate writing about myself, so that took an embarrassingly long time to write, but at least I have something to improve and add onto in the future. (Suggestions, insults, questions, critiques, etc. are always welcome.)

I'm also slowly re-stocking various items for Kawa Kon, and will have at least one new thing to show off before the convention!

Cheese-kun's Adventures

Here are some pictures of the first Cheese-kun's first trip to Otakon in 2009. He had so much fun on that trip! (So did the rest of us. ^__^)

http://picasaweb.google.com/craftyotaku/CheeseKunSAdventures#

New Email!

Brand new email address: craftyotaku at gmail dot com! I've also transferred control of this blog over to the craftyotaku email, so now all the related google stuff (gmail, picasa, and blogger) can be managed in one place.

I've also updated the Merchandise page with some small fixes related to organizing my pictures, and put the new email address in the relevant places.

Someday I am going to put up a real profile, and a proper "About Me" page, and start posting pictures from my new camera (it is soooo nice) and all sorts of fun stuff.

edited to add: I've also removed all the little summaries of past conventions on the "Conventions" page. Talking about what the con was like is the job of a proper blog post, not 2 sentences cluttering up that page! It's not too long now, but if I keep going to conventions, it'll just keep getting longer and longer...