sugarcookie.etsy.com

sugarcookie.etsy.com
Originally uploaded by mycatisfat

I like buying zines and comics from etsy sellers because they are usually affordable and extremely clever. Missy from sugarcookie.etsy.com exceeded my expectations on all counts with the four books I purchased from her.

The titles I got were "Cloud Picnic," "Super Paws," "A Ape," and "Kneehigh: Cats I Know." All four are charming, amusing and appropriate for people of any age. This is what most impressed me about her work. It is suitable for children but she didn't write these with children in mind. So often it seems that children's books end up pandering and talking down to their audience. Not so with Missy's work.

"A Ape" in particular captured the attention of my son because of the a/an article confusion. I won't spoil it for you, but it can easily be used as a learning tool for early readers.

"Cloud Picnic" could also be used to help early readers because it has no words. Children can exercise their imaginations and create a story to accompany the illustrations.

"Super Paws" and "Cats I Know" may be more interesting to cat owners because their stories are so true. People who know and love cats will recognize the characters and actions in the stories.

I recommend Missy's work to anyone and everyone. I know I will be back for more.

Friday updates

I've been working on new things for another venues here locally. My mother in law is a fantastic quilter and sewer and has a booth in a downtown McKinney antiques mall. Thsi is a new venture for her and she invited me to contribute some small bags and pouches to her booth. I'll post photos of the whole thing once it's all set up.

I also need to get into gear and keep making things for the upcoming Show Pony Show. The vendor list is up and it is a wide range of top quality crafters. I had the pleasure of talking to Tara last weekend and she is working hard to make sure this is an awesome event.

I'm Baaaaack

I just returned yesterday from my trip to Oxford, Mississippi for the Faulkner Conference. It was absolutely nerd-tastic. It was infinitely more amazing than I expected and I'm more than a little sad to be back here in Dallas.

If you are also stuck in Dallas, you can come see us at the Show Pony Show in Deel Ellum. We'll have new items as well as some of the old favorites. So you should come check it out, it'll be really fun for everyone.

Line Jumper?

Ok, this is a bit off topic for the blog, but I'm interested in people's opinions. Jer and I just went to see "The Dark Knight" (it's great, you should see it) and our theater has the ticket window outside the building. I bought our tickets before hand, but had to pick them up at the window.

There is one of those rope maze thingies outside the ticket window and if no one is in line, we normally bypass the maze and go straight to the window. Today as we approached there was a woman with about four kids winding through the maze. They weren't to the front when the teller called for the next person, so I went and handed her my card to get the tickets.

Mom didn't like this and she started griping to me about cutting in line. I asked her what she wanted me to do, quit what I was doing so she could go? She said yeah, I should go to the back of the line. As the teller handed me the tickets I said they were prepaid and she didn't lose her spot then we walked off. It took about 30 seconds for the whole incident.

Jeremy thought the whole thing was funny. I don't think I was in the wrong, but only because I was just picking up tickets. So is there a difference? Here's the sticky part, if we had been purchasing tickets, I would have done the maze thing. Is this a grey area, or is line cutting line cutting no matter what the circumstance.

Oh, and this is just another instance where Jeremy and I are out and some woman comes up and starts yelling at me. Jeremy never jumps in; he says I can handle myself. Don't ask about the Wal-Mart parking lot.

(Jer just asked me if I wanted any watermelon. I said yes and he handed me HIS bowl. Is that wrong? Offer me some, but not my own, just a bite or two of his? guh.)

No posts in a while

apathy bird 021
Originally uploaded by mycatisfat

So I haven't posted in a while, but I have a good reason. I've been darn busy!

There has been a lot of sewing going on over here. I made lots of these Apathy Bird pouches, so there should be plenty for everyone. I also upgraded some pouches that I'd already made. They are being listed now, too.

I've also been taking care of family things and preparing for a trip this week. I'll be gone most of next week, so any orders placed after thisThursday will be mailed next Friday.

We applied to the Show Pony Show that will be going down next month. We'll know in a could of days if we were accepted. I'll make another post about it then.

OMG OMG OMG

We already love LOL cats and icanhascheezburger.com, in fact I often give LOL cat images in my feedback on Etsy. But now my love ahs been firmly solidified because Sonya from icanhascheezburger featured our Apathy Bird pouch in her Storque article. Would it be ironic if I said that I was really excited about this?

Happy Etsyversary!

I had no idea it was Nerdbomber's three year Etsyversary until the lovely muchachaK convo'd me to say congrats. That just goes to show how well I keep track of dates.

It's been a good three years on Etsy. If there is one thing I've learned, it's that you get out of it what you put into it. The times when I was less diligent in making new things and listing, sales and visibility went down. When I'm very active on the site, sales go up. It is my goal to keep Nerdbomber active and visible not only on Etsy, but in other venues as well. We're slowly but surely branching out.

There have been many changes to Etsy and to Nerdbomber in the past three years. Everyone is progressing and we're all looking forward to three more productive years selling our fine wares. Now go buy something and help me celebrate!

Things have slowed down just a bit for me. I've been working on personal projects, giving lessons and nursing an overworked right arm.

I am continuing to list new items from my stock, so please keep checking nerdbomber.etsy.com. I have several patterns worked up for new bags, bu tI won't be able to complete them until my arm is recovered.

Until hten, you may also want to see the latest shop I'm drooling over: magicbeanbuyer. Her little Plinis are tres adorable. I wants them. I wants them all.

New Nerdy Newness

The newest items in the Nerdbomber shop are these really cool market tote bags. I made them from the Charlie pattern over at Burdastyle.com. Burdastyle is cool because the patterns are open source and they allow you to sell what you make. There is also a cool community willing to offer advice and comment on user creations. Burdastyle also shares a building with Etsy and they collaborate on a variety of projects including this video where they make *gasp* the Charlie bag. I plan to make several of these in various styles. I like the banana one and am anxious to see how it goes over.

I also have several of my own patterns in the works. It is illegal to use commercial patterns (Simplicity, McCall's, Amy Butler, etc.) for resale purposes, so it is important to know that all the items we sell on Nerdbomber are our own creations unless otherwise stated. For example, I clearly note that the Charlie bags are from the burdastyle pattern. All the other bags on our site are my own patterns. Isn't that special?

Anyhoo. Look for new things. Look for old things. Just come and look. Then buy something. You'll love it. I promise.

Iron Man FTW

Ok, so it's taken me a while but I've been busy. Last week my family saw Iron Man as a reward for my son's kindergarten graduation. I've got no frame of reference for Iron Man, no cute back story about my dad and after school cartoons, so I went in not sure what to expect. In fact, I thought Iron Man was one of the X-Men, and was wondering why he got his own movie. I'd heard that it was TEH BEST SUPERHERO MOVIE EVAR OMG!!!11!! but that's what people had said about nearly every superhero movie in the past eight years, so I didn't pay it much heed.



Let me say first that the most striking thing about this movie is how realistic the special effects are. Things that we know are impossible are within the realm of suspension of disbelief because they LOOK so real. Which brings me to another point, the violence is also very realistic (barring the last robotic suit battle which came off as pretty corny). That issue disturbed me because people were getting mowed down by machine guns and my son was laughing like something funny happened. This says more about the nature of violence as entertainment in America than the quality of the movie.



I'm a big proponent of taking a movie as it is and so it won't come as a big surprise that this won't be getting any screenwriting awards. The dialogue is predictable and suitably lame (especially during the big final battle which as you may have guessed I found disappointing). At one point I could swear I heard the baddie say "Ice try." This could be a mistake on my part, though.



Robert Downey Jr. Does an amazing job playing Tony Stark. He revels in playing the philandering Stark and pulls of the lovable jerk flawlessly. Even his revelation and turn of heart seem genuine in a movie where so many other things are just plain silly. The change comes when he realizes that his weapons have been confiscated by nefarious characters and are being used to evil ends. He decides, after some prompting by a throwaway character, to redeem himself and rectify the situation post haste. This scenario would be a groaner if not for the near perfect blend of cockiness, naivete and genius Downey gives Stark.



It's hard to stand out next to that kind of performance, even in a summer action flick. The other actors did a fair job, but couldn't compare to the obvious glee Downey exhibited in his role. Jeff Bridges was distracting for me personally for two reasons: he just looks like a nice guy and I kept seeing The Dude. Gwenyth Paltrow's character was all right (except for her lame name, but that was established long before the movie) until she has an "ooo shiny!" moment and had to run in stilettos.



It may seem like I'm being hard on this movie, and I'm not trying to be. It was fun, exciting and much better than most of the other super hero movies of the recent past. I suppose the only thing I was left wanting were some surprises. We all know the good guy has to win in the end, but we don't have to follow the same predictable formulas every time to get there. It's worth seeing if you haven't seen it already.