Oh Happy Day is Giving Away a Trip to Paris!

A really great blog, Oh Happy Day, is giving away a trip to Paris for two to one lucky reader! Check it out! 

http://ohhappyday.com/2011/06/goes-to-paris  

Studio Tour!

I am lucky that I have a space large enough to consider a "studio," but unfortunately having a larger space means I have a bigger mess.  My husband works from home, so he has our 3rd bedroom as his office.  I have our basement, which is pretty large.  I've got a table set up in the corner with my laptop and printer, and a shelving unit to hold my paper/sewing machine/envelopes/ink/other supplies.

Oh, and I apologize for the pics, they were taken with my new HTC Thunderbolt phone and I haven't quite gotten the hang of making them look semi-normal yet.

My printer is an Epson Stylus Photo 1400.  It's great, just a little slow, but that's due to the fact I'm printing at a high DPI to keep my print quality at a level I'm happy with.

I've also got a couple of the cheap plastic drawer units that hold things like paint, paintbrushes, drawing supplies, scrapbook paper, my sewing kit, fabric, and other random bits of projects.

if you look closely it's like a game where you have to find the random objects: quilting hoops, drafting dots, wood glue, stud finder, dremel tool, box of branches, ribbon, drill....

I want to build a nice corner desk with fun matching shelves and colorful bins to hold all my supplies, and have an organized inspiration board, but for now I'll stick with trying to grow my business, and one day maybe I can quit my job and it will make sense to do a studio renovation!

My trusty cutting mat, X-acto knife, and metal ruler for cutting my prints!

 My wall of prints - things that have gotten printed and had imperfections and I don't want to throw them away...

fill in the blank fridays

{photo by Teri Lyn Fisher  photographer and blogger for Fish Food blog}

Make sure to fill out your own blanks and link up at thelittlethingswedo!

1.   I love       miranda lambert   because      her songs are so fun and she's so down to earth and i get to go to her concert TOMORROW!!!!  

2.  A time that mama knew best was    when she told me to get out of that tree, which i did not listen to, which led to my THIRD broken arm in less than 2 years.  And having been through the whole ordeal twice before, I was not crying because my arm hurt, I was crying because I knew my mom was going to yell at me.  

3.  My first kiss went a little like this     BAD.  SERIOUSLY.  truth or dare with a guy that I had liked on and off for a few years but it was just bad.  

4.  My celebrity crush is   - I don't have any celebrities that I'm all about - I have book characters - and coincidentally they happen to both be vampires, I guess I'm a fangbanger wannabe - edward from twilight and eric from the sookie stackhouse chronicles. 

5.  My splurge of choice is     hmmm, you know, i dont splurge often, but i'm going to have to go with something home-related- a picture or a vase or something. I go crazy at target, when I let myself put one thing in the cart that gives me the go-ahead to throw a million things in there with it.  

6.  My biggest accomplishment is       graduating from Georgia Tech.  i was the first one in my family to go to college, and going to a good school was my dream. 

7.  My dance jam of choice is      hmmm.. right now Ceelo's F You is something I cannot help but start bouncing to when I hear it on the radio.

New Mission

Hi out there in bloggerland! Long time no talk! There are going to be some changes around here… or so I hope.  So far I’ve been so sporadic in posting, and I am really going to try to change that.  This blog is entering a new phase, and hopefully, so is my life.  I am striving to make my business a thriving brand.  I want to try new things and really put myself out there and see how everything goes.   I began making art prints a little over a year ago and selling them on etsy.com.  It has actually taken off to some extent.  January 2011 was my biggest month to date, with sales totaling over $1200.  This was due mostly in part to a calendar I made that sold pretty well.  A calendar that I didn’t get into my shop until November, and that I am still getting sales from as of yesterday! I can’t believe people are still buying calendars in June, but I have no problems with it!  Since February, sales have dropped some, but they are definitely up from last year.  And all this has been due to basically no marketing on my part – I haven’t really blogged, I use twitter almost never, I made a facebook page but don’t really utilize it… pretty much the only thing I have been doing is renewing my listings daily on etsy.  

Going forward, I will be social media-ing with a purpose (you like what I did there? Haha. Yes I’m a dork).  I’m using a variety of inspiration sources for blog post ideas, and one of them is Tara Gentile’s 52 Weeks of Blogging Your Passion.  She suggests having a “mission statement” to guide your blog, so here’s my first crack at it!  Priss This is my meeting place for friends and peers – where I connect with new people by showing them all about me – what I love, where I get my inspiration, my stories, my home, my studio, and where they can gain insight into my life and work!

So, I’ll be seeing you around… I hope not sporadically! (clueless reference, if you don’t get it I don’t think we can be friends!)

Houses CAN Fly!

National Geographic made a house fly with balloons like in the movie Up.  Granted, it was a pretty small house, the balloons were ginormous, and there was nothing in the house (like furniture, appliances, and all that good stuff), but it's still awesome!

Follow Me on Pinterest!

Pinterest is basically a smorgasbord of prettiness.  People "pin" pretty pictures to create boards for inspiration.  So far, I've got some pretty great ideas for what I want my living room, bedroom, and office to look like, and also I've gotten some design inspiration and outfits that I'd like to emulate if one day I become stylish!
So, check out my boards and follow me! http://pinterest.com/noellepriss/

fill in the blank fridays

lauren over at the little things we do has a friday tradition of answering some open-ended questions every friday, and I decided to join in this week!

1. My most prized possession is my engagement ring - my husband had it custom made for me so it would be exactly the way i wanted, and i love it! (plus it's way more expensive than anything else i've ever owned, including any car i've ever had, so it would be really bad if i lost it!)

2. If I could be one age for the rest of my life, I would want to be even though I haven't made it there quite yet, I'm gonna say 27. #1, I am obsessed with 7's, #2, it just seems like a good age, grown up but still young enough to get away with acting like a kid, plus #3 i've been searching for jobs lately & it seems everywhere wants 5 years experience, so at that point i'll be "big" enough for "big girl jobs" haha

3. The best way to spend a weekend is shopping!!

4. My outlook on life is that you've just got to do what you want to do. Don't let things like money hold you back, if you want to go on an adventure just do it! Unfortunately, my husband is more of the conservative type so we butt heads on this quite often.

5. If you want to annoy me, just spell things wrong. especially in public. like on advertisements. don't they have proofreaders????

6. I am completely defenseless when it comes to my doggie. he may do things that make me mad every once in a while but there's no way to stay mad at that cute little face.

7. When dressing for the day one should well, I put on whatever is the least wrinkly and will not make me look too fat... but in general, i say wear whatever the heck you want!!

What I Want Wednesday

I know, I know, I'm horrible at blogging. It's just hard to find the time and to find the inspiration. One thing that DOES inspire me are all my fabulous fellow etsians, and I want to share some of my favorite things that I'm wanting right now.

from PaperCutDieCut
from PaperSquid
from OldNewAgain
from MarKhed
From SusannaJarian

Etsy Front Page!

My Custom Couple Print was featured on the front page of etsy.com earlier today!

Check out my fellow front pagers!

Lake Weekend!

I'm really excited about this weekend because we're headed up to Lake Lanier for Memorial Day. One potential snafu, however, is the weather. It's supposed to rain every day this weekend (plus Monday). I'm hoping it'll stick to normal Georgia summer weather- super hot and sunny during the day then a thunderstorm for about 30 minutes then nice hot weather again.

In anticipation of summer, I've picked out some cute etsy summery finds!

Top row: print by farouche, photo by ara133photography
Middle row: pillow by milkandcookiescanada, necklace by bonjourpierre
Bottom row: bag by bayanhippo, card by graciegirlnotes

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!