I Present: Presents

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Happy December, everyone! Now that the holiday season is upon us, I have some special things I’ve cooked up to share with you.

The first is the announcement of Christmas Poinsettia raffia & ribbonstraw flowers! I adapted one of the designs I found for the flower loom and added a few special touches to create these festive blooms that we all know so well at Christmas-time. They are perfect to spread holiday cheer as hostess gifts for holiday parties, decorations, centerpieces, place settings, ornaments; you can even clip them to your hair or a headband with a bobby pin and wear them if it suits your fancy. Here’s a preview:

You can buy these as a set of three, either from the store or from Etsy (plus Etsy has other views and a close-up). The one shown here is in matte red raffia with shiny green and yellow accents, but I found some shiny red ribbonstraw at the store recently so you have a choice.

My second announcement is about another gift idea. . . but you might want to reserve this one for someone on your list who either loves kitschy, quirky things OR who you need a special way of telling they’ve been more naughty than nice to you this year. I am speaking of the most ridiculous things I have ever laid eyes on:

Are they horrendous awesome or what? They’re for sale at my Etsy shop. So get buying.

P.S. Hope you like all my new banners for the site that I finally got around to uploading tonight!

Buy me!

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[UPDATE: The birds sold on Bay after a nice bidding war of 18 bids! Hooray!]

I just listed a big collection of vintage Bachmann Birds of the World model kits from 1959-1960 on eBay here! (I figured this would be better than Etsy because I know other people sell these birds/kits there since I’ve been checking periodically to figure out how much to list them for, and since I found no results when I searched Etsy.)

Bachmann’s model trains were their most popular classic toy, but they also produced these birds as well as a Dogs of the World series (and he’s got a German Shepherd available from that set!). If you are interested or know anyone who might be, please don’t hesitate to contact me or make a bid!

These were my uncle’s when he was a kid and he found them in the basement this summer but doesn’t want them. He was going to throw them away but my mom thought they were neat and wanted to at least take a picture before we threw them out. Then my uncle looked them up online and found out you can sell the unpainted/unbuilt kits for a lot of money. His are all already painted (and some have broken legs that were superglued back together. . . ) and those sell for less.

According to Wikipedia, there were 22 bird species in the series, and we’ve got 16 of them to sell. Really we have 18, but my mom wanted to keep the owl because my aunt likes owls and the Baltimore oriole since we live in Maryland. See below for the list and pictures! Continue reading →

New Additions

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My apologies for the long wait. Things have been a little hectic at home with my aunt having some medical problems and going in and out of the hospital, so I haven’t had much time to focus on this.

But I bring you news of new photos added to my online gallery and available for prints and digital copies! I have also finally actually added the digital copies as a product in the online store.

Another update I’m pleased to announce is the addition of a new category of products to my store. I am going to be offering handmade items including decorations as well as hair clips, combs, and fascinators! It is in disrepair now, but this section of the store will be updated as soon as I can get busy making and photographing items.

First on the list are flowers made from “ribbon straw,” which is basically like shiny raffia (although I have a hunch it is made from plastic rather than plant fiber). While cleaning out my grandmother’s closet, we found a few old sets of vintage flower looms and booklets (like “Magic with Ribbon Straw” by Mary Bolas, published in the ’60s or ’70s) on how to make flowers and other crafts. There are a few packets of colorful ribbon straw left, but I cannot find any more currently available at craft stores or online. So once they are used up I will switch to using dyed raffia. I think these would be great to use as decorations to add vintage or retro flair to themed parties, offbeat wedding receptions, and more. (Can you tell I’m just itching to post a description like this on Etsy and get tons of sales (hopefully)? But really, I feel like it could be cutely done.) They’re not really my style for clothing and accessories, but more power to whomever can pull them off, because I’m sure you guys are out there!

I’ll let you know when I start adding other items, too.

Secrets

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I have a confession to make. I have been wasting time on the internet.

I know, I know, everyone does this. But oh my goodness, I have just been saving Etsy items to my favorites, looking up DIY projects, scouring craftgawker, and subscribing to all these craft websites that I will never catch up on.

At least I’ve been focusing on lots of cheap and upcycled ideas. This spree actually originated when I realized I hadn’t been on foodgawker in a while and subsequently favorited about a dozen stuffed pepper recipes plus desserts. . . I wonder how much flour we have at home in the cabinet. . .

(Can I just say that I really don’t like putting spaces between the dots in an ellipsis? My boyfriend told me that’s the proper way to do it, so now I have to obey, but I get an unsatisfied feeling every time.)

Oh well. This is at least a more reasonable internet spree than what I usually do on the weekends when I visit him. (Let’s just say I have been compiling a ton of inspiration for a certain giant party and a big dress.) Anyway, maybe I can make some of these projects that have caught my eye and sell them!

Speaking of selling, let’s get back to confessions. I haven’t added many photos to my gallery for ordering lately. Woops! I’m sorry, but I got caught up in life a little for a while. More will come soon, though, I promise!

This blog entry is proudly brought to you by such essential life soundtrack artists as Ke$ha, 2gether, and Mitch Hedberg. The end.

The Latest News

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Hello all,

First things first: I’ve officially posted my background story here so that you can get to know me better and gain proof of why I need all the help I can get from this venture. It is a permanent page available from the top menu and sidebar for future reference and in case you’d like to share my predicament with friends.

Secondly, I’ve got another batch of photos to add to my gallery, but I’ll be waiting until I have access to faster internet before I make them available.

I also had a brilliant new idea! I will be offering digital copies of my photos for sale in addition to physical prints. This will make them available at a lower price to you and give you a ton of options once you have them!

  • You can save money by printing them yourself if you have a nice printer and photopaper or a membership at another photosharing site.
  • You can avoid clutter by just using them as desktop backgrounds or screensavers instead of printing them.
  • You can even edit them and add whatever effects your heart desires before printing them. I give you my permission to edit my photos provided you:
    • have ordered and paid for them (no saving previews from the website for free) and
    • credit my original work back to this website if you post them anywhere or use them for another purpose.

That’ll be all for now. I’m off to eat and put together my application for an animal keeper position at the zoo. Wish me luck!

Track Maintenance

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Well, I’m on the right track. Trains are being slightly delayed, but my destination is straight ahead.

I now have a gallery and a store-front up and running! I apologize for the lack of uniformity throughout, but each script I’ve installed has different themes to work with. I still need to work on a banner, I suppose, but I’m enjoying the beautiful ones provided by WordPress that cycle for now.

Anyway, I’ve got plenty more photos to sort through and add, but for now go ahead and look at what I’ve got so far and enjoy!

Also, I have a site email now: contact@twilightbark.freehostingcloud.com

Welcome!

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Hi strangers and soon-to-be friends,

Welcome to my new website-store-dealy. I’m going to use it to hopefully sell you some photographs that will look beautiful in your home, apartment, or dorm room. All of the photos I’ll sell here will have been taken by me, usually locally and most often in my own and my grandma’s backyard.

I really do hope these pictures will bring you some happiness and comfort and that you’ll feel good about placing an order with me. I’m in desperate need of a way to earn a living nowadays, so I’m excited to make this a happy experience for all of us.

I’ll say goodbye for now, as I’ve got lots of work ahead of me in setting up this website, choosing the best pieces, and dealing with this confounded dial-up internet.

Nice to meet you!