It's been a bit quiet here at the blog the past couple weeks as I've been making and packing things and working on a whole batch of new dgp books. I will be doing a GIANT press update next Friday, and depending how many titles I have done, is shaping up nicely, including titles by Erica Wright, Erin Elizabeth Smith, Katie Cappello, Shelly Taylor, Cindy St. John, and Nava Fader, all ready to print, and others in various stages of completion (about 6 or so) that will hopefully be nearly finished by then. I will also be, before Christmas, announcing the full-on lineup for next year as soon as I iron-out something like a schedule, but I can tell you now, it's pretty freakin awesome. There will also (FINALLY) be the full-length poetry/photo book by Robyn Art & Robin Barcus coming in February, as well as titles by Mary Ann Samyn and Jessica Bozek coming right after the first of the year..also a really interesting quirky little project from Ariana Sophia Kartsonis and Caleb Adler. And, of course, that is merely the beginning. I've resigned myself to lots of early mornings and late nights in the coming year, but what else is new?
Last week's open studio, which was paired with a big holiday celebration in the Fine Arts Building, was a huge success, but I find myself this weekend rushing to restock all the goodies that sold. The soap has been selling like hotcakes anyway, so that's what I will be working on mostly this weekend, in addition to some more flasks, some candles setting as we speak, and a couple other little things. I also have big plans for the shop after the holidays, including a line of wedding invites, some spiral journals and planners, those pesky pillows that I'm still perfecting, and new line of soaps that are more "manly" and less "girly" in all sorts of scents like wild sage, black currant, and sandalwood.
I am going to try, once again to get my Christmas tree up tomorrow..I've talked myself out of it twice now, but hopefully this time I will actually get it up. I think I am down to only the gifts I still have to make. The hardest of course were all the wee ones that seem to have started sprouting in the family, all of which need to be bought for, as well as the usual gifts for the immediate family, and the name exchange ones for both sides (both pretty easy ones). For the little ones, all under 2 years old, I got these puffy little fabric books (yeah, it's a little early for reading, but it's never to soon to start them off on a book addiction). For the oldest, who's 4 and unusually precocious apparently, I was thinking a totebag or pouch filled with all sorts of notebooks, pencils, and art supplies. When I was around 6, my aunt gave me something similar and while I barely remember all the Barbies and the gadgets I amassed at Christmas gatherings, I distinctly remember how I enamoured I was of the pens in different ink colors. Not much has changed. I was looking for cute kawaii stationery stuff on etsy and realizd I had about $40 worth in my cart and figured the 4 year old won't really care whether it came from Japan or the dollar store (where it probably comes from China). But, hell, I wanted the Japanese stuff for ME..(the scented highlighters wand decorative tape were especially covet-worthy.)
