Winning! And Cat Lovers.

Thanks for entering, internets! The winners, randomly chosen by another section of the internets, are Raych and Sarah and Sarah! Sarah squared, I guess? H'Anyways, congrats, I shall email y'alls shortly.

So, we have a friend named James. This is him with Baxter and Rufus, who are fighting for his attention; small animals flock to him, enchanted by his pied-piper-pipings. Or... something like that.

James and his lovely wife, Estrella, have a cat named Henry. He is small and gray and adorable, and they are quite fond of him. This is the back of Henry's head (photo stolen from J's instagram):

At some point the four of us.(James and Estrella and Brian and I), were discussing how much we love our cats. I said that only the manliest men were willing to openly talk about how much they loved kitties, and James responded, "I LOVE my freaking cat!"
I think I said I was going to make a t-shirt out of that quote, or maybe I just thought it. Either way, I done did it.

Because, I love my freaking cat. 

And if you are so inclined, print/phone cases/tshirts/cards/ipad skins/etc. are available here:
http://society6.com/auntjune

Would You Like a Free Thing?

Woot, two posts in two days, I'm ON FIRE!

So, in addition to the Sign Language Alphabet posters I told you about yesterday, I'm also going to be selling some custom ASL goodness, in the form of prints and monogram notecards. Different colors! Different letters! Like a party!

And when I start doing any custom-thingies, I always make some samples to show what they looksa like. Usually I just pick one of my friends' kids' names, and they get another random Thing I Made.

So this time I thought, well, duh, Internet People are my friends, too! (Unless that weirds you out, and then I guess we aren't. Your choice, dude.) I've already made one sample for the lovely Ingrid, daughter of the also-lovely Ara Jane, and I think I'm going to do three more 8" x 10" custom name prints... For YOU! Well, for three of you, anyway.

So! How to enter? Hrmmm. I never think of these things in advance, and I am weirdly uncomfortable with incorporating the social-media-soup into giveaway-things, but I guess it's what people do? So.
I think we'll play it thusly...

 You can enter multiple times, in these ways:

-Comment on this blog post. Say anything. I won't even require a limerick this time!

-Say something about the giveaway on twitter? You can say anything about it, but link to this post and include the hashtag #iwantafreething so's I can find it. Theoretically, this is not really the best way to enter, though, because if other people see it and enter, you are statistically less likely to win. I am a social media CURMUDGEON, am I not?

-Post a picture of you, saying anything (G-rated) in ASL! Post it on twitter, instagram, flickr, facebook, or whatever-other-thing, but send me a link so I know about it. For doing this and thus exposing your Own Personal Face to the interwebs, you get THREE entries. Ka-ching?

Mkay. We'll shut it down Friday, midnight? Triumphant victors will be announced Monday-ish? I'm not good with timelines, folks.

Oh, and! Prints and notecards are already available in the etsy! Boom!

More Sign Language and Alphabets and the Postal Service's Sense of Humor.

So, I was kinda bummed when I realized I had to stop printing the ASL fabric. Honestly, the drawings took a while, and I just love all the happy little hands. But I had always planned to use them for more than just the fabric, and last week I finally had a chance to get it done! I promise I'll stop bombarding you with alphabet posters (eventually), but I am really enjoying doing them right now, and I plan on utilizing my kindergarten education to it's full extent.

Kinda fun, right? I wanted to do something really simple and graphic; that would be educational but not so institutional that it wasn't good for juss bein' purdy. Biased though I am, I think it came out pretty nicely.

So, obvs, it's in the etsy-- I've got the 8x10's up now, and shall be putting up 12x18's soon.

Now, friends, let's chat about me. A-duh, it's a blog, it's what I do. One of my many character flaws is my overdeveloped sense of "fairness". This sense of being the Ultimate Authority on Justice just happens to only pertain to following rules that I want to follow, and that, when not followed by others, tend to inconvenience me. They're all deeply first-world issues, the epicenter and victim of all these various injustices always happens to be, uhhhhhhm... Me?

One major trigger is proper driving practices, which would require a WHOLE other post to adequately cover. I have the most self-righteous road rage you have ever experienced. My blood pressure goes up a bit just thinking about all the different driving-stupidities I encounter regularly-- I CAN RANT FOR HOURS. Again, though, whole other post.

One of my other big issue is with lines. Or queues, for people from fancy-pants countries. I would like there to be a nationally instituted set of rules for standing in lines, which would be posted prominently in all public places where lines might occur. Like, ok, in a line at the bank, I HATE it when people don't fill out deposit slips beforehand. Especially when I am filling out my slip when they get in line, and then end up behind them as they do it when standing in front of the teller. Once I actually asked a man if he could move over so that I could make my already prepared, ahem, deposit. He did, and despite the bank employees thinking I was kinda insane, I felt triumphant for the rest of the day. Same thing with customs forms at the post office, same thing with people at the front of a long line who ask long series of questions when the answers to them are stated clearly on POSTERS on the WALL, with BIG LETTERS. These people are LITERATE. Grr.

But, ok, I have gotten off track. Set up for the story: I am a big fan of trivial rules.

I send a lot of letters and packages via the USPS, and I have a system, so pretty much everything I send, I have sent hundreds of times before in the same way. And if I have any concerns about shipping something, I make sure that it is OK'ed by the nice folks at the post office. So, a few weeks ago I was surprised and a bit peeved to get a package returned to me, addressed identically to MANY before it. I was so irked by the injustice of it, that it took me a few minutes to realize that the USPS had told me a HILARIOUS joke. (note: names and addresses were not blurred out in real life.)

You see, some rule-lovin' postal worker had decided that the return address on my letter was in the wrong place. Because of this, they decided that the envelope could not be processed. And since it could not be processed, they would have to send it back to the UN-PROCESSABLE return address. Never mind the fact that a return address is not even a legal requirement to mail a letter, it's actually entirely optional, and the fact that I had mailed the package in-person at the post office, so it had been accepted and stamped by a human postal worker who saw no problem with it. This fine inspector had decided that I should be informed that my cutesy stickers were NOT appreciated, ahthankyouverymuch, and that I really need to get my act together with my return-address-protocol.

Seriously? It's hilarious. Maybe even worth the money I had to pay to re-send it. The women at my PO thought so too, and you KNOW they deserve a laugh at the system's expense. Have I learned my lesson? Probably not, but I did get to complain about something on the interwebs, so.

Alphabetized and Organized and Spectrally Ordinated.

You guys are nice. Thank you so much for all of your comments and encouragement and support, because, really? I wouldn't have the opportunity to do this if it wasn't for you. It's cheesy and sappy to say, but this ACTUALLY would not be possible without you, and some of you very directly. So, mwah! Mwah! (That's air kisses.) You're the best-- so thank you for enduring my rants and ridiculousness and thousands of cat photos.

AAAAAnyway, I am working on So. Much. Stuff. right now, and I'm really happy to finally be able to share some of my labor-fruit. I mentioned that the etsy shop is going to be shifting gears since I'll no longer be selling fabric yardage, and this stuff is the beginning of that... Introducing "The Happy Alphabet"!

So, the alphabet. It's handy, no? And rainbows, I love them dearly. And a sprinkling of teeny-tiny patterns, well, all the better as far as I'm concerned. Right now I have all of these prints listed in 8 x 10, but I will be selling them in 11 x 17 and 13 x 19 as well. I think they'd be LOVELY in a nursery or kids' room, but I think they would fit in a lot of different places, ya know?

There are both "Rainbow Bright" and "Rainbow Light" versions of the first print; so you can ingest only the amount of color-calories you'd like. 

The second variation has more of a nautical flavor, for all of you scalawags, sea-farers and even you beach-loving landlubbers. The "Wave Rainbow" print will soon have a lighter equivalent as well, and probably some more monochromatic versions... I'm thinking an aqua, coral, and gray, but what do you kids think?

Oh, and you might notice that I've put up some shiny new iPhone cases on Ye Olde Etsy-- those are available from my brand-spankin'-new society6 shop! You can take a gander at society6.com/auntjune or just click the thingy over on my sidebar to get there. There is a TON of really cool stuff on society6, so if you have some time to kill, I'd recommend wandering around to see all of the incredible artists and designers who are peddling their wares. And right now, they're having running a free-shipping-artist-promotion-dingy, so click HERE for that goodness.

Ugh, so now that I've photobombed you with etsy commercials (saaaaahhhhhhrrryyyyy...) I'mma finish with a bit of attempted organization. I'm a HUGE listmaker, but my books of lists are many, and I find it really difficult to keep them straight and prioritize them. So fabulous husband suggested making some sort of board to keep me focused, and allow me to jump around from one project to the next in a slightly more sensical way. So, armed with a bulletin board and some index cards, I created...

DUHN DUHN DUHHNNNNNNNNNNNN:

The Master Plan. Color coded, sequenced by importance: lists and sub-lists and sub-sub-lists. It's like my notebook exploded, and I love it. Now, will it function as I want it to? Jury is still out, friends. But isn't it lovely?

Oh, and, yeah, sorry about the blurring. I can't have everyone knowin' all my bid'ness, dude. There must be MYSTERIES.

Upcoming: Rule-Keeping, USPS Fail, Greeting Cards!

2 Legit 2 Quit.

Guys. Guys. Seriously.

 I have been wanting to tell you this FORHEVARRRRRR, but, well, it had to happen first. And then it had to be official, because, you know, counting chickens and whatnot. And reeeeeeally, nothing is really REAL until a UPS guy is hauling bolts of fabric up my deadly, deadly front steps, but...

It looks like there will be selvedge with my name on it. Right next to Andover Fabrics. 

How awesome is that? My answer is: pretty awesome. And not only because I will get to pet and cut and sew and fondle the fabric designs I've been working on for the past TWO YEARS, but because I finally know what to tell people when they ask me what I do. Up until now, I've always answered with Buhhhhhhhhh? followed by incoherent ramblings. It's a rare and beautiful thing for a person with an art degree.

And, I am excited! I have so much more to write about this, but it will have to wait for other posts-- for not, there's just one more important detail to mention...

Because of all this awesomeness, and the nature of the whole licensing thing, there are definite changes in store for the Aunt June etsy shop... the biggest one being that I will no longer be selling fabric. What I have listed now is the inventory that I have on hand, and once that is gone, it is gone for the foreseeable future. And while the fabric will be gone, there are other little aunt-juney-nuggets creeping in, so kindly stay tuned for that, kay?

And now, back to your regularly scheduled silly-face-making.

Booyah.

What. Is. Happening.

Ok, so I read somewhere, on someone's blog probably, that one of the most annoying things bloggers can do is apologize for not blogging more. I'm going to embrace it, because I'm lazy. That you have been neglected, though, has not been for naught: I've been working on many a secret surprise project, friends. Don't try to guess because even if you guess correctly, it's still a secret so I couldn't say, oh, yes, you're correct! I'd still have to be like, hrrmmm. And maybe you would guess something way better than the secrets actually are, and I would realize my secrets' inferiority, and be sad.

So I planned on updating from Quilt Market. I really did. But then on Saturday, I put my iPhone in one of my shiny new messenger bag's many pockets, and twenty minutes later, it was gone. And it was turned off. Tricky tricky phone-thief. And I spent the rest of the day running around and being generally crazy and weepy, and at some point discovered that, the pocket? Which I had been keeping books and notepad and pencils in without incident? NOT A POCKET. Moral of the story: Make sure pockets are pockets, and not just holes through which suitcase handles can go. You win this round, Timbuk2. The first round of the game no one wants to win.

Don't cry for me, though. Friends: make sure to put your electronic thingamajigs as riders on your home insurance policy, (I recommend Travelers WHOLEHEARTEDLY!), because if your shiny doodlebobs are taken, it will save you MUCH moneys. Like, $700ish. And I did live, I think for more than a month, without a cell phone. It was itchy. I had a google voice number that I could use whenever I was in range of wifi, with old-brokey-phone, and while it was functional, you know... It wasn't. I was allthetime thinking about how I was going to get in a wreck and then be attacked by bears and then taken by hill-people, and no one would ever know.

Was I going somewhere with this? Ugh, I have forgotten. I think the point was, I'm back! Get insurance! Drive safely! Or something like that. Some day I'm going to blog about safe driving habits, and when I do, you will all see what a big wad of crazy I REALLY am.

Oh, and I did some bloggies for Kim at TrueUp.net, so gahwawn ovah theyah* and check THAT out.

*I don't know why, but autocorrect occasionally goes into a poorly executed, over-exaggerated southern dialect mode. I think the setting is called "Community College Tennessee Williams". Is that just on mine?

(Seemingly unrelated photo is the KC convention center hallway, taken just hours before the Great Phone Fail of 2012.)

To Market!

Seriously? It's been almost a month, which is ridiculous because I have had a million things I've wanted to blog about, but also a million things to keep me from blogging. Husband recovered from tonsillectomy very successfully, the doctor stating that it was probably because his body was SO HAPPY to get rid of the things, because his tonsils were diseased. Who knew? (Not us.) Have I ruined your lunch? Sorry...

But I have been getting ready for MANY THINGS, one of which is almost here! Spring Quilt Market just happens to be in Kansas City this year, and like, 7 minutes from my house. It's pretty awesome. So I've spent a lot of time gearing up for that, and am planning to send out lo-fi dispatches, semi-live!

Semi-live? What a weird-looking fake word. What I am trying to say is that I will probably do a lot of instagramming, and post fabricky goodness to the Aunt June facebook page of here on the blog. Because I am lazy, and because it is quicker, and because I do not want to spend most of Market looking at my phone, which, who am I kidding, I probably will do anyway. My shameful and corrupt generation, that is how we roll.

Instagram, by the way, is one of my favorite things in the world, despite its being owned by the Devil Facebook, which I also use regularly. Social media is a strange thing... it's mind-junk Twinkies. I like it, and I think it's ok to have some every now and then, but I know that it really isn't great for me. Which, all of this is a very bad follow-up to "Hey, I will have good stuff on my Facebook page!", but whatevs. I will continue to have brain Twinkies. Instagram is superior because it is prettier, essentially a lo-fi love child of Flickr and twitter. I use it mostly for pictures of my cat.

In summation: 1) Social media, it might be evil? 2) But let's use it anyway! 3) I have a cat!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/auntjune.etsy

Instagram: lauren_hunt or http://followgram.me/lauren_hunt/

XOXO,

Abe