January Giveaway!

Ok, since I am completely indecisive, I have decided that my very first giveaway will be your choice of one of two prizes.

Option number one:

8x12 print on metallic paper.

Metallic paper is fabulous! It looks like a photo printed on the dull side of a piece of aluminum foil, but it has all the thickness and duribility of a normal professionally printed photograph. This image will be signed and dated, and will include a card with information about the artist.

Option number two:

A collection of four 4x4 prints from my antique buildings collection. Each image will be signed and dated and will include a card with information about the artist. They will be professionally printed on matte paper.

Also included with either option is a 50% off coupon good in any of my shops, and a credit for one free photo retouch. Please see my listing here for more details about photo retouching.

How to enter:

There are lots of ways you can enter! The more you do, the mor entries you get, and the better chance you have at taking home your prize. The first thing you need to do is follow my blog. Only blog followers will be considered for the prize! Even if you have done other things to get entered, you will not be considered until you're a follower. Following my blog is worth one entry.

Facebook:

*You can become a fan of my photo page here. - 1 entry (comment here telling me you did)

*You can make a post on facebook about this giveaway and make a comment here telling me what you said - 1 entry (up to 5 total)

* You can make a comment on a photo I have posted on my fan page and tell me why you like it, then leave a comment here telling me that you did - 1 entry (up to 5 total)

Twitter:

*Tweet about me and post a comment here with a link to it - 1 entry (up t0 5 total)

*Tweet about my giveaway and post a comment here with a link to it - 1 entry (up to 5 total)

Etsy:

*Start a forum thread telling about my giveaway (make sure you include a link to the blog!) and post a link to it in a comment here - 3 entries (unlimited)

*Purchase anything from http://www.charmingmittens.etsy.com/ http://www.thecharmingmitten.etsy.com/ or http://www.modfauna.etsy.com/ and post a comment here with the link to your purchases- 15 entries (unlimited)

Ok! That's how you do it. Good luck! I will tally all of the entries on February 1st (my birthday!) and announce the winner on February 2nd. The winner will then be contacted and asked to select their prize and I wil have it shipped off to them that same week.

Good luck! The more you do, the better your chances!

Messina Hof Winery

Yesterday I visited the Messina Hof winery in Bryan, Texas for a little inspiration and a few photo opportunities. It is a really beautiful property! The tour guide gave a fabulous tour, and he was very friendly.

You can view a few of the photos taken here:

http://www.constructivetendencies.com/main.php?g2_itemId=3175

Feel free to take a look around my website! I will be doing a giveaway soon, so if there is anything you would personally like to see as the prize, please feel free to leave a comment below and tell me about it. Any image on my site is up for grabs.

ModFauna Treasury feature #3

ModFauna has just been featured in another treasury! This makes three for us, how fabulous!

Go show it some love here:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=80715

Here's the link to the Lucky Duck itself, who also enjoys love:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=37106049

Happy Holidays!

Christmas this year was fabulous!

I spent the entire time with my fiance's family, and despite past unhappiness, they were quite nice to me this time! I am VERY happy to finally make some progress in that area! It has been a long road, but they are finally starting to be sweet to me when I am around.

I am now armed with multiple gift cards, so Michaels here I come!

I also won a couple of great auctions on Ebay, so you can expect to see some fun new additions to my shops based on my new materials.

Happy holidays everyone!

Stay tuned, because 2010 will be the year of the monthly giveaway!

That's right... free stuff!

It will range from jewelry, to photography, to ModFauna animals, to frames.... You'll just have to wait and see!

The Asian District = Inspiration!

Today ThePaperElement and I went to the Asian district of Houston located along Bellaire Blvd. and Beltway 8. It's ths amazing center of Asian culture in our area and has everything you could possibly think to find.

We ransacked the grocery store, coming away with empty pockets and full bags, loaded down with treats, variations on basics, and.... Joss paper!

Joss paper is a Chinese traditional paper used in burning at ceremonies to respect the dead. It is beautiful and comes in many many colors, styles, prints and textures.... and it's super cheap. She and I picked some out, and once we got home with it we realized we should have gotten much more!

We hope to return after the holiday and pick up some other types, as well as visit some other stores. Time was tight today, but next time will be better.

TanTan Vietnamese "Fast Food" (Fast because they cook it fast!) is an absolute must for anyone visiting the area. My personal favorite is the E-25 seafood noodle soup with egg noodles, but you can rest assured that EVERYTHING (all 300+ items) on the menu is fantastic. They are located at 6816 Ranchester Dr. at Bellaire Blvd. Make sure you get some bubble tea in the shop in the next parking lot to the east, yum yum!

Many new projects will come from this day of inspiration, so stay tuned!

ModFauna

I love to paint.

I'm just throwing that out there.

I love it! One evening while painting a some flowers on a few outgoing packages I had some extra paint left in my tray, so the once blah photo frame was transformed into a Tiffany blue masterpiece. Then the nearby mirror frame. Then the cover of a sketchbook within my grasp, and finally, when I had all but thought I ran out of things to transform with my painting prowess, I spy my collection of toy animal figurines.

Bingo.

The teal donkey was born.

Gleefully I showed my crafty friend my creation in the webcam, and she fell in love. I jokingly said that I should make an Etsy shop devoted to my mammalian creations, and she told me that if I didn't, she would. So ModFauna was born.

We are going into business together!

ModFauna will contain transformed objects d'art created from the blah base figurines of vintage, found and discarded but beautiful animal toys of our childhood past. We hand paint and design each and every figure and they are packaged with the utmost care (and style.)

ModFauna creations are perfect to transform any space! They add a certain style to an otherwise dull area with their bright colors and traditionally inspired patterns.

Take a look! (and pass out some hearts, we love those.)

{www.ModFauna.etsy.com}

We are currently featured in two treasiries:


http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=101486
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=80173&show_panel=true

ThePaperElement + CharmingMittens = Craft Nest

Today my friend ThePaperElement came over and we had a whole evening of crafting!

It started out with a $70 trip to Michael's, followed by some yummy dinner at Pei Wei, a trip through Lowes and finished with a massive craft nest in the middle of my living room floor where we proceeded to work on elements of our future business venture, to be announced.

We are quite thrilled!

My living room is trashed. hah!

Stay tuned, my lovely followers, because what is yet to come will knock your handmade socks off.

What?

Today there was a jedi battle in the organic produce section of my HEB.

New photos on the website

I added some beautiful new photos of Hannah here on my website. Take a look! Leave me a comment and see what you think =)

New Things To Come

Sometimes, just when you think you finally have everything figured out, something will just fly by and smack you in the head and make you reconsider some stuff.

This happened to me this evening. The thing flying and smacking me was my brand new kitten (Capers) (Best Christmas present ever) (Thank you darling fiance) and the stuff I reconsidered = my current art projects.

I have been feeling pretty cozy in my ability to create work for myself. I find enough stuff to keep me busy all day long and then some, usually keeping my mind racing many hours after I should have stopped and given myself a break, but times are changing!

You can expect to see some exciting new stuff out of me.

Constructive Tendencies

My new website is up and running!

Many thanks go to Richard Filyaw, my fabulous and talented web designer, who helped this become possible.

As you know, I am a photographer, and more than anything I wanted a place where I could show my work and not have to follow the scripts or setup of a hosted website, so I finally got my stuff together and got started on this project. I am very very proud to be able to show my work in such a fun online space! I am working on it daily, it is everchanging!

I am hoping that with time it will grow to look exactly how I want it. Nature inspired yet modern, fun yet classy, inspired yet professional.

I am encouraging all of my friends and etsy associates to go through my site and suggest to me some photos that you would like to see in my etsy shop. I am always trying to add new listings and bone up my shop, so please leave a comment and let me know your opinion.