Black Eyed Peas' Will.i.am Sports My Goggles!

Over the summer I was selling some vintage goggles in my Etsy shop that were such a huge hit with burners and steampunkers that they completely sold out.

And what do you know but Will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas was sporting a pair while on tour with U2 earlier this year.

How cool is that?

You can get your own pair for $33.00 plus $6.30 S/H and PayPal convenience charge simply by clicking the button below.

UPDATE: My friend Luna-See just shared with me that one of the Midnight Ridazz is wearing a pair in this "30 Seconds to Mars" video! W00T!

Thirty Seconds To Mars - Kings + Queens - HD

30 Seconds to Mars | MySpace Video

We Haz Anotha Winnah!

Hi everybody! In this contest giveaway all you had to do was leave a comment on Yummy Lolly's video portfolio. We had four people enter however two withdrew their entries because they are artists of letters and not so much visual artists as this giveaway requires. That leaves us with two entrants and only one could win. So...drum roll please...the winner is (click the video above to find out!).

Featured Artist: Cristina McAllister

Today's featured artist is Cristina McAllister who won a video portfolio of her art. Cristina produces a series of beautiful illustrations she calls "Cristina's Angels" which are these sexy drawings of angelic girls dressed in eclectic and funky styles. They're really lovely as you can see from this video. You can get Cristina's angels on selected clothing items, prints and cards. She'll even create custom portraits and avatars by commission. The pretty music Cristina selected is by a friend of hers called Nick the Neck (aka "Pumpkin") and I think it works so well with this piece. You can hear more of his work here.

If YOU would like to WIN a video of your own work I'm having another contest. All you have to do is click here {CLICK HERE} and follow directions to enter. The drawing ends at 10/27/2009 at 11:59 pm Pacific Daylight Time. Good luck!

GB-TV: Hello Kitty's Super Fan Day @ Royal/T

I just got back from the Hello Kitty Three Apples Exhibit at the Royal/T, a unique art space and ship in Culver City. It's a killer place with a cosplay cafe that is utterly fantabulous.  While I had a really good time I have to tell you: it was pretty crowded because HK fans were waiting round the block since 6:00 am for the doors to open at 11:00am.

Check out this audio tweet I made -- live on the scene -- while I was waiting in line. I did it on my iPhone using an app called TweetMic. Here I talk to one of the event coordinators:



Still, like I said, I had a great time though...OMG I had SUCH a great time! While I was there I got to meet Yuko Yamaguchi (aka Kitty Mama) Hello Kitty’s head designer and the seriously awesome Simone Legno of Tokidoki who were both signing autographs at the event. They were there to launch the exclusive Tokidoki for Hello Kitty 35th Anniversary collection. What was really cool is that they were having a raffle of some of these exclusive items as we were waiting in the long ass lines so it made it easier deal with.

There was way, way, way more to see and do than what you can see from this slide show. Like a jewelry workshop with Three Apples artist Natalia Fabia or a Hello Kitty Sushi Bento Box Workshop with Sushi Girl! I missed out on these because apparently the workshops were chockerblock before the store even opened.

But not to worry. Since the exhibit will continue until November 15th there are going to be a ton of fun filled workshops and more cool events throughout its duration so you really ought to download the PDF at Royal T's site and sign up as soon as you see something that strikes your fancy.  Space is limited and like I said at the top of the blog, this event is super popular and the lines are long.  Bring a folding chair and be prepared to make friends with other Hello Kitty fans in line like I did. For instance: I met another fellow Blogger blogger by the name of Sandi and she's got this hip blog called "Sandi In The City".  I totally recommend it for all you glamourous fashionistas out there. I subscribed and so should you!

New Contest Plus Yummy Lolly's Free Blogger Templates

A few weeks ago I fell in love with digital artist Itkupilli. Her work totally blew my mind and inspired me to customize my own Blogger blog. If you've been reading along with my postings you'll notice I've been changing the look and feel of it like some women change shoes. I can't make up my mind! And I predict I may still continue to tinker with it. I mean all the free templates I've discovered are soooo beautiful I just...can't...help...it!

As I've been crafting my blog and customizing all the columns and widgets and whatnot, I've run into some issues and I needed help. I came across Sharnee from YummyLolly.com who was suuuuuper helpful just in her blogging tutorials alone. But I also reached out to her and asked her a question to which she promptly answered so now Sharnee has become my new best friend! :)

Anyway, we're still working on getting Cristina McAllister's video brochure up for you to see. If you'll recall, she was the winner of my last contest.  It's taking a bit of time but hopefully we'll be able to pull it together for next week. Until then, please enjoy Yummy Lolly's video and if YOU would like to WIN a video of your own work just leave a comment below and tell me what you find absolutely yummy. Come on! Tell me! :).  The deadline is 10/27/2009 at 11:59 pm Pacific Daylight Time. The winner will be selected at random.

Oh, and personally: pie a la mode gets me every time. That's my yummy nom for you! Good luck!

Introducing GlamourMom

My mother taught me everything I know about being creative and getting crafty. When I was growing up she would make amazing pieces of decoupage items -- anywhere from furnishings to home decor. She also used to knit all my sweaters, sew all my Halloween costumes, fix fabulous meals, and keep a beautiful home nice and clean. After all that she would handpaint china in her free time.

GlamourMom doesn't do any of these things any more. But she's still pretty active. She works tirelessly in her garden almost everyday tending to her roses and taking delight when the hummingbirds come to feed. I've made a few videos of her when I was just starting out in vidcasting last year so I thought it would be really, REALLY fun if she would do a small tutorial series on knitting for beginners. I mean, I could do it -- she taught me how -- but it's hard filming and being the subject at the same time. So I thought I'd get my mom to do it and together we'd have some fun.

Thing is, GlamourMom doesn't want to. :/

Today my sister and I were making mixed media ACEOs and I could tell GlamourMom wanted to get in on it. She'd just stand there, watching us, pursing her lips together and squinting. So I suggested "Hey mom! Let's get you an Etsy shop!"

GlamourMom said no and shook her head. "It's too much. I don't want to," she said.

It would seem that GlamourMom is no fun. Boo!

But then, after lunch, GlamourMom came up to me and asked me if I would sell this vintage decoupage wicker tray that she made in the seventies.

"What???" I asked her incredulously. "You want to sell that?"

Personally, I didn't want to see it go. And then I realized what a doof I was being. I'm no help! My mom finally has mustered the strength to sell a piece of her own work and here I was going noooooo-don't-sell-that-gorgeous-piece-that-I'm-attached-to-and-have-fond-memories-because-it's-a family-treasure-mom!

After much backpedaling I told my mom I would sell it for her but not before I made a video -- not so much for advertising sake but for posterity's sake.

It's a really sweet piece to me. The elements came off of a pre-cut strip of decoupage sheets and you had to snip off little ends to get it out of the paper. Then she would use Mod Podge to lay it all down and when she was done finish it off with shellac. I think my mom has a way of making anything look truly magical and glamourous! It's up in my Etsy shop and in a way I sort of want it to stay there. But I know how delighted she would be if it sold and then maybe she might be inclined to take up china painting or knitting or decoupage again and open her own Etsy shop just for fun. We'll see! (Fingers crossed). XD

Some Items Currently Listed In My Etsy Shop

Here's a slideshow set to some pretty music of items I recently posted to my Etsy store. Enjoy!

Check out Regretsy!

There's a new blog on the block and while it ain't really the cutest one per se, I have to tell you it's pretty frikkin' awesome. It features items regrettably posted to Etsy and so therefore it goes by the name "Regretsy". It's hilariously written by the "Regretsy Team" with the acerbic wit of a snarky post-op tranny going through manopause. I absolutely love this site and apparently so does the LGBT community from looking at Regretsy's picks.

Now I'm not one for putting a kaibosh on anybody's creative expression -- especially that of outside artists or even cool hipsters. It's not fair to call any artist who's work is featured there as a competitor in the "Special Olympics of Art". Expressing one's self in an artistic way is a vulnerable act that should be applauded. The Regretsy team prefers to call it acknowledged.

Some may think that the spirit of the blog is pretty mean and down right cruel but keep in mind the old adage "all publicity is good publicity" because in this case it's really true. In the few weeks the blog has gone live many of the artist's featured in it have not only gained some notoriety but have also had great exposure to buyers and have actually sold their work! Art sales in a recession? C'est fantastique!

One word of caution though: the Regretsy team has a wicked habit of putting the most obscene posts of the day up last which means if you're at work and thinking "hey, let's see the latest on Regretsy" you're very likely to see some sort of bumping ugly redone in some sort of medium and called art. It can be rather shocking. While you can't really tell your boss it's porn you're looking at, I'm sure you'd rather not have to explain yourself to your co-workers either. And all you lovely mama's out there: this is the kind of site you want to look at when the kids are in bed because it's my humble opinion that Regretsy is NSFW/NSFK. At least, the times that I've checked in.

My two cents. YMMV.

All Aboard the Blog Train!

Hey there all you crafty people, come on board the Blog Train!

The Blog Train is a fantastic idea from bloggers Trish H and Tanya Gal in which hundreds of scrapbookers from all over the blogosphere get to share their designs with others. It leaves the station every other month and is totally chockerblock with FREE scrapbook kits!

So get on over to the Blog Train Blog and download some fabulous kits today and tell'em DaBomb sentcha!

This month's theme is "Be Thankful" which is an outlook on life that a beloved friend shared with me over and over again before he had to go to heaven. I miss him much but I am ever so thankful he was in my life.

At this very moment I give thanks for technology that connects us all and enables us to share amazing ideas and creations with each other.

Think about what you have to be thankful for and perhaps you won't mind sharing your thoughts on gratitude with me by leaving a comment?

We Haz A Winnah!

Good morning peeps! We haz a winnah for my very first contest to win a custom slideshow video-oh of some lucky artist's fabulous work. This was so much fun, I can't WAIT to do it again! Thanks to everybody that participated!

Oh Noes!

I'm at the Apple Store in Sherman Oaks right now and my optical drive is borkened and needs to be fixed. Thank goodness I got AppleCare so I'm covered under warranty!

What this means is that I won't have a computer of my own for the next several days. However I will still do the contest so don't you worry! The show goes on and we work with the tools that we've got.

Here's what I'm gonna do: I will use a friend's computer to hold the contest. I will videotape the winner (so I can prove it was selected at random) but I won't be able to record a slick screencast like I did for the recent how to/tutorial screencast on how to purchase a domain name for your Blogger/Blogspot blog that I did earlier this week. :(

Please keep leaving comments for the contest HERE because I love meeting all these new artists! Good luck!

Enter My Contest and Checkout Itkupilli's Spooky Stuff {Halloween - Digital Design Kit}

Last week I made a digital "Thank You" video to Itkupilli, the designer of my blog theme and I thought I'd make another one featuring some of the cute (and cool) art she has for sale on Etsy. I love her art! She's so innovative with her designs and generous with creations. She gives away free blog stuff (like the background image you see here on my blog) and she even offers tutorials on how to customize your own blog.

Now the images featured in the video above are selections from Itkupilli's Halloween themed digital collage sheets. You can use these images for your mixed media, altered arts, ATC, ACEO, jewelry, decoupage, stickers, fabrics, and more! Here's the deets:

• 2 8x8" background papers in .jpg format
• 8 ATC size (2.5x3.5") backgrounds in .jpg format
• 20 elements in .png format.
• The entire kit comes in 300 dpi so you can print in high quality resolution!
• Now available in her Etsy store for only $4.50!

The next video I make could feature your art! I'm having a contest and all you have to do to enter is leave a comment below. Each commenter will be numbered and then the winning number will be selected at random. This is the kind of contest where you can enter as many times as you wish! But the catch is: if you want to enter again and again you must leave in your subsequent follow-up comment(s) the name of a friend of yours that also commented to be considered for another entry. OF COURSE THE FIRST COMMENT is just you. But re-entry requires a referral name. The deadline for all comments is 11:59pm on Friday October 9, 2009. Winner will be announced here on my blog sometime on Saturday morning whenever I wake up. :)

I'm so looking forward to seeing how this all plays out as I've never done anything like this before. And since I do not have many followers I think you have a very good chance of winning! (I used to do free movie drawings here in Los Angeles and about five people would enter every week for months. It was fun to hang with my friends on a rotational basis! :). Anyway...I hope you will participate in this contest. I think a video would be cool and I love to meet new artists. Good luck!

How To Purchase A Custom Domain Name Through Blogger

This tutorial will show you how to purchase a domain name through Blogger. For those of you new to blogging this means that your Blogger blog will appear at its own domain name (i.e. "http://www.MyGreatBlog.com" instead of "http://MyGreatBlog.blogspot.com". The nice part is that Google makes the process a snap.

I can attest to the ease of setting up your domain name through Blogger as all my previous domains were purchased through GoDaddy and their checkout process is very confusing! Now I'm somewhat of an intermediate level geek -- I love tech -- but even so, I've ended up making purchases for things I don't need when using GoDaddy's bamboozling checkout system.

Another plus if you purchase through Blogger is that the WHOIS ownership of your domain can be made private which is a service that GoDaddy charges extra for! The funny thing is, Blogger is a reseller for GoDaddy so you end up with them anyway but without the extra fees or confusion.

Remember to keep in mind that you just need to buy the domain. You don’t need hosting, because Blogger handles that.

If my tutorial leaves you with some questions, I suggest you go over to Blogger support and see if your problem can be resolved there. If you're still stuck I will try to answer questions via comments left below.

UPDATE 6 October 2009 - I decided to transfer my domain "GlamourBomb.com" which I have at GoDaddy to point to this blog. So I didn't have the option to do the above video for this particular site. I managed to do it successfully but it was a complex procedure. I strongly suggest if you're pointing a GoDaddy name to a Blogger blog to follow these directions carefully. I would make a video but I think it's better if you just do it the way it's laid out out step-by-step.