Things I Wanna Do More of This Year - 2012 Resolutions

My craft pillow that I use in place of a table for crafting in my lap
Sadly not cross-stitched by me, but ever a source of inspiration
Photo by Steph Cortes - edited with Camera+ & FilterMania

A lovely coworker of mine, Lilly, told me about how she'd just shown her aunt my blog today.

I know that's a really simple sentence. But it meant to world to me...

Although I've been on the interwebs for quite some time, it hasn't truly sunk in that people read my musings. Probably because of the lack of Julie/Julia-esque transition from blogging for an empty room to international stardom launched by the New York Times!! But I digress...

When someone reads my blog, I'm totally flattered. I know that *I'm* entertained by talking about yarn, crayons and nerdity, but it really takes it to a whole new level when others rock out with me.

Which made me think that this is what I wanted: to write!

I've been thinking about writing a book for years. The theme has changed many times, but I've always been determined to get published. The first step to doing that is creating a body of work... Which takes work!

So, like all aspiring writers, I sat down & made a list to help me tackle the workload.

After I wrote out this list, I labeled the journal in which I wrote it:

A first draft!!

I can't tell you how happy this folded up post-it note makes me! It may have only been something I did with half of my lunch break in the back room at my retail gig, but hey! I came up with the name "nerd JERK" and my mission statement in that very room (in that very seat, even!) in late 2009, so... who knows? Maybe in 3 years, I'll be reading my book at the SFO bookstore?!?

You'll notice that I've starred a few items on my list. Every time I make a list, I make a Top 5 of the things that must get done, but since that would have been 50% of the Things (and I felt I ought to give myself some room for failure), 30% seemed like a fair compromise. 

My Top 3 Things that I must get done this year will be:

3) Start a savings account (& add to it!!)

I anticipate that I will need some kind of money source in the coming months. I plan on doing out of state shows and traveling (maybe moving?), and all of this requires bucket loads of money. I'd better grow up and rock that interest rate!

4) Write more / blog more

When speaking to one of my favorite authors, Mary Roach, last year [future blog post], I realized just how much I wanted to make book happen. So I'm going along with the resounding theme of the year: write more! Which means you'll be hearing a lot more from me!

8) GET ORGANISED!!!

I had planned on showing y'all a pic of my view from my couch in my living room that I took the other day, but lemme sum it up for ya: it's a feckin' mess! I need to work on that... but I'll be procrastinating til the cows come home if I do it all at once. So I decided to do a little at a time. Here's some of my efforts from New Year's Day:

What's on YOUR bookshelf? Mine has tons of craft self-help books. :D

From the bookshelf located in my office! So many amazing books will help me along the way. And yes - I love "For Dummies" books. And no - I haven't really used 'em since I purchased them in spring 2011, but that could change, hey?

I'm inspired by so many things at once this week. Must be all the sleep I'm getting.

Hope you're all getting some sleep, having fun & eating tasty treats... speaking of which, I was interviewed last year and the podcast was just put up! I'll have to share the deets next time, but until then---

Loves & Awesomeness,

- Steph

Happy 2012, Nerds!!

=NEW= Happy Hot Pink Crayon Plush
First in the new 2012 Collection I'm working on

I thought I would start this New Year off right by thanking all of my friends, fans and family for such an eventful year! So many good times were had and I can't wait to see what 2012 has to offer nerd JERK!

I've been hinting about some new items that I finally got to put together over the weekend on Facebook and Twitter, but I didn't have a chance to show you any of them yet. So I took a quick snapshot on Instagram [find me as @nerdJERK] to give ya a sneak peek!

What do ya think? I know it's not video game related, like most of my amigurumi is, but I've got a deep passion for school supplies and especially CRAYONS!! You can't see it from here, but I even embroidered the name of the crayon on its butt! Hehe

I'm hoping this new line will light up some smiles! I know that as soon as I finished this cutie, I grabbed her and started "writing" all over the walls, like when I was a kid! That's how I know that my inner geek was genuinely stoked.

Happy Christmas!!!

My Silly Family - taken by Sarah Cortes - Top Left (clockwise)
Sarah (sister), Me, Roger (boyfriend) with kitty & Lita (grandma)

What a wonderful holiday season, dudes! It's been ridiculously busy and I was struggling just to keep up. But I was so stoked to have this many awesome folks ordering nerdity for gifts this holiday!

Some of my new items ended up being hits at shows. I'd meant to actually have these gift sets ready to sell online in October, but Granny's heart troubles took priority over gift planning. So, I've extended the offer until the New Year! :D

Giant pile of Holiday Gift Sets - $36 USD each

These cute gift sets have my Mini Mario Items in Holiday Harmony - meaning at a savings! :D Some of the Sets include:

• Mini Bob-Omb & Mini Hot Pink Bob-Omb - $36 USD
• Mini 1-UP & Mini Mario Mushrooms - $36 USD
• Mini Blue & NEW Mini Hot Pink Mushrooms - $36 USD
• Mini Merry Yoshi Eggs (Red & Green) - $36 USD

But I gotta say, the best seller this Holiday Season was one of my NEW DIY Nerdy Cross-Stitch Kits! Can you guess which one?

That's right!

Don't Be Poopy - Beginner Cross-Stitch Kit! - $18 USD

Making tons of these kits reminded me to be less of a poo when I was stuck crocheting all night. And at my holiday craft shows that I did after sleepless nights. And hanging out at my retail gig for..ev...errrr!

Anyway, just wanted to wish you all a Happy Holiday season and I hope that you're all doing awesome things with rad people!

Take care & remember to lay off being poopy. ;D

Sorry for the radio silence: A Proposal

Every few months, I write the same thing: I'm sorry I've been so quiet, guys. It won't happen again.

But, as we can clearly see, it totally does.

Now, mainly what happens during this period of time is that my other commitments (you mean there's stuff you do other than nerd JERK?) get the best of me. This almost always totally blows, as my passion is really with my geektastic creations... and how to make them more nerdifyed.

However, this time it was different. I have a pretty good reason this time.

My grandma (affectionately known as Lita) at Wal-Mart
[P.S. She loves Wal-Mart]

My adorable grandma had a couple of heart attacks. I'm her full-time care-giver, so I'm supposed to be able to fix those, right? Well, the good news is we caught them in time and after a couple of procedures, she's on the mend in a rehab center.

So while she's getting better, I've got this gut-wrenching cold/flu/disease-from-hell that I still go to my retail job with during the week. And I've got social worker meetings to go to for my great-aunt (not to mention the phone calls from the same great-aunt about her sister in the hospital). And I've got a business to run.

Needless to say, I'm exhausted, so it only made sense that my body decided to give up and get super duper sick in the middle of all of this. But that doesn't mean I'm not trying to be awesome... somewhere on my insides.

What I wanted to say was thank you to all the homies that have stuck it out & are waiting for new content. :) I definitely wanna give it to you. But I wonder if I've made it kind of a big deal for myself to blog something. I mean, the content I put out is usually well-thought out and has tons of pictures (plus a purpose). But lately, I've been thinking about one of my big dreams back in the day... I wanna write a book.

This could be on the cover:

photo by Stefanie Renee

Cos, I mean, c'mon - who WOULDN'T wanna buy this book?! It's got Bestseller written ALL over it!

This picture (taken by my friend, Stefanie Renee) is the kind of person I really am, but don't show too often. I worry about what people will think of me (says the girl who makes crocheted toys for a living) instead of thinking of the rad people who'd embrace my kind of weirdness.

So, keeping with the theme that I haven't been taking very good care of myself, that I wanna do better & I've got a whole lot of awesome I've been wanting to share, but haven't because of fear, I think I'm just gonna say I'm gonna go for it.

Is anyone strongly opposed to knowing more about the person behind the glasses? Or do I get an "All Systems Go" from y'all?

Getting to know the Lovely Ladies of LIDL

Some of you folks may or may not know that I belong to an awesome group called the Ladies Independent Design League (or LIDL for short). It's where a few select female entrepreneurs gather to talk about their projects, business and lives.

If you're a nerd like me, it sounds like a rad secret society of hand-picked go-getters trading the keys to success. All that's missing are the capes! :D

I'd love to take a minute away from our "regularly scheduled" program to show introduce you to some of the coolest ladies that I know. I know you're gonna love them as much as I do!

---

Hand-printed linen -6 piece scrap pack
by Jen Hewett - $20 USD

JEN HEWETT

Jen shared her time (non) management tips on the blog When I Grow Up, in between packing for her trip to Istanbul and adding new fabric packs to her shop.

In addition to printing and consulting, Jen also writes a weekly post about her adventures in self-employment on her blog. You can check out the series here & follow her on Twitter.

the girls - by Stefanie Renee - on Flickr

STEFANIE RENEE
Stef has been enjoying the last few days of summer with her kids along with brainstorming ideas for a new Photography website! Look for transitional changes soon and even bigger changes in the coming months!  Teahouse Studio is ramping up for the Fall Class Line Up! Have you signed up for your class yet?

art space - by Stefanie Renee - at Teahouse Studio

MATI ROSE
The lovely Mati has been busy working on her first 2 children's books and a painting book called "A DARING ADVENTURE IN PAINT" to debut with Quarry Books in Summer 2012.
I've seen her working on some amazing paintings at her lovely space at Teahouse Studio. It's so inspiring to see her process.


WILLO O'BRIEN
Social media maven, Willo of WilloToons Connect, recently updated her network on her busy life:
Last week was all about breathing more space into my life & *slowing down* a bit. This week it's head's down crankin' on client projects.

Find out more about Space Craft here!

AMELIA KADIFF-STRADER

Amelia created these cute little desk buddies for her latest GoGo Craft workshop adventure: SpaceCraft.  These alien friends will be featured at a FREE Mini Plushie Workshop on Sept 12^th and 18^th at SF Public Libraries.  For workshop locations and details click here.

Question about Revisiting Comics - APE 11

Some things heal with time.
From ...You Don't Have To Be a Dreamboat
An unfinished comic about a guy I knew

Yesterday I got a letter in the mail from Justin Dutta of Comic-Con International, letting me know that THEY know "that [APE 11] is very important to [me & my] company."

And, dudes, don't get me wrong, I'm stoked!! I had given up hope on participating in Alternative Press Expo this year as an exhibitor, as so many of my friends had already been given word of getting in such a long time ago. But I'm still kind of dumb-struck again this year...

Have I drawn anything new? NOPE! Have I done ANYTHING remotely comic-y? Nuh-uh. I've been getting by on the two 24-HR Comics I've done. And I haven't even put the new one for sale yet... a year later. :( I'm gonna just take a chance and call that a COMIC FAIL.

So that had me thinkin' about the body of work I've already got from 2008...

Elevator Boogie in an Art Store
From ...You Don't Have To Be a Dreamboat

It's called "...You Don't Have to be a Dreamboat" and is based on a dating experience I had that year with a foxy hipster. Yeah - we've all been there... right?

Anyway, I drew "..Dreamboat" kind of like a diary: it helped me cope with my excitement, lows and uncertainty surrounding this affair. While it's 3 years later and I feel very happily "married" (seriously, the only thing missing is a certificate), I'm wondering if I could get the story right in time for APE 11.

I thought redrawing the whole thing would be best, as I drew this comic a) on the bus, b) in miniature (like Jeffrey Brown) and c) as a beginner in comics. As time went on and I drew more panels per day, I progressed in my style. My current drawing style is a bit awesomer than all this.

What do you all think? If I re-draw it, I might be able to get 24 pages done by the end of September. If I don't, would it be acceptable to print a rough draft?

          What would YOU do?