we feel fine book winner...

three cheers to the winner of our we feel fine book giveaway, mr. brian sikorski of wonderful time photography! it seems random.org wanted to see his flaming middle finger just as much as we did, and brian was nice enough to oblige with a photo!

still bummed you didn't win? it's ok, you can still order a copy!

free shipping shopping event this weekend!

you know heart and laserbeams always ships for free - this weekend my unique women in business group is gettin' in on the free shipping action with our first etsy team event! we're super stoked about it and hope you are, too!

both etsy shops and independent businesses are having sales. qualifying items for each shop vary, so check out each individual shop for their promotion. (as always, all hearts and laserbeams items will be shipping for free.)

most of the etsy shops participating will have a shop announcement: Unique Women in Business Etsy Team will be having a FREE SHIPPING event starting Friday, January 22 thru Monday, January 25. Search on UWIBTEAMFS to find all shops/items participating.

Here is the thread for more info, and to see who is participating: http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6395648

To immediately start searching, click here.

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indie businesses not on etsy that are participating include:

Glitzy Events - Use coupon code UWIBFREESHIP at check-out on our website

The Angel Company - Rita Wetzel, Independent Demonstrator - Send email to Rita at stamp2stamp2@yahoo.com with a list of item numbers, description, quantity. Rita will email you order total. Payment via PayPal or Credit Card.

Charms~N~Things - coupon code FSJAN2010

Painted Laydies Mineral Makeup - Everything ships free all the time. No code needed.

Naughty and Nice Lingerie - Shipping is always free within the US! Fast, free shipping, dollar rewards and free gifts with certain purchases! Check out my store for more details or email sales@naughtyandnicelingerie.com. Ask me how to get an additional 10% off your purchase!!

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Please help us spread the word by blogging, Facebooking, or tweeting about this event.

You can learn more about UWIB by checking out the yahoo group.

behind the artwork: the fruit and nuts series

in light of our recent feature on regretsy, i'd love to share exactly where that strange little fruit and nuts series of paintings came from. step in the way back machine with us, back to 2004!

ah, 2004 - what a good year. i had been laid off from oshkosh bgosh, was homeless on my sister's couch in garden grove for a while, met the future husband... and started getting into art shows.

the very first art show i did was a group show at chango coffee house in echo park. it was a simple piece called "apple takes a stroll". a little 5" x 5" acrylic painting featuring a super happy apple with stick arms and legs walkin through a park.

after the show, my good friend angela bought the painting and made the comment "this is so cute - i really wanna see apple in a knife fight with robert downey, jr!" it was like a burst of comic genius that really got my wheels turning. coincidentally, that same week i had bought a trashy tabloid mag. i was flipping through it, and... well...

i didn't see any good pictures of robert downey, jr. but i DID see a great picture of will ferrell.



that just started an avalanche of wackiness. i flipped through a bunch of tabloid magazines, found some great celeb faces, and collaged them into twelve new paintings featuring that original Apple character along with his friends Orange, Peach, Grapes and more. They were quirky and fun, and within a year every one of the original paintings sold. The most exciting sale came at a Pasedena craft show, where the customer informed me that she worked with courtney cox-arquette on the show dirt, and the next week's filming was going to be directed by david arquette. so she bought the painting as a gift for them!



i ran into that same customer at another craft show a year later - she gave me a great update on my little painting, that the cox-arquette family loved the painting, and that their daughter coco smiled and laughed whenever she saw it. another satisfied customer!



etsy's shown some love for this series, too! they featured the martha piece in a storque post, and also commissioned me to create two new pieces in that stick figurey style to hang outside their conference room doors this past november.

and that's the story! they're a little strange, they're a little nutty, but they're a whole lot of fun and i love em - i hope you do too!

lyrics in review - "tik tok" by kesha

ok look i've started listening to 97.1 on the way to work in the mornings (and again on the way home) because there's lots of happy dancey stuff playing that puts me in a good mood.

there's one song i've been hearing a lot of recently, and i gotta say there's lyrics in it that trouble me. and spell disaster for today's youth. i'm talking about "tik tok" by kesha. it strikes horror in my very soul.

this is the scariest part of the song:

"Ain’t got a care in world, but got plenty of beer
Ain’t got no money in my pocket, but I’m already here
Now, the dudes are lining up cause they hear we got swagger
But we kick ‘em to the curb unless they look like Mick Jagger"

ok what?!?! you don't want the boys unless they look like this?


(photo from the daily mail)

i mean, if you're into old crusty rockers that's totally fine, but wouldn't you rather keep them boys that look more like this?


(photo found on the jase knows music blog)

i guess bowie doesnt' really rhyme with swagger, so i'd like to humbly suggest changing the lyrics to:

"Now, the dudes are lining up cause they hear we got blowie
But we kick ‘em to the curb unless they look like Dave Bowie"

Game, set, match, WIN!

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click here to read the full song's lyrics.