This illustration is by Trina Clark, a wonderful illustrator whose works you can not only appreciate, but purchase for use in your own projects. More about that shortly.
News from Under the Bed . . .
Many of you noticed there was no Sheer Heaven Sale in December – or any other kind of promotion either.
Many of you have noticed me doing some mumbling about what I want to be when I grow up.
Many of you did not notice (and I was hoping you wouldn’t) that I have been absolutely freaking out for the past two and a half months. Sometimes, something happens that delivers a gigantic jolt to the status quo, and your head doesn’t stop shaking for awhile.
But you hang on and see it through. You drink a lot of chardonnay and wax poetic about it all. You process a lot of what-ifs. You think you are going through “Sheer Hell” for awhile, but then you have to put things into perspective. It’s not life or death, after all.
I have been sharing Sheer Heaven with the art and photography world for more than 11 years now. For almost 6 of those years, I’ve been waiting for a shoe to drop. The machinery used to make Sheer Heaven is old. It has been in need of a retooling for a long time, and we have been putting it off.
It got mad at us for ignoring its pain, and it broke.
Then we find out that one of the parts we need to fix it is not made anymore. Can we find an old one hidden away somewhere? Can we find somebody to make the part for us? And how long can that take?
While these questions remained unanswered, I did a lot of thinking. I looked for every kind of solution. I even ran tests on every other synthetic sheet in the world to see if just maybe, anything was enough like Sheer Heaven that it could see us through this crisis.
The answer to that was a resounding NO. In fact, the silver lining to this whole thing was that I found out how truly miraculous Sheer Heaven is. Nothing has its unique set of qualities, or can do what it does. Nothing even comes close, in fact – and now I know that.
So, when I was presented with the cost of the “fix” for our problem, and fell on the floor from shock, I had to weigh whether it was reasonable for me to lay out that kind of cash to save this product. That was a very difficult decision . . . but I decided that Sheer Heaven is worth it.
Even with the problems solved, we are about six weeks out from having another mill roll, so I have had to make a couple of changes – my first price increase in eleven years, and the suspension of the 100 Pack until we can get our supply replenished.
If you have visited my website lately, you have seen some of this change. You might even have checked in during the time that Sheer Heaven was actually “rationed”! Only 10 Packs for sale, and only one to a customer for a little while there, when I thought it might be the end of the line.
Anyway, all’s well for the time being, and hopefully, we won’t have to do this kind of thing again for a long while.
I have crawled back out from under the bed, and now, let’s hear some good news . . .
Good News . . .
It has long been a belief in the news business that good news doesn’t sell. People want the dramatic and shocking stuff which mostly comes with bad news.
The great thing about the web is that you can go ahead and try things for yourself. You don’t have to wait for the big guys to get around to it. And several innovative websites have proven that good news is indeed a good thing.
The Huffington Post actually has a “Good News” section – which you can find under “More” on their menu bar.
And they just ran a great list of 15 Uplifting Sites that I think you will enjoy exploring:
15 Uplifting Sites
How Well Do You Know Yourself?
OK, the world is full of more self help stuff than we can possibly help ourselves to, but some of it is really worth consideration.
I was first attracted by the way these questions were presented with beautiful photos, and then by how much I had to think to get the answers, and then by what I learned about myself while thinking.
Like this, for example . . .
Wow . . . hmmmm . . . mmmmm . . . can I get back to you on that one?
Here are 39 more of these on a favorite blog of mine . . .
Marc and Angel Hack Life
Artist of the Week . . .
When I go in search of our Artist of the Week, it is difficult to choose among the truly amazing artists I run into.
So, I usually go for the artist doing work that is right on the edge of unbelievable, and that is certainly true of Simon Beck – who walks these patterns in snow.
HIs story is well told in this blog post on . . .
My Modern Met
Country Clip Art – Amazing Sale . . .
I have used Trina Clark’s artwork in the past when I found it on a clipart subscription site. But then, while I was chasing some other thing around the web, I ran into her own site – full of fabulous illustration.
There are bigger fans of the Country Style than I am (just sayin’), but I found plenty of garden art to love – and use in my store signage, little notecards sets, etc.
Because, you see, Trina Clark (that’s her coffee cup and doughnut up top) has probably the most liberal usage rights I have ever seen.
AND she sells full color or coloring book versions.
AND the art comes in both JPG and PNG formats. The PNG has a transparent background which means you can easily combine images.
AND Trina is having an unbelievable 95¢ Sale through February 29. Not single images, but whole sets for 95¢.
I went overboard. You will too . . .
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