april fool handmade

I'll no longer be posting in this journal, but will switch over to my personal journal:

melissa_stajda

So please be sure to add me:)

Thanks,
Melissa

I have a new addition to my arsenal. Yes, it's an iMac, brand new, and the coolest ever.

I was happy with my iBook, but it made things difficult for me... when I needed like 3 programs open at once to do web design. My monitor was so tiny that I couldn't see everything I needed. So it made me squint alot, and it was just kinda sucky. I mentioned to Jeremie that I would try and save up to buy an iMac at the holidays, and voila! My crazy husband bought me one. He's an ass:)

When it came today, I was literally shaking all over and could barely function. It was crazy... I'm such a geek. It's too exciting!!!

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Also, I'll be CLOSING the April Fool Handmade shop very soon. I'm too busy to keep up with orders, so I'm planning on sending my goods off for consignment, and maybe putting tiny things up in my Etsy shop every now and then. I'm just really busy with WYMI and it gets stressful trying to juggle everything at 100% all the time.

I'm also going to be focussing more on web-design and that fun stuff. So I'm tweaking my personal site, and trying to get that together. I really want to build a decent portfolio of design work so:

If you need assistance with web design, logo design, package design, promotional design, 1" button design/production, on and on... please contact me. Since I'm doing it freelance and need to build up my portfolio I'm offering my services cheap to start, so get it while the gettings good!

melissa@melissastajda.com

APRIL FOOL HANDMADE: SUMMER CLEARANCE SALE!

I'm having a huge clearance sale to clean out my craft room, and make space for Fall goods in the shop. I've had some old goodies stashed away in my closet for a while now, so I took out everything and put it in the shop. The prices are really really low... everything is priced $1 - $15 ! And everything is going QUICK so be sure to stop by and have a peek.

Check it out!( Read more... )

This is when being vegan gets really really hard. I went thrifting today and came across these gems. I think I loudly exclaimed "Holy crap!" when I saw them.

But they're real leather, and I don't wear leather. Bummer seriously. But I went ahead and bought them because I knew that someone would appreciate them as much as I do. They're seriously a thrifter and vintage shoe lovers dream find!

Women's 8 1/2. I believe that they've never been worn, and the soles and entire shoe are impecable! The creases at the toes are not from wear, but are the natural creases from the gathering. The leather is super soft and comfy. The sole is 1/2" thick with a 1" think heel. The only thing I can find is a white spot on the sole, where the glue from a price sticker was left. Other than that these are amazing shoes.

$35.00 with USPS Priority shipping included. I can only ship within the U.S..

3 years ago today, Jeremie and I were married atop the steps inside the San Francisco City Hall (that's little me on the steps). He ran around the corner to a flower shop and frustrated the owner by requesting he separate all of his pink cosmos, to make my bouquet. Our witnesses were a charming Navy man and his non-English speaking Japanese wife who were in line in front of us, and who happened to take terrible photos of our ceremony. Afterward we sat and I ate Thai food for the first time ever, and we watched the blackouts in NYC and Detroit on the TV. We ended the night by taking the underground train to Berkeley to see Ben Harper and Jack Johnson, and all was swell.

Oh yes, I also remember the fun trip back from the show! The train was filled with everyone from the concert, as it was the last ride back to San Fran, and this silly Australian boy was our personal comedian, giving us a show all the way. He danced around the train, making jokes about being from the "outback" and having a Kangaroo for a car in his exaggerated accent. Telling "stereotypical" stories of his homeland... making us all burst with laughter the entire time. Fun times.

Ever since, every time we eat Thai food I'm reminded of our wedding day. I've not listened to Ben Harper once since then, I think because I worry it might warp my experience somehow. So I'll probably never listen to his music again, and just save it for those memories.

Seriously, no matter what happens in my life, no matter what could possibly go wrong, and make me feel sad and upset... being with Jeremie and being best friends for the last 11 years makes me feel so secure and happy. I'm untouchable:)

Alrighty, so I really need some help here:

How do you compress the file size of an animated gif?

Even when I limit my colors to 8-bit, have 72 dpi, have no images, and only text... the file size is HUGE!

Please help me, I've been on my laptop for about 3 hours doing this...

it's making me crazy:(

Go here to the WYMI blog and let me know what happens:

http://www.what-you-make-it.com/blog

Whenever I go there, it doesn't immediately load... but if I hit refresh it's fine. I'm wondering if this is a Safari problem or not?

Thanks!

APRIL FOOL HANDMADE: SUMMER CLEARANCE SALE!

I'm having a huge clearance sale to clean out my craft room, and make space for Fall goods in the shop. I've had some old goodies stashed away in my closet for a while now, so I took out everything and put it in the shop. The prices are really really low! So be sure to stop by and have a peek.

Check it out!

P.S. Things will be really crazy for me, so the shop won't be re-stocked with any new goods until September (at the earliest)!

WHAT YOU MAKE IT: Let's get started on Issue No. 02

I know it's only been a little over a week since the debut issue launched, but it's time for us to get to work on Issue No. 02. Our Winter 2006 Issue will launch November 1st, and this time around we're working with a theme... we'll most likely work with themes for all future issues.

So hopefully you're interested in submitting to Issue No. 02 and you've already read the guidelines! If not, please check them out on our SUBMIT page, under the heading "Whatwe're looking for"... it's the bright orange link titled "read the details". Here's a link to the page to help you out:

http://www.what-you-make-it.com/pages/main_pages/submit.html

( Read more... )

APRIL FOOL HANDMADE: SUMMER CLEARANCE SALE!

I'm having a huge clearance sale to clean out my craft room, and make space for Fall goods in the shop. I've had some old goodies stashed away in my closet for a while now, so I took out everything and put it in the shop. The prices are really really low! So be sure to stop by and have a peek.

Check it out!

P.S. Things will be really crazy for me, so the shop won't be re-stocked with any new goods until September (at the earliest)!

CanoScan 8600 F

I'm such a dork. Have you seen this beast? It's insane! I'm saving up to buy it, but I can't figure out when it debuts... no dates offered.

But seriously, it scans at 4,800 9,600 DPI (19,200 with enhancement software), and can scan medium format film, and objects as thick as 1", and and and! It's awesome.

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Also, really important stuff! I'm in the process of photographing every single April Fool Handmade item that Ihave in my possession, so that I can hold a giant SUMMER CLEARANCE sale sometime very soon. I have little things stashed everywhere, and I really need to make some space for new projects. So hopefully I can have everything up in the shop by the end of next week!

Seriously... things will be garage sale cheap, so get your wallets ready!

I need to buy some new earrings, and I want to buy 100% handmade. So please give me some links to shops that you know have good earrings. And I need real silver or gold posts, as I have sensitive ears:)

Thanks!

We're back from vacation, and wow! I checked the WHAT YOU MAKE IT web stats and it averaged over 20,000 hits per day so far! That's insane, and totally unexpected for me.

But anyway... I still have some relaxing to do. But I'll check out everything, and return some e-mails very soon.

xoxo,
Melissa

WHAT YOU MAKE IT: Visit!

Sign the Guestbook!

It looks like day one snagged about 21,000 viewers! Which is awesome. I was aiming for about 10,000 hits... so that is so so cool!

I really appreciate everyone bringing so much attention to the project, and people were linking to it from all over the place. Besides our friends who were featured in the issue promoting like crazy, we had some new friends helping us out too. Here are just a handful of them:

Modish
Make It
Supernaturale
Smarts & Crafts
The Secret Lives of Crafters
Sproutgirl
Kelly Zarb Style
Blogue Fonetik

and many more!

Seriously, I really appreciate everyone doing their part to get the word out! Without every single one of you promoting the project, it couldn't be this successful I'm sure.

If you enjoyed the issue, please pretty please follow the link above and SIGN THE GUESTBOOK for me. It would really help me out so much.

THANK YOU ALL!

Melissa

Editor

Could you all direct me to some sites that have cool website backgrounds?

Please, thank you:)

WHAT YOU MAKE IT: A countdown to launch!

Hey folks! I'm super excited because we're getting "Oh so close!" to the debut launch of
WHAT YOU MAKE IT: an online art zine of sorts!

If you're receiving this e-mail, then you most definitely are featured in the debut issue in
some way. I truly appreciate all of the hard work, effort, and support you've all
contributed. This issue and this project in general could not be possible without each
and every one of you. So a huge thank you hug to everyone involved!

So here's where we are right now:

( Read more... )