My commie robot was featured in an Etsy Treasury and I could not be more flattered. The Chinese themed treasury fits it perfectly! With the flood of reds and tigers for this year's Chinese Zodiac animal, it truly makes me home sick. I need to get back there soon. To view the Treasury, click here. No new robots yet but I have some ideas that are underway and am very excited to see how they turn out.
I just wanted to announce that the ever-talented Jack Fallows of Crumpettimecomics has put the Viva La Robolution print up in his Esty shop for public consumption!! Yes, I know. I can barely contain my excitement. Especially since I JUST ordered my very own print of it. YAY!! His print and my communist robot were a collaboration in celebration of how well robots and communist propaganda go together. Don't you agree? Expect some more communist robots up soon...and hopefully more collaborations!
Yes. More Baby Robots. I'd almost worry you'd get sick of em only I know you won't. Because they're so freaking cute.
Today, the purple and turquoise robot troupe went up in the Etsy Shop! Go give them a gander!
Voila! What goes together better than Communism and Robots? That's right. Peanut butter and jelly. But OTHER than peanut butter and jelly, nothing goes together better than Communism and Robots! It just makes sense. Big Brother would be all over it! Especially ones this cute. Check these commie bots out in the Etsy Shop!
More robots! Yes, you heard right. Now in a primarily white love design. You can find em in my Etsy shop! They are ♥ EVER ♥ so cute. Go look here.
You know the feeling when you eavesdrop and hear someone singing your praises? Even if it's just something little like "Her hair looks so cute today!" Doesn't that just make your day? Well...it's similar in the blog world. You occasionally run across someone talking about you or your product. And that's always truly truly exciting. Especially when you're new to the world of selling your stuff online.
I was notified this morning that my Baby Robots were featured in Jenny N. Design's blog!! SO exciting. Read it HERE. Visit my Etsy shop HERE to see the robots themselves.
After a much needed absence (Christmas, New Year's Eve, What Else Was There), I have returned! And with GOOD NEWS! The BABY ROBOTS have FINALLY arrived!!!! Yes, I'm excited. Beyond excited. I finally got my studio together and started cranking these babies out. Hehe...babies. Anyways...
Visit my Etsy shop HERE to see them and adopt one of your own. Just in time for Valentine's Day! Or just for someone who really likes red, white, and pink! MORE are on their way so keep checking back, folks. Did I just say folks?
WOW! I am OVERWHELMED by the love I got for this giveaway. This robot received a total of 90 comments and he is tickled pink about it. I also really enjoyed hearing about everyone's Christmas traditions and their favorite part of the holidays.
Okay. It's the moment you've been waiting for. The winner of this Baby Robot is...
ANGELA PEA!!
Congratulations Angela! I'll be contacting you soon to get your info to ship this little guy out to you!
Everyone else, thank you SO much for participating! I enjoyed checking out your blogs as well. Please bookmark my blog as I do plan to put some Baby Robots in my Etsy store eventually. I am going to be much too busy over Christmas but hopefully some time after. So keep posted!
Merry Christmas, Everyone!
It is time for the Sew, Mama, Sew GIVEAWAY!! YAY!! And you won't be disappointed. Today, I am giving away one of my Baby Robots!! These are very new...so new in fact that I have not listed them to my Etsy shop yet. But all in good time, my pretties. They are entirely hand painted and handmade and are incredibly cute. If you hadn't noticed. They are only about two inches tall and come with a red string to hang as an ornament if desired. These will be available in my shop on Etsy eventually. Please pay it a visit to see what other items I have available or just to say hello! Click the blue links above.
The holidays have kind of thrown me for a loop. So here's how this will work. Answer the following question. I will choose a random post on December 6th and that post will be the winner (posting more than once still only counts as one entry). QUESTION: What is one of your family's Christmas Traditions? Of course, I don't get to play but I'll share one (or two) with you anyway...since Christmas is around the corner. :)
Every year my family makes our Christmas Eve meal of Swiss Cheese Fondue, Hawaiian Meatballs, Fruit Salad, and French Bread. We open gifts and on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day (it varies sometimes) my dad reads A Child's Christmas in Whales to everyone. It's a wonderful, wonderful book full of Christmas memories by a boy who grew up in Whales, England. Check it out. It's very random but I adore it and you will too.
Okay. POST AWAY! Remember to check back to see if you won and provide me with a way to contact you! And REMEMBER to check out all the other giveaways available at Sew, Mama, Sew! Click the icon! Once on this page you can view the vendors in a few of the categories. Be sure to check out the other lists of vendors giving away items under the 'Don't miss the additional Giveaway Day Master Lists' heading next to the green icon. Clicking each vendor name will send you to their blog to check out their giveaway item.
Well...it's simply tragic how long these robots have been taking me. It really bugs me actually. Ironic how fast the first two went and then any after that seem to take FOREVER. I am rethinking having them ready for Christmas. Instead, I think I might put one or two put in my Etsy shop and then give a few away as gifts. I also promised my friend an order of several. So...that'll have me covered. I'm sure they will get faster as I get used to doing this. The parts are just so painfully TINY!
In the meantime, I turned a year older and got a new tattoo. You can read about what it means here.
Finally! I finished a collage bottle. I was actually good and accomplished stuff this weekend. I have three more on the way that are still in the process of being sealed but this one is all ready and in my Etsy Store! It features browns and blue hues and to-die-for animal prints for all! I really dig it and I hope you do too.
So...to clear up any confusion that may occur when trying to pronounce my blog name "Pretty Much LiQi Designs," here's the story behind it. I grew up overseas in China. Yeah, different! It was honestly an amazing experience and I treasure all my memories from being over there. It still feels like I just moved a few weeks ago and I consider where I lived in China to be my hometown to this day. I always will.
In China, you don't "translate" your English name into Chinese because it can't literally translate. Most foreigners (meaning anyone that's not Chinese) either have a name chosen for them by a teacher or friend or they have a name made up that SOUNDS like their English name...but may not actually have any meaning at all. For example, Mark would be Ma Ke. When spoken, it does sound like Mark but I'm not sure if it means anything at all.
Being one to go for sentiment and meaning, I wanted a REAL name. Something that MEANT something. For the first few years we lived there, Chinese people struggled to pronounce my English name and finally, at the age of 8, I was given my Chinese name. Ironically it was given to me by a man I barely knew...and to this day I feel its meaning relates to me better than my English name ever has. I always have found it interesting that someone who knew me so little gave me a name that fit me so well. LiQi is my Chinese given name and it is pronounced "Lee Chee." So don't feel silly if you've been saying "Lee Quee" Designs all this time because that's a common mistake. Being a culture that marvels at beauty, my name literally means "Unique Beauty." Although I like to say it means "Pretty Weird" because technically it can be translated that way. "Pretty Weird" made me think of "Pretty Much," a term I use often. So the "Pretty" works double fold. And there you have my blog/etsy shop name.
I have always been one to do things different or my own way. And the word "Qi's" meaning really encompasses that idea for me in who I am. So I can't think of how a better name could have been chosen for me.
IT IS FINISHED! I must say...this Deployment Chain was definitely more time consuming than expected. However, I gotta be realistic. We're talking about 7 months worth of tiny strips of paper stuck together with tiny strips of hand-cut tape. Yeah...and here I was thinking it would be a one night project. More like 4 or 5. But never the less, it is finished. I WANTED to get a picture of it all in a big pile but it tended to get tangled and I was afraid if I let it down from its haven up high (my kittens are dying to join in the fun), it would never go up again...because of tiny claws and teeth. So without further ado, here is my lovely Deployment Chain:
August!
September! 
October! 
November! 
December! 
January! 
February!
I didn't realize until afterward that I kept my favorite paper designs for November (my birthday month) and February ( the month John will most likely return to me). :)
In other news...I bought some amazingly awesome robot postcards from the most amazing Etsy seller: Crumpettimecomics. Check out his shop here. I received them in the mail yesterday and was struck silly with how awesome they are. My guest room is robot themed (you know you're jealous) and I wanted to frame them and hang them up. I framed them last night and they're friggin great. Now just to hang them. I can't wait to see what else Crumpettimecomics comes out with because I love his work! Talking to him lead him to tell me that he liked MY work as well...which was so encouraging to hear as I have neglected my Etsy shop SO much, it's embarrassing. It made me feel better that someone had actually looked and I feel a new PUSH of confidence to start playing around in the art room upstairs. Now if only it wasn't a battle field. Gotta remedy that pronto.
I apologize for the silence. But I do have an excuse! A good one. My husband just deployed this past week (I can't believe it's already been a week) and so with that comes lots of challenges and just...newness. It's not all bad and crying. In fact, after he left I didn't cry until Monday. And it was over something rather silly. I have to say I've held it together really well and I actually feel very good. I miss him to pieces...but I figure being depressed isn't going to help anything, is it? I've gotten to talk to him on the phone randomly and have gotten a few emails. In the meantime, I've kept myself very busy with friends. So much so that my poor house has been neglected. I tried to catch up on that this weekend and today...felt crummy last night and this morning so I called in sick. Later in the afternoon I didn't feel as bad so I got to work cleaning. Might as well be productive in some way or another, right?
Anyway...long story short...I've been very busy. But I want to create something! Even if it isn't anything to put in my poor Etsy store. My "studio" as it were is a complete war zone upstairs so I think that will be my next area of cleaning so I feel inclined to actually USE it. What a thought.
For now...I'm off to create a Deployment Chain! You know...like those paper chains you make to countdown for Christmas or a Birthday? This one is for a Deployment! I want to use different colored paper for each month so that when you finish a month, you're very aware of it! I'll post how it turns out. ;)
Yesterday I decided to create my first Treasury on Etsy. After lots of confusion and a bit of frustration...I figured it out and published my very first Treasury. It is titled 'Mustard Ahoy!' and features all things mustardy. So nice. :) I've had some great comments and I'm just enjoying getting to know Etsy a little more daily. Makes me happy. Check it out for the next two days here.
Collage Bottles No. 6 and No. 50 are now in the Etsy Shop! Check them out HERE. I have one more on its way too. I went kinda crazy last night and busted out three AND worked on a painting! YEAH! I'm pretty stoked right now as I haven't felt so creative in the past few weeks. As I've promised time and time again, I WILL be working on some collage BOXES. But the bottles have just been so much fun, I couldn't resist doing a few more. So soon. Very soon! And a variety of sizes! Oh my!
Okay everybody. The time has come...I've posted my FIRST item for sale in my Etsy store! I hope to add two more by the end of today so check back soon.
Okay everybody. The time has come. I used a random number generator to choose the very lucky winner of this lovely collage box...the first (of many) of its kind! And the winner is...
I'm pretty stoked with the turnout of my giveaway for Sew, Mama, Sew!'s May Giveaway! Thanks to everyone (again) for visiting and participating. I'm probably just as excited as you (if not more) about one of you winning this collage box. I hope to launch my Esty shop very soon so...please bookmark this blog and check back often! I've been working on similar goodies which I hope to share soon.
Okay. Time is running out so if you have NOT commented to win the lovely giveaway a few posts below, DO SO NOW! I will be choosing the winner (via random number generator) later on this evening. I will stop taking comments around 10pm Eastern Time. So comment away!
LOOK BELOW FOR MY MAY GIVEAWAY ITEM!! COMMENT TO WIN!!
Remember: TWO more days to comment to win the collage box below. I did a little more work on the inside so that will be a surprise for the winner to see. :)
First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who has commented on my giveaway. It's so nice to see traffic in this new bloggity blog of mine and it tickles me pink that people are responding positively to my item.
In other news...I'm thinking of doing more collage-ish projects and offering them in my etsy shop when I get it launched...hopefully soon. So if you don't win the lovely piece below, have no fear, there will be MORE coming soon!
I'm still working out some kinks in the whole collage concept. But I think I made some progress yesterday and will continue to experiment. I want to expand to a variety of sized boxes out of different materials. In high school, I primarily worked with tin boxes which was awesome. But I never used a sealer so I'm in a different realm now.
Keep posted! More to come!
