Back to Jobsearchland

Good Day Blogger world!

Once again I have been an absentee. To rectify that I've come back with nothing particularly new to tell you. The job hunt continues. I have recently been handed a link to another potential job. Walk with me as I explore this new lead.

Seasonal, but well paid. Buzz words "fast-paced" and "dynamic" in their usual use of describing the work place. Looks as if I qualify. Haven't got much extra to boast, but I qualify. Candidates will be required to complete a security screening process. Should be fun. Seems they're looking for the business-minded, leadership-oriented type of candidate, and I'm more than willing to fake it 'till I make it...or don't. I will also be required to pass pre-employment tests. Looking forward to those too. Really. I'll be required to present a character reference letter. Can't remember the last (or possibly even the first) time I was asked for one of those. I'm assuming that's in the case of an interview.

Let the games begin.

"This job is not a permanent full time job. We cannot guarantee when you will work or how often you will work. This job is for on-call casual employment. Are you still interested?"

I pretty much have to be. Full-time work is the unicorn of today's job market.

"Do you have the ability to lift up to 22.7 kgs (50 lbs) and carry up to 15.9 kgs (35 lbs)?"

Clearly I need to start hitting the weights, if only to figure out how much I am currently capable of lifting.

"You have been moved to two different area's and you are close to the end of your shift and you are asked to move again. What would you do?"

I have no idea what this would entail or how it would effect what I'm doing or when I leave. The truth of the matter, in any case, is that I'll probably be going along with it.

"What is the main reason you applied to this position?"

Mortgage money. Probably should have chosen something better sounding that "Prefer not to say", but it was an option....

These are just a few of the questions I must consider.  All told, it's not too arduous.  Inevitably, I am creating yet another profile. This calls for another resume. I remove my most recent stint in retail from my work history with a certain satisfaction, as though it had never been there at all.  Only the good stuff belongs on this page.

"My primary career interest". Is not on the list. Perhaps they mean at this particular place. Employers do have a way of implying that the only candidates they want to see are the ones that want the job they're offering more than anything in the world. Optional question, thank goodness.

Alright, t'is done. Another foray into jobsearchland completed.

I have not grown to like this process any better, but I'll keep at it until I land something permanent or manage to get on my feet some other way. This will be my motivation - once I'm on my feet I won't have to fill out job applications anymore ^_^.

In other news, I've been entering the weekly contests on Spoonflower.  Haven't won anything yet, but it's worth it to have some new designs in my library. Here's the one I'm entering for the next contest:



As I write this, I also have an entry in the current contest, which will probably close tomorrow: 

Feel free to go over to Spoonflower and vote! Always worth checking out! :)

I'll end tonight with a Facebook haiku.  I believe I've posted these here before. The process was invented by my Mom, where you take statuses and pieces of statuses posted by people on your Facebook feed and put them together to form a haiku. It can be very entertaining. ^_^

I watched the debate
New season, 1st episode
It is bad enough

'Till next time, Blogger world!

I am an (artistic) anxiety machine O_o!

    Just give me a few crossed wires, a little pressure, work that requires speed and accuracy combined, some verbal cues to over-analyze, and off I go!  You'd think after a while it'd just become white noise.....But no.  How is it that I keep putting myself in jobs that require speed and accuracy?  Not deadline speed, but spur of the moment speed.  On the plus side, having an extra job means I have a little more freedom to look for a job that fits me a little better.  In theory I have the skills and experience to do this job, but efficiency has been a problem in the past.  Hopefully I'll get faster as I get used to it - more hopefully, I'll find a job that fits me better.  I've got a job that fits me just fine, in addition.  That's why I'm hanging on to the 2 shifts/week I'm getting from that one.

    On the online front, I made another cafepress sale today :)!  2 of them in fact (2 different greeting cards) - first time in a while.  Seems to happen every time I go into an extended frenzy of uploading - and it's almost never any of the things I upload O_o.  Perhaps seeing my new items, customers also see some of my older stuff go by.  Hey, I'm happy with that :).  I also made an order of swatches to Spoonflower, so hopefully I'll have a lot more designs in my shop after that arrives.  My exploration of Spoonflower has lead to one entry for my hitherto hypothetical list of dream jobs:  Fabric print designer.  I'd love to just make the designs, get paid royalties for them, and see them put on fabric to be made into all kinds of things by people all around the world.  I'll have to develop this list.

And now, since you've been so patient, I have new work to show you :).  Actually it's recent work colourized in Photoshop, but I feel really good about it:


Art Minis - Dragon I in Colour by ~Eseopia on deviantART

It is available on items in my Deviantart Printshop, and in my Cafepress. 

That is all for now.  Thank's for visiting today, and come back soon :)!

Extra Post: Blog Consolidation

I've decided to consolidate my blogs into one again.  I tried making a go of a craft book review only blog, but that's slow going right now, and I think I might as well combine the traffic.  I only got 2 posts in, so now is the best time to combine the two.

I'll still review craft books - in fact, I think I'll start reviewing a lot of things, art and craft related.  Maybe I'll splinter the book review blog off again once I really get this one on its feet.  For now though, my life is in a little bit of disarray.  I'll be able to keep up the blogging, though perhaps not in an orderly fashion for now.

First and last posts of the Art Rat Craft Book Review:

Post 1:


Hello Blogger world :)! I am sitting here surrounded by stuff, because I’ll be moving out soon. I hope to sell at least some of it to defray the costs of my new condo. As I pack up, I’m looking at all the craft books I have. Barely used, most of them. I have a lot of craft books, and a lot of craft stuff. I find it very hard to resist buying them, especially when they’re on sale. I guess there are a few reasons why. All those possibilities, all the ideas and little gems to dig up….like catalogues of things I can make exactly as I want them. Somehow I underestimate the time, energy, and (frankly) excuses I'll have to use these books on a regular basis :P. BUT, all that is about to change...

This blog is going to be dedicated to reviewing craft books. I will endeavor to make my reviews as informed and objective as possible – yes, you guessed it – by doing the crafts. Will I become a better craft person from this? Hopefully. Will I become rich? No, but with any luck my growing skills will at least help defray material costs through Etsy, or the occassional craft market. And who knows? I may well end up making something I need every now and again.

I think the most appropriate book to start with will be, “It’s a Wrap – Sewing Fabric Purses, Baskets, and Bowls”, by Susan Breier. I’ve chosen this book for a few reasons. Firstly, I’ve already tried the crafting technique described in this book, and I like it. This will make it easier to keep up with my blogging responsibilities while moving, having done some of the work already and still having supplies left over.

I was fortunate enough to have come across the book as I was wishing I could somehow convert my leftover fabric stash into something useful that wouldn’t take that long to produce. This book offered an unusually fitting solution. It does require many yards of cotton clothesline, and many more yards of sewing thread, but it’s pretty satisfying to be able to cut those old remnants into a pile of strips and watch that pile dwindle away to nothing. In the end I am left with a flexible but relatively solid vessel, and since I'm often looking for things to put other things in, this is actually pretty practical.

I will be documenting my work as I go through this book. I won’t be doing every single design in the book, but I will try to at least do one craft from each section. At the end of the month I will write a full review. In the meantime, I will also use the time between the beginning of the month and the end to review other craft related products. These may or may not be related to the book of the month – they are simply to keep this blog interesting.

I'm starting this blog with the hope that I'll be able to sustain it within my means. I currently have a pretty good surplus of crafting goods, but I will be on a limited budget as to what I can afford, at least at first. Hopefully I'll be able to keep this up for more than a little while. At any rate, I feel like it's worth trying. If you are reading this first entry, thank you kindly for stopping by. Until next time, blogger world! :)

Post 2:


Good day blogger world!

It's been a week of crafting for me.  Between "It's a wrap" and a knitted birthday gift project, I have spent the time being crafty.  Here is a peak at some of the wrap craft work I've been doing:  So far it's an enjoyable book, now that I've got a an excuse to read it in depth.  Still fighting the urge to jump ahead, but as always, it's worth it to read the preamble.  And, the directions - that too.

While I'm on the subject of fabric crafts, I'd like to showcase a site that came to my attention a little while ago, and which I'm still pretty psyched about. It's called Spoonflower, and I love it! It's like the best parts of cafepress and deviantart, in a site that allows you to design your own fabric.  To explain what I mean: like on Cafepress, and to a lesser extent Deviantart, you can upload your designs for use on printed product - in this case, various natural fabrics. There are a number of repeat options (for creating patterns with your designs), and the option to size your fabric design too. Like deviantart, you can follow different designers, giving and receiving feedback on your work. And like both sites, you can have your own shop, where other users can purchase fabric with your designs on it. You do also have the option of keeping your designs private, just for you to purchase, which one may have reason for. I've worked up a modest collections of designs myself, and the samples I've bought have been pretty satisfactory (particularly now, with the new & improved colour system). I should also mention that they have a designer tool built into the site as well, though I havn't actually tried it yet.  Anyway, this is Spoonflower in a nutshell.  Here is a link if you'd like to see for yourself:




 ...and, if you're curious, here is the link to my shop:



I do so like widgets ^_^.  They make a blogger's life much more enjoyable.

This has been the second instalment of The Art Rat Craft Book Review.  Still getting a feel for this project, so I hope you'll bear with me.  I'm already reconsidering how I originally planned to structure this, but I will do my best to keep the content coming, and interesting.  Later bloggerverse!

Checking in Again! Also, Spoonflower :).

Good day blogger world!

I woke up today feeling pretty cranky. Easy to do these days. Wish I had more time, but am coming to terms with the fact that I don't with the new job. Then I took some time to to get some sewing, ironing, and dying done, and now it's not so bad.

I've been using Spoonflower.com lately. More so now that I've had one sale :D! Someone bought a fat quarter of my "Seahorse Herd" fabric, which I hope they will be most happy with. I had already bought a fat quarter myself, so I can show you what it will look like:

Spoonflower has been something of a revelation to me. Combining, as it does, all the things I concnetrated on in art school (painting, drawing, and textiles), the possibilities are tantalizing :P. I'm currently dying the fabric shown above, hoping to create a nice tie-dyed patch for a quilt I'm working on. I'm also dying this piece of fabric,

which didn't turn out quite as even in repeat as I'd hoped:

That is why we buy samples first :/. I've since uploaded a different repeat file, which will hopefully turn out better. I just want to upload a few more files so that I can buy a bulk sample of swatches (better deal). Normally they'd cost $5.00 USD each, but when bought in bulk they can come to as little as $1.20 USD each (Between 16 and 30 swatches). I'm waiting on a few samples as we speak. You have to order samples before you can sell things, and rightly so. Sometimes the colours don't come out right, or the repeat is off (hence the jellyfish sample). I've already got a handful of swatches, which I will be including in a quilt I'm working on right now. I'm pretty excited about this because, no only is it going well, but it's another way I can break down my mountainous fabric stash. I love when leftovers become useful in surprising ways :).

So that's where I am right now. If I can stay productive right now, hopefully I'll get to the point where I can afford to spend more time on my craft. Here's hoping.

Later blogger world!

"Seahorse Herd" fabric on Spoonflower:

http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/1154880