Lake Michigan

Fidgette wants to tell you how big the waves were at the beach. #timidmonsters #monster #beach #atthebeach #lakemichigan

Nice things

Why Timid Monsters can't have nice things:

I've been cheating on you with another blog.

So if you've been wondering why I started shooting photos of the new Monsters just to promptly give up, I got it in my head to start doing something with the hundreds of macro photos I've taken. That idea paired with my obsessive compulsions, brings you this other blog, which has future posts schedule to automatically update through mid-August.

Yes, that is daily through mid-August. No, that is not all of my photographs, but I played through the compulsion to the point where it was ok to stop and move on to something else.


Anyhow, I bet you wish I'd do this with Timid Monster photos. The problem is that they are not yet shot, and unlike shooting macros, my broken manual-only lenses are a detriment.

Timid Monsters in the Wild: Rare glimpses of Timid Monsters in their natural habitats.

New listings!

"Stand Tall" A close up of a tigerlily in the backyard. I thought the three stamens

were interesting enough without the actual flower being a large presence."Alabaster Dune" features a focal shell pendant that measures 3inces by 1.5inches. It has been securely fastened to a sterling silver plated bail and hangs from a length of ribbon measuring approximately 25 inches.

Herman the Timid Monster likes to spread asphalt on corrugated steel. It is his belief that these two seeming common items will one day save the coati from extinction. Herman is afraid of deforestation, melting ice caps, and lingenberries.

Today's listings.

"Nautical" Haven't seen a seashell necklace in a while, have you? Thought I was done with these? Nope, just got behind in processing the photos. I finally decided that it has been long enough since the last time I posted any jewelry.

Ginger does not believe paintbrushes are as innocent as they let on. The other night she swears she saw one stealing a pickle out of the jar in the fridge. And last week, she caught one mixing cottage cheese with barbecue sauce. Ginger only uses spray paints.

"Zinnia" Creative, I know. I grew this little bit of pretty from a seed. It is one of two plants that sprouted from a rather old packet of seeds. I am hoping to be able to harvest some seeds for next year so that I can have more than two zinnia plants.

Trying another posting time.

Lina likes to turn down dates and then show up for them. Her favorite color is chartreuse, and she almost remembers how to spell it. Lina is terrified of nail polish.

"On Pins and Popppies" Haha. Like the name? Told you I was good at that game. Anway this strange little bug was sitting on my poppy plant. I let him live until he made his way to my rose and started chomping away. Poor rose.

New Listings

Sandra does not know how to tell time. She never learned because clock faces terrify her with their vacant eyeless stares. Now if clocks were potatoes, she'd have no problem; they have eyes everywhere.

"Brilliant" Another flower from my backyard. Actually, if I remember correctly, I have some more flowers from this plant taken at different angles. Perhaps we'll eventually see more.

Also, as far as the print shop goes, I got some blank greeting cards with envelopes, and I'm thinking about making cards with photographs. That or thinking of sassy/cute things for Monsters to say. And then making a line of sassy/cute Timid Monster cards. I need to get going on it; I've had the cards since early/mid June.

New listings--maybe more later, maybe not.

"Yellow Jacket" Fearless behind the camera, I was able to get this shot of a rather mean looking bee/wasp/what-have-you that was exploring my marigolds.
Riley likes to eat apple and tuna pies topped with mashed potatoes. Her favorite hobbies include setting napkins on fire, alphabetizing insects, and making bridges out of toothpicks. Riley is afraid of meatballs, disembodiment, and broken payphones.

A flower and a Monster

"Pink" I have a few of these plants in different colorsl; I have some pictures of the others that will eventually be posted later.. Sadly these are only annuals. I am, however, trying to save seeds so I can have them again next year. We'll see if it works.

Reed cannot believe that it takes more than nine Monsters to mash a single potato. He always thought they came pre-mashed. Reed is afraid of floorboards, misanthropy, and licenses to kill.

RAWR

I'm as good at naming entries as I am at naming artwork.

Anyway, I had gone to bed at the reasonable time of 11:20p. After much tossing and very little light sleep, I gave up at 2a. Here I am. I ran some dailies on WoW, chatted with my sister online, and processed a couple of recent photographs for posting on Etsy. Here they are!"Almost" taken sometime in early July? Last Thursday or Friday I think."Bachelor Button" Also taken early July--last Thursday or Friday, perhaps.

If I get around to processing again, there will be more to follow. Now, however, I'm gonna give that sleep thing another go.

Finally something resembling art.

Some long exposure fun with Vytas manning the camera and me wielding first sparklers then an LED flashlight. For more, clicky!

Etsy Treasury - Chrysalis

One of my photographs, "Emerging," was included in a fantastic Etsy Treasury called "Chrysalis." Thanks for including me BeadSire!

It rained a lot today.

Really, it rained a lot this week. Every other day was continuously wet. The other days were gorgeous and sunny and warm. As luck would have it, I only needed to go to the post office with orders on the wet days. Mostly I didn't mind, but if this trend keeps up it could become annoying.

I posted a fair amount today. I have been thinking about just listing what I post rather than actually posting it here as well. It seems as though this blog must get boring what with the, "Here are more Timid Monsters" day after day. I mean I know I flat-out say this blog was made to shamelessly self-promote but after a few months, I think the shamelessly is starting to wear off.

Maybe instead I should talk more about what I do with my not creating time. Though readers would also only want to listen to so much talk about WoW, Animal Crossing, Golden Girls (or as I so lovingly dubbed them, the old sassbots), and the books I read. I mean I guess that would fall under the "Stuff" category.

For instance I recently finished Peter Ackroyd's Shakespeare: The Biography and very highly recommend it. It may mostly be the dork in me saying this, but it was a real page turner. And last Sunday I went to see a production of Medea performed in ancient Greek at Columbia in New York. It was incredible.

But see that might not be terribly interesting to anyone either, and it certainly isn't the art that many have signed up for. Oh, well, for now, here are the numerous things which I posted today! (Note: Instead of displaying the Monsters real stories, I'm gonna try talking about them and why/how I made them.)
"New Leaves" Creative, huh? These are tiny new leaves from our baby avocado tree. Vytas started it from a pit, and it is only about two feet tall so far.

Wendell is what I call a creepster. Creepsters are still Timid Monsters but they are rather goony and/or creepy, like Mervin who was pink with a humanish face. Some creepsters sell incredibly fast--same day/week--while others stick around for months at a time. I don't usually repeat many of the creepster features even if they sell quickly. I am not sure why. Part of it is because they are so unfortuante and creepy. Another part is that it just seems wrong to have very many creepsters at any one time. So what does this mean? It means that if you want a TRULY original and one of a kind Monster, be sure to nab a creepster like Wendall.

During the giveaway I was stunned by Iris's popularity. My sister, when she sent me that large supply of clay, also sent little clay cutters. I had always prided myself on forming everything by hand but I thought using some for shaped spots would be fun. And Iris was apparently a large hit. Rosalie was going to be another like Iris, except after I placed the first orange flower, I realized that I was simply making another Iris (yellow Monster with orange flowers). So I ended up with this instead and knew her name before she was even baked. This is an extremely rare occurance for me, as my process is usually make, bake, photograph, upload pictures, name, process and post--with the stories coming at the posting time.

Someone is already interested in Tara, and so she is marked reserved. In this batch of Monsters I had a lot of new facial features, though thankfully not all of them turned out to be creepsters. The new features add detail which add to the price, however. So, Tara was mostly just a return to some standard features. Also, I haven't made any with there vertically stacked eyes in a while. Mostly they do not sell quite as well as some other designs. But I like them. So I keep making them, though more infrequently than I would like

Well, we shall see how this goes. Everything is available at either http://www.trishczech.etsy.com/ or http://www.photosbyvytsandtrish.com/.

Another photo and news of two more Easter Monsters up for sale

That about covers it... I named this one "Simple," as "White Flower" seemed ridiculous and I'm not sure I know the name of this plant.

Here is a photo I posted for sale and on DA yesterday. I am terrible at naming art and photography. It is as though I have no imagination and default to just listing the subject(s). For example, I wanted to name this "Sunflower Sprout," but really? So I begrudgingly named it "Emerging" and don't like it.

Similarly, for the past photos of "Organic Flames," "Rusty Wind," "To the top," and "After the Winter," I would have rather named them "New Rose Leaves," "Windchime," "Little Green Moth," and "Dead Seed Pods" respectively. But I stupidly feel pressured into coming up with artistic names like other photoraphers on both DA and on Etsy. Anyway, here is "Emerging."

I have the same problem when it comes to naming jewelry. Other people come up with names that you can't help but say, "Yeah... that really works," when you look at the piece. Not me! Here we have "Ziosite Rounds." I bet you can't guess what sort of stone it is.

This one I must admit I do like. In a fit of inspiration, I named this next pair "Black and Tans," after one of Vytas's favorite drinks. I can't remember, however, if the Guinness is the top beer or if the... tan... is the top beer. But, to ruin the surprise, I have another similar pair that I made only with different ear wires and the stones flipped. Those I named "Rootbeer Floats" because I knew the icecream floats on top. But without more babbling, here are "Black and Tans." The are made with squared/cubed soapstone.

Every once in a while, when I am determined to get work done and make about 800 regular Monsters, 50 minis, 130 themed, and about 89 jar habitats, I find myself either cleaning and/or making other things. Like jewelry. More specifically, like the nine pairs of earrings I made in the wee hours of the night/morning.

Stevie tells me it is because my brain is burned out from Monster making and is steering me into other things until it recovers. If you ask me, though, it always picks the worst times. I wanted to get a few more solo Easter Monsters up and start working on ideas for May--Mommy and Me Monsters and Graduation Monsters. Maybe even Wedding Week Monsters. We'll have to wait and see if I can make myself focus again.

(Oh! and I finally realized I could also link photos! So from now on, barring my incredible laziness in such matters, I shall try to link photos of things for sale to the Etsy shop they are in so you don't have to guess which shop its in. Though most are pretty self-evident.)

Macro-tastic

These are probably the last of the first macro shoot I did on Tuesday that I am going to post. Then you get a reprieve until at least Friday afternoon. Vytas needs the lens for something at school. Not the macro attachment, mind you, but the stock lens. And I may or may not have dropped the other stock lens in the past, leaving us with only one that auto-focuses. Go me!
"Rusty Wind." This is my favorite windchime that apparently rusts when left outside.

"Organic Flame." I love roses. I was thrilled to see there is a big rose of sharon bush in the backyard of our new apartment. New leaves on rose are always so bright red! It is fantastic.

Still awake. But I should probably remedy that soon. Anyway, I couldn't resist. Here are two more.

'Twas lucky enough to spot this little guy crawling about in the grass. I would have thought that 24 March was far too early for such a fellow, but then, I am in a new planting zone and no longer in the Midwest which constantly gets rocked by weather.

We have two good cameras. Not great like 40Ds, but we have two Eos Rebels--fairly respectable digital SLRs for two people who are would-be avid photographers on a budget. Recently, we acquired a lens attachment that allows you to shoot as though you had a macro lens (for much cheaper than an actual macro lens, which I still want).

Yesterday I went out playing the backyard. Here are three favorites I posted on DA and the Etsy print shop today. And even though I always say it and then never follow through, there will be more to follow.

Tomato seedings that will soon be a tomato plants!
Seed pods from last summer.

More seed pods from last summer.

And, of course, a Timid Monster. I might post more things later. I am undecided. My back kind of hurts, I am kind of tired, and Vytas wants me to go for a run with him. So, this might be it for today.

Tammy the Timid Monster likes to cut the heads of matchsticks. Her favorite month is June, and she wishes it came around more than once a year. Tammy is afraid of spaghetti, ping pong tables, and mouthwash.

Bear Mountain

Here are some of the pictures I took Saturday of things growing on the scenery. I believe most of it falls into moss/fungus/lichen categories, but as I have not yet attempted to identify any of it and am no expert, perhaps my guess is very far off. If anyone is an expert, it would save me the eventually leg work of identifying things. *hinthint*

While it does much look like it, these first two photographs are different. The top one was more berber carpet like, while the one on the bottom reminded me of a lakeweed that grows with starburst shoots out of the previous starburst shoots.

The next one was growing on many of the live trees. I thought the little cornflake shapes looked rather delicate and dainty.

The type of moss below either grew or harbored that crazy purple bit that is in the forgound of the picture.

This was a pretty orange fungi growing on a fallen branch. I like the picture on the bottom more, but feel the picture on the top lets you see the shapes and colors better.

I liked this fungi (again... is it really? I think so but...) the best. It looked like bunches of months gathered on the bark. Each flake was smaller than my thumbnail and rather elaborately colored.

I took a lot more, but I like these best (and sorry my captions were a bit all over the place).

The next post will probably be of some of Vytas's photographs (just because they are going to be in the print shop which I run for us and I want as much exposure for them as I can muster).