In the Bloginning...

Ok, wow, so here I am writing my first blog.  Despite the fact that blogger isn't wanting to cooperate in letting me set everything up nice and pretty, I'm going to go ahead and give it the old artist's try (kind of like the old college try, except that if you fail, you've still made something...even if it is a goofy looking piece of crap!).

For everyone who doesn't know me, here I am (in no particular order):

cheerful (that's what my first name, Larissa, means in Greek)
creative
a former archaeologist now working in design for a design-build general contractor
a horror movie fanatic
funny and always looking for a good laugh
38 years old
a large, brown, flightless bird (well, in name only...my middle name is Rhea)
an artist, and loving it
outgoing and friendly (my girlfriend Vickie says she never knows who she'll find me talking to!)
mommy to a dog named Molly Brown and three cats, Jake Ryan, Samantha Baker and Idgie Threadgoode
lesbian, and madly in love with my girlfriend of 8 years, Vickie
totally prepared to kick ass in any upcoming zombie apocalypse

And, well, there's a lot more to me, but those are just a few fun and semi-essential tidbits to start us off.

Here's a little about my art.  I've always been into making stuff.  Since I was a little kid.  I can't just sit and do nothing.  Watching tv = making stuff.  Waiting room = making stuff.  Nights & weekends = you guessed it...

For years I've thought, "gee, how cool would it be to be able to make a living at making art".  But I couldn't figure out how to do that.  It just made me frustrated.  Until I stopped trying to figure it out.  In December I found etsy.com by accident, and it hit me.  Nobody at etsy hit me, everyone is so super nice!  No, it just seemed that I was meant to find it, and everything just kind of fell into place immediately.  Setting up my shop, working on some initial pieces to list, joining an etsy team and beginning to network -- everything has just been easy and fun.

My shop at the moment consists of painted stones, origami boxes and soon, very soon, some cool little cigar box purses.  I've been painting stones for about five years, and learned origami last year.  My idea notebook is crammed full of new projects, so I plan to be very productive over the coming months.

I've never blogged before (I can talk a blue streak, however), but I wanted to add this to my list of contributions to etsy; to my shop and to the shops of others.  I have met so many cool people in just the first four weeks my shop has been open, all willing and eager to share knowledge about etsy, help me promote my shop and items and send friendly convos of encouragement.

So...my plan for this blog is to pay it forward.  Once I get the setup worked out, I'll be promoting, promoting, promoting!  Featuring artists, cool items, categories of items...whatever I can think of.  We'll have fun, we'll make friends, hopefully we'll get sales!!