Cyber Monday Sale 30% Off my entire store

Cyber Monday sale tomorrow only! Use the code "CYBERMONDAY" at the check out to get 30% off your entire order (does not include shipping). Sale starts tonight at midnight and will end tomorrow night at midnight. SugarCubeCorner.etsy.com

My Little Pony Triple Treat Necklace

Available for sale at Sugarcube Corner. A Sugar Cube Corner original, you won't find another like it any where else! (I dare you, go ahead and search!) There are many other My Little Pony necklaces on Etsy with smaller ponies, but none with a full sized G3 pony! I love the new Friendship is Magic series, but truly my heart lies with the G3 line of ponies that I grew up with in the 90's, so when I found a backpack full of G3 ponies at Good Will I didn't hesitate to buy it. The ponies have been sitting on my shelf for a while, and I figured I should really try and do something with them. So I threw caution to the wind, I said "I don't care if it's 'too big', I'm making a necklace!" And the result was something completely ridiculous yet absolutely fabulous! I loved giving this pony a new life in a new purpose. Are you daring enough to wear it??

Vista Print Review

If you're and Etsy seller like me, or you're thinking of becoming one, you'll need business cards. And you may have been tempted by ads for "free" business cards from Vista Print. I've ordered from them before, and I've also ordered from their competitor "Moo.com" So I wanted to share my experience with their company.

"Are they really free?" Not really, you have to pay for shipping. For me, living in Canada, this was about $8 for 250 cards. It's probably cheaper to USA. They will also charge you sales tax, and if you order other "free" items, like address labels, they will add a couple dollars to the shipping. And you can't buy more than one set of 250 free cards in one order. But that's still a good deal, 250 cards for free with $8 shipping is about $0.03 per card.

"Is it a scam?" No. They don't mention the shipping costs until the very last page of the checkout, but they don't steal money from you. I've heard one story about a person that bought from Vista Print, and then months later were getting mysterious charges to their bank accounts. According to them, it was some kind of service they got signed up for without them knowing and Vista Print was charging them automatically. This never happened to me, though I paid with paypal and not a credit card or bank card. There are some services they offer like "Free business email" that will be only free for a month, and then $5 a month after that. So as long as you read the fine line you should be okay.

"Don't they put their advertisements on your cards?" Yes. On the back they will put "Business cards are free at vistaprint.com" in very small type. No one will notice the back of your card though, unless you pay extra to put your own text/design on it, and then the advertisement won't be there.

"Don't they feel/look cheap?" They're okay. They do feel kind of papery, but the designs are in full color and look good. I did order some where the font was supposed to be pink, but it came out red on the actual cards. So stick to black text if you can. You can pay extra for heavier card stock, or glossy finish, etc. Bottom line, they will look/feel better and more professional than cards you printed off yourself from your home printer.

"Don't you have to buy something else to get the free cards?" No, you can get 250 cards for free with shipping without getting anything else--but they try damn hard to get you to upgrade or buy something else. Their business model is based around this: lure you in with free cards, and sell you tons of other stuff that you don't need. T shirts, car decals, signs, banners, mugs, post cards, pens, it goes on. If you are looking for that kind of stuff though, Vista Print has a lot of options at good prices.

"Aren't all the free designs stupid?" No, the designs that are available for free are nice. The recently updated them and now there is one with cute cupcakes, which I got, one with brightly colored felt/fabric, one with a beaded charm bracelet, and then others with themes like construction, restaurant, nail salon, for other businesses. You can also upload your own pictures and make your own design, but again that costs extra.

So all together, I would recommend Vista Print. I bought from them twice and I will buy from them again. Cards from Moo.com start at $20 for 100 cards, without shipping that's $0.20 a card. I bought from Moo once before and the cards were nice, heavy paper, very customizable with your own pictures or their designs, and the colors were true to the pictures. But the Vista Print ones are so much cheaper, it makes more sense to get them because the point of business cards are to hand them out to as many people as possible. You're giving them away, so as long as they convey "This is what I sell and this is where you can but it" the cheap ones from Vista Print will do the same job as more expensive cards.

Artist Will Cotton

You may have never heard of him, but you've probably seen his work. Will Cotton is an amazing painter who creates still lifes and landscapes from candy and confections. He was the creative director behind Katy Perry's "California Gurls" music video, and designed the cover of her "Teenage Dream" album.

What's amazing about his work is that he creates these elaborate scenes in his studio, and then painstakingly paints them with photo-realistic detail. He could just take a picture and call it day, and a photograph would be enough to make these images amazing (the Katy Perry album cover is a photograph). But the fact that he takes the time to paint these scenes really earns my respect.

I love his mastery over texture, which the paint medium probably adds to (visually is there much difference between a dollop of icing and a dollop of paint?). I imagine how hard it is to paint an ice cream cone as it melts. His paintings really are "landscapes". It's one thing to paint a still life with candy, it's another thing to turn those candies into trees and rivers and cliffs.

In an installation of his work in New York City he set up a temporary bakery that offered sweets like macaroons to viewers. What an amazing experience that must have been!

This statement from Cotton sums it up: "These paintings are all about a very specific place. It's a utopia where all desire is fulfilled all the time, meaning ultimately that there can be no desire, as there is no desire without lack."

To see more of his work please visit willcotton.com