Oh hello there. It’s been… a few minutes, huh? I don’t usually get real chatty or try to throw excuses into the blogosphere for why I’ve been quiet, but this one lasted a bit longer than expected and there’s a lot to share. I only intended to take a few weeks off at the end of the ridiculousness of 2020 after publishing seven holiday gift guides in rapid succession, but now it’s nearly the end of February 2021 and so much has happened and I haven’t told you about any of it yet. Where do I even begin?
If we’re going in chronological order let’s start with the fact that I’m now a small business owner! I talked about it a bit in this Instagram post (caption underneath photo):
Basically what had happened was: Nick had an idea to sell some 3D printed stuff, one of my favorite people ever runs a fab sticker shop that inspired the hell out of me, and I thought “you know what, I’ve been unemployed for the entirety of this pandemic, and at this point I am too feral to be reintegrated into 9-to-5 society, let’s make this a thing”. So now I run Little Boat Stuff, making snarky stickers and calling myself the co-captain, COO, and creative director. Nick works full-time, but he’ll hopefully be bringing some 3D-printed and CNC-machined designs to the shop in the near future, and I’ll be getting myself into some resin art too. What I’m saying is: we’re building an empire. Hop on.
Follow us on instagram @littleboatstuff and shop at littleboatstuff.com.
Okay so we launched the shop, super exciting, and then I realized I really was wildly behind on blog posts so instead of actually sitting down and writing the post… I just made a new book-focused Instagram account, a BOOKSTAGRAM if you will (@booksneggs) and shared my top reads of 2020 on the ‘gram instead. I’ll likely be posting my book reviews and the like over there from now on – including an upcoming review for Jane Healey’s The Secret Stealers which will be out on 01 April 2021. I was unbelievably lucky to receive an ARC (advanced reader copy) of the book and can’t wait for everyone else to be able to get their hands on it. (Spoiler: I freaking loved it.)
To go along with the new ~bookstagram~ I also put together a new list in my Bookshop storefront with the 2021 releases I am most excited for!
Then what happened? Oh! I learned how to create color palettes in Procreate from my own photos that I’d taken over the years and now I’ve got a bunch of those for sale too. I’ll likely add them to the Etsy shop in the near future, but for now you can purchase these digital downloads over at my Gumroad shop. I really love these, especially Happiness in Rome which was made from a photo I took of Nick’s and my drinks at NaBi Happiness Factory in Rome back in 2017 (no, no I cannot believe that was 3.5 years ago).
So now what are we doing? I’ve got a larger drop of six (or maybe seven…) stickers coming to the shop on 05 March 2021. In the meantime, if you somehow didn’t hear about it, Texas went through some serious shit and I made a sticker about that too. Nick and I were wildly fortunate to have hot water and a gas stove for the entirety of our 58 hours – including three nights – without electricity or heat in single-digit temperatures. This was an absolutely unnecessary and preventable experience for all of Texas and I am staying mad. This design is currently available for preorder and $0.50 from each sticker will go to a mutual aid organization in Texas (I haven’t decided which yet, but reached out to a few to determine need).
Did I cover everything? Shop, Bookstagram, Procreate palettes, Texas winter storm.. I think I’ve got down everything I can share right now. This is, unbelievably, not all of the adventure happening in our lives at the moment and I cannot wait to be able to share what’s next (no grandma, it’s not a baby). Hopefully I’ll also have a nicer kitchen and better lighting to share more food things with you soon hint hint. Thank you to everyone who hung around in the two months of radio silence, now go buy some little boat stuff.
