Home for the holidays

The lack of updates here has been due to a variety of factors: final exams, taking a trip back home and being super busy with chores, playing with animals, and getting ready for christmas.

Final exams went well, starting to get some grades back already and so far so good! And having my car with me up at college for two weeks was really helpful for getting groceries, and for the drive back home. Thankfully, I missed the bad snow storm by a day. Driving the past two days has been horrendous. I had to go out for a job interview and nearly didn't make it, and it took twice as long as usual. Hoping I've got a summer job lined up now though :)

As for being at home... it's great being with my family and my animals. My parrot Pepper has an insatiable appetite for my attention as usual. I've been busy getting my business things in order, which has meant making more business cards. I'm almost completely out, so I decided to sit down and make a big pile of them... there are 210 in this stack:
All are cut out by me, and hand stamped on each side. The side you can see involves three separate stamps, and the other side with my info is one big stamp (all hand carved by myself). I decided to start going with colorful cards, as they match the colorful theme of my creatures. I'm not sure how long it took me, but it was several hours spread out through the day.

I've also been working on new promo materials. I recently discovered that #6 plastic acts just like shrinky-dink plastic. So I've been having lots of fun with that making keychains. It was part of my relaxation between studying for final exams. Once I got home, I carved a new stamp and put them together into packages:
A close-up of a keychain:
They are all different sizes, made from plastic I've salvaged from my own recycling bin and the giant recycling bins of our apartment complex. I drew on them with sharpie markers, and they're painted with a seal so that the designs don't get scratched off.

Thought it'd be a fun way to recycle and make promo materials that people are more likely to keep. I've been considering making pins as well.

I'll try to keep posting as I'm here at home, but family obligations will of course come first. I think right now I'm going to go play in the snow!