One more original artwork added to Etsy-that's it for today! I promise! http://ping.fm/PmrAS

I've added an original ACEO to my Etsy shop: http://ping.fm/D6zJy

Neil Gaiman's 100K Twitter Contest

Since TwitPic seems to be broken, I'm posting my entry in Neil Gaiman's 100K Twitter Contest here. Details about the comp can be found on Neil himself's blog here: The 100K Contest

Here's my entry, in which I borrow from a childhood movie favourite to blend with some Gaiman goodness:

Original Art for sale on Etsy

Framed original art work just added to my Etsy shop! http://ping.fm/wYYDn

"Queen Rose":



and "Faery Bride" & "Faery Groom" (actually two art works, framed together, but could be re-framed individually)":

Recession? We don't need no stinking recession!

We're not participating in the recession, and we don't think you should either!

Instead, we're having a 50% off sale! Just enter the coupon code SPRINGCLEAN09 into the discount coupon field of your shopping cart and click 'recalculate'. Discount does not apply to PSP tube sets or other off-site products.

Sale lasts til the end of the month!

www.marylayton.net

Help me fundraise for Red Nose Day!

Art for charity! I've created a Red Nose Day fund-raising page, and anyone who donates (no matter how small the amount) will get art from me - either an original sketch, inked or full-colour artwork, jewellery, or hand-embellished print. I'll surprise you - but it will either be created from scratch (artwork or jewellery), or a hand-embellished print.

To visit my Red Nose Day Giving page and sponsor me, click on the link below:

http://www.myrednoseday.com/maryart?SID=62098

For more information about Red Nose Day visit www.rednoseday.com.

Thanks for your support!

Tubes 'n' Tags, and becoming a better blogger

Tubes 'n' Tags


I am thrilled to be plugging FantasyScraps.com. I'm licensed there, and it is the only official source for images of mine to be used in PSP tubes and tags. Fantasy Scraps also features artwork by LA Williams, Brigid Ashwood, Jane Starr Weils, Ash Evans, Ruth Thompson, and Bill Plank. There will also be extensive digital scrapbooking collections to come! If you are a tuber, spread the word about this fantastic new site!

Becoming a better blogger
Yeah...like that's really going to happen. Well, maybe it will. See, it's about Ping.fm. Ping.fm allows me to update several social networks at once. Which means, I can blog, and have it on my personal blog (more on this to follow), LiveJournal, and MySpace in one step, instead of typing up a blog in one place and copy/pasting it to up to three other places. I'll still have to copy into Enchanted Folk and Deviant Art, if I want my blogs there, though - as Ping.fm doesn't update those services. I've got my LiveJournal posting into my Facebook page, so that one's covered, at least.

For my "official" journal - linked to my web site, I'd been using Movable Type, but customizing was a nightmare. I'd had a Blogger account for about 4 years, but had signed up only to comment on my friends blogs. Recently, I decided to play around with it and see if I could make it look like it belonged to me, sort of thing. I wound up customizing it and liking the look, so I started thinking of having it be the "official" blog, since I wouldn't (hopefully) have to re-design the bloody layout after every software update. Unfortunately, I can't incorporate it into my site as designed on the blogger site as it's considered an 'upgraded' template. I know folks have personalized blogger-driven blogs on their own web sites, without needing to dedicate a whole domain to it (Neil Gaiman and his PA Fabulous Lorraine, for example), but I'm not sure how they managed it, and without a nice step-by-step tutorial on doing that (which I've yet to find), I'm leaving the blog on the blogger (or, blogspot, more accurately) site and linking to it from my personal web site. At least the blog now looks like part of my web site! I'm keeping my LiveJournal as well - thanks to Ping.fm, I can update it at the same time with posts to my personal blog as well, and still keep super-personal posts at LJ for friends-only. I've also got a feedburner account, which means one can subscribe to receive my bloggings via email, if they like. So, official blog is now at http://ping.fm/NkaHS LJ for super-personal friends-only stuff, and the MySpace blog will just mirror the 'official' posts (when it works - it's a bit hit and miss for ping.fm to manage a MySpace blog posting for some reason).

Snowy photies!

It's become a rare occurrence, but once in a while, we get a nice snowfall in NC. Last night, around 7pm, the snow began after a day of mostly rain, and freezing rain, occasionally mixed with sleet. I'm one of those folks who like the snow, so first thing this morning, I grabbed the camera and took some shots (clickening for embiggening where permitted):


A Yellow-rumped Warbler came to visit


Me, posing with the pretty snowy tree (a Bradford Pear)


A nice shot of the pretty snowy tree.


What's this on my roof? Could it be.....


a footprint?!


A lovely, picturesque line of trees out back.