It's Heeeere! Contest

The 2011 The Seated View calendar is here! 

I always forget how labor-intensive it is in early November when I make the calendar and holiday art cards, but I don't forget how much fun it also is. Combing through the past year’s photos, trying to find the best ones and then making sure there’s not too much of one kind and not too little of another. It’s one of the tasks that has replaced knitting for me, although with substantially less hand happiness from having soft wool glide through your fingers. Nonetheless, my new baby is ready and unlike a pair of socks, more than one recipient to get their hands on it.

For several years now, I've received requests for prints, particularly of Mystic, but have in a protracted moment of spectacular tech twittiness been completely unable to figure out how to make the image fit the CafePress template. Thankfully The Boy happened to be here as I was wrestling with it and found a solution in what is for me a terribly embarrassing short amount of time. However, the end result is that I have added a couple of posters and framed prints to the shop, primarily of Mystic as it seemed to have become a sort of defining image for me. I don't know what the prints and posters are like "in person," but given that the calendars and cards are very high quality and look great, I expect the prints to look terrific.

One of the new products at CafePress is canvas prints. Any of my images from my Flickr page are available to be made into a canvas print. However, CafePress does not include this in the product you can add to your shop, so this will be on special order. I also discovered Imagekind, which has a couple of other options in canvas prints – canvas and frames – and added Mystic to my shop there, but if you want another image, just let me know.

When it came to selecting images for the annual holiday cards, I hit a bit of conflict. There are two quantities available, 10 and 20 cards, but I don't know which image should go on which card. Right now, Christmas Comes Again 

is on the package with 20 cards and Wish Upon 

 

on the package with 10 cards. And the reason I open this window into my obsessive and weird brain has to do with contest.

To celebrate the annual disappearance into obsessive image editing being completed (and me getting my life back so I can obsess about something else), I'm giving away two The Seated View 2011 calendars. To enter, leave a comment with your preference of the two candidates - Christmas Comes Again and Wish Upon for the package of 20 cards (which does not, by the way, commit you to buy any). Contest closes Sunday, November 14 at 6 PM EST. Winners will be selected using a random method yet to be determined and announced on Monday.

Check out my new products at the shop - no pressure to buy, but if you're so inclined, I'd be proud to be part of your holiday purchases.