Long Overdue Updates

 Hello everyone, 

Coyote here. It's been way too long since I posted anything on this blog. Crow and I had a major upheaval in August 2020. There was a devastating fire in our area, which wiped out thousands of acres of forest and populated areas. It took a toll on us as well - we lost everything except two carloads full of items and our two cats. We put the cats in the cars first! It's one thing to lose items, but losing creatures that you love is a different matter entirely. We did; however, have to leave our two fish tanks behind. 

As far as stuff goes, we lost all our art supplies, the raw leather, the clay, the tools, all the found objects, the vast majority of our sale inventory. That loss isn't something that's easy to come back from because there's so much to find or purchase again. We spent years building our inventory and supplies. We also lost every piece of furniture some which included possessions we'd had since junior high school or before, items that my grandparents made, jewelry, clothing, costumes, theatrical set pieces, books, figurines, and you know, everything. Including the fish from the aforementioned fish tank. 

In all fairness, I should have contacted you all sooner by writing something here. My last post was in 2017, and after that our sales went downhill enough that we as a company were barely hanging on. That certainly made a difference in our creative juice flow. That's the thing with artists, we need to have positive reinforcement (I think the vast majority of people like positive reinforcement). 

Forgiving the three years that I didn't write leading up to the 2020 fire, after the fire, it took us a while to figure out how to redefine ourselves as artists, and we're still figuring it out. Still, seven years is far too long to allow my once active blog to languish in the virtual graveyard. I'll do my best to update this blog, and in a few months will probably rebrand it to something else. Or maybe not. 

Thanks for reading. I hope you'll join us for the next artistic stage in our creative journey. We both have active streams on Twitch.tv, and I'm posting on my Patreon account at least three times a month. 

Coyote - 
Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/c/KEMilrona
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/enigmathecat

Crow - 
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/sunlit_scalla 

-Coyote

Events Update and Snat Encyclopedia

Hello!

Long time  no write. I know, I keep saying I’ll update this more often. 

We’ve a lot of good things coming up in the near future. First of all, on 15th July is the Pescadero Barn Sale. If you’re anywhere near the coast along the Bay Area in California, consider taking the scenic Highway 1 drive into Pescadero. This amazing “hidden gem” of the coast is located approximately halfway between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. Don’t worry, Google maps can find it. (And for you Pokemon fans, there are several gyms and Pokestops too). 

The Barn Sale will run from 9am to 4pm, so you’ll have plenty of time to shop around. Consider stopping into Arcangeli's for their famous artichoke bread. The bread is made in-house and the artichokes are grown either right there in Pescadero or somewhere else locally. There is a nice restaurant there too - Duarte's Tavern. This family owned place has been in the Duarte family since its founding. The Duartes live almost across the street from their restaurant and grow quite a bit of the vegetables for the food they serve. 

As for Coyote’s Blessings - we’ll be at the Barn Sale all day with some new products, including the fresh-off-the-press Snat Encyclopedia! A book detailing anything and everything you’ve wanted to know about snats. It’s the first in our Encyclopedia Series - an anthology of encyclopedias for K.E. Milrona’s Andromeda Galaxy. Cultures, planets, creatures, etc.  There are more volumes to come in the near future!

Up Coming Events

Luna Park is coming up too! Mark it on your calendars for the 16th of September (a Saturday). Still being held in Barstow Park in San Jose, Luna Park Chalk Art Festival is a great place for everyone to go. The event is free, and there are food trucks available for snacking plus some nice small restaurants scattered around the area. I’m not as familiar with them since we tend to bring food so we don’t have to leave our booth. There should be plenty of parking around the park; however it is close enough to a Light Rail station that my mom has walked to the park from the station. Have I mentioned the live music? We’ll be close to the stage this year (but not too close), so consider coming to visit us. 

February 14th

Today is an auspicious and hectic day for many people as they scramble to gather the ingredients to the recipe of 'impress my lover'.

Of course, the cards, candy, flowers, gifts, etc. are not all nowadays, focused on those who are romantically involved with someone. There are gifts given meant to celebrate this day with friends, co-workers, and even animal companions. No one is excluded during present time.

There is great speculation for the origins of this celebration, and what it means to different people. Among those who worship the ancient Roman deities, this day may be remembered as the day of Lupercalia. Celebrated between the 13th and the 15th.

For some of those who are monotheistic, it is was on the 14th day of this month that Valentine (possibly one of many) was executed for his belief in the positive influence of marriage.

Still others see this as a day for those who are single to unite. This is celebrated on the Ideas of February too.

Many people and countries see it as an over commercialized day wrought with flagrant immodesty and meant only for the profit of the companies. Or just as a bad day.

Some people find their understanding of the history in books of various sorts. Others

Whatever your version of this day, consider it a day for kindness and positive feelings toward others. That should be enough to cover all the above.




Interesting name origins:

Valentine - Derived from the ancient Latin, this rather popular name originally meant 'strength' or 'valour'. So, perhaps asking someone to be 'be my Valentine' means you are asking them to be your strength?

Peace.

New Year

Welcome to 2017! For some the year started on the Winter Solstice, for some yesterday, and for others it has yet to come.

Consider the possibilities of this new chapter in your life.

Store Updates, New Snats and Bigger Workspace

It has been quite a journey since the last time I wrote an entry. Coyote's Blessings is no longer selling at the Mountain View General Store. The MVGS closed permanently earlier this year. Everyone is moving on...

Crow named our house The Pinecone House because the roof and shape remind her of a pine cone. What do you think?

Including us! We moved to a new house in July. We're still unpacking but the weather is great and we have an amazing view from our kitchen window. Our workshop doubled in size, which means more space for bigger projects.

I am working on this year's writing projects. I started 'The Sun', a Found Art piece, and am working on 'The Keys to Success' too. I expect them to be done sometime in 2017. Crow wrote a comic piece in her Yuki's Life about our move. She has a Patreon site too. She has been creating more, bigger snats, including Mega Snat!

MEGA snat

Our store has been renovated! We've cleaned it up, and retired some products. Check out our new Snat Gallery! Most of the snats in the gallery belong to the Snat Lady.

September was event madness. We had an event almost every weekend in September., including Luna Park 2016 (post and pictures coming soon). 

Speaking of shows - we have another official regular show! On the first Saturday of every month we'll be at the De Anza Flea Market, if you happen to be in the Cupertino (California) area. You can view all our up-coming events on our new Events Calendar.

Business as Usual

We always put a quote on the back of our business cards. It is a positive quote so that whoever receives the card can contemplate or enjoy the words on the backside. Coming up with quotes is always difficult because nine out of ten of the cards have unique quotes. One of my current favorite quotes is from Helen Keller: "If you keep your face to the light, you cannot see the shadow."

Last night I wrote in my journal: I'm lost. I need a ray of light so I can see the brightness and ignore the shadow. 

I've spent quite a bit of this day reading articles about project management, leadership, how to improve your social presence, how to generate more Twitter followers and several other topics relating to positively increasing business output on social media. That, and welcoming more than thirty new followers to our Twitter followers.

I am pleased we have so many new Twitter followers. It will also be interesting to see how many of them remain our followers, or -more likely- wait a week and then unfollow our establishment. For those who read this that don't use Twitter, following someone and then unfollowing them to add to your total 'Followers' count is "a thing". Despite this, I am grateful Coyote's Blessings has over two hundred followers!

All this increased interest in our Twitter following, the Universe telling me to pay attention to management and organizing skills, and concern about where we're going come on the heels of Crow and I working on a new business strategy. We're going to revamp the business, which will include shutting down the site next week to work on breathing new life into it. As mentioned in previous posts, we're going to discontinue products that aren't working for us - and focus more on products and topics concerning K.E. Milrona's Andromeda Galaxy (like snats!).

That does not mean we're going to completely revamp our inventory, just bring more focus to it. Items that are currently available won't be available on-line after this point and will only be available if you come to one of our fairs.

Thanks for your continued reading. Please leave a comment or a question or anything if you have something to say!

Store Update

We are gearing up for Halloween time. Interested in some pumpkins for your table or party gift bag? What about a ghost-and-gravestone salt and pepper shaker? These and more in our store. Be sure to order soon so we have time to ship your ornaments and decorations before the season is truly upon us!

Quite a bit is happening in the store. All of the inventory should have the same font format and size now. If you see any items that are different, please email me (coyote@coyotesblessings.com), send a form through the Contact Us page, add a message below, send a direct from Twitter or... well, you get the idea, there are a lot of ways to get in contact with us!

An astute observer, or just someone who has been reading this since the beginning, might note there are several less pages of inventory in our store than there were a few weeks ago. I've also removed some empty entries, not that anyone except me can see them, but at least they're not cluttering the behind the scenes area anymore. We've discontinued some products (like the beaded flags) due to being unpopular and, in addition, made some show-only (like the window clings).

That means you'll have to come to a show to buy them! Well, not completely true. They're still available for sale, just not on the site. You can order them via. email if you really want them or just come to one of our shows and you won't have to worry about paying shipping.

The show-only items are generally either too fragile to ship or don't have the same impact on the web as they do 'in person'. Window Clings, for example, are truly a must-see type of item if you want to buy them. Besides, it is more fun to show off a Window Cling by sticking it to something. The type of 'don't take my word for it, watch this instead!' attitude.




















I considered making a Window Cling youtube video for demonstration purposes. What do you think?