Miller November 2022 Update!

Our Monthly Update! So there is going to be a difference when it comes to signing up for the Monthly Newsletter versus these Monthly update posts.

Here's the difference:

Monthly Newsletters are our monthly summaries of how our business side is going such as the website and professional side of things.

Monthly Updates are our monthly personal summaries of what we have been doing and sharing more detail about each. We don't want to put too much in the email and overwhelm the reader (since we tend to have an issue with summarizing and not being so babbly). We have fewer restrictions with these update posts.

So with that out of the way,

I want to add that Applesauce's page is basically updated and completed. We miss her dearly and hope that her story can be seen and appreciated. She was an amazing cat. We would greatly appreciate you taking a minute or two to look at her pictures, read about her, and watch her adorable videos (She has the cutest and most interesting meows!!).

Due to seasons changing and the cold becoming so much more painful...we have been staying busy and staying inside. So many projects are in process and are actually getting done! Such as these little guys:

Meet the Top Hat Gang! (Named by John). These guys are being handed out as we come across people during our day-to-day. We have been both working on trying to be a little more social (our anxiety goes way up during the winter and makes it increasingly difficult) while also sharing our art, ATCs, our website, and more. Though we know this isn't the BEST method to be sharing our website, we are doing baby steps so we don't slide back and undo everything we have worked up to at this point.

So free ATCs for people we meet! If you see us and would like one, please just ask. Yes we are Autistic and we normally don't like interaction, but for this, we would welcome it! It makes us happy that people would be requesting some of our art. If you don't see us around town, you will be able to find us during our 2023 ATC monthly event located at the PPLD East Library.

This goes into our next topic: 2023 ATC Monthly Event! I don't have a solid title for this yet so if you have any ideas please let me know. I keep changing this since I'm not entirely sure either. So here is the idea:

At the end of each month (the last Friday of every month), we will have an Artist Trading Card Event at PPLD's East Library. I haven't reserved the room yet so that info will be updated once I get to that point. Here we will be able to trade cards we have made elsewhere or make cards during our 2-hour period there. Each month will have a different focus including challenges and instructions as well as free materials for you to use. You don't HAVE to do the monthly theme and can just swing by and make whatever you want. We will not be using Library tools so we will be bringing our own. Feel free to bring things you would like to use or leave them for other artists to use.

During these events, you will have a chance to purchase small ATC kits to take home (donation based with a minimum request to just cover materials). I actually am working on those today. They will include materials so you can draw and collage up to 20 different ATCs (including a few colored pencils and even a glue stick!). We will also have other tools and materials you can purchase for your own art which we will sell here on our website. During those events, there will be mostly examples of what we can offer to help you expand and enjoy ATCs!

Oh man...one item we made we are THRILLED to share. We have shown two others who are fascinated with ATCs and have been learning about it through us....and even they were impressed with it! It'll make cutting out ATC backings so much easier. We will have something called a "Size Guide" that will be the standard 2.5"x3.5" size. You can just trace the size or use scissors to cut around it. It will be made of acrylic so that you won't be able to cut through or even a part of the guide. Best part? It's see-through! So if you happen to have a really cool paper and want this one section to be the center of your ATC...now you can just place the Size Guide over it and measure it exactly as you'd like.

We are finalizing the design and will have various levels depending on your preference and type of art. More will be revealed later and may even be up for sale on our website if we complete these before the event. The most basic Size Guide will only be about $5 so it won't break the bank! Tentative price but we want this to be affordable so I don't think it will rise too much above that.

Moving on~

We have new artwork going up for sale!

First Items: My first ceramics made at PPLDs Sand Creek Library! I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I actually had no idea what I was going to make. While we were driving over, I was drowsy (just being woken from a nap) and kind of saw this (the house figure) in the back of a car's tail light in front of me. So that happened to be what I made in the class. This isn't my first time doing ceramics, but it had been quite a few years since I touched clay that needed a kiln (Going on about 10+yrs now?). So it was great going back into this medium. This also inspired us to try and make our own clay from....well outside. You can process natural clay pretty easily and John has jumped into that topic. We have a bucket evaporating, leaving the clay behind. This isn't the first step nor the last, but this process can take a while if letting it naturally dry out.

+They can be sold separately or sold together.+

Second Item: John has been focusing on drawing Bees! This is going to be his focus topic for a while so he is experimenting and trying new ideas. This piece was submitted in one of PPLD's art exhibits in one of the libraries all of October. This one came out beautifully with a touch of gold paint to emphasize the honeycomb. It's actually a somewhat larger piece than we typically make. I think it is close to 8"x11" in size.

Third and Fourth Items: These were the pieces I made for the exhibition at one of PPLD's libraries. The white figure on the left is called "Light Constellation" while the one on the right is called "Dark Constellation". They are not the same size ("Light Constellation" is larger by a half inch I think"). I had a bit of an obsession with making eyes and I still have tons I need to use. I really liked how the eyes were crawling on the front of the frame.

For now, we are leaving the price up to you (just please don't lowball and insult us!). Just please make sure to include shipping costs separately if we are going to ship it. If you are in Colorado Springs, we can meet and save that extra cost if you would like. We are excited to finally be able to present and sell our art to people who will hopefully enjoy them! We understand that decorating your living or working space helps create the right atmosphere for your mindset so we hope that one of our pieces will help add that for you wherever you place it (Or whomever you may gift it to!).

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Alright, I think this post has grown a little longer than I was expecting. so I'll try to be quick with these next ones.

Game recommendations!! We have been borrowing board games from PPLD's 21c (You can tell we like the library a lot can't you?). Though we have tried quite a few games by this point, I wanted to introduce the game called Splendor!

This game...ok well games are kind of annoying when you first learn them. Especially when you think you know them and then halfway through the game, you realize 'oops'. Something went wrong, you forgot this rule or that this was an option etc. Though that disappears pretty quick with this game. The first MAYBE second round may be a little rocky but it is a very simple game. So by the third round, you'll definitely know how to play and just breeze through.

(Not our picture below)

This shows the game layout and everything included. As you can see there isn't too much you'll have to deal with. It's a very easy and straightforward game. Also...those tokens on the right? They are so much fun to hold and feel the coins clank down when putting them down!! Very pleasing and fun. We would highly recommend you give this game a try!

Lastly in this letter...we found out more about Autism! There are subgroups we are finding within Autists. Our Occupational Therapist gave us a paper going over something called Pathological Demand Avoidance or (PDA)

Yeah, we still think of PDA as Public Displays of Affection.

But this makes total sense on how we react and function within the world. It also explains why I'm so reactive and emotional, why things hit me hard and I take so long to recover. Why my mind jumps to conclusions and stress, predicting the minimum requirements demanded for each task or event in life has been almost answered with this. It is overwhelming and stressful...and leads to painful results. Also explains why John and I get along so well. We are hyper-sensitive to various stimuli and react accordingly. However, if you don't have that sensitivity, you may think it's an overreaction. It's not. It's actually pain sensors going off.

Anyway, I digress a little. We will try to write a blog post more about this, both on what it is and how it applies to both of us. This website's main goal is to explore the world....and that includes Autistic minds. So that is what we are going to do!

Until then, if you want to learn more about PDA (which is surprisingly common), please check out PDAsociety.org.uk for more information.

Thanks for reading and see you again soon!