I've Opened a Coffee Shop

 

Hello, my lovelies. I know it's been some time since I was last here, but I've had a lot going on. I have opened my own coffee shop. Okay, it's not a traditional, brick-and-mortar shop. I've opened my own KoFi shop.

I've mentioned in the past about creating AI images. I have so much fun making those images, but I realized I had a lot of images on my computer. To date, I have just under 20,000 images downloaded. I've put a few of them on my Pinterest page and am currently sitting at around 450K views this month. How flippin' cool is that?

My KoFi shop is called Mom Graves Creations, and I'm trying to turn it into a brand. I've created a header/banner and a logo to the site, as well as my Pinterest page, my Instagram page, my NightCafe Studio page, and my X account. 

I like the way KoFi is set up. I can upload images and/or packages to sell or offer for free. I can also upload some of my images to a gallery simply to show off. I'm still working on the gallery, but the whole site is still a work-in-progress.

I tried the tiers for a couple of months, but I'm not happy with them. I think it's easier to just offer certain items for sale and allow patrons to either pay a monthly subscription fee or simply leave a tip. I'm still working on how to market my site, but I can't let myself get that too deep into my head, or else I'll just quit.

Since ditching the tiers, I've been working on getting the shop itself up and going. I had made some phone wallpapers, some junk journal ephemera, and a few other printables to add to the tiers. Those are all now simply for sale in the shop. I also have some St. Patrick's Day clip art for free.

One of the coolest things about my KoFi shop is that I can sell my Amazon books without having to do a lot of work. All I have to do is add the Amazon link from my shop, and it leads from the shop straight to my Amazon titles. I'm pretty sure I could do the same with some of my Redbubble items, but I haven't tried.

In an attempt to bring in a few more followers, I've decided to go back to my tried-and-true: writing prompts. As always, those will be on the site for free. I've been doing writing prompts for my fellow writers since the mid-90s, and I've always tried to make them available to everyone. 

I haven't done a lot of writing in the past few months, mostly because my real-world job has dominated my life. I can't complain, though. I've got food in the cupboards, and my bills are paid. That's more important. 

I know I'll have a lot more to do with this site, but I'm having a good time putting it together. My goal is to make it a virtual coffee shop. A play where you can bring your coffee, find a nice story to curl up with or find some ideas to write about yourself. Take a stroll through the museum gallery, then stop by the gift shop on your way out. If you're going to dream, dream big.

Thanks for stopping by and let me know if you stop by the shop. I'd love to say hi. 

Until next time,
Miss Chris

The Portals of Lost Socks

 

"Master of the Portals" by Christine Graves via Leonardo AI

It was typical Sunday morning. I'd gotten out of bed and started my day. It was early and everyone else was still asleep, or so I had thought. I heard something in the laundry room, but I couldn't make out what it was. 

I went in to investigate, expecting to find my youngest child trying to hide from me or getting into something he shouldn't. But there was nothing nor anyone in the room. I chalked it up to not having my morning coffee and went on my way.

As the family began to stir, I got breakfast started and decided to do a load of laundry. I'd thrown a few things in the dryer the night before, mostly socks and undergarments, but never took them out to fold them.

I got one load started and pulled the other from the dryer. Nothing out of the norm, just threw them in a basket and took them to my room to fold. 

As I began to match up my socks, I realized that there were several that were missing. I always had a missing sock here and there, but this seemed different. Almost every single pair I'd thrown in the laundry the night before was missing its mate.

I barked at the kids, reminding them that they had to bring me ALL of their dirty clothes, to which they bellowed back that they had. I knew better. It sparked a full day of cleaning out closets, under beds, corners, and anywhere else I thought they may have left a lonely sock behind. To my dismay, we only found three.

At the end of the day, I got the kids bathed and off to bed. It was quiet in the house once again and I was set on enjoying a little of it before heading off to bed myself. 

As I sat in the silence, I heard something in my laundry room once again. I was sure my youngest had snuck out of bed and was into something he shouldn't be. I decided to sneak up on him and surprise him, but that's not what happened.

As I entered my laundry room, I noticed a tiny being digging through my dryer. I was stunned and a squeaky breath left my body. The sound jolted the being out of my dryer and I stood there staring at this creature before me. It looked like a tiny human, but had pointed ears and was wearing a red velvet cloak.

I could tell it was just as scared as I was, so I didn't make any sudden movements. We stood there for a few moments, then it reached out its hands to me. That's when I noticed it was holding most of my missing socks. 

"Forgive, please," it said in a tiny voice. "No hurt, please." The thought sent shivers down my spine.

"No, I won't hurt you if you promise not to hurt me," I whispered.

"Need socks," it said with its eyes turned down. "Need socks to go home."

I had no idea what it meant and it apparently realized this. It put most of the socks back in the dryer, except for one of my heavy woolen ones. The little creature held the sock up, closed its eyes, and began to chant in a language I'd never heard before.

The sock began to swirl and a portal formed in the center of my laundry room. I could see through the portal that a beautiful woodland lay on the other side. "Home," the creature said, pointing to the portal. 

I only nodded in silence, still to stunned to speak. 

"No come back," the creature said in a saddened voice. "No socks for to come back. I not mean bad for you. I go home now."

My heart felt as though it were being ripped from my chest. I watched as the little creature began to step through the portal.

"Wait," I exclaimed. The tiny creature stopped and looked back at me with apprehension in its eyes.

I slowly walked to the dryer and pulled the matching sock out and handed it to the creature. "You can come back and you can have all the old socks you want. All I ask is that you leave our newer and nicer socks alone."

The creature smiled and its eyes lit up. It stuck the sock in its cloak, bowed to me, then popped through the portal, which closed as soon as the being was through.

I wasn't sure if what I'd witnessed was real or if it was just an elaborate dream, as the next thing I remembered was waking up in my chair. 

My children are all grown up now and have children of their own. I live on my own and have a fairly good life. However, I still go out of my way to make sure I have extra socks and leave a few in the dryer for my little friend to come and go from their world into ours. I've never seen the creature since, but I'm always pulling socks out of my dryer and wonder where their mates have gone.

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Hello, my lovelies. I know it's been a hot minute since I last wrote. Life has a weird way of getting away from us when we're not looking. 

The above story is from a prompt I received from Gemini AI. I use Gemini a lot and it helped me get out of my slump. I mean, it's helping me get out of my slump, I'm not there quite yet. But this helped.

The prompt was a "what if" prompt. Here's the whole prompt:

What if the reason you can never find the matching sock after doing laundry is because all lost socks are actually consumed by a tiny, velvet-cloaked being who uses them to weave portals to the past?

As odd as it sounds, this was exactly what I needed to get back into writing. Gemini wanted me to do a freewrite--only write for 5 to 10 minutes--however, once I started, I couldn't stop. It just flowed. I haven't felt that in several months. 

I'm hoping to get back into the swing of writing again, but I've got to find my rhythm again. I know I can't do that overnight, but this was a great way to start. Thank you Gemini. You're the best.

My Redbubble Coffee Mug Collection

 

"Gone Fishin'" mug by Christine Graves on Redbubble

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I've been working on a little something I haven't really told anyone about...yet. I've been creating a line of coffee mugs, as well as notebooks and journals, stickers and magnets, and several other things. And I'm doing it all through my Redbubble shop.

When I first started using Redbubble, I had no idea what I was doing. I thought it would be a way to get some of my AI art seen and maybe sell a couple of T-shirts with my images on them. I started out just throwing out images and slapping them on whatever products Redbubble had to offer. And ironically, I didn't sell a damn thing. 

I got a little frustrated and walked away from the shop for a while. But when I went back, I had a different outlook. I removed a few of my uploads and tweaked a few others. I figured out how to edit my images to fit on the products better and add custom colors to enhance the product as a whole. 

Also, when I first opened the shop, I was putting my images on just about everything. Redbubble has a lot of stuff you can add your images to, such as T-shirts and hats, wall hangings, bedspreads, shower curtains, and even throw pillows. I was pretty overwhelmed.

However, I've gone back and changed a few things. I've completely removed the T-shirts. I know how weird that sounds, but I've decided to focus on just a few products. One of those being coffee mugs. I'm a coffee junkie. I drink coffee morning, noon, and night. It's my beverage of choice, all the time. 

Though I have several mugs already done, I've been working on a series of mug collections. Not on purpose, it just kind of happened. I was working on creating an image for something else entirely and was trying to create an illustration of a 19th-century gothic woman. I got some really cool images, but four of them stood out. There was just something about them that sparked a whole new idea. 

"The Nobility Collection" by Christine Graves via Leonardo AI

I absolutely fell in love with these images. Then, something told me to put these images on Redbubble. As I did, I knew I was onto something. I played around with The Contessa first. I edited the products and the image, and was over the moon happy with the final results. From there, I had to finish out the whole collection. The only downside is I can't showcase them as a collection on Redbubble, but I'll figure something out. 

I've also started promoting my products on Pinterest. I've got quite a few of my items listed, but still working on how I want them all presented. I have one board just for my coffee mugs and another for my notebooks and journals. They're not all in order yet, but I am working on it. 

I know I'm never going to get rich with all this, but I'm having so much fun. And no, I still haven't sold anything, but at least I'm giving myself a better chance of doing so. I'm getting better at shameless self-promotion, but it's still a struggle. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to work on my next collection, The Fisherman's Collection. The image at the top of the page is just one of four mugs in this collection. I'm also working on a Hunter's Collection, and Hunting Dog Collection, and a Waterfowl Collection. 

Until next time,
Miss Chris!!!

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Christine Graves has been writing online for nearly 30 years. She has written everything from fiction and poetry to reviews and ad campaigns. She runs four other blogs. Graves Publications, Library of the Mystic Realms, Promptly Creative, and Collected Keepsakes. She also writes for a platform called Medium.com  where she runs several publications.