Editing photos... and evolving

These were part of my Mother's Day bouquet! Today I'm going to play with my photo editing software and see what I can learn. I think I'll start with this photo... want a more dreamy feel to it.

I love raw photography... but I'm beginning to think a little differently about what I may want to convey. It all started with a photo that I listed in my shop... I edited the people out of the foreground on the beach. And now... I want to try other things. I've always held fast to the idea that life is about learning, about evolving. Now is the time for my editing skills to evolve.

I had a friend stop by work yesterday and she brought me some gorgeous paper to use as journal covers. I was so touched! So... more and more designs coming soon. Currently, I'm working on a custom order journal, but will have that completed soon and I'll move on to the new paper.

I hope that life continues to evolve for the rest of you... and that you never settle for being stagnant.

Monday Randomness

I took this photo on Friday night at a friend's house. This is their african serval, and his name is Simba. He is a sweetie. They also have a lynx, but my battery died before I could capture him. It was an unplanned trip out there, or I would've been prepared, had been trying to run my battery down so I could charge it for my marathon of picture taking that I had planned for this weekend.

Saturday morning I set up the light box and re-took all of my journal photos. When you are selling online, the picture is probably more than half of the battle. I took my time and took over 100 photos. Take a look at my improved "We'll Always Have Paris Journal" photos. I love the close-ups of the details, the pictures on the map, the stitching. And I believe I got the lighting correct. If you have any critiques, please do let me know. I'm striving to improve!

So, Saturday was spent retaking photos and we took a couple of mommies out to a late lunch. Sunday morning was spent tweaking a bit more in my shop, then we went to a Titanic exhibit that was traveling through town. Then we went to a friend's house who makes fused glass pendants. I met him through Etsy, and we quickly became friends. We had gone there a couple of weeks ago and I tried my hand at his craft. I picked my pendant up yesterday and it's absolutely gorgeous!! I'll take a photo of it soon and put it on here, in the meantime, to get an idea of what he does, check his shop out! After we got a little glass time in, we all went out to one of his neighborhood chinese restaurants. It was delicious!

Wonderful weekend... I hope all of you mother's had a great day yesterday!

To Accomodate a Request

These are the promotional items that I received. Wonderful pictures she took, huh? And quite honestly, they are more amazing in person. She also sent me a free gift-- a keychain with my etsy logo on it. She will be listing those in her shop soon! If you'd like to see what PromoPixie has available, click on any of the photos to be taken to her shop! The magnetic car decals are really tempting me now...

A real business

The surgery went well. My oldest son now has a plate and four screws in his right hand. It was a very long day though, and I was up for 20 hours. Hence my absence yesterday.

I received my promotional materials yesterday. The rack cards, business cards, and t-shirt along with a couple of surprises. I feel so 'real' now... well, like my business is real. Now, it's time to put all of those items to good use!

This will be the last month for free shipping in my shop. I've done some cost analysis and my profit is being almost completely consumed by postage. So... if you'd like to take advantage of the free shipping, do it prior to Saturday!

This weekend I hope to get some more journals made and listed. And I will begin researching local venues once again. Possibly a place to do consignment. We will see what doors are opened up for me. I do know that doors do not just open. I have to find the door, and I have to knock.
So, that is what I will do. I am considering approaching the local wineries to put my rack cards in.

Always planning... that's me. Planning, doing, and moving forward. That's the game plan.

Surgery...

My oldest son is going in for surgery today. He broke his hand. He keeps telling me it's no big deal, but I will be pacing all the while, I'm sure. It's going to be a long day, and your healing thoughts will be appreciated.

What a Weekend!

In the past weeks, I have just not been feeling the photography thing. I've listed some new photos here and there in my shop, but they were ones I already had stored on my hard drive. Sunday, however, a trip to Newport, Oregon remedied that! I have an online friend who wants to collect photos of all the Oregon lighthouses. So, lighthouse hunting we went! The one pictured above is called the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. It is the tallest one in Oregon. There is another one in Newport as well, that's a lighthouse on top of a house, and it was decommissioned in 1874. I have several of the Yaquina Head Lighthouse in my shop now. The ones I took of the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse (on the house) will be in my shop soon. The really pleasant surprise was that the house had been restored to the time period, and I got pictures of different things. You can see the beginning of my series "From Days Gone By" in my shop now. More to come as I edit them.

Right down the beach from the Yaquina (pronounced ya-kwin-ah) Head Lighthouse is a huge tidepool area. We spent an hour there, and I snapped away! My love of photography has been reaffirmed!

I listed 7 new photos last night, and there are many more to come. Please let me know what you think of them! I also listed my friendship journals. And at least one other journal will be listed today, then hopefully another tomorrow. It sounds like I've been busy. Well, I have, but the kind of busy that makes me happy and keeps me alive. I have re-discovered my bliss. What a feeling! I wish the same for all of you!

A rewarding week, but a week of exhaustion too

I am exhausted. I've slept so much this week (well, the extra 8 hours on Wednesday), but I went to work for a full day yesterday and today I'm exhausted. I am going to relax this weekend. And sleep in. Heaven.

I'm no longer creating for nothing... creating and listing with no sales. I'm selling, I'm relisting, I'm making more. It's awesome. I can't believe all the places I've mailed my items off to! I love when I address the packages... "oooh, this one's going to Tennessee :-)". And I'm starting to see repeat customers, so that's really cool too!

I will be working on the friendship journals this weekend. Or Mother/Daughter, Brother/Sister, Sisters.... and hopefully will be debuting them next week! Along with some others, and hopefully some more photos. I have so many stored, just haven't listed them yet!

Another thing I've been doing is stocking up for Christmas. All through Etsy! There's such a wide variety of items on there. In fact, I've even started buying bubble mailers for my business on there! And I have some amazing promotional items on order. I just have to show you something amazing... I have a wonderful friend now, she goes by PromoPixie on etsy... and look what she created for me!!!
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24353277 I can't wait to receive it! Now if I do craft shows, I'll wear that, and I'll also have lots of other promo materials for it! All thanks to such a smart little pixie!

It's really beginning to feel like a real business now! It's evolving every single day! It's been very rewarding!