Archive for February, 2008

Stock–I has it! Yesterday I got this huge order of over 125 prints, so I spent the evening signing them and putting them into clear bags with my business card. I had quite a bit of help from Danielle, who not only helped me pack some of these up, but also cooked us a lovely dinner. Thank you, Danielle!

Very Exciting: I ran out of business cards while I was putting these together. This means I get to buy new business cards! Squee! (I can’t be the only person who gets excited about new business cards, right?) I’m trying a new design for Sixhours Photography this time, and I also had a separate design printed for Calobee Doodles. The glossy finish was free, and I splurged for rounded corners. Now I can’t wait for them to get here!

Shop-related announcement: I’m finally going to start keeping a selection of prints in stock, which means faster shipping times for my customers! To start with, most prints in 4×6 or 5×7 sizes will ship the next day (and this applies to both shops, calobee and sixhours). Pretty soon I’ll have larger sizes ready to go as well.

I’m not feeling particularly inspired lately, in the way of blogging or anything else. I’ve been bombarded with projects at work, T & I are researching some exciting home renovations (new floors!), and I’m otherwise absorbed in friends and books and trying to ignore the fact that it’s still winter. A particularly emphatic “FEH” to that last part.

I set up a quick still life shoot yesterday, just to say I’ve done something in the way of photography this month. I still have yet to play with the clocks, but I’d like to pick up some new photo shoot clothes first… this means thrift shopping, which means going out in the cold, and see the part above, about FEH? Yeah. Feh.

What’s even more feh is that, at some point in the last few days, I bit my tongue really hard, and I don’t even remember doing it! All I know is, two days ago I woke up with an incredibly sore and swollen tongue with a bite mark on it that hurts any time it grazes my teeth (which, as you can probably guess, is quite often! Being that they’re both in the same general vicinity of my mouth!).

Eating? Not so enjoyable. Talking? Even worse (and when I do, I’m forced to lisp). So between turning down offers of chocolate and making a concentrated effort not to talk too much, Tim is wondering who abducted his real wife and put this strange, lisping alien in her place.

Despite the amount of feh I’m experiencing right now, I’m quite excited about the Maine Etsy meet-up in Portland next weekend! I’m looking forward to meeting some of my fellow Maine Etsians in person, and as a bonus, I get to spend time with Danielle and Susan. The three of us are making a mini road trip of it. I’m also doing trades with a couple people, and bringing some prints along to show off… it should be a fun time!

My very wise friend, Sarah, wrote about Etsy on her blog, The Quest to Become Debt Free, which is about… well, I’m guessing you can tell what Sarah’s blog is about!

At first, I had a difficult time trying to figure out how Etsy and saving money go together. In my personal experience, it’s very hard to save money when you have Etsy’s vast array of goodies tempting you on a regular basis. As someone who spends most of her hard-earned Etsy money on Etsy, I know this!

But then I realized that, if I’m going to spend money on gifts or other potentially frivolous purchases, it makes more sense to give that money to regular folks–people who are probably also in debt or struggling to make ends meet, or maybe they’re just trying to make a little extra spending money, like me–instead of patronizing the big box stores, where your money will only serve to make the executives at the top of the food chain wealthier. When I support an economy that’s a bit closer to home, so to speak, I don’t feel so bad for splurging!

Oopsie, where have I been?

Well, it’s a long story, involving a social life (no, really–this is not a work of fiction!), a pesky rhinovirus, two Etsy shops, and a few long days at work. I’ve been up to my ears in friends, snot, appointments, and my job(s). I’m pretty sure I have a husband running loose around here somewhere, too… he’s probably buried under the pile of dirty dishes in the sink.

Add a dash of laziness, and you have a recipe for a thoroughly neglected blog.

But never fear, because I’ve been inspired! Invigorated, even! Word around Blogland is that NaBloPoMo is being resurrected–this time, you post every day in a given month (not just November). Each month has a theme, and March’s theme is “lists.” It just so happens that I am a list-making fiend, so beginning March 1st, I am going to clog your RSS readers with so much mindless drivel, you’ll be begging me to take a vacation. To Pluto.

Also, apparently it’s Valentine’s Day, or something? What? Huh? I admit, I completely forgot until late this morning, when I was already buried under piles of work. Oops!

T & I agreed to postpone our romantic celebrations until this weekend, at which point we’ll go shopping for new floors. Home ownership is sexy. You want more hardwood, baby? How about some vinyl tiles? Ooh yeah, let’s negotiate a three-way with the contractor. I like it like that.

Oook, I’ve obviously been away from the blog for far too long… I need to work on letting the crazy out in little bursts.

In the spirit of new beginnings, I decided that my first Etsy shop needed a makeover to better reflect its new content. So I doodled myself (it’s not as dirty as it sounds, I swear!) and created a new banner/icon combination. For lack of a more inspired shop title, the new store is called Calobee Doodles. Go see!