Archive for the ‘etsy’ Category

I’ve been up to my neck in custom work lately, which is why I’ve been absent for the last couple days (also absent-minded, but that’s the typical state of affairs no matter what I’m working on). I don’t know if it was the Real Simple blog feature a few days ago or what, but Calobee Doodles has been overrun by custom requests. Not that I’m complaining… quite the opposite!

And today I found one of my photographs featured as an “Etsy Find” in the Storque! Yay! I’m having a good day, indeed.

T & I took a much-needed break last night to go out to dinner and a movie, as it’s been eons since we’ve done a “date night.” Of course, we didn’t bother to read any movie reviews before we selected our movie of choice for the evening. We stuck to the synopsis, which sounded good in theory… but was bad–very bad–in practice. Always read the reviews; always. It will save you the trauma of spending good money to watch a rotten tomato like Doomsday.

Wow. Just… wow. One minute you’re in the midst of a 28-Days-Later-esque scenario in London, and the next you’re thrown into a society of punk-ish anarchy in barricaded Scotland. Ten minutes later, you’re whisked away (by train, of course) to a distinctly medieval society ruled by a crazy mad scientist king, where you discover that the “cure” is not so much a cure, but a rather obvious matter of genetics. And then, oh, I don’t know, let’s throw in a gratuitous car chase! Just for the hell of it!

All the while I’m trying to figure out whether I’ve just missed something or if this is a “Choose Your Own Adventure” movie… where the plot can take a 180 degree turn at any minute! No cohesion necessary! And the cinematography, if you can even call it that… urgh. I actually had to close my eyes and cover my ears at one point to get my bearings. I wanted to be sick, but I don’t know if that was because of the jumpy transitions or the terrible acting. Quite possibly both.

But that’s par for the course for us. Tim and I have a bad habit of picking the absolute worst movies to see in the theater. If you told me I had a choice between a movie with substance, plot, and good acting and something horrible with Colin Farrel and bad dialog, I’d pick the latter nine times out of ten. I’m a glutton for punishment, I guess.

(This girl and her smug little cat is in the shop at Calobee Doodles!)

I didn’t actually start selling until the 31st of March or so, but as of the 22nd I’ve officially been with Etsy for a year. And what a year it’s been! I went from feeling like I’d probably never sell my work to making 1-2 sales per week. That may be small potatoes for most, but it’s a huge accomplishment for me.

I also picked up “doodling,” which was both an excellent business move AND a lot of fun! It’s opened the doors to doing custom work, which I really enjoy, and it’s more relaxed and low-key in comparison to my photography.

All in all, I give the last year’s business adventures an “A.” There have been bugs here and there, but ultimately, opening an Etsy shop has been a very fulfilling, rewarding experience.

And now for the best part: in honor of my Etsy-versary, I’m having another contest! Yay!

Here’s the nitty gritty:

• The prize is one print of your choice from any of my shops, up to a $20 value. Two small prints would be acceptable as well, as long as they total no more than $20 (not including shipping).
• Leave a comment on this blog entry and tell me which print(s) you want to win.
• The contest ends March 31st at 11:59 p.m. I will draw the winners on April 1st and contact the winner by e-mail.

(Please note that comments are turned off at Vox and Livejournal, so you’ll need to comment at the blog.sixhours.net address to qualify, and don’t forget to leave your e-mail address so I can contact you if you win! This contest is open to U.S. and international readers alike!)

Good luck!

I think I’ve officially dropped the ball on NaBloPoMo. I’m pretty sure there’s an 11th commandment that reads something like, “Thou shalt not fail to update thy blogeth on a regularth basisth… ththth,” and I’ve spent the past few days pretty much ignoring it. Well, forgive me, dear Internets, for I have sinned. Ah well, there’s always April!

Yesterday Susan and I met up for another round of thrift shopping. The shopping itself wasn’t very productive for me (it’s usually hit-or-miss, anyhow)–I picked up a vintage wool overcoat in light blue (perfect for photo shoots), a vase for my office (it’s daffy season!), and a shirt for myself. The conversation and company, however, made it well worth the trip. We also enjoyed a tasty dinner at Olive Garden.

Now I’m excited because I have two custom orders in progress. The first is a custom doodle, almost finished, and the second is product photography for another talented Etsy artist. I can’t wait to get started on that, because I think it will be an excellent opportunity to get creative and learn how to better take direction from a client… when it comes to photography, I’m usually the one directing.

Finally, big thanks to Holly of decor8 for including my “alphabet soup” poster in her Real Simple article, “Affordable Art Round-up for Kids.” I’m flattered to be amongst so many talented artists and designers!

I’ve made it over halfway through March without saying “I’m running on empty,” but then, I missed two or three or six blog entries at the beginning there. So is it bad that I’m still running on empty? Urgh.

I just finished the first draft of a custom doodle, which was enjoyable, as usual. I also worked on a new gift certificate graphic for Calobee Doodles–the idea I came up with at 4:30 this morning, when I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep because of a certain obnoxious little kitty… *cough*PIPPEN*cough*

It’s been a slow month, so I’ve been brainstorming ways to improve my shops. A few things I’ve considered:

• Re-evaluate my pricing (you can still take my poll… hint hint) and make adjustments as necessary;
• revise my shop information, item descriptions, and images (working on this now);
• advertise. Not necessarily the broad-scope Google Adwords type, but something smaller and more targeted… maybe on a few arts/craft sites and blogs. I’m going to continue to explore other, less direct methods of advertising, such as donating prints to giveaways or The Sampler;
• and finally, list more often. This involves, you know, creating things… and you’d think that would be the easy part, but no… I’m backwards like that.

So, business owners, enlighten me: what do you do to ensure your shop doesn’t stagnate?

Danielle and I had some impromptu photo shoot good-ness yesterday evening, in what little light there was left for the day. We didn’t get to do much for that reason, but we’re going to do another shoot tomorrow. I particularly like this shot because it creeps me out, like something from a Stephen King novel. I keep expecting her to turn around and have no eyes or something.

And the dress! I love the dress. It was a recent thrifty find–I’ve had really good luck with those lately! You can get a better sense of it in this photo.

(Danielle also started her own Etsy shop for photography, so go see! My personal favorite is “in the doghouse.”

In other news, it’s been an upsy downsy kinda week, and I’m quite glad that it’s the weekend, finally! Is there anything better than a lazy Friday night?