Archive for the ‘illustration’ Category

I’ve been a busy little bee this weekend. I’ve been working on more custom orders and just generally doodling away the day today!

This rather malicious doodle was inspired by the poor little chocolate bunny I gave Tim for Easter–he is already missing his ears. But I’m sure he’ll get his revenge, in the kind of nightmares that can only be had when one falls asleep after consuming something like half their body weight in chocolate.

Speaking of which, I’m pretty sure I’ve OD’ed on Easter candy, at least for this season. If I see another Cadbury Mini Egg, I might just barf.

Hoppy Easter, everyone!

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?

It was a busy, productive weekend, which is exactly the kind of weekend I like best. I made these fabric thumbtacks, Tim and I spent some time in the kitchen making meals for the week (the fridge is packed full), I doodled a bit (see my pretty new desktop?), had dinner with Sarah and Ian, and hung out with Danielle.

One thing I didn’t do that I wanted to was set up another photo shoot, but that’s OK. Thankfully Danielle is in the area often, so it’s not hard to find a few hours here and there. The days are getting longer, too, which helps tremendously, because I can schedule shoots after work instead of restricting myself to weekends.

I also spent a bit of money, which is something I’ve been trying to avoid doing lately, especially where sales have been slower than usual… but I couldn’t resist a bit of retail therapy. In the spirit of NaBloPoMo, a list:

• I loved the fabric thumbtacks so much that I bought a bunch of supplies to make more, along with some super-strong magnets so I can try those as well.
• I won an eBay auction for 6 vintage cups and saucers with the same pattern I found on my favorite thrifted platters. Liz (Madeinlowell) pointed out that my platters are Temporama, which was a very popular dishware set in the 50’s. I did a search out of curiosity, and wound up bidding on a few auctions. I’m going to try to incorporate the cups into a photo shoot or two (at least then I can say they were a business expense!)
• Also from the ‘Bay, a wireless remote flash trigger, so I can use my studio strobes with my camera. The Pentax K10D is inconvenient in one giant glaring aspect, and that is the lack of a PC socket for additional flash units. At some point I’d like to get a real hot shoe flash, but this trigger will work in the interim.

Also: Stay tuned for a contest! Someone’s Etsy anniversary is coming up…

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!