A.W.O.L

If you've been looking for me and haven't found me in the past couple of days it's no wonder. I have been working hard to get a business website up and running. You see the hubster makes lovely wood crafts and I would like to also sell some of the arty things I make. After all how can I keep making them if I don't sell them. I need the space they are taking up and I need a bit of income from them to buy more supplies to make more.

Making your own business website is more work than I expected it to be. So far I have:

1. Purchased a domain name.
2. Bought a shopping cart.
3. Opened a business account with Paypal.
4. Selected and paid for a company to host my catalog and take care of the processing of orders.
5. Begun the very long and very difficult task of taking pictures of the items I want to sell.

Number 5 is the most difficult and time consuming of the list. First I have to get a clear, uncluttered picture of the item. Then I need to import it into Photoshop and do the editing (cropping, color correcting, etc.). I need to weigh the item and I need to decide on a price. Finally I have to go to the inventory control page of the host and input all the information and upload a picture. This must be done over and over again for each item.

So far I have four small accordion books I made with lovely arty pictures in them. Two of them are pictures of kaleidoscopes I made from pictures of flowers I took in my garden over the years. I also have several of the hubster's products - suet feeders, bird house, cribbage boards, and garden signs.

I still have to take pictures and upload my altered dominoes and my collage pieces on wood.


Here is a small sampling of the products I have listed so far:

I still need to get with UPS when I am ready to call it ready so that if I get orders as I get orders I can get them boxed up and picked up at my place.

In just a bit I am going to Charlotte to take my sister out second-hand-store shopping and to lunch to celebrate her birthday. Then I am driving to Stockbridge to tutor and finally home to my daughter and her two little ones who are coming for dinner. Another full, fun day!

Tomorrow we have the girls and I am leaving around dinner time to meet up with some friends in Marshall to make the drive to Fremont for a meeting of MIABA. We will arrive late (it is about a 3.5 hour drive I think) and stay overnight at a motel that is already reserved so that we can do art all day the next day. The get together is being held at an art place and the projects we are working on are all about transfers. I am so in love with transfers and am looking forward to trying these and visiting with friends and talking about art all day.

For today I am working more on the business site this morning before going to Charlotte and again this evening after dinner. What I'd really like is for someone to look at the business site and give me their first impressions and either reassurance or ideas for improvement or both.

Do I have any takers?

xoxo

A New Product and More Exercise

Whew! Just finished a 30 minute ball workout and an hour on the treadmill. This tired old bod is going to get into shape whether or not it wants to. Seriously, I have to be careful not to overdo. Each time I get myself into an exercise regimen, I tend to get overzealous and want to work out every day. In reality, this is too much, so I am only allowing myself to work out every other day. So far it is working and I am really beginning to change how I look and how my clothes fit.

I mentioned in a previous post how I had brought home a new sparkling watercolor palette from USArtQuest, and today I decided to make a double page journal spread about them. I couldn't decide how I was going to use them when I saw another blog where someone drew the colored pencils she had just gotten - voila! great idea.




This is not a perfect rendition, but the colors show up nicely. These were a joy to work with - creamy and beautifully sparkly. I drew the palette, but apparently not carefully enough. The last three pots I drew overlapped. This is not a true to life rendering as the pots really don't overlap. This is the pastel ('Pastelle') palette. I think they have 4 others. This company is also the company who make the fabulous Perfect Paper Adhesive (PPA). If you are unfamiliar with this company, just click on the link above to check them out; or go to Sue's blog for more info.

I've been reading several posts about a sparkly/shimmery product that is no longer being produced and thought maybe this is the product for you.

That's all I have for today.

Bye!