The Return of the Absent One

Dang! Where does the time go?! I was perfectly aware that I had not posted anything for quite awhile, but TWO AND A HALF MONTHS! Gee whiz.

So now I've returned with an obnoxious vengeance - posting yesterday and working on 2 posts today, without any explanation of my whereabouts the past 10 weeks. But since you are a faithful blog reader, I'm sure you are used to such blogging behavior and perhaps you have even behaved this way yourself. Anyway, on with the post...

I have many things to tell you about but right now, I need to keep it short since I'm procrastinating cleaning the house. I still need to get the house done in about an hour, but I like living on the edge, so I'll cram this post in as quickly as I can (for the added adrenaline rush).

The past couple of nights I've been working on posting new items in my Etsy shop. I painted these wooden necklaces quite awhile ago, but just got around to posting them:

I hadn't planned on selling any jewelry, but these tiny pieces of wood were so fun to paint, I couldn't help but make them into something. If I do some more, I might think of some other purpose for them, like a tiny wall hanging or something.

Last night I worked on these:

I've been a little down/grumpy lately, so working on these have been very calming. I love to make tags and carve rubber stamps. I think I'll have to keep doing this - it's much cheaper than therapy!

I currently have 54 items for sale in my shop. I'm hopping to get up to 100 items in the next few weeks. I've read that more items helps increase shop traffic and I would love to have more traffic.

Ok, well, better go clean so my kids won't be embarrassed when their friends come over! :)

Beaux Arts Bizarre 2009

Last week I participated in the Beaux Arts Bizarre held at the Missouri Theatre in Columbia, Missouri. This is the second year that I've had a booth with my friends Jolene and Beth. The Missouri Theatre is a beautiful old building that was recently renovated. Just seeing all the work that has been done to restore it is awesome and to have a booth on the stage for 3 days is pretty amazing.

I enjoy sharing a booth with Beth and Jolene. It's one of the few times the three of us get to spend time together without children dominating our activities and conversation. Between the three of us we have 7 kids, all under the age of 10 and most under the age of 8. Whenever we do a booth together, we call ourselves "3 Moms Creative Outlet" but individually, we each have our own Etsy shops. Our creations are different, but similar enough to blend and display nicely together. Here are some pics of our booth:

I like doing fairs because it's nice to get feedback about what kinds of things I've been working on. I also enjoy meeting people and talking with them. It's really fun getting to know some of the other artists. But doing art fairs as a way to make money has not been very successful for me. Getting product ready and setting up, taking down, etc. is a lot of hard work. So far, I've done better at a gallery showing and selling consignment at Artlandish Gallery downtown. I don't want to give up on art fairs, but I hope to start figuring out how to make more money than I spend. Maybe in the spring I'll have better opportunities to sell art. We'll see.

I've been busily trying to get some things done for the craft fairs I'm participating in this spring. Can you believe it? Me in more than one craft fair! Pretty wild. I've decided that I want to do some things other than illustrations, so I've been painting boxes, candlesticks and other wooden objects.

It has been fun, but I worry that I either won't have enough variety and quantity or that I will have too much quantity. If I have lots left over, then it goes into the craft cave, where I'll have to look at it every time I go to work in there - a reminder that nobody bought my stuff.

I think I'll keep this post short. I'm sensing a bunch of negative "vibes" coming out of my finger tips and I really don't want to see it in black and white. Most of all, I don't want it floating away in cyber space to come back and bite me in the rear some day! See?! Negative and paranoid! And it's sunny out, so why am I not more positive?

Oh, I did want to write one funny thing. Last Sunday I called my friend Sandy. I haven't talked to her in a very long time and I just wanted to check in. We've been friends for an eternity and before I was married with children, our average phone call was about 3 hours. That doesn't happen anymore.

Anyway, I was downstairs on the phone and the rest of my family was upstairs. My 6-year-old son had heard me laughing several times while I was on the phone (not an unusual occurrence when I talk to Sandy). Here's the conversation that happened between son and hubby:

son: what is mom laughing about?

hubby: oh, she's talking to Sandy.

son: why is she laughing?

hubby: I don't know.

son: they must be telling knock-knock jokes! :)

I'm also posting my latest painting that I submitted to last week's Thursday Sweet Treat. The topic was The Joy of Dance. The title of my painting is Joyful Dance and is done in watercolor pencil, colored pencil, ink on watercolor paper.

Pretending to Be Positive

I was going to title this post "I Hate the Way My Etsy Shop Looks!" but I thought that didn't sound very positive. I have not had a very good week. It's really no big deal, in the long run and measured next to matters of life and death it's pretty low on the "importance scale". Still, I'm just irritated and cranky and sad and disappointed. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, maybe it will explain a little why I'm going to whine about my Etsy shop.

uh hmm. Here goes:

For some reason, every time I go to my etsy shop, I just feel disappointed. I don't like the way it looks, so I find myself avoiding it (this is how I often deal with things that are unpleasant to me. I think I mentioned this in another, older post). My goal for the earlier part of this year was to revamp my shop. I wanted to get more items in the shop, better photos, better descriptions and just make it look nicer. I want it to look like someone cares about it and hasn't abandoned it for the winter.

I did a couple of good things. I did add a few new items, changed my banner, got a new avatar and re-wrote some descriptions. However, I think it looks weird. I like the banner and avatar, but the shop itself looks kind of odd. Like you've walked into some psychedelic 60's shop with black light posters all around. It's too bright and too much to look at, so you close your eyes and hope it goes away (kind of like sleeping in a dark room and having someone abruptly open the blinds to let the brightest, most annoying sun light in). No wonder I have such a bounce rate according to Google Analytics! Others must feel the same way.

I just have to get better photos. I feel like I've already taken so many pictures of my things, but honestly, a lot of them aren't very good. I'm going to have to try some more, I guess. Spring is coming, so maybe I'll be more motivated and have more energy to make things look pretty. I hope so. You probably hope so too, so you don't have to hear me whine about it again.

Stay tuned for my next Blog Post: "Why I Hate the Way My Blog Looks".