Quote for Today...

'You're the Biggest Part of Me'


" The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want."

~ Ben Stein


' In Love '

Quote for Today...

"Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work."
- Rita Mae Brown


I think this applies in so many ways to having a shop or working for yourself. Don't hope more than you work....this says to me not be so worried about having sales or who is coming to your shop that you forget why you even wanted this life in the first place. You wanted it to be creative on a daily basis. To enjoy your photography or your painting or your jewelry making (pick your own creative passion) - if you spend all your time hoping instead of creating then you've lost your focus. Trusting your instinct, well, that goes without saying. Without that, creativity is pretty much impossible.

Today's Quote

'Harmony'

"While we are focusing on fear, worry, or hate, it is not possible for us to be experiencing happiness, enthusiasm or love."

~ Bo Bennett

I have to keep that in mind when I'm stressing over my Etsy sales or bills or any number of possibly stressful situations. Life is to short to spend it not being happy.

Let's try - today - to focus on happiness and let the other things fade away.




'Bowing Out Gracefully'

Musings on Happiness - Daily Quote

'4 More Exits to My Apartment'

"The road to happiness lies in two simple principles; find what interests you and that you can do well, and put your whole soul into it - every bit of energy and ambition and natural ability you have."

~John D. Rockefeller

'Just Hit Pause'

Sunday Morning

'The Stars Fell on Henrietta'

I'm having a sale this weekend, and probably for the next couple of days. But 2 10"x 10" photos and get a third one absolutely free. See my shop for details =).

Happy Father's Day to all you daddies out there =). I hope everyone is having a good weekend.

I joined the Design Style Guide Etsy Street Team or the Interior Design Etsy Street Team, I'm not really sure what the official title is lol. But I do know it's pretty awesome. You get your own page on Ning, it's very well organized. I'm on a couple of other Etsy teams, well 1 other Etsy team. And I've been trying to get on another one, as far as I know I've taken all the necessary steps but they still haven't officially notified me of my status (I've been trying for a couple of months). This one is by far the most active, best organized though. I'm actually seeing a benefit to being on there other than just being able to say 'I'm on this Etsy street team or that Etsy street team'. They do treasuries using their members , they promote you to possible retailers, pretty awesome. So that's my big news for the weekend. I'm pretty psyched about it. I have to add DesignStyleTeam to the tags on all my photos though which is going to take 10 years since I have close to 170 now.

'Deep in the Forest'

I'm going to go to my parent's today and hopefully gets lots of beautiful photos of their flowers etc. Happy Father's Day dad! I'm sure he doesn't read my blog lol (he may not even know what a blog is, hmmm) but just in case =).

I've decided I need to get a Kodak Duoflex camera asap. I hope I spelled Duoflex right. I'm going to actually take photos in the 'Through the Viewfinder' method instead of cropping them to be square. It seems more genuine somehow. Richard thinks it's kind of pointless because people really loved my stuff at the exhibit but I like the combination of old technology with new technology. The 'Through the Viewfinder' method is taking your digital camera and putting your old camera in front of it so that it takes the photo through the viewfinder of the old camera. I actually talked to a couple of people about it at the exhibit but they had never heard of it. Maybe it's a larger city thing or maybe it's an Etsy thing. I don't know lol. I have several old cameras that I had bought for that purpose but it doesn't work with them. I was a little disappointed. I'm going to go check on Ebay, you can get cameras pretty cheap there. Of course the ideal thing would be to come across one at a thrift store or garage sale and get it really cheap with no shipping but I don't really want to wait.

I'm doing a series of puddle reflections right now. They're all in the 'Rainy' section of my shop. I SO love doing these. I actually sold one a couple of days ago right after I uploaded it which was pretty cool. They are abstract and interesting. I really want to get them printed in a big size and frame them for our walls here. That would be awesome.


'Pocketful of Reflected Sunshine'

'Sunny Day Reflection'

Thanks for checking in and a great Father's Day to all!

Got to get back on track with my blogging...

'Fresh and Warm'

So the glow has worn off from the exhibition, coming back to earth now :). But that's ok, I had 2 sales on Etsy yesterday which made me really happy. My first international sale....just to Canada but that's still outside the US lol. Richard, my boyfriend, is doing a photo shoot this morning with a young up and coming singer. They're in the other room right now getting ready to go. Richard wants me to do the actual photography but I don't want to. I really really really hate doing portrait photography. I think doing it for that year at the photography company before I took my leap of faith (lol) just left a really bad taste in my mouth. I just don't like working under pressure like that. I don't function well that way. I go into panic mode!!!! I hate that feeling. Photographing the sky never makes you feel that way, photographing flowers and signs and puddles never make you feel that way. That's my life now. I may want to go back to portrait photography at some future point but I have to have way more distance from my previous job to do that. I think Richard's not very happy with me not wanting to do this but I've not really explained to him my reasons why. He just looks as it as me having training and him not having training. But he's got to learn if he's going to take jobs like this and put himself out there. I certainly haven't told him that I want to put myself out there like that. Me and portrait photography are not friends, I know this.

The Exhibit Opening Went Awesomely Well!

'She Knew Revenge Was Her Only Option'


So, the First Friday reception went perfectly !!!! It was so fun. I absolutely LOVED it. And if you knew me, you'd know that totally goes against my personality - I hate crowds, I don't like the city....and this involved all of those. I sold 6 of my photographs, I heard there was about 1000 people who came through the gallery - it sure seemed like it lol. The mayor of Knoxville was even there. And I got to stand there next to my work and talk about it for 4 hours to anyone who had questions. I had a really good spot, my artwork was the first thing you saw when you walked in the door, it was thrilling. Everyone loved my photography, I was completely flabbergasted by all the attention it got. I think people are used to seeing photos displayed 'as is' in galleries - not distressed or given the effects that I like to give them. That's the only thing I can figure out lol. There are so many amazing photographers on Etsy who do similar things to their photographs so I didn't realize it would be such a novelty out in the real world. The real world of Knoxville, TN that is.

'Save Me a Space'


Either way, it was very validating to me as a photographer. I loved the attention, I loved talking about what I do, I loved watching people enjoy my work. You just don't get that in your online shop . I can't wait to do it again. Totally fun =) =) =).

What's up with me not Posting?

'Contemplating Beauty'



Sheesh, I was SO on top of it for awhile. Organize and Focus Jennifer, focus focus focus. I think I've been preoccupied with my gallery showing tonight. I'm so excited about getting dressed up and going out. And seeing my photography displayed in a gallery setting, that is soo exciting. Richard, my s.o. has said I'm having my de-butt tonight , LOL. That's his semi-dirty way of saying debut. I'm going to be de-butted. He always makes me laugh. He's such an awesome guy. So anyway, I'm soooooo excited about that. My sales in my Etsy shop have been pretty consistent lately - I've been selling 1 or 2 photographs every 3 days or so. Of course I would like for it to be more than that but it's certainly better than the 2 week dry spell I had last month where I sold absolutely nothing. That really sucked. If I could get up about 10 sales a week, that would be excellent. Maybe by the end of summer. My child support will be stopping in September too, I'm sure I'll be doing great by then- I'm counting on it.


'She Always Had to be the Center of Attention'


I've been setting a shop at DaWanda as you can tell by the widget there at the left =). Not to replace Etsy of course, Etsy rocks. But it will increase my chances of having a sale so I'm all for it. DaWanda is a site based in Germany, they have it in English, French, and German. I'm on their UK site. It's basically a European Etsy....just handcrafted things. It will give me the opportunity to market to international buyers which will be just excellent. I have that on Etsy too, but this will be pretty much be exclusively international rather than the occasional buyer from Canada or whatever lol.



'Soft'



Sooo... just wanted to pop in and say hi. I've scattered my new photographs through out the post, feel free to click on them and go browse around my shop =). I'll let you know how my debutt goes tomorrow.


'Whisper'

Ok, so I lied

'Reflection'

LOL. I said I was going to do a decent post on Sunday and here it is Tuesday and I'm just now getting to it. That's sooo sad. I've decided to set up a shop on DaWanda which is basically a European version of Etsy. It's not associated with Etsy in any way but it sells a lot of handcrafted indie stuff like Etsy. I just have to list everything in euros and centimeters - it's quite fun actually. I know I've said it before but I love my job! It makes me very happy :) :) :). I was so not happy at my last job. Working from home is an excellent fit for me.

'Sunshine on my Shoulders'

We got some gas for our grill finally so we've been grilling like madmen the last couple of days. Do madmen grill? Hmmm, I'll have to ponder that one. I have some chicken breasts marinating in lime juice, olive oil and various other seasonings - they should be awesome.

My bf gave our doggies baths yesterday. I'm looking at them outside my window right now laying in the dirt LOL. Oh well. We rearranged furniture in our living room the day before yesterday too. I'm sooo happy with it. Except that I moved our big bookcases and then remembered that I painted around them instead of behind them. That's so funny. So I'm really needing to paint now. I'm so bad about half-ass doing something as far as my house goes. Not with my business however, just my house. Cleaning, painting, you name it. I'll halfway do it thinking I'll get back to it tomorrow (or in a minute) but then I never get back to it. Then I look around my house wondering how half my rooms are half painted LOL. I have such big plans for my house though. We're going to be here for a long time. Especially since Richard and I are both working from home now. We would be working in Knoxville if we weren't and the commute (about an hour one way) was our only draw back to this house (yes, even with all the plumbing issues lol). Now the commute is a non issue and we're actually using one car now too. It was kind of by default since one of them broke, but it's working out great for us. We are feeling like we are contributing to the health of our planet by not driving every day :).

'Good Morning Sunshine'

'Just Bringing Pretty Back'

'Fresh'

'Rain Drops Keep Falling on my Head'