See Ya

One last goodbye before I fly away up the coast to the rainy north. The bags are packed the house sitter scheduled and the long drive begins soon.If you see my smiling...or more likely exhausted face around the Seattle/Tacoma area, do say hi. I believe that's all until I return in about a weeks time. Bye all, I'll miss you!

At Least I Don't Have A Headache

I am finding myself in the hangover phase of endeavors both mundane and creative this morning. The Steampowered convention has wrapped up and even though I'm still waiting to find out whether I sold a single thing, it is all over and done with and outcome has been determined. My tatted Halloween costume has been worn and subsequently retired. I will probably remove the tatting from the corset and add it to a nicer one I just bought. On the mundane front, I have finally had all my doctor's appointments for the year from teeth to eyes and there are no big events on the horizon except birthdays that have already been shopped for. I have no new magazine articles waiting to come out or features coming up. I imagine that after tomorrow, I will experience an election hangover as well.

Though I don't have anything new for the store, I am working on a custom caplet order based on my Victorian Lace collar. It is proving to be a little more challenging than I thought to increase the diameter without changing the pattern. It's working out okay, but I'm having to resort to math which I do not enjoy. I should be done today, barring any unforeseen disasters.

While, I'm not loving this picture, I promised that I would share my tatted Halloween costume with you today, so here it is. A better shot is the picture of the family after we had returned from trick or treating. We had blissfully clear weather for the evening after it rained off and on all day. The kids had a great time and people seemed shocked to find me and my husband dressed up as most parents seemed to hand out on the sidewalk while the kids went to the houses. I figure there are so few opportunities for us to play dress up, that we ought to take advantage of every one. Well I think that's it for this Monday. Hopefully the hangover will be short and I'll find some great things to work on soon.

Is There Anybody Out There?

Hello....hello, anyone? Nobody, really? Oh well, I'm just as comfortable talking to myself. Still no new sales this morning and though I'm really beginning to feel ignored, I'm doing alright. This is shaping up to be one of the single longest weeks ever and I'm getting an amazing amount of things done with my time. Yesterday I tried out a new photo style for my future Lollishop. I figured that my usually style wouldn't blend in very well, so I searched my abode for something girly to use as a prop and I found this vase that was a wedding present. I hope this looks alright, it is clearly not within my comfort zone.


Feel free to let me know what you think of them. There are more on my flickr page. That is of course, if there is actually anyone looking today!

Is Flesh Best?

Before I get into the reason for the title of this post, I have some news to share. Yesterday evening just as I was sitting down to dinner I made my 300th sale. It is official, I've now met all of my current goals. I have 400 feed backs left, over 1500 hearts and now over 300 sales. So if you would, please join in a brief moment of Woo-Hoo......Alright that's enough. I'm afraid to get too excited about things for fear that the Gods will find me too arrogant and take it all away. Is there an electronic equivalent to knocking on wood? I just don't want to jinx myself.

Now on to the reason for the strange title. Well it's partly because I've read that a provocative post title draws in new readers. Of course anyone drawn in by this title will probably be sorely disappointed and never return, so I guess that it's a wash in that category. The real reason is an honest question. You may have noticed that I have, in the past, taken advice from people without using my own judgement in an effort to better my little etsy shop. There was a big fuss awhile back about folk being icked out by jewelry, clothing and other accessories being photographed on people as opposed to mannequins. While this makes a certain amount of sense from a hygienic stance particularly for earrings, it is a bit silly for most things given that we all try on jewelry and clothes in stores without a second thought as to how many others have done the same thing. However, I decided to err on the side of caution and began taking all my photos on a fake head.

Just a few days ago I finished a new necklace design and when it was done I draped it over my own neck as I usually do to look at it in the mirror. I assume that I'm not the only done who does this. Well, it looked great and I proceeded to take pictures to list it, but the pictures just didn't make the piece look right. I decided to try out a live picture and posted the result for critique and the response was overwhelmingly positive. It appears people like looking at pictures of real people. I've since taken a few new pictures of old pieces on my very own neck. The question I pose to you is, does this really help? Will people be more likely to purchase the jewelry now that they've seen it worn or is this just another waste of time?

Please take a second to check out some of the new pictures and let me know what you think. There are a few in my etsy mini in the left column or you can visit my store for a few more. Thanks so much for your time and opinions. They are very much appreciated!