Up & Running

I did it.  I have my new website up and running.  Now, I just need people to go to it and click on it a LOT so we'll move up in the search world.  I can't afford (right now) to pay to advertise.....hopefully down the road.  I have been concentrating on this website for quite awhile and it has used a LOT of my brain power.  But for now, it's done - with some tweaks to come.  Both myself and the friend who is selling her stuff on it, are going to be adding items so it'll be a constant upgrade kind of thing.  I sure hope we can make sales on this thing...
The website is www.cottage-artists.com and we sell my photo greeting cards, along with Mitzi's horse hair jewelry - yep, she makes bracelets, earrings, and zipper pulls from hair from your horse.  They are beautiful - I own one - I was one of the lucky ones that got one when she was first starting up and needed to try them out.  She is also going to sell memorial plaques.  She doesn't have a sample one up yet, but I am hoping she'll have one done soon.
I am so happy that this is done.  I need to get weaving so I can sell some of my scarves and shawls here.  Yes, it's an eclectic array of stuff being sold on the website but, the hope is that we'll drive more people to it this way!  I'm also going to start whipping out my small quilts that I love to make from 5" squares of fabric that I buy and put together into either baby quilts (one pack of squares) or lap quilts.  They are my favorite thing to make - they aren't too time consuming, and they are colorful and they are great to have just sitting on a chair or the back of a couch for those evenings when you just want something to cover you up enough to take the chill off.  My daughter uses her baby quilts all the time - the small one goes in the car and gets used for covering a seat or covering the baby.  The larger ones get used in bed, on the floor, and in the family room.

I am also learning more about my camera and photography so I can improve the shots I take.  I have a lot more to learn and there never seems to be enough time in a day anymore!

I also made a new light box.  My other one, here , was big, and bulky.  I had a hard time handling it, and it really wasn't all that great....and it took up a lot of room.  I decided to try to simplify (which by the way, I'm trying to do in all aspects of my life this year) and I went to Wal Mart to buy a foam core display board, 2 new bendable neck lamps, and the Reveal daylight type bulbs.  This is SO much easier to deal with!

Here is the setup - the light board with the 2 lamps, with the curtains closed for better photo purposes - I usually have them open for more natural light.  I'm also thinking of turning the whole setup around so it's facing the windows for more natural light. 

Light Box Setup

You may notice I have paper draped.  I went to Ikea and bought the paper on the rolls for the kids crafts.  It's SO much less expensive there than anywhere else.

Below, I used fabric to drape over the box to see the effect it would have. The wider the paper or fabric you have, the better as you don't have to squeeze the photo to get no edges showing.

Light box setup with muslin fabric

This worked really well and I'm going to be using darker fabric to try too.

Here is a photo that I took with the new setup.

I think it came out ok without any tweaking.  Tweaking is something I'm playing with more tho.  I noticed that Photoshop Elements is on sale at Staples for $59.  I think that's a good deal, and I may just go and get it - not that I need to spend any more time on the computer but, I do need a good photo editing program if I'm going to keep doing this for a living (well, that's all relative - I sure can't live off nothing and that's all I'm making at this point).  I do think that maybe the new lamps I bought might not be strong enough.  But we'll see.  I'm also learning to play with different photo elements of my camera - the settings make a HUGE difference, as well as giving my camera time to focus - I took 2 of the same shot and one came out really dark, the other came out well, with the same lighting and settings. 

Anyway, enough blabbering about all this.  I need to get up and get busy and get moving!  I hope you go visit my website and buy some cards.  If you go to the store, you would easily spend $3.00 per card (usually more) and with my cards, you can write whatever you want inside!

I'm open to comments and suggestions!
Take care
Martha