Photography Woes!

Good Resolution, Not so Good color

Decent Color-Bad Resolution

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but I suck (sorry, there's no alternate word that conveys such frustration) at taking pictures.

The only C grade I was given at UCSD was in photography.  And the sad thing is, I actually tried, and honestly didn't know what I could have done differently.  It just doesn't click in my mind.

So taking pics for Etsy has been rough.  I read through my camera manual the other day, figured out how to change the white balance and EV and actually in the last few pics the color came out much better than the first round.  However, somehow I'd adjusted the pixel size so everything came out blurry. It wouldn't be so bad, except that the best light I get is right before sundown, so it's race home, get everything set up and shoot, shoot shoot.  I hate being in a rush to do things.  But I have tomorrow morning too, so hopefully I'll have some decent pics posted by tomorrow afternoon.

Sidenote, we're going to family dinner tomorrow night and it's a costume dinner.  I haven't gotten to truly dress up for Halloween since Erik and I started dating, and consequently working at the Halloween store, 6 Halloween's ago.  We're so excited.  I've decided I'm going as Amy Winehouse.  It would be weird to dress up super hot & sexy since it's family dinner, and if you're not going hot and sexy, you've got to do something fun.  Can't wait!

My first sale!

I made my first Etsy sale yesterday, so exciting!  It was actually a wine bag, which I started making as gift bags for the dolls but then thought they would make a good side project, plus a nice excuse to paint a little.

It really is a lot of work figuring out how Etsy works.  The tagging, the listing, the shipping, etc.  Very cool and really exciting though.  I didn't realize how many great tools there are for checking stats.  Here are some great ones:
http://www.craftcult.com/
http://www.cr8tvity.com/

However, it's been hard getting new things done in the meantime.  Tonight I'll be working on new pics of existing dolls (I finally read through my camera manual and figured out how to adjust the white balance) and  on finishing four girls that just need shoes and shirts.  I'm also working on a doll for my psuedo niece that I'd like to have shipped off for her this weekend.  I had a hard time finding the right colored plaid, so I'm dyeing the undershirt to sort of liven it up.  Some samples:

And finally, I'd really like to finish the two witches by next week, seeing as it is almost Halloween.  That really is hard to believe.  I feel like summer just started yesterday.
Almost Finished:

And I almost forgot, I also need to reorganize the loft:

Etsy, we're almost there!

(More pics on Flickr, click on sidebar at right.)

New Dolls!  I've gone a little plaid crazy, I've never really been unordinarily drawn to plaid, but there's something about it on the doll clothes that's so sophisticated and amusingly absurd that it makes me really happy.  That and I love the colors.  You can find almost any combination of complementary colors in a plaid, and somehow they look chic.  It's really fun to make the outerwear, then pick a couple of colors out of the pattern that seem so wrong, yet somehow they work when layered underneath.  So there will be more plaid girls to come.

Okay, so I've pushed my etsy deadline back soooo many times now.  It's like construction.  Take the deadline, then mutliply the amount of time by at least two.  My first deadline to list was August 1, that seems hilarious now.  Of course, Halloween ate up most of July, but we got to do some really cool stuff so it was worth it.

Regardless, my goal to start listing is now October 3.  Last weekend I took Monday off of work, Erik went fishing so I had the house mostly to myself, and believe it or not actually got a lot done.  My last tasks for these week are to figure out how to make doll boots, finish some sandals, clean up a few loose ends, make up some gift tags, screen images onto the bags and sew them up.  I have all the silkscreen transfers ready, I'm hoping Erik will show me how to make the screens tonight.  The bags are fairly easy to sew, they take a little time,  but I think if I make a bunch at once I should be able to get quite few done in a short amount of time. 

Last week I got all the boring business stuff done, license, permit, etc. etc.  So all is official now. 

I have this weekend off, I'm hoping to get the dolls listed Saturday morning, afternoon at the latest.  Then hopefully I can work on some napkins and bags on Sunday.

New Dolls!(And a great Barnacle Shot)

Yesterday I finally had a day all to myself. I sat on the deck and worked on dolls from 10 till 7, it was fantastic! So I have about 12 dolls that should be done within the next week or so. These pics are from last week, I'm taking new pics tonight. I'm hoping to finish everyone's hair tonight, and get started on outfits tomorrow. Oh, and just for fun, I threw in a picture of Barney (Barnacle) at a beach near Big Sur from our honeymoon.

When it Rains, It Pours

So I took off the Friday before my 30th Bday on Saturday, solely in order to be selfish, spend the day in the studio and work on the dolls.

However.....

Erik's friend from college came down, as well as my brother, to hang out with us for the weekend. My mother and father in law also came down to take us to dinner, which was a fantastic time as always.

But that meant house cleaning, and major reorganizing. I had started on this during the week, unfortunately I needed a little help, and we had swell (surfable waves). As anyone who is in relationship with a surfer knows, when there is swell, especially after there hasn't been in a while, NOTHING else gets done.

So I was a little peeved, but the house cleaning got done on Friday, with the help of my husband.=)

But then, we realized, the water heater had started leaking. At which point we discovered, it was 18 years old. Apparently, this is ridiculously old for a water heater. So off to Lowes, where they wanted to charge $400 to install a $300 water heater, at which point we call my dad, and decide to install it ourselves, with Dad on speaker phone. Thank goodness we did have company, I can't imagine Erik and I trying to do that ourselves.

The next day, the radiator fan in my jeep broke. So now I have no car. Awesome.

This was not meant to be a whining session, just a way to make me feel better about not meeting my deadline. The good thing is, we finally have a weekend with no company and no events planned, so I am all about doll making starting 5:30 this evening. Hopefully I will have more pics to post tomorrow.

Have a good weekend everyone!