Breaking The Blogging Rules?

  

I have a list of things I must accomplish today; the shop reopens tomorrow. I’m thinking about having 10 products for opening but, as always for me, the pictures are daunting...my last blog entry is evidence of that! Those pictures all had a slightly blue tint - and they were the good ones! – but I don’t, personally, like to read blogs without pictures so I published with less than stellar shots.

There are so many factors that affect photographs because there are so many factors that affect light: time of day, time of year, available light sources, direction of light, blah, blah. You all get it and I get it but it’s going to take me time to learn about all that stuff together to turn out decent images. I’m up for the challenge...

In the meantime (probably doing something that breaks blogging 'rules' here), I'm publishing this post without pictures for all of you morning readers and I'll update this afternoon to add pictures from the day. Let me know if you find it frustrating. I'll try not to make it a habit!

Now back to that product list: gift box kits, glassine envelope wrap sets, mini garland kits, love notes and one paper craft kit. Oh – a few sticker/label sets as well. Lots of cute stuff (hey, Valentine’s Day is coming!) with more to come.

Next (while learning photography, developing products and filling orders (fingers crossed!)) is marketing and spreading the word about Industrial Country on etsy.

Speaking of etsy, I know it’s a great source for a lot of the things I still need to learn. There are videos and blogs and discussions and all kinds of things that can assist shop owners in becoming successful. I know I sound like an ad - not what I’m aiming for – but I’m just thinking out loud... I need to spend more time there picking up tips I can implement here.

Back to work now, back here with pictures this afternoon!

Bee

Cotton Candy

The Weekend:

Laundry: Check; Movie (PPV): Check; Laundry (a lot of laundry!): Check; Church: Check; Naps: Check. It was a pretty standard weekend here at Industrial Country Worldwide Headquarters. Besides the above, I also created a few more test designs and refined others. With a look at opening the store this week, I want to finalize the few products I’m launching with and continue testing new ones.

This is one of my current favorite tests (please ignore cardstock color – I use scraps to cut test designs):

I love how it turned out but it’s so complex that it took awhile to cut – if I remember, about 15 minutes. That’s way too long to make production 'money-smart' right now but I’ll keep it filed in case I grow large enough to buy a high speed cutter; this design would be more manageable then. It'd be so pretty in white or pink or red, maybe even black. I should make a gift box with this design for Mr. Bee's Valentine's Day present - I'll take a few pictures if I do.

These just arrived at Industrial Country.

So cute! Love polka dots.. They'll be debuting at an etsy shop near you soon.

I’ve also finished the little heart garland kit; it takes about 5 minutes - tops - to put together and adds a little Valentine’s touch to any space. It’s double-sided so you can hang one over a doorway or over the bathroom mirror or on your cube wall at work...wherever it strikes your fancy. There’ll be a few of these kits in the store when it opens so you can get one for you and one for your love.

Speaking of love...I Love (capital L) baker’s twine; it’s old fashioned, it’s cotton, it’s sturdy, it’s cute! I love, even more, that it comes in so many great colors now; happy colors and bright, they look like tiny little candy sticks (that makes it cotton candy, right?). I want to make so many things with this twine: pom-pom garlands, wraps for votive candles, embroidered tags and cards - all kinds of cute stuff. As usual, more ideas than time but that's a great problem to have...I'm not complaining!

Speaking of ideas, I'm getting back to work.

Bee

Storage Dreams

 This is my (no longer secret) dream.

 

Imagine...to have not only that level of organization but that style. Do you really think there are people out there who live like that? It’s all organized and pretty around them? Do you think they put everything away when they’re done using it? I know I’m not that person, not even close. But they must exist out there...

Organization is a watch word for me in 2013. I know it’s a watch word for just about everyone in January but I’m hoping to carry it all the way through the year. And my studio is at the top of the list for immediate reorg. It actually has been for awhile.

Here’s how my studio looked yesterday (at least one wall of it):

 

Here’s how it looks this morning:

A little neater, a little cleaner, a little tidier...

I’ve been gathering together and paring down and throwing out and rearranging for months now. Not, you know, 40 hours a week but I thought about it a LOT (which should count for something) and made several small attempts at rectifying things. And then it happened; I started working in here exclusively (as opposed to the family and/or dining rooms) and it just wasn’t working.

So I’ve moved and tossed and moved again - it’s already working better for me. Certainly, getting that little stand and printer off of my work desk made a huge difference. But there’s much more to do. Like the other 3 walls (which I can't bear to show). They’re worse than this wall started out!

It’s happening out of necessity, really. The more chaotic my surroundings are, the less energy I’ll have for business. And that’s not good.

So chaos is out, order is in. And that’s very good!

Bee

Slick Counters

 I looked at my blog using my phone yesterday. Shock and horror! My pictures weren't displaying. Such a rookie mistake...  I fixed the links this morning, though, so we're back in business (she said, blushing).

 

 I did do a little unconventional baking this weekend, and it worked. As promised, here are a few pictures:

I mixed up a spice cake batter, thinning it a little bit by adding an extra ¼ cup of milk. Then I just heated up the waffle maker and started filling it with the cake batter. The first one was a mess! I put waaay too much batter in the test waffle and it overflowed onto the counter and stuck all over the machine. Waffles two and three were progressively better and 4-36 were perfect. By number 12, I was cruising...until I knocked over the open bottle of Wesson oil. That took a while to clean up, believe me, we had some slick counters for awhile.

The rest of the weekend was the normal stuff: hanging out, watching movies, naps and church. Lovely and very nice to have that extra holiday Monday to do more of the same!

On Tuesday, I worked a few hours in my doctor’s office, preparing her billing statements, etc. I do it every week. It’s a huge blessing for me as she has a retainer-based medical practice; working for her helps to offset the cost for my husband and me (my husband is self-employed and I’m (currently) unemployed; we have no health insurance). We are happy to have a great doctor; she’s literally been a life saver for me.

Speaking of unemployment, more designs are coming off the cutter almost as we speak! I’m working primarily on paper products for Valentine’s Day, weddings and showers. I have hundreds of ideas...for signs, pillows, dish towels, accessories (more home décor stuff) floating around in my head but they’re all going to have to wait until after Industrial Country at etsy is back up and running again.

Which, I hope, is next week.

Bee

P.S. – The mouths at my house didn’t care for the waffle/cakes so I never made the icing I was planning on: cream cheese, maple, cinnamon. Yummy...which is why I didn’t make it...I would have had to eat it all!