MAC Syndrome

I did it. I finally converted. I'm now a MAC designer.
(insert applause here)



After years of struggling -unwittingly- with low memory and immense frustration, Andrew finally made me see the light. It's amazing how time flies. I had the old Dell for 4 years and I thought I was fine with it. Sure, in the beginning, but after struggling with huge files and several windows of wait time to complete any task, I'd soon lose my interest and wander about my studio, working on other projects. Ugh!

My first small project was inserting our iSight capture into the screen of this MAC image within Photoshop. Needless to say, I had to purchase another Wacom tablet straight away so that design won't feel painfully awkward with the mouse -feels like working with a bar of soap. One can see that the light used with iSight overexposed our faces and I really didn't feel like correcting the skin tones -ala bar of soap.

Woo-hoo! This baby is gorgeous!

Between the Shows

This past week has been cyclical in terms of work and venues. Suddenly, I find myself with not 2 shows, but now invited to a 3rd mid-March.

Andrew and I returned home Friday evening and collapsed from exhibiting at the Chapel Hill Women's Benefit. We noshed on the 2nd half of his delish pizza he made for us the previous night and gorged ourselves on our chocolate delights we purchased at A Southern Season in Chapel Hill during our exhibit recess between lunch and cocktails.


Now, it's been a beautiful weekend and I plan to...

Stay inside and create new imagery;
Corral donations for select charities;
Finish collating tax stuff + send off to CPA;
Cut backing board for my prints;
Prepare Necklines & WinterIce for shipments

But instead, Andrew pulled me outdoors and we resumed our Sunday afternoon open house tour to see new McMansions and renovations in our area. At least I absorbed a bit of vitamin D.

Now, I'm striving to upload the rest of my WinterIce pendants & create a fun label for our foodie gift for our friends this evening, but it's 6:05 and Bacchus is now walking all over my keyboard to let me know that it's past his Splash Time. Heh! More on that later.

I Got Noticed by the Wall Street Journal!!!

Hey folks! Blogging works!

I was checking my stats tonight and realized that a few people were coming from the WSJ! Woo-hoo! Why in the... I discover that it's all because of an article I wrote about wearing my Princess Diana hat at New Year's Eve Party: Edinburgh: Hats Off to Compliments!

Although the entry was a bit heavy on the introspection, Teri, the author of the article, Wearing a Fedora, found my article good enough to blogroll. Where? On the WSJ site, of course!! You can find my tiny link at the end of the article. I say in this case, size doesn't matter: tiny works!

Oh, and she's included Johnnie Depp's photo -I couldn't think of a better celeb with which to become associated.

Envision the Pips singing, "Taking the train to happy town... woo woo!"

In case you didn't catch it, my entry has been blog rolled on the Wall-Street-Journal!!

Cheers to Andrew!!

Now that I've got a chance to wind down after Boylan, I wanted to outline my gratitude to to my wonderful and favorite husband, Andrew.



The reason I'm doing so is because after all the hard work he devotes to my business, no one on the outside is really aware of the back breaking contributions and sacrifices he makes.

When Andrew comes home in the evening (from working for his mistress), he'll do anything from:

• Devising Strategy for ECStewart Designs, Inc.
• Writing the press releases
• Writing copy or editing my bad copy
• Counting Inventory
• Stuffing and collating notecards (can you hear the shuffle?)
• Affixes labels to the back of notecard boxes
• Stuffing and collating LUVBites (that's job burns fingers!)
• Shopping for Lumber for Frames (this is too warped)
• Building Frames for Prints (lights flicker in the house when he turns on the table saw)
• Painting the Frames (can you hear the metal ball inside the shaking spray can?)
• Varnishing the Frames (ewww, smell the fumes from the workshop)
• Cutting the acyrlic for the Frames
• Cutting the Corrogated Backs for Prints & Frames (again, lights flicker)
• Framing the Prints
• Stuffing the Prints
• Designing prototypes for journals (surprise! acrylic patterns)
• Shopping for fabrics and leather (he loves the cobalt!)
• Cutting fabric for journals (admire the organization of the materials in folders)
• Sewing the journals (yes, the man sews)
• Shops for lumber for our kiosk (how much can this truck hold again?)
• Builds the kiosk
• Varnishes the kiosk
• And make a fabulous dinner for us each and every night. (that's why I can't lose this 20lbs!!)

We haven't even begun to outline the work it takes to prepare for our local and national shows. Let see, he will:

• Count Inventory
• Pack the Inventory
• Pack the truck
• Drive to the destination (guys like to drive)
• Unload the truck
• Raise the kiosk (can you hear the power drill now?)
• Unpack the inventory
• Display the inventory (where are we putting the journals?)
• Talk to customers (Have you heard the story about Bacchus?)
• Sell to the customers (Cobalt is my favorite!)
• Make change for the customers (Lightning quick addition!)
• pack the inventory (out comes the power drill)
• Load the truck
• Do a face plant on the lawn in the dark because the millions of acorns
• Drive home
• Examine the cuts and bruises
• Count the money
• Hold a post mortem about how well we did and why

While this list isn't exhaustive, Andrew's supply of support in myriad ways is immeasurable and selfless. Because of all the stinky fumes, bloody fingers, bruised limbs, headaches, body aches at the end of the day I am so grateful for your efforts and unwavering enthusiasm.

Thanks darlin, for all that you do. I, no, we wouldn't be this far without you!

Love, NL.

Redeemed

It's 7:36pm and I've just finished Andrew's fabulous chicken corn chowder and man, was it good.

Now, I'm exhausted. No wait, we're exhausted.

I'm glad today is over, truth be told. Today, at Boylan, has been a one of anticipated dread as my expected sales were completely hinged on last year's weather and this year's economy. Is that fair? Well, any projected outcome is based on trends, economy, and location, so yes, in my book, I think weighing those options in varying degree deserve face time and evaluation.

I have to admit, this year was a miserable year for me. In terms of sales -just miserable. I got confident (perhaps too confident) last year this time and thought that I could push just as much if not just a little bit more in sales, but I was wrong -oh so wrong.

This economy just sucks.

Today was better, much better, actually, better than the first 3 year combined, although, I'm not convinced. I'm not convinced I'll do any better the first or second quarter of next year, nor will I ever get "confident" again.

Today, I'll blame our good fortune on Andrew's charm.

Why? Heh! This is about the fact that he touts the aspect of leading a charmed life -his words, not mine and I'll tell you, he's right. I love it when he's right because good things happen when he is right. We get prime parking spots -every time- and whenever we need good luck to shine our way, and if I'm with him, good luck always turns our way. I can't explain it, nor can he, but he doesn't care... must be the good karma he's generated.

However, when I'm right, it's based on factors, experience, and one big freakin' hunch. Unfortunately, it's that hunch that always gets me into trouble with not only my accountant, but with my friends. Why? Because when I play my hunch, I'm right and no one likes the outcome, which by the way, is all based on reality... and my hunch.

Oh, and there's a mathematical equation that determines our outcome: charm beats reality -every time. Wait, let me do that with air quotes, "Every time."

Inserting Snack Break Here
Now it's 8:15 and Andrew is pouring us each port -mine ruby, his tawny- because I'm getting a sore throat from the long days preceding the show and today's event. Oh, and the mocha chocolate chip cookies from Wholefoods are walking my way, too. Yum!!
End Snack Break

Er, maybe I'll attribute our fortune on my skills as a artist/salesperson who is passionate about her work; I don't like leaving my fate in someone else's hands. I like to believe that I can cast my own fate. If I can't, I'll try hard as hell to persuade it to favor me as often as possible.

*Sigh* That rarely happens unless I've got Andrew in my back pocket.

Today was a pleasant day for us. We had intermitten sprinkles and did the rain dance each time it spittled on my work; even Amy said she wouldn't stay long because she brought the rain. Funny thing, I think she's right because when she left, the spittles stopped. Thanks for stopping by Amy -too bad you couldn't pause long enough to fondle our suede journal covers!!! I'll bring one to yoga Tuesday.

Meanwhile, we found ourselves busy with just a few intervals of low periods -long enough to catch our breath and confer w/one another.

When Andrew and I found ourselves back in our kitchen waiting for the boyz splash to warm before serving, we talked thru our usual post mortem to reveal what each of us learned from our new enthusiasts. Most of it was incredibly positive and fueled my much needed high I get from the one-on-ones I crave -the folding green didn't hurt either.

Things we learned:

• I learned that I must continue with what I started, I love it way too much to give up.
• If things get tough, market your product like nobody's watching
  
• Get back to the drawing board and design like nobody's watching
  
• Don't wait for recognition to come to you, go seek it out.
  
• Folks love my work, but love it more in color despite the trend of black and white.
• I may have the majority of animals in my collection, but someone will always ask for what I don't have.
• Go back to the drawing board and include it in the queue.
  
• Be sure to have multiple price points and eliminate the nickel and dime products; they're more work than they're worth and you'll never make the money that you aspire. My lowest price point was $15 today and frankly, I did exceedingly well.
• Don't bring a chair to your exhibits, unless it's strictly for your guests. Many artists use it as a crutch and as a result, they lose sales because they're afraid of engaging their customer -or tripping over their own tongues. I'm tongue tied all the time due to lack of coffee or other excuse, but I manage to get the story across and the customer excited.
  
• After each gig like today, sleep for 48 hours straight. Don't promise anyone anything, don't stop to collect $200, just go straight to bed.
  

I'm off. Sleep tight.

Getting Started with Credit Cards

Indie Craft Shows has an article about getting started with credit cards.

I know that for now, I'm still with Paypal using Paypal Pro. I've adopted the virtual terminal to accept credit cards over the phone, fax, or snail mail which as been a God send. I don't do enough open air shows to warrant a device that allows a business gal to take cc on site -but I think they exist.

Meanwhile, if your a CostCo member, it seems that they've got a pretty competitive rate for small biz.