talentdatabase and colourlovers and ego, oh my!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween, dear Internets!

It's been a happy day, indeed, because I was featured not once, not twice, but three times on TalentDatabase.com! Three times! Why? Because I'm addictive, like crack. Being that I'm so irresistible, I can't blame you for you clicking that big ol' banner to your right and getting your fix. Nor would I blame you for, say, buying out my entire shop. But I digress.

If you're not familiar with it, TalentDatabase is a great resource for artists and designers who are looking to network with other like-minded indie folks, and it's a good place to get your work out there. So humor me, indulge my narcissism and be my friend!

And if that wasn't enough to make my head swell to the size of a small city, I also spied a photo of my very own on the front page of Etsy this morning. It also happens that I am rapidly approaching 900 hearts there. 900! That's a very big number! I'm thinking I should do something special for my 1,000th heart. Maybe a signed photo of yours truly. Hey, what do you mean, "conceited?" ;)

Even ThisNext honored me with a 2007 Maven award this week. What does it mean? That I know how to spend money, and that I spend far too much time on the Internet - two of my most enviable talents. They're so good to me!

I've also been hanging out more at ColourLovers lately. This site has been in my top 10 for a long time, but I hadn't worked up the nerve to start creating my own palettes until recently. I'm not as terrible at the whole color thing as I'd originally thought. If you have an eye for color or you're in need of some inspiration, please come join me!

Aside from all that excitement, the hubs and I stepped out last night (past 7 p.m., even! Amazing! We're such old farts) to do some impromptu Christmas shopping. Normally we're not on the ball with these things this early in the season (as far as I'm concerned, "Christmas" doesn't qualify as a word in the human vocabulary until at least December), but Tim got an idea in his head and I think it's a good one.

It also has something to do with this pledge you've been hearing a lot about these days - namely, to avoid Wal-Mart (and others of their ilk) like the plague this holiday season. Except we're not really buying handmade, we're making things, which I think is just as good, right? I'd tell you what we're making, but there are people reading this blog who will eventually benefit from our scheming, so I have to keep it secret.

OK, time to pass out treats to the local ghoulies and ghosties, lest our house be egged and covered with toilet paper!

Labels: etsy, photography, self

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new shops!
Tuesday, October 30, 2007

This weekend, in an effort to branch out a bit and explore my options, I opened two new online shops for my prints: One at Dawanda and one at eCrater. I'd heard good things about both venues via the Etsy forums and figured it couldn't hurt to see what the fuss was about. So I opened up shop and listed a few prints at each (the same works are available at each shop).

My initial impression is "they're pretty cool". Both shops have slightly different ways of getting things done. When compared to Etsy, some aspects of shop maintenance are simpler, and some are more complicated. Dawanda is definitely more friendly toward international customers, and eCrater is intuitively designed. Overall, I think Etsy still leads the pack in terms of community, traffic, and design... but it can't hurt to have more options, right?

• Sixhours at Etsy
• Sixhours at Dawanda
• Sixhours at eCrater

I also designed a new banner for my Etsy shop to reflect the current Web site design at sixhours.net. I like this one much better!

Labels: etsy, shopping

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out with a bang and a flourish
Friday, October 26, 2007

Well Fall, it's been fun, but now we're watching the leaves drop like flies and I'm certain that means Winter is around the corner. That's right, Winter, I'm lookin' at you - I know you're out there, biding your time, ready to strike. I can smell hints of you in the morning, when the ground is covered with frost and the air bites your nose like a rabid chihuahua (does that make me the queen of bad analogies? It totally should).

Ah well. I'm just thankful you've waited until now to show up... any year that I don't have to turn on the heat before November is a good year. And at least Fall gets to go down in flames, so to speak--just look at those leaves!

I'm busybusy with photo geekery this week. Yesterday evening I matted a bunch of prints for a December solo show at The Shiny Squirrel. The prints will be packed up and shipped to New York this weekend. It's not looking so good for a photo shoot tomorrow, though... we're expecting rain. The only rainy day of the entire week, of course. Le sigh. Maybe I can reschedule for Sunday.

It's been so busy that I've neglected the poor DVR, but that's no problem. I intend to spend a portion of the weekend sitting on my butt and catching up on my favorite shows - there are new episodes of Ghost Hunters and Scrubs to be had, as well as a slew of Halloween-related Food Network specials.

Other plans for the weekend include some super-secret crafty Christmas gift projects, a relaxing bubble bath with my new best friend, some light reading, and hopefully I can squeeze a warm cup of cocoa in there somewhere. Maybe the oven and I will square off again and try another apple crisp, this time without the burnt part.

Boy, life's rough sometimes! ;)

Labels: photography, self

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where she wandered
Thursday, October 25, 2007

For someone who's been down on herself for not doing enough photography this year... I've certainly done more than I expected to! And the year's not over yet. I have a tentative shoot scheduled for this weekend, provided the weather holds.

I have a shameless self-promotion thing I'd like to share. If you're an artist, designer, or craftsy-person, you should apply to Trunkt.org, a juried showcase of lookbooks from talented indie artists. A basic account is free (if you're accepted), and it's good exposure for your work and your shop--every little bit helps, right?

More to the point: If you use Sixhours Photography as a referral, you can help me to get an upgraded account--something I'd love to have, but can't really afford. So, if you've been thinking about applying but haven't yet, why not give it a try?

OK, that's my spiel. Back to your regularly scheduled programming!

Labels: photography

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her story will never be written
Monday, October 15, 2007

Cripes, I kept busy this weekend!

Saturday I had a photo shoot with the lovely Naomi, though I apologize that you cannot see just how lovely she is in this particular photograph. She appears to have a case of typewriter-head. In any case, it was a fun shoot, and I'm so glad I can share the results with you today--not six months from now!

I also baked an apple crisp and didn't burn it! Much! OK, well, I did burn it, but only a little. It was still edible (and delicious, if I do say so myself) once you scraped off the top layer of black crud... and this is why I don't bake much. Thankfully the S.O. is much better with the oven than me. They have a special relationship. Maybe the oven is jealous of me? Aha, that's it! Burning my crisp was just the first step in an elaborate plan to deliberately come between my husband and me... I knew it!

(Or maybe I just wasn't paying attention. That could be it, too. The S.O. calls them my "ooh shiny" moments.)

Moving on.

It was also a busy weekend for the shop. Two of my photos landed on the front page of Etsy this weekend as part of two separate treasuries. My work was also featured by Anything Indie and Roadside Scholar, very hip and happenin' blogs (a wonderful surprise, considering that I am neither hip nor happenin'). All the extra attention netted me two sales! Hurrah!

So many good things. We also visited with family friends, did a bit of tidying up, and I continue to scheme and dream about things I want to do with the house. The to-do list gets bigger and bigger, while the checkbook, curiously enough, gets smaller and smaller. A mystery, indeed.

Labels: etsy, photography, self

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monday morning syndrome, redux
Tuesday, October 9, 2007

I'm doing something entirely unlike me and wearing perfume this morning.

I should clarify, it's not by choice.

No, I had the bright idea that I would give the bathroom a quick scrub-down after my shower... and in the process of being so industriously clean I managed to knock a box of random make-up and perfume samples off the vanity. And, of course, one of the perfume samples shattered all over the floor, in that nasty spot behind the toilet.

Oh, don't look at me like you don't know what I'm talking about. It's that scrubby, dusty and slightly damp spot way in the back, the one you can't touch with a mop, the one that's really hard to reach without getting down on your hands and knees, squeezed in the tiny gap between the vanity and the toilet, where you're forced to make out with the toilet brush until you find what you're looking for...

It's the spot you basically forget about until you drop a perfume sample back there. You know the one.

The end result: My bathroom smells like a grandma, and I smell like I marinated in grandma-juice.

(And did I do the smart thing and throw away the box of unused samples right then and there? Noooooo. Because you never know when you might need that six-year-old tube of Burt's Bees décollete cream! Or the revitalizing eye mask! Or a quick sniff of Eau de Grandma!)

Pack rat what?

It may be Tuesday, but this has Monday Morning Syndrome written alllll over it.

Labels: self

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sixhours.net has a new look!
Sunday, October 7, 2007

I finally broke down and decided to make good use of the one MySQL database my Web host provides and learn PHP. I decided that I can't call myself a Web geek without knowing one of the most popular Web programming languages. This little project captured my attention for a good part of the week.

The result is a Web site that is 500 times easier to update and maintain, and for you, dear Internets, there are new RSS feeds to subscribe to. As soon as I realized how useful RSS is for reading my favorite blogs, I realized it would be doubly useful for my own Web site!

A lot of credit goes to the S.O., the resident PHP guru, for patiently answering my questions and, at points, just coding the darned thing for me. I still can't quite get my head around nested "for" loops, but I'm working on it.

Now I just need to get working on some new stuff to fill it up!

Labels: design, photography

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random things
Wednesday, October 3, 2007

I've posted a bunch of new photos at Flickr! This was a very fun shoot, from wayyyy back in April.

I'm going to try to devote one day this weekend to working on a new Web site design. The current one is grating on my nerves.

I am wondering if I should start offering custom Etsy banner designs in my shop. It would mean extra money and extra practice with Illustrator. Hmmm. Going to think on that some more.

And finally, many thanks to Little Splurge and Poof You're a Frog for the recent mentions!

Labels: photography

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squirrels, shiny
Monday, October 1, 2007

I've been waiting for this day for weeks, and it's finally here! Jess Goldfond (with help from her boyfriend, of Spray Glue fame) launches The Shiny Squirrel online boutique!

There you'll find a beautifully-curated selection of artists and designers showcasing a variety of gifts and goodies.

And yes, I'm there, too! Presenting five new prints from the dollfood series that I've been sitting on not-so-patiently for just about ever.

So go see, and support independent artists and designers! Go go go!

Labels: photography, self, shopping

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