A Little Bit of Coffee...

Oh friends...last week? Well, last week was one of those weeks. You know what I mean, the one week that is seems like a month's worth of activities were squeezed in to 5 days.

The to-do list wasn't bad. There was a microdermabrasion from a friend practicing before her final exam to become a licensed esthetician. And a morning spent junking with another friend that was a blast. And a morning taking my mom to another eye appointment that will hopefully lead to her vision getting back to normal.

But the business leads to not enough time to work...and that leads to me stressing out...and in a weird way leads to my creative juices flowing.

And inspiration hit over a cup of coffee while browsing Pinterest....

 

And a whole lot of prayers that Monday afternoon to be able to make it through the week.

A perfect little sign that combines the two things that keep me going.

I love the fun quirky font mixed with the sweeping lines of the hand lettered font. I like to think the heavy distressing is a reminder that some of the most beautiful people {or things} in my life, got that way by weathering the storm called life.

Of course this sign is listed in my Etsy shop {just click here!}...you know, just in case you need a little coffee with a whole lot of Jesus!

A Gentle and Quiet Spirit

Little girls are the best. They're adorable and have dreams of one day becoming a princess.

But little girls turn in to preteen and teenage girls and that brings a whole new storm. One day they are following you around, wanting to be just like you, and it seems the next day they are closed up in their room texting and the only time you see them is if food or you buying them stuff is involved.

Oh. And they start worrying what everyone else is wearing, friends opinions will seem to matter more than yours and if they don't have that cute new shirt that so-and-so from YouTube designed they simply.will.die....

And you know that they won't because you start to remember those years and that you never believed your mom's advice and you call your mom to apologize with each new growing phase you face. {Again, sorry mom.}

But in all reality, I'm learning to take each new battle {or eye roll} as a learning experience for all of us. The biggest lesson I'm trying to teach them right now is that things are things. They're true beauty will always come from deep within and that they need to be able to look at themselves in the mirror at the end of the day and know that they were the absolute best person they could have been. And if they weren't, well, tomorrow is a new day.

I found a picture of this passage on Pinterest when I first signed up a few years ago. I never knew how important this passage would be for myself and my girls.

And the fact that it would start a bathroom remodel that should have happened a long time ago. I'm shocked I have ever been allowed to pick colors for our home after this pink. It's now painted in an eye pleasing sparrow gray and I will be keeping you up to date as it all comes together!

I whitewashed the sign to allow the wood to come through. Once I was done with the lettering, I distressed the front of the sign and painted some lattice boards the same black as the lettering and attached them to add a little dimension. I'm not sure exactly where in the bathroom it will hang yet, but I love that it will be there as a daily reminder to the girls before they head out in to the world for the day.

I do have this sign listed in my Etsy shop if you would like to take a peek and will be soon offering it in different sizes to fit every budget!

This post is also being shared here:
http://diyshowoff.com/category/other/that-diy-party/
Inspiration Monday at www.ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com

I Could Rule the World...

That was my statement to my husband the end of December..."If I could work as hard as I do during Christmas I'm pretty sure I could rule the world!"

Let me clarify, the handmade sign shop/blog/being the best crafter this world has ever seen world.

Ha! It's now the middle of February and I am no where near world domination {as you can tell since October is the last time I posted}. I'm not even close to dominating the craft market on my street.

Here's the thing, the highly successful shops you see on Etsy and the popular bloggers you love to read all have one thing in common. At some point they had to get their "stuff" together and figure out what works for them. Like a crafty a-ha moment, sometimes you have to change they way you work if you want to grow.

                                                                               source

I recently sat down and thought about what bothered me most. The fact that I have a 3-4 week turnaround time on Etsy orders really started to eat at me. I know I have missed out on sales because some people don't want to have to wait that long for a purchase. I know that I have given myself permission way too many times to spend a couple days doing nothing because I was getting orders shipped way before my turnaround time.

Knowing that I have pages of pending orders waiting on me would be like a gloomy cloud over my head some days. A gloomy cloud that would start sucking the creativity out of me and I want my creativity back.

I'm know working like every day is like the last day of my Christmas rush. Well, Monday-Friday, 8-5 {and sometimes in the evening}. Not just painting. I'm finding my passion in photography again. I'm working on drafts for upcoming blog posts. I'm slowly getting my creativity back for new items in my Etsy shop.

                                                                              source

And slowly working on dominating the craft world...on my street.

Glad & Sincere Hearts

I often have people ask if my home is filled with beautiful signs. Simple answer, no. Detailed answer, I have a few that are my favorites and I have plans for so many I would like to make for our home. But honestly, sometimes at the end of the day it's hard to sit down and make something for your home when you just spent the day making signs for other people's homes.

One of my favorite things to do while paint is drying is to waste hours browse Pinterest for some inspiration. A while back I found this pin from Hymns and Verses.

I wish I could find the actual blog post in her blog about it, the link takes me back to her blog in general, not the post. I do know it is a tea towel sold from Mary & Martha that she framed to display in her home.

Besides the beautiful hand lettering, I also love the message.

In our home, we always eat dinner together. It's nice at the end of the day to sit together and talk about our day. We may not eat the same thing, but we are sitting at the table together. And even if the kids don't like what's for dinner {which rarely happens} we always remind them to be thankful for the food we do have instead of wishing it was something else. Some days it's easy to forget just how blessed you are.

One of my bad habits is finding a quote that I love and then stressing on making a design for my Etsy shop. Once I finally have a design I like, I'm over having it in my house. When I was working on this design, my husband saw it and asked for it to be in our home, only on a bigger scale than what I had in mind.

We had a top from a console table sitting around that I thought would look great as a sign and fit my husband's request for a big sign {it measures 10" x 48"}. We have high ceilings in our living and dining rooms so this sign looks great hanging on our dining room wall above the doorway that leads to the kitchen.

We have history with this table. It was one of the first pieces of furniture we bought after getting married. At that time we had a very country theme going on and it was stained the color shown and hunter green. Soon the green was gone, replaced with black. And it had been repaired...several times.

A little someone also practiced her writing skills on this table top...

Since I don't have an endless supply of table tops sitting around I also made a smaller version on a 1x8.

Even though it's a smaller version, the message is still as powerful. This size is listed here in my Etsy shop.

So, what statement is speaking to you right now?

Sharing and Linking up here!!
http://www.chaosandlove.com/link-party-21/

Spreading My Wings

I have been working my way through the Building a Creatively Built Business 2.0 courses in my free time. It is a series of videos made by Jeanne Oliver, Jennifer Rizzo and Miss Mustard Seed {aka Marian Parsons} and the information these ladies have to offer is incredible. Really. Like make you break down in tears incredible because you realize that you are not the only one that has ever faced whatever growing pains you may be going through at that point.

You can click here to go directly to the website to find out more about this class as well as all the other wonderful classes Jeanne Oliver offer {I have my eye on a few other ones at the moment!}.

I just finished the chapter about diversifying your business and that is one that struck a chord with me. I have always felt that because my signs sell so well, I should just stick with making and selling signs. But the creative person inside of me isn't happy. There are so many other things that I would like to try, so many other things that I enjoy making, so many other items other than paint and wood that I enjoy working with. And at times...well...I've thought that I would be perfectly fine with never having to paint another sign. And that, my friends, has lead to quite a few periods of being burned out and even more periods of not being able to create new designs because my creative side feels trapped.

 In the videos the ladies talk about how branching out, creatively, has helped them fall back in love with what they originally started making. Yes, it was another one of those tears streaming down the face moments.

So I've decided, I'm going to do more of these.

I've always enjoyed making wreaths and they actually help me decompress and relax when making them. {I'm weird, I know, I've accepted it!}

I'm going to play with paper more.

I have always wanted to try making cute tea towels. I've been working on a line of vinyl wording to go on your front door.

I may even get a little crazy and try sewing some things...maybe...like really easy things.

But don't worry, I'm not quitting the sign business. The funny thing is that just working on some other things has sparked my creativity again and for the first time I sat down and started designing again. So be on the lookout for some new signs coming as well as lots of new stuff! And maybe even some pictures of some flops, I have lots of those from time to time!

An Update on Updating Photos

(Right before publishing this post I realized I had posted about updating photos once before. So this is kind of an update on updating photos since a few things have changed for me.)

I haven't been able to create new items as much as I would like right now. Why? There is a list of why's but the biggest one is trying to update photos of the items I offer in my Etsy shop.

 

Like this photo of one of my top sellers. I shot this 2 years ago in a tiny closet in my office with absolutely no natural light. All because I believed that a white background would be best. That is true for some people but I have grown to love seeing pictures of my items in a home setting with props (that is a whole other post!).  I have also changed my method of painting. So it's no surprise that at times I will get feedback on Etsy that the sign someone received was so much better than the picture.

 

I have now embraced the power of natural light. So when I find good natural light I try to take as many photos as I can.

 

The other day was one of those days. I don't even remember why I looked out the front door, but the light was perfect. I was about to pack this one up to ship and decided to snap a few photos of this sign, as well as a few other signs. I'm pretty sure the roofers that were working next door were wondering exactly what I was doing. Every few minutes I would walk out with another sign and sit down, stand up, kneel down, move the sign and on, and on.

 

Now for what has changed since the last time. I took class in January from a local photography studio, Solas Gallery in Salado, Texas. My youngest had her pictures taken there as a baby and I have always admired Tim's work. I was excited to soak up all of his knowledge. His first suggestion was to stop shooting in manual, not that there is anything wrong with it, but the settings he showed us cuts down on how much time you spend adjusting settings. Like I said, there is nothing wrong with manual, I was just having a hard time getting everything right. I also learned so much about fstop, aperture, ISO, lighting, why I need to use a tripod and that sometimes it is ok to just use that awesome photo you took with your iPhone. Tim admitted to us that he had just spent a week in New York City with his family and only took photos with his iPhone. Just proof that having the top equipment isn't all that matters

 

I know that I still have a lot to learn about photography and props, it's kind of a necessary evil with having an online business, but I am enjoying the process.

 

 

Growing Pains

Things have been painstakingly slow here lately at block.paper.scissors.. (Sorry for the false advertisement of my title if you were expecting to talk about one of my favorite shows growing up!)

One secret of having a great online presence is having great photos. I got my DSLR camera for Christmas which helps, but doesn't guarantee great photos. I have tried reading websites and the manual to the camera but after the first few sentences my eyes glass over and everything looks like it's written in a foreign language.

A few weeks ago I found this blog post written by Miss Mustard Seed. If you have ever been interested in amateur photography, trust me, this blog post is worth your time. It's written for those of us that are trying out photography for the first time. I finally broke out the tripod, switched that camera to the big M and started messing with the different buttons and dials. 

It helped me take this:

(The color of this sign is butter pecan but it leaves you to wonder if it's beige, maybe gold? And what's with the super bright center?)

To this:

A butter pecan that actually looks like pecan! (And it doesn't look like it's radiating light on it's own.)

And what kind of pink is this?

Bet you didn't guess dusty rose!

So, I am now retaking photos of items in my Etsy shop which slows me down quite a bit. No pain, no gain. Right?!