Another little peek and a contest of sorts.  I have chosen a launch date and no matter what (unless there is a random alien abduction) I shall be opening my virtual doors for business. It’s all very butterfly inducing, especially since my product labels haven’t arrived and the count down is on.  I know one lovely lady that wants this stamps, perhaps there might be more?  All you need to do to win yourself this super duper (and may I add handy?) stamp is to be the first one to guess the correct date of the launch.  How easy is that?

In other exciting news Jules, Danni, Alex and a few other immensely talented and good looking ladies will be meeting up for Holly’s book signing on Friday.  Nicole from Making it Lovely blogged about it today (Nicole being another blogger I would love to meet in person).  Are you planning on coming? Jules tweeted about it, but it was crickets, I took it personally of course, so I was not planning on having crickets here on the blog, but I figured with a giveaway maybe you might be more inclined to come.  I am so not above bribery. I have been emailing Jules non-stop with my fear of not having time to have a face-lift, lipo and a new wardrobe by Friday (she already knows I have a winning personality so I am allowed to be superficial here).  A few of us will be dining under the stars in the City of Angels and if you are not a psycho killer perhaps you may like to join? I would love to meet you, I will be the lady with the lashes, but of course.

I had a photo outing a few months ago with a guy I met on Craigslist*.  If that doesn’t sound like a missing person’s story ready to happen I don’t know what does.  How about if I told you that we went into secluded woods to shoot and it wasn’t just me but eight other guys, me being the only female shooter?  I know sounds creepier by the second right?  Fortunately, there were two models and the creep factor was non-existent.  The day was an adventure and although I thought it was going to be more of a workshop/outdoor classroom type day (it wasn’t), it was still a great experience. Prior I was taught to never shoot during high noon (especially a portrait)  but we shot in all kinds of light from dark, shady and dramatic to the brain melting hot sun. I am just now getting around to starting my edits.  I probably would have left these shots on my hard drive for eternity but I was making myself some black and white actions and thought why not a blush and warm gray?  I knew that I had a photo from this shoot that I wanted to try it out on. I think this image looks like it should be on an album cover.  I created the Blush + Gray action for download here, (It’s in a folder so click on the folder when you are in the actions palette and it will drop down to the action) it works best on lighter images with blown out highlights (that is if you want lots of creamy blush tones). Here’s a couple other photos from the shoot  here and here. Let me know if you have any questions or problems with the action, I am happy to help if I can (sometimes I may just add to your frustration instead of alleviating it).

*Please note, the guy is a professional photographer/teacher, but it sounds so much better for the story that he was just some guy.

**The action has been updated 8.31.11 and should work perfectly now.

Just when you think the internet has served up all the inspiration you’ll get for one lifetime along comes Dana.  I was looking up messy chalkboard textures, because I am quite taken with the color of an erased chalkboard (aren’t you?) and I find the gifted Dana Tanamachi.  For someone so young, she is quote accomplished and if this is the beginning of her career I can only imagine what creative summits she will scale.  I believe in editorial parlance Miss Tanamachi would be considered ‘one to watch’.  I would love to one day see her installations in person, I am positive they would be even more impressive than they appear on my little computer screen. You can visit more of her portfolio here.

  photo by::kelsey foster

I have been working tirelessly on my product shots for the shop launch. I’m not very good at it.  I really should have used my lights and not relied so much on natural light.  It’s hard to get consistent natural light, it’s not just a matter of the same time each day, because light really changes from day to day.  These are some of the things I have learned the hard way.  I will have a few Photoshop actions I created for download hopefully this week that have saved me from ripping all my hair out. If anyone has any tips on getting consistent product shots I am all ears. This has definitely been a huge learning curve for me.  I am shaking in my ballerina flats to see how I am ever going to pull off shooting the jewelry that will be in the shop.  Jewelry?  Yes, jewelry, the real stuff, the kind you want to wear every day and never take off.  Once I have everything in the shop it might make more sense why this launch has taken so long. I don’t plan to launch all the products at once either. Let’s just say that I will be offering a few of my favorite things. So what are you waiting for?  Sign up to be the first one on your block to know when I open my virtual doors for business…

I don’t think it would come as a surprise to anyone reading this blog that I am a neat-freak.  I like things airy, bright and clean, very clean. If you were to open my closet door you would see rows upon rows of color coordinated shoes lined up like little soldiers, every shoe exactly half an inch apart from its neighbor. I clean everyday, but please take into consideration my flat is the size of a postage stamp so it is both easy to keep tidy and on the reverse side just as easy for my Fancy to mess up. I make a lot of my own cleaning products not because it’s the green thing to do, but it’s how my family has been obsessively cleaning for generations.  You would be amazed at the power of lemon, baking soda and vinegar.  With the same passion I reserve for my cleaning I also have an equal  adoration for pretty packaging.  Clean Peace thoughtfully has packed two of my favorite things together.  Please note, if I had an unlimited budget I would happily hand my cleaning duties off to a professional, but of course I might have to let them know the shoes were placed a quarter inch too close to each other but I could live with that.