GETTING HOLIDAY EDITORIAL + MORE SUPPLIES

I was emailing one of my cyber friends last night (that is a person that I don’t know in ‘real life’ but have become friendly via the interwebs) and mentioned that I have SO many new items to reveal for the shop. I seriously went on a little spree, but in my defense I need to be gearing up for holiday now, as holiday nearly killed me last year, I was seriously so not prepared.  For those that have shops/products this is the time when you need to be sending out your press kits to print magazines (they work on 3-6 month lead times). Me? No, I have not designed a press kit, nor can I even fathom doing so right now, do you know how long it takes me to make even the most minute decisions?  Ages. When I do I will photograph it and you will get a glimpse when I finish (maybe in the new year?) I was a fashion publicist for ions before I got into graphic design + branding (I have lived a long life), but what I know about fashion PR does not necessarily translate to what I am doing now.  Once I launch the apothecary + accessories I will be on sure footing but this totally odd concept of Stationery Stamps and the like, well it’s a hard sell. My outreach to blogs the other day made me feel about *this* big.  The most humiliating outreach was a girl with a now popular blog that had emailed me years ago to feature her line on my former blogs (I had two fairly large ones) which I did and she didn’t even write me back.  The internet is not always diplomatic, no she is not on vacation and I doubt it went to spam. I am assuming she doesn’t remember hocking her line before it got popular and that I had a hand in getting her there.  She is now on my mental ‘black list’.  You want to know what added salt to the wound?  Twitter recently recommended her as a ‘like you’ suggestion.  Like heck she’s not, I wanted to yell at the Twitter bots, I would never ignore anyone that ever helped me out, ever.  BUT back to your press kit for print media, it’s a simple premise really (even if you can’t put together cohesive sentences) you should be able to answer these questions: WHO / WHAT / WHERE / WHEN / WHY.  Once you do answer these simple questions put it on sheet of paper add your line sheet with RETAIL pricing and send it off to the editor of your favorite magazine.  Okay, I know you have more questions, but that will have to be for another lesson, you haven’t even put together your press kit right? Once you do than we can talk and hopefully you will get it together much sooner than I will.
P.S. The cardstock shown is limited edition double-sided stock, jet black on one side, bright white on the other, clever! You can get it here while supplies last.

MARSHMALLOW TWIG ROASTER

In the grand scheme of things this wouldn’t warrant much hoopla, but that doesn’t discount how incredibly charming this tool is–a metal marshmallow roaster in the shape of a twig.  Delightful!  It seems like the States have become riddled with news of heat waves, which makes the option of roasting seem obscene. Come early fall this should be a wonderful pastime, roasting (gourmet) marshmallows on an open fire with your brilliant and good looking utensil.  You would be the talk of the S’mores ball–for sure. For under $20 this could be yours! 
P.S. I learned today that it is marsh-mallow and not marsh-mellow (a better name).  It’s true that you learn something new everyday!

LITH PRINT PHOTOSHOP ACTION

My husband and I like to take the back roads around here to get to our destinations (you know exciting places like Target), they are always free of traffic, have beautiful views and have charming little homes set back acres from the road. There’s always a few that just sit there abandoned and we wonder what their story is, no family to take it over? Still in the family but just neglected?  It’s odd to see an abandoned home in between manicured lawns.  There’s an abandoned house down the road from us, the neighbors don’t know much about it except it’s been there since their grandparent’s were kids.  I peeked in the window once, curious and it’s like time has stood still in the home–sofa, stove, paintings etc. it’s all there, vines growing through everything and roof exposed to the sky but it’s all there.  I can’t believe no one has ever looted it.  Can you imagine living next to a place for decades and never going in to see what treasures it holds?  It is most likely infested with mold and mites but 30-40 years ago? It should have still had a roof and plenty of opportunity for people to walk around and take a gander. In the movies everyone in the country seems to know one another and there’s always some kind elderly person that knows all the town secrets + history, not here.  All I have is my imagination to fill in the blanks, sigh.  On another note, I found a wonderful and authentic Lith print Photoshop action that is so good, it’s truly one click and you get a great old timey effect which I thought was perfect for this abandoned house, best part? It’s free!  You can find it here.

NEW! ANTLER STAMP

The ubiquitous antler makes its appearance in the shop.  These and a few other woodland inspired designs were supposed to be in my first round of stamps but room was at a premium and they lost out to calligraphy sentiments, sorry little antler stamp.  I gave a peek of them in my stamp storage post and the emails came flooding in wanting to know when it would be in the shop. I am slow going with the photos and editing so it seemed like ‘one day’ was going to be my best answer, but I got inspired and did some product photography for a few hours and now you can pick your stamp up here.   I use these a lot for my personal stationery, I think they fit where I am at in my life right now–the deep country. I know antlers are a trendy motif but they are so good so I am happy to be able to offer them to you!

OH CREPE BY WORDBILLY

This sign by Wordbilly sort of sums up my feelings today.  My shop’s site has had some sort of weird bug (like its mama) and decided to get all wonky on me, no photos have been showing up.  We have been behind the scenes for nearly a day trying to figure out what in the world I did to it, what in the world could be wrong. Honestly, I did nothing but my Coder seems to believe otherwise; I can read into emails like nobody’s business, you?  I see that his ‘let’s try this or that’ actually is a trap to see if I haven’t already tried ‘this or that’ on my lonesome. I am a doer after all so it would make sense that I would try something, but I am terrified of repercussions of fiddling with my sites, that’s why this here blog still does not have a simple subscribe feature. One day.  I found Wordbilly above via Twitter’s Tweet Deck (I downloaded yesterday).  I mentioned earlier this week I am not much of a Tweeter (is that even the proper verbiage?) but Meagan Camp (you must visit) gave me the sweet advice of being more Twitter active for my little shop, she obviously does not know how absolutely boring I am. So, on this Friday morn I am going to ask all of you about this Twitter thing and see if you can give me any tips + tricks, links to figure it out.  I feel like I am in the vortex of cacophony and I don’t want to get sucked in and feel like I am just adding to the noise and not adding to the conversation, if that’s what it is– a conversation. It seems like people are just photographing their breakfast a lot, but please help me see the light.  With much appreciation.