working on the website

Wouldn't it be so nice to just think something and it makes itself happen? I tried this with a webpage and it would not. So I finally built a lightbox, took hundreds of pictures without a good custom white balance and learned that that was very stupid, processed the pictures and try to implement them into a nice little website. Is there such a thing? A nice little webpage? Apparently not. I am the proud owner of the latest Dreamweaver application, but since I have not learned to use it and software today needs a bit more than opening it and reading the pull down menus, I cannot use it. Thinking so highly of Apple, I figured I could just do it in iWeb. iWeb seems to be the application to cosmically balance Dreamweaver, there is almost nothing one can do with it, it is so darn limiting. Something as simple as posting a photo and making that a link does not exist. Hm... so my deadline is past, I am still tinkering...

status quo

Look at this blog post, it is nice to see something I made in action.

Lately a lot of people have asked me about the status of my company and my things and it is hard to find a good answer. My Open House in November was a success and at the same time it was not. I had a lot of very nice people showing up and everybody loved my products and I did well selling. The difficulty was that from the almost 150 people invited, only about a 5th showed up. It was not for lack of interest and want, just mere timing issues, since every person is so over-scheduled. So in regards to the people that came it was a success, in regards to the number of people it was not good enough to keep going.

Having a booth at the Spirit of Shrewsbury was very different from last years and did not even come near to the success of last years, people came to the craft show, but nobody was in the mood of buying - completely understandable with the economy where it is. I paid a big fee for a show in December, but unfortunately got very sick and was left with a studio full of product and no sales.

Now I am left with making a decision regarding the future of Raventree-Studio. This is hard. I kind of feel like I have been there and done that, at the same time, there are so many customers writing me how well my products were received or come back for more (especially the cherry pit packs). In December I thought I should just forget shows and just go completely digital. I have been meaning to sell on etsy since it started many years ago, but never got above opening my account and the same goes for cafepress. Partially this is due to me being either sick or not being sick and playing catch-up until I am sick again.

And then there is the other point, I'd rather be writing, but I have basement full of materials and I love doing my paper crafts. I am rarely as happy as when I design stationary or actually do any kind of design. A few weeks ago I spent a whole Sunday designing a T-shirt for the Shrewsbury Destination Imagination teams and I had so much fun doing it ... and yes, it is also nice to get compliments on it.

I like it when people like my creations, I assume that this is because as one of those stay/work at-home-moms, I have no source of validation. I am a good cook, but it would never occur to my husband to say something nice, nobody notices when the floor is clean or the laundry done, the fridge stocked with healthy foods. Only when something is NOT done, does it get noticed. Even if we do a good job with our children, we might have to wait a few decades for some kind of validation and honestly, I anticipate that even then criticism will be more forthcoming. I think we all like and need validation, I admit I feel better if somebody tells me they saw me on TV and think I do a great job.

I wish there would be some smart person that knows it all and could tell me what the right path is...

Raventree-Studio Open House 2008

Click to open :)

Between Joy and Pain

Since my first craft show a few years back, I had an idea for a card and every year I put it on my long list of cards that I want to make and never got around to it. This year I just had to do it. For the card I needed a drawing or painting of a tea cup and so I sat down yesterday and made it. I have not been painting for a very long time, Painter (the software) has been sitting still shrinkwrapped for 3 or 4 years and it was quite expensive, just as my underused Wacom tablet. So since I did not want to go through installing new software, I worked in Photoshop instead, which I am more familiar with anyway, having painted in Photoshop for 16 years now.

OMG! I forgot how much joy I get out of it. This is what I did as an exchange student in grad school, my best year ever. I would show up at 7 am at the computer art lab and stay until they closed it at 11 pm. I definitely need to do this more.

My joy was dampened though by the fact that I realized in complete panic and horror, that the 160 Gig harddrive I lost last weekend does not only contain all the files from my previous macs, but also files I need for the show in a week, so very urgently needed files. If something is inevitable and just a fact, I try not to get too upset about it, since that will not change anything. I am upset though, but it won't deter me from just moving on (and get a RAID). So whenever I would remember another few files lost, I would go look at this picture and try to take a deep breath. What a roller coaster ride.

So now I will take my pot of German autumnal apple tea and plate of freshly picked apples, hop into the studio and turn it into the card that was so long in the hypothetical making.

Birds, birds, everywhere

"Heaven above was blue, and earth beneath was green; the river glistened like a path of diamonds in the sun; the birds poured forth their songs from the shady trees; the lark soared high above the waving corn; and the deep buzz of insects filled the air." Charles Dickens (Nicholas Nickleby)

No, I am not one of those back yard bird nuts, though we do have bird identification books and love looking at them. Birds are my theme this fall and I am making many things with birds. I found some very nice quotes and beautiful old illustrations. Tonight I was working with some feathers. The funny thing is, that once you have something on your mind, it seems to appear everywhere. All of a sudden there are turkeys in our yard in the morning, my iPod picks all this music with birds chirping in it and my friend posts a fantastic photo of a gliding puffin in the snow. And then there is puffin cereal. And Little Feet wine (the one with penguins on the label), I tried to win a penguin adoption on their website, but did not of course, since I never win anything. One must love birds, and if it is purely born out of envy of their ability to fly, to soar, to be close to heaven.

This cardinal was sitting on our window bird feeder one winter's afternoon.

computers eat time!

I have just wasted three whole days on nothing creative at all. I have been working on getting my laptop to work and that only took two days and I thought I could spend all Saturday printing stationary and cards. What did I do instead? Trying to get my back up hard drive to work, which was not as successful and it appears to be dead. The whole thought of all that data lost makes my head spin and I feel physically ill. I have only 13 days left and the majority of those are filled with non studio related stuff, after all I have to run our family as well! By the time I have exercised, studied the music for the chorus and taken care of all the little things like shopping, laundry, cooking and so forth, there is no time left. I have to admit that blogging takes a big chunk out of my time as well.

I am used to all that though, it is just the wasted time trying to get computers to do what they are supposed to do, that gets me so mad. And this is supposed to be fun!

Shifting priorities

For years I have been so busy working on products for shows or doing special orders, that I hardly worked on the outlying supporting aspects like my web page or a blog. Even my paperwork has been just a big box of 'mess'. It is not that I did not want those things or thought them less important, I just never have enough time. Also, I admit, my perfectionism got in the way. Finally, I had enough! My studio underwent quite a transformation and is well organized. My workspace is redesigned and I can switch between projects without a major headache. Almost everything has its place now - just a few shelfs that need cutting etc. - and it is finally easy to put things away. I am very bad about putting things back, because that never seems to be a priority, but it leads to clutter and disorganization and I cannot work well in a mess.

Yesterday I filed all my papers and every product has its own folder, even ideas and sketches have a place - it actually feels really good. I have a show coming up in less than three weeks at the Spirit of Shrewsbury and maybe this time I will have a web page when people ask, the last years I had huge amounts of offerings, but no web page. After the show I am planning to work on my presence on Etsy, another things that I had wanted to do since years - obviously that is a common theme around here. Last month I listened to Randy Pausch's talk on time management and he speaks about doing the right things versus doing things right. That hit home and I thought about it and made some changes. I hope there is one change I can make successfully, and that is not to stay up all night in preparation for the show (or blogging for that matter).

Welcome to my crazy and creative and sometimes chaotic life and Good Night!