FotoFriday - 10.29.10

Instructions for a Happy Halloween:

1. Have your kids draw funny faces on construction paper


2. Darken the faces (with cutting out shapes in mind)


3. Cut out the shapes


4. Tape the paper to the pumpkins


5. Color in the shapes and remove the paper


6. Cut out the shapes from the pumpkins


7. Nola's Jack O'Lantern (with three "goobelie" eyes)


8. Logan's Jack O'Lantern (pretty good for a 2 year old)


9. Place all Jack O'Lanters on the front porch and light up


10. Place children between the pumpkins and take pictures!

Happy Halloween from the McFarlands!

What a Treasury?

I was asked by a sister-in-law-esque friend of mine to add some St. Louis type things to my Etsy shop so she could include me in a Treasury. A What? Huh? I tried to get a hold of her to ask what that meant, what I had to, how long I had...

I knew she had mentioned them before on her own Facebook page about her Etsy store being selected for this or that Treasury, but I still wasn't sure on the details.

Then the very evening I was waiting for her reply I get an email from a woman through Etsy telling me she has chosen one of my photos to be in a Treasury. Really? Okay! After some hard investigation (ie. a few clicks) I figured out that a Treasury is a group of 16-20 items for sale that all fit a category or group or theme, chosen by the Treasury creator.

My very first Treasury: Artistic!!! Yeah!!

And as I was slowly waking up this morning my cell phone chirped at me to let me know I had a new email... and whadda you know? Another photo has been selected for yet another Treasury!

My very second Treasury: World Pasta Day ... :o)

A Closing Door

A door is closing today. Hopefully another will open again soon.
For those of you who don't know, my husband lost his job. Today is his last official day of working. The entire store closed because the lease was not renewed. So it wasn't due to any fault of his own but never the less, he's out of a job. And we are now a no-income family of four. Boy oh boy, that's scary.

So the job search is on and even though he has had a few leads so far, they haven't amounted to anything yet. Being given only nine (yes, that's 9) days notice that you will no longer have a job, a career, a paycheck... is quite a blow. Not even the standard two weeks. So although he's discouraged, I'm not. Not yet. It takes time and patience to find a good job. Hopefully not too much time.

But we have family to help and support us if the need arises. And there's always savings and collecting unemployment (which neither of us know anything about but will quickly learn I guess). So far we haven't told the kids anything. We've done pretty good at talking in code and hiding the stress of the situation from them. But after today they just might notice somethings up when Papa doesn't head off to work every day. I guess we can say he's on vacation. But after a few weeks or months of being home (which hopefully it won't come to) they might catch on... The jig will be up... especially for Nola, she's a smart one. How do you explain that to a kid? Not that she'd even know to judge him... but in my opinion it's just not something they need to even concern themselves with. That's our job (unpaying as it may be) to hold that weight on our shoulders. I'm actually looking forward to having him home a little more for a while. For purely selfish reasons... like having more personal freedom...

So if anyone out there in the St. Louis area knows anyone who knows anyone who might know someone looking for a management position in the restaurant field, you feel free to let me know!

FotoFriday - 10.22.10

Butterfly Reflections
~for sale at Yellow Mug Photography

This was taken at The Butterfly House in Chesterfield, MO.

Pardon me for promoting myself but I just can't help it! And by the way, I made my very first sale! And it wasn't to a family member or a friend. A complete and total stranger loves me! A wonderful woman named Megan from MI bought the 5x7 Utensils Set of Three. I don't know her at all but I think I love her! And I really hope she loves the photos that she bought. (And then of course tells all her friends and family and comes back for more!)

One sale down, billions and billions to go! Hey, a girl can dream, right?

Have a wonderful weekend everyone and I hope to have a new batch of photos up next week for sale on Etsy so don't forget to check it out!

GRAND OPENING!

So... I did it. I got it together and opened up my Etsy site. It's Yellow Mug Photography.

www.yellowmug.etsy.com

I've just started listing things... but I hope to have a full shop in a week or two.

Anyone need any art for their walls? Need gifts for the holidays? Tell all your friends and family and keep coming back... Coming soon I will have the full line of Alpha Art up and ready sell. I must say, I'm hopeful. And excited. This might actually work. Yippee!

And as always, tell me what you think! Any suggestions, requests, anything... I'm all ears!

FotoFriday - 10.15.10

Not so much a photo today as much as a banner for my new Etsy store!


(click on photo to see it larger)

This is my first attempt at greatness, not the final product (or maybe it is...)
Please tell me what you think. The good, the bad, the ugly. Gimme whatcha got! I promise I can take it.

FotoFriday - 10.08.10

Fotos from Friday... even though today is totally Tuesday...

Here are some shots leaving St. Louis, going over into good ole Illinois.


(Images removed because they will possibly be sold on Etsy... don't wanna give away any freebies! hee hee)



I have no idea which bridge this is, but you could see it from the highway...



And all the way to Illinois we went, to Eckert's Orchards.



Wagon rides to the trees where we picked apples...



There were rides ridden, goats fed, apples picked, wagon rides had, trains taken, sun endured and lots and lots of fun. We have officially decided that this will be a McFarland Family Tradition. But next year we will make the trip in August... that's when the HoneyCrisp apples are in season and those are my all time favorite apples in the World! This time we ended up with Fuji and Golden Delicious... all good, but they're no HoneyCrisp!

Red Delicious

Nola (starting to wiggle): Mama? Is the apple picking farm open today?
Me: Yesss....
Nola (starting to bounce up and down): Mama? Is Papa off work today?
Me: Yes.
Nola (jumping up and down): Mama? Can we go there today?!?!
Me: YES!
Nola (in full spin): Yea! Yea! Yea! Yea!
Nola (full stop): Can we go yet? Can we go now? Can we?
Me: Oh geez...


So, we are going over to Illinois to Eckert's Farm to go apple picking today. But not for another hour at least since we are all currently in jammies. But I hope to have a good batch of apples AND photos by the time we get home. So FotoFriday is not forgotten, but will probably squeak in by the midnight deadline... so come back and check tomorrow!

This is year two of our Apple-Picking tradition. Kirk and I talked about how fun it would be to take the kids apple picking every Fall until we end up taking our own Grandkids... How cute would that be? Grandma and Grandpa? Logan as a father? All of us out in the orchards picking apples and taking pictures every year? Yeah, I love the Fall....

So off to the Orchard we go! This is going to be a Red Delicious day!

Yellow Mug Photography

Here we go again.

With the push from my mom I'm going to put some photog prints in a local craft fair in December. In order to do this up right I need to have a website of some kind to put on a business card of some sort to pass out to potential customers at said craft fair.

Some of you may remember my recent venture into photo cards... I had an Etsy store/website, and it end in a big, giant, "FLOP!" Soooo... as I now need to get something out there in the internet world I think I'm going to go that route again. I have so many mixed and mingled ideas for what to really try and sell, but they all revolve around photography. So I'm just going to name myself, my store, my Etsy, my bizz-nass, Yellow Mug Photography. That way I can get the site up and running and put up whatever my current venture may be. For now, I'll start with my photo prints.

Another venture I've been turning round in the ole brain for some time is my photo letter project. Photos that are of everyday objects, resembling letters from the alphabet, and coming together to form words. Black and white mostly, but also in color. So while my main venture for the craft fair will just be prints, I would like to have the letters up on the Etsy site as well and display a few words for people to see at the craft fair (and hopefully fall in love with and rush online to purchase).

So that's lots of work to do, think about, plan for, actually finish on a deadline.... Oh Geez! I almost feel like a work from home mom with no actual time to work... or think clearly about work. Its hard to focus things into fruition with only 10 minute increments of time to devote... I need an office/studio with a locking door. Oh! Now that would be some kind of wonderful! A girl can dream...

FotoFriday - 10.01.10

Sometimes there are moments when all your parenting efforts just pay off.