=sum(M3:Y0)

Um, I know that doesn't make any sense... I was going for an Excel equation that had a 'me' and a 'you' in it... or at least maybe sortof looked like it might.

Why? Because I have a long lost, and recently rekindled, love affair with spreadsheets. I love them. I love making them. I love updating them, color coding them, complicating them.... I would marry them! And since my days working in an accounting department have long been over and my funds to purchase my own copy of Microsoft Excel have diminished (and my attempts to beg borrow and steal copies, real and fake, have failed) I have missed my spreadsheets so so much. And then I was told of a program I could download that would replace Microsoft Office. Oh My! And it was free! And it works. I can even save the files in MS formats and open old docs and spreadsheets from the good ole days... It's like I'm whole again! (it's OpenOffice.com by the way)

Why am I gushing on and on about spreadsheets? Because I love them. And because now I have a spreadsheet for everything I've been meaning to keep up on lately... Bills, budgets, projects, plans, etc. And I think I'm actually being more productive. To me a spreadsheet is like a list having an orgasm! And I love love love me some lists... so spreadsheets are kinda like my wildest dreams come true. (I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one out there with these feelings.)

So I have a Project spreadsheet. And one of the pages, or sheets, is for photo projects. And my largest project is my kids photo albums. I haven't kept up n them in a very long time. I have an album for each, four pictures for each month of their lives. Logan's are all in black and white and Nola's are all sepia tones. I've been working for about three days on getting caught up. And today I finished! Seventeen months worth of photos, four per month (roughly) per kid... I ended up with 136 pictures selected, edited and uploaded... and yes, there was a check mark to be made for the completion of each of these steps on my spreadsheet. Of course I won't be ordering them now because I have no online deals for Shutterfly at the moment. I tend to get 50 free print emails from time to time, so I will wait for one of those if I can stand it. But here are some of them for you to see....
























Oh! And on a side note (seeing the pull-ups in the picture above reminded me), Logan is now being potty trained and is wearing big boy underwear! Or little boy superhero underwear. It's only been about a week but we've already had a few accident free days!

Flip-in Out!

Three things to report...

One, I got a Flip. I love it. It's fun and easy and even the kids can record videos. We've spent too much time NOT recording the goofy/cute/silly/brilliant things our kids are doing. So let the Flip-ing begin! I'm sure videos will be coming soon. No idea what I'm talking about? Go Here.

Two, Another Craft Fair. Here's the information if you are so inclined to join:
Saturday, December 11, 2010
St. Charles West High School
3601 Droste
St. Charles, MO 63301
North on Zumbehl off Hwy 70
9am to 4pm

Three, stomach bug. Yuk Yuk Double Yuk. First me, Monday night. Then Tuesday morning Logan threw up but didn't seem to care or be phased by it. Then overnight last night Nola threw up in her bed. There's the Double Yuk. But she seemed perfectly fine afterwords. Now this morning she's slumped on the couch with a just-in-case bowl and saying her tummy hurts. Not sure if she's still 'got it' or just hungry from no nutrients. Either way... this may ruin my chances of actually being at the craft fair. I can't send contaminated kids to a babysitter. But my mom will be there, even if I'm not. Even more reason for you all to go and visit her if I can't...

So there's my story.

Craft Fair Blues

So I did it. My very first face to face attempt at selling my photography. Edward Jones Holiday Mart. It was Saturday.

There was so much planning that went into it. Photos printed up to sell, packaging to buy and then all the prints to package up. Business cards to make, order, and put in all the packages. Frames to buy and fix up and large prints to order and frame. A display to make for the frames to hang on. The bins to look for and buy for all the product to go in on the table... Sheesh, not to mention all the thought put in about pricing on all sizes, all sets, all possible and/or potential combos people might want to purchase. What if they want this? What if they want that? I'm not the kind of person to just wing it on the fly... it had to be all thought out ahead of time. And charted, and printed out and put into a binder. And babysitters, waking up early to get ready to leave and set up early for it to start... it was a lot of work.

And on top of all that, this wasn't even my idea. It was my mom's. She wanted to do this with me and I agreed. I don't regret doing it. It was an experience. It was practice. It was something. It was.... a craft fair.

And now for the big question.... How did it go? How much did I sell?
It was a flop. A bust. A bummer.

Okay, that's not entirely true. I did whip up some greeting cards at the last minute (just because I wanted something Holiday-ish at the booth). And I sold one pack of cards. Yep, one pack. All day. One pack. But at least... and thank goodness... I didn't sell NOTHING.

And onto the bright side.... all the work I put into it was not entirely in vein. The prints are still sell-able. The organization is always worth it. And I have a craft fair under my belt... one notch in the experience department. I saw what people liked and what was ignored. I heard lots of comments about how nice it all was, good for the ego. Several people told us we looked very professional, the most professional booth at the fair was said more than once. I was even asked what Gallery my stuff was shown in. (I said, 'You're looking at it!") And I got questions/requests for things that people wanted to see. From one of those inquiries sprang a great idea for a future series I plan to start working on soon.

Now for some quotes and thoughts from the Holiday Mart:

Just because you bought the over sized chef hat in Christmas print at the craft fair does not mean you are obligated to wear it all day AT the craft fair! (with your gray sweat pants and blue sweatshirt with a teddy bear on it)
They aren't selling blinking light-up Santa hats here, so that means you wore that out in public on purpose... interesting....
"Oh! Do you have a picture of the steel mill in Granite city?!" Oh sure, let me just find that one for you real quick... I knew you'd be here looking for it.... Seriously?
"So... uuhh... you just take pictures of different stuff and then frame them?" Umm, yes, it's call photography... Ever heard of it?
Apparently the ladies over sixty are really serious about their black fingernail polish... I saw about 10-15 older women rockin the goth nails.
Children do not like booths with photography. They really, really don't. Especially when there is a tutu/hair bow booth right next door!
And the most frequently asked question of the day: "Did you actually take all these pictures?" Oh, no sir (or ma'am), I stole them all off the internet and hoped that no one would ask. Again, seriously?

So that was my Craft Fair experience in a nut shell. And low and behold... my mom asked me today if I wanted to do it all over again next weekend. Shit... I guess so.

Me! On a Blog! (that isn't mine!)

This blog: ALL THINGS HANDMADE

Yep Yep! I'm on there! Well, not me, but Yellow Mug Photography, so yeah, ME! If you go there and then click on the category "Photography" in the right hand column I believe I'm on the first page... maybe the second! Woo Hoo!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Me! At a Craft Fair! Four Days until the Holiday Mart. Are you coming? In case you need a reminder, here's the info again:

Edward Jones Holiday Mart
12555 Manchester Road
Des Peres, Mo 63131

South Campus Atrium
9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
December 4, 2010

Black Friday on Etsy

I'm having a Black Friday thru Cyber Monday SALE on Yellow Mug Photography over on Etsy. Everything is 15% OFF!



Etsy has now created Coupon Codes for sellers to use in their shops! I'm so excited! Before I was leery of trying to create a site-wide sale do to the fact that I would have to change the details on all the listings (which is 35 or more now) and that would have been a ton of work. But now I can just create a Coupon Code and everyone can use it at checkout to get the sale prices. Easy Peasy! The code for Black Friday is THANKS15

And I plan to come up with a discount code for all my blog readers... yep... all 4 or 5 of you!

ATTENTION!
December 4th I will be at the Edward Jones Holiday Mart. It's a craft fair put on my Edward Jones employees and their families (my mom works there).
Here is the official information:

Edward Jones Holiday Mart
12555 Manchester Road
Des Peres, Mo 63131

South Campus Atrium
9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
December 4, 2010

There will be discounted Holiday Prices if you show up! And there will also be a special Holiday Mart Coupon Code given out for the holidays! If you've been thinking of buying something and were waiting of great savings, this is the place to be and the time to buy!
Hope to see you there!

FotoFriday - 11.19.10

For a while now I've been working really hard on a new photographic series to sell on Etsy. I ended up with a series of nine photos in three different styles. And I think I'm finally ready to list the series on Etsy today. The series is...

Metal Blooms
The series is of antique water valve handles. I call the individual handles Metal Blooms and the groupings Metal Bouquets. Here are a few of my favorites in each of the styles:



Metal Blooms in Rusted Color




Metal Blooms in Burnt Platinum


...and of course...


Metal Blooms in Black & White

These will be available as individual prints as well as in groups. The prints can be produced in any size square from 5 x 5 to 24 x 24 inches.

Check out Yellow Mug Photography to see the whole series - 27 photographs in all!

Creating Treasures

My photos have been featured in several Treasuries on Etsy, some I listed before. There have been a few since.

But then I started thinking about making a few of my own, featuring my own pieces here and there. So I did. I've made three so far. Here they are:

Tensils & Tines

What Keeps the Vampires Away? Garlic!

It Works for the Zebras!

It's fun to put them together and hopefully will generate a few more looks at my shop. Who knows. As long as it's fun, right? Yep.

I'm going to try and figure out a way to make a Treasury List along side my blog. You know, over there to the right where all that other stuff is... I'll see if I can get it to work. Cause I plan to make lots more Treasuries.

Oh! I've had two sales so far. Just two... but two is WAY more than zero. (It's exactly two more for you math challenged folks out there - hee hee).

Ok - well... that's all.

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)

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!

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 - 9.24.10

I've been working on some photos for an upcoming fair where I might possibly make some money. Sooo, I may be using my blog for some testing questions in the coming weeks.

This week I want to show you some examples of a series I'm working on of silverware. I'm having a hard time deciding on which style I like best. I need to decide which style to have printed up for sale at the fair. Here is a spoon in three styles. Take a look, and if you would be so kind, let me know which one you prefer. (They would obviously be printed without the watermark words on them.)









Thanks for looking.

Question for The Masses

And by The Masses, I mean you three or four people who read this...

If you were to buy photography as art for your home, office, a gift... any reason really, what types of things would persuade you to spend your hard earned money?

I'm thinking of trying to sell some prints of my photography. And in looking through my work I see mostly personal subject matter that I'm not sure The Masses - that's you and all your friends - would necessarily want hanging on their walls. So I think I need to branch out a little and I'm open for suggestions.

Thanks.

Beany & Buster

I've been working my butt off trying to finish this photo book for the kids by tonight. It's now 2am and it's DONE! Uploaded, put together and ordered! And FREE! Woo Hoo! The name of the book is:

Beany & Buster
The Adventure of the Magic Wand

Here is the link to the book on Shutterfly:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2ActHLFm3asmVL


Enjoy!
I'm going to bed...

Pictures Pictures Everywhere!

I have photo albums dedicated solely to each kid. They are the size where four pictures are visible when the pages are open and I have it laid out so each open page (4 pictures) holds a month in the life of that child. Nola's is all in sepia, Logan's is black and white.
What usually happens is that I work really hard on keeping up with these albums for a few months... then nothing. I honestly can't remember when I last worked on their albums. I have to go back through pictures, narrow an entire month down to 4 pictures each, then move them to Photoshop to crop and edit, upload them to Shutterfly or Snapfish, and then order them and wait for the mail to come...
The way it's been going for over a year now is that I wait until I get one of those wonderful coupon emails from a photo-upload site that offers a really good deal on prints. I was JUST thinking about the kids' albums the other day, and damned if I ALMOST didn't start the selection process. But of course I put it off. Then I received an email coupon for 50 free prints which expires in a week or less. So now I have to find the time to get through this whole process ASAP so I can get the 50 free deal!

And Shutterfly decided to surprise me the same day with a free 8x8, 20 page hardback photo book coupon! This one expires in three days! And I have no idea what to create a book of.... Last time I received this offer I complied a bunch of my black and white photos and just made a book. I don't need to do that again because it just sits somewhere, not even sure where it is.... So I was thinking about trying to make a story book for the kids. Either with pictures or my drawings. But I have to really get on top of this idea and get moving... I only have THREE DAYS!

And on top of that I've started another photo project (so far it's mostly just in my mind). My sister Cayce is, and has been, making a quilt for me from Nola's baby clothes. It's technically for Nola but I may not let her touch it until she's grown. So my plan... I always seem to have a plan... is to get pictures of Nola in all the clothes, or outfits, that have gone into the quilt. Then I would like to make a photo book, in digital scrapbook style, of baby Nola wearing the clothes with the quilt squares as the backgrounds and frames. And of course pictures of the actual quilt... and maybe Cayce quilting it. I want it to be a really good memory book. In order to do this I have to really pull out the archives and sift through thousands of digital jpegs to find the outfits and pieces of clothing. It will be a ton of work. Plus I have to photograph the quilt squares and turn them into digital scrapbook papers and frames. It may be an ongoing project for quite some time! But I know it will be worth it in the end.
What I picture is me handing a large, beautifully wrapped box over to my pregnant daughter someday. She opens it and sees the quilt that was put together from her own baby clothes that she can now pass on to her own daughter. We can look through the book that shows her wearing all the different squares at all the stages of her early life. I see smiles, memories, tears... yep, it will all be worth it.
(if she has only boys... well then I'll just give it to her to pass down to her own first granddaughter) Memories here, people! We're making memories!

So, needless to say I have lots of photo-related jobs ahead of me, two of which I should be working on RIGHT NOW! So I'mma get to it!

Oh! Here is a picture of the quilt, not put together, just laid out:

FotoFriday - 8.13.10

Well - today is FotoFriday! And guess what? I forgot... So I looked through my camera, and found nothing. I looked through the past month or so's pictures on the computer... still nothing. I was busy today with house stuff and Kirk was working all day so I also didn't have an opportunity to shoot anything new (unless Logan throwing all his crayons down the vent is FotoFriday worthy... no, it's not). So I decided to pick a few of my favorites from the old blog, A Cup of Black & White, that no longer exists... These aren't my all time top favorite five, just the first five I ran across that were favorites.

Nola Playing


Bamboo Fruit Still Life


Rose Bud, or Baby Thorns


Snack Time


Statuesque


Since the photo blog is what inspired me to start the whole FotoFriday thing in the first place, I don't consider it cheating too much to recycle some oldies but goodies. Let's think of it more as a tribute to the old blog, may it rest in peace.

But I really will try to be on top of things next week.

A Cup of Black & White

I used to have a photo blog. It no longer exists. It was called A Cup of Black & White. I did a 365 photo project where I was supposed to post a photo a day. I almost made it through the year... but I don't think anyone really looked at it. And I'm not sure anyone really looks at this one either... but... I miss my photo blog. It motivated me to take pictures. Not just pictures of the kids and the plants and what not... but pictures with a photographic eye. Fotos.

So I may start a new blog... NO! I'm kidding. Enough is enough. But I may start posting a few more photos here on this blog. I just now (this very second) decided that I will in fact post pictures here with some regularity. I will start a Foto Friday. So on Fridays I will post some pictures. And not the regular snap shotty type if I can help it. But don't judge me if I end up posting pics of the kids... sometimes they are the only things I can get my camera on in a week. But I do think I will try to motivate myself to take more pictures... so, this is my plan.

Hey Sweet Cheeks!

So I was sitting in the living room and in walks Sweet Cheeks. Cute as ever, diaper hanging a little low, hand on hips (you take for granted that we automatically know how to stand with our hands on our hips... apparently it takes a little guess work).
So I said to him, "Hey Sweet Cheeks!"
And he quickly spun around, hands still on butt and scowl on face and said, "My NO Sweee Keeks!"
And when he turned back around in toddler anger, I took his Sweet Ass Picture!
Take that little boy!



And like a good mother, I didn't rush to pull up his diaper or fix his shirt. I sat there with my camera hoping for another good photo op! He found his construction hat and added that to his Sweet Ass costume - perfect! If only he had a tool belt... oh well.
At some point he turned and got entranced in the television. He had this stance that just screamed Construction Worker! Shoulders back, hat hangin' to the side, legs apart, butt crack peekin' out - Fabulous! So I took myself another picture. I'm working on my Mom of the Year Award....


So, from Logan to you: "Hey Sweet Cheeks!"

New Photo Project!

While surfing the net for images for a totally separate project I came across this image that made me SO WANT to do a project like this!

Check it out HERE.

I really, really want to do this... So if you see me on your doorstep soon with my camera, please don't call the police... I'm just collecting 'door' pictures....

Over the River & Through the Woods

To Grandmother's House We GO!

Went to my mom's on Saturday with The Buster & The Beans. They had so much fun. My mom's new house is over the river (the Missouri River) and through the woods (the remaining suburban woods of St. Charles) from my house. When we got there we had to go check out the pond, or as Buster calls it, the Wa-Wa.



We were hunting froggies!



Then they picked dandelions for me while Mom and Ron worked in the yard.



The biggest thrill was the hill. It took Logan a while to get the hang of it but eventually they were both going UP the hill....



Then DOWN the hill...



Even falling was a blast!



It had rained, so I was on a mission to get some good droplet photos...
Raindrops on Hosta:



And did you know that Peony buds won't open unless ants eat off the sticky layer on them? I did not know that until I was informed by my mom, who probably was told by Ron... Interesting info. Here are some little ants at work on a peony (see the one underneath?):



And then I found the best raindrop photo-op! I went to just take a picture of the one Iris remaining intact after the storm and found it was holding a raindrop right in the center. Isn't that perfect?






Then Nola Bean decided to climb a tree. She didn't get very far, but her feet did come off the ground. And to her, that's climbing a tree. Even though it looks more like she's just hugging it.



And one last shot of the kids by the tree at the top of the hill. Logan kept knocking on it saying, "Nah-Nah. Nah-Nah." Probably about 50 times... I guess he thought someone might come out, who knows. They look so small by the big ole tree.



Fun day. Kids were asleep by the time I was out of the driveway. Good times!

Annoying Nature

Are these all over your yard? They are all over mine.



My kids love them, I hate them... but they are pretty.



These too - the helicopter seed. All over my front yard.



Close up it looks very... veiney. (Is vieney a word? My spellcheck thinks not.)