The ups, the downs, and the need for new pictures.

Well, perhaps it makes me an irresponsible blogger to have been away for so long, but I like to think I have excuses. (Does it count that I've been active on Twitter?) I've been meaning to do a post all about the excitements in my life, but today I'm just going to show off some fantastic natural light at the request of an Etsian.

I figure it is more important that I work on getting new photos than becoming an A+ blogger, anyways, but in the meantime, thank you to all those that are hanging on waiting for me to make my improvements.

I'm sure I'll have time to go through the saga of stresses that makes my life so interesting to me a little later, but pictures are usually more exciting :D

Bad day distractions

I'm having a particularly not so great kind of day. It's definitely made mostly of my own attitudes toward each of the situations I've come across and I hope that I'll fell more positive tomorrow morning.

Until then I'll share two articles that have distracted me and cheered me up a little.

This is a really neat look at Teller, the silent and (I think) more interesting half of Penn & Teller.
A man, a ball, a hoop, a bench (and an alleged thread)... TELLER!

The second one is short and sweet - a special effects company makes a mermaid tail for a girl who had both legs amputated beneath the knee. I wish there was more pictures included. Super cool.
Mermaid Dream

My heart is unraveling all over the internet...

I found my Unraveling Heart online, being recommended! I like what pandabear18788 says about it. I think I'm gong to find out a bit more about this website, but here is the link:

http://www.thisnext.com/item/11EA35D1/2BA40E7B/arevera-Unraveling-Heart

:D

Facing the book.

From Twitter, to Facebook, I'm all over the web now, muahahaha!

But seriously, I'm working harder to be more out there and online so that I can get a little more notice. I know I have a lot to do with my shop, including working on some new pieces, but I keep taking steps, slowly but surely, and I'm getting there one way or another.

I've had negative views on Facebook for a long time - things that I've heard about it mostly. I worry that now I'm going to look a little like a hypocrite, but I have good reasons for signing up. The difference between me then (not interested in facebook) and me now (signing up) is not that I've seen any sort of light to it or changed my views entirely, but I have realized it's practical potential for what I want and need. Before I didn't have a shop that I wanted to promote.

I've never thought of this before, but if someone asked me if I was ambitious I would have to say, "definitely, I am". I work hard at what I love and at what I dream, and that, I suppose, is ambition. I'm definitely going to have to take a look at the definition for that word, lol.

I'm all a Twitter

Teehee, I just signed onto Twitter - now I'll be able to keep in touch with things so much more.

As much as I'm loving the blog, I want to get myself out there as much as possible, and i think the twitter will help me do that with the shorter, more frequent posts. I never seem to update my blog as much as I'd like to, and it's hard for my blog to get noticed even when I am posting on it.

My next step... Facebook.

I've been avoiding it for years, but now, well, I think that might be a fantastic way to get myself connected to a lot more people. I need to make connections in order to get people's attentions so I need to make the first step.

Making friends was never easier... or in my case, more difficult. Not being an extremely social person, it's hard for me to all of a sudden start trying to get talkative, but it will be a new experience for me.

Anyways - here's the Twitter link:
twitter.com/areVera

Speaking of all this, it seems that I haven't updated my Flickr in almost months. Maybe I should start with that (blushes).

New Pictures!

I'm super excited about the new pictures that I took! Here are some of them:



I'm using some handmade paper that I bought from the local scrapbooking store. I think the texture works really well and the colours are definitely more eyecatching.

I built a light box to make the pictures brighter. I got the instructions from a website that someone showed me when I got advice in the forum on etsy.

Here's the link to the instructions, if you're curious:
www.studiolighting.net/homemade-light-box-for-product-photography/

Sales are ending

It's sad, I know, but as all good things come to an end, so must the sales in my shop. They won't be the last but at the end of this coming week both the introductory sale of free shipping on Veracious and the Valentine's sale on areVera are going to be ending. Sigh.

Part of the reason for this is because, well, Valentine's day will be past and also my reading week is coming up. Veracious will actually have to be on vacation for next week because of this. I will be visiting my parents, and the sculptures are not easy to travel with. areVera will still be up and running.

Reading week is going to be a great oppourtunity for me to do work on my shop - but it's also going to be pretty busy for me. I've got a lot to work on for my classes, but perhaps I'll chat more on that later.

Free Rice!

Why does it seem that everything I link to has been found on Neatorama? (Probably because I read from it almost every day - is that bad?)

Anyways, here's something great that I found, called Free Rice.

www.freerice.com

You go on this website and answer questions. You can be quized on different things from vocabulary to art to chemistry. You get to learn from it, and, more importantly, every time you answer a question correctly, you are donating rice through the UN. It's only a few grains at a time, but it will make a meal for someone that is hungry. There's absolutely no catch to it either, you don't have to sign up, you can play and stop any time you want.

The first subject I automatically was put on was vocabulary, how awesome is that? Teehee, it pays to be a bookworm now and again.

Fun things

Talking about creativity - check out these pictures of fruit carving (found on Neatorama):
http://completeall.com/Art-and-Design/Watermelon-Carving.html

Also, I found a link to this (also on Neatorama). It's apparently a pledge all about laughter, which is a super-great idea:
http://weeklyworldlaugh.blogspot.com/

Things are going well, more or less..

I've been getting some fantastic reviews about Veracious Art and it makes me fantastically happy! More than one person has messaged me with a compliment and someone actually put me in their blog. Check it out here:
http://brennneda.blogspot.com/

Yesterday the views I received on "Reading Man" made a huge spike and most of the others grew a little as well. My guess (probably more my hope than anything) is that I might have made it to the front page. I really can't be sure unless there is a way to check, but I don't know how. Oh well, I'm happy to get the numbers!

I have so many sculptures in mind to make, I hope to put them into the shop as soon as possible so that I can keep updating it. Hopefully I can figure out how to make my pitcures brighter.

areVera is making some sales - the hearts are going great! It makes me happy because I'm always glad to make them because they're fun to do. My first sale seems to have hit a snag, however, it hasn't arrived at the destination yet, and I was told it should be there right about now. I hope that it gets there soon...

Worth a smile or a frown

Speaking of shops...

Here's a blog I recently found that's been feeding me some interesting reading material for whenever I want to waste some time online:

http://notalwaysright.com/

It's typed dialogue of conversations that occur mostly between customers and people in the customer service industry. Some are hilarious, some are sad, some are hilariously sad. There's lots from all sorts of different places in the world, which definitely says something.

Some things to work on.

I have to admit, since I've started areVera back up and gotten Veracious going I've spent a lot more time on Etsy than I usually do. This is a good thing because I need to promote lots, but also a bad thing because I should be working on stuff for school...

Anywho. I've discovered the beauty of the forums and so instead of throwin two cents wherever I can, I decided to start my own discussion and get some feedback. People seem to really like my reading men, which makes me happy as they are my favourite too, but there's definitely still plenty to work on.

Here's a list of things that came up for me to improve on - note that I asked for feedback on Veracious:
-brighter pictures (and possibly more colour in the backgrounds)
-profile
-measurements in the descriptions
-banner

I've started looking into a banner... and I think I might have found one that I like. I'll wait a day or so to decide. I want to make my shop look as best as possible so it's no small decision.

I'm so happy that there are helpful people in the forum. Getting the feedback was a great experience and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

Besides that all I really need to do is think about promoting and marketing in more ways... urk.

SURPRISE!!! NEW STORE!

Now open - VERACIOUS ART!!

If you'd been to my jewellery shop before and after my holidays you would have noticed one big change other than the fact that I have much better pictures for my items. I wasn't listing any of my art. That's because I wanted to list my art separately, to keep things orderly like.

Long story short, the idea of separating the smaller wearable art from the larger pieces gave birth to a new shop: Veracious.

Because I already had areVera and I still wanted something to do with the name Vera, I looked in the dictionary to see what I could find. Lo and behold! Here's the definition (from the Oxford English Dictionary Online:

1. Habitually speaking or disposed to speak the truth; observant of the truth; truthful.

2. Characterized by veracity, truthfulness, or honesty; conforming to truth; true, accurate.

3. That estimates or judges truly or correctly.

Neat, huh? I thought this word was then extra-fitting for a store dealing with art.

Here's one of the new pieces I already have online:

Phew... what a week!

So, I've had a super busy week, filled with good and bad. Here are some highlights:

First Sale:

I should have been shouting about this from the rooftops, but a super exciting thing happened:
MY FIRST SALE!!! YIPPEE!
I can now let myself think of this as an actual factual sell things type of business, and it's very exciting. It happened last Saturday, the day after I opened shop.

Here's a picture of the heart that I sold, just in time for Valentine's Day.

I sent it in to the post office at the Shopper's Drug Mart last Sunday, the day after it was sold. It was convenient because I also needed a prescription filled. The funny thing is, is that on my way there I'm on the sidewalk and I find, stuck in the mucky snow, $20! Not only did I make a sale, but I found $20! How cool is that?

The downside of all of this is that I find that not only was the shipping a little more than I expected it to be... my drug plan, which had been covering this prescription for years, apparently isn't covering me anymore. The $20 I found ended up going towards the prescription.

Oh well, I still feel it all ended on the plus side.

A New Friend:

I believe it was last weekend when she messaged me, but I hearted this store because there was actually a lot there that I liked and was in many ways similar to my own art. She noticed it too and so we began talking. I love the community aspect of Etsy.

Applications for school:

Yes, I am already in school, but I want to do more school. I'm a nerd like that. So, I'm in the middle of applying to graduate school to make myself even more of a bookworm. It's a lot of juggling though. I'm really anxious about getting admitted and I'm juggling a lot more than I should be. Not only am I doing my school work, my part time job, and my store, but I'm arranging to put together what's needed and pull some favours from professors who are willing to recommend me.

In the end, it will be worth it. Not only do I enjoy my bookworminess, but having a master's degree will help me a lot with my career, whether it's as an editor or with more academics.


I don't know if it really sounds all that busy or exciting, but I can tell you it definitely was. And of course, it's not over yet, this next week seems to be warming up to be just as busy if not more. Eeek. !

And we're back!

Things are online and ready to be sold!

I'm feeling really optimistic about my new items. I've got some themes happening and a lot better pictures than before. I have yet to post older items and any of my necklaces, as I'm still working on the pictures, but they're coming, hopefully by the end of the weekend.

The surprise that I promised earlier is still not quite there yet, just like the pictures, it just isn't ready.

The items I'm really looking forward to getting out there are the Tangled Hearts. They're so fun to make and they look really great, so I hope they go well.

Here are some photos of new items:

I'm linking to things on the internet, is that dangerous?

So I'm working on expanding my shop, being better, stronger, faster and all that crazy ambitious type of stuff and I think, perhaps I should work on this blog thing too...

It only makes sense that if I have a blog, that I should post on it, right?

Well, while everyone is sitting, holding their breath for my shop to reopen (haha) I'm going to share a couple of things I found today while taking a break online.

Here are two things things that make me happy:

I wish I was the girl in the picture I found on Super Punch.
http://superpunch.blogspot.com/2009/01/curl-up-with-good-book.html

This shark shown on Crafster is cute, hilarious, and a little morbid - a great combination!
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=1858c4ed5fb1804da0680a9c2aac9568&topic=287403.0

Here's something that makes me not so happy:

An article on people that make clothes in sweat shops. It's a bit of a look at their lives. I found it on Neatorama here:
http://www.neatorama.com/2009/01/12/meet-the-people-who-made-your-clothes/

Get Ready For It...

So totally coming back... and man, is it ever going to be good!

My shop will be re-opening Friday, January 16th, so mark your calendars :D

I'm not sure if it will be in the morning or later in the afternoon, but there will be fanfare, new items, and fancy sales/incentives for all.

There'll be something extra special for my art pieces, but it's so good it has to be a suprise. Stay tuned on Friday for the announcement.