Here I am waving to you,
I have lots of mail goodness
to share too!

Before the mail~

Last fall, I thought I'd open a little etsy store and put a few envelopes in it.  I had just started making them and compared to the ones I make now, they were blech...at least to me.  Instead of closing my store, I put myself on vacation until I could decide what direction I want to take, fast forward to now.

I've always loved paper, punches, twine, garland, tapes just about anything in those areas and my stashes, stacks and piles of those things prove it to be true.  I found my direction, fantastic!  Finding direction is one thing, implementing direction is another animal.

I thought I knew how to take semi fair pictures until I started trying to take photo's of product for my shop, talk about hitting a major road block!  If you've ever been to or looked around on etsy you'll see that most photo's have a white or light background, natural lighting is preferred, close up images are a plus, size and scale is important and the list is endless.  My head spins just thinking about it now.

I started out taking pictures in every location in my house, at every time of day with every type of light adjustment you can imagine, did that work for me.  No!  Next, I read my camera manual from cover to cover at least seven times, I learned so much about my camera, it was like having a brand new toy.  Did the lighting in my pictures come out great, No.  Got a light box, it helped some but my preference is still natural light.

In a moment of frustration, pondering whether or not to push forward, I noticed amazing light coming in from a wall of windows in my living room.  My sweet spot!  The only hurdle, the entire living room had to be moved around to allow for enough space for me to work.  I stood there and thought, am I really going to move the entire living room around to be able to take pictures for an etsy store?  Without hesitation my mind said yes, and it got moved.

The improvement was immediate, nothing compares with natural light.  My frustration dropped immensely and though I've barely touched the tip of the iceberg when it comes to taking great pictures for etsy at least I'm on the way now.

My next novel will be about learning SEO optimization, titles and tags.  My head spins every time I think about all of them.

Now to the wonderful mail~



Such a delight to find this wonderful card in the mailbox from Mariska!


Who doesn't love cupcakes, especially when they are sweetly decorated!
Arrived from the Netherlands.


Netherlands Postage Stamps


This might be my first or second By Kris card to ever receive, wheek!  Love them!
Arrived from Netherlands


Netherland Postage Stamp


Awwww...adorable baby lamb.  What's not to love about this picture.
Arrived from Germany


Germany Postage Stamps


Prace Duque Da Terceira
Arrived from Portugal

Beautiful Long Eared Owl, so pretty among the trees don't you think?
Arrived from Japan


Love and Hearts Everywhere!  There can never be too many hearts~
Arrived from China


China Postage Stamps