How I Gift Wrap in 28 Steps

Merry Christmas everyone! Thought I would share my experience with you. (true story, by the way - living with 3 cats things are often this way!) 



Notice where she is looking
(at the gold ornament), and see
where her paw is? (On the quilted ornament)



Sheer bliss!



How I Gift Wrap in 28 Steps (sorry if you find cat hair in your presents)

1. Find gift.
2. Find wrapping paper.
3. Lay gift on floor.
4. Push cats away.
5. Wrap gift.
6. Find wrapping paper too short.
7. Put scissors down.
8. Find more wrapping paper.
9. Push cats away.
10. Find tape.
11. Find that tape has run out.
12. Find new tape.
13. Find glasses to see beginning of new roll of tape.
14. Push cats away.
15. Can't find glasses.
16. Found glasses.
17. Find scissors.
18. Found scissors.
19. Push cats off gift.
20. Lay gift on new wrapping paper.
21. Push cats away from wrapping paper.
22. Wrap gift.
23. Can't find tape.
24. Found tape.
25. Take tape away from cat.
26. Push cats off gift.
27. Push cats off wrapping paper.
28. Unwrap cats.

Sometimes the best intentions ...

It's a dull, dreary, rainy day here on the West Coast of Canada.  (Surprised?) I am inside trying to take new product photographs of my new stitch marker sets and some other items that I want to list on Etsy.  I'm also helping out a friend and listing a few of her handsewn pillow covers and a lovely quilted bag she has made.  Easy, right?  I take photographs all the time, and so taking photos of these items ought to be simple, right? Wrong ...
I don't know why they are so hard to photograph, but they are! The lighting in my house is either too dark for the photos, or too glary, or too uneven, or a myriad of other things ... and it is too dark, rainy and gloomy to go outside to try taking them out there in the natural light.
I am waiting for the camera to upload the pics to the computer so I can see if I can at least adjust the lighting there.  My friend has some lovely cushion covers, but of course I don't have any pillows of the proper size to fit them. I don't feel my pictures have done her items justice. *sigh*  At any rate, I have taken the photos and we'll see how they turn out with perhaps some post-processing magic.  I can always list them and then replace the photos later. Or, if the photos are really bad, I can wait for a brighter day.  Stay tuned!

Oh - and by the way, please feel free to share my blog with your friends, and comments are welcome!

Christmas Gift Suggestion

These dark, dreary, wintry days leave me longing for sunshine and warmth. This photograph was taken during our Mexican cruise of nearly two years ago. Just looking at this photo makes me want to go back there! Maybe you would like to be there too? You can, in your imagination, if you purchase this stretched canvas print offered on my Limited Time Promotion.  It is offered in the 16 x 20 size for only $70.00.  The special is good until 12/14/2012.
Details found by clicking the link below:

http://fineartamerica.com/weeklypromotion.html?promotionid=101122

Please feel free to share this news and my blog. 

Guilty!

I am guilty of something that has been niggling at me for awhile now.  I am guilty of neglecting my blog.  I began with such good intentions. Instead, my blog has been languishing at the bottom of my 'to-do list', as more and more activities and 'must-do's' take precedence. 
I have been busy adding to my ever-growing website on Fine Art America, and have over 500 photographs listed now.  I have sold a few.  :) 

My Etsy shop has suffered, however, as I have been concentrating on adding more photographs to my Fine Art America website.  As a result, I haven't been updating Etsy as often as I should.  I am feeling a little bit pulled in all directions these days and I keep telling myself to 'focus'.
So ... Focus I will.  (As Yoda might say).
First things first.  The following special is still running, until Dec. 31, 2012, on the photographs on my Fine Art America shop.  As I have stated earlier, I have added many more since this blog began, and add several new photos per week, as time allows.

Special discount on all prints on my Fine Art America website until 10/31/2012. Use code AGVZEX at checkout! http://marilyn-wilson.artistwebsites.com/  (Cost of materials excluded)

 

This discount applies to everything in my Fine Art America website - cards, prints, framed prints, canvas prints, etc.  Keep in mind that cards are 5 x 7 prints, and they come singly, or in sets of 10 or 25.  The price per card decreases substantially with the number ordered.  Why not wander on over and take a look?  I welcome comments and questions. 

 

Also, my Etsy shop, at http://www.etsy.com/shop/CalicoSkyCreations has a special running until the end of the year.

 

10% off of anything in my shop, using the coupon code CSC10 applied at check-out. 

 

One more exciting thing has been happening.  I have signed on with Krista May, who runs an online agency called 'Painturdreams'. This agency acts as agents for numerous artists on a global scale.  Krista has designed, with my input, the following site for me, which also joins together my online pursuits, with FAA and with Etsy.  Krista will be helping me to publicize my sites, and I am quite excited to see what happens!  Check out the site here:

http://painturdreams.weebly.com/marilyn-wilson-photography.html

 

So, as you can see, all of this plus my day job is keeping me out of trouble. Oh - and we (as a family) did go to see Paul McCartney live in concert in Vancouver on Nov. 25, 2012.  It was so exciting! He was fabulous and everything I'd hoped for.  (I am a long-time Beatle fan).  I saw George Harrison in 1975, on his Dark Horse tour, and now I've seen Paul!  Couldn't have asked for a better concert! 

During the finale to the song Live and Let Die, the fireworks set off at the back of the stage were hitting the dome of the stadium!



During one of the final encores (there were several), Paul sang the song, Mull of Kintyre. The Delta Police Pipe Band joined him on stage. I don't think there was a dry eye in the place! The audience went wild. Here is the link to the newspaper article, and, hopefully the video will play.  http://www.thenownewspaper.com/McCartney+gets+Help+from+Delta+Police+pipe+band/7611867/story.html



It was definitely a night to remember!

 

'Til next time,

 

Marilyn

 

 

Sale on prints!

Special discount on all prints on my Fine Art America website until 10/31/2012. Use code AGVZEX at checkout! http://marilyn-wilson.artistwebsites.com/  (Cost of materials excluded)

Some crafty ideas

One sure sign that fall has arrived for me, besides the date on the calendar, is my nesting instinct kicks in full force! I'm sure it's the same for many of you, as well. Perhaps it has something to do with the cold bug that is lurking in our household, but I want nothing more than to settle in with my tea, my cats, and my crafts.
The weather is still beautiful in my area of the world, but my thoughts have been turning more and more to my knitting.  I've nearly finished the first sock of a pair and I'll show you the picture here:




I love it!

Knitting this sock turned my thoughts to adding more knitting stitch markers to my Etsy shop.  I have some new sets I made up, and I just need to photograph and list them. I have some really cute owl stitch markers, some birds and butterflies, more dragonflies and ladybugs, and turtles!  I'll post them here as well, when I take the photos.
Oh - I've added more bookmarks too!

One of the bookmarks now on Etsy

Teapot stitch markers

Speaking of photos, I managed to capture a couple of photos of one of our resident hummingbirds at the feeder on the weekend. I set up the camera on the tripod and waited patiently for him to arrive at the feeder. He'd been watching me the whole time and just when I was about to give up, in he zoomed.



I haven't edited this one yet.  I was just happy to be able to catch him in flight!

My tea has boiled, so off I go.  Cheers!

A few random treasures

My son has a touch of the flu bug.  I have been working on my sites while he has been sleeping and have managed to get a few more listings nearly ready for posting. In the past week I have been thinking of ways to add more variety to my Etsy shop, and have come up with the idea of adding a few photo sets to the shop.  I will be offering them as sets of four, 4 x 6 photos, and have decided on the first one here: 



Lighthouses of Victoria, B.C.

This is going to be fun!

I was trying to organize my photo files the other day and found a few possibilities for both Etsy and FAA.  They have yet to be posted on both sites but I'm getting there. 

The first is a photo of a sand sculpture from the summer of 2010, photographed at a sand sculpture exhibition in Parksville, B.C.  I cropped the people out of the background of the shop, gave the photo a darker border, and I'm pleased with the result.

I spotted this raccoon near the Stanley Park Aquarium in Vancouver, B.C.  He was quite brazenly wandering around in full daylight, keeping to the shadows but seemingly unafraid.  The photo was originally in colour, but I thought he looked more dramatic in black and white, with a darker border added to the photo.

Butchart Gardens, Victoria B.C.  Always a wonderful place to photograph, as the subjects stand still most of the time! 

Where does the time go?

One of the things I often find myself thinking, is that there is never enough time in my day to do all the things I'd like to do.  Is that self-perpetuating thought? Maybe I need to turn that around to, 'I have all the time I need to complete my chosen tasks'.  What do you think?
Anyway, here is one of my chosen tasks that I have been working on today.  I have been adding to my website with Fine Art America, organizing and changing my galleries, changing the all around 'look' (for now) of my site, and now it's time to get off the computer and do all the other things I have on my list!  Take a look and let me know what you think.  Comments and suggestions are welcome!
http://marilyn-wilson.artistwebsites.com/galleries.html

At the Local Fair

Spent some time at the local fair yesterday afternoon. This is one of the photos I took, soon to be available on both my FAA and Etsy sites.

My Photo of the Day

Here is my Photo of the Day, now available from my FAA site:

Koi Pond

A few renewed Etsy listings

One of my main hobbies is photography. When I was much younger I had wanted to go into photojournalism as a career, but my life took a different turn.  Mainly, I took a year off after high school and found a job. I was young, and enjoying a steady paycheque and my own independence. The two year waitlist to enter the popular course came and went - and I let it go.  I have often wondered what my life would have been if I had stayed at home and entered the course. I didn't, though, for what seemed like very solid reasons at the time, but my love of  photography has stayed with me. 
I am not a very 'technical' person. My photos are taken more from the heart, and not with too much worry about the technicality of it all. I am learning, though! 
In the past year or so, I have 'gone public' with my photos, and begun to show them online.  I have two online shops (if you scroll down you'll see them by the blog).  One is on Etsy, and the other is my website with Fine Art America.  My Etsy shop also contains some of my knitting and crafts and is continually changing. It contains a good number of my photographs, but not as many as are on my Fine Art America website.  Tonight I have been renewing a few Etsy postings and hope to add some new knitting, once I find time to complete it, that is!  Here are a few of the favourites I have renewed:

"Trees in the Cotswolds" is always popular in Etsy treasuries.



"Village Street", taken on a street in Salisbury, England,
is always a popular choice for treasuries as well.



"Grey Squirrel"

I am working on making a pair of the fingerless gloves below (but in an 'aran tweed' colour), and renewed this listing to the CreationsCrafts Corner section of the shop.



Fingerless Gloves



First Ever Post!

Since I opened this blog (yesterday), I have been figuring out how to begin writing in it. You know, debating with myself what would be my first post, writing it all up in my head while I have been folding laundry, vacuuming, and doing other chores.  I sound absolutely brilliant (in my head, that is) at these times, brilliant, bright and oh-so-witty, but of course then I promptly forget what I was going to write and so I don't write anything. So here I am, sitting at the computer, waiting for my supper to finish cooking, and I thought I would just do what I normally do (what I am good at doing, that is) and just begin rambling.  I'm good at rambling. I've had lots of practice.  :)  You can tune me out if you like. Just don't be mean about it, okay? I have a soft shell. 
Thistledew has been born after many years of  me saying to myself and whoever else would listen 'No way am I going to blog. It's so public, and I'm such a private person'  (yada yada yada).  What changed my mind? I'm not sure.  I think I want to just try it, just to see if I like it.  After all, I have kept journals off and on my entire life (and that's a considerable amount of years, people). Also, this pushes me outside of my comfort zone just a little, and that's a good thing, right? I tell myself this is just for me and my three readers and things will be just fine.
By the way, the name Thistledew grew from trying to find a name for this blog that wasn't already taken! 'Thistledew' also can be thought of as a play on the words 'this will do'. Clever, huh?  (Okay, well, it's been done before but I thought it was kinda cute).  :) 
Oh yes, before I go eat my supper, I suppose I should state what will be the focus of this blog. Honestly? I'm not quite sure yet.  Bear with me, and I'll figure it out eventually.