Vintage!

Monday Magic... Vintage!

Happyqueen	TheFrameAndMirror	wolfiepuppy
Electrolyte	threesidewaysglances	rubyassata
BelleBohemeBoutique	GardensOfAcadia	PaperQuiltStudio
sophiawee	QueensFlourishes	thenerdsofafeather

Introducing my 44th installment of my weekly feature Monday Magic, celebrating all things vintage and vintage styled! These Etsy.com sellers all share something special... Fabulous work! Yet, somehow like many sellers on Etsy are wondering where all their admirers are! So this is where I feel it's time to showcase the undiscovered talent of Etsy, on Monday each week so they have a chance to shine like the best of Etsy do :)


All of the sellers names can be typed into the navigation bar on your browser followed with ".etsy.com" (dot etsy dot com) to take you to their stores. Otherwise click on an image to go directly to their listing!


I am now taking requests for next weeks Monday Magic Expo. If you would like to be a part of it, you are required to have 0-19 sales in your Etsy store, and the theme is 'Modern' Contact me via convo @ http://moonangelnay.etsy.com to send in your requests, plus a link to your suitable item :)

Memories

Sunday - Coffee and Cake
weekly musings, articles and mostly babble...


You can catch my previous Handmade Spark articles here:
* Product Photography 101


#Amemoryyoucantforget is currently a trending topic on Twitter and has left me inspired for this post. Especially as my entire week so far has literally been spent collecting memories of my children on my DSLR. I can be quite crazy when it comes to my camera. We are permanently glued at the eye/eye piece? Lol! I love my camera yet until now I've only just noticed that for a change I have recently been a lot more purposeful with my kiddy photograph taking. I think it's because of my son who is the equivalent of Hammy the squirrel on soda. He just doesn't keep still for even a fraction of a second, so I end up taking as many photos as I can in the space of minutes just to achieve at least one good picture lol! It's bizarre as I take so much care with my nature photography, even when the winds blowing I will have the patience of a true artist and will remain for as long as i can. I do take many images even then to be honest. I think a lot of photographers do as it's always good to be able to find the images you want in a selection. You never know when what you think is the perfect picture, has actually been bettered by the one taken afterwards. I don't know, maybe I'm more concious of it with my kids as it does seem like much harder work photographing moving targets! Lol! Yet... this week I've been able to achieve more with purpose and less work! Hurrah!

Photographing my daughter for me has been special for obvious reasons, but it's also been of a challenge to try and take a step backward to think about the photo's from a business point of view. I want to get myself out there by the end of the year taking portraits as a business, and although I know I can capture good photo's and work well in post production I have never actually tried to work on a planned out schedule. If I were to go into people's homes I would have to consider that a: their kids are THEIR kids and not mine. I will need the patience of a saint to make a successful shoot in a short space of time. b: TIME! I will have 2 hours at most for a baby to try and work something successful so I need to be certain of how to manage that time as I go along, taking into account that babies are unpredicatable and will more than likely need to be handled frequently by the parents for soothing! Then c: the business plan outside of the shoot, besides getting paid for my time, I will need to look at prices for prints, images on disk, web slideshows etc. OK one more d: legalities... ie: insurance etc... the biggest gripe for me at the mo!

This stuff is forever on my mind so one of the days this week I tried (with my son jumping on my back... fun...) to treat the situation with a shoot for my daughter from this perspective. Concentrating on the first two concerns primarily I tried to treat the situation objectively and professionally which suprisingly lead my kids to behaving wonderfully for me. Maybe it was confidence in asserting myself as a business person/loving mother that did it, but it's the best they've behaved for me whilst capturing shots which allowed me to assess my environment a lot better and take better pictures. Not only that but this has worked wonders for my post production of this weeks selection of images and my first batch a couple of months ago. Being clearer in my head has allowed me to look at my images more closely and therefore produce better edited images. Great stuff if you ask me! Of course it'll be handy in the long run working with strangers, which was the whole point of me giving a bit of role play a go! So in all of that I have captured the sweetest pictures of my daughter ever, and in the process have beautiful memories to cherish forever that will help me with my business. Hopefully for her in the future it will show that mommy loves her very much and that we both had a wonderful time gathering beautiful moments to always remember. I think I have finally managed to set myself the groundwork for my portrait buisness as I think this is exactly what all moms will want to achieve out of their childrens photoshoots.


Recent Photography Posted to moonangelnay.etsy.com...


That's it for now. Have a great weekend all!


moonangelnay x

Bang!

Sunday - Coffee and Cake
weekly musings, articles and mostly babble...

HandmadeSpark NEW FEATURE POST...

My photography feature on Handmade Spark is up! Photography Spark - Mystical Green

You can catch my previous articles here:
* Product Photography 101


Bang! Firstly I want to give a big big BIG thankyou to sellers yourstrulydear and HIPpadBaby whom have this week been extremely patient through my unfortunate computer problems when they have both needed some form of input from me for various things. As you know from yesterday, HIPpadBaby had finally received her blog interview! I was worried it wouldn't happen for a lot longer but I'm glad it was only just a day lost and no more. Then yourstrulydear having received my answers to her own interview questionnaire on Tuesday was left a bit confused when finding my store in vacation mode the same day. I literally had no choice but to abandon Etsy and my blog... well... everything infact because I had destroyed my second computer this month! I say mine, but I mean my partners LOL...

After I had completed yourtrulydear's interview I was enjoying my lunch and break from my sleepy children watching a program on 4oD when BANG... everything just went off. I thought that maybe it had over heated because earlier in the morning my partner and I could smell a slight burning going on, and over heating normally just needs a bit of time to settle down before being able to run again. So I waited for a while and tried switching the computer back on, and of course nothing happened. After freaking out a bit (my daughters new photos had only recently been uploaded eek!), I resigned to the fact that I only had the mobile internet to work with for however long, and had to start contacting people to let them know what had happened.

Luckily for us a work friend of my partner knew some excellent technicians which fixed the computer on Friday at a cost which wasn't as huge as I had imagined and Saturday meant that I could return and pick up where I left off. But what an ordeal! I was mostly frightened of losing my baby girls new pictures as I had JUST started deleting them off of the camera when this happened. Everything else fortunately was backed up. But I'm glad I dont have to start again like I had to when I lost my own PC earlier this month when the effects of the Norton Registry Cleaner wrecked it to the point of no return.

So big thanks again to HIPpadBaby and yourstrulydear for putting up with my troubles!

So what did I do with my free time this week? Well! I honestly had NO idea just how busy I make myself between my kids, the housework AND my alter ego of moonangelnay online. The latter being so much of my persona that without it I actually became aware of both time and space like I had been reborn LOL. Seriously! It was a wake up call. I had NO idea what day of the week it was as my blog normally does the job of informing me, I actually twiddled my thumbs some of the time, and I got to do more housework than ever in any one day. How rubbish am I? lol! In a good way I mean ;) I am one busy bee as some in the handmade community always comment about. And I enjoy being busy as it's just part of my nature, the same way I love feeling like I can be helpful to people. I can quite easily do the amount I do plus have a normal family life without feeling like I'm burning out because there isn't really a need for me to worry about things like partying, lounging around or travelling for example. Having 2 young kids makes those things difficult anyway! So rather than sit around in my free time, I like to devote it to my photography, knitting, painting and the handmade community. Yet despite losing the ability to involve myself with the latter properly for a few days, I found it was nice having a little break from the screen. I didn't get much knitting done as the kids made sure of that lol! And I got to visit my dad in Wales without needing to be paranoid about promoting things yet brought back my son and his new found family of head lice in the process (fun... urgggh). It was the usual kind of crazy stuff to happen when you know you have a bit more time to do things, yet I enjoyed it! The lice are dead, I have managed to start a new project and the PC is back to life. It can only get better! :D


Recent Photography Posted to moonangelnay.etsy.com...


That's it for now. Have a great weekend all!


moonangelnay x

Back in Action

Sunday - Coffee and Cake
weekly musings, articles and mostly babble...


Back In Action It's been a busy few days, and for a change I feel like I'm on track with things! Including doing some new stuff like furthering my web presence on the blog, getting more exposure for the Monday Magic-ers by bringing them into the Etsy Treasuries, even getting a few new prints on the go :) I also sold a copy of Coco Pink earlier in the week which brightened my spirits and a lot of my efforts in recent days have has really positive responses from all that have been involved (and especially the kind few that have returned kind gestures of their own!)
I thought to myself on Monday that it'd be great if I could bring more views in for the Monday people that manage to get featured and thought I'd see what would happen if I created an Etsy Treasury, themed on our newest stars to Etsy... and it has had a tremendous response, I have to say I am really pleased with the feedback so far and I have decided that every Monday Magic group will get inclusion in any treasury I manage to grab (you have to fight for the things!) from here on. I don't know how many people pay attention to the stats of sellers when they find shops and items through Etsy search, or even if anyone checks Etsy pounce regularly which I do try and do because you never know what little surprises you may find with the emerging talents as opposed to what is already known to be fabulous with the established Etsians. I think the treasury on top of the Monday Magic post, although only focusing on 12-16 sellers a week is a step in the right direction for giving the newbies a chance to shine and get acknowledged before they and their items get smothered under the increasing amount of items and sellers adding themselves to Etsy every day. It's something anyway!
A couple of people got in touch with me with lovely kind gestures of their own which I thought was very nice of them, and wanted to give them a shout out because they're so lovely!
TurcoArts, a fellow photographer may I add sent me a message thanking me for showing interest in their work and offering 10% off any purchases, not only for me but anyone that I refer to his store in the future. I told him I'd mention this in the blog which I know made him quite happy and to remind anyone that visits his store from the link on here that plans to buy a photograph, to let him know that you had a referal from moonangelnay! Also I wanted to share a gesture from Wintergarden on Etsy whom kindly included my print Against the Grain in her gorgeous spotlight on byhand.me which is well worth checking out, its a stunning collection of items as is her store of beautiful knitted flowers! Thanks ever so much for that!
So regarding the community my fingers have been very busy on my keyboard! In my own little world however when not chasing my son and being booted from the inside by the baby.. and housework, I have somehow found the time to get a couple of new prints and like I said earlier, get some further word out about things like the blog and also my store... Infact I made an interesting discovery earlier whilst checking out the vault on CraftCults heart-o-matic site and found out that my print Twilight Rose had made the front page on Etsy on September the 18th 2009!!!! LOL! I never knew! I wish Etsy would tell people when they make the front page! At least I know why it's had a zillion views!

Anyways I'll leave the rambling at that as I have a new week to focus on after this and more newbies to find!

moonangelnay x

Twitch Twitch...

New Listings...Click on any image to take you direct to it's listing on Etsy.com

Twitch Twitch...

Let's just start with a short summary... ARRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHH!

LOL!

Seriously, you have never known anything more annoying than an unexplained twitch in your eyelid, when it comes to abnormal bodily functions that is. Some would call me extreme but there have been occassions over the past couple of days where my level of irritation has literally made me want to tear it off! Not the best of looks, and probably the one reason that's stopped me from testing temptation... LOL. Ok I wouldn't disfigure my face, EVER, but I have found it practically impossible to focus on anything BUT my eyelid twitching away like there's no tomorrow.



Now, the internet being such a fabulous place for random information, had plenty on the subject of this burden I have been blessed with *waves fist at universe*, however in terms of solutions it seems I'm doomed! It gave it some interesting names like myokymia or (i like this one) Blepharospasm, which both simply translate as "eye twitch". To me those just sound like an excuse for people to go around giving fancy names to make it sound harrowing for something that's apparently as common as a cup of tea. Like you really want to appear like you're diseased??? I guess it's one for hypochondriacs, but I'm someone who likes to avoid that illness lark as I hate having it plague me to the point of it distracting my life! I don't do pats on the heads I just like to get on, so to find that SLEEP and NO CAFFINE (and botox??? LOL) may help my problem I was like... ok... I'll make an effort, which I have! But to no avail. Then I found out that it can go on for weeks... or even worse, can have UNKNOWN causes...



So using initiative I've thought to myself, "AAAAH! I shall beat it at it's game and stick needles in the bugger, where's my nearest acupuncture therapist!?", but then remembered the fact that this is my EYE, and as much as needles have helped the other half's eye recently, I don't know if I want a person, even with qualifications seeping out of their ears to stick needles in my eyelid. The idea makes me shudder. My only other option is to wait for it to go away on it's own... dum de dum... twitch... twitch.



I have tried desperate measures at home. Like wearing an eye patch. YAR! My son keeps calling me Captain DJ, although I doubt I look as cool and found that it's tamed it slightly. Probably as my eye is forced shut, but it's making it hella difficult to do anything now. It's almost as if my hearing on one side is amplified on top of the temporary blindness which has left me more accident prone than my son in his early walking days. At least it's entertaining!



Anyway I've managed to get some bits done this week. I'm featured in an Artist Exposed treasury by Vicki Diane which rocks! Found out just today that I'm in another treasury actually! So that's cheered me up. I have my own treasury R a w . E l e c t r i c going, plus new updates in store. I'm looking for next weeks Monday Magic treasury features! Send me your green grass related items and I may just pop you in it! (Under 20 sales only please!) Other than that I'm excited about introducing my first Friday Finds interview tomorrow. Who do I have lined up? Wait and see :)




moonangelnay xxx