Skeleton Theatre

There is a long tradition of Halloween productions in my family beginning with my dad's Percy the Pumpkin Man, continuing with my husband's many creations. This year we're doing Skeleton Theatre again.

It's a massive undertaking so I'll be busy with that for a little while, feeding lots of volunteers, making sure no one gets electrocuted and providing first-aid amidst all the kidling-related Halloween minutiae I've volunteered for. I'll be back to the blog once Halloween has passed and I've recovered from the excitement.

Have a happy Halloween!

Photo-phobia

Hurray! I just listed this "new" Passport Wallet in my shop:


It's "new" because I actually finished it 2 weeks ago but had been putting off photographing it. I'd been suffering from a case of Photo-phobia because my application to the very cool design site, trunkt, was recently rejected and I fear it's because of my photos.

After moping about it for a bit, I went in search of some help and the following tutorials gave me some excellent photography and Photo Shop tips:

Taking Professional Looking Photos Without a Professional
-by Lindsay Landis of Lindsay Designs, from The Switchboards

How to take and edit professional looking photos of your craft products-a tutorial
-by Lisa Lam, from CraftBoom

A Photo Shop Tutorial-Back to the Basics
-a You Tube Tutorial found at Etsy's The Storque

I also spent some quality time with the instruction manual for my digital camera and learned a lot about all those mysterious letters and numbers and white balance and such.

So, I don't know if my photos are any better than they were but at least I feel more educated about the process! Do you have any photography tips or tutorials to share? Leave them in a comment and I'll try and do a follow-up post with your suggestions!

Catch-Up

I've been playing catch-up the past few days. Catching up on bills, some Etsy orders, neglected emails, dishes in the sink. Now it's time to do some blog catch-up!

First, thank you to everyone for your input about a strap-line! I loved hearing your strap-lines:

"Handmades with style"
-Plumm

"Hatching Inspiration; Moments in Flight"
-Freckled Nest

"Handcrafted Limited Edition Jewelry"
-A Pretty Rock

"Vintage Inspired Designs Made for Today"
-Vintage-At-Heart Designs

(I'm still working on mine.)

Second, thank you for all the lovely comments about my Flare Clutches. I wish I were better at responding to your kind comments in a written form instead of chatting at my monitor as if you could hear me!

Third, here's an update on my spinning adventures. I've been squeezing in a little bit of spinning between sewing projects. I find spinning to be very restful and meditative. Kind of like what sewing used to be before I started sewing "professionally."


This skein is "Sonoma" from Maine Woods Yarn. This was my first attempt to spin and ply a large-ish chunk of wool using only my drop spindle. It's a little slubbier than I like.


Here's my second attempt-"Hyacinth". I like that the yarn is more even. And I love the contrasting colors! The roving for this skein also came from Maine Woods Yarn.

I think I'm going to knit up some scarves for myself and the kidlings with these skeins. I'll let you know how it goes.

What have you been catching up on lately?