Hack... hack...

I'm getting sick - chest cold, head cold, etc, etc, etc - so I'm just going to post a few pics of stuff I've been working on and then I'm going to lounge on the couch until my head explodes.

New business cards, with my Cargoh shop address. I'm handing these ones out at the craft sale next week, so I figured I may as well try to get as much info on them as I could. I know keeping the info as minimal as possible is a better idea, but hey...I'm not one to follow the crowd. Printed on Epson Premium Presentation Paper Matte, using my Epson 50 Artisan. Cut using my Cricut Trimmer.

Now, this is not a good photo of this particular piece, but it's the best of the bunch. This is also the first time the receiver will be seeing this iPad sleeve (tada, Bruce!). I'll have more info on the sleeve - and the challenges of working with such a large piece of faux suede - in a few days when I can sit up for more than 10 minutes without falling over.

And I've finally gotten around to making labels for my pieces... I know, I've already sold 5 pieces and sent them out without any identifying marks and that's just dumb. So I've got 6 yards of off-white twill tape and my logo & website printed onto a sheet of Avery T-Shirt transfer paper. It's much easier to put them together than I expected... now all I have to do is figure out how to put them on my already-finished and listed pieces without destroying them.

With that, I'm going to go wrap up in a warm blanket, attempt to do some embroidery and try to get healthy... *sniff*

Forethought... not my forté

This is how I work on new designs that I haven't really dummied out prior to starting: taking inspiration from somewhere (in this case, my coupon envelope, one of those accordion deals), I'll start cutting material without measuring. Then I'll start sewing it, without a plan or consistent use of seam allowances. Inevitably, I hit a brick wall about 80% of the way through the project and either 'set it aside' to finish later (aka, put it into a very full bag I've got under the table, full of similar projects that will eventually be taken apart to reuse the material), or I'll look at the incomplete project with a critical mind and try to figure out if I can finish it.

This particular design for a travel sewing kit that I plan on selling at the two craft sales I'm in this fall can and will be finished, thanks to my mom's serger. And liberal use of either bias tape or binding, neither of which I like nor can do well. Of course, I didn't actually ask my mom if I could use her serger - a Christmas present from my dad 4 or 5 years ago that she only started using seriously when making receiving blankets for Maddy - until I'd made half a dozen of these. And I haven't told her she's putting on the bias/binding tape...mwahahahahahah. Ha.

It's shaping up to be a busy week, but not because I have a lot of work to do. Keith's been at Clear Lake since early yesterday, so it's just Maddy and I at home... so far, it's been pretty good. She's can play by herself no problem, but if no one checks on her every so often, she'll try climbing the dresser in her room or eating whatever she finds on the floor (lately, it's been a lot of thread... yay, me). Tomorrow is the first of two baking days for me so I picked up a new colouring book and crayons for her, so that should help keep her busy. And there's always the Sesame Street 40th Anniversary DVD if she gets restless. I'm not a fan of using technology to babysit my kid, but Sesame Street will at least teach her something. And she loves Bert & Ernie. LOVES them.

In between the baking and taking care of Maddy, there's always work to be done to get ready for the craft sale on Sept 11. Displays, posters, signage, business cards... so much work to do and I'll probably still be working on something right up to the start of the sale, if not during. I'm using this blog post from Mermaid's Closet as a guideline for prepping/running my table, although I have a feeling that at the first sale, I may be the youngest vendor there.

This is not the week to try structuring a work schedule that includes spending time reading blogs or checking websites for inspiration, but I've got plans to set up a specific time each week to do that, as well as a series of posts on a somewhat unrelated topic here. In due time, though.. in due time.

Three ahead, two back

On the plus side, if I don't sell a single pin cushion, I'll have gifts for many years to come.

It seems like every time I make a plan, especially one that involves me working for more than 10 minutes at a time, something - or someone - pops up to derail me and whatever I've been working on.

Don't get me wrong, I like my family - and Keith's too - and I like hanging out with my friends, but people, come on. One day... 8 hours, at most. That's all I should need to catch up on a growing list of projects I need to get finished. Hopefully.

I'm stepping away from sewing for the day to catch up on some design work I need to do (ie. business cards) and come up with a couple of patterns for some custom pieces I've been asked to do. But those will have to take a backseat to having coffee with a friend this afternoon and visiting a farmer's market with my mom. Again, I like being out with people and seeing my family, but my work is not going to get done if I'm not doing it.

Breathe in... breathe out.

I've booked a table for a craft sale in December, but still haven't heard if I made it into the one next month. I'm hoping they let us know soon, because if I can stop making pin cushions by the dozen, I'll gladly do it and get back to my other work.

I'm also working on opening up my shop *officially* at Cargoh, a new online marketplace that's not only awesomely cool, but juried, as well. I applied last week with some samples from my current Etsy shop and really didn't expect to make the cut. Imagine my surprise last weekend when I was... and then a brief flood of terror that came with it. The terror came from realizing I actually have to put things into the shop to sell. I've got a few pieces I'm planning on listing this weekend (here's the link to my shop - nisseworks), but need to do the photos for them first.

Things are looking up a bit for this business... some custom orders, a few sales, acceptance into a juried site... maybe this whole thing wasn't a crapshoot after all :)

Getting there

Check out my Photoblog for more picks like this one.

It's been a week. That's the best way to describe it - gathering with family to celebrate my uncle's life, finding out that student loans really do haunt you years after you're finished with school, trying to keep up with Maddy, figuring out what we're doing with the yard this year... and it's only Thursday.

I've gained a lot of energy this week, though, likely due to the amount of time we're spending outside with the weather being so nice. Even a half hour or so a day seems to be doing wonders, not only for me, but for Keith and Maddy, too. Maddy looooooves our backyard, especially the slight hill we've got coming up to the house. I can hardly wait until we get the fence in next month and she can run freely rather than us chasing her to the edges of the property.

And even though we've been snow-free for a month now, I'm not even going to attempt to plant anything for a few more weeks. The forecast for early next week is calling for snow and a high of only 4C (39F) on day, so there's no point in gearing up the garden only to have it freeze and die. But that doesn't mean I can't plan what I'm putting in (and taking out this year - 3 annuals and a rose bush... hopefully to other gardens) before we get it rototilled and prepped for the actual planting.

But today I've got work to do. Lots of work. Tonnes of work. Will I get it all done? Heck, no, but I figure it's better to have a list to work with than try to do it without any sort of organization at all.

What I need to do:

• finish the new bag design I started on Tuesday. To do this, I need to get to the store to pick up a pack of fasteners. Once I've got them, though, it shouldn't take me long to complete it... if I don't screw it up. I've learned to take my time and that the iron is really a good tool, so if I can keep from going at this all willy-nilly, it should turn out well. *fingers crossed* 
• finish the embroidery work on a couple of pieces. It's not really embroidery work, per se, but it's work with an embroidery needle and floss. I'm trying to add a bit of uniqueness to some of my pieces by finishing them by hand. Not sewing machine, but hand, as the lovely calouses on my thumbs and right middle finger can confirm.
• keep tweaking my branding. I'm still working at getting everything I have my name on (like cards, Etsy and Twitter, so far) to have a similar look. For the most part, almost everything uses the same fonts, but doesn't necessarily look the same. I've got an idea of what I want to do with the banner here, but can't actually do anything until the battery for my camera is charged. Then there's the question of redesigning this particular blog, especially when I own nisseworks.com. Decisions, decisions.
• marketing, promoting and networking. I feel like I've plastered my business everywhere, but I know there's still a lot of work to do and that it's never ending. Yay.

And I've got my month-end to do tomorrow, as well as catch up on all the rest of the paperwork I've been slacking off on for the last month, too... necessary evil and all that. Once that's all done, I imagine there'll be some changes I have to make to my shop and decisions that will be made about opening a second shop somewhere else for the other crafts/arts that I've been thinking about doing. But for now, I'll stick to doing the creative stuff... it's what I'm relatively decent at... I think.

Doing my little bit

It's been a hectic week and it certainly doesn't look like it'll be slowing down at all.

In honour of Earth Day today, Keith and I are going car shopping. Counter-productive, you say? Not quite... we're looking at going from two cars to one, eliminating Keith's '99 Sunfire and my '06 Rio5. So not only will we be moving to a more efficient vehicle (sadly not a hybrid... only because of the cost, though), I'll have less access to a vehicle for any errands I'd need to do after Keith goes to work in the afternoon (he needs the car for his job as a sports reporter for the local daily), which means more walking. And more walking benefits not only the environment, but me as well, which is always good.

We've just returned from visiting various family over the last few days, so I'm a bit behind on my work, but I'm hoping to squeeze in some quick finishing touches on a few pieces to put in my shop either tonight or tomorrow. And maybe, just maybe, get a sale. Fingers crossed and all that :)

Oooh! Almost forgot - there are several new photos I've just put into my Photoblog. I'm hoping to get in a post here later today - in between car shopping and groceries and Maddy... in the meantime, take a look around my Photoblog and my Etsy shop... or go out and enjoy your Earth Day :)

Calling cards

I've mentioned before about the challenges I've had coming up with a logo. Now that I've settled on one (I hope), I'm starting to go through all the headers, avatars and related stationery to try to get everything as similar as possible... all part of a branding strategy I'm trying to incorporate into my business.

I've got a new header on my Etsy store, a new background for my Twitter page, I'm working a new banner for this blog - along with a new placeholder design (placeholder because I do own nisseworks.com, just don't have the funds to actually have the site hosted yet)... and then there's the business cards.

Like I said, logo's no problem. I like my logo - a nice combination of fonts and a nifty use of a brush shape in Illustrator (I'm still using CS4... CS5 is a very, very, VERY distant purchase)... it's how I'm going to use it to effectively sell my brand that's the problem.

This was the very first business card I did up, back when I thought I could actually be a freelance graphic designer in a city that has an odd plethora of freelance graphic designers. Ignoring the logo, it's not terrible. Simple, clean, easy to recognize... because it's pretty damn bland. Looking back (six months), I can't believe I thought this was how I wanted my potential business portrayed - especially as a graphic designer. Eep.

The second go-around. An improvement, if only because it wasn't so bleh as the first one. This is the card that I came up with when I launched nisse.works as a handmade crafts enterprise (hence the tag 'Handmade crafts & designs... smart, eh?). If there's one thing I've learned in my many years in graphic design and journalism, it's that sometimes, less is more. I liked this card, but because I'm trying to keep expenses to a minimum, I print my cards at home (on my lovely Epson that I picked up on sale and don't use enough). And because I'm not a major print shop, those thin pink, green and brown stripes on the left side don't always turn out right. Or at all.

This is the most recent version of my business cards. Even simpler than the previous one, but not as mundane as the first. It's got the info I want right where I want it (I'm a fan of justification - left, centre, right... I don't care, as long as it's all justified) and looks pretty damn good on the metallic cardstock I've got. But as with most things I design for myself, I'm not as keen on it today as when I came up with it, so this whole branding thing couldn't have come at a better time.

I have no idea what the next round of cards will look like - I will be doing them myself and printing them from home to save on the costs, so there's no need to use the local big box office supply store's standard offerings. Simplicity, yet creative and unique are definitely going to have to play a part, but I don't want them to look like someone made them up in Microsoft Paint. I shudder at the thought...

I've collected a few websites that have some pretty kickass samples of business cards that I can hope to one day emulate (not duplicate). Take a look through them and marvel at how awesome - for lack of a better word (it is after 10pm here, so...) - these cards look. Especially when you consider the old standby design of 'logo in the left corner, name and title centred, bolded and in 12pt Times New Roman, office address and information below that in 8 pt TNR as well'. Blah.

100 Fresh Creative Business Cards
100 Refreshing Black & White Business Cards
The Basics of Business Card Design
Business Cards - a set on Flickr
Cool Business Cards

Exploring the options

When I decided I was going to start a business, the biggest challenge wasn't learning how to run the business... no, it was coming up with a name. I have an odd - and lengthy (both in terms of time and explanation) - connection to gnomes and wanted to call the business gnome-something. I searched for other businesses that had gnome-something names and every single one I'd thought of was gone.

So I resorted to using a thesaurus to come up with a name. Imp, elf, troll, imp, pixie, sprite... none of them struck a chord with me. I wasn't going to give up, though.  I googled 'thesaurus gnome' and the name I needed turned up in the results: nisse. Long story, short - a nisse is a household gnome who works at night, keeping the family and farm safe.

Two problems remained, once I settled on the name: 1) how to pronounce it - just like 'niece'; and 2) a logo.

My first attempt at a logo:

 

Do. Not. Like. 

I liked it when I came up with it. The more I saw it though... yeah, no. It was bland and boring. Safe. It'd be nice for a high-end collection of china, but not for what I plan on doing. 

Almost every logo I've designed up to this point looks like my first logo - straighforward, takes no chances, right to the point. This new one is a bit flashier. I wouldn't call it risky by any means, but it's definitely outside my comfort zone. I like that it's got a tried-and-true (for me, anyway) element to it - white text on black background - but the use of a calligraphic brush in Illustrator to create the 'background' was something I've tried before but was always disapointed with.

And now that I've printed up a whole pile o' business cards, I'm kind of stuck with it. I'm sure that over time, it will change, but for the moment, it says what I want it to. Or, at least, I hope it does... it's all part of this branding thing I keep reading about (or I think it does).

We're going out of town for the next three days to my sister and her husband's in Winnipeg and then up to Keith's parents' in Beausejour. I've already got a pile of paperwork to take with me, most of which is hopefully going to help me make my Etsy store better. I don't know how much time I'll actually get to work on anything, but it's a 2-hour drive to Winnipeg and then another hour to Beausejour, so I might get something done.

I'm also hoping to come back from this mini-vacation rejuvenated a bit. I'm starting to get a little weary of making the same thing over and over again, and it worries me. I don't want to stop being creative but I also don't want to burn out. There's a decent stack of patterns waiting to be experimented with when I get back; only question is am I willing to take a stab at trying them.