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It has always been my practice to cast a long paragraph in a single mould, to try it by my ear, to deposit it in my memory, but to suspend the action of the pen till I had given the last polish to my work.
-- Edward Gibbon
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One down, six to go. I might tweak it a bit tomorrow, but I'm okay with this for now.  |
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A little more work on the tree limbs and the snow that covers them, and I'll be on to the cardinal. I've never painted a bird before.  Of the six paintings, I'm saving my favorite one for last, which has some similarities to this one. We'll see how it turns out... |
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A bit more today:  |
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I have six holiday cards planned. Here's the beginning of the first of the cards:  |
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I haven't posted a political post in a while, but this bugs me, so... A slimy representative in Florida, Mark Foley, chased after teenage pages of the House. Suitably, he resigned and hopefully he'll be prosecuted. I don't like listening to Sean Hannity, but I happened to jump in the van yesterday and heard a few minutes of his show. Hannity was going on about how outing Foley right now is a dirty trick because these revelations about Foley came to light after it's too late to have a replacement in that Florida election. Foley's a Republican, so this gives the Democrat opponent a coast into victory in November. Hannity also made comparisons to other Democrat foibles from the past and the Democrat handling of those. Apparently, Denny Hastert, the majority leader in the House, is mad as hell because he says that someone sat on these revelations about Foley. That's worth being mad about if more kids were harmed by sitting on the information, but another Congressman says that he told Hastert about all this earlier this spring. Wrong is wrong. It doesn't deserve comparison to anyone or anything else. That some Republicans choose to spin this disgusts me. Hannity is an idiot for doing so, and if Hastert was told about this earlier this year and he missed his cue to protect the pages on the Hill, he ought to resign as majority leader yesterday. Other conservative bloggers are making the same call. There should be zero tolerance for anything like this. And if "leaders" fail to act, then we should have zero tolerance for their "leadership." |
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 | What Sells |  |
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I took my homemade displays (wicker baskets) out this morning and dropped one off at the retailer downtown, the Village Bean. Jenny, the woman behind the counter, remarked unprompted that she liked it a lot. "Oh, how nice!" That was comforting :) Next I went to Border's and walked through their cards section with the other basket. I'm not so sure that it will work unless it's a point of sale display. So I looked online this morning when I got home for some clear plastic boxes that would fit my little cards. This would allow them to fit on the shelf with the other card packages they have there. I told my son, later in the car, that we live in such an enabling age. In about 10 minutes time searching, I found the exact size that I needed for my cards, a 2¾" × 3¾" × 1" clear plastic box. And I ordered 25, to sample the appearance of them. I'll need stickers for the back of the box, but at least this way people could open the box and browse the variety. Being clear plastic, and not opaque, allows the art to speak for itself. No fancy packaging necessary. But isn't it amazing? I can paint, scan it in, send it to the printers and purchase 3,000 cards, order the envelopes, find and buy the packaging online, purchase the bar code that I need... no other time in history offers so much to the would-be entrepreneur as today does. Simply incredible... |
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I'm taking the day off and attending to the business. A couple of things: - Between the two local retailers that are selling my cards, I made $100 in the last month. That's cool :)
- The local Borders has signaled that they're interested and my UPC code for the Connection Pack is being entered into their system under multimedia. The next step is to figure out the merchandising. What's the display look like? I think I want to go counter-intuitive with that. The easy way out would be an acrylic display. But I'm thinking wicker...
I love today. I've also called other retailers and I'll be following up with them in the next few weeks. Let's see how many stores I can get into. But in the meantime...Yayy! ETC: Here's a picture of the big cards in the Village Bean in downtown Des Moines.  Once I hit the afternoon, I worked on the merchandising, aka retail display for my cards. I could have gone with a simple acrylic stand, but that's flat for me. Everyone does that. How do mine stand out? I wanted wicker, and so I had a minor shopping spree at Michael's today. I bought the basket, a glue gun (the guy in me shudders just a bit at the thought of me buying a glue gun, but it's in the name of business, so that's a bit of salvation), and foam core for the backing of the signage. Next stop: Hancock Fabric across the street. Here's the funny... I'm walking out of Michael's and there's a retired guy asleep in the passenger seat of an older family sedan - obviously waiting for his wife, who dragged him along to shop at Michael's. I go across the street and sure enough, another retired guy, asleep in the passenger seat, dragged along so that his wife could go fabric shopping. Gotta be a demographic in there somewhere. I wanted a white cloth to line the basket, but changed my mind when I saw the navy broadcloth. Bought a yard and went to Office Depot for letter-sized gloss photo paper and double-sided tape. Thank goodness for my mom, the seamstress. I drove to Ames and she edged a couple of squares of the fabric. Here's the result:  I like it. Next, I work on the signage and then hot glue velcro to the basket, then glue the fabric to the basket, and then print and attach the sign image to the foam core and use the velcro to stick the foam core. Arts and crafts at my pad, eh? The big question: what if this all goes really well and I get into stores nationally? How do I ramp up production of the cards and the baskets/retail displays? What a great problem to have... I'll take it! MORE ETC: And the finished product:  I haven't glued anything yet, but this is how it will look. Yep - that beats an acrylic display any day of the week. I like this quote: "You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take." - Wayne Gretzky It's been interesting to see the reaction of my sons to this. They're watching me start with an idea, and then spend close to a year working on it, honing it, and turning out my money left and right to gamble on a dream.It's worth it. I'll keep tweaking this until I succeed. I like the little cards. In the next Connection Pack that I release, I'll have this:  I love life :) |
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Someone close to me has asked that I do some homework: define "friend." What does a friend look like, to me? My list, in its raw form, is: - Easy
- Empowering
- Makes me feel like I can
- Celebrates me
- Listens
- Honest with me
- Let's me drive me
- Shares themselves with me
- Wants me to be happy
- Laughter
- Asks me questions
- Spends time with me
And of course, vice versa.How would you define a "friend," for you? I'm reading The Female Brain. Fascinating read, and more fascinating are the reviews on Amazon (click through the link). The author provokes some strong reaction. The premise: that a woman's brain is marinated in hormonal baths throughout her lifetime. The objective: to explain the effects of this. I'm not reading this as gospel, but as a perspective I'd not heard. I agree with one reviewer in that she is hard on us men. Yes, we get a swathed in testosterone 8 weeks into conception and that deeply affects our brain development, enhancing some features and restricting others. Viva la difference! Her main point is this: a woman is a communication machine. Well, duh. But her treatment and explanation of how the chemicals of the body factor into personalities and moods and lean women into certain behaviors are interesting and worth consideration. She should write the companion book about men, but somehow, I doubt she will. She says that we men should have "brain envy." I do envy a woman for her abilities in certain areas, but I have to say that I'm quite content being a guy, for all kinds of reasons. Again - viva la difference! |
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