Sad News This Morning

I received a text message from my mother who is in my home country, informing me that my dog Cheena had died and was buried at 6pm last night, after being sick the last few days.

She has been a good dog and friend to our other dog Sim.

This makes me sad :(

Tutorial Tuesdays - Using Flickr to Edit Your Photos

I would like to share with you something interesting about Flickr. Do you have a Flickr account yet? Have you tried out their free photo editing software called Picnik? It is quite a simple to use editing software that allows you to do some common editing to your images.

Here is an example of what I achieved with Picnik.















On the left is the original picture of this cute fondant man my colleague made for another colleague's farewell. On the right is the finished image edited with Picnik on Flickr.

The main functions I used in editing this image is Sharpen - to give the image a sharper and clearer look and Exposure - to brighten the picture a little. The user interface is simple with a slider for you to adjust the amount of editing to the picture. Below is an example.
There are also other advaced tools which you might have to pay a yearly fee for, which is inexpansive. However if you are just using some basic editting tools, don't worry just yet!

I also used some effects like, Vignetting - which give the picture a little darker edges, Boost - which like it's name gives the picture a little boost (allows you to control the highlights and shadows seperately) and adding some text. Here is a screen shot.

Inspirational Mondays - Penelope And Anastasia

Sharing with us this Monday is Penelope And Anastasia, an Etsy shop with many beautiful pieces of jewelry. This shop started end 2007 and currently has over 65 sales. Shop owner Pamela, was so kind to give us an insight and advice on how she accomplished this.

Here's the interview -

RROF - Is your Etsy shop your main source of income? If not what is your regular job?

P&A - Yes, Penelope & Anastasia is my business and therefore my main source of income, though my regular job is Mom to our 2 year old daughter Marcella! I make Jewelry with her playing all around me in the Jewelry Room! She plays with beads, Jewelry, and her current favorite right now...a tin of buttons!

RROF - What made you want to open a shop on Etsy?

P&A - I began my business in 2004 and started tinkering with a website when I was referred to Etsy by my Sister-in-Law. I found it much easier to open up shop on Etsy than maintain and be responsible for my own website. It has been a wonderful (and affordable) online spot for my local clients to see my current stock as well.

RROF - When you started listing your first few items, was the response what you expected?

P&A - Well, I was so excited to open an Etsy shop...expecting the same response I have when selling to my local clients, but that didn't happen. I made the mistake ~ in my excitement ~ of listing everything at once instead of spreading out my listings. As I know now, listing regularly keeps you in the top of the search. It took almost a month for me to get a sale and I was thrilled! I'm still thrilled now when I get a sale!

RROF - Have you ever felt like giving up? What made you stay?

P&A - I never felt like quitting Etsy...discouraged yes, quitting no! There will be slow times, but then...off in the distance...a sale lurks. And when you notice your number of items in shop lowered by a number or two - rejoice - and all is right with the world!

RROF - Share with us some of the things you do on a regular basis, with regards to your Etsy business.

P&A - I'm a big online networker...Facebook, Twitter ~ always promoting my Etsy shop. Views equal sales and these social networking sites are FREE...so take advantage of them. I do try to list a new piece regularly, thought I haven't found that renewing items has helped with sales. I also am addicted to Google Analytics; the wonderful site to track all stats regarding your Etsy shop, and this helps me narrow down which areas I need to work on more.

RROF - How do you promote? And in your opinion, which works best for you?

P&A - As stated above, Facebook and Twitter are my friends. These two have given me amazing sales and leads to new ventures of blog features, wholesale opportunities etc...I enjoy Etsy's forums, but I can't say they've helped me with sales.

RROF - What are your aspirations for the future of your Etsy business?

P&A - I'm really trying to garner more traffic to my shop by taking advantage of blog features/interviews (thank you!) as I do find that it drives many people to take a peek. I enjoy what I do and as long as I keep moving along, improving a bit every year, I consider that my success.

RROF - If you knew then (when you started) what you know now, what would you have done differently?

P&A - Probably wouldn't have spent so much time in the Etsy forums expecting sales from it. And also wouldn't have wasted money on renewing random items when I was feeling down...instead of listing new pieces.

RROF - Any other thing, thoughts, advice, links,... etc you would like to share with the Newbies?

P&A - The forums can be extremely helpful to an Etsy Newbie. There are countless people/shops who invite you in with open arms and wouldn't blink an eye to help you with a question or problem. Also, find local Etsy sellers around you - you could "meet" some great new friends/support right around the corner!

Thank you for sharing and for your time Pamela! Wishing you all the best with your shop and may your wonderful help here will return to you in hundred folds!

Latest - Earthy Banners

Here's my latest banner designs. Earthy tones and environment/floral motifs. Hope you like them!

Feature Me Fridays - Brown Eyed Babies

Brown Eyed Babies is a shop that has children's hair accessories.

Shown Above (clockwise from top right) -Cream 3 Inch Crochet Headband with Interchangable Cream Flower, Purple, Green And Blue Glass Bead Hair Pins, Pretty Pretty Purple Daisy Flower Clip and Pinks And Cream Flower Headband


Price Range - $2.00 to $9.50

4 Most Popular Items -Green Zinnia with Stretchy Green Headband, Summertime Pink and Green Hair Bows, Summertime And Strawberries Beaded Hair Pins and Pretty In Pink Polka Dots Bow with 3 inch Crocheted Headband

This shop will have new listings daily! So do drop by frequently!

VIVID Sydney

Over the weekend I had a friend who visited me from my home country and I was busy taking her around to visit the city. Coincidentally the Vivid Sydney festival of music and lights were on and there were so many activities around. Amongst them was the Lighting the Sails event as part of the Luminous program, where the 'sails' of the Sydney Opera House was litted up with projections of artwork by Brian Eno, who was also the curator of the festival.

It was wonderful!

Tutorial Tuesdays - Making an Etsy Banner with Excel and Paint

I've recently learned a simple way to make a banner with Microsoft Excel and Paint. Most people have these software, and I thought it would be a good idea to share this with everyone.

I hope this would give newbies some customizing capabilities and confidence with launching their shops.

Here it is in the most simple step-by-step (I am using Microsoft 2007)-
1) Open your Excel.
2) Draw a text box anywhere on the page, don't worry about the size just yet.
3) Type in your shop name and other detail you would like it to say.
4) Customize the fonts, and fill however you wish.
5) Re-size to 7.6" x 1". Don't worry about this, it is just ratio so that it would fit the 760 x 100 pixel requirement for your Etsy shop.
6) Selected the text box and right click choose copy (ctrl+ c). Now the text box is on your clipboard. If you used more than one text box, make sure you select all before you click copy
7) Open Paint. Right click choose paste (ctrl + v), you will see the banner. Move it around so that the top left corner fits to the top left of the page.
8) Adjust the image to fit, then save-as .jpg.

Ta-dah! You got your banner. I will continue to research this to come up with easy ways to add pictures and all. So stay tuned!

Here is one I made -
I plan to have Tutorial Tuesdays running weekly, if you like to share something please convo me on Etsy or leave a comment here with an address where I could contact you.

The 3 Last Movies I Watched

So let's deviate a little from work! It's my Monday here and after spending the whole weekend working on my June promos, I deserve a break.

Let's talk movies! Here are the 3 last movies I watched and what I think about them -

This weekend - The Last King of Scotland
This movie is 'suppose' to be a great show. It won 34 awards and received another 21 nominations. But I guess I watched it at the wrong time. Firstly I do not like movies that begins with a sense of hopelessness. 10 minutes into the movie and the main actor makes blunders to get himself into such a mess that the rest of the movie is about him getting out of it. Oh well he survives in the end!

Last Sunday - The Children of the Silk Road (The Children of Huang Shi)
This is a contrast to the movie above. Yes I contradict myself as this movie also starts with a sense of hopelessness, however the mood of the movie rises as the British journalist stays to help a group of children orphaned by the war. Maybe I just like movies that has kid actors! It's a true story too!

Last Saturday - X-Men Origins - Wolverine
I went to the cinema for this one. It was great! I'm sorry that I just love Hugh Jackman and am starting to feel like all his movies are just the best! However I am disappointing with the lack of budget spent on the effects. I think it went to actors and blowing things up. Still love it!


This week I will be watching Black Ice and Step Brother... maybe a few more too!