random photo styling

I have been wanting, for a very long time, to learn how to take good photos. I am using a little point and shoot, but I am determined to get some results with it... I played around today and tried some new things.

If anyone wants to offer up advice, you are MORE than welcome!
I enjoy the styling part much more than the actual clicking part, but I'm hoping that as (if!) I get better, I will enjoy the picture part too.
Here is a little silk scarf in a BlueDogz Design CC box (I think this is a great gift idea!), a teeny tag used as a keychain, some favorite bracelets, an elephant (yep, random) and my favorite aviators (an ebay purchase from many years ago).

me and INStyle Mag...BFF's Forevs!

This adorable associate market editor from InStyle Magazine came into my booth at this past NY Gift Fair in August. I am always excited to see magazines that I LOVE in the booth, (same goes for stores I LOVE...of course, I love all the stores, but I just don't personally know all the stores, so when one comes in that I really know and love...it is SO exciting...even more so when they buy!) Anywhoo...
There she was, all sweet and nice and not even trying to be incognito, just a friendly nice gal!
She loved our CC boxes and our Be boxes and told me that she was scouting product for the InStyle December issue.
Now, it's not that I am blasé, apathetic or jaded, I AM SO NOT...you know that famous little sentence - You can't buy this kind of publicity!!! well, I really CAN'T!!!! so having a fabulous market editor from a fabulously favorite magazine like InStyle who wants to feature anything that is remotely connected to BlueDogz Design is A OK with me!!!
However, as with many style editors, one can never be sure that just because they came into your booth and loved your stuff, that alas, it will be featured on their glossy pages.
The next day, her assistant came in and asked for a whole boatload of samples...since we were packing up and closing about an hour later, I said SURE! take them NOW! She did.
Again, not any kind of a guarantee that the product would show up on the pages of the Mag.
After the show, they did what was expected and still totally exciting, they emailed for product info, pricing, inventory status etc, etc..I gave it all to them, gladly!
Yet again, a little while later, another email with more questions...may I also say, just because I really like polite, always polite! (not all mags are!) but...yadda yadda, still with no guarantees that BlueDogz Design products would be featured...hmmmmm
Low and behold, last week, earlier than expected, the phone rang...since it was pretty early, I ignored and stayed right where I was, in La Cave de Snooze. A while later, I got up and saw that my had been the early caller...(insert eye roll and UGH).
I didn't listen to her voicemail message (she tends towards to be a tad long winded...hmmm, now that I just typed that...oh nevermind...:-)) So, I just called her back.."yeah Mom, wassup?...kinda early no?"... "early?" she replied, "you are just lucky that I didn't call at 4am! because that was the exact time I was sitting on the lou (well, she said toilet) reading my new InStyle Mag and there on the glossy pages, WAY at the back (yes, she said WAY, just like that)...were your CC boxes!" and then, she said, they are $11, but if I want to buy them, how much would they be?..."$22 for you" I replied!
And that is how I found out that InStyle and me are BFF's forevs!...and...seems I am like only 1 degree of separation from CARRIE UNDERWOOD! (HA!)

It all started with a box!

As some of you know, things have been, well, eventful in my life lately...in a rather uneventful kind of way...
Personally, well, things could be better, baby daddy has had a rough go of life lately and has felt that working on his stuff without Tess and me would be better...ok then.
Business has been, as I like to put it challenging! And ya'll know that by challenging, I mean...it sucks!
Change has been coming painfully slowly...I have been getting some really fun and some REALLY THE OPPOSITE OF FUN free lance design jobs and that is good, but I still need alot more to be ok with this...
Raising this perfect baby is a blessing, and sometimes doing it all by myself feels like I might need to throw myself off a bridge for a second, (but I have to say, quite remarkably, those moments are few and far between).
My very favorite hobby in the world, Roller Derby, which at moments felt a lot more like a way of life than a hobby, has taken a back seat for a plethora of reasons; physical (a tear in my right shoulder), logistical (how to get to several, multi hour long practices with a baby?),  and just basically getting grumpy about stuff that I know I can't change...which makes me grumpier...did I ever mention that I don't really like or get Organizational thinking? (and by Organizational, i mean the thinking of Organizations)
...maybe not? well I just did.
Anyhoo, it was time for some cleaning, cleansing, changing, moving, energizing...
This story is pretty amazing and part of what's even more exciting is that that it is JUST starting...

About a year ago I received the coolest email from a woman named Katie in Los Angeles.
She wrote one of those emails that as a business owner, you just love love love to get.
She had purchased one of my Mini Ribbon Boxes from a super cool store in Venise, CA and she absolutely loved it...Furthermore, she was a Feng Shui specialist and wanted to talk to me about maybe doing something together...creating a product together, a Wish Box.
She too had a new baby girl and she just sounded like one of those people you know you like instantly, When I told my BFF Kirsten about her, I said, "you know?! she's like us!"

As exciting as this sounded, I was swamped with life, a new baby, not too sure that I ever wanted to manufacture anything ever again in my entire life and not convinced that I would ever be capable of selling anything ever again in my entire life (apparently I was feeling a little bit gloomy that day).

We bounced a few emails back and forth again and then lost touch for several months.
I then touched base and suggested some friends of mine who manufacture beautiful silk boxes, that I could make the introduction for her...but she wasn't convinced...we again lost touch.

Then a few weeks ago, Katie got in touch again.
She emailed and told me that she was back in Alabama, (where she's originally from) and that she wants to make the Wish Box with the BlueDogz Design Paris Red CC box and that she would buy them from me and would I give her a bulk price? She was 100% clear about what she wanted! She had thought this through.

She also gave a little mention in her email that she was giving feng shui consults over the phone...

Well, that got me thinking! We set up a phone date.

A few days later (well, it could have been more than a week realistically, as we are both on baby schedules) we spoke on the phone. I was so right, I knew I would like her and that she was "like us".

It came to me in an instant, "Hey Katie, I only have 28 of the boxes you want left in inventory, how about we make a deal?, I send you all the boxes and you give me a Feng Shui consult?"...She loved the idea and we were off and running!

I made her a horrible video walkthrough of the loft we live and I work in (and by horrible I mean that for some cacamamie  reason I thought that I should turn the camera horizontally or vertically at different times...WTF?) She later explained that it was fine, she watched it on her laptop and actually laughed out loud when she had to physically turn her laptop to stay with the program!

I also drew out a floorplan of our space and some still photos of our front doors (the loft door and the actual building entrance) and gave her some number info, street address and unit numbers.

Lastly, she asked me to focus on 3 objectives, areas that I wanted to change, boost, improve in my life.

I sent her everything via email and we set  up a consultation date for the following week.