Last week I mentioned that my shop, Life’s Candy is participating in our first ever handmade market, in what is now less than two weeks.
(Cue panic attack.)
In preparation for the show/to restock the shop/to get ready for the upcoming holiday shopping season, we had a photo shoot last weekend. Photo shoots for napkins and pillow covers are known the world over to be exceedingly glamorous, and I thought for sure my readers would love a behind the scenes glimpse of how it all goes down.
So here you go, the anatomy of a Life’s Candy photo shoot:
Step 1: Move all the junk from the end of the dining table by the windows to the end of the dining table by the kitchen. Realize how long it’s been since you went through all the old newspaper down here. Feel guilty. Remind yourself you’re saving newspaper for craft projects and finger painting. Feel better. Move on.
Step 2: Locate all your product. Don’t forget the pillow covers that have been done for 2 months but that you’ve been waiting to shoot until you had more stuff ready because it’s a pain to haul all this out for a couple sets of pillow covers.
Step 3: Find all your big heavy books for to make your super professional backdrop.
Step 4: Go back to your office/studio 3 times to pick up the pillow forms. Then the lint rollers. Then the scissors.
Step 5: Set up the tripod and remember why you hate your tripod and the fact that you always misplace that little thing that screws on to the bottom of the camera that makes the tripod work. Take deep breaths. Find ipod. Check the clock to see how much of naptime remains. Get a move on.
Step 6: Summon your shop assistant.
Step 7: Go back to the office for the cocktail napkins.
Step 8: Finally take a photo of an actual product.
Step 9: Remember you need to use the end table by the window for the shots with the plates and such. Move the yak.
Step 10: Get annoyed with your super fancy professional backdrop for the millionth time and remember to implement super high tech solution for keeping fabric from pulling forward around product by pinning it to the table.
Step 11: Realize it’s 3:30 and you haven’t eaten since this morning’s beignets. Reset for napkins. Stare at messy kitchen contemplating snack while waiting for clouds to move. Go looking for more beignets. Realize husband has already eaten all leftover beignets. Eat leftover sun dried tomato pasta in retaliation while lint rolling everything.
Step 12: Finally get some more shots done before the clouds come back. Get frustrated staring at messy kitchen again. Start putting books away. Get distracted by cute picture of your mom from some Christmas long ago that falls out of the bookcase. Decide to show it to the internet. Eat more pasta.
Step 13: Finally get all pillows and full size napkins done. Get ready to move on to cocktail napkins when camera battery dies and naptime ends simultaneously. Realize it will be another week before you have everything ready to list. Pour wine. Gather toddler. Start dinner.
And there you have it! The evolution of today’s shop update. There are about 15 or so brand new items available today so check it out here! Oh and uh, spoiler alert: I did get those cocktail napkins shot the next morning, so these little guys are in there too. Hint: Those are jack-o-lanterns. O Yes they are.
That’s basically what we’ve been around here lately!
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we’re in the process of renovating our guest bathroom/Piper’s bathroom, and that’s still going on. It’s not like we’ve run into any problems or anything, it’s more like we have lives and we’re not contractors and we have this whole other bathroom so we haven’t been in the world’s largest hurry to get done.
But the tile’s done now! And I’m hopeful that we’ll have the new sink and vanity installed this weekend along with the toilet. Which would be nice, actually.
Frankly, I would like to take a shower by myself.
It’s great that Piper’s taken so well to showers, because otherwise the last couple of weeks would have been a LOT rougher, but you know how sometimes you want to just stand in the shower under the water and do that thing where you completely don’t think at all for an untold number of minutes that absolutely reaches the double digits even when you’re not trying?
Yeah, you can’t do that with a two year old.
So. Fingers crossed we get the second bath back soon! I’ve resorted to taking showers alone during naptime on occasion and I have lots of other stuff to do!
What other stuff? Oh. Well.
Have I mentioned, for example, that I am participating in my first Handmade Market next month? Well I am!
Life’s Candy is participating in Homespun Chic at the Longwood Community Center on Sunday October 9th, from 2:30 to 6pm, so if you’re in the Central Florida area, please come by and check us out! You can learn more about all of the other awesome vendors who are participating here.
So yeah, I’m trying to get ready for that (and can we please keep in mind that I’ve never done a show before? So I have no “booth”? Or “booth”ey type things? Or even really a plan on how I want to do my “booth”? Not to mention, you know, as much product as I would like to have on hand for the event?
I’ve been sewing and photographing and drafting new listings like a mad woman.
Yes. Some even for Halloween! Christmas even! ACK!
You might also remember that I mentioned a month or so ago wanting to check out a bible study class? Well something was listening because about 2 weeks later one of my new stay at home mom friends mentioned that her church was starting their fall women’s bible study class, and there was childcare provided (our kids love each other) and she would even drive (a former one car family, she gets that we don’t go anywhere without lots of thinking ahead!) and also COFFEE!
Well Piper LOVED the playtime with other kids and while I was pretty nervous I’m enjoying the women I’ve met so far and the being out of the house and the feeling that I’m accomplishing something that I wanted to do. It’s only been two sessions so we’re really just getting started with the actual studying part, and frankly I am struggling with the finding time throughout the day to do the lessons during the week, but I’m working on it!
This week my friend was out of town though, so I went solo with my little sidekick, stopping for a breakfast date between dropping Daddy at work and playing with our new friends.
Then of course there’s the whole “preschool at home” thing we decided to do (which is really nothing more than a loose framework for me to use to find stuff to do with the kid using letters as a theme. It’s not preschool. Frankly. At all.) which has been a lot of fun!
This week our letter is “C”. Monday we painted the pieces to a raceCar.
In our pajamas. Featuring monkeys. From last Christmas. Obviously.
We try to do a letter themed project every other day or so. Very low key, low stress, we just talk a little bit about something having to do with the letter (the shape, the sound, words that start with… etc) and then do something fun like paint small pieces of wood for Daddy to glue together later in the week.
Today we’re making Cookies!
Then of course, there are all of our normal tasks and duties. Like baking.
I’m a big fan of home baking, and we bake two loaves of basic white sandwich bread about once a week or so. It’s nice to have “help” when it comes to the rolling out phase, I must say.
I’ve got a pretty hefty shop update slated for Monday, and I’m also excited to have things in stock for Homespun Chic in just over 2 weeks!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
See? Now I’m all freaked out again. Obviously I need to go pin some more rick rack to placemats while having a nervous breakdown slash showering with a toddler.
What are YOU up to?
Sometimes? When you bitch about something enough? People ask you to write about it like, for real.
So today I’m over at BlogHer talking about how screwed up Netflix is, and since my editor is awesome she also let me talk about my love of insanely bad television.
Courtesy of CBS
I’m sorry slash you’re totally welcome in advance.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Netflix.
They’re like the boyfriend I told to help clean the apartment or I was going to leave him even though I loved him because he obviously didn’t respect me and refused to “hear” me and then he still didn’t help clean the apartment AND SO I LEFT HIM.
Like about 1,000,000 other people who have or are planning to ditch them by the end of September, I’ve warned them about the thin ice they were skating around on.
Continue reading at BlogHer, and hey! Even you could maybe leave a comment while you’re at it! Hooray!
I’m working on a vision board this week, and I think I found my real spirit animal.
It’s a yak, if you’re not familiar. And he seems to me to be pretty steadfast in his refusal to consider any agenda other than his own.
I love him.
I know I’ve mentioned Karen to you before. Remember? She’s the one who did what I did… jumped off the corporate cliff with no real ideas on how to fly. She’s one of the people I think of when I see this:
Credited to Janet Lawrence, found via Pinterest.
Karen’s cliff was way higher than mine, she was a big important lawyer making actual money, the kind people buy things like houses and boats and second houses with (ok, maybe that’s just what I would buy with it). But she had some of the same issues I had when it came to walking away from a successful career, namely that she was miserable in it.
Learning Karen’s story helped me understand that I’m not the only one who thinks it’s OK to walk away from something that’s making you desperately unhappy, even if that something comes with a paycheck*.
But then, what are you walking toward?
That’s what I’m working on right now. See, on the surface I quit my job to stay home with my daughter. She’s 2. Today. But in about 20 minutes or so she’s going to be 5. Then 10. Then we’ll be fighting about boys and clothes and music and curfews and then she’ll be who knows what. And yes, we may have more kids but they’re going to do the same thing and it’s going to happen just as fast.
I’ve been looking for some way to understand and articulate what I want the underlying theme of my new life to be. Because it is a new life. Most of the people in it are the same, and while I am not a different person I am changing a lot right now. And that’s cool. And fun. And scary. And probably annoying at times for people who live with me.
Because no matter what my title is or how many hours in the day I spend providing primary care to a small child, or sewing napkins, or writing to the internet, the life I am building should be the framework that supports my passions. It should be the thing that makes it so the rest of me can “go”.
Doesn’t that sound like kind of a tall order?
Yeah. And there are times the process of designing and building that new life make me absolutely nuts. And also super laid back and pleasant to be around. And also crazy.
See?!
To me, the manner in which Karen approached the task of understanding herself and then arranging her life to best support that person was really impressive. I was thrilled a few weeks ago when she mentioned teaching a guided self study program and I jumped on it.
We’re in week 2 of 5 total weeks and so far it’s pretty amazing. I’m figuring things out in a big way. And I’m not saying they’re things I couldn’t have gotten to on my own (one of the coolest things about the way this course works is that you do all the work yourself, she just walks you through the exercises that worked for her as well as shares some additional tools and resources that can help you take the exercises anywhere it might turn out you need them to go. Also she provides tremendous encouragement and gentle guidance when you punk out. Not that I have yet. But who are we kidding? That’s gonna happen. Ahem.) but having someone who’s already been down the dark and twisty path of “now what the hell do I do?” show up with a flashlight, a positive attitude and maybe a granola bar is pretty freaking helpful.
Also there are colored pens involved. And collages. And a glue stick. It’s fantastic.
I can already see myself making some small changes that better reflect who I am and what I want. And I’m not just talking about this:
Bacon Ranch Slow Cooker Chicken found via Pinterest
It’s from Kelly’s Healthified Kitchen. It’s in my crock pot right now. Smelling amazing.
I’m trying new things. Not all are big things, some are really small things like new recipes and crafts with Piper. Doing things I’ve always wondered about but never got around to. Does anyone else remember the part in one of the Little House books when Laura talks about Ma’s apple with cloves stuck in it? It was a holiday thing and supposedly made the house smell great.
Well it does. In a much more subtle (and to me, more pleasant) way than a cinnamon broom or big candle.
See one of the things I learned last week was that creating a comfortable and inspiring home for myself and my family is something that actually lights me up. It’s not the actual cleaning and painting and moving stuff around to see what piece of furniture is better where. That crap is boring. And I don’t actually like it.
I like the result. And I like being the one who achieved it.
I? I like to nurture.
Who knew?
Now lest you sit there and say to yourself “Holy crap. she’s saying she took an internet course and found out a clove apple is her spirit-animal?! This is pathetic!” let me assure you this is not that.
There are a lot of other wonderful and awesome and much, much more important and insightful things going on here. I’m just not sharing them all with you. I may choose to share more as I move forward. But I may not. You know, neener neener or whatever.
Either way, I like to think we might all enjoy the results.
*Both myself and as far as I know, Karen, did this the responsible way. As in, our financial situations are such that our kids aren’t sleeping in homeless shelters and we’re not hiding from any repo guys. I’m not saying you should up and quit your job just because you had a bad day and you’d rather be home making clove-apples and playing with your crock pot. I mean you can! If you want! I’m not the boss of you or anything! Just, you know, be a grown up and stuff.
{Disclosure} I know I’m talking up the Chookooloonks Pathfinder course quite a bit in this post. Rest assured I paid for the class in full and the opinions expressed here are my own. Including the one about collages being fantastic.
{Second Disclosure} In the 30 minutes it took me to do this post the chicken is smelling even more amazing. I think it’s trying to overthrow the clove-apple spirit-animal .
