Reworking and adding new images

It's been a few weeks since my last blog post. I was away in Cornwall for a few weeks to get rested and gear myself up for Christmas. I have also been catching up on all of those small adminy type jobs that seem to accumulate and actually take up quite a lot of time if you don't tend to them as and when they crop up.

One such job is re-wording and sorting my images for my not on the high street. com storefront. The lovely people at not on the highstreet.com have been very helpful in supplying all partners with a series of online guides to watch that talk through how to improve my listings and ultimately maximise sales! I watched the short presentation while on holiday (yes I know I was supposed to be having a break, but it was actually quite enjoyable).

I was both astounded and also very proud to see that one of my images had been used in the photography guide. It was used to illustrate that good images can be achieved by partners, without much expense and without the need for a professional photo shoot. My image was shown alongside two photo's that were taken by professionals! In terms of styling and composition and light, all three were considered good examples of photographs of tote bags, here's my pic:

Now I am definitely no photographer but I do have Photoshop and some skills in reworking images, namely adjusting the light and shadows, cropping and messing about with the exposure. I'd be lying if I said I don't have a decent camera, but it's about 7 years old and I don't have any flashy extra lenses just the one that came with it.

So today I have been working through the guides again for optimising my listings and also reworking new photo's and adding new, every time I make an order I try to photograph it so that I am always adding new photo's to my storefront, firstly to keep things fresh and up to date but also because my photography has improved drastically over the last year, photo's that I thought looked awesome last year now seem dull, dark and outdated!

Here's some of my new improved pics:

I am only about a fifth done with getting all my images improved but I think it's going to be worth it! This year I was shortlisted for category Best Store Front at the not on the high street. com Make Awards So I am thinking with my new improved images I may try to win it next year, then again maybe not!!

Personalised Bunting

Well the sun has finally decided to come out, but for how long? At least until the washing has dried I hope. I have been doing the washing dance for weeks now (it's sunny so you hang it out to dry and the next minute it pours down so you have to rush to get it back in, for it to be sunny again ten minutes later) it's very annoying especially when there is bunting to be sewn.

I haven't blogged for over a week as it's so hectic right now, there's lots going on behind the scenes. I have been screen printing new designs at Leicester Print workshop, this is part of the product development that I have been talking about for weeks, I had hoped to have some new products to show for it by now but this new found urgency to design and make new products also coincided with everyone and their granny deciding they need personalised bunting! So here are some pics of said bunting. I promise my next post will contain at least one (and maybe even two) new printed products.

That's all for now!

Butterfly Bunting

Phew, it has been such a busy week, just when I thought things were starting to settle down a bit I caught a really bad virus and just as I was recovering my husband and Eva got it too, so now I am being Dobbie the House Elf. It felt like flu but I think it's probably just a really bad cold and compared to the others I think I got off lightly.

I have also had lots of graphics work to do this week, the hardest part was pretending that I felt totally fine discussing projects with a client when I actually felt like I was dieing! But that's all part of being self employed and the pros always far outweigh the cons.

I have also had a number handmade orders this week as my shop is now back from holiday mode. One of the orders was for personalised girls butterfly bunting, the bunting is a lovely Christening or new baby gift, it comes in a choice of colourways and can be personalised with a name or saying of your choice, as I have just had an order I have taken some new photo's I have slightly changed the design of the butterfly and am really happy with it's new form, I love how my style changes and is constantly evolving.