Fans and a Photo Shoot

Tweet I don't know about you, but the heat here in the Midwest is making me so sloooooow.  I haven't been to the gym in a week (so much for that half-marathon training), I can't seem to do a lick of laundry, and there's no way I'm taking the kids outside.  The heat is supposed to get a little better today so I'm looking forward to eating far too much Fair food tonight with the family and not worrying that the kids are going to melt into little puddles of Cheerios and sunscreen the minute we step out the door.

So my Facebook page is up and running!  There's a button to Like my page on the left sidebar and you should definitely go check it out.  As of this morning I have 23 fans, which excites me to no end - there are even a couple non-friends and family fans!  I'm sure I need to do something to get some more Facebook love.  I'm thinking about offering a discount to Facebook fans once the shop opens, or maybe a special preview of the shop just for those people?  Hmmm...

Kenny persuaded me to shoot a bunch of product pictures yesterday while he wrangled the kids so I have a little Facebook product catalog started.  We have these long, low white storage benches in our pool room/sewing room/office that I used for the pictures.  I just draped a piece of cotton batting on the bench and set up my camera on a tripod in front of it.  I'm not 100% happy with it - it's a huge hassle to squat down in front of the camera (probably more of a pain since I haven't been to the gym in a week) and I feel like it may not be professional enough.

I do love that orange background even though it seems to get pretty muddy when I upload the pictures to Facebook.   I edited the pictures in Photoshop and used the "save for web" option to save them as a smaller jpeg so they wouldn't take too long to load, but I'm afraid it may have compromised picture quality too much.  I'm wondering if maybe Facebook compresses the pictures and that's the problem?  I'll have to wait and see how they look on Etsy.

Etsy allows you five pictures per item and I just have no clue what those five pictures will be for every item.  I think I need to take some "in action" shots, so I'll probably try to get my nieces and nephew to model a few things for me.  I'm also considering buying a child-size mannequin.  They're only about $30 on Ebay and I think one would come in handy for both product pictures and for a display at craft fairs.

Speaking of craft fairs, I'm starting to freak out about the one at the end of September.  I have about 50 items in my inventory and I'm 100% that is not nearly enough.  I need to arrange a sitter for a couple days here and there before then so I can have some uninterrupted work time.  Our gym does a Parent's Day Out a couple times a month where the kids can go and play for a couple hours - I'll definitely be taking advantage of that on Friday.  But for now, I have an important tea party waiting for me in the living room.  Happy Monday everyone!