Candles, photos and a BBQ at Sis's!

Today started off as a great day ... I got a ton done at work and that always makes me feel good! I pity my poor courier come Monday morning - 42 steps (2nd floor) isn't so bad the first time you do it ... or on the way down ... but the second, third (etc!) time it's a back breaker especially with heavy boxes or sacks of wax!!

It turned into a great evening too as we went over to see my sis and her hub in their new place for a bbq and it was such a nice evening! Good food, a nice atmosphere and a pretty garden! Our mum and her hub's mum had been working hard in their garden planting and repotting - it looked fabulous!!

I'd arranged in advance to take a few photos while I was over there as inspiration for a main shot for my website ... so I took some candles with me. I didn't get exactly the shots I was after, but these are a couple of my best ...

I'm working hard on bringing the website up to scratch ... i.e. really emphasizing the lifestyle factor of what I do, and the best way to do that is through photography. These are just a couple of my best shots that I took at my sister's place this evening.... I wish I'd had more time and more "stuff" with me!!

I have had another brilliant idea though! My sister is a fantastic photographer. She and her hub both are ... and I'm going to ask her if she'll spend some time taking photos of my candles around her house!! Sis has some very "quirky" stuff in her house and really good taste - and they are both very inspired by angular / eccentric / unusual photography of very normal every day things... which is exactly what I am looking for!

It's weird because I'm not even jealous that my sister can do a better job at this than I can - and it almost surprises me that I am NOT jealous! I take really good photographs of things that inspire ME ... and that pretty much comes down to photos of my children! Sis and her hub take amazing photos of "stuff"!!

I think between the two of them, they will come up with some great pics for me! Besides, if I make a list of everything I give them for the photography, I can mark it off as deductible too, so it's worth it tax wise - and she / they will probably get FAR better shots than I ever could anyway!

I really enjoyed spending time with them this evening. They are such a great couple and I'm so glad Sis and I are closer.

April 6th - a SNOW day???

Well the snow sure came down! I was woken up at 9am by kids excitedly squealing about snow!! I dropped Megan over at her friend's house and after lunch we went to play out in the snow!! My mum came along too with Rosie Dog and we had a great laugh!

I was vaguely amused by how my normally very white dog looked decidedly yellow against the snow!! Nathan and his dad were having quite evil snowball fights and I am just glad they all abided by the "No throwing snowballs near mum's camera" rule! Oh boy I took a ton of pics! Here's just some of 'em!! Mouse over for my comments! LOL

Here's a couple of token "snowy landscape" shots! On the left ... I loved this angle with the trees and branches framing the contrast of the white snow (a field that still had virgin snow!) against the grey sky.

On the right I had just looked up into this gorgeous tree with snow covered white flowers and had to take a quick shot!! They look crap as small resized pics, but full size they look awesome!

Madness really - it's frigging APRIL!!

I'm FRONT PAGE NEWS!!!

This is sooooo cool! What started out as just something to do purely just for fun with my 25 smiles project and I day where I simply needed something to do has resulted in me being on the FRONT PAGE of the newspaper! There's a small pic of me and it says "what's got all these people smiling? Find out on page 4" - then a half page article with a bigger photo of me holding my camera next to a large pic of the montage!!

In town this morning there was also an ad board about my project!! Ohh the grin on my face was enormous! I couldn't resist taking a photograph of it! Chuffed to bits I was! LOL Turned out a really nice pic too with the florist in the background!!

Click Here for the link to the article online!!

OMG!! OMG!! Mondays are officially fantastic!!!

... well THIS Monday is anyway!!

Came into the workshop this morning feeling a little achy and a bit worse for wear as I didn't sleep well last night. Mondays are usually always so BLAH but today when I sat down in front of my work PC with my pot of coffee ... I found a huuuuuuuuge number of orders had come in over the weekend! The pile is so thick that stacked together it is almost a half an inch stack of orders JUST from the weekend! That also includes a couple of nice wholesale orders too :D

THEN .... I got a call from the local paper in response to the email I had sent them with a copy of my 25 Smiles montage just incase it was of local interest ... and they want to publish it!!! He did an interview over the phone and a photographer is coming to the workshop on Wednesday morning to take photos of me with the candles and with my camera!! He said they would give me a plug for my websites too - so there is the chance to bring in a lot of extra business!!!

Such a damned good day .... and it's not even quite lunchtime!!!

** Photo Challenge - 25 Smiles

I woke up this morning and decided to go get out there with my camera and have some fun... and I set myself the challenge of 25 smiles from strangers! I was really nervous when I first started out ... I walked into town and let so many people walk past me until I plucked up the courage to ask the first person! From there it was really easy and people were SO nice to me.

I said to people "Excuse me, I'm doing a photography project called 25 Smiles and I wondered if you would like to be one of my smiles?" They were all so lovely to me - asked me about what I was doing and why I was doing it! People seemed surprised that I was just doing it for fun - for no real other reason, and most of them had a chat with me too!

There were only two people that said no - one was a woman who was in a rush somewhere, and the other was an older lady who thought she was too ugly to be photographed! She was such a lovely soul and stopped and chatted to me for quite some time and went off with a tear in her eye that somebody had actually wanted to take her picture!!

I really had a good time doing it! I am definitely going to have to set myself some more challenges! This is the finished montage of 25 smiles!!!

Fart in a Trance?? Surely not!!

I think I have possibly just about recovered from my two mega late nights - or is that early mornings!!! (I didn't go right to bed last night either - I couldn't help doing a bit more to the website!!!) but I have still been a "fart in a trance" as B affectionately called me today at work!!

I showed a friend my website this afternoon and lets just say the reaction I got to it was EXACTLY why I have stayed up late over the last couple of days and been working pretty much solidly on it!!! I still have a phenomenal amount of work to do on it ... after all, it's only the front page that I've done so far and even that still needs tweaking with the final photos, but it LOOKS exactly how I had pictured it ... no, it's BETTER than I had pictured it!!

I've known this complete re-design has been needed for a while but I've just not had the motivation to do it!! It was a friend who turned around to me recently and said "you know Dee, considering you call yourself an amateur photographer and have a fucking good camera ... the pictures on your website are complete shit!"

I like to consider myself a straight talking kinda gal and if something needs saying then you can always rely on me to say it! I don't beat around the bush and I call a spade a spade ... but when my friend said that to me about my photos on the existing website, being so crappy, I realised that people very rarely talk back to me so straight!!! I've had so many compliments on the website from so many customers ... saying it's a great design, easy to navigate, easy on the eye etc, but nobody has really pointed out the fact that the photography really could be better ... and I was too "involved" to see it myself.

I just feel so incredibly motivated at the moment. I feel it in my bones that the revamped website will make a huge difference to business, and I'm all hyped up about working towards a shop!! I have been in a really good place emotionally and mentally for the last month or so. It's been a long time since I felt that way!!

I am also eternally grateful to a good friend who speaks the blatant truth!!!

Website Schmebsite!!

I've been working hard at the workshop during the day both Saturday & today over the weekend and there were a lot of new orders that came through too - always good! HAH!

And, wanna hear about my new project? I gotta revamp the website!!! Yep, bang slap in the middle of "Silly Season" - my busiest time of year for pouring, I have to start working on the re-launch for January!! I need to have my January Sale pretty much ready to go, as well as the launch of my brand new design!! All of this involves a COMPLETE re-vamp of the website. It needs a face lift and a new look. I do love how it is now, but I spent a couple of hours this afternoon brainstorming with a friend about ideas for it (and funnily enough had started working on it last night!!!) and have come away full of ideas.

So yeah, my website is great as it is, but I need a better online presence. I need a professionally designed website rather than one I build myself in notepad, but finances simply don't permit that right now! Soooo in the meantime I need a fresh and funky new look for 2008 and I have about 4 weeks to complete it in!!! Best get cracking eh!!!!!

Okay, so my new line of candles! I haven't come up with a final name for them yet, but for now they are called "Just Say it" and feature original (ie written by yours truly!) funny poems in 8 different designs (with candles poured in complimentary colours/scents) and I will be launching them in January!! I've already made up a prototype label and figured out the packaging ... just gotta finalise the label, but PLENTY of time to do that!!

I also need much better photography on the website to suggest the impression of "lifestyle" with my products. I asked my mum this evening if I could use her house (as it's recently all redecorated and usually immaculate!!!) for a photo shoot in return for the candles used and she jumped at it!!! I did a "rekkie" of the rooms I want to use this evening while I was over there for dinner (yummy!) and made a list of the things I need to make. I'll be aiming to do a photo shoot within 2 weeks so I can have proper photos to work with for the new website!!!

So yes ... lots to do! Busy, busy, busy!!!!!!!

Friday Five - 23rd November 2007

Oooooh what a really good set of questions this week!!! I love photography so this will be a good set to answer!!

If a really, really good photographer — the kind who always makes you look good and still look like you — were to take your photo right now, what would be a good title for it? - It would be called something like "Just Being Dee" because right now I am sat on my sofa with my laptop having just finished website updates... I am wearing "comfy" clothes and my fluffy slippers (ie definitely not looking fabulous!!) have a glass of wine on one side and a smoke on the other ... this is typical me when I am working on the website or computer stuff in the evenings!! So yes, it would be called "Just Being Dee"

If that photo were so good it belonged on the cover of a magazine, what would be a good choice, based on where you are and what you’re doing? LOL probably something like "Struggling Business Owner's Weekly" HAH I'm here on a Friday night working on the website instead of out on the town!!

If you took an interesting or aesthetically pleasing photo of something in your view right now, what might it be, and what would its title be? Ummmm, errrr (desperately looking around the front room for inspiration!!!) It couldn't be done with one photograph, but a series of pictures representing the family way of life and the fact that every one of us in the house has our nose in a computer at this exact moment!!!

Among people you know, who seems to have a knack for taking great shots of people? My sister & brother in law. They are both excellent photographers and if I ever need to hand my own camera over to someone to take a shot of me ... I'd choose either of them in an instant!!

Are you usually happier with candid photos of you, or photos you’ve posed for? Definitely candid without a doubt. I do like posed shots when it's representing something ie a trip somewhere, or posing with a friend ... but to me the whole point of taking a photograph is to capture a snapshot of time .... to pause life for that split second and capture it absolutely. The ONLY way to do that is with candid shots.

Awwwww don't they look smart!!

Photo taken at 7.45am this morning - note BOTH children not only dressed, but ties tied and hair neatly brushed and still an hour before we needed to leave the house! WOOHOO!

Nathan didn't want to smile properly and pulled a silly faces instead - but like I always tell him - you pull faces at the camera and I'll just go right ahead and take the photo anyway! I'll immortalise you in my photo forever no matter what face you pull!

In their defence it WAS raining outside and I made them go stand out there (better light!!) so I could get a piccie!! I love the first day of winter uniform as they just look SO much smarter!

The Friday Five

I am a lil bored and just surfing around the web for inspiration and I found a site that poses five interesting questions for you to answer every Friday. Here we go ....

What was the last thing taken from you without your permission?
My sanity? No? Okay then .... eeeek I can't think!

Who was the photographer the last time a picture of you was taken?
Ahh now that’s an easy one! That would be Miss Megan! Since she got her own digital camera she’s taken loads of photos and is really enjoying it. It’s a hobby I’m happy to encourage! Megan took this photo of me and my mum at my sister's recent wedding reception.


When were you last taken by surprise?
Well it’s not technically the last time I got surprised because I actually can’t remember when that was, but the nicest surprise I think I have ever had was one Mothers Day when the hub was out of the house, so not around to do things for/with the kids like dads are sposed to do. I was woken up somewhere around 6.30am with a bowl swimming in milk and a solitary weetabix lurking at the bottom and a glass of water (because we aren’t allowed to use the kettle Mummy!) It was the sweetest thing in the whole world because they thought of it all by themselves.

When were you last taken for a ride (interpret literally or figuratively!)? Literally … gawd it’s been a while since somebody actually took me for a drive just for the sheer enjoyment of being out somewhere together!! So figuratively it would have to be the way I do find it hard to say no sometimes and let people walk all over me. Note to self to stop doing that so much.

Where were you the last time you wished to be “taken away from all this?” Oh stop it – you know I secretly blatantly secretly wish that every day!