16:
A lot of us on Etsy have full-time day jobs outside of our art or craft–I mean, considering the numbers, we’d have to, right? Although there are days I’d love to close the classroom door, walk away and never come back, just the thought of how I’d make my mortgage payment and juggle the rest of the bills leaves me queasy.
And then I think about what else I’d be leaving: the kids. I teach high school English and journalism, and despite the almost never conquered pile of papers, I still have Ideas daily about what I could tweak to improve my classes, my lessons and my job. (Capitalization on “I” intended, people. I may believe there are never enough proofreaders available in the world, but I’d like to think that the sentence I announce that I’m an English teacher isn’t followed by a capitalization error, of all things.)
The kids fulfill my need to connect, to guide and even to inspire once in a while. The problem is, even though I know that there are some inspirational moments sprinkled in there with all the many struggles, I most often don’t even know until years later, if ever.
So, Bohtieque and Etsy meet my need for instant gratification. You know…like those nice convos and feedbacks left by super sweet people who really seem to appreciate what you do. Sellers, you know what I’m talking about, don’t you?
I could probably quit my day job, I imagine, considering my husband does have a full-time job with benefits, but do I want to? No. Despite being tired and sometimes not being treated too nicely by the latest 16-year-old with an attitude, I still enjoy seeing the spark of interest lighting up students’ eyes when they discover something new.
Yep, sometimes it’s nice to think about trading my cold, disheveled classroom for a warm, bright, inviting studio, but I think I’ll pass. Etsy, I’m not going to take my day job and shove it, but thanks.
16:
I love these designs…they’re playful and fun. They help keep me young. If you don’t get the joke, yet, say the words “elephant shoes” in the mirror and notice what other phrase it looks like your lips are forming. “I love you,” right? It’s one of those cute things my friends and I did as kids, and I thought I’d pass it on.
Along with a number of other designers I’m playing along with the Cool Mom Picks Valentine’s Day color-your-own card design contest. Three designs will be chosen to benefit the Children’s Heart Foundation. Download your own color-your-own version of my card below! If you’d rather get your own already colored, you can check out the other versions available in my Etsy shop.
Copyright 2010 Bohtieque Design, LLC. All rights reserved.
11:
I’ve been having a hard time getting off the robot kick lately. First, there were some sketches on the butcher paper my little man and I were using for drawing practice. Then, there were some doodles in the margins of my lesson plans…and then I just gave up and decided to actually DO something with them. So, I’ve got robot labels (circle and shipping, thank you), card sets and as of last night, notepads.
The notepads are a work in progress, though.
I love how neat and well-stacked everyone else’s look when I see them in tutorials online–mine do not, so I guess I’ll be making some more practice runs to get them right…plus upgrade the paper. Instead of having nice, even, perfectly-aligned stacks, I have nice, uneven, handmade looking stacks. Not that handmade is bad, of course…it’s just not exactly what I’m going for, you know?
Anyway, I’ll do another set this week sometime and see how that goes.
Until then, I need to get labels printed and then I need to keep working on that website I started. With school in session and yearbook deadlines and proofs shooting at me from everywhere, I’m not exactly moving forward on that in lightning speed, but it will happen–really (or so I keep telling myself). There was a reason I set my goal of finishing at March!
03:
I remember when we first bought our first (and current) home. Other people would term it a fixer-upper, but we were so happy to have a house of our own, we moved in and simultaneously started tearing out drop ceilings, green shag carpeting and some pretty darn gorgeous white faux brink paneling.
Overall, when we were finished, the house looked a lot better. There were still a few ticks, though. Like the texture we used to cover up the wallpaper that truly was bonded to the drywall paper or the cheap tin tiles we used to cover up the fantastically disgusting backsplash area in the kitchen. Oh, and the crown moulding we couldn’t figure out how to finish.
We accomplished the spruce up with the help of the internet and several DIY shows.
In my last post, I mentioned that I wanted to hire someone to build me a new website. Mostly, I’m thinking about the experience we’ve had with the house–sure it looked better, but it wasn’t exactly super-wonderful, if you know what I mean. We’d definitely not be featured on Decor8.
But, then I got to thinking about it a little after I ready through several About pages at the sites I’ve been visiting to get an idea of who could help me. A lot of them seem to have started out with the same experience I have. I have basic web design skills–I’d been the “webmaster” at my day job for several years and have built static sites in the past. I have a (very) basic knowledge of CSS.
I’m not starting in the same place of innocence in this web design project I had when we started our journey in home ownership. So, I’m going to give it a shot–I need to hold off on hiring someone until I give it a try on my own.
So far, I’ve worked up an overall design for the home page and set up most of it in CSS. We’ll see if I can get the pesky floating footer to stay put in the next few days, and I’ll try to refine the header a bit. From there, it will be time to get the shop pages in shape. By the way, the CKGold default theme gives me shudders. I can’t deny it.
Wish me luck–I’m hoping it will turn out better than the still-unfinished crown moulding.
01:
Happy New Year!
I like to think that every day is special and every day is a chance to celebrate what’s good in the world around me. I’m not terribly holiday-centric, I guess you’d call it. That means I don’t plan a special meal or buy sparkly hats and noisemakers for New Year’s Eve, instead opting to take it easy, relaxing in front of the TV with a Diet Coke, my laptop and my sweetie.
Although I should have made some brandy slush to drink with that Diet Coke, but that’s beside the point.
This also means that normally I don’t plan much for resolutions, as I’m a realist: I have ISSUES with resolutions. Take the simple plan I made a few years ago: take a photo once a day, every day for 365 days. Considering I’m in love with my camera, you’d think that would be easy. Nope–I lasted into February.
My weight loss resolutions from high school, college and most of my 20’s? Riiiight. Those lasted about three days.
See? No follow-through.
Still, there are things I’d like to get finished this quarter for Bohtieque, and they need to get done so that I can make some forward progress.
1. Choose an option for my website and hire someone else to complete it. I get a few puzzled comments here and there when I mention that I’m hoping to outsource this project, but the truth is that I hate the technical aspect of putting together a website. It’s not just about getting the look right– it’s about finding someone with the experience and knowledge to do it right.
I like Etsy, of course. I have a BigCartel store, too. Neither seems quite right, yet, though. I’d like to have less limitations on what it is I can do and how I can list my products, and I know how confusing it is for some to have to add that extra sheet listing at Etsy when they’d rather just be able to select a higher quantity on the listing they’d like to order.
2. Create a media kit. This is something I should have done eons ago, but I’ve been waiting for the perfect time–a time when I’m not in the middle of some sort of seasonal rush at Bohtieque or at school, a time when I can get the photos JUST right, a time when I feel like it. I’m going to tell you something–I’ll never really feel like it and the photos will never be good enough, but I’m just going to have to do it.
Part of cleaning up these gargantuan tasks, which fall pretty squarely into the marketing, non-design aspect of Bohtieque, is also sweeping out the cobwebs. I need to decide what web shops I should keep open and which I should close, and I need to do a better job on this blog.
SO, in honor of the new year and my new goals, I’ve started with almost a clean slate here. Instead of logging in and seeing that it’s been twenty-billion days since the last time I’ve posted, I’ve deleted almost everything. I’m starting over, and I want to love blogging again, and I want it to inspire me again.
I hope we ALL find something to inspire us this new year. Best of luck–and I’ll see you around. I promise.
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