Interview: Photography from Helene Smith Photography

Helene Smith sells photography in her Etsy shop, Helene Smith Photography. Her photography is  nostalgic, mid-century-style snapshots of Americana.

You have a lot of photos from Chicago and Michigan. Where is your favorite place to visit?

I haven’t been able to travel nearly as much as I would have liked to over the years for various reasons, but I actually really love to take weekend trips to rather small towns and find hidden little gems to shoot.

Your photos have a feeling of nostalgia. How do you get this feeling in your photos? Do you think it is something that comes naturally or is it a look you try to capture?

I have always been drawn to beautiful old things and beautiful odd (old and new) things and even things that are not beautiful, things that are ordinary and overlooked.

My work also looks a bit vintage because I try not to use any (if any at all) filters (effects). I might lighten a shot a little if it’s hard to see, but part of what I am trying to convey is exactly what I see so I don’t want to change it too much and that’s becoming rarer these days. So many photographers want to play with effects. Effects can be alot of fun, but that’s just not me. That’s not what I am trying to convey in my work.

How do you promote your shop?

I have a Facebook Fan page and I also use Twitter and Pinterest, online. Of I’m selling my work at an upcoming event, I will also try to put posters up at local businesses. And I still use email for special events.

Do you ever do craft shows?

Yes, I have done craft shows/art fairs for many years though usually just a few a year – holiday time and maybe a few in summer.

What do you hope for in the future with your shop?

There’s just so much I would like to do. I have so many photos that I’d like to add to my online collection, but it’s just a matter of time (each listing takes a bit of work when it’s new). I’d love to offer additional photo items like photo calendars and maybe some lockets at some point. 

Eventually maybe photo compilation books as well, specific to Chicago or Grand Rapids. On the other hand, I am a purist and I don’t want to clutter up my shop too much with much more than prints. I used to sell photo cards as well, and might add them back, too.

How to Organize Your CDs and DVDs

How many CDs and DVDs do you have? Why not toss out old media you don’t watch and organize the rest of your collection?

Swap Items

I used to use a site called Swap where you can build or get rid if of your DVD or CD collection. I pretty much got all the DVDs I own now from swapping them. Amazon also works well for selling or finding CDs and DVDs. You basically just pay for shipping for used items if you find them cheap enough.

Find Gems

Are you looking for rare items or autographed memorabilia? Check out Discogs for music fans where you can find rare CDs and vinyl. I have found some good deals off eBay. I have sold some autographed CDs there also and able to make some pretty good money.

Arrange Your Collection

If you have too many discs, I like this idea from Hi Sugarplum. Store CDs and DVDs in sleeves out of their case and put them in a wire basket with alphabetical tabs.

CDs or DVDs are great to display also. Pick your favorite items or autographed copies to frame or display. I have an old autographed Michelle Branch album sleeve from a CD in a photo frame. The album sleeve is opened up so you see all the artwork in the frame. A shelf is also is great for holding CDs. In my old bedroom, I glued down blank CDs to the bottom of a shelf and arranged my music CDs on the top of the shelf.

Let me know in the comments your favorite CD or DVD in your collection. 

Ways to Organize Memorabilia

We all have memorabilia of some sort; These are collections or objects that remind us of important people or events in our lives.

Does This Item Spark Joy? 

1. Lay all your items or like you did with other collections.
2. Look at each item and ask if it sparks joy or makes you happy. Does it remind you of a certain event or person? Does it give you happy memories?
3. If there are items you no longer want, see if you can hand these down to someone else. If it is from a collection, put them on eBay or trade them so you get a return on their worth.
4. Keep track of items you have if you want to stay on top of your collection. I like using a spreadsheet to write all items in a collecting. Using a tool like Airtable is a good idea. For photos, keep backups of old photos by scanning them digitally.
5. Display your items. Memorabilia can be great to display. Photos can be put in scrapbooks. Collections can be displayed creatively.

What Collections Do You Keep? 

One collection that is important to me is a glass frog collection from my grandmother. I like to display it on a shelf, but I could find a better way to display it. The glass frogs were originally in a glass case which is a nice way to keep them protected. Right now, the glass frogs sit on a glass lily pad. I am not sure if the glass lily pad was my grandmother’s, but it works perfectly for the glass frogs and helps give the collection a story.

Some other things I collect include autographed items and ticket stubs. I will do a longer blog post with my collections.

How do you store your memorabilia? 

Ways to Organize Clothing

What are some ways to organize clothing? It is essential to keep your clothing organized. Just by cleaning out your closet, you can help figure out your personal style and what you love.

Get rid of the unnessecary.

Outdated clothes? Clothes that have holes? Jeans that don’t fit? Toss them out! I recommend emptying your closet and making piles of clothes you no longer want, clothes you want to keep and clothes you aren’t sure of.

Use the handy infographic above I found on Pinterest to decide what to keep and what to toss.

Take care of what you love.

The capsule wardrobe theory recommends keeping 37 items you love. This doesn’t always mean keeping expensive items, but you should choose clothes that are high quality and you wear every day.

Take care of clothing you have so it lasts longer. I like this laundry chart above. Make sure to read instructions for washing clothes so they don’t wear out quickly. If you have items that have imperfections or missing pieces, fix them.

Give the items you keep a home.

Now, it is time to put all your clothing back. It can be a lot of fun to arrange your closet and clothing. Try color coordinating hangers by assigning different types of clothing a different color or arranging by season. I like to arrange my clothes by color in my closet or arrange items from light to dark.

In the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, the author recommends folding clothes and storing them vertically. You don’t have to do this, but I find some items benefit from folding while others work on a hanger. I keep clothes I wear for working out or sleeping in folded in a drawer while clothes I wear go in my closet on a hanger.

Accessories can be arranged using creative methods. Shoes can be arranged in shoe boxes with a photo of the shoe on the outside. Boots can be kept in shape by putting rolled up magazines inside them when not in use. If you have multiple scarves, hang them on a hanger.

In the next entry, I will talk about how I am personally trying to organize my clothing.

What are your tips for organizing clothes? Let me know in the comments or even use hashtag #mythreadofthought with photos.

Halloween Costume: Black Cat

For an outfit, use any black clothes you have. A black dress works. You can also use black pants or a black shirt with a black top. Use any black accessories you have such as earrings or bracelets. You can buy a tail and cat ears to complete the accessories.

For your nails, use black nail polish to look like claws. For eye makeup, you can use black eyeliner or face paint to fill in your nose black. You can add a bit of white eye shadow to the tip of your nose to add dimension. Add whiskers with black eyeliner or face paint. A dark color lipstick works well for the lips. For eye shadow, do a smokey eye look with gray and black eye shadow. Winged eyeliner also works well.

This look also works well for other cat or animal costumes. For example, if you want to be a leopard, you can switch the black dress for a leopard print dress and add leopard ears and a tail.

1. Asymmetric Chiffon Spliced Black Dress, MayKool, $39.99
2.Black Cat Dress Up Set, Claire's, $9.50
3. Colorful Eyeshadow in Black Lace, Sephora, $12
4. OPI Nail Lacquer in Black Onyx, Macy's, $9.50

Makeup Ideas for Halloween

You can be really fun and creative with makeup for Halloween. Makeup palettes, like eye shadow ones from Coastal Scents, are good for Halloween because they have a variety of colors. Having a good eyeliner, such as a black pencil or liquid eyeliner, is good for drawing on details. Here's some ideas I've found online:

If you want step by step videos on how to do makeup, makeup gurus on YouTube are a good place to look. They always have creative ideas for makeup for halloween. Here are some of my favorite videos. Just press play to watch them:







Check back soon for nail ideas.

How to Promote Your Business for Halloween

How can you promote your business or Etsy shop for Halloween? Here are a couple ideas;

• If you use a logo, find ways to make it Halloween theme. For example, you can add a pumpkin to your logo or add a witch hat to a logo character. 
• Offer some products ir items in your shop that are Halloween themed. For example, I have offered Halloween cards in the past in my Etsy shop. Orange and black colors work good for colors. Halloween is a good time to sell any type of costumes such as fashion costumes, masks, accessories or pet costumes. Treats or trick or treat bags are also good to sel. 
• Consider having a sale for Halloween. Offer a discount code for buyers to get a percentage off or free shipping. 
• Have a giveaway for Halloween. You can host a giveaway on your blog or social media.
• Change your social media graphics to fit a Halloween theme. Make some posts related to Halloween and repost/reblog/pin Halloween items.
• The winter holiday season is just around the corner so consider starting to offer Christmas and winter holiday themed items when Halloween ends.

What are your best business tips for Halloween?

How to Meal Prep

 

Do you meal prep? Meal prep is a method of preparing meals on bulk ahead of time. 

Plan Ahead

Keep a meal plan so you can plan ahead. You can find free meal plan printable at the bottom of this post. Also keep a grocery list for when you go shopping. Use apps like Yummly to help you find recipes in advance. I like that Yummly allows you to find recipes on different blogs and add ingredients to a shopping list the makes it easy to grocery shop. 

Prepare in Batches 

When you cook, try making your meals all at once in batches. You can chose a day of the week to make your meals for that week, such as Sunday. If you make a meal, make it on bulk so you can split it up throughout the week. For example, many soups and bean dishes are good to make in bulk in advance. Cut up vegetables and other items in advance. For example, carrots can be chopped up and saved to snack on. 

Store Food

You can store meals in tubberware, such as 20 piece sets you can find. Check how long certain foods last for and if you can freeze certain meals. Some foods will store better than others.

I sometimes try to meal prep if I am on a busy schedule. I like preparing my meals in advance to save time. It also a good way to know exactly what you are eating and eat healthy.

Do you meal prep? 

How to Price Your Handmade Products

 

 

If you want to sell items on Etsy, it's important to have a good product pricing strategy. You want to make sure you cover all your costs. You also want a consistent pricing formula throughout your items. People are usually willing to pay more for handmade items so don't be afraid to price a little higher than you think you should. 

Use this selling price formula as a guide for pricing your handmade work. See what price you come up with for each type of item you sell.

Materials 

The most important thing you want to cover in pricing is the materials you use to make your item. If your item price costs less than the materials you used to make it, you are losing money. 

Save all your receipts for Etsy related shopping trips and materials. Keep these in a folder or some other way to keep them organized like through the online service Shoeboxed  You will also use your receipts, especially ones for smaller and non material expenses, to calculate expenses. 

When you calculate your materials price, you should consider how much material you use for each item. I like measuring items like fabric or decorative paper in square inches. You can use the method of measurement that works for you. For example, find out how many square inches are in the full size of a product you bought. Then find how many square inches of a material you use in your item and use it to calculate the approximate price of the material you used. If you buy a roll of decorative paper that has 100 square inches and costs $4, a measurement of 25 square inches of decorative paper you use in a product would cost about $1. 

You only want to include the main materials you use in a product. Don't include smaller materials like thread or glue in your materials price. These go in to the expenses price. 

Expenses

What are expenses? Expenses are those hidden materials and costs. Hidden materials are things such as glue, measuring tape, scissors, thread and needle and other materials you use multiple times to make your products. 

Your packaging supplies and any materials you use to ship things are also expenses. Think of mailing envelopes, packages, bubble wrap, tissue paper and computer paper and ink to print out shipping labels. 

Materials you use multiple times and other things you pay for in your business can count as expenses. Your laptop and studio space are considered expenses. For bigger items, you should calculate the monthly price of them by thinking of how many months the expense will last and dividing it in to the total cost of the item. For example, if a $1200 laptop lasts for 12 months, the monthly cost is $100. 

Think about online expenses. Did you purchase web hosting or a domain? Do you pay for any Etsy related applications or services or computer software? This counts as an expense.

As you can see, the cost of expenses can add up. Every time you think of an expense, jot it down. 

So how do you figure out your "expenses" cost in the pricing formula? Add up all the expenses you thought of. How many items do you think you will sell in a month? Divide that number in to the total expenses costs. If you don't like the price you came up with, try altering what expenses you think you should include in your cost and play with the number of items you think you will sell in a month. 

Labor 

How do you find a fair labor to give yourself? Start by looking at the minimum wage in your state. If you don't want your price to be too expensive, start with the minimum wage. 

However, you should take in to consideration what is actually a fair price to pay yourself. Research what artists are paid per hour. Think about the skills you do. Do they require a lot of work? Is your talent unique? Do you do a skill not a lot of other people know how to do? Take all these things in to consideration.

To find your labor cost per item, time yourself or estimate how long it takes to make each item. For example, it may take you to 1 1/2 hours to make an item. Don't count drying or waiting times in to your timing. 

Now just multiple the hourly wage you gave yourself by the number of hours you worked. If you pay yourself $10/hour and it takes you 1 1/2 hours to make an item, your labor cost would be $15. 

Profit

Last, but not least is profit. Profit is how much you want to make per item. You can make this whatever you feel the item is worth. You want your hard work to pay off. You may tweak the profit depending on what your final price is. 

Wholesale Price

Add up everything in the formula sofar. This is your wholesale price. Where do you use your wholesale price? If you sell items in bulk or wholesale (such as to shops that want to sell your item), you should use this price. List your wholesale price on your line sheet if you have one. If you don't sell items in bulk or wholesale, your can just keep the price in mind if you have to use it later. 

Retail Price

Retail is twice your wholesale price. Retail is the price most customers will see. Use your retail price for your Etsy items. If you have a discount or sale on an item, just calculate the percentage off for the retail price. You can list your retail price as MSRP or manufacturer's suggested retail price, or list price, on your line sheet. 

I like using this formula to calculate my prices for each type of item I sell. Try plugging in the formula again for a different type of product. You may find using an exact formula works for your item or you may prefer to use the formula as a guide and come up with your own price. Other things you should consider are market trends and competition for similar items. You don't want a price that is completely different from other similar products being sold. Do what works for you and your business.

Want more tips on how to run an Etsy shop? Check out my new eBook, Needle and Thread. This eBook is all about running a creative handmade business on Etsy including pricing tips and how to grow your business. 

What pricing tips do you have? Let me know in the comments. 

Waldeinsamkeit: Forest Solitude

Did you know the word waldeinsamkeit is a German word that means the feeling of being alone in the words? It describes the feeling of being alone and also connected with nature. These are some images inspired by the word and defintion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have you had the feeling of waldeinsamkeit? Let me know what words inspire you in the comments. 

How I Went Vegan

I have been as vegan for several years. A vegan avoids all animal products for health, animal rights or environmental reasons.

My interest and love for animals started when I was little. I had lots of pets growing up and I loved horse back riding. I thought animals were just like people.

I became interested in animal rights in junior high. I discovered the PETA website and started learning about animal rights. I also read the book Fast Food Nation which talks about the fast food industry. I became cegetarian. 

 

In college, I volunteered for Mercy for Animals in New York City. I also worked at a local farm near my campus. I made a switch to a full vegan shortly after. I also read the book Skinny Bitch and became interested in veganism for health reasons as well as animal rights. 

I love being vegan because it benefits animals, my health and the environment. I also like experimenting with different vegan foods and recipes. 

You can check out my eBook, Vegan Made Easy  all about going vegan here. It contains recipes, nutrition tips and more. I think I am going to write another eBook about living.a vegan lifestyle. It will have more tips about going vegan such as where to find vegan beauty products, how to deal with social situations and more.  

If you are vegetarian or vegan, let me know in the comments.