Photoshooting

I've (finally) decided on my shop colours! Red, black, and wood colours, beige en brown. Warm and strong colours, but not too feminine. The dark grey in the logo en website are not a bad combination with this, but I might change the colour to a warmer dark brown just to be sure. We'll see how it looks when the photo's are integrated in the website.

It is also a good colour scheme for fall, winter and the holiday season, I think. Maybe around spring, I'll change to a grey with lighter blues and greens? Would be nice to do things like that in the future.

But, for now it is dark, warm and red colours. I tend to move to those colours anyway. Dark orange en red hues have always been favourites of mine, and when I walked around in the IKEA for props, those came naturally together. Did I say I'm really happy with it?

So... I'm currently in the process of creating stages for my jewelry and making decent product photo's. It's really difficult because I tend to over-think on the stages while I should just try things out, while at the same time I also want the shop pictures to look cohesive. Demands, demands! Ah well, they'll be done when they're done.

I also went to a make-up make-over/photoshoot: me in full make-up? Whaaat?

Okay, if you don't know me in person this might not have come across as shocking, but for those who do it certainly must have been unexpected. I'm really not adverse to using make-up, I just simply never use more than a teeny bit of eyeliner and maybe some concealer where necessary. Too much of a hassle, and an abundance of make-up usually looks weird on me anyway. But last week I went to do a photoshoot at a drugstore (they had a special event) where a make-up artist did my make-up and a photographer shot some pictures, I certainly liked the result. Wow!

So: now the challenge of learning to recreate that look. And find a hat. I want a hat. Really.

Okay, now from airs and graces back to the mundane: due to consistent design-activities-induced negligence in the household department, our house is currently in a state of Greater Mess (instead of the usual great mess) and some major maintenance would be in place. I tend to lose track on what needs to be done and become overwhelmed by all the chores, so I decided to make things a bit more fun & organized. And with fun, I mean a cross-check list with all the tasks that are not the normal daily/weekly cleaning chores. Not to be crossed but to be stamped or something. With a self-made stamp or something, I don't know yet. Something fun, at least.

Looking fun enough already? Some examples of the chores include:
- slap the big pile of mood board pictures I cut out earlier onto a big sheet of paper (i.e. make a mood board, but don't take too long)
- empty the stairs of 'needs to be taken up/downstairs' stuff
- sew a second curtain
- sew a third curtain and get J. to go to the hardware store for curtain rails (despite all emancipation, he's the in-house technician and I do not wish to be bothered with such tasks. My excuse: he's better at these things than anyone I know, including me)
- make an easy to access drawings & drawing paper filing folder for on my desk (as I'm starting to draw more nowadays, this is becoming a necessity: drawings everywhere!)
- file the big pile of 'finished but to needs to be saved just in case' administration
- collect old shoes to take to the recycling bin (you know, the ones that are completely worn down but still kept 'just in case' and subsequently forgotten for years)
- and of course the many 'empty and deep-clean this tiny little corner of the house, that specific shelf, that box over there, etc etc' tasks

I'm going to try doing one of these tasks every day. It should all take less than an hour, otherwise it'd take up too much of my time and energy, and by having both big and small tasks, I should be able to adapt it to my energy level each day. To make it even more attractive I might have to come up with little rewards, but at the moment I really can't come up with any. We'll just see how it goes!

And lastly, a little creative mini-project. Some time ago, I received a letter from my friend F. (btw, she has a blog as well, in Dutch though: Festina Lente). An actual handwritten letter, not an email! Receiving (and writing) a letter is just so much more fun than emailing. It made my day (thanks F.!). Of course I wrote a letter back, and because I felt like doing a small creative activity, I cut a bookmark to put in the envelope as well. I've made bookmarks before, and I love doing this (I've made a pile of those before). You can make it as simple or complicated as you want, and the end result is always useful!