Final Details for Moab

Less than a week until we start driving toward Moab! I still have to make my necklace but I have most details taken care of. My dear seamstress has taken in my dress a bit in hopes of avoiding any 'Marilyn' moments in the wind and I should have a shiny silver bracelet to wear with my necklace if I ever make it back to the post office.
I'm shopping for a new camera for the trip. I've been looking at Nikon, they have a lower priced digital SLR that looks nice. I'm so disappointed with my Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W80. Not the worst camera but it's lower res predecessor was much better. Low light shots are a mess with noise and it's just really inconsistent. Won't be going that route again. Anyways. . . 
These are my shoes for the ceremony, not perfectly comfortable but cute with rhinestones:

Re-Sizing and Saving Your Photos and Files

Today's post is about pixels and printing and photos. Here is a good practice to make sure you never lose a great photo because you re-sized it too small.

How to Save Your Photos When Editing:

1. Open the photo you want to edit.

2. IMMEDIATELY do a SAVE AS. This makes sure you are now editing a new version of the photo and any changes you make will not effect the original. You always want to keep the original as it was. Go to the 'File' menu and select 'Save As' .

3. Choose a name that briefly describes your photo and select where to save it on your computer.

4. Now your original is safe in case there is an "Oh no!" during editing. (Of course you should also back up your photos from time to time!)

Good Info/Rules About Sizing:

1. If you are using your photo on the web or via email the file can be much smaller than if you want to print it. Smaller means less pixels. When I email photos I keep them around 400px (pixels) X 700px, at 72dpi (dots per inch)–100dpi: this gives the viewer a nice size to look at on their computer, it will send quickly, and it won't be high resolution for printing (if you don't want it copied). The file size shouldn't be too big (200KB a little more a little less).

2. If you are going to print the photo then you want a resolution of 300dpi (a lot more pixels!). This is important. Web sized photos are 72dpi, they don't print clear or large. They look nice on the screen but don't be fooled they won't print nice.

3. This is important!!! Once you take out pixels, they can't be replaced! Let me repeat, once you take the pixels out (make the picture smaller in size, like for the web) you can not get those pixels back or put them back into the picture. That is why you ALWAYS do a 'Save As'.

Is this helpful? Let me know, it's the first post like this, of many more to come. Coming up. . . Re-sizing Options. 
Send questions my way too, I'm happy to help!
~Colette

p.s.
Funny (not so funny) story. . . my first digital camera was a whopping 1.3 megapixels! I spent over $400 on it back in 2000-ish. And, of course, I knew nothing of resolution at the time, being a new graphic design student. So at least a couple years worth of photos are only viewable on a computer screen. If I print them they are approximately 1.5 inches in size. Luckily for me, I had a film SLR camera, so not all memories were lost.

New banner for blog

SO this is not exactly what I had pictured and I am still working on some other versions. . . what do you think? I just couldn't look at my sloppy place holder any more.
I also want to create my own background and get rid of the dull gray. I like gray a lot but it's too dark for me :)

New earrings in Hematite and Turquoise Blues

I took so many pictures and had such high aspirations, however, only 2 pair of earrings have been listed. I'm too tired, I'll admit it. I just woke up in my daughter's bedroom, apparently the chair was comfortable enough for me to sleep in. Yawn! Time to go to bed. Here's the two pair I listed:

Turquoise Blues Dangle Earrings on Etsy

Stacked Hematite Dangle Earrings on Etsy

I really like this design. Look for more like these but different colors!

Vintage Ring-A-Dings brochure c.1973

I love finding interesting, graphic, funny, and informative vintage papers. Here's a Ring-A-Ding Ringcraft brochure from the seventies. Some great retro crafts for some brave soul to modernize!

"Crafts that built America strong are popular as Hobby Craft today. You can do your creative "thing" with Gould's idea rings"
My personal favorite is the pipe holder for the prince in your life–Kate, take notice.
I do really like the mobile idea, I've been wanting to create a mobile for each of my children's rooms and haven't done it yet. I was thinking more like butterflies and airplanes.
Check back for the next vintage brochure: ACME Juicerator (seriously!)

Frisco Texas In All It's Glory!

I need to re-live my warm happy weather days in Frisco. Here's a few pictures to look at. Didn't do the best job on photos this time around. . .

These were at a park near our hotel in Frisco. There were fountains and stone pathways winding through trees. Cactus, ponds, trees with weird roots, turtles and bulls. My husband noticed the statues were out of proportion and I offered him my "David" statue theory from Art History class. The heads are bigger for the viewer on the ground, so as to make it look more in proportion. He didn't believe me.

La Hacienda! The BEST EVER EVER fajitas I have EVER EVER had. YUM! And a tall Blood Orange Margarita that wasn't half bad. Living it up sitting in the patio by the fire. 

If only I'd had my camera for that Road Runner in the parking lot at the hotel.

So overall, Frisco seems like a nice place to go if you have a little money to spend. Everyone looked great. Not a shabby car in the lot, or any lot near us. I'll admit, I felt the need to get a hair cut and a new outfit just to hang. Which was a good thing. I needed a little sprucing up and this trip did it for me.
Now, what is this?

Ok, I know what it is . . .but really?

Craft fair ideas and lessons learned

So like I said yesterday, my truck broke down on the way to my first craft fair. I think it was a blessing in disguise, it kinda took the pressure off. I didn't like setting up late but it gave me a chance to simplify. I took in the basics and got started.
I learned:
1. Price everything ahead of time. (I knew this but ran out of time so I was pricing some things as I set up.)

2. Have a plan of how to set up your display. I took a couple small metal shelves that I spray bombed white to match each other. I only used one and it worked well to add some height to my booth. I didn't know what to expect but everything turned out ok!

3. Don't forget your business cards, receipt book, seller's permit, pens, paper, chairs, sense of humor, etc. And your smile. A few vendors really looked unhappy and I couldn't help avoiding their tables.

4. I was planning on charging sales tax but I didn't find any other vendor that was. SO I didn't. I did think about making a tax chart so I wouldn't have had to use a calculator.

5. I sell jewelry, prints, cards and vintage items. I used my vintage dishes to display my earrings and it worked well and looked nice. I displayed my prints in a vintage file box.

I met some really great people that I hope to keep in contact with. I'm definitely no pro after this first run but I have a better handle on how I want to display my wares next time. And I definitely want to get out there and do it again.
If anyone has any ideas and lessons learned please share!
ps. I have to get some pics of my awesome craft fair barters and purchases. I'll share as soon as I do!