Time got away from me again

It never ceases to amaze me how I make plans, try to create a routine, and time throws all my plans out a window. I had big plans to post a new design every week on my store to keep it fresh, make it easier to find in searches. I still have about three designs completed and ready to go. It's a simple matter of squeezing enough minutes into my day to do that and everything else. Unfortunately, that won't be today. Not until I clear my plate of a few more things. And get rid of a stubborn cold (or allergies or whatever it is). After I get the new design up, which takes more time than some might realize (You know what I'm talking about, right Ghost?), I will get my website updated. That needs to be a bigger priority than even new designs. If I can get people to my site, then they find my CafePress store and ALL of my designs. Keeping the store fresh helps someone find one of my designs. I want them all to be seen. :) I'm kind of greedy that way.

In the meantime, I've been reading a book suggested by a friend "I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was". I've only gotten through the first chapter so far. But it is a great start because it helps me to pinpoint when I stopped thinking about what I want and tried to do what others wanted me to do. The first chapter is called "What are you supposed to be doing?" As in, what does your family and friends think is right for you. In reading it, I realized I am basically doing what was expected of me. Nothing.

Growing up, I was expected to go to school, get decent grades, and that was about it. Plans for the future were never discussed. Not that talking ever really happened at my house.Hell, I never even got "the talk". Now, when I talk to family, it isn't about what I could be doing, but what I'm doing wrong.

"You're too smart to still be in retail." Ok, so what should I do instead? They say to get a job in the field I went to college for, but guess what? There are no entry-level jobs in my field unless I live in India. And I don't even know that graphic design will be anything more than a hobby or side business. I'm certainly not passionate about it. Unless I'm designing my Supernatural website. :D

I'm too fat, too plain-looking, and too single. But I never learned to do anything but exist. So yeah, that's what I do. One thing I did get from my family is the ability to have big ideas that I never do anything about. We are big on dreaming with no follow through. It is something I am working on (along with a bucket load of self-doubt; hmm, wonder where that came from?), but it will take time. And finding the thing that makes me happy.

New design number two

This one was more complicated. I got to use both Illustrator and Photoshop to complete it. The picture was obviously created with Illustrator, using the pen tool and the gradient mesh tool. I love the gradient mesh tool. It's also how I got the cool look to the butterflies on "Transformation". I haven't perfected the use of it, but it is a blast to play with. I use Photoshop for all of my text. The beveling and embossing are much easier to use in PS than in Illustrator. The font in this design begged for embossing. :) It kind of gives it that extra funkiness that is opposite of the manic look on the boxing sun. Thanks go out to my friend at work for coming up with the idea. I merely had to execute it.

New design!!

It took an unscheduled loss of internet to get my rear in gear, but I finally have a new design in my store. Actually, I've got four completed designs. I will put up one new design a week to help keep the store fresh for the search engines. Apparently that is a huge key to getting designs seen, a fresh front page updated regularly. They were all special requests from co-workers that were simple and quick to create. Most of what I've done and will post over the next few weeks took very little graphic design talent. Just the ability to make text look more interesting than black, blocky letters. But this first design is one I'd love to wear to my day job. Every retail employee should be allowed to wear it and wear it proudly. :D

The dark green one is for the light shirts and the the lighter one has a nifty white outline so it will pop on the black shirts. I opted for a fun font and color that were neither masculine or feminine. This design is for everyone.

The site

Finally the site is coming along great. I have content on almost all of the pages, though some of it needs to be changed. I put up my shirt designs without script to keep it from being copied. That will have to be changed very soon. I got most of the designs for Celestial Spiral's store up and linked directly to her store. We have to get this site to generate traffic to our Cafe Press stores as none of our designs come up in the first few pages of the search of the Marketplace. If you don't show up in the first few pages, you normally don't get seen. The Marketplace search is a lot like searching Google. If you don't find what you want on the first few pages, you give up and try a different search term.

All the site needs now is some graphics that will be free for all to use. After the content is added, I can start to get the meta tags and descriptions fixed to help with SEO. Then I can start to submit to other Pagan sites for link exchanges. From what I can tell, links back to my site from reputable sites can make a difference in Google search rankings. With the site well in hand, I can start refreshing my Photoshop and Illustrator skills in order to create more cool designs. It is busy circle of things always needing to be done.

Unexpected progress and a new name

As I mentioned on my main blog, I've made some strides creatively over the last few days. I got a new design up in my Cafe Press store and improved my word count on the Supernatural fan fiction story.

Tonight I made a huge leap towards one of my major goals. I've talked about, promised myself, and basically whined about needing an off store site to promote the designs that aren't being found right now, my Pagan designs. I'm thrilled that I'm making any sales, but the whole point of the store was Pagan graphics. I've owned my domain for at least two years. I paid for six months of web hosting before putting it to use. Well, happy dance all! I found a free template that was easy to tweak and to my liking. I now have 4 pages on my site with actual content. I will add more over the next few weeks. Then I can start getting the SEO stuff figured out. Check out my site at www.lunasgathering.com and let me know what you think. Time to be the guinea pig so my cohort in t-shirt design can know if it's worth it, if an off store site will generate any traffic

I am changing the name of this blog as it will now be the official blog of the website. I really want to work on brand name recognition and having the name in as many places as possible will help.

All quiet on the creative front

I only have one bit of news here. I finally have another computer. A brand spanking new beautiful laptop that will help me with many creative things. And shouldn't die on me anytime soon. She's an HP Pavilion dv6000 model with loads of memory and an awesome video card. And thanks to a suggestion by a dear friend, I've decided to give her a name. Maybe that way, she'll stick with me for many years to come. Don't laugh. I know the name is a bit cheesy, but it's part me and part my obsession that has inspired me to try new creative things. I christen the new baby computer Artemis Winchester. Told you it was cheesy, but it makes me smile. :D It does fit though. The goddess of the hunt should naturally be a Winchester and I identified very much with her long before I met the Brothers Winchester. And this baby will churn out many a fun Supernatural fan fiction story, if I have my way. I also have a general idea for series of Pagan designs. It's only a matter of specific details and implementation. I hope they work out the way my mind sees them and the newly loaded graphics software doesn't fight me. Photoshop and Illustrator have both been known to do that on occasion. Probably just user error. :D

Not much new

I haven't been able to meet my planned goals for the end of 2007, though this time not due to my own procrastination. Thanks to a dead computer (yet again) I haven't gotten any new designs or the website for my store created. Thankfully, none of my designs were permanently lost. The layered files were all saved to a CD the last time my computer started acting up. The crash also took the only digital copy I had of my fan fiction stories. Luckily, the one-shot was uploaded to fanfiction.net. My multi-chapter story started during NaNoWriMo wasn't, but I do have a hard copy. I'd printed them out so I could make additions and changes on my lunch breaks. I'll have to re-type almost 15k words. At least I don't have to rely on my memory. And I can add the new stuff as I go along.

I hope to have lots of creative news to report as soon as I have a proper working computer again. That should be no later than the end of February.