The Drawing Board

Recently my husband and I decided to try our luck an outdoor venue.  Considering the price and the location, we felt it would be an excellent opportunity. This was not the case.  You would think I would know better, but I have been out of the game for a while, especially an outdoor event, I have forgotten a lot.   I made some critical mistakes.  Ones I will not repeat again.  Rookie mistakes.  And I am no rookie.

Number one - I let the price/length of the event cloud my judgement.  I was certain I could make my money back.  I didn't do my homework, ask enough or the right questions.

Number two- I did not check the weather forecast for the weekend.  It rained for better part of the first day.   I also broke my tent(another bad idea.  Never buy a tent on sale at Kmart). EZ Up are the way to go.   You do what you have to do.

Number three - I did not have the necessary outdoor equipment.  Chairs, weights(the wind did not die down until 3 pm), cover sheets, extra tarp, shower hooks, alternate setup.  I use to keep a bag with safety pins, small hammer, clips, rope, rubber bands, bricks, plastic.  This might seem a lot, but when you are outside anything can happen.

Number four - I did not do recon on the surrounding area.  Most advertising is done weeks in advance with poster, mailings, signs in strategic places. 

 
The next time I will not be caught off guard.  Never again.

Picture This

It was a lovely vacation.  I went to see my family and hopefully work on old contacts and line up some new shows.    Now that I am at home, I need to get back to the task at hand and make some more jewelry.   First, I need to add my completed pieces on my Etsy Store.   For some reason, every picture I tried to take came out a little fuzzy.  I made adjustments and still, fuzzy.   I asked my camera what was the problem and all I got was the silent treatment.  Camera always has an attitude.   I asked my lights was their problem.  I got some mumbo jumbo.  I always suspected they were a little dim.   So here I am at my dining room table, trying to find a way to get this pictures on my site.  I had investigated this idea before about building a light box, but some of tutorials seem so complicated.  I thought I would give it one more try.   I found the one site on You Tube.   Naturally I typed in home mad light box and this is the video I found and liked.  Simple construction.

So I went out and brought the materials, and I only spent $8.00.   I came home and went to work.   Now I am very proud of my homemade light box.  Very proud and sensitive.  I have not tried it yet, but I will tomorrow.  I will show you the result in another post. One more thing.  I had watched other videos and they suggest adding strips of white board to cover up the cardboard on the inside.  I opted not to do that step.   If I see that I need to add the additional white board, then so be it.    You be the judge of how my light box looks compared to the tutorial.


This is the inside of the complete box



This is a side shot after I inserted the poster board


 

This is bottom of the light box.  It doesn't look pretty.   I will try better next time



This is one of the opening for the light box.  Per the instructions on the video, I cut two more opening, top and the other side.