Another Month Gone! Ennui, websites and newsletters!

This year is just flying by... I had plans which I wrote down then lost, then found again and now can't make head nor tail of. Surprisingly in these plans was absolutely nothing about making a bird a day or holding auctions... or should that be unsurprisingly as I'm not the most organised person in the world!

The good news is the Feltmeupdesigns Newsletter has now got over 100 subscribers, you can join up here on my website. The newsletter gives you automatic entry into all my giveaways so you will never miss one and subscribers get discount codes for my shop delivered straight to their inboxes!

Now I have found the plan I am hoping to get back on track with things, I've been to the studio this week for the first time properly in 2 weeks and I am nearly on top of my gallery orders. Since closing down my Inkmeup shop I still haven't re photographed all my prints so that's priority one. Many of them I only have one of so they are going into my Etsy Shop where stock control is easier.

Priority 2 is rephotographing everything, updating all my product listings and having a cull of products that just don't sell anymore. This is a hard one for me, I'm incredibly attached to some of the designs but I need to be realistic and if they aren't selling I need to move on. It's also hard on another level as since the beginning of 2014 I am basically making everything to order, so to rephotograph things they need making first.

I've started slowly with prints and the big owls, you get some funny looks walking through the woods with an owl and a camera!

My website is also in dire need of an update and I am looking around for other options to my webstore. The hardest part of running this business is having to be a jack of all trades, you have to be maker, photographer, designer, accountant, web designer... and a hundred other things which totally get in the way of the fun stuff!

If you've been following me a while you'll know this year has been a tough one for me, so I bit the bullet and went to the Doctors, waiting on some test results but the verdict is they will all be negative and I have stress related depression (again). I've struggled with depression my whole life so it's a blow to be back here again, I'm hoping that things will improve as the summer arrives and the weather improves so I can be at the studio more. The leaking roof at the studio really was a blow, not being able to use the space as intended for so long was heart breaking and really put a dent in my plans. Fingers crossed it's fixed now and I can move on.

 I'm hoping to launch some new designs next month... watch this space for updates!

Bird a Day: Day 31: Last Day Dodo Bird

Bird a Day: Day 31: Last Day Dodo Bird

 

It's the last day... which has me feeling kinda sad... mostly because now I might have to get back to doing some proper work and I have to do my accounts next week. Mostly I am feeling a little sad because it's been good fun... hard at times but good fun too. There are so many more birds I want to make, I'm really hoping that I can keep my creativity flowing and come up with some new designs to offer in my shop now!

I decided to finish with the Dodo partly because someone requested him and also because he's a warning from history. The Dodo bird was the first species we know to have been made extinct by humans... it's the bird that was too naive to run away and too tasty for sailors.

Poor Dodo!

he Dodo used to walk around,

And take the sun and air.

The sun yet warms his native ground—

The Dodo is not there!

The voice which used to squawk and squeak

Is now forever dumb—

Yet may you see his bones and beak

All in the Mu-se-um.

by: Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953)

Bird a Day: Day 25 - Griffon Vulture

Bird a Day: Day 25 - Griffon Vulture

Mr Felt will be pleased... he's been asking me to make a vulture for ages!

Bird a Day: Day 17: Seagull

Bird a Day: Day 17: Seagull

These chaps (along with pigeons) are probably the birds I see most of! Living in a seaside town they are unavoidable, be it nesting on cliffs or mugging tourists for chips you are never far from a seagull in Scarborough!

As usual I got carried away taking photos and took too many!