My Latest Great (?) Idea

I drive my daughter Amanda crazy.  I know that.  I have that affect on people sometimes, because I just keep coming up with new ideas and changing my mind.  Take our shop for example.  When Amanda and I started on Etsy, we were Our Home To Yours.  I just opened a shop and picked a name with no thought or research.  Then we decided to "claim our domain".  Well, our name was being used by someone else!!!!  So, Amanda applied her college degree and after being in business for a year, we did a rebrand.  After months of discussion, we wanted the name Yankee Belle because that is what we are...but that name was taken also.  Bummer.  Amanda came up with the name Yankee Burrow because we were creating and selling items to make you and your home beautiful.  But....I had read somewhere that our name NEEDED to tell people what we do, so I suggested (against Amanda's advise) to add Creations to the the name.  Now, over a year later, I want to change.  Again.  Amanda has dropped out of this round. lol  So, while I have the domain name of YankeeBurrowCreations, I also have the domain name YankeeBurrow.  See, I did learn something.  Now for my latest great idea...a landing page for YankeeBurrow.  You all know that I sell on The Craft Star, and there I can sell my vintage, so Creations was not really needed.  But I don't want (can't afford) to build and maintain a website, so I created another blog here at Blogger and named it Yankee Burrow.

So, once I get the domain pointed correctly, when you enter Yankee Burrow, this is what you will see.

Every section of my shop with an explanation of what you'll find there.  Like Bethan says, every item has a story, and I can tell it here.  Now when I promote and push I can push just Yankee Burrow, and from here you can find me everywhere.  The bonus?  It's free.  :0)

My next step?  Transferring the domain to godaddy, making sure all my social sites are Yankee Burrow, and creating a new banner and avatar.

So, what do you think?

Be blessed,

Debbi

Why You Need A Light Box

The weather here (just like everywhere) has been really crappy lately, so I have not been able to take my items pictures outside in natural light.  I was taking my item pictures in my studio, but right now I don't have heat up there, so it's slowly turned into a storage shed more than anything else, and I can't get to my picture taking area.  So I decided to bring my background into my kitchen to take pictures of items so I could get them listed in my The Craft Star shop.  This is what I ended up with, even after "fixing" them with my Picasa program....a yellow tint on my white cards.  Yuck.

I auto exposed it...I lightened it...I tried everything, then just got flustered / frustrated and listed 2 cards this way.  On The Craft Star site there is a section of help where I found a link to instructions on making a light box.  So I went shopping for a box and paper and went to work.

 

Here it is with just the overhead light on.  Still kind of yellow. 

Here is is with 1 lamp.  I didn't like the shadow, much, so back to the store for another lamp for the other side of the box.

And here's the result.  Drum roll please.....

..........................

What a difference!!!!

So I spent a whole afternoon taking pictures of my new cards, and scarfs, and some vintage items I have yet to list.  Now to come up with tags and great descriptions....and yes, The Craft Star has a how to for them also.  :0)

You can find this card and my other ones, here in my Rusty Art section of my Yankee Burrow shop 

on The Craft Star.  And you can read about the history of my Rusty Art here.

So, do you use a light box???

Be blessed,

Debbi