Sunny weather in San Francisco

It's been sunny and hot in San Francisco this past week. Enjoyed spending some time walking around the Financial District on my lunch break and dog watching at Duboce Park this weekend. Soaking in the great weather until the fog creeps back in!

Shopping in Style

In San Francisco and many other local counties, if you don't bring your own bag when shopping (and not just grocery stores!) you are charged 10 cents a bag. Now those 10 cents certainly add up over time so instead of some ugly, cheap 99 cent bag that you can get at Walgreens, why not carry your groceries, shampoo or newly purchased shoes in a stylish bag instead? Check out these awesome bags that are available from local and international Etsy sellers.



The Heated



LadyAlamo



eleventyfive



HappyFantastic



bluecalla


  thenosuchdisco

Photographing SFO

Hello Blog World! It's been too long! It's been a busy last couple months and decided to revive my blog. Ha. I know. I recently got some of my negatives scanned (finally!) and had some images that I shot at the San Francisco International Airport back in ... err, 2004? Well, quite a long time ago. Here are some of my favorites.

Holiday Show Season

Thanksgiving is over now in the States, which means the holiday season is in FULL SWING! If you've been living under a rock, there's tons of art and craft shows going on to get you all set and make your holiday shopping easy! The SF Etsy Team has been busy to gear up for the holidays from Black Friday and Cyber Monday discounts and perks.

One of the big shows going on as usual during this time of year is Bazaar Bizarre which is being held at the Concourse Exhibition Center here in San Francisco December 1st & 2nd. The SF Etsy Team will be there promoting the team along with a Pop Up Shop! I'll be there helping out and you'll find my photo greeting cards for sale along with several other members. We'll also be handing out information about our team and also a map showing where you can find other team members who are selling at the event that weekend (over 50!).

Be sure to stop by this weekend and do a little shopping!

Black and White

A few black and white photos from the past couple weeks.

Union Square from Macys

Ferry Building Marketplace

Muni Platform

Photos at the STUDIO Gallery in San Francisco

I have several photo pieces up at the STUDIO Gallery here in San Francisco! The opening reception for "tiny" was just this past Sunday where a couple of us SF Etsy members are also being featured in the show. All pieces of work are no bigger than 7"x7" so there's a A LOT of pieces in the studio. Over 200 artists! I walked into the gallery for the first time since the show started on the 8th and saw a red dot next to my piece. How exciting! Below are some photos from the show ...

Dani of The Recoverie , Jen co-owner of the gallery and Eko of Eko Jewelry Design

Debbie of Bluehour Studio

Me next to my sold work
If you happen to be in San Francisco, be sure to pop by the gallery! Work will be up until December 23rd. For more info, check out the gallery website.

Showing off packaging

On Friday, a couple members of the SF Etsy team came over for our business meeting focusing on packaging. If you're like me, you can spend hours looking at packaging samples because I love being inspired and seeing what creative ways people present their products.

My packaging is currently a work in progress. I'm trying to come up with ways to present my prints (I sold one for the first time this month!) so the customer doesn't just get a print in a cello bag.

Below is what I've come up with for packaging up my individual photo greeting cards and the other is a mock up for how I packaged up the print to a customer.

Some of the feedback regarding packaging for my prints is to use a sticker, larger stamp (possibly my shop name/logo) and also including a note that says how to care for your print. It was also suggested to include frame sizes for the print ordered or mat sizing. Things I hadn't even thought of! Really useful information.

Megan of Vantastic Vintage said that she is going to step up her packaging again because before she used to wrap things up nicely, sometimes include a little freebie, but after ordering vintage items from other sellers on Etsy, she thought she was doing too much. She's said that everyone has pretty much tossed the item in a bag, slapped the Paypal label on the envelope/box and shipped it off. We all gasped!! What, you mean the seller didn't put in a note saying thank you, no tissue paper ... nothing?? YUP! OMG!! After seeing all our packaging she said she's gonna totally bring back her extra touch because it makes her stand out. We all thought that even though she sells vintage, it doesn't mean it you should just toss it in an envelope. Just a food for thought vintage/clothing sellers!

Eko, Even, Cristiana and Audra all sell jewelry and have similiar packaging of using boxes. Eko does awesome packaging and of course, I totally failed to get a photo of it, but we all were "oooooo-ing" and 'awwwww-ing" at it. She puts some serious care into packing up her pieces, even including information on how to care for the pieces when the customer receives it.

Even's packaging (L), Cristiana's packaging (R)

Overall, it was a great meeting. I loved seeing everyone's packaging and the suggestions given.

What are your favorite packaging tips? How much does packaging make an impression on you when you order something handmade?

Dinner anyone? Part 2

Oh boy it took me 2 days and several hours to go through all those pics. Here's some more to entertain you. This time, it's of the staff prepping for the evening.

Dinner anyone?

I had the awesome opportunity to photograph a restaurant earlier this week. I mainly focused on the kitchen which I must say, was quite calm! I photographed Alexander's Steakhouse located in the SOMA District in San Francisco. It's near AT&T Park and the Caltrain Station.

I did this project purely for fun to try and photograph something I normally wouldn't think of photographing. It was also a great opportunity use the various modes on my camera. I must say it was pretty tricky with all the different lighting!

I'll be posting some more photos of my experience, but the staff was awesome!! It's made me really appreciate the amount of work that goes into getting food on the table. So be nice to those who serve your food to you!

The staff totally let me photograph them as they were working and I don't know about you, but I probably wouldn't want anyone photographing myself working, but then again I work at a desk most of the day. I loved it, they were even saying, "Did you get a picture of that, that's where the action is!" Awe yeah!

So here are some of the food shots ... I'll be posting more over the next week or so. Sorry if it makes you hungry.

Beautifying the City

I was on my way home after doing some errands at Church & Market here in San Francisco and as I was waiting for the N-Judah, I noticed several of the utility boxes had been painted and were now covered with beautiful flowers. I glanced over and saw a guy talking to a woman who was standing at a utility box painting it. It took me a few minutes to get that the woman was the one who painted the other boxes. I decided to head over and get a better look at the box. Here, I met Mona Caron. Whatever she was painting looked interesting, but I didn't really get it. So she told me to stand at the left side corner, facing Out of the Closet looking towards Safeway. Below is what I saw:

Cool, huh? She in fact painted the mural you'll find behind Safeway. And I don't know how many times I've seen that mural wondering who the heck painted it, and here I was talking to the artist herself! Mona's a super sweet woman.

A man was walking by who stopped to look at what she was doing and just had to take a pic. Then another man was walking by who lives in the neighborhood saying how much he appreciates her work because she's beautified his home. How nice, huh?

She's painted other murals all over San Francisco, including a mural in the Tenderloin, Dolores Heights, Noe Valley and the Mission. She also has work in other countries such as Boliva and Switzerland. I must say it's a beautiful thing to see a blank space being transformed, however big or small it maybe. And I also realized that she, like many artists, is sharing her work with the world and leaving her mark for thousands and thousands of people to see and enjoy as they go about their lives. Whether they're heading to the store, meeting up with friends, whatever it maybe. It's work that everyone of any walk of life can enjoy and appreciate. Thanks Mona for beautifying San Francisco with your beautiful art! You can find her website here and go like her Facebook page!