I have to learn Photoshop

I'm just about to get eBay caught up.  I already would be caught up if I hadn't spent 2 straight days struggling to print labels with the Avery website.  I love my new computer but Windows 8 is so new and so different that a some things just aren't compatible with it.

My stepson is going to install a deluxe addition of Photoshop on my computer for Mothers day.  Then I get the joy of trying to learn how to use it.  He offered to show me but I find I learn better when figuring things out for myself.

I went to take picture of a nearby country graveyard last week and was disappointed by the amount I got.  When i got home I went searching for graveyard stock photos and came across a lot of stuff like this.
 This is an image made from other stock images pieced together.  I should know how to do this if I'm going to sell stock photos. Plus I need the ability to edit my own photos.  I've seen some truly stunning desktop wallpaper made the same way this photo was made.

Still working hard to catch up,

EBay has slowed down to a comfortable pace but I'm still struggling to catch up.  Amazon has not slowed down.  We thought it had but as soon as the whole bombing fiasco was over sales picked up again.  The fact that I have to help my husband with certain more difficult orders keeps me from catching up the eBay store in the time it should be caught up. 

When it comes to the two sources of income I could like to create I decided to focus mostly on the photography end and work on the writing one later.  The reason being I think I will be able to build the photography in faster.  I have read several different articles about selling stock photos and only one was negative.  The one that was negative didn't know anything about internet sales.  It’s a numbers game.  The more you have you sale the more sales you’re going to make.  The man who wrote the negative article I read uploaded 8 pictures across a few websites and then complained because he only made 2 dollars.  Imagine if you uploaded 8000 pictures.  Now let’s look at some other figures. I read another article about a man who was in college.  He had 30,000 stock photos uploaded on 1 high traffic stock photo website and was making 5 grand a month off of those photos.  We will call the man who uploaded only 9 photos George and the man who uploaded 30,000 Fred.   If you take Fred’s 30,000 and divide it by Georges 8 photos and then multiple that by the 2 dollars 7500 dollars a month.   George’s photos were uploaded across several different websites and Fred uploaded his to only 1 website.  What’s awesome about selling stock photos is I don't have to package ANYTHING and your uploaded photos don't go anywhere.  You continue building your stock each and every day.  You may eventually read a point when you have 100,000 photos up.  Divide that by 8 and multiply it by 2 and you have 25,000 a month.

This is why I will be pursuing the stock photo option first since I'm still unsure about my writing skills.  

If I wanted to have 30,000 photos in the first year I would have to upload 82 photos a day.  That's a lot of photos.  I would like that to be my goal but I don't know if I can come up with that many things to photograph every single day.

My husband has agreed to build me a little studio in the house.  I would like it to be something I could fold up into a little table when not in use.  

At last!!!! The busy season slows down!!

I decided when business started to slow down for the season I would start exercising and get back down to a reasonable clothing size.  I would like to see a size 8 before winter but a size 10 would do.  I'm a size 16 now.  A size 16 is the largest I have ever been and I am pissed about it.  My weight is currently at 175 pounds.  This is the heaviest 1 have ever been and I have lost a LOT of muscle. Every time I sit at this damn desk I swear I can feel my ass spreading that much more.  For a girl that has worn a size 3 for most of her adult life it’s very frustrating.  

I plan to start my day with exercise and then exercise throughout the day. I also have been working on building up 100 calorie portions in the fridge.  I have a vegetable soup and a few 1/2 cup containers of refried beans right now as well as cuties and apples in the fridge and frozen blueberries and blackberries in the freezer (frozen blueberries and blackberries are my favorite snack).   I plan on looking up the calories in sautéed mushrooms here in a bit.  I also read the popcorn without butter and powdered seasonings is a great 100 calorie snack.  Variety is important for me because I don't want get tired of something and start craving and screw the whole thing up.  

My computer just corrected my grammar for me, lol.  

I don't think it’s quite slow enough for writing yet.  Maybe in a week or so when I'm a little bit more caught up.  As of right now I'm still behind on orders but with it slowing down I will catch back up.  

4 years ago when I started the seed store I did so because I thought it would give me more time to write and to exercise.  HA!!!!  Little did I know.

And people wonder why I sleep so late. . .

I dreamed of a cult leader who was a major fake.  He was type that collected people’s money all the while planning to lead them to their deaths.  The compound he built was supposed to protect them from the end of the world, but it was actually designed to collapse in on them at the push of a button.  He was not above killing to protect his secret either.  His compound was built on an old city block where the original buildings still existed underground.  These buildings were full of decaying bodies.  They were people he had murdered to keep his dark secret.

Later when the cult leader was defeated I invited a group of people over whose lives had been affected over for a little gathering to discuss our experiences.  They were strangely obsessed with my sweet tea.  I had to keep making it until they left.

 After my little get together and while people were still lingering (while I was wishing they would leave) I found an owl that was supposed to have been my pet.  I’d been letting it fly free for some time.  It played with me, flying along with me as I ran through a green field at dusk with it.  Then it turned into a magnificent white horse and ran with me jumping over buildings and bounding over the grass as if it had wings.  

I decided once it became an owl again I should put it in its cage for the night and make sure it was well fed and had a good place to sleep, but the owl wasn't happy about it.  I started wondering if it had eggs somewhere because I didn't know if it was a male or female.   I woke up when I was on the computer searching for information on when owls lay eggs.  

And now for events from the real world.  My husband has taken off in my new/used Mercedes while I was asleep.  My stepson is in the bathroom and has just yelled "OMG this poop is amazing, oh yeah, it’s solid."  Sometimes I really hate that kid.  My stepdaughter has crawled out of bed and is mumbling something about still being asleep.  

I Know Why the United States Post Office is Going Bankrupt!!!!

It’s because they SUCK!!!!  I deal with the USPS every single day and I am so sick of it!

They lose packages ALL of the time.  I literally replace 6 or 7 missing items every single day.  These are items with tracking numbers that simple "dead end".  If you go to the post office and ask about them you get excuses and people pointing fingers and no one saying they can truly help you.

 I send off 300 non-machinable envelopes just about every day and I get 10 or 15 emails a day from people whose envelope was machined and the contents damaged as a result.  I pay an extra 20 cents per envelope for a service that I may or may not get.  If I complain I am told I should write non-machinable on the envelope.  I once had a stamp made that said non-machinable in big capital letters and put it on every envelope in red ink and the result was my customers had even more crushed envelopes than they did before I stamped them!  I threw the stamp away.

International tracking numbers stop tracking once they leave the United States.  I do not understand this.  In this day and age we should have no problem tracking an envelope to a tiny island on the other side of the world.  China can track a package or envelope from the moment the postage is printed until it arrives in my hands but here in the United States we can't.  What kind of sense does that make!!

Unfortunately it’s not cost effective to ship my little packages of seeds by any other method that first class USPS.

Tonight as I packaged and packaged all day and most of the evening and then stopped at 10pm to answer emails (all of which involved problems with the USPS) I found myself thinking of alternative methods to earn a living.  Once again, there won't be a chance to try any of these until my busy season starts to slow down (which should be any minute now).  I do take the time to take photographs with my super awesome camera as the seasons outside change.   I took the camera to my mother's Easter cookout the other day and took photos of Easter eggs in baskets, in the grass, tucked into little corners of the yard and clumps of grass.  I took pictures of her rolls while they were rising and after cooked as well as the potato salad and barbecued ribs.  I took pictures of some rusty old car parts my dad had stacked behind his tool shed.  I snapped a photo of a stump from a huge sycamore tree my parents cut down in the front yard last year still marked with stains where it bled sap.  I even took some pictures of my dad’s enormous stack of firewood he already has cut up and ready for the up and coming winter (he believes in being well prepared, lol).  Yesterday, I took a moment away from packaging to take pictures of a honey bee on dandelion blossoms and my pretty little slate gray Momma kitty resting in a regal kitty cat fashion on the rock wall out front with her lovely yellow green eyes peering into the camera.  Then I got my left hand dirty and took a few pictures of it holding various objects like dried beans, an apple, exc.

 The idea of sources of income that can be downloaded instead of being shipped by a less than competent post office sounds nicer and nicer with every email I answer from a customer with a missing order.  I will probably always deal in seeds and plants but I would like it to be on a much smaller scale.

I LOVE this car!!!!!!!

I got my new/used car today and I totally understand why people who buy a mercedes once tend to stick with that brand of car.  This thing is 9 years old and I am in love.  I find myself imagining myself selling it in three years when the extended warranty is up and buying a newer model.  I do love that gun metal grey color I saw on the website.     

Look what I found

These are one half cup containers.  I didn't know they made these.  I can make up 1/2 cup servings for my diet which has been totally ruined this week.