Leona Lane

PROJECT LIFE | PHOTOS & WORDS

 

This Project Life spread is about as simple as it gets! In the summer, it is nice to keep projects like this easy and fast. I didn't do more than print photos and write words. I did not use any stamping, stickers, or embellishments. I certainly love those things, but I felt like this week was colorful enough, and the photos really told the story. With all that said, here was my week:

Sunday was Renae's pop-up Market, and Lucy and I visited and "helped" a few times throughout the day. We also did a little shopping of our own, so I included the cards of the small businesses that we shopped at. Also on Sunday, we had a little birthday dinner for Matt, who turned 31 recently. (Happy Late birthday, baby!) Also on this first page, I included an instagram photo from the local pea patch. Unfortunately I don't have a plot there, but I love visiting on my walks and admiring the growth and change.

On this second half of the spread you will see a few every day photos. I took a photo at work, which is pretty rare for me. I usually keep work stuff out of my albums, but this was a particularly fun day, so I thought I would include a photo. Lucy's photos are of course all over my albums! This week I included a bath photo and one where she is walking with the toy shopping cart. At 11 months, my girl is sure active! It is so fun to record her physical progress as the weeks go on. Lastly I added a few photos from our Saturday picnic to the beach. And that's it! Easy peasy. I'm loving the simplicity of this project, and it doesn't hurt that the photos this week are bright and colorful.

SHOP TALK // PART 2

And back with Part 2 about the Pop-Up Shop. (You can read Part 1 here.) Since I already shared the whole story on Monday... today is all about tips and tricks that I found helpful on the day of the Shop. And as I mentioned, this was my first time I've ever participated in something like this... so take it with a grain of salt. It's just what worked for me. And I'm throwing in a few more fun pictures too!

Staging everything was definitely the funnest part of this whole venture! I really had fun coming up with creative displays for everything. Most everything I already had on hand too, it's great to be able to use what you have already!

So first a few display ideas... turn a crate sideways and use it for a shelf, set a tray or platter on top to corral some items and prevent smaller items from falling through. 

Use a pant hanger to hang up textiles or binder clips to hang up small items like photographs.

Tape a spoon inside a bowl to "serve up" some washi tape. Place the price on the handle of the spoon.

Add some visual height, use a cake stand in an untraditional way or a vintage scale (or both!)

A shutter is great for displaying cards, or prints. Throw in a few polaroids or something else unusual to break it up a bit. Maybe tuck a few flowers in there? Get creative!

Place some boards between two ladders to make some cheap (and mobile) shelving. 

Get a floor length tablecloth to keep bags, tools and other unsightly items out of sight.

Don't just lay things out flat on a table (please!) and think about your visuals from a consumer's point of view. You want to draw them in, not overwhelm them!

Other tips on running a shop...

Make sure to bring bags as needed for your products and wrapping material if you have fragile items, I just brought old grocery bags, instead of splurging on something more personalized.

Also make sure to have change on hand, so bring cash! I went to the bank the week before and got around 100 in assorted bills.

Take a few minutes and sign up for a square reader, they sent me the reader that attaches to a smart phone for free, and the app is super easy to set up and use! No point in losing out on sales if it's that easy to set up. 

Have something to draw people into your booth, preferably with something they can touch! I had some matchbook business cards set out on the scale for people to take. I would offer one after greeting people which helped people to stop, walk in and look around instead of just walking by.  

Don't be shy! Greet people and talk to them about your products, the show, how their day is going... just don't be that annoying salesman - no one likes that.

Have someone available to give you a break mid day, so you can have a chance to get a bite, stay hydrated and go to the bathroom. 

If this is your first go round, accept that pricing is difficult and don't sweat it too much. If nothing is selling, you can always tell people everything is on sale! 

And lastly try to keep track of what you do sell, so you'll have an idea of what sold well. I grabbed the price tags off items as they sold and collected them in my wallet which worked pretty well!

Well that's it!! Let me know if you have any suggestions or comments! I'm still a newbie at all this!

PICNIC ON ALKI

Summer in Seattle is just the best. These three months of warmth and sunshine ALMOST make up for the nine months of rain, as we locals like to joke. But seriously, I am in love with these summer weekends! Even though September is often quite nice around here, I can't help feeling that summer is coming to an end. Because of that, we have pretty much vowed to spend every last weekend outside, enjoying the sunshine!

It was Matt's idea to go to Alki beach for a picnic! I was pretty resistant at first, because I knew it would interrupt Lucy's nap schedule. He did the work. He packed the cooler, made the burgers, invited the friends and family. All I had to do was show up and relax. Pretty sweet deal, right? It was the perfect afternoon. Sunny, but not too hot. Breezy, but not windy. Lucy had a blast, whether it was crawling back and forth on the picnic blanket, wearing a clover wreath or chasing a bee. Renae came along and we even escaped across the street where we got a drink at Cactus.

I'm glad that my husband convinced me to have a bit of fun outside on a Saturday. I am slowly trying to be more flexible and get out of the house. Yes, it is hard with a twice-napping baby, but I need to remember that she is actually more resiliant than I am sometimes. Sunshine and fresh air is so therapeutic for all of us! I hope that Seattle has a few more nice weekends for us this summer, that we can enjoy with trips to the beach, barbeques and picnics. I am certainly not ready for nine months of rain to begin!

Anyone else have any end-of-summer plans they would like to share? I'd love to get some new ideas on how to spend time outside.

SHOP TALK // PART 1

Last week I promised to share pictures of my booth and my thoughts on the Pop Up Market I participated in. This was my first time ever as a vendor, so I am by no means an expert, but I thought I'd share my thoughts on how the whole thing went down.

Early in the summer, Joe and I had gone for a walk in the neighborhood and stopped to get some coffee. He noticed they had applications on the counter, and were looking for vendors for a Pop Up Market in August. He grabbed one and encouraged me to apply for it. I'd been talking & thinking about selling things for awhile, but had never gotten serious about it.

I mulled over it for a day or two and finally thought, what the heck, now is as good as time as ever. Sometimes you just have the take the plunge and go for it. Since I had no previous experience, or past booths to share pictures of, I drew up a sketch of what I was envisioning and turned it in with my application, in addition to some pictures of vintage items I was wanting to sell.

Once the lady contacted me and told me I was in, (what?! celebratory high fives!) I got to work. I gave myself the rest of June and July, to collect things and make things. I stashed all the "Ready" stuff in one area, and all the "In Progress" stuff in another. I decided to set aside August for working on the display. I don't have a lot of extra space at my place and knew that I didn't want my living room overtaken for the entire summer.

Luckily, I had four days off before the big day. Those four days, I pretty much worked non-stop. (If I hadn't been so busy having fun the rest of the summer it probably won't have been so stressful. Ha!) I went through and priced everything, finished up projects that were half done, painted and put together the display. I took over my living room in an attempt to mock things up the best I could. I knew I would only have an hour to set up the morning of the Market so I needed to know exactly how I wanted everything before hand.

Since I didn't have a truck available, I knew we would have to finish assembling the display at the booth. Fortunately, Joe is handy and agreed to help me with that part. I measured and remeasured and taped off on the pegboard where the table would be, what would be covered by the shutter, crate, etc. Then I put up the pictures and flowers and taped off where to hang those with different colors of washi tape. That was genius! It made set up the next day so much easier.

And last but not least, got everything packed into the cars the night before and got to bed at a decent hour. Although I tossed and turned all night, so I'm not entirely sure that helped at all. ...and this is getting long winded, so stay tuned for Part 2 later this week.

ELEVEN MONTHS

Only one month left before my baby girl has a big birthday! This little eleven month milestone really knocks my socks off because I really can't believe that it all happened like this so fast. Just a year ago I was 36 weeks pregnant, 2 cm dilated and wishing and praying that this girl would be born SOON so that I could finally walk again. I remember last summer so vividly that if feels like yesterday. Yet I also feel like it was a lifetime ago, because so much has changed in our lives since our little girl made her debut. With that said, here is her little monthly update...

-Lucy is crawling like a champ. She is fast! Just about the same day she learned to crawl, she also pulled herself up to stand. Already she isn't comfortable on all fours; she wants to see the world from her two feet. So far she stands up and down next to the couch or chairs, but no cruising yet. Just yesterday she started taking tiny steps with her toy shopping cart, so who knows how fast she will be walking!

-Lucy eats EVERYTHING!! Cheese, tomatos, chicken, tortellini, fruits, vegetables and more. One day she would not eat swiss cheese, but otherwise there is nothing she doesn't like. Matt calls her our little "Hoover."

-Her personality has really come out this month! She makes silly faces constantly and her laugh is just so contageous.

-Her favorite toys are several small plastic balls. She carries them everywhere with her! (You will see a green one in her photo this month.) She loves to hide them all over the house, so they get lost often, but we are also finding them in lots of strange places, mostly in the couch.

-I don't want to make this too personal, but I can't talk about this month accurately without talking about nursing. I am sad to say, that Lucy is almost done! She hardly takes a bottle anymore during the day because she would rather eat real food. I still pump at work two times a day, but because she doesn't nurse well at home, I am hardly getting anything. We are still doing a morning and a night feed, and just a little during the day. At the end of this month I won't be pumping anymore, so she will be nursing even less! I have to figure out a way of supplementation for her, possibly with real milk. This is a huge source of stress for me because breast milk is just so dang reliable. I don't have to worry about it! When she drinks milk I will be constantly worried about allergies, inflammation, etc. I know that this weaning process is super normal, but it is still really hard. I miss my tiny one who needs Mom only! Despite all this, I'm really excited to throw that pump out the window! (Not literally.)

-After our little photo shoot, Lucy decided to say hello to the cat. :) She has a deep and true affection for all things "kitty", especially using our poor cats as pillows and playthings.

Thanks for following along with these monthly posts! I know I will write more posts about my girl and certainly one about her first birthday. Yet, I can't imagine I will be writing such monthly posts as "Thirteen months", "Fourteen months" etc. I know I will be documenting her life and photographing her regularly but I haven't decided on a format quite yet. The chalkboard has been working quite well for these photos under a year, but as she grows it wont be very practical. So long story, short, thanks for reading the last monthly post! We will see what is next!