Painter Girl

More Office Organizing

In my constant battle to find places to put all of my "things" in this small room, I decided to hang my large Faux Marquetry floor samples on the wall.  I patched all the holes that were left when I took down some pictures and touched up the spots with the base paint.  Next, I went to Home Depot and bought two pieces of corner molding, cut to the size I needed.  I used some Stain and Seal I had in my studio to stain the wood and then nailed the pieces to the wall to use as long, shelving.  Now my samples are not lying around getting damaged and act as art work on my walls.  Modello's were used for all of the sample designs shown here.  You can read more about these samples in a previous post here.

Another project I finally got around to completing is this door.  The door was a great score a few months ago, that someone had put out in the trash on their sidewalk in my neighborhood.  I had been looking for a door that had these panels, so I could use some for chalkboards and others for bulletin boards.  This was a very quick and easy project that cost me nothing but my labor.  The door was free and the homeowner even helped me put it into my car.  I had an opened roll of adhesive backed cork in my studio that is so old I don't even remember why I bought it in the first place. (Because it was soooo old, I had to spray the back with some spray adhesive to get it to stick.)  The cork was cut to fit 2 of the panels and applied.  I painted the remaining three panels with some chalk board paint I also had in my studio.  I had a magnetic strip tacked on my wall before, so I decided to add this to the door.  Now I have 3 different functions all on this one door: bulletin board, magnetic strip and chalkboard.  As you can see, it did not take me long to fill it right up!

 

Getting Organized

With September almost here, I made my annual pilgrimage to Staples for my "back to school" supplies.  Although I no longer have a school aged child and I myself am not currently in school, I always like to re-group and re-organize myself for the Fall.

With a stack of magazines piling up, I am going through them, ripping out the pages that I want to save and putting those in protective pages in notebooks for future reference.  It's a task you just have to be in the right frame of mind to tackle!  I try to do a little every day, so it's not so overwhelming.

I also decided to take some photos, etc. off of this wall, so had to repair the many holes. :-(  I will sand and touch up today.

 

My home office gets messier and messier during this re-organizational process, which always drives me crazy!  It does, however, make me finish this task much quicker, so I can get back to business!

May/June e-Newsletter Finally Out

I finally had some office time on Monday and was able to finish my overdue May/June e-newsletter.  This month focus is on three different glass techniques and sport theme rooms.  It typically takes me about 3 hours from start to finish to pull the newsletter together.  I find it hard to sit at the computer that long so I wander about the house doing a few miscellaneous projects to give myself a break.  My clients do seem to enjoy getting the newsletter in their email boxes and I get some great feedback from them, which keeps me motivated to research topics for more issues.  If you would like to subscribe, you can do so by clicking on the box in the right hand sidebar.

Promotional Work

Today I am having an Office Day, or at least half day, to do some promotional work while I am waiting for some moldings to be put back up at the job site where I was working last week. 

I designed this 4" x 6" postcard about two weeks ago, using Vista Print. I have mentioned Vista Print here before because I use them often for my business cards and all promotional materials.  They are inexpensive, fast and the quality is great for the money.  This promotion is for the four Learning Zone Day Care Centers where I have done quite a bit of mural work. 

The back is black and white, with a $50 credit toward any Sports Themed Mural commissioned now thru the end of May.  I think this would be a great Father's Day gift for some sports loving dad!

I am going to drop these off at the four locations later this morning.

While I was on the Vista Print website, I was fooling around designing a baseball cap for myself.  :-) 

Road Trip and Taxes

Wednesday I spent most of the day with my friend and fellow decorative painter, Chris Smith, meeting with a designer about a job we've been proposing for the past few months.  I will go into more detail IF we actually get this job. 

I am still fighting a head cold, so am not at my best this week.   I decided to scale back the remainder of this week a bit to relieve some stress, rest a little more and work a little less.  Today I finally finished my tax prep and was able to sneak into my accountants office without him seeing me, to drop it all off.  :-)

This afternoon, a fair amount of time was spent cleaning up my desk and opening lots of mail.  I also put in an S.O.S. call to a friend of mine to see if she might be interested in taking on some of my office work a few hours each month.  It has gotten to the point where I feel I spend too much time doing data entry tasks and computer related tasks that someone else could be doing for me.  I think my time would be better utilized doing more creative work and this would generate more business as well.   I'm feeling stretched in too many directions.

Tomorrow I will return to finish up in the Laundry Room and Back Hall, but still have one more new project to sort out in the Back Hall.  If I did not have to spend so much time opening mail and pulling tax info together I would have already sorted out the details of the new project! 

Rounding Out the Week

We had another snow storm yesterday, so I stayed inside most of the day, cleaning up the piles on my desk.  I wish I could say I am making great progress with getting my Tax Prep work done, but that is not going so well, so far.  I will make an honest attempt to work on that today.   I have been catching up on some of my favorite blogs, shoveling more snow, and talking with clients about their upcoming jobs.

February's projects are shaping up and looking like a lot of fun.  On deck, I have a ceiling in a Master Bath I've been dying to do; some new themes to add to the addition that is being completed at one of the Learning Zone Day Care Centers; the kitchen project that has been on hold forever (waiting for cabinet maker!), a laundry room, mudroom and maybe a kitchen cabinet job.  That should keep me busy enough and give me more interesting topics to write about than office work and snow shoveling!

My sample boards are done and approved for the kitchen, laundry and mudroom.  I need to go pick up my samples for that Master Bath and tweak them a bit.  I also need to spend some time doing a few rough sketches for the day care center, so that's how I will be spending my time for the remainder of this week.  I hope to get out to see the kitchen cabinet job Friday morning so I can determine what's going on there. 

Today I also did some research about getting Commercial plates on my vehicle.  Since I have to change my license plate I decided I might as well get one that means something to me, so I may go for a Vanity Plate!  I've never had one of those before.  I want it to be work related, so am exploring a few options.  Here in Massachusetts you can only have 6 letters on the plate.  You can use numbers, but only at the end of the letter configuration.  The plate has to begin with a minimum of two letters and you can't put a number in the middle of the letters like: pay8tr, which would have worked great! :-(  I'll let you know what I end up with. 

Tax Prep

Continuing on with my theme of "Tasks I Hate to Tackle", I am chaining myself to my desk today to face my spreadsheet.  This, I know, is something I should be doing, at least quarterly throughout the year.  But, because I find it so boring, I always quickly migrate to something much more fun.

...like this website sent to me by fellow decorative painter, Tammi Latham: http://www.jigzone.com/puzzles/
or this one sent to me by fellow blogger and web designer, Julie Krefta: http://www.dkmsoftware.com/

Warning, these sites can be hazardous to your productivity!

And speaking of themes... although there is not much creative painting happening here this week, I am running an "Embellished Stenciling" theme over at the blog I share with Julie, Stencil Talk. Some incredible work will be featured throughout the week, showing just how creative and elegant stenciling can be on walls, ceilings and fabric!  This Chinoiserie stencil design by Helen Morris, embellished with crystals, is just one example.

Making Use of Some Unexpected Down Time

Today I was supposed to begin a long awaited job for a client I work with almost every year.  A new addition has been put onto her home and her kitchen area has been expanded and completely renovated.  I am going to carry a finish that is in the adjacent room, into this new area.  I did that finish a few years ago, so I'm hoping all will go well!  The finish is a multi-layer finish, which I will go into at a later date.  I thought I'd get a jump on things by putting on the first 2 layers.  The cabinets have not yet been installed, much to the homeowners dismay.  She has been waiting since this Summer for these cabinets to be made!  Last evening she called to let me know that there is now a heat issue in the new addition... basically no heat.  Hopefully that will be resolved and I will try to get over there next week.

This is why I do my scheduling with Post It's vs. actually writing on my calendar.  I'd have one messy calendar by the end of the month with all the schedule changes that tend to take place.  Now I have moved another job that I was intending to do next week,  into this slot.  I did lose a day of on-site painting because of the late cancellation, but I have a zillion things to do in my office and studio, so am actually happy to have this "free" day!

First on my list was to finish my December e-newsletter.  This month I am featuring my good friend and talented designer, Marc Bordet.  Marc shares with my readers several great decorating ideas for the Holiday Season.  If you would like to receive a copy of this e-newsletter, I invite you to subscribe using the box in the sidebar to the right.

Next, I wanted to created 4 snowflakes to use as placards at the Holiday Tables event Marc and I are participating in.  This was too fun and very easy, so I thought I'd share this with you.  I purchased this great Dover Book, "Make Your Own Paper Snowflakes" on line a few weeks ago, knowing I'd find some use for it.  At $5.95, this book gives you a big bang for your buck!  It features 31 different snowflake patterns, from very easy to advanced skill level.  The templates are printed on heavy cardstock and are actual size, so you are good to go!
                                 
Last weekend I stopped at Michael's and bought this giant pad of textured cardstock in jewel toned Christmas colors.  Then, when Marc and I were setting up our Holiday Tables room at the museum earlier this week, I got the idea to make some snowflake placards for the 4 table settings. I stopped at another Michael's on the way home and bought this glue pen and glitter by none other than the Queen of All Things Good, Martha Stewart.

This glue pen was quite the find!  You can write just like you would with a pen and then just sprinkle on the glitter.  Of course, Martha has thought it all out, so her glitter container allows you to control the amount of glitter that gets sprinkled! 

Now I have some design work to tend to and then I am off to a vendor Christmas party with Marc at Kennedy Carpets .

Promotional Work

This week I was determined to get my promotional materials replenished.  I am almost completely out of business cards and postcards, plus one of my magnetic signs came off of my car door on the Massachusetts Turnpike a few months ago.  I have been using vistaprint.com for a few years now for my cards.  They have great prices, the color is incredible and the service is wonderful.  They offer several free products on a regular basis.  I decided I would replace my 1 lone magnetic sign with 2 new matching ones. 

As mentioned, I was also in need of a re-order of my business cards.  I did not have my email address on the last set I had printed, so added it to this one.  I have to say, my only complaint with VistaPrint is that they are not Mac compatible.  Since I only have a Mac, I have to go elsewhere to make any new documents or changes to previous orders.  They always apologize about this, but do not seem to be making any real attempt to be Mac-friendly.

Since I now have 3 Learning Zone day care centers with my decorative painting on their walls, I decided to make a special postcard, just for the parents that use these centers.  The three centers combined, add up to almost 200 families.  That's a nice target market for me.  Once the new additions are complete for 2 of the centers, the numbers will only increase.   I have been giving Melissa, the owner,  a very good rate in exchange for placing promotional materials in each center. 

This is the front of the card.

This is the back side of the card.  I no longer use the postcards as mailers.  I tried this a few times, with no results.  It's too costly when you add in the postage.  Instead, I keep the front side the same on all of my postcards and just change the blurb on the back side to suit the market I wish to target.  Even though this particular card highlights children's rooms, once prospective clients go to my website, they see that I do a variety of finishes for all rooms and surfaces. 

I can't wait until my new magnetic car signs arrive!  Next up, I need to tackle my PictureTrail site and get that updated.  I have started to make some changes there, but have a long way to go.  I am adding some new photos and a new album or two. I have deleted some albums and photos and will continue to do more over the next week or two.  I've have gone back and forth a million times about switching to a real website.  I have always used this PictureTrail site for my website.  Finally, I've decided that it works, so why change!  Also, all my clients know that site since I've had it for years AND all my promotional materials spell out that site. 

Last year I made the decision to stop printing out the photos I take of  jobs and to just keep them on my computer.  Constantly printing out the photos and taking the time to update a portfolio to bring with me on consults was costly in dollars and time.  Now I just refer all clients to the PictureTrail site before I visit, then bring my laptop along that has all of my portfolio pics.

Back to School Supplies!

Even though I no longer have a child in school and I, myself am not in school, I just cannot resist those "Back To School" supplies! 

Today I went to Staples in search of some paper for my printer.  On my way to that aisle, I could not help but stop to look at all the colorful, fun school supplies. 

Look what they've done with a Composition Notebook!  No longer just a black and white color, but now in this trendy green stripe!  I picked this up not only because it's in my favorite green color, but also because it has grid lined pages, so I can use it when I need to do designs to scale.

Staples has a very clever marketing scheme going for people like me who can't resist colorful, little supplies.  They have a large display set up with bins of assorted, colorful paper clips, and push pins.  You choose a container to fill, small or large, just like you are at a deli counter!  Apparently you can cram in as much as you possibly can and still be able to fit the lid on, for one set price.  Here's what the small sized container looks like,  It has 4 sections that you fill.  Btw... those are some Cosmos from my front yard garden.  

And here you see my loot!  Look what great designs they have now for clips.  All sorts of patterns and metallics!  I also picked up these notebook tabs.  They remind me of the stencil designs I use so often.    For a few dollars you can give your home office a big bang for your buck!