Featured Etsy Seller: Parkwood Cottage

Parkwood Cottage artistic photography shop has a great deal of fantastic textures within the images. The contrasts in color also literally leap from the page, from the bright blues and greens of the peacock to the simple beauty of the black and white. The representative shop image is pictured above, with the aetherial qualities of the light can be seen as the tree itself coming to life.

Lisa, the shop owner, grew up in as an "Air Force Brat", and lived in Germany, South Carolina, and England, before finally settling in her home in Georgia with her husband. The couple enjoys visiting out of the way locations, seeking out scenes or objects that would photograph well, and "looking for beauty in unexpected places".

When it comes to her shop, Lisa is very confident in her reasonable product price point, adding that she has free shipping for the month of July. As with many artists, she identifies her weakness as being shy, and struggles with marketing herself. For new artists, she advises them to "Be Patient! For every 50 photos I take, maybe one or two are really good. Don’t be afraid to take 20 shots of the same thing in order to get that perfect photo." (I also really appreciate this determination for perfection...keep on going until you get it right!) Lisa's favorite shop on etsy is the $5 French Market, which has great prices and attention to detail in their packaging.

Contact and follow promotions for Parkwood Cottage:

Blog: http://www.typicaldaytoday.blogspot.com/
Blog for photography (in progress) http://www.parkwoodcottage.blogspot.com/
Twitter: www.twitter.com/parkwoodcottage
And her etsy site: www.ParkwoodCottage.etsy.com

Below is my favorite print that Lisa was kind enough to give me as a thank you for this blog posting (which was my pleasure!!). I just received it the other day, and the presentation / packaging is just as professional and impressive as the gorgeous print. I do believe that something gets lost in translation with prints online; they have so much more impact in person, or in your hands. Especially black and whites!!

It's titled, "Providence Canyon Car", and available in her shop in 8 x10 ($11.50) and 5x7 ($7.00), both extremely reasonable prices!

Next week: Photography by Mara

Small Business Budgets and finance - Free Excel Spreadsheet Download

I. Hate. Finance. And taxes.

I had a love-hate relationship with my finance professor. I hated finance, told my professor I hated it, and he loved me for some reason. Go figure. But I worked my ass off and managed a B, which is a big deal for an art student in a math class.

Anyway, the class showed me the importance of budgeting and understanding cash movement within a company through understanding the numbers. Until I started anally recording all of my expenses and earnings, I didn't realize how reckless I was being with my spending. Budgeting your company can really benefit your overall cash, and can be really helpful when tax time rolls around.



Just try it for one month, and see how helpful it is. It might be a pain at first, but it's SO worth it and gets easier, I promise :)

There's a great budget excel sheet that's free for download here: http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/personal-monthly-budget.html

Screenshot!:


Now I can make Income Statements and Balance Sheets like its my job. And I'm super proud of my cash flow statements, as well.