This weekend we performed at the World Steampunk Expo and it was so much fun! Every single person was dressed in their best Victorian time traveling outfits and carrying their crazy light-up, spinning inventions.

After we set up the rig, we wandered around the hotel taking photos of ourselves and making a bit of a scene. Our hand-made outfits were a hit and lots of people asked for photos even before we performed :) We’ve been in unitards a lot lately, so it was fun to be sexy and show a little skin.

The show was fantastic. We were set up in the back of the room, so after the last band the audience crowded around our rig to watch us perform. I love having everyone that close by, so we can actually see the audience and interact with them.

We took the lyra photos before the show since we were all performing and not able to take photos during. Luckily the people running everything shot video, so I should have something to share soon!

I’m sad to say, 6 Weeks to a Better Blog has come to an end, but I’m happy that the last post is coming from Jess of Tenpenny Splendid. I’ve been drooling over her recipes and photos for months now, so she’s here to help your photos go from ‘hmmm…’ to ‘Mmmmm!’ (yes, I did just write that completely cheesy sentence :p)

I am in no way a professional photographer but these are some tricks and tips I’ve picked up along the way that work for me!

1. The first thing to consider is lighting. The better the lighting, the less photo editing you’ll have to do. Your best bet at getting great food photos, as with any photos, is to use the sun! When I know I want to shoot a recipe, I always try to plan it for morning or afternoon. My kitchen table is right next to a big window so I turn off all the lights, open the curtains all the way, and shoot. Sometimes the photos turn out a little darker than I’d like but you can easily brighten them up afterward in Photoshop. Of course, things happen and I’m not always able to shoot a recipe during the day and have to give in and just do it at night. That brings me to the next tip!

2. White balance. I’ve only ever used Photoshop so I can’t really speak for free programs out there, but if you can’t use natural light, white balancing is your next best bet. The camera I use shoots raw so a handy little tool appears when I open the file in Photoshop that will auto-white balance for you, but it can be done by hand too. Most likely if you shoot in a kitchen at night, your photos will be crazy yellow. Open the color balance tool and play with the sliders. Usually adding blue and taking out some magenta will do the trick. If your photo is a little dark, instead of messing with the brightness, open up the levels tool. Drag the slider at the far right over to the left slightly until it looks bright but not blown out.

3. There are also some less technical things you can do to make your photos look better! The first one is to eliminate background clutter. If you’re shooting a recipe for chocolate chip cookies, no one should be able to see a bag of chips, your dirty dishes, some trash, whatever has accumulated on your kitchen counter throughout the week, *especially* if these things are in focus. We all have messy kitchens and most bloggers don’t clean a room from floor to ceiling before shooting. They tidy up the small area they’re shooting or at the very least crop out the mess! When I see photos with all that stuff in the background, I’m thinking less about the recipe and more about the fact that I also have dirty dishes to deal with in the other room. ;)

4. Props can also add a little something to your photos. I’m not an expert on this as I don’t have the funds right now to buy the adorable little plates, cake stands, boards, and bowls that I’d love to have one day, but I often just use what I have to try and make a photo more interesting. For example, if the recipe has to do with fruit, I’ll position a fruit bowl so it can be seen in the background, or I’ll even just position whatever I’m working with, like measuring cups and spoons, to make a more interesting photo. If you want to see some seriously cute food props though, check out this post from Joy the Baker.

5. Finally, seeing something from different angles is always more interesting than just one straight on shot. Get down next to the food and shoot it from the side. Take some onto a spoon and shoot a close up. Detail shots add a lot of interest to a post. Think about outfit posts.. most bloggers shoot their full outfit and then do close ups of the finer details like shoes and jewelry. The same applies to food photography!

Thank you Jess!

Now it’s your turn…

To take advice from one of my favorite bloggers who recently wrote a piece called “Let’s not pretend it’s always easy,” I wanted to talk a little (err…a lot) about how I was able to leave my corporate day job.

It can seem, on the internets, that lots of bloggers create a side business and then just up and quit their jobs. And maybe some of them do. Maybe some of them have a trust fund or immediate success or a husband paying all the bills, but my guess is that most of them put in a lot of hours before they left the cube for a creative job.

I don’t have a trust fund, immediate success or a husband, I only had a job I didn’t love in the least and a whole lot of motivation to leave.

I started planning to leave about a year ago. In September I put up a giant white board and wrote out eight months of goals for my design business, my shop, blog stats, aerial classes and shows under the heading ESCAPE PLAN. I picked May for my escape because in figuring out how much money I would need to make in order to leave, the increase in revenue month-to-month was a little crazy, but not insane.

I worked toward my goal every day. Whether it was going through song choices for a show, building a new templates, responding to potential clients, creating spreadsheets for class. I was 100 percent focused on where I was headed. I visualized putting in my two weeks and driving out of that parking lot for the last time (yelling with joy) over and over and over.

And a lot of times it was really, really difficult. I was taking on an enormous amount of work and I was afraid that if I stopped moving for a second my dream would be compromised. I spent quite a few nights in a ball on the couch crying my eyes out, completely overwhelmed, while Slayer climbed all over me trying to lick my face. And I had multiple conversations about how I was “falling apart, taking on too much, and everything is a mess” with a good friend who basically told me “shut up, your life is amazing, keep working.” As much as I didn’t want to hear it, it was good advice.

In March I had my yearly review with my boss and unfortunately/fortunately he was well aware of my lack of passion at work. His solution for this was, beginning in June, to have me write news stories for the site (what I did when I first started my job) and work weekends (after putting in 7 years there). This turned out to be the push I needed to leave.

In April and May we (The Weird Sisters Circus) booked nine shows, which meant more rehearsals and routines to build – I literally did not have time to be stuck in an office 40 hours a week anymore.

I tied up all the loose ends, bought a new computer, went to the dentist, worked out a budget. Then last week I told my boss I was leaving my job to run away with the circus. It was exciting and terrifying (hello mortgage!) and a leap I knew I had to take because I didn’t want to wake up in 10 years at the same job knowing I’d been so close to reaching my goal.

All of the long hours were so worth it when on Monday morning I woke up sans alarm and spent the morning eating breakfast on the deck while going through email. Then I was able to run all my errands to pick up stuff for an upcoming show and go to a fitting without having to cram everything in at the very end of my day. My new freedom hasn’t completely hit me yet, but the relief is slowing starting to seep in and so far it feels really good.

Now let’s all cross our fingers that I don’t have to write a post in a year titled “Dragging my ass back to the cube: How I completely and utterly failed at the freelance life.”

My advice to those of you currently reading this from your soul-sucking job and dreaming of a creative life…

SAVE YOUR MONEY All of it. Especially if you’re like me and are SINGLE with a MORTGAGE. Stop buying shoes, stop eating out. Do you want a new dress or do you want to leave your lame job? That’s the question I’ve asked myself on a weekly basis and, frankly, sometimes I bought the damn dress! But most of the time that little reminder was enough for me to hold on to the cash.

MAKE A BUDGET Know where your cash is flowing. Cut down all the bills you can. I canceled my cable to save $15 and changed my phone plan to save $20.

MAKE A PLAN The second I realized my job would be changing and I wasn’t going to stick around I went back to my desk, opened up a file called Escape Plan and wrote: new laptop, health insurance, Photoshop, clean office, dentist appt. What do you need to do in order to leave your job? Don’t leave it until the last minute.

If possible, CREATE MULTIPLE INCOME STREAMS I make money from freelance design, my template shop, teaching aerial and performing. If one of those comes up short one month I have three other places where I can try to make up for it. This not only helps my bank account, but saves me a bit of stress too.

If the WORST CASE SCENARIO is holding you back -mine is losing my house – then imagine it happening, what will you do? Make a plan. I would: get another job, get another roommate, build a million templates for my shop, start selling possessions. It won’t be the end of you world and you will not die from the worst case scenario. If you managed to escape the 9 to 5, then you surely have enough balls and strength to get through a lot of bad shit.

START NOW Like, immediately. There is no reason to spend another day dreaming about what you want to do and not lifting a finger to move yourself in that direction. Stop making excuses and complaining about things you CAN change and start believing in yourself and just take one step forward every day. Seriously…do it.

ALSO…I cannot say thank you enough to those of you who read my blog, bought one of my templates, hired me to design your site or just cheered me on. Each one of you has given me a little leg up on my journey and I’m truly, truly appreciative of your support. I would not have been able to do this without you <3 <3 <3

If you have any questions feel free to comment or email :)

I can’t believe we’re already in week 6! Just a few more posts left! We’ve talked about shooting outfit photos and today Dana is here from Wonder Forest with her tips on shooting a DIY project.

+ When photographing your DIY project, it’s important to show the little details. Snap photos every step of the way as you create. Show the viewer what you’re doing, and what it should look like as you’re doing it. You don’t have to necessarily use all of the photos in your final tutorial post, but it’s better to have too many than not enough!

+  If you have a nice camera, that always helps, but isn’t necessary. You can use a point and shoot and get nice results, just make sure that your area is well lit, and don’t use your flash!  Natural lighting is the best ;)

+ Use your hand! I say hand and not hands because one hand obviously has to control the camera if you’re not using a timer. Sometimes it can be difficult, but try to demonstrate what you’re doing with your hands. For example, in this second photo I am tracing a line with a pencil in my right hand.  I would normally snap the photo with that hand, but for the tutorial’s sake I awkwardly reached around and pressed the button with my left hand. Strange, yes, but without my hand there you wouldn’t know I was tracing anything. Alternatively I could have pretended I am left handed and stuck the pencil in that hand.

+ Finally, choose your photos wisely. No one needs to see 5 different photos of one DIY step. Just the important ones will do!

Thank you Dana!

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Here are a few photos from the opening of It Came from Planet B! These are all from the end of the show when, after being abducted from the small town of  Springdale Hollow, all of the townspeople return glowing from the wonders of SCIENCE! We (The Weird Sisters) ended the show using our minds to control the dancers on the ground and then spinning on our spaceship (chandelyra) while the human harp played herself.

I suppose you’re all probably sitting there thinking “what the heck is a human harp??” Get ready to be grossed out…it’s a woman, surface pierced from her chest to her knees and then strung onto a harp. Very glad I was upside-down and spinning the whole time so I couldn’t see it!

Photos by the insanely talented Spilt Sugar and her husband Dave since, ya know, it’s hard to take pics of yourself while you’re on stage :) (Thanks Dave!!)

[ day / night ]

This week has been exhausting. Work all day, rehearse all night, and somewhere in there I fit in teaching class and a dentist appointment. I’ve been driving to rehearsal, getting blasted with black light paint and then passing out on one of the big comfy couches in the theater while I wait for our scene.

Our latest show opens tomorrow night – an alien abduction, B movie-style production. We play the alien queen triumvirate and are debuting our new, custom-made apparatus. I’m so excited to share video with you guys – it is so cool! (For you Michigan peeps: It Came from Planet B at the Emerald Theater, 9pm, May 18, June 1 & 2)

This week also culminates with something I’ve been working toward for the past year…I officially quit my corporate day job to (literally) run away with the circus. Just had a meeting with my boss and while he wasn’t stoked to see me go, he was really happy for me. I have a whole post on how I was able to make it happen coming up soon. But for now I’m going to try and make it through the day without crying of happiness at my desk or letting out a maniacal laugh :D

If you write 20 percent of your posts on cake decorating, make sure the cake decorating category and your best Hunger Games-themed cake are easy to locate in your sidebar!

Here are six well organized sidebars from six of my favorite bloggers…

Allison features links to four series she regularly posts about with simple, bright buttons.

Katie uses post titles with photos that link to four recent posts. Not the most recent posts on her blog though, she picks four specific posts to be featured.

Becka lists the top three categories, which helps readers know exactly what her blog is about. She also has three photo buttons that link to blog features and important posts.

Virginie added eye-catching photos with titles for her most-used labels.

 Zoetica adds the most recent post from three categories (latest art, latest photo and latest outfit) with a photo and title.

Kathleen links to three regular series, posts from her trek to Everest, and info on her business all in the same style with a little description of each.

+ Choose only a few items to feature. Posts/categories/series that get the most traffic, searching engine hits, comments and shares, or posts that you just straight up LOVE.

+ Keep a consistent style. Categories, series and favorite posts could all look the same, but each with its own color.

+ If you don’t have automatically rotating content, update your sidebar on a regular basis. I try to tweak mine every two or three months.

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This weekend was stressful, muddy, silly, sleepy, relaxing, wet and FUN! Essentially all seven dwarves mixed into one. It started on Friday when I left work early to pack, pick up Jenna and drive the 2.5 hours north for a show (with troupe #2) at a home-grown electronic music festival. When we pulled up and the girl handing out laminates asked what she should write on ours I knew we were in trouble.

It turned out to be a very unorganized raver camp out. We set up the rig, not on the stage as was promised, but in front of it…in the MUD. We performed for a group of high/drunk/whoknowswhatelse kids who couldn’t have been over 22. And found out the next morning (after we’d paid for a hotel) that our second performance was canceled because they couldn’t pay us our full rate. I think most of us were pretty relieved to just go home after that wreck of a show.

Anny, Jenna and I took advantage of the day off to shop Eastern Market – I bought eggs, flowers for mom, hen & chicks, and a tiny basil plant for my herb garden. Then I spent the rest of the day on the couch, watching Weeds and napping with the pup.

At night Irina and I unloaded the rig and then walked a few blocks through the rain to dance our buns off with Cheryl for her 30th birthday. I figured it was the perfect occasion for a kooky side-bun and blue liner.

(Maybelline Color Tattoo shadow gets the dance party approval :)

Hello SillyGrrl friends, I’m Sandi, and I’m thrilled to be here today joining in for the 6 weeks to a Better Blog Series, thanks so much Sarah for having me. I’m a blogger and a handmade artist and I run a little shop called Benandi over on Etsy. I’m here today to share how I’ve used my blog to help promote my little shop.

Firstly, I never want to force or push people to buy my products; that’s just not me. If they do care to purchase something, I am so appreciative of their support. In a round about way I do however use my blog to help promote my shops. My blog is my creative space where I already share with the world what I’m up to or what inspires me on a daily basis, so featuring my products only makes sense. For me it’s more of a shameless promotion tool where I don’t feel the need to say “buy this” but more or less “hey this is what I’m up to, I hope you enjoy it, and if you want to know more you can find about it here”. There’s no hiding it that blogs are used as a tool in one way or another, but it’s truly how you use your space and what you chose to share which can make all the difference.

My biggest pieces of advice would be “Don’t abuse your blog!”. People (and myself included) hate seeing sites filled with “buy this, buy that” stamped all over the pages. It’s annoying and hard on your eyes to look at. From time to time if you do this in moderations it may fly but overdoing it will surely call for sour faces for everyone involved. People are so sweet and usually very supportive of your creative side and as long as you don’t make them feel pressured into always buying things.

Offering giveaways of your products though, this puts a smile on everyones face. We all love to win something, I know I do. Being able to offer items up for a giveaway, helps me to express to my readers that I am so appreciative of all their continued support and thank you so much for this. With free giveaways, in the end, everyone seems so much more happy. I love knowing someone wanted the item I was offering up. And it’s a great feeling knowing your work is appreciated and the winner is usually over ecstatic with their free goodies. Well I hope some of this advice helps you move forth in a positive manor with promoting your small business via your blog. Thanks, Good Luck & Happy Blogging. :)

Thanks for your advice Sandi!!

< <  Last Post: Susannah on promoting your shop online + Next Post: Blog design tip  > >

Hello everyone! I’m excited to share a few tips with you for Sarah’s 6 Weeks series, and I’d like to send a big thank you to her for including me! My name is Susannah, and I blog over at SusannahBean.com. I also have an Etsy shop where I sell crocheted accessories that I make in my free time. I’m a huge advocate of using your blog to promote your shop, so here are some awesome things I like about doing that!

One thing that’s awesome about using your blog to promote your shop is that it forges a personal connection between your readers (and potential customers) and you, the blogger (and seller). I personally enjoy knowing something about the person I’m buying from, I don’t like feeling like I’m buying from some faceless internet shop, and I’d rather know the seller’s name and a little bit of who they are. So if people find your blog first, they’ll get to know you on a personal level and will feel connected to you, which usually means you’ll be on the top of their list if they need what you sell. No one ever says “Hey! I need to buy such and such product, I’m gonna shop at internetdrone404′s shop!” No, they say “Hey! That rad blogger sells such and such, I like her and feel like supporting her craft!”

Another great thing about using your blog to promote your shop is that it gives you the opportunity to reach a wider audience than you would solely through Etsy. Say you’re doing a giveaway of one of your items from your shop. Your blog readers can enter, and maybe they blog about it or tweet a link to it, then more people will come check it out. Some of those people may not have heard of you before, or they may not have even known a product like yours existed! But by utilizing the ripple effect of the blogging world, you are giving more people the opportunity to fall in love with your product and become potential customers! You should also utilize the friendships you make with other bloggers. Have you encountered someone who might have a different audience than you? Politely ask them if they’d like to review one of your products! It never hurts to send away something for free if it could mean a new crop of customers who didn’t know about you before.

It can be tricky to not overwhelm your readers with shop announcements and the like. You don’t want your blog to become a billboard for your shop, because your readers will pick up on that in a millisecond and no one likes that. You wouldn’t want to only watch commercials on TV, right? But it’s cool if there’s a few during your fave show. Your blog should be the same way! Don’t flood your followers with shop stuff on your blog (or Twitter, Facebook, etc.). If you’re jazzed about a new design you came up with, or if you’re offering a coupon code, feel free to share it in moderation, but don’t go all “SALE!!! SALE!!! SALE!!!” on every social media site a hundred times a day. It can get annoying, and I personally avoid buying from people who do that!

I hope you can find something useful in my tips! I’ve really found that these things are helpful, and I learn something new about this little world every day! Be patient and personable, and it’ll make all the difference!

Thank you Susannah!

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