Instagram!

Last week I started a new Instagram account for my Etsy shop.  I had been using my @meganmcgory account for Etsy related posts but realized I needed to break it out if I was going to grow my shop and traffic to it.

Follow here!

@mannequinreject

Search #mannequinreject for all the earlier posts under @meganmcgory.

So far I'm doing a daily "Button a Day" post where I feature different buttons!  A couple other button collectors and I are also doing this, so check out #buttonaday.  I think, after I amass enough photos of buttons, I'm going to offer button photo prints for sale through my smugmug and maybe even through Etsy.  Maybe I'll do a photobook and sell that too.  I am still a photographer and a writer, after all.

Check out #buttonaday !  Also #buttonlove

These buttons sold a couple months ago.

In other news, it's FINALLY spring!  And that means it's time for SPRING CLEANING, which I've been dying to do because my craft room (above) sure as heck isn't that clean right now, and the rest of the house needs a good do-over.  We've only been here just over a year but my god with all the baby stuff that he's growing out of and all the stuff we never really finished, the whole house looks like it's exploded from every angle you look at it.

Meanwhile, this morning I had my biggest Etsy sale EVER.  So big that it actually trumped every MONTH's worth of sales on Etsy EVER.  I just about fainted.  However, I had just awakened when I saw the email and promptly made myself an entire pot of coffee, since I'm the only one around here who drinks it.

Biggest. Sale. EVER.  And they were all the boho bracelets --one rainbow bracelet and two others.  Why did I not think to make those sooner? Wow!

A part of me wants to get out of selling vintage clothes.  I've had a bunch of clothes in the shop going on 7 years now and (as I usually do) I go through phases of wanting to sell off the entire lot and be done with it.  They are just so much work and I have about 75 pieces of clothes to list and it takes all day to do just 1/10th of that if I were working on it full time.  I hate to say I just don't have that kind of time, because a 5 month old demands a lot of work.  There is no such thing as putting in a solid 8 or 12 hours of work on dresses right now, unless I had help, and I don't make enough money to hire an assistant.  So...the dresses either have to go or they have to wait.  I'm not sure what I should do there. 

I'm back with a new little sidekick and a new line of jewelry!

Hello again! Remember how I kept mentioning how pregnant I was?  

Here's my little sidekick! (And his daddy!)

 

This is Little Roger.

He's growing WICKED fast.

Little Roger is almost 4 months old already, and it took just about that long for me to get used to juggling the needs of a very new and loveable baby and just about everything else.  I let my Etsy shop coast for quite a while since I had built it up so much over the summer but all I had energy/time to do was ship orders out as they came in.

While out and about just before Christmas, hanging out with my mother-in-law just so I could get the heck out of the house, this new jewelry line hatched.  She was looking for an inspirational bracelet for her pastor and couldn't find anything she liked.

Suddenly, something clicked.

So I went home and made this.

There's a similar one listed in my Etsy shop.

Boho Wrap Bracelet - Inspirational Jewelry, Trust, Faith, Hope, Believe in Denim Blue with Sodalite, Lapis, Labradorite, Czech Glass Beads

Ever since I started making jewelry for my flea market booth and Etsy shop in 2007-8, I've struggled with finding a voice.  I love love LOVE Czech glass beads and I LOVE semi-precious stones and I have a ton of both but there's only so many pairs of earrings I can make and hardly any of my stone jewelry/nature line ever sold...EVER.  All of the sudden, all of these materials came together in Boho Wrap Bracelets, which I can't seem to stop making and I'm finally using all these beads that I bought a ton of, way back when.  That night, I made a bracelet for my mother in law for Christmas, and I made a bracelet for my own mother to match the necklace I made her for her 50th birthday in 2009.

I made wrap bracelets until I ran out of wire, and then I bought some more and kept right on going.

#309 Boho Wrap Bracelet - Deep Ruby Red with Garnets, Labradorite, Antique Buttons, Smokey Quartz, Freshwater Pearls, Czech Glass Beads & Charms

#319 Boho Wrap Bracelet - Pink and Green Czech Glass Beads with Malachite, Aventurine, Chrysoprase, Dyed Agate, and Charms

And then...I made a huge one...for ME. Because I wanted to make an attention grabber that I could use to advertise my shop.  I have made a few pieces for myself over the years and handed out business cards when people ask.  I've heard whispers of "hey, she's wearing clock hands for earrings" while out at Ocean State Job Lot. 

So here is the most awesome piece of jewelry I've ever made, which I call "The Button Box (#326)."  I've been hoarding glass buttons ever since I started selling buttons on Etsy, and started putting them in my jewelry during the past year.  There are some buttons I would admit that I would miss if I sent them off to new homes, so I used many of them in this bracelet, and I used the best of the beads I own, as well as semiprecious stones.

The Button Box - Vintage and Czech buttons with Czech beads and Labradorite, Fluorite, Garnets, Carnelian, Aventurine, Chrysoprase, Peridot, Malachite, Turquoise, Amazonite, Lapis, and Amethyst.

Of course, I'm open to making another one, but they're extremely limited as I don't have many yellow or orange buttons.  If there's a high demand, I'll source more, but a lot of these buttons came from lots I got at yardsales so the colors were up to chance.  (I used to buy small buttons from EKSupplies on Etsy, but she doesn't seem to have any left to sell.  Still, she's a fab seller!)

So that's bringing you up to date.  I also started a new little website, Adventures with Meg, since I used to post some adventures in here and that site also has Saab shots. 

I hope to be able to post new blog posts once a week, but that might be a bit too ambitious.  We'll see. :)

A necklace for Buggy kitty.

Last Sunday, I spent all day making jewelry at my inlaw's while Brent worked on the race car with his brother and his dad.  I seriously hauled like 6 bead trays and probably 50 pounds of beads and wire and clock hands and you name it over there.  I ransacked my entire studio rather than just...staying home.

I've been having a bit of a creative streak lately and have been making a lot of jewelry to deal with some bad news we received about three weeks ago.  I've made some of the most beautiful jewelry yet during the past three weeks and last Sunday was no exception.  I'm kind of baffled by this because sometimes I don't exactly make pretty things.

Anyway, one piece I made took several hours because I couldn't get it to work right with the ideas I had for it, so here it is in the later stages of being made.

Anyway, at my inlaws, there was a cat named Buggy. 

Buggy was such a sweet cat and she was Brent's buddy for 14 years.

Buggy disappeared Sunday night after we departed my inlaw's for home.  We found out she was missing on Monday afternoon after dealing with some other stuff that had to do with the bad news I mentioned earlier.  We spent hours looking for her on Tuesday, but she vanished.  We checked surveillance cameras until we couldn't bear to watch anymore, and it didn't get us any closer to finding out what happened to her.

As for the necklace, I realized it was the last thing I made while she was still alive.  I last saw her when we were leaving for home that night.  At one point I dropped a bunch of the seed beads and accidentally picked up some cat food crumbs thinking it was the beads (haha).  Every time I looked at the necklace, I thought of Buggy, and if it were to sell in my Etsy shop, I would be sad to see it go.

So I added a little cat bead to remind us of our tabby Buggy, and turned it into a little memorial to her.  I can make more necklaces similar to this one, but this one is special.  I wore it out to a bunch of yardsales yesterday and got a lot of compliments.

 It's been a week and Buggy hasn't come home.  We live in rural eastern Connecticut, we're not delusional about what could have happened to her and we've taken it really hard.  When we get cats of our own, they're not going out after dark.

 Brent and Buggy, the first time I ever met little Buggy at dinner at his parents back in 2012.

 As for the other bad news, if anything comes of it, then it will show up in the blog.  Otherwise, here's some of the jewelry I made while dealing with that.

I haven't made a pair of earrings like these since 2008, and we'll see how they do!

 I love uranium/vaseline glass beads, as well as electric blue!  This will be listed soon.

 

Fossil Necklace #264

This was made from a couple upcycled pieces of jewelry I've had laying around for years, and I love how it came out!

Otherwise, not much else has been going on.  Obviously I'm moving a bit slower these days since I'm 38 weeks pregnant and fully expect this kid to barely make it into October before birth.  I had my strongest contractions yet after we were looking for Buggy on Tuesday because I over did it while hiking through the woods.  

Making jewelry in massive amounts is not nesting, right?  Or is that an Etsy thing...

Recent creations and some news!

With so much going on in my life as of late (got married, whole wedding planned and executed in FIVE DAYS --another post, another time!) I've neglected all my blogs!  (I have a photography blog, which can be found here.)

I've been hard at work on my Etsy shop and officially off from my day job since August 9.  I'd say all the new listings don't leave a lot of time for working on social media and blogs, but they're an important component to selling online.  Check out these uploads from my instagram while I was brainstorming and creating one night!

These earrings have since been listed, here.

 A small taste of things to come? 

I have to admit, I've been having fun teasing on Instagram as I create new jewelry.  I haven't really been hard at work at creating new things since 2009 or so--other than re-making clock hand earrings when I could, I hadn't felt too creative over the past few years.  My photography career made everything else take a back seat, as well it should have, because it supported me for years.

So here, check out this necklace I made, from start to finish!

Brainstorming! Let's play with beads!  If that pendant looks familiar, it's because it was part of my #21 pendant, created on January 15, 2008.  I decided to take it apart and re-work the design.

The old #21 pendant.

The new necklace, #225 Quarry Queen - Necklace with Quartz, Labradorite, Fluorite, Amethyst, and Dyed Agate.

Oh by the way, check out how my product photos have improved! The Number #21 Pendant photo was actually listed like that on Etsy (and I know if you hunt around my Etsy shop enough, you will find plenty of crappy product photos shot that same night).  I didn't know what I was doing back then with either photography or jewelry making, apparently.  I mean, there's a reason I'm re-working my oldest designs.  Speaking of re-working, I've been taking apart my oldest clock hand earrings and fixing the wiring technique. Not that my earrings have come apart through the years, they just used way too much wire and looked a mess.

Stay tuned for some awesome wedding posts, including a tutorial on wedding party favors!

P.S. I signed up for a Craftori account, we'll see how that goes!  Check it out, here. http://craftori.com/items/author/mannequinreject/

Also, my Mannequin Reject Emporium has a Pinterest page, separate from my personal one.

It's time to revive the shop blog!

I mean, it's only been 5 years since I posted anything at all.

The best years I had on Etsy were 2008 and 2009, and I spent the morning editing old posts in this blog so that it would hopefully remain relevant if anyone wanted to see my earliest beginnings.  I stopped focusing on Etsy during mid-2010 when my photography career took off, and I spent the next two years building that. For more information, see my website: http://meganmcgory.com .

I'm up to 332 Etsy sales, 2 artfire sales, and over 100 positive feedback on eBay, and I'm hitting Etsy hard as I come up on a new period of extended-no-day-job-ness.

Not like I'm losing the post office job, I have that as long as I want it.  I left it once, I went back.  Now I'm preparing for a maternity leave and am using it as a springboard to hopefully build my Etsy store like I never did before.

In the past month, the size of the shop has tripled and I now have more listings than I ever did in 2008/09/10.

What else has changed in the past five years?

Damn near everything.

I have a new camera.  My last posts mentioned my learning process with the Canon Rebel XS I had just received the previous January.  I have all new lenses, two Canon 7D's and when I look at my product photos from 2008, frankly, I'm embarrassed. lol  Go see the part about my photography career taking off.  There's an ebb and flow to the working world now.  Maybe there always has been.

Oh, and since my blog idolizes Lunatic Sophie Saab, let's update that too.

#operationrescuesaab on Instagram.

My 1984 Saab 900 S served me well until January 2010 when it stalled in the road five times on my way home from the post office, a distance of 1/2 mile, and I pushed it home.  I parked it that day.  I couldn't afford to keep dumping money into it and mechanics were raking me over the coals. Turns out there was nothing wrong with it but a bad battery (that I had just purchased, but that happens, apparently).  And it had been parked for almost three years before I found that out.

My poor 1984 Saab.  It sat so long for nothing.  Now it has a host of many, many more problems while I was out driving all over kingdom come in my used Subarus, a 2005 Legacy, and a 2010 Forester.

 Sally Subaru, which I drove from February 1, 2010-June 30, 2011

 Rhonda the Mafia Mobile, which I drove from June 30, 2011-May 2, 2014

Meanwhile, during an ebb in my photography work, when I figured I would eventually have to sell my Forester, my loving fiance (Brent!) found me a 1993 Saab 900 S. So this is the new Saab that will be turning up in obligatory saab shots.

 This is Grumpy Sophie Saab II of Buggyshire, purchased February 19, 2013! See this Saab in still-life action on Instagram! #grumpysophiesaab2ofbuggyshire

So as it turns out, the transmission from the 1984 Saab is compatible with the 1993 Saab, so I do still have both, though the original saab is a sad saab sitting over at my future in-laws.  Brent is my only trusted mechanic, and his dad owned SEVEN Saab 900's while he was growing up, so guess what he's worked on more than he knows?

And we still go up Lantern Hill every year with my now 83-year-old grandfather. 

So what's new in my Etsy shop?  I got rid of all the half-assed crap that I thought was so special (Polymer secret beads from Feb. '08?  No one cared.) I debuted new magnets, which I made in 2009 but never listed because I wanted to make sure the glue was sturdy enough.  I GUESS AFTER 5 YEARS WE KNOW THE ANSWER.

So here they are!  Magnets -  Neon Jewels Variety Pack

And in case you were wondering, I am in fact still listing hand-made jewelry, and making more!  Here are some of my latest creations!

 Art Deco Steampunk Clock Hand Earrings with Antique Buttons

  Ruby Red Steampunk Romance Necklace

As always, I have a wide variety of crafting supplies (especially buttons!) and vintage clothes!  Check out all my links to pinterest and twitter on the side of the page, and check back soon for more regular blog posts (that hopefully won't ramble as badly as the old ones, oh hell, maybe not. haha)

Can you say BUSY 3 times fast?

Between work and catching up on a month's worth of journaling, I haven't really had time to devote to the blog too.


I do have a big announcement. No, I'm not pregnant. But I did launch my website, meganmcgory.com FINALLY. And so now it's official that once Geocities disappears for good, my old "Nutmeg's Realm" website is going with it, only to remain archived somewhere in the depths of a CD binder full of burned backup CDs.


At the same time I was launching my website, if you follow me on my shop twitter (also newly launched) you'll see that I've been working hard on the 2nd Annual Etsy Yart Sale, sponsored by the Etsy Supplies Street Team. YART = Yard + Art! And there are some great deals to be found there. I was surprised to find out I got a tiny blurb honorable mention in this blog: Dirty Pretty Things.


So, what's my yart sale specials? First off, I have a discounted Yart Sale section in my shop. Then, my 150th sale gets FREE SHIPPING. Next, I've been running specials of the day and TODAY'S SPECIAL is Free Shipping on orders over $30! My first special of the day was BUY ONE VINTAGE ITEM, GET ONE 1/2 OFF, and that's been extended indefinitely because I really need to move the vintage stock. That's a BIG hint!

When I'm faced with a problem, I start whistling the theme for MacGyver.

LOL

And in case any of my readers are too young to remember MacGyver, well here's the theme song for the show.


Anyway, many people know I don't watch TV. Truth is, I don't even have cable (I do have cable internet! lol). However, when I'm too tired to do anything else (such as recent USPS days where I run my behind off delivering packages and 27 certified letters) I love to curl up and watch MacGyver, which makes me feel like I could be smarter if only I knew how to make explosives out of a dead fish, a broken bottle, toilet paper, some buttons, and a shoe. Maybe a stink bomb. lol. And in today's internet age, if you want to use the internet to be more like MacGyver, you could always search "how to make bombs out of common household items" on Google. The first thing you do is put the coffee on, because by the time it's done percolating you'll have the Secret Service at your door.

But it's always good to know that if we were to get kidnaped by Soviet agents, that freedom is just one Swiss Army Knife away.

So I had this dream that someone had this plot to bomb the Norwichtown Mall, and the only people who could save the mall was me and MacGyver. LOL For all my non-eastern Connecticut readers, the Norwichtown Mall is a dead mall, with only three stores inside among about 25 empty storefronts. They would consist of a Dollar Tree, a hair salon, and a GNC vitamin store. The more recent stores to close included a chinese restaurant with only 8 different combo dishes to choose from, and the Radio Shack my parents bought their first computer from in 1988.



That computer still works, by the way.



In other news, I really want to head back to the beach. I wish there were more of me to go around and do things, and that flea markets weren't only open on Sundays.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We got our first snow of the year, which is already starting to melt. I'm actually glad because I have to deliver the worst route in the office tomorrow driving from the wrong side of my jeep in Bozrah...and frankly don't feel like dealing with iced over roads and the rest. I mean, it's not like I can wear a seat belt while driving from the passenger side (wouldn't be able to reach brake/gas pedals) so to say I'm nervous while driving on less than ideal roads like that is an understatement.

Anyway! Since many bloggers are posting their Christmas lists, I'm going to post mine.


And here we go!

1. Nikon D60 D-SLR camera. I've only wanted a new camera for a year now, especially ever since my Kodak DX7590 that I got for my 21st birthday (I'll be 25 in February) broke in the fall of 2007.. Many of the buttons wore out suddenly and my camera lags in orienting itself (so pictures that I take right-side-up come out upside-down...this problem preceded the buttons failing by about 2 months but easily fixed in any photo editor). Anyway...A digital SLR would be a logical upgrade now that they're affordable. My Kodak cost almost $500 in 2005, and the Nikon D60 costs about $550. I would also settle for a Nikon D40, but for about $50 more you can get the D60 so therefore the D60 is a better value. One of the differences is that the D40 is 6 megapixel, and the D60 is 10.2MP. I would be extremely happy if I got this and nothing else...the Kodak is still going but the last 5000 pictures have produced more than its share of disappointments. (During its whole life, my Kodak has taken roughly 18,000 pictures.)

2. The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb. Wally Lamb is my favorite author by far, though I could be biased because my mom had him for a teacher for her poetry class at NFA around 1975. He's since been on Oprah's Book Club. His books are well written and if you grew up in and love eastern Connecticut, it's fun to try to relate to the story by finding the little clues he leaves that you would only know if you lived here. Not to mention his plots are fantastic. I often wonder if he would remember my mom. It's not like she looks any different. lol

3. Elect the Dead (CD by Serj Tankian, lead vocalist from System of a Down). I love SOAD and I don't listen to the radio much anymore since I have a CD player in my car, so I only found out recently that Serj has solo projects going on. I like what I've heard so far.

4. Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime Boxset. It's the Talking Heads. I love them. A lot. Watched True Stories last night and still never cease to be amazed by how much that movie had an influence on current pop culture (or late 90's at least...both American Beauty and Titanic have obvious references to two clips from that movie less than 5 minutes apart.) I'm sure there's others. Not to mention the Love for Sale video, which is the most demented music video I've seen. Even Hell by the Squirrel Nut Zippers takes a back seat to Love for Sale.



and Hell (not that great quality):



5. Custom Nightmare Snatcher Journal - Mugwump (in blue!). From the Spiderbite Boutique on Etsy. Looks like she shut down for a bit to fulfill a large order. Oh well, my birthday is coming too.

Also, please support your local brick and mortar stores, buy as much handmade as you can! The big box stores will survive.

This vaguely reminds me of 2006, when I boycotted all malls and Walmart for my holiday shopping, just to mix things up a bit. Of course, in 2006 I got strep throat out of the blue just before I bought plane tickets for Egypt, and so my entire Christmas budget that year was $125. I think I did end up going over that, but it was such a blast! This year I've done most of my shopping on Ebay, Etsy, and Amazon. But I do avoid the huge powersellers on Ebay...you know, those people with 100,000 positive feedbacks. Take a closer look, 4000 positive feedback in one month with 50 negatives that they never even reply to...well...I'd be willing to pay just a little bit more to a seller with 300 positive feedbacks and only 1 negative, just so I know I'm helping someone in their quest to be successful independently!

I have several ebay auctions ending today but have to work extra hard to get the next round of items up. I'm going to have a very long day at work tomorrow and be exhausted when I get home. Better to be productive today!

Another day at the beach!

Yesterday I went to breakfast at Olde Tymes in Norwich and afterwards decided that despite the 18 degree weather, I was going to head to the beach anyway. What fun! Charleston and Scarborough were both bust, though both were lovely and not as cold as I thought they would be. Of course, the last beach, as usual, did not disappoint. Too bad I didn't hit it at low tide, and had some fun running from waves while trying to dig in the sand.I know the color balance is off in the photo above, but I got this piece of China (lol) and a piece of porcelain (Charlestown, 1 of only 2 pieces I found).

Odd embossing on a lime green piece. Not sure what pattern this is.

I discovered this thick clear piece was embossed when I got home, but it's awesome nevertheless! Wish I could ID the bottle this came from :). It would have been read while lying on its side, which is odd because it was a round bottle and not your typical medicine bottle (rectangular shape). Other round embossed bottles would be read while the bottle was standing up.

Best find of the day, olive green rounded lip. Wasn't quite expecting this when I picked it up. Wish I found it earlier as the breaks are pretty new, but after the stormy weekend I'm not too surprised.

All finds! Loving the pink lizard and the bullet shell. There's some kind of writing on the bullet shell but I can't read it :(.

Sooooo...there you have it. The vintage plug was also found at the last beach and will be turned into some kind of steampunk wire-wrapped pendant. Stay tuned!

Recovering lost moments...

This was originally a journal entry I have on my livejournal from October 17, 2005. My friends liked it a bit so I would like to share it with the artsy Etsy following I have, as well as any friends who missed the original :). I added in some notes.

Have you ever been curious and looked at the negatives when you had pictures developed, only to find half of a picture no one bothered to print?

Obviously with the advent of digital cameras, this doesn't happen at all...so moments like these are going to fade.

Anyway, when Nick was over on Friday, we were going through pictures of mine to add to his collage, and I spotted something odd on one of my pictures that looked like a ghost face in one of my windows. I went off in desperate search of the negative and instead found this picture that I've never seen before!



So I tried scanning the negative, and nothing worked, so I got the brilliant idea to take pictures of the negative with my awesome camera--which can take semi-clear close-ups, provided I hold the damn thing still.

After messing in photoshop, here's what I got!




Peter and Mom, at Lyndhurst, Tarrytown, New York, November 1, 1998

I turned this overnight obsession into a project! Results include shots of Norwich circa 1978, Glenn's apartment, Ford Theater in Washington D.C., Hollywood Broadway Review, and other pictures.


Bookcase at the Lockwood Matthews Mansion, Norwalk, CT.





What's this?


It's my backyard haha. around March 16, 2001


I don't know what this is, except that it was taken at the first EWS gathering.
Norwich Ten Pin, July 21, 2001


This was in the set of pictures of my bedroom taken for my journalism final project. June 16, 2001


Washington DC trip, October 1997

Smithsonian




Ford Theater


Christmas Tree


Flowers near the picture window in Sterling, September 8, 1998


Barbie from Barbie and the Rockers! in a crochet dress, summer 1989.


Birdhouse out the picture window, 1987


I honestly have no idea why there's a beer can hanging in front of my picture window. Note, I found out much later that the beer can was a weight for the hummingbird feeder, which hung on a thin wire. The wire would curl up out of reach without the weight when the feeder was being changed. April 1998


Mr. D! April 1998
Mr. D retired this year...omg...that makes me feel old (but probably makes him feel even older! LOL)


Glenn's apartment, July 17, 2002


Sterling Memorial graduation, June 18, 1998


1978


numbers on the negative


At the Miss Preteen Connecticut Pageant, May 27, 1995


Salem, Massachusetts, August 18, 1998


I have no idea who this is, 1977



This wasn't a lost moment, but my cat rocks my socks (like it's 1987).


This picture was apparently printed, but I've never seen it in my life. And it's me with a dog, which you would almost never see now. The dog's name was Saina and she was put to sleep the next day; she was 14 at the time. 1989


No, it's not Indigo, it's my mom's cat (that I should know the name of, but don't remember...) 1978 aww...and my Indigo died in March 2007. I miss that cat!


If you have ever lived in Norwich, you should know where this is!
Near the Laurel Hill Bridge, 1979.


Mom as Rachel Drummond at the Dark Shadows Festival, 1997.
We knew about this picture too because we saw it on the negative when Mom wondered why there weren't any pictures of the costume contest. Well, there's one!


Zack walking to a payphone at the Norwich Walmart, May 17, 2002. Note that we used payphones back then, because none of us had cell phones LOL! (Well, we did, like Heather, because we went to the Crystal Mall that night and played phone tag (literally) with Mike, which wasn't possible without cell phones, BUT ANYWAY ZACK AND I DIDN'T HAVE THEM THEN SO THERE!)


A table on Memere's patio, summer 2000


Whipple's Chapel, December 1999.


No one I know remembers my kitchen in Sterling looking like this, because we gutted it just after this picture was taken. For those of you who remember my old house...you may or may not remember the huge hole in the wall window thingy between the living room and the kitchen. That hole in the wall is where the fridge is in this pic, taken in 1987.
So 70's!



Swans on the Shetucket River, 1979.

If you would like to attempt this project yourself, here's how!
This was done in Photoshop 5 so the menu paths are quite outdated (but if you're familiar with photoshop then it shouldn't be much of a problem).What I did was hold the negatives against a white piece of paper that had a bright light shining on it, and took a picture. It's a little hard to explain, and some of them came out blurry so I'll have to re-take them. Use the same macro settings you would use for closeups on your etsy photos. :)

Then I put the pictures into photoshop, and inverted the colors (Image\Adjust\Invert).

Because the colors were off (the negative has that sepia tint), the inverted colors look very blue and washed out. So I messed around with the color balance. (Image\Adjust\Color Balance. Color levels= +100, 0, -100 on midtones only, don't mess with shadows and highlights) Basically I upped the red and yellow to balance the cyan.

Then I cropped the photo (Some I didn't, but others I had to otherwise the negative images and other stuff like my thumb would mess with the image a little)

Then I did auto levels. (Image\Adjust\Auto Levels)

Overall it comes out very close to an actual photo! Colors wise it's right on (because I did a couple actual photos that I had prints of for comparison). It's obviously not as clear because I can't hold the camera or negative 100% still, but you get the idea.