After MetroCon I’m planning on turning EelpoutArt into a sort of business, depending on what sells and how much inventory we have left. I’ve done some selling online before and it can be a little daunting at times. Especially when calculating shipping. Especially when calculating international shipping. I mailed something to Austria once and it was incredibly expensive. Anyway, it’s really annoying when you have to guess at the shipping costs. It’s either guesstimate or drive all the way to the post office and wait, wasting their time and yours. And if you calculate incorrectly you have to eat the extra cost. That’s not fun at all.
So, I was looking at little label makers that can do all that for me. I think that the Desktop Mailing Solution would be best because it has a little digital scale that comes with it to make calculating the postage so much easier. I won’t have to guess the weight of my items with that nifty gadget! Or I could get the Dymo LabelWriter 400 Turbo for printing out online stamps. That would be perfect for envelops or items that don’t weigh very much (such as my little phone charms). Both of those products do regular printing too, for cool things like stickers, name tags, or addresses. I won’t have to worry about my sloppy handwriting or that the item won’t get there because I spelled something wrong. Both of those printers would save on time and money, you should really check them out. They’re in the Office Solutions section. There are other products too, like regular label makers for around the home, that would be nice to have.
If you’ve been reading my journal you’ll know that I’m going to have an artist alley booth at MetroCon. In the last few years I’ve noticed that the artist alley has gotten a lot more competitive. It’s moving away from print artists to crafts and fine arts. Many of the artists have been doing this for years, so I want our booth too look very nice, neat and above all, professional. I am designing business cards and a price list for our items, but I’m not sure if that’s enough. When I went to MegaCon I saw many artists had large signs hung behind them with their names, company and some examples of their works. They looked really professional. That’s why I’m considering creating a banner for Eelpoutart, to hang on the front of the table. I came across this site, BuildASign.com, and it seems really nice. You design what you want, then they print it out on whatever medium you choose. I would probably get a nylon flag or a banner for my purposes. They have a huge selection of yard signs, magnetic signs, vinyl decals and bumper stickers. The vinyl decals and bumper stickers would be fun to play with, maybe something for my friends to check out.
For the products for the artist alley, I’m trying to develop more felt foods. I tried making a felt cake yesterday but it was getting frustrating so I gave up. Maybe I’ll try it again today. I kinda want to buy a book off eBay that explains how to make felt foods, with patterns and everything. The only drawback is that it’s in Japanese and I’d have to guess at what their saying. Oh well, something to experiment with. 
I’m a little worried that I’m expanding too much and should just stick to a few things. I don’t want the table overrun with items so that no one can see what’s there. :dead:
I saw this and thought of my dogs at home! If you don’t know already, my family has three pugs back home in St. Pete. There’s Emma, the female, Zeus, the male, and Gizmo, the puppy. Oh, and they’re crazy! Both Zeus and Gizmo were rescues, Zeus from a coworker that couldn’t take care of him and Gizzy (Gizmo) from the Vet Tech school in the college where my mom works. Emma we got from a private breeder quite a while ago. They’re really sweet dogs, but kinda stupid. And by kinda stupid I mean you don’t really know if they know what they’re names are. They only really know “Walk!” and “Cookie!” and “Out!” or “Off!”. Emma however is pretty clever. You look at her and say “What are you eating?” and she’ll stop chewing and look at you like “What are you talking about?” 
Since they aren’t terribly bright, they spend a lot of time outside. Mainly so they don’t eat everything on the floor in the house or get into trouble. In the garage they have a little dog bed. It’s kinda funny if you look into the garage and all of them are piled in the bed. In the house we put a gate up between the kitchen and the dining room and that’s where they sleep at night.
They’re so cute! Gizzy goes into a fit whenever we leave him outside and he knows we’re in the house. Zeus barks at orange traffic cones. And if you’re eating Emma will sit and stare at you with the saddest expression.
