Etsy Update! & some other stuff

I updated my Etsy shop this afternoon with more art. I will be getting my art back from the Springfield Cultural Council soon and I highly doubt anything is going to sell from their exhibit. And if by some weird coincidence someone makes an inquiry by email for something that has already sold--oh well. So, back into the shop it goes! Along with three new paintings that I am really proud of:





Another exciting thing is that I heard through the grapevine 1000 Artist Journal Pages in now available on Amazon.com! I cannot wait to see this book, seriously. I still haven't ordered a copy. They have been in the publisher's warehouse for like a month and I have had the forms to get my discounted copy for about that long. Ooops! I better do that this week. Or, at least go visit it in Barnes & Noble or something.

Lastly, I am pleased to say that I finally bought two domain names. I am still trying to figure out hosting and how to actually build a web site, but I needed to just go ahead and get my domain names now. Because one of the ones I originally wanted was taken! Boo! Couldn't let that happen again. For 20 bucks it was worth it.

I bought one for an art website which will just be my name (www.julieayotte.com) and another which will be a stationery web site, name to be revealed at a later date. I will be selling brand-name kawaii stationery as well as my own designs. I even registered myself as a business, if you can believe that. I now have an EIN number and a Massachusetts tax ID number which permits me to collect sales tax. I'm all official. I need to call this week and see what other permits I need to be selling things over the interent. Honestly, it will be such a small thing to start that I can't imagine anyone would give me trouble even if I didn't have a resale permit. But I figure better to get it now, right?

I've looked into a few ecommerce options that would get a web site up and running pretty easily and inexpensively. I need to learn more about web design at some point, but there are options for those of us with little knowledge about html and coding and all that other lovely stuff. The problem now is coming up with a little money to buy a few initial products. Oh, and I will need a scanner and printer. This crap about giving me 4 hours a week at my job just isn't going to cut it. I mean, are they really serious? Are they kidding? Are they waiting to see if I will notice and be like, ok I figured out your joke and this has gone far enough!

I'll keep you posted when all of this starts shaping up more. I have been playing around with a logo for my stationery shop already. ;)

May Family Arts Festival

I had five pieces chosen to be hung for a family arts festival this May in downtown Springfield. Oddly enough, the Cultural Council didn't give participating artists a whole lot of details about what this festival is really going to be like. What I do know is this: there's going to be a festival taking place the weekend of May 17th-18th. It coincides with the big annual pancake breakfast. I'm not sure what the rationale for that is--maybe because lots of people will already be lured downtown with the promise of free pancakes. And pancakes and art are both yummy. Anyway, pieces will be hung May 1st throughout the downtown area. There will be opportunities for sales and also to be part of ongoing exhibits in partnership with downtown businesses. There's going to be a reception May 17th as well as two artist workshops on grant writing and growing your business. Both I expect to be very helpful.

Apparently there's going to be a few more art festivals throughout the summer and fall. I will keep you posted. Hopefully I will be able to show more work for those. I'm not sure where exactly my work is going to be hung, but I will keep you posted on that as well. This will be my first "official" public showing as an artist. Very exciting!

The following works were selected: