One Hundred and Eighty Photos Later

I picked up my new camera on Friday, along with batteries, a camera bag and a memory card, and took it home and started reading the manual. It's super-easy to use, one reason I chose it, and I mastered taking pictures very quickly (I've never owned a digital camera before, so this is all new to me). I set up my garment rack full of vintage clothing outside behind the house on Sunday when the sun came out and photographed all of the stuff in under two hours. Then Monday I took all of the smaller loose items I have to sell, like jewelry and knick-knacks, and styled a backdrop on an outside windowsill that looked really cool, and took pictures of all of those items. I still need to install the software to upload the photos and to take measurements and write descriptions of all of the items for the Etsy listings, but the pictures are all ready to go. I hope to have some stuff up by the end of the week.

The camera also has video capabilities, which is remarkable, because it is tiny and was so inexpensive. I'll play around with that this week some and see what I can do. Not sure if it has sound capacity, but I'll find out. I love it, am very glad I bought it. And I can write it off on my taxes, too, score!

I got a lot of other stuff done this weekend, too. I've been so immersed in writing and editing my books for the last year that I was behind in a lot of other stuff that I just did not prioritize near the top of the to-do list. I've been taking care of some of that lately, including unpacking some boxes from storage, filing papers, going through old bank records and shredding two years' worth of receipts and documents, mending clothes, organizing drawers, my desk and my arts and crafts area, etc. I feel like I am shedding my old skin and getting ready for the future. I have big plans for the second half of this year and for 2009 and I want to get all of this administrative stuff out of the way so my slate is clear. I plan another visit to NYC in September because I still have some things in storage there from my Katrina debacle, and I want to dump most of that and move only what I really feel is irreplaceable. I want to free up the funds I am paying to store that stuff so I can apply them what I need now, and I plan to make another cross-country drive next year to move the items I want to keep out here. This is not the best way to be bi-coastal, and I feel too scattered. It would be better to keep less but keep it all together, and gas has gone up so much in the time since I left NYC that it makes no sense to transport some of that stuff. It would be cheaper to replace it out here. Rent in Los Angeles is no joke, and I don't expect to have a large apartment to myself anytime soon. The artist's community where I live is a great value, but my personal space is limited, and I just can't fit everything I used to have when I lived by myself. I mailed some boxes back last year when I visited and cleared some of the storage out, and I may do that again. I was so happy to receive those in the mail a few days after I got back, some clothes I really like and a beautiful comforter and vintage pillows I bought for myself when I had a big apartment on Staten Island. I am also going to look into shipping a few things by freight. No sense moving the lighter stuff it if would be cheaper to mail it or put it on a truck.

I worked a little this past weekend on editing The Flower of Knighthood, but decided to ride the wave of setting up shop and cleaning house, so I saved buckling down on the book for this week when I only have evenings free and don't want to get into some big cleaning project.