Etsy Seller Interview

I'm so excited to bring to you dear readers, my very first Etsy seller interview! This is a new feature on Rock, Paper, Knit in which I bring great artists here to talk about their work and share their amazing art!
First on the roster is Lara from AlleePhoto who sells her gorgeous photographs on Etsy. Don't forget to stop by her flickr as well for some more great photographs!

Bio: Lara Allee, age 30, living in Arlington, VA.

How would you describe your personal style?

Comfort.

Do you have any New Year’s resolutions?

I want to start treating myself better - more sleep, better food, more exercise, and less TV! I have a tendency to be very lethargic, particularly during the winter, but when I keep myself busy I feel so much better.

Tell us about the new things on your Etsy to look for in the new year.

I'm hoping to get some nice wintry shots to add more seasonal flavor to the shop.

How long have you been creating art?

Well, I've been surrounded by art my entire life. My parents are both artistically inclined and I spent my childhood going to museums and attending plays. My first love was theater. I began doing plays in elementary school, but as a teen I developed a real love for it. I majored in Theater at UMass-Amherst, and my day job is at a major arts funder. Photography was something I always enjoyed, but never became serious about until a few years ago. It has been a great outlet, especially since I stopped working on the creative side of theater.

What made you want to open an Etsy store?

A few friends had approached me about purchasing prints and I thought it would be a great way to get my work out there.

Tell us about your creative process.

Photography is all about looking at your subject in a new way. When I'm shooting, I notice things like texture, light, angles, repetition more than I normally would. I usually shoot a couple of test shots to see what my camera sees, adjust my settings to start to create the look I want and then just shoot. A lot of the time I don't get what I imagined, but often it's better. That is one of the things I love about photography - what you see is not always what you get.

Who/what are the major influences in your life?

My parents are also avid photographers and I learned a lot from them at an early age about composition. Our vacation pictures were never just snapshots.

Who is your favorite artist?

I'm a big fan of the Dutch landscape artists from the 16th and 17th century. No one in particular, but I have a few favorite paintings at the National Gallery of Art in DC.

How do you get inspired and what do you take inspiration from?

I've found a lot of inspiration online from other photographers - some of my favorites are Karen Walrond, Irene Nam, Kate Inglis and Beatrice Peltre. They have all influenced my own photography. They've shown me different ways of looking at the world through my lens.

Do you have any hobbies? 

I love to cook (and eat!). I'm a bit of a lapsed yogi due to a shoulder injury, but once that gets sorted out, I intend to get back to it asap. I love being outdoors when the weather is nice, and I love going to museums and plays.  I recently rediscovered my love for reading, so I've been voraciously consuming as many books as possible.  

Favourite materials or equipment to work with?

I adore my Canon XSI. I don't have the fanciest lenses, but my favorite is the 50 mm prime lens that my husband gave me for Christmas last year. It gives my photos a really nice depth of field, and I love that the fixed zoom forces me to really think about what I want to shoot. 

What is the one thing you couldn’t live without?

It's kind of sad, but aside from the real essentials, food, water, etc, the one thing I can't live without is the internet. I'm perfectly happy to be without it when I go on vacation. But on a day to day basis it is at the core of so much of what I do and I find that when I don't have it readily available, I feel disconnected.

If we were to scroll through your itunes, what would be the most embarrassing thing for us to find?

Britney Spears.

What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

My mother always told me "Spend your time wisely." 

That's great advice! I’m a huge foodie so I have to ask, what’s your favourite food?

Sushi! I could eat it for every meal.

Any advice for etsy sellers and/or photographers out there?

I'm still fairly new at both! For people just picking up a camera I'd encourage them to learn how to use their manual settings - it's the one tool that will vastly improve your shots. For Etsy sellers it's all about getting the word out -- something I'm still working on myself!

A Very Special Christmas Guest

I'm so excited to bring you my very first guest blogger! Tish is a good friend of mine and owner of the awesome blog: sugar + razor blades; she has graciously accepted to do a very special Christmas post. Don't forget to keep your eyes peeled for some more great things here on Rock, Paper, Knit, including an upcoming interview with Etsy seller: Lara from AlleePhoto.

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Hey, Rock, Paper, Knit readers! I'm Tish from sugar + razor blades. Josey asked me to do a Christmas DIY for you all, so I thought I'd do something a little different from what I usually do on my blog. Christmas nail art! I'm no pro, so these are all pretty easy ideas.

Here's what you'll need: red, green and white nail polish, a clear top coat, and a tiny paint brush.

Let's start with the easiest pattern. Just red, white and green stripes. Start by painting the bottom half of your nails white. It doesn't have to be a clean edge because you're going to paint over it.

Next, paint the top half green.

Then finish it off with a red stripe in the middle. Wasn't that easy?

A little more complicated, now. Candy cane stripes. Start with white nails.

Then carefully (with your tiny paintbrush) paint three diagonal stripes in red. You could also do red and green, if you wanted to.

Bonus points if you dress the rest of you like a candy cane, like I did!

Now this one is pretty tricky. Little Christmas presents! Make sure you give yourself plenty of time so that each layer can set before you do the next one, or else they will end up a mess like mine did. (I was in a hurry.)

I did mine all different colors, but you can do just one color combination for all your nails. Paint your nails your base color.

Then paint the "ribbon". I think it looks much cuter when the lines cross off-center.

You could leave them like that, or add rhinestones like I did.

Use tweezers to carefully place the rhinestones on your nails before they're completely dry. Then add a layer of clear nail polish over top of the rhinestone to make it stay on.

So, there are three easy Christmas themed nail ideas for you!

And here is some more Christmas nail art inspiration...

Thanks for having me on your blog, Josey! Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!

10 Things I'm Loving This Week

I've seen people post these in blogs before and they look like fun to write. I personally like making lists to keep track of all the things going on in my life, but this one gives me a chance to be a bit more creative as well as share some of favorite things.

10. I'm obsessed with Lost! I've been watching from episode #01, however I, like many others, quickly lost interest halfway through season 2 when questions seemed to constantly pile up and answers were few and far between. My hatred of all things Lost managed to stick with me up until this summer when my BF Dave convinced me to watch it with him from the beginning in anticipation of the final season. I'm not so sure if Lost actually belongs in my love category, unless "love to hate" counts. Lost and I have always had a rocky love/hate relationship, but I'm still quite interested to see what the last season will bring us and I sure hope that it will stop disappointing (I didn't really like the first two episodes) and bring on the goodness!

I hope we get a lot more Charlie and Desmond in this season and whole lot less of Jack, whom I'm increasingly hating more with every episode. He's one of the least interesting characters and yet gets the most screen time. I could ramble all day about my hatred of Jack...but I probably shouldn't.

9.  Hamsters! I don't really have any pets; I have a fishy whom I love! His name is Sgt. Pepper and he's yellow in colour with little black spots, but I can't cuddle him. I really want something warm and fuzzy to nuzzle with and since my landlord won't let us have a dog, I've been setting my eyes on cute little baby hamsters! Now if only I could convince Dave...

8. Tea Pot jewelry! Thanks to Tim Burton's new Alice in Wonderland, teapot jewelry has been popping up on Etsy more than ever and I'm loving it! Now if only I had the cash flow to buy all these pretties...

The last one is just too adorable not to add! Plus it fits in with the whole Alice theme with the mushrooms and all. 

7. Cool decals for apple laptops that incorporate the logo into the art.

6. Colourful tights. I love to wear tights! It's one of the reasons I love winter so much. Colourful tights, as well as unique patterns are fun to wear.

5. Vintage owls. These wooden vintage, hand painted owls are very cute. I love all the details and design that went into making these.

4. Colourful yarn balls. I wish I was super rich so that I could adorn my apartment with beautiful, colour rich yearns.

3. Cute handmade ipod cozies. I'm currently working on making my own, will keep you guys updated on that. Might take a little while because I'm having a hard time figuring out my pattern as I'm trying to create it with my very basic knitting knowledge.

2. Mustaches! Or I should probably be more specific: fake mustaches! They're awesome and quite funny as well as cute depending on what you add them too, like this adorable necklace or those cute mugs!

1. Robot Art! I'm obsessed with robots as well as art so it only makes sense that I would love the combination of the two! I'm always doodling robots into my notebooks and this one makes me smile.

Enjoy!