Color Opinions?

Progress progresses on the new website. Over the weekend I started putting in text, all but one of the hard and soft pouches is done, now. And Ron's been working on colors. Opinions?

More updates to website

Well actually to the new in development website. There are a lot of pictures on the new site now not much in the way of text but hey it's coming along. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Pictures! We got pictures!

Friday (which Ron had off, lucky duck), Ron got the basic outline of the website laid out. He took a bunch of pictures Saturday afternoon and Sunday, while I rooted through merchandise bins and tried to be helpful, and then named the files once he brought them into Lightroom, cut things out of the background, and did whatever image-processing voodoo.

Last night we started getting the images onto the draft pages. I forgot to suggest that he go ahead and update the draft web site that's semi-available for perusal. Maybe tonight. I also need to talk to him about the belts page, I've had an idea. Not a particularly original one, granted, but it might work.

New Website Preview

The beginnings of the new website are now available here. Most of the merchandise links in the menu are inactive, but the rest should be good. I think we've got the general organization worked out, the pages just have to be built.

This weekend: Photo orgy.

Now that's odd

The LJ syndication feed of this blog has a bug, such that I can't reply to comments left via LJ. LJ refuses to believe I'm logged in to my LJ account, and won't let me log in concurrent with posting the response. (and thanks for the menu suggestion, mbcrui)

Very very strange.

Website Progress

Ron seems to be re-taking control of the website. When we first put it up, mumble years ago, he created it. A few years ago, I took over, converted things to use CSS, and re-did a bunch of stuff. Now he's the one poking at it with Dreamweaver. (actually, all iterations have been cooperative, it's who's messing with the code that I'm talking about)

We looked at getting away from frames for the side menu, but the tradeoff is having to add chunks of code to every page to include the menu. Given the increases in computer speeds, internet connections, etc., it looks like we're going to keep the frame(s). He's done a lot of invisible stuff, like rearranging where image files are stored, and increasing consistency of file names, which Dreamweaver's auto-updating makes painless. Tinkered with colors and font effects, and still considering a bigger color change. Corrected bugs in the code and typos that propogated themselves due to my inattention and re-using files. We've even deleted a couple things that (1) never seemed to generate on-line interest , and (2) are very likely to be going away in terms of live sales (for various reasons) too.

Which pretty much leaves us at the point where the next step is to start with gutting and major re-construction. The organization of the site, since we don't have on-line ordering, and are unlikely to implemet it, is more complex and/or sprawling than it needs to be. And some of the pictures really suck, Ron says. So, time to use the for-real photographic lights and light tent we got a couple-few months ago, get new pictures, let Ron do the Photoshop voodoo necessary for what we want, and re-build significant sections of the site.

Northshield Coronation

I don't think I mentioned previously, but I had some trepidation about yesterday's event, Northshield's spring Coronation. The merchant coordinator had said that we were downstairs, but she remembered a ground-level entrance. There was also some question if we'd have to be out by 4:30, or by 6.

The time question was a good answer, we had to be out by 6. On the other hand, "ground-level" entrance was . . . a bit of a misnomer. Down a couple ramps that I suspect do not quite meet ADA requirements, and then up two steps into the building. Although we had plenty of space, I decided we'd go with minimal merchandise - just belts, pouches, and frogs (which get packed into pouches). Lunch was served at the bar at one end of the room, which was probably a good thing, bringing more people down there.

It wasn't a bad event, really, but with geetting up before 5 am, and a 2.5-hour drive on each end made for a long day. Culver's pot roast dinner is probably good any time, but it's really really good when you're tired and hungry. We got home between 8 and 8:30.

Otter Migration

Although otters are not normally migratory beasties, OtterNecessities.com has migrated to dreamhost.com. Any existing links should continue to work, although Dreamhost says it may take a couple/few days for the new DNS records to propagate out, but it was working from here within 15 minutes.

We've been on Zarquon for mumble years, but Ron was running into some small problems with Adobe Lightroom and some of the other Creative Suite apps, and elbow room. At least moving web hosts isn't as painful as moving house.

Personal stuff is/am/are/was/were/be/being/been moving to dracos-otter.com. At this point all that pops up is a link to my silly Journal of Geek Studies page, I think Ron's still working on that. He's staying home tomorrow, so I expect that, and quite possibly the Otter Necessities pages, to go through some changes this weekend.

Sometimes I'm good, sometimes I'm an idiot . . .

Tuesday evening, since The Sprout's homework load precluded taking him to karate, I got the books caught up, after picking up a different book on Adobe InDesign on the way home. Wednesday I continued my fit of intelligence, and picked up "The Missing Manual" for Dreamweaver (the books I started with look like good references, but not so good for learning brand new and totally unfamiliar software), and last night I started watching video training on InDesign from Lynda.com.

Ron, meanwhile, has been diving cheerfully into playing with Otter's website with Dreamweaver. This means that while he pokes at things, I scramble through assorted HTML, CSS, and Dreamweaver books trying to find the answers. On the one hand, I probably know as much or more HTML and CSS than he does, and I have a good idea what should be possible and vaguely how to do it. On the other hand, I have a long history of quickly finding exactly the right answer in software manuals for Ron, provided that I'm completely clueless on the subject. So looking for answers on a software subject I know is interesting.

On the Stoopid front, I'm beginning to question my sanity on going to the Northshield Coronation tomorrow. Site opens at 8 am. 2.5 hour travel time. The results of doing the math are Not Pretty. I'm still not sure if I'm taking Ron or The Sprout. Back to the smart side, though, I remembered not to trust Google Maps blindly, and now have a better route, which my Wisconsinite co-worker has concurred with.

Lessee, for tomorrow I have my directions, the event schedule (such as it is, the question if merchants need to be packed and out by 4:30 or 6 is still up in the air, AFAIK), tax rate, and the directions on how I plan to wrap my new sari. Oh, and I got new wiper blades for the truck this morning. I know where the receipt books, cash box, and price list are. I think all I need to do is pick up some cash tonight.

Half-Page Ad draft

Here is a .jpg (the .pdf doesn't suffer from fuzziness) of the half-page ad I came up with yesterday. Ron was busy with his computer, so I poked at Photoshop instead of InDesign. (We moved our licensed copy of Photoshop CS3 to my iFruit, since Ron's got CS4 on his machine now). Ron tweaked it for black-and-white, but i figured I'd post the color version here.

I tried to keep in mind the main messages of "The Non-Designer's Design Book", which can be summarized with the acronym CARP (yeah, I tent to flip the A and the R) for Contrast, Alignment, Repetition, and Proximity, as well as advice such as that you should get rid of half the words, then get rid of some more.

As an example of the contrast item, I don't normally like serif fonts, but to get healthy contrast with the sans-serif font used for "tter Necessities", a serif font was the way to go. And whattya know, it actually looks good. Maybe those perfeshunals do know a thing or three. I invoked repetition to get rid of three different fonts for Modern, Steampunk, and Medieval, which I was guilty of using at first.

Successful Weekend

The Ayreton Carnivale on Saturday went well. I haven't totalled up all the numbers, but it was definitely worth the short and easy trip to Northbrook. We took both the truck and the Kia, so I was able to send Ron home about 4. He was getting stiff and sore, and the dogs appreciated being let out. By 5:30, when The Sprout and I were pulling out of the parking lot, the weather had turned truly disgusting. Getting home was uneventful, as was going out to dinner at Famous Dave's. Mmmm . . . meaty goodness . . .

I talked to a friend of the merchant coordinator for the Rose Tourney, and it sounds like I should be able to take the "tentative" label off of that one soon. I also talked to folks from Ravenslake who use the site regularly, and could answer my site question (single-story building, no stair/elevator issues).

Yesterday I finally did income taxes. First the Otter's, then ours. None of it was difficult, just pretty low on the fun and interesting scale.

I think I'm going to put an ad in the DucKon program book. We have Adobe InDesign (page layout software) installed as a trial version, with licensed media hopefully in the hands of FedEx by now, which I'm planning on using to do said program book, so I think I'll try using that to put the ad together.

A whole lot of . . . Nothing

It's been a quiet week, in which we've accomplished . . . not very much. I laid out the patterns for a new pouch for the Steampunk Project (based on this one - why re-engineer the wheel?), and I've downloaded some tax forms and exchanged a little e-mail with event organizers. Ron got a Gameboy DS last week, and has become one with it.

Tomorrow is the Ayreton Carnivale, an SCA event. "Ayreton" is the name for a proposed Barony over most of the NE Illinois groups, and the event is put on by the various branches as a group effort. This is the third or fourth year for it, IIRC. It has the advantage of being close, at Glenbrook North HS in Northbrook. I think last year's Carnivale was the last local-ish SCA event we did, come to think of it.

Next weekend is the SCA Kingdom of Northshield's spring coronation, which is 2.5-3 hours north. It's odd, we go north into Wisconsin fairly regularly, but don't go south or west in Illinois much at all. It may be a time/distance thing, either events are in the greater suburban area, DeKalb to Rockford-ish, all of which are within a couple hours; the next ring of events gets you get around Champaign/Urbana, Springfield, Peoria, and the Quad Cities, which gets into overnight drive times.

We used to be more willing to haul to overnight events, but there's several issues that have started limiting those:

1. Beds, electricity, and running water. Beds and electricity are comfort issues. Electricity for Ron's BiPap. We need to come up with a good portable power supply, most SCA sites don't have power.

2. Dogs. We liked doing Warriors and Warlords, but the sites for the last few years have prohibited dogs.

3. Money. Hotels and dog boarding cost it.

4. Gas prices (see also #3.)

5. Victims of our own success. Once upon a time, we could squish the three of us, camping gear, merchandise, etc. in/on one vehicle. Now we have to haul the trailer if we're camping. See #5.

I sometimes wonder if we should actually cut down on our merchandise, but I can't think of anything substantial that would be sensible to cut out. More stuff = more choices = better sales.

Hmm. For a week of not much accomplished, I found a bunch to natter on about, eh?

Event List Updated

There we go, the list of upcoming events has been updated. The "Tentative" label means that we want to do the events, but we're not confirmed. In one case because I need to pick up the phone and call the right person . . .

We're skipping DucKon this year. Our sales last year were down from the year before, and that was before the economy tanked. But I will be putting at least one dressmaker's dummy worth of Steampunk Project goodies into the Art Show.

The next event is this coming Saturday, in Northbrook. It kind of snuck up on us, and Ron just had The Sprout unload the truck yesterday. Oops.

Pouch w/ Brass Hardware

After correcting the length issue on the body of this pouch Saturday night, I spent most of yesterday rebuilding the brakes on my motorcycle and a trip to the zoo.

After all that, I spent the evening re-stitching the seam up the back of the pouch, then stitching on the bottom. At this point I discovered that the inner layer on the top was a hair too large and was trying to force the top lip out. So with some careful trimming I got the inner layer of the flap to fit, mostly.

For the hinges it was possible to use brass rivets, but for the latches I ended up using small copper rivets.

I think the next time I do a pouch with brass hardware I will base the pouch on a square or rectangle, I think that will be easier to get everything to line up.

All in all I am pleased with the final results, but I don't think this will become a standard pouch for future production. Maybe one based on a square but no guarantee.

Never did get around to waxing the pouch fronts for Liana... Better get to it before I get in trouble, maybe tonight or later this week.

Steampunk ProgresS!

Finally, some real progress. Typically for a Saturday, we did a bunch of running around, and the guys went to a 7:45 show of "Watchmen," but we did get work done on The Steampunk Project.

Ron worked on his current pouch, and discovered that I'd made an error in cutting the main body. Fortunately, in the direction of too large rather than too small, so it could be corrected instead of replaced. I finished the wallet. I'm still perturbed about the ink spot, but we will get pictures.

This morning, while the guys were working on Ron's motorcycle's front brakes, I started cutting out parts for the Sam Browne belt and another project. After surveying the disaster that is the living room and the warm-ish sunny weather outside, I decided to move cutting operations to the back porch. Eowyn supervised. Or napped. I suspect the latter.

Hopefully Ron will get pouches waxed this afternoon. If so, that will leave me with 4 projects in progress. Nah, I'm not ambitious, just a little crazy (and when working with large pieces of leather, it's worthwhile to do a bunch of cutting at once).

Marginal Progress

I've got the wallet almost done, really I do. I have just one little loop to sew on. I got discouraged when I found a pen mark on one flap. On the one hand, if put into everyday use as a wallet, it's going to (mentally) fade into nothingness compared to general wear and whatnot, but it sure *BUGS* me.

The Sam Browne belt is also at an almost-standstill. I printed out the patterns for the various bits last night, realized I hadn't made the dee holder long enough in one section to actually hold a dee, re-designed another part, then this morning decided that I didn't like *that* shape, either. Hopefully tonight I'll get to cutting.

OTOH, I did cut out another pouch for Ron to work on. It involves hardware purchased from Woodcraft and Rockler woodworking stores. I realized after cutting and marking that I'd made one error, but it's a minor one, in a place that will be invisible on completion, and Ron has already been alerted to the needed correction.

And I really should get the books updated to reflect sales at the Capricon and the craft show.

Steampunk Research

Shortly after Capricon I found out that "Make" magazine was doing a Steampunk-themed issue, so we picked up a copy. Yeah, it's probably a good thing we've been avoiding "Make" up until now. So many cool things to make, like we need more hobbies.

On that same front, we realized we didn't have the "Wild Wild West" movie with Will Smith, Kevin Kline, and Kenneth Branagh. So we had to pick that up for research purposes, right? I simply love Branagh as Dr. Loveless, gnawing on the funiture and walls. I know some people don't like the film, and don't think it's faithful enough to the series, but I like it.

We also got the first season of the original TV series. So much (campy) fun, and Robert Conrad in his tight pants and bolero jacket isn't hard on the eyes, either. I think The Sprout is enjoying it (the show, not Robert Conrad's outfits), too.

Wallet and Other Progress

Here's an in-progress shot of the wallet I'm working on. It's ready to have the pockets sewn in at this point.

My original plan was to make it out of havana-colored harness leather, like the lower pocket. Harness leather that is much thicker than you'd ever consider for a wallet. Now, just before I started working on the wallet, we'd split some dark red-brown harness leather down for a pouch. We got the small pocket split down. But we couldn't get the larger pieces to split. Ron checked the adjustment of the splitter blade, tried again, took the blade out, honed it, I made sure the feed rollers we cleaned, re-assembled and re-adjusted and . . . no good. A wide piece of that particular leather just wasn't going to go, so plan B was different leather that was already the appropriate thickness.

Scratch "appropriate thickness" and make it the thickness called for in the pattern. It's really really thin. This won't be a wallet you'd carry around in your back pocket all the time (which Ron could use, his old one is starting to fall apart), this is one a gentleman would carry around in his lapel pocket. Version two will probably be thicker. And Ron suggests making one to the original pattern size, which is significantly bigger.

All the messing about with the splitter meant that the pouch fronts didn't get waxed after all. Oh well.

It's Done! It's Done!

Well, It is finished. All it needs is either a CS or US Plate on the front and it could be used for Civil War re-creation garb. Or any other plate for any other garb.

The edge tool was a bit tricky to use around the curves on the flap but it looks better with it I think.

And I was wrong it was closer to 3.5 hours to finish.

Black Cartridge pouch

Friday Liana cut out the parts for a black cartridge pouch. This is as far as I got after around 4 hours of hand stitching. All that is left to do is to sew up the two sides of the pouch. That should take around 2-3 more hours.

Oh, I also have to cut the ends of the shoulder strap so that the will fit into the buckles, and tip the strap that holds it closed. I knew there was something I was forgetting.