Well it’s that time of year again, fair season, gift season, when the weather warms up but the shop windows and TV advertising still features trees covered in snow and snowmen. It’s a weird hemisphere we live in.
The busiest time of year for everyone, but hopefully also the most fun in lots of ways!
To make shopping for the perfect gift easier I have created a ‘Imogen Wilson Jewellery 2013 Christmas Gift Guide’ as having three separate lines (and therefore shops) can seem daunting to navigate at times (even to me) I have compiled an easy to navigate, thorough guide with suggestions from the three lines for everyone from your wife to your boss, and don’t worry there are ideas for men in there too!
For your Sister- Imogen Wilson Jewellery Yellow Crane Earrings!
Making the guide was loads of fun, and a tiny bit challenging. First I made a list of all the people you might buy for, then I made a list of all the gifts that might be appropriate from each line… then I edited and whittled the gifts down to the perfect one for each person… it felt a bit like playing Santa…
For your Brother- Major Tom space cufflinks!
Next year I will make the list a little earlier, as I left it a bit late this year. Also fine tune it a bit as I worry it’s a bit long… But I suppose that is/ can be the beauty of the internet… Ctrl F is your best friend!
Ex Libris orange brooch- Something for everyone, either sex
When I decided to create two new brands I knew it would be a lot of work. Registering them for their own Facebook, Gmail, Etsy and Felt accounts made my head spin. I didn’t really make it easy on myself though, I did it all in one sitting, for both brands. Then there was all the work I had forgotten about, Imogen Wilson Jewellery has been around for so many years, and I built it up as I went, I didn’t go in with a fully rounded brand. As a result I had forgotten how much was involved with starting out. It’s all well and good to have a product you’re proud of and think people will be interested in buying/ wearing, that’s almost the easy bit. Logo design, brand ethos, packaging, photography, photo editing, domains (Facebook, Etsy, Felt, Gmail, they feel never ending when you jump in), product descriptions and measurements for online listing…and that’s all before showing the public anything (or emailing shops)… it can seem daunting for one brand let alone three. Then when you think you have a handle on it all there are the statistics to think about.
Love them or loathe them, business statistics are everywhere. At the top of your Facebook page, your blog, your Etsy account, and of course the mother of them all Google analytics. I am still in the early stages of understanding how they work, how to read them, what it all means.
Actually, that’s a lie, a total lie. I have absolutely no idea how they work, I understand them as much as a child might. When the graph or the counter goes higher it means more people have visited my site, which is a good thing- WIN. Pretty basic right? Well apparently not. As with SEO (something else I understand about as much as a chimp) it’s an ever changing game. There is so much information on the internet about it all, yet it all seems to be written for someone else, someone that speaks this ‘other’ language I’m not privy to.
I bet these guys understand it and are taking a break and laughing at my inability to. Bet they’ve even got Asterix and Lucky Luke in on the joke…
When Imogen Wilson Jewellery was my one and only brand I was obsessed with the statistics behind each website I used. My Etsy stats page was always open in one of my browser tabs, I looked at my Facebook stats daily. As I said above, I didn’t really understand what I was looking at, but that didn’t stop me being distracted by them often and excited when the numbers rose higher. Another tab to distract me from what I was ultimately supposed to be doing. Then I launched Ex Libris, my second brand, in the background all the while still chipping away at brand #3, suddenly I was logging in and out of Etsy, changing Facebook accounts left, right and centre. It was much like what I’ve heard having a second child is like, I suddenly had three times the work to do (not twice as much, like I had expected).
I realised I was so busy I no longer looked at my stats every hour, sometimes I didn’t even have the time to look at them every day. Checking my emails and looking at facebook just to see if ‘anything had changed’ didn’t occur to me, I had become so busy doing actual work that my mind had focused, and time had become more precious. Perhaps once I’ve gotten into the swing of things and all three brands have been launched, once a ‘normal’ daily routine is established then I’ll learn a bit about how to accurately read and use my stats, then at least if I fall back into old habits I’ll understand what I’m looking at.
When I started my blog, the goings on of Create & Thrive blogger Jess often inspired what I would write about. However as my blog has continued I don’t rely on her posts to spark something in my brain, to inspire me, I stand on my own two feet a little more and write about what is happening in my world with no prompting. However, I wrote this blog yesterday, and this morning in my inbox was an email about Jess’ digital sabbatical and a blog about the experience. She realised that it wasn’t necessarily that she was spending so much time online, it was the work (or lack of) that she was doing when she was there. The topic couldn’t have been more perfectly suited to include here if I’d asked her to write it myself;
“By constantly ‘checking in’ on social media, email, and other interactive online spaces (like checking our blog comments or stats, for example) we are caught in a loop of reactive work. We’re looking for something outside of us to give us something to respond to, rather than sitting back, turning inward, and focussing on what WE can create and give out to the world.”
I spoke a little bit about reactionary work flow here, but it’s so hard to make yourself stop when you are so caught up in it. Luckily for me it’s no longer an issue, for now at least… Watch this space…
For the last couple of weeks I have been glued to my computer. As with everything I have been attempting recently the simple task of editing my Ex Libris product shots and photos from the photo shoot wasn’t as quick and easy as I’d anticipated. Looking back, I made it far harder on myself than it needed to be.
Sneeky looking close up of Gen. No detail is too small!
I spent several weeks waiting for my photo shoot to occur, ready to launch Ex Libris except for those pesky photos. Once the shoot was over I was left with 766 photos to sort through. After my first sweep through turning them the right way round and doing the cursory delete of obvious atrocities I was down to 619. After sleeping on it and going through once again I only managed to delete about five- holy crap this was going to be harder than I thought. I was scared of deleting something that I might need later (story of my life) so I kept that folder as a back up and copied them all to my desktop where I could delete with gay abandon and no chest pains and ‘what ifs’. I got it down to 150 almost instantly.
Now that I had a manageable quantity it was up to me to up the quality. The shots were great, I loved them all (hence my reticence to delete any of them). My photo editing up until this point was pretty preliminary, the odd crop, brightening, lightening, the occasional contrast fix. I decided to up my game on these ones though, a professional photo shoot calls for professional photo editing. A bit of playing around and I realised it wasn’t that hard to get the effects I was after. A bit of ‘that was never there’ with the stamp tool and some blending with the band aid tool (otherwise known as the healing brush tool for those not up with my lingo). It was incredibly time consuming, but very rewarding, I had so much fun doing it and am quite chuffed at the results.
Two examples of before and after my Photoshop magic. Now you see it, now you don’t
Then I realised what was missing from my impending launch- product shots. I had been so amped up about the photos of my products being worn by someone I had forgotten the fundamental product on crisp white background shots. While I‘d been sitting idly, twiddling my thumbs waiting for Genevieve to get back from Europe I could have been doing them. Some more twiddling of thumbs ensued while I waited for the weather to clear up so I could take my light box outside for optimum light… then it was on. Nothing could hold me back, or so I thought.
Some of the shots were easy, the items easy to photograph. Some a bit trickier, interesting angles were employed and composition went out the window. Half the photos would need a good crop, by the end I was all about the colour, the angle, the product looking good- screw what you could see in the background. My new ‘I’ll fix it in post production’ ethos came through a little too heavily for my own liking.
I took far more photos than I needed, like always. What can I say, I just can’t help myself. If there is a photo to be taken I will take five where there needs to be one. The preliminary once over and first cull was easy. But as so much cropping and editing needed to occur before I could tell which were the best shots, the next several days were spent glued to Photoshop touching up, lightening and cropping photos that would later be culled. I know, I can hear you say it, and I agree- what an idiot.
After cropping, photo editing and several deletes I was left with screen after screen like this
After spending so much time attached to my computer I was excited to be finished editing. Photo shoot, check. Product shots, check. Sadly all the remaining steps needed to complete the launch are also computer related, so even though the editing is over I am in no way done at my laptop. Next is listing them on Etsy and Felt and pitching them to shops and my newsletter. Sometimes it feels never ending, but the end is near and I’m so excited to get everyone’s reaction to it all!all of it!
What an odd and wonderful thing blogging is. I was first introduced to the wonders of blogging in 2010 when I left NZ for six months and travelled around the U.S & Europe alone. It was a good way to upload photos and tell of my adventures without sending out the dreaded group email. I loved that people could read up on my comings and goings if they wanted to, when they wanted to. There was also little to no pressure on me, although I was always aware of my bad spelling and grammar (something I am cursed with to this day) I figured my family and nearest and dearest were my target market, and I didn’t care what anyone else thought.
Of course, if you are reading this you probably will know that my blogging aim has now changed. When I started writing ‘watch this space’ it was for exposure. Not to make money through ads featured on my blog, just to push my Etsy & Felt shops to the top of search engines (or give them a small push anyway) and to make me more searchable. Promote, promote, promote, that was the idea. It’s a bit depressing when I look at it like that… but luckily, although that was the original purpose, it feels like much more than that to me now. It was a pleasant surprise that I enjoy writing it so much, and other than last week (where I went back two days after publishing it and deleted large chunks and edited it) I am generally pretty proud of the results.
I discovered on Pinterest yesterday a ‘Grow your blog’ pin and made the mistake of scrolling down to the ‘People who have pinned this also pinned’ section. It was, as you can imagine, promotion of a different kind.
Blog for passion, Blog for profit, Blog advice from your favourite blogger, 50 online tools to better your blog, Build a better blog, Blogging and the road to traffic, Time management tips for bloggers, How to make your blog stand out, How to make $ with your blog, Build your following, Traffic tips- how to drive people to your blog, Promotion, Tips, Build, Sell, Tutorial, Ideas.
It was overwhelming. It was unnecessary, surely? I opened several of them in new tabs, then closed them all without reading them. It was all a bit too bigger, better, faster, stronger for my liking.
Then it struck me. I know why I write this blog, what I get out of it. It chronicles my journey, my achievements, my struggles. Writing about the things I do and why I do them is very cathartic; it’s a bit like weekly therapy. I think it has also improved the way I communicate, the way I write and had helped make me more aware of the importance of the Oxford comma, and my incorrect usage of your & you’re. But I’d like to know what kind of blogs YOU like. Do you tend to look at glossy, photo heavy blogs? Or do you prefer blogs heavier on text content? Perhaps you prefer to read about specific topics so stumbled on this because of a keyword, that’s fine too, but I’d love to know! Do you like that I write once a week, and it’s usually a weighty length, or would you prefer short & sweet, but more often?
I’d love to hear why you read blogs and how you read them, please leave a comment below and have your say!
OK, I don’t actually like tea… but you get the idea. Thanks for reading, for whatever reason…
When I create jewellery, generally its stuff I would like to personally wear… it doesn’t usually fit with the fashions of the moment, or the colours of the season. This works both in my favour and to my detriment. I like to think it doesn’t matter as the kind of jewellery I create is fun, quirky, and classic in its own way.
I created the brand Imogen Wilson Jewellery around my crane earrings. They were the first origami jewellery I made, they started to sell, I made more. I created packaging, a logo, a brand around them. They continued to sell so I continued to make them, I added new colours, patterns, eventually expanded the range (slightly) to include origami butterflies. They were doing so well that I wanted to expand further, make different origami to add to the collection, monthly, seasonally, hell even yearly would do. But I never seemed to have the time. Just as I felt comfortable enough with where I was, on top of the work, to expand something would happen. A big order, the Christmas rush, a new client, so I just kept doing what I knew, recreating the same things again and again. If it ain’t broken don’t fix it, as they say.
Colourful array of Imogen Wilson origami jewellery
So when I quit my job to do this full time I thought it would be exactly the time I needed to expand the range. What I didn’t count on was my mind being so fickle that although I did have loads of new ideas, none of them fitted into my pre designed, pre marketed brand. The brand I had spent a long time working on making cohesive, whole, rounded. None of this new stuff fitted my aesthetic at all, it was so all over the place in fact that some of the new stuff didn’t even fit the other new stuff. What was I to do? Some people I discussed it with said I could have collections within my current brand, but I didn’t want to dilute the work I had put into the look of my brand, my website, my Facebook page, my Felt shop, my Etsy shop. The Japanese theme, the bright colour, none of that tied in with the new stuff. What do paper cranes, books, and space have to do with each other? Nothing (well OK, there is the paper element in the first two- but you see my point).
So I decided to re-brand. Not once, but twice. Looking back (and forward, as the work is in no way done) it was very clever and also a totally stupid idea. I forgot how much work is involved in starting from scratch… First I read the Etsy rules about multiple shops operated by one person… then did a Google to make sure the names I wanted weren’t taken. Not wanting to leave anything to chance I started an email account for each, a Facebook page for each, an Etsy store for each, and a Felt store for each. As I realised immediately that if I was going to go to the trouble of doing logo and design work for two new companies I better save the shop names NOW not later when they may be taken and it may be too late.
Then I had a lie down. Was I nuts? This was going to be a lot of work. I keep telling myself at least I’m doing it now, while business is relatively quiet… that’s what I tell myself anyway, it helps me sleep at night.
Three brand Juggling act. Am I nuts? Only time will tell…
New brand #1 is called Ex Libris. It is, as the name may suggest, book themed jewellery. You can check out the Facebook page here. I’m currently focusing on slowly growing a following as only some of my IWJ fans have come over so far, I don’t blame them really… there isn’t much to see yet. I plan on releasing the jewellery in September, to the public and to the shops I stock. I’m going to give myself a couple of months to get used to juggling two brands before introducing the third, called Major Tom in early November (all going to plan). You can check out the Facebook page here (and get in on the ground floor, as there isn’t much to see yet, in fact anything, this is the first time I’ve told anyone about it, you are the privileged few)
All going to plan both will boom, Christmas will be a crazy juggling act and in the New Year my lovely computer wiz husband will make websites for both of them. At the moment we are holding fire on the website as I don’t even know myself if three brands is too many for me to handle. Only time will tell… which I suppose is why this blog is called ‘watch this space’…
Around a month ago I was approached to be in the October issue of Vogue UK.
I’ll let that sink in for a while, as I’m sure it will surprise you as much as it did me…
Of course, as with anything that’s too good to be true, it probably was. I would have been part of one of the advertising sections, but I was assured…
“Our pages are designed to look like a recommendation from the magazine, with a profile or product shot and the text written in the third person to describe each designer and their work”
I was over the moon, giddy with excitement, it was like the dreams I’d had as a 12 year old were coming true. Of course I would have to pay them… that bit was less exciting. For a chance in Vogue, it really wasn’t that much money. For someone starting out, it was heaps. I also had a teeny, terrifying flutter in my stomach that said ‘what if it’s a scam’. I sent the pitch to my nearest and dearest to get their takes. Everyone seemed to think it was legit, I mean how many internet scammers invoice you? (No really, does anyone know?) But in the end, I turned them down. I realised (with a bit of help from a good friend) as flattering as it might be, and as much as I might want them to be, the readers of Vogue aren’t really my target audience. The amount they were asking for just for a small spot in one magazine was some people’s total yearly advertising budget, and considering I didn’t have an advertising budget at all it far surpassed mine. So I decided instead of spending all that on one spot, I’d make more of an effort to advertise to my target audience, for that amount I could get a handful of ads!
Of course where does one start when advertising? Luckily for me I’ve been an extrovert since an early age, I have never been particularly shy. This transcends into all areas of my life, I am quite happy sending emails to strangers pitching, essentially, myself. Bring on rejection, it doesn’t faze me (much) I’d rather give it a shot and maybe fail than not try at all. This is especially true when it comes to emailing; I suppose it’s much easier as I don’t have to do it face to face (In person it’s a whole other kettle of fish…)
I have realised that I need to be doing this more, it seems like an easy ‘next step’ to self promotion. I’m so used to doing it with shops I’d like to be stocked at, that emailing to pitch myself is second nature, yet for some reason I don’t do it. The same rules apply to emailing blog’s as to emailing shops. First step, know your audience, then find the right blog or magazine, the kind that speaks to the demographic of people you are trying to reach. The most important bit is next, do your research. To pitch successfully you need to know their work, if it’s a magazine read some back issues, Blog, take the time to click through and read some articles (or shop, check out who they already stock). Then find out the person’s name who you’re going to be pitching to, do you like receiving an email that begins with ‘To whom it may concern’? No? Didn’t think so and guess what, neither do they. Their name will be somewhere in their website (or magazine), but it might be hidden, dig deep and find it. It can be the difference between getting a response and not.
Of course that is all far easier for me to say than to do. Plus the work was done for me in my first blog spot a couple of weeks ago! I was lucky enough to be approached, and interviewed, by a really awesome NZ women’s blog Le Petite Mania. I was quite chuffed as it’s a blog I enjoy reading, and they approached me, what’s not to love! You can read the interview here.
After seeing the Le Petite Mania interview it sparked something in me, I could do this, so I sent a wee email to Create & Thrive for their monthly Small Success’ blog post. Create & Thrive are the website I am constantly referencing on here, my FAVOURITE blog (which contains “real advice on how to turn your handmade hobby into a full-time business”). They liked what I had sent them and it was ‘published’ online last week, you can read it here.
With so much published online (well two in one month, feels like heaps to me) I have started to think about print advertising. Years ago my work was in the Wellington Woman magazine as part of an ad for Vault, and last year I paid to be part of a Felt ad in Extra Curricular (the first and only time I’ve ever paid for advertising).
Wellington Woman’s magazine and Extra Curricular. It’s hardly Vogue, but I have to start somewhere!
The next step will be standing on my own two feet, an ad just for me, by me. I’m compiling a list in my head, I shall take over the world one ad (or blog interview) at a time… perhaps just in time for Christmas. If you have any suggestions of publications you think would be a good fit, please leave them in the comments below!
May 2010, my first ever product shots, luckily just for my records as everything about them are a good example of what not to do , it’s all bad
Everyone knows how to take a photo, be it a holiday snap, a family portrait or a selfie, we’ve all attempted one at some point with varying results. But taking a photo to sell something online is something completely different and something that eludes many, including me. After the failure of my first batch listing on Etsy (I sold one thing, out of about 30, I’m calling failure). I was disheartened, but it was at a time I still had a full time job so I didn’t let it bother me too much. Now that I am selling full time it’s a bit more important… so I started to read other people’s tips on what makes and what breaks an Etsy shop. There are many things that will instantly be the make or break of your shop, but the most obvious to address first seemed to be photography.
I have read time and time again, it’s not the camera you have it’s how you use it. My trusty 10 year old Cannon point and shoot had been used tirelessly for previous product shots, had travelled with me through Europe and Asia and sadly had been dropped more times than I can remember. It was my trusty companion through the good and the bad times. But when (in Asia) it started turning off mid photo I realised it was time to retire the old girl. In Japan, home to cheap ‘last season’ electronics (that haven’t even been released in NZ yet) hubby and I decided to buy a new camera. I wanted a pocket sized point and shoot, my new husband wanted a digital SLR. We settled on a bit of both with a pancake camera (a small point a shoot with huge lenses that can be attached at whim- something for him AND her, if you will) but the reviews we found online weren’t very good… so after much trial and error at a multitude of Japanese electronics stores we settled on two cameras (still heaps cheaper in NZ dollars than just buying the camera my husband wanted if it were purchased on our fine shores). So we both got what we wanted. I got a small-ish point and shoot for holidays, he got a big, chunky, seriously zoomey digital SLR for hobby photography that I could also use for product photography… win, win.
L-R: My trusty camera of 10 years, My new point and shoot, My husbands new toy/ My product photo tool
Of course when I tried to use his for my first round of Etsy shots, never having picked it up before, I had no idea what I was doing (photos below of the camera in action, with varying results- this was the first and last time I used it). A serious read of the manual was in order, and I didn’t have time for that. So for the time being I decided to use my point and shoot… and I have to say it’s done me pretty well so far!
I like to think I understand composition, or at least that I know what works when photographing my own products. But something that drove me nuts time and time again was wanting but not knowing how to achieve a cohesive looking online shop. This was due mainly to lighting. I had read that natural light is the best light, so had taken my photos near a large window. That was all well and good but it restricted me in many ways- I could only take photos on bright sunny days (not something that happens often in Wellington), each time I took the photos the sun was a slightly different intensity, and the photos showed this in many ways…
All of these photos are taken on the same camera setting, on the same day. Each with a different light source, some with natural light, some with a light bulb, some a lamp. None have been edited online afterwards. Not so cohesive are they!
Looking back now two things would have immediately helped my shop look cohesive (even without a camera upgrade).
A light box is key – no matter what kind of lighting you are using, it diffuses the light and keeps it even- especially good if you are photographing reflective objects like glass (it reduces the reflection and glare they can cause). I had heaps of fun (and all with a minimal amount of swearing) re-creating one I found on Pinterest. It was my first Pinterest project and I felt it was a success…
L-R: My light box inspiration (on Pinterest), My attempt, The light box in action
Some post photo editing – Something the many guides to photographing your work for successful online sales tell you is that (unlike I had previously assumed) taking the photo isn’t the end of the process, it’s the beginning. Image editing software is your best friend, and the only way (for me at least) to get the photo I imagine in my mind’s eye is to use it. It’s a shame really as after spending so much time creating a light box, finding the perfect lighting balance and getting a good composition, to have to edit on a computer felt a bit cheap and dirty… like I was cheating the system. But oh how it works, and I’ve never looked back.
Editing post shoot can be your saviour in many ways you may not realise. You can crop something you don’t like out, zoom in on something you do (assuming your camera is high enough quality to not leave the results pixelated), you can get rid of a bit of fluff you see on your background (that you curse yourself for not noticing while taking the photo in the first place). For me the most important bit of this was matching the lighting with my other listings, to create the cohesive look I mentioned earlier. When brightening, lightening or editing the colours it’s important to remember you still need to accurately show the colour of the product as the person buying it can’t see it ‘in the flesh’ to judge it themselves. Just because bumping up the contrast makes an awesome looking photo that doesn’t mean you should (unless it still accurately shows your product and it’s colour).
Am I an expert? Absolutely not. But have I improved? Absolutely. It’s cringe worthy for me to show these off instead of hiding them away and re-doing them at my leisure… but it’s important to compare before and afters, I think. So here is my online shop before and after… I hope you’ll agree the photos at the top aren’t awful composition wise, you can definitely see a style I apparently continue through to the new and improved Etsy shop below. But the colours are all over the place, washed out in some, over contrasted in others and plain old dim and murky in the rest. The new Etsy shop, below, is clean and fresh, the colours are accurate representations of what is for sale and they are cohesive as a ‘family’ of products.
A selection of images from my current felt shop http://felt.co.nz/shop/imogenwilson -an obvious ‘before’ as far as lighting and cohesiveness is concerned… re-taking all these photos is on my new to do list!
I am defiantly not a pro, and I have a ways to go (learning how to use the big fancy camera for one), but considering how far I’ve come I’m pretty proud! Do you take your own photos or pay someone else to? Did it take you a long time to get the hang of it? What tips do you wish you could tell yourself starting out? I’d love to hear from you!
I discovered Pinterest about a year ago. It was everything I love about the internet in one snappy package, easy to use and image based. My favourite internet pass time is finding and saving visually inspiring images which I plan on ‘using later’ which I appropriately sort and save into folders on my computer and then never see again (or only revisit years later when I do a huge computer clean up). Woe, those images, so beautiful, so wonderful, so awe inspiring, lost to my hard drive forever. So when I saw Pinterest for the first time I decided not to join, it looked the worst kind of addictive, worse than Facebook. I did do a bit of searching, a bit of scrolling, a bit of saving onto my aforementioned hard drive (ironically missing the point of Pinterest all together).
Fast forward to a month ago when I discovered how much of an internet presence is advisable if you want to make a name for yourself and sell online. So I joined. I spent days on there, making sure I had attractive board covers, descriptions, enough to look at to give a ‘feel’ all the stuff the millions of infographics I found advised.
The longer I spent on there the more time I wanted to spend on there. I had fallen down the rabbit hole, I was addicted. Whenever I realised this I would convince myself it was work, I wasn’t doing this to have fun, it was serious business!
The multitude of infographics and websites like this that I found tell you, amongst other things:
“Try to pin at least once a day so your followers get fresh content in their home feeds. You might also want to pin throughout the day instead of all at once.”
and
“A great way to get people pinning your stuff is to be an active pinner yourself. Follow other people’s boards and then repin, like, and comment on pins that inspire and relate to your shop.”
This seems to be the advice across the board (no pun intended) for all social media promotions. Keep active to stay in feeds, be active with others so people know who you are. Easy with something like Facebook (maybe because I’m so used to it and the novelty has worn off slightly?) but oh Pinterest how I have become obsessed with you, like I knew I would. I’ve never been so annoyed to be right.
At all points of the day I have a million tabs open in my browser, I have things ‘ready to pin’ (as an active pinner) and website’s I have plans to go through more thoroughly, when my tabs reduce and allow it (HA). ‘Being active and making connections with other pinners’ I have been finding a bit harder, mainly as I already dedicate too much time to Pinterest.. perhaps that will come later, when I am not so ‘pin happy’. In the mean time I have come to terms with it, all of it…
I discovered on 
I discovered Pinterest about a year ago. It was everything I love about the internet in one snappy package, easy to use and image based. My favourite internet pass time is finding and saving visually inspiring images which I plan on ‘using later’ which I appropriately sort and save into folders on my computer and then never see again (or only revisit years later when I do a huge computer clean up). Woe, those images, so beautiful, so wonderful, so awe inspiring, lost to my hard drive forever. So when I saw Pinterest for the first time I decided not to join, it looked the worst kind of addictive, worse than Facebook. I did do a bit of searching, a bit of scrolling, a bit of saving onto my aforementioned hard drive (ironically missing the point of Pinterest all together).
imogenwilsonjewellery 