Behind the Scenes Art Paw in December

Well I am into the final stretch with holiday commissions.... yay! If you placed your order by my posted deadlines you have been proofed, and if you approved right away you have either shipped or you will ship by Friday. I am now working on just a few late December orders that I have allowed to squeak in. I am not accepting new orders for Christmas delivery. All new orders will go on to my January calendar.

A few shots from my crazy current work life ....

Above: Screen shot of my "November Done Folder" ... 344 assorted folders, docs and items that represent about 35 projects. It takes up 10.98 GB of space.

In addition to many digital files, I have dozens of paper to-do lists and hand scrawled phone messages each week... time to take out the trash.

 

There is always something on the plotter waiting to be stretched. Even though we always have work stacked up for stretching ... I must say that Lola is totally on top of things. We have both made very few mistakes this year.

Above: My project board ...see all the grey metal showing ...that is a good thing... it means that  I am clearing things out. Bottom right corner is a stack of pending projects .... orders that were never paid, or photos were never sent. I do not have time to chase down assorted dropped ball or un-finalized orders. Above that is a stack of checks that need to go to the bank .... I do not even have time to take care of banking right now.

And in my front room 3 terriers share a chair ...wishing I would get my work done so things can get back to normal.  They will love Christmas ... they always do.

Today I will be placing a holiday message on the phone and letting the machine catch my calls so I can focus  100% on the final projects that need proofing. I will return calls once a day each morning and evening, and I will do the same with e-mail.  OK, I will probably check e-mail more like 3 times a day ... that is the best way to reach me.... artpaw.com@gmail.com.  Thanks to all of my terrific clients this year ... you guys are the very best! I look forward to working on more of your animals in 2013.

Working on Your Pet Portraits!

Hey guys ... I am just a tiny bit behind on commissions, but do not freak out, I will be getting caught up this week, I can promise you that.

I proofed 34 clients in November and I still have just a handful of orders from that month to go!

So here is the low down on current proofing:

If you placed your order by 11/15, I will get you proofed by this coming Thursday 12/6.
 Most orders that are this old have already been proofed and shipped, but a couple of you guys have taken a bit longer and I am working on your orders right now.

If you placed your order after 11/15, but by my holiday deadline of 11/30 I will get you proofed by this coming Sunday 12/9.

If you are just now placing your orders and trying to squeak in after my posted holiday deadlines I will do my very best to get you proofed as soon as possible after all of the November orders are completed this week.  My goal is to continue proofing December clients until 12/17, at which time we will need to close out our shipping.


Please be patient and know that I am doing my best and working late nights and weekends to take care of you all of my 4 legged clients.

Last Day to Order a Holiday Pet Portrait!

I am checking my list twice and yes,  it is that crazy time of year and I have a few dozen commissions to do in just a couple of weeks.  I am totally on target and will be proofing folks heavily for the next 5 days to get caught up on all November orders.

Today is the very last day for out of state clients to order a holiday portrait with a guaranteed print delivery.   

Click here and place your order for a custom portrait today!

AFTER TODAY:
We will still be taking orders and proofing clients on-line, however we can not 100% promise a print delivery. You can gather around the laptop and share your custom proofing link with your loved ones on Christmas morning. Then they can choose their favorite colors. We will even try to ship out a few more late orders when people are willing to upgrade their shipping options. (If we finish a project on December 19th we just can not use our standard ground shipping and be confident that Fedex will be able to get it to you during the final week of holiday shipping madness.)

Local Dallas Clients:
You have until the 3rd of December to place your order if you want to pick up your prints in person.

Other Gift Ideas:
Gift certificates are quick and easy. Click here to order an e-cert that you can print out and place inside a holiday card. We also have tons of fun dog and cat gift items in our Cafe Press Gift shop, Or check us out on Etsy.

Cyber Monday Big portrait Sale!

Today only I am having a sale on our largest Square Pet Portrait! You can save $100 when ordering a 34 x 34 Stretched Painterly style portrait by using promo code: " save100 "

Our deadline for this sale is midnight tonight and our deadline for ordering any sized pet portrait with a guaranteed holiday delivery is this Friday11/30.

Order now!

Mosaic Monday/ More from Italy

Finally got around to optimizing a few more Mosaic shots from Rome. Enjoy ...

Cherub Mosaic from Dome at Saint Peter's Basilica

Cherub Mosaic / Dome Saint Peter's Basilica

Cherub Foot Mosaic / Dome Saint Peter's Basilica

Dragon Mosaic Floor at the Vatican

Dragon Mosaic Floor at the Vatican

Micro Mosaic Vatican

Micro Mosaic Vatican

Micro Mosaic Vatican

Micro Mosaic Vatican

Mosaic Floor / Vatican

Mosaic Tile Dome - Saint Peter's Basilica

Mosaic / Vatican

Lovely color ... Mosaic floor / Vatican

Lovely color ... Mosaic floor / Vatican

Mosaic / Dome Saint Peters

Dome / Saint Peter's Basilica

Mosaic floor / Vatican

Mosaic floor / Vatican

Mosaic floor / Vatican

Flash Back Friday / My Greeting Card Days

Back in the Mid 1990's I was working full time as an independent greeting card designer. Each year I would go to the National Stationery show in New York.  Those were fun days. One of my best pals at the time was also a card designer and we both worked constantly. I learned a lot about design, production and marketing during those days.  I also learned that I could work alone in a business and yet still figure out a way to have collaborators and co-workers beyond the confines of my home office.

This was our first New York show. I had my first Paper Chase order that year and had to come home and figure out production very quickly. Paper Chase is a chain stationery store in England and they would order several dozen designs and within each style would be a required quantity of like one dozen - dozen, so literally hundreds of cards.  A Paper Chase order would make my year.

Notice the card board display! It was back in the day of recycled everything and brown kraft paper was very in. We left our display behind and only had to pack our card decks.

Skinny girl in vintage suit, showing off legs! I was in my early 30's.  This is Michael, he was my mentor and best friend. It was during a press check with him late one evening that I ran into my husband Dan again, and we reconnected after having dated briefly in college. Michael also gave me my very first employee and current employee Lola. She had worked for him when he ran and owned a gift shop here in Dallas.

This is Mark, he is an artist that showed with us and he later became one of our card reps. I think this was our 2nd year at the show. The following year we had a bigger space and some stunning shear aqua fabric as a back drop. The display boards above are made of metal flashing, black coroplast, and cardboard.  The following year we used translucent coroplast and it was very cool looking.

Vote Baby Vote!

© artpaw.com

Bow Wow ... time to vote. Go to the polls .... stay in line ... get it done.

Many New Pet Portraits

I feel like my head has been a real fog since we got back from vacation on the 13th, but here we are at the end of the month and I see that I have actually proofed 12 clients in the last 11 days, so I guess I am working each day and I am indeed very busy. I will post a few recent projects and at the end of this post there will be a plea for those wanting to do holiday portraits to order now.

"Dalilah & Delphi" ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Heilo" ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Kaz" ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Kita" ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Oliver"( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

 

Yes .... now is the time to place those holiday orders. I will be putting the Christmas trim on the site next week, and try to start urging folks to order before the end of November.  I always post my deadlines each year and I always get very eager and very kind folks calling me one week before Christmas and they earnestly explain that well they just now found out about my site ... so of course they are not ordering custom art late in the game ... they just are ordering when they discover us. I have gotten much better at saying no to late orders. My first 8 years in business I would be working on Christmas Eve, hand delivering local orders. Now after 14 years in business I am slowly learning to have a life outside of work, and to stick to my posted policies.
You can order your pet portrait On-line today and have a portrait under the tree.

Mosaic Monday / Italy

Earlier this month we went to Rome and Florence. I have some pics to share next week of ancient mosaics that we discovered but today I want to share the many modern mosaics that I saw on my trip, starting with a floor in my own neck of the woods that I have been hearing about. The DFW airport has lovely mosaics in some of their terminals, however to see them you have to be checked in, past security and on your way somewhere. What a great way to start my trip ....

DFW Airport Mosaic Floor detail
"Celebration" - Beatrice Lebreton

DFW Airport Mosaic ( my hubby looking fresh)

Now on to the Subways of Rome ....

Mosaic Rome Subway
Vroom vroom baby

Rome subway Mosaic
Look at the stunning random yellow dots to the right on this detail

It was dark in the tunnels so image quality is not as high as I would have liked. Dan has a couple more on  his camera cards I will try to get and share with yall later this month. If I ever get back to Rome, I plan to spend a day riding the subway, just popping on and off to see what all I missed. To see a few more that I missed, check out the blog: http://mosaicphotos.blogspot.com/2005/08/rome-metro-subway-mosaics.html