How to have sick kids and get work done...

So I decided that I need to keep up on my blog and will try to be posting every Wednesday. I'm off to such a great start - here it is noon on Wednesday and I'm typing the first line... I do have something in the way of an excuse - 3 of my kiddies plus my husband tested positive for strep this morning (yay!) and have been sick for the last couple of days. I'm the crazy hand-washing healthy hold-out. I haven't gotten any work done since I can't go a full row of stitches without someone interrupting me (it's not my husband, he just wants to be left alone). All I can do is follow behind them with a can of Lysol, box of tissues and stack of towels (to clean up their messes) praying that I'm not next (is there a Thirty-One Bag for that?). You'll notice that there's no hand sanitizer in this mix - I have a child who is allergic to the main ingredient so we all wash our hands with soap we bring with us.  I hate when I run out b/c this stuff smells SO GOOD! I've tried a couple of different travel soap brands but no one does it as well as SudsNSuch - I just put in another order.

I've been Lysol bombing my house including my crochet hooks, current projects (it's fresh linen scent - that fits in, right?), camera, keyboard, all the lightswitches, doorknobs, drawer pulls, backs of chairs, pens, pencils, scissors, railings - any surface that I don't wash down daily. The cars are next. I've changed and washed their pillow cases, purchase dollar store tooth brushes (the 4 pack) to change daily until they are better and called the school nurse only to find out that they're having a raging outbreak.

Back to business - Last month, I purchased a collapsible 16" softbox light tent and 2 lamps. I've been so excited to use it but I didn't have new products. I was in a rut. So, I bought some new patterns - a couple new hats and some new booties. One was a bit complicated for me to want to sell so I just gave those away and then I spent an afternoon (and one evening) photographing all the crochet items I had in stock. Here's what I learned:
1- choose your location carefully - you need plugs.
2- if you put the tent on a blue cutting mat, your photos will come out blue
3- 2 lamps isn't quite enough - photograph on a sunny day in a sunny spot and don't put things on top of the tent
4- sometimes the camera doesn't love you and takes blurry pictures even on a tripod and with autofocus - have a backup
5- models don't fit in the 16" tent so find a pro

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures I recently took of new products.

baby cloche:

cowboy boots:

I got an order for these booties with poor photos (see the white ones) and took new photos:

And here's one that I left to the pros: