Photograbee!

Tag: Photograbee

  • What’s cooking August 2026

    What’s cooking August 2026

    Besides me, smile.

    Actually, this has been a blessedly cool August, all things considered and I’m extremely grateful: I live in the same range as butter – when it melts, I melt too.

    Anyway, I have a lot cooking behind the scenes here at Photograbee. For starters, I’m slowly dialing in my catalog, and building stock, so I can start approaching local stores for both wholesale and consignment sales. I just want to have both inventory and order sheets ready. I’m almost there!

    I’ve also hatched fridge magnets this summer, as some of you found at the first ever Portland (PDX) Mega Market on Saturday 8/15/26. Those are selling like hotcakes! So I’m making a lot more so you can keep buying them like hot cakes!

    Photo showing six colorful photo magnets on a black background. Birds, a squirrel, flowers and bees and a ladybug.
    New magnets August 2026

    I’m trying to iron out a smoother work flow on my new computer (Lefty), as Dusty (the older one) is slowly dying and no longer Microsoft Compliant. (It can’t be upgraded to Windows 11, so it’s becoming unsafe. I may try switching to Linux on it next, else give it away.) But this is gonna take a deep dive and I keep getting interrupted! But I’m inching closer.

    And I’m trying to add some new images to the line-up. (I have 28 officially in my catalog now, and 6 unique products: S, M and L photo note cards, M and L prints, and magnets.) Look for a sunflower or rose to appear soon. (Toes crossed.)

    And, I’m trying to get some larger fine art prints produced too. I have a printer lined up. He’s just waiting on me to get the files to him! (See work flow issue above.)

    All while continuing to tend my very successful new garden plot. And attend too many craft markets for my own good. (But I’m having fun, even as I hurt like heck!) And… last but not least: looking into a replacement for eBay. I can’t afford a subscription service like Zenfolio yet. And I don’t trust Etsy or Amazon or Shopify or Squarespace, etc. They’ve all had issues with either being scraped by AI and undersold by unscrupulous outfits like Amazon, OR, they are flooded with cheap mass-produced drop-shipped items now. (Giving you the stink eye now, Etsy.) So Woocommerce is my next plan. I just haven’t dipped in yet, so I don’t know how manageable it is. I’m semi-technically proficient. (I’ve been using WordPress for fifteen years.) But the devil is always in the details. So don’t hold your breath!

    But you know I will keep you all updated here. I promise. It’s been a very busy year with so many markets! Thank you to all the hard working and caring organizers! You guys all rock!

    Okay, back to bees-ness! TTYL! Jan- August 18, 2026

  • Catch the Sleeping Bees at Spot Market 10/12/25!

    I always bring a pack of my small photo notecards with me when I’m exploring potential markets and stores. And almost every time I go out. It’s so hard to convey their incredible colors otherwise.

    I did just that, when I headed out to find the new to me “Spot Market PDX” in the Lloyd Center Mall in NE Portland, Oregon yesterday, Saturday the 11th. Silly me, I didn’t read the notice closely, and ended up stumbling on an entirely different but equally wonderful small artisan market – the Spectrum Market, for the LGBTQIA community. It was also wonderful, so many great artists with loads of cute and useful things, and whimsy. I highly recommend it! But, being straight, they weren’t so interested in me.

    It also took me over 30 minutes to realize this wasn’t the SPot Market! Which uses a lot of ladybugs and spots for their marketing. Indeed, the vendors and market manager confirmed it was upstairs as they began packing up at 5 pm.

    So I headed upstairs, and lucky me, I caught the last hour of the Spot Market after I found it all the way at the east end of the mall, near the old Marshall’s store (near NE 15th) on the left. And I bumbled in again. And met some more wonderful vendors and artisans. Who all raved about my cards. And even bought one!

    But I kept sharing my sleeping bees photos from last July, with the sweet shot and the “After Party” shot cued up in my photos (after I found it again – I take a LOT of photos all the time)! And then they announced there were two vendor openings the next day (Sunday Oct 12th). And the lovely watercolor artist I was with nudged me to inquire. I did, and they said “come tomorrow!” Boom! that simple! (Well, I did show some of my cards.)

    I was so inspired by this wonderful development, and the interest in my duo of sleeping bee images, that I stayed up way too late tonight (last night), and went ahead and developed the images and produced the first cards featuring them shown here:

    Photo of a notecard made with a photo of six longhorn bees sleeping neatly and sweetly away around the center of a red and yellow Gaillardia flower.
    Sleeping sweetly July 16th
    Photo of a large notecard with a photo of a gang of longhorn bees dangling from the tattered petals of a bedraggled Gaillardia flower. Looking like they were on a bender.
    The After Party 7/17.
    Photo showing a pair of small colorful photo notecards, one in portrait view the other landscape featuring the sleeping bees from the other two shots.

    I haven’t even been able to update my online catalog just yet, things are happening so fast! I’m not unhappy – just trying to keep up! I feel a bit like the bees in the “After Party” shot in the middle above, which is the shot I got the next day after I went back with my Nikon to try catching them sleeping sweetly again.

    No dice! Lol. They gave me the finger, and were ALL clustered on that poor bedraggled Gaillardia shown. Not a one was in the still fresh flowers that were still available. Oh no. Nope. They looked like a biker gang on a bender, giving me the bee finger! That’ll teach me to forget my camera! Ha ha!

    As I told someone again, the best camera to have is the one you have on you when the opportunity (shot) presents itself. Don’t underestimate your phone cameras folks! You can see the results are nothing to sneeze at!

    Speaking of which, the images above aren’t the best because I had already packed up my spot light that helps brighten them up. I’ll try to produce some new, better ones soon, hopefully. I’ll also try to get some up on eBay right away too.

    Oh yeah, you can also get Multnomah Falls from me IN PERSON! Else just at Crystal Heart Boutique in Hillsboro for now. Cheerio.

    Editing 6/23/26 to see if I can upload and play video yet. You should see ten seconds of the sleepy bees if so:

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