How Do You Sell a Seahorse?

This cute hand-beaded seahorse keychain from Guatemala is one of the items I sell in my online store, Tapir and Friends Animal Store. I love that it's RED! So bright and colorful! And for people who lose their keys, what better than a red keychain? After I receive it from AtitlanArts.com, I give it a part number and a name. In this case, it's: "F1977 B218 - Seahorse Beaded Keychain from Guatemala, red." The "F" stands for "Friends," and it preceeds every part number, making it easier to recognize it for the part number it is. If the number were only "1977," it might be confused with a year or the last four digits of someone's phone number. 

Every item is stored in easy-to-access bins. The "B" part of the part number is the bin where it's stored. Believe it or not, it took me nearly 10 years to figure out that if I included the bin number with the part number, it was a no-brainer to find the item! When an order comes in from our shopping cart, the bin number and item number appear with each product. Here you will see Bin 218 if you click to enlarge the photo. Current numbers are on "ecru"-colored tags (off-white), while green denotes some leftover old numbers.

If we open Bin 218, it's filled with ziplock bags Every small inventory item in the store has its own bag. There is the red seahorse in B218. And it has the part number on the bag. Voila! Easy to find, and no confusion. I think those may be unicorn keychains in the bag next to the seahorses, and I see some beaded frogs in the back of the bin. In the case of these medium-sized beaded frogs, it would say "Frog Style 1" on the bag, because that's how it's coded on the web site.

My web page: tapirback.com.

Water, Water

Astoria, Oregon ~ November 23, 2011

It's been storming and blowing for days. A lot of the area had power out last night from downed trees, but I was fine here - only a flicker of the lights during the evening. In the photo, the rain on the river was so heavy my camera didn't know where to focus. It's always interesting to see what washes down. Above, it was a good-sized leaf. Below, a small log.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Dec 6, Astoria: Cold today

I took surprisingly few photos today - in fact, only this scene. The tides have been big: high highs, and low lows. And the river was rough, but I didn't hang around to catch white-capped waves under the radio tower, because it was already in the 30s near sundown. For here, that's pretty cold and I wasn't prepared. Wind had been shaking the building, and something underneath was thumping against the pilings in the high tide. As I write this just before bed (at 1:30 in the morning of December 7, although I'm posting it to December 6), it's only 30 degrees out. I've been working all day and all evening, and even though the heater's been on, the room is cold. Clearly, it's time to turn in!

1490 Marine Drive - from the catwalk

Fourteen ninety Marine Drive as seen from the catwalk by the radio tower. This is an unusual view for me, as the catwalk is supposed to be off limits, but I was trying to get a huge 20-foot log back out into the river. I mean HUGE. Here it is.

Aug 1, Astoria: Bond Street apartment and orange ship

I took this pic on a dark day from the concrete pad where the dumpster is near the front porch of my apartment. My apartment is the row of windows you see at the bottom of the building on the right. I love these bright orange ships, but it's so hard to get the color right. It's not right here, either. That's Marine Drive at the bottom of the hill. Unfortunately, you can't go directly down on a whim, but you have to walk around a block or more to get to Marine Drive.