SecondMoonshot

Our first T-shirt we got for SecondMoonshot was from Zazzle and ended up costing about $25 per shirt. That made it cost prohibitive for any quantity and I have been meaning to table into printing my own T-shirts. Originally I was going to go all-in and get my own heat press, but turns out my neighbor just bought one for similar reasons and he rarely uses it.  After digging around to find where I was going to get the transfers, I under up with Transfer Express. I thought about getting one of those CriCut machines, but really not ready to jump into that boat as not really interested in doing much more nor making a business out of it. Their editing tools are excellent and support all the image types we needed. I opted to not mess with a proof and just ordered 25 gang sheets (sheets which you can cut into the individual components).  These are 12” x 15” sheets or thereabouts and I have 2 big logos with tag line for the back of T-Shirts and about 9 smaller logos and just the name for the fr

Carrie (our VP of Branding) has been working on some new computer design skills and refining them for almost a year now and is near completion of a custom font called “SecondMoonshot”. Our original vision was to maintain the hand drawn theme similar to our logo and this font is 100% made up from her own print handwriting. Creating fonts is much more complex than it sounds and she had to overcome several challenges. This week during a road trip, she pulled out her iPad and she filled in some missing characters we wanted and this will be our v1 version. She’s making a few final tweaks and the SecondMoonshot logo is even one of the characters! Our intent is to use this font for our printed materials such as the company info inset sheet which I put into every package shipped. Then we were looking to get a new kiss sticker (from stickermule.com) which I use to also include with hanging hardware for any framing job or picture sold. This work is top level professional work and very excited ab

Zabrina reminded me I haven’t done a blog post in a bit, so figured a general update would be good. We are going through a devastating loss which occurred mid-October and finding it difficult to get back into pretty much everything. Bear with us. I am doing a consignment for a neighbor with a lot of baseball memorabilia and vintage comic books. Pretty much all listed and sales of the comics has been off the charts. This should motivate me to list some more of my own collection.  I have made an agreement with a local vintage and antique store to co-sell all shippable inventory on eBay. This gives me a great opportunity to get a lot of high quality listings out, with no overhead but only a portion of the profits. Excited to see how it works out. There are a few other opportunities we are looking at which I will share at a later date. Still trying to grow the art and custom framing business, have a handful of paying projects I am working on, and offering exceptional deals on framing throu

Over the last few months, I have invested in some new equipment that will allow some new capabilities on wooden frames, offer more consistent results in mat board cutting, and more clearly set expectations on pricing and options. Frame Recovery and Reduction First things first. I realized that even with 100s of frames, that by itself, still provides limited options to any specific piece to be framed. It has to be in the appropriate style, color and in an appropriate size. Even with the first few customers, I noticed that while I had a lot of frames, it just wasn’t working. I needed to be able to provide more flexibility yet still leverage the large inventory of used high quality frames on the market via auctions, estate sales, thrift stores, and who knows where else. To this end, I decided I would start doing frame reduction on wood frames (not metal). I would remove the miter joints, cut them down to proper size for a piece of interest and then glue and V-nail them together. It’s a Lo

  Amazing moon and cloud phenomenon that I only noticed after zooming on on our Surf City day trip pictures. Learning some photo editing tools.  This is me in January of 2017. A before and after…this is what COVID does to you. Looks like it ages you 20 years.  Some fun while learning about photo editing: Cat tattoo, nothing better than a cat that supports the brand. Branded flag flying high. John

  https://www.facebook.com/SecondMoonshot I find Facebook to be counterintuitive most of the time, but muscle memory is kicking in and getting the hang of it via repetition. Even have my first follower! John

Decided to take a drive up to Brevard where my wife and daughter are doing a girls week getaway in Brevard, NC. Also meeting a friend on Sunday to go do a few hours of driving around. I had one SecondMoonshot sticker left in my wallet, so added it to the wall. Cool place. Guess I should be prepared for a spike in sales on Sunday! John

I just ordered new business cards from GotPrint.com.  They have a business card sized sticker which I can use as a business card or as a sticker for applying to back of my framing work. I have been using Avery labels but those won’t stand the test of time and the new ones are glossy UV coated. Should get them in in a week or two. Got them in and used the first on on my first paying framing job (well, I assume they will pay). John

Every time I see my kids, it’s special….this was no exception. Carrianne is my oldest and well known for her impeccable choice of fashion as you will agree with the one-of-a-kind t-shirt (well, 6 of-a-kind technically). She just moved into a new house (rental for now while she saves and invests at a mammoth pace for a home to call her own). She was on the hunt for vintage (I.e. free) furniture and acquired a nice wood veneer computer desk, dining room table and 2 dressers.  She is the one that created the SecondMoonshot current logo and created its own font! How cool is that. Her second job is VP of Branding for SecondMoonshot…honorary title as it comes with no pay, but she earned it. John

Today sometime between 2am and 8a EST, SecondMoonshot crossed the threshold and has 100 followers on our eBay store. It took almost exactly a year. I am still enjoying this as much as when we first started. To celebrate, I ordered T-shirts for all the family members. The logo was designed by my daughter, Carrianne using the Adobe set of graphics tools. A small refresh on the logo: John

Zabrina trying her hand at some handmade candles. First batch came out very nice and professional. Will use as gifts for now but may list in near future. Thoughts welcome.  Zabrina is wants to keep the candles as natural as possible, using organic and safe oils and use recycled canisters where possible. She is using a high quality all-natural soy wax. She is experimenting with wood wicks although finding that they need to be primed in wax prior to adding the wax in the candle holder. John