So I was messing around with the sellit.com shopbot - love it, by the way! - and compiled a group of products from our store that would make great holiday gifts. We've got something for geeks, poker players, dog lovers, dieters, and even something a just a little bit insulting (great for a gag gift!)... so stop by and check 'em out!

Contrary to popular belief, I did not fall off the face of the planet (again - I think I may have done so a little while ago). Anyway, I've been hard at work adding new stuff to the shop.

The cooler temperatures and the fact that it's getting dark much earlier put me in the mood to work on holiday stuff. Yes, I'm insane, but for us retailers, it's that time of year. I'm currently adding new Christmas Cards - I'm not yet done so I won't post any official announcement yet (as if anything is really official!). But if you're bored, pop on over and check 'em out! And don't forget, there's more to come!

I've always loved taking photos - most of the photos I already have are of friends or family, vacations, or of course, Cragar. Lately, though, I've become fascinated (and perhaps borderline obsessed) with Infrared Photography.

The first time I saw examples of infrared landscapes, my jaw dropped and I got a goose-bumpy feeling. You see, in the springtime when the cherry blossoms are in bloom, I love the look of the landscape when there's a big storm rolling in. The white cherry blossoms just seem to glow against the black storm sky with turbulent, angry clouds. And for a moment I can forgive the fact that the wind from the storm will shower those little cherry blossom petals all over my car so they can stick there. And even driving 75 mph is not enough to unstick them from the various parts of my car's exterior. Believe me, I've tried.

But I digress...

So when I discovered infrared photography, I immediately thought of those cherry blossoms. Green foliage becomes white and glowing, the sky is darkened, and the whole photo just looks, well, almost ethereal. I also learned about false-color infrared photos - I personally have used it so far to add blue to skies and/or water, giving the photo an almost-but-not wintry feel. I've seen other photos that keep the magenta/red color associated with IR photos. Keeping that color scheme almost gives some photos a cool, sinister, post-apocolyptic feel.

Lately, everywhere I go, I pack up my camera, IR filter, and tripod and hope I can find something interesting to shoot. So keep a lookout for even more new photos in our Photography section in the coming months!

Well, it's been a long time in the works, but I've finally updated the layout of our Shop Blog to match the rest of puppytoes.net. I realize the sidebar is probably a little yucky looking yet, but I'm trying to work a little bit on that.

The whole "one style" for all of puppytoes.net came about after registering our new domain, puppytoespoker.com. In hindsight, it was an "impulse buy", like the Three Musketeers bar I had to buy yesterday while I was at the store. It was there. In the checkout aisle. Looking at me. Well, same thing with the domain name. Except the candy bar was much better tasting.

I thought it would be way too confusing to have different domain names for all of the different aspects of the puppytoes.net store - puppytoespoker, puppytoesgeek, puppytoespuppy (!?), ad nauseum. So instead, there's one entry portal - puppytoes.net. It'll take you everywhere you want to go in Cragar's world - my own personal blog, Cragar's Photo Gallery, our Shop (of course), and this wonderful and fabulous Shop Blog. That's a lot of blogs for me to update. I'll try to do my best.

You'll find our Shop hasn't been updated with the new layout. I've been torn on that front. I think I'll keep the color scheme the same, but keep the layout a little different - just for fun. Or until I get bored. Or until I realize I should really have made it the same and change it all anyway. I'm used to changing things now here in Movable Type, but I'm afraid if I start messing around too much with my Shop's layout, things will Go South quickly. And then I'll end up redesigning everything from scratch. Not too smart at this point, considering this "insomnia time" is the only time I've found to mess around with layouts and designing much since oh, the end of April or so!?

I always thought my best ideas came after midnight. Too bad I didn't think of that before plunking down money on the new hosting account.