Juggling Monkeys!

Hi Everyone,

Lots been happening here, juggling Pop-Up Events with my work and Easter hols! All a bit of a challenge but I had a lovely time with the monkey and even got a few days away. Managed to meet Harry Potter and Hagrid which I must admit was very exciting for kids/me!!

Now back to school and work, I've got an event tonight and I'm just working on Biog Portraits for the lovely guys at Capture_Me Photography, who I'm very excited about doing some collaboration with. I'm quite pleased with the portraits so far except one looks like he is going to eat a sandwich not hold a camera, and I did have a few issues with skinny jeans around sensitive regions!!

Bunny Girl for Capture_Me Advert

I am enjoying all the buzz of working at the moment as orders keep coming in and things seem to be happening all over the place.

I am very pleased to now be part of Shop Scotland. Do visit their site as there are lots of unique things on there, and it's all made by lovely wee Scottish businesses.

I will let you know what other lovely things are happening too but have to go and put my Events Manager hat on and get ready for the foodies!

Have a lovely weekend,
SX

Tweet me @sammillerart or @edinburghpopup
Please visit sammiller.org.uk
Like me at fb/sammilleruk

© Copyright  Sam Miller 2013

All the artwork and text on this blog are original and belong to SamMillerUK. They must not be copied, used or reproduced without the permission of the artist. Thank you.

Sunny day!

Hi Everyone, I have got so much to do but the sun is shining (a very rare sight in Edinburgh) and I keep getting distracted with the shiny thing in the sky and social media!! Can't believe I knew nothing about it a few months ago and now update 3 facebook pages most days and now also have 2 twitter accounts. As my very good friend said yesterday "Embrace the social media!'

The trouble is I think I might be doing too much embracing today and not enough focusing on work in the real world so I better go. Got a plate and a portrait to finish today and an event tomorrow...

I also need to get an Evening News newspaper as one of my photos is supposed to be in today, and I am hoping to find a new edition of Made Magazine  this weekend to see my new illustrations and advert. You see I promise I'm usually focused and working hard.

Tweet me @sammillerart or @edinburghpopup

© Copyright  Sam Miller 2013

All the artwork and text on this blog are original and belong to SamMillerUK. They must not be copied, used or reproduced without the permission of the artist. Thank you.

Search Engine Optimisation!

Went to a very (surprisingly) interesting course on Search Engine Optimisation yesterday ...or as I now call it SEO!!

John Taylor at the Business Gateway, Edinburgh had some great straightforward and understandable advice about how to increase your ranking on google. I will let you know how I get on as I add my meta tags, sort out my hyperlinks and increase my presence on SERPs!!

I'll put any useful tips I use here, but however my advice for today is not to go for a champagne (Very- Late) Christmas Business lunch before doing a course!

Off to work on some commissions and will then start optimising...

© Copyright  Sam Miller 2013

All the artwork and text on this blog are original and belong to SamMillerUK. They must not be copied, used or reproduced without the permission of the artist. Thank you.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day...when it arrives! It won't be long so I thought I'd better complete a new Valentine's Design. See what you think. Sorry I've worn myself being creative today doing a few comissions so I'm not t feeling too bloggy today so just thought I'd let you see the image without too many words!

© Copyright  Sam Miller 2013

All the artwork and text on this blog are original and belong to SamMillerUK. They must not be copied, used or reproduced without the permission of the artist. Thank you.

Family Portrait

I'm really pleased I've finished a family portrait of me, my husband and daughter. I love doing portraits for people but found it much more difficult doing one of myself and my little family. I'm really pleased with it though and have it up on my wall already. I'm sure it will only take seconds for JT to spot it when she gets home from school! I'll let you know her verdict, but do let me know what you think...

If you are interested in having your own  Family Portrait done please visit my Etsy shop or contact me for details. Email: sam@sammiller.org.uk

© Copyright  Sam Miller 2013

All the artwork and text on this blog are original and belong to SamMillerUK. They must not be copied, used or reproduced without the permission of the artist. Thank you.

Facebook Excitement...hiking and liking!!

After wondering what to do to boost my Facebook likes I accidentally stumbled into a Hike last night! I was a bit lost at first, wondering what to do, but what fun?! Had a great time jumping around looking at other people's pages and leaving comments and likes all over. It did feel a bit like I was in a three-legged race trying to go as fast as possible but stumbling a bit and I really did feel like I had been running around as it got into one big frenzy. I will definitely do it again and it did increase my likes a lot!

Basically, you are given a starting time and then you can tag your business page on the hike status post, you then look at other people's tags on there and go to whichever one's you fancy. If you like them click on their like button and leave a message.

Tips from an amateur hiker (Thanks to Bizzy at Hike your Likes)!
Go to the Hike page and just jump to any of the links you fancy.
If you like the page, click on the 'like' button at the top and then post a message and your own link.
Do the liking from your personal profile  or it doesn't count, but then tag your own page by putting @ before your name so it is then highlighted.

I did pop off for a sedate stroll at one point, that was more leisurely, almost like a small treasure hunt. You just follow a list of links and visit each page, see what you think and leave a message. Then pop back and leave your tag when you've completed them all.

Both are simple and fun and did let me see lots of lovely things and meet a few people, led me on to new unexpected and exciting pages before my mind exploded with creativity!!

I think I'm an addict now, I plan to do lots more hiking as I do like this virtual way of doing it so I don't get cold, wet and muddy! So if you fancy a stroll or a hike I hope to bump into you there!

© Copyright  Sam Miller 2013

All the artwork and text on this blog are original and belong to SamMillerUK. They must not be copied, used or reproduced without the permission of the artist. Thank you.

SamMillerUK Facebook Frustration!

Hi, I'm just having a think about how to boost my facebook likers and noticed lots of people doing competitions and give-aways so I'm thinking of going down that route as I am finding it hard to get over 100 which does seem a bit lame!

It is also frustrating as I have created pages for  Edinburgh Pop-Up Markets and Colinton Market-Place which I maintain and we get a fantastic number of folks looking. I also made a page for LB With Love just a few days ago too and that already has almost as many likes as me which is fantastic but I really need to change my marketing strategy for my own page...focus!

If anyone has any hints or tips on how to cheaply and effectively up your likes do let me know and I will announce my give-away very soon.
Thanks, SX

www.edinburghpopupevents.com

© Copyright  Sam Miller 2013

All the artwork and text on this blog are original and belong to SamMillerUK. They must not be copied, used or reproduced without the permission of the artist. Thank you.