On the move

Within the next week, this blog will be moving to it's new home - nisseworks.com. I will try to keep this as painless - for everyone - as possible. I will keep this blog running for as long as I'm moving posts & comments, but in the new year, it will no longer be my home.

I'm starting a new venture - a shop. My own shop. I will list pieces and products there that aren't available in my ArtFire and Cargoh shops. I need a home for the stationery/design work I'm creating and this seemed like the best solution. I'll probably list a few special pieces, too, like handmade felt toys and such... it's also where I hope to showcase my custom work.

Things are going in a very different - but happily different - direction than I had planned when I started this little handmade adventure earlier this year. I know where I want to end up and the path I was on was not going to help me get there. I'm happy I've made the decisions I have and hope that things keep progressing. Even if it's at a snail's pace.

(and yes, I did mention this previously. this time, it's a definite go.)

Starting the week off right

Two things:

First, I was chosen as one of Cargoh's Things we love today.

More specifically, my tan cotton slim case was chosen. Thanks to the awesome folks at Cargoh for that :)

And today, I made this:

This is the best picture I could get before Maddy whisked it away. She's named him 'Lellow'... it's how she says 'yellow', which is the only colour she wanted him to be. He's (I think he's a 'he') made out of cotton, eco fi felt, and is filled with scrap fabric and polyfill batting. He's mostly handstitched, with the exception of the two pieces of cotton. I'm debating offering this up for custom order - would there be interest? Drop me a line in the comments if you are interested and if you have any other suggestions.

My Etsy shop stock is still 15% off until Thursday. As of Friday, that shop will close and I will move most of whatever remains (I'm hoping there won't be a lot) to ArtFire and Cargoh. Some of it I will remove from sale completely and make it available only via craft sales and possibly by special request. I'll try to make sure I post updates frequently. It's going to be a busy week with all the hubbub of closing the shop, stocking another, getting the website up, setting up a shop there...and it's still 90 or so days until Christmas. Yay.

It's gotta go

This is the last week for my Etsy shop to have stock in it, so if you've had your eye on a piece, pick it up now. If you live in Brandon and would like to save yourself the shipping costs, drop me a line (same if you live in the surrounding 50kms or so).

Next Friday, I'll have a new shop to open and hopefully a new website to launch, as well as new stock in my Cargoh shop. Keep checking in to see what else I might be getting off the ground.

Rain, rain...

First day of fall and I could see my breath outside when I popped out a half hour ago - at 1pm - to take this photo. It's raining and cold and just ugh. We never really had a summer, but it looks like it might warm up this weekend to a whole 19˚C. Sad when we get all giddy over a high like that, but it's been a pretty ugly year in terms of weather around here, especially for the farmers. Too much rain, no warmth, late harvest, if any at all... ugly.

But onto happier news. Or somewhat happier... I'm still planning to close out my Etsy shop within the week. I've signed on to upgrade my ArtFire account and plan on listing some pieces in my very neglected Cargoh shop. And then there's the new website - nisseworks.com.

My website is being designed by my supertalented brother-in-law (his website's here). I've decided to include a 'shop' feature on my website. I've done a lot of research into e-commerce and shopping carts, trying to find one that a borderline web design Luddite, like myself, can use and not crash the entire internet. I checked out what a lot of the blogs I read use for their shop sections and read a lot of reviews, and have decided to go with Ecwid. One of the first things I noticed about Ecwid was that their website is easy to use - very straightforward, uncomplicated, something I could move around quite easily. And they're free and a lot of crafty-types use them, so win all the way.

I didn't expect to have to step out on my own so soon... I was hoping to spend a few years on Etsy, build up a customer base and then move onto my own site so I could control stock & orders. I'm not mad that I'm moving on so much sooner, I'm mad at how it happened. I'm more than a little scared at going out on my own, but I don't think that anyone would be cool, calm & collected if they were in my position. And really, the upcoming holiday season is the perfect time to launch something like this... fingers crossed, I end up being busy with orders & requests. Heck, I'll cross my toes, too, if it'll help :)