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.)

Customized creations

This is how my head feels today. Ugh.

I'm sick - again, 3 time in 6 weeks - but thanks to my iPod Touch, I can keep on top of emails and read some pretty fantastic blogs (scoutiegirl - seriously wonderful. Same with design*sponge).

And it's a good thing I can check my emails from under a pile of blankets on the couch. I sold this wallet a few weeks back to a customer in Austin, TX. It was one of my favourites to do - I love the argyle print on this oh-so-soft material and business card holders are a must-have in my life. I've gone through 4 since I started carrying my own earlier this year (3 were 'just because'; 1 ended up being a victim of spilled apple juice in my purse).

This morning, I had an email from the wallet's buyer to do a custom order. This will be the first custom order I've had from someone that I isn't a friend; this will also bring the number of custom orders I've had since mid-August to 6.

I've been very interested in doing custom orders since I started doing this earlier this year. I've tried to research exactly how to do it, how to promote the availability of doing custom work, and the only thing I can come up with is to just say I'll do it. Make sure it's mentioned somewhere, everywhere, I can. Especially with the holidays coming up, custom work should be in demand. Handmade should equal custom; custom should equal one-of-a-kind. And who doesn't want one-of-a-kind pieces? Individuality is a good thing :)

So here's my first official statement & promotion: I do custom work. I can't sew a wedding dress, but if you take a look at one of my shops - ArtFire or Cargoh - or my Facebook page, there may be something that strikes your fancy (even poke around on this blog - I've posted some things I've done for Maddy that might be of interest). I will be totally honest and upfront about what materials I have access to and time frames for completion.

If you would like some info on custom orders, just email me: nisse.works{at}gmail{dot}com. I'll try to get a more 'official' posting up this week for custom orders and what I can offer.

Changing it up

There's a very unmistakable chill in the air these days... yes, fall is here, but around here, it also means winter is right on it's heels. There's frost on the car's windshield this morning and the furnace has been on since yesterday.

I still haven't tidied up my gardens and don't know if I'll be able to do the full-on tear-up-and-roto-til I wanted to this year. We've got a fair bit of compost and a lot of leaves in the yard, all perfect for a winter mulch, but ever since I went off my thyroid meds last week, I've got no energy to do anything physical. The good news is I get to go back on my meds in 3 weeks, right after my second (in 10 months) radioisotopes scan... hopefully I'll get some of that energy back and the snow stays away for me to get the much-needed yardwork done.

October 1 was a big turning point in my business. I closed my Etsy shop and opened my ArtFire shop. I'm staying away from reading forums of any kind, as much as possible. I can't deal with the overall negativity they breed and I really don't have time to waste on them, anyway. I have much more important things to do, like build up connections and network with other crafty/handmade folks.

I made a 3-month to-do list last night and was kind of surprised at how little I've got on it. There's the usual 'make stuff, sell stuff' on it, but beyond that... I didn't include anything extremely challenging or too far out of the ordinary. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. I'm sure challenges will pop up along the way, but have I purposely put any in place? I don't think so. I may have to rectify that.

Close door, open windows

I closed my Etsy shop this morning and moved most of my pieces over to ArtFire. I'll be listing a few bags from Etsy in my Cargoh shop later, too.

I'm feeling good about this. Within the month, I'll hopefully have my shop open on my soon-to-be new website, and with the move to ArtFire and more focus on Cargoh, things are looking up.

Or, at least, I'm saying they are. A little positivity can't hurt, right?

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 :)

Swallowing the bitter pill

There are a few things in life that drive me absolutely nuts: stupid people; drivers who don't use their turn signals; rudeness; and shortsighted, blame-everyone-but-me, ignorant (but not in the 'stupid' definition, because stupid people have their own reasons for garnering my head-shaking and eye-rolling) twits.

Things - sales, views, whatever - at Etsy have apparently been in upheaval for the last few months. I wouldn't know because I stocked my shop the day after the proverbial shit hit the fan. What that proverbial shit is, I have no idea... still. I'm not going to throw around accusations or spread rumours, but some sellers are quite upset with how Etsy runs their website.

Why?

I haven't got a bloody clue. I don't have a problem with how Etsy runs their website and, as an extension, their business. Or their office.

No business is perfect, including our own personal businesses. Or Etsy. Just because we give them money (20¢/listing, every 4 months, and 3.5% per sale) to essentially give us some space on their server to upload photos and try to sell our products does not mean we - the sellers - have any right to butt our noses into how things run.

I give lots of businesses money all the time. I give the government money all the time. I have absolutely no say in how they operate, no matter how inefficient or shoddily I think they are doing so. I certainly do not think that when I book a table at a craft show that I should be able to tell the co-ordinators how to set things up, how to promote, or go crying to them at the end of the show accusing them of 'not holding up their end of the deal' (that's not a quote from an Etsy forum post, as far as I know, it's just something I wanted to put in quotes for emphasis) because I didn't sell enough or anything.

Nope, the only person responsible for making sure my products sell is me. And me alone. There is no rule that Etsy is the only place you can sell your home/handmade products or vintage pieces or supplies online. It may be the most popular, but it is certainly not the only. There's Artfire and Zibbet and even eBay, just to name a few. But if you want to be 'noticed', you go with Etsy.

Am I happy with my experience with Etsy so far? Yeah. I still haven't sold anything, but I will. Do I think Etsy is doing a good job? Sure, but I'm just a customer (and that's what a lot of people forget). Do I think they could do more to help the sellers (and even buyers) to get the most out of their experience with Etsy? Of course, but what business can't improve their customer relations on some level?

Not everyone is going to be happy with change (or what they perceive as a lack of change), but oh lord, the way some people go on in the Etsy forums, you'd think that the world was ending because the admin chose to use black pens over blue without consulting the sellers first. (Totally random, made-up example, just to help prove a point.)

I'll close with this: if you aren't happy with the results of what you're paying for, be it Etsy or a mortgage provider or a shoe brand, MOVE ON. How much energy can one waste bitching all the time? Based on what I read on forums (and this applies to ALL forums, not just Etsy), a lot... like life-sucking amounts of energy. I'd hate to be one of those people.

Tomorrow, I'm going to *hopefully* create a few new pieces to list in my shop, because I want to. And then I'm going to work on improving my shop and making my brand more effective, which may, in turn, bring me a sale. I may also keep researching new products to work on for the craft shows I'm entering this fall. All depends on time and organization, something we all know I'm deficient in :)

But it's what I have to do to improve my business so I can be successful... and if I don't do any of that and continue to not do any of that and then wonder why I have no one looking at my work or any interest at all in my work, the only person I can blame is me. No one else. Maybe some people need to start taking responsibility for themselves and stop blaming everyone else.

(the photo? yeah, no relation to the post at all...but it is the second year in a row I got a shot of a bee in that plant. woo, me.)