Forethought... not my forté

This is how I work on new designs that I haven't really dummied out prior to starting: taking inspiration from somewhere (in this case, my coupon envelope, one of those accordion deals), I'll start cutting material without measuring. Then I'll start sewing it, without a plan or consistent use of seam allowances. Inevitably, I hit a brick wall about 80% of the way through the project and either 'set it aside' to finish later (aka, put it into a very full bag I've got under the table, full of similar projects that will eventually be taken apart to reuse the material), or I'll look at the incomplete project with a critical mind and try to figure out if I can finish it.

This particular design for a travel sewing kit that I plan on selling at the two craft sales I'm in this fall can and will be finished, thanks to my mom's serger. And liberal use of either bias tape or binding, neither of which I like nor can do well. Of course, I didn't actually ask my mom if I could use her serger - a Christmas present from my dad 4 or 5 years ago that she only started using seriously when making receiving blankets for Maddy - until I'd made half a dozen of these. And I haven't told her she's putting on the bias/binding tape...mwahahahahahah. Ha.

It's shaping up to be a busy week, but not because I have a lot of work to do. Keith's been at Clear Lake since early yesterday, so it's just Maddy and I at home... so far, it's been pretty good. She's can play by herself no problem, but if no one checks on her every so often, she'll try climbing the dresser in her room or eating whatever she finds on the floor (lately, it's been a lot of thread... yay, me). Tomorrow is the first of two baking days for me so I picked up a new colouring book and crayons for her, so that should help keep her busy. And there's always the Sesame Street 40th Anniversary DVD if she gets restless. I'm not a fan of using technology to babysit my kid, but Sesame Street will at least teach her something. And she loves Bert & Ernie. LOVES them.

In between the baking and taking care of Maddy, there's always work to be done to get ready for the craft sale on Sept 11. Displays, posters, signage, business cards... so much work to do and I'll probably still be working on something right up to the start of the sale, if not during. I'm using this blog post from Mermaid's Closet as a guideline for prepping/running my table, although I have a feeling that at the first sale, I may be the youngest vendor there.

This is not the week to try structuring a work schedule that includes spending time reading blogs or checking websites for inspiration, but I've got plans to set up a specific time each week to do that, as well as a series of posts on a somewhat unrelated topic here. In due time, though.. in due time.

Time is not on my side

Summer months are the optimal time to start planning for and getting your shop ready for the holiday season. Etsy's holiday season picks up from October through December. Harvest and Halloween seasons pick up as early as August, so start stocking up on and listing your holiday offerings now in preparation for the seasonal rush ahead
     • Media Tip: Press outlets begin finalizing their holiday issues and series in the summer. Have your holiday items listed, tagged, and available now for buyers and PR reps looking to pull items for holiday gift guides.

-From Etsy's Merchandising Desk: July Heats Up

Oh, holy crap.

I am not expecting to have anything from my shop catch the eye of any media folk and wind up in some magazine in time for the holiday season. I may be talented, but I'm not that talented.

Yet.

No, this just reminds me that the first craft sale that I want to be part of is in 3 months. Three months. Ninety days. Again, oh, holy crap.

I'm not sure what I'm going to sell at that sale, but I don't have enough stock for a sale. And trying to sell the same things I have in my Etsy shop is not going to happen, either (mainly because if I tried to do that, it would be just my luck to have everything in my shop sell online at the same time people are buying them off of me at a sale).

There's a small list in my notebook for ideas of what to make/sell at the sale (this is only the first; I'm aiming for two more, and I know there's at least one more for sure), but haven't actually started any of it. I've decided that I'm going to try to get as much product done and ready to list in my shop by the end of June so July will be when I come up with new products. What those products are is another question.

I've been debating about opening another shop, either on Etsy or one of the other online handmade sites (like Artfire or Zibbet), to see if I can sell my efforts elsewhere. But how much more time can I devote to doing things that may or may not sell? Already, it's what I think about the majority of the time; it's what I spend my 'spare' time doing; and it's an even more difficult financial commitment for someone who doesn't have an income. So, yeah... do I keep all my eggs in one basket or start spreading them out, even though it could be a waste, which is what I'm doing now is turning into.

*sigh*

Sometimes I wonder if things would have just been easier to keep working rather than putting all this effort into something that's not exactly succeeding (which is no one/thing's fault but my own)... at least by working at home, I get to spend time with Maddy and drown my sorrows in cartoons and reruns all day.

Poking the bear

I don't remember the last time we - as a family - had a chance to actually sit back and relax. I don't know if it's because we just believe we don't have any time now that Maddy's getting older or if my work is taking away what free time I used to have, but it would be nice if we - Keith, Maddy and me - could just stop all the fussing and rushing and go-go-go for a few days.

But, then again, if we did stop and relax, I think I'd have a breakdown because I wasn't doing something. I used to slack off with the best of them, but in the last few years - especially since Maddy was born - nothing drives me more nuts than doing nothing. Idle hands, devil's playground... well, not really. It's more of a 'I know I can be productive - let's see how' thing. Gets frustrating sometimes... tiring, too.

With three months of an open shop under my belt, there are many, MANY areas of this business that I need to focus on and learn more about. Promotions and marketing, for one; time organization for another. It's not enough to just produce pieces, you have to sell them to people, too... and putting pretty pictures of them online doesn't mean a damn thing. People can't see you if you don't show them where you are.

There's been a debate - for lack of a better term - in the Etsy forums for the last few months about why sales and views have been down. If you told me that without any back story (or accusations), I would think that a lack of sales would be because:

• the economy still sucks. The government and banks and economists can all say it's getting better, but all those people who were unlucky enough to lose their jobs 18 months ago are not going to be spending money on luxuries; they're going to be paying off bills or putting away some extra money just in case this happens again.
• the handmade fad is starting to wane a bit. A couple of years ago, when the economy started to nosedive, lots of people turned back to homemade/grown/produced products to save money. Lots of those people sold their products, too... and now everyone and their dog makes something to sell. Add in a flooded market and you've got the perfect storm as to why no one is buying anything.
• there's a lot of crap out their and people don't have time (or the desire) to sift through it all. I went to the big local craft show last fall and wasn't impressed at all. There was a lot of amateur "crafters" who really should have just kept their work in their garages or basements to save themselves the hassle. I'm not saying what I do is the best in the world and that everyone loves it, but there's a reason Regretsy exists. 
• people got lazy and expected Etsy to do everything for them, including promotions and marketing. And solve their problems. Surprised some didn't expect Etsy to also tie their shoes and brush their hair.

I'm in the 'I don't blame Etsy' camp, mainly because I see Etsy as no different than the facility hosting a craft sale. It's my job as a show owner to make people see that I exist. I am in charge of promoting my shop and making people want to stay in my shop to make a purchase. Sure, it's nice when people find me through Etsy, but based on what Google Analytics is telling me, very few people do. I get more visitors from Twitter, this blog and other blogs I comment on than through Etsy.

Does that bother me? Nope.

Why not? Because the internet is a big place, and I count myself as lucky everytime someone finds me through Google or Craftgawker or some other method. I refuse to blame others for my failings, unless it's completely justified and provable. If I want people to see my work and buy my work, I have to do the work to get them, their eyes and their wallets to my shop. It's as simple as that.

And the internet is ever-evolving. People need to realize that. Things change, and usually it's for the better. What's the harm in letting people do their jobs and accepting that sometimes, "fixes" can take a little longer than expected because, well, they just do.

I know it's quite possible I'm going to end up slammed for what I have said and I really don't care. It's what I honestly believe and would have loved to say it in the forums, but anytime someone tries to say something like this (ie. it's not necessarily Etsy's fault you have no sales), they get ripped apart by the complainers. I'm willing to learn my lessons and try new things to get people's attention; I refuse to let other people force me to stand idly by and wait for "fixes" that I shouldn't need to operate a successful business.

So, yes... marketing and promotion. Need to work on that. And tweaking my photos, as well as gearing up for fall craft sales. I may be trying to come up with some new products soon and hope to post about them as they come along... although, based on my posting history thus far, there's no guarantee. Perhaps there's someone I could blame for that...

(the marigold pictured above is one of many that I picked up today at the best garden centre in the area - The Green Spot. I hate marigolds as a rule - something that dates back to when I was 5 or so and ate some of the seeds... pointy damn things going down... but these marigolds are going to be used in my battle against mosquitoes and aphids. Wish me luck:) )

A stitch in time...

I've been trying to figure out ways to incorporate embroidery into my work, and beyond this piece, I haven't had much solid success. In my pile of work that I've messed up (aka 'stuff that I'll eventually give to Maddy to play with'), I've got a few pieces that I tried to include some embroidered elements. It took a while for me to realize that although I knew I had the skills (self-taught, too... which surprises me more than you'd expect), I had no idea how to use them... PROPERLY.

I tend to rush my work. This isn't a shock to anyone who knows me - I'm that type of worker who will charge ahead, full speed, to get my work done as fast as possible so I can spend more time slacking off. Years of being a designer/editor and having to make small, stupid change after small, stupid change should have taught me that slowing down and checking things over before I think I'm done would be beneficial, but no.

So my need to slack - apparently, still - has firmly embedded itself into my new work life. Only in the last couple of weeks have I started to consciously take my time and make sure each step is complete before I move onto the next. Slowing down and being patient with my work has had one massive positive result: ZIPPERS. I like working with zippers so much (so far) that everything I've made in the last 2 weeks has a zipper. Now that I've conquered the zipper challenge, I'm totally ready to start working embroidery back into my pieces.

Such as the piece in the photo at the top of this post. Eventually - possibly Thursday - this will become the outer shell of a wallet I'm going to sell. I don't have any other embroidered pieces ready to go, but I'm purposely waiting until I've finished this wallet to see how using something like this works.

I like embroidery. I find it soothing. Maddy does not and makes it really difficult to do any work during the day, but I'm determined to get her to accept that this is what I'm going to do while she's playing. And because I do all my work freehand, there's no pressure of having to follow lines or a pattern... I do 'draw' an outline in chalk, but more often than not, I'll use it only as a general guide so I don't end up losing track of the space I can use.

I'm also working on a butterfly for Maddy's room. It's not perfectly symmetrical, but I think it'll be cute. I've been trying to work with Maddy in choosing the colours that will be worked into the piece, and when it's done, I'll frame it and hang it up. If all goes well, maybe it's another potentially sell-able product. Or maybe it'll just be one of those things I do for friends and family only.

Things are starting to pick up with my shop and my work... I'm trying new things, searching for new ways to promote what I do, and it looks like I'm getting more first-time viewers into my shop. No sales yet (!!!!!!), but they'll come. I figure if I keep working on what I'm doing and improving the product, it's only a matter of time until I get my first sale, and then my second and then it's an avalanche I can't keep up with. Yep, that's exactly how it's going to be... when it finally happens :)

Finding the path

See that pouch there? The one with the super-soft faux suede exterior and cute tartan interior? The one that should be appearing in my shop later this week?

It's part of the creative epiphany I had yesterday. It's also the first thing I've ever put a zipper into, but that's not important right now (well, it is, but it isn't).

Yesterday was Star Wars Day, and as a fairly big Star Wars fan (eps. 4-6 more than 1-3), I decided to make Yoda's 'Do or do not. There is no try.' line from Empire Strikes Back my personal mantra. (If someone feels really generous *ahem, Denise*, I'd love this shirt for my birthday :).) No more piles of things I'm going to try or waste time thinking about trying; I waste enough time as it is, I need to spend what useful time I do have being productive.

And then Etsy sent out their latest Success email - making mistakes is okay, learning from them is even better - something I've needed to hear from someone besides Keith (who's encouragement I always appreciate, no matter what) and my family. I have a massive pile of mistakes I've made, but I can probably look at every piece and find something that I can take from each one and use it in the future. Kind of ties into the whole Yoda, thing, too... in a slightly indirect way.

And I finally found some patterns and designs that are just for me. I think the biggest problem I've had up until now with most of my work is that I've been trying to outdo myself at every turn. My skill level isn't much above intermediate beginner, but I was setting myself up for a guaranteed fail on almost everything I was working on by choosing designs that were geared towards experienced seamstress/seamsters. So now I've finally found things that don't frighten me by point two of the instructions and I think I can actually produce some pretty damn decent pieces at a quicker rate than I was before.

I was working on a new purse design for almost a week before I had my epiphany... I had spent four or five hours trying to figure out how to put a decorative band around the top of the bag. FOUR OR FIVE HOURS... that's just ridiculous by anyone's standards. So I've set it aside and I will return to it, just not any time soon. And that's perfectly fine with me.

Now that I've turned that corner, I can start looking at other parts of my business and figure out how to straighten them out. Like the complete lack of organization that just seems to run rampant throughout my life... I keep meaning to do something about it, but haven't found the time (or desire) to do so. With what I'm hoping will be more useful time available to me, there should be no excuse. Or, one hopes.

A week ago, I was ready to throw in the towel, I'm feeling good about where this is headed now. The only thing that can hold me back is me. Funny that it took this long to figure that out, but at least I realized it before I did just stop and turn my back on it completely.

Getting there

Check out my Photoblog for more picks like this one.

It's been a week. That's the best way to describe it - gathering with family to celebrate my uncle's life, finding out that student loans really do haunt you years after you're finished with school, trying to keep up with Maddy, figuring out what we're doing with the yard this year... and it's only Thursday.

I've gained a lot of energy this week, though, likely due to the amount of time we're spending outside with the weather being so nice. Even a half hour or so a day seems to be doing wonders, not only for me, but for Keith and Maddy, too. Maddy looooooves our backyard, especially the slight hill we've got coming up to the house. I can hardly wait until we get the fence in next month and she can run freely rather than us chasing her to the edges of the property.

And even though we've been snow-free for a month now, I'm not even going to attempt to plant anything for a few more weeks. The forecast for early next week is calling for snow and a high of only 4C (39F) on day, so there's no point in gearing up the garden only to have it freeze and die. But that doesn't mean I can't plan what I'm putting in (and taking out this year - 3 annuals and a rose bush... hopefully to other gardens) before we get it rototilled and prepped for the actual planting.

But today I've got work to do. Lots of work. Tonnes of work. Will I get it all done? Heck, no, but I figure it's better to have a list to work with than try to do it without any sort of organization at all.

What I need to do:

• finish the new bag design I started on Tuesday. To do this, I need to get to the store to pick up a pack of fasteners. Once I've got them, though, it shouldn't take me long to complete it... if I don't screw it up. I've learned to take my time and that the iron is really a good tool, so if I can keep from going at this all willy-nilly, it should turn out well. *fingers crossed* 
• finish the embroidery work on a couple of pieces. It's not really embroidery work, per se, but it's work with an embroidery needle and floss. I'm trying to add a bit of uniqueness to some of my pieces by finishing them by hand. Not sewing machine, but hand, as the lovely calouses on my thumbs and right middle finger can confirm.
• keep tweaking my branding. I'm still working at getting everything I have my name on (like cards, Etsy and Twitter, so far) to have a similar look. For the most part, almost everything uses the same fonts, but doesn't necessarily look the same. I've got an idea of what I want to do with the banner here, but can't actually do anything until the battery for my camera is charged. Then there's the question of redesigning this particular blog, especially when I own nisseworks.com. Decisions, decisions.
• marketing, promoting and networking. I feel like I've plastered my business everywhere, but I know there's still a lot of work to do and that it's never ending. Yay.

And I've got my month-end to do tomorrow, as well as catch up on all the rest of the paperwork I've been slacking off on for the last month, too... necessary evil and all that. Once that's all done, I imagine there'll be some changes I have to make to my shop and decisions that will be made about opening a second shop somewhere else for the other crafts/arts that I've been thinking about doing. But for now, I'll stick to doing the creative stuff... it's what I'm relatively decent at... I think.

Meandering about

Since I opened my store, it's been a little difficult to keep motivated. No sales - yet - and the realization that I made a massive mistake in the pricing of my products haven't helped. I fixed the pricing problem (I underpriced my bags by a good 40%) and now I'm waiting for a sale. One of the great things about Etsy is the community, and with that community comes some awesome and invaluable resources. The Etsy Seller Handbook has been a lifesaver. I didn't do a lot - or any, really - research before I launched my store and now there's a lot to catch up on, but the handbook has been nothing less than a godsend. I highly recommend it to anyone just starting out with an Etsy store and little-to-no experience in running a business.

I have managed to crank out a dozen or so new pieces. I finally learned how to do a proper lining, "designed" a new card holder (the green argyle/white piece in the bottom of the photo above would be the new "design"... really, it was just something that was going one way, didn't work so I tried something else), and wasted a fair bit of scrap material trying to come up with a brush/pen wrap that just did not want to work. It's been a bit of a frustrating week.

I went into this knowing that bags/wallets were not going to be the only thing I would produce. There's no way I could be content pigeon-holing myself like that; I still hope to do a bit of graphic design, probably artistic prints, for my store and I am working on prepping a bunch of photos to put up for sale. Spreading myself to thin is always a worry, but at this point, things are going fairly well... especially now that I'm caught up on the bookkeeping that was being put off, and off, and off.

A somewhat-aside: for patterns, go to BurdaStyle.  I love the selection and variety of patterns they have, even the free ones that members have come up with... these two have caught my eye and will likely be added to the pile of things I want to try.


Now that I've got a new pile of pieces to finish up - buttons, snaps, velcro, not to mention checking on wonky threads and weird seams - I'm going to step back and try to get working on a cloth book that's been in the bottom of one of my material baskets for a few months.

I read the Peter Rabbit series when I was young; someone in Keith's family gave Maddy Peter Rabbit for Easter last year. She's at that age where she's learning a lot and if I can tie rabbits together with the alphabet, I'll do it. The book is all on one piece of material, which is great, but the instructions don't make a lick of sense. I'm hoping that my mom can help me decipher them tomorrow when I take it out to their place to cut up. Worst case scenario - I can make a bunch of quilt blocks to frame for Maddy's room.

I'm hoping that things pick up soon with the store. It hasn't gotten completely desperate yet, and I don't actually see that ever happening, but it's a bit of a kick to the ego when people don't buy your stuff. But it is March... people still have Christmas bills to pay off and if people are like us, they're starting to come out of their hibernation modes. I can come up with a million excuses and rationalize every single one of them... sometimes, it's the only thing that can keep a person going.

Mad skills

When we had our daughter last year, Keith and I knew that we'd have to make some changes, one of the biggest of which was our finances. It's not like we were spending all our money on crap or constantly living right on the edge of the poverty line, but with an additional body in the house - and my decision to be a work-from-home mom - we had to make some adjustments.

The easiest way, I thought, to juggle the finances was to stop our reliance on store-bought, prepared, packaged food. I've always liked to cook and bake, thanks to my parents encouraging me as a young kid to learn how to use the appliances in the kitchen. I still remember making my dad a variation on the Denver omelette when I was 7 or so. One of the first badges I got in Brownies was for baking. I find being in the kitchen pretty relaxing, for the most part.

Then there's the 12 or so years I spent working in restaurant kitchens. But that's for another time.

My mom was the biggest influence in my cooking aspirations. She didn't go back to work until my younger sister was 6, so she had a full meal for us 5 nights a week (Friday and Saturdays were her 'nights off'). Mostly simple meals, always meat-potato-veggie. I imagine that her upbringing - a widower for a father, the only female in the house, heavy influence from the Scottish grandfather living with them - had a lot to do with the straightforwardness of most meals. I don't remember having anything as extravagant as lasagna until I was 11. We grew up without sugared cereals (but always had brown sugar available to coat our puffed wheat) or tinned pasta... and even after living on my own for almost 14 years now, I'm perfectly okay not having either. Guess we weren't really missing out on much.

About a year ago, my mom decided it was high time I learned how to bake bread.

I was terrified.

Bread, from what other people had told me, was one of the easiest things to do. I'd seen cooks on TV make bread and it just looked so finicky. I didn't want to deal with that.

Long story, short... I can make bread with the best of them now.

Even if the recipe I use is completely different from the one that everyone else uses (milk? nope. eggs? nope. overnight proofing? heck no!).

The recipe I use is supposed to be for 4 loaves, but somehow I always manage to get 7 out of it - 5 plain, 2 cinnamon. I don't dare double the recipe because we don't have enough room in the freezers for 14 loaves of bread.

 

And yes, as a matter of fact, I do use my dryer in the third (!!) proofing round. There's a south-facing window right above it and the laundry room is the warmest room in the house. Two birds, one stone.

While the bread was rising on the dryer on Friday, I made a double-batch of baking powder biscuits from a cookbook of my grandmother's. I've made these biscuits a few times and they're great. The last batch I made, I added some shredded cheese and a few herbs just to add a bit of flavour. This time around, I threw in raisins, apples, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice in a slightly brazen attempt to make something that resembled scones.

Once I figured out that if I didn't actually roll out the dough and just pressed it to about 1/2" thick, they worked great. Turned out fabulously and they're almost half gone already.  Maddy LOVES them, I'm definitely putting them into the regular baking rotation and Keith... I think he likes them. He must. He eats them when I offer him one.

 

Making bread has become a biweekly event; I've been trying to get some other baking done during those days, too, to take advantage of the hot oven. I think next time it's going to be a toss-up between these biscuits and the mini chocolate chip cookies that I have to give away to people almost as soon as they come out of the oven, as I would eat every single one of them if I was given the chance.

Cooking, baking, sewing... geez, you'd think I enjoyed being all domestic or something.

A slight uptick

We've been pretty lucky - and not - this year. It certainly hasn't been as cold as it usually is. There were no stretches of -40C longer than a few days, but the snow... so much snow this year. It's nice to have the white stuff for snowmobilers and farmers, but come on... when the snow is even with our front porch landing, it's a bit much.

This week, we've seen the temperatures increase to daytime highs above freezing, which means added humidity and hoarfrost most mornings. I took these photos a few days ago when the frost was pretty thick, but only on the westward side of everything. A little odd, if you ask me.

I'm starting to go a little stir-crazy now that it's getting warmer. I've started thinking about my garden plans this year and whether or not I should expand the veggie garden and what to do about the flower gardens. And the rose bushes - move or leave them? That all depends on how many times Maddy runs into them once we get the fence up in the backyard and let her roam free.

I've got a pile of catch-up work to do - including a post that I'm going to attempt to get up tomorrow - before the weekend is over. Likelihood of actually getting through the entire pile? Slim to none, but it doesn't hurt to have a goal, right? Even it is futile :)