Project Wonderful

Don't you just love that name?  I'm so excited to now offer free advertising here on my blog!  Even as the bids go up, they stay relatively low.  It's a great service for all involved.  I only know of them through the handmade movement although I'm sure others use the service.  If you are a blogger, project wonderful is a great way to support artists world wide.  As a reader it's a great way to see all the great work that's out there being offered.  As an artist and indie business owner, I love how easy and friendly the service is.  And I love that I can get my name out there one person at a time for pennies a day.  They work with paypal which makes it all seriously easy.  So be sure to check out the lovely things being advertised on the side of my blog!!

ARTFIRE - Item of the Hour!

I'm so excited!  My Paint It Black Cozy Cowl was featured on the front page of Artfire as the item of the hour.  What a fun feature they have there.  It is a great feeling to get an email letting you know your item is going to be featured on the front page.  Thanks for the warm fuzzies Artfire!  And if you need a warm fuzzy, take home on of these cowls.  : )

Testing, Testing.

I'm trying out a new blog layout.  I really wanted the 3 column layout, I love the way they look and I think it's easier to navigate.  I love the look of this, but the placement of the words in the header is less than great.  I am super tech un-savvy, so this is all a serious challenge for me.  Not to mention, trying to learn techie stuff with my kids running around poking each other with dinosaurs and fairies, screaming and whining at each other!    

I also finally found the cute Twitter buttons, thanks to Lori from Risky Beads who I've told you about before.  I really would like to throw one on my page, but I totally don't get it!  LOL  Maybe it's because it's Friday the 13th, maybe it's because of the gloomy weather we've had all week, or maybe it's just my mommy brain.  I was hoping to figure it out and come tell you all about it and how to get one of your own. But I can't, WAH.  What I can do is share the link so if you are smarter than I am you can get one for yourself.  And if you are in a good mood, maybe you'll tell me how to do it too!   They also have a nice assortment of  Twitter backgrounds for you to choose from.  In other news I am teaching myself a new craft so that I will have more diversity of product for my  Blue Star Butterflies shops on Artfire  and Etsy  I tried to learn to knit several years back, but I was so much better at crochet that I couldn't hang in there.  I quit half way through a scarf and never looked back.  But I have always liked the way that knit looks.  Now that I have started this little indie business of mine I wanted to expand.  And I live in Minnesota which provides me with a long winter, just begging a person to learn a new craft while cooped up indoors.  I am really happy that I listened to my heart and ditched the scarf because I just wasn't into it.  I decided to go for a hat and it was totally worth it!  It was fun and interesting.  I started over several times, so I'm a pro at casting on now.  I won't say it's a great hat, but it ain't bad and I'm not embarrassed to wear it- rock on!  This is the pattern I used.  I even made my hubby at hat and it turned out very well.  I'm super pleased that my years of yarn work have lent themselves to picking up this new craft.  I have a few more personal projects in mind, like a hat for myself that I'm currently working on with some gorgeous hand painted alpaca yarn in a super fun design.

Not bad, eh!  And I want to make a wide scarf/shawl.  By that time I think I will be doing well enough to start creating things for Blue Star Butterflies!  Yipee.

Featured Artist - Risky Beads

I recently made a purchase from Lori at Risky Beads.  With the Artfire buzz growing, I set up shop and wanted to go through the buying process myself.  I looked around a little while and quickly found Risky Beads.   I was surprise that I hadn't run across her shop on Etsy, but we all know how crowded Etsy is!!  Lori sells on etsy at RiskyBeads.etsy.com and has a destash bead shop there as well RiskyStash.etsy.com  , also on artfire RiskyBeads.artfire.com  and at 1000 Markets 1000markets.com/users/riskybeads

She has been selling on etsy for nearly 18 months and has a fantastic shop with stellar photos. She has even written about her experience in a little book you can find in her shop.  I look forward to reading it soon.  It's full of helpful tips and her great personality.   She's a true artist all the way around.  From intreaging write ups for her work to creative photo set up.  She is what I hoped to be when I started putting my etsy shop together, slowly, last spring.  

I purchased a couple pair of earrings ( here and here ) from her and was extremely pleased with my experience.  We had good communication and my package arrived quickly.  The contents were cutely wrapped, it was fun to open each little item.  The package was full of goodies, business cards, suggested sellers, a calendar magnet, and some other surprises!  I think Lori at Risky Beads has got it going on!  If you are a seller of handmade goods on line, you can learn something from her.  And if you are a buyer of handmade goods, you are going to love your experience.  If you are both, like me, you really can't go wrong!   I am really enjoying my new earrings, there are exactly what I was looking for.  Thank you Lori!

Lori has a very cool blog (included on my bloglist on the side) which you can find at riskybeads.blogspot.com  in addition to her other artistic abilities she's a fantastic writer.  I highly suggest popping over there for a while!  She is currently running a huge Artfire giveaway.  You won't want to miss it.

A Little Background

Grab a cup of coffee and snuggle under an afghan, here's a bit about my journey so far.  I am pretty new to this business - indie craft.  I have long been a crafter and creator, but turning it into a business is a whole new world.  It's been exciting and daunting at times.  I am constantly amazed at the wealth of information to be found and read on the web.  Most of the time since I first opened my shop on Etsy   has been spent timidly dipping my toes in the water hoping not to take a wrong turn and end up in over my head.  I have taken it slow, and with two rowdy little ones at home, that has worked well for me.  

But this fall as my oldest went to preschool and I have a little more time on my hands, I decided I really wanted to figure out what I was doing with this little handmade business of mine.  I was having computer issues and that makes online business a bit rough!  So I started with creating more inventory.  Sounds easy since this is why I opened a shop in the first place.  But,  do I make totally OOAK (one of a kind) items?  Do I find several items of interest and make many?  I am stuck somewhere in the middle.  I wanted my shop to have a uniform look, and I love to make things over and over - but I want to explore my options as well.  And I have more than one craft that I'd like to share.  I don't really want to manage more than one shop, so I guess it'll all have to go in the same place.  I decided I'll just have to figure out how to make it mesh.  

Photo's are a whole topic of their own.  I knew starting out that I'd need great photos, but I didn't realize how hard that was going to be!  Photographing blankets seems nearly impossible to me.  I will continue to work hard to get better photos of my items.  

Once I had more inventory and had taken pictures I got them all loaded up into my shop and felt like my little corner of Etsy was more of a store than a hole in the wall.  Yay!  Now I needed to get people to it.  Yikes.  I was still intimidated by that idea.  With the weather in Minnesota often being below freezing and even subzero temps, getting out and leaving business cards around isn't something I'm up for!  But I have a few stacks around town at coffee shops from the pre-frozen days.  The idea of craft fairs has crossed my mind more than a few times.  I would really like to get into a few, but am worried that I am not organized enough!

So I started reading.  Reading and reading and more reading.  I would not have believed that there are days and days worth of information out there on running, and promoting your indie online business, but there are!  I swear since Christmas I have spent more time on my new (hooray!) laptop than I have ever spent on a computer before.   Reading about handmade venues, Artfire  and Etsy   and Shophandmade   reading about social networking on Facebook  and Twitter  and reading lots and lots of blogs like TimothyAdamDesigns that I introduced you to earlier.  And I've spent hours looking at Project Wonderful   finding blogs to put cute little ads on.  Ads that I bought from Etsy at ThompsonDesigns.   It's enough to make your head spin around!!  LOL  But as a stay at home mom, I find the head spinning to be exciting.  I normally read things on the Dr. Seuss level - which I love, but reading all of this indie business info is making me feel a part of the world again.  Oh geese, how could I forget trying to read html code and Google Analytics etc...  I swear I can actually FEEL the synapses firing in my brain.  It's like someone plugged my brain in to an electric socket.  

That pretty much catches us up to now.  I had several sales over the holiday season and that was very exciting.  I hope that all my hours of reading and networking online are going to help keep them coming in the new year.  But, as you can see if you've looked at my shops, I am going to need a brainstorming session for products to sell during the warmer months.  So far my things are very, winter related!  I think that'll be my goal after Valentine's Day.  Thanks for coming by and getting to know me a little better.  I'd love to get to know you better too.  Leave a comment!  I hope you enjoyed your coffee and that you'll be back soon.