A Few Months Later

Things just don't turn out as you plan. My goal was to drop my Apron and Accessory line and Boost my Felt Flower Jewelry line with an added touch of Product design.

Well the flowers are selling, but certainly not enough to live on. But the Aprons and Accessories (especially after adding Bow Ties and an eBay store) is booming. The one business that I wanted to eliminate. So, now I'm building a website (poppysgardengate.com) for that business and seriously considering ending my line of Eco Felt flowers. Well not entirely. I may just move everything to a free store and shut down that Artfire shop. I'm thinking maybe storeenvy.

Maybe it's just that I need to focus on just one line, but I can't focus on just that one, because I make my income off the other. I suppose it's like having a full time job and trying to sell my craft. I guess if others can do it so can I. But they're on Etsy and I'm perma-banned. So until there's another alternative, other than eBay, I just have to do what I need to do.

On a cheerier note. One of my designs sold to a major retailer. Here are the statistics on that one. I spent 3 weeks, about 400 hours on 28 designs. 9 designs were selected for presentation. One design sold. My income at this time, about $1000. If you can't calculate, that's about $2.50 an hour. Not so great eh? Sounds like working for your craft?

There are other possibilities though. More of the designs can sell, or I can sell the designs to other clients, and I can alter designs to use for other clients too. And the retailer that bought the product is only introducing them in 200 stores, if they do well they might increase the line. So my dollar per hour will increase. Lets just say, I'm confident enough in my design, that it will do well and sell through another season. I'll let you all know what it is, when it's on the shelves next spring.

I've also resigned myself to making my Aprons and Accessories for income. I still get to work at home, and my income this year has doubled what it was last year. I just love my flowers and hoped that more than the few who buy from me would love them too. Oh well, maybe I can incorporate them into my lighting designs.

April 29, 2012 - It's a Wrap

I wanted to share with you the things I set out to do in the past four months. It's my first list, my spreadsheet. I dropped some things I found unnecessary and added a few things after I thought about what I wanted to accomplish. Below is my original spreadsheet with notes.

I'm really big on spreadsheets. If I could organize my life on them I would. I use Open Office freeware. They are wonderful.

I had hoped to complete both my new Websites by now. My flower jewelry and my product design websites are both 80% finished. I designed many new pieces for my jewelry business including accessories I didn't plan on originally. I'm very pleased with my brochure design and my new business cards and logo. 

I also hoped to make some statement pieces and enter some competitions, but that didn't happen. 

Once my packaging is complete and photographed I'll finish my brochure. I will start sending out the brochure and samples immediately after. 

As for my design business, I really wanted to learn how to use my new CAD program. I did learn how to do some things on it, but I didn't master it. The only other thing I wanted to finish was my website. Not quite finished yet, but very close. Next step is to finish my website and start making contacts. I have been adding some contacts on linked in. As soon as the website is finished, I'll make more. 

I know that some of you have been keeping up with everything I've done, so I want to make sure that you get to see how it all comes together in the end. I'll make a weekly post here for a while so you can see how I've succeeded (or not).

Maybe I'll get more done now that I don't have to post here every day. Maybe not.

April 28, 2012 - What I've Done

As I wrap up the Four Month Blog about expanding my business, I wonder if I've over analyzed everything. It will be really interesting to see the outcome of all the work I've been doing. So far, business has improved, and I think if I put as much into my third business as I have with the first two, that would grow too. I've only recently added new merchandise to that shop.

The past four months, I've taken a hard look at my flower jewelry business. I've considered my buyer base, and adjusted my product accordingly. I've considered selling wholesale and to see if it's profitable, I've made a spreadsheet of cost of materials, including packaging, and time to create to calculate entire cost of each item. I've decided to invest in a website to have a more professional presence, and redesign my packaging for retail display. I designed a logo/watermark and re-imaged my graphics and business cards.

I really don't think I've done more than anyone running a business should do.

For the past four months, I've also been preparing to go out and get product design clients. For that, I've been working on a new Design Portfolio Website. It still needs a bit of work, like a contact form, but It will be there soon. For that, I know my clients well and know just what to put on the site, but it helped doing a little research on designing a killer online portfolio. After I designed it first time around, I did a lot of redesigning. You really can't clutter up the site with 50 tabs of all your categories. It should be clean and simple and say I'm good and I want to design for you.

I did not accomplish all I wanted to in the past four months, I didn't meet all of my goals. I will have a wrap of my goals and accomplishments, probably Monday. But I really did accomplish a lot, and I am not only pleased with my work, but the fact that I was able to post here every single day of the four months.

April 22, 2012 - How I Created My Flowers

I had been making jewelry from stones, but realized that there was too much competition in that market. I tried making jewelry out of scrap fabric, because I liked the idea of recycling, but I really wanted something unique, desirable and that meant something to me personally. I'm not exactly sure what came first the flower (horse) or the fabric (cart). I guess I decided that flower jewelry would be wonderful. I really love flowers. That was one of the reasons I was hired to design Tiffany style lighting.

After I thought about flowers, I thought of material. This all really came together fairly quickly. I had a few pieces of eco felt around for experimentation. I really didn't like the texture of it. It was kind of rough and snaggy. The first flower I wanted to create was the Poppy. It was a flower easily recognized by shape alone. I had some glass rondelle shaped beads that would be perfect Poppy centers. I really didn't plan on going any further than just adding Poppy flowers to my line. 

I wanted the Poppy's to have a little shape to them, and remembered that this felt was made of plastic and that plastic can be heated and shaped. As a girl scout leader, we used to cut up certain colorful plastics and melt them in shaped metal containers to make pins and things. We also used heat to spiral curl the lanyard plastic. You coil it around a nail and dip it in boiling water. The plastic then holds it's new shape forever.

I thought that maybe if I held the felt into shape and flamed it with a lighter, it could work. It took a while to get the process exactly right. The flowers have to be flamed inside and out and shaped a certain way. The heat also made the texture of the fabric more compact and less snaggy. I used to singe them more for shading, but found that too much makes them look dirty. After I successfully made the Poppy flower, I challenged my self to the Shasta Daisy and the Bachelor Button, two more of my personal favorites. 

I worked on creating my favorite flowers like the Peony, which is a bit more complicated with several layers, and the Magnolia. But one of my real favorites would be a bit harder to accomplish. The Helleborus has lovely subtle shading and patterning on the flower. Although many flowers do, they can still be recognized by their shape alone.

I had an idea. What if I could paint the fabric with durable acrylic paint. I thought it would be best to wet the fabric flowers and paint them, so it would be more like watercolor. It took a bit of time to get the right amount of wetness, but they turned out beautifully. When they dried, I shaped them with flame and the heat set the paint perfectly.

I have recently found that my flowers can be machine washed and dried without harm. I think that the daisies with the vintage painted wood centers might not make it through the wash, but most of them would.

Since my first flower Poppies I have experimented with handmade and hand painted centers and adding the flowers to crocheted headbands and skinny scarves. Some styles have stayed and others have hit the curb. One thing I can say, is that creating these flowers, from my own process with recycled or renewable materials, gives me no end of joy.

April 20, 2012

I'm late with my post again and today I am blown away with the fact that blogger has completely changed format. I hope it's for the best, but I'm not really sure how I'm going to do all the posts I normally do. Things just don't look right here.

Today I did a lot of sewing. I decided, that although I want to either live off my jewelry, or my designs, I still need to make money off my sewing. I may not like sewing much, but it's what sells the most so I'm going to make the most of it, while I'm growing my other businesses.

I made a new apron with some fabric I have a lot of. Sitting on the shelf, might as well get some use out of it. I have 2 versions of retro aprons, one is the Ruffle (my daughter's design) and the other is the Sweetheart (my design).

My pattern is designed to use a 15" piece of 45" fabric, so it's a little more economical and less expensive. So I thought I'd make the less expensive version.

I also made a few Chef's Aprons that I will photograph with different pockets. I don't have enough listed and I need to add some of my better fabrics, like the Beatles and some Biker fabric and maybe more versions of Star Wars. I'd love to add the new Marvel Comic fabric, but that's getting harder and harder to find.

I love to add more Bow ties too. This is a great time of year for men's gifts. Graduations and Father's Day. I don't think I can really give up any of the things I do. I think I just have to be happy, selling it all.

April 17, 2012

Today I had to spend the whole day working on my Bread and Butter shop. That doesn't mean I sell bread and butter, it means it feeds me. I make sewn Aprons Accessories and Housewares. It's not that I don't think they are wonderful, and that they are not worthy product to focus my attentions on. It's just that the older I get, the harder it is to enjoy sewing. As a matter of fact, I kind of hate it. I'm tired of fighting with ornery machines and searching for dropped pins or getting stabbed with them. I hate having to rethread the darn serger.

Anyhow, I thought I should show a little of what I make on my other shop. I focus so much on my flowers and my designs, and never really mention or show my sewing. Many of the designs there were made by my daughter. She is a whiz at designing patterns. Most of them she keeps in her head too. Although some of her new patterns she actually cuts with a template. She designed my Retro ruffle Aprons and the Vendor Aprons. I designed the Sweetheart Apron, the Chef's Apron, the Tie Shirts and the Bow Ties. I guess I'm OK at designing too.

My best selling designs are made out of Vintage Bedsheets, curtains or other fabric, like the Star Wars Apron that my daughter designed. It's my most popular item, and the picture above was not commissioned by me, it was modeled bu someone who loved it so much. I even had a college student use it on her video cooking show.

My second most popular is the Batman Bow Tie. Those guys really love Batman (and the Beatles). Bow Ties are becoming so popular now. I would make a standard tie, but I haven't designed a good one that uses little fabric yet. So hard to make with the vintage sheets, but I'm sure I would sell a lot of those too.

See, really cute, and something I could easily grow and make a good living with, I just don't really enjoy the sewing, and why shouldn't I do something I really enjoy?

You can stop by and see more of my work at poppysgardengate.artfire.com

April 13, 2012

Friday the 13th and nothing really bad happened. How about that. As a matter of fact my son in law and his father both went out and got new cars today. Son in law got a used minivan that cost about as much as my first house did. It's really nice for his family. Huge and mega insured for the 6 years of the loan and fully featured. Very nice for the family. Not great mileage, but he doesn't have to go too far with it except vacations. I can't wait till I can afford a car for myself. I could pay cash for one if just one of my designs sells big next year. I need to find more clients soon.

Speaking of finding clients, I finally did a little research on the portfolio website. I found some great links. Build a Killer Online Portfolio in 9 Easy Steps is the best one I found yet. An Online Portfolio is not just for designers either. Artists and craftspeople should have one too. If you want to do juried shows, you should definitely have one.  It's the way of the world these days. I love my Weebly site. They make it so darn easy to build. You don't have to know HTML to make a simple and lovely site.

Mine portfolio still in progress, because now that I read how to build a killer portfolio I have a lot to rebuild.
If you want to take a peek, it's here cmdreifortportfolio.com . You can bookmark and see where I take it. I think it's too tabby. I need to have a portfolio page with links to those design pages I think. Cleaner look.

Not only did I start really focusing on my portfolio (with big focus on resume), but I also made a logo today for my flower shop. I'm really pleased with it. It' is just what I wanted, simple, symbolic,  and using my flowers graphically. I will mostly use it on my images as a watermark, but I may have a few other places for it.

See how cute it looks as a watermark?

I'm very pleased with the design. Guess 6 years of training in Art didn't go entirely to waste. Maybe I should do logo design. Didn't know I had it in me. But I should also say that it is easier with yourself as a client. You know what you want. Sometimes it's hard to get into your clients head to see what they are visualizing. I was working with someone who was trying to make on for me, and I was a bit too demanding I think. But I like how this turned out.

April 11, 2012

Almost done with my Four Months. This is what it was all ABOUT. Not sure I'm meeting my goals. I certainly haven't come to any conclusion about WHICH of my businesses to focus on. But maybe I would be too bored if I only focused on one. I do have ADD after all, and the more things I have on my plate, the better I function. Maybe doing too much will keep me younger in the long run. At least my mind will not go stale.

I did learn a lot about my flower jewelry product. As a matter of fact, I'm changing my line about daily right now. I know I shouldn't but while making my flowers, I find that I can make in bulk, certain flowers, better than others. I have also found that some are more desirable than others. I have found that I can tint some of my own acrylic beads beautifully. I only need to buy a base color, so I can easily buy those beads in bulk and color them.

I found that my product line was not what it should be. I added several items. I added brooches, which have been the best selling yet. I have tiny brooches, which can easily be used as boutonnieres too. I could slap myself for not thinking of that one. Actually I was going to work on that before I left my previous selling site. But in the move, I forgot what my focus was. I simplified the line and made it more accessible to everyone.

That's what I learned about my flower jewelry. I still have a few things to do before I can offer them retail though. There is my packaging. I'd love to use vintage un-pasted wallpaper for the cards in the packaging.  I think I'm going to have to go with a stamped gray cardstock though. I need to find a big gray inkpad, and maybe carve my own stamp. Hmmm, I wonder if I can draw with some flexible rubber material, Silicone maybe, on an acrylic sheet. I need a pretty big stamp. I'll have to look into that.

Tomorrow I'm going to do a quick review of what I learned about my product design business so far.

April 10, 2012

Congratulations to me! I got my taxes filed! Now on to another phase of life. What a pain, although I admit those tax programs for business are great. And I think that the IRS accepts those programs even more than many tax accountants, which is sad. I know in our state, your tax accountant should be licensed to do taxes. I think it's the same in most states now. Good for your protection.

You should ask your accountant to show you their certification. If they don't have one, YOU could get audited. I'm all about the not getting audited. Not that I cheat or anything. I mean, I actually miss a lot of deductions, because every year I find receipts after I file. Not that it would change my taxes that much, but still, auditing takes a good chunk out of your productive time.

For one thing, all my records are on my computer. I'd either have to print, or maybe I could email a copy, but some are paper receipts, which means I'd have to copy those, which I haven't. Then there's the getting to the IRS and the time it takes to meet with them. The whole thing just bothers me. I'm sure I'd end up ahead, not behind, but I would loose time.

After taxes, I also found this great article on LinkedIn about ideation. Innovation Is About Arguing, Not Brainstorming. Here’s How To Argue Productively. They say stop brainstorming and do constructive arguing. I tried that where I used to work and I got fired. Not really, but if you did argue with the owner of the companies, a lot of times you might get fired. It would be nice to work at a place that accepts constructive criticism, instead of thinking they know EVERYTHING. It would be nice to come to a compromise at least.

I never did like the traditional brainstorming process. I like free association with critique myself. Spout out your ideas, and have others make comments. When I first started this examination of my product, I asked friends and family what they thought. I got some very good ideas. Many I used when they were practical. I have to thank everyone for their input. It's hard to brainstorm, or argue when you are all alone. That's why the handmade community is so valuable.

I'm listing today and hoping I get some new images done. Not hopeful though, because it's dark as night here today. At least I don't live in the great frozen North still, where the sun rarely shines, or Texas, where there's rarely a cloud. Cleveland is just right.

April 8, 2012

Still working on my new Headband. I finally got a chance to make my Wedding headband and replaced a few bangles and headbands that I've sold or given away. I need more photo shoots with them. I'm also making more bangles so I can shoot them in multiples.

I'll have a headband similar to this one, but White. And it will be a little lacy.  I love that these button in the back. The button can be a nice element too. I think I'll do them in the Gardenia, the Camellia and the White Roses. Maybe I'll do white Daisies too. I think the Red Rose on White would be pretty too.

I'm really pleased with the product line now. The only thing I didn't do is make rings. I think they would be sweet, but it's not a priority.

It was Easter today, and we did have dinner, but I got a lot of work done too. My granddaughter wore one of my new baby photo prop headbands with her Easter Dress and we got some really cute pictures that I loaded onto the listing. When you have your own business, you never rest. The pictures were so adorable.

That's all I focused on today. None of the rest of it, although I did realize that I have to finish my taxes and send them off before the end of the week. Not thrilled about that, but oh well. Maybe next year I'll make enough money to actually catch up and start paying my taxes.

April 7, 2012

Today I really only spent time listing new Flower Product. It takes so long. I really wish I could just list pictures of all the flowers and have people choose their own, but that rarely happens. Most want items already pulled together. I can list variants on Artfire, but they are linked to the original somehow and I'm still not sure how that works and if it's a good, or bad thing. I should check into that more carefully.

Someone tweeted this awesome blog about what you should have in a press kit. PRESS KIT I need to make one, but don't really have any press yet. So I have to be creative on making it. I suppose I should approach it as a neophyte. Or one who just started to come out of the indie business into the wholesale world. I might add that I was a professional lighting designer and want to move on with that. That would be good press I suppose. Hmmm, I think I have it. I need to work on my press kit soon. I'll tell you what I did, when I have it all together.

I have to finish taxes this week, then I will move on to packaging which needs photography for brochure and then press kit. I also have to finish my design website, which is coming along much faster than I expected it to. The most important new part is my resume. I have to finish that and add my latest work experience.

I really need to add more product here and link them too. Here are a few - bow tie and flowers.

April 6, 2012

Amazingly, I got a lot accomplished today. I edited a lot of Flower photos of new product and listed quite a few too. I was able to finish my new Bow Ties and take really nice pictures of them too. I'm very happy that I bought the fabric and pulled these together.

Somehow the Bow Ties seem to relate more to jewelry, than Aprons or accessories to me. I really like making them. I need to find more fabrics that would be very enticing to men.

I also signed up for a social media blitz workshop at handmadeology. It's supposed to be for Etsy shops, but I think the basic info is good for anyone. First day was nothing I didn't know, but I'm sure it will get better. I'll let you know.

I really have to finish my two big things for my jewelry presentations, packaging and brochure. There are a few things I need to do to my flower jewelry website, but mostly that's good to go.

April 5, 2012

Today I had the opportunity to work for a good part of the day on a lot of projects. I don't get that often. I have been trying to put together some merchandise to photograph for a while, and I keep having setbacks. Granted, some of those setbacks are sales, so I can't really complain. Other setbacks are design projects that I'm getting paid for, and I can't complain about that either.

I did get a lot of photography of new items done. I have a lot more to do. And with photography, comes editing. I really like photo editing. I could do it for a living if I could find a job, but finding the time now has been difficult. I'm pretty pleased with my merchandise, but most of it really needs modeled photography. I thought I would be ready by this week, but I'm not anyhow. I still haven't crocheted my white lace headband for wedding yet.

I also made some new Bow Ties, well, not actually made, because before I got them finished, I had some interruptions. I bought some rare fabric in fat quarter that cost me $10 with shipping per fat quarter. I rarely if ever pay $10 a yard for fabric. But after cutting the fabric, I found I could get at least 10 ties out of each piece. At $20 a tie that's $120 per each $10 piece. Not all profit, because of other material costs, but still good odds. I suppose I should do a spreadsheet on cost/dollar per hour of my sewn items too.

I also came to the realization today, of what it really was that I disliked the most about my design career. There are so many people involved with your day to day work, that are basically sales people. I really don't like typical "sales people". Not that I don't sell, or have the ability to sell by con, I just don't like it. I'm pretty up front and honest, and in most cases, I don't see the need to tell stories about what you need from a person. I feel like I'm being fed stories by my client, and I really don't feel it's necessary. I think that sometimes, they are so used to playing the game, that they just don't know when to shut it off.

The thing is, I've known my client for a long time, and I really like them. Just wish they would be a little more open with the product, instead of telling me what they think I want to hear. The other issue is that I have great intuition, so I know when they're not being up front. That's my main problem I suppose. I can't be sold a line of goods from a salesman, because I know when it is a line of goods.

I guess if I want to do designs though, I'll just have to deal with it, one way or the other.

April 3, 2012

I can't believe April is slipping away already. I had better finish my taxes get them sent. Once again I owe and will have to be forgiven for now. At least the interest on what I owe the Government, is much less than what I owe on student loans. Wish I had some better luck there. So far 50K in interest and penalties alone on my Student Loans.

Today, I had to make some brooches for an order, so I went crazy and made some more to offer. I made a dark heather Gray daisy with my new yellow centers and I fell in love. I had to make one for myself too. I think I just might wear these things myself now. I really have to start. I'm going to make myself a brooch too.

I've been stocking up on supplies so if I get big orders, I will be ready. I can't even believe how many I have sold in the past few weeks. I can't believe I haven't had brooches before now. I had some, but these are a little nicer. I notice that no one is doing pick your own bouquet. I'd better make more offerings. of singles and doubles.


I am so glad to be working on the jewelry and not designs this week. I'll start looking for more clients soon, but for now I need a break.

March 30, 2012

I've had such an exhausting month. I hope it was all worth it. Of course it wasn't all the work that made it exhausting, it was a lot of the extraneous things (life) that did it too. Family health issues, birthdays, the woman next door locking herself out at one in the morning after I worked for 14 hours straight and pounding on the door and screaming for a half hour before someone finally let her in. And no, she's not a drunk, just a little altered from her med cocktail.

I had a semi relaxing day. I haven't sold much this week so after watching my granddaughter most of the day, I cut out the few things I sold, did the dishes and some laundry. It was nice after all the work I did.

I had bought some colored pencils on line, and was expecting them at the Post Office. I guess the people at the Post Office didn't notice them, because my daughter didn't pick them up. What she did get, however, was my new post cards. Now, I just ordered these Monday from Vistaprint and I've NEVER received anything that quickly from them. They were horrible. Cropped wrong, wrong color, just horrible. I was so disappointed. I'm not sure what they were trying to accomplish working so quickly, but it didn't impress me. Now I either have to contact them and get a refund and look somewhere else or trust they will send me a new set with correct images.

This really sets me back on my brochure, but I do have time to get better prints. The cards I got were blown up and cropped off center and kind of pinkish brown instead of the nice pewter. Not terrible, but they don't match the business card I got PRINTED AT VISTAPRINT!!!! How can I send out something to potential clients that don't match? This has just been a cursed month and I suppose that because of it, none of my product designs will sell to the huge retailers that were presented with them.

One thing about all this work I've done the past three months is that I really love designing product. I like crafting, but I love designing. And I'm good at it too. I'll share my website when I'm finished, and you can see.

March 29, 2012

Today was one of those crazy days again. It was really all about designs today. I had a few flowers that I had to make for someone. So I finished a few of my new flowers at the same time.

Yesterday I receive my new yellow centers in the mail and they were so perfect. If I sell too many flowers I will be out of them, but I bought 2000 so I'm not sure how quickly I will run out. The beads are yellow painted wood rondeles taken from strings of never worn vintage jewelry. I love the fact that I have bulk new reclaimed beads. I have to try to do that again. I'm using these on my Shasta Daisies and maybe a few other daisy centers too.

As for the rest of the day, I spent it finishing up designs for a client. I got the request at the end of last week, but I was finishing up the last of their drawings from the last request over the weekend. I didn't get all the specs for this project until Monday. I worked all Tuesday on my own items, sewing and flowers, so I didn't get to even think about their project until Wednesday.

I did some sketches on Wednesday, because it's hard to draw designs if you have no idea of what you're making. I sketched up five different concepts, most of which would have two to four different variations. They were easy to do, because they were based on plants, and all I had to do was sit on the porch on a beautiful sunny day and look around me. Late in the evening I started working on them a bit.

Today I spent most of the day finishing the drawings. And rendering them. I got the project done at 11pm. These late nights are killing me, but I think that these projects will come in clusters. Mostly, only this time of year. The nice thing is that for my other business, this is the slowest time of year (next to the dead of summer).
Last year at this time I was eating the spring grape leaves and visiting the local food pantry. Foraging is not bad you know. It can be healthy, but we don't have a lot to forage for here.

I wish I could show you my designs. But I will when they get into your local stores. For now they are proprietary.

March 28, 2012

Posting this a Day late. Crazy Life.

Things are going too well I think. Still not selling a lot of jewelry, but getting friends on the bandwagon at least. I really have to try to do something to get my ranking up on my website. I tried a giveaway to get people to drop by, but that didn't work so well. Maybe I need to post it on my recipe page, on the Turkey recipe I get so many hits on.

I know I can link a blog to my website, but I'm not sure that blog is appropriate. Maybe I need to make a Wedding and Garden blog to link too. I suppose a Gardening one would work. I love flowers and know about a lot of them. Ha, maybe I should find a really popular, well read blog and link that to my website. Heck with mine.

I've also decided to put a page of just my different flower types on my website. Still working on how to pull that one together. I want the site to be clean, but I think adding a page will not harm it any. I think that as for the store, it will all be bulk items and on a hidden page. For single items I will refer to my Artfire shop. It will make life a lot easier for the buyer and myself. I don't really expect to sell much off the website at this point. I think most customers will contact me directly and request an invoice.

I'm hoping for the best.

March 27, 2012

It's getting so close to the end of my four months. I'm finding that I've given myself too many tasks to do. The reason I am not accomplishing my goals though, is that my workload has increased so much that I can't finish everything. I wish I could have just focused on getting it all done, but I had too many sales and unexpected design clients.

Last year at this time, things were so slow, that I had to sell a lot of my jewelry to make ends meet. Oh well, next year at this time when I have loads of money, I can buy new jewelry, right?

The thing I regret the most is that I didn't have the free time to learn the new CAD program. I can do a bit on it, and I can take what I've done into Photoshop and alter, but most of my drawing has been on Photoshop.

I also wish I had finished my design website. I plan to contact some more people soon and want to have it up and running smoothly. Wish I could put on some of these new designs. I guess I can put some of the rejected ones. As soon as I'm finished with the new client designs I need to finish that site. I can make a decent living just off the drawings, not even including commission from the sales of product.

When I look at my old designs, compared to now, I have grown so much. It's a lot due to the freelance work, and partly due to my time on Etsy and Artfire. I've been exposed to so many techniques and styles by working there and seeing so much, that my work has improved greatly. It has only served to improve my product design and still influences future designs and trends.

March 26, 2012

It's been a very dry week for business. Life has been crazy though, so I guess that makes up for it.

I was thinking about writing again just now. I had a writing teacher that said you should never use cliches, that all of your writing should be fresh and new. He said how horrible Soap Operas were, because they are 90% cliche. At the time I thought, that's what they were supposed to be. So because of that, when I put in any cliche phrase into my writing, I think it's bad. I'm starting to rethink that one. I think it's OK to put a tiny bit of cliche into your writing. It might just be a comfortable familiar thing to the reader. Or maybe it brings the writer to the level of the reader in the reader's eye. And after all, how can you avoid a string of words in all situations.

OK enough of the writing over thinking.

I was so behind in my work, that I had to do quite a lot today (and will tomorrow too). So I planned to cut and sew and cut and shape flowers and finish my designs and send them off. I woke up in the morning to a new Vistaprint add for postcards half off. I wanted to make the cover of my mini brochure out of a small post card, so.... on top of my huge todo list, I added finishing my brochure cover. I had one almost finished so I finished it and uploaded it. It was the wrong size. I have no idea how I got the wrong template, but I did. I had to redo the whole thing. I think I might have been planning to use the bigger size, but I thought the smaller will be better now. And it will cost less.

The nice thing about the post card, is that I can also sent them as a post card. So I ordered 100 for now. They match my website and I have a binding machine, and paper cutter, so I can whip up 4 page little brochures. I'm very excited about them. I guess I'd better hurry and make my packaging, so I can take pictures and get it in my brochure and on the website. I'll have two options for wholesalers, recycled kraft box or hanging clear pillow boxes.

I've definitely taken too much time off of my project and it's time I got it in gear again.

March 23, 2012

I've been so crazy busy with work and life, I completely forgot I wanted to start making some art again. I think I'll start small, like ACEO (postcard) size works. Flowers I think. Just to get back into it. I think I'll buy some pencils. They seem to be reasonable on eBay, just hope they don't get fractured. I need some decent paper too. Maybe someone has some pre-cut ACEO for pencil on Etsy. I like a nice smooth hot press for colored pencil. I need something that I can do in about 20 - 30 minutes while I'm taking a break out in the sun. I can't use my computer there. It will be fun.

I spent almost the whole day dedicated to my design drawings. I started with invoices. My daughter keeps asking shy I haven't sent them yet. It's not that easy, you have to have an invoice in the first place, to fill in.
I had designed an invoice for my consulting work, on MS Excel, but that was not quite right. So two hours later I had finished the form and put in the items for payment. They will be much easier to do now, but still will take a little time. It really doesn't matter what you are invoicing for or who you are invoicing, even a standard form really has to be modified to fit the circumstances. And apparently I was a bit rusty and the Excel part.

The rest of the day I had peace and quiet, because the whole family was out for the day. I spent the quiet time getting my drawings finished. Then at the end of the day, I realized that the sewing machine was sitting untouched and I should have done my sewing. That was really dumb. Oh well. Now I have to fight with my daughter for time on the machines. I really don't have much to do, and she has to go out Sunday again to take her boy to see a Dr.

It's almost April. I have one month to finish my brochure and my design website. Very hard to do when your workload has doubled and near disaster hits every day. But I'm going to try my best. I guess I should finish my taxes and send that in too. Do I really need to sleep?