Day 5 of the 7 day Bizzie Challenge

I am a blogger slacker! I have been so busy with trying to meet this challenge, that I have neglected writing on my blog. So before I fill you in on the last 4 days of the challenge, let me start off with IT'S MONDAY AGAIN! Mondays and I do not mix well. We are like oil and water. If it were possible, I would kick Monday out of the week.
I had an order to ship this morning. I get it all packaged nice, box taped nice and tight and I'm getting ready to attach my labels when I look over and there is my Thank you card laying on the bed NEXT to the box. Nope, not in it where it is supposed to be! Start over, unseal the box and open it, then back to resealing. I get my packaged mailed, I come home and am in desperate need of printing more business cards. I want to tweek the design on them. So I open my template and design this great card. I print, and it doesn't line up. I re adjust, re print, nope, doesn't line up. Now, I notice a color I'm not crazy about, so I hit previous to go back and change.......I lose the whole thing!!!!!!!! NOW I have to start over. My next lesson in business cards is this: My husband got a great deal at Sams Club on 1,000 business cards. I prefer Avery. These are not. I try them, and guess what....DULL!! The colors are so dull it's unreal. I jump in my car and head to the store to get my Avery cards. They are out. So I try this 'other' brand that promises guarenteed quality. Why not? I'll tell you why, one step up from the duds, but still dull! $5 down the drain. I've learned my lesson. I have saved my business card project and refuse to print until I go fetch my Avery Business Cards. Monday's hate me, I hate them.
So back to the challenge. I have made an item a day. I have listed an item a day and kept up with this 7 day challenge on my Etsy Threadkiller Team. It has been so great seeing all the participation and excitement. I am on such a wonderful and supportive team. I am going to share the last 4 items I listed since I already shared the first. Enjoy the rest of your Monday everyone!

The 7 Day Creative Challenge

So, one of my Teamies on Etsy, challenged us to a 7 day, make and list a new item challenge. Today is day 1 of our challenge and at 2 :30 a.m this morning, I finished my first days challenge. I am always up for a good challenge and was working hard on getting inventory up so I would be ready for fall and the holiday season, so this was perfect for me. It does mean long hours, as my product takes a long time to make, but I think I will succeed with this challenge as I do not lose.
What's great about this is, I am a person who loves to set personal goals and challenge myself. This fits into my goals for my store and will push me that much harder to succeed. So thanks BizzieLizzie! Maybe I will see a rise in sales due to this and can then buy the black and white purse that Bizzie has in her store that I have been eyeing for awhile now. One can hope.
Attaching images of my first day, '7 Day Bizzie Challenge' item. Good luck to me and my Teamies, EtsyThreadkillers!

Happy 4th of July!

Let me start off by thanking all men and women of our military branches who are currently serving and those that have served before them. I would also like to recognize the families of these brave men and women as well. THANK YOU!
I have to give kudos to Kings Island this year for their 4th of July extraveganza. This holiday weekend, all military men and women were admitted for free. They also had a 2 day event of fireworks which was a really great display on Saturday and Sunday. I live within 3 miles of Kings Island, so I was able to watch the weekend event both nights. I can see almost all of the fireworks from my back deck, so the first night this is where we watched them. On night two, we drove to a parking lot right by the park, so we could be up close and personal to them. Both displays of fireworks were about 20 minutes long. I thought they really did a fine job in honoring those who serve our Country and what Independece Day is all about. Without our military and the sacrifices of those brave men, women and their families, we would not have the freedoms that we do.

Just another Manic Monday

Ever wonder why if things are going to go haywire, it always seems it will happen on a Monday? I'm starting to believe that Mondays are cursed work days! It seems that no matter who I talk to on a Monday, things are not going as planned for them or myself.
Here is an example of my crappy, manic Monday:
I have a new design in mind for a Cell Phone Sleeve. I get all of the things I'm going to need out and set them all up on my dining room table. I lay down my newspaper to work on, trace my pattern, cut my leather and am now at the stage where I need to stain it. I open the bottle, set it at the corner of the newspaper, pour onto my sponge and start staining. NOW, here lies where my big problem is about to start. While staining, sometimes you have to water your sponge a little bit and go back over what you've stained to even the color out. I at this point, need to do this. I go to lift my hand which is resting on the newspaper and it sticks a little, lifting the paper and tipping THE ENTIRE bottle of Stain! 3/4 of the bottle spills out, all over my dining room table and coating some of the newspaper as well. This is why I hate Mondays!
Now, I am not much of a drinker, but earlier when talking to my Team members on Etsy, I had joked about spiking my coffee. Looking back, I now wish I had. Things may have been a little less stressful and maybe even funny. But I didn't and they weren't!

Love what you do: The Artistic Night Owl

Love what you do: The Artistic Night Owl: "I have always thought I was nocturnal. My internal clock is just set to stay up until the wee hours of the night and sleep until late mornin..."

The Artistic Night Owl

I have always thought I was nocturnal. My internal clock is just set to stay up until the wee hours of the night and sleep until late morning. I've always been wired this way. At least my entire adulthood. As of late though, I've figured out why. After becoming part of this really great Team on Etsy and getting to know my teammates really well, most of them are like this as well.
I believe really creative people are night owls. This does make sense. Creative juices get flowing from all kinds of stimulations throughout the day that the brain picks up on. I have always done my best work at night or I lay in bed awake because I have this really great idea and need to get it out. Write it down, draw it, whatever.
So my conclusion is this. I'm not wired backwards, there is nothing wrong with being a night owl. I am an artist. After a day full of different stimulations, my brain kicks in gear and starts thinking of really great ideas from which some of my best work has been born.

Time to filter my brain

So I have been so busy trying to wrap my head around all of the marketing tips, advice, ideas and trying to implement it all, that I forgot one important thing....Inventory. As an artist, I want to create each and every new idea that pops into my head. The problem with this is that I end up with 10 categories! 2 of this, 1 of that, 6 of this, you get the picture. When I list the '1 of this' and a customer sees it in a search, they may come to my store, but how would it keep them there? Without proper inventory, meaning a good selection of the item that brought them there to start with to choose from, there is nothing more for them to browse. They MAY see other things they like, for instance came looking for a Kindle Case then saw a Cell Phone Sleeve they liked, but let's face it, that's rare. If they came because they found my 1 Kindle Case and I have no others, poof they are gone!
I understand the importance of marketing as it is VITAL to an on-line store or any venture for that matter, however I now understand the importance of selection and a large inventory. I was so excited to have enough items to open with, that I failed to see the need to have several items of each thing I offer. I jumped on the marketing and promoting wagon immediately and neglected to focus on selection choice in each category. I was bouncing around too much.
So lesson learned! Now my marketing and promoting are on hold and I'm back to creating like a mad woman! This will take time I know, but at least I'm doing what I love and learning patience in the process!