Weekly update. . .Merry Christmas and Happy new Year!

Well, I've been looking at the calendar and because I normally post my "Weekly updates" on Sundays, this will be the last one for this year. 😇 Seriously, next Sunday is Christmas eve and the one after that is New Years' eve so this is the final update of 2023. 

I would normally post about my etsy "year in review" and while they did still do the shop personalized "y-i-r" thing I found no joy in my incredibly sad low numbers. 😏 

 I have never really liked the "splashy" graphics and contrasting colors they use for these things most of the time it is just tacky.

This was my favorite and best review of 2023, so at least they pulled something right. 😏

But like I said it was a very pathetic year otherwise, I am not surprised by it really. I sort of expected some decline because I let most of my listings expire and moved all the paintings and wire trees to other platforms.  I turned off all etsy ads and changed all my social media links to goimagine too. So again, I am not surprised by the decline in my etsy numbers, I literally gave up on it. 😅 However, if etsy was so great and had so much built-in traffic then my changing my links should not have had this effect. Plus looking at my etsy stats historically the art had very little in consistent views or purchases so removing the art should not have tanked every metric either. 😐 

The year-end total books won't be as bad as last year, no thanks to etsy, because I have 3 platforms and did multiple in person events. I have already started on the year-end books, it's basically lists and a little math. 😉 I only have one more monthly sales tax report, maybe next year Georgia will allow me to move to a quarterly or annual filing instead of monthly, I doubt it but it's worth asking. 

Weekly update. . . well that was fun!

My final scheduled vending event of the season was here in my new hometown, and I really enjoyed it. 😊 After weeks of being sick and being disappointed in the previous event it was really nice to arrive at a well-organized event and have a great space. 😇 I do love a good corner and this is my favorite corner in town, literally that's the Library on the left (which I love).  Also, I was on the end, which can be good or bad depending on the event but in this case, it was great it made load-in and out easy, plus with the parking over there even this end was an entry-point. 😉 

My biggest disappointment of the day was my own forgetting of my RainbowMaille sign 😅 which I could have gone home for (it was a mile from my house) but I chose to just use one of the abstract flags. The business name is still on the front of the art crates and with the short 3' racks I didn't have a good place for the large, framed piece anyway. 😉 I was pretty happy with my booth set-up, my tent my be a 10'x10' but the spaces were 12'x12' and with the fabulous weather it meant the racks and magnet board could hang outside the tent.  

I passed out many goimagine info cards. 😎 I had multiple people take my business card for various reasons, possible custom orders later, to show a friend, to get me to vend at their event next year. The good thing about that is even my own RainbowMaille business cards have goimagine info on the back now. 😉 I am hopeful that doing this event will open up more local events, now that I've met the organizer and she has seen my work. My husband has suggested that next year RainbowMaille should have a small float in the town Christmas Parade. 😅 I am not sure about that plan, but I will definitely be back at the Mistletoe Market next year. I am thinking about having a professional fancy banner made for my booth but I hate spending money on such things. I know it is "an investment" but I'm not sure it will pay for itself, I mean it's just a sign even if it's pretty and you can see it from space, I'm not convinced it will generate more sales. 😏 

Today I get to unpack and restore my shop. Last night I did my inventory reconciliation and deactivated the wire trees that sold. 😁 Later I get to assess my chainmaille inventory and make a list of things to remake. 

Weekly update. . . It's December

Holy Cow! It is December already. 😦 This year is almost over and honestly, I don't feel like have accomplished much, but I've recently been told I'm too hard on myself. 😏 I have one show left this year and I have spent very little time and effort thinking about it, again for the sake of honesty I've been a bit distracted and I'm still sick. 

The kitten is growing and has another vet appointment coming up, which is good because he still has worms and I think we need to change meds. I have a dental cleaning coming up and unfortunately, it's the same day as the kitten appointment, I think there is enough time to get from one to the other but only just and mainly because my town is so small. 😅 My plan is to just show up at the vet's office early and tell them I need to get to the dentist after. 

Merlin is adorable, handsomely marked and up to 3 pounds. 😇 

I am sick of being sick and extremely tired from the concept of "holidays" I could use a monthlong Rip Vanwinkle nap, but I'm not likely to get it. 😏 I am however, not having "sales" or over-promoting or over-worrying about the business this season, I just don't have the time or energy with other things going on. I have to do the end of the month bookkeeping for November and then prepare and start on the whole "year-end" bookkeeping for tax filing. 😒 It's not fun but I have system so it's fine, just time consuming. 

My etsy is still dead, they are punishing me for replying "late" to a message, I missed the 24 hour window by less than 1 hour over a weekend. 😖 And because I get so few messages over there, there is no way to make up for it and it gives me a big fat ZERO% preventing me from getting star seller for 3 months over 1 message that was replied to "late" in their opinion. Not that it matters or that I care that much it's just crappy and part of why I have come to dislike etsy so much. 😒

In other annoyances USPS's tracking is malfunctioning, I have sent multiple packages and I cannot check on the location of any of them because I just get this "we suck" message. Really?!?! people a crash of the tracking system right at the beginning of the biggest shipping month of the year!?!  What the actual hell on earth?! 😕😵

The tracking numbers are valid, they worked earlier in the week but the last few days when I went to confirm delivery, I cannot get anything but this crappy message on multiple tracking numbers.