Weekly update. . . surprise

I posted some photos this week of actual fresh chainmaille, the first in months. 😊 It was nice to make something again, but it had a purpose. . .to surprise my Mom. 

Good news. . .she really likes it. 😁  

Also, my Mom wasn't the only one I surprised yesterday, there was a bit of a family gathering. I haven't attended one of these for many years due to living in various far-away states, but I am now within driving distance. I did tell my Mom I was coming but I didn't tell her I was bringing her a gift so that was her surprise. She only told one Aunt I was coming so I was the surprise for most of the family and the varying levels of shock were funny, some shouts, some tears, and so many hugs. 😂 

In business news I found my photo lights and tripod, but can't find my camera, so I'm not sure when I'll get the art photos done. 

Weekly update. . . Happy Mother's Day

I did not have any kind of sales or discounts this year for Mother's Day. I just didn't see the point of trying to set up a sale the week of when I am just getting things re-listed. 😐  

I found the box of mini dumpsters, so they will be next in the re-listing process as soon as I go thru the box and inventory what's available. 😉

I need to get my photography set-up stuff out so I can figure out where in this new house I have decent lighting 🤔 so I can start the massive "re-photograph all the art" project. 

Weekly update. . .May the Fourth (be with you)

Happy Star Wars day, yes that is a joke in the title in case you are not a giant nerd or missed the reference somehow. 😅  

It has been a productive week for me, I've set my workbenches, unpacked many boxes including tools, supplies, and inventory. 

Sorting out the contents of some of the boxes takes quite a while, even when the boxes are small and it seems like it should be super quick it takes hours. 😏 

Because of the nature of the supplies inside some of these boxes need a lot of sorting, although I am thinking about leaving some of them packed. I don't plan to use the buckles, spots, rivets, snaps, etc., that are for leather, because I don't really plan on doing any leather work in this house. 

But the boxes of jewelry findings, barrettes, pins, rings, scales, beads and wire tree supplies etc., are still a ton of stuff to sort out. 😉

I have re-activated most of the chainmaille listings on #goimagine but not all of them, I still need to do an inventory check on the earrings. I started re-activating the wire trees, but I also need to verify inventory on a few of those. Art will be last because I want to do all new photos, not just for the framed pieces but ALL of the paintings need new better photos. 

I am trying not to think about the amount of work it will be to re-photograph all the art. . .there are over 100 finished paintings. . .at least 10 listing photos each. . .so shooting literally thousands of photos to select and edit down to a thousand to use. 😬 Yeah yikes, should not have thought about that. 😅  

I still need to re-activate stuff on other platforms, I did a few on Michaels but I still haven't done any on etsy. I'm not thrilled with Michaels really, but I did have some sales there last year, so I thought I'd give it another go. However, since reactivating listings over a week ago I have noticed that the stats haven't updated or moved it is literally stuck on March/April a month behind. I went looking for the facebook group where we used to report things but apparently, it's gone, the official group that was run by an actual Michaels employee that is listed/linked in the seller help pages is just gone, the link goes nowhere, I've searched facebook every way I could. I finally posted in a different michaels sellers group and asked wtf? multiple people have said the group is just gone and there was little to no explanation, the employee that ran the group has left michaels, heck a few of them are speculating that Michaels may just throw in the towel on the whole of MakerPlace. 😐 Not sure how to process that.  . .it would not be the first time a retail craft store tried to launch a handmade platform and completely gave up, I remember the A.C.Moore/Zibbet partnership fiasco, it did not work out and A.C.Moore ended in bankruptcy (I think they were headed there anyway because of the excessive/constant coupons, kind of like Bed, Bath & Beyond or JoAnns).  So, I think I'll just focus on goimagine for now. 😉