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. 

Weekly update. . .its been a week

Well, it is "weekly update" time, but it has been a rather boring week of blowing my nose and being sick. 😕 I cannot say I have accomplished a "lot", but I have managed a few things. I did unpack and reorganize and file my sales tax return and fix my flattened display tree. 

unwrapping the beads, lights and garland to re-fluff the tree while it was being constantly attacked by the kitten was fun 😅 he's so cute when he's "helping" 

He is growing and learning to sit still . . .but only for a minute at a time unless he's asleep. 

I did manage to cook awesome Thanksgiving dinner(s) including pumpkin pie and many sides. We successfully had company for dinner. I basically skipped dealing with "business" for the holiday, no posts, no specials, no deals, no sales, while it resulted in no orders it did give me a peaceful holiday weekend of not worrying about things. 😇 I am ok with my decision it was quiet and less stressful than many past holidays with no alerts or notifications or interruptions. 

Yesterday I decided to work on my MakerPlace shop a bit, I added 5 new listings for the chainmaille Christmas ornaments. This morning I woke up to a message there about a custom color bracelet, I'm not saying that being active and having activity are connected it's just interesting timing. 😉 On the flip-side of that is my etsy where I was slow to reply to a message at the beginning of the month and my whole month is down 80% compared to last year. 😒

Actually, etsy currently has the lowest monthly views of my 3 online shops. Whereas, I have found recently Micheals using one of my listing photos in an aol ad. 😯

Also, I'd like to point out that goimagine is spending $ on ads for me, because there are cpc clicks in my analytics and I am not currently running ads anywhere. 😁

I have one more in-person event coming up on December 9th and I am working (thinking) on my booth planning, it will be outdoors so limited to the 10'x10' tent canopy. Although, the tent canopy does give me some good hanging space for larger trees and art 😎 not that I plan to take a lot of art for this one. This final event "Mistletoe Market" is very Christmas focused so the tree, wreath and ornaments will be the main focus with the jewelry in gift boxes. Lucky for me it's in my own town so no extra travel and if I forget something it's literally only blocks away. 

Weekly update. . . I'm sick

Well, it is weekly update time but this one will be incredibly short. I'm sick, I think I have the flu which is annoying since I did get a flu shot weeks ago. 😑  

My last event was a disappointment, I have not made anything since, but that is because I have guests and got sick. 😒

Due to having company for the holidays and currently being sick, along with my printer deciding to be a dysfunctional pos, I am actually planning to skip the whole concept of holiday sales and black Friday specials this year. Normally I would make a bunch of graphics and schedule posts and discounts and do a bunch of stuff, but I just don't feel up to it right now. 😔 I haven't been able to breath thru my nose in 2 days and I think I might lose my voice today. 😕

In other happier news the kitten is adorable and growing, but the only way to get a photo of him is when he is sleeping as that is the only time he actually sits still. 😅

Weekly update. . .exhausted

 So, this weekly update is technically a day late because I was so busy recovering and unpacking yesterday. 😏 Saturday was a long, tiring and somewhat disappointing day if I'm honest about. I like the fairgrounds, it's a nice building but apparently it was a bad day for an event with too many other events and football games going on, so not a lot of traffic or sales. 😞 However, this is my own fault for not doing better research before registering and for being new to the area and underestimating the whole football thing, live and learn. 😉 

I was fairly happy with my display and Christmas-y decor. 😇

I put a Santa hat over the rainbow on the end of my sign. 

I did the Christmas tree of ornaments on its' own table complete with gift wrapped "presents" as decoration and pre-wrapped gift sets of ornaments. 

 I did put quite a lot of effort and thought into this, but then ended up with an XX'large space and had to re-think everything once on site. I used more tables and racks than originally planned so I ended up short on some of the decor stuff. 😏

I did get to take almost all of the art. I usually only take 1 or 2 crates and a dozen to hang up, but I took all 4 crates this time. There were several people who looked thru the art and I got a lot of compliments, but sadly no sales. 

I did pass out some goimagine flyers, so the day wasn't a total loss. 😇

Weekly update. . .welcome to November

Welcome to November, there has been a shift in weather all over the country but down here in Georgia the cold did not last. 😎 You just can't keep those 80's away. I have the big WinterFest event next weekend. I call it big because it will be big for me, and I should have a "big" 10'x15' booth. 

I'm not really ready, I don't feel ready. I had so many plans, but life got in the way and most of it I am just letting go. 😏 Although, the "letting go" is not easy, I have been planning for this event for months.  I am making a few things and I will do something about the pendant display even though I don't know what yet. 😅 It may sound weird but my biggest worry at the moment is "what am I going to wear?!?!" I don't own an ugly sweater, I have a few Christmas sweaters, but they are actually nice. So, I am definitely not winning the ugly sweater contest, and probably not the booth decorating contest either, but I will at least try for that one. 😉

I am working on decorating a wreath with the star ornaments to use as display, it's not done yet. 😉 I am almost decided that I will take my mini-Christmas tree.  I keep going back and forth because it's bulky and awkward to pack but it will make great decor and display. 😐 Stars on the wreath, balls on the tree, looking very Christmas-y, add a Santa hat on the sign and some "snow" blanket on the shelves and it should be a pretty "winter" looking "holiday" display. 😁 In my head it looks great, so we'll just have to wait and see if I can pull it off.  

Weekly update. . .1 down 2 to go

I did the first of my 3 scheduled holiday season events yesterday and I am exhausted. I got up so crazy early, to make sure I had plenty of time for the drive and set-up, that I was literally unloading and setting up in the dark. 😅 

I wasn't super thrilled with the uneven grassy area for set up, it made things difficult, my wire racks need level ground. 😐 Plus I watched several older people pause, look, speak from the pavement but it was like they were afraid to step off the pavement into my booth and I don't blame them. 😞 However, that type of thing is always a risk with outdoor events, especially ones you've never been to before. 

Overall though it was a beautiful day weather-wise and there was a good crowd, so sales did happen. 😉 Bye-bye Fire&Ice painting, see you never again little bird's nest tree 

Now the countdown clock resets for the next event, which I am not as nervous about because I have been to that venue before. 😏 I do have stuff I am worried about, like how to display the Christmas ornaments and re-doing the pendant display, but the earring tray displays seemed to work out yesterday as I saw several people touching them looking thru and picking up earrings. 😁 

Weekly update. . .freaking out

Less than a week left before the first event and my anxiety is going through the roof and I'm starting to panic that I'm not ready. The Boston event is outdoors so weather will be a factor, I find myself freaking out over how much art to take: part of me is like don't take much, art is a hard sell, I don't like exposing it to excessive sun or heaven forbid other even less friendly weather. 😟 BUT it should be a really good crowd and you cannot sell what you don't take so. . .😕 Then there is the display itself, I haven't set up a 10x10 outdoor booth in a couple of years, so while I have a couple of standard layouts, I have no way of knowing which way my booth will face in relation to the sun, which determines side-wall which can affect the rest of the setup. 😐 There are always too many unknowns with a new event.

I bought a couple of new and different things for jewelry displays, like this board with the embedded hooks. I had originally been thinking of using it for the pendants, but the leather cords don't hang neatly. 😞

Also, some of them were just too long and it became obvious that it was not going to work, at least not for these. However, I'm stubborn by nature and since I already bought it I wanted to use it for something, so I decided to try the actual chain necklaces and they look awesome! 😁

 

So, the pendants have been relegated back to their original board for now while I work out another idea for them, but in the meantime, I am pretty happy with the chains.  Although, I think I do need to rearrange them so they are in order of price, currently they are just kind of in the order I grabbed them because I was just testing how they would hang and if they would all fit. 😉 

I have checked my tent canopy, located and packed my sidewall, have my tables and shelves lined up, but most importantly I found my sandbags. 😎 I need to work out the last of the displays, select the art and start packing.