Weekly update. . . it's Spring

The weather is changing, the eclipse is coming and I'm scheduling events. I don't have a full calendar yet and I am focusing on local events so it may not be too many. 😎 Then again, events take a week to prepare & pack and a week after to unpack & recover so having them spaced out and not doing too many is a good thing for me. 😉

I think my next event will be Saturday May 11 for the Antique car rally, since I didn't get into the Rose Fest. However, in amazing news I did get accepted for the Elevate Artisan Market in October. 😲 Now I have to rethink my entire booth and display because Elevate is a step up and I am going as an "Artist" so no jewelry just art. I'm thinking less tables, use all 3 wire shelf units, maybe get the right feet and make them flat walls instead of corner shelves. I am looking at buying another batch of frames and some tabletop easels, I need it to look pretty and let's face it booth decoration is not my strongest area. 😏 It's 6 months away and I'm nervous already. 😅 

In the meantime, I have a lot to get done before the next show next month, so I'll have to think about Elevate later. 😇 I am still playing with and testing the beaded bracelet design, I still need to restock the rubber bracelets, I need to finish the crate painting, I need to clean off this messy bench and finish this month's maker challenge trees. 😏 Like I said I have a lot to get done, but in the months before Elevate I have an even longer list, paintings to seal, paintings to frame, large trees to make, I want to try to epoxy the blue and white series.  I feel like I am setting myself up for failure because I'm not sure I can get everything done, and that is before the insecurity and imposter syndrome starts kickin' in. 😕

I know I want to frame these, and I think I'm going to use matching frames for all 3 but then I'm torn on if they should sell as a pair with an optional coordinating 3rd or if it should just be a set of 3 all together. 😐 Maybe I'll price them out both ways.  Maybe I'll make myself completely crazy overthinking things. 😅

Weekly update. . .Happy Easter

I have recovered from my event last weekend, everything is unpacked, inventories have been adjusted, art has been re-hung. I have a list of things I need to make and a separate list of things I want to make. 😎 I need to finish my #makerchallenge submissions, I need to restock rubber bracelets and star earrings, but I want to continue to experiment with new things. Plus there are other things, like painting my crates that I've had for years and keep putting off. 

When I bought the crates to haul the art years ago, I had planned to fancy them up, but my original ideas didn't work the way I intended. 😏 So I settled on painting the name, but using the letters as stencils and getting the arch and spacing right was a total P.I.T.A. one of the farmer's markets I was vending at, at the time had a rule about having your location with your name, which was fine until we moved cross-country. So, 1 of the 2 that I had painted for display now has tape over the old Tipton, IN location and looks tacky and the second one looks messy because the paint pen kind of leaked and exploded on it. 😅 I have been planning to correct this by doing the other 2 crates better, so when on display they don't look so____ (messy, amateurish, ridiculous).  It has taken me 2 years to get around to it and I have decided that a straight line is fine this time. 😎

I have also now decided that I am crazy for my decision to paint it where it sits on the shelf, because after doing so yesterday my neck/shoulder is out and my arm feels like it may fall off. 😄

It still needs a second coat, plus there is still another one to go. 😐 However, I think I'm going to go ahead and empty and move the second one to the floor to paint it.  

Still experimenting with the leather, beads, ring design, in various size combinations. It does look cool but the knots and button/loop closure I'm not sure about, it's simple and I do have some awesome buttons, but I think it could be better with a proper crimp and clasp. 

Weekly update. . .I'm tired

So, it's the day after an event and I'm in recovery mode, from the getting up at 5am to going alone, these events are exhausting for me. There is a reason I don't do a lot of them, I could not do something like this every weekend the way some people do, but again I point to I go alone, most of the booths I watched set up yesterday had at least 3 people to set up and work them. 😏 Then there is me all by myself, although yesterday I was not the only one all by myself there was a dude with some really cool clothes that was all by himself, we chatted about the struggles of doing it alone. 

It wasn't a bad day for me, traffic was slower than expected, but I at least made more than my booth fee I'm not sure everyone can say the same. Actually, many people packed up and left early, I didn't but by the time 4pm hit and I was breaking down all the food trucks and booths outside were already gone. 😕 

In other news, I ordered some beads to make some more of this design so that I can get some people to "test" wear them for a while. I love the look, but I'm concerned about durability, since it was brought to my attention by someone with a broken one looking for a repair. Maybe it was just a weak spot in the leather cord, or a sharp edge on one of the metal beads that caused the breakage on the one I didn't make, maybe I'm overthinking and worrying about nothing. 😐 But I would be really upset if I sold one of these and the buyer came back in a short time with it broken, not like mad they broke it, more like disappointed that I sold something that didn't last. 😞 Not that I've never had someone bring back a broken piece, but usually there is a story of "my dog jumped up and his claw got caught" or something that happened to it, not just it wore out. 😉

This week, I need to unpack and make some stuff. I'm low on rubber bracelets and I need to make some more earrings to fill the empty slots in the displays. I also have to work on finishing my maker challenge submissions, so another busy week.  😇

Weekly update. . .Happy St. Patrick's Day

 It is shocking to me how fast this year is flying by. I am trying to work on multiple projects at once and although I know I am making progress it doesn't really feel like it. 😅 I have the canvas base for the scrap-tastic tree painted, I have wire and charms and a plan for the Birds & butterflies trees. I did get 3 new earring display trays finished and I am happy with them. 😎

This week I probably won't "finish" anything because I have to sort art and pack up for the show on Saturday. 😏 I woke up this morning to a bunch of ridiculous spam messages. I don't understand the purpose of these, they are clearly spam and giving me phone numbers and emails that I will never in a billion years contact. I mean come on, internet scam 101 people. I hope no one falls for this, but someone somewhere does, or they would stop doing it.  

This ridiculous joke of a sock-puppet fake account sent the same exact copy/paste message 4 times in less than 5 minutes. 😐 So, let's identify some signs this is BS, first "this listing" does not reference a listing, the message does not identify and is not connected to any of my products. They say they would like "to buy from this app" hello this is on goimagine who does not have an app yet. If they really wanted anything in my shop they could ya' know just put it in the cart and buy it. If they had genuine questions why did they not just ask them in the message instead of trying to get me to call them?! And finally, the name and the email are nothing alike. This is not my first spam rodeo, heck it's not even the only one this morning. 😉

Oh come on, man! If they really wanted to purchase it "asap" the answer is to just put it in the cart and buy it. I do not negotiate prices, this is not ebay, there is no "offer" to be the best offer. The price is on the listing, the price is the price, buy it or don't, are all things I would say to a real person, but this is not a real person this is a spam bot. And a poorly programed one with bad grammar, I "Got" many items available, but I will be ignoring these messages because spam bots don't make purchases.  I think sometimes when sellers fall for these types of things it's just desperation and/or hope for sales, but not all that glitters is gold, watch out for the "fool's gold".  😉 

Weekly update. . . time change

Well, it's "Spring forward" time so, of course, I am running late this morning. 😅 Normally this post would be done and posted already, but I'm just now writing on it and my kitten is yowling his little head off distracting me. ~sigh~ It has been a weird exhausting week of not really accomplishing much so this post is likely to be rather short. 

I have registered for my first event which is in just a couple of weeks, so I have tons of stuff to get done in a short amount of time. I really need to make some inventory and restock some stuff. I need to work on some new displays for certain things and some booth decor. 

I also need to start work on my maker challenge submission for the "Scrap-tastic" challenge this month, I have a plan I just need to get to it and get it done. I have a plan for next month's "Birds & Butterflies", and I already submitted for May's "Gradients & Grids". 😉  

Next week will be a very busy week, I hope it's also productive. 😅

Weekly update. . .It's March!

Yay! It's March!! I know I may seem overly excited about that but. . . it is one of my favorite months of the year because it's #MeettheMaker time, also known as the only time I know what to post about mainly because someone smarter than me published directions. 😅

So, I am trying to get ahead on pre-scheduling the facebook and instagram posts for the challenge, normally I only schedule a week at a time, but I have a whole month plan now. 😎 Not that I expect that to really make it that much easier because even with prompts I still have to figure out what they mean to me and what I'm going to post about it, then go looking for photos that represent that.  😏 ~still work~

First event of the year, we'll see how it goes. I love the fairgrounds as a venue, it's a nice event space, but honestly it has been hit or miss. My first event there went pretty well but the last one was a dud, scheduling is very important around here and the November event had a lot of scheduling conflicts with other events and football games. 😕 I am going to try again but even this one has scheduling conflicts. . .like the Circus being at the fairgrounds at the same time. I don't know if that will be a good thing or a bad thing. 😐 I'm also debating inside vs. outside, normally I want to be inside no weather worries, no stuff blowing over, but if the circus is there then maybe outside in the parking lot is better.  Although, if I do go outside then I take less stuff because I have to pack the pop-up tent and sandbags and certain displays don't go because of the possibility of weather, less paintings, different earring and necklace stands that don't blow over. There are always so many things to consider sometimes I have a really hard time making decisions. 

Speaking of hard decisions, there is just over a week left until the selections and notifications for this year's Rose Fest. . .I'd bet $5 I'm going to get rejected again. 😅 We will wait and see but honestly, I do not have high hopes, maybe one of these days I'll make friends with the right people, although I'm pretty socially anxious, hate leaving my house and don't have an easy time making friends so. . .that's not super likely either. 😅😏 ~fingers crossed~

I am still working the facebook recommendations and doing the weekly and monthly goals, building my audience by increasing followers by posting more. 

I'm not only making progress on my "goals" for facebook, but I'm getting really close to some major milestones. I am only a handful of followers away from 400 facebook followers & 500 instagram followers. 😀 That may not sound like a lot but it's huge to me. 

Weekly update. . . you're doing it wrong

I have spent considerable time in the last year on social media, a lot of that has been focused on facebook and instagram, but I still have this blog and a Pinterest account. I have done pretty well on my "Weekly" blog posts, keeping it consistent and sharing the link around. 😉 I've done ok with facebook and instagram, at times my posting has been sporadic, but I've learned a lot and increased my audiences on both. 

I do think the insight tools and planner things have helped, once I got used to them and figured out how to use them. Although, looking at a blank calendar that only has 1 active post time suggested is kind of intimidating. . . 😐  

Especially since the recommendations for the week are for a lot more than 1 post 😏 like 3-6 stories and 10, 11 posts per site. (Plus, as I re-read what I wrote above I'm not sure I should say I've "figured" things out because social media platforms are constantly changing things.) 😕

And while I will try to meet or exceed those numbers, I regularly wonder if it's all a waste of time, I mean, I think I'm doing things right and making strides towards something, but who really knows if any of it is worthwhile. 😕

I have been half-heartedly working on Pinterest for the last few years.  I never really understood it, but I pin things and sometimes they are seen or shared or clicked. I've never been convinced that I get sales from Pinterest, but I have seen some traffic in my google analytics. I have joined some goimagine based boards to re-pin to, but again I admit I don't understand Pinterest.  So, last week I watched a replay of Kara Buntin's Pinterest 101 on Maker Circle and . . . well sh*t!  I've been doing everything wrong, and Pinterest changes their stuff too often and I have a lot of work to do to fix and reorganize what I have and then going forward I need to do things very, very differently, or just give up on Pinterest.  😅 

Nah, I'm too stubborn to give up on things 😉 I'll keep plugging away. 😎