Find Your Voice

Find your voice, find out who you are. These are both phrases that designers and artists hear constantly. This is somewhat true. I say somewhat because true artists change and grow. I would use the word evolve but I think it is over used these days. I like the word grow because it is a truer picture of what we are doing as artists. Perhaps it is a choice determined by marketplace. We have to make a choice based on economics,

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="570"] http://www.etsy.com/listing/103093232/baltimore-album-style-wall-hanging-quil[/caption]

what we are creating isn't selling, or the market is flooded. Many times artists grow as they master advanced techniques or decide to grow in a particular direction. Almost all artists struggle with paying bills and making creations that will sell. I say almost because there are the few that create for themselves, but they will at some point run out of room on their walls for more paintings and you can only wear so many scarves or hats.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="570"] http://www.etsy.com/listing/98296729/watermelon-malaysia-jade-and-dark-brown[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="570"] http://www.etsy.com/listing/61198767/miss-elsie-mouse-archival-print-nursery[/caption]

So, the problem is how do we listen to the marketplace and still be true to the artist inside us. It is a fine line. The bottom line for me is do I enjoy creating it (whatever "it" is) and are people willing to purchase my creations.  I have read the Quit your Day Job posts on Etsy. I have read many of them over the years and the thought throughout all of the posts is "Follow your passion". Are you passionate about what you are creating? Would you create it regardless of what the world says? How to make it marketable is another question for another day. So find your voice, create what makes you happy. Why spend your time making things that you do not have a passion about! Why create things that make you frustrated or worried. Your joy in creating and your passion in your art will translate itself into sales. If you wonder why on earth anyone would pay for "it", you should not be trying to sell "it". If you create something and then say "I love it" this is great. I have such a hard time selling this because I love it so much. Then you are on the right track.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Do you agree or disagree?

 

Monday's Goal Check Revisted!

Yes, I know that it is Tuesday but all of these goals are going to change as it turns out we are moving soon. I will keep working on some and change some others. Here is the edited list that will expand and grow as the move evolves.

Business goals:

• Finish three two afghans (I have two left to finish this goal. Currently I have three afghans started....

 

The zig zag chevron stripe is finished. The one on top is started....and I have a granny striped started in my new yarns, and a sampler granny square afghan started.

• Start three more afghans


• Sew 50+ cup cozies in new styles ( I prepare for the holiday buying season in advance, because I also home school.)


• Sew the 30+ new items I need him to photograph


• Make the new Christmas items.... I started and finished a bunch of these this past week.


• Blog more consistently (I have been writing ahead and found my blog planning pages...)


• Write a business plan

Family goals:

• Take two summery day trips every week (I will be doing this while driving from the old house to the new house.)


• Make some meals for the freezer for THOSE days when I just really need them. I still really need these and will focus on these for this week.


• Help K get her things ready for College.... (two simpler things completed this week)


• Take T for driving practice


• Exercise (walked and/or exercised three times last week.  YAY!) Totally missed out on this one. I did, however, climb up and down a ladder painting the laundry room and inside of the kitchen cabinets, so maybe I am still ahead on this.)


• Pack the house room by room and get it ready to move two states away.


• keep Chocolate Dog Studio open as much as I possibly can since I am paying for some advertising.

Rather lofty goals aren't they. I also have some personal ones that I have not added to this list.

Personal goals:

• Work through my Bible study that I stopped this Spring.


• Keep my kitchen and laundry caught up and ready for action. (I am working on this right now. Having done laundry for 8 days + the before and after camp laundry at a laundromat is enough to make me happy I am blessed with a washer and dryer.)


• Have some friends over for dinner...or coffee or dessert or something.


• Read some books about homeschooling (This is on hold until I get settled somewhere).

It has been a wild 8 or is it ten days. I will write about them when I can think more clearly. Some things in our life worked or didn't work, well at any rate God's plan for our lives has changed our plans. I am sure that his plan is better than mine but it is rather hard to see at this point in time. We are all well and healthy, job is intact and life is speeding along as usual. So, I am making a choice to be content and happy.

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

Monday: Goal Check 1!

Here we are another Monday. I am running a goal check. This helps keep me on track and remind me that I AM reaching those goals and actually doing something!

Business goals:

• Finish three two afghans (I have two left to finish this goal. Currently I have three afghans started....

 

The zig zag chevron stripe is finished. The one on top is started....and I have a granny striped started in my new yarns, and a sampler granny square afghan started.

• Start three more afghans


• Sew 50+ cup cozies in new styles ( I prepare for the holiday buying season in advance, because I also home school.)


• Sew the 30+ new items I need him to photograph


• Make the new Christmas items....


• Blog more consistently (I have been writing ahead and found my blog planning pages...)


• Write a business plan

Family goals:

• Take two summery day trips every week


• Make some meals for the freezer for THOSE days when I just really need them (one lasagna down...)


• Help K get her things ready for College.... (two major things marked off our list.)


• Take T for driving practice


• Exercise (walked and/or exercised three times last week.  YAY!)


• Make the kitchen a better place to be, using things I already have. (It seems small and I really have to work at loving being in there.)


• Make the curtains in the living room fit the windows better and the hems the same length (I put these curtains up super quick when I realized that the bamboo shades are see through at night with the lights on.) 

Rather lofty goals aren't they. I also have some personal ones that I have not added to this list.

Personal goals:

• Work through my Bible study that I stopped this Spring.


• Have us sit at the table for dinners 5 nights a week. (Totally missed out on this one this past week, but we have another week ahead of us!)


• Keep my kitchen and laundry caught up and ready for action. ( Frankly, got clothes washed but not folded or put away. Laundry is my most hated chore. It is never finished)


• Have some friends over for dinner...or coffee or dessert or something.


• Read some books about homeschooling


• Attend the home school curriculum sale this weekend.  (Totally missed out on this. Now, I need to find inspiration in another place...)


• Help with the Youth at church at least 2 times a month.

Well, those are my rather lofty goals. I hope that things get better and I get more organized at meeting my goals.

Things I/we accomplished that weren't on my list of things to do!

I started cleaning and organizing my studio areas.We also moved the furniture around in this area and I need to finish organizing, pitching or donating items.  I have a lot of boxes left to go through but we are happy with the new arrangement of the room and how it is starting to come together.  I re-opened my Amazon.com shop by listing more books for sale. We did a quick check up on our budget and re-affirmed our money goals. I sat down with our calendar and checked dates and times of appointments as we missed some important things last week.

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

 

To tweet or not to Tweet!

Using all the different social media to promote your online shop can be overwhelming. Here are a few good sites that can help you understand what twitter is and how it can help your online business.

Twitter: These are pretty basic and a good introduction to twitter.

http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Twitter

http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Twitter-to-Promote-Your-Website

http://www.squidoo.com/howtousetwittereffectively

http://www.ehow.com/how_5112315_use-twitter-marketing-platform.html

http://www.business2community.com/twitter/how-to-use-twitter-effectively-to-get-a-quality-following-0172889

And then this...

http://www.wikihow.com/Promote-Your-Online-Store-Online

I am trying to spend time reading about how to promote my little business so that it isn't quite so little anymore. That is one of the hard things about running a small business, you get to wear a bunch different of hats. It is also one of the good things about running your own business. Creating and maintaining the image and voice of my company I can  be sure that the image I promote is accurate.

Talk to you later,

Karen

What do you do to promote your online business? How do you advertise? Do you pay for advertising? Curious minds want to know....

 

Spring Sale at Chocolate Dog Studio

It is time for my Spring Sale.

Check out the shop, fill your shopping basket and then type in this coupon code: Spring30 for 30% off anything in my shop!



See you later!

Karen

And the Winner is.......

The winner is Sheila at SewFaithful.etsy.com. She guessed that my WIP project was a rug.



Here it is prior to completion.

Here it is finished....

  

It is about 20 inches across and is a perfect little rug. I had planned on making it much larger and for our daughter's room. That is why it is pastels. I created it as an excuse to use up left over yarn bits and simple crocheted a long strip which I then sewed around the filler. Finally, sewing it like a braided rug. It really didn't take much time to finish it. The family says that it is really soft and comfy under foot.

Sheila's cup cozy will be shipped out today. I really appreciate everyone participating in the contest.

Thanks,
Karen

Heartsy.me?

Heartsy.me is a handmade sales site. Everyday they offer new deals on different shops from around the internet.

Here is a bit from their website:

For Sellers

Heartsy strives to be a champion for independent sellers by providing a platform in which our community of buyers helps us choose which artisans to feature. Learn more about selling on Heartsy here.

Fun Facts 

1. Heartsy was born (appropriately) on Valentine's Day in 2011.


2. The most vouchers ever sold by a single deal on Heartsy is 427.


3. Heartsy has driven 1069 sellers more than 76k voucher sales and $947k+ to date.

~~~~~~~~~

Sounds great you say, but how does it work.

First you sign up for a membership, which is super easy and free. Then you can surf around on their site and see what the current deals are. A deal is a special voucher system (rather like coupons) that you can purchase. You then plug the your specialized voucher number into the shops check out system to get the special Heartsy deal. Most Heartsy deals are at least 50% off regular pricing. Sometimes the discount  is much more. As a seller it is a good deal because you get almost instant cash into your paypal. You reach a larger audience and get some advertising for your shop along with sales and feedback.  Customers have a month to use the voucher before it expires.

    There are a couple of things that you need to know about Heartsy. You submit your deal to Heartsy and have to be approved and not everyone that is approved will reach the final stage. The deals are driven by other heartsy members that vote on your submitted deal.  Your "deal" is for sale for VIP customers for a full 24 hours before your deal becomes open to all  Heartsy members. So you may have two days of sales. Also you have to consider carefully your pricing and shipping. It is your responsibility to make sure that your profits will cover your costs and not leave you in the red. As a vendor you choose how many vouchers are available and what your "Deal" will be.

My heartsy.me deal will run on Saturday and I will report back and let you know how it turned out. I sat down with a numbers person who then ran some numbers for me to make sure that I am not going to be out more money than I will be making. I am assuming that the larger your profit margin the easier it is to make some profit through Heartsy.me.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Owls on Etsy!

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http://www.etsy.com/listing/82315475/card-set-owls-mini-gift-cards-chocolate

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Just a few owls for your day! I am thinking about the great new fabrics I got this weekend and the wonderful new items I will

get to add to my shop! Can you guess what one of the fabrics might have on it?

 

I am getting ready to open a new shop and divide up the paper part and the fabric parts of my Chocolate Dog Studio, any ideas on names? I am wanting to stay with the same theme. I think a contest with a  giveaway should be a part of this name suggestion.

 

Here are the rules.

1. Suggest a name and comment here on my web site as many different names as you want.

2. Suggest a different name and comment on my facebook site as many different names as you want.

3. I will narrow down my name choices to three and have a grand drawing. The winner will get.....? It is a surprise!

4. October 31st I will pick the new shop name and open the new shop!

 

Thanks so much,

Have a great day, may God bless you and keep you!

Karen