Thursday, May 29, 2008

Rotten Birthday- have a cold

Last week was my birthday and I came down with a cold the day before. I still have it and am having a hard time doing much of anything other than checking for orders. I did do a quick update of my website because I'll be advertising in Soft Dolls & Animals magazine this fall. With the postage increase I had to fix my orderform and how to order page. I did update some other things, too. Now if I could just feel better to work on my web site here at google and on patterns and get back to exercising and to plant a garden and to ....................

Won't be posting again until I actually get some things done.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Too much time dreaming, not enough working

Thought I'd post even though not much is going on. I did set up a store at http://etsy.com under 1creativestitches. Still not happy about having a number in front but I couldn't get just creativestitches or anything cool like creative::stitches or creative---stitches. Have 3 of my patterns up and if I'd ever get out of my funk I plan on putting up all of my old handmade bears from when I was still doing craft shows. I was going to sell them for $10 and under but just may wait until the area I live in has their community yard sale and try to get rid of them there first.

A post or 2 ago had me raving about having verizon dsl. Well it's still great to be able to get things done so fast but I'm having so many software conflicts with it. My husband didn't know that you 1. have to shut down all virus software when installing and 2. never install virus software when you already have one running on your computer. Now we have a mess. Verizon's off shore techies have deleted so many files that when I tried to go back with a system restore to before he installed everything, all I get are error messages. Looks like my next option is to contact Dell since it's still under warranty. Well, maybe now the husband will finally learn (did I actually start to finish this? Come ladies do they ever learn?)

Still working on the newest pattern but once again have gotten sidelined because I got an idea for one I'd rather make. If I'd ever finish all the patterns I have in various stages I'd have more than 50 for sale. Then there's wanting to work on some dragons I made last year. I was invited to join a group at ebay for dragon makers so now I've got dragons on the brain, too. Then there's the cd full of halloween clipart I bought from Dover. I want to make tags, jewelry and print some on fabric. Does anyone else feel that when you have too many ideas and projects going you just want to close the door to the sewing studio (or where ever you have your stuff) and veg out watching tv or read? I used to tat when I felt so over whelmed but now I even let that sit.

Did make one big decision. I have been working off and on for over 15 years on 2 books of tatting patterns. I finally realized that it's a pain trying to find a publisher (haven't looked and don't feel like it!) and printing it myself would be too expensive with all the color photos. I had been going to buy one of those binder thingys at Staples so I could make them with a spiral at the side edge but have decided to split them up and print them just like my doll patterns. There will be 3 -4 per pattern.

Another big decision is that I'm going to advertise in 3 issues of Soft Dolls & Animals Magazine. They have a great section in the back that's only $30 a month. Look for it in the last 3 of the year!

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Etsy Store up & Running

Just a quick post about my etsy store. Finally got it up and listed my first item. It's for my new Lovelorn Lena pattern. Here's the link: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5658401 if you want to have a look. From what I can tell it's better to post something everyday or so, not all at one time to keep your store at the top of search lists. It's weird how they list stuff but with so many newbies, things are changing over there. Catagories are being fixed. I'm so glad that self-published patterns will be going into handmade supplies. I hated the idea that my designs would be listed with the big guys you can buy at any fabric store. With more people joining and giving feedback I hope it becomes easier to use.