Happy Hanukkah, Thanksgiving, and then Start Shopping

I've never been one to get too entirely excited about Black Friday shopping -- or Small Business Saturday, or Cyber Monday, for that matter -- but of course all of that changes when you're the one selling the goods rather than looking to buy them. My Etsy shop has been busier than usual, for sure, and just to cover all of my bases, I opened a Storenvy shop as well!

Visit my Storenvy shop here!

I'm going to concentrate mostly on the City Map Pendants, State Charm Necklaces, and Combo Necklaces in this shop, so if you're more into my Nature Girl // jewelry, Etsy is still the place to go for those. Speaking of, the dream catchers are really starting to take off, so now I know what I'll need to work on over the holiday!

This is my first year doing a vegetarian Thanksgiving, and considering how difficult it is even just to cook a pot of noodles in my studio without blowing out all of the hallway lights, I elected instead to order the vegan Thanksgiving meal from Whole Foods. It's kind of strange for me, because I've been cooking my own Thanksgiving dinner for a loooooong time, and I really hate to give up the control in the kitchen... but hopefully this will also mean less stress, less dishes to clean up, and for sure less money spent. The vegan meal serves 2-3 people, and only costs $30! Of course, I still have to make my own brussels sprouts (the meal wouldn't be right without them), maybe some mac & cheese, and a pie or two, but all things considered, I think this might turn out really well.

So to all of your birds and blokes out there- -- I hope you have a happy Hanukkah, a filling Thanksgiving, and a lot of fun shopping afterward!

World Holiday Craft Market, this Saturday evening!

This is rather last minute... but I just got a spot in the World Holiday Craft Market!

It's this Saturday evening (tomorrow), starting at 7pm, and includes crafters, artists, and musicians representing a variety of countries. You should be there! As always, around this time of the year, it sounds like a great opportunity to escape the cold, and get some holiday shopping done.

Get more information and join the Facebook event HERE

I'll have my newest pieces with me, including these:

Magnolia Branch Wood Ring

MLB Baseball Cuff Links

Holiday Crunch Time

Shout-out to all my other small business buddies who are probably also having a difficult time keeping up with things like blogging, while the holiday shopping rush is hitting hard.  The good news is that people seem to be really into buying handmade presents -- yay!  The bad news is I can't remember much what it's like to sleep for more than 5-6 hours, my whole apartment smells strongly of resin (& cigarettes, lets be honest, gotta keep my strength up), and I haven't seen a clear space in my living room in weeks that doesn't promptly get filled up with jewelry boxes, chains, pendants, and shipping labels.  I have managed to find small pockets of time to decorate our little tree, and to make cookies one afternoon, but other than that, it's been work work work.  Work with Netflix TV shows streaming in the background, to maintain my sanity (although I'm not sure that's what it's actually doing, because after four days straight of Being Human I was pretty much convinced of the existence of vampires and werewolves).

So... exciting news... and part of the reason I've been so busy...  I'm going to have a sale on Fab.com this month!!  It's only going to last three days, and you have to be a Fab.com member to purchase from their site, so if you haven't joined, you can register here.  I think I'm so excited about it because I LOVE the site so much, and I'm always spending all of my extra money on the awesome, fun stuff they offer.  Needless to say, though, it is keeping me busy!!  I'm offering 800 total necklaces... only 200 of which I've actually made, hehe

I've also been working on these cool combo necklaces.

Los Angeles California Necklace Combo

Chicago Illinois Necklace Combo 

Manhattan / NY New York Necklace Combo

Dallas Texas Necklace Combo

So, I hope everyone (small business people, or not) is enjoying the holiday season -- baking cookies, decorating trees, lighting menorahs, and so on.  I think it might be time for me to take a short break, just short enough to go buy some egg nog.  ;)

An extended vacation at The End of my Wits.

Okay, let's get totally serious, here... I don't like to call myself negative, I prefer realistic.  But lately, I've encountered one too many things going wrong, and I'm starting to feel like a failure.  What do you do, when you're a small business -- no, a tiny business -- and you've spent your savings account on supplies for a huge project, and things just... start going wrong?

I'm in a sticky situation right now.

I have five days to provide photographs of 20 different products for a huge sale, and for whatever reason, everything that's worked in the past with my necklaces is suddenly just not working,

and I don't know why.  This is a terribly frustrating situation, because I've already spent the money, I can't afford to waste any more supplies, but this is also really not a good time for experimentation with new methods.

I've got a few ideas I'm going to try out tomorrow, so I guess for now I'm just venting.  But seriously, if any other small business people out there have been through this, or something like this, and has advice for me, I'll take it very eagerly.

Dress Rehearsal

My last day at work is next Friday... of course, I didn't know that before I requested this Monday off, hehe.  Ah well, it's nice to have a long weekend either way.

I worked on the State Charm Necklaces this weekend, and although a few of them still need some polishing, I did list Texas and New York on Etsy.

Pretty cool, huh?  They are, unfortunately, terribly labor intensive... so next Monday I'll throw myself into making them 100%, get a bunch of them done at once so I'm not doing the painful parts of charm-making on a daily basis (threading with the jump rings leaves my fingers blistered and tingling).

I think I'm going to need to create something of a schedule for myself, too, because I've already notice how easy it is for me to slip into laziness, watching too many episodes of Hoarding: Buried Alive with the excuse that it motivates me to clean the house (well, it does).  I've already decided that 12:30 p.m. is "Cuddle Break" with Ike.  That wasn't too difficult to schedule...

I'm going to try to put in 6 hours of solid work each day -- which includes making the charms and pendants, photographing them, listing them, tweaking my keywords and descriptions, updating Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest, and of course writing a little something on here each day.  I'm sure I'll get far more luxurious coffee breaks than I'm used to, as well as eating lunch on my couch with my feet up while reading Anna Karenina, but for the most part, I think it's really important that I treat this like a "real job".  That also means showering, putting on clothes (not pajamas), getting my cup of coffee, and not sleeping until 10 a.m.  All easier said than done, when that cold Chicago wind is rattling my windows, and all I really want to do is drink brandy and cuddle up in a blanket.

If there's anyone out there who has had the blessing and the luxury of running a business at home, however small or large, who has tips for keeping on task, please share them with me!  I'm going to need all of the advice and support I can get!

Countdown!

It's kind of funny how I start actually looking forward to being laid off toward the end of the Cubs season.  I mean, not the dirty reality of it -- looking for a temp job, being broke, having way more time on my hands than any human really should -- but then, this year, it's going to be a really great opportunity to work on my pendants (and other things! coming soon!) and maybe hopefully fingers-crossed develop this whole thing into a "real" (read: highly profitable) business.  I don't expect anything miraculous to happen over night, of course, but I think a lot of hard work this Winter might start to pay off.  The opportunity to actually work at a craft, as an artist, to be my own boss (because goodness knows, I don't like anyone else being my boss) is so great, and rather than hopeful, I want to be determined.  I really want to do right by myself, I owe myself a genuine solid effort.

So the countdown?  About a month, give or take a few.