Slowly but surely...

I listed my first item in my Etsy shop on January 18, 2010. I wasn't at all sure what to expect. Items that I thought would be popular ended up being ignored for the most part and items that I wasn't too sure about became my best sellers. I have to say that I have loved every item I have made and I think I'm improving every week. I've improved my photos but still think I could improve more. I've improved my networking and marketing and I think it is paying off. I knew I'd never be able to live off of knit coffee cozy and bookmark sales but I love making them and even before I had an Etsy store I was always making something. Now I can't imagine not having Etsy as my creative outlet.

May has been my best month yet for sales and I hope it says something that each month my sales increase.
January: 3 sales
February: 1 sale
March: 2 sales
April: 5 sales
May: 15 sales

Now you can see why I say I can't live off of this but I'm hoping May wasn't a fluke and June will see at least double digit sales.

Now back to knitting!

Shopping for Blythe on Etsy

These are a few of my favourite Etsy shops to browse for Blythe fashion

Heavenly Blythe Adorable dresses in fun prints!
Naughty Pixie Love everything!
Blythe Love The detailed jackets are my favourite!
Susa The cute little knit sweaters are my favourite!
Moshi Moshi I especially like the cute pants in this store!
Jolie Doll Just bought an adorable dress from this shop. Looking forward to its arrival!

Next Purchase?

I have loved Natalie Dee's cartoon-y stylings for a few years now and I just discovered that my favorite drawing is available in t-shirt form. Love it!

Check out the Will Knit for Tattoos tee and many more!!

Tulips!

Yay! My felt tulip iphone cozy is featured in the May 25 blog post of the Found Handmade Blog. Thanks so much!

BTW I just became a member and listed 10 items on their website for free. Any place I can promote and reach new buyers and I'm there!

Treasuries

I love making Etsy treasuries. For those of you not wise in the ways of Etsy, a treasury is a collection of items on Etsy that reflect a theme, colour, scent, etc. that strikes your fancy. it's a great way to discover new shops and get in touch with other sellers. Check out my treasuries on Etsy. One of my most favorite collections is partially shown above.

Rainy Days

We've been lucky the past week or so and have had a lot of sunshine and warmth. Today we're back to typical west coast weather with a gloomy rainy day. I don't mind at all though because I usually get more done without the sunshine trying to lure me outside. Today I get to immerse myself in some of my favourite things: felt, thread, and ribbon. I have a few bookmarks ready for assembly as well. I cut all the circles yesterday and had to take a break because my neck was killing me. Today I get to stitch!

Balcony Garden

Well I've had a bit of progress with my dill and I'm finally seeing some wee chives poke through the soil in the other pot. My cherry tomatoes seem to have halted and now I'm moving them around the balcony as the sun shifts so they can get the most sunlight possible. I'm very excited to have added some lavender today! Now I have to keep it alive and perhaps put it in a proper pot.

Why I no longer have a Facebook account

I deleted my Facebook account Sunday afternoon...which means I've been without FB for about 4 days and I have to say I don't miss it. It was great to stay in touch with family (since all of mine live on the other side of the country) and friends (since they are scattered all around the world) but there are other forms of communication. Remember e-mail? Yeah it's great because I don't have to limit my message to 140 characters and I know that it's not being intercepted and censored by a bunch of FB staff before it gets to my intended recipient. I also have this blog and a Twitter account. I love Twitter. It has its own pitfalls but I don't have to get constant updates about people's imaginary farms and mafia associations. It's concise and to the point and it is also a great way to promote my etsy shop. FB did next to nothing for my shop.

My main reason for leaving FB is their ridiculous privacy policy which is convoluted and ever changing. I have nothing to hide and I didn't have any info on FB that would be considered worthy of stealing or using but it's the principle of it that bothered me. I want my privacy options to be clear and I don't want some cloak and dagger policies that don't really tell me where my info is going. For instance, I know that my twitter posts are viewable by everyone. That's ok with me. I was informed of this up front and I chose to be ok with it. I realize that just by using the internet I am making my privacy vulnerable but I just don't like how FB was doing it and I'm super glad I'm no longer a part of it.

Anyway, if you want to inform yourself here are some great articles about the recent FB privacy issues

Facebook Privacy Policies - Longer than Constitution
Well, These New Zuckerberg IM's Won't Help Facebook's Privacy Problems
The Devolution of Facebook Privacy
Facebook Calls All-hands Meeting on Privacy for Thursday

My Next Blythe?

I haven't purchased a Blythe doll in quite some time but I love this new one even if she is petite!

Petite Blythe "Torra Unpappa"

A few of my favourite Etsy shops...

Here are a few links to my recent favourites:

Sister Butterfly
From Earth To Sky
Zoe Chen
Poor Robin

Enjoy!

Green Thumb?

Inspired by a blog post by a friend of mine, I decided to share with you my success in the garden...well not really a garden, more like pots on my balcony. For me this is a huge achievement because I usually kill all things green even though I have the best of intentions. Perhaps they are doing so well because Harriet insists on keeping an eye on them.

Mini Business Cards

As I mentioned in my last post, I picked up my mini business cards yesterday. I posted a couple pictures on twitter using my iPhone, but thought I should really take a proper picture to do them justice.

I love getting mail but not taking public transit

Yay! Mr. X arrived today and I picked up my new mini business cards. My business cards were done by Jukebox Printing and they have a great deal on mini cards. I got 1250 of them for $39!!

I rarely take public transit, mostly because I don't travel too far from my neighbourhood - but when I do go downtown it just makes sense to leave the car at home so I took the sky train to Yaletown to get my business cards. It was a pretty uneventful trip until I tried to get on the train to come home. As the train pulled into Waterfront station I positioned myself near a door as it crawled to a stop. The doors opened and to my surprise a man who had been sitting slumped against the inside of the door tumbled out and lay unconscious with half his body in the train and the other half on the platform. He seemed to me to be intoxicated or perhaps under the influence of a drug or two because he sort of woke up a bit as the doors opened and then he just seemed to decide to slump over and lay there. A few people tried to wake him to no avail and had to hold the doors so they wouldn't close on his torso and I called the transit security/safety people and they sent someone to the train. The transit security kept asking me if he hit his head but I never saw him hit his head, he just sort of slumped over. They called a medic but said that they could hear him snoring (another reason I thought he was probably drunk). I never saw what ended up happening because I got onto another train and headed home. The incident didn't really faze me all that much, it really just reminded me of my time in YK where I dealt with nearly unconscious and belligerent or completely unconscious intoxicated people daily at the library. As I got onto the train I was very happy that I don't have to deal with that anymore.

On another note, we went to Fatburger for dinner...yummy! I'm still ridiculously thirsty from my sodium intake...not so good.

I wonder what the mail will bring tomorrow!

Bookmarks!

I sold my first bookmark today! This now justifies spending time making more of them. I have a lot of fun making them because I love ribbon and felt and buttons. I also love coordinating fun and vibrant colours. I just bought 50 yards of ribbon today. I can't wait to get it in the mail!

On another book related note, anyone who knows me knows that I always have at least three or four books on the go. Right now I'm reading a great book from a series I've been meaning to read for a few years. The series is by Cornelia Funke (translated from the original German) and book one is titled Inkheart (apparently also made into a bad movie). Anyway, I love this book! The 12 yr old protagonist, Meggie is a believable yet intriguing character and the plot is all about books! I'm really enjoying it and that's not a common feeling when it comes to junior fiction. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of good fiction for kids out there (Sean Cullen, Diana Wynne Jones, Trenton Lee Stewart, just to name a few) but I just wanted to mention how great this book is. It actually reminds me of when I was a kid and immersed myself in a book to escape to a whole new world...this book does that for me.