Calm has returned

Finally my workspace has returned to "normal", and not a minute too soon as I got an order for my lovely little Grey and Moss clutch, which my husband and I affectionately call alveoli ( we're science geeks what can I say).Well you can see where we are coming from. Anyway I sold it on Folksy, I have had a store there for a while but haven't really done any real work on it. I really just signed up so no-one else got my name. I have had a couple of sales from there with no promotion, so I have decided to do a little work and see how it goes. Just spreading the eggs around.

The up side of getting my desk cleared is that I can get to work on my new fabrics.

Messy Space

My workroom is actually in worse shape today than it was on Monday and last night my hubby and I performed open heart surgery on an ipod for a Friday. So Saturday morning is ear-marked for a bit of a lie in and then a full on assault on the fabric mountain. Update soon

Post Christmas Slow Down

Christmas is a busy time of year for most but for the craft business it is hectic. Orders to fulfil, parcels to post, the nerves of whether something will arrive on time or at all and then all the other Christmas stuff. The resulting aftermath is tiredness, which is fine because it's a time of the year when it's fine just to lie around and eat. The major downside of all of this sloth is having to go back to work.

Last Sunday night I had the Sunday night sleep issues x10 infact I don't think I slept at all. I would really like to say I was thinking about what I was going to teach the next day but all I could think about was handbags, which is good and bad all at the same time. So Monday was a wash out and it has taken me a week to recover, so now I'm ready to get going, the first big thing is a major tidy.

The major tidy is mainly due to a bit of Christmas eve tidying, in which we cleared all the material out of the kitchen and dumped it in the work room. It is now at the stage were organisation is required and sorting due to colour and usage, like outers and inners etc. So that is the order of the day when I get home from work this evening, I also have a list of bags to start making. I am a real list person, but sometimes I hate that they are soooo long.

I am really excited about all my new fabrics and I have a couple of new ideas rattling around my head, so watch this space for some new pictures of bags.

What have I gained from 2008?

Having your own business is hard work. I have slept less and worked more than I did when I was a student teacher and I didn't think that was possible. It consumes your every waking and a lot of your sleeping thought. I found the key to balancing it, believe it or not towards the end of the year when I was at my busiest. I, of course, completely ignored how to put it in action and remained a walking zombie.

Coming up with an idea, making it and then selling it is possibly one of the coolest things I have ever done. I gives you such a buzz it's unreal. At dinner with friends, the topic of my business was being discussed and someone said they had a fixed salary and therefore have no financial survival instincts, which I thought was quite interesting as I have fixed salary but have extremely strong & focused financial survival instincts and that has helped a lot over the last 8 months. Thanks Mum & Dad.

Everyone wants to talk about your business, even people you hardly know. What fascinates them the most is their quest for knowledge and their surprise when they discover that you do actually sell things, that those things usually go half way around the world to find their new homes and that you make money at it. The sudden openness about money is quite strange, everyone wants to enquire about your profit margins? Do you pay yourself a wage? Is it worthwhile? In the end I explain it like this. If my options are sit in front of the TV becoming a vegetable OR whizz around on the sewing machine for a bit and make a buck or 2, I know which one I will do. However I do tell them it's not for everyone, I suppose it depends how materialistic you are.

A lot of new skills. I can now use the digital camera without every shot being blurry, just the odd one. I can edit a picture without wanting to smash the computer or having to whine at my husband about how photo-editing software was only created to make me cry (although that does still happen from time to time). My sewing has improved beyond all manner and I can now do simple things quickly and correctly first time - my poor stitch ripper had a terrible time to begin with.

A more focused outlook. I started this whole thing to give me something to do so that my job as a teacher didn't get on top of me and it worked. I may now have more things to do and others may perceive I have a more stressful like but if I'm truthful I am calmer and more effective. I look forward to working on projects both in my day job and at home. It's hard work but it is rewarding looking at finished piece and even more so when it sells.

Well that's what I have gained, what about 2009?

I don't like to set my self up, so I tend to work on mini targets, but the big thing for 2009 is to get my own website off the planning board and out there. I would like to increase my sales on and off web. Possibly look at getting a few select b&m retailers selling my bags. I have had a few interested enquires but we will see how it goes on that front, I like selling online and personally at present.

That's enough of my babble for the mo, I have1 and a very tiny bit of a day left before I'm back to work. So I think I might open a little mini bottle of fizz and chill for the rest of the night.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all. Hope you all are doing what you want to do. I will be spending it quietly (thankfully) with a glass of fizz and then back to sewing.