Texas Rain and Webinars

Today was unusual in that we got a decent amount of rain. Here in San Antonio, that's especially rare. I just took the kids outside because I was working on some wood projects which I'll be listing on Etsy here pretty soon, when it started to rain. My first instinct was to take the kids inside but then I realized it was the first time they had ever been out in the rain. It was 91 degrees and the falling water was like shower water. I fought the nagging feeling I had to bring them in and allowed them to just dance in the rain. It looked like the prison escape scene from "Shawshank Redemption." Not saying that the house is a prison, but in the sweltering summer days, it kind of feels like it. It was funny watching them. Not a care in the world and dancing in a summer rain shower. Meanwhile in adult-land, I'm wondering how I'm going to get the lovely walnut stain to dry in this now humid workshop. Then this evening I was treated to a nice Etsy webinar and got some really good tips on how to branch out in the wholesale market. I'm wondering if my purpose is less about making hydrangea balls for weddings, and more about making tags for beautiful boutiques and bakeries around the planet. Whatever happens, if I'm making a living and like what I do, and people like what I send them, I'm happy. If success is going to come my way, I'm not going to be picky about it's mode of transportation. I'm working on actually taking pictures and trying to turn this into an actual blog. I'm impressed with myself for having made more than three entries, but I've still got some work to do. Till next time...

Bath soaks

I'm making homemade bath salts in the kitchen and it smells lovely. Then my husband comes in and says it looks more like a scene from "Breaking Bad".

Ooh-fancy me! I just pasted HTML code.

Business is going...

I've always been really sporadic about my blogging.  I sit down at the keyboard ready to type and then my brain just sputters.  Nothing to say, and nothing that will change the course of civilization as we know it.  There's a lot of over-sharing and I am terrified of being one of those people.  Don't get me wrong, I do have thoughts that I perceive as good and maybe something I'd like to throw out there into the universe.  But determining what's worth putting out there and what should go into my mind's recycle bin is difficult.  

At any rate, I figured I would chit-chat, minus either the chit or the chat.  There has to be more than one person to chit-chat, so I guess I'm just talking. Okay, so that's how I'll word it.  Why not just delete that first sentence you ask?  I dunno.

So business is going. I've gotten 8 orders, which is fantastic.  I've been surprised that I've mostly sold handmade tags.  I just kind of started making them on a whim and here I am, selling tags.  My kids joke around and sing along to Macklemore's song, "Mom's gonna make some tags..."  And they do a little dance and it's all funny, but seriously-I really am going to make some tags.  It's pretty  much all I do now.  I was lucky enough last night to get a customer who wanted to order a very large quantity of tags, which is awesome.  Every order gives me some hope that my new little business will work out and that maybe one day, I'll be successful.  

As usual, whenever I get a new customer, I'm terrified that I'll send them something that wasn't what they expected.  I know a lot of businesses are okay with that, as long as they get their money.  But I actually want to make people happy and make a living.  I know it can be done, but it's slow-going.  Getting my name out there is hard, and I've never been a social butterfly so my network consists of people I know on Facebook.  Pinterest has been pretty awesome.  So, I'm learning that I am going to have to learn how to tackle social media.  

And that's why I'm here online blogging.  I need to find some way to push myself out of my comfort zone. My comfort zone socially, would be defined as me in a cave, or cowering in a hole hoping no one sees me.  So I've got some work to do.

Other than social media, I'm hoping that people who order from me are able to tell that I put a lot of work into everything I make and I never send out an order that I wouldn't want to get in the mail.  I'm crossing my fingers and thinking happy thoughts that people recognize that and either make that leap to order from me for the first time, and that I'm able to get repeat customers.

Hindsight is like my 11th grade English teacher's breath...

By that, I mean it's terrible.  Although back then, and I can still recall these exact words, we said his breath smelled of hot garbage and Cheez Whiz.  But that won't fit in the blog title so there it is... Bri's eloquent analogy for hindsight.  It gets us all at some point though, right? Otherwise I guess it would just be regular sight and all of us just doing stupid things.  We grumble about hindsight, but really - we need it, don't we?  It's how we learn who to trust and who not to trust. It's how we learn from mistakes both big and small. Wait, I don't want medium to be left out, so add medium to the mistake size list. 
But what do we call the thing that happens when things go perfect? Is that hindsight, too?

Anyway, the point of this rant is that I learned that you cannot ever, ever spray paint Styrofoam balls. It makes them melt. So that's my tip of the day.  You are welcome. :)

Back to the blogosphere. I don't know what time zone that's in though.

After quite a bit of time of being away from the blogging stuff, I'm back.  Truth is, I never really have anything particularly profound to say, so I tend to be hesitant about putting my thoughts out there into the world.  The advice I got from some blogger friends is to be myself and I suppose if the world likes me, then fantastic! If not, I shall retreat into a hole I will dig in my backyard.  I will call it a hole of shame. Or perhaps just shame hole.  I don't know.  I haven't quite worked out those details yet.  I suppose I'll work out the itinerary for what to do if the world rejects me when I cross that bridge. :)

First of all, for anyone that doesn't know me personally, I use emoticons to convey tone.  If you don't know me, you might assume that I'm truly considering digging a hole in my yard to cry in.  So, I put the smiley face to indicate I'm joking.  It's a bad habit, as I've found myself using it in many electronic communications.  I haven't quite figured out when it's appropriate to use them.  I've got to grow up. :)

Okay, so serious business now.  Why am I making paper hydrangea balls and selling them.  The answer is simple...people seem to think I make pretty awesome hydrangea balls.  I was asked to make some for my brother's wedding back in January.  (I'll post some photos of that later). My daughter's teacher loved them and now that she's engaged to be married in March of next year, she's asked me to make several, several of them.  I started making them as I usually would, but I wasn't really feeling it. I felt like I needed to work on the styling and try to add my own special twist.  After lots of experimenting and poked fingers, I finally found several ways to add some pizzazz and personalize them even more.

I opened my shop on Etsy last week and still need  to stock the shop because right now I've only got 2 listed for custom-made requests, so that's no good.  But I've got other wedding favor projects going on and working on how to market those as well.

The goal obviously, is to make a little bit of a living off of making handmade items for special occasions.  I'm a people pleaser, so seeing the look on someone's face when they love what I've made for their event really make's all the work worth it.  I realized after my brother and sister-in-laws wedding that this is what I am meant to do.  Starting up a business is scary though - as is putting yourself out there and wondering if the world is going to like what you have to offer.  I hope so. I love what I do and I hope other's do, too.