I'm ready for my comeback

So I have had empty shops for a few months now because I needed to concentrate on my school and I am finally done and ready to start filling my shop with goodies again. I guess the timing is perfect for those of us who are doing early Christmas shopping. I have so many ideas swirling through my head; jewelry ideas, crocheted hats and bags, journals, cards. Sometimes they get so jumbled and overwhelming that I end up doing nothing because I cant sort them out. I hate it when that happens. I guess I just need to start at the start. I will clean my studio and organize the supplies that I managed to stock up on during my hiatus; supplies that I bough and threw into the room without looking so to not get distracted by the beauty of the mess. I have renewed a few item that don't need to be rephotographed or edited and they barely got any views but I won't let that discourage me...yet.

Some people have it all...

Looks, talent, personality.
I am talking about a husband and wife duo who have shops on Etsy.com that I have had the privilege to meet and purchase from. I met Patricia (Raven) and her hubby Mikie at a little craft show that I did a few weeks before Christmas of '07. I was just walking by, scoping out the competition when one of Mikie's prints caught my eye. I loved all of them and asked him if he could make me a special order. He sweetly said yes and I proceeded to take a wiff of some of Ravens candles. Holy crap they smell so good!

A couple weeks after Christmas I met them for coffee and to pick up the special order that Mikie made for me and to grab some soy candles from Raven. Well this is what Mikie came up with:

Are you kidding me!!! I love it so much! I love Wonder Woman. She is my childhood idol and Mikie knocked it out of the park.

Then I took home the candles that I picked out of Ravens stash and lit the Apple Blossom one right away. It has an awesome cinnamony spicy sweet smell that fills the whole house but does not over power. And when she says that they last 100 hours, she is not kidding. These babies really do last forever. As I type I am burning the Ginger spice scented one and I think that I am in love. I loved the last one and this one is even better. It is perfect for spring.

And the icing on the cake is that they are incredibly nice people and even worse, they are both hot as hell!!!

Some people just have it all right?

Get some awesome soy candles at Raven's shop, RavenX.etsy.com
And then go buy some colorful, beautiful prints from Mikie's shop, mikiep.etsy.com

Taking a small break from selling and Etsy.

So after a lot of thought I have decided to take a break from promoting and selling my products. I have started school full time doing a 9 month medical transcribing course and it is really kicking my ass like nobody's business. But ya know what I love it! I am learning so much and I feel so much smarter every day. When it is all over in September (as long as I pass all of my classes) I hope to work from home as a medical transcriber. I am really looking forward to that day.

Another reason that I have decided to step back from my shops is because I would like to rethink my products and style and come back in with a fresher outlook and style. There are so many awesome artists on Etsy.com and the competion is fierce. I am not completely happy with my sales so I need to re-evaluate things and come back with a new approach that will catch your eye.

Just for the record. I do still have items listed in my shops and will still ship promptly to all buyers.

The part that kills me is staying away from the forums. They suck me is so much that I had to quit looking and participating in the forums all together. Well maybe not ALL together. I still log on about once or twice a week as a treat for myself but that compared to being logged on all day every day... well, lets just say I had the shakes for about 1 week.

So for a while, instead of talking/bragging :o) about my own products here, I want to put my fellow artists out there for every one to see. I think it will be fun and I think that I will have to do more shopping on Etsy so that I can really know the products that I will be talking about, that will be the hardest part :o).