A Quiet Day here

As night has just come for us here in East TN, I am listening to the sounds of the bugs and enjoying the peaceful feeling one can have at the end of a day. Today was quite different than yesterday. There was no scrambling around. No errands. No preparing projects or seeds. There was no shoveling dirt or cutting my finger on rocks. No traffic except for the occasional car heading home. Just a chill in the air, bugs singing their songs, and a crafter contemplating her next project.

It was a peaceful day and evening. In this day and age, it is difficult to imagine someone having a day like this...or the very simple truth of realizing the day, enjoying it, and being thankful. Yet, here I am tonight enjoying it.

For a crocheter, not picking up her hook in a day seems like a hypocritical move. It's like a human needs air, so shall a crocheter need yarn and her hook. This comes a day after buying 6 new skeins of yarn - 5 of which are beautiful and "Spring-y."

One issue I seem to be having is making decisions regarding the selling of my products. For months I have been struggling with whether I should or should not sell. Anyone who has faced this decision will tell you - it sure is a difficult decision. I live in a very crafty-artsy area. There are many different types of artists within 20 miles of my location and a huge stretch of road that loops back to Gatlinburg with tons of these artist's workshops and shops!

How does one compete with that? Correction: How does someone like me, with no workshop or shop, compete with individuals who have been working years on their brands, their shops, and building their workshops up with the best equipment?

Well...I can't! That is what got me down. I sold my tent. I sold my big table. And all I have is my product, a yellow queen sized sheet, and a 5 foot table. I was down. I was frustrated with myself. And a lot of what was happening was out of my control!

So when I started to see a meme that talked about how long it took to create a brand and build a small business, I started questioning my decisions. Everything around me and everything that was happening seemed to be something else that was building me back up - a video on building brands, other crafters telling me how long and hard they worked, seeing the determination to continue, and repeatedly seeing that meme...in MANY places.

What can one do if all the signs are saying "YOU STOPPED TO EARLY. JUMP BACK ON THE PONY AND RIDE INTO THE WIND?"

Well...you listen of course! So tonight, I am attempting to create a plan to get myself back into the game. We are adding products that have nothing to do with crochet like beauty products and soaps. Maybe candles? Just on a small scale at first. I am not quite sure how it will end...or if I will end up failing again; however, I do know that like all the great little businesses out there who have carved a name for themselves, I will continue to fail until I succeed!

Wishing you success (even after repeated failures)

Sarah 

Recovering from the Holidays

After the hustle and bustle of the holidays, crafters like me tend to take a break from last minute gifts quickly crocheted/knitted/crafted to wrap and box.  That is exactly what I did.  I made it about a week before the itch to create came back to me.  As I neared the end of 2013, I glanced at the amount of patterns I started to design and develop and almost cried.  There was around 25-30.  How could that be?  How could I have started that many projects and never finish? 

*shifty eyes*

Okay!  Okay!  Like some...if not most...crafters, I have put myself in a position to jump from project to project without committing to finish.  Which is how I now have a huge tub of scrap yarn from unfinished WiPs that I frogged.  For those non-crocheters/knitters, WiPs stands for Work in Progress and frogged is...rip it out or ribbit.  Not only have I know have lots of scraps, but I amassed a large amount of yarn over the last few years without really using it.

This...is how I came to one of my goals for 2014.

1.  Do not buy any new yarn until I use a majority of what I have.  (Yep...crafters...I made the goal.)

2. Finish the patterns I started to develop in 2013 by the end of 2014.  This gives me a lot to do and perhaps some new revenue.

3. Create a list of items I want to develop into patterns and try to finish them as well.  So far...the list hit around 20.

If you have been keeping count...that is around 50 patterns to develop and attempt to sell this year.  And that is how I find myself tonight...alone...in the bed...under the covers attempting to stay warm, crocheting one of my old 2013 patterns.  It is turning out cute if I do say so.  Either way, I wanted to share pictures of my tree this year.  We usually do not go all out and this year is the same.  It's simple and fits the handcrafted, passed down ornaments from our childhoods and some I created myself.

Our 2013 Christmas Tree

Underneath is the small tree skirt I made. 

And this...is one of our newest ornaments.  My roommate and one of my very best friends is a HUGE coffee drinker.  So, he received this coffee mug ornament (with the coffee the way he likes it) as a gift from me.  He loved it!

Either way, I hope that you had a wonderful holiday - whatever it might have been.  Have you decided to create goals for 2014?  Or just going with the flow?

Sarah