Monday Musings Number 8

Hard to believe I am in my 8th week here of sharing from my writers group. We had some fun conversation after this story.
The waif who befriended Caleb seemed harmless enough. He invited her home as I was preparing dinner. She had a hungry look we could not turn away, and we welcomed her to join the family gathered in the kitchen. She gratefully accepted food, but not too much. Surprisingly charming and polite. Not needy as I would have guessed by her looks. Beautiful and well-mannered, but still a stranger. We allowed her into our lives a little at a time. We felt our home offered her a much needed rest. Over the next couple of weeks, this green eyed brunette became our house guest and occasional companion. Before any of us was completely comfortable with the situation, we had to leave her alone for the week end. Free to come and go in our home. Knowing a little of her wild past, I was not totally surprised at the state of our family room when we came home. The evidence of her revelry was quite obvious. Feathers littered the carpet, and in one corner, there was a sparrow's wing. Apparently, our new cat likes the dry food we give her, but she needs some wet food too.
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Crafting in Color Random things I love

Asters and applique, combine them and you got me. Japanese fabric! In fact I got some in the mail yesterday and can hardly wait to turn it into something. Emery pin cushions, love. Small bowls. I find them irresistable for organizing. Finger puppets, any puppets, as long as they are cute. If you have never entertained kids with puppets, put it on your to-do list, it is awesome. Beadwork and recycling combined, wow! Love all of Christines stuff.

Working with brides

Seems like a lot of the brides I have been working with on Etsy are getting their bridesmaid dresses at J.Crew. This makes it great for sending them a little collage that shows the dress they already picked along side my fabric recommendations for clutches. If you make other wedding related items, like the gorgeous brooch bouquet by LionsgateDesigns shown in my collage, I think you can use the collage feature on Picnik the same way I do. Just right click the photo of the dresses they are wearing, and save it to your computer. Do the same for any fabric swatch photos or other accessories you want to recommend. Upload those photos to Picnik. Click on collage, choose your layout, and drag and drop the photos into the layout. Click "done." Save the collage as a photo and email it or attach to an Etsy convo. I think it is a very impressive way to communicate with your potential customers.

New Pattern Released Today

I found that trying to fit this project and the other 2 or three that are coming into my current zippered pouches pattern was cumbersome. So I have released it as a separate pattern. There is enough different going on with this that I needed to write a new set of instructions for it, and so it is a new pattern. My original plan was to have a zip pouches A-Z pattern, and maybe someday Simplicity will roll them all together into one package. For now, to go A-Z with zipper pouches with me will require 3 patterns. If you already have Zip Pouches A to S, I will refund $2.00 from your purchase of Zip Pouch for 3 Ring Binder. When the next pattern comes out (the large shampoo pouch and the wristlet,) I will offer something similar. I will also bundle them as a 3 pattern set for a better price than the 3 of them separately. I think by offering them separately I am also able to reach the people who would only be interested in one of the projects. Hope that makes sense. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

The Group Dynamic

I wrote something that describes the dynamic of our Writers Group. We all had a good laugh when I read it and we recognized ourselves. Cheryl-Anne tends to use food metaphors. After reading the touching obituary she posted the other day, I understand more. Here is my piece:
I feel like a big slice of ham, sandwiched between Julia and Mary-Anne's nourishing breads, Kathleen's juicy tomatoes, and Char's variety of condiments so essential to the flavor of an American life. Cheryl-Anne is here to remind us that salt and pepper are still the best spices. And there is not a cream puff among us. (I brought cream puffs to share with everyone that night.)
I look forward to Monday nights and sharing in the lives of these women. I watch as we all get to know ourselves better as we reveal our stories on paper. I accept that I am the ham. I see now that I always have been...
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Crafting in Color Team

This team has such a variety of talents. It refreshes me to know that women all over the world are expressing themselves in these beautiful ways and (in some cases) supporting their families with their crafting talents.

Selling Personalized Products

Occasionally I come across an item on Etsy with my name on it, literally. It makes me think, "Wow! They made that just for me." Even the first letter of a persons name can have that effect. Personalization is such a powerful selling tool, that it appears as a trend in (correct me if I am wrong) every Etsy merchandising report. If you search Etsys Blog for the word "personalization," you get 4 pages of results. Does this have your attention yet?
Ronda asked a great question on my last blog post. What are the most popular monograms? I think the best resource is to be found here at Parents.com. There is a search by country for current popular names (if you make baby items) or in the US by decade of the most popular baby names. If you are selling on Etsy, I think you will find the majority of your buyers will have been born in the 1980's. For my sample photo that I showed on yesterdays blog post, I chose my monograms based on my own gut feeling for what is popular among my own customers. All five of my guesses are in the top 40 most popular names. (Insert back pat here) Looking at the actual list of most popular 1980's names, I think I would have done a little better to replace the C and the K with a J and an A. If you are making a pile of them to go in a boutique (as I suggested yesterday,) find out from the owner the average age of their shopper and go for the top names from that decade. I think the boutique owner will be pleasantly surprised at the impulse buying you can create at a register with some well-placed personalization.
The beauty of personalization on Etsy, is that you can create an inventory of your most popular item, add the initial or message after it is ordered, and still ship in a timely manner. It will be most helpful to shoppers if you show examples in your shop of what their item will look like with a message or an initial on it. That may take some investment on your part to make the sample items. Consider making them for gift giving yourself this year and photograph your gifts as samples. I hope these thoughts and the related items spark your creativity and help you offer personalization that brings more business to your shop in the coming months.
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