Fresh from the desk: Doing better at shows

Yesterday was a good day.  The weather was gorgeous (if a little bit warm, and a couple of clouds would've been nice since we were on blacktop but Mom brought in their tent so I was out of the sun at least), there were people everywhere in town thanks to the Arts & Crafts Festival and the Miss South Dakota Pageant and the antique car show, and there were lots of vendors on our corner so it worked out great.  I made more sales yesterday than I had on my own before, without Mom's garage sale-type stuff to help with traffic.  Any sale makes it a good day when there's no booth rent, but 4 sales when last time was 2 makes for a great day!  There was so much going on in town that we weren't sure we'd get any traffic at all, considering how much was available at the A&C Festival, but we figured it was worth a try and it actually worked better than we expected.  It's open for one more day so I may go wander around today to see what my direct competition looks like in town.  A friend commented that everything over there was more expensive than mine, which I don't doubt, but I want to see the quality too.

I decided to make a couple changes this time.  My signs are smaller and more specific and placed where the items are on the table so there's no confusion.  I need to get a real banner made at some point, but I thought a little shop sign at the front might help people know what I have. The bookmarks are all together on the tree with one on a book for demonstration, I got a little black display hand for the bracelets and anklets, a sign on the earrings but one pair is over with its matching necklace, and the necklaces spread out to encourage touching but grouped generally by style.  Hemp together, toggle clasps together, memory wire together.  I've found that when the necklaces are displayed on a velvet card, they get visual attention, but when people are comfortable picking up the pieces to get a better look at them they seem more likely to buy.  Also, the cards fall over too easily in the wind so it's not really worth it.

It was a long day.  I was there from 8am to about 4:30pm, and if I hadn't had the tent I wouldn't have lasted near that long.  The problem with the tent is it's rather short, anyone taller than 5 feet has to duck to get under it and I don't have anything to raise it with, especially spur-of-the moment like that, so people weren't really approaching the table when it was under the tent.  I moved the table out, so just I was under the tent, but then I wasn't using up very much of it and there were other people struggling with sun parasols and such, so I moved my whole setup over to the other jeweler's table so we could all share my shade.  They were incredibly grateful and wouldn't let me pay for the beads, bamboo flute, and pickles I picked out from their tables.  It made the day go faster to have someone to chat with.  Whitaker Jewelers is run by a middle-aged couple, and they recently moved down from Hill City so they're still trying to establish a presence in Hot Springs. We're not in competition with each other so I'm sure we'll end up with some kind of working relationship before too long.  They work with Black Hills Gold, silver, wire wrapping, gemstones, wax casting, all kinds of stuff I can't do, and they don't do a whole lot of beading, especially not the kind I do, but they have access to beads and gemstones that I don't so they will probably end up being my stone suppliers.  I have no problem paying them more than cost, because whatever they would charge me will definitely be less than a chain hobby store would.  She and I chatted a lot yesterday, it was fun.

Since next Saturday is the first weekend of the month again, we'll be back.  I need to keep up with my high production this week so I have more to show and more to list.  I'm also looking at easy crochet patterns for bags, purses, wallets, cat toys, and other various small things I could make to expand my audience a little bit.  Handmade beaded crocheted bag? Yes please!  I also had an idea for beaded hat bands on straw hats for all the ladies who loved my floppy hat yesterday and wished they had one.  Question now is where to find the hats for cheap enough (and decent enough quality) to sell them at a decent price.  That will take some research and I'm not sure if that will get done this summer or not.

At any rate, I need to clean my house today.  Also, my cats have made it clear that I'm not allowed to leave today.  I'll have to, since I need to go to the store for some printer ink and I'd like to wander the A&C to see what's there, but I intend to stay home the rest of the day.  Somebody has to hold these kitties.

Fresh from the desk: Plan for the weekend

I have a plan for the weekend.  I’m going to bead.  A lot.  I watched a little of a webinar yesterday on Etsy critiquing a few shops and a couple of things really hit me: Don’t just list a few things and wait for them to sell before listing more.  That’s like opening a clothing store and only having one rack of shirts out… people want to browse through your selection, see your variety, and if they see what they need they’ll get it, and if they get inspired they’ll contact you further.  Keeping only a few listings up, while it’s cheaper, doesn’t help a beginner’s shop to only show a small sampling of the work.  People want to see a lot of variety to get an idea of what you can do for them or they’ll just browse on by.  That’s my goal now, I have plenty of beads to get it done and the listing fees aren’t bad at all so I just need to get to work.  Maybe that will help my booth business too, but in both cases, I just need to get down to some serious beading.

The other thing that struck me is that I need a new banner for my Etsy shop.  I have a dear friend who designed my logo who can do that for me so I asked for her help again.  We’ll probably spruce up the logo too, make it look more professional and reflect my art style. 

Dad and I got Mom a new camera for her birthday/Mother’s Day so maybe I can borrow it to get some better photos too.  Certainly can’t hurt to try, right?

However, I can’t sit on my butt all weekend.  Depending on how the weather cooperates, I need to finish digging for the terrace.  We have an idea for that also, using the frames from Mom’s old garden beds for the retaining wall instead of buying new bricks for it.  Mom thinks it’ll be super easy to just take the wood up and plop it down into place, but I suspect it’ll be a little more complicated than that.  At any rate, we need to take apart her old beds (some of them are so terribly overgrown I’m not sure how we’ll get to them…), which will take a while, but a couple are already in pieces so I could theoretically take them up the hill and try to make them fit.  I’m sure I’ll need to move some more dirt to make the corners square enough for something like that.  The tractor still needs some wiring work, but at least the problem was identified and the solution is in the works so I’m not worried about that much anymore.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Spring Fever: Updates

I'm still digging on the terrace.  I get about 1/6 of the way in 30-45 minutes once a week, at most.  It's been raining too much to get it done faster and the nice days have inevitably been during the week when I'm at work, and the dirt needs a day to dry out after a good rain before I can dig in it without needing the rubber boots.  Hooray for clay that holds moisture!  Sigh.  I'm fast approaching the time where I truly need some help from a machine and Dad still hasn't tried to get the hoist working on the tractor, so every day I dig I get a little more frustrated with the whole thing.  We got up well into the 80s today, so soon it'll be too hot to work outside during the day.  I'm getting rather impatient with that project.

I've done a couple more batches of yogurt since the last post on it.  I've reduced the amount of dry milk I use to 1/4 cup per 4 cups of skim milk and it's closer to what I want.  I've also noticed that using the previous batch to culture ends up with a tangier flavor than I like after 3-4 batches.  I ordered some probiotic starter this week so we'll see how I like that after a batch or two.  I'm enjoying yogurt for breakfast with some homemade granola, sweetened slightly with some applesauce.  It sticks with me all morning, better than a bowl of cereal does.  On that note, I've lost a solid 7 pounds since April (maybe up to 9... not sure my first weigh-in was entirely accurate), so it's nice to see a little progress, but as each of my projects gets a bit more demanding my exercising gets pushed farther down the priority list.  I may not stay with Weight Watchers after my promo period ends, for now it's just more stress to plan the meals as rigidly as I need to to make any real progress so there's no point in paying for it if I can't go full-out.  My health is important, but I'm healthy now, if just a bit heavy.  I can handle a little more time like this if I have to, then when I can truly devote the time I need to meal planning and exercising enough I'll get back on the bandwagon.  There's just too much going on right now to make it the #1 priority.

My 4-day work weeks are going well. :)  Last week, my first week of that schedule, was a little bizarre.  My brain skipped Wednesday entirely or something, since normally (for a solid 8 months with few variations) when I worked 2 days in a row it was Thursday-Friday, so I spent all day last Thursday trying to remind myself that it was in fact Thursday, not Friday.  This week has gone better, but tonight I'll probably skip packing my lunch and just go to bed early.  The dishwasher is still running anyway, I'm too tired to wait up for it just to pack a salad.

I'm debating how to get more students and where to hold the lessons.  Going to houses isn't ideal, at this point mostly because of the distractions but also because of the impracticality of me wasting time between each lesson driving all over town lugging all my instruments around if I get more students.  However, it's also not a great idea to expect everyone to come out to my house.  It's out in the country, on a nasty muddy road with all the rain we've had, I don't have insurance on the house yet or a solid set of front steps or walkway, and there's still a major unfinished renovation project right inside the front door with tools and such... My 6-year-old student would probably impale herself on the tools there, if her parents could get her (and probably her sister too) packed up and out to my house for a 30-minute lesson in my small-ish living room.  As such, I really just need a little studio space centrally located in town so I could do several lessons in a row without having to drive all over creation.  Such a place is probably out of my budget for the one day a week I'd use it, so I'm not sure what to do there.  I need to get my instrument chops back up a little more and get a viola lesson to be sure my technique is good enough to teach beginners.  I did find out today that there's a real violin teacher in town, so that takes some of the pressure off of me, but she's booked.  Maybe I can do the super beginners then pass them off to her?  Need to talk to her.  Long to-do list for that one, huh?

Saturday is another show at The White Elephant so I've been beading a bunch this week.  I'll get more pictures up as I go, but at the moment my cell phone isn't working so I can't email them to myself to get a post up tonight.  Sounds like bedtime, yes?  Yes.

Fresh from the desk: Changes in motion

Just a quick update.  I decided to let go of my extra day job up in Rapid City.  It always ended up wasting the whole day for not enough profit, so I told them last Monday that it would be my last day there.  They were a little bummed but they understood my situation and the agent was actually going to ask me soon if it was still worth it.  It was an iffy experimental job really, they needed some work done and I needed a little money but it was just not quite practical.

Good thing I told them when I was there, actually, so I got a chance to really say goodbye.  The next day, my boss at my main job and I sat down to chat about my progress with various areas of my job, sort of a mini-evaluation but I wasn't really nervous about it.  As it turns out, he can give me a $.25 raise and one more day per week, so now I'm up to 4 days!  We'll keep it up while business is decent for sure, though if the economy doesn't pick up by the time winter hits we may need to go back down to 3 days.  That's alright, it's definitely great news!

Lessons with my violin student have been going okay.  She's only 6, and she's a touch on the hyper side, and not being a mother or babysitter or ever having any siblings, I don't know what to do with a wired 6-year-old!  I have a few ideas to use at the next lesson, some rhythm games and such, so maybe I'll be better prepared when her mind takes off in a different direction.  I'm still thinking I should put an ad out for more lessons, get a few on one day a week.  I need to get a few things planned out first before I launch into that, and I want to take a viola lesson from my cello teacher just to be sure my technique is on the right track.

Crocheting is going well!  My first project is a blanket.  It's a surprise present for a friend (sssshhhhh! lol) so I'll hold off on pictures until it's done.  It's a ridiculously easy pattern that's coming together fairly quickly.  Oddly enough, it seems to be the perfect thing to do after supper when my cat insists on sitting on my lap (and I mean insists... he'd climb onto my dinner plate if it was in the way) but I can't handle just sitting there not working on something.  He doesn't mess with the yarn, we just turn on a movie and chill for a bit.  

I had a few custom jewelry orders to work on over the past week or two, and the most challenging was definitely a pair of earrings to match a necklace owned by the woman who was my babysitter when I was 2 or 3.  I barely remember from that... but since I've been home, I've seen her and her husband around town a lot so we keep in touch a little now.  This picture didn't turn out the greatest... the lighting was a little odd that day, but the necklace had a few red lampwork beads and several square and round faceted red beads, each flanked by a small hematite, spaced out on 3 strands.  I suspect the red beads may have been plastic... they weren't heavy enough to be glass.  What she wanted was a pair of drop post earrings like these that I had on display in bright red and amber, but with round darker red beads to match the necklace.  It was tough to find them, but I did after much shopping, and it was easy to put them together.  I forgot to take the necklace with me when I went shopping (oops... good thing I studied the color when she handed it to me!) so I didn't really notice the little hematite beads until I got everything home and started working on it.  Luckily, i always keep some hematite beads on hand since they're so versatile, even if they were a little larger than the ones on the necklace.  She loved them!  She has some graduation parties to attend this weekend and next for some grandchildren, so she was glad to have a matching set to wear to them all.  Success!

I've been away from home way too much the last few weeks so having a 3-day weekend with minimal plans is sooooo nice for me right now.  Speaking of that, I need to plan some meals.  Enjoy your weekend!

Spring Fever: Spring Cleaning Part 1

Greetings my loyal followers!  It's been a wet, chilly spring here, which has caused its share of issues and frustration compared to how spring used to be here.  The weather has been just plain crazy for a few years... but I won't get into the climate change debate here. ;)  Today's exciting news is that my two little ash trees we planted last fall survived the winter and have brand new leaves on them today!  Yesterday the little buds were still sealed up so tight I wasn't sure they'd ever leaf out.  Those poor trees lived in their gallon buckets for too long, and we didn't get them planted until very late in the summer, plus it was a nasty winter, so because they had taken so long to show any sign of life I was wondering if they made it.

Now it's finally getting nice enough outside to see some progress outside as well as inside the house.  I've been doing some of these things in stages over the last month or so, but here's a full list of what I've done so far that would be considered "spring cleaning."  Some of it may be a stretch to fit that definition...hehe!

1.  Winter clothes are washed and stored in plastic tubs and spring/summer clothes are now out of storage.  I keep a few hoodies and a sweater cardigan around to toss on when it's chilly, but the heavy work sweaters are all put away now.  There are a few reasons I do this twice a year.  It gives me a reason to go through everything and purge items that don't fit, never fit quite right, didn't get worn much, or are just plain wrong and get them ready to donate to the Salvation Army. (They got a new building last year and the store is HUGE! We always donate there because we know it will immediately be shopped for locally and it's easy enough to drop stuff off when we go up there).  It's been a struggle to let go of the "wishful thinking" jeans that I wore a few years ago and other similar pieces; they don't provide any true motivation to actually lose, all they do is take up space and give me a pang of guilt every time I see them.  The other main reason, other than just to keep my dresser and closet minimal, is that often I'll get a blouse or something on clearance at the end of the season, wear it a couple of times, then put it away.  When I get it back out for the next season, it's fun to take out because I often forgot I even had it!
2.  Mattress is vacuumed and turned.  I flipped it in January or so, but it's wearing out so I decided to turn it 180 degrees so it wears a little more evenly.  In a few months I'll flip it again.  Why vacuum?  Dust mites.  Gross, huh?  Yeah.  Just a little vac is probably not doing me a whole lot of good there, but at least I try, right?  I have lots to get done elsewhere so that's probably about as far as I'll get on this particular project for now.  My allergies haven't been near as bad lately as they used to be so I'm doing alright. :)
3.  My computer and cello have both been taken in for service.  This one's probably a stretch... but it certainly can't hurt to have the computer cleaned out or the cello soundpost adjusted and bridge replaced.  Probably needs new strings too but we'll see how it is when I get it back.  Both were behaving badly for the last several months so it was time to at least get them looked at, if not fixed.  The computer's just plain dying, which is sad and nervewracking, but I'm saving up for a new one.  The cello just probably needs a couple adjustments and it'll be alright.
4.  I've wiped out and disinfected the bottom cabinets in my kitchen, and everything in them.  I've had lots of mice recently and they can get into the wall and therefore the bottom cabinets, so that was a necessity.  It should be done every couple of months anyway.  I'm not sure whether the mice are coming in on their own or if the cats are bringing them in to play with... it's really hard to tell... but now I have a couple mousetraps working 24/7 to get it under control if the cats aren't helping lol.
5.  Another stretch... I've joined Weight Watchers.  It's working slowly, and it's tricky to plan my meals right, but I'm working on it steadily.  I have a vow renewal to go to (and look good for!) in July and I was sick of the plateau I was stuck on since January.  Overhauling my eating habits is like a spring cleaning project, right? hehe!
6.  I'm in the process of cleaning and ironing the curtains.  They haven't been up for very long but I still had to paint a few of my window frames so I figured while I had them down I could get them ironed nicely before they go back up.  Some of them can't be machine-washed, mostly the nice new thermal/dark ones (not sure they're complete blackouts, but they do a darn good job), and that's okay.  I'll vac the fluff off of them and iron them too when I get done painting those windows.  I'll get the office ones back up today, though I need to adjust the rod first.  It got put up rather crooked... oops!

I have lots left to do.  This is by no means the end of my spring cleaning projects, just what I've done so far.  We'll be installing baseboards in the next few weeks so my next project today is to vacuum really well down in all the edges and corners so I'm not permanently sealing Q-tips into the floor!  My younger cat loves to steal my used Q-tips out of the bathroom garbage and play with them.  Of course, because I have no baseboards yet, they easily roll into the gap between the wood floor and the wall and promptly get stuck.  Why does she do this?  I have no idea!  She's a strange little kitty lol.  She likes my used cotton balls too, even with astringent on them.  Beats me.

When I need to be done cleaning for the day, I have a necklace, anklet, and earrings to work on (each from separate custom orders), then to get started on my first crocheted baby blanket!  I practiced my stitches last night so I'm just about ready to get going on it.  Happy Spring!

Spring Fever: I'm just plain crazy.

I'm seriously considering taking up crochet.  Why does this make me crazy?  I have a million other things on my plate already and I still haven't decided for sure what to do about my job situation so time is still a major issue. 

Pros: 
1.  I always have trouble finding belts, headbands, cardigans, etc. that do what I need them to do.  This will make all that MUCH easier on me considering how often I get to actually go clothes shopping for a specific item like that.
2.   I already have ideas for crochet-bead jewelry.
3.  Looks like fun, and not too hard to figure out considering many, many hours of my childhood were spent tying the house up in knots, right Mom?

Cons:
1.  Time.  I'll have to make room for it and I rarely sit down long enough for anything like that because, frankly, I have a lot to get done.  All the time.
2.  I'm good at starting gung-ho on projects that never get past halfway finished.  I must have inherited that.
3.  Cost...kinda, if I get into the fancy yarns, which I won't for a while... but again, this will expand opportunities for my crafting business.

I should pick up some macrame anyway since I'm working in hemp now too.  Perhaps I'm just fidgety and feel that learning something new will kinda propel me out of the rut I'm in.  I've only been out of school for a couple of years, maybe my way of coping with that and the transition to "real life" is to need to learn something completely new once or twice a year or so.  Hmmm, there may be something to that.  For now, I need to paint my window frames so I can maybe put my curtains back up this weekend.  It's finally a nice weekend and I'm finally getting some work done around here!  Yay!

Fresh From the Desk: Time for a change?

Purple glass donut pendant on off-white and
matte blue daisy chain, with rose quartz chips

Carved resin pendant on knotted hemp,
with wood and bone beads

Resin pendant on brown and off-white bead chain,
with brown shell and peace jade

I finished that purple necklace tonight, as well as two more! :) The pictures are bad.  Yeah.  Sorry, I'm in a hurry.  After this weekend I'll take some better photos of what I have left.  Actually, that brings me to my first bit of news.  Someone at our bank is interested in her own piece, which is easy enough, but she suggested that I bring in catalogs or something to distribute when people ask about it.  Hmmmm, that sounds like a great idea!  I don't know if I can pull together a full catalog in any kind of decent time, but I can work on a tri-fold brochure or something with examples of what I can do and options for your own custom piece.  Thoughts on this?  Have an example of hemp, daisy chain, and straight beaded, with options of length, color, and whether there's a pendant?  I think it may be worth a try.  It certainly can't hurt to print off a stack for her, she sees lots of people every day.  This means I need to start scheduling in dedicated time to my marketing.  I have also had a few order/requests from friends this week, which unfortunately will have to wait until I can get up to Rapid to shop again, but all these are signs that things are picking up for some reason. 

I'm also starting to teach violin lessons next week.  I'm not a violinist, and I never said I was, but I have taken the classes, I do play cello, I know the Suzuki method, and the student is only 6 years old.  This one I may be able to handle for a little while.  I'm nervous about it since I don't play violin, and haven't since that one half-semester in 2002 or something when I took the class.  I'm debating advertising for my lessons and setting aside a day each week for them, but I'm nervous about getting lots of requests for instruments I don't play, like the violin.  Piano or guitar, those I can pawn off on someone else in town...those I can't even pretend to play well enough to teach lol!  Also, I don't have a good centralized location for them.  My books, instruments, and tools are at my house, obviously, but it's not quite ready for company yet, it's not really set up for it anyway, and parking will be an issue if I have several in a row.  Maybe once I get the island finished, baseboards in, latch on the bathroom door, and the huge wood box out of the living room...but I digress.  My house isn't a good place right now.  I could use my parents' house, but it's their house so I'm not comfortable taking it over for a whole day every week and the students might be nervous with extra people wandering around.  I know I would be.  For just a few students I could go to their houses, but that means I don't have access to all of my supplies that are at home and are impractical to lug around everywhere.  Can't afford to rent anywhere, and the room at the State Home is way too big just for lessons and people wander in and out all the time.  Haven't figured out the plan for this yet, obviously I'm still a bit anxious about it and finding excuses not to really develop it yet.  Maybe after the lessons have been going for a while I'll have a little more confidence. 

In order to shift my focus to jewelry and music, I need to cut down elsewhere.  My regular job is fine, no problems there, it's a regular part-time schedule with minimal stress.  It may go full-time eventually, but it's not yet.  I have a once-a-month 20-minute job at the VA for $10, which is barely worth the trouble to get there but it's a jewelry vendor contact that I need to stay on top of.  Not like it takes much time anyway.  Symphony is done for the season, so that won't be in the picture again until the fall.  I have lots of gardening, landscaping, and general housework to do, which hasn't been getting done these past few weeks.  I'm on Weight Watchers now which requires more careful meal planning, which also hasn't been getting done very well.  There's occasional things like groceries, bead shopping, and having to hold a large cat that is currently draped around my neck because I've been gone so much the last week. 

Then, the major dilemma, I'm working an extra insurance day up in Rapid, every other week for 6 hours.  It was originally 3 hours once a week, on the same day as Symphony, which after gas and a meal just broke even with itself, but it was alright since I had to be up there anyway.  Now, we changed it to every other week so it takes less gas and therefore yields a little profit, but it still ends up being a whole day up there.  I'm torn in that I can't decide whether that extra $60-80 a month (after gas) is worth losing a day.  I really can't decide.  I guess the question is whether shifting my focus will yield more return, though I do need to go up there every week or two anyway for various reasons.  I really don't know.  My schedule at my regular job has been screwy the last few weeks, so that plus starting WW plus getting ready for spring/working on the house again plus (heaven forbid!) taking a weekend trip to see some friends, I feel like I'm stretched way too thin, like silly putty.  And, the little holes are growing the thinner I stretch.  As it is, no project can get the attention it deserves, and as such nothing is yielding what it should.  So, do I drop the extra day and use it elsewhere, or not?  I just went yesterday and I'm not scheduled to go back until Monday after next so I have some time to decide.  I keep going back and forth on it.  I'm torn!  Help!

Busy week ahead

My advance apologies everyone, I have a very busy week ahead so I probably won't get any more posts written until next week. Not that I've been posting a ton in the first place, but still.

I play cello in the Black Hills Symphony and we have a concert this Saturday March 5th at 7:30 pm, so if you're in the Rapid City area come on by! Get tickets here (they're probably cheaper than you expect) and come enjoy the concert! We'll have two violin soloists performing with us and we're playing many familiar pieces!

This also means that I'll be up in Rapid 3 evenings this week then all day Saturday. So, have a good week everyone, talk to you after the concert :)