A Quick Post and Some Ideas

Jeff and I have now both been sucked into Minecraft...  The last few days it has been snowing quite a bit outside.  Monday was a snow day for most everyone around here.  So we sat at home and played the game.  Then the last couple of days, he's come home from work and we start playing... and don't quit until it's time for bed.  Today is a nice, sunny (windy) day and I'm hoping to be more productive!

As always, I have a PILE of finished items that need to be listed for sale.  I've been toying with the idea of doing some giveaways.  Maybe a weekly or bi-weekly thing on Facebook.  I've also been thinking about listing one new item a day and "announcing" it here and/or on Facebook to: 1) give me fresh things to write about and 2) start working through the backlog of finished work.  I really, REALLY like making things, but the photographing, formatting pictures, typing up listings, and so on are usually quite tedious for me.  It's a necessary evil I suppose, unless I want to be buried in all of the goodies I've been cranking out over the years!

In the spirit of all of that - Here is my most recent listing to ArtFire, a colorful carousel horse card:

I've also considered starting some themes for this blog, inspired by what other people do on their blogs.  Maybe something for certain days of the week.  Such as: Thankful Thursday (or Throwback Thursday), Wordless Wednesday, etc.  I don't think I've ever actually done tutorials, but maybe a Tutorial Tuesday would be fun if I could think of some things to share.  It seems I have trouble remembering to post every day (that is my goal!), maybe something fun like that - with preset topics for at least some of the days - would help. 

Ok, I'm going to stop rambling and head for the craft room!

Cabin Fever

This has been an odd winter so far.  We've had very little snow, but countless days and nights of high wind.  Our temps have been fairly mild, save for a cold snap this last wee where we stayed between below zero and teens above.  At the moment, there is a dusting of snow outside, the wind is still howling and I've been feeling a bit of cabin fever.

I've done some work on the Studio website, changing the link structure around some.  I decided to open external links in new windows, to keep visitors on my site when they click a link that would take them elsewhere - here to the blog for example.  So now my blog, or my online stores, will open in separate windows, while my main site stays put. 

I decided some website work was long over due since I've been making a bit of a push to get the URL out there.  I've handed out and sent many promotional materials with my website.  I'd like to think that people might go check it out, bt there's still not much to see there.  I was even shocked to see that some of the pages had a "Last updated" notation of over a year ago!  My how time flies. 

So now I've changed all of those dates to reflect that I have indeed worked on the website this year (this month even!) - ha!  I still have big plans to upload a ton of pictures on there to show off my work to anyone that might happen by.  All it will take is maybe a few days of dedication to format and upload pictures.

Through it all my ArtFire store has continued to quietly sell items here and there.  I have to say I've been very pleased with it.  My little storefront there has been very hands off for quite some time and is still making sales.  It's exciting to think the results I might get once I finally get around to actually making it known.  For now it's just sitting there and sales keep trickling in. 

I guess that's it for now, not much exciting to report, but hey!  I made a blog post before another 6 months had gone by, haha.  ;-)

Playing Around

Well I really liked the looks of the Facebook "Like Box" that I had up here, but it doesn't seem to be working anymore, so I've removed it.  Maybe I'll try it again later and see if they've fixed whatever the problem is...  In the meantime, while exploring ArtFire, I found that they offer a Mini thing like Etsy - only it comes complete with its own shopping cart!  So, if I'm understanding it correctly, someone could buy an item from me right here in the sidebar.  That's an interesting idea. 

The wind is STILL blowing, so I'm still holed up inside, listing items and doing more and more research on the whole online marketing game.  I've got some supplies laid out to make a few bookmarks.  I've decided I want to make multiples of some of my favorite designs.  That way I can have more than just the one in stock.  When I make bookmarks, I tend to make every single one of them different.  I've never made the same one over and over.  Although now I'm thinking it might be worth it to build a small inventory of certain designs.

That's about it for today.  Not too much going on, except in my head, where creative ideas still flow at a mile a minute!

Inside Day

Today looks like it's going to be a good inside day.  Right now it's in the upper 40's outside and it's raining, with high winds.  I think winter is trying to get started.  A bit colder and we'd be having our first blizzard.  I've heard that we may have our first snow this week.  I don't really mind, I like snow and I had missed it terribly when I lived in the deserts of Arizona and California for 7 years.  I only saw snow once in all that time and that was rough for a girl who grew up in the Colorado Rockies and had fond memories of snowy winters.  Christmas with palm trees and sand just didn't quite work for me.

Yesterday we had a good trip up into the hills.  I picked a couple handfuls of wild rosehips and some wild rose leaves in pretty fall colors.  They are being pressed now, along with some Birch leaves in brillian red colors that I've picked from our Birch tree out back.  I already have some neat ideas for the rose leaves.

I think today is a good day to buckle down and get to listing things.  I'm still chomping at the bit to start on some new work, particularly to work on some horses, but I really do need to get everything that is finished listed up for sale first.  I have my Etsy shop, as well as a store at Artfire and a store at a new craft and vintage saes site called Efreeme.  My Etsy shop has about 30 items in it now, but Artfire and Efreeme only have a couple of things.  Today will be a good day to stay in and get those shops populated.

I guess I'd better get to it!