I have found a niche in Etsy

I can't believe it has been over two months since I posted anything. Most of my free time has been sucked up by teaching. There are days I feel in control of teaching, and there are days where I feel like I'm being left behind. There are not enough hours in the day for grading, and not enough please-and-thank-you courtesy among these eighth graders. There are times I question my decisions, but what teacher hasn't? Teaching is an emotional career.

I have still tried to keep up my stock for the Etsy store. I have given up on selling jewelry on Etsy, as the market is way too congested. I may leave the washer necklaces online longer, as they do gain some interest and exposure, but we'll see. I have found that the real seller items are the menu boards.

It is always a surprise when I find a sale on Etsy. Of course, I had two sales occur the week before school started, when I was drowning in things to do. I sold the jewelry frame and then this menu board the next day. Besides my own board, this was the first one I made. Of course, I had taken this frame to replace the broken one I sold. So I scrambled around the night of the sale to texturize and spray paint a new frame. All this was in vain; I realized I had the grocery board frame I could use for this sale. There was quite a bit of frame swapping.

Sale on August 6 to New Jersey

I had a custom sale request in the third week of August. She wanted a grey and white chevron pattern. Understandable - the chevron pattern is in right now. I figured there must be paper at Hobby Lobby that fit this description. NOT AT ALL. I picked up some vellum paper and hoped my crazy idea would work. I had some chevron fabric that I had bought for journals. I combined the translucent paper with the fabric, and luckily, it looked good. This went to a teacher, who started a wonderful conversation with me about teaching. This is one of the reasons I love working through Etsy - it becomes so personal. 

Not the best picture, but I just needed to capture the basic idea of the frame. I didn't need to sell someone on the product, so I did not get fancy with the picture. This sold on August 20 to Michigan. 

Another custom order sent me looking for paper again. I had started to deplete my scrapbook paper and wanted some more options. That's when I found the chevron pack of paper. This was what I was looking for! This customer wanted something to match her burgundy and brown kitchen. I used a red wood/chevron pattern and she liked it. I was so eager to put it together and package it up that I forgot to take a picture. I didn't make this into a custom order because the customer purchased one of my other boards before I could create the custom order. Otherwise, I would have remembered (or been required to) upload a picture. This custom order sold on September 17 to Wisconsin.

Surprise! I had a double order shortly after for the pink and purple board. 

These sold to Texas on September 20. Luckily Texas is close because they shipped in two days. 

After the first sale of the week, I began stockpiling frames with the new chevron patterns. I was able to post many of these on September 20. They have been fairly popular. 

I had someone ask about a frame on the same day someone else purchased it. It was a strange coincidence. 

This sold to Texas on September 25.

This past week has had the most activity - three sales. 

Sold on October 10 to Florida

Sold on October 11 to Australia! I learned that I did not charge enough for shipping (at least to Australia) and paid the $3 difference. I have since changed all the shipping prices!

After this shipping hit (not the first one), I closely examined my cost to profit ratio. Based on the supplies and the time, I decided to increase the price of the frames by $2. With the cost of creating stock, I decided I needed a little more out of it. Plus, my shipping costs have only covered shipping, not the price of bubble wrap and packaging material. I need to start addressing all my costs and cover them adequately. 

Sold to Texas tonight. I will have to get a box to ship it tomorrow. 

It is funny that I have received three sales this week, because I am trying to save my inventory. At the end of October, I am participating in a community sale at school and I'm hoping to make some good sales. I have at least 15 frames stockpiled that I have not even bothered photographing. I want to see how they do at the sale. I have the jewelry, journals, and frames, and have also started making school spirit Christmas ornaments to sell. I think they will go over well in the community. 

11 sales and counting!

Made my Third Sale Today!

This past week and upcoming week have been and will be extremely busy. I am preparing to enter into an eighth grade classroom and convince 90+ students that I know what I'm doing when it comes to teaching ELA. This has involved orientations and meetings at the District Office last week to learn about their goals for the district and how excited they are to mentor us new teachers. At times, it felt a little too close to a sorority recruitment mashed up with the most b.s. education class you had in college. Other times, there was so much information thrown at us I could barely stay afloat (i.e., benefits and insurance). This week will be meetings at the school, along with the make-or-break Meet the Teacher night on Thursday. Bring it on (I suppose).

I have been trying to juggle all this new information with actually figuring out what I am going to do in the classroom. Middle school is different from high school because it is not at all content based. I don't have to teach American Lit. to juniors or Shakespeare to freshmen. That's not how middle school works. I can use whatever my little heart desires to teach the skills necessary. Freedom? Yes. Daunting to a first-year teacher? Absolutely.

So it came as a bit of a shock to me when I checked my email at lunchtime today to see I had a pending sale from Etsy. It was the black jewelry frame - the same frame I have in my bathroom for my earrings. I do love this frame. The last thing I had really done with Etsy was the last sale I had made.

Speaking of.

The last sale was a learning experience. I guess we can call it that. I packaged it up very thoroughly since the incident of trying to send a frame to Marjory. It did not go well. So I thought for sure this would work. Well, the corner of the PLASTIC frame chipped. The glass was fine. The plastic broke. Yep, that makes sense.

So, I had to pay double shipping costs to mail a replacement frame, which essentially ate up my profit for that sale. Fortunately, the second frame did not break. Still, the whole experience made me wary of including these frames on the store. If they are this much trouble to ship, it may not be worth it. 

I haven't done much of anything on Etsy since then. I have tracked the views each day, but little else. 

I have no idea where this sale came from today. It doesn't really surprise me that this item sold. The picture frame jewelry holders have been the most popular items on Pinterest. In fact, I had already packaged it up, reusing the box from our weedwacker. 

After I saw the sale, I realized that the shipping on this item did not get changed. I thought both of the jewelry frames had the same shipping costs listed. I had guesstimated $7, but after weighing, it came closer to $11. The other frame was changed, but not this one. It's not a huge difference, but I am definitely going to go through and check the actual shipping costs on my items now. 

The package was wrapped in kraft paper (it gives it such a nice look) and the label was printed. On the last package, I had doodled the two states, and I liked that idea. I think it will be my "thing." On this note, Maine is a hard state to draw. I had to pull out a pencil and sketch first before attempting in marker. Arizona is not so bad. I think I would even be fine drawing Ohio freehand since I've been surrounded by that one for so long. I decided I do not care about state scale. 

Hopefully this one arrives with no bumps or bruises! 

Second sale comes out of a message on Etsy

Tonight I made my second sale on Etsy! I received a conversation (the way to communication on Etsy) asking about the menu board. I didn't think too much about this. I had received a question about the washer necklace a few days ago and nothing came of this. The question asked if the lettering was on the outside of the frame, and if the blue paper was interchangeable. I responded that it could be made in different colors and this got the ball rolling.

Thank goodness for modern technology. We messaged back and forth about ten times today and settled upon some options. I assembled the frame with her selected colors, bubble-wrapped it up (extra nice since Marjory and I know the post office is not very careful sometimes!), and packaged it nicely.

The finished custom item

This woman requested a "candy apple green" color to fit in her candy apple green and cherry red kitchen. It sounds bright and cheery and good enough to eat. (It also reminded me of Jess and Brandy's kitchen.)

I tried to block the reflection with a beach towel that you can absolutely see. Oh well. 

As soon as she ordered the custom item, I printed the shipping label. This is a much easier option to do on Etsy to send via USPS and they simply bill you the amount. Since I purchased a kitchen scale to weigh packages, it makes it easy-peasy. 

This conversation inspired me to make a few more menu boards and a grocery list board that I use, but have not listed as an Etsy item yet. I took some pictures, so look for some more items to come. Actually, I have four jewelry items awaiting edited pictures and listings, so I guess I need to get busy listing. 

Feeling optimistic tonight...completely opposite of my grumpy self this morning. 

Pinterest Interest

My jewelry organizer frame has been getting some attention on Pinterest. It's exciting each time to see it pinned by a new person, even if they want to try to make it themselves. I hope this stirring leads to a sale!

It started with five repins and grew to ten within a week!

The washer necklaces are getting some interest as well.

The necklace in cool colors

The necklace in coral and pink

 Watch for the washer necklace arriving in coral and grey...I think it's a great color combination.

Over the heat

I'm going to put on my grumpy pants because I am a little irritated. So the midwest is going through a heat wave right now. I have been reading all the complaints on Facebook, so then I checked the weather. It's in the 90's there. Newsflash! It's July and 90 degrees doesn't sound that uncommon. Last year when we moved from Lexington, it was over 100 degrees (July 7).

Just double-checked that at weatherspark.com 

I actually laughed when someone complained that their bedroom was 80 degrees. That's what we keep our house at, and that's luxurious for the summer. Most people here bump it up to 82 or 84 degrees. 

Now I bet you are thinking, "But it's a dry heat in Arizona." So does everyone. And I am here to tear down that little argument. It is a different heat here, with low humidity. BUT it's still hotter than hell most days. And I would take humidity any day over feeling confined to the indoors. 

Every summer for the past four summers, I have spent my time riding my bike. BG or Lexington, I would jet off in the afternoon or evening to catch a nice long bike ride. If it was hot, I would leave in the evening around 7 p.m. and ride back home just before the sun completely set. (Except that one time in Lexington where I ended up way too far away and had to call John to rescue me from Nicholasville because it was dark. Whoops.) I loved having time in the summer to actually ride without schoolwork to get in the way.

So I wanted to keep riding when we moved to Arizona. HA! I tried one afternoon and the handicap of riding in such intense heat sent me home within 20 minutes. So I did not ride my bike last summer. I started up in the fall (October), but with work and the early sunsets, it was hard to even get an hour of riding in. There were some days (when I would plan out waking out a little early) that I would strap my bike to the car and bring a change of clothes to set out right after work. So I could somewhat get my riding in during the school year, but it usually ended up as a weekend thing. 

Hence why I love riding in the summer. If I only ride one day a week, my muscles are adjusting every week. They ache the next day, then get five to six days to forget about that pesky workout. And it's the same thing all over again. When I ride almost every day, my muscles just get stronger. My butt forgets about hurting the next day, and my legs are fine. 

This city is perfect for early birds. The sun rises early, and that's the time when it is the coolest. I have tried getting up early to ride this summer. The one day I actually got myself up and ready to go by 6 a.m., I had a slow and lethargic ride. I am not a morning person. I take my mornings easy, and get most of the work done in the afternoon and evening. I absolutely hate working out in the morning. I don't want breakfast because it's so early, but I need energy, so I scarf down a granola bar only to feel sick for the beginning of the workout. 

If I want to ride in the summer, I need to be riding by 5 or 5:30 and back by 7:30. That's the only way to avoid it getting too hot. If I try to do anything in the yard during the day, I am dripping in sweat after 5 minutes. Any yard work is broken into manageable chunks followed by the coldest shower or jumping in the pool. And by this point in the summer, the pool's not even that refreshing. The temperature of the water is anywhere from 88-93. Most days I don't even want to deal with it. I stay inside, or go run my errands. I am feeling cabin fever during the summer. That isn't supposed to happen! 

So before anyone else opens their mouth about the humidity, know this. I would take the humidity any day over this. I could ride my bike in the humidity. I can't do it in this pure heat, not with only one water bottle. I am fed up with this heat and people belittling the brutality of it. Come and see what it's like to walk outside into an oven. 

Okay, I just had to rant. I am over the heat and we still have at least two months of it. At least the high temperatures for this weekend are in the 90's, but with a high chance of thunderstorms. Screw it, I might go riding in the rain. 

Staycation Break

This past week, I have been MIA because I have been visiting with some of the most important people in the world...my parents! They drove all the way from Ohio, endured five and some days of traveling round trip, and even put up with Meeka. Okay, well, my mom put up with Meeka. My dad loves visiting with his "grandpup." (Yep, they are definitely practicing for the real thing!)

Hanging out with Meeka. We took backstage to her new favorite person for the week. 

It was great to have them here, for real. FaceTime can only do so much. We spent a day in Sedona. John even came along on his only day off - that's love. Especially with the crazy long days he's been working. My mom wanted to take a Pink Jeep Tour, and it was pretty incredible.

All of us with the pink Jeep 

We got to see a part of Sedona you can't see from the main roads, and drive right on some rocky formations. It was a super bumpy ride during parts. I had a flashback to the vacation where we rented a boat and my dad throttled it full-speed - my mom had pretty much the same reaction to both of these events. In my mom's book: pro - getting gorgeous views of Sedona, con - getting bumped around.

It's interesting how conscious they are of their impact on the environment; the tour company limits the number of vehicles that can drive the road each day to prolong its use. You can't say that about most tourist destinations. Also, there were a few intelligent people we saw who tried to drive their own vehicle (read: not off-road capable) back this route.

The rest of their time in Phoenix was spent hanging out by the pool, trying some restaurants in Phoenix,  and trying to fix some items around the house. :) What are dads for? We attempted to fix the pool light, which had a deteriorating seal and was filled with water. A new seal, some caulking adhesive, a new light bulb, and voila! It still didn't work. We have yet to pull it back out to figure out what to do next. We did finally receive a proper ladder, now that we had access to a car that could fit one. No more borrowing the neighbor lady's rusted ladder! (Seriously, who had to borrow a ladder from their 85-year-old neighbor? This girl.)

Also, we got to share dinner with my uncle who was in town for a business trip...that just happened to be while my parents were in town. Fun times.

The reason my parents drove out to see me instead of the of-so-much-quicker flying option? They were bringing me all the "stuff" belonging to me from their house. This included photos, keepsakes, things I deemed keepable as a kid, my trumpet, wedding dress, and my grandma's sewing machine. After they left, I spent an exhaustive three days going through box after box of items. There were a lot of smiles at notes I found, pictures, drawings, cards, etc. There was extensive debate about what to keep. I am a bit of a sentiment-holic, but I am also repulsed by a lot of junk/clutter. Hence the dilemma. I starting looking through it as objectively as possible, asking myself:

1) Would my children care about looking at this? If I wouldn't care to see my parents' version of this, it probably wasn't worth keeping. 
2) Is it still meaningful to me now? Notes from someone in high school that I don't even talk to anymore are probably not worth keeping. 

And so the purging began. It didn't begin huge (4 boxes of loose items), and it didn't end much smaller (3 bins), but I felt a tremendous relief to have it organized together. This included collating what I saved in high school with what my parents saved from high school and so on.

Top 5 Interesting Tosses:
1. Baby teeth
2. First tuition statement from BGSU (thanks, Dad...what statement were you trying to make?)
3. Origami box full of notes passed from Megan Molleran in eighth grade, complete with cryptograms we made up for each other
4. Preschool self portrait
5. Teacher thank-you notes

Top 5 Interesting Keeps:
1. Mom's log of labor, including contraction notes
2. Judge's scoring forms for short story entry in Overture Awards in high school
3. Preschool class pictures where mom meticulously wrote each person's name on the back...so I can see the mini versions of people I went to grade school with
4. A painted pottery piece by Jessica (at a very early age) that has a musical button that plays "Send in the Clowns"
5. Fourth grade poem book along with my own poem book creation that summer

I kept my journals and notebooks because I love seeing the stories I wrote as a child. In second or third grade, I became "pen pals" with a classmate, Danielle. I say "pen pals" loosely because we lived five minutes away from each other and saw each other every day in school. But for a good year, we wrote back and forth to each other and even wrote a story together. Each person would write a portion, usually leaving a cliff hanger for the other person to pick up on. I remember ripping open her letters to read her latest addition to our story and trying to top it in suspense. Later (I would guess sixth grade), I took the story line and loosely drew it out into a new story. I filled an entire notebook writing that story, although I never ended it.

So my days have been consumed making an absolute mess of the living room, then sorting it all out and boxing it away. I wanted to bring the ladder in and possibly store these boxes in the attic, but I was stopped by the presence of one of these lovely beetles in our garage.

Not my actual photo, but these suckers are frickin' huge! For those interested in not being able to sleep at night, you can research more about the palo verde beetle. I like to think Pepper would protect us from this beetle if one ever managed to get in. And then I would build a glass box in which to live out the remainder of the summer. 

I do NOT want to encounter one of those falling on my head as I'm balancing on a ladder. So I immediately nixed the idea of exploring the tiny attic space. I still have yet to see our attic. I couldn't make it to the home inspection, so John has been able to see much more of our house than me. At this rate, I may never see the attic.

So, the items were tucked away in the spare bedroom closet, and I have again turned my head to creating new items to list on Etsy. I have a feeling this store is going to be near impossible to keep up during the school year. We shall cross that bridge sooner than later...first day of school starts August 12 with the kiddos!

Pinterest Interest

My black framed jewelry organizer is getting all sorts of attention. It has 5 repins! 

Ok, so some of them are repinning as a craft idea of their own, but still. The same goes for the coral necklace, but it is getting some attention, too!