Another collage for kid's room and a fancy egg box filled with bits and bobs. We had butterflies in the house and cat has adapted to his new home...
My favorite season is (obviously)...spring!
I can't wait for spring again...
Last May I made my first "serious" bag and I got thrilled when after few days it was sold on Etsy... May is my favorite month...I was born in May. If I had a daughter today, I would probably name her...May!!!
The beggining of 2007 was very hectic for me and my family. We've moved to this town and for couple of months I was too terribly busy and feeling tired, despite all that, I enjoyed ordering my moo cards and building my first bulletin board for our fridge in February, making a Valentine box for my kids, receiving flowers from him and having fun with a space that I could call my own. The month of March was truly beautiful. I worked on some fancy Easter Eggs. I did not get to give them away, simply because they were too cute and sometimes I am selfish. Haha! Kids were participating on little projects and I also made a cute collage for my son's room using a squared canvas, a branch of an aspen tree, buttons, cork, paint and felt. He just adored it!
Next: April and May.
Before leaving...did you hear about this? So sad...I've enjoyed every issue of it!
I was not going to blog today, but something has been deeply annoying since I started to sell handmade things. Price. How to price my items. I know some of you that stop by this blog have an Etsy shop too or you sell some place else. You probably face the same dilemma. I don't know about you, but sometimes I feel like selling myself short. I've stumbled over this and this articles about how to price our handmade creations, you might wanna take a look.
My husband truly supports my hobby, it is a hobby for now, I keep repeating that, because I (obviously) don't make a living with things I sell. I've sold very few things (all the bags sold out), but I am proud of it. Because it's a hobby, the profits can cover the expenses of supplies I buy. So...my husband is actually paying for me to play with my sewing machine! Probably, yours too. It's cool, but he tells me..."you gotta be kidding me, that you are selling these bags for that price, gosh Zee, you are giving them away!!!" Ooops, he is very realistic. I am too, but I often forget about all I go through to make one bag, for example. Just like everyone else, I go out to shop for fabric. I like to see the fabric in person, I like to touch and visualize patterns and look for delightful combos. This is one of the best parts of the job. I often go with little one, that hates the store and will bug me all the time to go home fast. I go home and right away, I wash and dry all the fabric. But hey, I also spent money with sewing notions: Ribbons, buttons, laces, thread, batting and the list can be endless. If you are a seamstress, you know how much supplies you need to start working.
After drying, I press with iron. I fold all the fabric and they go to my small stack on the shelf. Sometimes I will take several weeks to make something with them. I will be waiting for ideas and energy to make it. Sometimes I just don't feel like making anything, one more reason to say that what I do is a hobby. The day(if ever happens) I take it for a real job, I will have to set up hours of work and even hire someone to help me...that's only a dream!!! Haha! Continuing with my little rant. My husband asks..."how many hours do you put in just one bag?" I whisper... "hmmm, it depends, as I usually like to embroider and make it slowly as I am not super experienced on making them (but that doesn't mean they are not well made)...I think 5 - 6 hours each." He laughs and one more time he says..."you gotta be kidding me that you are selling them for that price!!!" I reply..."well, at least pays for some supplies." Shame on me. I feel stupid.
I believe that there are a lot of talented people that don't even start making things by hand just because they would not feel happy selling what they would create. They just don't believe that buyers would pay a "fair" price for their items. Some people start it and quit it quickly, after all the hassle of puting so much time and money on handmade projects. Sometimes, they just don't sell anything and get really frustrated. In my case...I don't know what is gonna happen...
From the site linked above, here is one of the things that caught my atention: "Finally – and importantly, when pricing consideration needs to be given to what the market will bear. There is no point carefully making a bag or purse, or embroidering a cushion, working out the costs factoring all the elements above, and then finding you are selling a $50 item at a craft market where the average price of items is $5! Make sure you have the right market for your work – and correspondingly the right work for the market. Look around for the right place to sell your $50 cushions, and make the right products to sell at a market where the average price of goods is $5."
Reading that, I ask to myself...is my dream of work from home reasonable? Should I insist? Are people willing to pay the price I think is fair for me? What people really think about my designs?Should I think big just because I've been lucky selling few things on Etsy and getting good feedbacks? Is Etsy right for me? Too many questions darlings...I just don't have the answers at the moment. I just finished 2 bags last night and all I feel is happiness for all the handmade process. It includes great feelings, that no money will pay. If I seat by a sewing machine it's because these great feelings I have, not because the money...but I have to rethink prices, I really do. Hubby is a hard worker guy and my hobby is also a hard work with lots of love. One of a kind, unique, special. That said, here are my new babies... and oooh, yes, if you care reading about Etsy's a bit more...here is a link for you. And ooooh, yes, I forgot that after making them, I have to take photos, edit photos and upload them to the web...so you figure it out! But...other questions bother me...do people really consider handmade goodies? Do buyers really know all the process we go through? If they do, why so many cheap handmade things out there??? Do people think big or do they just wanna pay for their supplies and have fun? Sigh.
Don't we always see those diagrams, graphics on craft magazines and books, teaching us how to stitch and do other things on sewing? Well, sometimes they are not very clear, speacially if we don't have experience at all. Videos are helpful and let me share with you what I found recently over You Tube...
I have edited most of photographs that I consider quite good to upload to Etsy. I definetely don't know how long I will insist on Photography, since being on the computer has been tiresome. I am lucky to have sold 7 photos. So far, so good. It is. Pessimistically, face it...it's nothing. Etsy is hard work. Their search engine is not efficient and a lot of people never heard about Etsy. You gotta upload items all the time to get views and I am not up to it! Plus, I think people is looking for light, bright, moody, modern vintage looks. It's hip, it's hot now, isn't it? I personally like very much some photographers of Etsy that rock at the moment. I am complaining, it's a shame. Etsy is a cool site, I really like it even if is not perfect. I am just not feeling right at the moment, sorry.
I might try Ecrater or Bigcartel. Have you ever heard about them? I might set up the shops when I feel motivated, ha! I think my photos don't make people dream...I like them a lot (that is what matters), I am printing some for myself and hanging on the walls. Fixing, editing, playing my old Photoshop Elements...not buying the CS3 for a while, since I don't go crazy on computer anymore. I don't even pretend being a mom web designer (hahaha!) like few months ago...too much information, too much media just made me tired. Show and tell is also getting boring...seriously? I am an agnostic. All these blabs about sales...worries if sells or not...it's like I really need that. I keep asking myself if it's really important for me or not. So strange... but, who cares? Let me just vent!
Imac? Refused, no thanks. Back to store. Wii, gee...do we really need it? No, thanks, back to store. Those sellers are probably hiding everytime we go in...hehe. In the bookstore I felt confident pulling half dozen crafty books from the shelves. What a feast! I just love to look at the photos and read these...happier now! Christmas gifts. Anxiety can't way for Santa.
Janaina's mom made flowers for me. I bought from her. She crocheted them pretty well and hopefully I will use them sometime...
Monday is the day that I might feel happier of fall apart at once. Monday is the day. It shall be a good day. I am tired to wait for Monday. I don't really like waiting...it's been a month and you are not understanding anything, hu? I know...
My son loves drawing. His teacher told me how she is amazed that at this age he does 3D drawings and he thinks out of the box. Smile on my face. His favorite toys are paper and crayons, but he also plays with apples and pears (not only apples and pears though). That's funny. Last night he had an apple and a pear in hands. They were talking to each other! Some sort of make believe. Now he is seating on my lap and he wants to know about my childhood. How my home looked like, how my school looked like and I keep telling how...I tell, he draws. I had a rooster. A big beautiful rooster and every morning he would climb on my window to look at me. That rooster was something else. He did not have a name, but he loved to see me. I saw his birth. I actually helped opening the egg. I had 3 more chickens, they were my pets. Two hens and two roosters. The rooster that loved to climb on my windown had to leave, because he had bad temper. He would hurt people and the other chickens. Well...I miss my rooster! Sigh. It's snowing now. Pensiveness.
It's been a while and it was good! Right now it's raining a lot, we got the first snow, a tiny bit and it's super cold!!! It's finally saturday. These days were really busy. My workspace is taking shape. We got shelves in the closet, pegboard on the wall, new rug, new chair...I just don't know if I wanna paint the walls. Maybe. Blue or acqua would be the choice, but I like the way it is now - very light ivory.
These last months I had to rethink my time, my priorities in life and it's working good. Making things, showing them for you is important, because make me feel more productive, creative, keeps me sane. Being a stay at home mom is hard work. As you know, a 24/7 job, and no days off at all. The routine can bring me sadness or even a little bit of depression, imagining that I could be working on something really cool, attending classes somewhere... but the coolest thing is happening now and sometimes I get lost, sometimes I just forget about it!!! This statement is going personal. I planned to do not bring personal wisperings here, but (oooh, it's snowing really good out there!!!!!) is not easy, right? Well, my children are the most important for me and they deserve the best. They love my attention, they love when I play with them. There will be a time that I will be by myself in this house. I am learning to organize my time now, to appreciate every moment. It's satisfying to make things for the house, to give attention to my family, to see my home the way I wanted. One day, my children won't be here anymore. I will be old. They will grow up. I will miss this time now, little toes, baby faces, funny things they say...
Yes, I wasn't in the mood for blogging at all. I rather take brakes than just delete my domain like I used to do sometime ago...
Mr. M. came home with a gift for our bed. We don't know the quilter's name, but she offered it at my husband's work. He thought that I would like it too. I did. I just regret buying that greenish bedding, it's ugly...ugh! I don't find much reasonable (for us) prices on california king size beddings. Next time, I might get something from here.
Later, I got curious to know what fabric combination she used to make this quilt. It wasn't difficult to discover them online. Just a few clicks! She made it with Shangri-la, by 3 Sisters for Moda Fabrics. I loved it. Sadly or luckly, here in town we have only 3 fabric shops. One is owned by a local resident and they have Moda, I did not resist bringing home a jelly roll for my next sewings. I am pretty tempted to make a quilt one of these days. That day in the store, they had a class for Bernina users. They also teach quilting and machine embroidery...I wonder if one day I will be able to attend any of those classes!!!
I wrote this post on Saturday, but I did not have the time to finish it with the images...today is Sunday!!!
Zee
♥
mom of 2 little boys, wife, cats, photography, Photoshop, crafts,
sewing, handmade things, Rio de Janeiro, Arizona...
hey, my mother language is
portuguese!
If you like what you see, get a cup of tea and enjoy! Thanks!
♥
