365 / 138 - woodland works in progress

Yesterday I didn't have much time for sewing (boo!) but I snuck some in just before I went to bed, doing a little stitching on some of my works-in-progress from my "restocking" pile:
The tree stumps got embroidered and stitched to their green background, and the large oak leaves got appliqued ready to be embroidered another time. All done to the lovely sounds of BBC7 - mostly an adaptation of "Mort" by Terry Pratchett because I am a nerd, you see.

Today I have been mucking about with my Etsy shop: editing a few listings, adding a few details into my profile, cutting my shop announcement down to a couple of lines so my "featured items" show up immediately, and making a new banner. My previous banner -
- was knocked up in Paint in a rush when I first set up shop a year ago and had been there ever since. I'm pleased with the change but the current one is a work-in-progress as it needs some colour. I've been taking pictures of some felt to use as a backdrop for the lettering, but I will need to experiment for a little bit before I settle on a colour to use.

I may start using sheets of felt as a backdrop for photographing my brooches, too, but this idea is definitely at the drawing board stage only! Many test photos to take before I decide yay or nay. Here's the first one to give you an idea of what I mean...
... better than the plain white backdrop I normally use? or would it distract from the colours in the item itself? Any thoughts?

Ooh, and I also got the first of my 1st of January Etsy-spree purchases in the post today: a super-cute "tea makes everything better" writing set from CharlieMotel. Her shop is easily in the top ten cute shops on Etsy, her illustrations are just darling. A fellow UK-Etsian, too, which is always nice...

365 / 137 - an army of squirrels

Cute as they are, I wouldn't want to mess with these little guys...
... especially as there are four more of them around here somewhere (I'd temporarily misplaced them when I took that picture this morning!).

As you may guess, I made lots of squirrels yesterday (soon to be lots of squirrelly brooches). Wonderfully, there was just enough light outside this morning to take pictures of them and my other new designs. Unfortunately it was so cold (doing its best to snow) and windy that I only managed to get half my pictures taken before I had to come indoors again and warm myself up. Brr! If you want a squirrel of your own they'll be listed in the shop this evening, along with all of this lot:

365 / 136 - preparing to take photos

Yesterday I decided to get all the designs I've been working on finished and photo-ready for this morning, adding lots of brooch backs and stitching fronts and backs together and putting all my unlisted items together, thus:
... but then I got up this morning and it was so dark! We had the lights on for the whole day, and after taking that one photo my camera refused to focus and take any more pics (and using a flash in listing photos is worse than taking no pictures at all, frankly). More annoying than there are words for. Hopefully in the next couple of days we will have a little more light, as I plan on adding all my new designs to the shop over the next week or so.

To make room for all these exciting new things, I have set up a new section in my shop: Last Chance to Buy. This imaginatively named section is stocked with soon-expiring things which for one reason or another will not be relisted when they expire, so it's your last chance to buy them before they disappear from my shop.

365 / 135 - A Quiet New Year, and some Resolutions

Happy New Year! No wild parties for me last night, just a quiet and cosy night in doing some sewing...
I was so pleased with the woodland creatures I made on day 134 that I started cutting out pieces to make a few more, and I worked on 3 new designs as well: an antlered deer, a little fawn and a feather. I'm very pleased with the deer but the lighter, cuter fawn ought to have all-white detailing I think.
I am so pleased that it's January. After crazy pre-Christmas shipping, being ill, and eating far too much chocolate over the holiday I feel absolutely ready to start new things, tackle new projects and stick to new year's resolutions.

My crafty resolutions for this year are
1) To be more serious and business-like in my approach to my work, to run my business better and to promote it more actively.
2) To make lots of things in batches (higher stock levels means much less stress for me) but not at the expense of trying out lots and lots and lots of new designs.
3) To stick with my 365 project, missing out as few days as possible!

2008 is also the year of getting our flat sorted out - we have so many unpacked boxes, unhung pictures, curtainless windows, unfinished DIY projects etc, this is the year for tackling them. My pre-Christmas "give something away every day" project has finished but I'll be keeping it in mind and doing lots of spring cleaning. One of the first household tasks "to do" is attending to my potplants, giving them some love and attention and potting up some cuttings I've been rooting on my kitchen windowsill in teeny little herb jars:
It seems that 2008 will be a year filled with Etsy shopping, too. It's only 12 hours into the new year and I've already been on an Etsy shopping spree! I tried so hard to treat myself to something on the high street with my Christmas money (bargainous post-Christmas sales and all) but there was just nothing nice to be had so Etsy-shopping it had to be. Details about my shopping another time, but for now here's a picture of the lovely Etsy post that arrived yesterday, from Blomma:
The lupin cards are to be sent out in special parcels (like the celebratory free-gift-packed parcel I sent out to the buyer of my 500th item) and the dahlia is a lovely freebie. I really like how it's a thankyou from the seller and a free gift. Such nice cards, from a lovely friendly seller. Also the coloured envelopes are just yum (I'm a sucker for a fancy envelope).