Creative Dungeon Progress!

I made some progress on the Creative Dungeon, which is what I refer to my crafty space as.  Thankfully, my sister-in-law helped me out!  Of course I let her go "shopping" through some of the stuff I have for sale ;)

I'm SO glad eBay is having another sale starting tomorrow.  I have a little over 800 items to list!

I've started listing stockings on Etsy in the past few days.  I hope to have more up this year than ever before.

My crafty area needs to be semi-set up/cleaned up so that when my twin nieces visit next weekend we have plenty of room to craft!  So, really trying to work on that this weekend/next week.

Then, I really have to get it set up and ready for the great Christmas Crafting Rush! 

I'm hoping to outdo my sales records once again this year.  I really need it ... I have several bills that I'm hoping to pay off between now and Christmas.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it happens!  This means we'll be buying people less things for Christmas ... which in turn means I'll be giving more handmade items!

It's Been a While ...

It's been a couple years, huh?  HAHAH.

Well, I'm going to attempt to keep this blog up once again.

I've found myself busy with Etsy and eBay orders, and not a lot of time for things like blogging.  But!  The summer time is my slower time, so I'm hoping to get this going again.

I've been starting my Christmas stuff earlier and earlier every year, and it seems to work really well, as my sales have increased every year.  Last year I started around October.  This year I hope to get an even earlier start:  August!  I'd actually like to at least get some planning and scheduling of my time done while we're in July though. 

I know I'll be making my usual stockings, and my jewelry and hair bows have done really well recently.  I'm thinking about adding other sewn things like pot holders, bookmarks, cat mats, cat toys, etc.  We'll see!

It's Holiday time!

So we're right smack dab in the middle of the holiday season, which, naturally, is my busy time.

I've vended another craft show since my last update, the Knoxville Mommies Holly-Day Bazaar. It was small but fun! I was really tired, not sleeping the night before, but I was lucid enough, hahah.

I decided to give up NaNoWriMo this year. I just couldn't do it. Between family obligations, selling things on etsy, vending three shows? It was too overwhelming.

But etsy seems to be doing well for me this year, even more so than last. I've already sold more stockings this season so far than all of last season put together! I just hope it stays pretty consistent.

I'm off to SEWSEWSEW!

Vending at the Knoxville Creative Hands Etsy Teams Fall/Holiday show went okay. I sold enough to break even, so that's always a plus!

I did have a great time meeting new crafters and artists. And I handed a lot of cards out, so maybe that will show on my etsy sales.

Speaking of etsy sales, it's picking up more and more all the time and I'm loving it. I've been keeping quite busy.

The next show that I'm vending is the 2nd annual Holly-Day Bazaar put on by the Knoxville Mommies (www.knoxvillemommies.com). I'm looking forward to it. I really wanted to vend their event last year, but things just got too hectic. I hope there's a great turnout!

I haven't even thought about what to craft up as Christmas gifts for this year, since I've been busy making things to sell. I need to get on that.

Today is day 10 of NaNoWriMo. I'm sitting at a horrible, PUNY word count of 6,948 words. As of tomorrow I should be at 18,337. Not doing so hot at NaNo this year. I'm not so far behind that I can't catch up though. I wish I could have some 5-7k days like I did last year, but as I said earlier I'm so busy! I mean, I tried to make writing a priority today, but wound up with a horrible headache. So, I only wrote 630 words today.

Sigh.

Well, I guess I can try to get back to it for a bit before bed!

I'm back!

Well, well, well. I haven't kept up with this blog AT ALL.

I guess the holiday spirit is what makes me remember, lol.

I've been working on stockings, hope to have at least 50 new ones this year. Also, I'm in the process of figuring out what to craft up for Christmas gifts.

Annnnd today is day one of NaNoWriMo! I wound up with a little over 50k last November, barely making it, but I did it. I vow to do it again this year. I wrote 1,918 words today. Which is awesome, since I only have to fit in 1,667 a day.

Tomorrow I *hope* I can get that many words in ... my husband and I are going to see Danzig, so I won't have a lot of time. But a lot of fun will be had ;)

I made about 45 pairs of Christmas earrings, and around 20 or so Christmas necklaces today!

I've already done one craft show for the holiday season, the Unique Gift Expo. I did so/so at it, handed out a lot of cards. My etsy business is starting to pick up as well.

I'm doing another show November 12-13th, this time it will be an all etsy seller show. I'll post more details on that later though. There's another one coming up on the 20th that I'm pretty sure I'll be doing. :)

Now I'm off to think about my story a bit more, and maybe relax a bit!

It's a new year!

Wow, so November 17th was my last post.

I had planned on posting all through December, with all of the Christmas crafting I was doing. It got so overwhelming that I was unable to do so.

I didn't even get around to everything I had planned on!

Argh.

Plus, I did really well on etsy over the holidays. Sold quite a few stockings! If only I sold as much stuff on there all year round as I do during Christmas, lol.

Well, it's a new year, time for new crafts!

I plan on crafting for myself more this year than I have in recent years. I've been so overwhelmed with crafting for other people and my crafty business that I've neglected doing things for myself a bit.

Costuming.

I have a few different costumes that I need to get going on. I think I'll type up a separate post for that.

Stuff around the house.

I want to make some tissue cozies, pillowcases, a bathroom set.

I've already started tackling my organization issue, which I'm really proud of!

Well, I hope to have sporadic updates here. I am doing another writing 50k words in one month session in February, but I'm not going to stress over it like I did in November.

I look forward to this year, and what it holds!

I've been so horrible at posting to this blog!

NaNoWriMo has taken a huge chunk out of my month though. That, and I just had my Book Nerd Girls group cabin weekend, and all of the New Moon craziness this week/weekend!

I'm getting there on the NaNoWriMo novel though. I am very close to hitting 39,000 words. I should do that tonight. I'm hoping to hit 40k tomorrow, then 10k to go before finishing NaNoWriMo! Of course, the book won't be finished at 50k. But from there, I can relax a little. Then time for rewrites, and...whew. Don't need to dwell on that right now, lol.

I wanted to finish more than half of my Christmas crafting by the end of November, but so far I've only finished making a few pairs of baby shoes, a present for my hubster, a few patterns to make things for other people, and plotted some of my baking.

I still have so, oh-so-very much to do!

It's not that I haven't crafted though. I've done my crafting for things to sell, mostly etsy stuff though. I'll always put my orders first :)

I did get an order for a dozen "Gay Bar" soaps, and they were so fun to make! I don't get nearly as many soap orders as I once did, and I don't post as many on etsy. But when I do get them, I love, love, love making them. My whole house smells wonderful from them too! I'll have to post a picture of those soon.

Well, off to finish up my writing for the night, and possibly fit a little smidgen of crafting in too before bed! Goodnight!