Showing posts with label cross stitch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cross stitch. Show all posts

Thursday, August 24, 2023

Out of the Office

 

Image courtesy of IMGBIN.

The office office, that is....

Today, the day this posts, I'm in my home office, having taken a day off my day job to work on personal stuff. Namely my online pattern store, FanStitches.com. You can visit if you want, but it's a hot mess right now.

I had a day off two weeks ago as well and while I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped--things tend to take longer than we anticipate--I still got enough done that I was happy with my progress. Let's hope today is as productive.

I'm still learning how to navigate Word Press and its block editor as well the ins and outs of the site theme and how it combines different types of data and widgets to create dynamic site pages. I've shied away from learning WordPress for long enough for various reasons, but no more.

I can and I will figure the systems out.

Along with learning the mechanics of the website, I need to gather my pattern ideas, figure out the best way to organize them, and then put together project plans and timelines.

My other order of business is writers group stuff. I have a few things I've been putting off, but I cannae any longer.

Hope you have as productive a day today as I plan to. And here's to a relaxing weekend.

 

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

Thursday, April 27, 2023

Let the Sales Begin...

 

Not book sales. A different kind of sales...

I've had an Etsy store for quite a while now. For the longest time, it had one product, and then, at some point, I decided to expand my offerings.

For the last couple years, one of my annual goals has been to double my inventory. That inventory never materialized in full.

Sure, I could have gone to all that time and effort, but I wouldn't have been able to list everything because as a public marketplace that has to manage back-end technology Etsy charges listing fees. Twenty cents per item for four months. So $.60 a year for item that may or may not get purchased. Multiply that by (currently) 41 items and that's $24.60 a year just in listing fees. Luckily I've sold enough to earn that and a wee bit more, but I can't list everything I have.

So that's a long winded way of saying I've been wanting to have my own website where I can list anything and everything I create--no listing fees for a few years now.

The two things holding me back? Sales tax to other states and a payment system...

The second one was solved recently. I think I mentioned that a couple of weeks ago in advance of the author event at the library. Getting a mobile card reader ended up being a lot easier and simpler than I expected and probably a lot simpler and easier than it was several years ago when I thought about selling books directly from my publishing website. (which I can now also do)

But there was still that pesky sales tax dilemma.

So I finally sat down a couple of weeks ago and researched it. I wasn't sure of what I found, so I reached out to a writer friend who's been gung ho on selling her books from her website for several months now. Not only that, her husband runs a business and sells products online... And she backed up my findings:

I, of course, have to pay sales tax to my own state, which I have done for several years now. I have a TIN and everything. :0) But unless I sell (a minimum of) $100K to another state (some have higher mins), I don't have to worry about collecting and remitting that tax. Woo hoo!!

Unfortunately, I don't know to set up a website hosting account, so I have to enlist the help of DH. I have submitted a help desk ticket and, in the mean time, I need to organize the patterns I have and create new ones.

I'm so excited about finally getting going with this.

Wish me luck and have a great week.

 

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

Friday, July 10, 2020

Well, what do you think...?


...about the new blog theme?


I'm trying to polish my image a little bit and so here we are. :0)

A few more tweaks might be needed, but we'll get there.

* * * * *

I finally finished one of the hockey samplers I'd been working on for forever and now it's finally listed on my Etsy shop, much to my pleasure. That inspired me to poke around the pattern archives and see what else I have in progress and what needs doing.

So, in my spare time, I've been working on additional hockey jerseys, mostly for teams that don't even have one listed for sale at this point. But also planning what the next project to stitch and list will be. Actually, I do have another project that's in some percentage of progress. I just need to dig it out and work on it now.

* * * * *

Fireworks season was a literal sell out across the region. And I don't ever use that word lightly, as you well know. We were the last store standing for miles and miles and had a line that wrapped around the building for hours. We had product to sell, but because we were so busy without ANY lulls--and I'm not kidding here--the best we could do was open a box of something and put the box with its side cut off on the shelf. Were we out of some stuff? Yes.

Sparklers? Gone. Roman candles? Gone. Assortment packs, from the $10 variety to the $300 variety? ALL GONE.

The season really was the perfect storm, but I think it put us on the metaphorical map. We had product all the way until the end--which has always been a point of pride for DH.

I don't know how long the wait was from the time a customer arrived until the time they left--as I said, line around the building--but surely no one will hold that against us... We couldn't have fit any more salespeople behind the counter and all I did was take people's money. Thank goodness. I'm not a fan of dealing with customers directly.

But we survived to tell the tale and earned a tidy profit to finally repair a few things around the place. :0)

* * * * *

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Take care and stay safe.


Posted by at 1 comment:
Labels: , , , , ,

Monday, November 5, 2018

I want to write, I should be writing, but...


I'm just feeling out of sorts. DH has been gone supporting his family during a tough time. I haven't been to the gym in a while and I'm feeling the effects of the lack. We're trying to keep the mileage down on the car I have so I haven't gone. When I don't go, I have a hard time being diligent at home, but my body has finally put its metaphorical foot down and I am spending time on the treadmill morning and evening.

But I still keep having thoughts about wanting to write even though the act of sitting down and opening a file had eluded me until Friday. I read through a book I'd written and which is not 100% complete, but close. (story of my life) I wanted to see how close. I spent Friday and Saturday reading and tweaking. Then I exported it to MS Word and now I'm formatting.

I'm still not writing new stuff, but I'm in my work. Not in the manuscript I should be working on either, but at least I'm working on something.

The good news is, there's not much new read in my fandoms and I'm pretty caught up on my various shows. So there's no shiny things to entice me away from writing, even though, again, I do want to.

It's just that when I contemplate it, I suddenly feel wiped out from all the other stuff going on.

At least it's sunny today which will go a long way towards lifting my spirits and keeping them up.

Which is also contributing to the blah...I'm feeling down in the dumps.

Saturday with writer peeps was refreshing and uplifting as it always is when I hang out with these ladies. Sunday was productive in terms of those crafty projects I mentioned a few posts ago. I even finished one...


Hope you had a good weekend.



Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

My latest cross stitch projects...




Yes, they're variations on a theme...but that's okay.

What have you been up to?


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Monday, March 14, 2016

What's next...?


So I finished the epic birth sampler of love--whew--and got it to Micheal's this past weekend for framing. It's scheduled to ready the day before her birthday, but I doubt I'd see her until the weekend following anyhow, so all's well.


It's funny that as soon as I'd finished it, I missed having a project waiting on the table for me to sit and work at, whether for a few minutes or for as long as the notion took me, so I took some time this weekend to see which of my other projects I wanted to tackle.

I've had this thing floating around for years--since the Brown-Eyed Girl was a baby...


It had been unfinished for many many of the intervening years, but sometime in the last couple I must have taken the time. I just need to finish the wooden house frame that came with it and then frame it and then hang it somewhere.

After looking at my various projects, I decided to work on my Harry Potter Spells sampler... Remember, a couple of years ago, I made this for my CP for her birthday:


Well, I want one for myself although I don't want to turn it into a scrolled parchment looking project. I want it to match my Sherlock sampler in looks so I can hang it close by and have them appear similar. I spent the weekend modifying the pattern for my needs/wants. I'm not quite done yet, but another evening or two of tweaking and I should be ready to prep my cloth and start stitching.

Along with my pattern making, I spent Sunday watching hockey and NASCAR (another photo finish!) So a pleasant weekend of relaxing for me... Hope you had a lovely weekend as well.


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

Monday, October 5, 2015

The latest cross stitch project...


About two years ago I started a very ambitious cross stitch project--a birth sampler for my younger daughter. All three of my kids have one, made when they were babies, but DD's was simple and plain and small. She's the middle child and the good one, so she garnered less of our attention as she grew up. Nor is it a secret that Sonshine (the youngest and only boy) is my favorite. Understandably, she has some jealousy.

So I looked online for birth sampler ideas so that I could make her something as special as she is. One particular alphabet showed up again and again and I thought it was perfect, but it was quite detailed. Never-the-less, I purchased the pattern, laid out the design, and purchased the cloth and embroidery floss.

Then I set to stitching, but soon discovered that I wouldn't be able to complete it by Christmas nor probably by her birthday three months later. So I set it aside. And then didn't pick it up again.

Until now. The goal is to finish by her next birthday at the end of next March.

And here's what I've got so far...

These first two pictures are as of Thursday, October 1.



And the second two as of Sunday afternoon...


This is (obviously) one of the letter pattrns.



Am I crazy??



Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Friday, September 18, 2015

Happy Friday!


I'm definitely glad it's Friday...I know, I know, who isn't usually glad it's Friday, right?

But it's been a tough week for DH and I'm glad it's at an end. Not only did we have one of our (two) techs on vacation, but DH was hit with a ton of forensic work, so he'd been going on mostly fumes until last night. He was able to get a full night's sleep finally.

Now, me...my week hasn't been quite that awful. It started off last Sunday with a lovely three plus visit with my dear friend, Nancy. We always have such rich and varied conversations and I can always count on her to be supportive and excited about my fan girl proclivities. Not everyone gets it, but she's been a fan girl herself so she knows whence forth I come! Thanks, Nancy!!!

One of the things we talked about was cross stitching. Nancy used to create patterns for publication a few moons ago, so she's a great critiquer and resource. Anyway, I've been creating original cross stitch patterns and contemplating selling both the completed project as well as the patterns themselves on Etsy. My hand graphed patterns wouldn't be good enough quality to scan and sell, so I researched cross stitch pattern making programs for the computer and found a couple, made a choice and purchased it.

Then of course I had to play with it, and once I got it figured out and one of my patterns created, then printed--what a rush to see my pattern looking all official!! I giggled with glee. I really did. So I've been stitching and digitizing my patterns for the past couple of days. Look, a quick example...it's hard to see and looks much better in physical reality.


Tomorrow is also writers group so I'm excited to see my writer peeps and catch up with them. Our visit was cut short last month as I had another event and had to skip our meeting after the meeting.

So...it's Friday. Hope you have a super weekend!

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)