a late holiday craft fair wrap up

Normally I write a holiday craft fair update post in you know...November. Not late January. This year I made sure to promote my shows on Facebook and Instagram, but I totally dropped the ball on posting pictures of my booth and writing about how shows were going. Now that all of the holiday craziness is over, I've finally gone through the few pictures that I did take during the 2014 holiday shows. I'm sharing them here today for any and all who are interested. Enjoy.

 

How were your 2014 holiday shows?

2013 Goal Wrap Up

2013 was my second year of setting long-term goals for myself, and I'm excited to share how things have gone this past year.

1. Work out twice a week. I met this goal for all but a few months of the year. Many of you already know that I had to let a lot of things slide this fall to keep up with a demanding freelance writing load, wedding happenings, and craft fairs. Working out was one of those things that just didn't happen sometimes. However, overall, I'm still pretty happy about my progress with this area of my life. Also, Jake and I finally got an exercise bike in December, which is something that we've been talking about doing ever since we bought a house (two and a half years ago). It is already completely revolutionizing indoor workouts around here.

2. Create a weekly cleaning schedule and stick with it. I have done a good job sticking to a weekly schedule for cat chores and daily tasks. I've followed more of an every other week schedule for the other cleaning that has to get done around the house at least a few times per month. While it would be amazing to fit everything into a weekly schedule, I'm not sure that it's feasible for a house of this size with three cats and me and Jake both working full-time. That's okay. I've still made a lot of progress in this area of my life.

3. Double my December 2012 HubPages earnings. This just doesn't happen this year. It was a letdown after making so much growth in my earnings during 2012, but it's simply the nature of passive income earning. I also didn't have the time to devote to building and maintaining passive earnings in 2013 that I did in 2012 due to expanding my freelance client load so much and the time that I had to spend elsewhere (again, wedding). I think I could have had higher numbers in the fall if I'd been able to write new seasonal articles and do more promotion...but I didn't. My numbers were still solid, and I'm confident that I can maintain, if not continue to increase, my earnings in 2014.

4. Maintain a minimum of 2,000-3,000 words per day on weekdays. I've already discussed at some length this year that I solidly met this goal, which was a huge accomplishment. No matter what type of writing you do, if you're serious about doing it full-time, this should be your minimum. The bottom line is that you simply won't pull substantial earnings and won't improve your craft if you aren't maintaining this level. No, it certainly wasn't always easy, and there have been times this year that I seriously burned out. But I kept with it and am stronger for it.

5. Participate in 10 craft fairs. I ended up with 9 craft fairs for 2013. I'm glad that I stuck with 9 solid shows and didn't take a chance on a new one just to hit that number. I recently figured out my total for the year so I could file my state sales tax and was shocked to learn that I earned more at shows in 2013 than 2012. It didn't always feel like I was achieving that. There are still changes that I want to make for 2014, but I have a lot more confidence going into the next year of shows than I did when I wrapped up my 2013 shows a month ago.

6. Learn one new Photoshop Elements skill per week. If you've been keeping up with my goal updates, you already know that I changed the focus of this goal during the summer when I purchased Lightroom. Shooting in RAW and using Lightroom almost exclusively for my photo editing has taken my photography to a whole new level. I do still continue to learn new Elements skills as needed, and I continue to open Picasa (my old default) to do simple editing (largely adding borders and text to photos for articles, taking screen captures, and making collages) pretty regularly as well. I've found a mix that works for my photo editing and am excited to keep learning new Elements and Lightroom skills as I further my photography.

7. Start to monetize my photography. I have Zazzle, deviantART, and SmugMug accounts going, and I launched my Etsy photography shop in September. Getting all of these accounts / shops going was something of an accomplishment in and of itself. I have had a couple sales. It would have been nice to push new products and do more holiday promotions in the fall, but again, that just didn't happen this year. As I have so much in place now, it won't be hard to further it in 2014.

8. Participate in 6 BBA challenges. I had reached 4 challenges by my third quarter check in during September. Not long after that, our team decided to drop the challenge requirement to 4 challenges per year. With everything else going on this fall, I was happy to keep my total of 4 and not push a couple more of them. I found plenty of other ways to challenge myself in 2013 and don't feel like I'm lacking in any way.

9. Maintain focus on expanding my best selling lines/items. This concept remains something of a struggle for me. I am so happy to have items and lines that do well, but I also want to keep trying new ideas. It's tough to find a balance to keep my creative side happy and still keep my shop going. I know that many of you face similar challenges. While it's nice not to get crazy stressed out during these holiday rushes, it's also nice not to stress about creating loads of inventory all year long. Overall I did a good job meeting this goal, particularly during the times that it mattered the most, namely the fall / holiday show season and the height of holiday sales on Etsy. There were times that I had to keep items off of Etsy so I could have them in stock for shows, but that's okay.

10. Maintain focus on ensuring consistency for my craft fair booth and my business in general. I am very happy with the new branding that I created for 2013 and am sticking with it for 2014. I have a very good idea what is and isn't working about my business and am ready to make some changes for 2014 that will hopefully be for the better and that will build on my branding and the other good things that I do have in place for my business.

How did your 2013 goals go? I have been reading a lot of great goal wrap up posts the past couple weeks. If you wrote one, feel free to leave a link the comments!

Stay tuned tomorrow for my 2014 goals!

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some 2013 highlights

Happy Christmas Eve!

I wanted to take a little time today to highlight just a few of the notable things that happened in 2013.

 In December 2012, I got my first SLR, and Jake and I adopted two kittens, Apollo and Ares. I was beyond excited about both of these happenings, but I had no idea how much they would change my life in 2013. Getting an SLR is has empowered me in a way that I never would have anticipated, and our little guys have amazing personalities that keep us smiling and laughing every day. If you're on the fence about either of these decisions in your life, I highly recommend taking the plunge.

I'll write more about my 2013 goals during the first week of January, but this one deserves special mention here. I achieved my goal of writing a minimum of 2,000-3,000 words per weekday. All year. This was another extremely empowering thing in my life this year. I had some of the busiest months of my entire life this fall (which says a lot because I worked full-time, went to grad school part-time, and started my Etsy jewelry shop while my husband was in med school). These fall months taught me how to be efficient in pretty much everything that I do in a whole new way and that includes my writing.

 

In 2013, I saw I'm Not a Pilot seven times and saw my brother perform with 3 different groups in 2 different cities on more than half a dozen different occasions. I saw two musicals: The Book of Mormon in Chicago and Wicked in Milwaukee. I got to see the MSO perform twice, including a performance at the Basilica in Milwaukee. I also saw Mumford and Sons and David Cook, and I got to see a live comedy show with the cast of Archer. Will 2014 top this staggering list? Only time will tell.

 I feel like I talk a lot about how blessed Jake and I are to have so many friends in Milwaukee. We had a hard time finding people to relate to and socialize with during the four years that we lived in Iowa City. Four years is a long time, especially when you live in a place with very little close family and no old friends. Milwaukee has been a completely different experience. We are constantly out and about here with a wide variety of different people doing everything from eating out to going to concerts to taking brewery tours.

My brother got married to an amazing woman who I'm honored to call my sister-in-law. I was blessed to see a lot of my immediate and extended family multiple times in 2013 for the wedding and wedding-related events in the fall as well as my dad's 60th birthday party over the summer.

I took...a lot of pictures. I don't have a total count, but it's somewhere in the range of 15,000-16,000 shots. I get a lot of questions about photography, particularly on the topic of improvement. The bottom line is that if you want to improve in something, you have to get out there and work on it. Every single week.

The path to a career as a physician is a long uphill road. While a lot of aspects of it have gotten better each year, 2013 wasn't just a couple more baby steps. It was a huge leap. It's hard to believe that Jake and I are finally nearing the end of this very long road. 2013 has not been an easy year, but it is one of the best that I've had in a long time.

What are some of your 2013 highlights? If you wrote a post about this topic, please feel free to leave a link!

April / May show wrap up

Today I'm sharing photos of and feedback about the craft shows that I had the past two weekends.

One of the biggest things that I did for these two shows is shoot, edit, and prepare a whole new set of photos for my banner. You can see the previous set here. I love the white photo backgrounds with the white banner. I'll be able to use this set for the remainder of 2013, if not longer.

I am really glad that I moved the bulk of my button bracelets to this spot in my set up. They get a lot more attention over here. I don't necessarily sell more of them, but they draw people into my booth.

My $15-$40 lines have lots of space to shine in the middle of my display.

My lower end show only items get a lot of attention in this spot, which is great, because I count on them always selling. It's great to get the bigger purchases, but the smaller purchases add up, too. I really like the way that I've organized the earrings as well. It's much less cluttered, and as a result, I have already had a good number of earring sales for 2013.

The first of the two shows was okay. The set up and tear down process was somewhat of a logistical nightmare, but the traffic was better than expected. Sales were a little slow but steady. For the most part, customers were cheery and happy to engage in conversation with the vendors, which goes a long way toward making a day go more quickly.

The second of the two shows was great. I had done it the year before and was looking forward to being back there again. I didn't set any sales records, but it was a solid day for me. We had really great crowds all day. I love shows where there are a wide range of customers from families with little kids to high school and college couples to older people, and this was definitely one of those shows.

Out of the three shows that I've done so far in 2013, I would definitely go back to two of them, which is a pretty great way to start the year. I also did well enough at the other one to make it worth the day so I can't complain.

Finally, this is what happens when I vend craft shows with friends who like to take pictures.

You know you wish that you could hang out with me all day at shows.

How are you 2013 craft fairs going?

first 2013 show wrap up

This past weekend I had my first craft fair for 2013. It was a brand new show with a very low booth fee, which made it hard to know what to expect. As there was such a low cost, I figured it would be a good opportunity to try out some of my new 2013 show ideas without a lot of pressure. The good news is that not only was I able to do that, it also turned out to be a great experience.

The big picture. The overall layout is still largely unchanged. I'm happy with the open square shape and was able to make the changes that I wanted within it. As I've mentioned before, I am planning to update the banner photos throughout 2013. I haven't gotten very far with that project so I didn't mess with it for this show.

Smaller show items. I brought back the boxed tack set idea from late 2011, and I bought a larger dry erase board and easel display for my glass magnets. Both of these ideas really paid off at this show. There was much less general confusion about what these items even were, and I sold considerably more of both of them than I did at most 2012 shows. I created new price signs for my entire display, but otherwise, my small items displays were largely unchanged because they've been working just fine.

Restocking and reorganizing. As I've mentioned before, I am doing my best to keep best selling items in stock for 2013, which includes these celestial pieces. I had the blue and purple designs back for this show with both bracelets and earrings. I paired down the amount of jewelry that I displayed, which allowed all of the items that were that to be more spaced out. I'm so glad that I did that.

Further reorganization. You get a better idea of the pairing down in this photo. The bottom line is that it is extremely rare that I sell high-end items at shows. My only high end lines that sell consistently are my leaf series and my dagger bracelets. I took everything else above $30 out for this show. I was worried about how this would go, but people were still suitably impressed with my beading skills and were just as interested in these two higher end lines as ever, if not more so, as they really got to shine. I'm still going to keep the higher items on Etsy, but they will be less of a focus at shows.

I also took out my big greeting card box and left the small displays with my few designs that have done well. I'm going to keep adding more sheet music designs in 2013. The "just a note" design was still popular, and I sold at least one additional set as well.

Putting my button lines front and center. The button bracelet line that you can see right in the front is always one of my most discussed lines at shows. They sell decently well, but they always get comments. So I put them up front. As you can see, I really need to add a few more, but people loved what was there and also spent more time looking at the button charm bracelets than they normally do.

I know that I'm inevitably going to have future shows that aren't as great where it doesn't matter what I do with my booth, but it was a huge boost to have such a good show so early in 2013. I'm excited about how well all of my booth changes went and how well people continue to enjoy my original bracelet designs and small ticket show items. Overall a lot of vendors and customers were happy with this new show, so hopefully the school will decide that it's worth considering again for next year.

I already have a "to do" list with half a dozen items so it's probably just as well that my next show isn't until next month! I'm looking forward to it, though.

Does anyone else have spring shows this year? How are your preparations going?

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2012 Goal Wrap Up

Happy New Year!

I hope that 2013 is getting off to a great for everyone.

2012 is the first year that I ever set long term goals for myself. There are a number of reasons why it seemed like a good time in my life to take on the challenge, and it went well. I'm wrapping up my 2012 goals today and will roll out my 2013 goals later this week.

1.  Have 140 sales on Etsy in my randomcreative shop.
I set this goal with the expectation that having 100 sales for the year would still be considered a success, as I was striving to have 2+ sales per week. As of December 30, I had 94 sales for the year, which works out to approximately 1.8 sales per week. This is a significant increase from 2011. Also, I had quite a few more sales during the latter half of the year, which is exciting.

2. Introduce and continue to develop my new herringbone line and its charm/pendant components.
I did successfully introduce and continue to develop my herringbone designs and charm/pendant components. I have sold a handful of charms and pendants this year. I did sell one herringbone piece at one of my fall craft shows. This is the third year that I've introduced a brand new line for my shop that included a lot of build up and promo, and it's the third year that it's gone nowhere. As I'll discuss more later this week, I'm going to put more of a focus on expanding my existing successful lines. Of course I will not stop experimenting with new ideas, but I'm not going to another big build up for a new line like I have the past few years.

3.  Double my current long term earnings on HubPages.
I reached this goal very early on in 2012, which was really amazing. I did not hit it every month this year, but I reached it for the majority of the months this year. Back in January, I said that ideally I'd like to triple my earnings by the end of the year. Amazingly enough, I did this in both November and  December.

4.  Make at least one new greeting card design per week.
I'm pretty positive that I didn't make one new design per week, but this is largely because my music note design did well at shows during the fall. I put most of my focus the final few months of the year on keeping this design stocked. I still explored a lot of new paper techniques this year, which was fun and a good way to mix up my creative routine, and am glad that I hit on a winner that fits so well with my shop.

5.  Expand my craft show lines.
I'm still kind of in shock how much I was able to expand my craft show lines this year. For my 2011 fall shows, my only new item was button tacks. While some of my lines have been more successful than others, I have a lot of great success to build on in this area for 2013.

6.  Complete a minimum of 6 EBW challenges and 6 BBA challenges.
I met this goal before my October goal check in and backed off for the final few months of the year, largely due to my focus on client writing, the HubPages AP program, and craft shows. As many of you already know, I was also completely through with the EBW team well before October and quit in early December. I'm looking forward to participating in the BBA challenges again in 2013.

7.  Participate in 4-6 craft shows.
During 2012, I participated in two open houses and seven craft fairs. Some shows were much better than others, but overall, I consider it to be a successful year for shows and am looking forward to upping this goal for 2013.

8.  Starting making this blog more profitable.
I'm going to reiterate my comments about this goal from my last check in: I commented during summer check in that I'm making regular earnings from my blog ads and by regular earnings, I mean consistent, not large, amounts of money. Some people thought that this was snarky. Believe me, there are so many snarky things that I could say about this topic that I did not say. That wasn't my intent. I simply don't want a lot of comments asking me how to get rich with this type of blog because I'm not. I put a lot of time into my blog and am happy that it does pay off financially just a little bit.

9.  Better list making organization.
My goal probably should have been to not only better organize my lists but also put them digital form. The truth is that I find writing by hand very satisfying and am not planning to give it up in this aspect of my life any time soon. Regardless, I still did an excellent job organizing my list and keeping up with the new system all year. I even made adaptations to the system as needed.

Thanks for all of the support and encouragement with all of my endeavors during 2012! I look forward to sharing my 2013 goals in a couple days. 

How did your 2012 goals go?

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