Etsy Finds Friday

From left - right:

BenAndOliver - Sale 40 Percent Off Modern Circles Necklace

retrofied - Large Reversible Hobo Deer Valley Columbine and Lodge Lattice

shoogi - Love birds on a branch and lucky leaf

diffractionfiber - Paper Dolls Pillow in Fuschia

rapidmoodswings - Day of the Dead Mask Vistiendo Santos

bionicunicorn - Autumn Bouquet Steampunk Necklace -  Vintage Pocket Watch Enamel Flower Silver Gear Dreampunk

NanLawson - Mine is the Heart that You Call Home 8x10 Print

tsaifi - Luau Lulu iPhone 3G Cover

blockpartypress - Out on a Limb - My Heart

gamiworks - SALE valley of vines large round handcut glass and Japanese chiyogami pendant necklace

I've noticed that my "finds" never have rhyme or reason - I just grab whatever I'm liking at that moment. Maybe I should try to have my Etsy Finds have a theme - but that seems like too much work. :)

I was just about to write that today has been a gorgeous day - especially for a week predominantly filled with heavy rains - but I just heard the old familiar rumble of thunder and the sky has quickly darkened, so nevermind! I guess rain is a comin'. I've spent a lot of this week working on the cuffs and organizing the dungeon. I'm headed back there now, to start breaking up a massive amount of boxes that I thought I'd eventually use. I haven't, so out they go. I'd rather have a clean, tidy space I can craft in than keep storing items I may never use.

In the coming week I'm going to try to revamp my shop a bit. I have a collection of items I haven't yet listed because I'm not thrilled with the pictures I've taken of them. I'll have to tackle that first, maybe retake a few for items currently in the shop, consider my pricing again, and focus on made-to-order items. It'd been my belief that most folks would rather purchase items ready-made and avoid the usual delays associated with custom orders, but I've been thinking about it a lot this week and have concluded made-to-order definitely has it benefits. Certainly for sizing purposes and color preferences. I get to make what I like and the customer is practically guaranteed an item that fits perfectly and is in a palette they prefer. Most of my items only take a couple days at most to make and, unless I'm inundated with a barrage of orders (ha!), I foresee my turnaround time as being about a week. I think that's still reasonable. And this will free me up to work on my items in the order needed, instead of crafting madly just to build up stock - which is what I've been doing. Because I'd eventually like to tackle participating in craft fairs, I'll still continue to make my items, with or without orders, but I won't feel so stressed about deadlines anymore. That's definitely a plus. And I'll be able to instantly focus on new ideas I think of without feeling like I'm letting others fall by the wayside. We'll see how it goes, but I hope it'll allow me to post more frequently to my shop and start including a wider variety of items.