progress in progress

So, I got the notion a week or so ago, to start putting stuff up on my etsy site. I had the lipgloss there for a while, and no one was buying it. Then I saw that a blog I read at work (I love knowing someone nearby is doing something like this) was looking for local crafters to put into a gift guide. I gathered my things, put down one of my wedding tablecloths (I will be blogging about that later this week) as a backdrop, and took dark, fuzzy pictures of a wallet, a hat, and a drumstick case. I uploaded everything, priced it, and sent the link to Icky in Brooklyn (sorry Icky, I’ve no idea about your name. But I totally have a bone to pick with Gersh as well. We’ll talk!).

Well, my shop was featured on the site! I was so proud I blushed. And then the amazing Mr. Guskind mentioned me in a post about the Icky guide. So I felt like to be name-checked twice by two blogs I read on a regular basis was so cool. I felt amazing. I felt so amazing that I went home and made a new drumstick case to liven up the listings in case the Times called. I posted that and work got crazy and then I forgot about my life outside of work.

Then someone bought the drumstick case.

I was dying. I know etsy has been revolutionary for the trade, and for small, emerging craftspeople the world over, but to actually have someone buy something I made? Without even thinking about it too much? I threw up a mishmash of what I had and someone bit. So I immediately went into marketing overdrive and have been trying to come up with a branding and logo strategy to focus my attention. I am proud to say I have since sold another drumstick case (so I might be onto something. I will gladly single handedly supply drummers everywhere with my case, which was actually an on-the-fly Christmas present for my then-boyfriend last year. I mean, I literally sewed it up on Christmas eve morning and hoped for the best. I actually liked that the most of all the gifts I got him. Then we got engaged. Coincidence? No.)

I should also mention the karmic factor in all of this – I had been keeping up with Shannon at Make It and her daily blogging/progress. I was so inspired with the epiphanies she was having that I left a comment, which I never do. And then I actually looked at her store and bought something, because I liked her tag and envelope design. And then I had the first sale. I have long admired the selfless swapping and gifting and support that all the ladies and occasional guy partake in on the crafty blogs I read, and I see the beauty in it. Friendships are forged, progress is made, word gets out. I have never been one to brag, and I am terribly shy, but I will try and be more involved and supportive. I feel like I had nothing to back my name up with before, but now I have a little push that feels huge and wonderful. I still may harbor more cynicism than is normal for a still-20-something, and inherited my mother’s forked tongue, but goddammit, maybe there is hope for me yet.

All this goings on has been why I have not done my holiday ornament swap yet… crap. I actually have the idea already, so I just have to concentrate doing them this week. So ladies of group 41 (I think?), not that I gave out my blog address, but they are in the execution phase! I will get them out by the deadline. Like a true journalist.