Yea, I´m totally on a "lets have everything green"- trip. But not only simlple green as out of Newtons or Goethes color circles, it has to be a soft, nice, quaint and romantic somewhere between olive and lime green. No kiwi, no neon green or mint green... ouch, don´t give me THAT ;)
So I redesigned this blog in a friendly green I liked (using photoshop to disclose th hex code for it). Just to make me more happy theese days. After not getting the anticipated job I quarrel a little with my working situation, but I´m quite sure, thats just passing. At the moment some new chances are showing up and I´m totally willing to take them.
Regarding my crafty life a big chance could be starting my own business. After I had some success with Dawanda I think it´s time to move foreward and open my own shop. So I was busy all over the last weekend finding an online shop tool I could work with, testing and playing around. At last I stucked with osCommerce, even I don´t know a damned thing about php scripting. I just tempted and I think it´s starting to look good and to work.
So, if you´d like to click the link on the rigtht side (my new store) and perhaps want to give me some advise? I really would appreciate it, because I just change this and that and try to finally get the shop I imagine ;)
First and most important thing to run your own shop is to have something, you can sell. So I spent the rest of my weekend and the 2 weeks of sickness with making new soaps, sewing, researching for new ideas and designs, reading and so on.
The new soaps are smelling quite delicous, but unfortunately they still need some weeks for drying. I made 2 different soaps out of the same base: an orange scented and a french vanilla scented bunch. My little studio smells all like this now... yummi!
I also made (and now we´re starting with showing pics again ;) ) some new wrappings for the already existing soaps, wrapped them and stored them in my (way too small) studio:
This is the new wrapping of the guest soaps I showed in my last post (with the soaps in the front)
I sold a lot of the other soaps during last december, thats the stock left: ( from left to right: the guest soaps, a pure olive oil soap scented with lavender; "Kalimpong Market" scented with Nag Champa, Amber and Cinnamon; and Lent Lily with Fresia and Orchid in big bars (also available as guest soap)
Maybe a better shot of the wrapping´s design. On the back side I added a word of thanks, a really short cuted overwiev about my product range, the ingediences and web links for more informations. Do you think, it´s ok this way?It was dark allready, so I will take some better pics (for the shop as well) at the weekend.
Last week I also received an order from Amazon, inclouding this fantastic book:
It became a kind of bible meanwhile, I will visit all of the introduced blogs the next time. I simply love it, not only the crafters introduced in there, some of the patterns I definitively will reproduce, like the book cover or the little puoch shown on the cover.
If you didn´t have untill now, then I just can recommend: read it! If you´re unhappy and unsure sometimes if your crafting isn´t insane or way too much... here you read about guys, who were afraid of the same, who started their own thing, and, if we are honest, isn´t that what we crafty ones all want to have: our own thing and finding others, who love our stuff?
If you´re struggeling with these questions sometimes, or even if you´re thinking your are some kind of freak or insane somehow by collceting all that vintage fabric, whool or what else you need for your crafting: this book shows you, that you´re quite normal and healthy, you´re just creative and this is good :)!
I tought about using the questions used for interviewing the crafters in this adorable book for my own introducion on my website. I will ask Anna for permission after I have finished this post, I guess.
Ok, let´s finish this... I just read a comment from a girl at etsy´s community, that she preferes short blog posts (sorry for needing that amount of words ;) ).
Next time I will show you my findings at our local thrifting store, a social network, that offers cheap vintage and used stuff to people in need and lives from our donations "Wilhelmshavener helfen e.V".
I just need more daylight to take some better pictures of it all.
So, stay crafty and keep on ;)
Yours,
Mone
