So Much Work!

*Warning, general crabbiness and whining ahead* There is so much work to be done for this website! Everything takes 10 times longer than I think it will and days go by when I can't do anything work related.

Anyway I apparently don't have enough on my plate cause I started taking this 30 Sale a Day Challenge course to help me focus on my business and I highly recommend it. And guess what it's FREE!

 http://www.creativehiveco.com/a-sale-a-day-challenge/

You can work at your own pace. There are all some worksheets to download and fill out and questions to answer. I won't lie it's hard (at least for me) I really have to push myself to do these exercises but it's so worth it! Mei who designed this course is an awesome person. I belong to a Private Facebook Group of hers and it's full of great helpful people. Also Mei is active in the group and answers questions too. I follow several "social media business people" and the content Mei has really connects with me.

 So today was supposed to be my super secret soft website launch date. Yeah, that didn't happen. Yep, and I'm stressed about it too. Now I'm not sure exactly when it will launch, but my newsletter subscribers will be the first to know by a day or two, then everyone else will find out.

I've been stressing about lots of things but particularly my product photos. A couple of days ago I set up my lightbox and started shooting and was so unhappy with my photos, like seriously in a funk about it, so much so I just sat around stressing about it. Yesterday I got off my butt and shot a whole new round of photos which are better and starting to grow on me, but not perfect like I imagined in my head. Well I'm not perfect so why should my photos be?! I'll never get anything done if I keep expecting perfect, so I'm slowly learning that not perfect but trying my best is good enough.

Thanks for reading through my crabbiness and I promise to have something more upbeat next time.

Working on The Website and More!

I'm busy working away here in the studio this weekend. I managed to completely mess up my website, (I know just enough HTML to get myself in trouble!) throw it away and create a whole new one that works and looks like I want it to, finally! The walls were blue from my cussing Friday! Lol! I actually uploaded my site live and checked all my links, which all worked..squee! Then I took it back down since I don't have any products in it yet. But soon my pretties, soon!

Shopify has a built in blog you can use on your site but since I already had this blog I was able to link it to my website..whoo hoo! Quite honestly it took a while to figure out but once I did I was like "Duh". I had a lot of duh moments and can now see why people pay others to make their sites even on Shopify. It's possible to do it yourself, I did, but I have a graphics background which was super helpful on a lot of the design part, ie. making the header, footer and buttons match my logo colors. I went pretty simple and then customized from there but you could do simple just fine and use the preset default colors. Just go slow and ask for help from Shopify when needed, the have lots of help pages plus you can get one on one help when you first start.Shopify sent me an invite to a free webnar which showed the background basics and you could ask questions during and after. This was super helpful and then they sent me the video to watch whenever I wanted.

Once everything clicked, it was awesome! So I now have a website! My next steps are to finish my products, shoot photos, edit photos, write product descriptions and load everything on the site. Still lots of work and I'm kind of exhausted already, what with moving the studio and all.

Here's a workable peek from yesterday. I think he's foxy.

Oh yes the other big thing I did this weekend was go through all my social media and selling sites and make them all cohesive. I added my new logo everywhere I have a presence, changed colors and added my new tagline. If you know me other places then you'll notice a change.

I also added a link on my sidebar here to subscribe to my newsletter. So if you want to be the first to know when the website is launched, get free little diy plush and other designs to make, notices for giveaways and great things only for subscribers, you absolutely want to sign up.

Moved Into My New Studio Space!

So glad I'm done moving! It basically took a week since I did most of the moving of things on my own. My daughter helped me move her bed, dresser and nightstand out and my sewing/ computer table and display/ storage cabinet in before she called it quits. I moved my entire studio out of my bedroom, then cleaned everything thoroughly, cause wow have I been slacking in the dusting department!

I now have a lovely window I can see out of with a view of the acorn tree and my mom's bird feeders. Now I don't feel like I'm living in a dark cave! Natural light with sun streaming onto my work table is the best; I haven't had that since my studio in my son's old room at the old house over 5 years ago. It was a great space with hardwood floors and had lovely yellow walls...I really miss it.

I am going to show pics but bear with, me cause things are just placed right now so I can get back to work. Final placement, painting and decorating and investing in some new storage pieces won't happen until next Spring probably.

 So I broke this ugly ceiling fan moving a mattress. Completely and only my fault...sigh! At least the lights still work but won't be able to replace this until next year, hopefully.

 I've come to the realization that I need to sort and get rid of things I'm not going to use. Need to figure out how to have a supply sale. I have too much stuff and more just sitting in the garage which needs to fit in here somehow. My mom needs to have the car in the garage this winter, we can't have her falling again.

Maleficent is sitting in the corner and just fits on top of those storage cubes. Left side of my worktable.

 Right side of my worktable. Display/storage cabinet next to it but my printer cart is in front of it for now.

 Computer/sewing desk. Still wish I had a separate table just for my sewing machine, but well I don't yet.

 Giant file cabinet and desk that will be my shipping center. Still have to clean that out and organize it. To the right of that is a large closet that currently holds my daughter's clothes. She has enough clothes to clothe a village, it's really ridiculous. Her clothes have to stay for now but when they are gone I'm taking full use of that closet.

So yeah exciting and lovely it's not but roomy and sunny it is! I have enough room to set up my light box so I can shoot photos of my art! I can't keep it up for long periods of time but it'll work out great.

Anyway I'm super excited and I really need to get back to work so bye!

More Excitement!!!

If you are a long time reader of this blog, you'll know that when we moved 2 years ago I was supposed to get the dining room for my studio space and for various reasons that didn't happen.

Now my daughter who spends only one to two nights a week at home because she's always at her boyfriend's house has agreed to let me have her room for my studio. It's usually just a storage space for her clothes and since she doesn't pay rent, it's now mine!

I'm so excited to get the largest room I've ever had to run my business! Currently I'm squeezed into my bedroom and half my studio is still packed from the move and some stuff is still packed from when I gave up my studio room at our old house and took over the small dining room there. 

I finally feel like things are falling into place and all my struggles have been worth it.

Quick Post on Research

I promised this at some point in the past so I'm trying to post this for those who were interested. Below are the website builders I looked into when I decided to have my own site.

 WIX is the first site I tried. I actually made a site there for a time a few years ago. I was testing it out as a portfolio site that I could link to my etsy shop. I found it to be frustrating. There was not enough freedom to do what I wanted, everything was locked into grids and boxes. This might be fine for a lot of people but as a graphic designer I've been used to more design freedom. Wix may be different now, but that was my experience.
*I should mention that when I wasn't looking to set up an eCommerce website when I was using this, only a portfolio site.

Squarespace has multi pricing and is one I didn't look into when I was looking. Maybe it's new, not sure but looks interesting. You can do just a single page or a full website.

Big Cartel is a nice multi price service that is for Artists specifically. When I was looking at them last year the thing I dislike the most about it was that it's not mobile friendly. When you look at a site built at Big Cartel on a cell phone or tablet a portion of the screen and your product is cut off. I also saw the whole site go down recently for hours. How many sales were lost then I wondered? 
I looked today and it looks like they are finally getting the mobile issue fixed, although I have yet to see anyone who is using the mobile feature so it's either super new or an additional cost add on.

Weebly is very similar to Wix with a similar structured template system. 

Wordpress has super custom features but most people would need someone to built a site for them cause it a lot to tackle with this system. I was a graphic designer for almost 20 years and it was too much for me. 

They are many more sites out there so I suggest doing lots of research.