Shop Update

My Etsy shop is up and running again after some price revamping for that market, but don't balk at those prices just yet! Yes, they are higher, but remember that those prices are going to be different than my local/craft fair prices (which have also had a slight price adjustment to reflect time and materials). Anyone who placed a custom order with me prior to this price change will still be charged the old price. Also, contacting and buying from me directly, (not through Etsy) will result in a discounted price (from the Etsy prices), as explained in my earlier pricing post. No more losing money for me!

Here's a look at things to come in the next month or two.

Rings: I am awaiting a shipment of ring bases to begin working on those. (Survey results coming soon). You can expect to see some of those in my shop by the end of the month. Update: Ring bases arrived yesterday!

Bracelets: I am getting ready to place my order for bracelet bases and as soon as I receive all of the supplies for these, I should be able to start on those right away and have those in my shop by the end of January or beginning of February.Update: Supplies for bracelets were purchased today!

Headband holders: I will probably start making these in February (unless you contact me earlier for a custom order), as I have already had some interest in them. Canisters are being collected and the kinks are being worked out now. I don't know that I will be listing these in my Etsy shop, or just offering them through Facebook and personal sales.

Headbands: I have had several questions about headbands for infants, so I am now going to start offering crochet head wraps along with the elastic and fabric-wrapped headbands. These will be available for fabric flowers, 3" poms, and the "coming-soon" felt flowers. The fabric-wrapped plastic headbands that I usually use are starting to get a little difficult to find in different colors. This may mean that they are on their way out and will need to be replaced by something else, (another reason why I now sell my fabric flowers by themselves).

Felt Flowers: I really love the one I made, so I will be making these within the next month or so too. They will be available as pins, clips, and headbands. Flower designs will include dahlias and sunflowers, with the possibility of others.

I think that may be it for updates right now. Starting next week, I will be working two days a week (baby-sitting on Tuesdays and subbing on Fridays), so that will help move things along, I hope.

New Items: Rolled Fabric Pins

My first craft fair hasn't even happened yet, but my mom has already sold five items for me! Yay, Mom! Two items were single pom elastic headbands (one a mint green and the other a "Laura" pom), which I didn't get a chance to take photos of. She also sold one of the "Autumn Leaves" necklaces and a "Larkin" headband. The last item was the set of "Lucy" hair clips, which are no longer available as I only had a few scraps of that fabric. This leaves me feeling hopeful for the actual craft fair.

Of course this also means that I should really start a new stock of items for a potential craft fair in December, so I'm not scrambling at the last moment. I am starting to experiment with a few new designs and finished two rolled fabric pins last night:

Christmas Pin

Yellow and blue pin.

I really like how the Christmas pin turned out, and will probably add this one as a "made to order" (M20) item soon. I am contemplating adding a tiny pearl on the red rosette to hide the little bit of glue that is showing, but I forgot to do it before taking the photo. I really like how the red rosette looks by itself with the leaves and may make it into hair clips also.

The yellow and blue pin uses the "Sweet Aida", "Erica", "Allison", and "Kaylee" fabrics. I'm not too crazy about how this one turned out. In hindsight, I probably should have replaced one of the patterned fabrics with a solid, but too late now!

When I get a moment, or rather, remember to do it, I will take the measurements of the items, and also a photo of the pin on to get an idea of scale. But until then, opinions on these? Keep making or scrap? How would these look as headbands (in a different arrangement)?

First Craft Fair

My mom is attending a craft fair at the start of November and volunteered to take my items to sell along with hers. I would have liked to have gone myself, but it is too far away for me; I would have been gone all day and would have needed to find someone to watch the boys for the whole day. So this past weekend I packed up nearly my entire inventory (appx. 85 items!) and sent them home with my mom. I am hoping that she will be able to sell a good chunk of items, at least that way I will get a better idea as to what will be the more popular items and which ones I should spend less time on making. I am leaving up the listings of all items that she currently has in her possession, but will mark them "@CF". However, that does not mean that you cannot reserve an item to purchase. If you see something that you like, let me know and I will ask her to save it aside. I will update the listings after the craft fair is over.

I am also looking into attending a few local craft fairs within the next couple of months as well, which means that I need to start building a new inventory since my mom has all of my current stock! Wish me luck!