Thursday, January 3, 2013
I love to sew.....BUT!
I have been making hair accessories for a good few years now made mainly with Felt and although I do have a pretty big Fan base and many returning customers I am a bit sick of making them...
I think it can get boring making the same things day in day out and I do love to make other things.
Also there is another problem that is bugging me.
I have always sold my Designs on Ebay but last year I got really peed off with the ebay fees.. I was forced to take a look at what I was earning on a monthly basis and to be honest after calculating the fees I felt sick and wondered why oh why am I carrying on when some months I am simply working to PAY fees and making absolutely no profit at all. :o( I have been told by several people that I do not charge enough for the quality of work I produce but when I have raised the prices slightly I have sold less.. it is frustrating I do work really hard and try to keep costs at a fair price but I am really thinking of going elsewhere because I can no longer justify keeping my prices so low and making hardly any profit.
I have tried to sell on other websites such as Etsy, Folksy and another store but buisness was so bad I was forced to close these other shops.
The competition on Etsy is pretty huge and although I had lots of followers and people favouriting my shop I hardly sold anything and I wondered why?
I know there are quite a few people making felt hair clips and most are brilliant but I did also notice alot of the prices were more expensive than mine and looking at the sales history I was puzzled as to why mine were not selling? So I closed my shop :o(
I think I am going to have to close my ebay shop also and I feel sad about this but no one want's to work hard and see no return. :o( I can't help wondering what I am doing wrong?
I get excellent feedback and emails privately telling me how fantastic my designs are.. this I think is what kept me going and inspired me alot but the buisness is just not thriving and I think after nearly 5 yrs its time to Jack it all in...
I think it can get boring making the same things day in day out and I do love to make other things.
Also there is another problem that is bugging me.
I have always sold my Designs on Ebay but last year I got really peed off with the ebay fees.. I was forced to take a look at what I was earning on a monthly basis and to be honest after calculating the fees I felt sick and wondered why oh why am I carrying on when some months I am simply working to PAY fees and making absolutely no profit at all. :o( I have been told by several people that I do not charge enough for the quality of work I produce but when I have raised the prices slightly I have sold less.. it is frustrating I do work really hard and try to keep costs at a fair price but I am really thinking of going elsewhere because I can no longer justify keeping my prices so low and making hardly any profit.
I have tried to sell on other websites such as Etsy, Folksy and another store but buisness was so bad I was forced to close these other shops.
The competition on Etsy is pretty huge and although I had lots of followers and people favouriting my shop I hardly sold anything and I wondered why?
I know there are quite a few people making felt hair clips and most are brilliant but I did also notice alot of the prices were more expensive than mine and looking at the sales history I was puzzled as to why mine were not selling? So I closed my shop :o(
I think I am going to have to close my ebay shop also and I feel sad about this but no one want's to work hard and see no return. :o( I can't help wondering what I am doing wrong?
I get excellent feedback and emails privately telling me how fantastic my designs are.. this I think is what kept me going and inspired me alot but the buisness is just not thriving and I think after nearly 5 yrs its time to Jack it all in...
Christmas Blues....
Ok so like many people this year it was Christmas on a BUDGET... I hate not having enough cash to Give pressies and I have to say this year was THE worst by far where pressies were concerned.
So I decided I was going to make as many handmade pressies to give to my family but it didn't quite work out :o( how I planned......
I am really busy @ BOBBLELICIOUS at Christmas time so the 2 weeks leading up to Christmas were hectic and I did not manage to finish all the gifts I planned to make.
Then on boxing day I was STRUCK down literally with the Flu..
I have had the flu a few times in my life but this BEAT the lot.. Bed ridden, high temp, pain in every part of my body.. shivering feeling so sick I could hardly move I literally felt like I had been kicked by a horse EVERYWHERE! and now don't know how many day's later, although I am still coughing I feel a bit better but not well enough to get back crafting as my main "crafting obsession" is felt.
I really cannot face the fibres getting on my already congested chest.
Its not hard to see at a glance that I am rubbish at blogging I really am..
I really admire bloggers who seem to:
1. Know what to say
2. Have interesting subjects
3. Generate lot's of followers
4. Have the time,
I am totally full of admiration for them all and enjoy reading them but I really do struggle with interesting things to say myself but thought this year I will give it another go and see what happens!
So I decided I was going to make as many handmade pressies to give to my family but it didn't quite work out :o( how I planned......
I am really busy @ BOBBLELICIOUS at Christmas time so the 2 weeks leading up to Christmas were hectic and I did not manage to finish all the gifts I planned to make.
Then on boxing day I was STRUCK down literally with the Flu..
I have had the flu a few times in my life but this BEAT the lot.. Bed ridden, high temp, pain in every part of my body.. shivering feeling so sick I could hardly move I literally felt like I had been kicked by a horse EVERYWHERE! and now don't know how many day's later, although I am still coughing I feel a bit better but not well enough to get back crafting as my main "crafting obsession" is felt.
I really cannot face the fibres getting on my already congested chest.
So I thought I would blog...
I really admire bloggers who seem to:
1. Know what to say
2. Have interesting subjects
3. Generate lot's of followers
4. Have the time,
I am totally full of admiration for them all and enjoy reading them but I really do struggle with interesting things to say myself but thought this year I will give it another go and see what happens!
So here are a few of the Handmade goodies I did manage to make....
I made at least 6 Handmade wreaths this year for my Family Members..
This one I made for my Daughter and her Hubby and as you can see it is definately not a traditional Christmas Wreath made for 2 very untraditional people lol!!
I personally wouldn't have one of these but I really enjoyed creating it with them in mind and they Loved it!
This is the design I made for the rest of my Family and I sold quite a few in my shop this year too...
I actually love putting these together although they are time consuming I really did have fun making them.
And last but no means least I made this precious little Rag doll for my equally precious little Granddaughter Summer.. I have always loved Rag dolls and this is a pattern I made up myself and it is kind of Based on Her!
Precious Princess Summer!
:o) x x
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