Clay and bits of yarn

Now, I consider myself to be the business end of our business. Jessie wants to just create, and doesn't really want to know about all the goings on in the business end of it. That takes a considerable amount of time to photograph, describe, and list all of our items. I solely make the buttons really, which is all we've really sold.

to make a button is alot harder than you would think.
sometimes I can spend an hour designing a button, that only has a simple phrase on it. I'm picky about my fonts and how it looks. That doesn't even inclue those with graphics. THEN i have to proof it, print it, assemble it, scan it, list it, advertise it...

jessie is busy creating all her christmas gifts right now, and i've been trying to photograph it along the way... but she goes so fast I can't keep up!

she's also branching out, as a kid she completely build her own dollhouse, and now she's getting back into it with sculpey clay. Let me tell you, she doesn't think she's artistic but she sure is.

If anyone has any sculpey tips we are sure up to them...

or if anyone can recomend a good disital point and shoot so I can stop borrowing my sisters after mine broke....

So seriously...? I was going thru old threads ive posted in on a forum, and someone thought it wss appropriate to lect

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Shh, jessie is crocheting a christmas surprise. We shall have to keep track of how it comes along

so...

sooo I'm feeling overwhemled and discouraged.

I havn't had a sale in my shop since August, and the best way to get sales it to promote yourself. I don't really have alot of time to blog daily, not that anyone reads this, as of today i have on follower... my sister. I don't have money to list things unless someone buys something, and no one is going to buy anything unless I list things.

Any suggestions? solutions? donations?

Twitterific

So our shop's twitter account has been suspended for the last few weeks.We were hacked. I finally got it all resolved. I can't delete alot of the posts though. Some are refusing to be deleted, and others.... theres just too many.

I am also wondering... What do I need to do, to promote myself? What makes it better to follow?

Girl Scout Cookies

So, I'm tired of Girl Scout cookies and I still have to sell them for a month!

The good news is, I had an email from a leader across the country, who wants to order custom buttons for her GS troop. She wants to put them on ribbons and make hair clips for the girls in her brownie troop as christmas presants!

I'm Back!!

So I had some computer issues for a while. My laptop served me well for 5 years. I did go through several cords though. The last one lit itself on fire... solution? NEW LAPTOP FOR MY BIRTHDAY!!! YAY!!! which means back to button making!

School Started Yesturday

so back to another semester. And i'm really determined to find something that in the past i'd hoped would just fall into place. Balance. Apparently its alot of hard work to have balance between school and the rest of life.

I fully believe this card I saw once...

Good Grades, a job, a social life .... welcome to college pick 2...

I had the job and the social life and god bad grades. I have no job and no social life so I should be ok right? No not really... I have 4 classes this semester and 10 text books plus TONS of books and articles on reserve in the library...

my goal is to not let school take over my life and to keep up on my etsy store with new creations. otherwise I will get frustrated and run away from all my school work from being tired of it.

Social life? I'm slowly getting back in touch with my best friends who I abandoned for college... but i've been in college for so long my best friend has an 8 year old going into 2nd grade that I BARELY know. thats sad. Its pathetic.

So... anyone have any tips on how to soak up the knowledge into my head and retain it long enough to not be lost and confused in class? Anyone?

Mailed off two more custom buttons today. Had a plesant enjoyable day which was instantly ruined and now im going to b

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Forums

I hear that the best way to promote your store is to get out there in chats, and forums and post your stuff everywhere.

NEWSFLASH


I hate forums. I absolutely don't understand forums. When I expressed this to my forum obsessed friend she informed me "its just like a chat room, but for ADD people because it just continues when you leave"


Chats? when do you see me chat. you wana talk to me? text me. call me. Email me. Don't sit there waiting for me to apply to some thread on a forum

its a waste of time to me. I can't even remember what forum I was on to go back and read the threads, and to me the layouts are just all screwy on forums. To boxy. I mean, I dont notice stuff on forums but I sure see stuff i like and buy stuff 

To Otaku, or not to Otaku... That is the question

So... I'm still jobless, and by jobless I mean paycheckless. I have plenty to do that I'm not even sure how a job would fit into my schedule... But I sure do miss that paycheck!!!

So I spent the first half of my summer, cleaning, planning valerie's Birthday party, cleaning for vals party, and every day i'd spend a good 3-4 hours cleaning up after people in my house, and cooking dinner for them.

I left for 2 weeks to go house/dog sit.... it was nice, relaxing, rejuvenating. I cried when I had to come back home. Thats sad, i know. Since I came home, i've given up cleaning up after people that aren't me. I still cook because I love to cook, and if I dont cook dinner we end up with frozen chicken patties, or hot dogs... ew.


So last weekend I relisted a bunch of stuff on Etsy, and instantly has a $20 order. YAY. Now... if we could get that on a weekly basis i'd be so happy. I havn't had a sale since. It took me all week to get a few button designs printed and made into buttons. It took me DAYS because of the chaos and disorganization of the room I need to do this. and my dad CONSTANTLY bugging me about buttons, and his fascination with everything i'm doing is bordering child abuse i swear. I can't even breathe in this house anymore.

Back to my point... Otakon 2010 just passed and while a lot of people I know attend, I have never attended!!!! This is something I am both proud of, but at this moment it worries me. We are considering getting a table in Artist Alley to sell alot of the things we sell in our Etsy store, but since we have never seen our competition out in artist alley, I feel directly in the middle of this choice....

if anyone out there has an opinions PLEASE let me know. If we go ahead and do this, and get a table in February when they go up, then we will start building stock to cater to our otaku friends. But until then we are being very conservative with our resources because... well we are 2 broke college students.

SOMEONE review our etsy shop and let us know. Jessie is working on a bunch of new patterns for arm warmers which we are kinda counting on them being a big seller.

I wish i was the kind of person who had the financial resources to take this kind of risk. My heart wants to do it even if it is a huge flop. But financially, we can't afford that....

Etsy

So I want to make my etsy store work, but things just constantly keep interupting my ability to design things. I get harassed for spending time on my computer, by friends, not parents, but I don't think they understand that i'm trying to make a business work and in order to design graphics on the computer, i need to be in use of... the computer.

also, i've been cleaning the house, and that takes ALOT of work because of the condition that some people were comfortable living in. Well it wasn't comfortable to me, and it made me want to burn the house down. That takes ALOT of time, and its going to take me the ENTIRE summer to make this house the way I want it.

so, I'm in need of a little time management skills. I can time manage... I just need people I live with to RESPECT that.

Been busy

Been a little busy. Its finals time.

I had a huge demand for LOST buttons. I've never seen the show but i hear its big. I made different designs, finally got the imaged ones printed.  Theres a few more left to do but its not that many, only a few inside jokes from the show, that I don't quite get.
While i was at it, i made some NCIS buttons. I have the prototypes for all the lost and NCIS buttons printed. in about 15 min i'm going upstairs to do some assembly. I like to see what they all look like made before I know which ones to market.

Things just don't look the same on a computer screen. I have to look at them finished to see what i like and don't. I think that's something  we are losing in this computer generation. I am only 26, so don't get me wrong, I have been using computers my whole life, but I can't sit at a screen and read. I have to have the paper in my hand. I think the ipad is a little frivolous but I could never own one. I can't even read the txts on my phone. If its longer than a few sentences... I don't read it.

so hint to friends: don't send me long txts.

Also, I had a thought. People used to be measured on their ability to recall phone numbers. When was the last time you actually dialed a phone? I mean punched the numbers in, one button at a time. How many numbers can you recall? I used to learn phone numbers really well. I would know phone numbers, birthdays, all kinds of number things. Now i don't even know my best friends phone number. Not due to lack of memory, although i'm sure my memory is degrading from not being used... but because i've never dialed her phone number. I didn't even type it into my phone. She called and I programed her name into the phone attached to the number. In a few years i've never dialed her number. Are we afraid to do things for ourselves? Or just too lazy to do something as simple as push a few buttons.

somehow i dont thing the creators of WALL-E were too off...

So tired...

As the end of this spring semester here at Towson University is comming to a close, I can't help but make plans for summer.



No, not the traditional what beach are we going to, wheres our road trip gona take us this year... no. The where-will-hire-me, how-can-i-make-some-money and lets bust our asses to expand the hell out of our etsy store...

I have no interest in studying for my finals. I can feel my grades slipping daily and I have reached the point where I honestly do not care, because I have no interest in doing any type of school work what so ever.

I'm open to suggestions on how to fix this. Its not that i want to fail. Its that my brain is tired, stressed, and school went from being my number one priority to below number 10 on my list in the last month.

Lost

Last week, i made a facebook status update, asking if I made NCIS buttons, if people would buy them. I got an overwhelming response to have LOST Buttons. Having never seen the show, i can't name any characters, which i know there are alot of. Today (since tuesday seems to be my productive day) I spent 3 hours collecting pics of LOST, NCIS, and a few Big Bang Theory. Its amazing how even professional photographers can't get the right picture.

But the good news is, LOST buttons will be available next week.
hopefully after next week, i'll really have time to put into button production, and I really need to start selling more. I need to advertise and put links on everything.

ready to go into overdrive mode.... just have a week of finals standing in my way!!!

Bored

So I am having a particularly productive day. I finished all my school work immediately due. I worked on my paper due next week. I just wish I didn't live so far from campus or i'd go home and throw in some laundry or something.

I need to get some picks up on this blog. Not that ANYONE out there is following me. Which to be fair, I just started it up again. But i'd like to get some picks up to mark whats goin on.

While i'm having a mindless ramble JACKIE WHERE ARE YOU? you stopped by saturday to get your mail but you weren't at scouts monday and you havn't called or emailed with an excuse.

also, i just wrote a paper on if hospitals should admit their mistakes or not. and it got me all ranty about how much i HATE liars. and while i'm at it. I hate people who can't take responsibility. Why is your life and your screw ups NEVER you're fault? If you didn't follow the rules, didn't do what your supposed to. don't go blaming the system for screwing you. you're the one who tried to go AROUND the system and think your better than the rest of us and don't have to follow the rules. suck it up and do ur job, then you wouldn't have such a hard time getting what you need. do it right the first time.

Girl Scout

I'm thinking about making a button to sell as a Girl Scout fundraiser



a play on the "support our troops" ribbons.

YAY

So... I got all of our current dollie stuff posted up on Etsy yesturday. Finally. Mr Verizon man will be coming thursday to fix our internet because it has only been working sparatically.

If theres anyone out there who someday will actually read this, i'm wondering if theres anything you would like to be able to find in an etsy shop that you havn't yet found. 

Monday again...

New week, new goals.

Haven't had any sales in a week. I know this isn't drastically detrimental but I really want to boost sales. I want to earn enough to at least get back the $$$ i put out to get started.

SOMEONE BUY SOMETHING.


Any ideas on promoting? Any suggestions on the shop?

Any buttons you would like to see?

I have a file of about 1000 buttons i'd like to make. It doesn't really take much to make a button. But i'm a perfectionist. The colors, graphics and fonts have to be JUST RIGHT. I think the font really makes the button. It's a limited space to make a statement. It can take me hours to get ONE button done. A button without graphics, only words, can take about an hour to design and prepare to print. Once printed all i do it punch and assemble it goes quickly. Its the ones that require graphics that i worry about. I have to have TIME and its annoying sitting at a computer all day. But I see it as me working. I may not have a paycheck from it all yet but i'm working towards it.

I can't always put life off until between semesters. because theres ALWAYS something going to be there.

What makes a button sell?
I don't have the money to post thousands of buttons to get higher sales but I need what i do have to start selling in order to be able to repost them later.

Well, i guess it will all work out.

Etsy

So i havn't posted in... forever. o well. I have no followers anyway!

I got the Etsy shop up and running.

Let me make this easy for all of you.
my SN is JessJess385201

copy that and you can find me on:
Facebook.com/JessJess385201
www.JessJess385201.etsy
twitter@JessJess385201
JessJess385201@aol.com
JessJess385201@gmail.com
even on neopets.

pretty much if you see this "JessJess385201" it's MOST LIKELY me. i wont say always.

But the important one is ETSY.

Me and Jessie have a small but growing shop featuring BUTTONS and a few knitted items including doll clothes for the Ball Jointed Dolls like my sister collects.

This weekend I am promoting by having a sale. If you buy 10 random buttons, or any set of 10, you will get two buttons of your choice FREE.