Decluttering and destashing with Yerdle

I've been meaning to mention this app called Yerdle (they have a website, but you need the mobile app to actually post and buy). 

I've been using it since the summer of 2014 and it's been such an awesome way to get rid of stuff in my house and my studio - including fabric, ribbon, product I tried but didn't sell. I've also gotten rid of a lot of weird things like used make up, a bra and lots of kid toys. In return I was given credits and was able to use those credits to "win" a lot of awesome things like shoes for my daughter, a duvet cover, and a Patagonia fleece.

The app doesn't use money in transactions unless you need to buy extra credits to make a purchase (they call it "winning" an item). Otherwise you give away your own items, get credits, and then use credits to win new items. When you sign up you get 250 credits to start. The way they convert credits to dollars on the site is a little weird so just be careful of that (10 credits = $1). They convert it to dollars to help people recognize the value of things, but it's a little misleading sometimes. 

Shipping is paid by the person who wins an item  (flat fees of $4, $5, $6). As a the person giving away an item, when someone wins something from you it's your job to print the label generated by Yerdle and drop it off at UPS.

Want to sign up and try it out? 

Just got to the website for a link to the app, or from your phone click on this link: yerdle.com/i/ryan-green-135798

Ryan - WickedMint

In My Studio: Getting ready for the Holiday Season

Yes I know its only the beginning of September but right now my studio looks like the Christmas Fairy has taken up residence!

This is the prime time of year to get prepared for the busy holiday season. My little boy is going back to school and after a wonderful summer - with very little work happening- it's time to get back to the grindstone and get making. My busy selling period on Etsy is the time from mid October through till mid December and getting ready for this is crucial.

In order to prepare for a busy holiday season of craft fairs and Etsy sales here are some tips to make the next few months the most successful.

1. It goes without saying to ensure that you have enough product to sell. Do a stock take of your current inventory.


2. Look at your sales for the same period last year. What sold well and what didn't.

3. Look at what craft fairs you are doing and what products do best in these locations.

4. Write a list and prioritize your making paying attention to the items that sold well and leaving out those that didn't.

5. Stock up on materials you will need to complete all the products in your list.

6. If you make a lot of holiday products buying in the sales after last years holidays can save a lot of money, otherwise lots of online stores sell Christmas craft supplies all year around.

7. If you sell on Etsy during this period make sure you have all the packaging materials you will need such as boxes, tissue paper, business cards and labels.

8. Once you have your products ready take your photographs well ahead of time and work on your Etsy pages.

  

I was looking back at some of my previous blogs and felt these might also be useful to mention:

In My Studio: Craft Fair Preparations tips on preparing for the many holiday craft fairs coming up.

and if like me you are juggling many hats here are some tips on ways to save time throughout a busy day. In My Studio: Time Saving Tips

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe" Abraham Lincoln

Good Luck and Good Making!

Sarah Omura

So Handmade

Setting up a Commuter Office

Like many creative entrepreneurs, I have a full-time "real job" that helps support my family while I work on building my small business. I am grateful for my job, but the long commute is my least favorite part of the day. Spending over 3 hours every day on a train isn't that fun in general, but what's worse is that I can't stop thinking about how much I would love to be spending those 3 hours filling orders for my shop, designing new products, or just building my brand.

I recently decided to take control of my commuting hours and make them "office" hours.The bright side is that every commuting day I get about 3 uninterrupted hours to spend on my business. The working conditions may not be ideal and yes, I'm pretty exhausted by the time I get on my train home, but I'm actually getting things done.

Here are my Top 5 Tips for a Successful Commuting Office:

1. To Do List. 
Keep a notebook handy at all times where you can jot down things you need to do for your business. Every morning I use the first part of my commute to pick the tasks I think I can handle on my morning and evening commute. Then I make a list for the day.

2. Block all social media.
It's too easy to burn 45 minutes mindlessly scrolling through Facebook. I went as far as deleting Facebook and Twitter permanently from my phone (I kept Instagram). If you don't want to delete the apps then keep your phone in your bag and out of reach.

3. Reading for inspiration.
I'm a big believer in reading non-fiction and biographies. So much motivation can come from reading about other people with ambitious dreams. My recent favorite reads were Jim Henson by Brian Jay Jones, and The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. If you're a car/driving commuter then pop in some audio books!

4. Tools of the trade.
I often tote my laptop and Wacom tablet on the train so I can get some design work done, or just sketch. If you're a knitter then the train is an ideal place to get knitting or crocheting done. If your craft isn't portable then just try bringing a journal to make lists, dream, or doodle new ideas.

5. Give your brain a break.
Let's be honest, it's exhausting working multiple jobs, worrying about time and money, caring for our families and pets, making dinner, getting enough sleep - the list is endless. It's important to allow yourself a break from the madness and just zone out. Take a 20 minute nap, listen to some relaxing music, or flip through a magazine. 

Ryan - WickedMint

The Balancing Act

The key to keeping your balance is knowing when you have lost it – anonymous

When working full-time and also trying to grow a small business, it is easy to spread yourself too thin. Besides all of the hours that are spent working at a job that may not be your real joy, you may also push yourself to exhaustion and irritability, while working on the very thing that may be your heart’s desire.
We all have choices, and the often the relief of having a steady paycheck can trap a person into believing that this is more important than doing what you really love.

When the hours that are available to work on your craft are regulated by everything else that must be done, it can feel as though little is being accomplished, or that the process is moving too slowly.

Part of the balancing act of life includes family obligations, social activities, necessary chores, appointments, and unexpected events.

As I prepare to take a week and a half for summer vacation, I am accepting of the fact that the time spent exploring, relaxing, enjoying, will recharge me. In order to have energy for fresh new ideas, it is important to take time to relax, and realize that taking a brief break can be positive.

The act of balancing all aspects of life can be a challenging dilemma. Time passes quickly, and often while looking towards the future, we forget to experience the now.

Jenny - Reclaimed Designs

Creating Success from the Inside Out: 2 Tools To Help You Climb Out of the Internet Rabbit Hole

You know what I'm talking about when I  refer to The Internet Rabbit Hole so let's just cut to the chase.  

Yellow Bunny Rabbit Monster Doll by Knot By Gran'ma on Etsy

Exhibit A:  I'm on the computer to find a recipe for raspberry cornmeal pancakes and while doing so I find this great app called Razoo on the computer for crowd-sourcing (seemingly unrelated subjects, yes - but my browser history could certainly find six degrees of Kevin Bacon on this)  and I sign up for it.  Per usual, I get the prompt to go to my email to click the link for the final confirmation.  Okay.  Can do.  Once I'm in my email, however, something else catches my eye.  "Oh, look-y, it's a new blog post from Denise Duffield-Thomas!" So I immediately click it, my initial reason for going into my email forgotten for an hour as I learn more about manifesting my dreams and eradicating my money blocks...until finally I see the tab for Razoo at the top of my screen and realize that I need to confirm my subscription.  I do so, make a donation for the care of a sweet little dog whose leg was mutilated, and then head downstairs for a glass of water and something to eat - my stomach is growling.

Whoops.  I was supposed to be printing a recipe for pancakes!

Raspberry Cornmeal Pancakes with Lemon Curd photo and recipe from Nutritious Eats

By the way, the pancakes were yummy!

Sometimes it's okay to fall down that rabbit hole, to wantonly DIVE down that rabbit hole.  After all, humans are curious creatures and there's so much to be learned and known from within the halls of the WWW.

But other times it's just not okay and you know this immediately after you come back from Wonderland and feel downright icky.  Time wasted.  Nothing on the to-do list achieved.  What to do????

There are 2 tools that I can recommend to help us avoid falling down the rabbit hole when we are serious about getting something specific done on the internet:

1. Timer

Your phone has one, so use it.  Consider one item you need to get done and estimate how long you need to accomplish it.  Set the timer to count down when that timer has run out and make sure the alarm is set to something really obnoxious.  You'll be motivated to finish before it rings in your ears.

2. Sticky Note

Write down on a sticky note the one thing you need to do/finish/find on the internet and place it in plain view next to the timer.  This will help you keep your focus on the one task at hand.

You can also keep sticky notes handy so that as you are working to accomplish your one task, you can write down anything interesting that you come across that you can't look at now, but wish to return to at a later date. 

Once you are done with your task, do it again for your next task and so on.  But do yourself a favor - leave yourself some time to go down that rabbit hole.  You never know what wonderful, fantastical adventures and new worlds you may stumble upon.

What do you do to avoid falling down the Internet Rabbit Hole?  Please share in the comments.

Lisa - Merry Alchemy

In My Studio: Time Saving Tips

The other day I was in my studio sewing on my machine.  After taking the fabric off I realized I had sewed the wrong sides together; I would have to unpick the whole thing. I was so cross with myself, how could I have done something soooo stupid! What a waste of time! Yes, that's the crux of the issue TIME.

As a Mom of a very active 3 year old boy I don't get much time to devote to my business. The time I do get is therefore very precious and I hate wasting time knowing that the sound of little feet will come along any minute to put an end to my industry. Don't get me wrong I love my family very much but getting that work/life balance right is so hard and in my case, ultimately, work is always on the losing side.

With this in mind when I am not making mistakes on my sewing machine here are some of the ways I manage to save time:

1.    I try and keep my studio organized and tidy, it saves time looking for things and cuts down on accidents.

2.    I stow any products that need to be hand sewn in a basket, together with the needle, thread, and scissors. I bring this out at night and sew in front of the TV.

3.    Similarly, I collect together anything that needs ironing in a pile and do it all at once in the evening in front of my favorite show.

4.    I bring a flask of tea and a bottle of water into the studio with me in the morning to cut down the trips to the kitchen for refills.

5.    I make a quantity of products at the same time, cutting them all out at the same time, then making them up stage by stage until all of them are completed.

6.    I throw ingredients into a crock pot early in the morning then dinner will be ready on demand and the extra stress of preparing dinner has been taken away.

7.    I try and go shopping for supplies in the evenings or weekends when my partner is home to babysit, therefore freeing up those precious weekday/daytime making hours.

8.    Similarly, I try and do a couple of hours of paperwork/computer work at the weekend when my partner can take the little one out. The accounts always get forgotten and doing a couple of hours a week saves me loads of time later on.

9.    In order to stay on top of things I always keep lots of lists; lists of supplies to buy, lists of outstanding orders, lists of events to plan for, then when the opportunity arises I can plunge right in.

10.  I never try and do any work when my family are home,  the distractions are just too stressful and I end up making mistakes that set me back even further. Close the studio door!

11.  Having said that, when things get busy I sometimes utilize my partner to help with packing and postage.

Good luck and good making!

by Sarah Omura, SO Handmade

Signposts and Guides for the Creative Life

"We think much more about the use of money, which is renewable, than we do about the use of time, which is irreplaceable."  Jean-Louis Servan Schreiber, via Buon Viaggio.

I have a friend who gave me a cute  "origami" peace crane made of polymer clay.  She'd bought it at  a craft fair and it was beautifully packaged in a clear plastic box, nestled in a mound of shredded paper.  I could see the appeal this item would have, all these cute little birds in an array of bright colors, waiting to be purchased as small gifts of friendship.

Lori knows the woman who makes these; she's a fellow polymer clay artist.  And the story goes that this woman finds the birds to be such high sellers that she doesn't have enough time to work on the more interesting projects.   It seems like she's turning herself into a one woman sweat shop, cranking out the cranes, because she knows that her booth fees will get paid.  And perhaps her soul is going unsatisfied because what she'd really like to be working on would mean taking  a greater risk.

Neely McCormack wrote  a blog about her own decision process that relates to this very topic this past week.  Check it out.  And share your own thoughts here.