1000!!!

Well, good morning Monday and March. Friday afternoon I was granted my 1000th sale on etsy by one of my most supportive customers. I have to tell you it was a spectacular feeling for about 10 whole minutes. Why only that long? Well, I am an over thinker and I almost immediately began thinking about what was next. After this mighty milestone that took nearly 4 years to reach, what do I lay my sights on? It can't be 2000, a goal that far in the future does not create the necessary pull to action to keep me moving. I'm sure I will come up with something though, sooner or later. Right now, I will just say a very sincere Thank You, to everyone who has bought a little something and all of you who have supported my work and me...Thank You.

Moving on then...I do have one more thing to look forward to this month, the 2 year anniversary of this blog...I know 'I've only been babbling for two years?' and the 1 year anniversary of the Wunderkammer blog. I have an idea for a new segment for the Wunderkammer that I need to flesh out so I can unveil it at the end of the month, but I'm not sure what I will do for the old tatting blog. I'm sure I'll think of something by the 17th.

You probably guessed that I don't have any new tatting to share. I spent the better part of the weekend finishing up the face mask that was lost in the post and working on remaking sold pieces. I even got taken away from my secret project which I need to get back to today. All this milestone business has taken me back to simpler times when I sold something maybe once a week and could spend as much time working on something new as I wanted, but then no one was expecting much from me either. Now, there are expectations from all sorts of folks not the least of which is myself. Must keep swimming. That actually brings me to another point for today.

When I started my tatting and etsy adventure, the tatting landscape was drastically different. There were very few tatters selling online and none on etsy. In that way, I have blazed a trail that is now filled with old and new tatters, some successful and some not. I truly believe I have only succeeded in that I have not given up. It sucked at first, trust me, but I had no reason to stop so I didn't. It took years to establish myself and in those years I never once worried about being copied. Those days are over. I've been copied, I've been shadowed and my ideas have been appropriated. Now the copying I can do something about, but ideas can not be copyrighted and there is little that can be done to stop the creation of knockoffs in the fashion world nor in our little world. I'm saying all this because I've not the only person that has been 'knocked off'. I want to say for me and the other folks that this happens to, that while there will be people who will always buy knock offs, there are others who will appreciate the true originals. We cannot expend too much energy worrying about what creations someone else will rip off next. We just have to keep moving forward hoping that we stay one step ahead of them. I know it can be little consolation when an idea you work so hard to bring to fruition is seemingly snatched away, but that's all I've got.

So to recap, 1000 sales, remaking lots of stuff, secret project going okay, anniversaries coming up and ripping off ideas bad, but what are ya gonna do. See you tomorrow.