I just realized as I sat down that today is Friday and thus the last blogging day of the year. See, I had grand plans of doing a big end of the year post with a look back at this past years "achievements" and placing some goals for the coming year into print, but the week got completely away from me. So, I suppose I'll wing this a bit. I just went back and looked at last years post and this is what I discovered:

"So where do I go for next year then? As much as I do still adore the round numbers, they are not really a true gauge of my success, they are just reminders that we live in a base 10 world. Sure, I could ask for the fame thing again, but that is a wild crap shoot. If I made half an effort to make it happen of course, but we all know I am too lazy and much too chicken to go out on many ledges. So I guess I'll stick with practical this year. I will try to make another Instructable and another video. I will continue to design, grow and learn. I will watch kittens and children grow, take care of my family, make a few new friends, babble in my blog and try to be better person."

Every year before that post I laid out a bunch of round number goals for the year, but given my paragraph of goals here, this past year was a rousing success. This past year saw not one, but four new Instructables posted, a new video and plenty of new designs. The children and the cats kept on growing and everyone appears healthy and happy. I'm lucky to be online where I am constantly meeting new people and folks read and occasionally respond to my babbling. It's been a year full of getting really close to fame and not quite breaking through, but all of that had lessons to teach. Tatting made it to a New York runway and I sold not one, but two of the fanciest masks I've ever made. All in all it was a pretty good year and I won't muck up next year with a list of numbers either. In fact, that stuff I said last year, I'd like to do all that again.

One last thing for the year, a new mask. I was searching for more inspiration for my next project when I ran across a prototype mask made years ago. I was a complete fail, but I never tossed it assuming one day I would have the skills to resurrect it. Yesterday was apparently that one day.  The original is under the new work there. I made it with medallions all of the same size and it fits like it was made by a five year old with a pile of yarn. This time I decided to shape the design by not only decreasing the size of the center medallion, but also making the medallions on the side asymmetrical so they would grow out to the sides giving the piece the proper shape without losing the overall size.

In the end I also added more to the bottom giving the mask more coverage and I completely reworked the edging I used at the top to a more organic design giving the top more structure so the points didn't flop about. The new mask is on the bottom here. I know you can't really tell how bad the top mask is here without it being on a face, but trust me, this was a design achievement I thought I never get. I probably won't get it listed until Monday since I hate doing photo shoots with the husband around...even when he doesn't actually mock me, it is perceived.

So there you have it, the end of the year, a new mask and that leaves us at the weekend. Thank you to all of you who read this blog or the Wunderkammer, buys my tatting, follows me on twitter or joined the facebook fan page. Many thanks for commenting, consoling, commiserating, offering up ideas and for putting up with my occasional  nonsense...or pretending to anyway. Thank you once again for being part of my year and I hope to see you in the new one.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The Monster At The End Of The Year

Well here we are at the end of another year. I have been babbling on a blog long enough to be able to go back and shake my head at my past thoughts, long enough to be proven both right and wrong about the future in a permanently visible manner. Every year, at its close, it seems I say the same thing. I tell you that I don't make resolutions, then I proceed to list things that I would like to see happen. Then the year progresses, I forget what I said I wanted and my list becomes a parody of itself. For example, here is last years bit of babbling forgotten until I looked it up today:

"Speaking of the coming year, I have started to give some thought to my future plans. I hesitate to call them resolutions as I never keep those. Rather I can them goals, some more ridiculous than others of course, but I like a variety. The next few months should see me reach the magical sales number called 1000 barring any unforeseen circumstances. I'd love to hit 1500 by the end of 2010 because I like round numbers. The past year had me reaching 5000 hearts in my etsy shop and I hope to gain another 1000 in the new year. I want to see my tatting worn and photoed on someone much more famous than I. I also want to get at least one more instructional needle tatting video up and get the actual Instructables for the last two free patterns I offered up as well. I tried to think of something even more ridiculous than the famous person thing, but the only thing I could come up with is a major magazine or televisions feature of my work."

 So, let's dissect that shall we. I did indeed hit 1000 sales, but didn't quite make 1500, but the math really didn't bear that happening out anyway. Next, I shattered my shop heart goal by garnering 2400 more. I think that might have more to do with etsy growing than me specifically, but I'll take it. I also did manage two more youtube videos and on a related note the views on my first video broke 50,000 views and the updated version with speaking broke 11,000. That my friends is a lot of people watching my hands. My last goal points were regarding fame and sadly, though there were a few hopeful sales and photo shoots that direction, there have been no major sightings. I remain relatively undiscovered...oh, well, we can't win them all.

So where do I go for next year then? As much as I do still adore the round numbers, they are not really a true gauge of my success, they are just reminders that we live in a base 10 world. Sure, I could ask for the fame thing again, but that is a wild crap shoot. If I made half an effort to make it happen of course, but we all know I am too lazy and much too chicken to go out on many ledges. So I guess I'll stick with practical this year. I will try to make another Instructable and another video. I will continue to design, grow and learn. I will watch kittens and children grow, take care of my family, make a few new friends, babble in my blog and try to be better person.

Thank you to everyone out there who reads this blog, checks the Wunderkammer, buys my lace, follows me on facebook or twitter. Thank you for commenting, consoling, commiserating and for ignoring my nonsense...or pretending to anyway. Thank you for being part of my year and I hope to see you in the new one.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Goodbye '09

Ah, my friends I thank you kindly for your video game confessions both here and on twitter yesterday. While I really don't need any enabling, it is certainly comforting to know that I am not alone in the struggle of video game triumph versus actually working. Sure, I picked up the game a couple of times during the day, but I am proud to report that I did indeed get much work done as well.

I got in some production time to remake some smaller sold pieces and I got the first round of my sold mask done and I should get that finished in time to ship out on Saturday. I am determined to get that out of the way and back to the sequins mask. I also had a number of interesting and unexpected conversations yesterday that may or may not result in news in the coming year.

Speaking of the coming year, I have started to give some thought to my future plans. I hesitate to call them resolutions as I never keep those. Rather I can them goals, some more ridiculous than others of course, but I like a variety. The next few months should see me reach the magical sales number called 1000 barring any unforeseen circumstances. I'd love to hit 1500 by the end of 2010 because I like round numbers. The past year had me reaching 5000 hearts in my etsy shop and I hope to gain another 1000 in the new year. I want to see my tatting worn and photoed on someone much more famous than I. I also want to get at least one more instructional needle tatting video up and get the actual Instructables for the last two free patterns I offered up as well. I tried to think of something even more ridiculous than the famous person thing, but the only thing I could come up with is a major magazine or televisions feature of my work.

Will I work to make any or all of these a reality? Maybe. I really do try not to get caught up in my goals, I like to let them happen organically. If opportunities arise I will seize them, otherwise I'll just keep on doing what I'm doing and hope that I can at the very least maintain the levels I've reached already. Good luck to all of you in the new year too!

Goals

It's that time of the year again. The time when I start to get antsy and decide to come up with a set of goals. The goals I've chosen this time are a mixed bag of slightly possible and absolutely ridiculous, as is my way. The set this time includes receiving 5000 heart in my etsy shop and my 1000th sale by years end. Then there's the ridiculous one. In the past I've set this goal to revive tatting as the newest craft craze and while I admit to doing my part to expose more people to the art, it remains an illusive one. Another ridiculous goal was the writing of a tatting book. This one is hampered by being the stay at home mother of two small children...yeah it's not happening any time soon. This time I've aimed for the starts, I want at least one celebrity sale that results in a tatted jewelry sighting on said celebrity. This doesn't even need to be a sale, I'll give away the tatting to get the sighting, though I've no idea where to start to make this one a reality. Which is why it sits comfortably in the ridiculous goal spot.

More house updates for you this morning too. The house was appraised yesterday and came it at what we needed it to, so that's moving smoothly. Packing however is going to be the death of me. The dust is a killer...I know I could wear a mask, but I don't and I not certain it would really help anyway since the dust I disturb floats around the house all day and night now. Also my desire to keep everything is fighting dramatically with my desire to throw away tons of stuff so I don't have to move it. Of course I also suffer from an advanced form of the pack rat syndrome. I believe everything will eventually be used and to throw it away now would mean that need simply presents itself sooner. That's the way it works...right?

I opted for a simply call for donations on the Wunderkammer's sidebar. I'm hoping to get in a healthy handful, so I can run the same sort of giveaway I did here. You know, more entries more prizes and all that. It was really successful at getting new traffic and though the levels I reached during the giveaway were not maintainable, I did see a sustained increase in traffic, so here's hoping I can do the same thing for the Wunderkammer. I've already gotten a couple of responses so I am hopeful...for now anyway.

Something Old, Something New

I love old books. I love thinking about who else has held it in their hands and read its words. There is a sense of history that just cannot be conveyed in a pdf. This is why I keep buying old tatting booklets. I'm sure that I could find their pages scanned online, but it's just not the same. I just got four new ones so old they have no dates on them, though a little research has them dating to the turn of the century. As I sat down to pick new designs to reinvent, I realized that I am hard on books, very hard. I decided that it was in the best interest of the books that I scan them and print out the scans to use instead of using the actual books. My tech expert husband found me a nice pdf compiler for the project and I got my four new ones scanned in yesterday. Of course now I need to scan in my other ones, before there is nothing left of them to scan.

That was my something old for the day, my something new is goals for the etsy store. The last ones I set were 400 sales by the end of the year and 3000 hearts for the store. Well a spectacular October, spurred on by tatted masks no doubt, resulted in the early reaching of 400 sales. I was going to revise the goal to 500 by the end of the year, but then the sales all but stopped. Instead I shall revise it to a more attainable 450. The 3000 hearts was supposed to be a ridiculous number, but a few prominent front page stints resulted in short windfalls of them. I now stand just 50 or so shy of that goal. I remember when I was about to reach 1000, I joked that I didn't even know 1000 people. I had assumed that I had reached a saturation point where anyone who would like my thing enough to favorite them had already done so. I guess I was wrong then and I hope I keep finding new people to impress with my tatted pieces.

I hope to have a few new pieces in the next couple of weeks based on these amazing old designs and the store should soon fill back up with pieces returning from their Steampowered vacation this week. I'm still don't feel ready for the holidays, but I think after today's election is over I can shift into gear and get there.

Two Thousand

It looks like I've rolled back around to goal making time again. Just this weekend I reached the amazing total of 2000 hearts. I never thought in the beginning, that I would be getting so much love. This does however mean that it will be quite sometime before I will reach another heart milestone. I shall instead focus on sales, I am currently just a smidge above 350, so my slightly ridiculous goal is to reach 400 by the end of the year. That means I need to average over a dozen sales a month for the next 4 months. It seems like a stretch, but within reason.

I do so hate to make fiscal based goal without making creatively based ones as well. To that end I am publicly announcing that I am adding to my list of outlandish goals, which already includes making tatting the next crafting craze, a published book of my work. I've no idea how to even begin making that happen, besides actually writting down my patterns, of course, but that won't stop me from putting it on the list. It can sit right next that novel I've been contemplating since high school. They will make great friends.

I thought about making a blogging goal as well, but that would turn all this into work and that would take the joy right out of it for me. What I write here has to be optional and random or I would just start to dread sitting down at the computer, so no blogging goals. I would also like to come up with more tatting wearables like I've already mentioned, but I won't put a deadline on those either. So that's it for today, goals for the future some realistic and some not so much. I will keep you posted on thier developments!

In other news, I received a convo on Friday informing me that I am to be included in Mondays Etsy Finds email. I got so excited that the malaise of the previous week just melted away. From what I've read this will probably not result in tons of sales, but scads of views and hearts. The email goes out to 15,500 people, so it should find a whole mess of eyes. I'll let you all know how it plays out as I'm certain that I will be complusively watching my store all day.

UPDATE: The storque article that accompanies the etsy finds email is here:
http://www.etsy.com/storque/section/spotlight/article/etsy-finds-amazing-masks/2523/

Is Flesh Best?

Before I get into the reason for the title of this post, I have some news to share. Yesterday evening just as I was sitting down to dinner I made my 300th sale. It is official, I've now met all of my current goals. I have 400 feed backs left, over 1500 hearts and now over 300 sales. So if you would, please join in a brief moment of Woo-Hoo......Alright that's enough. I'm afraid to get too excited about things for fear that the Gods will find me too arrogant and take it all away. Is there an electronic equivalent to knocking on wood? I just don't want to jinx myself.

Now on to the reason for the strange title. Well it's partly because I've read that a provocative post title draws in new readers. Of course anyone drawn in by this title will probably be sorely disappointed and never return, so I guess that it's a wash in that category. The real reason is an honest question. You may have noticed that I have, in the past, taken advice from people without using my own judgement in an effort to better my little etsy shop. There was a big fuss awhile back about folk being icked out by jewelry, clothing and other accessories being photographed on people as opposed to mannequins. While this makes a certain amount of sense from a hygienic stance particularly for earrings, it is a bit silly for most things given that we all try on jewelry and clothes in stores without a second thought as to how many others have done the same thing. However, I decided to err on the side of caution and began taking all my photos on a fake head.

Just a few days ago I finished a new necklace design and when it was done I draped it over my own neck as I usually do to look at it in the mirror. I assume that I'm not the only done who does this. Well, it looked great and I proceeded to take pictures to list it, but the pictures just didn't make the piece look right. I decided to try out a live picture and posted the result for critique and the response was overwhelmingly positive. It appears people like looking at pictures of real people. I've since taken a few new pictures of old pieces on my very own neck. The question I pose to you is, does this really help? Will people be more likely to purchase the jewelry now that they've seen it worn or is this just another waste of time?

Please take a second to check out some of the new pictures and let me know what you think. There are a few in my etsy mini in the left column or you can visit my store for a few more. Thanks so much for your time and opinions. They are very much appreciated!

New Goals

When I achieved 1000 hearts and 250 sales on etsy, I threw a little party for myself. I sat back, had a soda and relaxed for a minute. I realized that it would be a really long time before I would reach another big milestone, after all it took 2 years to get to both those goals. To my great delight, I'm inching toward 1500 hearts and 300 sales as we speak. It may take a while, but they are both close enough to look forward to. For some reason having something to work toward keeps me motivated even if it's really an arbitrary number.

I've also managed to get my dozen participants in my tatting challenge, so yay me! I still have about 10 medallions already made up if anyone else is interested...nudge, nudge, you can pick them up here. All the details are in each listing and also here on the blog.

Starting next week, I'll be offering my featured items on sale everyday. I'll change them out daily so if you see something you really want in the featured spot, you're gonna want to snag it fast. This deal will last as long as I feel like doing it, but probably until I reach that 300th sale. As an added bonus to blog readers, I will be previewing which items will be on sale here, the day before I add them to the sale. I've no idea if anyone will bite, but it can't hurt, right.

Thanks also to everyone who not only sympathized with my theft issue but also offered help and advise. I can't tell you how much it means to me that so many people care. I'll keep you all updated on the story if anything changes.