Rambling On

One week left!!

Can you tell that I’m excited?? The kids have only one week left until they go back to school and I couldn’t be happier!! This has been a very long summer. These two kids have spent most of their summer fighting and I haven’t been able to get very much done these past couple of months. I have a couple of quilting jobs that I really need to get a start on. But having two kids underfoot has prevented me from getting started. But in one week they will be back in school and I can haul out my sewing machine once again.

Crafting again

So for the past few months I really haven’t done a whole lot of crafting. Between work and stuff going on with the kids, I really didn’t have a whole lot of time to indulge in my crafting hobby. But that all changed this weekend. I dug out (and dusted off) my sewing machine and started making some handcrafted bags. I had so much fun! I had forgotten how much fun and how relaxing participating in crafts can be. Now that I’ve caught the crafting bug once again, I plan on doing it a lot more often. Hopefully I can get a few items made and start selling them once again.

Fabric shopping

Now that my shifts have been cut back at my outside job, I have decided to try to get my home crafting business up and running once again. The first items that I plan on creating will be some handcrafted sewing bags. But to do this, I need to go shopping. Our local fabric store is having a huge sale this week so I think this is the perfect time for me to do some fabric shopping. I’m hoping to have all my fabric bought by this weekend so I can get started on this particular craft. Wish me luck and as soon as I get one made, I’ll be back to post the pictures.

Busy making jewelry

This time of year is not only my favorite time of year because it’s the Christmas season, but it’s also my favorite time of year because this is when I see the most sales for my jewelry. So for the past month or so I have been busy making tons of jewelry to sell at Christmas craft fairs. There is no better feeling than to be able to deliver an order to a customer and see how pleased they are with their purchase. I think making sure to ensure my order fulfillment to all my customers has enabled me to have repeat customers as well. So this year I will be headed out to all the craft shows to try to sell all my inventory. Wish me luck!

More work than I counted on

Last week a friend of mine asked if I would create her a one of a kind necklace, earring and bracelet set. Of course I said yes and tried to get on it as quickly as possible. The only problem with this, was the fact that I haven’t made any jewelry for awhile so I was really unsure as to wear all my supplies were. Well, I found them. Completely by accident mind you. While looking for them I upset one of my totes. I had loose diamonds rolling all over the floor. What a mess! So instead of creating jewelry, I spent two days cleaning up one heck of a mess. But the mess is clean. So later on today I will start creating.

First Christmas sale!

Last Sunday I had my first Christmas jewelry sale. I sold one of my three stranded beaded necklace, bracelet and earrings set. My friend was so impressed with the look of the set that she asked me if I would bring down the rest of my jewelry so she make take a look at them and possibly do another sale. It’s a real good thing that I finally learned how to make earrings because apparently people want to buy earrings when they buy any one of my sets. So this Sunday I will be taking all my jewelry to work for my co-worker to take a look at and hopefully I’ll be able to report back next week that I have made many more sales.

Adding to my inventory

When I started making handcrafted jewelry I kind of stuck to the same kind of jewelry. I have made a lot of necklaces and bracelets, but have decided that I really need to add to my inventory that I have for sale. So I’m going to branch out into the jewelry world. I’m going to try to make body jewelry and earrings. While trying to sell my jewelry I have had a lot of people ask for these other items and when I tell them I haven’t mastered this art yet, I see a look of disappointment. So I’m going to see if I can’t learn how to make these types of jewelry and then maybe I’ll start selling more.

Direct selling

I’ve been doing a lot of jewelry making these past couple of weeks.  Not a lot of selling mind you, just a lot of making.  So I’ve come to a couple of decisions.  I’m going to try to sell my crafts directly to interested parties.  I am going to take down my crafting website and I am also going to take down my etsy account when it finally expires.  I have found that these two methods don’t benefit me in the least when trying to sell my crafts.

So within the next few days I will be making a few changes to all my blogs as far as the way that I list my jewelry that is for sale.  But before I will be able to find the time to do all this re-arranging, I thought I would give you all a peek at some of the items that I do have for sale.

The necklaces are all $12.00 and the bracelets are all $7.00.  The shipping is included in these prices for all of Canada and the US.  If you don’t live in either of these countries and would like to make a purchase, just let me know and I’m sure we can work something out.  If you would like to make a purchase you can contact me directly at kdarrell21(at)hotmail(dot)com.  I look forward to hearing from you.  And… I hope you all enjoy the pictures.

The Scrapbooking fairy arrived

One of my friends sent me an e-mail the other day about a lady who was getting rid of some of her scrapbooking supplies and she wanted to know if I would be interested in getting them from her for free.  Of course I said yes.  So she gave me her phone number and e-mail address and I contacted this lady. 

Well today she dropped by with the stuff and I have to tell you that I was surprised at all the stuff that she was giving away.  Now don’t get me wrong, I appreciated all that she gave and it will all go to good use, but I was really surprised at her generosity.  I have to say that purchasing this amount of supplies would have cost me a fortune so I am extremely grateful to her.  I am also extremely grateful to my friend for hooking me up with this lady.

I’ve been a very busy girl!

Over the past week, I have been making a lot of homemade jewelry. Last weekend I went to our local craft store and bought a ton of beads and supplies so I could get back to making jewelry. So for the past few days that’s pretty much all I have been doing. When I started posting on different forums that I have homemade jewelry for sale, some fellow bloggers suggested that I check out Etsy.com to see about setting up a shop to sell my jewelry. So for the past couple of days I have been looking into getting my own Etsy shop and I took the plunge and set one up. Right now I have five items up for sale, and if they sell, I will then advertise more. The fees associated with this site are quite reasonable, so I decided to give them a try for a little while. If this works out, then you will be able to see a lot more of the jewelry listed on this site.

So, please take the time to stop by my site and see what I have been up to lately.