Happy New Year's Eve Everyone!

I am making guacamole and cleaning the house

(the thrills never end here folks)

we used to have movie marathons to keep our daughter up until midnight, but now we are the ones trying to stay awake -

(sigh)

hoping everyone has an amazing and safe New Year's Eve - tomorrow starts a brand new year and I have decided that it is going to be fantabulous for all of us!

*photograph by matt allen photography

6 Business Lessons I Learned in 2010 - advice from one crafty maker to another

1. Deals with big catalog companies do not always translate into big dollars for little maker companies

(enough said)

2. Stores are not always ready to buy when we are ready to sell - repetition is a key to success with mailings and store contacts.

(maybe with everything now that I think about it)

Instead of moving on to new stores too quickly when a postcard doesn't generate any interest, I have found if I mail to the same store again (and sometimes again) I usually get the account.

(note - make sure your postcard is awesome,

< ---- mine is

the store is a good fit for your work and you mail directly to the owner, manager or buyer and follow-up with a phone call - I always call just to check in that the postcard arrived and let them know about a "special" I am having that week)


3. Store accounts need to be reminded to re-order.

When I started calling shop owners to see if they needed more stock (instead of just assuming my stuff wasn't selling because I hadn't heard from them) - my re-orders went way up.

(shop owners are as busy as we are)

4. Being in control might make us feel safe but that is pretty much the only benefit. Sometimes things fall apart so they can fall together.

We need to let go sometimes.

5. Some of this social networking has got to go. I am becoming less averse to automating certain things or just eliminating them all together.

There are only so many hours in the day.

6. I have been avoiding growth and change (partly because I want to stay small and personal, but mostly from pure exhaustion) but static, maintenance mode doesn't work - no matter how firmly we dig in and put in roots we will be uprooted -

Our business is alive.

It is changing everyday - whether we like it or not.

(we cannot stop this anymore than we can stop our toddlers from becoming preteens, although we would sometimes like to)

Static, maintenance mode will not work for long -

our income will drop, our work will become outdated, the competition will swoop in and undercut us, we will stop innovating -

for our business to survive it must be growing. The good news is we get to decide how that will happen.

It doesn't have to mean more work for us, in fact it has to mean more freedom and more creation because otherwise we might as well all get a real job with a 401K and dental insurance.

(if such things exist anymore)

There is a way to do this without putting in more hours (I don't have any), learning any more techno crap (my head will explode) or losing the personal nature of my handmade, upcycled business - I refuse to sell out.

We will find the way.

(I probably learned way more than this, but my head cold is still causing my noodle to be even foggier than usual and these are the first things that come to mind - hope someone finds them helpful)

*learn more things print by NayArts

10 Day WE CAN DO THIS Countdown to 2011 - # 7 Allowing


Now at first allowing seems like a backstep for someone who has chosen to make 2011 my year of deciding.

But I have enough living under my belt to know that there is an ebb and flow to this thing called life and I have never been an all or nothing, black and white, kind of thinker.

Making decisions and not settling doesn't mean I am suddenly turning my canoe upstream -

(I don't want to end up on that "I Survived" tv show after all)

but, I do need to steer my canoe, that's why canoes come with paddles after all, unless I want to end up crashed along a rocky shoreline.

(where I can imagine some kind of Tom Hanks falling in love with his volleyball future for me that would not be pretty)

Part of this deciding thing is about getting in touch with what I want, so that this all becomes alot more effortless - allowing things to flow in and out of my life as I make decisions based on my intention without second guessing myself with indecision or hanging on too tightly ....

And I should mention that even though 2011 is still a couple days away, I have already started making decisions:

hubby - "what should we have for dinner?"

old me - "I don't know - what do you want?" <--- this didn't happen

new decisive me - "egg and ham omelets with crispy rye toast" <--- this did

hubby - "mmm, sounds perfect"

(of course we are still shoveling out from our snowpocalypse and the cupboards are pretty bare, but see how yummy decisive action can make anything sound)

* free spirit print by the amazing Shira Sela

10 Day WE CAN DO THIS Countdown to 2011 - # 6 Reach

When I was a kid I was told that I asked for too much -

that I would never be happy unless I learned to love what I already had.

And there is some truth in this.

There is also truth in the fact that the passionate life does not settle.

It reaches. It stretches. It needs to know and see and feel those things that are just beyond its grasp.

At heart I am a "settler inner" - I get cozied in and cannot be prodded to make a change until life forces me to get moving.

But 2011 is my year of deciding and I need to start moving all those things that I am not passionate about out of the way to make room for the good stuff - the really, really good stuff that is waiting for me.

I am starting with my closets. I am starting today.

(well, maybe tomorrow, I am still kind of sick)

* grand reach print by the amazing cori dantini