God Bless Our Troops
Showing posts with label labeling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label labeling. Show all posts

June 27, 2016

I have been super busy the last couple of weeks.  I may have mentioned that I am listening to a podcast, Etsy Conversations.  I have learned a lot about improving my Etsy shop.  I have spent the last couple of weeks re-doing my tags and titles.  I am learning a lot about SEO - search engine optimization.  My views have gone up quite a bit, but not much of an increase in sales.  However, the shop has doubled in income compared to this time last year.  I am finding it fascinating how descriptions and tags affect views.

I have also been revamping the labels on our products.  I am a "visual" person so packaging is high on my list of priorities.

Here are some of the labels I have done for our jar candles.














          The wax melts have a new look also:








                                              Soaps too!








The brick and mortar in town is also keeping us very busy.  Our dips and mixes are selling very well.  I laugh now when I think of how nervous I was about this move, but I am so glad we went on board.  The people I work with are fantastic and a lot of fun!!


I've also been working on grungy candles.  I love the Candy Cane scent even though I really should be working on the fall grungies.  






Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Wow!  My last post was February!  I didn't realize how long it had been until Nina asked me if I had posted recently.  I took a look at my last post and a few of the pictures have disappeared.  Arghhh!!  Since February I have finished quite a few quilts.






Maddie's quilt pic disappeared from my last post so here is her quilt.


 I also finished Meghan's Quilt



Here is my quilt for the challenge at the Maple Syrup Festival.  (I took first!)


And here is Ben with his quilt.  He was emphatic that the quilt had to have combines on it.


About a month ago, a friend approached me with a business proposition.  She and her business partner purchased a building in downtown Alma.  It was a former office building and they are renting out rooms to businesses to set up boutiques.
  

I was a bit nervous about committing to a monthly rent, but so far things are working out very well. This is so opportune because Anna is getting married in January and wants to back off from the business.  I have taken over her end of the operations and Kelli has been brought in to help make mixes.  Melisa will join us if time permits when school is out for the summer.  It has been a challenge to keep on top of inventory, labeling, stocking, etc, but once the learning curve is over, things should run more smoothly.  Where we used to concentrate on fall and spring, I am now trying to figure out product for the year round.  We will be cutting back on our craft shows, concentrating on the two shows in Shepherd.  I will do a couple of smaller ones with Kelli and Nicola. 

I have been subbing at St. Vincent de Paul in Shepherd.  They have a fantastic keyboard guy, but he needs a break every now and then, plus he teaches during the school year so I have been covering funerals.  It is just enough to keep my hand in and I am loving it.  Most Sundays will find me juggling a twin on my knee.  Life couldn't be better.  

I have been listening to some podcasts on organizing and those have really helped me focus.  I have better structure to my work week and I have limited myself to quilting on Sundays only (for the time being).  I am currently working on a retirement quilt for the administrator at St. Vincent who will be retiring in June.  


I am doing some repair work on one of Nina's quilts and then I will be only working on a quilt for Anna and Michael.  It is a double wedding ring quilt and I am doing the Eleanor Burns applique version.  


Today was a frantic product making day.  I usually work at the store on Wednesdays, but today I had a funeral which means I work tomorrow which is my usual product making day.  We did a batch of Potato Soup and 2 batches of brownie mix.  Yesterday and today I made 4 batches of jar candles, 1 batch of tart melts, and still have room spray to do plus the labeling of the mixes we made today.  All of this is to re-stock the shop - which is a good thing.