Marketing woes

I wish I had a degree in marketing. Who knew 30 years ago that I would want to start a business. Etsy has opened doors and made home based business reachable for anyone, however it seems to me the successful sellers are people who know how to market themselves and what they do. I have tried the local team, but they seemed to want to sell at shows and at First Friday events and left out those of us who were staying just with Etsy. Luckily I am good on the computer and have figured out blogging and adding links and ads to my blog site. Hopefully this will add traffic to both sites. There is so much to learn and challenges to overcome. I much prefer making the goods than selling them. I love the creation process - find that just right piece of fabric and have it tell me what to do with it.

A friend and mentor of mine has the marketing thing down pat. She does the widest variety of jewelry from fun light hearted stuff to serious Judaic items which I have purchased myself.

You can check her out at A Passion for Fashion at the following link: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5218926

Thank heaven my daughter had a baby and I was there to see my first burp cloth. Who knew? Now it's one of the many things I enjoy making. Applique is my new skill. I love my new Singer Confidence machine that seems to do it all. Now days you can Google anything - and voila there were the instructions for perfect appliques. What can't you learn just sitting at one's computer?

Lucky for me my other passion is my garden. Living in the SW we have the best growing weather starting in January and my garden is now giving me such joy with everything coming into bloom. I plan to add my first roses this weekend. I love roses but they remind me of being old - don't know why but they do - so I held off adding them for the past six years. They grow well here and offer cut flowers all summer. I just hope my humming bird flower bed gives me other offerings for floral arrangements. I opted for gardens instead of a pool and about August I regret that choice due to the extreme hot temps we get. With flowers all summer I may have an easier time this year. Swimming pools are great but very selfsish - look at all the water it takes to fill one. Deserts aren't designed for that.

It's almost warm enough to start hanging the laundry back outside like last summer. I miss the routine and look forward to starting that up again.

Please be sure to check out my new and improved Etsy site. I added a new colorful banner and there are always new items.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hannah

As always, I'm Dreaming in Colors now - For Baby

Atty in his RoslynsCloset onsie. So Cute!!

Click on the link below to go to her shop.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=102728

Hurry Spring -

Phoenix is in the midst of Spring weather - not too hot and not too cold. In fact...it's just right. We can leave the heat and AC off and have the doors and windows open to circulate air. This is the only time of year I can say anything nice about living here. Come May it will be a different story.

We had heavy rains in February and early March and the weeds have been prolific all over the valley. I went to several stores looking for extended weed killer (very un-Green of me I know)and all of them were sold out. The stores just couldn't keep up. Now I admit to using chemicals SPARINGLY only where I can't get to the weeds (rock riverbeds, pathways and under cacti) and the weeds were smart and grew where they thought I couldn't get to them. Ha! I hate weeds more than I hate weed killer so they lose! They were strong little buggers though. It took me digging the majority of them up, followed by some spray followed by more digging a week later. Once I get them out of there I can use Amaze granuals and keep them at bay the whole season. The really great garden news is my orange tree has blossoms and I just hope the bees find it and pollinate. My first citrus - how exciting.

Besides the yard, I have been a busy bee in my craft shop. I made Elsie a dress and a vest/pant outfit that took so much work and looks so bad on her. I can't help but crack up when I see her in them. It was so bad I deleted the pictures of her in the pants and the dress made her look like a bag lady, and the vest fit, but the pants look like parachute pants on MC Hammer. It was pitiful. I'm better off sticking with tag blankets and burp cloths. My etsy shop is getting stocked and I have been buying fabric like I used to buy shoes. It's important to get designer fabrics not available at the local Joann's so things are unique. It all started with Funky Monkey and has gone uphill from there. I've had to organize in bins all the fabric I have now. Be sure to check out my esty site dreamingincolors.etsy.com)

I haven't seen my new boy Atticus since the first week of February but he's growing fast and has the cutest grump faces. We kid his daddy that Atty picked that up from him. Jason jokes all the time about hating people so we blame it all on him. I can't wait to hold him again before he gets too big. They are small so short a time. I plan to go up North for tulip season in April, again in June and in August for the birth of our second grandson to Javan and Terina. 2008 is proving to be baby explosive. Enough!

Hope this finds you happy and well. Thanks for stopping by,

Hannah

Always, Dreaming....in colors.