So I'm pretty sure this is the closest I've even been to Halloween without having any idea what my costume should be. This is largely (or at least partly) because I work a closing shift on Halloween, and I keep forgetting to ask my supervisors what company policy on Halloween costumes is... :/
My half-plan at this point is to come up with something that fits the dress code (pants without holes + white shirt with collar + company apron), but also can be tweaked into some obvious costume... I'm thinking some sort of Girl Genius Jaegerkin, I already have the ears and horns, I just need to fit my fangs and find an appropriately fancy hat that won't interfere with the ears. Though I do wish I had some Heterodyne trilobite pins to tie the look together, or maybe a Mechanicsburg Arms patch...
Anywho, spending so much time handling random bolts of fabric at my day job is giving me all sorts of ideas for new stuff to make (I've had to make an "only buy it if you know exactly what you will use it for" rule, lest I entirely defeat the point of having a day job)... hopefully I can find some time to actually make said stuff in the near future. Right now, in addition to a couple commissions in the pipe, I have thoughts for drop-front LARP pants, some Viking tunic variations (which may include finally figuring out the Viborg shirt), revisiting my cotehardie pattern (the first pattern I ever made, over 7 years ago - haven't made another one since, but I still wear the dress, and hung it up as a display model while vending at an event, and it got a surprising amount of interest), continued dabbling in corsetry, a just-for-me scarf made out of this amazing Halloween fabric, and possibly taking up embroidery and/or stuffed doll making... I think walking through the embroidery aisle on my way to the break room may be having some sort of effect on me. But if I can teach myself how to do either, or better yet both, it would be REALLY cool to be able to offer custom-embroidered shirts or semi-period stuffed toys for baby larpers to play with.
Speaking of teaching myself new things, my fiancee gave me a big calligraphy ink color palette, as well as nib cleaner and extra India ink, for my birthday! I've had such things on my wish list since getting a proper dip pen at TeslaCon last year (I use it for conspicuously writing things at medieval LARPs), but now that I have proper inks instead of the too-thin fountain pen India, I think I'm going to have to learn proper caligraphy just to do the stuff justice! Maybe Unpronounceable Designs will branch out into papercrafting, just so I can justify the time spent on playing with ink and fancy pens...
One last thing before I wrap up this post: I've been working on copy for my Etsy store, as threatened... I'm not done quite yet, but I have info posted on my policy page for shipping and returns, as well as an allergen note. I also have some thoughts about shop organization (not really necessary right now, given I only have eight listings, but laying groundwork for the future is good) and aesthetic polishing in my head that I may or may not implement within the next couple of hours. If any of you would go check out the page and give me some feedback, that would be awesome. Thank you!
Talk to you in November! TeslaCon is next week, so I should have some cool stuff to share in my next post!
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Friday, October 17, 2014
Suddenly: Things!
So, let's start this off with the big news for Unpronounceable Designs: I just made my first sale on Etsy!
Okay, so "big" should probably be in quotation marks. It was just a pair of leg wraps, $15 + shipping, and because they were a "custom" color I didn't have fabric on hand for, they actually cost more than that to make. BUT.
I MADE A SALE. To a guy in California that hadn't heard of me in any non-internet capacity. This is big, in its own tiny way. Proof of concept that this "business" thing may actually work.
Anyways, as you probably noticed, life happened and I fell behind on the blog/business maintenance front. Again. Things are settling in to a more organized mode, though, so I should be able to establish a more regular posting schedule from here... or at least that's the plan.
The big cause of my absence THIS time was... jobhunting. Much as I'd love to think otherwise, starting a business doesn't pay for itself, especially when there are also student loans to deal with, and I can only sponge off of my fiancee so much. Officially, I'm still looking for a possibly mythical Good Paying Part-Time Creative Job With Flexible Hours, but I accepted a seasonal-with-possible-option-to-stay minimum wage job at a fabric store, which so far I really enjoy, and I intend to work the employee discount for all it's worth.
Oh, and I'm also looking to apply to grad school, so that'll be all up in my scheduling with an unknown scope of effect, too.
SO. Those are things. Things that may create possible hitches in the plan to be a better blogger and businessperson. But hopefully not. The tighter schedule is making me prioritize stuff a lot more clearly (it's amazing what a difference you can make by changing the the choice from "which thing do I first?" to "I can only do one thing, which one is it?"), and the fiancee is pitching in a bit more with housework, so that's a major distraction out of the way.
My immediate goals are to follow up on a couple custom inquiries/orders, and to finish writing my shop policies and whatnot for the Etsy store... I was about halfway through writing them when the jobhunting disruption happened, and dealing with that first order (OMG I SOLD A THING!) forcefully reminded me that I have basically nothing posted about how I do business, ship stuff, etcetera.
But those are tomorrow goals. Or maybe Tuesday goals, since I have day job work the next three days, and will probably spend the rest of today getting ready and trying to eke out a small fraction of pseudo-weekend relaxation. Which I'm going to get to now.
Happy Friday!
Okay, so "big" should probably be in quotation marks. It was just a pair of leg wraps, $15 + shipping, and because they were a "custom" color I didn't have fabric on hand for, they actually cost more than that to make. BUT.
I MADE A SALE. To a guy in California that hadn't heard of me in any non-internet capacity. This is big, in its own tiny way. Proof of concept that this "business" thing may actually work.
Anyways, as you probably noticed, life happened and I fell behind on the blog/business maintenance front. Again. Things are settling in to a more organized mode, though, so I should be able to establish a more regular posting schedule from here... or at least that's the plan.
The big cause of my absence THIS time was... jobhunting. Much as I'd love to think otherwise, starting a business doesn't pay for itself, especially when there are also student loans to deal with, and I can only sponge off of my fiancee so much. Officially, I'm still looking for a possibly mythical Good Paying Part-Time Creative Job With Flexible Hours, but I accepted a seasonal-with-possible-option-to-stay minimum wage job at a fabric store, which so far I really enjoy, and I intend to work the employee discount for all it's worth.
Oh, and I'm also looking to apply to grad school, so that'll be all up in my scheduling with an unknown scope of effect, too.
SO. Those are things. Things that may create possible hitches in the plan to be a better blogger and businessperson. But hopefully not. The tighter schedule is making me prioritize stuff a lot more clearly (it's amazing what a difference you can make by changing the the choice from "which thing do I first?" to "I can only do one thing, which one is it?"), and the fiancee is pitching in a bit more with housework, so that's a major distraction out of the way.
My immediate goals are to follow up on a couple custom inquiries/orders, and to finish writing my shop policies and whatnot for the Etsy store... I was about halfway through writing them when the jobhunting disruption happened, and dealing with that first order (OMG I SOLD A THING!) forcefully reminded me that I have basically nothing posted about how I do business, ship stuff, etcetera.
But those are tomorrow goals. Or maybe Tuesday goals, since I have day job work the next three days, and will probably spend the rest of today getting ready and trying to eke out a small fraction of pseudo-weekend relaxation. Which I'm going to get to now.
Happy Friday!
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