Back in Business

(affiliate links to my designs)

Back in December of 2019, I put my Etsy shop on vacation because Lizard was about to undergo total knee replacement. I had arranged to work from home for a few weeks so I could take care of him as he recovered and went through therapy to regain movement. Neither of us knew back then how hard surgery is on someone with Parkinson's. Neither of us knew I'd be working from home for the next four years before therapy was done. Neither of us knew Lizard would undergo back surgery just a few months into the pandemic.

I tried to reopen my Etsy shop during winter 2022, I think, and it was overwhelming while working a fairly stressful job from home full time and being a full-time caregiver to boot. I ended up putting my Etsy shop back on vacation once again after the few items I'd listed expired three months later. (Each listing lasts for three months before they must be renewed for another Etsy fee, and nothing was selling, so...) My Etsy shop got a better longer vacation than I ever had!!!

I'd tried participating in a local craft fair that year to try to clear out some of my Etsy stock and to earn a bit of extra money to help out with all the medical expenses. I think I had $85 in sales. I was discouraged because my booth wasn't in a high traffic area, but, in retrospect, I didn't do too bad, given the circumstances.

Last December, I tried my hand at that same craft fair again, once again in an effort to clear out more Etsy stock and to try to earn money to help out with medical expenses, particularly now that my financial status has changed. This time, I had to pay for my table. This time, my table had a better location, but very few of the 40 or so crafters, other than a family who 3D-printed dragons that were a hit, experienced many sales. I made $13, I think. I didn't even make back what it cost to participate, and I had to bring back home everything I carted to the show with me. I decided craft fairs were not for me. I hope I can remember that next time I'm tempted to sign up for a craft fair. Or farmer's market, which would require a lot more time and a lot more money.

I still needed to clear out some of my Etsy stock. And earning a little extra money definitely would help. I pondered opening my Etsy shop again. I was worried about how much time I'd have to invest. Lizard's needs can sometimes be overwhelming. No complaints. But to increase traffic to my shop, I'd either have to pay to promote it, or I'd have to promote it myself. I am NOT good at self-promotion at all, and it definitely is not my favorite thing to do. But, necessary evil, right???

I set up a Snowcatcher Facebook page I planned to share with all my friends and neighbors once I'd invested enough time to make it worthwhile. Wow, was that really six months ago??? Where on earth did all the time go?!? :)

Self-promotion, like blogging, takes a LOT of time! :) I haven't put as much time into the Facebook page as I need to, but I have tried a tiny bit to share some of the things I love to create. This is my first time EVER sharing the page anywhere, and I'm a little nervous because... what if this thing takes off??? Ha ha ha! That's what I want, right? I want more traffic. I want to generate sales. I want to get rid of some of the stuff I've made so I can make room for... geez, more??? Gosh, what is wrong with me?!?

I still crochet when I can. It's a quiet activity I can do while Lizard sleeps and I can't. So, yes, I am generating new stuff. Stuff I don't have room to store! I still have a ton of quilting projects I started months ago, years ago, and probably decades ago and have not had time to complete. I can't sew while Lizard is sleeping. I hope to eventually have fresh, new, quilted projects in my shop. For now, crochet may have to do...

I also have a greeting card shop. I have to self-promote that, too, because I gave up on the greeting card company altogether more than a decade ago when it removed from public display about 875 of my more than 900 cards. I would have left the site altogether if I didn't enjoy so much the ability to mail greeting cards directly from my shop without having to pay to mail them to myself just to stamp and mail them again a week later.

I actually still create greeting cards on a fairly regular basis. Anyone who visits here often knows I have more than a handful of grandkids I send greeting cards to each year. That means I need at least 26 new unique kid birthday greeting cards each year. Plus, I love creating greeting cards. I sometimes even love writing verses for the inside.

I don't get to stalk wildlife anymore, and about the only real photography I get to do these days is in my garden, which might be pretty boring to people who see those pictures each year. The flowers don't change much. :) I still need new greeting cards pretty frequently, so I've been trying to create some greeting card images with AI, or artificial intelligence. The grandkids LOVE my adventurous AI crocheted critters and are patiently awaiting the day I actually crochet the amigurumi depicted in their greeting cards. I have to admit, I would LOVE to crochet every single one. Some of them are so darned cute! But, I've always put my weekly snowflake patterns first on my "to crochet" list...

I have a HUGE stock of greeting cards at home. I used to order a copy of almost every card I mailed from my site because I kept my stash on my desk at work. My co-workers kept my informal and totally unprofessional desk card shop in business for about 22 years. Now I have this incredible stash of greeting cards at home that just sits.

While I was at my mother-in-law's house last week, I got to see a couple of videos about what currently sells best at craft fairs and farmer's markets. I actually have some of the items supposedly selling well these days. You wouldn't have known it at the last craft fair, but these videos motivated me to put a little more time and effort into Etsy. While at Lizard's mom's, I made four greeting card pouches with yarn from my stash I'd intended to crochet into cowls. When I got home, I curated a few greeting card collections from my stash, photographed them and listed them on Etsy.

That night, I was talking to my mom on the phone when my phone suddenly made this cash register sound it had never made before. I'd had my first Etsy sale in about six or seven years!!! It wasn't a greeting card set, but one of the steering wheel covers, which continually generate "This item in your shop is HOT!" email notifications from Etsy. (Etsy thinks I should boost visibility and sales by promoting my steering wheel covers, for a monthly fee, of course.) I sold one of the most-visited and popular items in my shop! I still can't believe it!!!

I had the item packaged and ready to be mailed first thing the next morning within 15 minutes after my mom and I hung up. Lizard and I rode our bikes to our local postal depot the next morning, making this a totally green delivery for me (how exciting!!!). Hopefully there is a very happy and satisfied recipient out there right now. The bike ride didn't go so well for Lizard; it had been several weeks since he'd been on his bike, and after his first rest stop, he couldn't go any further. But that's a story for a different day. Maybe next Tuesday...

In the meantime, I am so super-stoked. It's just one sale. But I finally had a sale!!! And I had time to do everything I needed to do to complete the sale. I did it! This may seem like such a tiny thing to anyone else, but to me, this was monster. I successfully did something I've been wanting to do since December, and I found out I CAN do this!!!

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