New Daisy Ponytail Debut

Wanted to post it here first. I'll edit a link back in after I list it on Etsy or you might catch it on the Craftcult to the right-->. Girl Scout Daisy Ponytail Steamers (pictured with the super popular Daisy Petal hair bow accessory). Now to determine a price...

Cheers!
~Karin

The promised link for the new Daisy Petal ponytail streamers

Being Featured in a Blog

I recently sent a package of bows to a friend from high school including my best seller, Daisy Bow pictured here: and his wife featured me in her blog, Wisdom Comes Suddenly and added a button for me! Such a cute mommy blog and little girls too! I love catching up with people from my past!

Go Team, Go!

So Etsy has made some recent changes to their forums that kind of make it more difficult to promote shops in the social forums. You now need to join a "team". I see a lot of you guys out there in cyberland saying the same thing, "what the heck is a team?" Well, I'm not really sure.

My sales and views have not been as high as last month even though I've created more and listed more and my photos are way better than before. This is my newest type of hair accessory I have available:


So I started looking into teams, admittedly, to boost my ego - hey at least someone's LOOKING at my stuff, if not actually buying it, right? I was surprised at some of the requirements for teams - location (I understand that one - shop local!), treasury curators (requiring a certain number of Etsy curated lists (treasuries) created and then using team members in your treasuries), product type (I joined EtsyBows but it's slow moving), people who love their pets (how's that related to handmade items?), ethnicity, gender, people who like computer programs (or who need help with said program), those employed outside the home, those that do this as their main source of income, those who are retired folks, those who are mothers of children aged x-y, single parents, those who are students, those who are students at X school, those who are promoting fundraisers, those who do X as a job/family member outside Etsy, those who are trying to loose weight, and my personal favorite TEAM BACON. And all of these are disjointed, not organized in any way and have just a few members each. They are also kind of hidden, requiring several click before you get there so Etsy buyers who don't know what teams are aren't going to stumble there uninvited or feel welcome when the teams are directed at sellers. Promo teams will only be as good as their members promote outside of Etsy whereas the promo forum was an on-site one-stop-shop.
I can join as many teams as I can keep up with so I decided on a couple - a local "street team" (which I have no idea what a street team means but they seem fairly social, covers the whole DC metro area and not only promote their Etsy shops but they promote local craft fairs), one for hair bows and an established team that does a weekly promo thread called SNS The Original Saturday Night Specials. So this is what I'm writing. I'm having my first SNS! A true BOGO - so tonight, February 19th from 5pm until it's no longer night in the US (6am Sunday morning), I'm offering buy one get one free (of equal or lesser value).
So now, after a lot of superfluous banter that I wish I could have crammed into high school and college essays, I leave you with another linked photo (go SEO!):

petals up or down?

I've been making this bow for a long time - it was one of the first ones I sold.

So when I do this, I can flip the petals so they are either:
concave (curved up)

or convex (curved down)

Okay, I know my science background is showing. But which do you like better?

I make these is a couple of different styles
Listed as Spotty Dotty

listed as 5-petal ribbon flower

They are the same pattern, different sized ribbon (see the 5-petal sized on the spotty dotty?).

Crochet away

So I really enjoyed making that crochet beanie/skull cap to match the blanket (I posted a picture recently) and also the bonnet so I've been using some Caron Simply Soft to make a few. Here are examples:



Well, I brought what I was working on to my daughter's dance class looking for a way to spend some child-free but away from home time so not really bow time). Anyway, I got to chatting with a friend and being that I'd already done the shaping and I was just working on the sides of the skull cap, I pulled it out, confident that I'd be able to carry on the conversation while getting some work done. She asked me to teach her girls how to knit (I did correct her that I was crocheting, not knitting). I can't teach my own girls how (A really doesn't take direction from me and E gets distracted easily) so I'm not sure that it will work well but I'm thinking about it. Considering that I learned a little bit from my Granny who lived several states away and then my MIL who lives several states away and then the internet (gotta love youtube!). Anyway, I think I'm going to start with teaching my friend!

It's Thursday!

Thursday and Friday are really busy days for me - 4 kids to 3 different schools, some errand, home, feed & nap the little kids, get the big kids home, ballet & Brownies Thursday/Irish dance Friday, dinner, bed, CRASH! - so I was a little reluctant to commit to being a speaker at St. Leo the Great's Mother's group. I had never been to a religious playgroup (even though I went to Catholic school) or one that had speakers for the moms.

I was surprised at how this one was set up. They put on a movie for the kids and set out toys (I think the youngest was 17 mo and there were a couple home schooling moms that had older kids) and then the moms talked for a few minutes before going around and introducing everyone. Then I got up and did my thing. I told how I got into the business and then I showed how to sew my St. Patty's Day korker bow starting with how to make the korker ribbon. I took questions and then sold some bows. I think I might do it again with another group! If you have a local group that wants a 15 minute bow presentation, send me an email!

so, next Thursday, huh...

Like I've mentioned before, I'm doing a demo for St. Leo the Great Mother's Group in Fairfax, VA, on Thursday so in preparation, I've made a few lined clips...

Do keep in mind that I will be using some of these to mount bows and sculptures on but by a few, I mean somewhere in the range of 150 individual clips. This photo was taken yesterday afternoon and there are about 125 clips here - some may have seen it on my personal facebook page not my business one and I made several more this morning before I got the bright idea of photographing, editing the photos and listing these 19 that I haven't previously listed (how much did that cost at 20 cents a pop? but keep it to yourself, I don't think I want to know until I sell a few!).

Here's what I listed today:
Simply Lined Clips
-Purple polka dots
-Red polka dots
-Light blue zigzag
-Birthday Set of 3
-Cake & Balloons
-Presents
-Candles
-Apples
-Snowmen
-Hot pink polka dots
-Lil Sister/Big Sister 2 pair
-Lil Sister
-Big Sister
-Green (Emerald) polka dots

Valentine's Hearts pair
-Hot Pink
-Purple
-Red

I also updated photos of the crocheted shamrocks. Typing this here, I think maybe I should put the word "clover" somewhere that SEO can find it... tags perhaps? I don't know and I'll likely forget until I read this again in a week or so when I Google my shop...

So why list so much? I want to get to 50 items in my shop. I notice more traffic when I have more items. And it makes sense - I don't want to pay for shipping for just one item - I wanna make it worth my while and ship as much as I can from one place at one time. Forum groupies swear by the 50 rule too so it's an attainable goal to set on the last day of January for the month of January... I'm not at 50 yet though. I don't like listing multiples because that seems like cheating so I've kinda gotta get going so I can finish up, photograph and list a couple more items!

Oh, and I'll leave you with a photo of my kids in the snow and a coupon code good in my shop until the kids go back to school: StirCrazy2011