The Problem With Etsy

The problem with Etsy is that I have now developed a serious obsession with it. Between that and Pinterest (don't even get me started on my love for Pinterest!) I am in danger of having to self inflict internet rehab.

I liked Etsy, and bought from Etsy, before I was selling my personalised underwear on there, but now that I have an Etsy Shop I am constantly checking the views on my shop and items, chatting on the Etsy Forums and making 'Treasuries' which I didn't even know existed but they are steadily becoming my favourite thing. An Etsy Treasury is almost like a mood board of shopping - I love it!

I also spend a lot of my time Googling 'How to improve sales on Etsy' 'Turning Views into Sales on Etsy' 'How to increase traffic to your Etsy Shop' Oh the list goes on. But I am learning a lot and what I have learnt and put in to practice has definitely had an effect on my little shop :) Views and people favouriting my items are steadily increasing, it is quite sad how excited I get when someone says that one of my personalised underwear items are their favourite.

Right, I've spent too long on here - must get back to Etsy...er...work.

www.etsy.com/shop/SewendipityLife

Lola xx

Scary, Scarier, Scariest.

After getting over the scary bit of releasing my wares in to the big wide world via Etsy, it then got a whole lot scarier when I received my first orders. I was actually going to have to make something that someone had paid good money for. But then after making the ordered items with more love than I show any human being (both orders were diamante personalised pants and I place each individual diamante by hand) it got to the scariest bit yet...I had to...send them away. Popping my hard work in to jiffy bags and dropping them in to a a gaping black hole never to be seen again was terrifying. It was like sending a piece of me away forever. I am just hoping that they have gone to a good home and that the buyer loves what I have done!

Personalised Wedding Underwear in Pink Diamante

Personalised Bridal Shower Wedding Underwear

Packed and Ready to Go!

My Etsy Shop is Open!

Well well well. It turns out that if you make the time to do stuff, you get it done! Who'd have thought it?

I have gingerly put a few of my personalised wedding and bridal underwear out there. And I am now obsessing over page views and wondering why I haven't had an order yet. Apparently this is normal, as many Etsy newbies express on the forums. Phew.

Equally as gingerly, I have created a Facebook page to showcase the personalised underwear I'm making. Although when it comes to blowing my own trumpet and inviting people to 'like' my page, I am stumbling. I don't want to be one of 'those' Facebookers who piss everyone off with their constant updates and begging to like/play/donate/share something within 5 seconds or the puppy gets it.

The bridal underwear I'm doing at the moment is basic but I will be making and adding more as I go along. For once I have started at the beginners stage rather than jumping straight to intermediate and winging it!

Please do drop in to my Etsy shop sometime - it will make me do a little dance when I see the page views increase :) www.etsy.com/shop/SewendipityLife

www.etsy.com/shop/SewendipityLife

www.etsy.com/shop/SewendipityLife

www.etsy.com/shop/SewendipityLife

www.etsy.com/shop/SewendipityLife

www.etsy.com/shop/SewendipityLife

It. Is. On.

I have had the same phrase bouncing around my head for the past few weeks. Found on Pinterest, possibly from a smug 'my life is together' person's board, but it has done the trick and given me a mini boot up the bottom.

A year from now you'll wish you'd started today

It resonates so much because it is very true for me. I do beat myself up when I think of all the time I waste on thinking about stuff and not actually doing anything about it. I wish I had read this four years ago. Ten years ago maybe. So I started something today. Ok, ok, I started it on Tuesday. I am only three days late in writing it out loud. I designed, drafted a pattern and handmade my first pair of bespoke silk knickers. After researching until my eyes bled for UK based manufacturers that were suitable to make the underwear I needed in vain, I just bleeding well did it myself. Successfully.

I love the personalised bridal underwear I used to make and have been wanting to start it up again for some time, but thought I needed suppliers and outside help to make it work again, turns out I don't :) If you want a job doing, do it yourself, such is life.

There are a few cons to taking on the making of the underwear on top of the personalising...it takes time, it is not cheap, it will make my products more expensive to sell. BUT the quality is higher, all materials are sourced from the UK and they are made in the UK, I will not get screwed over by manufacturers who take all of my money and then go bankrupt leaving me with no money or underwear to show for the heartache (true story) and there will be love in every stitch.

This weekend I'll be expanding the size range and getting some samples together so I can take pretty pictures of them. *Googles photography for beginners*

I Made a Wedding Cake. For Someone's Actual Wedding.

I do tend to say yes to a lot of requests, I can never work out whether it is me being greedy because I love the thought of another new project or whether I am simply stupid. I was recently asked to make a couple of big occasion cakes – a 70^th birthday and a wedding cake. “Sure” I said “Why not?” I said. The fact that I have never done cakes on that scale before should have perhaps been the prompt to say no…but I reeeeeaaaaalllyyyy wanted to make them.

So, the wedding cake attempt was…ok. It looked fine, the bride and groom were over the moon and it tasted pretty darn good. But I was not happy with it. I could see all of its flaws and wonkiness, although miraculously no one else seemed to notice, they were glaringly obvious to me and that was all I could focus on. It is only the pressure that we put upon ourselves that seem to break us. The bride was not even too bothered about having a cake at all, just a tasty slab of something sweet dumped on a table would have done. But I couldn’t let that happen now could I?!

I found the baking bit easy (I tried the recipes out beforehand, classic Victoria sponge and lemon sponge) the handmade sugar paste roses were also easy, if a little time consuming, building the tiers were fine and even the bit that I was the most scared of – the icing – went very smoothly (boom boom). It was the shaping and straightening of the cakes that let me down. Lack of experience but a lesson learned should there ever be a next time (unless I learn to say NO by then). I could have done with a spirit level I think, my eye definitely let me down, but with the only one to hand being a cement splattered one from the depths of the shed, I had to do without.

However, it was cut up in a matter of seconds and devoured and enjoyed, which is the main thing. No matter how much I keep beating myself up about it!

It tasted good at least

A Handmade Christmas

It's no wonder why I was so ready for a rest over Christmas - I had been making and baking Christmas presents since October for family and friends. This year - homemade Christmas Hampers!

Another satisfying, simple and cheap item to make. It does take a little forward planning but you can feel smug due to the early start made, as your chutneys are maturing in the cupboard you can pop your feet up and avoid that last minute gift buying panic!

I saw a lot of hampers and foodie gifts in the shops this Christmas, and they are expensive for what they are - even buying the products separately and simply popping them in to a pretty basket is more cost-effective, and gives that personal touch too that only a handmade gift can bring (a great way around this if your cooking skills are not the best!)

Homemade Christmas Hamper

I totted up how much I spent overall, including all of the ingredients, jars, baskets, labels etc. and it worked out at £8.77 per hamper, a bargain! Especially when compared to the £20 plus ones on the High Street. And they didn't look too shoddy, even if I do say so myself!

My hampers included:

Orange Marmalade
Sweet Chilli Jam
Apple and Cranberry Chutney
Christmas Biscotti

I got most of the recipes from http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/edible-gift a great resource for edible gifts for any time of year.

The best bit was turning up at my sister's on Boxing Day and seeing that the hamper had been opened and wares sampled (and ultimately enjoyed) already. I just need to think of something for next Christmas now...it's never too early! xx

Fascinatoring!

One of the accessories I love to make the most is a fascinator and I will look for any excuse to wear one just so I can make one. I think the most satisfying aspect is the fact that they are so expensive to buy and yet very cheap (and easy!) to make. Plus you are guaranteed a unique piece bespoke to you and your outfit - no fear of turning up with the same as another fascinator fan!

A wedding in a chateau in France was all I needed as a prompt to make my favourite creation to date:

Bespoke Handmade Fascinator

Materials:

Sinamay Tear Drop base (Ebay £1.89)
Fascinator Crocodile Hair Clips (Ebay £1 pack of 5)
Fabric Roses (Hobbycraft £1.99 for 6)
Black Feather creation (Ebay £2.89)
Millinery Netting (Ebay 99p per metre)

TOTAL: £8.76 (with some bits left over for another couple of fascinators!)

I had a fair idea of how I wanted it to look in my head, so I played around with the placement of things until I was happy and then glue-gunned away! I hand stitched the netting and, well, that was that! Around half an hour of my time and less than a tenner got me a unique handmade, homemade fascinator :)

Handmade allows easy matching your headgear to your frock