Sunday, January 29, 2012

Ethics Question

I placed an order with a crafter before Christmas - Dec 14th. I told her no big hurry, didn't have to have it for Christmas, but would like it by the end of the year.
I thought I would be polite, and instead of 'goods' I payed under the category 'gift' using pay pal.

Jan, 9th, I still hadn't received it, and I emailed her, she said it was finished and would be in the mail that week.

Jan 26th, still haven't received it (she is in the same state, it should have took no more than 2 days) I emailed her and asked for my money back, I can't dispute it on PayPal, because it wasn't a delivered good. She said, no problem - still haven't received the payment.

So - now - Do I post on her facebook page, incase she does this to everyone to let them know it can take a while? Prolly not. No matter what I would try to do, I would come across as an asshole. Do I leave it alone and just eat it? My only choice? Surely not.

What would you do?

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Fun in the mail!

My brother and his wife bought a new house, and they are downsizing. In this downsizing, Lonnie went thru all of her old jewelry, and sent me this awesome 'mess' to play with!



There is so much fun in this bundle. Mebbe the spark I need to get out of this creative slump.

As I dug thru it, I found these:





OMG!!! Hello 80's!!!! I remember having my head shaved on one side, huge shoulder pads and these earrings. The bigger the better. The ones on the right were bought, and yes are vintage, the ones one the left my brother made. My brother made the coolest earring and brooches back in the 80's. I think he may have been my original inspiration for making jewelry.



I don't have the heart to take these apart, in fact, I am going to fix the one pair, and start wearing them again.

Maybe I should make a few pairs :)

Monday, January 23, 2012

Re Org

Wow - the holidays were crazy, what bout you?

I told myself after my big blowout sale, I was going to take 2 weeks off.....welp - here we are over a month later and I am still taking time off.

I may have reached burn out, or reality may have sunk in. I have been chasing a business and a dream for 6 years now, and still am not in the black. So I have taken this time to do a lot of thinking.

It is gut wrenching to put so much effort, research and hope into your passion to create a business and it not pan out. Jealousy has reared its ugly head a few times, when I see the success of others, and it shames me to admit it.

Instead of trying to run myself into the ground, I am scaling way back and becoming the hobbyist. Instead of running to a festival every weekend, keeping a huge inventory in stock, I will be supplying my stores, doing an occasional festival, and have added classes. I have several classes scheduled, and surprisingly, not all jewelry. I do a lot of different crafts, and have for years. I am not an expert in the craft, but I do know enuff about it to teach a novice and answer their questions. These classes have turned out to be a very steady and predictable income, without the overhead of booth fee and gas. Win-win.

Let's see where this chapter takes us :)