vacation is over!

I’ve really been trying my best to blog more often. I guess the only bright side of this is my excuse for lack of steady blogging is I’m spending the majority of my time busily crafting. If I was sitting in front of the tv like a lump doing nothing, then I’d have reason to guilt myself to death. But I’m being productive, and that’s what matters! [right?] I will admit though that I was on vacation all of last week and there was definitely no crafting of any kind going on. Sun, sand and margaritas galore. Plus I finished a whole book in two days! [Towelhead. It was really good! But really intense] Sadly…now it’s back to reality.





I’ve still been investigating what the best sealant is for shrinky dink pieces. There’s tons of suggestions, but overall I can’t seem to find a source saying “yes..this absolutely always works 100%”. Actually, the most successful sealant I’ve read about still seems to be resin. But honestly…I can’t go and mix up a batch of resin just to seal maybe 5 pieces? It seems like overkill to me. Also, I just recently threw away a container of resin that I bought months ago in my “I want to try resin phase” that I hadn’t used yet. I hate buying stuff that I threw away the day before. This is why I’m a packrat. I might need it! I have to keep it! I’ve been trying to follow the “Have you used it in the past 2-3 months?” reasoning when it comes to getting rid of stuff. It’s usually a good method.

Sales have been slow this past month, which is understandable with the *gasp* economy (I hate that word. I’ve heard it so many times I want to hurl) and it being summer also. I’ve been brainstorming where I should spend more time promoting my Plini figurines. I’ve noticed that a good majority of my customers are doll house or Blythe/Pullip doll collectors. They use my figurines to decorate their houses or as an accessory for their collectible dolls. I’m thinking it would be a good idea to promote more where the doll house miniature and doll collectors get together. I’m having a hard time though. I’m not sure where to look, and when I do find a site that looks like a good place to check out, I get worried that I might come off spammy. Which is what I definitely do not want to do.



Hopefully today or tomorrow (or Wednesday…I don’t know) I can get around to listing the handful of ACEOs I made not too long ago. They’re all ready to go. I just have to muster up the energy to list each one. I really wish Etsy would come up with a batch listing option. I know that might just encourage more resellers, but I also think it would be a valuable addition for the real sellers. Why leave us all high and dry because Etsy as a site can’t monitor their user’s content enough? How about give us batch listing and hire more flagging staff?

That’s enough whining for one day I think.

Oh! And I also have a handful of summery Plinis and two or so kittehs to list also. That won’t be for a little while though since I still have to finish taking all of the photos. But I can’t wait to list them. They’re really cute!

My hiatus is officially over.

Hello!

I'm back. Okay, I never really left...but my computer did. It was in a "coma" for a solid month, until I was able to get it fixed. In that time when I had limited computer access, I really felt a void in my daily routine. Sad and pathetic, but true. I have a lot of blog reading and catching up to do. All of my networking and promoting has been lacking with lack of internet access.

On the bright side, I was able to take that time to temporarily put my Etsy shop in vacation mode and devote my time to making a huge new batch of Plinis and other figurines. It was relaxing indeed.



I've also been working on photographing some ACEOs to list that I made a little while ago. I've been feeling a little self conscious to list them though. Will they groove alright in my shop with my Plinis? Will other people like them they way I do? I guess the only way to see is to list them!



On top of that, I've been working with shrinky dinks again. I made a small pile of adorable charms that I can't wait to list, but now I'm dealing with the problem of how to seal them. I've tried all kinds of glosses. Some smear the ink, melt away the plastic, peel away the design. It's a pile of shrinky dink drama. I don't want to sell charms that aren't going to last. I have to do some more digging.