KISS

. KISS, one of my daughter's favorite words. She used it quite frequently before leaving for school three years ago. She used it so much I had to find out why. She explained to me when she told someone KISS, it meant 'Keep It Simple Stupid'. According to her that most of time we spend our time making everything more complicated than what it need be. I was thinking about this the other day and I think I figured out why I'm always so tired, in trying to stock my shop, I'm not keeping it simple. I have so many varied interest that I can't decide which one I really want to dedicate myself to. I love to knit, sew and crochet, not to mention jewelry. Being a creative person missed the point of keeping my shop simple. As online shop owners we should strive to keep our categories and product line straight forward so our customers know who we are. Making sure our potential customers understand exactly what we do. Get know for being the best in what it is we do. I work hard at being the best at whatever I do. I look at my shop and see beautiful items but no cohesion. I think that now is the time to narrow my view to pick something and make it my focus. I've that my inspiration lately has been the newest member of my family, my granddaughter. Lately it has been shoes/booties but there is so much more to do. It's coming upon the fall of the year, yes I know summer just kicked in but there will be a need for fall/winter items before we know it. If we're into handmade, it's gonna take time to produce and this is a good time to start. School just ended and know is the time to start the new school year shopping. After thinking school think of the year's end holidays that are also upon us. So this month I will start taking a long look at my shop and see what it is I can take away and what I should keep. Decide on the sizes I want to make and handle and definite color decisions. Sometimes less is more and more can always be added later. But sometimes a few simple items are the only things necessary for sales. To anyone who reads this and has visited my shop I apologize for the confusion. I promise by the end of the year I will be able to look at my shop and smile and not just look at a finished product, photograph it and place it in the shop.

Quiet Voices

We all have moments that we feel something deep inside of us or maybe a voice with a clue to our purpose but we are so bent on doing things our way we overlook it. Looking back over the years with some hard thought involved, I realize now that I missed, no ignored the small still voice that speaks to us all if we dare listen. Dare to listen, the voice is the roadmap to your future. In your dreams comes answers, the sandals were in a dream. I've spent the last eight years doing things my way and wondering why nothing was popping. I was sitting on the side of my bed one afternoon, the kids were at school, so the house was peaceful and quiet, I was working on a tam/slouch hat, one I had made many many times before back in 1976 when my oldest daughter was born. Boy I sold those by the Pamper box full. I had four sales people, that I didn't ask for they offered because they loved the hats so much that they were taking a box a piece a week. This went on all fall, winter and spring.' I enjoyed doing things off the top of my head. As I'm writing this I'm trying to remember a coat I use to enjoy making and how I started it. I know if I keep quiet it will return. Anyway back to the small quiet voice all it said was make patterns. Of course I said "OK" well I started a few years ago and stopped. I felt that the time that went into developing a pattern was too time consuming. I've been working other things that weren't mine and I must sincerely say it hasn't paid off as well as I thought. Looking back and taking notice of the last few years of sales, I've sold more of my patterns than I have anything else. I noticed that last year and this year. But of course being the typical child, LOL, I'm hard headed and now playing catch up but at least now I am working on patterns. What I've noticed that is it's a somewhat slow process, but so rewarding. It really feels good to finish a pattern and it works and you can put your copyright on it. I always wanted to be designer but I never thought it would be in crochet or even knitting for that matter. The moral of this post is 'Take time to listen to that small voice.' These are pictures of my evolving work. Hope you like them.