I've Been Away....

It's been a while, internet!  How's it hangin?  I've been preoccupied and haven't given my blog much love, but I will try to put more of an effort in to keeping this updated.  I really do love what I've set up here and want to keep it going.
Well, the last post I made was about my changing craft space.  Here is a video of the finished product!

It's Official! I've Got Myself a Business!

Who has two thumbs and has her own LLC?  That's right, >this chick<!!

I went for simplicity for the official name, Aquarian Mind, LLC.  Has a nice ring to it, huh?  Well, I think so and couldn't be happier.  This is truly a "YAY!" accomplishment for me!  Step one in building my "empire" is complete, hahaha!!!

Guess I better brush up on those accounting skills I've ignored for the last six months being "unemployed"!  I'm thankful for the background in accounting and small business management I've had for the last seventeen years, and will definitely put it to use!

Merry Christmas/Plans for the New Year

Merry Christmas to everyone!

I'd like to give special thanks to all those that have purchased from me for gifts this year.  December has been phenomenal!!!  I never anticipated the number of orders I've received this month.  I am truly surprised and I need to give a HUGE thanks to Etsy and my customers!  You guys RULE!

For the new year, I plan on forming an LLC and continuing and gearing up what I started this year.  Once the company name is "official" and registered I will update everyone.  Since I just had more business cards made (doh!), it will be "Aquarian Mind (Something Something), LLC"....we still have to figure out the something something.  It needs to encompass all that I do and sell:  vintage, kids jewelry, adults jewelry, misc stuff on Ebay...  We're still thinking on it.

For tonight though, I plan on being with my wonderful family.  And probably watching a few hours of the yule log fire on TV.  It will be a welcome and much needed break from packing orders, making jewelry and other general craziness  :)

Success...Black Friday-Style

I'd like to thank everyone who helped make November a record sales month for me....which isn't hard since it's my first November ;)  Haha, ya gotta start somewhere, am I right?

But seriously, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of orders the week of Thanksgiving.  It is a great feeling.  I'm out of everything, but it was well worth it!  I'm hoping Christmas will keep my orders consistent in December.  So far, so good!  All that work I've put in the last 6 months is starting to pay off.

New YouTube Video

I don't know if it is 100% true or not, but I read somewhere that YouTube is one of the most used search engines, second only to Google.  Wow!  Now I understand why businesses do videos!  I decided to hop on the bandwagon too.   The above is my very first attempt at making any sort of video.  Don't laugh ;)

Goodbye, Artfire....

As much as I hate to give up on things, I have shut down my Artfire shop.  I tried for 3 months, and got plenty of views (2300+), but no sales.  I did an experiment that sealed Artfire's fate in my eyes.  I did a huge push on it and did a lot of back linking for several days.  I got significant traffic from Stumbleupon.  Great!  Except I noticed when I DIDN'T spend 2 hours a day (or more) promoting and back linking, I got very few incoming URL's. The next thing that sealed their fate was not seeing my listings in Google searches as I had previously.  This was apparently due to a Google update.

I actually LOVED Artfire's interface and seller's tools.  Etsy could learn a thing or two from these guys.  It's hard to drop something you've stuck so much time into, but the monthly cost and work to keep it going made me feel as though I was just spinning my wheels and not actually going anywhere.  So, I'm dedicating my time to the shops that actually make sales for me:  Etsy, Yardsellr and Listia.

Goodbye, Artfire.  It wasn't you, it was me ;)

The Dirty Work

So, because of this hobby I've grown to love so much, I've incurred cost.  Now, its not earth shattering amounts, but enough to consider it one of my monthly bills.  I dunno....is that the cost of therapy in a way?  Probably.  Will my husband buy that excuse?  I have yet to encounter that conversation, and don't really want to!  So, to defray the costs and to give my jewelry homes better than mine (where they'll be loved properly), I've been selling.  Not a lot yet, but some.

I call this the "dirty work" because I'm not a natural when it comes to sales.  I've been asked if I'm starting a business and answered with, "no" recently.  But I guess I am?!  I still need to do some thinking on the subject.  If you're going to call a spade a spade, I guess I already have a very small business.  I have both an Etsy and an Artfire presence, I started a blog to talk about it, and spend hours talking about it with my mother (another seller, by the way) thinking strategy and ways to get exposure.

So anyway, soon to come will be links and widgets to my "dirty work".....maybe someone will see something and love it as much as I loved putting it together.  That's my hope anyway.

Getting back to myself (If I ever really knew who she was)

How does one center themselves? Get back to their fucking happy place? Feel content?  I'm struggling with this. Always have. With my life essentially being half over, it has been striking me that there is no better time than now to figure this out. Is this my mid-life crisis? Does everyone feel this way?

38 years old and not a clue where to start, but I’m going to start trying things that challenge me.  And, well, make me smile. Specifically, beading and making jewelry. I know, I know, that reminds you of this:

But I’m actually being dead serious.

When looking for a "self management" topic for a work meeting (long story...), I came across the concept of "flow".

…Finding Flow contends that we often walk through our days unaware and out of touch with our emotional lives. Our inattention makes us constantly bounce between two extremes: during much of the day we live filled with the anxiety and pressures of our work and obligations, while during our leisure moments, we tend to live in passive boredom. The key, according to Csikszentmihalyi, is to challenge ourselves with tasks requiring a high degree of skill and commitment. Instead of watching television, play the piano. Transform a routine task by taking a different approach. In short, learn the joy of complete engagement. Though they appear simple, the lessons in Finding Flow are life-altering.

The quote above is about a book is called Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.  I have not read this yet (put it in the queue!), but the idea seems pretty simple.  Get lost in doing something creative, and most importantly, something you love and crave to know more about.  I’ve been trying really hard to incorporate this into my life. Make it worth waking up for. Is it working? Well I still can't be 100% sure, but one thing I do know....I have shit-tons of jewelry.