It's Monday Again

Welcome to another Monday!

I am excited to say that I reached and surpassed 1000 sales at Flamingo Junction Too! this weekend! It was a great sales weekend with 12 packages going out today.

Over at Flamingo Junction, I've been working on new necklaces using many of the pendants I have bought from various Etsy sellers over the last year including the one shown here made with a pendant from TV Tray Art. I still have lots more to do.



At Mingo's Cabana, things are slowly taking shape. I have so many ideas and so little time to make them happen. But I'm working on it!

Since I will be gone on vacation from Oct. 7th until the 20th, I am trying to get as much done as possible in all of the shops before I leave. I will be leaving the shops open for business with shipping when I return. I just can't make myself close up shop in October!

The Land of Counterpane

This was one of my favorite poems in "A Child's Garden of Verses". I read it to my sons many many times when they were young. For some reason, the design of this pendant by KanYoFuse reminded me of it.

Now listed at Flamingo Junction!


The Land of Counterpane
By Robert Louis Stevenson

When I was sick and lay a-bed,
I had two pillows at my head,
And all my toys beside me lay,
To keep me happy all the day.

And sometimes for an hour or so
I watched my leaden soldiers go,
With different uniforms and drills,
Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;

And sometimes sent my ships in fleets
All up and down among the sheets;
Or brought my trees and houses out,
And planted cities all about.

I was the giant great and still
That sits upon the pillow-hill,
And sees before him, dale and plain,
The pleasant land of counterpane.

Now listed - Jambalaya!

Available now at Flamingo Junction.



And the matching earrings!

Monday Morning Update

I've been busy creating for the past few days and have some pieces that I am anxious to get photographed and listed!

After collecting them for months, I've finally made my first necklace using a pendant from KanYoFuse. It was either use some of them or try to figure out how to claim Kevin as a dependent this year!! Of course, I couldn't start with a simple one. No...I picked one with lots of different colors and way out of the norm for design. I wasn't sure how the finished product would come out but you will be amazed. It will be listed at Flamingo Junction later today along with a coordinating pair of earrings.

Otherwise, business has been good! I've got 8 packages waiting to go out this morning with weekend sales. Amazingly four of them are leaving the US today. Two to Canada, one to France and another to Finland (my first for Finland!). I have noticed an upward trend in International sales in the past month. Hopefully it will continue because I love shipping to new places!

Let the Games Begin!

I just finished packaging the mail for today and I have 18 outgoing packages! The holiday weekend was a success.

Right now, I have about 20 new items to photograph for the jewelry shop, one more bag of beads and findings to sort and photograph and an entire bin of doll dresses that need to be brought back out for the Cabana shop before the Christmas rush begins. After the trip to the PO, I will be working on pictures for the rest of the day.

I love this time of year when all of the work of the the summer starts flying out the door and you know that something you made will make someone happy!

Christmas 2009 here I come!

Perfect Timing!

I have been so far successful in allocating my time a bit more evenly between all of the things that I love.

As luck would have it, the day after I decided to spend more time creating, I got a special order for 3 bracelets. Usually I frantically try to fit them in, but this time I already had my jewelry station set up and her bracelets were finished by the next day! How perfect could her timing have been?

I am still getting it done in the bead shop, but just not at as fast a pace. I am reveling in playing with my beads and not feeling like I should be doing something else. Bonus for the hubby too...I've actually been cooking and I've even had time to bake cookies this week!

Balance

Did you ever wake up one morning and feel that your entire existence has tipped the scales in one direction? That happened to me a few days ago and it is now up to me to tip it back to a more acceptable balance.

Last October, I opened Flamingo Junction Too! as a coping mechanism. I was grieving the loss of my mother and all creativity had flown out the window. I needed an outlet to keep me busy that didn't require a lot of creative thought so a bead and supply shop was born. It did the trick. I was constantly busy with pictures, listings and sales. It has been successful beyond my expectations.

Only problem is that I am in a much better place now mentally and I'm ready for more creating again but I just don't have the time! My sewing machines have been put away for over a year and if I'm lucky, I get a jewelry making day once a month. I opened Mingo's Cabana because I wanted to do some different things along with the jewelry and I have found some fun new crafts with ideas that I've yet to have time for. My brain is exploding with ideas that I don't have time to make reality.

So what is the solution? I would never close down a successful business, but I think it's time to scale it back a bit. In my goal to create a 'monster' supply shop, I have taken an important part of myself away. I have decided that other than sales, relisting sold items and renewing items, I will give this shop one full day a week for new listings. The other 6 days are mine to create and do as I please!

We will see how this works out over the next month, but I think it is a common sense solution that will benefit me and my family too!