For some reason when I go to write “Feb” I keep writing “Nov”. Why?
In other news, I’m having teeth pain. I think it is my cavity (I’m set to have fixed soon) or possibly the grinding of my teeth as per my last post. But is not good. I’M FALLING APART!
*ack!*
I don’t know what to do about my job anymore. Today was a meeting. Yet another meeting. And yet another day of me in my office with my blood pressure through the roof and in tears by the time I’m in the car.
But, there is a cycle. There is a meeting, everything sucks, the day sucks, that night sucks, next day sucks, few more days pass and I get back to just doing my job (okay, few more days = about a week and a bit), three/four days of just doing my job and feeling good and getting stuff done and feeling useful, another meeting is called, go to meeting, everything sucks…
I just want to do my job. I don’t fear change (the charge that keeps being leveled), I’m not stuck in a rut, I’m not unable to roll with the punches. And I’m so sick and tired of being accused of these things when I bring up issues of communication, consultation, and respect. You know those times where it seems like there are secrets, secret ways to do things, secret rules, secret pits, and you only find out when you break a secret rule or stumble into a secret trap?
Times like this, I like to turn to Jeebus. I believe it was his song that he wrote with Valerie Bertinelli about taking it one day at a time. And hey, based on my calculations I should be finding work ‘okay’ by a week Wednesday.
Ah, thank goodness for Martha Wainwright and “Bloody Mother F**king Asshole” which I played on top volume in the car all the way home. Made it full through the song four times.
I had already made up some little stickers for my “handmade by” on the back of my cards (switching back and forth with my stamp depending on what worked on the colour of cardstock I was using). So now I’m playing around with the little sticker being: Jenn’s Rather Crafty and then the web address below.
I’ve tested them all out and typing in www.rathercrafty.etsy.com or rathercrafty.etsy.com both work just fine and I like the shorter version for keeping the sticker small. Question is, though, would people understand the web address?
Jenn’s Rather Crafty
rathercrafty.etsy.com
Jenn’s Rather Crafty
www.rathercrafty.etsy.com
Oh, and you all are very smart with the passing on of the fee to customers. Very smart.
Okay, so how exciting is this? Allisoo went online and bought her set of cards. I got to see how it all looks on my side for the site and what I have to do and how to know if the buyer has paid, etc. I got the paypal email. I confirmed all sorts of things. SO VERY COOL!
An interesting note - paypal fees. As I have to have the upgraded account I think there are more fees. So on a $14 sale, paypal took $0.71 which is just fine. But - ah yes the but - from what I can tell $0.55 of that is a set fee on every transaction. This does not bode well for me selling individual cards - ya know? You add to that the $0.20 per listing (I’m not fussed about the other etsy fee of 3.5% as it is a percentage as is the other bit of the paypal fee) and I really have to think about selling individual cards.
It is handy to sell the individual cards because of the below question of how to bundle (and the possible random decision about what all would bundle together) - but I think for my next few listings I’m going to really work on ensuring I can make some (even smaller) sets of cards. Even just two or three together for $10-$12.
Yes, there is some math that I could do (maths for simon) to actually figure out the bundle price, but not tonight 
I’m so totally loving my stamps right now. Leone brought me back stamps from Vancouver and then I bought another one yesterday in my craft-store extraveganza. She got me a beautiful little ABC Mobile stamp from Amuse stamps, a little “i like you” stamp from Hero Arts, and I got one from a set by Hero Arts called Cherry Blossom.
If they would sit still long enough, I’d stamp the cats.
So I’ve made a little store on etsy, and I went with Rather Crafty. But to add in my name, I’m using Jenn’s Rather Crafty on the homepage. I plan on getting things listed on the store this week so there is a place to go look at what I’m doing. This way too, people can feel free to just say how much they love my cards, but not worry that I’ll think they mean they want to buy them when they don’t. And I will be very sure when people want to buy my cards by them having actually clicked on a card or having sent me a note saying they want to buy a card
I have wondered what to do about my friends/family wanting to buy cards as opposed to just random people. So what I figured is that if any of you want to buy any of my cards, you can just let me know and either buy from the site (which is cool because then I build up feedback) and I’ll automatically include more for the price, or if you don’t like using the store site just drop me a note and we’ll bypass the store and I’ll charge you my friends’n'family rate.
Etsy is pretty cool, $0.20 to list each item and then 3.5% of the sales. I’m using paypal as well, and they take a bite - but all in all I think it is worth the little fees here and there to give this a try and see what might come of it. I’ve heard some people speak highly of Google Checkout and I might even give that a try at one point - if anyone wants to do that test run with me, just let’s me know.
So yeah, I’ll just start listing stuff and see what happens. What is nice with Etsy is that I list the number of each item and then if I sell out, I sell out. It isn’t so much that people place orders (which had mom worried - rightfully so - that I’d suddenly become a slave to my hobby). Very legitimate concern knowing my slightly *ahem* quirky nature.
Here’s my next question for my very helpful readers. How should I go about making sets? Take, for example, my cute little lesbian card. I’ve made a few of the same card and I think they’d be very nice for someone to buy. But I’m not sure about selling cards as singles as the shipping for one card is rather steep as opposed to multiples. In some ways, though, I could still list as singles and then just offer the deal with shipping multiples (by setting a lower price as the secondary shipping price) and that might encourage people to pick out a few cards at once. I don’t want to make sets that would turn people off from buying from me (ie: they like the one card but just don’t want the others). At the same time, I certainly want to package where it makes sense.
So with that said, when I have items listed that you think work on their own - please let me know. And when you see things that would work as sets, let me know that too! I really really rely on you all for your input.
We shall see how this all goes!
I’m making bread with my bread machine. I’ve not used it in eons, but Jim has been using it while he was here and I miss the bread.
First time I tried to use it months ago the yeast was too old. Pan the camera over to the 3inch ball of cooked dough that has the density of a black hole. Really, I think I lost my blender into it before I threw it out.
Did not use bread maker for another six months.
Jim arrives and uses the bread maker. Jim leaves. I think, okay I can do this.
Last week I make a loaf. I kinda misread the directions and missed 3/4 c of water. I’m watching the mixer and thinking it really needs more liquid. I add a tablespoon. I add another. I add a few more. I am perplexed. I re-read directions. I realise I’m a numpty. I add 3/4 c water. I realise I’ve now got too much liquid as per the above tablespoons. I add more flour. I add more. I add a bit more. The dough looks good. It is all set to cook in the bread machine. Excellent.
I have now added so much stuff that when it cooks it is too big for the bread machine and overflows and gets everywhere and the top/middle is kinda still dough.
I cut that part off and eat the rest over the week.
But now, ladies and gentlemen, now I’m thinking I’ve got it going on real good.
I’ll keep you posted.
X-post from WD.
I just made our tofu mousse recipe with the same items: soft tofu, soy milk, cinnamon, melted chocolate (dark), shot of booze.
But as I didn’t have as much chocolate, I didn’t want that “too much tofu taste” we had that one time I made it without enough chocolate. So, I decided to add a bit more booze *ahem* to help out the chocolate in overpowering the tofu taste. This significantly shifted two things: the booze content (duh) and the non-solidness.
I just made the most yummiest chocolate booze milkshake EVER! With lots of protein. Really, I’m thinking breakfast of champions here.
Now, if you’ll excuse me I’m going to watch HGTV while slightly drunk.
Edited to add: yeah, my mouth feels better now~
Firstly, related to nothing, go check out YouTube. Hee!
In other news, I went to the dentist yesterday and today I am Mumbles. But my own damn fault for not going for so long… bah. But hey, I have dental now. WHOO!
Yeah, so there is thing totally insane little printer thing that I think I want. But it might be discontinued - so I’m seeing if any of you have heard of it. It is a Riso Gocco Printer as seen here. And yeah, I want it despite the cover picture? Because of the cover picture? I’m not sure.
But you can copy an image you make yourself onto this film via old-skool flash bulb action and then you ink the film to make multiple copies of the coloured image. I’m feeling the vibe of silk screening - without the natural fibers or wood or, well, silk screen. Rather, we have plastics, film, squeeze bottles of ink, and cheezy packaging.
So much more my speed.
Because she is finding a way to get through her day.
So I sold another card today to a friend who refused to pay $2.50 and really kinda insisted that these cards need to be $3.50 at the very least.  And Jill said the same thing when she bought some cards. That was cool. So I’m thinking on the store I’ll price individual cards at $3.50 (if I actually sell individual cards). Because then I started thinking that I should just sell them in sets. In that case, I could do 3 or 4 for $10. Thoughts?
Jill also pointed out that some are a bit more fiddling around than others. So I think it might make sense that my more woohoo ones are 3/$10 and the slightly more understated ones are 4/$10.
Plus selling them as sets takes care of the fact that there will be some time fiddling about with packaging and shipping. I will charge for those things, but they take time and effort too aside from postage and special packaging (I believe I’ll use the packaging with some of those air bubble things layered into the envelope). I would rather over-package for safety and not-getting-mushedness.
I’ve been looking at the shipping prices of other cards on the etsy (under paper products and then cards). Dude, there are some seriously fugly cards out there. Holy crap! Okay, some super fun amazing ones too… but what the hell? I saw one off-centre, glue showing, not-good-at-all for $4 a card!!
Okay, I’m done for now.
