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Pretty please?

My shop-stocking order of papers arrived this week.  (yay!)  That means it’s time to get this shop up and running.  And what good timing!  Shopify (my online shopping system) has just launched their Marketplace. It’s a way to search for items through all of the shops using Shopify.  I’m hoping it proves a good way to get noticed.

But first.  We need to make some products!

One more thing to order this week - plastic sleeves for the greeting cards.  Or not.  I would like to find a more eco-friendly option.   One such option would be to tie the cards using baker’s twine and package them in a little cloth bag.

I could print something cute on the bags as well.  The good thing about the cloth bag (other than the fact it can be reused) is that I can put more than one card in the bag and it doubles as a “shopping bag.”

The downside: tying the twine and printing the bags takes more time than the plastic sleeve method.

What to do!?

I found a great little table to buy for the office this week - an antique baker’s table with a white enamel top.  It arrived last night and it fits exactly in the corner of the office.  I think my Oh chair suits it nicely!

Three major deliveries are supposed to arrive by the end of this week.  Tonight, a new work table.  I can’t wait to use it.  It’s white.  It’s cute.  It’s totally unique.  I’ll post photos tomorrow! (Gee, I hope it fits through the studio door.)
Next up: paper .. not just a few sheets… we’re talking major stock.  As in, it’ll be months before I need to order more.  I’ve even ordered enough paper to take care of Christmas and holiday cards.  Who says you can be too prepared?

Finally - address stamps.

I can feel it - major productivity is just around the corner.

With the deadline looming to get my application in for the next Ladyfest Craft Sale, I need to step up my card designing.  Orginally, I had planned to have 20 new designs by this weekend!  Total count as of yesterday: 15 (but a few were variations of the same card).

You can check them out on my Flickr page.

My revised goal: One more new card for every day this week.

My biggest time waster this week?  Sewing.  I was experimenting with some linens to screenprint for tea towels, but I found it too time consuming to cut, iron, pin and sew.  May look into finding pre-made towels or teaching Orville to sew.

I struggled to figure out the colour scheme for my shop.  My original plan was based around an image I saw on a bridal blog - I call the scheme “cream, oyster and chocolate.”  While it looked great in the inspiration photo, I found it difficult to translate into the website.  And the thought of never using a “pretty” colour in my letterhead or logo made me a bit sad.

A few months ago I clipped out this colour palette from Domino.  It was perfect: subtle, elegant, relaxing, “Swedishy” with a hint of “pretty”.

I tweaked the scheme slightly.  The paint colours they recommended didn’t provide quite enough contrast for online viewing.  But I think the overall effect is just right!

For the past week, I’ve been working on getting my website ready for online shopping.  A full weekend of ogling code and CSS and we’re 99% done!  Phew.  As with most things, I was pretty particular about how I wanted my online shop to function - a seamless transition between the blog and shopping parts of the website.

I decided early on that having a full shop in Etsy wasn’t for me.  I think it’s a super service, but having a shop under my own domain name was a dealbreaker for me.

This weekend’s goals include:

• writing text for the remaining webpages
• ordering paper!

This week has been extra busy and productive.  I got my wholesale account set up to buy paper.  I’ve ordered cardboard mailing envelopes and return address stamps so I’ll be set to send out orders.  Oh - not to mention experimenting with fabric using the Gocco and designing cards.   And running around to a few print shops to get quotes.  Phew!

I’m up to my elbows in swatchbooks and samples.  And loving it.  I’ll need to make a list of my favourites and then break it down with a cost analysis.  Lists and Excel are my new best friends.