Finding Time For It All

Now that it is gardening time, I am finding it really hard to stay in the studio and get things done. Plants are calling, the sun is warming my face, and I would much rather be playing with plants then doing stained glass work. I have always been multifaceted and interested in many things, but sometime it gets overwhelming, especially this time of year.

I have always been good at keeping organized and operating from lists so I am really using them this time of year to stay on track. I make lists of what I need to get accomplished that day and try to stick to it as best as possible. I usually garden in the early morning before it gets too hot and then again in the evening when it cools off. Mid day takes me to the studio to get 3-5 hours in.

I often get asked ‘why don’t you just go to the store and buy your food and not bother taking all that time’. I have always tended to be one who wanted to live off the land and my little 6 acres ‘farm’ lets me do that. I have always been one to do things as environmentally friendly as possible and organic gardening, where I am putting up my own veggies for winter, is part of that way of life. I even have a pet chicken that lays eggs for me and keeps the bugs at bay.

So, here I am up at 5:00 a.m. listening to the first birds chirp, have my coffee, watching the chicken take her first pecks at the ground, and looking at my list for the day. I am longing for it to get light enough to go commune with nature. Ah, the good life!!

Cat

ETSYCOUPONS.COM

Just found information about a really cool site offered through Handmadeology. They have a new site called ETSYCOUPONS.COM  where etsy sellers can post their shop coupons codes. Up till now it was not easy to get the word out about your coupon codes unless you sent it out to each person who bought something or put the information on your shop home page. That meant people would have to find your shop first, then find out about the code. Contacting people who favorited your shop, past customers, and the like was prohibited, so very few people ever knew you even had a coupon code.

Now the coupon codes can be advertised through this site to draw new customers and increas sales. I have added my current coupon 'CATS15' to the site and will wait and see what happens. Should be interesting to see if sales increase!! I will check back and let you know how it goes!!

Learning how to market via the internet has been a new experience for me, but I seem to be doing well. Sales have been good lately and I have to think that all the work I did during February paid off. I learned when to list items on etsy, what tags seem to work best, started this blog, added many of my items to kaboodle, changes many of my photos to make the items really pop, and did every trick I found to get my name and website out there. Having an item show up on one of the top pages in a google search can be a real thrill.