Monday Madness

Ahhhhh!!!!!  A lot of frustrated comments and remarks were heard throughout my house this past week.  Tonight, I am totally bummed, but I also feel a small sense of peace at the same time.  I decided today to close my Etsy shop.  Why?  Well...because I made children items, I had to make sure I was compliant with CPSC.  It is for safety reasons and I totally understand why we need to have safety precautions, however my little Etsy shop had to be compliant the same way Walmart or Toy R Us has to, and at the same level.  If I wanted to make and sell cute little baby plush toys...I had to pay for 3rd party testing?!  I won't even go into all of the paperwork and what not that was required for me to maintain on the variety of fabrics I have.  I have to provide proof of certification that my cotton fabric I bought from Joann's passed flammability regulations?!  Seriously?!  The other reason...NYS taxes.  There is a reason why our mom and pop stores here are becoming non-existent.  Totally ridiculous how they treat small businesses here.  I applaud all of the small businesses that are somehow making it work, I don't see how they are, but some of them are managing...against all odds, literally.

So, I have decided I can either sit here and wallow in my failure OR I can choose to see the positives out of all of this.

1.  I bet I'll probably be a whole lot nicer to my girls and hubby ;)  Did I mention it was a rough week?

2.  I can make some new fun outfits for my own girls.  They LOVED their Easter dresses I made.  I bet they would also love anything else I decided to make for them.  Plus, I'm always looking for new challenges :)  For those of you that have not seen my Easter dresses:

I made them using the Party Dress pattern from Lindsay Wilkes aka The Cottage Mama.  FYI:  You think these are cute, my hubby bought me Lindsay's book...I have lots of things I am looking forward to making for my girls! 

3.  I can finally make myself my cute lil handbag I've been drooling over for over a year now.  Goodbye diaperbag!

My fabric for my cute lil handbag!

4.  I just freed my day and night up tremendously with not having to promote myself on all of that social media.  I have more time now to sew and/or knit, blog, or to just chill out!

5.  I have developed a new sense of awe and appreciation for small business America.  Seriously...you guys inspire me :)

Stay tuned as I embark down a detour of my new and exciting journey and love of sewing!

Blessings,

Wednesday Wisdom

What a busy Wednesday! I'm just now getting a chance to sit down and write.  On Monday, I promised to share the results I received when I made a few quick changes to the titles of my products.

First, take a look at these stats:

Pretty sad right?  Now take a look at these:

Improvement right?!  I still have a ways to go to figuring out the SEO world, but I think I'm on my way! What did I do?  I tweaked my titles a bit.  For example, my rompers that I have been making for the Fourth of July, were originally titled "Fourth of July Baby Girl Romper".  I tweaked the title by adding a couple of tags and the new title is " Fourth of July Baby Romper, Patriotic, Baby Girl One Piece, Infant Romper". When I added a few of my tags into my titles, my views went from 35 views in 4 days to 133 views in 4 days!!!!  That's almost 4 times as many views in the same amount of time!  Crazy, right?!

Tip of the week:  Incorporate some of your tags into your titles.  (Not ALL of your tags, just a few).  I'm so excited about this.  Go ahead and try it.  What do you have to lose?  Share your results!  I'm excited to see everyone's results with this small simple change.

Stay tuned to Friday when I will feature another small shop!

Blessings,

Happy Monday!

What a busy week I had last week!  I received another order on my Etsy shop for my yoga headbands, completed another baby Fourth of July baby girl romper and matching crib shoes set

and made more yoga headbands using a different fabric design.

  All of that, in addition to homeschooling my girls and trying to get the garden started (which is still waiting to be planted, but at least we got it all weeded out and the compost mixed in...half of it)...I was one busy momma!  Hence my small hiatus last week from my blog.  Stay tuned to Wednesday where I plan on sharing what happened to my organic views one evening when I made a couple quick changes to my titles in my shop!

Blessings,