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Monday, February 21, 2011

What is holding me back???

The other day I realized I haven't been doing anything lately for my business, why? what is holding me back???  Its because I just feel like its too overwhelming, too much to do, and too much to keep track of, and like I will never get caught up. I haven't wanted to make more jewelry for the same reason, I'm feeling like I'm already so far behind on everything that making new pieces would just add to overflowing cup (yeah, you know one of those 64oz super big gulp cups? lol) of things to do.
So I sat down and started thinking to myself, and organized my thoughts into exactly what is my problem, what is the most frustrating thing, or biggest task that is holding me back?
So I thought, OK how many websites do you have? Answer = 2. Not bad. Just my Art fire store and My Website- Kimberlylynndesigns.com. OK.
Next, I need to go to each site and get out all my pieces, and see which pieces I have on each site. OK.
I did that today, and I shocked myself! I have 15 Pieces that are not even listed on either of those two sites, and an additional 14 Pieces That are not listed in my Art fire studio! What is wrong with me???
Then I remembered. Ahhhhh yes, that's right- MY LOVELY HUSBAND ACCIDENTALLY DROPPED MY ONLY GOOD CAMERA IN KERN RIVER BEFORE I HAD TAKEN PICTURES OF THE REST OF MY PIECES!!
So upon returning home, I still had pictures to take and no way of taking them, and money was tight, so I had to just deal with it. Well, I now have a new camera, and I now know which pieces I need to get pictures of. I think that was a big roadblock for me, I felt overwhelmed for some reason with knowing that I had to figure that out. Now that is done! What a relief!
 So I also googled how to make my own light box (which I have done before, but couldn't remember what it was I was missing to make it correctly the first time) So I went to the store and home depot and bought the stuff I need and now have it set up, you can see here:
I have black cloth and white cloth as well as some other tiles I can use for backgrounds or whatever I need. This picture is just the basic idea, When I set it up it has more detail to it. Things like the tripod come into play and other little details.
Here a a few pix of my studio:
 I have an extra monitor hooked up to my laptop, because its much faster to get stuff done with being able to see two screens at once, then there's no flipping back and forth from screen to screen.

Soon, I will be placing my supply order, and will have tons more beads to play with! then I will post those pics for you all to see too!
So continuing on, after I finish this post, I will take the pictures of my pieces and post them to my two sites. Then I won't feel like I am so far behind. Then all during this week, I will get back into my Link Love stuff on Face book. Well, wish me luck, I will blog more often and update more frequently from now on.
Thanks for stopping by to read my blog and best wishes to you and all your paths traveled!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Getting closer....one bead at a time

Long time no blog!
 Well, I am about 90% finished with entering all my beads into JDM (Jewelry Designer Manager). What a relief! Then I can enter the new jewelry I have made, then get back to making new pieces! Whoo hoo! It is so much easier when you can enter one piece at a time instead of having several pieces to enter. I love beads, but I hate counting each one (and no, I do not count the seedbeads!)  Once it is all finished it will go much faster. My goal was to have everything ready to go and have my very first sale for valentines day, but the closer it gets, the more I realize it just is not going to happen. I have so much to do to get all caught up with everything, and it takes so much time. I have a full time job, so I am away from home for 10 - 12 hours a day, and when i get home, some nights, I just want to watch some television and relax. Its funny that when I am at work, I keep thinking of all the stuff I plan on doing for my business when I get home that day, and then when I get home, I end up not doing any of it! I just get so tired. Im almost there though, one day very soon, I will be able to just come home and make jewelry. I got smart with my inventory entering, I now have an extra monitor hooked up to my laptop so I can run two screens at once, so instead of having to minimize windows, and go back and forth, I can keep both windows open, and with a glance I know which beads I have entered and which ones I have not. I got so many done tonight now that I have the two screens going. It takes half the time too! Well, hopefully I can get everything entered in the next week, and then take my next steps from there. Oh yea, and I finally bought a new camera too! I also bought some stuff to build myself another lightbox too! That only takes a few minutes, not much of a project there. I will get some pictures of my "bead room" up soon for all to see my studio space, so I call it. Its great to have a whole room just for me. I share it for the kids to use the other computer in here, but thats as far as they go, they never mess with my stuff. Well til next time, hope everyone has a great week!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Here is to the new year in my beady world!

Well Happy New Year to anyone reading my blog! I had a great New Year celebration with wonderful friends. I had a resolution or two I wanted to follow, but I realize if I call it a "resolution" and I feel as though I have to stick to it, and then Im not able to stick to it, (which many of us are not! lol) I figure thats just setting myself up to be dissapointed. So I decided to make myslef just a little promise to "try my best" to change the things I can in my life for the better. I figure I need to start somewhere, so I started by not telling anyone really what those changes would be, because then I wouldn't have to worry about what someone might think when I stray away from those changes. Ok, Ill tell one of them to whoever is reading this....
One of my "New years self improvements" is to keep my car cleaner. I know that sounds silly, but it is something I need to do that I think would make me feel less cluttered at times. Not that my car is horribly dirty, but it definately needs to be washed like once a week instead of once every 6 weeks or so!
And the rest have to do with my jewelry business and keeping motivated.
Anyways, I hope everyone had a great New Year, and have the ability to start fresh with a positive attitude and plenty of support. I bought some things today to help me in my journey of keeping motivated. I am going to work on building another Lightbox for better pictures of my jewelry. I have done this before and it actually worked out great until I needed some of the components for other stuff! Well, here is to new beginnings, and best wishes for all the crafters out there for the year 2011!