Touching Base

This has been a week of juggling a few things online.  My daughter wanted to sell some textbooks (the ones the bookstore wouldn’t buy back) on Amazon, so I now have an account to do that.  Out of the three she wanted to sell, two have been shipped already, so I am pretty happy about that. Amazon has an amazingly organized system.  You list your books for free, and when something sells, Amazon takes their fee (a fairly complicated system they spell out on their site), plus they collect a shipping fee from the buyer that will go to you once the transaction is complete.  Basically, the two books I sold went for a total of $24.00.  The Amazon fee was $8.28 and they collected $7.98 ($3.99 x 2) for shipping from the customers.  Once I figure in my actual shipping cost (around $2.60 each), I expect to realize $18.50 from the sale of the two books.  I found the fees to be kind of high, but it is hard to beat the audience the site has, and with the text book season being limited, I don’t mind paying it.

I’ve also been in contact with a possible customer for some custom work on Etsy.  When I first offered to do custom work on my site, I really had no idea as to how the mechanics might work.  Luckily, the lady I am working with is patient and is really helping me figure out a viable system.  She is interested in some 20” x 20” knit throw pillows with button closures.  I’ve spent one week knitting a big batch of swatches (she’s been pretty specific on her colors, but to avoid misunderstandings, actual samples seem like the way to go).  Once I got the color samples in the mail, I spent another week on an actual pillow, to make sure the size is right and to have an idea of scale when choosing the big, mismatched vintage buttons she wants.  Speaking of big, mismatched buttons, my stash is a little less varied than I’d like, so I’ve also been working with a lady on Ebay to purchase of a variety of colors and shapes.  I seem to be spending an excessive amount of time on this one sale, but by nailing down all the details now, I will be extra sure of my abilities to come up with a repeatable product.



Oatmeal, Charcoal, Espresso, and Plum Swatches

Previews of a future photo essay on drying tomatoes

Of all the things I need to do better across all social media, perhaps the most obvious it to add more photos.  The more blogs I read, the more I realize how important a visually appealing page is to keeping interest and adding to the written content.  For someone with a background in photography and graphics, you would think that this would come more easily.  Just the opposite seems to be true.  I think that this might be payback for all the snarky comments I’ve made over the years about poor design in general as well as all the poorly photographed and poorly edited images throughout the years.  Now that I am the one responsible for the content, I have a new found respect for how much time and patience it takes to accomplish even the simplest task well.  Thank you to anyone who has taken the time to comment.  I really appreciate your efforts and insites. 

The Butcher 

Is it a Hobby or is it Art?

One of the best unintended consequences of blogging is a link on the Blogger dashboard (where you can go and manage your blogs and keep track of the blogs you are following) called “stats”.  If you click on this link it takes you to a place where you can see how many people have checked out your posts, where in the world your readers are, and even where your traffic comes from.  A lot of my traffic comes from my Facebook fan page or my twitter account, but often there are links to other sites.  Often I’ll follow them to see where traffic is coming from, and last week I found this reference:  auctionsellersmotivators.com where they were discussing my zombie sock monkey.  I’d have loved to jump on and thank them for the mention and discussion, but I’ve still not been granted membership.  I mostly want to thank them for making me think about what exactly I am trying to do on Etsy. 

          I started out on Etsy as a fund raiser for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.  I was pretty successful selling vintage items out of my stash and quirky knit things (bacon scarves especially) to willing buyers.  I knit as a hobby.  I find it soothing to have something to do with my hands while I watch trashy TV.  I had been cranking out baby blankets for gifts and the occasional hat or pair of mittens.  A few years ago, I saw a kit for sale for a sock monkey and wardrobe here: Carmen Bananas Pattern and thought it would be a fun project.  It was a little more challenging than I’d been used to, but it showed me that I could knit in three dimensions and actually produce something quirky and cute.  One day I found some white yarn with gray twisted through it and it looked just like the kind of yarn used for more traditional sock monkeys, but just a different color combo. 

          Before I go any further I should probably mention that I have an art degree.  I pursued an art degree because I have the impulse to create.  Unfortunately I don’t have the focus and drive it takes to make a living in art.  For years after I'd graduated from college and raised my family, I’ve tried to squash down this impulse or find other outlets, like painting murals a the kids’ elementary school, or retouching photos for friends, but until I stumbled upon the idea to knit a sock monkey with this white and gray yarn did I feel really energized.  At first I thought I’d make an albino sock monkey, but that seemed neither kind nor particularly noteworthy.  Because I’d been selling a few things on Etsy, I’d had seen that there was a market for the right kind of quirky, and I didn’t think that albino would have enough pizzazz.  Since I’ve jumped on the zombie bandwagon, with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and The Walking Dead, a zombie sock monkey seemed to have the right blend.  I started out thinking that I could crank out a lot of these and sell them for a reasonable price. 

          Quickly I realized that this monkey had turned into a much bigger thing than just a toy to crank out in quantity.  It had become a full-fledged obsession and a much more satisfying creative outlet than I’d had in years.  I knew I was out of control when I was pouring over my daughter’s anatomy books to get the embroidery on the muscles just right.  As I read the banter back and forth between the folks on auctionsellersmotivators.com about my monkey, I’ve been forced to confront the fact that while I plan to put it up for sale on Etsy (closer to the second season of The Walking Dead and Christmas), it will be presented at a far higher price than a toy purchaser would probably want to pay.  I will price it more as a piece of sculpture with the understanding that I might not sell.  I may not have the focus to try to support myself with art, but I at least have the focus to complete something and be satisfied to the point that I am willing to part with it, confident that there are more ideas where that one came from.  Knitting may still be a hobby, but maybe I can use it to create, if not art, then a facsimile.  At least I am satisfied that I am making a step in the right direction.  Who knows?  Real art might not be that far away.

The Butcher

Still not so hilarious

For someone who has a hard time shutting up in real life, sitting here trying to come up with something to say has been amazingly difficult.  It absolutely does not help that as I find other bloggers and look at what they have accomplished, I realize that I may have a fundamental problem.  Instead of going online and learning all of these tools in an effort to focus on career development, I have been opened up to all sorts of possibilities that I hadn’t expected and are totally distracting me from my original goal. 

This isn’t a new thing for me.  I can pinball from one project or task while never actually finishing anything.  I am always busy, but seldom do I complete anything. I had been making some headway on this.  I did finish my hand knit Zombie Sock Monkey (without a pattern, thank you very much), but that was something I started prior to this blog / Facebook / Etsy / Twitter / LinkedIn project.  Now, I find myself following a great blog Carmenandginger that feeds into my love of all things second hand.  Not only do I spend way too much time reading her blog, it also makes me want to run off to the nearest flea marker.  Unfortunately, my love for old stuff got me to the place where I needed to start an Etsy store (SockMonkeysAndBacon) to get rid of my stash.  Can you see my problem here? 

I have found that there is a whole world of food bloggers out there who are just waiting to give me one more chocolate cupcake recipe. To that end, might I suggest Evilshenanigans and the Chocolate Italian Wedding Cupcakes with Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting?  I just made them yesterday to rave reviews.  Of course both batches of Quick Sour Cream Cinnamon Rolls that I made from this blog were a hit with the whole family too.  I can usually satisfy myself by dumping online recipes into my ever-growing stash, but this blog actually gets me to move into the kitchen and bake.  That is double distraction and frankly I’d be better off learning how to grow vegetables or make salads, if you catch my drift. 

On the plus side, I am hearing things from my kids (age 19 and 23) that I never expected to hear.  My one daughter told me via facebook about my twitter posts that “I never thought I'd have to tell you this, but you use hash-tags too much.” and a recent status posted by my other daughter on facebook about a recent text to her, "'If you were following me on twitter, you'd have found out sooner.' My mother is getting OUT OF CONTROL."  Hey, I have heard worse constructive criticism. Either one is better than being told that you have sprouted some new facial hair or that you are using way too much self tanner.

I guess that for now, I will be grateful for the new ways that I am learning to connect, and I will probably allow myself a little more time to play, but ultimately I will need to either focus on my original goals, or reassess the whole purpose of blogging. 

If you have any ideas, or if you want to tell me about your adventures, I’d love to hear them.

The Butcher

Two weeks in…

This is only my third post in two weeks and obviously this is not going smoothly.  You can just thank me now for all the pompous crap I’ve deleted.  In no particular order, this is what I’ve learned so far.

1. Blogging is hard.  I feel like I now have a perpetual yet undefined homework assignment hanging over my head. 
2. Twitter is really, really fun and useful.  For now I am using it to keep track of random thoughts and observations in much the same way I might use a sketch pad or notebook.  Please feel free to follow me @ChristineAtWFOH
3. A good way to get people to your Facebook fan page is to feature something of theirs and tell them.  Sometimes they bring friends and those friends bring a new dynamic.  SockMonkeysAndBacon on Facebook
4. FAQs are your best friend, and full of good tips.  Unfortunately I still don’t use them enough.
5. It is trickier to get people to find you and follow you than it might seem.  Even if something works, you can’t stop trying to find other strategies and communities.

I still haven’t gotten the energy to fully tackle LinkedIn.  My resume is in better shape and I’ve looked up a few folks, but I need to make some time for that.  Don’t even ask about the web page.  It seemed like a good idea, and I have some stuff filed on it, but that may stay more of a collaborative space for the three of us. 

I am still waiting for more comments on this blog, so if you have anything to say – even just hello – please do so. Thanks to those who have bothered to join and/or comment.  It is way more fun with you on board.

PS The last post about graphics could have used an introduction.  It was a reference to some of the frustrations common to my last job in a graphics office.  I guess good structure will help in the future.  Thanks for your patience.

The Butcher

Why a blog?

I really don’t have a good answer for this question.  I don’t need another project that is for damn sure.  I work full time in a job that pays well and that I like well enough.  I really have no complaints, but at the same time, I can’t help but feel that things in general are slipping through my fingers.  I’ve talked this over with a lot of people, especially those over 40, and we are all at the same point in our lives; we are pretty sure that we will have to find another job in our life, and that social media will play a big part in that search, and that none of us really know how to use it.  What’s more, we are all busy with work, kids, hobbies, school, spouses, and parents so learning another “thing” seems exhausting. 

Of course, we all suspect that NOT learning how to use social media is not an option either.  On top of that, for every benefit you gain from social media, there are a seemingly endless number of pitfalls to not using it carefully or wisely.  To that end, myself and two good friends have decided to start a blog, start to use twitter, clean up our LinkedIn profiles and try to figure some of this out before a crisis hits.  There may be other forums (I have a Facebook fan page for my Etsy site, for example - SockMonkeysAndBacon), but we are trying to see where this takes us organically.

Please do not be surprised at links that go nowhere or lots of links to odd places.  Just ask some of my family on Facebook how truly awful I am.    As for the name, well the short answer is that I used to work with a great group of people and we formed the kind of team that most people only dream of.  We worked hard, and the thread that held us all together was a creative, funny sensibility, coupled with extreme competence and stellar work ethics.  We found ourselves hilarious then, and even though our team has been dismantled still We Find Ourselves Hilarious.

The Butcher