Sore legs and marketing experiments

I started my dog walking job this week and I have to say, I really really like it. Yesterday, I walked about 15 miles (including my walks with Kapu) and boy I was beat. My legs are a little sore today, but it feels good to get paid to exercise and hang out with pooches all day. I haven't been too crafty as I've been pretty fucking tired this week. But I did post two friends today on my Etsy:

and

All this Valentine's Day crafting has put the holiday on my radar more than it typically would be. I think that it's been a good thing so far as I'm seeing Valentine's Day as a marketing occasion not an excuse to spend a day in February eating and boozing. (Well okay I probably will spend February 14 snacking on ice cream and sipping wine from the bottle, but only because that's how I spend most my evenings, not because I'm single and probably will be for a long ass time and it's likely that I will go to my grave alone and if I'm really lucky I'll be such a bad hoarder that TLC will call me to schedule taping.) So clearly Valentine's Day is no big deal. 

On an unrelated note, I purchased a showcase on Etsy and got the first sale in my new shop. Which is encouraging as it was exactly one week after I opened my shop and I read somewhere that the average amount of time it takes for a shops first item to sell is 23 days. I'll go ahead and give myself a gold star on that one. 

My final order of business is that I am going to make 12 V-day dinos each a different color and post them every hour for 12 hours as an experiment. I'll post findings shortly.

Almost at the ten item mark!

Today I posted these little guys:

I've got some good stuff brewing that I will share later, but for now I have to go walk some pooches!

So I posted two new pals on my Etsy:

 

and

Pretty cute, huh? I also started my new job as a dog walker (WAHOO! EMPLOYMENT!!) which was pretty awesome despite the poopy weather and eating shit on the wet pavement. The dogs were cute, my boss is nice, and I got to work on my projects before and after walking. Oh yeah and I got mad exercise. So much good stuff. Here's a peak at one of my projects:

He's a little kitty picking up buttons!

Standard Deviation

My goals for yesterday were:

1. Draw for 30 minutes 

2. Retake photos of: the elephant, polar bear, green valentine dinos, otters

3. post all of the above on my Etsy

4. make two new original creatures.

Being a total boss and ultra productive member of society. I can go ahead and cross off 75% of my to-do list before 1 p.m. Here are the results of today's drawing sesh:

As you can probably see, I decided to deviate from the Pikaland what to draw list and do some visual thinking. I want to do more mixed media projects. I'm thinking about utilizing felt for capes and crowns specifically.

As for the 25% of my to do list that I haven't conquered, I'm steadily chipping away. This is the first of my original creatures. I have to do a second one and I haven't thought too much about it yet which means you should tune in tomorrow. Same bat time. Same bat channel.

Otters and Terrible drawings.

So today was pretty productive I'd say. Job wise I didn't get a job, interviewed for a different job, and scheduled an interview for third job. So hopefully something works out before I have to move into the poorhouse and subsequently get kicked out of the poor house for being too poor.

Etsy-wise, I finished my little hand holding otters and I think they look pretty damn cute. Here's a close up of one of them.

Cute, right? I'm coating them in mod podge right now so they should be ready to post on creaturecreatures tomorrow. I also posted some more valentine dinosaurs and worked on a little monster today. 

Aside from being uncharacteristically productive. I also checked off one of my goals. I drew for thirty minutes today from the Pikaland 100 things to draw. I only managed to cover the first two items: 1. your cat and 2. your dog. I don't have a cat, but if I did I'd want it to be one that Deth P Sun drew (hence my out right copying of his drawings). Drawing felt good. I'm a pretty lazy drawer as you might be able to tell. These drawings are pretty terrible, but hey I did 30 minutes right??

So since I am being goal oriented I want to set some goals for tomorrow:

1. Draw for 30 minutes 

2. Retake photos of: the elephant, polar bear, green valentine dinos, otters

3. post all of the above on my Etsy

4. make two new original creatures.

Well Well Well

Here's to progress.

So today I made a new avatar, new banner, wrote my profile, and baked some creatures. Here are the fruits of my labor:

here are two in progress valentine's day dinos and a pair of hand holding otters

My new ultra-cool banner

And my new ultra-cool avatar.

I also mailed out an order. I'm crossing things off my to do list left and right! I'm making a point to draw every day for 30 minutes starting today. Pikaland posted a list of 100 things to draw that I'm going to start chipping away at. This whole goal setting thing has been working out pretty well I'd say. Off to go draw and make creatures!

So here it is

Unemployment is taking its toll on me. I think I go a little more crazy every time I look at Craigslist. When I'm not looking for jobs (which is for most of the day), I've been pretty aggressive with researching how to be a successful Etsy seller. I've read through all 40-some pages of the Seller's Handbook and here is what I learned:

1. Get business cards
2. Treat your store like a brick and mortar store aesthetic-wise (special attention to your banner and avatar)
3. Be goal oriented
4. Take awesome photos and crop them to be square
5. Use google analytics
6. Join Etsy and other blog communities with thoughtful posts in the comments
7. Post items every day
8. Find your niche and craft like nobody's looking.

So while I was looking into all this information, I sold one of my dinosaurs and got an interview for a dog walking position. It's like the cosmos are high fiving me. I feel very encouraged and eager to really give my Etsy my all.

I started a new shop called creaturecreatures because I think its a better indicator of what I'm selling as compared to animalweek. I also started this nifty ass blog and I have a to-do list of things to do based on priority.

High priority:

1. Make a banner that celebrates my little creatures

2. Make an avatar of me with my creatures OR see how my existing logo works

3. Write a thoughtful profile

4. Make more creatures!

Low priority:

1. Business cards

2. Google Analytics