Tag: bliss

  • Why you buy what you buy

    Ankh Fresh Water Pearl Earrings

    I was rushing last last night/early this morning to tidy up my Etsy earring store, The Ears Have It. Seeing that the best selling items were getting buried at the bottom of items I was relisting, I created a category called, “Best Sellers“. I chose the top five selling items for this category as one of the last things I did before I fell exhausted into bed at 2 o’clock in the morning.

    This morning, not particularly thinking about the store I had spent so much time tidying up last night, a thought occured to me. These Best Sellers were trying to tell me something I had been chasing after for a couple of years. They were lying in wait until I had a chance to calm down from the frenzy of creating stock and promoting them before the tapped me quietly on the shoulder and said, “Hey, you need to notice something here”.

    When they got my attention, they said, “Hey YOU! This is your target market!!!”

    Startled, I drew back for a moment. This wasn’t what I was expecting to learn. In fact, I wasn’t writing this article in search of who my target market was. I had simply seen a trend of all my best sellers being items that incorporated symbols and the thought fascinated me. In fact, to diverge here for a moment, they made me proud of my customers. With all the Facebook posts and even one on Twitter recently about Gay Pride, Hate Crimes, Homophobia, etc., etc., etc. my customers are strong, brave and not afraid of these parts of their lives.

    How do I know this?

    Rainbow-Peace-214x300

    Because they dare to wear those symbols that others find provocative. Peace signs, Ankhs, Rainbows, symbols that point towards one’s Pagan Path, towards their sexual orientation and even their political beliefs. I dare not presume to say any one of my customers are any of these things just because they purchase them, but they are definitely enlightened individuals that dare to wear what they want to wear in a world that sadly would judge them – right or wrong, for what they chose to accent their couture.

    So, because our outer selves are a reflection of our inner selves,  I ask you to ask yourself and your customers why do we wear what we wear? Dig deeper than the “it’s pretty” or “the colors match my outfit” excuses. Why are they not afraid of other’s base (and sometimes ignorant) reactions? The answers might lead you and them to a journey of self discovery and help you serve your customers better in satisfying their need to stand up and out in their world.

  • Daily Om: A Stress-Free Home

    I have always loved the daily articles from this website. They are a wonderfully positive way to begin the day. Today’s article on a stress-free home speaks to me so much because of what we have recently gone through this year in moving. When I was going to business school, I learned the lesson it teaches today, that we must “Consider that homes are the outer reflections of those who live within.” It not only is a reflection of us, but of our current state of being, our attitudes, our inner stresses, our inner peace. If we want to change our outward environment, others reactions to us, we must first change our inner selves. What is it that is stressing us? How can it be remedied? If it cannot be changed, how can we change our reaction to it? This is a great key to inner peace, for there is much in the world we have no control over, except our reaction to it.

    Go here to read the full article on The Daily Om.

    Namaste

  • Preview new parasol – Red Flapper no frills

    Just put this in the Etsy store tonight…a very plain, no frills of my Red Flapper Parasol. If you want an economical version, here it is.

    black red fringed parasol upright straighter by KCDragonfly
    Very pretty against a pillar

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    black red fringed parasol upright slanted by KCDragonfly
    The inside is quite clean and simple

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    black red fringed parasol top by KCDragonfly
    A single, strong back stitch holds the fringe on, making it quite invisible from the outside.

  • An Etsy conversation – How do you get out of your creative ruts?


    Understanding why we get into a “rut” helps deal with the issue and keeps us from getting frustrated. The word “rut” definitely misinterprets the problem. Our brains are designed to work in balance, the left hemisphere with the right and vice versa. Because one is adept at analytical issues and the other at abstract and creative concepts, overworking either one trips a “time out” switch that stalls our efforts. It is then time to move on to something else – for me the more opposite the diversion, the better. Gardening, designing a website, doing house chores all reset (or reboot as us nerds call it) my brain so I can go back to my bags or parasols with a fresh perspective.

    It is important for every creative artist to find their most effective distraction. For some like me, it is something as opposite the creative arts as possible, i.e. something that engages logic, calculations or chores. For others it is turning to the inspiration found in their fellow artist’s projects, however they are found on the internet, through books, art galleries and of course, in the amazing patterns and designs found in nature and the universe themselves. It does not matter how or where you find the source, the important thing is you expand your awareness to include something else in this universe that will refresh your mind and eventually allow you to return to the project and either complete it or move on.

    Remember, everything in nature – and we all are a part of nature – is cyclic. Every person, place, project and thing has its time to bloom, and pushing it when it isn’t ready or the time is not ready for it, does both you and your project a disservice.

  • Heading towards…something

    Dragonflies never rest, are always darting about their environment as if in an eternal search for something. You could say I am the same way. My crafting studio is crammed with books, beads, lace and fabrics. When I began years ago, there were always new parasol, jewelry or purse designs to be found out there. Though I have refocused my attention these past  and I am on a never-ending quest to hone my sewing skills ’till I find it. When will I know when I have that perfect design? When you can’t resist buying something.

    But truthfully, we never reach perfection and I’m not looking to be perfect. I just want to have fun and make something that makes someone go, “Ooooo, that’s pretty.”

    If you do, then I’ve done my job.

  • To Fit or Not to Fit in

    I don’t think the idea is to fit in. I think it is to stand out.

    Remember when we were teenagers trying to find our place in life? We wanted to be different (at least my generation did – and the one before it, come to think of it)? Now, here I am grown up and I’ve forgotten that. Trying to fit in was painful when we weren’t accepted, but being different carried its own kind of pain. We suffer when we try to hold to the world’s standards of what it thinks we should be.

    Even my business coach last year and all the business education I took reminded me of that. You don’t get anywhere in life “fitting in”. My coach said, “Try doing something exactly the opposite OR take what they are doing and improve on it”, but the message was always, “do something that differentiates you from the next guy”.

    People grasp this concept for a while, then forget about it. Did we stick to the ad campaign, “Dare to be different?”. It came and went like every other fad in advertising because after a while you can’t hold people’s attention saying the same thing over and over unless they have a vested interest in your message. An emotional investment that benefits them in some way. Something else I learned in my Law of Attraction: Black Belt in Excellence training.

    The Black Belt course proved it as one of the laws of the Universe.  “Fitting in”, or aligning yourself with others gives your power and energy over to them and you just fade away into the background, into the ether. “Nice women rarely make history”, or whatever the saying is. A variation on that in one of my favorite Doctor Who Big Finish audio productions was spoken by Rassilon, the greatest figure in Time Lord history. He said, “One does not make history in a shed at the bottom of the garden”.

    In other words, don’t hide if you want to get noticed. Don’t blend in. You will be doing yourself – and the world – a disservice, denying it the beauty that is you.

  • Products Added Week of July 25th, 2010

    The convention was fun and it is always refreshing to get away from the studio, but I have started back so recently on jewelry-making, I am still fired up and want to keep working…the heck with networking, the heck with the computer (that makes my husband’s mouth open in shock, believe me), the heck with sleeping and eating and such. It is true that when you do what you love, one doesn’t want to stop and one wakes up not being able to wait to do what they love. With me, it has been a similar experience except that I work late into the night and weirdly need much less sleep than usual…four hours can do me just fine and I can do that for days. Strange, but that might be my gothy nature peeking out.

    I wasn’t able to begin any new projects this week, but have put up some pieces that escaped previewing last week. Here you will find more diachroics and a spiderweb-like necklace…my journey into the realm of asymmetrical design.
    Spiderweb Necklace – 14k gold and crystal. $49.95.
    Diachroic earrings – Blood Red – $19.95 Diachroic earrings – Powder Blue – $19.95
    Diachroic earrings – Purple – $19.95 Diachroic earrings – Turquoise Green – $19.95
    Still working on the “special new product”. The prototype is proving to be a challenge and while one version was worked out, the further work on it needs tweaking. It is slow going as I have to work on it inbetween the regular work of redesigning old product, coming up with new and sprinkling it across the ‘net like fairy dust. Still, it is exciting enough that enthusiasm for its premiere makes me attack the project with constantly renewing determination. I won’t rest until it is done!

  • The Premise of a Vision Board – YouTube Tutorial

    This video is a quick introduction to Vision Boards – their structure and purpose. I will be going more indepth in how to find supplies, images and inspiration in later videos.