Honey, We Need to Talk…

I’ve been distant.  I’ve been quiet.  You’re starting to wonder what’s going on with me, but when you ask I say, “Everything’s fine, don’t worry about it.”  You’re worried.  You wonder what happened to the several-posts-a-week me, and you’re starting to think you’ll never get the “old me” back again.  You’re starting to think I’ve been hiding something from you.

Welll…

… I HAVE been hiding something from you – something that’s been making me sick.  Something that’s been making me spend most of my days in bed or zonked out on the couch.  Something that’s been making me crave cashew nuts and ginger ale for breakfast…

 

It’s a baby!

Not this baby. This is an internet baby.

HOOOOOOOOOooooooRRRaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy!  

 

After two miscarriages, two years, several expensive (and totally embarrassing) appointments with an awesome fertility specialist, some drugs, some herbal supplements, and some serious thought about adoption, Husband and I are happy to be welcoming our first child on or around April 26th of next year.  ❤

So, I’ve been spending most of my time lately, well, gestating. Today the little tidbit in my belly is the size of a navel orange (about 4.5 inches), and come the beginning of December Husband and I will find out which team we’ll be on (Edward or Jacob…errr… I mean… pink or blue…).  We’re thrilled (and terrified, and totally overwhelmed, and, you know, I’ve been weeping a lot)!

In the meanwhile, things over at my Happy Little Shop have been kicking into high gear – I’ve been working on orders pretty constantly for the last few months, which means I haven’t been making many *new* things, but rather filling orders for Snoopy, Nicholas the Bunny, and Charlie Brown, among others.  I’m in the middle of remodeling over there – check out my newly designed banner & avatars when you stop by – and I’m closing down for the last month of the year to reorganize things & get my 2012 product line up and running.

And, because of some fortuitously timed changes at work-work, I’ll be cutting back to half-time at the end of November, which will, theoretically, give me more time to commit my hookery (and gestate)!  Hooray!

So.  No, I don’t want to break up with you – I LOVE you!  But I am going to need a bit more space (unless you really want to hover over me while I revisit breakfast).  =)

 

Also not my baby, but So. Freakin'. Cute.

 

Cheers!

 

 

 

 

Advertisement

Charlie Brown

Remember Snoopy, my latest custom order on Etsy? Well, he really needed a friend, so I whipped up this little guy (also part of the order):

Don't you just want to give him a squoosh?

He turned out to be about 7 inches tall, and even though his head is a bit smaller than Snoopy’s,

their arms, legs, and bodies are all the exact same size, and frankly I ended up liking his -er- rolly-polly-ness, so I left him that way.

 Want one?  Visit my Etsy shop today!

I Work for Peanuts.

A thing happened this weekend involving a very needy customer, several e-mails, an emergency trip to the craft store, and – you guessed it – a no sale in the end.  I’m in a unique position with my crafting – I really DO do it just for fun (I’m fairly certain I’d never see black if I was trying to run a business) – but the whole situation got me thinking…

 

How Much Money Does a Crafter Really Make?

 

Let’s say you see this little guy, a 3″ ornament sized Charlie Brown doll, for sale at my Etsy shop for $18.00US.

 $18 for a teeny little ornament?  Well, yes.  Check this out:

 

Materials for 3″ Charlie Brown:

– yarn in yellow, skin, black, and brown : The kind of yarn I buy costs around $5/skein, so that’s an initial investment of $20 plus tax.  Let’s say one set of colors will yield about 10 dolls, so we’ll put the total yarn cost at $2.00.

-safety eyes: I purchase my eyes from this Etsy seller, who sells them in sets of 10 for $3.50 + $2.00 shipping.  So, $5.50/5 dolls (cuz I like my dolls to have two eyes, yo) adds another $1.10 to my supply cost.

– fiber fill: You can get about 20oz of this stuff for under $3.00, and as I really don’t measure how much of it I use, I’ll add another $0.05 to my supply cost.

– crochet hooks: You can get a decent set of crochet hooks for about $10, and since I acquired my hooks years ago and have no idea how much I paid for them, I’m going to add only another $0.05 for general wear-and-tear on the hook (yes, they do wear out – sometimes they snap in half. It’s unpleasant).

– pattern: I designed this pattern myself, which I sell for $1.10 at my Etsy shop, and which, all-told, garners me $0.60 profit each time someone buys it.  I don’t pay myself whenever I use this pattern, but let’s pretend I do, because I really ought to.  What’s that rule of owning your own business?  Pay yourself first?  Hmm…  Anyway.

-Etsy fees: Etsy charges me $.20/listing and another $.30 at the time of transaction, so let’s add another $.50 to the cost column. Awesome.

So far the total supply cost for little Charlie is $3.70.

 

Need another shot of Charlie?  I thought so.

 

 

Now let’s talk time.

 

In a perfect world I can make little Charlie here in just under two hours. Let’s assume for the sake of this discussion that I always make Charlie perfectly and never have to stop working.  The current minimum wage in Virginia is $7.25/hr, so my work, for two hours of hookery, should earn me $14.50 (minus taxes, which I’m not even going to get into here).

 

SO. If I already have all of the supplies I need, don’t make any mistakes, and pay myself minimum wage to crochet this ornament, it will cost me $18.20.

 

COST OF CREATING CHARLIE: $18.20

SALE PRICE OF CHARLIE: $18.00

PROFIT: NEGATIVE $.20.  Rad. I have the best business plan EVAR!

THINGS CRAFTERS OFTEN DON’T CHARGE FOR, BUT PROBABLY SHOULD:

-The time it takes to acquire supplies (either driving to the store or purchasing online)

-The time it takes to photograph products and create listings for them

-The time it takes to prepare items for shipping (and the boxes/packing materials)

-The time it takes to actually ship an item (have you ever been to the post office when there wasn’t a line??)

 

Now then.  I don’t mean to be a whiney poo-poo with this post; like I said before, this is not my “for profit” job  (For profit I work HERE – see if you can find my blog posts!).   Often, though, I think about people for whom crafting is their main source of income – people who spend hours and hours making things for us, and for minimal profit.  Well, you might say, crafters like what they do, so they should figure that in to the cost analysis. Oh yeah?  Have you ever had a job, like, EVER that paid you on a sliding scale according to how much you enjoyed the work?  Yeah, uhm, no.

 

YOU: “Hey Boss, I LIKE MY JOB $700./hr-much!”

YOUR BOSS: “Good for you.  Now go chop those onions.”

In the end I suppose this post is about trying to encourage a certain amount of thoughtfulness. When you think about all of the costs that go into creating, say, a graduation quilt, or a hand-painted seascape, or a carved stone bracelet – isn’t part of the item’s value the fact that it was made by two hands instead of a machine? Shouldn’t we “factor in” the value of knowing personally the guy who built our kitchen table? Shouldn’t we crafters charge you a $10 flat fee for “peace of mind” on every item?  (Tee hee – just making sure you were still paying attention).

 

Maybe you disagree, and that’s okay too; here’s something you might be interested in.   See?  I’m a People’s Blogger. *grin*

 

What do you think about the cost of  hand-made items?