A peek into my workspace

I'd like to give you guys a peek into my workspace. This is my beautiful craft room.

I built the shelves myself and they hold everything! I have yarn, finished projects, half finished projects...really anything I will need in my life for my yarning. My next plan for this room is to build myself a desk. I have one right now in the corner to the right, but it doesn't have everything I need to be functional and organized. One day, though. 

I spent all day today working on the craft room and getting it ready for this year's craft show season. 

What does your workspace look like?

Don't wish for it - Work for it

I found this little sign at the gift shop at the Deer Park in Wisconsin Dells.  I saw it and it spoke to me. Don't wish for it. Work for it.

The sign says it all. If you want something to happen in your life, you need to stop wishing it will happen and make it happen. Put your nose to the proverbial grindstone and work towards your dreams.

My dream? To be able to make a living with my crocheting and knitting and quit my day job. I would love to be able to do craft shows and have orders coming in on both the Etsy page and the website and live off the income from both of those.

But I'm not going to wish it to happen. I'm not going to wish for orders to magically appear. Granted, I love it when they do, but I know that if I am going to succeed, I need to work on both my websites and put the blood, sweat and tears into every piece I make. Eventually, I would like to have more patterns for sale of items I have designed. Trust me, I have the ideas. They all go into a little book I carry around with me along with notes on how to improve other patterns I use or fun yarns I want to try out. It is my brainstorming book and I've always carried one.

Back when I was trying to be a writer, I always had a notebook with me to take notes on different story ideas, or sometimes the outline of a new scene. I still have all those notebooks, now tucked away in my bookcases for the day when I want to write again. Hundreds of story ideas, just waiting to come to life.

What do you want to happen? Do you want to retire before you are too old to enjoy the world around you? Do you want to buy your dream home? Or own a vintage car?  Any dream you want. Take it into the palm of your hand and feel the weight of it. Then, work towards it. Don't say, "Oh I could buy it if I win the lottery." That's wishing it would happen. Make it happen. Save a little here, a little there. If you have the time and the means, get an extra job and work towards paying off your debts a little earlier so you can enjoy the money you make. If I truly wanted to be a writer, I would write every day.

Featured Product - Cat Toy Box from Miller Emporium

You all know how much I like to keep organized. Well, this handy little box is purrfect for you and your feline companions.

Cats love to fit themselves inside boxes. And mine love to rummage around in their box and pull out toys. This box is hand painted and is customizable, so choose whatever color will match your decor. No mass production here! She uses non-toxic paint to ensure the safety of your four legged friends.

Stop over at Amanda's shop and see all the goodies she has for dogs and cats. https://www.etsy.com/shop/MillerEmporium

Happy Sunday!

Happy Sunday to you all! If you're in my neck of the woods, the sun is shining and it's a bit humid out there. At least it was at 10 am when I was running errands.

Just finished packaging up some orders and I'm ready to sit down and make some more of my beautiful grocery bags for my show in a couple weeks. Time flies when you're having fun.

Usually I dislike Sunday afternoons because that means the weekend is almost over and I have to go to work in the morning. Not today! I'm on a much needed vacation and getting ready for Nationals next weekend. Pretty soon my teenager (ack! a teenager in my house) will be on his way to his dad's for the summer and I'll be all alone in the house. Well, I'm sure some of my friends will make a stop over to check on me to make sure I'm not drowning in yarn. Though, I can't think of a better way to go.....

Have you checked out my beautiful new website? Click the "Shop with me" tab on the top of the blog and you'll be sent straight there. It's purty!

Well, I have to head out. The yarn is calling.

We are live!

I am so happy to tell you that www.jenstangledthreads.com is now live! A wonderful new website built. You can still shop with me on Etsy at jenstangledthreads.etsy.com, and all the same products will be offered on both sites.

But, if you stop by the website now, you can get 15% off your first purchase with coupon code GRANDOPEN. This coupon is only good on the website, not on the Etsy page.

Happy Shopping!

I Love Vanna!

I love yarn. I make no excuses for it. I bought a house so I could have a yarn room. Or at least a room other than my living room, kitchen and bedroom in which to store the yarn. I kid you not, in my apartment, I had yarn in every room in the house, except for the bathroom and my son's room. I love yarn!

And it isn't just one type of yarn. I love most of them. There are a few which I personally will never use again, but that is my personal preference. Others might feel differently.

First and foremost - I love Vanna's Choice by Lion Brand.

Here she is, and in one of my most popular colors. I use Vanna in my Ear Warmers, Boot Cuffs, Keyhole Scarves and Fingerless Gloves. 

Love, love, love my Vanna. I currently can't purchase Vanna in Walmart, so I make a special trip out to Joann's whenever I run out of a particular color. Trust me, it happens. I can never have too much Vanna's. 

Vanna's Choice is a worsted weight yarn, weight 4. I love the rich colors, like Sapphire and Raspberry, but I also love the muted tones, such as Olive and Purple. And the best part - no dye lots. Well, they say dye lots on the package, but I can't tell the difference. You will get a nice, true shade every time.  Just check out this beautiful scarf in Olive.

Excuses, excuses....

So how's your determination going? Have you been working on your first milestone?

I tell you, I like succeeding. All week, I exchanged one of my unhealthy, quick, processed food snacks, for a healthy carrot and dip snack pack. I got mine at Walmart for about $1.25. Put one in my lunch with my entree. It was that simple. I haven't seen a physical change in my body from changing one snack, but I feel better.

If you haven't succeeded with your first step - why? Perhaps there is an obstacle in your way. If that is the case, you should take a step away and re-evaluate the steps needed to succeed in your determination.

If part of my determination to lose weight was to start going to the gym, and my first step was to start going to the gym every other day for a week, and I didn't because I didn't have a gym membership or good tennis shoes, I would stop and rewrite my first step. The first step would be to get shoes. The 2nd step would be to join a gym. After that, I would have no excuses not to go to the gym. Not wanting to exercise is not an excuse or an obstacle in my way. It is just me saying I don't want to. But I want to lose the weight. To lose the weight, I have to exercise. Which is more stubborn - my feelings against the gym or my wanting to lose weight?

Don't let excuses prevent you from achieving your goals. You can do something about excuses. Say I don't have money for good tennis shoes. I can take a further step back and make it a goal to save the money needed for new shoes. Put $10 aside every paycheck. Pretty soon I will have the money. That excuse is crossed off the list. Then I can go to the store and get new shoes. Then I can join a gym. Then I can start exercising. No more excuses.

Get rid of the excuses in your life.

Where does the weekend go?

Seriously, I could use one or two more days in the weekend. There is not enough time in the day for me to do everything I want to do.

I am currently working on the website. It isn't online yet, only because I am going through each of my products to make sure the pictures are beautiful and the prices and shipping are updated. It is a long process, about an hour for each listing. But, here's hoping! Fingers crossed that I won't crash the thing. I am going to spend the rest of my day sitting in my recliner and making pot scrubbers for the shows. And catching up on the DVR. Finished the last mermaid blanket last night. One of these days I will write the pattern for the child sized blanket.

What I Do On a Friday Night

Tonight, I am dyeing my hair. I am staying home, finishing an order and dyeing my hair to the rich auburn color I love.

My hair color of choice: Loreal's Superior Preference in Medium Auburn.

This weekend I hope to work more on the Etsy shop and the new website. More later on when it will be launching. Lots to do. SEO to figure out. New shipping calculator to learn. Hopefully everything will integrate well and sales come in.

This is my life. I don't go out on a Friday night. Not because I don't have a date or friends. I have friends. But, I choose to stay at home and build my business. And catch up on my DVR. And drink wine.

What are you doing tonight?

Small Business Owner

Being a small business owner can be a little overwhelming. There is so much to learn, so much to do. I am not only the maker of the items I am selling, I am also copywriter, photographer, advertiser, web designer, blogger, shipper, accountant, and supply purchaser. It is a lot and it gets to be overwhelming at times. I have over 160 items in my Etsy shop right now, with more in my bin to be photographed and listed. Add in being a parent and having a full time job, there simply are not enough hours in the day. So before starting a small business, whether you are turning a craft hobby into a business, or you are a photographer wanting to start your own studio, or you are a new franchise owner opening your first store, you have to realize that this is a 24/7 job. When you are the owner and employee, everything falls on you. I am not saying this to discourage people from starting their own business, but many people start their own business with unrealistic goals.

All the hats you wear as a small business owner is the reason it is so important to have a good organizational system. I am constantly writing myself post-it notes at work on things I need to do, ideas I have, things not to forget. I then go home and spend an hour (if I have it) going over my notes, putting them on the appropriate to do lists and goal planning sheets. Write it down! Once it is written down and you know you will go over it again at a later point, your brain will be free from having to think about it again. Giving it the power to think of more things, or concentrate on the task you should be working on.

Once a week, I go through my lists. Did I complete the task I needed to? If so, what is my next task?  How can I move this project along? What time commitments do I have this week? What orders need to be shipped out in the next week?

Seriously, I need about 36 hours in a day. And I probably still will only get about 5 hours of sleep.

I keep telling myself, “When I get more successful, I will be able to hire someone to do some of my tasks”. Then I think “Will I be able to give up control of a task to someone else?” I am an A+++++ personality, with OCD tendencies and I am a bit of a control freak. However, at the same time, I do realize that there are people out there who have more experience taking pictures. Maybe they can take a better picture than I can without all the edits I have to make. Right now I have someone building my stand alone website for me (because I have no clue where to start). It is driving me crazy not being able to see every piece of it being built, but I allow myself 5 minutes of fretting before I move onto the next task. 5 minutes every day of wondering how it is going to look. That’s all the time I can afford to waste.

I remind myself that I have to be a duck on the water. On top of the water, serene and relaxed. Raindrops just rolling off the back. Everything is fine. Under the water – legs paddling like crazy to stay afloat.

So just remember when you start to compare yourself to other people. They may seem calm and serene and have everything together. But you don’t see them at home when they are rushing to be at soccer practice on time, or working late to finish an order for a client that needs it right away. Small business owners are some of the most stressed out people in the world, because they do it all. If they are successful, they might be able to hire people to help, but they are still constantly worrying about every little thing. 

Here's to all the small business owners I know. I'm right here with you! 

Featured Item - Reusable Grocery Bags

Banana Berry

Every once in awhile I like to highlight a product, whether it is mine or someone else’s. Today I will highlight my reusable grocery bags.

Short story behind the bags – this is my own design. I used to live in an apartment on the 2nd floor, and in my family, we tend to take everything in one trip. After all, why would I want to walk all the way down stairs to grab a 2nd load of groceries when it freezing cold outside? I wouldn’t. So, I would load up my hands with the plastic bags from the grocery store, and the bags would do 1 of 2 things – Either break halfway up the stairs, or cut into my hands from the sheer weight of the items. Neither was a good scenario. I had a few reusable grocery bags I had purchased, but the handles would break. And I hate sewing. With. A. Passion.

I thought, there has to be an easier way. I searched for reusable grocery bag patterns that I could crochet, but couldn’t find one that didn’t require sewing. That summer, I was helping out at a consignment boutique in exchange for being able to sell my products. It was a slow day, and I had brought some scrap yarn with me to test a pattern. And voila! I had my first pattern. Now, I have designed lace shawls in the past, but that was just a matter of drawing out flowers and leaves on a piece of graph paper. This was the first pattern I had written from the ground up.

Of course, I needed to test my new bag. Rule # 1 – always test your own product. At least when it comes to knitting and crochet. I brought my bag to Walmart and bought 2 gallons of milk. Then prepared myself to carry the 2 jugs up the stairs in my new bag. It worked! The bag held up to the weight of the milk with ease! Stretched a lot, but that was expected. The next test is the test I bring with me to every craft show – 2 big bottles of soda (2 Liter size) and a bag of chips. The chips were not crushed by the bottles of soda. Over the next few weeks, I made more of the bags, and my son and I tested them with our weekly grocery runs. My son loves the bags because they are easier to carry over his shoulder.

These little bags can do it all. Take to a farmer’s market for fresh veggies. Stuff 3 beach towels in one and still have room for sunscreen, bottles of water and beach toys and hit the beach. Use as a handy day care bag and fill with a pack of diapers, wipes and spare clothes. Have more than one child? Buy different colored bags for each child to help keep you and your day care provider organized. Trust me – I have a lot of colors!

The girls my son dances with will stuff their poufy crinolines and dance shoes in their bags. They work great to transport soccer cleats and shin guards (and helps air them out after practice or games).

These bags are wonderful housewarming gifts. Pair with a bottle of wine and a loaf of French bread to give to the new homeowners.

Fill with dorm essentials for the college bound student. This bag makes a great laundry bag.

Everyone who has purchased this bag loves it for its versatility and size. The best part – this bag is machine washable and dryer safe. That’s right.  Stretch it out as far as it can go, then toss it in the washer and let it go back to its original shape.

Use over and over again. Not only will you be saving yourself the frustration of having bags break, you’ll be helping save the environment. You can easily use this bag over 100 times (and more, and more). Use this bag every week for a year and you are keeping 60-100 plastic bags out of landfills and oceans. This is only one of the products in my ecofriendly home accessories line. For other products, check out my Etsy page. http://jenstangledthreads.etsy.com

Step 2 - Planning

Yesterday I discussed resolution vs. determination. Today is the 2nd step to reaching your goal.

Wait? Goal? You said nothing about goals.

Oh, but I did. Yesterday you wrote a determination statement on a piece of paper and stuck it on the refrigerator. Remember this piece of paper? This is your goal. We will continue to use this piece of paper to map out our goal.

Today we are going to write down how we are going to reach our goal.

Most of the time, when we start a resolution, we don’t take the time to think about what it is going to take to reach our resolution. This is why most New Year’s resolutions fail. We just say, “I’m going to lose weight” and join a gym. Everything is fine the first couple weeks, but then we get frustrated, because we aren't losing the weight as fast as we want. We start making excuses for not going – “I had a tough day at work” or “Little Ricky needs to go to the dentist today, so I can’t go to the gym” or any number of reasons. One skipped day turns into 2, turns into a week, then a month, and then we are right back where we started.

I state “we” because I've done it too. You've done it. Everyone has the best of intentions in starting a resolution. But, we don’t write down the steps we need to take in order to reach this goal.

So – Starting with a determination statement. “I am determined to lose weight.”

I am going to use this as my determination statement. I need to lose weight. I need to get healthier.

In looking at this statement, it isn't really clear on what I want to do. Yes, I want to lose weight. But am I going to eat healthier? Or am I going to exercise more? A combination of the two? I need to revise my determination statement by making it more clear how I am going to reach my goal.

“I am determined to eat better and start exercising so I can lose weight.”

Clear. Concise. Determined. But, I have 2 goals here. Eat better and start exercising. I can’t have them on the same sheet of paper. I need to simplify this. One goal at a time.

Goal 1: I am determined to eat better so I can lose weight.

Great goal. So how do I achieve it? Do I go to the supermarket and buy a whole bunch of fresh food with no clue on how to cook it or what I’m going to make?

I know me. I don’t do well with huge, drastic changes. I have to start slow. And I hate to cook. So what is a small step I can take to make this a reality? Something small that can be attainable, but it won’t throw off my entire game plan if I don’t reach this goal right away. Something that if I do it, I will feel a small victory and energized to continue on my journey.

I already drink a lot of water. That’s all I drink at work. So it really doesn't make sense to put down a goal I am already doing. But, I can swap out one of my salty or sweet snacks for a healthier one. That can start me on my way to eating better. It is a small step that isn't all that time consuming or expensive. I’m just replacing one snack.  And, I need to determine the action I’m going to take to reach this step.

Goal 1: I am determine to eat better so I can lose weight.

Step 1: I am going to swap one unhealthy snack for carrots and low calorie dip for 1 week. 

Action 1: Stop by the grocery store and pick up already pre-packaged carrot and dip snack packs. Pick up enough for 1 week.

Once I start this (today), I’m going to revisit my progress in a week. Have I been eating my carrots and dip instead of junk food? We shall see.

By going through this exercise, I have started to create a fool proof plan for myself. I have a plan to revisit this every week and set new, small goals. Nothing big or grandiose that is going to waste time or money.

Do the same exercise yourself with your determination statement. Share your determination statement and/or steps you are going to take to reach your goals.

It's Time to Get Serious - I am Determined to Succeed

I sell my crochet and knit items. Let's face it, if I didn't, I’d be considered a hoarder and I wouldn't be able to justify all my yarn purchases. And we can’t have that. :-)

So, I have an Etsy shop (jenstangledthreads.etsy.com) and soon I will have a standalone website. I have also started to list things on Inselly and Instagram (@jenstangledthreads). I can also be found on Twitter (@jtangledthreads), Pinterest (@jtangledthreads), and Facebook (www.facebook.com/jenstangledthreads). I have all this social media at my fingertips to make my business a success.

It’s time to get serious.

The past couple years I have been diligent in keeping track of my sales and expenses. I use a program online called Outright (outright.com). All of my Etsy and Paypal sales are imported directly into the program, and I have linked my business bank account (which I opened this year) so any expenses are imported directly as well. I only need to enter my sales using my Square. At the end of the year, Outright provides me with a schedule of all my expenses and income. I do have to pay monthly for the service, but it is easier than trying to keep track of all my Etsy expenses.

Earlier this year, I did open a business checking account so I can keep my business money separate from my personal money. 

You would think that with all this done, I'm being serious. I'm treating this like a business, instead of a hobby. One day, I would love to be able to pay all my bills using the profits from my business, but right now it feeds my yarn addiction. I am still treating this like a hobby. But thanks to a couple new Facebook groups I have joined, I am ready to get serious. Serious about setting goals and making Jen's Tangled Threads a career, instead of something I do after work. 

Last month, I joined a group on Facebook called The Joyful Entrepreneur. We are entrepreneurs who have Etsy shops, standalone websites, or sell from social media. Through this group (which is fantastic and very supportive), I met a wonderful woman named Sarah. She is the leader of the group, and has had so much success with her own website. But, she is like me – she started on Etsy and had to learn the ropes herself with SEO, product photography and pricing. She is now sharing her experience with the members of the group. Last month, she launched “Flourish”, another Facebook group that is available for people who subscribe to the service. The monthly subscription price is less than the cost of going to a movie. Only $12.99! So, if you are serious, like I am, and want to grow your business and find other like-minded creatives out there, If you are a creative and want to take your craft to the next level and make a living from it, I highly recommend you join. http://www.bloomstudios.co/flourish.html

Flourish has been open a couple weeks and is already stocked with experts in SEO, product photography, visual aids (banners, avatars), business coaching, etc. – anything and everything you can think of to grow your business. This month we are focusing on SEO and I can’t wait to dive in.

Although I am not completely finished with dance this year (we have Nationals in a couple weeks), I am motivated to spend more time on my shop and to work smarter.

It's time to get serious.

I know. I’m going on vacation in a couple weeks. Why should I start now instead of after vacation? I’m not going to be motivated to do anything while on vacation and then everything will stall and I will stop being motivated because I will be frustrated. That’s why I’m starting now. Today is the first of the month. What better time to start? Why, if I am motivated now, should I wait?

I’m not going to wait. I’m going to start today. A mid-year resolution, if you will. No, not resolution. Determination. A mid-year determination to make this year better than last year in terms of overall sales.

And I encourage you to do the same. Make a Determination. Say, “I am determined to _______.” And fill in the blank. June 1st is just as good a time to start as January 1st. Don’t resolve to do something. Be determined to do something.

“I am determined to quit smoking.”

“I am determined to fit into that dress.”

“I am determined to be a better mother.”

Try it out for yourself. What are you determined to do? Write it down on a piece of paper and stick it on your refrigerator.

I am determined to to be able to quit my job in 5 years so I can crochet and knit full time. I am determined to be able to make a living off my talents as a fiber artist and provide for my family. 

Tomorrow we will take the next step.