I've been pretty busy since my last post.
Johnny and I celebrated our 6th/11th anniversary! It's hard to believe it's been so long. But I've been in love with that man even longer. As of June, it's been 18 years! On his birthday, I'd given him tickets to see the Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" 50th anniversary show at the dome theater...it was pretty neat. I'm not really a Pink Floyd fan...but he really likes them. And it had been awhile since we'd seen a show in the dome theater. It was really nice to have a night out.
I've been really busy with CandiMaker stuff...as always. I've been planning to retake all my product photos, but the set-up I had just wasn't working out. Initially I had the light on the tall tripod and was holding my phone to take overhead shots...but that was really hurting my back and the photos were less "uniform" so I was having to correct the perspective and do lots of cropping. Then I was using my tall tripod for my phone and the desktop tripod for my ring light...but I needed more flexibility with placing the ring light because the glossy laminate on my stickers catches glare too easily. So I got a tripod that I can leave clamped to my table to take pictures with my phone from overhead and then use the tall tripod for my ring light. Oh! And I decided to take the tabletop off my art desk, cover it with contact paper, and set it on top of the drawers where my Cricut sits. I even put contact paper on the shallow cardboard box that I keep in front of my Cricut to keep the mat flat. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. :)
So this weekend my plan is to finally retake my product photos. I have quite a few new sticker designs to list as well. I've also been thinking a lot about different products that I want to make in the near future too. I like to do a lot of planning before I launch new products...make sure I have my pricing and materials and everything all worked out first.
But first thing tomorrow I'm going to update my spreadsheets with all the new end-of-the-month figures. While I had 5 less orders in August than I did in July...I had more revenue in August. It definitely helped that I had one order for (25) 3" stickers! And today I had 5 orders...breaking my previous record for 4 orders in one day. :) Since June, I get about 5-15 orders per week. AND I've maintained Star Seller every month since June. Of course...that's just for my sticker shop.
Since I'm not very active in my other Etsy shop...it's pretty dead. I'd been getting at least one order a month in my other Etsy shop...but I didn't get an order in August aside from my sister. She's my biggest customer for sublimation transfers. ;) In fact...tomorrow I'll be printing like 90 pages for her. I'm still trying to decide what I'll ultimately do with my other Etsy shop.
On that note...I'm going to get a little more work done before I go to bed.