Etsy (again)

I wrote about my Etsy shop once upon a time, about a million years ago.  At the time, I think I was still (unsuccessfully) selling handmade feather fascinators, with terrible photography skills and very little confidence in my finished product. 

Somewhere along the line, I stopped selling fascinators.  I let my Etsy shop grow weeds and languish empty for awhile.  I just didn't have the energy to keep it up, and I kind of hated making the fascinators when I wasn't really all that sure of what I was doing. 

But then something happened.  I impulse-purchased a box of vintage sewing patterns.  I was fueled by the memory of the box of 70's patterns I had borrowed from one of my sorority sisters in college.  Her mother had what seemed to be a treasure-trove of them, all in sizes absurdly too small for me.  Years of searching finally led me to cave in and buy a box... probably 30 or 40 of them in total, with the plan to weed out the ones I wanted to keep for myself, and then flip the rest on Etsy... hopefully for enough profit to buy another box and do the same thing. 

And then I bought another box.  And another.  And another.  And eventually I amassed enough patterns to fill an entire chest of drawers, plus two boxes in the trunk of my car.  I own over a thousand of them. 

Sales were slow, predictably, at first.  I'm one of those impatient sorts who wants things to pick up and be successful immediately, so that was tough for awhile.  I started filling up the shop the August before I left Provision for good... since that was the first time I was threatened with a lay-off.  I thought maybe I could close the gaps and pay the bills with sales at that time.  But I ended up staying at Provision for another 10 months, and I got lazy.  I updated the shop, but not as much as I could have. 

This year though, I've been seeing regular enough sales to pull in about $50 each month.  Not a fabulous number, but hey, the shop pays for itself, at least. 

And, oh.  By the way.  If you're interested in dipping a toe into sewing your own vintagewear, you should definitely check me out on Etsy.

December??

Evidently, it's been awhile.  But I noticed that I had 21 posts this year, which was exactly the number of posts I had last year, and I thought "To hell with that, let's show improvement."


So I'm posting now. 

Also, I made a pattern blog

www.ravenspatterns.blogspot.com

It's Ravens Big Damn Patterns Blog, and in it, I will be sharing hilarious bits from my massive vintage pattern collection, as well as occasionally putting up legit reviews and finished projects (Assuming I ever *finish* a project)

Most of the patterns I lovingly ridicule are available on my Etsy. 

So... it's been awhile.

I had been on a roll here, I think.  If I remember May correctly.  It doesn't seem that long ago, but yet...

I came back and was too starstruck.  I didn't want to drool all over my blog about sexy Germans.
And then I got busy.
And then I got comfortable.


And then I got fired.  So here I am.

I have one more week at work (really, I got laid off, not "pack your stuff" fired.) and I've been trying to put together some sort of plan for my imminent future.

Just what, exactly, am I going to do with myself?

I've been listing the myriad of vintage patterns I've picked up lately on Etsy.  You can check them out at www.etsy.com/shop/ravenwcatz, if you're curious.  Mostly stuff from the 70's and 80's for the time being, but once I've inventoried the lot, there might be some older goodies popping up here or there.

I'm thinking about starting a blog.  Ha ha, you say.  You already have one.  You're writing on it right now.

Let me be more clear.

I'm thinking about blogging.  Having a burlesque blog, one for my photography, and one for these infernal patterns, as I work through and catalog them all.  I think it might be fun to comment on them.  Everything from the evolutionary dead-ends of fashion to finished projects, if I'm so inclined.

I have to remember to apply for unemployment.

I have to remember to register to vote.

Did I mention my birthday is in two weeks?  Yep.

There's a lot going on here, and I hope it doesn't slow down.  Even if I don't have a job in October, it looks like I'll have several gigs lined up that should carry me partway.

Mostly, I can't wait for this week to be over.  Because after that, I won't be obligated to care anymore.