February Plans

I know my daily blogging is going badly. Never mind. I also know I said I'd be more personal and try not to talk about the business so much. Never mind.

Ok, so February is looking good. I've already got my stock ready for Valentine's shoppers, so now I'm stepping up a gear, and these are the things I have planned to promote the business.

1. Advertising on a website which has viewers I think who will like my jewellery.

2. Having a stall at an online fair - this went badly last time, but I have a week to get my website up to scratch, and this online fair is much better read and promoted. You get what you pay for.

3. I've booked myself on a Social Media Bootcamp, and am overhauling my social media sites. Currently I have the following accounts
a. facebook
b. twitter
c. instagram
d. pinterest
e. google+
f. linked in
g. flickr
h. tumblr
i. blogspot - this thing here
j. Live journal
This is ridiculous, because I don't use any of them that effectively. I'm also a bit rubbish at getting them all working together properly. I often have things I say on one place showing up on another, without me realising. I had a particularly bad day where everything I posted on facebook went on twitter, and then everything on twitter went on facebook, and so we had a very strange loop effect going on.

4. I also use the following selling sites as well as my own website
a. ebay
b. folksy
c. etsy
d. misi
e. frooly
f. amazon
This is also useless, because the only place I sell anything is eBay, when I'm retiring jewellery. I can't decide whether to close the other accounts or not.

5. I also plan to finally get my catalogue printed for in the actual shop, so customers can have a flick through and learn about the artists.

What do you think? Good plans for February?

I'm blogging twice today, mainly because I have a spare five minutes, and also because I feel I have something to blog about. Today after talking to people at work, I realised how far I've come. They didn't believe there was ever a time I didn't want to leave the house or talk to anyone. Believe me, there was. Without the shop, I'm not sure self-employment would have ever got off the ground, because I wouldn't have had any confidence in myself or any of my abilities.

To illustrate how much I've changed, here's a blogpost I wrote in October 2008. It made me cry reading it again, because I can't believe that's me.

"I'VE BEEN UP SINCE 5AM AND THIS IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN THINKING

"I DON'T WANT TO GO TO SPALDING ON THURSDAY, MY DAD DOESN'T MAKE ME FEEL GREAT ABOUT MYSELF, STILL AT LEAST WE'RE STAYING IN A HOTEL, IF I CAN JUST MAKE IT TO SATURDAY. OH THEN ON SUNDAY WE'RE HAVING SUNDAY LUNCH WITH PETE, AND SIMON AND JO WILL BE THERE WITH GRACE, SO IF I CAN JUST MAKE IT TO SUNDAY NIGHT......."

SCRATCHING ARM

"SUNDAY IS MUM'S BIRTHDAY. IF I CAN MAKE IT TO MONDAY I'LL BE OK. THEN NEXT WEEK I'M NOT LOOKING AFTER IAN, I CAN DO WHAT I LIKE, AND I'M GOING TO VISIT KATIE. THEN IF I CAN MAKE IT PAST THE WEEKEND I'LL BE OK. SATURDAY IS STEVE COOGAN. WHERE IS IT AGAIN? WHERE ARE WE GOING TO PARK? THEN SUNDAY IT'S A MEAL WITH PREGNANT FRIEND, I CAN MAKE IT PAST THAT"

MORE ARM SCRATCHING

"THEN AFTER THAT IT'S MONDAY AND I'M BACK AT WORK. WHAT IF I CAN'T GO BACK TO WORK? WHAT IF I HAVE TO STOP WORK? WHAT AM I GOING TO DO IF I DON'T HAVE A JOB? I'VE GOT MY LOAN TO PAY. I NEED TO WORK. IF I CAN'T WORK IAN WILL HAVE TO SUPPORT ME. I DON'T DESERVE TO BE ALIVE"

GET UP AND GO TO BATHROOM, HAVE A DIG AROUND IN BATHROOM DRAWER, GO BACK TO BED

REMEMBER PACT I HAVE WITH BETTIE. GET OUT OF BED, MAKE BREAKFAST, GO BACK TO BED

"REMEMBER THE GOOD THINGS ABOUT LIFE. IT'S CHRISTMAS SOON, AND WE'RE GOING TO ELLIOT'S. LAST TIME WE WENT TO ELLIOT'S I BROKE THAT PLATE THAT NICOLA'S GOD DAUGHTER MADE HER. NOW DON'T START THAT, SHE SAID IT WAS FINE. WELL YES BUT YOU WOULD SAY IT WAS FINE IF SOMETHING GOT BROKEN OF YOURS, BUT YOU'D STILL BE UPSET INSIDE. YOU MADE HER FEEL LIKE THAT YOU'RE A BAD PERSON. YOU'RE ALWAYS BREAKING THINGS. REMEMBER WHEN YOU BROKE SARAH'S TAP? THEY HAD TO PAY £100 TO GET THAT FIXED AND WOULDN'T ACCEPT ANY MONEY AND NOW HE'S LOST HIS JOB. SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP THAT ISN'T BECAUSE OF THAT £100 AND THAT WAS 5 YEARS AGO. YOU HAVEN'T SEEN HER FOR AGES THOUGH, YOU'RE A TERRIBLE FRIEND, SHE MIGHT NEED YOU, SHE'S OFTEN DEPRESSED IN DECEMBER, AND WHERE ARE YOU? HIDING AT HOME, SKIVING FROM WORK. YOU HAVEN'T SEEN ANYONE IN AGES, YOU NEED TO GET IN TOUCH WITH PEOPLE AND GET BACK TO NORMAL."

FORCE MYSELF TO GET UP AND HAVE A SHOWER. SHAVE MY ARMS, CATCH A NAIL ON THE RAZOR, PULL FINGERNAIL OFF.

"IT'S FIONA'S BIRTHDAY TODAY. YOU CAN'T FEEL LIKE THIS TODAY. IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU ALL THE BLOODY TIME. IT'S SARAH'S BIRTHDAY SOON AS WELL, DON'T FORGET. YOU PROBABLY WILL, SHE REMEMBERED YOURS.I HOPE FIONA LIKES HER PRESENT. WHAT IF SHE DOESN'T? WHAT IF IT DOESN'T ARRIVE? IT'S A SPECIAL BIRTHDAY AND SHE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO PUT UP WITH MY PARANOIA TODAY. I WON'T BUG HER ABOUT IF IT'S ARRIVED. WELL, MAYBE ONCE."

GO AND GET 'HOT FUZZ' AND TURN COMPUTER ON - BLANKS OUT THE SOUND OF MY BRAIN, AS BRAIN THINKING ABOUT THE RECIPE BOOK I'M WRITING

IAN CALLS THROUGH AFTER ABOUT AN HOUR. BRAIN STARTS GOING AGAIN. THS TIME I SAY IT OUT LOUD TO IAN, AND EVENTUALLY START CRYING WHEN I GET TO THE BIT ABOUT HOW I'D BE BETTER OFF DEAD.

MAKE BREAKFAST FOR IAN. WHILE KETTLE BOILS EAT PACKET OF BISCUITS.

AFTER BREAKFAST WATCH 'HOT FUZZ' AGAIN WITH IAN AS I DIDN'T REALLY PAY ATTENTION EARLIER AND IAN WANTS TO WATCH IT AGAIN. "




On a plus note, I'm definitely having my hair cut like this again.

OOps

I can't help but notice my daily blogging has started rather badly. I did Monday, and then totally missed Tuesday and Wednesday. I put the blame for this firmly at the door of my wholesaler, who sent out my new stock really very quickly indeed, so I've been making stuff for two days.

Here are what I've done with the dolls I found in my studio. I owe a massive debt to Margeaux Lange, obviously, but I like to think I've switched it up by clustering beads onto them.

I don't like this one much. It's too derivative

I much prefer this one. I like the way the lashes are actually hairy.

The leftover arms, which I don't think I've blogged about. Took me hours to hack them all off, and burn a hole through the top of all of them and then wire it all together. It's like teeth. I could have just strung on, but I wanted the movement.

My favourite one, by a mile

New leaf and all that

I've decided to try and use this blog as more of an actual blog, rather than somewhere to randomly now and again post links to stuff. I've been enjoying my friend Katie's blog, as it's very like having her chatting to me, which I wish happened much more often than it does (being as we live an hour's drive apart, and I am useless on the telephone). I also love to write, and need more practice doing so.

I've also decided that I need to be more positive on my blog. I only seem to write about my business, or when I'm having a bad time. I never write about the nice things in my life, so my new leaf I'm turning is to write a blogpost every day. In reality this might mean a blogpost every week instead, but as my dentist says when I complain that flossing my teeth makes me vomit, let's aim for once a day and see what happens.

So, for my first blogpost, I'd like to talk about my wonderful husband. You may know some things about him already, either from Facebook, my article on quadriplegia, or from me telling you (endlessly) about how wonderful he is.

I met Ian in 1994, when I moved from Spalding to Lancaster to volunteer at the University. I looked after Wendy, and Ian was looked after by Tina and Paul. All the volunteers used to get together, and I became friendly with Tina. At the time, I knew about 4 people in Lancaster, who I met through the theatre group* - I still know them all through Facebook and 3 of them came to my wedding (as well as Wendy of course).

So I went round to Tina's flat, and met Paul, Ian and Pete (who had the fourth flat in the block). As soon as I saw Ian, I KNEW. People talk about love at first sight, and it sounds pansified to me - I wouldn't know how else to describe it though. I just knew we'd be together forever. It took a long time to do anything about it, because I was only 19, and it seemed an amazingly big thing to devote my life to someone with a disability. After 6 months of spending time with the 4 of them, I sent him a letter saying I liked him, and a bag of mini eggs, and he responded with a letter saying he liked me as well, and a Mr Men book.

In 1999, we'd been going out for 4 years, even though we hadn't lived in the same town for 3 of them, and I don't even remember talking about moving in - I think we both just knew I'd be moving in after my degree. In the April, I went to visit him, and he gave me one of those massive Kinder** Easter eggs which were around then. I opened it to find a small box. Let's forget for one moment that I said 'What the hell's this?' and felt ripped off by Kinder, and just focus on the fact that it had a beautiful ring inside. Ian had got his brother to carefully open the egg, put in the ring, and repackage it so it looked like it hadn't been touched.

We've been married 10 years, and I can't imagine not being with him. We don't really argue, just bicker about small things, and have been told more than once we have our own language, which I take as a compliment. I come home and ask him if he's missed me, and every day he says, 'I always miss you when you're not here.' I've never gone to bed without kissing him goodnight (unless we've been apart, which has probably happened about four times since I moved to Leeds). I know when he's going to speak before he does, and he knows when I'm about to fall asleep, just by our breathing. He's the funniest person I've ever met, he says I'm the kindest.

Here's to you, Mr McGenn.

Photograph by Gary Crozier




* as a sidenote, I joined this group because in 1994, the only thing I'd really done creatively was acting at school
** I used to collect Kinder egg toys, and displayed them on a shelving unit my Dad made specially.

How I do my accounts - a possibly helpful, possibly patronising, blogpost

I've been told this might be useful, so I'll have a go at writing it. It might not work in any way at all, because you can't see me waving my hands around and pointing at things on the screen.

Basically, keeping track of your business expenditure isn't only necessary for your self-assessment, it's also vital so you know if you're making a profit month on month. You don't need to get a fancy accounting programme, and if you're just starting out, you don't need an accountant yet.

I use a spreadsheet in Open Office, which is a free version of Office. Each page of the spreadsheet is a month, which I split into outgoings at the top, and incomings at the bottom. I always put outgoings as a 'minus' amount, and incomings as a 'plus' amount.

This screenshot, I hasten to add, does not involve real figures. It's just to give you a flavour of what sort of things get entered.

Then there are two columns for cash/cheque etc, and what I bought or sold. Then there are two more columns for 'cash' and 'bank account' – 'Cash' in this instance includes stuff I pay for with my own personal account as well as physical cash taken in the shop.

I use the functions to add everything up for me. There is a total for everything going out in both cash and bank columns, and a total for everything coming in in whatever form. 

I also add up all the cash transactions to get a running cash total, and all the bank account transactions so I know how much should be in the business account. This lets me see how much cash should be in the money tin, and in my bank account, which is extremely important.

The best thing about having it set up like this for a whole month is that I can have the same outgoings I know I have every month copied over to a new sheet at the start of every month, and the functions automatically let me know how much turnover I need to make. The functions also calculate every time I log in how much profit or loss I'm making, and allows me to plan how I'll make more turnover.

Each month I then have two figures – one IN and one OUT. I can work out from that how much profit or loss I've made. If it's better than last month, I'm happy. Self-assessment forms only ask for 2 figures – how much you've spent, and how much you've taken. So as long as you have those two figures at the end of the tax year, you'll be golden. Luckily because I use this method, I have the 12 figures at the end of March already, and can just add them up and put them into the self-assessment form.

Obviously, this all depends on keeping track of everything. Luckily as the spreadsheet is on the computer and most of my transactions are online, I just put the amount into the spreadsheet straight away. Anything done offline, like the cheque for postage or cash purchases, I try and remember to put it in the next time I'm online. I guess if you're not as OCD as I am, you could probably just save up your receipts, and enter them all in once a week, or even once a month, but then you miss out on seeing how your profit and loss is going for that month.

So - was that helpful? Or am I teaching people to suck eggs?

My jewellery box - part one: necklaces

I've been meaning to do this blogpost for a while, but finally, with a new year, I tidied my bedroom. In the process I found mangled jewellery in a terrible state that I wouldn't allow my shop to get into - so why do I allow my own jewellery box to get like this?! Tangled chains, some pendants without chains at all.

I had no idea that I had so much jewellery. I think this is due to the fact that I like to support every independent maker I can, so if I like a piece of handmade jewellery, I usually buy it without much thought, or better still swap something of mine for it.

I've photographed all my necklaces, as this is my absolute favourite item of jewellery, and have grouped them into rather random categories. I own, and make, more necklaces than anything, and usually this is all the jewellery I wear. I don't wear many rings, earrings etc, as I worry too much about looking like Pat Butcher.

These are all the pendants I have without chains - I've probably broken the chains, or merely removed them so they stop getting tangled. I was delighted to find these, as I thought I'd lost my goldfish heart and jammy dodger.

Made by
goldfish bowl - can't remember
russian doll - Plastic Bat
the rest are Peach Nia

This is the first piece of jewellery I made for myself. I've yet to wear it. I just liked how the lobster has what looks like a moustache

My necklace watches - when I photograph the rest of my jewellery you'll see I also have 2 wristwatches. I never wear any sort of watch.

Guitar watch - Claire's accessories
Cherry watch - somewhere online

A loosely related selection - items which are really old, I don't wear much, but I'll never get rid of.

Left to right:
Tokidoki ghost star
vintage wooden owl - dad gave me a stack of broken jewellery and I found these three shapes in it, and rebuilt the owl.
octopus - I've had this about 8 years now, and I never cease to be amazed at how popular this little octopus charm is. Regretsy have a whole thread about it.
Glass tile - I mentioned online I liked this, so Fiona bought it for me. The ribbon it's on is a bit rubbish, which is why I don't wear it much, cause I'm paranoid it'll break. Why don't I just replace it with chain? Because I only just thought of doing it...
Cupcake - Claudia got me this years ago - the chain is all tangled, but I really should untangle it and wear it again.

These are all made by indie designers
Left to right
gold jawbone - Sweet Delirium
Buttons - Paul Tipper
cupcake - Dinky Pretty Things
Paintbrush - zinc white - this is made from one of Ian's old paintbrushes
Lego skeleton - Tilly Mint
sprinkle heart - someone on Etsy about 10 years ago
charm necklace - made by Ron for my birthday about 8 years ago

These are together because they're all little necklaces - I said it was random
Left to right
scented gingerbread house - Plastic bat
little girl - gift from Rowan
dragonfly - gift from Fiona
Strumpet water bottle - from Shottle Bop

Name necklaces
left to right
'shitbag' - someone on TSUK a few years ago
red horror pesky - freebie from Punky Pin
purple pesky - Tatty Devine
Cupcake heart Pesky - Clutterfly
beaded pesky - can't remember, it's about 15 years old

Photographed together because people don't expect me to wear them - I don't usually wear hearts or flowers, but I love these wooden ones from Miss Selfridge and the black heart is one of the first things Ian's mum's bought for me.

These three are all together because they're more like decorations in my room.
Left to right
Stone is from Hornsea beach
Flowers are by Nanny May, and a gift from Katie. If I ever have longer hair again, I'm going to wear it as a hairband, because it's a slightly weird fit on my neck - or if I ever have less chins I'll wear it as a necklace again.

These are all my laser cut things.

Big owl, gin bottle and lollipop necklace - Tatty Devine
Fox and Luchador - Finest Imaginary
Pow - Kitschen Sink
cupcake - Medusa Bijoux

These are all things I've made for myself. 

On the left is a necklace Katie got for me, which I love so much I made a similar one with wooden and orange beads. I still wear the spotty one more often.

Coming soon - the rest of my jewellery...