I love the Holidays! Busy Busy Busy!

So far this year has been amazing!  My very first year "in the business" and everything has been going so well.  Not only have I made a lot of new friends thru the Etsy.com community but also I have had the opportunity to sell INTERNATIONALLY.  My first international sale back in August was to Australia.  There are so many things I learned by having to ship internationally that I had never expected before.  There are TWO different types of Custom Forms to choose from, and it is BEST to have the Post office or FedEx place help you decide which one you are supposed to fill out.  In my case because my items are merchandise, non-perishable items, they have me fill out the simple customs form.  My most recent sale that was international was to Barcelona, Spain.  

This got shipped this afternoon!  

The best part about making things by hand is that more and more people now a days are starting to truly appreciate the hard work and artistry it can take.  More and more people are willing to order things from people like me because they know what I make is HAND CRAFTED, and no two items are ever alike.  Even if you purchase the same item, because even the same color yarn can have a different length in between colors or even thickness, no matter what you do, each item is one of a kind.  They are all beautiful, that is what I love.  I have been crocheting for over 23 years, so my technique is quite exceptional, so the only thing that is really a surprise in my work is what the yarn does while I am creating a new masterpiece.

These two were my most recent sale of my "One of a kind" slouchy hats.  I love Lion Brand Homespun yarn.  I have said it a thousand times and I will continue to say it.  No matter what color I have bought, it never ceases to amaze me with the finished product.

And I can't forget this little beauty!  This is one of my other best sellers.  Sold 3 so far this year!  I love how amazing they all come out when they are complete.  This is a Secret Santa present!  Goddess, I love the holidays.  :)

Yardseller.com is the BEST site out there for selling pretty much anything.

     So I have had my Etsy.com/shops/Mrzjaquescrochetedit up and running for a little under 9 months now, and it is finally coming together.  I am getting special order requests, and selling things overseas as well as all across the US and Canada, so to me in less than one year of being in business, that's a pretty big accomplishment  .  I found this new site called Yardseller.com and it works with Facebook really well so that when you list your items on there, they post to your facebook page and get you a ton of exposure thru there too.  Just in the past month I have sold 5 items from that site.  In the last 9 months, my total sales across all of the different sites I have tried is 19.  For only doing this as a hobbie at first this has definitely become much more than that.  I find myself dreaming of a new idea, and then getting up in the middle of the night sometimes just to start on it to see if it will work.  My latest sale on Yardseller was one of my Spectacular Slouchy Mimosa Beanie.  I have actually sold two of them from that site.  It's truly amazing.  I have had only one not so great experience, but I am making up for it.  I received a special order for a black and purple Super Slouchy, so I made it like I normally do, however the first one I made came out SUPER Small, like child size.  Different yarn does that sometimes.  So I made another one a lot bigger, but when she got it, she said that it was still too small  since she has dreads that need to fit in it.  Me being who I am and completely  customer oriented, I offered that if she sends the old one back I will make her a special one out of my favorite Lion Brand Homespun yarn and make it EXTRA SUPER SLOUCHY.  I have a feeling this new one is going to be much more of what she was wanting.  I want to make sure all my customers are COMPLETELY SATISFIED otherwise I will do whatever I can do fix it.  Quality work is what I do.  And I make no exceptions.  I want you to love what you purchase from me, and be proud to tell your friends where you got it from.  Person to person exposure is the best free advertising out there. 

Newest Rasta Water Pipe Bag! Special order completed, shipped and ready for action.

     I never would have imagined this becoming what it has in the past 9 months since I opened my Etsy.com shop.  As a hobbie for most of my life doing crochet has always been just something to help me kill the time when I'm bored or working and the call volume is slow.  I never imagined that I would be selling stuff all across the US and now even INTERNATIONALLY!!!

     My latest sale came from Texarkana, TX.  The customer wanted a padded water pipe case that was 20" tall and had a diameter of 8" at the base.  She had originally bought my rainbow pouch but wanted it in rasta colors instead.  I was so excited to make a new one.  The colors are simple to come by.  Green yellow and red.  The design was a simple striped pattern with even color spacing using a double crochet stitch.  For even the beginner crocheters out there this is a simple and easily adaptable pattern to make any size pouch or bag.  My signature drawstring top helps with easy open and close and I always throw in a matching bowl pouch that is detachable. 
     My pride and joy of this pouch is the green satin lining my husband found for this one.  It is not only super soft but it has sparkles in it too. I just love how amazing it turned out. 

After a custom order another sold the very next day to a buyer in AUSTRAILIA!!!! I'm finally international!

     This turned out to be one of the best custom orders I have ever done.  After having a huge down time where I was only selling stuff thru yardseller and only a few things here and there I finally got an order from a guy who wanted something custom made for a water pipe he had just purchased. He sent me a link to the page with all the dimensions of the pipe that I needed to fit it to, which was EXTREMELY helpful, and I got to work. The one and only hiccup I ended up having was the liner. I Crochet better than anyone else I know but I have only been sewing for a few years so doing the lining and padding always gives me anxiety. I am the biggest perfectionist when it comes to the items that I sell. If I can't make it perfect, I won't sell it. It's as simple as that. I luckily had an amazing customer who was patient and very easy to get a hold of when I had questions. So the best part off this story is that I got three listing posted and shipped, and it was such a great turn out that I relisted it and another one sold the very next day and this one is an international sale. To Australia!!! I am doing another custom order type of thing but out will be almost identical to the first one. I have the majority of it completed but again I am having issues with the lining but that's just how it goes I guess. I can't wait to get the feedback about this one. International sales see not only important for a growing business but it's extremely exciting too. I just hope they keep coming. Well that's all for me on this one. I have more blogs to come about my last 3 sales from across the country. As it gets back to the cold season I'm sure my hat sales will increase. I just hope I can keep up. Wish me luck. I think I'm gonna need it. :-)  

Candy Apple Red Lion Brand Homespun Slouchy Beanie

Ok so it might be helpful so actually put something in the body of this blog posting right?  That's what happens when you get side tracked trying to do 5 things at a time.  Us girls pride ourselves on the simple fact that we can multitask very well.  It is something that is just ingrained into our DNA and sadly enough it is not so for most of our male counterparts.  It is something that just comes very naturally to us, or at least  most of the women in my life including myself.  I was busy posting the hat on Etsy so that someone would want to buy it possibly and totally forgot to finish my blog post about it over here. 

When it comes to Lion Brand Homespun Yarn, you know that I am a lifetime lover and user!  If they ever went out of business (which I highly doubt they ever COULD) I would be the saddest woman in the entire world for at least a month.  I won't know what to do with myself.  When we go to the yarn store, I make sure that I set a budget so I can make sure and get at least one new color of this brand of yarn.  They never cease to amaze me with the brilliance of the colors when the hats are finished.  This yarn is the most beautiful candy apple red color and the softest texture you have ever felt.  I say this in every post about it because in case you are a new reader and haven't heard my previous rants about this wonderful product..... THIS YARN ROCKS!!!!  Whether it's a hat, a pair of gloves, a new scarf, a sweater, a cellphone pouch, you name it, this yarn can make it the softest thing you have ever felt.  It's like they somehow were able to take the softness of rabbits fur, blend it with silk and string it together into amazingly colored yarns.  If I could afford to buy stock in this I would!  I have alone spent $1000 on this brand of yarn to make hats, gloves, pouches and even an afghan for my bed.  

 

So to get back to this awesome hat.  My mother loves the color red.  I have seen a ton of postings on Yardseller.com which is a new site I'm trying out asking for RED slouchy beanies.  REAL DEEP RED, not Coral or Salmon colored.  RED.  So since I had that color at home, and was already making a ton of hats while my camera wasn't working, I decided to add that color to the mix.  It turned out way better than I had planned.  I really hope this is as much of a hit as I think it will be.  There are a lot of people who just want an elegant Red hat that they can wear on any occasion.  This is that hat!

 

Thanks for looking y'all.  I really appreciate your support!

Cheers!

Mrz J.

Super Soft White Crochet Slouchy Beanie in Lion Brand Homespun.

     I am not a big fan of white anything because I have a tendency to get it dirty within the first 10 minutes of owning it but when you are making thing for other people and not yourself you don't really have that much of a choice and I know plenty of people who love white hats. So of course I made one and it is simply stunning.

   

     The white is simple and elegant.  It reminds me of a sunny day at the beach, or walking around an outdoor market of some kind.  I love how there is a subtle shimmer to the yarn itself as the light hits it just right.  It almost shines in the sun.  The best part is that it deflects the heat of the sun so even on a hot day you can still wear it. 

  

      I have 3 new hats that I will be posting about in the next few days that I think you'll love but for now I am going to get back to cleaning my house while my husband does his homework.
Have a wonderful weekend and best wishes of creative crochet creations.



Cheers,
Mrz. J
    

I finally got a new phone with a better camera! Time for some updated pictures of my stuff!!!

     Getting a new phone to me is like getting a new car almost.  I upgrade my phone once every 2 or 3 years it seems like and each time I go to get a new one, the choices are almost overwhelming.  I love Samsung.  In the 10 years that I have been buying cell phones, the only brand that has ever lasted me for a decent amount of time has been my Samsung phones.  I have owned probably 4 or 5 different models of Samsung phones and they all have been well built and lasted as long as my husband thought they needed to until I could afford an upgrade.  I even had one that wasn't worth anything as a buy back, so I kept it as a back up forever, and I actually had 2 LG phones completely stop working on me and was able to switch back to that OLD Samsung until I could afford my new ones.  So when it came time for my hubby and I to upgrade again this time, he was set on getting us new Samsung phones.  

     He found the new Samsung Galaxy II Epic 4G's as a buy one get one for $99 and was sold right away on them.  He upgraded from the HTC Evo which he liked for a long time, until it all of a sudden decided that it didn't want to hold a charge.  When you are having to charge your phone 2 and 3 times a day it gets pretty annoying if you ask me.  So we got new phones yesterday!

     The camera on this new phone is better than the one my husband had on his EVO by far!  It's incredible the detail these pictures come out with.  Just playing around with it yesterday I took a picture of my kiddo's in the back seat of the truck and you could see the dimples on my little Ridger's cheeks.  I am so impressed.  So as a goal, I have decided that all the items that I have been making and not taking pictures of for posting are going to get photographed and posted by the end of this weekend. 

     So stay tuned for some brand new stuff!!!