It's time.......

It's been way past time to review my inventory procedures......it takes me way too long to pull fiber orders for both my Etsy shops, the biggest culprit being the Ashland Bay solid colored merino rovings which there are hundreds of. I thought I was organized having bins marked with type of fiber but once you get up to 6 giant bins of one type of fiber it becomes a time sucker trying to find a particular color. This past weekend I talked over my problems with my husband who is an expert in cutting costs & time so huge corporations make the big bucks.......some of the hints I picked up seemed like they would work great for my little company.

So.....much of today was spent on administrivia counting inventory, numbering bins, changing and updating all info on my spreadsheets and then listing tons more items in the one etsy shop. Another time saver will be that I've now listed all of each color/type of fiber in one of the Etsy shops, not just one of each. Earlier this year Etsy changed the way it handled multiple item listings so fees are only paid as one sells and the other automatically lists - putting all my inventory on etsy will save me re-listing time with each sale. Now if I could just speed up the boxing/printing postage part of the job, I seem pretty efficient there but will talk to my in-house expert to see if there's anything else I can do to save more time. What this all comes down to is finding more time to weave.

I'm sure everyone is familiar with Pinterest. I've gone and looked at it a few times but am trying to ignore it since it would just end up being another sit in front of the computer time sucker for me and I already spend too much time in front of the computer. There has been a lot of controversary over items on blogs and etsy shops being pinned. I just saw that 3 of my handwoven scarves have been pinned and repinned - I'm not sure how I feel about it. I found this out because when I look at my Etsy shop stats every morning I can see where people come from that are looking at my shop - yesterday I saw pinterest.com listed as a source for several looky-loos prospective customers. Of course I went to Pinterest and did a search using my company name and saw the scarves in question pinned by someone I don't know and repinned by others I don't know. On one hand it's a good thing - it brought more people to my shop, and above the photos of my scarves my blog address was listed so it did show the source of the photos. But do we, meaning collective we out there, want anything from our blog/website pinned? I don't know if that's a good thing. Yes, if we put something out there on our blog it's there for the world to see, but maybe we should be able to control where we want our images shown, maybe we don't want them to show up on any old website out there in cyberspace. Something to ponder. I'd love to hear what others think.

Nothing creative happening here.....

Yes, I'm here, got home from the coast Sunday evening and nothing creative has gone on in this house since....administrivia took up the entire week. Paperwork, computer work, weaving guild newsletter, etc. Well, there was one day of play when Yvonne and I went to Medford and browsed the antique/craft mercantiles over there, lunch out, stop at Old Navy.....but adminstrivia before we went and when I got home. And I still haven't taken pictures of scarves so I can list them in the etsy shop. I am happy to say that I have only one more issue of the weaving guild newsletter to put together and then I'm done with that monthly chore. I really shouldn't call it a chore - I did the job for 7 years, took a few years off and have been back at it for 5 years now. It's really a fun guild job, it's just time for me to move on, I'm getting stale.

Here's hoping for a fiber filled weekend to all of my fiber loving followers, my weekend is going to be much more fun than the administrivia of the week.....

grump......

I'm starting to get a bit grouchy, too little creative time, too much administrivia...hmm, common complaint from me lately.....changes need to come....need to be strong about sticking to those changes.

Today and tomorrow will be spent pulling out all my booth fixtures and packing up goods so I'm ready to head to my local fairgrounds Friday to set up for Fiber Mania. Big plus - this fiber event is only 15 minutes from my house....I forget something, dh can run it over to me. Anyone reading this within driving distance please come by Saturday &  Sunday from 9-5 - Josephine County Fairgrounds in Grants Pass, OR. My booth is right inside the door - stop by and say hi - I'll have a wall of colorful fiber among other items for sale.

On another note - hold up in the technology department - waiting to hear from prez of AVL who promised this week all my questions would be addressed....good thing I'm so busy this week not to dwell on a new loom not in use since I have no clue where to go next....another manual with basics will help. But other technology is on the move - finally ordered and received a battery pack for my Hanson mini-spinner so I don't need to be near an electrical outlet - I can spin anywhere on it now....well, after I charge it up.

Hmm, maybe next week will be creative.........after I inventory everything and get my etsy shops back full of goods Monday after Fiber Mania.......