One woman band

One of the things I've had to learn since opening shop at Etsy is how to be a one woman band.

It began with just the love of crafting... Simple enough, right?  Just the thrill of being creative and productive was what started this whole crusade.

Somehow, last summer it started with "Oh, I won some ribbons at the fair for my work... Friends and family said I should sell my goods online.  Etsy looks fun and easy!  How hard could it be?"

I sat on Etsy for SO LONG, just waiting to get noticed.  My product photos were so-so, and I kept waiting for the day that Etsy would just get the word out to the world about my little shop.  I eventually realized that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.  Learning what to do, and how to do it, has been a long and trying process.

Now I am my own product photographer, photo editor, social media campaign strategist, Facebook fan club president, and so on...

These days I am constantly shipping and receiving packages, and the post man knows my name.  He sees my car pull into the parking lot and has my packages up on the counter, scanned and ready to carry away by the time I walk in.

I shop so frequently with Amazon and other supplies companies, that I've almost always got SOMETHING in my shopping cart.  Whether its a new batch of beads or ribbon, I'm always looking for something new for my shop.

Recently I got a HUGE batch of great things in the mail - all for Beach Plum Cottage.

BOTH of my business card orders came in on the same day!  

Etsy has great deals going on with both Moo.com and VistaPrint.com - I was able to secure these for very little!  I really LOVE how my products looked on the back of the mini Moos (top photo).  This is my second set of Mini Moos, and these are probably my favorite, by far!

The Vista Print set (bottom photo) matches my shop banner, so I like how that all ties in together.  I also got a rubber stamp from them so I can mark my packaging!

See?  I got a big lot of brown kraft paper envelopes for merchandize.  Each bag has my stamp which reads "Made with care by BEACH PLUM COTTAGE Martha's Vineyard"

As you can see, I also bought some organza drawstring bags for jewelry and gift boxes.  I bought a lot of gift boxes a few weeks ago, but did not order nearly enough!  I'm sky-rocketing towards 50 pieces of jewelry in my inventory, so this surge of bracelets and anklets for summer meant I needed more supplies.  Which was great, because now I can include these cute little drawstring bags.

All jewelry orders now come packaged like this.  :)

Last, but not least, was an old order of ribbon.  I ordered this so long ago that I forgot I had even bought it!  It must have gone on back-order and Amazon being the amazing little helper that it is, filled the order for me later after restocking the items, even though the price had gone up by then.  Isn't shopping online easy? 

These are American Craft ribbons.  Not pictured, but I also got a BEAUTIFUL lot of Martha Stewart ribbons that look like this.   I'm going to be using them in some future up-cycling gift jars and gift wrapping projects.

I'm adding new projects all the time!  Make sure to stop by and see what's up!  <3