I was selected to participate in Oh Sweet Joy’s 3rd Annual Handmade Holiday Gift Guide and I couldn’t be more excited.  This is going to be such great exposure for my little business and give me just the kick I need to try more patterns and get more things listed in my shop.

Because no one wants to visit a shop and not have there be anything in it I am aiming to add at least 7 more items to the shop this week thats on top of the 3 I just added tonight.  This is my game plan for the week.

I want to add two more Geranium Dresses in some great organic Monaluna I have as well as some super cute Riley Blake.  Because I absolutely adore the Bimaa Sweater I am going to get two more put up in the shop, one in a sparkly pink tonal knit and the other in a fun holiday knit with a red collar.  The last thing I am planning to add is some baby items as a new baby gift set including matching bib, burp cloth and diaper clutch or where you can purchase individually.

This is the plan now but if by some stroke of luck I get extra time between now and Sunday night I am also going to add more sleepy robes and maybe even some baby blankets that coordinate with the new baby gift sets.

I have come to realize over the last few weeks that there are quite a few steps to creating products for your store.  Not only do you in most cases have to actually print out and tape together the pdf pattern but you also have to cut out the fabric, then it is the sewing of the item.

Now that the hard part is over you have to photograph the item and if it is clothing you have to then bribe your children with candy to put it on and pose for you.  I am convinced that everything presents better when there are not only pictures of the item but also the item in use.  Sometimes even all the candy in the world can’t make your child participate, but it only takes one picture to be a winner.

Once all the pictures are taken you head over to Lightroom and import the pictures so you can begin the process of selecting and editing all the pictures.  I am new to the whole process of editing pictures so I end up using the same few presets for each picture with minimal tweaking on my part.  Once I am happy with the image I export it quickly so I can’t make any more changes, otherwise I will adjust everything slightly and sometimes enough is enough.

Now onto the process of adding everything to the shop.  I find that I don’t always come up with the best descriptions of my products so it takes me longer than is necessary to compose a title, description and tag words for each product.  Add in figuring out the cost of the item as well as shipping and you hopefully have a solid listing for your shop.

And then the fun part…

Promoting your listings on all your favourite social media outlets like Twitter Instagram and Facebook.

When it is all laid out like that it is quite a bit of work to go from an idea of something to the finished product in your shop.  No wonder it feels like some projects just drag on.

So there you have it my game plan for this week.  Do you think I can get it all done by Sunday?