Greeting Cards

I've wanted to make greeting cards ever since I had the idea to start a second shop for my writing. Not the typical cards that you learn how to make in scrapbook stores and such. Although I like those cards, I've bought them on Etsy before, that isn't what I wanted to do with my own shop. My shop was for my writing. I want my cards to say something; I want to write them myself.
I'm planning a line with some humor (those are my favorite kinds of cards), silly rhyming poetry (that's the only poetry I write), and inspiring famous quotations. I made my first two cards (actually I made three because the first one sold already - Whoo Hoo!) today and posted them in my shop.

Not Made in China

So I was at Target over the weekend looking for a hard baby toy that my daughter could chew on. My first born wasn't much of a chewer, even when she was teething, but the new baby's reason for being seems to be to get everything possible into her mouth. Like so many, I'm hesitant to buy something from China and learn next week that it isn't safe, so I read the packaging for all the baby chew toys they had. Every single one was made in China. Every single one.

Now I'm on a mission. For some reason, the fact that I couldn't find something not made in China has made it that much more important to me to do so. I'm happy to say that I have success finding some great toys made in America and Europe, and I want to share.

Now obviously - I make baby and kid toys, and I'm in America. My baby loves her blocks and her I-spy security blanket - she studies it and chomps away at it. I'm a big fan of simple, stimulating, home-made toys, but I can't make everything I want. So this is where the search comes in.

1. Etsy.com
This is always the first place I shop. I'm a part of the Etsykids street team, and if you just enter "Etsykids" into the search box you'll find a ton of great handmade kids stuff. So if you're looking for blocks, you can enter "blocks etyskids". This will help a lot because of the way the Etsy search function works, if you were to enter 'blocks' by itself, you end up with a lot of 'block prints' and other non-kid items. Using the Etsykids search will make sure you only get kid related results. There is one, non-etsykids shop I want to mention because of his cool toys: Stump Pond Woodworks

2. I found this cool list of Websites that sell mass-produced baby toys that are not made in China, if that's what you're looking for:
80% of toys are made in China, but not these!

I'm sure there are more resources out there - feel free to share any you've found in the comments section. Together we can avoid buying from China.

Giveaways are fun.

I want to give away a copy of my zine. Would you like it? If so then just comment on this entry (as long as your comment links me back to someplace I can contact you if you win) or send an e-mail to me at karabu74@yahoo.com with Zine Giveaway in the subject line.

I will collect entries through the end of Aug, and announce a winner at the beginning of Sept. This is a kind of 'Thank You' to everyone for giving me such encouragement at Etsy, and with my blog. It really means a lot to me. Plus - giveaways are fun.

and, as promised, here's the link to my story published at A Long Story Short:
http://www.alongstoryshort.net/athiefinthenight.html

About me - sorry.

I've been tagged by Jen at Mama's Magic. So I'm supposed to list 6 weird things about myself. I don't really consider myself 'weird', though others may - so I'm interpreting this to mean 'unusual'.

Here goes:
1. I'm a huge Sci-Fi fan. I've even been to a Star Trek Convention. Now while I consider this perfectly normal- other people seem to think I'm a bit odd because of it.

2. I used to be a wild animal trainer - yet my favorite animals to work with were the llamas.

3. My dad and I once invented and built a wheelchair for a paralyzed cat. We were in the newspaper for that.

4. I'm not afraid of snakes or spiders - I even like them, but I can't stand ants, yet I'm considering getting an ant farm for my daughter. I guess they feel safer to me trapped in the farm.

5. I'm addicted to paper and fabric. I love having it around - looking at it and touching it, even if I don't make anything from it. In fact, I'm always just a little bit sad to cut into a pattern that I particularly love.

6. I have an odd sense of humor. I am frequently to only one laughing in a theater at an odd moment, or I tell jokes and only receive blank stares in return. I get it from my dad. We laugh with each other a lot.

What I've Learned So Far.

I've been reading marketing books, reading marketing blogs, and lurking in business forums for several months now. I've also been trying to get my own home business off the ground while assisting my husband with marketing his Network Consulting business. I still have a lot to learn. But I want to share some of what I've learned so far.

I see similar questions in a lot of the forums I've visited, along the lines of "Where can I promote my business?" Sometimes people give a list of websites to use, or more often, just some generic advice to talk to everyone you meet about your business, post about it everywhere, etc. etc. While this shotgun sort of approach, as one of my marketing book calls it, may get your name out there, who knows if it's getting to the people who may actually be interested in your services or not? I started out this way too. Just looking to see what others were doing, and following suit. I guess it's a natural approach for a beginner. There's the thought that they wouldn't be doing it if it didn't work, right? Some flawed logic there, I'm learning.

So if that method isn't efficient, what are we to do? Step one is something I didn't bother to do when I started, but needed to be done. Identifying our target market. Who are we trying to sell our goods or services to? Without pinning that down as specifically as possible, we send a lot of time marketing to potentially the wrong groups. I've used Craigslist to place ads for both my handmade baby toys, and my husbands Consulting business. It has worked to some degree for him, but done nothing for me. Likewise, some of my online networking (myspace, forum posts on various sites) has brought my shop some traffic, but would be silly for my husband to do since he can only take jobs that he can drive to - online marketing to the whole world isn't what he should be using his energy on.

Even more closely related businesses should have a different marketing strategy. My target market may not be the same as that of someone who sells baby slings, or children's clothing. We may have some overlap, but we are looking to fill different needs, and as such we should be tailoring our marketing message for our specific ideal audience. Now finding that specific audience is something I'm still working on. However, know who I'm looking for is really helping me find them. I don't have a lot of free time. I don't want to use that precious marketing time telling people who couldn't care less about toys for small children. It would be like sending one of my Sci-Fi stories in to "Time Magazine". Just wastes everyone's time.

So that's my advice. Think about your product. Who needs it? If you think "everyone", you need to rethink. Even things that everyone truly does need, like toilet paper, have specific markets. For example, I only buy recycled toilet paper. Other people only want super soft and fluffy paper, other only care about cost. If you think enough about what you have to offer, and how it's special, you'll start to see the type of person you're trying to find.

Marketing Writing

I'm currently working on issue #2 of my zine, "Little Tales". It's going to be a bit more on the serious side, with some longer stories (some approaching 1000 words, while there was nothing over 300 words long in issue #1). The theme will be animals. I've worked as a wild animal trainer, veterinary nurse, and with primates in a medical research lab, as well as volunteering over the years in a zoo, the SPCA, and a farm animal sanctuary. This is where my stories will come from. In fact, unlike issue #1, these will all be non-fiction and semi-autobiographical. So as you can imagine from my list of experiences, they don't all have a happy ending. I can't stand things to be completely depressing though, so there will be some humor and hope mixed in too.

Anyway, as part of my mission with this blog, to share some of what I've learned, I wanted to offer some market resources out there for other writers. I had a subscription to Writer's Market online for a year that I got as a gift. It's a great website, but a bit overwhelming, and a lot of work to try to narrow things down to the types of markets who would be interested in something specific. Here's two of my favorite market lists (for fiction) that are free, and still very good:
http://www.duotrope.com/
http://www.ralan.com/
As far as non-fiction goes, I've mostly concentrated on local publications that I'm semi-familiar with or online markets that are easier to research. I suppose I'll try to get the courage to go for the big bucks and big markets someday, but I'm not ready just yet.

Some great advice I got once was that it's easier to pick a publication and write something to fit it than it is to write something and then try to find a market to fit. I know, I know, artistically this seems to be the wrong way to go about things, but when I approach my writing in this manner, I have had more success getting into print.

One problem is that many publications have a very specific feel and vibe that they are trying to create with each issue. You can have an amazing story, but if it doesn't fit the editor's vision for that publication, it isn't going to be accepted. Now, I'm hardly an expert or else I wouldn't still be working a job outside the house, but when I've written an article with a market in mind, my rate of acceptance has gone up a lot.

Now, if I can just get my rear in gear and edit some of my stories to get them ready to submit, then I can get back on the right track for coming home from that outside job thing.

I love Harry Potter, but. . .

Yep, I'm a Harry Potter fan. Love him. We, my husband and I, started reading the book, one chapter a night, during then last months of my first pregnancy. We read all the books this way, I think there were four at the time, and when a new book came out, we'd snuggle as a family in bed and read a chapter each night. It's become a nice tradition for us.
When we were expecting our second baby, we decided to start the series over again (yes, we liked it that much) Now we just got our pre-ordered copy of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows", but we're only about halfway through book six. We aren't ready for the new book just yet. I admit, I'm tempted to just whisk through the rest of six on my own so I can quickly read book seven to find out what happens. There's so much hype and peer pressure to read it right away, it sounds like a fun thing to do, but we're resisting the peer pressure. So even though we may not even start on the new, exciting book for over a week or so, we love our special family story time, and we're keeping out tradition.
Just don't dare try to talk to me about book seven for at least a month! I'm doing my darnedest to avoid spoilers.
I do love the Harry Potter books, but I love our special family time even more.

A new line

You know I love good quotes. Well, I made some quotation bookmarks for my paperandwords shop, but they were so simple, they look, well, just . . . bla. No fun. Then I got the idea to make them out of fabric. They are still simple (I'm a simple gal, what can I say) but I think the turned out really cool. I'm keeping one for myself.

They are cotton fabric (my favorite) with a stiff interfacing in them so they aren't floppy.



The quotes I started with -

"I cannot live without books." - Thomas Jefferson

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. . ." - Albert Einstein

I have a few more in mind, but have to pick out neat fabric that goes well with the quotes.


I love it when I find ways to combine things that I love. In this case: books, and sewing.