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New earrings available in both studs and dangles!

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Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Mini charcuterie board, laser engraved acacia wood.

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Available now in our Facebook shop and trust me there will be more to come!!

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Today’s project

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We will have Sketch Books up in our Etsy store this week with these amazingly beautiful stained and engraved covers on them.

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Naughty tokens are now available in our shop!

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Yes we totally Rick Rolled traffic coming out of a NASCAR race because no one was stopping to buy our #LetsGoBrandon ornaments 🤷🏻‍♀️🤣

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Notes in passing….

So we got busy with craft shows, and quite frankly I’m exhausted, we both are. This is essentially the peak time of year for the stuff that we make so naturally I booked something every weekend until thanksgiving. Completely gave up on the EBay thing, like not even a nibble and apparently I don’t know how to read because I freaking got charged to list the car headrests. No charge for the baby clothes so not sure why there is a difference. The craft shows are going well though, we learn something new each week; better set up, better pack up, stuff like that. The downside is I couldn’t keep up with the Etsy listings or the social media. SO- I turned over the social media marketing to D and he’s been putting up bare bones Esty listings so at least there is something there until I can go in and fine tune them which trust me when I say it takes for freaking ever to do that. But I realized that even a minimal listing is better than no listing at all, especially when we’re driving traffic to the Etsy site from the craft shows. So we’re still here and we’re still hustling, and I’ll work harder on sharing more.

Oh and in case you missed it, the nudes are gone, they aren’t coming back. Best I can offer is I do still sell breastmilk soap! Seriously though, thanks for sticking around!!

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Day 5

So today was good in that we sold a mattress for $100. We’d had it stored because a month after buying it we figured out it wasn’t made to the right specifications (it was supposed to be a Queen but it was a couple inches short in the width and while y’all must be thinking why is that a problem? Well when you are constantly fighting over enough space and a normal queen is fine the answer is that those inches make all the difference!) when we tried to return it-during Covid- they said nope, you can dispose of it and we’ll refund it (we ended up buying a different brand that was $100 more so technically we’re now even but I digress…)

I also listed the box of baby clothes, decided to go with EBay again just for the national exposure.

I booked another craft show as well.

We also received another custom order and this one involves a file design that we could possibly start selling. One of the things we sell in our Etsy shop is a digital file for a rolling tray so that others with a laser can make them as well. It’s our best selling item as we have consistently sold 5+ a month since we listed it. It’s only a couple bucks but it’s passive income all the same & it all adds up.

Still need to figure out some additional things to list or other ways to bring in money but you have to start somewhere right?

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Day 4

Today was a migraine, an unfortunate frequent occurrence for me. I tend to not be capable of much on these days. This is where he and I do this whole yin/yang thing and really balance one another. He sold a custom rolling tray, a custom cookies for Santa tray, and possibly a large order of customized pencils, all through contacts on social media! This allowed me to work on earrings at my own pace. Checked listings and so far no nibbles. While I still have the baby clothes to list, I’m realizing I need to do more research on the whole flipping stuff online. I will say many of these guys on YouTube who made “so much money” on EBay seem to have all sold used cell phones which I just wanna call BS on to be honest. Or they managed to have all this new designer clothing just lying around the house. I want this experiment to be a legit effort from a broke persons standpoint and being broke means I don’t have the money in the 1st place to buy designer clothes. But I digress…

As I still have this migraine, today is short and sweet. My observations are that sometimes social media can yield sales, although I would caution on how much you push it on your personal pages because there is the risk of alienating friends and family. Moderation is key!

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Day 3

Today wasn’t really anything new, follow up work on things already in the works. Nothing sold yet. Facebook shop is sort of fixed, I put up some new listings but there is still a glitch in the behind the scenes stuff, I’m told they are working on it. I went to check on my listings (eBay & Poshmark) and discovered an “event” for back to school, and hustled to list 12 pairs of cute earrings which actually got quite a few shares. Not entirely sure what that means in Poshmark world but we’ll see if anything comes of it. I listed the same earrings on Facebook as well. Plus I assembled roughly 3 dozen pairs of earrings and filled my dehydrators with the last of the breastmilk so it was a productive day. ( just trust me on this one, preparing the milk for the dehydrators is a stinky process, the only worse smell is while it’s actually in the dehydrators, it will make you puke if you have a weak stomach!)

We’re starting to seriously prep for a cannabis growers symposium that is happening at the end of the month. We were invited to set up a booth and the attendance numbers look good so far. We make rolling trays and stash boxes as well as a few other cannabis themed items. We had some trays made up with the event name engraved on them but they hit a legal snag and had to change the name. I hate wasting wood, especially since it’s expensive right now, so we’re trying to figure out how to redo the boards/cover the engraving and turn them into something cool & sellable! In addition to that I’m trying to use some of our scraps from last holiday season to make some other things I can sell at other shows we have booked.

Work with what you have when that is all you have & have a little faith that it will all work out!

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Day 2

Today was challenging to say the least. I had plans to fill my Facebook “shop” with items but we’re still experiencing technical difficulties with actually “publishing” the shop. So I have no idea if the shop is visible to the public or not. Support can’t see the issue on their end so of course they can’t fix it. If anyone would do me a solid and check out P and B Creations Studio on Facebook and let me know if you have the option to shop for items that would be fabulous!

Next thing accomplished is additional listings on Etsy. We have a love/hate relationship with Etsy. Etsy is the end all be all platform for handmade items….and a whole bunch of other stuff too. Most of the people selling on there are small business owners, as in that is their literal and only “store”. The biggest problem is that people expect it to be like Amazon, instant and cheap gratification. Handmade takes time and skill, and then we’re at the mercy of the postal system. It does cost upfront to list an item (20¢) and they do take their share once an item sells, plus additional fees for advertising which is helpful if you don’t already have a huge social media following that is eager to buy your stuff. Listings are tedious to complete and there is definitely a right way and a wrong way to do your listings. If you are creative this is absolutely a way to make money but generally speaking there is a learning curve.

Oh and if you wanna check out our stuff there it’s also P and B Creations Studio.

Lastly we spent time prepping some things to sell. I have a box of baby clothing that I’m trying to decide where to list. Facebook marketplace or my local buy sell trade groups are certainly a viable option that wouldn’t involve shipping, but I’m still not sure. I’ve had a listing up for engraved pencil/ruler sets for back to school up for a few days with zero response…which isn’t unheard of for the area I live in.

I also have been working on dehydrating breastmilk to make more soap. If you’ve followed me for a while you’re probably aware this is something I make. While I no longer produce milk of my own, a friend was nice enough to donate over 3 gallons that she had in her freezer that she could no longer use because her baby was diagnosed with a dairy allergy. She knew I made soap and I’ve made other soaps for her in the past, so she kindly donated it to me. This will go into a separate Etsy shop, one with more of a “homestead” theme. We’ll be selling soap, preserves (the neighbor has 2 pear trees bursting with fruit & we’ve been offered as many as we want!) and bbq rubs to start. More to come on that soon!

So as you can see I’m lighting lots of little sparks in hopes something catches fire and takes off.