A Week in the Life of an Etsy Shop Owner

Life just doesn't ever slow down, does it? The past several days have been a whirlwind of activities for me and my family.  Here's a quick summery of what's been going on - 

* Last Thursday, Hannah, Holly and I traveled about 2 hours east to help Gabriel move from a temporary room rental to his first apartment that he will share with his soon to be bride.  It's a furnished apartment over a garage - a nice little one bedroom.  So we just had a few boxes of personal items to carry up the steep but beautiful dark hardwood steps.  The AC had just gotten turned on and it was literally 90 degrees in the little place.  Had to cool off by going to the grocery store.  We bought frozen pizzas and cooked them in the oven which didn't help with the heat.  And we found out that "fully furnished" doesn't include a pizza cutter.  So I cut the pizzas with a steak knife.

*John did not go with us because he had to travel to DC to pick up our Romanian friend, Marius, from the airport. He was supposed to arrive around 7 PM but the flight was delayed until after 11 PM.  It was 2 AM before they arrived home.

* On Friday morning we left for yet another trip. We had to take Hannah to New York City to meet her team at the airport there to go on a two week mission trip Romania. So we spent the night with my former college roommate in New Jersey and left her house on Saturday.  She lives about an hour away from the airport so that was incredibly convenient and we were blessed to spend some time with her.  I was amazed at the amount of money we spent on tolls, round trip from VA to NJ to NY and back to VA - about $70.

*We got back on Saturday night and Sunday evening was the beginning of our church's Vacation Bible School.  I'm teaching the 1st - 3rd graders. 

*Come Friday morning I can breathe a short sigh of relief before getting serious about all the last minute details for Gabriel's rehearsal dinner and wedding.  Soon I will post some pictures of some of the things that Sarah has asked me to make for the reception.  Meanwhile, here's on order I'm working on this week for a fall wedding - 

Oak Leaf Confetti

Why Do I Sell Paper Products?

Trying to decide what to sell in my Esty shop was not too hard.  I am not really super talented in the area of arts and crafts.  When I was about 16, I took a macrame class.  I really enjoyed that and did quite well with it.  Then I tried toll painting, decoupage, stenciling, cake decorating, cross stitch, sewing, plastic canvas and whatever else was new.  It was always a colossal failure.  It wasn't any good or it was too messy, too expensive.  Some projects took too long and I lost interest.

Paper Posies - Scrapbook Embellishment in Bright Summer Colors 

 

Then scrapbooking came along.  Someone compared it to making bulletin boards, but on a much smaller scale.  Well.  I'm a teacher.  Bulletin boards I can do.

When we were in Romania, I started a scrapbooking ministry with the ladies there.  They had seen my scrapbooks and I thought it would be fun to get the supplies and show them how to make them. It was a fun way to reach out and fellowship!  When we left the country, I gave away a lot of my supplies.  But I still had a bunch that we brought back to the US.

 

Rainbow Flowers for Scrapbook Layout

So when I considered what to sell on Ellie Marie Designs,  I was inspired by the prophet Elisha in the Old Testament. He asked the widow who was in great need of making some money, "What do you have in the house?"  What did I have in my house?  Stacks of scrapbooking supplies.

Do you sell on Etsy?  How did you decide what to sell?