So, on a Sunday afternoon as my husband drove us out to lunch, I worked on sketching up a road map for March. The idea is that I will start in one corner and see how many times I can March around the block.
I had fun coming up with the street names. I already have several lists on my Google docs to-do list, of "Cute Items to Make", "Scrap Yarn Projects", "Replace Sold Items" and "Hot Sellers". I put in a "street" for cotton thread, since I have so much of that to use up. "Least Lane" is where I will pull the yarn in my Ravelry stash that I have the least yardage of, and finish that up in a project. I put in the "outer loop" so that if I am blessed with any custom orders during March, I can work them into this little game!
So, my "rules" for this month:
Start in one corner (WIP Way). I move to the next street by either completing an item, or spending half an hour on a project.
I think I'll end up going around the loop three times... but we'll see!
Project 1: I started on WIP Way and finished Tigey.
Then, I went down Trendy Trail and worked on butter lambs, since they are very popular in this area around Easter! Here's the Etsy link for one of the smaller lambs.
For Completion Circle, I used up a little ball of scrap yarn to make a cute little finger puppet that looks like a marshmallow bunny... and had so much fun with that one, that I kept on going through Scrap Box Blvd and made a whole set! They are listed on Etsy too!
I played with some new patterns, like a baby sloth. Then I used a double strand of yarn to make a mama sloth.
I made Pop Tarts to get a play food listing up on Etsy.
I got an Etsy custom order for a moose... Without that order, March sales would have been horrendous, instead of just pretty bad (half my average)!
I think April will be all about getting more items listed in my Etsy shop, and working down my stash to make best-seller items for my fall shows. Hopefully I will have a better April than usual (shouldn't be all that hard, considering average sales for April are $34!
For Completion Circle, I used up a little ball of scrap yarn to make a cute little finger puppet that looks like a marshmallow bunny... and had so much fun with that one, that I kept on going through Scrap Box Blvd and made a whole set! They are listed on Etsy too!
I rounded the corner of Owl Avenue by making an owl with leftover yarn from previous projects:
And I cruised down Cute Court by making a Pop Tarts Baby Blanket! I think it turned out great!
With the next stop being Wild Card Way, I started another Pop Tarts blanket... got in half an hour's worth of work on that, so my next stop is Replacement Road. Since I sold a butter lamb this week, I think I'd better make some more!
March turned out to be a discouraging month. Both craft shows were below average in sales, one of them setting a record low for that location. Overall sales also set a record low for the month of March. 😞
I think April will be all about getting more items listed in my Etsy shop, and working down my stash to make best-seller items for my fall shows. Hopefully I will have a better April than usual (shouldn't be all that hard, considering average sales for April are $34!
