Hi all! Mr Handmade here with Part 3 of Handmade Family's Past, Present and Future. Amy and I have been talking lately about our goals for the coming year. It's important to pay attention to what we're doing now of course, but having something to look forward to and something to work towards is how we will grow. Both as partners and as a business and family.
One of the big goals is to get our website,
www.handmadefamily.com in working order. Late last year, we started making headway on this front. Deciding what kind of content we were after, and what features we would like to include. The things that ended up being most important were to have an integrated blog, an online storefront, and galleries to show our work. It still needs a lot of work. Mainly, I need to take a ton of pictures and get the galleries set up...speaking of pictures, that leads me to my second goal. Keeping this blog updated with content regularly.
I think I promise myself this every year, but this year I swear it's going to stick! My plan is about trying to keep it simpler and to commit to certain concepts. The first thing is that I am officially letting go of my other blogs, "
Penny Candy and Shady Characters", and "
Take Care and Be Good". I'm consolidating them into this one so that I won't fall back into the "I feel bad about not updating there, so I won't update here either" trap. Second, on Mondays I will update with a weekly photo roundup of 5 photos from the previous week. I am committing to this, but not to writing anything about the photos. :) On Fridays I will post artwork, either something that I drew during the week or something the kids did. I also plan on reviving the Daily Life Comic Diary. I miss doing it, so will add it to the Friday posts as I can. These two posts will be constant, and both Amy and I will post real articles about projects, events, the community and the handmade lifestyle as we can...hopefully pretty regularly :)
Amy's major goals are to get our inventory tracking under control and to organize what items we have where. Selling in three shops, plus our website, etsy and shows has made keeping track of inventory kind of tricky, but she's been logging everything and it has already become soooo much easier to find where things are, and to know what needs to be made. It's also really helping us to see what our big sellers are. That'll really help us to get ahead of things for the holidays this year.
Finally, we are doing more shows this year. I'm already getting an ear full about the number of shows I have us booked for. We're going to be busy! Related to this is my goal of having new products to offer at shows every quarter. This is probably the most unrealistic of them, because of juggling freelance work and family, not to mention working the shop and shows. We have several ideas for things I'd like to make, and put more inspiration on my
pinterest board every day, so we'll see how it goes.
It doesn't look like a whole lot as I look up and scroll through this post, but I have a feeling that I've committed my self to a lot of changes and a lot of work. You know what though? I'm looking forward to it, and that's one of the greatest things about being in this business. I know it's the end of March, but we'd still love to hear some of your goals for the upcoming year! Let us know in the comments, and as always thanks for stopping by!
Until next time, take care and be good.
Your friend,
Jeffrey
A is for Artie, the strongest man in the world. From Nickelodeon's low budget family adventure series, The Adventures of Pete and Pete.
B is for Bone, from Jeff Smith's epic comic book. Fone bone was obsessed with the book Moby Dick, and kept having dreams about it.
C is for Captain Britain drinking a cup of tea. I have a thing for Super Heroes doing everyday things.
We're really into "back to basics" toys around these parts. This wooden train set is AWESOME! There are tons of parts (and available expansions) so it is able to be put together in several different layouts. Plus, the pieces are easy enough to put together that even Olive can do it.
Abby's tiny hands peeling the backer paper off of foam star stickers. It's amazing how much time this activity takes her, and fascinating to see how she arranges her stickers on the paper. Often it's in rows, but just as often they are all over the place.
Abby's clothes hanging cheerfully on the clothes line. I just love that little splash of color in the yard.
Several months ago, Abby and I went to story time at the library. We heard some camping stories and did a craft. Abby's campfire is pretty awesome, I think.
Abby and Olive in their new Easter Dresses.
Amy is usually the one who gives the girls a bath. Sometimes I read, sometimes I catch up on facebook, and sometimes I'm down in the basement lining up my work schedule for the night. One thing that I can pretty much count on though, is Olive running to see me as soon as she gets out of the tub, with her towel hanging by it's hood on her head...butt naked. Those little visits, and the joy on her face always crack me up, ha-ha-ha!
We were borrowing Amy's parents car while they were in Hawaii, so the girls and I were able to make it out to the park more often. I miss having two cars...
Mrs Handmade, all set up for our first show of the year.
We met my friend Leighton Conner of Hex games and his family at Laumier Sculpture park this weekend. Here's our two abbys sitting on what we think must be a giant robot that was buried and is waiting to awaken and save Saint Louis.
Olive looking at notebooks while we wait for Nana and Daddy Jim to finish shopping for a picnic.
I finished four new Ghostbusters marker sketches.
And finally, a photo/ideaogram that my friend Holly made for me on facebook. We all had a good laugh over it!
Hi all! Mr Handmade here. Today I was working in the garden, it's past time to start my planting, and I'm still scrambling to get it in a position to grow anything! My yard is on a pretty big slope, so this year I decided to rethink my garden set up and begin terracing it. It's a combination garden and landscape project, really...
So here it is from above as of about a month ago. I had the front edge delineated, but most of the rest was looking kind of bleak. It's amazing how much the green changes how it all looks now.
When I'm working by myself, I have a sort of long-running, inner dialogue. My daily life is an ongoing story in my head, that involves me, hobbits, like the illustration at the top of this post by Alan Lee, for the Lord of the Rings...The Millenium Falcon, super soldiers, spies, farming, my daughters as adults...It sounds like an odd mix, but the story evolves as time goes by. Ha-ha-ha!
And finally I'm leaving you with this picture of young Wyatt showing what Uncle Jeffrey hath wrought. Ha-ha-ha! Until next time, take care and be good!
One of the big goals is to get our website, www.handmadefamily.com in working order. Late last year, we started making headway on this front. Deciding what kind of content we were after, and what features we would like to include. The things that ended up being most important were to have an integrated blog, an online storefront, and galleries to show our work. It still needs a lot of work. Mainly, I need to take a ton of pictures and get the galleries set up...speaking of pictures, that leads me to my second goal. Keeping this blog updated with content regularly.
I think I promise myself this every year, but this year I swear it's going to stick! My plan is about trying to keep it simpler and to commit to certain concepts. The first thing is that I am officially letting go of my other blogs, "Penny Candy and Shady Characters", and "Take Care and Be Good". I'm consolidating them into this one so that I won't fall back into the "I feel bad about not updating there, so I won't update here either" trap. Second, on Mondays I will update with a weekly photo roundup of 5 photos from the previous week. I am committing to this, but not to writing anything about the photos. :) On Fridays I will post artwork, either something that I drew during the week or something the kids did. I also plan on reviving the Daily Life Comic Diary. I miss doing it, so will add it to the Friday posts as I can. These two posts will be constant, and both Amy and I will post real articles about projects, events, the community and the handmade lifestyle as we can...hopefully pretty regularly :)
Finally, we are doing more shows this year. I'm already getting an ear full about the number of shows I have us booked for. We're going to be busy! Related to this is my goal of having new products to offer at shows every quarter. This is probably the most unrealistic of them, because of juggling freelance work and family, not to mention working the shop and shows. We have several ideas for things I'd like to make, and put more inspiration on my pinterest board every day, so we'll see how it goes.
