As you may have guessed from the lack of entries in this blog, it's been a quiet last few weeks of summer. I've had decent sales, but classes don't start up again until October. That said, I've been taking it easy and working on my jewelry catalogue with my dad. He's doing the layout for me and so far, it looks great. I'm hoping that it will be finished by next week so I can send it to some stores.
Now that September is just about here, my life is about to get much busier. The holiday season -- and yes, in retail, this marks the start of it -- always heats up when fall begins and the kids are back in school. I'm already seeing the upswing on HubPages, as I'm selling more Amazon products. Hopefully, Etsy will pick up, as well. It did last year when I wasn't putting as much work into the site, so I'm anxious for my efforts to pay off.
Meanwhile, I already have three craft fairs lined up for the fall! The first is going to be a charity event at my friends' house. I sold some jewelry at their place last May when they held a charity party for AIDS research. However, the party was at night and people were in the mood to well, party, not buy stuff. I only sold a few pieces. This time, though, it's going to be an afternoon event (for ALS research; they're doing a walk in honor of a friend who has the disease) where the whole event is centered around vendors. So people will be coming specifically to buy and then I'll give back a portion to the charity. At the end of September, I have another charity event -- this one for Autism Speaks. And then in October, I'll be selling my jewelry at a craft fair that's being held at a local temple. The event for Autism Speaks is the one where I was asked to create a children's line. I'm curious to see how my pieces will sell in person.
I'm pleased that so far, all of these gigs have been invites, meaning that I was asked to do the event and didn't just sign up. My goal is to do at least seven fairs during the holiday season, with most taking place toward the end of November/December. I want to get those last-minute holiday shoppers!
My next enamel class starts in October, too, so I'll have a chance to make some nice, new holiday-themed pieces. I'm thinking of making some enameled ornaments, which will be a nice addition to my collection.
In other exciting news, I'm going to be publishing a novel! No, it's not about jewelry, though I really should write something about a jewelry designer, right? It's a young adult novel called REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD and is kind of a Heathers-meets-Glee-type story -- a dark comedy with romance and some danger. I wrote it years ago, but it's finally getting published. I'm looking forward to sharing my story with the world.
So between my two jewelry lines, craft fairs, jewelry catalogue, classes and upcoming book, fall is going to be super-duper busy for me. But I'm not complaining -- I wouldn't have it any other way!
And now, I'm off to Florida for a wedding and a few days of some R&R before I return home to all of this madness...
To purchase my jewellery, head to Naomi's Designs. To purchase my children's jewelry, head to MayaGirl Creations.
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