I Did It!!!

Well, I sorta did it.

Nothing is listed my store yet, as I still need to set my shop policies and figure out if I'm going to offer international shipping. The thought of international shipping overwhelms me, but the Etsy forums say it ain't so bad. There are so many aspects to this endeavor, which is not good for an over-analyzer like me. I keep thinking of every possible thing that can go wrong and the associated risks.

I went to the store today to buy some shipping supplies, including a 25 pack box of bubble mailers. As I stood in the aisle, considering all the packaging options, I thought, "Crap, am I really going to do this?" I ended up at the checkout line with the bubble mailers so I guess I really am doing this! :P

Thanks for all of the encouragement. I apologize for being noticeably absent from e-mail and other various forums I used to frequent. This, along with work and waiting and waiting for things to start moving with our refi, has been consuming my waking hours.

Need some suggestions

I know I don't have a huge readership, but I'm struggling to come up with a potential Etsy store name! It needs to be memorable, practical and relevant.

I've been using "Handmade by Nicole"...well, that's what my custom rubber stamp says, anyway:


So, we could do:

HandmadeByNicole
CardsByNicole
808Cards
808Embossing
EmbossedByNicole

Yeah, that's about all my fried brain could come up with last night. Haven't given much more thought to it.

Any suggestions???

I'm out of practice

This took me 1 hour. :( How much would you be willing to pay for a card like this (4.25" x 5.5")? I originally thought $3/card, but with the amount of effort this one required tonight, I'm thinking $5.


Retirement card for my first "real" boss, David Stock. This man has devoted 40+ years of his life to our United States Navy. He's a great guy and he will be missed as he begins a new journey of travel, golf, and spending time with family. :)

I got an e-mail today!

Dear Nicole,

We are always happy when people use our stencils just as you are doing. Please enjoy handcrafting your creations in your card making business.

Best wishes for success and Mahalo for sharing your blog spot address so I could enjoy seeing them.

Kindest regards,
Lynell Harlow of Dreamweaver Stencils

So, is this it? I have permission?

I did a lot of research on Etsy today! Yeesh, setting up an Etsy store is not as easy as I thought it would be, especially for an overly-analytical person like me. Store names, sale price, shipping charges, paypal transactions, associated fees, etc.

About those fees, here's a breakdown:
Etsy
Listing fee: $0.20 to list an item for 4 months
Transaction fee for sold item: 3.5% of item sale price (excluding shipping charges)
For a $10 sale, that's $0.55

Paypal
Transaction fee: $0.30 (flat fee) + 2.9% of transaction amount (includes shipping charges, I think)
For a $10 sale (assuming shipping is included in that price), that's $0.59 for a total of....

$1.14 total fees for a $10 sale.

I hate that feeling of being nickel-and-dime'd. :P

Anyway, it's late and I'm Etsy'd out. Need to sleep. Gotta work tomorrow. I'm glad it's a short week. :) Have a good one!

Etsy

Etsy is "Your place to buy and sell all things handmade". It's a neat little online shopping mall that I had heard of quite a while ago. I browsed a couple of times, but it never really interested me.

Dior brought it up to me again last May (yep, went back and found that e-mail!) and suggested I sell my dry embossed cards on the site. I was deathly afraid and never acted on the idea.

Long story short, I ended up on Etsy again last week and became hooked! So many items posted by so many talented people! It's mind-boggling, really. Anyway, as I browsed, I began to think, "Hey, if these people can do it, maybe I can, too."

So, I'm now contemplating opening an Etsy store. I've actually taken a huge first step, one that I probably should have taken a year ago. Since the dry embossing stencils I use are copyrighted designs, I need to ask the company for its permission to sell any products made using their stencils. So, I e-mailed them on Friday and am awaiting a response. Dior, I took your advice regarding the content of my request and am hoping for a positive outcome. :)

However, I'm not quite sure what the tax implications are if I start selling stuff on Etsy...how to report the income, expenses, etc. Guess I should consult a tax person about that one. Perhaps I won't want the hassle and will scratch the idea altogether.

Regardless, here are some fun things I found on Etsy.

Cute zipper pouches by Etsy seller JPATPURSES:


Blue Buds Harmony Large Flat Bottom Zipper Pouch
(I actually bought this one!)


Sakura Dynasty Little Zip Pouch
(I also bought this one for a co-worker's upcoming birthday)

And of course, you know I had to search for chrysanthemums. I wish I had known about Etsy while I was planning my wedding. Although it's priced at $105, this would have made an amazing wedding day accessory:


Ivory Silk Chrysanthemum Clutch lined in blue silk
by Etsy seller Red Ruby Rose

Quiet Valentine's Day

We don't "celebrate" Valentine's Day. We did for a couple of years, but that stopped about 7 years ago.

Today, we just bummed around the house after a long work week. I made spaghetti, Brian's favorite meal, and we enjoyed it with our favorite wine. Now, we're watching the UH Men's Basketball game. Brian is scaring Benny. Brian gets emotional when watching sports.

We were supposed to help grandpa pull weeds and clean up his yard, but ended up not going due to inclement weather in Pearl City. It was really overcast, drizzly, and gusty today. We'll try again tomorrow.

What's going on in The Bamboo Village?

Yikes! I'm really terrible at this blogging thing! My goal was to make it a daily (or at least, weekly) thing, but it's becoming monthly. Perhaps I need to increase readership. That might be added motivation to keep up...not that I don't appreciate the 2 or 3 of you who check here religiously. ;)

Like most of you, I've been in a funk since the new year started. I was hopeful for the first week of 2009, especially since I was looking forward for my boss to return to work. However, I've since been deflated and just can't get the motor running!

My boss was supposed to return part-time at the beginning of January. She showed up a couple of times for a couple of hours. Then, last Monday, she broke the news to me that she would be taking the rest of the year off...as in "See you next January!" As the only full-time person working on this shipyard-wide program, I am now the "Program Manager". O.M.G.

I could be coasting down the high road of optimism right now. However, I'm a closet pessimist and have been experiencing some selfish emotions. Afterall, I changed jobs with the understanding that I would be working for my boss, learning and being mentored by her. Now what?

Don't get me wrong. I understand why she's made this decision. I probably would have done the same thing. I think the way this was handled/broken to me just made the blow that much worse. Understandably, she was ecstatic that her extended leave got approved, but she never really acknowledged the impact this would have on others. It was kind of like, "Hehehe, see you, suckers!"

I'm not the type of person who values fortune and fame. Others would probably see this as a springboard for career advancement. I don't see it that way. I don't have those aspirations at this point. In case anyone is wondering, no, this is not a promotion of any kind. Same position/title/pay. That's fine. I don't want to enter the realm of "management"...not officially, anyway.

Like my wise friend, Dior, told me. It's okay to feel grumpy and selfish about it, at least for a little while. :) I'm not going to be in denial about how I really feel about the situation, but at some point, I need to accept it and move on. I'm still grateful and thankful that I have a job. :)

Okay, enough about that. What else...we bought a new refrigerator and are expecting to need a new washer/dryer in the near future. Last December, our water heater died. This year, the refrigerator started making some very scary sounds when the compressor shut off. I was afraid that the compressor wouldn't turn back on. I think the new refrigerator arrived just in time (this past Saturday). This one's Energy Star rated, which was another good reason to replace our ~15 year old Kenmore.

We also went to Kauai over the holidays. Ugh. Still need to upload photos and post reviews! It feels like and overwhelming task!!! It was a nice getaway for me and Brian. I think we'll only need to go back to Kauai one more time since we didn't make it over to the west side. Long story short, I had motion-sickness for most of our travels. It was a nice change of scenery, but I was happy to return to the creature comforts of Oahu!

We are also seriously looking into refinancing. Our current mortgage is with American Savings Bank. In all honesty, we used them because the loan officer was a good friend of our realtor and we didn't know any better. This time, we're shopping around and, come to find out (as a result of my grandma's passing), my 2nd cousin works for a wholesale mortgage broker (808 Home Mortgage). My gut is telling me to go with 808 Home Mortgage. They've already given us more personal attention (perhaps because I'm "family") than ASB ever has. I think ASB is just too big, whereas 808 seems like a smaller operation. ASB just operates differently. I'm still not quite sure how their process works, whereas 808 has walked us through everything as if we were 4 years old, which we really appreciate. Oddly enough, though, I think ASB might be able to offer us a lower fixed interest rate. We'd be dummies to pass that up, even if their customer service isn't the best, right?

Since property values have plummeted, we're going to have to put down some substantial cash to refinance. 808 recommended putting 20% down to avoid paying private mortgage insurance (PMI) and to avoid any hassle due to the fact that our townhouse complex owner occupancy ratio is only 60% (most lenders require at least 70% owner occupancy for 80%+ financing). This could save us $1,000 per month, in addition to what we're already able save every month, even with our current mortgage. However, this would probably require us to drain our savings and borrow some money from my dad. Draining our savings is a super scary thought, but it could potentially save us paying $8,000+ in PMI over 5 years. Aaah, decisions, decisions....

Anyway, now I'm rambling. Dinner is calling my name...homemade chili...yummm....

Randomness

I feel so "blah" lately. I'm hoping it's just hormonal stuff.

I realized today that I have many amazing online friends. I've met a good number of them in person. It's funny, but some of my best friends are long distance. I miss them so much!!!

I'm watching "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmerman" right now. He's in the Philippines, sampling all of their funky foods. He's a brave/insane man.

I'm still researching/finalizing plans for our Kauai trip. I'm so indecisive. I am a bit worried about all the rain the island has been experiencing. I saw the flooding and damage done by the storm last week and I heard another storm was supposed to hit them tonight. Oh well. What can you do?

I recently reconnected with the chapel coordinator from our wedding. She was in Japan for a while after our wedding, but recently returned to Oahu and is working with Best Bridal once again. She said that they would like to include some of our wedding photos on their revamped website! I'll let you all know what happens.

We bought some throw pillows to match our new couch. Need to post some photos of them later.

A sink full of dirty dishes is calling my name....

Been playing some video games

Brian started playing Lego Indiana Jones on the PlayStation 2. I thought it was so cute and fun-looking that he encouraged me to join him. We are hooked!!! It's fun because the characters go on missions together and there's a lot of problem solving involved. I like that it's not a competitive game.

We've also been playing Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy and Brian just got Lego Batman. I hope we can try that one out tomorrow!

It's here, it's here!