2015: a year for focus (part one: blog and shop goals)

hello january! nice to see you around again. if were being completely honest here, ive never been a huge fan of january. i often refer to it as "the monday of the year". but as ive gotten older, ive grown to appreciate mondays. monday is a day to regroup, make a plan of attack, and kick the next weeks butt. and maybe january can be like that too. 

in my last post, i unveiled my "one word" for 2015, and in case you missed it, that word was "focus". i chose focus as the guide for my goals this year because with all the crazy changes and developments of the past year, i realized that while we have lots of REALLY cool stuff going on right now, what i really need to do is step back and focus. 

focus on our long-term plans, focus on why were doing the things were doing, focus on what we actually need to do, not just get wrapped up in whatevers being thrown at us on whatever day. 

and im starting this year of a new, focused mindset with a different kind of goal list. rather than writing a long list of scattered, random goals for the year, i picked six key areas (blog, shop, family, home, financial, and personal) and made just a few goals in each area to focus on. 

and since six topics is a lot to cover all at once, ive paired them up so that this can be a little mini-series. today: we have blog and shop goals, on monday well talk about family and home foals, and finally on wednesday well talk about financial and personal goals. lets press on, shall we? 

blog goals: 

1. solidify my brand and content. ive been writing this blog for (gasp!) almost two years and for basically all of it ive really struggled with my identity as a blogger and the direction/brand of this blog. who am i? what kind of blog is this? where do i fit into the blogging community? what is my niche? if this blog is going to really get anywhere, i need to stop trying to do all the things and figure this out. im currently in the middle of coaching about this, and its really exciting to start the new year already making progress on a big goal. 

2. plan and write posts ahead of time. since im not a full time blogger making a living at this (yet), i have to balance writing and maintaining this blog with all the other things i juggle on a daily basis. this means im not able to write, edit, and promote each post on the day its supposed to go live. i need to use my large blocks of free time (weekends, late nights, days alice is out), to get multiple posts ready to go. and if that is going to work at all, i need a plan. so in the immediate future i need to map out my topics for a, um... long time, so that i can use my writing time for writing. 

3. consistently blog throughout the entire year. this means: figuring out a comfortable (but reliable) posting schedule, finding my rhythm for social media, not taking huge breaks, things of that nature. obviously this is going to take some trial and error, but for now my first step is to determine my weekly posting schedule, both for timing as well as topics. tentatively i have things set like this: mondays - personal/family/random posts, wednesdays - money/home/shopping posts, fridays - food/craft/shop-related posts. this way, you guys know when to expect a post from me, and also, that youre always going to have something a little different to read. 

4. collaborate and connect more. one of the hardest things about being a blogger is feeling like youre in this alone, when really theres a HUGE and super supportive community out there to work with. and this year, i really want to embrace that. how? im not sure yet, this may mean more sponsorships, linkups, giveaways, and guest posting, it may mean something totally crazy and different. well just have to wait and find out. 

shop goals. 

1. apply for patchwork santa ana in the spring. black friday weekend i was invited to sell at a somewhat spontaneous holiday market with some friends, and to my surprise (it was a small event, mostly of people i know), i ended the year with a decent amount of money to invest in my business. and i decided that its finally time to stop being a scaredy cat and apply for my first "real show". if i get in, this would be a HUGE step for me as a person, and poverty luxe as a business. if i dont, well then its off to goal #2. 

2. vend at 2-3 "real" craft fairs. by "real" i mean not the small, community type events that ive done in the past, i mean serious events like patchwork or the silver lake flea market or something else similar (obviously im researching more options). ive learned (over and over) that the smaller events, while lower in booth fees, are lower in attendance, sales, and networking opportunity, and while ill probably only be able to afford a couple of larger events over the course of the year, id rather invest in events with a greater chance of growing my business. 

3. launch my kids line and experiment with womens tops. ive had a kids line planned out for a while: more sizes of skirts, a sundress that doubles as a top as the child grows, and a simple little t-shirt in fun prints, and before i can launch, i need to do a little more sizing research and make the paper patterns. also, in order to launch the shirt, i need to either be very patient and fix my serger, or be extra very patient and save up for a new one. ive also had some ideas for adult sized tops, so by the end of the year, id like to at least have made some prototypes. 

4. turn my stash into inventory. seriously, im just sitting on piles of beautiful fabrics just waiting to be turned into something useful. so this year, my focus is to build my inventory from the fabrics i have until i absolutely need to go fabric shopping (and also to donate/give away anything thats not useful. 

so those are my blog and shop goals for 2015. now, if you notice, some of those goals, well, i could use a little help to accomplish. and im not the type to ask for help without offering anything in return. so to help jump start my goals to collaborate with other bloggers more, and to help finance my future vendor applications, im having two HUGE sales: 

50% off ALL sponsorships with code JAN15 in my passionfruit shop! i have two options: one includes a large sidebar ad, social media shoutouts, AND a full blown guest post on poverty luxe, for just $10 ($5 this month), and the other includes a small sidebar ad and an introductory shoutout on twitter for $3 (just $1.50 with the code). buying a sponsorship from me is not only a super fun (and inexpensive) way to grow your blog by collaborating with someone super fun (me), but also ALL the money i bring in through sponsorships goes RIGHT back into sponsoring other bloggers! 

30% off EVERYTHING in the poverty luxe etsy shop with code JAN15! in order for me to keep things moving with the shop, i really need to keep things moving in the inventory department, both to make room for the new lines, as well as to help fund the application/booth fees for any shows i apply for this year. this means you can score some AWESOME (if i do say so myself) handmade, eco-friendly clothing at an even more awesome price. 

both codes are good for the whole month of january, too!

CREATE 2014 + getting back in the craft fair game.

as youve probably heard about a million, billion times on instagram and twitter, we (i almost typed i, but really poverty luxe is a family affair and james and alice deserve credit here too) did our first craft fair with poverty luxe last weekend!

now, this wasnt my first craft fair ever, id actually done quite a few when i was in college with my old etsy shop. but, none of those really went all that great, and after taking SUCH a long break (during which, i obviously analyzed and overanalyzed everything i did wrong and how to address it) , i was really happy to finally have a chance to put all these really important things i know now (like, um, branding, customer service, and displays that are actually functional). and i mean, $50 craft fair, RIGHT DOWN THE STREET FROM MY HOUSE? sold. 

even though i had booked the fair a couple MONTHS ago, i (obviously) totally procrastinated and didnt really do any preparations until the last couple of weeks before the fair, but thankfully, everything got done. i made somewhere around 100 new bows (several new fabrics will be coming to the shop soon!), and james helped me make a super cute display for them: 

(p.s. that awesome white cubby thing? i found that IN THE TRASH just a couple days before the fair, how perfect is that?)

even though it took a couple of very frustrating trips to the hardware store, we did get my rack built, and its awesome and i love it: 

also, i painted signs, which dont look like much but im really proud of them because i do. not. paint. and they came out pretty cute. 

but seriously, how stinking cute are all my skirts all lined up on my new rack? i mean really:

and of course i had a couple clearance bins of pieces from my old shop that I'm just not sure what to do with (but seriously, what am i supposed to do with this stuff?):

and after weeks of stress and panic and frustration and tears and feeling like a failure because i couldnt get the freezer paper printing on fabric thing to work (spoiler alert: james did, everything has labels now), we had achieved something i had never been able to do before with  my old shop:

and attractive, functional booth/display, filled with a carefully curated collection of well-constructed pieces that all go together and reflect a consistent brand image. that alone was an amazing feeling. 

but after all that blathering about the booth and the process and all that, im assuming what you actually want to know is how the fair itself actually went. 

and well, im not sure how to answer that question. obviously, the most important part is that i did it and poverty luxe is henceforth able and prepared to do more craft fairs in the future, and the second most important part is that i didnt lose money on the fair (mainly thanks to my completely insane business model). 

but the event itself? meh. dont get me wrong, the girls running the fair worked very hard, they picked a great location, a great mix of vendors, and did a great job about promoting the event as a whole as well as spotlighting the individual vendors on instagram. however, i didnt realize that the girls running the show were like, 18, and maybe not super experienced with running a full-blown craft fair (and maybe this is just me being snobby from having been involved in several real, serious craft fairs in the past), but the day-of operations? those were kind of a mess. and attendance? well, lets just say that if each individual vendor had simply brought 10 friends/family members (like i did), and nothing else, the attendance would have been awesome. and sales? my sales covered my booth fee (plus a little left over to sponsor a blog giveaway coming up), BUT all of that, except for one $5 purchase, was from people i know. 

but instead of focusing on those things, id rather give us all pats on the back for just doing the fair, and appreciate the cute new prints and tardis skirt that i got from other vendors. 

and you know, i actually wrote a blog post, so thats cool. 

poverty luxe: coming soon to a craft fair near you! (assuming that youre near gardena, that is...)

so, i was hoping that id be able to jump right back into blogging at full speed with the "what is poverty luxe" series that ive been working on, but as you may or may not know (depending on how many social media outlets you follow me on), james has been working out of town for the past five weeks. 

five. weeks. 

and most of those weeks have included working on saturday, meaning, that for over a month now, i only have a husband at home on sundays. over half of which is spent at church and our new weekly trip to the revolving sushi restaurant and 99 cent store (which are conveniently right next to each other, thus proving that a low income, mostly asian neighborhood is the BEST PLACE EVER). so as you can probably imagine, writing a serious  series defining and explaining the somewhat abstract ethos of our lifestyle, well... thats not coming along as quickly as i had hoped. 

BUT! i do have some good news for you: (and also perhaps a handful of shorter, lighter posts both before and in between this new series):

poverty luxe (the brand) is officially booked for its first ever real life craft fair this summer!!!!!

the event is called CREATE 2014, and its happening on august 2nd, right here in gardena, you can read more about the event on their website, and i am so, SO excited to be a part of it (i seriously could NOT even make up a better jump back into the craft fair world!).

and since june has absolutely FLOWN by (mostly because of my exhausted and sleep-deprived state), i now have a little more than a month to prepare. which ordinarily would send me straight into panic mode, except that im already happy with the size of my inventory, so sewing more isnt necessarily a priority. 

i do have to make fabric labels and sew them into all my skirts though (does anyone know where i can get freezer paper around here?), make some signs, and build a clothing rack  (does anyone want to come over with some drills?. 

but i can do all that in a month, right? 

i really hope so, i mean, this booth is already paid for....

life lately.

its been over a year and i still havent really written a "life lately" post. i mean, its just not really the kind of thing that id really planned on doing with this blog. i guess i just always thought that id be able to stay on top of content development and post scheduling and whatnot and that youd never have to read a long rambling of my current thoughts. 

well, turns out, i thought wrong (as i often do). 

the past couple weeks haven't exactly been a time of productive writing (or researching, or planning, or crafting, or any kind of productive business activity). mainly because jamess school week, the end of my semester, and the beginning of my last homeschool co-op class all kind of converged into the same two weeks and i just didnt have any kind of mental energy to put into this blog. 

thankfully casey and jessica were so kind as to step in with some (rather lovely, i might add) guest posts, and the blog hasnt been COMPLETELY dead. 

but, since im just taking FOR.EV.ER. to recover and get back into a productivity groove, and may's editorial calendar hasnt even been STARTED yet (and were halfway through the month, epic fail), youre getting the life lately post. 

so here are a few things that have been happening/on my mind lately (in no particular order, please bear with the randomness and incongruity of this post): 

my first (ok, eleventh) semester of college is DONE and im all registered for next semester! ill be taking three classes (only seven units though), which im a little nervous about, BUT its really exciting to FINALLY actually be on my way to my dream job (which is, in case you didnt know, stay at home/homeschooling independent fashion designer). yesterday we celebrated with ice cream: 

i recently started using essential oils to treat my myriad of ailments (and poor little alices allergies that seem to last for half the year), and wouldnt you know it, theyre actually working. i dont even know how many alternative medicines ive tried over the years to no avail, and i was SURE that there was no way some little bottles of oil would actually be much help, but sometimes (actually, kind of a lot of the time) i feel like a normal person. its pretty awesome. obviously you can expect a full blog post about this soon. 

after a few months of nothing, things with my etsy shop seem to be picking back up, and now i have enough paypal money saved up to start actually planning poverty luxes first craft fair appearance (probably at the silverlake art craft and vintage, ill keep you local folks posted!). james still needs to build me some clothing racks though. 

james and alice gave me the best mothers day present ever on saturday: they went to the park so that i could have an afternoon by myself. it was lovely. as were the tacos at my moms house the next day: 

even a year later, im still struggling with my diet. for the most part ive gotten used to the gluten free thing, and recently it seems that my immune system has calmed down a bit and i can tolerate corn, nuts, and peanuts without an issue, and ive finally worked my way back up to a weight im happy with, but unfortunately it seems that in order to maintain this weight, i basically need to eat junk food ALL. THE. TIME. and well, thats starting to feel almost as bad as not being able to eat anything. so right now im torn between needing to clean up my diet and get more exercise, and being afraid that if i do that i wont be able to continue to stay at a healthy weight. 

weve lived in our current apartment for two years now, and it finally feels like home. when we moved here i had hoped and prayed that it would only be temporary, but it turns out, small spaces actually have a LOT of advantages. i will admit that its been feeling a little too cluttered and crowded lately, but thankfully my mom is having a garage sale this weekend, so were in MAJOR purge mode. and it feels great. 

i bought a plant today. if you know me at all you know that this is SO not like me. but i hate buying fresh herbs when we only need a tiny bit and the rest gets thrown away. so well see how this little mint does. and if i dont kill it, maybe well branch out to the rest of the herbs. 

i am so, so thankful that jamberry came along when it did, im in love with working from home, especially now that im back in school (also, holy not-spending-the-entire-summer-teaching-kids-classes-while-alice-goes-to-the-beach-with-my-family). today i made my second set of fast start goals (hello $100 credit!), and i am *this* close to making my second promotion (and still not far from the next one, which is the first level with a CASH promotion bonus!). i didnt think id do well with this, at all. but i am, and its awesome. 

i feel like a terrible blogger. to be completely honest i havent been reading or commenting on blogs much lately, and ive been letting my sponsorships expire and i just havent been that involved in the blog community and i feel bad. 

the time has come for some big business decisions here at poverty luxe. and by that i mean, i feel like its time to get really serious about growing this little business into something big. i scored a MAJOR discount on a lifetime handmadeology pro membership, which i plan on studying over the summer, and im also considering the new blog life ecourse from a beautiful mess (is anyone doing this, what are your thoughts? is it worth the money?). 

and lastly, it is too, too hot. it is literally hotter today in coastal southern california than it ever was when we lived in arizona (northern arizona, but still). james and alice and my sister went to the beach while i taught my color theory class, despite the fact that we went to the beach yesterday. its a rough life, i know. 

see, even alice is SO over this heat wave (i mean, what even is that face?). 

now that ive gone on and on about ME for so long, what have you been up to? what are you working on? how have you been? 

lets catch up, please. 

the time we had an actual weekend (family dates + weekly wishes)

happy monday everyone! 

last week was my first official week of not having a real job, and it certainly had its ups and downs. i mean, not working at joanns (and therefore, not being on edge every monday, wednesday, and friday as i try to figure out if im supposed to be working the next day) is a HUGE relief, but at the same time, im still not sure how to, you know, deal with everything that needs to get done AND keep working consistently on blog/shop/jamberry stuff when most of my time constraints have disappeared. also, my body is NOT handling this inconsistent weather OR having night classes AT ALL and my fibromyalgia is FREAKING OUT so my pain levels been at like a 7/10 non stop for the whole week. 

BUT!!!! 

the great news is, because i NEVER have to spend my saturdays at work anymore, we got to have a normal person weekend chock full of family fun!

and by that i mean, we went to a doctor who craft fair. 

yeah, you read that correctly. doctor who. craft fair. 

it was at whimsic alley. which is basically the most wonderful place ive ever been in my life and im incredibly angry at everyone i know that knew about it and didnt tell me it existed:

its an entire store of nerdy fandom merchandise. mostly harry potter and doctor who, which is great because those are basically the only two fandoms i care about (ok, those and animal crossing, but thats not exactly a well known fandom in the us). 

oh, and they have a "great hall" in the back where they do things like have doctor who craft fairs. 

we mainly went to see my friends shannon and stacie of s & s ink (who you may remember from their sponsor feature a few months ago):

but, as happens at most craft fairs, i found SO MANY new crafters and makers to adore (though, please pardon the iffy photography, the room the fair was in was a little too dark for pictures). here are a few of the highlights:

ok, so im a total stickler for clever cross-fandom references, especially anything harry potter/doctor who (for obvious reasons), these patronus mugs from a bird in the hand? basically my favorite thing ever:

 you can buy them here (rose tyler) and here (amy pond). 

all three of us basically died over this pikachu wearing a fez by crafted cuteness:

have i mentioned that lately alice is OBSESSED with pokemon?  yeah, we had to drag her away from this table kicking and screaming. also, they had amigurumis of ALL THE PONIES from my little pony: friendship is magic. too much cute. im probably going to have to buy this pattern now...

and just when i thought i couldnt die of cuteness anymore, stacie showed me the z'etiquette booth and all of their marvelous bags and corsets made from the most INCREDIBLE custom printed fabrics ever:

i mean really. they even had a star trek toile. not that i have $250 to drop on a bag right now (though $250 seems really low for a handmade bag, ive been looking at camera/bookbags for a while now and holy moly theyre expensive, even the mass produced ones) but if i did, you KNOW it would be star trek toile. or doctor who toile. or something. (id post a link to their site but apparently their website is down but you can buy some of their bags here). 

then when we were done with the fair, we went next door to milk jar cookies:

because shannon said they had great cookies and she thought there was a gluten free option. shannon only undersold this place by a TON. milk jar cookies is by FAR the best (and cutest!) cookie place ive been to, well, ever. (and before you get all, "well how many cookie places could you have possibly even been to?" remember that i live in los angeles. where cookie places have been a thing for YEARS). 

i mean, look at these cookies (and also, the super cute assortment of plates:

yes, they were three dollars each. and before all the non-la people start freaking out, i just want to remind you, gourmet cookies are totally a thing, and $3 is a small, small price to pay for this: 

(also, the cookies are still warm when you get them, and the gluten free cookie was actually good) 

then, of course, we went home for naps and james went out to play dorks and dragons and saturday was over. 

yesterday we continued our celebration of me not working at joanns anymore by going out to dinner (jamess idea, i swear), at a real restaurant. and i didnt get sick. it was awesome (also, thanks stacked for knowing what cross contamination is and taking your gluten free menu seriously). 

and the best part? i dont work at joanns anymore so we can have many, many more weekends together.

so how are we doing on aprils monthly wishes?

well, school is going pretty great! on tuesday we had all had to sketch a suit meeting certain market parameters (store, age group, price point, etc.) and put them up on the wall anonymously to vote for which one best fit the assignment, and mine was voted the best! i know it seems like a really silly accomplishment, but when i was studying fine arts, my work was mediocre at best. i NEVER won the silly little class contests, EVER. so that felt really good. 

as for the smaller goals, ive done some of the remaining jamberry training, and james and i have talked about our house project list, and im pretty sure i know what were doing for his birthday, BUT, i think the main priority for this week is to figure out some kind of "work hours" schedule for me to use on weekdays. 

what did you do over the weekend? what are your plans for the upcoming week?