New Year's Resolutions

I'm not normally the type of person who makes resolutions, in part because I know I'm unlikely to keep them no matter how hard I try. For example, last year I broke with tradition and resolved to drink more water and take a multivitamin every day. That lasted up until the move to Ohio, which means about three months. The resolution did a marked nosedive after that, to the point where my bottle of vitamins has a layer of dust on the top.

But New Year's is as good a time as any to reflect on what I want to happen in the coming year, especially as I close out my Lazy Mama accounting for 2007 and plan for 2008. Another etsy seller suggested that we each list five things we plan to do to improve our sales in the coming year, which sounded like a good place to start.

I started brainstorming last night before bed (because all of my best thinking happens shortly before midnight), and when I came to bed I asked my husband the Innovative Thinker to come up with three ideas to add to my list. His first comment was, well, what do you want to be doing this time next year? Are you happy making a few things and a few patterns and you don't care about profit as long as you break even, or do you want to teach, or do you want to write books, or what?

That is a very good question, and it's one I hadn't really bothered to answer myself. When I started selling my patterns early this year, I sort of had the idea that it was a way to feel like I had a purpose beyond scrubbing applesauce off the wall and telling my daughter "no" 1000 times a day. Write a few patterns, see if anyone wants them, and see where it goes from there.

I have sold my patterns in California, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, and Kentucky, in person as well as through my etsy site. I have a fairly steady stream of traffic to the blog and a growing mailing list of current and prospective customers. I've sold my handmade items on etsy and have started to offer them via bricks-and-mortar stores, as well. I've joined forces with other Cleveland etsy sellers to do some joint marketing and support each other, meeting some wonderful ladies as a result. I've been having a blast, but I think my husband is right - I've reached the point where I need to actually plot a course for Lazy Mama beyond "I feel like selling tote bag patterns this week."

I'm still sketching out the bare bones of where I want to go, but I think I'm making progress. I'll save you from having to read the crappy original versions of my plan ("Um, I want to be Eleanor Burns, only without the divorce,"), waiting to make it public until I've got something that looks good and makes sense - which hopefully will be soon!

In the meantime, here's a great big "Thank you!" to all of you, regulars and first-time readers alike. You've given me a lot of support this year, both financial and psychological, and I really appreciate it. I'm wishing all of you a happy, healthy, prosperous, and above all CRAFTY new year!