Well I have definitely been thinking lately about this new Etsy business I have started. I originally started an Etsy store about a month and a half ago selling headbands I had sewn. That was fun. Then I started coming across vintage scarves at my favorite thrift store and became obsessed with them. So I added them to my headband Etsy store. Then I discovered 'shabby chic' decor, and decided I could do that too! Well, thats my personality. Taking on a lot of things at once. Maybe that's why I am so unproductive? Hmmm. Anyways, I have loved thrift store shopping and garage saleing (is that even a word, lol?) for about 5 years now....sooo I decided one night (or was it a morning, like at 2:30 a.m. maybe?) that I would jump head first into selling vintage, antique, and shabby cottage chic items in a different Etsy store. Yes, I decided this by myself, sitting in front of my computer while the rest of the house was asleep. Heh. I got so excited about this new prospect that I opened my store right then and there, only posting one item in it. But I just had to-I couldn't control myself. I was too excited about the possibilities. Oh how my mind formed all these ideas...ideas of things that I could buy from thrift stores and garage sales and turn into shabby chic decor. All the shopping I could do, trying to find the perfect vintage items and antiques for my Etsy store.
After initially opening my new Etsy store, VintageChicFinds, my other store, byJessiK started to suffer. Not as many page views...I stopped logging onto it every hour to check my stats...and now I only look at it once a day, to check and see if maybe...just maybe by some wierd act of luck or something that someone somewhere might have purchased one of my sewn headbands that I used to be obsessed with. Still hasn't happened. Don't worry, I know why. Because I have neglected it. To pursue my new goal of growing VintageChicFinds into an awesome online money making fun Etsy business of my own. Whew! My dreams are always so big, lol...
Well here I am almost 2 weeks after opening VintageChicFinds, and...I can proudly say that I have sold 1 item! Yay! Go me. Go me. Go me. Wait,.....don't get too proud of yourself, vintage chic. Its only ONE item. And that's why I didn't get too excited about that sale. Still scared silly in the back of my mind that my first ever customer on Etsy is going to give me a bad review or try to return the item. I have no real reason for thinking this, its just that I am secretly scared! I'm not gonna lie. I am scared. I am also scared that I am possibly turning into a hoarder of 'things'. I am just waiting for my husband to put a stop to this madness...! Every night, when I go to bed, I think for sometimes hours of how I can grow my Etsy business. How I make it prosper, how I can make it better, make it successful. These things go through my head, making it hard for me to sleep sometimes! And the nights that I am not thinking about that, I am dreaming of my next shopping trip to my favorite thrift store (which is 25 mins away, btw) or what garage sales I am gonna hit up that weekend.
And let me just tell you about my 'craft' / 'storage' /'business office' room....heh. Its actually SUPPOSED to be a dining room, but....yeah. Its not anymore. Vintage items have magically taken over the shelves, table tops, and even parts of the floor...and its only going to get worse.
Yeah, some of the items in those pictures are not exactly 'vintage', lol...like the diapers. But you get an idea of how small by house is quickly becoming!
Sometimes I get so excited over going shopping for treasures that I feel guilty...like I am doing something wrong! Is that normal? I feel like the thrift store people are going to kick me out...haha. Actually, that HAS almost happened. But not because I did anything wrong...unless you consider shopping till 5:59 wrong, when the store closes at 6:00. ;p Anyways, as this stuff begins to take over my dining room, my house, and what seems like my life, my fears sometimes surface, telling me that I am becoming like my grandparents. My wonderful grandparents who I love and respect very much. But lets just be honest...they are hoarders. Of anything and everything. Mainly antiques, and 'junk' as my mother likes to call it. All of the children are secretly wondering what they are going to do with all of the 'junk' when the grandparents pass. My Mom said she thought about packing it up, bringing it to the funeral home, and at the wake handing everyone an item and saying, "They wanted you to have this,". LOL! Now that is funny, I don't care who you are. Speaking of my grandparents, I am going to visit them this weekend. At their hoarding house. And as I have been researching the worth of certain items, I can recall plenty of 'junk' that they own that would fetch a good price from collectors, or on Etsy or Ebay. So I am thinking of making some sort of 'deal' with my Grandpa...heh. We will see. I will save that for another blog post though, lol.
All in all, I want to be successful. I am determined to be successful. Failure is not an option. But I must admit...in the back of my mind I am secretly scared and wondering....."What on God's green beautiful earth am I going to do wit all of this 'stuff' if my Etsy store fails?" But I must not let this thought have dominion over me! I am determined to succeed. Anyways, that's all my blabbing for today!! Wonder if anyone else has ever felt this way...hmmm.
