Christmas Comes But Once a Year

Note: This is not my family. Just a family Google provided for me. I would

feel bad using them if it wasn't for their adorable children. Good job, Google Family!

If there's one thing that Etsy seems to do best, it's reminding you of the impending holidays months before they actually occur. Halloween? You're too late! Christmas? Should have been preparing in July! And though I'd usually rather just laugh and shake my head at these overzealous people, I can't help but think there's some granule of truth in their flailing and fear-mongering. So, I thought, maybe it's not too early to start thinking about Christmas. And so, despite my dislike of Christmas merchandise appearing in stores before Halloween has even come along, I've done it. Four Christmas cards are now in stock in my Etsy store, and I'm sure they'll be joined in no time by some other designs. Feel free to blame me as well as Costco from the Christmas carols you're sure to hear in stores soon enough.

The only thing I'm not sure about is what sort of designs are popular for people? I know the photo Christmas card is a big thing with families, but what about simpler designs? Would people buy printable cards that they can fold themselves? I may have to try a few designs out and just list them. You never know who will buy what, right? Maybe that's what I need realise. And not second guess myself.

What are your thoughts? Do most people like the fancy photo cards? Or prefer the simple, elegant designs that bear a simple 'Merry Christmas' with stylized mittens? It's so hard to decide!

Hang Me Up to Dry

So, I'm still plugging along with this whole Etsy thing. It's taking a surprising amount of work to keep my shop relevant and to keep my views up, but it's better than sitting around doing nothing I suppose. Also, I'd really like to be able to see who's viewing all my stuff. Because if it's only family members checking my page every day I'm going to be severely annoyed. You're messing with my stats, people!

Another side note, I'm actually impressed with myself and my ability to create. My listings went from eight invites to a whopping 29 in a little over a week and I'm really excited! Getting the drawing tablet helped, since now instead of scouring the internet for free vector images I can draw my own. Definitely a benefit. Even if I didn't want to buy it for myself originally.

Social networking is the awful thing though, I'm coming to realize. Maybe it's the fact I hate talking about myself or promoting myself in any way, but I just feel incredibly awkward about it all. In my mind nobody cares, so why should I post about it. But I need to get over it if I actually want to go anywhere with this whole invite business thing. Twitter and Facebook need to be my allies instead of my enemies, but let me tell you I'm struggling with it. Twitter more so. Have you ever used it? It's kind of the most narcissistic and ridiculous thing in the world. But I digress.

Here's the links to the various social media I've entered into. Feel free to like, tweet, follow, or whatever it is the cool kids do. Which is apparently not a whole lot if people are actually able to keep up with all these things.

https://twitter.com/doodledew
http://www.facebook.com/DoodleDewDesigns
http://wanelo.com/doodledew

And feel free to check out my shop yet again. There's a bunch of new things hanging around and I'm always updating it. Sometimes once a day even. Crazy, right? Also, buying things would be nice. You know, if you feel like it.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/doodledewdesigns