A Story.

So. (Giveaway going on below, dont miss it :)
Let me just say, i think i have some really good karma or something. Ive talked about how awesome the featured sellerdom was and how things have just kinda been going my way. bla bla bla
Yesterday morning i finally got caught up on my big rush of orders, i have only a few left to go that were placed after the rush.

Upon realizing that i was almost caught up, i started to think, after i get all this done, whats next? what do i do now? my etsy shop isnt getting any action because my pricing is so high now. wah wah wah, mini freakout, you know what i mean.
About an hour or so later i get a phone call from this lovely lady i met back in may at a festival i was vending at. She had come into my booth a few times and said that she worked with designers in LA and she could help me get started, and that she really loved my stuff. I thought that was cool, but ive learned to never ever ever believe people that say they are going to do this and that for me, bla bla bla.

So i didnt hear from her for quite a few months, when she finally called me last month she invited me to participate in a wholesale green market in downtown LA that cost roughly $4000 a booth. Of course i told her i cant afford that, MAYBE next year. psh.
ANYWAY. she called me yesterday and said that they had decided to give me a booth for free, in exchange for an art installation. WHAT?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
So let me get this straight, not only are you giving me a booth, but your putting me in the spotlight!? SWEET.

let me give you a little back round on these so called markets. Markets, particularly in downtown LA, go on for and where from 3 days to a week. basically, retailers from all over the country fly in to come to these markets to shop for their inventory.
This particular market is a"green" market. AWESOME.

The universe continues to love me....... Amazing

Holllllllla World!

Hello everyone! the hits on my blog today are off the charts! Etsy is having issues uploading my pictures to the featured seller article so i figured ill go ahead and put them here. Ya know, their "working on it".

Thank you every one for all of your kind words and for all the love i am getting. its awesome!!!!!

WOW!!! what a week

So i have a story to tell, these past few weeks have been crazy!

last week i posted the announcement on my etsy page about my price hike taking place on the first. Let me just say WOAH! the response was incredible! I have been flooded with orders and i am still working as fast as i can to get them all out. What an amazing little trip that was.

So anyway monday the 1st rolled around and the time had come. I felt very uneasy about the price hike, as i have been all along, but even more so because i haven't actually had any wholesale orders yet. that was the whole point! But i set that deadline for myself in hopes it would push me to a new level and so i had to stick with it.

So at midnight i went into my shop and reluctantly started changing all my prices..........

Tuesday i went to work and felt a little down, thinking to myself, gee i wonder when ill even open my order book again. A few hours pass and i get this text message from my email service that said "Etsy conversation from adam B" and im thinking gee thats weird there aren't too many dudes on etsy, i wonder if it is someone interested in wholesale. sweet. so i log into etsy and what do i see?.......????????

THIS:

by adam

Hi,

I think your work is fresh, and I would like to make you Featured Seller on Monday, September 8. Please answer the following questions, prepare your store as you see fit, and send me one or two images of you in your workspace by Friday afternoon (September 5).

We will put your interview up around 1:00 pm (NY Time).

Please let me know that you are interested with a quick convo.

Thanks and Congratulations,

Adam

1. Tell us a bit about yourself (name, location, affiliations, personal stuff).

2. Apart from creating things, what do you do?

3. What first made you want to become an artist?

4. Please describe your creative process (how, when, materials, etc).

5. What handmade possession do you most cherish?

6. Name your top five books, movies, songs/musical groups, and websites (besides Etsy).

7. What advice would you give to artists who are new to Etsy?

8. What are your favorite features on Etsy? What new features would you like to see?

9. How do you promote your work?

10. In ten years I'd like to be...

WHAAAATTTTTT!????

END OF STORY.... UNBELIEVABLE

Thinkin Big

So i went on vacation, which was awesome. until that silly hurricane fay rolled through florida. The darn thing couldn't decide where it wanted to go and ended up broad siding lil ol florida 3 times. thats right 3 times. Pretty crazy if you ask me!

I will say that we did have a good time. i just love the beaches there. the beaches in florida are way more "user friendly" than these rocky freezing cold cliffs you call the beach here in california. Dont get me wrong california beaches are beautiful and all but there is some thing really nice about not having to pay $20 to park and then when you get down there, you better have brought your sweat shirt, or a wetsuit.....

So anyway, enough about that.

a few new things going on......

New Hi Tree keychains! woot! available in my etsy shop as of today....

i personally think they are pretty darn cute.

also, on september 1st im hiking up my prices so i can start selling wholesale with out going broke ;)

im a little freaked out over this and pretty excited at the same time. im hoping it will open some new doors for me. sooo if you know anyone with a cute shop that might like to sling some trees for me, pass the word along! i officially have a wholesale price list. lets hope all goes smoothly and it was a good decision.

cliff notes version: if you have been wanting a tree, get it now! before september 1st, because if you wait it will cost you a $100 rather that $60.

Hey! check this out! while i was back at home in j-ville, i met my NEW BABY BROTHER for the first time. WHATTT??!! yeah your tellin me. im 27 years old and i have a new baby brother, some ones parental unit has lost their mind. ehhem dad.

here he is

My brother and i coined the fabulous name of "baby uncle" since my daughter is a full 3 and one half years older than her little baby uncle.

My life is so interesting.

Mushrooms

Typically speaking, when i make something new i get all excited and post it up right away, but this time is different. In my hi tree beginnings post i wrote about how the more i work on something the better it gets. So this time around i decided to take my own advise and keep all of the new dudes to myself until i had made quite a few of them. It is still a work in progress, i have definitely worked out a few design flaws but i think there is still a ways to go before im 100% happy with them. but here they are.

The funny thing is, i dont even know what to do with them. I think im going to somehow incorporate them into two installations i am doing later this year.

Pre hi tree hi tree

I love to make purses, I really do. But at the same time i hate making purses. I know what your thinking, your thinking " I totally know what you mean tina". yeah, you know why I love hate making purses? They take FOREVER to make, but... the finished product is so fun. I pretty much gave up purse making 2 years ago, I just couldn't take it any more. Maybe someday soon ill hop back on the wagon, but until then here is what went down before i made myself crazy.

This one is my favorite. It actually turned out to be a really great investment of time. Being the purse whore that I am this one tied me over for good, I have carried this big fat juicy thing with me every day for the last two years. Which translates to hundreds of dollars i saved because i wasn't buying every purse i liked. This will have to be pried from my cold dead hands. It has something like 500 pockets.

I know, that you know, you love it.

Next we have the first tree purse ever.

And then there was this one.

Soooo there you have it. I have a few more but ill save those for later, I like mystery. its fun. Besides I don't want to take to much of your time, I know your just reading this because you are procrastinating on something you should be doing right now.

hi tree beginings

I love the process of making things over and over and over again. Every time I sit down to make the same thing it just gets better. The creative process never ceases to amaze me. Even when I feel like I cant come up with new ideas, I know I can improve on old ones. I think every creative person should make recreating part of their crafty time. Dont get me wrong, sometimes making the same thing countless times can make me crazy, but I think it has to be done and one day that thing (or tree in my case) will be exactly how you envisioned it.

so I thought I would share some pictures of the first Hi Trees :)

This was the original, first ever made Hi Mr. Oak Tree.

Here is the current Mr. Oak Tree, what an improvement!

And here is the first Mr. Cypress Tree, which is actually the first tree i ever made, he started all this tree madness.

And the new and improved Cypress Tree

So there you have it, this all happened over a period of 3 years. So if you are ever feeling the creators block, have at some of your old stuff, ask people what they think, gather ideas and keep on truckin. Just dont give up!