The Cozy of the Day is a cup sleeve that I pick to be discounted.
Today it is this cute Christmas cozy. I have about three of these left so get them while you can!
Cozy of the Day! $5
https://www.etsy.com/listing/86197917/coffee-cup-cozy-coffee-cup-sleeve-fabric
See you later,
Karen
This beautiful blanket has been finished for quite awhile. I have some great photos to share of it as our oldest son had time in his busy schedule to take some photos for me. It is beautiful shades of grey and purple. The colors vary from deep purple to magenta.
Just gorgeous and 54″ square. A perfect size for a throw on the couch. You can find it in the ChocolateDogStudio etsy shop. The pattern is also available on Craftsy and Etsy so you can make your own.
Talk to you later,
Karen
It’s the beginning of November, what are your business goals for the month?
What is it you want to accomplish? I have been wondering that every month so far this year. I have been setting vague sales goals on a post it note. The post it note is a program that came with this computer when I bought it. I love the post it note program but my family hates it. (Please forgive any un-techinical terms or if I use the wrong techie vocabulary, I am not a tech geek.) Â When my computer boots up all the way it looks like this….
Yes, I did add some post it notes to cover up some vital information, but I usually have about 10+ post it notes up on my computer at any one time. I was keeping my sales goal on a post it note. Along with other household notes, phone numbers, home repair checklists, and a running list of completed projects for my peace of mind.
I realized this year that I needed to start setting goals or I would never really get this business of the ground. So, I started tracking sales for the past three years for each month and then setting goals based on those numbers.
I found this great short article:Â http://www.notredameonline.com/setting-business-goals/
“ It’s important to set clear goals; you should know exactly where you want to go and you should not waiver from your target regardless of failures along the way. Be as specific as possible, so you are able to determine when you’ve reached your goal.”
I knew this was important and back in March, when I started really tracking the sales of the business and where the sales were heading.
Here were the unspecific goals:
The goals are pretty clear but still a little foggy and they leave a lot of room for interpretation. Reading this article by Notre Dame has really focused my vision. There are habits that I need to develop that will give my business a boost.
“Make sure your goal is worth your effort.”
What is the purpose of my business? Why does it exist? Tough questions to answer. My business started like most home businesses as an effort to ease the family budget in tough times. It is time, however, to decide if it is to continue as a sideline venture or does it need a re-interpretation. Since the business started in 2008 many things have changed. Our family is restructuring as kids are leaving the nest, getting married, going to college or tech school. The marketplace has changed drastically. Items that were selling are not selling as quickly, so some restructuring of the shop needs to happen. I am having more free time and less free time all at the same time. So the bottom line here is what is the purpose of my business?
2.  “Define your end goal and create a road map for exactly how you’re going to reach your goal. “
I am still working on defining this goal and I have it in mind. You will forgive me if I am not quite ready to share that goal with the world. I need to make a more focused goal listing and probably not put it on post it notes on my laptop. I need a written quantifiable business plan. This means that I need to be able to measure my success at following the plan. Like a runner tracks his time for the mile, I need to be able to see that I am making progress.
Here is a goal that I’ve me in the past three days!
“3. Commit to your Goals
Seeing the progress written down on paper will help me to realize when I am off track. Flylady.com does this with her cleaning methods. You have a daily to do list that varies by the day of the week that rotates some chores daily, weekly and monthly. She also has blessing days where you take care of yourself. I need to set some rewards at the end of my goals. Simply saying “I will pay more down on such and such bill” isn’t much of a reward. Knowing how I work, I will need a daily, weekly and month goal to keep myself on track. I am wearing (like all women) about 7 different hats. Four of these hats are more important than any job, career or goal that I might have. These are my faith, my husband, my family and keeping the house running. Letting any of these  slip lower on my priority list affects my creativity and also my productivity. These four things are more important to me than making money or creating anything.
Action: I will set 12 rewards for myself and my business for reaching goals. One goal for each month. I will also set faith, family and house goals. This will help me keep work in its place, though inspiration waits for no one.
Maybe some new styles and colors of yarn!
4.Make your Goals PublicÂ
An extremely effective technique for achieving business goals is making them public. Invite a team or even a single person into your plan; you’ll face accountability which can be very motivating. Once you share your goals with someone, you can determine what sort of involvement they will have with your plan. Will you ask them to check in with you every so often or not? What their role entails is up to you.
I share my business goals with my husband. He has a good business head and we are opposites. He is not emotionally invested in my business like I am and will give good, truthful advice. I also often get advice from my Mom. She gives great construction and sewing advice that I don’t always want to hear. She is an expert seamstress  with many years of experience. I also get good business advice from a close high school friend that is personally involved in the sewing industry and has been since college.
Writing a pattern for this blanket is one of my goals this week.
5. Set deadlines for your goals.
This I haven’t been doing at all. My goals tend to be too emotional and totally dependent on everything from the weather (photography, arthritis), health (running errands etc..) and everything else. So I need to set a daily schedule and treat work like work and home like home but maybe not for 8 hours a day. We are still homeschooling so I need to break my day down into smaller time bites and there is nothing wrong with setting an alternate goal for the “in case of” situations that happen. When I was teaching art I had a folder of a weeks worth of work that any substitute could assign. I need a list of things to do for the “in case of” times.
Action:
1. Make a list of things for the “in case of ” situations that happen for business and home.
2. Make Freezer meals as it frees up valuable time and makes life easier for everyone and keeps us on budget.
Somehow, I think these two things will free up valuable time.
Reward Yourself
I need to remember to have fun! I need to do things that are fun as a family, as a couple, with friends and by myself. I tend to get rather driven and forget to have fun. This is a sure way of burning out in all areas of our lives. Do the things that add a sparkle to your life! When I figure what this is, I will let you know!
Talk to you later,
Karen
Here it is! I started this earlier this week. I am so excited.
The Serape Style Blanket..
It is 43″ x 49″ approximately. The edging is a simple picot edge.
There you go another ChocolateDogStudio blanket. It is for sale in the Etsy shop with the pattern soon to follow. The colors seemed to fly onto the blanket by themselves and it was finished up super quick.
Talk to you later,
Karen
We had a busy weekend as we took a weekend drive last week.We headed down to Longview, Texas for a college visit and a visit to our college girl. She was too busy to come home for her Fall break and I haven’t seen her since August. Our youngest son wanted to visit the school and see what he thought about it. The good news for us is he is done visiting colleges. Now we just need to get him prepped and finished with his high school coursework.
It was a long drive and I had my foot up for most of it on the way down. The back seat of the car looked like this.
  
A mixed up mess of yarn and yarn bags. I got quite a bit of inspirational work done and played with some bits and pieces.
These colors make me happy. I am even happier with the border and the size they will be when they are finished.
The campus is beautiful and restful. I had quite a bit of time off and it was nice to sit and think. I didn’t walk much but it was nice and restful. I love the big pine trees on the campus. I think I will save the inspirational  photos for another day.
talk to you later,
Karen
Are you feeling a bit stressed lately. I know I have, I have been a bit frustrated the past month or two.  I could list my frustrations out but I think it is counter productive. I have been listing them over and over and then expecting them to go away. Since doing the same thing repetitively and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. I have finally decided to list out ways to overcome frustration. The first step is to decide which frustrations I can personally change and which I have absolutely no influence over.
Frustration seems to come from a feeling of lack of control. Its root is either anger or fear. I have been feeling both emotions in abundance lately. So rather than take you into the dark places that I have been travelling lately. I am going to walk us through an exercise of how to overcome.
Remember that frustration is born of wanting things or people to be a certain way that is fixed in your head. Your expectations of others and of how the world works is formed over many years of experiences and sometimes your personal overlay is defective; it might have been a source of self-protection once but when it continues to advise you poorly for future experiences, then it is stuck in time, and generally plain wrong. When you cease to expect other people to act in a certain way, when you start to look at the world with fresh eyes again and expect nothing apart from the fact that you are a member of a community of individuals and a world of many happenings, then you start to realize that things happen, people are the way that they are, and most importantly of all, how you react matters.
http://www.wikihow.com/Cope-With-Frustration
Ok, so my frustration is born out of the expectation that the surgery I just had would give me greater mobility, not less. Is there anything I personally can do to change this mobility issue? What would help me?
1. Exercise (which in itself is frustrating as all the written information talks about going for a walk!) Are there other types of exercise that I can do? Yes, I can start swimming, even though it means that I will swim differently now. I can also do Pilates which requires nothing more than a clear space and a tv.
2. Clearing your mind (I don’t know what I think about this. People with clear minds often have empty minds devoid of creativity) I think they mean that you stop thinking about what you can’t do and instead focus on what you can do! Like a camera that can take close up photos. If I focus on the things I can’t do then I forget all of the things that I can do. I am a firm believer that things happen for a reason, which I may never know. It is our choice to either allow that “thing” to destroy or refine us.
3. Change how I react to what I can and can’t do
http://www.bitrebels.com/lifestyle/10-tips-to-overcome-frustration/
Frustration usually occurs when our intended personal goals and dreams are not met. We may feel frustrated when an outcome of what we wanted to happen simply did not happen, or when we meet challenges. There are so many things that can cause us to be frustrated. Some people act on that feeling, while others do not. More often than not, the cause of our frustrations can be attributed to external forces that we do not have control over. It can be triggered by a situation like a gadget not working, or even by another person. Frustration can block us from feeling motivated. We can react by trying to solve what is causing the frustration, or we can just simply give up.
4. Giving up is not an option. I am not a quitter. I do not give up. I am as my Mom says a fighter. She says I have courage, actually, I am too afraid not to take the next step. I tend to do what I can to keep from thinking about what is happening or going on around me. Pain refines and challenges every aspect of our lives and frankly I would rather have the physical pain rather than emotional pain. Time doesn’t dull pain acceptance does. We allow the paint to infiltrate and diffuse into every part of our lives until it has been with us so long that we have a hard time even recognizing it. Until it is gone, well and truly gone. Â Then only by concentrating do we see that there is pain and that something needs to be done.
I had a long talk with a long time friend last night. We had both had amazingly frustrating weeks and it was nice to talk to someone and get a different point of view on things. She helped me immensely. It was nice to be able to say what has been on my mind and have someone remind me that things really are better than I think. I think I was able to do the same thing and encourage her to look past her frustrations. So, my last piece of advice would be to find a close friend and really talk to them about your frustrations, if you can. We don’t often share like we did last night but it really helped to talk about our fears and get them out in the open. Fear really doesn’t like the light of day and sharing about your fears often makes them go away. Remember that there is a difference between sharing and whining!
The photos are of some new blankets that I started this past weekend. They are beautiful and I can’t wait to share the finished patterns and product in the shop! The pink and brown one is already for sale in the shop and I love this close up of the border. Â You can find it here:Â https://www.etsy.com/listing/165023172/blanket-crochet-granny-square-baby
Talk to you later,
Karen
p.s. I am also assuming that you have already prayed about your frustrations.
Hi all,
I finally released a new pattern out into the world. Rather, it is an old pattern that is simply written down for you. It is for sale in my Etsy shop. www.chocolatedogstudio.etsy.com
Here  are the photos of the crochet blankets you can make with this pattern.
It is a great pattern that teaches you how to make your own blanket. You can take this pattern and make it any size you would like.  Use up your leftover scrap yarns and  have a beautiful blanket at the end of your project.
Here is a direct link to Etsy and Craftsy:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/163532020/crochet-ripple-blanket-pattern
http://www.craftsy.com/user/340454/pattern-store
The price is the same at either shop!
See you later,
I must run as I feel that I am really late today!
Karen
Ok, I recently read this article that was on my facebook feed. I am a bit ambivalent about this article after all it hits pretty close to home, cough…cough. I miss the dates on being born in the 70’s by just a bit. So, some of it applies to my generation.
Here is a direct quote from the article and the article links in case you would like to know why a large proportion of us are unhappy!
It’s pretty straightforward — when the reality of someone’s life is better than they had expected, they’re happy. When reality turns out to be worse than the expectations, they’re unhappy.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wait-but-why/generation-y-unhappy_b_3930620.html
I get this article, really I do. It states (unless I misunderstood it) that generations of people born after 1970 expect to have life easy. They expect to not have to work as hard to achieve their ideal job. I kind of agree. I was born right on the end of that baby boom wave in 1966. So I received some of the self esteem training in school that later blossomed into everyone deserves an award no matter how they do. I remember when only the truly gifted or truly athletic received an award. We have four kids and have sat through multiple awards assemblies where kids received awards from being the brightest to being the best with the pencil sharpener…or something similar. I digress…my point is this. How does this attitude affect or infect your small business? It is a rather entitlement attitude that the first time you do anything should be  met with great applause and recognition.
A family quilt from the depression generation. Use up waste not, want not was their motto.
How was your first creation received? I mean the one you created for pay that was not a custom order, not family or a friend.. Honestly, what did it look like? Was it worth the price you were asking someone to pay? Would you buy it…if you couldn’t make it…..Would you buy it? Would I have bought my first listing? Not so much, it was well made but not in my taste? Why was I making things that I didn’t like? Who knows? I really have no idea, except that I thought that they would sell. They were well made and with quality materials, so there was no reason they shouldn’t have sold. looking back now Why didn’t they sell….because of the photos, tags, descriptions and not enough items in my shop, my SEO was crummy and the whole shop was incredibly hard to find with only five items.
One of my first sales and listings and crummy photograph…
I admit I was naive and thought that simply posting it on Etsy was good enough. The world would beat a path to my door. Instead, I found myself on Regretsy for some of my photos (Another don’t ask and I won’t shock you with the really bad photos). I still struggle with photography. I pay for photos for my Etsy shop. Many people don’t but I have an in with the photographer… he is our son. I pay and feed him for his work.
He does an incredible job.
What I am trying to say is that a business….any business is HARD work. It will take time for it to grow and provide income. My business has been around for five years. I have wanted to throw in the towel and quit at least once a year for the past five years and five years is not a very long time in the scheme of things. Most small businesses fail in the first five years. I have learned a bunch and I am still learning. Some of it is this entitlement attitude that I am overcoming and some of it is just the plain ole learning curve (as my husband calls it.) It just takes TIME to get a business off the ground and to start making $$. I make mistakes and learn from them and sometimes they are expensive mistakes (like the time I shipped a card to Malaysia for $35, don’t ask why) and sometimes they aren’t.
What advice would you give a new online shop? What mistakes have made that you learned from? What would you do different?
Talk to you later,
Karen
p.s.
I am going to step off my soap box and say this about that article. I don’t think that many kids born between 1990 and present have had it quite as easy as the article states. Many have seen their parents loose their jobs, homes, cars and possessions. I think many of them have learned to work hard and that hard work pays. I have great hope for the future generations as I see our kids and their friends work hard to achieve what they want in life. I do not see the entitlement attitude as much as I did in my post college years. We expected to have everything all at once. I see them starting savings accounts and waiting to buy what they want. So, maybe they did learn from our mistakes. If they did then it was almost worth it.
So, yesterday I asked if you are afraid. What I was really asking was  “Am I afraid?” Yes, incredibly, horribly afraid. I am afraid that I write to a black hole, that people will laugh, and the big one that NO ONE will buy any of the blankets I make. Does it really matter if no one buys any of these blankets? Will I stop crocheting them if no one buys them?
No, I have this compulsion. It makes it easier because I love crocheting them. The activity of creating, the anticipation of the moment when I will be able to sit down and work on them. The choices of the yarns and fibers for the finished product. The moment when they are approaching the finish line. The Ta Da moment when I lay it out in front of one of the few whose opinion I greatly value; my cheerleaders , my family and…. boy, are they biased and I love it! Then I approach you; my internet friends and post it on the blog, facebook, ravelry and then at last on the final judgment stand; the marketplace. I love all the feedback but mostly  I love the feel of the yarn, the colors, how it comes together and winds up being something warm and cozy. I like to think about who will use it and to pray that they have great memories while using the blanket. The prayers woven into each and every blanket are for peace, for love, for the normal allotment of sorrows and joys, for friends to comfort and to celebrate, for brief moments of pain without which we wouldn’t know the mountain tops of joy and achievements. Prayers that the blankets will cover tiny toes and laps for naps and stories, hugs and kisses. There is a whole lot of joy to get out of a simple crochet blanket.
I was a lot like Linus when I was little and I still feel a little like Linus from Peanuts. I guess I have never grown out of the need for a special blanket! I send my kids off to college or out into the world with one of a kind blankets. Sturdy ones that can handle the dorm washer and dryers, that can take abuse and dish out warmth, comfort and love. One that is a hug from me any time they need it. One that is bright and colorful to bring happiness and a touch of home to the dull dorm rooms.
So why should I be afraid of continuing to do what I love to do. Fear should have no place in this equation but it does because I am human. I hate being judged and found lacking. I fear because such a great part of my heart ends up being in each and every blanket I make.
Why do I sell the blankets that I make? Well, I have to admit that a family can only use a certain amount of blankets and why should I keep the joy as not everyone can crochet.
What are your reasons for crocheting or knitting? Why do you do what you do for a hobby or is it a business?
Talk to you later,
Karen
I read this article this morning as it scrolled past on my facebook feed. It hit a sore spot with me and I had to write. Anyway here is the article and then the quote that started all this introspection.
http://storylineblog.com/2013/09/11/if-youre-not-scared-youre-not-doing-it-right/
Steven Pressfield sums it up well in his groundbreaking work, The War of Art:
