Two Down, One to Go

Got my two orders done and out the door.  Thanks again, Evergreen State College and Snoozy's Bookstore - hope you like them!  Now starting to work on a replacement order for Western Washington University.  Since I won't actually get paid for these I'm feeling slightly less motivated, but I've decided to make them now and list them on etsy to see if I can get more money for them and also introduce my new design - whatever sells I'll replace, whatever doesn't sell by early September, I'll send on to WWU.

I'm liking my new design very much and am quite pleased with my first two orders.  I need more preparation of my materials, especially lining and padding, but otherwise the process seems to be pretty fast.  The padding is posing some problems - sometimes the tablet/netbook sleeves are a bit snug, and I have issues ensuring that all the layers are sewn together.  Nevertheless, I think this process is going to work well and be profitable.

One of my favorites

Had an interesting convo from American University about 200-300 passport covers.  They're looking for "green" covers that are, indeed, green, embroidered with a globe or their own logo.  I have the feeling that they sent the same message out to several etsians - which would be intelligent - so who knows if I've got a shot at this or not.  Honestly, it would be a kind of boring project but nicely lucrative and what a great school to have as a customer.

Globe proposal

Status Update

With a lot of my focus on Oberlin and the house recently, I haven't kept up with the blog.  So, current status:

1.  Sandwich bags - "Dropped by" the Sandy Springs Whole Foods today to see what was going on with my vendor app.  Was able to talk face-to-face with Tatjana, who said that the regional grocery coordinator now had the application in hand; her part is finished.  It's confusing because Mary in the Duluth store said that they had the authority to add certain items themselves, and that's the impression I had from Susan as well, who declined to take these on at the regional level.  Anyway, I will soon have a contact name and email and can follow up with him directly.

2.  Wine bags - Had a nice order from Hafner based on the listing I sent him showcasing his wine.  Also had a retail order today from one of my networking colleagues.  Nevertheless, I think I need to review the construction process to see if I can't get the time down a bit; I had a lot of pushback on the price point.  Then I need to continue to expand the sales effort.  Cook's Warehouse/Sherlock's (I think that was the name) was suggested this morning.

3.  Sleeves - I like the streamlined design and think the price can't be beat.  Just need to have a few more samples and rework my catalog.

These are all projects for next week as I'm leaving for Cuba tomorrow, returning next Wednesday evening.  And they all take a back seat to cleaning up my workroom which is an absolute disaster.  (Not to mention the guest bedroom next door - thank you, Sunny.)