Making Coasters.

Today I have been mostly making coasters and if I am honest I love them all. I can't sell them, they do not look good, bits of them aren't straight and some of them are simply rubbish. I still love them.

This is true for most of what has gone on or anywhere near Etsy, but I like my firsts the most.

These coasters are definitely firsts, I have never made a coaster before and I have never worked with this material and it's fab. I love new things, it can be anything from trying a new breakfast cereal to exploring a new country, I just love new things. They open up all sorts of ideas and pathways in life and suddenly my brain can't stop. The ideas just come with each new thing added to the mix. It is the days when my head is just bursting with ideas that I am at my happiest.

When I started the Etsy thing, I started writing them down, each idea, each pattern, product, new material and colour scheme. Oddly I really didn't find this a helpful thing to do, so I stopped. The list quickly turned into a 'to do' list and to have so much on it that I couldn't possibly achieve instantly, which is how I like to get things done, frustrated me. I found the amount of time I actually spent writing bored me to, I wanted to just do it. So now that's what I do.

I am currently working with plastic. Plastic bags to be precise. I am using the same simple procedure I have used for all of my rag rug type stuff, so it's really easy. I started by sorting through my plastic bags. At the moment I am only using the  ones that I wouldn't find another use for, the thin ones. I don't often re use these anyway so I kind of figured that at least I'm not wasting anything useful by experimenting.The thicker ones, of the bag for life ilk are being kept for use as packaging or errm as bags when required.

The plastic is so much quicker and easier to cut into strips than the fabric. The lack of mess is a dream, it is much nicer not to have to get the vacuum out every time I change colour. I am still cutting it into thin strips as I was with the fabric. My intention was to cut them into strips of approximately ten mil. If I am honest though this does mean, as with the rag rugs, that the strips in fact vary between still attached and about 35 mm wide depending on how much attention I am paying to what I am doing at the time.

The plastic squishes up really small, so I am using tiny needles. Well, the smallest I  have anyway. I'm not sure what size they are, and frankly I am too lazy to go and check, but I think they are about 2.5mil. I am in fact using sock needles which means I end up with a pink polka dot effect on my belly because they are pointed at both ends. The coasters aren't massively successful so far, but I am loving just playing around and daydreaming while I make them.

I find myself thinking about sourcing more plastic bags. I have all of my food delivered and so don't come across that many without trying. I love what this could mean for the future of onac, if I could make really good use of them. If we fast forward into my own little daydream a moment, we can see clearly the benefit of using plastic bags. In my dream, I am a physically fit female who does not have any nine to five commitments. I am living close to the majority of my friends and I can drive.

My daydream ideal day would involve something like, going to a friends to help them decorate/ hang wallpaper or whatever. Talking the talk, catching up, feeling the love and drinking lots of tea and hopefully decorating a room. At the end of the day, I have worked hard,  I am feeling good. My friend hopefully has had a good day too, and can now pay me for my efforts. My friends work hard too and often struggle to get the things that they want, How good would it be if I could use my skills to help them and they could pay me with their rubbish. Everyone has a huge useless pile of plastic bags in thier house somewhere, don't they? As long as I can find another way of turning that rubbish into money then it's win, win, win.

I win, my friends win, the customer wins, the bank manager wins and the planet wins.

I don't want to jump that far ahead though and keeping my feet on the ground is something that I need to be strict with myself on. It is easy to get excited about this as it is something that we both feel really strongly about. We want to be smarter and make much better use of our time, so we are finding ways everyday that we think might help us make it happen. Onac is a constant theme of conversation in our house at the moment. I like this because it is exciting and makes us feel good, but in many ways I would like to step back from the main prize and remain focussed on the journey, if that makes sense. After all, we have a long way to go.

With that in mind then there have been other sourcing thoughts. I am picturing taking trips to the local supermarkets where we just raid their recycling bins. That's just too easy though really. I am scared that you will think I'm crazy for this, but I am actually looking forward to the idea of rescuing them from the streets. I live just opposite a huge and rather lovely country park that is full of litter. How good would it be if I could help clean it up and pluck these bags from the trees?

Each bag would have it's own story. How good would it be if I could put fliers through my neighbours doors asking for them and make a friend or two out of it too. The best thing of all though would be to find a way of doing all of these things without the world thinking that I have gone more than a little bit bonkers.

Here are some pictures of what I have so far, Please let me know what you think.....

still on the way.

Running total so far £452.21
This will soon be winging it's way into my credit card. This makes me happy because it is such an obvious difference. Each time I see that figure decreasing it makes me smile. Every Penny that comes off my debt total is a penny closer to where I want to be.

I am much more chilled out lately, but then I have just spent pretty much two whole days in bed. I am not sick, or even particularly tired, I am just on holiday and so have indulged in some out and out laziness. This is very unusual  for me, so I am doing it in style.

Glenn has been working hard. He has started his new job and done two shifts, the second of which he made more in tips that he did in wages. So we got some treats, just wine and chocolate, but  they are nice things to have. He is currently running the car on a veg oil diesel mix too. Not really sure about the technicalities and the measurements, but it's all running fine and has made us some huge savings. He is earning and saving at the same time. This is a huge step in the right direction.

The shop has had more hearts and more views and I am trying to get my head around twitter and squidoo to get it promoted, but I'm not very technical so this may take a while.

All in all, I feel rested and happy, it makes a change from the last few days. I will get back on it soon though.

Have a great day. x

Running Total - this one's for me really.

More favourites and hearts, more money from ebay £52.51

Total so far £382.28

Not much more to report. All smiles though.

All is well.

Just a quick update.
Still no sales from the shop, but plenty of hearts and favourites and views. So in my opinion still going well.
My kitchen has been turned into some sort of weird science lab, lots of experimentation I hear, but the fuel project seems to be going well.
Change of tack with the money earned. Decided it was pointless keeping it in an account by itself when we have debts to pay so we are paying it directly into them and I'm going to use this blog to keep a running total of the earnings, more for myself than anything else.

total so far since 05.05. 11 = £329.77

more coming in daily from ebay and hopefully shortly from the tax man and maybe etsy, who knows.

Glenn has taken on a second job, this is a bit of a weird one because initially it appears to go against the no alarm clock theory and making our time more our own. In fact though, it is a really good thing. It  enables our debts to be cleared faster. which just generally speeds up the whole process. The quicker we can reduce our outgoings the sooner we can start comfortably earning less, or saving a deposit or whatever, so it's all steps in the right direction.

Non smoking was a fail, but there will be other ways to save and make money.

Lots of skill to be learned and projects to be embarked upon. I'm really looking forward to it.

I will update soon when I have more time, but for now I have a pressing need to relax and do nothing for a while, but simply watch some rubbish telly and enjoy the company of a man crazy enough to think that all of this is a good idea.

Focussing on the positive.

The positives -
We have nearly £300 in our onac account. It's been three and a half weeks. Now I know that this is not a wage or anywhere near it, but it is a jolly good start.
Ebay is going much better than expected, although I am not relying on this because eventually we will run out of stock. There are some things in our lives that we will need to keep. I am not very good at this though, deciding when to stop that is. I am much more used to the two back packs worth of stuff mentality that I have become used to of late. It is too tempting for me to sell it all, and stick to that, but I must remember that in amongst all of this we are trying to build a comfortable home and for that to a degree, we do need stuff. But it's working really well for now.

The shop is going well, still no sales yet though. Part of me is hugely disappointed by this, but more of me knows that this is just daft. Everyone on etsy will tell you that these things take months initially. You have to learn to be a clever shop keeper and manager to make sales. That is of course unless your products are outstanding in some way, which I know that mine aren't. They are beautiful, and I like them and enjoyed making them, but they are not in any way new ideas. I will get better at it though and I can see how much I am improving when I add each new product. I have had a lot of views, been added to two treasuries and have had seven people heart my shop and three or four people heart individual items. This to me, is fantastic. I have had good from friends and as much as this is nice, and I love them for it and am grateful, the fact that I have positive feedback from people I don't know and have never met, based on my products alone, really stokes me.

Driving is going well. Lesson two was good. Well good is not quite right, I can't say that I am enjoying it, because I am concentrating too much on all of the things that I have to learn to do so. I am feeling good afterwards though. It may seem ridiculous to people that drive everyday without thinking about it, but I am really proud of myself for getting all the way into third gear. I have booked lessons three, four and five. I am still unsure whether I will keep going with it, but for now, it seems ok.

My boyfriend has many projects of his own on the go too. I am really proud of him for working at them. He is in a band, a really good band and each week brings news of another gig. This is excellent news, the bands name is getting out there and hopefully will eventually mean that he can make some money from doing something that he loves, which is certainly no bad thing. He is also working on a fuel project, lots of potential savings available there. He has been looking at mobile guitar teaching and pimping out his electricianing skills too. They all have great potential.

He is also working on making an album of his own and making small steps all the time at creating his own business, Federal Promotions. Which not only has potential for him to make money, but for all of the bands he gets involved with to get a fair deal too. I really like his attitude to that and I hope it works for everyone involved.

More than that though, he has been invaluable in keeping me focussed. All of the above, as positive as it looks has been overshadowed greatly for me lately because I am not enjoying life all that much, I am incredibly tired and my job and life are stressful and hard. It is so nice to have a hand to hold though when it all feels like it's a little bit too much. He is really good at pointing out just what we've achieved and I need that right now. I am not going to go into the where's when's and how's of the difficulties that I am finding right now, for fear that they'll stop me in my tracks, but he hears them daily, and daily he keeps me seeing all of these tiny reasons to smile.

Feeling the Sunshine

Today is a much better day, or seems to have begun that way at least. After much pottering around the house, picking things up and putting them down again, sighing to myself and generally feeling out of sorts, I made a plan.

Today, I am allowing myself some kindness. I have read some and thought a little about what I would like to learn to make next. I have a million ideas, it's really hard to focus on just one or two. I will have to eventually though. I will just decide on one, and I guess, by the time I have finished that one, my ideas will have changed all over again and  I will just have to repeat the process. I keep having to remind myself that there is no rush, our plan is simply to explore our options, change one small thing each day, we have a good five years to play around with it. But none of this softly softly business is in my nature and that is my hardest lesson. I want it all and I want it now.

I have had a check of my ebay (http://www.etsy.com/shop/FearMe?ref=si_shop for those that are interested) this morning and we have sold two more items, three in total which has given us an income of £41.44. Now I know this is not a fortune or even a living, but it is a start. That is £8.28 a day so far, which impresses me as It's all stuff that I would have thrown away. It helps to have a geek around you sometimes.  The whole thing has made me feel a lot more positive.

Of course I couldn't resist a look at my etsy either and although I have made no further sales or received any more hearts, my views have increased by 18% since yesterday, so I am guessing that's not bad either.  I also finished a large rag rug yesterday that I have been working on for a while. I'm looking forward to getting that one into the shop, as well of course, as all of the other goodies that are sat here waiting.

There have been promises from G to make more effort with it, and so far he is still in bed. Not a good start, but today and only today it's forgiveable. I know something about today that he is yet to discover. Day two of being nicotine free can often be the worst and given the choice, I would choose to spend it in bed too. I guess being armed with all of this useful information is one of the only benefits of having tried it so many times. I am feeling much more positive as a rule and looking forward to seeing just what we can achieve today.

Not moving fast enough.

I am the most impatient person in the world.

We are not even a week into going live in my shop and although I have had loads of positive feedback, I am yet to make any sales or receive any genuine enquiries regarding sales. I am finding this increasingly frustrating, but have resolved to just stick at it, until at least everything in my back stocks is listed. I am also resisting the temptation to spam people massively. I have been a big spammer in the past and to do it again would be unforgiveable.  I am only going to invite my friends to view my shop either at a maximum of once a week, or when an event (maybe even a sale) occurs.

In other news, we have sold one item on ebay at £22.03 and another has reached it's reserve of £3.00.
not massively impressive in 5 days really. The whole ebay thing is not really going as well as I would like, largely because although I am working full time and working hard listing things on etsy as well as making new products and learning to drive and quitting smoking, G is not fulfilling  his side of the bargain. He promised he would list every day and has so far listed twice, he only works part time and so does not have much of an excuse.  I have massive concerns as to whether his natural lazyness will be the death of this whole venture. That might just be the lack of nicotine talking though. I guess time will tell.

Learning to drive is a big one for me and I am pleased to say that the first lesson went well and I am looking forward to the next one. I will keep you posted on how that goes. My biggest worry at the moment though is that if I really do like it and I do actually pass my test, how will I raise enough to buy a car and cover all of the costs that having one involves. Perhaps I should have thought of that first eh? I will work on it though.

The most recent baby step is making an attempt to quit smoking, daft I know, but one of the things about making the most of having a flexible income, is to have as few out goings as possible and smoking is an unnecessary one. I am not promising that I will stick to it, but today is day one and I'm willing to see how it goes.  Wish me and all of those that come into contact with me today, the best of luck. x

Patience.

I have none! This is a fact.

My Etsy store went live just a few minutes ago and I want feedback.

I say live, of course it was live from when I posted the first item a couple of days ago, to the outside world at least. I have just posted it onto my facebook account and that to me is the most nerve racking thing that I have done in a while.

Both my Boyfriend and my best friend have chosen to share it, but I am not counting that as true feedback. They are two of the most wonderful people in the world and I love and respect them more than I can say. I hope they feel the same about me. If they do, then of course they would repost it, but that is more about their relationship with me rather than how good or interesting my products are.

What I need is real feedback, from unknown people and if I am honest, I want it right now.

I have had a heart, which is similar to a 'like' from one seller, but I this is more about promoting her wares on my store than anything else. I have thanked her kindly though and done the same to her.

Come on people, start viewing and giving me your opinions.

I am going to log myself out of both for an hour and do some knitting to see what happens. This is a test of my will.......

Addicted to working.

This whole venture scares me a little, largely because I don't want people to think it's all because I'm lazy.  I'm not. I am in fact quite the opposite. I am addicted to working.

I need a purpose and a reason to get out of bed in the morning, otherwise I probably wouldn't. It really isn't that I don't want to work, because I do. I just want to be a bit more flexible about it and I want to be able to mark my days by doing something different and learning something new every day.

At the moment, I am very lucky because I do have a job that I love. I manage a youth hostel, I am quite new to it and probably at the moment, not very good. This is what I like most about it. It gives me a chance to test myself every day and break through my own boundaries very quickly. I know though, from having had many jobs like this, that eventually (hopefully) this won't always be the case and that there will come a day when I am no longer learning, but just repeating all of the things that I have done before and that is where I don't want to be.

I have worked full time, and a lot more at times when I have been running two or even three jobs, for half my life now. I am guilty of throwing most of my time and energy into work to the detriment of my friends and any social life I may have once had. I really want that back.

This is largely what onac (operation no alarm clock) is about for me. I want to be able to be a bit more flexible and I want to be able to choose what I do to make a living everyday, with a view to continually learning and developing my skills. I want to be able to work until 4 am if I choose to and to invite all of my friends to my work place when and however I want.

My intention at the moment is largely to do this, by being a bit crafty, hence the etsy store. I realise that nothing may come of it and the general take on etsy is that it could take months or years to sell anything, so this alone will not work. Also if I focused on this alone, I would quickly be stuck in a daily routine as before. I want to be constantly developing new skills everyday, that are firstly useful to me in life, secondly, useful to others and thirdly sellable. Allowing me to do what I want when I want and make enough to have a nice home.

I never want to be rich. Actually, maybe that's unfair, having never tried it, I wouldn't know. I just want enough money to live and to make my time feel like it's more my own. I want a nice house and I want to feel comfortable with the decisions I make on a daily basis. There are a million things I want to learn and I discover more each day. I hope to be able to share them all with you eventually and let you know how it goes. I only learned to knit in February and so far I have about 40 scarves and rugs to sell, if it goes nowhere, I had fun doing it and me and all of my friends will be toasty warm this winter. This new attitude is what is really shocking to me.

Normally, I am very much an all or nothing kind of girl. I want it all and I want it yesterday, even if I only decided it was a good idea tomorrow. Not this time, this is what's so strange for me. Sure, as always, I have my eyes on the big prize. Big house in Moseley, for those of you that are interested. For, the first time ever though, I do not want it right now, I really want the journey and I am also sure that I will not be disappointed if that doesn't happen. If it doesn't it will be because something else, another path, another way, catches my eye in the meantime. This is how learning works for me.

On Monday, I have my first driving lesson. Well, not quite my first, but my first in 13 years and I am terrified. It is another step closer to where I want to be though. I am lucky to be in good physical health and so consider being mobile a benefit to this plan. My line of thinking on this one is that it gives me the opportunity, should I ever pass my test, to effectively rent myself out to friends. My skills so far are a little limited, but very useful. I can hang wallpaper, I am no professional, but I do a good enough job in my own home. I can paint, work decorator's caulk and filler. I can clean and dig and do all manner of physical work and I am not afraid to  wear myself out physically doing so. How useful could I be to people, if I could take this skill to their door and help them as and when they need it.

If the crafty thing goes well and I pass my test, I have my eye on a baby blue pick up truck and some bib and brace overalls. I have no idea of makes and models, it is pure fantasy and all because I think it would suit me. Ridiculous, I know, but, we all have to start somewhere. A truck would make me more useful and sell-able to others too. How many people move house, need rubbish disposing of, need things moving from one place to another?  It's all working and I get to see my friends and be a useful part in their lives and help them on their own journey's too.

The crafty element means that I can hopefully start making use of the items they throw away, both personally, reducing my outgoings and therefore the amount of income that I actually need, and to sell on depending on where my, yet to be discovered skills take me. Their are thousands of ways to make a living right there, and the list is only getting bigger. It's a good thing really, because my biggest fear in all of this, is that should I ever pull it off and be able to quit the day job is that I will have too little to motivate me and too little to fill my time. I am terrified of being bored. Frankly, I would rather be at work.

Knitting a house.

I woke up today with a real spring in my step. Well more of a bounce, or a leap Laptop-wards. I can see this quickly becoming my new obsession. Not the blog, but the whole operation. I was desperate to check my etsy store and my ebay, just to see what had happened in the small amount of time between going to bed and opening my eyes this morning. It's exciting and right now, I am incredibly motivated. This is helped massively by the fact that we have posted three items so far, two on etsy and one on ebay, and the ebay one has met it's reserve.

The ebay post feels like a bit of  cheat as my original intention was to knit me a house. This is my first baby step to operation no alarm clock. I am not actually going to physically knit me a house, rather use my knitting to get there. Or at least that was the original intention.

A few years ago, my marriage broke down and I was lucky enough to get a lot of help from my brother to enable me to keep my home. Life has moved on, and although I still co-own, I no longer live there. Life moving on has been awesome in a million ways, but one of the great things about it is that it has moved onwards and upwards. I am now in a position where I can seriously look at buying him out. This is where the knitting came in. I say knitting, but obviously since I had the idea it has evolved and changed and added layers and I expect it will do so many more times until I am done. It currently involves, knitting candle making, clearing out and saving rent payments from my tenant.

I could of course, just deny myself a few treats here and there and save the money, but come on - really? where is the fun in that? Who isn't excited about the idea that someone might want to buy something that I have made?, that each time I learn a new stitch or a new skill, it could really help to change my life. Watching it build is important to me too, and by doing it this way, I really do feel like it could be part of something oh, so much bigger. I won't feel the need to just stop saving once I have reached my initial goal, and hopefully I won't get bored (this is always a tricky one for me) and feel like I'm losing out.

This whole thing kicked off on the fifth of may, so we are a week and a half in, and so far, I am very close to a quarter of the way to my target. So it's all moving incredibly quickly. My goal was or is to have Marley heights (the name of my flat) souly in my name by May 5th 2012. so it looks like it might just work. I am aware that things rarely run smoothly and that anything could happen to scupper my plans, but I am looking forward to that being part of this big adventure.

I feel the urge when I am writing to jump ahead and flit about and tell you this and that all at once, but although I am talking to you, as you, I am not sure that this will ever go public, it is just as a log for me really, just to see what happens. This idea has been in the making for a while and consequently has several layers to it, more than I can remember in one sitting, but as and when I have something to say about each one, I will try to explain it a little, just so that it makes sense.

Today I will post another item into my etsy store, ideally, I would like to do this every day for as long as I can, to ensure that I am at the top of the search lists, but that is today's simple step on the journey. I look forward to writing more as the adventure unfolds.

Introduction.

Well, what can I say...
I, like just about everyone else that I know and probably a lot more who I am yet to meet, am totally fed up of the grind. Well, actually that's not entirely true. I am one of the lucky few and I actually love my job, for now. It's just that when I really sit down and think about it, when I get the chance between shifts that is, I can think of so many better things to do with my time. With that in mind, my boyfriend and I have started a bit of an experiment, I would like to call it a plan, but really, we have no idea where it is going to take us. If you would like his take on it all you would have to ask him, but for me, it is all about a series of a million baby steps, not knowing where they will take me, but hoping that one day they will take me to a place where I live a happy and full life and I don't have to get up in the morning and go to work.

I say one day, but we have actually given ourselves a time scale of 5 years. I'm not entirely sure where I want to be in that time. I have a million ideas, lots of which, I hope to share with you all and get your opinions and advice on. I know that I want to be a bit looser, have a nice home full of people and love and only do things that really make me happy. I realise how idealistic and unreal that all may sound, but I am sure it must be do-able, some how. Just in case it isn't though, the plan is to have an awful lot of fun along the way. Doing it this way means that if we never reach our ultimate goal, we have simply gotten a little closer every day to more fun, more people and more happiness. I don't see how it can ever fail, yet still I am nervous and questioning my every move. I will write and explain more about us and our lives soon, I guess first of all I wanted to make a mark on this blank page, in the hope that the rest will flow out more easily. until it does, watch this space for updates......