Date joined etsy - 9/19/05
Sales to date - 1382
-Give us some basic info about you: name, where you live, kids/pets, favorite ice cream flavor, etc.My name is Michelle and I'm a 26 year old from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. I live in what feels like a teeny two bedroom apartment with my boyfriend Jason and my 1 year old son Evan.
-Describe an average day in life of "you".
An average day in the life of me consists of waking up when my son does. We have breakfast together - usually bananas and cheerios. I love being a stay at home mom because I have time to play with my child. I get to know him more and more every day. We play with his toys and go for afternoon walks around the neighbourhood. The day is punctuated by warm bottles of milk. I try to fit in jewelry making whenever I can. Usually between the cooking and housework and errands. I pull Evan's play pen right up to my work space and he plays and watches me as I figure out how to put things together into pleasing jewelry arrangements. I do feel that there are definitely not enough hours in the day sometimes! After Evan goes to bed I try to put up etsy listings and prepare orders to go out.
-Were you creative growing up/what did you enjoy doing?
Creativity runs in the family. My father is a wood worker and spends a lot of time in the work shop tinkering on all sorts of wonderful creative projects. I often could be found there with him hammering scrap pieces of wood together, cutting things out on the scroll saw, or evening trying my hand at the lathe with careful supervision.
My earliest memories of the crafts I created is from when I was in brownies. We often made funny little projects like pine cones stuck into styrofoam with glued on sequins and glitter. We called them Christmas trees.
-What made you want to start selling on etsy?I started out selling my jewelry through livejournal when I heard that etsy was beginning I decided to watch it grow. I decided to join in 2005 when I wanted a more professional way of selling but didn't want to pay absorbent fees to a company that starts with the letter E and ends in the word Bay. ;)
-How long did it take for you to get your first sale on etsy?
I honestly don't remember how long it took to get my first sale. I started off first listing some destash items in August of 2007 and things took off from there. I lurked on etsy since Sept 2005 when I registered.
-Top 5 favorite foods, tv shows, and bands?
My favorite foods are spaghetti and meat balls, corn on the cob, asparagus, roast chicken.
-Is there anything you'd like to try your hand at doing? Knitting, baking, soap making, wood working, an instrument, etc.
At some point I'd love to try my hand at selling photography prints on etsy of all the cute things I like to collect. I also would love to try and sell some of my watercolour artwork.
-What would you suggest to new etsy sellers to promote their shops?1)Use up all 14 of your tags when listing your items. It's the biggest mistake new etsy sellers make.
2)Network network network. Social networking is huge to promote your business. It's all about just getting the word out about your shop and getting people to talk and visist your store. Use twitter, facebook fan pages, myspace etc to your full advantage. Remember to be part of the crafting community and use your gifts and abilities to help others too.
3)Take excellent photos of your items.
-3 etsy shops you just LOVE?
http://www.etsy.com/shop/HeyYoYo
http://www.etsy.com/shop/TooToo
http://www.etsy.com/shop/girlpirate
-By December 31, 2010 I hope my number of sold items is 2000.
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Have a successful etsy shop and want to be a featured seller? Contact me at phletcher@gmail.com
As always, thanks for reading :)
