Date joined etsy -9/2/08
Sales to date - 318
-Give us some basic info about you: name, where you live, kids/pets, favorite ice cream flavor, etcI live in New Zealand and moved here in December 2006 from Devon in the UK. We moved to where my husband’s family live in the North Island and eventually decided to settle here. We have a beautiful view of Mt Taranaki from our bedroom window. I’ve been married for 17 years to my gorgeous husband and we have two children, Sam aged 15 and Holly aged 13. Sam is a talented artist he has a facebook fan page if you want to check him out, http://www.facebook.com/samsdrawings . Holly loves crafting with me and likes making cards and ATC’s We have a dog called Jack. He’s a foxy, whippet mix. We have to be careful when we take him for walks as he loves to chase cats. My favourite ice cream is boring chocolate, I’m a chocolate addict!
-Describe an average day in life of "you".
I don’t tend to get up too early as I have arthritis and it takes a while to get going. The children are very good and get themselves ready for school, they have to leave quite early to catch the bus to the city. My husband spoils me and makes me a cup of tea first thing. I then get up and check the computer to see if I have any sales etc. After getting showered I tidy up the house and do some housework. My husband is a self employed builder so I answer any phone calls and do the banking and bookwork. When the house is sorted out I manage to get some sewing done. My craft room them becomes a mess with felt going in all directions. If I have any parcels to post I take my dog with me to the post office. Monday or Tuesday are usually my shopping days, my favourite place to go is our local craft shop “spotlight” where I usually manage to pick up some bargains.
-Were you creative growing up/what did you enjoy doing?
My family has always been crafty and I remember my mum coming into the school to help the class make felt animals. My mum has probably kept whatever I ended up making. I never seemed to get bored and loved making my own board games and creating things out of boxes. I loved sewing quite young and made all the bedding for my Sindy doll. I remember one Christmas I’d been given a pile of felt pieces, we went out for the day and it had disappeared, our dog Abbie had eaten it! I made a needle case at school which I still use today.
-What made you want to start selling on etsy?
When I moved to New Zealand I discovered swap-bot.com and discovered the world of swapping and ATC’s. I joined a few sewing swaps and ended up loving felt! Some swap-bot members were selling on Etsy so I thought I’d check it out. After browsing the shops and forums I decided to give it a try. I listed a variety of different items made out of felt and found out that the felt food was the most popular. I've ended up making my own e-patterns to sell on etsy.
-How long did it take for you to get your first sale on etsy?
I listed my items, then started a forum thread on swap-bot asking for advice for my shop. I sold my first two items the same day to a swap-bot member.
-Top 5 favorite foods, tv shows, and bands?Top 5 TV Shows
Lost, Any Dream Will Do, Dr Who, The Dog Whisperer and The Amazing Race
Top 5 Favourite Food
Mexican, Chocolate, Lasagne, Chicken and Sag and Butter Chicken
Top 5 Bands
Don’t really have favourites as I enjoy a variety of music. At the moment I’m listening to Owl City and Gin
Is there anything you'd like to try your hand at doing? Knitting, baking, soap making, wood working, an instrument, etc.
I’m learning to crochet and would love to make amigarumis. I can knit a basic scarf but would like to try knitting something a bit more ambitious. We recently bought some fimo and as a family we’re going to have a go at making some food for my daughter’s dolls house. Something I would really love to learn if I had the time is creating patchwork quilts.
What would you suggest to new etsy sellers to promote their shops?
I would recommend setting up a facebook fan page. You can fan other pages and some of them have a place you can leave a link to your facebook fan page. When I’ve released a pattern I’ve given a few of my fans the pattern to try for free. I don’t really twitter but have linked my facebook page to twitter and when I post it comes up on my twitter page. Also, it’s great to be part of an etsy team. I’ve joined two teams, Etsy Friends and Facebook Fans On Etsy. Etsy Friends have just had an amazing team giveaway and I had a lot of traffic to my shop through it. I blog too and have posted a couple of tutorials and I’ve had two giveaways. If you set up google analytics to your etsy shop you can see where your traffic is coming from.
3 etsy shops you just LOVE?
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Dannielle who sells gorgeous bendy dolls.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/StephanieFizer quirky and cute art
http://www.etsy.com/shop/FantasticToys cute soft toys
By December 2010 I would love to achieve 500 sales.
--Have an etsy shop with over 300 sales and want to be a featured seller? Contact me at phletcher@gmail.com
As always, thanks for reading :)
