Date joined etsy- 5/30/09
Sales to date - 3203
-Give us some basic info about you: name, where you live, kids/pets, favorite ice cream flavor, etc.Hello! I'm Kelley Terrill, owner of Owl Say Designs. I live with my husband/best friend and 3 yr old little boy in our 100 yr old 1100 sq ft A-frame house 30 miles outside of Dallas, TX (aka Royse City, TX). I love it here! I grew up in a small town, so our abode is the perfect mix of small town with all the amenities of a big city nearby. We have 2 dogs - Dixie (a mutt we adopted from the pound) and Delmar(a basset hound whose name I think should be Dexter, but I lost the coin toss). My studio workspace is also my dining room, so it's not uncommon to see a very blue-eyed munchkin covered in spaghetti while I'm desperately trying to protect my fabric, paper, computer, etc. Ice cream is the one vice I don't have, but put a freshly baked chocolate cake with homemade chocolate icing in front of me and you'll have to wheel me into the emergency room in a sugar shock - I, um, have a weakness for fresh baked goodies! I'm a serious night owl who was very fortunate to marry an equally serious night owl and have a beautiful night owl baby. I am already panicking about kindergarten hours and how the munchkin and I will cope with having to get up in time for school. My husband says we have 2 years to reform our schedule and I'm pretty sure it will take that long.
-Describe an average day in life of "you".
I leap out of bed and race to the shower to get ready and greet the day with a smile and a snazzy attitude. Ok, no, I don't do that. I wish I could. Really, I have to set the alarm and tell myself if I push snooze too many times the alarm won't keep going off so get your lazy tush out of bed. That's closely followed by drinking a protein shake while rousing up my munchkin to fix him oatmeal or cereal. Once he's occupied with breakfast, I make some hot tea, answer emails and relist items. The rest of the day is a mix of making orders to ship the same/next day, sewing orders for the next few days, lunch, more of the above, setting up busy projects like toys, painting, play-do etc for the munchkin, playing outside with the pups, saying 'No you cannot watch a movie until it's time for nap" a hundred times, finally starting a movie as nap wind-down, nap time (unfortunately not for me), finding some ridiculous, obscure movie to watch instantly on Netflix while I get down to some real, uninterrupted business, dinner and then more work. At some point during the day, I've made a post office run. If the weather is nice enough, we walk. At some point (usually late evening) I've also spent some time on the elliptical or bike riding. Then I read in bed for as long as it takes to shut down my brain so I can sleep!
-Were you creative growing up/what did you enjoy doing?My grandmother taught me to sew when I was 8 or 9. My dad was probably my biggest influence. I was always coming up with strange contraptions for my toys or school projects. I'd tell my dad my idea and we'd go to the garage and pillage around until we could find scraps to build my idea. It was an awesome lesson in how to turn your conceptualized ideas into something tangible. My mom made me take a home ec class my freshman year in high school. I was furious (because independent, no-nonsense business women do not need lessons in home economics), but this is where I learned to actually read and sew from a pattern. That practice was invaluable and really shaped my interest and designing abilities. So, I guess mom's know best right?
-What made you want to start selling on etsy?
At the time I discovered Etsy, I was a new stay-at-home-mom and had time to focus more on my hobbies. I realized with the loss of the second income, I couldn't really afford to buy what I wanted, so initially I sold on Etsy to support my habit. I soon discovered I could turn my ideas into a business.
-How long did it take for you to get your first sale on etsy?
I was pretty lucky for OSD, it only took about 20 days. But I already had another established shop, Tattered Tapestry so I had a much shorter learning curve with OSD.
-Top 5 favorite foods, tv shows, and bands?Foods: Turkey Lasagna (whole wheat of course), anything from Chick-fil-a, Beer Steak w/ baked potato, a giant double decker cheeseburger (which I can never eat alone, but there is something about the meat, cheese, meat cheese combo that is so delicious), sweet tea (oh, my comfort food)
TV Shows: Currently - Chuck, Psych, Burn Notice, NCIS, American Dreamer - ok, this is a movie, but my all time favorite movie
Bands: Old School Country/Blue Grass, Tom Petty, Mark Cohn, Fleetwood Mac, Queen
-Is there anything you'd like to try your hand at doing? Knitting, baking, soap making, wood working, an instrument, etc.
My husband says I already have too many hobbies, but I'd really like to try soap making. I've done a bit of woodworking with my dad (he has his own Etsy shop too http://johnmorgandesigns.etsy.com) and it was very addicting so I could definitely see myself getting more into it. Plus, I plan to learn to play the piano some day. (See, too many hobbies..)
-What would you suggest to new etsy sellers to promote their shops?
I actually started a series of blog posts to help out other Etsy sellers. My two best pieces of advice are to start out debt free and have realistic expectations. It's a lot of work to run your own business and success doesn't happen overnight!
-3 etsy shops you just LOVE?This one is so hard! Aside from my dad's shop (listed above), I guess it's the most fair to give the ones I visit the most:
http://aliceapple.etsy.com
http://theblackapple.etsy.com
http://johnwgolden.etsy.com
http://wiseimpressions.etsy.com
-One year from now, I hope...
Ok, also hard...we are all still healthy and happy, we have moved to a bigger house in our same little town, to have a couple of patterns available for sale, to have another baby here or on the way, start a newsletter, have my own dedicated website...geeze, I should get busy :)
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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 :)
