Good-bye 2013

While I won't be sorry to see 2013 go...I learned a great deal this past year...

I have always 'failed to plan'...and there are those that say...

'fail to plan' and you 'plan to fail'....

there actually is some credence to this little saying....

so I've taken some steps to make 2014 a better year for me...

at the very least, I should know more about what's going on and why.

Here are a couple of the more 'notable' things that happened in my 2013...
1.  My 'Gothic Beauty' interview

2.  Started my series of  'Notorious' characters
3.  I learned "the hard way" to stay on top of my Etsy Shop....hoping that will be improved in 2014.

A couple of things I have planned for 2014...
1. Another two panel 'Alice in Wonderland' themed painting.
2. My first two panel 'Wizard of Oz' themed painting.
3. Some new 'Notorious characters'
4. Keeping my Etsy Shop 'relevant' to Etsy search....and new pieces coming shortly after the New Year.

I will do a better job of blogging and posting on FB as well!!

Thinking ahead to next year

 

I've got all but one package packaged and shipped...I'll get the

last one out tomorrow or the next day.

It's been kind of an 'odd' year for me and my art business.

With the ongoing changes springing up on Etsy...it's been a challenge

just to try to keep up.  Keeping up with Etsy changes also takes a bit of a

toll on the time spent creating new pieces...so I need to start now and

think ahead to next year...

how to keep up with my creative work while trying to

keep up with Etsy changes.

Plenty to think about...for sure!

A handful of Christmas Ornaments



Every year I try to have something 'different' in my Shop(s)
especially for Christmas.
A few years ago I did this Snowman ornament, along with
some Santas, other Snowmen and a couple of Carolers.
I also offered them at local art and craft shows I
went to and sold out.
I had a handful of these pieces, unpainted, and decided
to finish them up and get them into one of my shops.

Since there's only 8 of them, I will probably list them
in my Rustic Goth Etsy Shop
at some point in the next couple of days.

 

It's Been A While....and there will be some changes.

I've had kind of an 'up and down' summer...

now that Fall is here

I've made a couple of definite decisions.

On Friday...October 11th...I will be closing my ArtFire Shop.

It's been open for a year and I've made few sales

there...so it doesn't make sense for me to keep it open.

In the meantime...I have a Sale going on there through Thursday..October 10th...

one last 'hurrah' if you will.

I am almost done with a small Wizard of Oz painting and it will be my

last character painting of the year.

I hope to have it in my Etsy Shop by the week-end.

I've already started some dark abstract landscape paintings...

hopefully I will have, at least one, listed by the week-end as well.

I've put some new products on Zazzle

It's getting to be 'that time of year' to start putting together some new

items for my Rustic Goth Zazzle Shop.

I have put new items, periodically, into the shop there...

and I knew that they had changed their design fairly recently...

but..

I sure hadn't realized just 'how' much they'd changed

or

how difficult it would be for me to try to find my way around.

It's not hard to add new items...

it's difficult to try to figure out where to place them now.

I imagine I'll have to spend some time everyday

until I figure it out...

in the meantime though...

I put about twenty new items in that shop

this past week.

I am closing my Shop...Not So Fast....

....in ArtFire!

I have decided to close my CMZart  ArtFire Shop...on September 10th!

After trying a couple different eCommerce builders....I have decided that I

neither have the time...or the patience...to try to find one that does what I want and need it to.

This close to what I hope is my 'busy' time of year...I have opted to leave ArtFire open, at least through the rest of this year.

Then I will re-evaluate how well (or not) ArtFire is doing and I'll make a decision

when I have more time to experiment....

...so for now...No New Web Store

and ArtFire will remain open through the end of the year!

It puts me about a month shy of one year...and I was originally going to give it one year ... but...

the site just is not paying for itself...so it's time to go ahead and close the doors.

My Rustic Goth Etsy Shop will remain open 

(until and unless they make changes to the site that ends up being more than I can bear)...

and for the time being...

my Fairytalez N Fantasiez Etsy Shop will also remain open.

I combined the two Etsy Shop to create the CMZart ArtFire Shop...

offering a 'one stop shop'...

but most everything that I did sell through ArtFire was a Rustic Goth item...

so I will give Fairytalez N Fantasiez

until next Spring

before I make any final decisions on that Shop.

There were a lot of 'bugs' during checkout in our ArtFire Shop as well as

too much 'downtime'

 (which also influenced my decision to close this shop)

...so...

I've decided to open my Own Rustic Goth online Shop .. 

on my website...
 instead.

I plan to have that shop up...and fully operational
 by the first week of September!

The summer...

I haven't posted many blog posts this summer....

for one thing...

I'm desperate for a new laptop.

My old one needs to be 'laid to rest'....

so I'm saving up to get an inexpensive one...

and then I'll be able to do more

digital paintings

and more posts!!