A fretful day

Ugh, I’m so exhausted, and yet there is SO much I didn’t get to today!! Here’s what I did do:

• had a short walk with Erik
• ran errands, including buying an awl, string for price tags, flaxseeds and rice
• morning pages
• finished the last two floppy totes
• finished filling and sewing eye pillows
• bound a journal to use for my guestbook/mailing list
• made price tags
• sewed braided rug and braided more of it
• fretted over pricing

It really doesn’t seem like much, and I’m not pleased. Jackie thinks my prices are too high, and I trust her judgment, so now I’m fretting over the balance, and worrying that my work is too sloppy. Two of the eye pillows and one of the totes I made today will have to be seconds, and I think I might need to check over everything else too. And I am so tired of sewing all day, every day!

Well, there’s no point fretting. My original highball prices and my new lowball prices (not sure yet which I’ll use, but it’ll probably be a mix of high, low, and everything in between) only come out to a $150 difference over the entire inventory, and when we’re talking about a sum upward of $800… it’s nothing to lose sleep over, not when I’m just starting out and still figuring out stuff like pricing. I just don’t want people who buy my stuff to feel like they’re getting ripped off, because I have been working so hard on everything and I personally would use everything I’ve made, so I feel no one ought to think my prices are unfair. And yet, I need to make sure the prices I set are appropriate so that they aren’t luxury prices for non-luxury workmanship (since I’m still enough of a beginning sewer that my seams are often crooked, etc etc!).

I’m also worried now that I won’t have time to do any paper goods at all, or even a second rug.

Fret, fret.

Oh, and Erik shaved his head today. It looks surprisingly gorgeous, and I do mean surprisingly — every time I look at him I’m shocked all over again!

**edit**

Okay, I started thinking about how to approach this all from a Buddhist-philosophy perspective. Rosy would remind me to think only of what’s so, and not to dwell at all on what’s not so. I braided my rug, took deep breaths, and thought of what’s so:

• I love everything I’ve made, and am proud of it, and would use it.
• My workmanship is not always perfect.
• It’s not right to charge luxury prices for less-than-perfect workmanship, though it’s not fair to lowball my work, either.
• I’m not doing this for the money.
• I applied to the FabMo exhibit just for fun, to see what it would be like.
• FabMo was always intended to just be an experiment; the Etsy shop was supposed to be the real focus.
• Even so, the Etsy shop was never intended to be a big income generator, only a venue to move all the things I make for fun.
• It’s clear from the past couple of weeks that I am not happy as a full-time crafter.
• I am a writer and artist, and the crafting is just a hobby that can bring in a bit of extra cash from time to time.
• Even though I have a business license now, and business cards, and have told everyone about the craft fair, it’s not all of who I am.

This helps.