Invited By Lama Works

Visit the all new website Invited by Lama Works to find out more about my store!

Monday, March 12, 2012

Changes Abound–Website

Did anyone notice the little box at the top of the page that says “Invited by Lama Works”???

If you click on the link it will welcome you officially to www.invitedbylamaworks.com!!  Now, it’s still a bit of a work in progress, but I finally am working on my very own web page (in all of my spare time …).  You’ll see a link at the top that takes you straight to my Etsy shop, customer feedback, a link to this very blog and some contact information.

It doesn’t seem like much, but it’ll grow.  I really wanted a way for people to find me other than Etsy.  I really want someone in Quincy to be able to search for me and find out more information about a local business.  I know I haven’t gotten quite that far on the site yet, but I will one of these days.  I really want to have a local presence. 

I also want to grow out of Blogger a bit and have more than just a blog.  The site I’m on gives me the opportunity to one day have an e-commerce page to sell samples.  It also gives people something easier to remember than my Etsy site. There are still quite a few people who have no idea what Etsy is or are turned off by Etsy because you have to create an account to purchase something. 

So stop on by the new website and let me know what you think!  Do you have any ideas for other things I can add?

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Friday, March 9, 2012

Changes Abound–Lama Works

I’m not sure if it’s spring fever or all of this nesting stuff with the baby on the way, but there are some major changes that have also come about at Lama Works these days as well!

I am incredibly blessed and since I have joined forces and started working with the wonderful team at Envelopements, the invitation side of Lama Works has just taken off!  Their papers and designs are just wonderful!  I really enjoy having a base idea to work with and customizing it to each wedding.  One of my goals for this year is to start a gallery of the different invitations I’ve made so I can show how unique each one really can be.

With that being said … I have decided – at least for the time being – to close the Woolies portion of Lama Works.  It’s been a bit of a bittersweet decision because knitting is where the shop actually started, but I think it’s time to step back. 

There are times in life when you can work hard for what you want.  I have worked incredibly hard to become an Etsy success story, but I think it’s time for me to shift and focus a bit more on paper goods and more importantly my family.  I am very lucky to have one very self entertaining 19 month old, who allowed me to get a few knitting projects done while he played, but I’d rather spend that time playing with him rather than just sitting by and watching.  Family is the most important thing to me and I don’t want to miss this time with him while he is little.

I have learned quite a bit about business plans since I opened up in 2008 and I think I am finally at a point where I feel focused – which is a really good thing. Over the years I’ve had some sewing projects, then some cards, then some knits, more sewing, back to the cards, invitations …. it’s time to pick one and focus. I feel like I’m finally at a good point where I like the setup that I have and I’m not wasting money buying supplies that I’ll never use. I literally have boxes of paper and yarn that I’m sure I’ll use some day for something, but it’s really not a smart plan to have more supplies than you need. Now I order just what I need for each order and it feels fabulous! It leaves me extra cash to help out the family budget and a bit to splurge on some extra things just for me!

I’ll admit that a part of the decision is monetary.  My knits are wonderful, but they take time. Lots of time. Time that isn’t always appreciated.  I had a booth at a craft show this year and a woman was looking at one of my infinity scarves.  It was for sale for $120 and she said “$120??? Are you kidding?? For a scarf???”  I just sighed.  Little did she know that the yarn alone cost about $25 and it took me about 12 hours (yes 12) to complete.   Most projects take on average 2-4 hours to complete if I have uninterrupted time. Now, I don’t sell knits year round, so in theory I should knit more during the summer to prepare for the winter rush. It’s a good thought in theory but I was finding myself only selling a few of the things I made ahead of time and getting more requests for custom colors that I didn’t have in stock. That meant that on top of having a 1 year old, being active in our community, preparing for the holidays and working on winter weddings and Christmas cards, I was also knitting non stop from October through January.  I have actually stopped enjoying the holiday season.

This has been a bit more long winded than I had originally intended, but that’s the scoop.  Long story short – life is good!  Lama Works is growing and I’m really excited to see where things will go from here! Maybe one day you’ll be reading here that I’m hiring someone to help me out – wouldn’t that be cool?

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Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Changes Abound – Family

Lots of changes happening around here so brace yourself!  We’ll skip the obvious format change at the moment and start with the biggest of them all …

You may remember from one of my posts last July that we are expecting!  I have been feeling rather tired and queasy most of the pregnancy, hence why I’ve been gone from blog world.  Fast forward to March and our second son will be here soon!  That’s right – 23 days left until my due date!  I’m nesting – is that why I’m back on the blog again and rearranging everything in sight?  Maybe!  I went in to see my doctor today and she thinks he could be here very soon and we are predicting he’ll be here by St. Patrick’s day, which is yes only 10 short days from now.  Eek!!

So that means that now that it’s rather nice of me to pop on the blog again, it may mean that I’ll be missing for awhile while we get back on our feet.  That’s OK!  If this super high energy of mine stays around until then I may have enough blog posts stock piled that you’ll never even know that I’ve been missing!

I’ll leave you with some fun holiday photos taken at a friend’s wedding back in January.  I was about 28 weeks pregnant at the time.  Welcome back to blog land!

 

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