a very happy new year!

Ok, so I know I'm just a little late with a "happy new year" post, but better late than never, right? I had an idea of a great resolution would be to blog more...and you can tell how well that is going...

I have a lot of things that I am looking forward to in 2011, and specifically lots of plans for emilee rose. 2009 was an extremely disappointing year for the biz, but I knew that maybe the timing just wasn't right. As discouraged as I was, I never had any intention of giving up or "quitting" my line. I still like it and since I don't need it to be my sole income, I'm OK with it being on the slow side. (for now, at least.)

Things really started to look up this past year. I was in more shows than I thought I was even capable of doing. So many, that I'm already trying to prioritize which shows to do next fall and winter and what sorts of new products I can introduce. All of the shows, except for one, were really successful. I even had a few customers come back and shop some more! I joined Etsy Houston, which has been a great networking tool. I'm even hosting the next meeting at my casa!

This year, I really want to focus more energy in selling. I focus most of my energy on making, and just let my things sit in my etsy shop hoping that they will get sold. But that is really not how it's done. So besides making some new products (which I am super excited to share!) these are some goals I have for emilee rose in this coming year:

• Finish my website! Yeah...this has been sitting around for months and months, but now that the shows are over, I can get back to it. The plan is to move the blog and solely use a new multi-page wordpress site, though creating a theme is a little more complicated than I imagined. Thank heavens for a very talented little brother that has offered to help out.


• Retire some products. Truth is, I have way too many designs to keep up inventory. And so, I'll be retiring some greeting cards and possibly most of the invites and thank yous. They just don't sell. I'm still interesting in doing invites and thank yous, but will probably be tweaking the design a bit. Maybe some fill-in invites? More adult friendly note cards?


• Blog more (haha!)


• Create some new products


• Revamp the ol' etsy shop. My photos are...BAD! I got a new digital camera for Christmas, so that should make shooting new photos a little easier.


• Send samples to stores to try to start selling wholesale!

And that's it. I'm ready to get started!