Organization: it's not just for breakfast

I have just received my fantastic Mini Stackable from Best Craft Organizer and I must say--it really is fantastic. It sits under my eBay desk from Ikea (I guessed at the height, and I'm so thankful it fits), and it has ten drawers.

Two drawers for eBay, of course; one for this week's listings, one for next. Two drawers for the eBay store; one for Czech hanks and vintage necklaces, the other for everything else in the store.

One drawer for Etsy stuff.

One drawer for a few of the bags of plastic bags that end up everywhere.

I couldn't eliminate three giant bins, unfortunately. I have one for eBay store backstock and one for eBay auction backstock; these were both much too heavy to put in the drawers. They have plastic rails, after all. Also, the bin full of plastic bags was just too awkward to put in the drawer as well. So while it isn't quite as helpful as I hoped, I know that I'll be able to really work with it in the future and use it quite efficiently. I'll save one of the deep drawers for beads that will eventually be sold on my website, and I'll save another drawer for jewelry on the website.

As for right now, however, I'm just so happy with it--already everything looks so much neater.

Too bad I didn't make any bets with anyone about being able to bring another piece of furniture into this already incredibly crowded room. I would have made some money!

Crafting, crafting, crafting

I'm very excited with the hits on Etsy so far--some of the pieces I just put up have been viewed forty or more times. Clearly, none of the pieces are in the magic $20-$30 range, but I am hesitant to put the economical things up right now, as I have two shows coming up in July and August, and I'm not certain that I'll have enough merchandise if I have to put aside a selection for Etsy.

Then again, maybe I should just go for it. Selling something would be very nice right now. eBay is always a bit slow in spring, and it would be nice if Etsy could reel in the slack.

I just made another necklace from another Green Girl pendant, with freshwater pearls and aquamarines, along with a few Thai silver beads; I will attempt to photograph it tomorrow. Suffice it to say that, although it has a flaw or two (in my eyes), I think it turned out to be a rather nice piece, and I'm happy with it. I can't allow my crazy perfectionism to keep ruining my pace. If I obsess for too long over things, they end up like my Anne Choi bead that has been sitting on my desk in a tray with pearls and silver for three years, waiting to be made. I can't seem to work it out in my head to my satisfaction, and therefore it never gets made.

A friend just told me, "Perfection is the enemy of good." That's been really making me think a lot recently about my crafting. I really need to make things and stop worrying so much about perfection. That's not to say that I should just churn out anything--but something is indeed better than nothing, and I have been making something for the past two months and feeling "good" indeed.