four weeks of marketing

Today I went to New York to present to FIT's Home Product Development Club (more on that tomorrow) but I came back a woman on a mission.  I've decided - no more designing new objects until I properly market the ones I'm currently making!

And I decided the cozy/cuff is a great place to start - its simple, but has a clear purpose, and people seem to be responding well to it.  So tonight, I came up with a list of tasks I can do to better market/promote the cozy/cuff - and I'll be sharing the steps with all of you as I work my way through them.  Hopefully, in 4 weeks time, the cozy/cuff will be a household name!

cozy/cuff in gray + featured seller!

The cozy/cuff is now available in lovely dark gray felt from filzfelt, and will soon be available in a few other colors (which I'm leaving a surprise until they arrive).  It will be a couple of weeks until I can ship the gray cozy/cuff, but for now you can pre-order them in my Etsy shop.

And speaking of Etsy, I'm currently the featured seller.  I couldn't be more excited (except for the part where I had to take a picture of myself - I hate that!).  You can read the full interview here.  Welcome to everyone who found their way here from the interview, and thanks to everyone for your support!

bye bye, Mia

Just got a call from my bike shop letting me know that my bike is totaled.  (That's the problem with carbon frames, there's no way to know if the frame is stressed internally, so after an accident, you really have to replace them.)  You'd think I'd be happy about the prospect of getting a new bike, but I didn't have mine that long, so its really sad.  And Trek doesn't make that model anymore, so I'm looking at something different.  Sad.

RIP, Mia.

signs of spring

Thanks for all your nice thoughts on my post yesterday.  I decided to take it easy today, and Grizzly and I took a nice walk to the post office this afternoon.  On our way home, I came across this little guy - one of the first signs of spring! 

damages

I am going to try to refrain from making this a "my life sucks" kind of post, and instead keep it to a "things could be a whole lot worse" kind of post.  This weekend I had a piece come back from a photo shoot damaged.  And of course, I didn't have a contract.  (If you haven't seen Margaux's post yet, now is a good time to read it.)  Fortunately, the borrower is going to reimburse me for the damaged piece,  so its not the end of the world.  I will remember to have a contract from now on.

This afternoon, my bank called to confirm some questionable charges on my debit card.  Turns out, someone had managed to steal my card number.  Now I have to get a new card, but at least the bank caught it right away, and I won't be responsible for any of the theft.

Then I decided to go for a bike ride, to, you know, relieve the stress of the bank card incident.  As I was heading home, I came through an intersection.  I had no stop sign, and was going straight through, so I had the right of way.  Unfortunately, a driver stopped at the stop sign didn't see me, and decided to pull out.  I managed to swerve, and he clipped my back tire, causing me to spin out onto the pavement.  I'm ok, other than some very scraped up knees.  My bike will definitely need a new rear wheel, other than that, I'm not sure until the shop looks at it, but the driver did agree to pay for the damages.  I do feel like the accident could have been much, much worse than it was - I feel fortunate to have been able to walk away.

I think I've had a full enough day, so its off to bed.  Hopefully your Monday was less eventful than mine.

worth watching

Thanks to kathleenlosche on Twitter for the link!

democracy in action

Wow, did I fall off the blogging wagon.  I can't believe its been 10 days since my last post.  Last week was one of those weeks where I think I was really busy, but I can't remember actually accomplishing anything.

I spent this week in DC (ok, I spent the nights in Baltimore) at the National Bike Summit.  Today was spent on Capitol hill, lobbying for bicycling.  I wasn't super psyched before I came to the summit, because I didn't feel like I had much time.  Now, I'm so happy that I went.  There's so much work to be done, and the issues are so important.

My brain is too fried to go into details, so I'm calling it a pretty early night.  I'm just so relieved that I'm staying in Baltimore tonight.  I can sleep in until 8, and still get to my class with plenty of time to spare!

one of those weekends

Who would have ever thought a snowy Monday would be preferable to the weekend?

I planned on spending Friday afternoon/evening hanging out at the ACC show in Baltimore, but not long after I got there, Joe called to say he wasn't feeling well. (He'd been sick for a few days.) Of course, there wasn't much I could do being two hours away. So his parents ended up taking him to the emergency room, where they gave him an IV. And I cut out of the show a little sooner than planned. I'd still like to recap what I saw at the show, but haven't gotten to it yet because...

Saturday morning, I woke up and realized I had left my laptop charger in my office at Towson. And its not like I can just dash over there and pick it up. So, I'm stuck on my old laptop for a while.

Then yesterday, I went out to my studio to find that my oxygen tank was empty - the result of an undetected leak. In case you've never tried, its impossible to find someplace to fill an oxygen tank on a Sunday - and I've got orders that have to go out! We ended up snagging a tank from my dad's machine shop, but that is practically empty to.

And now, between being behind on work and this little snow storm we are having, I won't make it down to Towson again until my class on Friday. Which means no computer, unless I drive 45 minutes to the nearest Apple store to buy a new charger.

Hopefully your weekend was better than mine.

Oh, and as a result of all this, the sale is still up in my shop. Still time to get that 20% off.