Pixel Cactus, and another hop, change in work habits and platform

 

Another little quick finish.  Cactus from Pixel Hobby.  A one plate design, 4x5", with black frame.  So it's all finished and ready to go. This was not a daylight pic, hard to get, right now, so I may redo that. 13 colors, nice little cute add in a Southwest style. It's currently up on ebay .

And, about ebay.  I may be not selling on there in dunno, another month or so, have to see how it goes.  If so, nearly everything I have is already loaded to two sites on Bonanza, plus a lot of other things on my website, which will be continually getting a revamp.  I may reactivate etsy, as well, once ebay is perhaps mostly gone.  

The main problem is stress.  The last couple years have now been incredibly difficult to keep up with, both on a personal level, and a reseller level; some of the worst of my life.  And I seem to be paying for it, now, physically.  I need to do a nosedive out of the extreme stress levels, or I'm going to have some severe phsyical symptoms, beyond what already seems to be appearing.  Ebay does not cycle for renewal until February, but I don't think I can wait that long; they are my biggest stressor.  My website is not in shape that I want, so many China sellers and items have not survived the pandemic, and a lot of the listings are now somewhat obsolete, or taking forever, again, to get. I've been adding some US derived items, or steadier suppliers, working on a new email and site offerings, for some time, and I expect it to take a bit longer, but a lot of the remote China offerings, (including diamond painting kits), will be taken down, and I am not sure which items I may keep, as yet. My new back office app for that is also quite challenging, nothing working there how I would like--and I have tolerated an extreme amount of lack of info, miscommunication, delays, service failures, disrespect etc. that I'm just done with. So I have to manage nearly everything, in a different way. It is what it is. And, about time, that I can start doing more craft projects. I have some small items that are nearly ready to go, before I dive back into some bigger items.  I've also bought some inexpensive jewelrymaking supplies, beads, again, to get back into some easy jewelry making; it will be a little bit before I buy more of the quality items.

In the meantime, I've moved....again.  Starting to lose track of how many times I've bounced around, this year.  And this place is temporary, as well. Not very quiet, and not exactly on my own schedule, which is not ideal.  Estimating I will be here a few months though, so I'm trying to make the best of it.

Anyway, I will have another update quite soon, as I'm almost done with a little purple butterfly cross stitch, and I do want to showcase all the finished work, so I'll check in again in a few days. Be well!

Out with the Old, in with the New, Big Changes

I am adding some new diamond painting kits for Ebay and also on Bonanza.  These will also be added to the shop, more on that in a bit.  This is a licensed product produced by Vervaco, Hello Kitty, a partial round 8.75x8.75in canvas kit. This is not a China derived item.

So.  There are a lot of changes afoot, please bare with me as things flip flop and I alter the shop and items quite a bit over the next few weeks and beyond, as fast as I can.  Generally speaking, this is driven by my health, and market trends, customer issues, etc.  For the last year, I have been struggling with minor but painful health issues that have made it extremely difficult to drive working so hard. I can only work from home, as it is, and I do all the work myself.  I feel like I have recovered, after a trip to the hospital and some very very quiet days in a no stamina state.  But, it's a new normal, and perhaps a few things, I cannot push, like I used to.

The diamond paintings from China have been my biggest hurdle in a problem area with a lack of quality control.  I love them, I like working on them, and wish I could still offer them all the time.  However, it's difficult with so many bad kits.  I will be discontinuing the entire category, as it currently is.  This will take a bit, and I think if you follow outside links, they may still work, and that is fine; I am trying to get new selections up before I wipe out everything old.  But I will take down the storefront category in about a week.  These items will not make it for Christmas, at that time, so it seems like a good time.

I will be bringing the category back. Almost immediately.  But it will only have the handful of kits from China I have personally bought to resell, that have been counted and are correct, that I will be shipping(with fees) from the US, to US customers.  It's a smattering, it's not meant to be a category option, it will be a small selection, and I do not have physical room to store very many kits, at this point.  Just a way to keep a small selection running that are complete and able to ship asap.  The other kits available will also be a small selection, but may ease the angst of not having a full range of kits.  These will be from needlework designers(see above) who have licensed and packaged their own kits and design conversions.  This will come as dropship direct to you items, that I don't see, but am assuming will be well put together, and will take a week to 10 days to arrive, again, shipping fees will be calculated in, it's not cheap in the US.

Other very important changes, that will be happening right away, Dec 1, is that I will stop shipping anything internationally.  The site can only be toggled for US shipping, or hand selected countries.  The items I am adding, cannot be shipped outside the US.  As a matter of fact, most will be only lower 48 and no PO Boxes or APO/FPO, mostly ground shipping.  To that end, I will unfortunately have to switch off international orders.  Nov 30 is the last day.  DPDISCONTINUED  is a coupon code that will expire at 11:59 CST to ease issues.  It's good for everyone, sitewide, you  must enter the code, for 20% off your order.

I am adding many more China direct items, to the site.  If no shipping directions are indicated, it's a China item.  If it indicates US shipping, this will be sourced from a warehouse in the US.  I will continue to browse for many more women's and general home items from China, so that will still grow.  But the additions of US items, I will be pushing to add right away.  I have been selling them already on the auction sites, for years.  Brand name items that you recognize, makeup, craft kits, candles, food and baking, jewelry, all kinds of things.  I'm really excited to be able to start offering them on the website storefront itself. 

In the meantime, I am adding more items from China, that I have sourced and shipped to myself, and will continue to.  I am adding diamond drills that you can buy direct from the auction pages, a little at a time.  I have a few more diamond painting kits coming.  I also have a large selection of big stone cabochons coming, and bead strands for diy jewelrymaking. I am adding those listings to the stones selections on the website so you can browse and order direct, but many I will be having on hand and ready to ship asap from ebay, including some handpicked odd colors that are not regular stock, and actual pictures of the coloring and patterns. I may post those from time to time, for the new arrivals.

I should be back to emails, soon, that will be back open.  Remember, only the one tagged to the website itself. I do not see the ones from the payment processors and random other addresses. I'm working as fast as I can, to fit more into a work style that will work for me.  I am still crafting, in rare hours here and there, a few new projects are almost done.  It's a little on the backseat until January, when I can settle in some.  I am taking commissions on the diamond painting kits, either the ones I am stocking, or anything else you have or would like done, including from China.  I also can do that for the other craft kits, etc that I am sourcing, including things like the Bucilla felt Christmas stockings and ornaments, cross stitch, pixel, etc. I am happy to take on commission orders, as I have dropped off some personal obligations and other work, in order to concentrate on website sales. It's been a long time coming.

So, some patience please, and ignore the poor picture quality of my own items(where is the sun, anyway?)  as I have been raring to go, on offering a lot of different things. And I am so sorry for not being able to do international sales, perhaps find a US buddy who can hold/ship to you?  It's a lot of my customers, maybe something like that would be helpful; only idea I have been able to come up with.