How Was Your Holiday?

I hope everybody had a nice holiday, enjoyed some time off, got what they wanted for Christmas and followed through with their new years resolutions so far this year.

We had a good holiday season this year. It was a little more festive than usual (mostly because we got new Christmas decorations) and we had a great time. I got everything I wanted for Christmas. All I really wanted was for everyone to have a nice time but I got some cool stuff too.

Let's see, besides new domains I got a new game controller for my laptop, 2 pair of nice cargo pants, an awesome fuzzy soft bathrobe, some cool 3D guitar picks, a case of lightscribe DVD's, a new wedding ring (mine got lost/stolen awhile ago), a stocking full of candy, and something else that I didn't ask for and was definitely not expecting. I got the flu Christmas day and have been sick for about 3 weeks. It's going away now but I can't seem to fully regain my voice yet.

Over all it was a wonderful Christmas this year except that I didn't get to go see my Mom. I still have her present here under the tree. :-( I called her and she said she might catch what I have and nobody wants that whatever it was I promise, so we didn't go visit yet. This cold really sucked. I think this was the sickest I've been since I was a little kid. I'm glad it's over, Yay!

Even though I've been sick Shirley and I have still been working really hard on our new project. We bought a bunch of new Jewelry making tools and supplies along with some sterling silver wire and solder and we plan to start selling our Jewelry creations on eBay soon and via website eventually.

We still have a lot of work to do. I have to build up a good seller rep on eBay so I've been selling off some collectibles and garage sale stuff. We just received new supplies to finish some of our latest creations. We plan on having a few Jewelry items up on eBay before the end of this week. Probably mostly necklaces.

If you want to see what we have on eBay right now here is the link: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZfuse_box41

We've been working hard drawing up a business plan, coming up with shipping and returns policies, designing necklaces to stock our store with, practicing our silver smithing techniques, looking for suppliers, researching legalities and that means lot's and lot's of reading. Oh yea and spending money. It takes money to make money right?

I thought I wanted to start a business creating and editing video for small businesses but it's way more expensive than I had planned and dealing with clients is very tricky in the video business. There's also alot BS to deal with when it comes to production companies and broadcast companies. Broadcast companies will contact your client and talk them into getting rid of you and getting them to do the production claiming that they will develop a more professional presentation than an amateur ever could which is total BS. But it's happened to me twice and both times the broadcast company gave them boring, stuffy, lame ass material in place of my material which was catchy, upbeat, demands attention etc... Anyway I'm in no position to compete financially with those big companies, creatively maybe but financially no.

Plus it is a fact that I am an amateur with video production and it just seems more feasible for us to create a business making and selling quality hand crafted jewelry since we've got alot more experience and have had alot more practice doing that than just about anything else. The competition is also a bit less carnivorous. It's also something we can both do together so it just makes more sense business wise.

We both love making Jewelry too. It's so rewarding to make a beautiful new necklace and see someones reaction when you give it as a gift and they freak out when you tell them you made it by hand. :-)

What's really cool is that the video skills I've learned will definitely help us present our Jewelry items on the web and increase sales without having to hire someone to do it for us. So I'm glad we got the video equipment because we will get lots of use out of it.

Well I hope you guys had as good a holiday as I did and remember Valentines Day is coming up so don't forget about your sweety. :-)