my cupcake is better than your cupcake ....

cupcake war corkboard

When my daughter was younger her school would have a bake sale every month.

Every month.

(every grade took a week so there was a steady supply of junk being fed to our children on Friday afternoons)

I am not a baker. I am not even an almost baker.

(although I do have a very nice kitchen mixer gathering dust on my counter)

Also this baking took a lot of time.

There were a couple mothers in charge of this stuff (the mothers who were always in charge of this kind of stuff) and maybe they did like to bake. I will never know. I do know that for the rest of us, by the time our kids were in 3rd grade and we had been doing this every month since they were in kindergarten we were kind of baked (and not in a good way) out.

I knew there had to be a better way to make the $100 a month we made from these sales. One month I decided to just take matters into my own hands.

(this was most likely right after the 'alleged' food poisoning incident I alluded to in a post a couple years back which some people in town still haven't forgotten - let it go Mrs. H - but which most importantly cannot be held against me in a court of law)

Anyhoo, I had the idea to sell letters from Santa to the parents to raise money instead. I made my suggestion to the "couple mothers in charge of this stuff" and the conversation went something like -

me - "you know maybe we could do something other than bake sales once in a while - give the moms a break and throw some new energy into this raising money thing"

I showed them the order form and Santa letter I had come up with. "I'll just donate the stamps, paper and envelopes", I said.

(I must have been pretty desperate to get back into people's good graces)

supermoms - "well, we don't know Carol"
me - "Cat ... my name is Cat"
supermoms - " oh rrighttt ... well, I guess if you really want to do it - anything for the kids right!"

(and yes, in my memory they really did talk in unison like that)

So, long story short - we sold over 100 letters at $3 a piece. I was very pleased with my little feat and already thinking ahead to letters from the Easter Bunny (and whether it would be illegal or just slightly unethical to do letters from Superheroes) when I opened my daughter's bookbag to find the dreaded monthly reminder:

Please circle and return to school with your child by Monday.

I will bake:

 36 cookies

24 cupcakes

1 cake

What?! Hadn't we just raised enough money to put this whole baking thing to bed for a couple months?! I dialed the supermoms.

"yes, Carol, that letter was a great idea, it did very well - we will put that money to good use, but the bake sales - well, they get everyone involved and everyone really loves them"

(everyone but the bakers I was thinking)

I circled 36 cookies.

(and yes, I do see that getting everyone involved - sometimes has its advantages - and I will admit I was looking forward to the high fives I would no doubt be getting from the other non-supermoms when they heard they would not have to do any baking for 3 months, I did have the implied - but never proven remember - poisoning incident to atone for after all, but I still think this more is more thing is how we all make ourselves totally nuts)

Now, this story popped into my head last night because hubs and I had made a change in something for his business that is netting us an extra $250 a month. $250 a month that he was starting to make plans for at the same time I was thinking "great, now since X is working, let's stop doing Y".

Time is the most precious thing we've got, folks.

This is a battle that unlike the cupcake war I am determined to win.

I hope you are having a beautiful day wherever you are - we finally have some sunshine here! xo all

Why I don't check my Etsy feedback anymore or how to sleep better at night if you sell the things you make

Ah, feedback.

I am grateful (usually) that people take the time to comment on the things they buy from me in the public feedback forum, but please don't ask me to look at it.

This "don't look at it" thing was a gradual process.

It started a couple years ago with a particularly unhappy customer whose cork was "too beige".

Now if he had emailed me about this "too beige" thing I would have fixed him up somehow, probably with a refund, cork is ... well... kind of beige, after all.

But he left me a negative (not even a neutral!) feedback out of the blue, the day after Thanksgiving and then he did not respond to my emails to "kiss and make up".

I thought I would have a coronary.

I imagined every potential customer heading over to my feedback page, cork in cart - reading his comments and saying to themselves "wait a minute, what was I thinking, this guy's right, cork is too ... beige". I imagined "clear item from cart" buttons being hit all over the country.

I lost sleep. I knew I needed a change (not with this 'beigeness thing', but with my reaction part of it).

 I set up some parameters for myself (yes, this is what us obsessive, crazy people do).

At first I wouldn't look at my feedback late at night because if there was a problem it would keep me up. Then I wouldn't look at it late in the week, because if there was a problem I wanted to be able to have it resolved by the end of the week.

Finally I just stopped looking. It's been months.

(I will admit to keeping half an eye on the 100% positive on my front page - but it would take something pretty substantial to move that by this time - I've been doing this awhile) 

And I do not say this in any way to offer anyone else advice - and if you are a new seller - you maybe need to earn a few wrinkles (yes, I blame feedback for what is happening with my eyelids) through sleepless nights over some craziness that hits you out of the blue.

I told another maker this and she said to me "but you miss all the good stuff then".

Ugh, she was totally right, of course - but even this did not dissuade me. 

I am missing the 200 feedbacks that read "I love it" to avoid reading the 1 "this hits my baby in the head when I bend over" neutral.

(yes, there is something like that in there).

Now, this might send you over to my feedback and then you will know more than I do. I will have to live with this. Don't tell me anything that is happening in there. I mean it. I don't want to know. My feedback is like my daughter playing quietly across the room when she was little, even when I half suspected a tube of lipstick might be nearby - I don't want to look.

(and no, this is not the post I am trying to get my nerve up to write - this one isn't even close)

Of course when a customer contacts me with a problem I take care of it - I am not perfect with this stuff and mistakes happen and I guarantee my work with a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

I know that my stuff being up to snuff impacts not only whether that customer comes back to me, but maybe she comes back to the handmade marketplace at all - maybe next time she heads down to Walmart for a cheapie - my goal as always is to keep everyone away from Walmart.

When customers email me with their kind words I always print them out and have a huge collection on my bulletin board - sometimes I put on red lipstick and give the pages a big old kiss before I hang them up there.

(even though Olive does a little - cuckoo for cocoa puffs - cuckoo hand signal behind my back that she thinks I don't see when I do this - I truly love my customers, truly I do)

I have found though that when people leave a problem feedback and I write to them to resolve it I never hear back from them anymore.

(in the early days I had a couple kiss and make ups and a couple that could not be satisfied, but now when I respond back to help, I just get ... crickets)

I think the public feedback isn't really about getting the problem solved. If I have a problem with a seller I will email them because I want something resolved. This isn't about resolution. Maybe people just want to say what they want to say ... in public. It isn't personal to them and I get that, of course.

To me, the Jersey Girl with skin as thick as a piece of onion peel, it's a whole other story

And yes, I envy you banana peel girls - except for those sallow complexions, of course - but I just can't be that girl. I've tried. I can't do it.
 
And yes, I also realize something about this will come back to me in some other way to be worked out - because changing the "doing" without changing the "being" isn't long lasting, but for right now, I am just fine with this.

For now, the only one I will be kiss and makeup-ing with is my husband.

New Moon in Gemini Today - another chance for a fresh start!

chasing the crayon

The Sun and Moon are conjunct at the New Moon

(if you were being born right now you would be a strong willed and focused person very challenged by partnerships I'm guessing)

This means a tremendous concentration of energy is happening, but it occurs outside our view - this stuff is happening behind the scenes; a common thing with new beginnings.

Sometimes it takes a little hindsight to recognize when new things have started.

This is the energy of any conjunction - we're kind of feeling our way not sure where this will lead.

Mars is opposite the eclipse point with this one so what was brought to our attention about two weeks ago will now be cut off for good so we get that fresh start. The position of Mars at this New Moon also reminds us that we can't live in detachment - it brings Mars (the war) home.

The New Moon is conjunct the asteroid Elpis; the Goddess of Hope. You might remember that hope was the last thing left in Pandora's Box after she opened it. At this New Moon we are maybe unsure if hope is wise or if we are deluding ourselves.

This will all make more sense if you know where this New Moon falls in your chart - that area will tell you where you need to keep your eye on the ball!

Also since this is a New Moon in Gemini it is a great time for affirmations for Gemini stuff like: action, communication, logic, social graces and ease, siblings, mental anxiety, our nervous system, hands, wrists, arms, shoulders and our lungs so some good affirmations for today might be:

I communicate in a way that allows others to really hear me. I take the time to listen.
I easily accept other people's ideas as true for them.
I am totally comfortable having light, interesting conversations with others (other than Olive).
The habit of second-guessing myself is totally lifted from me.
Total healing occurs in my right shoulder.

AFFIRMATION TIPS: get into a happy frame of mind - always make affirmations from a  positive place - write your affirmations down by hand, speak them out loud - I always write my affirmations on strips of paper and put them into a bowl of rice so I can mix them around every now and then with my fingers if things get stagnant - then release your attention from them knowing that your intention is known. Know these things are already yours. xo

this 'human being as brand' thing we have going on is exhausting, relentless and impossible .... short rant

adored vintage

There is a reason my studio is not called Cat Bites.

(other than the fact that I used to have a biting cat and that cat, who I loved dearly but who nonetheless bit the hell out of me every chance she got - was probably my last cat. I am just not a cat person. And, yes, I see the irony in this. And despite the fact that I do, yes, sometimes bite, but only small pieces and I chew 20 times now, so I'm a lot less dangerous than I used to be - yes, I've mellowed)

It may have been smarter to call it Catherine Ivins Studio ... and if the me of today had been around in 2007 it probably would be. Probably.

Dragging poor Olive into it has had some disadvantages for me certainly (not to mention Olive getting this huge head from being recognized everywhere she goes now) in terms of brand recognition and relevancy.

But, the one major advantage I might have inadvertently created is a little separation between me and my business.

This 'human being as brand' thing we have going on is exhausting, relentless and impossible.

It might have worked before the world became a 24 hour a day, 7 days a week place of activity. But maybe it's never worked. Maybe this is the real reason (and not the lead paint) the old masters all went mad.

And while I'm ranting let's stop saying "a business is only in business to make money" - that's another pile of crap that isn't true anymore.

Businesses are created for all kinds of reasons - often because we are endlessly creative people that just need to be creating something. Now someone will say, but Cat, successful businesses have to make money. Even this isn't true anymore. Businesses create value first. Businesses are sold for billions of dollars that have never made a penny.

We need a new definition of success - something about value, something within our power. We need to untie "success" from everything that is out of our hands. End of rant.

(sorry just listened to the wrong interview about branding and money that just gave me a headache and made my heart hurt)