{Now Open}

I'm sitting at my computer on an early morning that feels more like October than July with a jumbo coffee cup that I pray is bottomless. Though it's 7am, I've already been working for about an hour, which is definitely not typical for me lately. It's Friday and I *should* be frantically cleaning the house since we will be having people over tomorrow for the Fourth of July weekend. I should also be going to the grocery store so I don't have to battle the masses in the produce section. But as with ALL things, I am procrastinating.

So why am I working this early on a holiday weekend? Again, the answer is procrastination. This time, however, is FOUR YEARS in the making.

Today, I am officially opening my Etsy shop.

Okay, if you're keeping track, you might know that my shop is technically open right now...and it has been for nearly a month. This concept of "when I open my shop..." had been plaguing me basically since the end of last year. It's the same thing as saying, "when I write my novel..." or "when I lose weight..." I HATE being that person. I am not an "IF" person. I am most definitely a "WHEN" person.

Until Etsy.

In my mind, I wasn't ready to launch this, probably ever. And during the years and years of research, every shop owner said the same thing, "You will NEVER be ready. The only way to learn is to just dive in and make all the mistakes." Yet I remained paralyzed. Sure, life got in the way. Work took priority. I still had to develop my art skill. But even once I made the time, figured out my branding, and had artwork I was proud of, I still refused to take the plunge.

Then a few weeks ago on a day so unassuming, I can't even actually remember when it was, I just rolled with my day off and opened the damn thing. If people found it, cool. But really, I just wanted it OPEN so I could work on it more with less pressure. As anticipated, I made zero sales. I don't have a large following but I also didn't promote it much.

In the meantime, I finally found a local printer to make art prints AND I found a great sticker manufacturer. I continued to make clay pins as well. And before I knew it, I had enough products to feel comfortable to flip that closed sign to an open one. I even filmed a cheesy commercial as another way to promote the Grand Opening.

Am I ready? HELL no. I have a few friends who have told me that they will be purchasing items as soon as everything is official. Which is incredible and my heart is full. But I am absolutely terrified the moment I receive a notification indicating that I made a sale. There are no directions...what do I do next?! I don't have a printer, so am I able to handwrite the addresses? Will I actually be able to receive the payment? Do I mail it out before I receive payment? What if I can't get it to them in the 3-5 business days because of the post office? Can I use UPS instead? WHAT IF SOMEONE FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY BUYS SOMETHING?

Ok, ok. I need to get out of this worry loop. The shop is opening in less than five hours (it's actually open now but...I haven't made the official announcement.) I set up a linktree for my Instagram, the commercial has been uploaded and just needs to be set to public, I am updating the website a bit, and I still need to write better descriptions of all of my products but other than that, there's nothing more to do except....well....clean the house. (Meh, I'm sure that can wait until tomorrow....haha)

Anyway, here are a few photos of what's available. As always, thank you for your support! <3