Plans sometimes change...

Ah well, I've had to postpone my visit to Lydenburg, and have in the meantime, brought the Etsy store out of vacation mode... AND implemented the 20% discount !

The discount will be effective throughout January 2013 (because it's my birthday month and the first month of the new year), because it's great to start on a positive note, right? ;)

I've also been loading a whole bunch of new items onto the Etsy store, so go check out what we have been making!

Our first market for 2013 will be at our usual spot (stall 64), at Wyetti Craft Market, on Saturday the 26th January. Our theme will be VALENTINES! so we'll be dressing the stall up to celebrate the upcoming commercialisation of the day ;)
There's a part of me that wants there to be LOADS of stock to choose from for the market goers, but if you're on Etsy, I wouldn't mind you emptying my stock box ;)

I won't be carrying the discount through to the markets, as usual, but there's sometimes spot discounts where I wack off 50% for those visiting my stall at certain markets at certain times of the year.

Then... house news:
The workroom is starting to take shape now after having some very sweet ladies (Rhoda, our crochet supplier and her sister) help me unpack half of the boxes that filled the living room yesterday.
There's still more to go, but the space is feeling alot more liveable now. Shew.
The 3 boys (puppymonsters, Astraeus, Apollo and Wagner) are making the yard their own. They've completely destroyed the 4 small existing flower beds, so major repair work coming in the next few weeks to revive some plant life in my small garden.
All the curtain are up and with so many boxes gone, visitors can now sit down!
Once the work room/Wonder Struck HQ is a bit more unpacked, I'll take photos for you guys to see where I will be making all the stock and storing the sourced stock.
Fun times ahead!

Now go buy some Etsy goodness from our store and from other fantastic handmade artists!

http://www.etsy.com

These are tears of frustration...

Having a rather tear filled day as I go through the pages of STOPRHINOPOACHING, and though my contributions are small and few and far between... I encourage as many of you as possible to please help support this cause.

There are donate links all over the website. Please go and give a couple of bucks to help the cause!

The rain clouds are gone...

After a couple of days of rain... and an array of muddy paw prints across the house floor... its sunny and its time to do all the domestic duties of washing, packing, sweeping, mopping...

The work room is starting to look so good.
There's double the storage space, double the work space and... I'm going to be testing out the photo space sometime today hopefully.

Some inspiration for crafty workrooms:

Yup... plenty of inspiration out there to work from ;)

The move... one week later

It's Christmas day... MERRY CHRISTMAS readers! ...or happy 25 December.

These 7 days of moving have been a little exhausting. The worst part for me is, that no matter what my work space may look like at any time, I'm actually *really* OCD about the placement of things and knowing where all of my stuff is... so moving is always horrible when I lose track of what boxes are where, under what, haven't been labelled....etc etc. And that's what my house looks like at the moment.

I HAVE managed to place a small corner of my work surface in the kitchen in order.
The dogs' bowls have their places now.
And one table in the work room has been setup (I'm typing from it right now).

With there still a few more things to move from the parentals to here, I'm starting to feel relief that I'm in the new house.
Admittedly my first night (last night) was a bit rough, as I'd only brought the new curtains with me late yesterday and they still weren't ready to hang. Then my 5 year old kettle packed up after boiling it ONCE. 3 light bulbs blew last night (including the bedroom light), and there were no shops open where I could get replacement bulbs before heading to my aunt in Pretoria for the family Christmas get-together.
So I'm working in 2 of the 3 rooms that still have light. I have one more window's curtains to hang tomorrow, and hopefully there'll be shops open so I can get light bulbs.

In the meantime my Etsy store is closed until 5 January, but my work space is packed out and I'm working on new stock!
I'll be photographing and editing new stock, planning markets as ahead as I can for 2013, and... I'll be finishing off Wonder Struck Inc's room!
*exciting*

Enjoy the rest of your Christmas day guys!

P.S Don't forget to promote/like/support our campaign ~ Wonder Struck Inc store funding

Christmas presents... for us?!

Project update:

2 days into the fundraising project and I just got 2 emails in the my inbox informing me that donations have been given.
I wasn't expecting those 2 donations to have us at 4% of target!

To Ben and iangels for their very generous donations and support of the project so early into its setup on Startme, THANK YOU!

Wonder Struck Inc. project

And it may not seem like much but I'm very happy that we're now at 6 likes (yesterday we had barely made it to a total of 4), which means word about our project is spreading!

Though this is not exclusively a Wonder Struck Inc. project, I will be managing the project and it's admin on Startme.
So as the next 88 days progress, I'll be updating you on here.

We *have* to meet AT LEAST 50% of target to get ANY of the funding donated to us (and out of whatever we're funded we still pay a percentage to the site as an admin/success fee).
So help us spread the word so that we can get funded!

The moving update:

Well... tomorrow I move the very last of the stuff into the new house/Wonder Struck Inc. HQ.
Then we'll officially be in!
As of yesterday the workroom that I'll be making and storing all of Wonder Struck Inc's stock between markets, is still filled with unplaced furniture and boxes, but the store will be completely shutdown so that I can concentrate entirely on sorting the work space out.

The Etsy/Bigcartel stores & stock updates:

The new stuff I've been making seems to be something I could easily settle into creating, and I'm hoping people love it as much as I do.
Alot of victorian/medieval inspiration has gone into it, with just a hint of steampunk.

We'll also be taking on goodies by other creatives that cannot make it to the same venues as us. After all we're purveyors of things handmade and pretty (and odd and interesting) ;)

Heatherlynn and I will also be looking at combining our stalls into one for about 80% of the markets in 2013, after all, that is the point of our fundraising project, to open a collective handmade store together.


Now, back to packing and making inbetween. Pictures of the new space will probably follow soon.

~ ZOO ~

And so we begin...

I think... as humans, we really do so much talking and not enough doing.
I'm just as guilty as anyone else I could point a finger at.

For about a year, Heatherlyn and I have been talking, dreaming and imagining a collective project between us...and now

The Wonder Struck Crowd Source Project is officially up.

The project name is somewhat unofficial, as Heatherlyn and I haven't quite made a final decision, but we've created this project on StartMe under my store's name.

It's somewhat of a hefty sum we're looking at raising, but that will be for a store, equipment and the initial stock, as well as some advertising.

We'd really appreciate that even if you can't give any funds in for our project, if you could spread the word, by sharing the project via the "share" options available all over the page.

Its a bit of effort being able to fund us, as you'd have to sign up to StartMe to become "part of the community". And you have to buy "investment credits" in order to give funds into ours and the other projects.

But it is VERY appreciated if you'd take the time to do all this.

We would need to be funded AT LEAST 50% if the project target in order to get ANY funding so that we can at least start this journey.

The time frame to raise these funds has been set at 90 days, so please guys, buckle down and help us get our project funded!

I would like to make incentives for those willing to give more than R500 at a time, but that will come as the project runs on the site.

Thanks!

A new space...

Well... we finally started with ACTUAL moving yesterday. 4 drives later, and the biggest furniture is already in the new HQ.
All... except for an exercise bike and 2 other work desks for the workroom. *excited beyond describing*

Now just comes the mess that hasn't been taken yet.
The boxes and boxes of goods that will fill the spaces inbetween.

Photos of the workroom and setup will be posted on here and on our Etsy "about" page ;)

But let me get off the laptop, there's just so much work to still do.

Have a great Thursday humans!

New in store...

I really couldn't wait! ... till January.

Busy with a few new listings on Etsy right now. And I really have never been so chuffed with Wonder Struck Inc.'s stock as I am right now!

Gothic Lolita/Gore Queen choker inspired necklace

The Chained up Butterfly necklace

Metallic wrap bracelet set - back to Disco!

Keep stopping by in the shop to see what I'm busy listing. There's going to be lots more up from this weekend, and if any of it is still available when we re-open from vacation... you might just beable to get it with a 20% discount on checkout in our Etsy store ;)

Hope you like the new stock as much as I do !

So much excitement... and stress

Well... as I sit here, the finishing touches on the new Wonder Struck Inc. residence are being done!
I stopped by there a couple of days ago, just to see what had been done/planned by my rascal landladies.

And now the new wiring is being done and the new shower fittings. THEN IT'S DONE! Apparently...
I am so excited that it's almost too good to be true.

It's also a little odd knowing that I'm on leave for 4 weeks, there's no markets between now and 25 January 2013... and I'm making the most inspired stuff of Wonder Struck Inc's existence.
I've ordered some more stock, which I'm expecting will only arrive in the new year, but that's fine, what with how much I have to currently organise into space in the first part of the move.

New stock will be photographed and listed over this weekend hopefully, if all goes as smoothly as it has gone today. >.<
I've also posted off a bunch of orders that came in this week. And it's probably been our best single sales week over Paypal/Etsy to date. Thank you guys! And I hope you are super happy with your purchases!

I'll be shutting Wonder Struck Inc. down into vacation mode on Etsy from 24 December 2012 until 5 January 2013.
There will also be an opening discount code available for the whole of January 2013.

Then... for those that might have spotted a mention or two of it. Maruchka and I are *still* working on setting up a photo shoot for the Wonder Struck Inc. stall, so please be patient, we think we might have a chance coming up in the next couple of weeks.
>.<

... I'm not sure if I've mentioned it on the blog yet, but a few weeks back I unfortunately lost my wolfylion Loupa to a very nasty death. But my other two boys and the new puppy are fit and healthy and will be filling up the new Wonder Struck Inc. home with their sillyness and puppymonster love.
I just cannot wait to start this new chapter!

Well well well...

With 5 days away from annual shutdown (at my day job), things are starting to happen. Good things!

I'm up and running on my new laptop, after *almost* 2 years of faithful service, my little notebook is going into semi retirement.

AND you won't believe the progress at our soon to be Head Quarters!
I really didn't expect the extent of work to happen that has been happening since last weekend.
My landlord is on a mission to make me a palace compared to what I was expecting to move into originally.
So we're *hoping* that all the initial work will be done and ready for me to move in as from next weekend (hold thumbs).

Also... Heatherlyn and I were on a weekend rush of markets.
Heatherlyn did SO SO SO well at the night market at Arms on Friday night and I did awfully >.< ... drunk people don't always spend money.

Yesterday's trip to the Midsummer Night's Dream market didn't go so badly, but didn't go so splendidly as we had hoped either.
Firstly, hardly anyone took part in the dress up... how sad!
Secondly, we had such a horrible layout in the stall section and hardly got any feet coming past us :(
Wonder Struck Inc. did, however, do splendidly well despite the lack of human traffic, I just wish I could say the same for Heatherlyn :(

But to those that came out and DID support us. Your patronage was so much appreciated!

While we were there we also got to hear some great cover bands and all girl bands... like Spilled Pink.
They haven't got a cd out yet, but they seem to get around to doing alot of gigs in and around Joburg, so if you see their name up on a gig list, go watch. These two ladies were rocking!
They did some covers and they did a few of their very own originals... just go find them and watch them.

Along with upcoming new stock, reseller orders, moving, new equipment... Heatherlyn and I have really started looking into the markets we're going to be going to in the new year. AND... how we can integrate our two stores into one... there are reasons we're starting this ;)

Before I put the Etsy store into vacation mode, I'll be loading a whole wack of stock onto the store for you to peruse and buy!
Then there are some revamps coming over the vacation period and we reopen the store on the 5th of January. I was hoping to be back and open by the 4th, but there are some changes to my holiday plans for the new year before I go back to my day job.

Sigh, hopefully I'll soon be posting pics of the new work space on here. >.< keep watching this space.

What happens after sunset...

If you ever wondered what happens near to midnight on a Tuesday night...

At Wonder Struck Inc... I sit making up orders that people want for Saturday *while* still making market stock for the Friday night and Saturday markets that are coming up. ALL for this weekend.

ALL of it.

The order, the markets... and I have only these last few nights available to work!

We're also getting closer to vacation at Wonder Struck Inc.

Please remember we'll be on complete shutdown between 23 December 2012 and 4 January 2013. 

NO ORDERS will be processed / posted etc during that time. None.

Now... back to work and coffee drinking. WOOO

Time time time...

I wish I had more time!

There's news that the Henley Arms night market is this Friday night, with our Midsummer Night's Dream market on Saturday in Midrand from noon.

And the time to make stock?
Well... its in the form of LATE nights and cans of Play between me and the notebook. GAH!

We've got quite a few new earrings, loads of pendants waiting for necklaces and many a new type of bracelet.
This could be fun, and our best of 2012.

But... for now I need to get cleaned up and unpack the beads I need to string to carry on with the making.

Fun times.

Have a great week humans, and hopefully we'll see you at our markets this weekend ;)