Kraftbomb Halloween Extraveganza!

Here is a little sneak peek of what i've been up to :

Blah

I am really worried about how our dollar is falling at the moment. I just do not know how I can buy the supplies I need (which are always in US dollars) and still make a profit at the prices I can charge. If I was breaking even that would be okay but if im losing money thay is a worry...
I am paying nearly double what you guys in the USA are, I cannot believe its dropped to 59c (as of right now). Horray for five year lows......... Not only that but it also means I can not really justify buying ANYTHING for myself online. No more dollies or goodies :( which means no more cute photos to share :( which means less participation in all the fun communities I am a part of :( which means total shittiness for moi.
Everything we (as a country) import from overseas (especially europe and us) will inevitably be raising in price too.
I am almost at the point where im thinking I may have to sell off a large portion of my collection to make some dollars while its so low.. only problem is I don't know how to set up paypal to put money into my bank account, i've always just used those funds to pay for other onine purchases.
If I was to sell all my dolls, supplies and collectibles at what they are worth I would be able to make around $10,000. Thats terrifying because that means i've SPENT ten grand on that stuff to begin with. I know this is a very negative blog entry but im totally freaking out about it.

I am also not sure if crafting is financially viable for me anymore. I am just not selling enough. I dont know if it's because im not promoting it enough (quite possible) or in the case of actual craft events like kraftbomb, my stuff is just too niche. I know theres a huge market for cutesie frou frou stuff online (I mean look at lollishops!) but maybe not so much here in Auckland. I seem to be popular with the kids though haha guess adults aren't so into the idea of cupcake rings and pony brooches :*( And to be really honest I think my ideas and actual skills are just not good enough... nothing I do is really unique and no matter how hard I try and think of new ideas I just hit a brick wall. I have hundreds of dollars worth of jewellery supplies and fabrics just sitting around gathering dust. Maybe it is just time to forget it and move on.

I don't know...
:/

My Stall

IMG_0881
Originally uploaded by City the NZ Cupcake Queen

Looking a bit bare and messy haha I think this photo was taken towards the end of the day so lots of empty spaces.

A photo...

At the Car Wash...
Originally uploaded by ♥♥ Sugar Lemon ♥♥

of my gorgeous girl, just because I want to share her sweet face!

The Craft Aftermath

Kraftbomb was a lot of fun yesterday! It wasn't as busy as last time but I made a few sales which is good. Next month will be in a bigger venue so hopefully that will attract more customers. I also spent way too much on goodies for myself... I bought THREE furry bunny plushes from Anemone Crafts (photo taken from blog here) a hedgehog necklace from 'Lilys Make Believe' (blog here) and a bunch of badges from Nut and Bee (site here). My stupid camera was out of batteries (okay maybe i'm the stupid one for not charging it) so no photos from me :( BUT there were many photos taken by other people so they should be floating around the net anytime now so i'll snag a couple then. Hopefully I don't look like a total dork in any!

After looking at what other people were selling their items for I am starting to wonder if im pricing my stuff too cheaply...I noticed one stall was selling a necklace using a charm that was on one of my necklaces but mine actually had two charms on it but they'd marked theirs at $20 and mine was only at $15. I am crap at the business side of stuff and really have no clue what I should be pricing at and normally make up a price on the spot ha that's terrible. I should really be keeping a record of how much im spending of materials so I can work out cost+labour for a reasonable sale amount. I have a feeling I am possibly losing money... I know im putting way more money into materials than what im getting back in sales :/ I just love the process of creating things though so I almost don't really care about the profit.
The other thing I picked up on was people are more interested in the more pricey items (sterling silver necklaces etc.) so im wondering if I should shift focus on creating higher ticket items using quality materials - only risk with that is not selling anything... Suppose I could always try out one or two items and see what happens and if noone bites keep them for myself.

I have reduced my ebay spending a LOT recently.. I was spending way too much and with the NZ dollar being so weak against the US it was getting ridiculous. I did however succumb to buying a few things I just couldn't resist...

IT'S ALIIIIIIIIIIIVE!

Yes I actually do make things...
not that you would know as I seem to have managed not to blog about it, well, EVER. That was a mouthful. I used to run things under the name "Oh Deery Me"selling things from myspace and through the now closed down "Lady Eves" (in st kevs arcade) but I had a pretty long break and wanted to come back with something fresh including a new name so Sugar Lemon Sweetheart was born. At the moment im just making stuff to sell each month at kraftbomb (see info below).
So all that said, here are some of my bits and pieces!

Cupcake Pouch (which will be for sale at kb) This was really time consuming sewing on all the sprinkles by hand.


Vintage Celluloid Charm Cameo Brooches. Sold out of these!


This was my first (and err last) real embroidery attempt. As you can see its the promo cover for one of my favourite movies Cry Baby... Sadly it is still sitting in the hoop, I just cannot decide what I want to do with it. I thought maybe a pillow or maybe a patch for a bag or shirt? Indecisive.


Here is one of many bags i've sewn up using ridiculously expensive Japanese fabric. How can anyone not love Alice in Wonderland kawaii styles!?


If you haven't noticed by now I like to dabble in all mediums... this is a dress I whiped up for my daughter Lily. I can't remember but I think this is an Alexander Henry print (could be wrong)


Cards I made for kraftbomb using my dolly photography... I did not sell even ONE. Boo... I know they are kind of only appealing to crazy vintage japan nuts like me though so it's kind of understandable really. I think these would do better on etsy where I know other pose dolly nuts would appreciate them :D


I made a few of these matryoshka pillow dolls last year but then everyone started doing russian dolls and I stopped making them. This one sold at Lady Eves from memory.


Necklaces for this weekend. I really love these and kind of want to keep all of them! (well not really... buy one!)




So after all that show and tell I want to speak of the fantastic new craft event thats happening monthly here in Aucks (well Grey Lynn to be precise) called Kraftbomb! The amazingly talented City and her equally talented friend Karla have done such a fab job organising it, I can't wait until the next one on Sunday. Last month went really well and I made a few hundy which is always nice.. probably didn't cover my costs ha ha but who does? I figured at the prices im charging it works out to be about $6 an hour NOT including the material cost.. BUT I love tinkering around and making stuff so its a labour of love more than anything. I think one of the coolest things is having someone love something you've created so much they just have to buy it. Hopefully that happens a lot this weekend, we shall see. I have kind of got a bit of a theme going this month.. "sickeningly sweet", think cupcakes, sprinkles, pink pink pink, cuteness overload etc. If you know my stuff you're probably thinking "err isn't that ALWAYS the theme?" maybe kinda sorta... ;)

Anywho, check out the kraftbomb blog here and the flyer here:

I am pretty sure that is all I wanted to write... I know im such a slack blogger but I might take my camera along this time and take some snaps to put up. I wish I had a second camera for this kind of thing, something small and lightweight. My sony828 is a dream but its soooo clunky and annoying to take out, I really wish I hadn't sold my tiny slimline cybershot :/ although my 828 takes way better photos so its a catch22.

Hopefully some of you are still actually visiting my blog... it's been so long between posts I wouldn't blame anyone if not. I see blogger has a cool new "follow" feature, ABOUT TIME! That was always the one thing I hated about it. I used livejournal for years and it was so convenient to have all my "friends" saved to a list, I am too useless to go and visit individual blogs every day.
Please add me to your list and i'll be sure to add you back :)

I've been burning the midnight oil too often this week and I can feel my contacts sticking which is a sure sign I should head to bed...
xxoo

Oh my god....

the NZ dollar has dropped to 69c to US$1
argggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh only a few months ago it was at 79c!!
I am going to go totally and utterly broke!

I am the most useless blogger in the world, it's probably even official! I suck at updating.
I haven't really got any "news" as usual so i'll just share some fun stuff.


I won this lovely Missy the Model doll (and her dog Gigi) w/ box, I can't believe I got her as I was sure I would be outbid at the last minute. She looks gorgeous in the photos... can't wait to get her! Here she is :

Another super add to my collection are these vintage dakin dream dolly twins (and cow!). I only have one other like this so I was desperate for these.. I had lost an auction for a similar pair a little while ago so was so happy to see more listed! I feel bad though about having to outbid people I really like :( goes with the territory I guess...I've lost plenty of stuff recently too. Its so hard not to want every single thing that fits into that cute japanese cloth doll category. Anyway, here is a sneak peak until I can upload some pics of my own.


I received a super duper package from Annette (japanesesweetshop) today! I love getting big doll lots in the mail. These are YJ and Ebay finds via her. She is so sweet to help me out :) *big hugs and thanks* Heres the loot :D
and a couple of my own recent ebay finds... more things I really cannot afford but had to have!!




Ok enough enough..
I found a really cute site that I have to share!

moan and groan.

Man I HATE ebay sniping. HATE.
It's destroyed the fun in ebay for me that's for sure.
:( I don't mean to offend anyone who does this, I just can't stand the method itself (not the people).
I can sit there watching the auction close and because my internet is not as fast as the US I have no chance of revising my bid in time. I had 6 seconds to go, I pressed 1 click bid and it told me the auction had already closed?! there must be some sort of weird delay because there was no way it took 6 seconds to load. *sigh* hahaha and I REFUSE to use a sniping service. Maybe I should accept that it is the only way to win these days.

Who needs a title?

I have been a bit slack with updating this week. My dad got a call last Sunday from his mum in Australia about his father who has emphysema. She didn't think he had very long left, maybe a week or two. Dad decided we should all go over to see him straight away so the next day we got on a plane to Sydney. We were only there two days but it wore me out. I hate travelling, even short plane trips. 3hr40min to Sydney and 2hrs40 back to Auckland. I have NO clue why its an hour quicker on the way back..maybe something to do with head winds *shrug*. Anyway, he was pretty bad..could hardly breathe, couldn't leave the bed etc. Me and my sister were never close to him (I only met him 3 or 4 times) but even so, it's horrible to see anyone dying.. I know my dads struggling with it a lot. He is still alive but really it's just a matter of waiting for the call :/ The whole situation is very sad.. He re married a lovely Filipino woman about 10 years ago, she had a son who was my age. About 5 years ago he committed suicide and left a tape basically blaming my grandfather. It is true my granddad was quite hard on him but he was an elderly sick man who shouldn't have had to put up with the carry on my cousin put him through... he was into drugs/petty crime etc. always in trouble. Anyway she left him shortly afterwards so he has been on his own for the last few years. It really breaks my heart to think of him lying there all alone all day.. but there really isn't much we can do. He is a very stubborn man and does not like help.. my dad did however organise for health workers to come in twice a day so that's a little bit of piece of mind that he's being looked after.

Sorry for the personal blabber, it's good to get that off my chest though.

It's been very slow doll wise since my massive haul the other week. I am pretty sure most of you saw those pics over on flickr but here it is (above) just in case.
As you can see I received that box of dollies i'd been waiting on. How amazing is that blonde haired kimono beauty? Seriously cute.

I have some other Kimono girls on the way.. mail seems to be taking longer than normal for some reason. I am still waiting for things I paid for around 28th/29th April.. I guess that's only 2 weeks but i'm impatient! I guess if I want things fast I should cough up for Priority which in my opinion is a total freaking rip off. Who wants to pay $10-$15 extra (or even $25-30 for express) just to receive something maybe 2 or 3 days quicker.. I will just sit and stare at the mailbox I think ;) Here is a sneak peak at those girls. Sorry about the terrible auction photos, some sellers need to invest in a decent camera (web cam auction photos = seriously lame)!



In addition to the lovely Japanese girls I am also waiting on these lovelies..
The Aboriginal doll is really interesting... It said on the auction it was a brownie downing doll. I am not 100% sure if that was their guess or if it has a label or something on the bottom to indicate this. If it is I will be surprised as they normally go for a LOT more than what I paid.
I just love the little kangaroo. I've never seen a pose doll like this before (nor do I have many boys) so I was keen to add him to my collection. Although I suppose he could even be a she? hmm I am guessing a little boy though.

Recently the only auctions I seem to be able to win are buy nows lol lucky finds that I spot before anyone else. Actual auctions keep ending in bidding wars and well I can't spend anywhere near as much as some people so I always end up losing. I did win a little gypsie girl (right) but I feel really bad about it as I somewhat stole her off Renee (sorrrrryyyy :/) I always feel really guilty when I know one of you girls are already bidding so I hardly ever compete nowadays. It's only on the really amazing auctions I just have to have a go at (and we all know who normally wins those ;P) I am now on a tight budget so no more sprees for me. The extremely wonderful Annette (from japanesesweetshop.com) has been helping me out with some non ebay doll purchases which I need to save my $ for too.

I did manage to win this doll lot (herman peckers I think)

I just have to say that the fellow 'vintage japan' doll collectors i've "met" through flickr are just the best bunch of ladies ever! I am so glad to know you guys. I enjoy corresponding so much with people of like mind. I think we are all a little bit nuts lol and I say that in a totally positive way of course ;)

I am very keen on getting myself some vintage japanese paper items. I just LOVE the graphics. Here is my first acquisition


Ok now that i've rambled on about my recent finds... I am happy to announce my 3 dolly treat bags sold pretty much straight away which i'm really happy about! Gretchen and Linda (who I know) and Jana whom I am yet to speak with but I see she is a shop66 dolly customer so she must have good taste ;)



I still have quite a few postcards and stickers left so will be making more packs up real soon. I am just waiting for another order of different designs. I also need to find some cute little dolly bits and pieces for them, it's quite a challenge to find lightweight tiny things in bulk that fit with the theme.

Because of time constraints I haven't had a chance to whip up new tshirt designs yet but plan on doing some tonight. Thanks Renee and Annette for being my first printfection customers!