My First Order

I have the Sell on the Etsy app. I also have it set to notify me if anything happens. Ever since I got my first order last Saturday I have been checking the app off and on. Just to make sure that it is real. Even now, with the order completed, I still have I hard time believing it. So I'm going to talk about it.

E is for Etsy

I was watching a movie with my parents while playing Beast Fiends. My phone buzzed in my hand to inform me about my newest notification. I rolled my eyes and checked it thinking that was another one of my apps. The notification's icon was a boxed-in capital E.

I thought to myself, "Great, an Etsy notification."

I then went back to my game. Not three seconds later did the E hit me. I got done with my level and closed out of the app. I opened the Sell on Etsy to look at my notifications. I was surprised. Because even though I know that is Etsy's logo it takes me a while to notice that it's for me. That someone favorited something or even ordered.

Sale on Etsy App Home Screen

This is what I saw. I almost went into shock. I so used to just seeing zeros under orders and revenue... I was beginning to wonder if those numbers could change. I had lost some hope about the store.

For privacy, I will not be able to tell you who ordered the item. But I can tell you what it was and how I made it.

Flower Crown

The order was for a flower crown Moon Elf Doll. I still couldn't believe that I got an order so I showed my phone to my mom. Looking back on it I don't think I should have. But I wanted someone else to see it. That way I would know that I was not crazy. The movie was paused at the moment. I think my dad got up to let our puppy out. My mom's excitement and joy made it feel more real to me. I think she was more excited than I was.

She asked me if I was going to make a new one or send the one that I had. I told my mom that I was thinking about making another one, but that I would know for sure tomorrow.  My mom then asked me if I was going to work on it tomorrow. I really didn't want to work on anything "tomorrow" since that was Sunday.

I couldn't sleep at all that night. When morning came I was full of energy. My family and I went to church, where I almost fell asleep in Sunday School, which has been normal for the past few weeks. I did stay awake during the service though. But on the way to church, my client messaged me. She informed that the order was for her cat because my doll didn't have plastic on it. I made a note to make sure that I didn't use my plastic safety eyes.

When we got home my sisters and I watched an episode of Merlin. I then started to gather up the supplies for the doll. But as I started to gather everything that I needed I began to panic.

Felt Panic

As I was getting the felt for the doll I noticed something strange. I didn't have a lot of silver-gray felt. I use the silver-gray felt for the doll's skin. The fact that I had so few of the material was stressful. I thought that was odd since I had made only four other ones before. And I remembered buying two sheets. I was beginning to worry that I don't have enough.

Turned out that I had enough for that project. I was glad that I did have enough. But I wish that had more if the dark purple. Since I use that for some of the flowers on the crown.

Moon Elf Doll Face WIP

I marked out where the face was going to be. I worked for a few hours and got the face done. I wasn't feeling very good which was making it hard to focus. As my focus began to wane I noticed that my hands were shaking and that I was cold all of a sudden. That is my body's signal that something is very wrong and I need to rest and drink a lot of water.

Over the next two days, I worked on and finished the doll. On the second day when it was done, I pulled out the Nintendo Switch, that I share with my sisters, and started to play. For the past three weeks or so I have done nothing but work on my shop. It felt good to take a break and do something fun.

My Workspace

I messaged my client when the doll was done. I sent her two pictures of the doll. I wanted her feedback to see if there was anything else that she wanted. I thought that it would be a good idea. After all the doll is made to order and I wanted to make sure that the little changes that I did were okay.

My client said that it was cute. So I went shopping and took my mom with me. We went to Walmart to get the envelope and JoAnn to get more silver and purple felt. Since I ran out of both.

Finished Doll Front

And today I just shipped the package. It should be at my client's house on Friday. I have never felt this happy with anything I have done or made before. If anything this order has given the drive to make sure that my shop is successful. The amount of happiness that I feel over this is so weird. But I'm so glad that this went smoothly. I hope I get another order soon.

If you would like to browse my shop click here. If you would like so see the Moon Elf Doll for yourself, please click right here. Thank you for stopping by and sharing this experience with me.

Travel Mug

As Valentine's Day is creeping closer more and more memories about the holiday keep coming to mind. I'll be posting different blog posts about these stores later. Got to keep some of the other good ones for another day. Today I am going to tell you the story about my first travel mug.

When I was younger my family didn't really celebrate Valentine's Day. We still don't really celebrate it. My sister and I thought about it as a glorified candy and stuff animal festival. We only celebrated Valentine's Day in the morning.

When we would wake up and go to the dining room table there would a plush and a heart-shaped box of chocolate. That was all we would do. Now when my sisters and I were in our teens our family ran into some money trouble. I'm not going to go into the details, because it was a long time ago and I don't remember.

My mom told us that we were not going to get anything for Valentine's Day that year. My sisters and I were alright with it. When we got up in the morning on Valentine's Day I was surprised to see at our places at the table was something. Sitting at our places where coffee travel mugs.

I ask Mom about them. She smiled and said that our dad had gotten them for use. I picked up the mug and noticed that it was heavy. I unscrewed the mug and looked inside. Inside of the mug was chocolate. As much chocolate that a small travel mug could hold.

super 

It was a lovely surprise. When I was a teenager I almost always questioned if my dad loved me. That was one day that I didn't. You can be sure that my dad was given lots of hugs and kisses when he got home.

To this day I still have that travel mug. And when I have to wake up super early in the morning it is the first mug I reach for.

So my question for y'all is simple. What was your favorite Valentine's Day gift?

Love Potions

Trop Mystery

For being very common in fiction I can only remember two stories that use love potions. Once Upon a Time and Harry Potter. For being so popular why can I only remember two stories that have it? Also, why do I sell four different types of love potions?

I want to first look at how these potions are used in three different shows/movies. I also want to look at what TV Tropes has to say about the potion. Then I will explain why I have four different types of love potions in my shop.

Top Three Potions and Charms

Harry Potter

For being the world's leading export of magic and potions you think this book series would interestingly use love potions. As far as I know, there are only two times the potion is used. Three is you count Slughorn's class, but I'm not going too.

The first way we see the potion being used is on Ron. For those of you who haven't read or watched Harry Potter let me explain. Someone was trying to get our hero, Harry, to fall in love with her. So she sent him chocolate laced with a love potion. Harry didn't get a chance to eat them though. His best friend Ron ate the candies. As a result of the potion Ron also almost died. Saying why that was the cause would be a spoiler, and I rather not have the Harry Potter fan community be mad at me.

I will argue that in this case, the potion did very little if anything to help the plot. Sure it got Harry and Slughorn back on speaking terms, but in a rather boring way. Of course, I think that the plot could have been better in that book/movie. I'm not going to talk too much more about it though.

The second way we see love potions used in Harry Potter is with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's mother. She used a love potion on her husband. She then stopped giving him the love potion because she loved him so much and hoped that the potion had given him feeling for her. It did not. She was kicked out of the house and later gave birth to her son. Some fans believe that the reason why He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named can't feel or show love is because of the use of the love potion on his father.

Once Upon a Time

It has been a while since I last saw this show. But true love is the main thing that can cure anything. It got annoying after a while. But my family and I finished watching all of the main stories. That would be all of Emma's story.

Love potions are used in the story. As a way to help characters fall back in love with each other. I don't really have anything else to say about this show. It was well good and didn't have too many tropes in it. I'm not going to try to remember all of what happened in the show to write about it.

Merlin

Merlin is one of the best TV shows I have ever seen. As of right now (Jan. 23, 2020) it is still on Netflix. I personally believe that you should watch it. It is very funny and worth a watch. So I will explain love potions/charms in a way that doesn't spoil anything.

Someone will come to Camalot with a love charm to bewitch Arther. Arther will be affected by the love spell for a few days while Merlin tried to cure him. The charm always works and never backfires. The only ways to break the charm is by killing the charmer, true love's kiss, and true grief. While one charm only stops working as soon as Gwenaver removes the bracelet that the charm is in.

TV Tropes

 TV Tropes has a whole section on love potions. In the simplest of terms, TV Tropes says that the potion never works. That might be one reason why it is so popular. Looking back on three stories that I have mentioned and talked about only one has love charms that work. That would Merlin. Maybe it is time for these potions to stop being in the limelight.

Why Four?

So why do I have four different love potions?  Funny enough I have no idea. After I made the first love potion I came up with the ideas of the other three in the shower.

Young Love Potion

I guess the main reason why I have four different types of love potions is mainly color options. I wanted there to be different colors that would serve as different types of love. Do I think that they are love potions that would work in fantasy? No.

Do they look pretty? Yes. So maybe we should not worry about why they are so popular. I think that love potions will be around for a long time. If anything they will continue to inspire people to make their own.

If you would like to see my other love potions or my store, in general, you can click here. I do a lot more than just making love potions. I also make other potions and plushies. I hope you find something to your liking.

Valentine's Day Memories

I know that it is a little early to be thinking about Valentine's Day. But I can's help but think about it around this time. Valentine's Day is one of those holidays that I love and hate at the same time. Let me tell you two stories that relate to Valentine's Day that happened to me.

Pipe Cleaner Pawprint

When I was 13 I had my first love. He was a charmer and goof play. I could see myself marrying him. Although we had many disagreements about what we wanted to be when we grew up. But when we were "official" he made me a pawprint out of pipe cleaners. I can still almost remember the nervous look on his face when he gave it to me.

A few months later I was longer and carving a deeper relationship with him. My mom and dad talked with his parents and they all decided that we could not date until we were other 18. I just needed to wait for four more years at the time. But he was two years younger than me. This put us at odds.

I told him one Wednesday night that I just wanted to be friends. That I wasn't comfortable with being anything more. That was the last time we spoke to each other. But I kept the pawprint until I was 21. The reason why I couldn't get rid of it sooner is that I wanted to hold onto that hope. That we might become something in the future. It has been a little more than ten years since we last spoke.

A Kiss From Grandma

Now this one really did happen on Valentine's day. But there is some context you need to know first. I have a very dear aunt who was like a second mom to me. She would try to come and see us at least once a year. She would also send us chocolate and stuff animals for Valentine's Day. Now at the time of this story, I was nine or ten.

My mom had just divided the chocolate that my aunt sent. It split evenly between me and my two sisters. We were also playing with our new stuff animals. I ate one of the chocolate kisses and touched my cheek. I remember saying to my sisters that Grandma had kissed me. I started going on babbling some nonsense that I no longer remember. My mom came into the dining room and looked at me sternly. She then told me that the package came from my aunt. Embarrassed I stopped talking. My sisters tried to use this to tease me for a while.

Now how could I have been so confused about that? While I was young I could not remember how anyone was related to me. And since most of our family lived in the same city it made it a little harder to remember who sent the package. All I could remember is that my Grandma lived in that city.

Closing Thoughts

This blog is for my Etsy shop. If you would like to see what I do please go to my shop. I make plushies and fake potion bottles. I will try to keep up this blog and post every other day. I will talk about the why behind my shop and some of the items. I also like to tell stories about what is happening to me. Thank you for stopping by. Here is the link to my shop, Trinket Shoppee. If you have questions for me you can comment them below or email me at trinketshoppee@gmail.com. Talk to you later.

About the Shop

My Why

In school, I took an AAA class that talked about entrepreneurship. One of the things that my teacher talked about was that everyone had a "why." Everyone's "why" is the reason they get out of bed. I struggled a lot with this at school. The reason being I never knew why I got out of bed at all. I was very happy just staying in bed all day. I never wanted to get out of bed, because I didn't see a point to it. So throughout all of college, I didn't have a "why." So why did I start this humble little trinket shoppee?

Long Nights

At this point, it is not a surprise that I have depression. I had long nights of restless sleep and mornings where I thought no one would notice if I stayed in bed. Of course, some noticed. SOmeone always noticed.

I was always glad that no one really asked me why I wanted to go into radio and television as a major. I was glad that I made friends that helped me get through some dark times. But when I woke up every day I didn't have a "why." I just didn't know why I should get up in the morning. When I got done with my degree I noticed something odd. I didn't want to want to go into media.

I needed to find a reason to wake up. I needed to go back to my roots. During my last semester, I started missing my Grandma, on my dad's side, so much. That was normal for the time of the year. She loved Christmas so much, so every Christmas I can not help but think about her. But last Christmas I remembered something odd.

The Crafting Room

My grandma had a crafting room. The door would be opened to her crafting room. Now my sisters and I were not allowed in this room. But that didn't stop us from going in from time to time. Her sewing machine would be out and ready to go. The fabric that was kept in the room was carefully folded and ready to be used. The room smelled of warm fabric.

She made my sisters and me two dolls. One was a girl doll that was fashioned to look like us. My grandma also made us each a bunny doll. She loved to make things, and she felt so at peace while doing so. In my younger years, I never questioned if she loved me. I knew where I stood with her.

As I remembered these I also started to remember my childhood love of crafts. I loved to sew things, and I had a lot of fun learning about sewing. Even now as I start to pick back up on this love it relaxes me. I only wish that my grandma was here to help me learn the craft she loved so much.

The Origin of the Shop

I started the shop as a spur of the moment choice. I didn't read much about how to open an Etsy shop. I opened my shop for a few reasons. I have a friend and a cousin who both have Etsy shops. I wanted to support their shops, but I didn't have any money. So I thought I would open a shop to get some money to support them.

I also wanted to start the shop to fund my sewing habits. That way I can learn more about my grandma's craft. I feel closer to my grandma while I sew. I also feel more at peace while I am sewing. I just feel at peace while I am working on my craft.

I have one other reason for wanting to open the shop. When I told my mom about my plans to open the shop she was supportive of me. My dad also liked the idea. He thought that an item that I was returning to Amazon was something that I had made and sold. For a few seconds, I knew he was proud of me. I could also tell that he was equally disappointed that it wasn't my first sale.

Two people also supported me right away, the first one was my Uncle Stan. You pointed at me one day and said, "that if I couldn't believe in me; I just had to say to myself that Uncle Stan believed in me." That has been keeping me going for weeks now. The other person was my Aunt Claudia. I would bounce ideas off of her about the store. She even went shopping with me to find supplies for my crafting. 

So what is the why behind my shop? Maybe we find out together.

Welcome

Hello. and welcome to Trinket Shoppee. The blog for the Etsy shop with the same name. My name is Abigail and I run this blog and the store. Let me tell you a little bit about myself and the shop.

Ever since I was young I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. But there was one thing that I always wanted to do. I wanted to make things. From books to movies. I also want to draw and be an artist. But I stopped wanting to be these things until later in my youth. I went to school for radio and television. After completing the degree I was back in that familiar boat. I was back to where I started. I didn't know what I wanted to be anymore. So I opened this shop on Etsy.

I will tell you more about myself later, and more about the shop later. Thank you for stopping by. If you want to see my show just click this link.