The Joy of Marketing Your Crafts

Hello and welcome to my new blog!  After lots of encouragement from some of my favorite friends in my creative, handmade village, I decided to start my own blog focusing on the growth and marketing of my business.  Handmade goods are a truly a labor of love and if you want to be taken seriously in a market flooded by cheap, cookie cutter goods, you have to be willing to work hard and you always have to be a student.  So, here we are.  The Joy of Marketing Your Crafts blog, and now--my own Facebook group too.


I started my business in January 2014 with my cousin.  We literally had an idea, we talked a bit about what we wanted to focus on and what each of us brought to the business, and then we jumped in with both feet.  Our first show was the swap meet in Packwood, WA.  We worked our buns off each making 100+ items each.  We did pretty well for being the new girls, and it ended up launching us into other business opportunities.  Just a couple months after the swap meet, I took the business to our local flea market here in Bremerton, WA (hosted by the Uptown Mercantile & Marketplace) and my cousin ended our year with a show at her home in Yakima, WA.  Our first year, we focused on getting our name out.  We decided on a business name and we had a logo designed along with all the online elements we might need.  Then, we purchased our domain name and launched a website.

In January 2015, we met to reflect on our first year.  We focused on our branding, and we decided on the shows we wanted to apply for so we could get our calendar set for the year.  A couple months later, my cousin made the decision to leave the business and go a different route with her small farm and I decided I was in for the long haul.  So off I went to see what 2015 might have in store for me.  And boy was it a heck of a journey!  In 2015, I launched a blog on my webpage and my Facebook business page saw significant growth.  I was invited to participate in some of the biggest vintage shows in the Pacific Northwest. Two of the shows I attended are in the Top 25 Vintage Markets in the country.  I closed out 2015 with two fall shows and in the midst, something completely unexpected happened.  On November 1, 2015, I opened the first brick and mortar location for At My Cousin's House.  And since then, I've been open five days a week and teaching lots of sold out, vintage inspired holiday and home decor classes.

I have learned so much the past two years.  I've grown as a business owner and as an artist.  I've made some fabulous new friends, and my creative village has grown both in size and in friendship.  I have a core group of class attendees who make me smile and guarantee my weeks end on a high note.  And above all, I have the joy and the honor of sharing the things I've learned with all of you.  I hope that you will find my blog and my Facebook group helpful and welcoming.  And most of all, I hope that you have fun.

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined."  Henry David Thoreau

The Joy of Marketing Your Crafts, on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/206270489722880/