Preparing for Christmas.

With the schedule I have prepared for myself, I will have earned my Christmas break this year. I actually already picture our week in Albury as uninterrupted chilled-out bliss by the river and eating pavlova leftovers.

In the meantime though... what I have to get done actually keeps me sleeping a little lighter than usual.

I have booked myself in, or rather my alter ego Josephine for three of the major Christmas markets (2 x Olive Tree Market, and 1x Hunt & Gather). They are massive markets and if all goes well, I am hoping to make a lot of sales on those days.

A lot of sales though means a lot of stock which for the moment, I have almost none of as I desperately await the arrival of my strings (approx. 4000 meters) from the UK (They will be at the post office tonight so the agonising wait will end tomorrow morning) to start knotting away.

The good news is that I have a pretty good idea of my plan of attack, which is in part thanks to a good friend of mine and the workshop he wrote and was trialling on me.

Over the course of a couple of hours, we mapped out the current Oh Josephine business model and came up with a strategy for the next couple of months. As I told him in my feedback, I felt empowered with clarity, optimism and direction. Always a good start.

I am also planning a workshop which will take place in a couple of weeks at a nearby cafe. Over the course of about three hours, participants will learn the basic macrame knots and get to work on their own plant hanger. I have also sourced some really lovely ceramic pots which come in beautiful colours and go perfectly with the coloured strings. So far, I have sold two spots and I am hoping for four more but haven't had that much interest this week. We shall see...

Although it's only been a few weeks since The Impossible Market, I feel like it's been a lot longer. There are so many ideas and thoughts going around in my head, trying to find the right balance between experimenting and going with what I know.

And of course, progress is so slow when combined with the needs of Hugo and Eloise. I do wonder about my timing once in a while but, if I can make it work at least a little the way I am doing it, then I should.

Below are some photos from the last couple of weeks from Etsy and the photo for the workshop with the black background.

Eloise, 6 months.

It doesn't matter how busy it gets, and it's pretty busy right now, I wouldn't miss Eloise's monthly photo session.

Like last month, it was hard to keep up with our wriggly little cherub but I was pretty excited to make her wear the little suit I had knitted for her after she was born. Sized for 6 months, it fits her perfectly and is adorable.

It is difficult to compare her temperament to Hugo's because I realise that I have forgotten a lot about the early months with her big brother. I suspect though that she is less placid and louder. She is getting better but still doesn't love being left on the floor to play for too long. She cries a lot in the car and in the pram but that's also improving now that I have realised she is much more patient when she has something to chew on.

Her feistiness aside, she is adorable. She smiles all the time and laughs often. While she always greets us with huge smiles and squeals, she reserves her special explosion of laughter for her very favourite person, Hugo of course.

Watching them together is heart-melting and the love and affection flows both ways. This is one of the most exciting things about having more than one child and I can not wait to see their relationship continue to blossom.

Here are a few very cute photos I took today.

We did it.

Well, Oh Josephine made it to market. What a whirlwind October has been already and I find it hard to believe how much I was able to pack into just a couple of weeks. Making the decision to have a stall at The Impossible market feels like a lifetime ago and in some ways it was.

I had a great time this month, fitting in all my bursts of designing, making, packaging, communicating into the nooks and crannies left in between the needs of two small children. It wasn't easy but it was fun, enjoyable and energising.

It was also far from perfect. There are so many things I would do differently given the time and space, but had I had this mystical time and space available, I am almost certain Oh Josephine wouldn't even exist. It's often with no time to think that actions are taken. When under pressure, we make decisions and stick with them.

"Start before you are ready, stop before it's perfect." Ready and perfect are wonderful concepts that simply do not exist. They just stop us from doing anything.

Last night came fast but I was prepared, calm and collected. Chris was amazingly helpful, installing my hanging structure (made from the sides of our playpen) while the kids napped, and then, looking after Hugo and Eloise while I did my thing. It was a team effort, as all good things are.

I was a little nervous and it took me a bit of time to find my stride, figuring out where to sit or stand to be present without being intrusive, finding the right tone to be warm without scaring people off.

The most interesting and hardest thing was not to take 'rejection' personally. So many people walk past, have a look and keep walking. I've been to markets before and I've done this a million times. I've been to markets with the express intention of buying nothing so of course, my rational mind knows that only a small proportion of traffic will eventuate into a sale.

Rather than thinking about the rejection from people who didn't choose my products, I prefer to focus on those who did. When you think about it, apart from a very small percentage, we all have to be fairly careful with the way we allocate our resources. So for just one person to choose and decide to spend their precious resources on what you made is an incredible honour which deserves to be taken seriously.

Last night, one guy fell in love with something I had made. He had a long look and walked away. But later, towards the end of the night, he chose to come back and treat himself to it. He was elated and I was too. How special to imagine someone feeling pleasure daily from something you made.

It made me realise the importance of doing things well, with care, choosing nice materials, great quality, doing it ethically, creating something that can be loved for a long time, even when he forgets who sold it to him or when. The joy should outlast the memory of buying it.

Although I only sold a few items (4 to be precise) and covered only a third of what it cost me to be there, the night was a success. It was obvious that people liked what I had made. I received and overheard dozens of positive comments. People were interested, intrigued and coveting what was there. People picked up some cards and workshop pamphlets, asked questions and looked back. I have no doubt that it can work.

Since last night, my social media following has grown slightly and I have received a few emails about doing some wholesale. If I let it, Oh Josephine could well become a small success.

The fear of success is real though. This month was hard and next month will be harder. There are so many fronts to manage, from making to social media, online selling, designing, preparing for markets and so on. It's hard to imagine how I will manage at this stage but my idea is to try and build a strong fan base, and a few solid relations without spreading myself too thin.

Even if the future is uncertain, this week's steps are mapped out. I need to set up my etsy shop beautifully with everything I haven't sold, and apply for a couple of markets to do the Christmas ones. These are my aims for the next few days. Simple, broken down, manageable.