Yes, Another Website

This has been an interesting week.  I made some more handkerchiefs and began making the scarves that I promised.  Yesterday, after not listing anything on Etsy for about 10 days, we listed several items in a blitz.  No sales so far but a lot of fun.  I put the red lips on several items.  Surprisingly, yet maybe not so surprising, the zipper lips on a hanky received very few visitors compared to the other items.  Why?  I think it is because the zipper lips were not smiling and the others were.  I'm telling you that smiles are contagious.  Most of the hankies that were posted were made using the new pin striped fabric with the red lip designs.  Wouldn't you know it, as soon as I listed the hanky with the black polka dots, it seemed like everyone went there.  And I have so little of that fabric remaining.  Ouch!  I looked for that fabric when we went on the fabric binge  recently and didn't find it.  Something else sort of surprised me, pleasantly.  I listed a long scarf, black with white polka dots, and the lace embroidered doves and butterflies, and received lots of visitors on that.  I'm not sure if that's because it's a new item for us or because of the scarf, itself. 

You never know what people like at any given time.  The polka dots, for instance, is retro and has been in vogue for a few years now.  You'd think that it would be coming to an end but, I don't believe that is the case.  Just like the red lips embroidery design, I have a set of designs for eyes that I have wanted to embroider.  Eyes are the window to your soul.  I wonder if they would be as big a hit as the red lips?  The red pops out on the black and white, where the eyes would not be such a contrasting color, unless the fabric was the bright color.  Hmmm, I'll have to think on that.

As much fun as I have, and will continue to have, playing the Etsy game, something else occurred this week.  There is a wholesaler in the U.S. that I keep hearing about.  I use a lot of different wholesalers for different things.  One main wholesaler that I use is Virginia T's.  VAT for short.  They are a wonderful company and I've been with them from the beginning.  As their name suggests this is where I usually get our t-shirts and polo shirts, etc.  They carry the apparel, but also some caps, towels, aprons, bags, etc.  I read a lot of forums and professional magazines and one name keeps surfacing -- Sanmar.  They sell the same type things as VAT but when someone is looking for something specific, the response is usually to call Sanmar, they have everything.  So, I thought it would probably be a good thing for me to sign up with Sanmar.  I tried last fall but every time I gave them information they requested, they wanted more.  It finally became a hassel and since I'm so pleased with VAT, I dropped the issue.  Sometimes VAT doesn't have the colors that I need, or they are out of stock of an item, and I do want another place where I can go that does the same thing and may have different colors.   So, I started the ball rolling again with Sanmar.  I was jumping through hoop after hoop until finally the last hoop was that I needed to call them on the phone to register.  I did this yesterday and must say that these are very nice people.  After I registered, the lady and I were talking and she said she didn't understand why more customers didn't use their free catelog web site. 

Well, one thing turned into another thing.  She put me through to the tech department and voila, Cajun Stitchery has another website but this one has the Sanmar catelog.  I'm still trying to figure this thing out but you are welcome to go look.  The website is www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery.  This website allows our customers to look through the catelog and purchase whatever they like.

I still have to figure out the flow.  If you go to the website and, let's say, you want to buy an apron.  You can chose the apron and put it in your cart.  I think once you decide to purchase, the cart comes to me.  This is where I need to learn more.  Some of their stuff is pricey; others not.  Of course, purchasing this way has an added cost for shipping.  I usually recover the shipping costs in the cost of the item.  So, this would be a little bit different.  Somehow you pay through Paypal, something else I have to work out.  Of course, this is only one company and if you don't see what you want there, or you want to find out if we can get an item cheaper elsewhere, you can always contact me and I'll look around at VAT or wherever.

C'est toute, mes amis:>)