greenolive

boys or girls? it does matter

You'd probably buy this illustration for a little (or big) boy. 

While at Mathilda's Market yesterday I learnt an important lesson about market display. 

As I'm not a mum I hadn't realised just how important the boy vs girl thing is. Of course I knew it was important when you were shopping for kids clothes, but illustrations for the kid's bedroom wall? Maybe I just thought mums would work it out for themselves...then I hadn't factored in the whole shopping-with-children scenario.

Even thought the story is about a little boy called Gordon, this illustration of a circus parade would be ok for both genders. 

With my usual INTJ-ness I'd sorted and displayed the vintage book illustrations by subject or category; ABC, 123, nursery rhymes, plants & animals, fairy tales – this made perfect sense to me. But as the day progressed I received numerous requests such as:
Have you got any nursery rhymes for boys?
I need an illustration for a boy and a girl, what do you have?

Tom, the pipers son is more suitable for your son...

 
While your little girl might prefer Cinderella dancing with her prince.

I soon caught on. The subject matter of the print was less important than the gender of the child they were buying for. So while ABC, and 123 would seem suitable for both little boys and girls, A for astronaught is probably more boy-specific, as is an illustration of five toy cars. On the other hand, P for princess, and an illustration of five flowers may be more suitable for a little girl. But A for alligator and an illustration of one rocking horse are fine for both.

As the first rule of retail is the customer is always right, I'm going to review the illustrations and categorise them by boy, girl and both. And some of the more generic subjects such as animals and birds might just stay the way they are.

So, all you mums out there, and the grandmums and aunties too, I've finally got it and promise to sort and display the vintage book prints by gender suggestion – to make life easier for you!

new look greenolive website

(Drum roll please)   Ta Da!

More of a revamp than a redesign, here's a sneak peek at the new look greenolive website.

You may not think its a big departure from the previous design, but for me and also behind the scenes there have been significant changes.

The colour palette, the circular photos and the navigation system have stayed the same, but the webpage layout is more refined and the colours are used more subtly. The homepage has more functional elements including a market date section and a spot for news and new product features.

The website is finally beginning to look the way I had imagined, to look like greenolive. Thank goodness, its only taken me more than two years to get to this point!

Behind the scenes there have been changes as well. Drew has built a proper online shop that plugs into the existing website. So now you can buy online via the website, no more going to four different etsy shops.

But hold your horses – don't rush off now to buy some fabric, a bag or scarf, or maybe even a vintage book print – it will be a few more days before this functionality is live. Drew needs to tweak some stuff (technical term you understand) and I need to fill the shop with greenolive goodies.

I'm so relieved I can cross redesign website and launch online shop off my to-do list. Now I just might be ready to start the next item on the list: find new stockists. 

And after that, the next item on the list is: makes lots of money.

Wish me luck.

maybe less is more when it comes to etsy shops?

Following on from yesterday's unexpected burst of energy – so far its continued today – I intended to show you the revamped website. 

However, our photo batching software had other ideas, reducing photos to 12kb rather than the 40kb I'd intended. Of course I only discovered this once I'd uploaded the photos to the website! I wondered why they looked so dodgy! At about 7pm last night, after fixing about half of the photos I gave up. So maybe on Wednesday you'll get to see it...

But, I have been working on another business issue, that of an online shop. Or, in our case, FOUR online shops! Can you believe it? No wonder Drew gets confused and frustrated and hates doing any etsy stuff. You're probably confused too.

We didn't plan to have four etsy shops. And with two of us its really only two shops each isn't it?

There's the original shop, greenolive, selling scarves. I live in the southern hemisphere and etsy is based in the northern hemisphere, so I'm always out of whack when it comes to the seasons. I'm knitting wool scarves and thinking about rugging up when most etsy buyers are thinking about Spring and flowers blooming. They sure aren't thinking about scarves!

The second etsy shop was greenolive textiles. A joint venture with Drew, and selling our screenprinted fabrics, its been the most successful in terms of sales. We've neglected it a bit of late, not relisting every day as you should, and have seen sales slow as a result. At least fabrics aren't seasonal!

Then came Drew's etsy shop, designsforhim. It sells his leather products, all made by him with no help interference from his wife. He uses recycled leather and sews each item on his vintage Singer sewing machine. The aforementioned frustration with etsy means he doesn't relist or update as much as he probably should.

The fourth etsy shop is a new one. I haven't even told you about it yet, retroprint. We were selling "vintage" book illustrations at a market and buyers kept asking if they could buy online. So retroprint was born. 

There it is. Our four etsy shops. It wasn't planned, more a case of organic growth. A reflection of our different interests, diversity of products, and possibly our confusion when it comes to business models. Or rather, do we have a business model?

What exactly do we do? What do we sell? How do we sell it? And how would a market goer in Melbourne even know about etsy? Would they be comfortable buying in US dollars when they live in the same city as the seller?

These questions all need answers. In trying to answer them, we've had to evaluate the who, how, why and what of the four etsy shops. One of the "hows" is how do you manage inventory and listings on etsy when you sell the same products at weekend markets? Its very time consuming let me tell you!

If I come up with any answers you'll be the first to know. In the meantime, any of you locals out there, how do you feel about buying via etsy in US dollars when you could also buy in person at a market?

back in the saddle

When I woke up today I felt full of energy. There's nothing really remarkable about that, other than I haven't felt full of energy for quite some time.

So I'm back in the saddle. Lists are being made. Plans hatched. Emails returned. Bills paid. Dishes washed up (and before 8am too! Only Drew will understand the significance of that!).

I'm ready to tackle the business-side of things, something I have been dragging my heels about for months. I know exactly what I need to do, but I just haven't done it! So stay tuned, be ready for some action (and blog posts).

In the meantime, a photo of flowers from The Abbotsford Convent which Drew took last Sunday. Hope it brightens your day.

shirt and and skirt (and scarf) market

I think they should consider renaming this market to shirt, skirt & scarf market, cause there are certainly LOTS of scarves for sale! And yesterday, our scarves were part of the mix.

The shirt & skirt market is very established, held monthly in the beautiful surrounds of the Abbotsford Convent. The focus is on local designers creating and making fashion-based products, hence the name. 

We were thrilled to be part of the market yesterday, and loved it so much that we hope to become permanent stallholders in the near future. 

But really, what's not to love? The location is lovely, Binh the organiser is very helpful and friendly, there are lots of things to see and explore that will keep bored husbands and/or children busy, and the Convent Bakery and Lentil as Anything serve great food and the market goers seem to appreciate good design.

I'm kicking myself I didn't discover the Convent earlier. We've been in Melbourne almost 10 years and yesterday was my first visit. We used to live in Hawthorn (so close) and I drove past the Convent every day on my way to and from work at The University of Melbourne. The buildings, architecture, history and grounds are amazing – you feel like you are in another world, another time.

The market is held on the third Sunday of the month, and if you haven't been, why not make a day of it next month? Get there early for a great breakfast at the Convent Bakery, then browse the market stalls, take the kid's to the Collingwood Children's Farm next door, after that grab some takeway lunch from the bakery and wander the paths and parkland in the Convent grounds. You can even bring the kid's bikes and maybe have an afternoon snooze in the shade of a big tree. Sounds like a great day.

the sewing mojo returns

My sewing sessions happen in fits and starts. I can go weeks without sewing, and then I end up doing a marathon session of cutting, pinning, sewing, and pressing that results in a few finished items and piles and piles of unfinished items. I really need to discipline myself to make a few things at a time and finishing them!

Last week, in the aftermath of the sewing machine incident, and thanks to the generousity of a fellow blogger, and the impending Modish Market, ended up being a marathon sewing session. 

And today and tomorrow, thanks to almost selling out of the wool tweed handbags and a chance to attend the Shirt and Skirt market this weekend, another marathon is on the cards. But I'm going to focus. I'm not allowed to make another scarf until I finished four tweed bags. 

Check back tomorrow and see how I went. Or better yet, pop down to the market on Saturday and see for yourself.

M, m – what begins with M?

This title sounds a bit like a Dr Seuss book doesn't it? This is probably because I've been looking at lots of children's book recently.

Anyway, what begins with M? Modish market and Martine's birthday.

Saturday was the first Modish Market and I can report it exceeded my expectations on several levels.

The girls had everything very well organised, and they really looked after the stallholders. Our stall allocations were very generous, no squishing us in like sardines as is often the case at other markets! And when we went to set up in the morning we found a voucher for a free coffee and cup cake – that was a very nice touch. During the morning both Kylie and Kelly made a point of visiting each stallholder, introducung themselves and putting faces to names.

Aunty Shabby (my sister) came to help me on the day, bringing chicken sandwiches for lunch and mars bars to keep our energy levels up. She was great at selling, and between the two of us we did pretty well – I don't think customers quite knew what had hit them! 

Our market neighbours were lovely and friendly, with lots of chatting in the few quite times. It was also great to catch up with some familiar faces – its so much nicer to attend a market where you know other stallholders: Anna from Able and Game, the girls from Mookah, and Shannon from Rabbit & the Duck.

But the best part of the day was the reaction to the new wool tweed bags. I only took six of them and we ended up selling four of them! One lady bought two, one for herself and another for her daughter.

Oh, and on Monday, a certain young lady turned 43. That past year certainly flew by. I wonder if the next one will?

modish creators market tomorrow

Its only one more sleep til the Modish Creators Market! And I still have so much to do... 

Modish is a brand new market, held in Malvern Town Hall in Malvern. Established by friends Kylie and Kelly, its a handmade lifestyle market held each month.

Its the launch market on Saturday and we're very excited. The girls have done a great job organising and marketing the market, and there is a good mix of stallholders. The venue is fantastic and the location is right in the heart of the south east suburbs. Plus its the day before Mother's Day.

We'll have our new wool tweed bags, the ever popular vintage silk scarves, the Entangled scarves and a few other knit and crochet scarves. Perfect gifts for Mum. Much better tan slippers, nighties, toasters...

Hope to see you there.