wow it's been a while

Wow does time fly when you are busy. I have been so busy lately. We recently moved, which was at first very stressful and pretty depressing to leave the old house. Now that we are settled in here at our new home its not so bad. We are temporarily in a condo for a year at most. The kids are adjusting better than I thought they would. Sure they still miss the huge yard we had. The rainy Washington weather is here. So that has helped a little with the yard issue. My husband was laid off last week until March. He is a mason and has normally worked through the winter but not this winter. His company said the economy is just not good enough to support the construction industry through the winter in the Northwest. He will get unemployment but we will definitely be struggling. So every sale in my shop helps us alot http://www.etsy.com/shop/megscreations

I will be putting a lot more time into all of my ventures. My hubby will be home to help with the kiddos and the house. Therefore leaving me more time to spend at the bakery creating lots of new treats. Megs Creations has really expanded locally. I am so excited about some of the upcoming projects I am working on. In December I am selling my cookies and other goodies at several local Christmas plays. Since hubby is home I have also found more holiday craft shows/fairs to sell at. I will be at 808 main st Vancouver Wa on the 27th, 28th and 29th and in Milwaukee Oregon most of the weekends in December. Which I can take local orders of cookies or mixes now for pick up on those dates.

Also will be working on many new flavors of cookies and mixes. Soon I will be listing more spice mixes. Instead of all the beans and pastas for my soup mixes I will be listing only the actual spice packs for the soups. With lots of new flavors in soup spice packs coming soon. Also many new crock pot meal mixes coming soon.

Well enough of me rambling. Please check back soon for sneak peaks of some new goodies.

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Redoing Pictures Sale

I am once again redoing my pictures. I want to make a listing for each individual mix I offer. In the pictures for these new listings I will have the jar of mix and the final product. Like if its dip mix then there will be a picture of the actual dip all made up and in the same picture will be the jar of dip mix and likewise for all the other mixes. I think if got pictures done for all mixes than I would finally be satisfied with my pictures. Below is what I have now for pictures.Well it's just kind of boring. I think with more dramatic angles and the picture having the final product in it as a prop will be much better. So therefore I am running a sale for all my quart jar mixes. Only $10 with free shipping, (not to be included with any other offer). And my dip mixes and pancake mixes are all $6(dip) and $8(pancake) all with free shipping as well. I will be listing lots of new listings this week with a generic picture like below.

But if you don't see a certain flavor listed at this super great deal of $6-$10 yet. Then just let me know and I can make you a listing. Check out my shop for over 100 flavors then let me know which one you want at this super cheap price and I will make you a listing. http://www.megscreations.etsy.com I want to get as many pictures and new listing done as possible. I will be running this special all this week. Then after that I won't be offering any sales for awhile. So you better jump on this great offer now.

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Megs Creations defined

Been struggling lately with where I am going with all this baking and mixes. I love it so much and definitely want to make it into a very successful business. The way things are right now is making me go crazy though. Between my wholesale orders, my local orders, craft shows, my etsy orders and now with wedding season all the catering orders. I love each and every one of these ventures but this has really boomed into more than I can handle. Need to figure out what my focus will be for now and run with that. I have so many great ideas for new recipes and can't get them made fast enough. Been jotting down notes constantly. I have so many ideas for blog posts half written out. I have so many recipes that just need that final testing.

So you can see my dilemma. I am just way overwhelmed and that is not even counting all the other things going on right now. How do you focus? How do you find your motivation? Ultimately how do you decide which would be best for you and your family? How do you let the things you just dont have time for go? Something obviously needs to change. I have an assistant but still I can't get everything done. I have so many passions that I just want to pursue them all but not enough of me to go around.

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Price changes

So I am doing a complete overhaul of my shop. Tomorrow I will be closing my shop for a few hours(10am till about 1 or 2 pst) to change so many things. I will be editing my policies, all my descriptions and lots of photos. My packaging is changing as well. Right now as things are in my shop I am not making anything at all. I have struggled with the decision to raise my prices. I have no other choice if I am going to make this a successful business though. I am not out to make a fortune or anything. I am a licensed and fully insured food processor and not just a little home baker anymore. My prices need to reflect my professional bakery and quality ingredients used.

Right now my jars and cookies are a super bargain. So take advantage because unfortunately the prices will be changed to the below prices by tomorrow afternoon. Go take advantage of some great deals http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5858455

My jars will only be listed in these quantities. I will gladly do custom orders for other quantities but to keep things organized in my shop these will be the listings.
Glass quart jars
Single jars $8 plus $6 shipping
3 jars for $22 plus $13.50 shipping
6 jars for $40 plus $25 shipping

Pint jars
Single jars $6.50 plus $4 shipping
3 jars for $17 plus $9.75 shipping
6 jars for $30 plus $13.50 shipping

My cookies will now be listed in 1 or 2 dozen listing only. I would love to do custom listings for other quantities but I will only be keeping listings of 1 or 2 dozen in my shop.
1 dozen standard size cookies will be $10 plus $7 shipping
1 dozen new cookie mini bites will be $6 plus $4 shipping
2 dozen standard size cookies will be $18 plus $9.75 shipping
2 dozen new cookie mini bites will be $10 plus $7 shipping

There will also be a whole new line of mixes which will get listed tomorrow and wednesday.

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New packaging sneak peak

Here is a sneak peak of my new packaging. Most everything in my shop will now be packaged using these chinese takeout boxes and using the pink and brown polka dot motif. The prices and quantities/sizes will also be changing quite a bit. The mixes will be dramatically changed. Prices for shipping will be so much better. The cookies are now going to be sold at much smaller quantities but packaged like a beautiful present. Will be blogging and officially revealing the new packaging over the weekend.

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Wordy Wednesday

I have been struggling for a while to figure out a focus for my blog. I love blogging and the whole idea of getting my words and ideas out is fabulous. My problem is I have way too much to say and not enough time to say any of it. Maybe I need several blogs, lol. This is something I have actually contemplated. Then someone mentioned Squidoo and I need to look into that but haven't had time. Some of the ideas for blogs I have might just work well as lens over there. Sometimes I think of starting a baking blog with just recipes and tips. Which I probably will do soon but the biggest factor stopping me there is: why do I want to give all my recipes away if I am trying to sell these baked goods. So I will probably work more on the technique and tips part. I could fill a whole blog with just the photos and funny mishaps of my baking. For instance I have been trying a new recipe a day for the last month and a half. A few of the recipes come out great the first time but most recipes have to be tweaked quite a bit for my liking. Made pretzels last week and oh wow were they so yummy. Those pretzels were so ugly though, could never have sold any. We ate them all up before I could take a picture though. So thats when it occured to me to starting blogging about these recipes a day and how the recipes are always works in progress. Another blog I have thought of is just blogging about life after a stroke and being a new mom while recovering. Or I could blog about being a small business owner in todays economy, or running a daycare/preschool and early childhood education or just about life in general for me which is quite chaotic in itself. See I have so many ideas floating in my head but not really going anywhere with any of them. I need to just decide and focus on one blog subject and really get going with it. So this blog will more than likely become all about megscreations and my mixes and I will start an all new blog with a specific subject that I am going to really concentrate on. Haha just reread all these ramblings and I sorta find amusement in the fact I just went on and on about needing to blog. Well stay tuned for the unveiling of my new blog soon.

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Taking all offers on my mixes!

Or close to all, just convo me. Feeling very generous so you never know the deal you can get today. I have decided to take all offers for the next 24 hours, cutoff will be 7:00pm western tomorrow(new time:). I need to make all my mixes to rephoto each of them. Rather than making them just to photo then give to family & friends or just eat it all ourselves. I thought maybe I would try taking all offers and see if I could at least make mixes for orders and photo those. I have over 125 mixes listed right now and would like to rephoto all 125. Plus different combinations of these. Plus the actual finished product, ie soup, cookies, brownies and such. This is a huge task but thought if I could get at least get some money it would make it more worth it. Of course the shipping would still be needed but the actual mixes I will give for next to nothing. My mixes are really yummy and super easy. They make great gifts for just about anyone. You only need to add a couple of simple ingredients and follow the easy to follow instructions that are included and you have gourmet goodies.

Also I will be photoing all the actual cookies, brownies, biscotti and muffins among all the other mixes I offer. So I will have so many baked goods around here that I'm afraid I will be 500 pounds if I keep it all, lol. If you are interested in any of my cookies, brownies, biscotti or muffin mixes I have listed but would rather me do all the baking then no problem. I will make any of the cookies for $18 for two dozen thats including shipping. Just take a look through my shop policies for a complete list of choices, http://www.etsy.com/shop_policy.php?user_id=5858455 For the brownies, biscotti and muffins I will sell these in packages of a dozen for $18 and that is also including shipping. Just take a look at the shop policies for a list of these as well.

If you are interested in any of these options, then please just convo me and I will make a custom listing. All orders of baked goods will be shipped priority mail. I will be baking and making mixes all day tomorrow and will ship all orders on friday morning. Thanks and have a great day!

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Just couldn't wait

I just loaded my new banner onto etsy. I Love It. I just couldn't wait. I decided that I probably should just start making all the changes gradually to my shops because I don't know if I will get the time to do it later this week like I had planned. I also was thinking of if I were to change all listing at one time then that would be kind of a waste of money to renew everything all at once that in one day. So if I change things gradually over the next week and renew as I make changes that would make it more worth the fees and get more views.

So we had some beautiful weather here today in the beautiful, rainy Pacific Northwest. I was able to get a little time to photo some mixes and goodies today. Tomorrow is supposed to be another nice day so hoping to get a lot of mixes made in the morning to photo in the afternoon. I made a real nice spot in my office to take all my photos at. I am finally figuring out lighting and the settings on my new camera. Need to get one more lamp though. Will be going to walmart tomorrow for a cheap lamp. I think I am also going to look for a nice, pretty mixing bowl for using as a photo prop.

Since I have decided to start changing pics and descriptions as I get them done. I will still run some sort of sale this weekend after I have changed a lot of the photos and descriptions. I haven't decided exactly what my sale will be though. I will be listing a lot more in both shops this week. I made up a lot of mixes today and took photos. I also made some really yummy peanut butter chip brownies and chocolate chip cookies. Which I also took photos of as well. Did manage to also make about 20 crayons and 2 colors of whimsydough, which I will photo tomorrow. Now I better get going to work on listings and change photos.

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New items, New pictures Yay it's about time!

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Wondering if Etsy showcases are really worth it?

So I have purchased quite a few spots in various showcases lately. I am just wondering if it is really worth the money. I haven't noticed any difference. I am getting a lot of views but not many purchases. Not sure if people actually pay attention to the showcases.

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