Undertaking major changes, whether it is to your life, or to a process within that life is often more work than we originally think.
As I have written about before, I am in the process of consolidating all my online sales venues into a single online store on Etsy (plus my presence here on Hive!), and at the same time my wife is helping me migrate our old website — which has basically been unchanged for 13 years — to a new domain and a completely new website design.
Maybe I am just experiencing a bad case of "creeping elegance" here, but along with the basic process, there's also taking the time to organize all our files and the 50+ unique informational inserts that go in our little gift bags each time we sell a stone, and updating all our printed materials with the new website.... and it is very time consuming!
What's more — and this is perhaps what most people forget — undertaking such a change doesn't mean the rest of life that you have to keep up with whether it's Grocery shopping, work, and paying bills doesn't magically go away so you're slowed down every time you have to stop what you're doing and handle "normal" life.
Our original objective was to have all of this done by the time show season begins... which is typically at the beginning of May. Even though I have been quite busy and trying to keep my nose to the grindstone as best I can, I'm not sure whether we're going to make it.
Winter and spring is always a busy time to begin with, because I have to do a lot of painting to fill in all the gaps left by things that were sold during the holiday season. When the year rolls over into January is also (typically) when our stock levels are the lowest.
Was it ill advised to take on this project at this time of the year? Probably not... it's something that has to be done, no matter when. And really, it's only "too late" to do something if you don't start now!
At my last update on the process, I had just managed to close out the eBay shop for the final time, and now I am hoping to get all the items that have been listed on Amazon Handmade up and into the Etsy store by the end of this weekend.
I still have many miles to go, but it was nice to see — a few days ago — that at this time the Etsy store has more items listed than it ever has before in its 13 years of existence! Not that quantity is necessarily an indicator of success...
The reality is that I really love what I'm doing, and 2026 is definitely going to be the year where we give it it's full opportunity to shine! Now we just have to figure out the most efficient marketing approach to get some eyeballs on all these things we have for sale!
Thank You!
If you enjoy painted rocks, do check out The Hive Rocks Project and help spread the word about Hive, while also being creative!
Because I am trying to make some semblance of income — a part time living, even — I now add this footer to all my posts, in the hope that someone, somewhere, might decide to take a further look at my work, and perhaps consider supporting independent art.
Thank you, in advance, for your consideration and support!
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2026.02.27 AS-TXT-382/352