etsy resolution

​Now you may have seen my resolution post for 2016 to keep improving our small business, and at the heart of that business is our Etsy shop.

We started on Etsy in 2012, we'd never heard of the site before and had been recommended by a friend (I can't remember who now, but I wish I could so we could say thank you!). We listed our first few items (with terrible photos) and tweeted Etsy to let them know we had opened our shop, that day we had 10,000 views through our shop and it kicked off from there!

Since then we have not only had over 2000 sales, we've had opportunities we would never had had through setting up our own website (going to New York for the IPO, and Etsy filming a help video in our home studio!) to meeting people who have become some of our best mates (shout out to the #btnetsy mandem) 

So you want to get a piece of it right? Well you CAN! Etsy have made it even easier for you with Etsy Resolution a free 4-week community-led programme to gain support and skills from top-selling Etsy mentors. I've met three out of the four of these members and two of them have been Brighton Etsy Team Members! They know their stuff and they're already helping everyone out in this facebook group set up for newbies (that's you!)

From photography to marketing and tips for getting found by potential customers, they'll set you up with a support network to make this your best year yet.

​You need to sign up by the 25th January, (but if you're a little late to the party, that's OK too).

If you do sign up, let me know by tweeting us @designosaurYEAH, or commenting on the blog, we'll happily help you out if you need us!

ROAR!

Karli (and Jacques)

london lumière | a day trip to london.

This weekend we went up to London with a load of mates for London Lumière, a four day festival of light installations across London.

It was billed at being a chance to beat off the winter blues and anything bright and shiny has my vote anyways!

We started obviously in the same place as thousands of others, around Kings Cross and got caught up in the crowds which unfortunately meant that a few of the installations were turned off as we walked the route, butttttttt this is what we did get to see!

a rainbow neon bird cage, there were swings in the middle too!

I think this was my favourite of the things that we saw!

This photo might not look like much but it was people with sensors on all moving and then being projected onto the building! Did feel a bit sorry for those people eating at that restaurant though, with all of us staring at them! 

My bessie Harriet caught whilst I was trying to get a photo of this animation projected on a building, you can see how crowded it was now...

this garden in the middle of Leicester Square was another of my favourite, it was like being Alice in Wonderland when she shrinks and then the flowers bully her...

 

fish! These guys were gracefully floating along Regents Street

We were on a hunt for this elephant, having found out that the Whale was only at the Durham event, the elephant was the next best thing, it was an animation of an elephant and from one street you can see the elephants face and the other street just his bottom!

Did you go along? What was your favourite part of the festival? Luckily the festival was such a success that they are planning on putting it on again in London and in other cities across the UK so if you did miss it, then keep your eyes peeled for the next one!

ROAR!

Karli and Jacques

goodbye 2015, hello resolutions!

BE BETTER.

It struck midnight we all cheered, hugged and jumped up and born to Born Slippy (which is the ultimate NYE tune. FACT.) and then my friend turned to me and asked what my new years resolutions were for 2016.

I hadn't really thought about it at that point, and when put on the spot I said "BE BETTER". Which I still stand by, but I thought I'd be a bit more detailed here.

Let's have a quick look back at how well I did with last years resolutions, you can read that post here.

blog every week

FAILED. This is the same resolution I set the previous year too, and I did actually do 6 more blog posts than I did in 2014 BUT the content of those posts definitely improved. In 2014 I used the blog a lot more as a place to advertise upcoming #btnetsy events, designosaur new releases and things that weren't very meaty. In 2015 my content was a lot better (I know that because views and followers increased) so those 38 posts were wayyyyy better than those 32 posts in 2014.

Unfortunately as we approached our busiest time of the year, Christmas, which for us starts in August if not before, my blogging dropped off and instead I have a drafts folder with nine unfinished blog posts in... ooopppss.

do a minimum of 5 outfit posts

FAILED. I wanted to do this, and I really should be doing this as the one outfit post I did manage was my most viewed post of the year! Excuse for not doing more; not wanting to look like a wally in the street, Jacques not being able to take photos/ wanting to take photos, rain, not having a camera remote, every day being a bad hair day... the list goes on ;)

do a minimum of 5 process posts

TICK. So I left this pretty vague, I wanted to show you a bit more about the way we work, a bit more behind the scenes and explain a bit more about our design process. So I did posts on the Brighton Etsy Team Pop Up Shop, Our collaboration with Toft, Making a film with Etsy, Making a Promo Video with my friend Heather, and the making of our sterling silver dinosaurs.

#btnetsygoals

Our first meeting of the NY with the Brighton Etsy Team is always a goal setting one, we set the following goals, which are embarrassing because they should definitely not have been 2015 goals, they probably should have been 2012 ones!

make a colour chart for our listings

TICK.

make sure there are full dimensions on all of our listings

TICK.

2016 resolutions

blog every week!

I know I have now failed this resolution two years in a row but actually having the pressure of this being a resolution really helps me to try and keep on top of it.

create our new website and blog

it's currently in a hosted but not designed position I'm planning to get this up and running in the first half of the year.

make it to 10k instagram followers

currently at 8374 so this year I'm sure we can make it to 10K.

secret big plans that we will accomplish in 2016

watch this space.

be better

always be better.

Happy New Year Y'all, what are your resolutions, and as it's now the 12th, have you stuck to them?!

ROAR!

Karli

a round up 2015.

Last year's round up got such a great response we thought we'd do another one this year. This is a mix of things I did, things Jacques did and things we did as designosaur.

2015 you've been fun, we achieved a lot and we are ready for 2016, which is good as it's already the 4th ;)

January we started planning our collaboration with Toby from i Like CATS, this included lots of ice cream eating and glitter acrylic and fluff... you can see the final things here!

Went to Brussels and Bruge with my bessie, Frags.

I met Chad Dickerson (Etsy's CEO) alongside fellow team captain Louise, we had a nice chat about how we use Etsy and grilled cheese sandwiches.

I was invited to my old school in Cyprus to do a careers talk, it was really fun chatting to other scaley brats about GCSE option choosing, and the thought that there are jobs where you don't wear a uniform.

Whilst I was in Cyprus, Jacques went to Melbourne, Australia to visiting his best mates, shortly after this trip they all come home so we've had the most fun this year!

Jacques' Australian adventures prompted new designs including a Koala and a Platypus

Toby and I were invited to the UK Captains' Summit. I was awarded Team Captain 2015, we chatted lots and ate lots of tasty food too...

I posted this photo of my washing on instagram whilst I was actually on a plane to NYC. I'd signed a non-disclosure agreement and I didn't tell anyone, not even my mum!

I went to the Nasdaq Bell Ringing Ceremony for Etsy's IPO launch. It was a crazy whirlwind experience that I still don't believe actually happened.

Jacques and I made our light up necklaces which have been on the back burner for years, we LOVE them. We got Bob Prosser to make a little promo video for us and take the photos (cos he's good at dark)

We did a Supermarket Sarah wall with hello DODO. We collaborated on a bunch of new products including that ombre dinosaur design, billy the bat and we turned hello DODO's totem design into a necklace too!

hello DODO exhibited at Pick Me Up and we went along to look around. It was AWESOME! Jacques and I bought a couple of new prints too.

May Open Houses, we were part of Claire Potter's very first Studio Loo Open House. It was a massive success and there were loads of awesome designers invovled!

We went to see Jane Postletwaite's very first Brighton Fringe Show. 

We went to lots of Fringe Festival events, art exhibitions, comedy and of course the pop up bars! This photo is Jacques and my sister Amelia splashing with mud, I lost two coats to that mud. RIP coats.

Jacques' parents took us to St Malo, France where we ate lots and walked lots!

We did our very first tutorial for macrame friendship bracelets, which went into all the goody bags for...

... the biggest and best Brighton Etsy Craft Party yet!

We went to visit crafty friends Sally (hand over your fairy cakes) and Keith in Glasgow with the Brighton Crew and had ALL THE FUN. Including copious amounts of Irn Bru, Buckfast and strange breakfast foods.

We went to the very first Wild Life Festival and saw Karen.

George won us a PRIZE! We become the proud owners of the 2015 Mollie Makes Collaboration Award alongside hello DODO.

We were the Raffle Prize in the Dinosaur Disco Lucky Dip Club Box

We filmed a video with Etsy about SEO!

We did a collaboration with Toft Alpaca Shop.

We went to Brussels to visit my family again and bought some traffic lights!

We went to Luxembourg, the funniest day of Jacques life (Amelia and I got cocktails spilt all over us and Jacques couldn't stop laughing...)

We went to Shakedown with all our bestest buddies and had the most fun ever.

Jacques made a hologram thingy magigy which lasted a day until I accidently smashed it.

We filmed a promo video with my mate Heather, it's still being edited, watch this space!

I was invited to Melbourne to the Etsy Australia Captains Summit, and they printed a sticker of my FACE! I also had a week to bumble around Melbourne and it was so much fun!

We ran an workshops and set up in LICK for the #etsybloggersleeper
Photo Credit | Wish Wish Wish

I went along to the European Captains' Summit in Amsterdam with these awesome UK captains. Jacques and then had a few days in Amsterdam before the Christmas rush to eat all the food and drink all the beer!

We smashed Renegade Craft Fair again, this time with an even bigger Brighton Crewdem.

We collaborated with Fresh Stitches to create a range of rainbow-y goodness

We ran the best market Brighton has ever seen* with the Brighton Etsy Team.

Christmas happened and it was MAGICAL! We had new ROARball designs, and it was our best season yet!

We went back Cologne for the Christmas Markets before heading to our parents for some well deserved time off!

It was a year jam packed full of travel, and spur of the moment opportunities. I know the new mantra is to learnt to say no to things, but I'm very much still in the say YES to everything phase, check your inbox every five minutes and reply to every strange direct message you get, for me and in turn designosaur, doing all these things has lead to so incredible opportunities in 2015, here's to a bigger and better 2016.

Happy New Year guys,

ROAR!

Karli


*in my opinion