Life has a funny way of...

...making it impossible to update your blog.

Okay, so I can't blame it all on life. A small bit of it was my laziness on my part as well. But I have gone through some big crap in my life recently, but now that I'm back in the game, I can make a feeble attempt to keep this blog somewhat updated.

What's new with Iron Dog?
I've got a show coming up at the end of this month. It'll be outdoors. I had sworn off outdoor shows a while ago. Okay, maybe not outdoor shows in general, just one show and one of the several reasons for dropping it was that it was outdoors.
I invested in a canopy/tent. Hopefully, the wind and weather will behave for me and things will go smoothly.

I have a new helper!
My boyfriend surprised me by showing a decent level of interest in what I do. He even asked me to teach him a few things and before I knew it, he'd made 15 items for me. I suppose I'll need to start paying him somehow. He also seems more than willing to come with me to shows and help out that way. Good thing, too, since I'll be needing it with all the new procedures I'm adopting.

Procedures? Yeah, so according to state law, I need to have sales tax listed seperately on my receipts. Up until now, I had just lumped sales tax into the item cost and rounded up to the nearest dollar. That way, I didn't have to bring coin change with me to shows. Just bills. Lots easier, but I wasn't writing out the sales tax on the receipts. I plan on keeping my prices rounded, but I made a cheat sheet to look up how that price breaks down into item price and sales tax so I can note it on the receipt.
Also, I plan to get mobile broadband on my laptop so I can process credit cards on the spot through Propay. Before I'd use the imprinter to make the receipt and wait until I got home to actually process the cards. But at that point, if the card were declined, I'd be SOL. I used to ask for Driver's License to verify the cardholder as well as write down their address and phone number so I could get ahold of them if the card were declined. But I found out that that is a big no-no. So, rather than try to find a way around getting the customers info, I just decided to go all out and make it so I can process cards on the spot. Easier, faster and safer for everyone.

Bah! Enough of the technical stuff. What sort of new pretties have I made? Well, I'm still on a titanium kick. I had an issue with my anodizer, but thanks to my electrical engineer of a brother, it's back up and working full speed.
I've also taken a leap and invested in some gold rings to incorporate into my jewelry. I'm still hesitant to make anything completely gold. Not sure why, but I think it's because I, myself, do not prefer gold jewelry.

I dropped out of that gallery I was showing at. I didn't like the way it was being run, but mostly I was having difficulties scheduling my shifts around my new work schedule. So, I decided to give it up. Sales had dropped off anyway, but it has freed up inventory to put on Etsy and in shows.

Speaking of Etsy, I really need to get some more items up there. With the show coming up in a few weeks, I'm hesitant to put things on Etsy that I will be bringing with me to the show. Knowing my luck, an item would sell on Etsy the same moment it sold at the show. I'm thinking of saving my easy-to-reproduce items for Etsy to help reduce that fear.

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll be back with something a little more exciting. Maybe even some pictures, too.