It's been a long time coming.
Trying to build a small business from scratch and being uncertain about the route I wanted to take. Always changing my mind, jumping from one creative idea to another.
Every move I took it seemed to throw problems my way. Whether the cost was too much, the return to low or the hassle of dealing with awkward customers just to much.. haha ok I'll leave that for another blog. I mean customers are gold, the customers I have dealt with in the past have been supportive, polite, generous, incouraging and well so much more, I couldn't of asked for anything more.
That being said my last venture gained me 6 years of experience and a massive portfolio of work - cakes will be with me always and this was a subject I wanted to carry with me know matter what I decided to do next.
Researching all the things that I liked the sound of drove me inssane. I loved everything! I will turn my hand to anything. I'm by know means academic, I write how I speak, it must sound terrible when you read it out (apologise for that but we can't have the little things holding us back) anyhow 6 months later I settled on scrunchies, I will do a you Tube video at some point for this as I don't want to go into to much detail here but yes, out of all the things I tried it was a sewing machine and good old scrunchies that won me over.
Fast forward a few months with quite a few trials and errors, learning to handle a new machine and prematurely starting a website which, I might add I decided to jump in knowing I needed to get to grips with it and any seo which is a challange in itself would need to be started asap.
Soooo I apologise to those who have been around from the start of my little website journey, popping back and forth for updates and being let down time and time again.
It's been a year in the making. A year figuring myself out, trying to learn, adapt. Research, design, create and repeat until finding my feet and well, we are nearly there..
To start the shop off we have over 30 different scrunchies made up using floral, patterned, plain, satin, velvet, soft touch, jersey, ribbed, the list goes on and they are all ready to go.
Mini, OG, Fluffy and extra large all with the MacDesigns branding on the label. In the picture above we have a selection of Jersey scrunchies, some plain and ribbed, I dont want to show all the designs just yet so hold tight, they will be online very very soon.
Being able to master making the scrunchies was know easy challange. While you might be able to knock up a scrunchie quite easily, the whole process of figuring sizes out, cutting, patterns to use, where to buy material from and pricing it all up, never mind making sure you have it right each time you make one, it simply takes time. Its ok though, we got there in the end.
Working from home isnt always easy. Yes it gives you freedom to create when you want but the challanges of everyday life can and does get in the way, well in my house it does haha.
What once was a cake room is now a room I create in... sewing, embroidery, heat pressing cups, shirts, bags and more. I haven't started selling yet as I didn't want to get ahead of myself. Having experience with my previous business I didn't want to make some of the same mistakes or choices I made last time and one of those was jumping into things to quick without figuring it all out first.
It's me the secret ingredient haha... of course it is. Do what you like and then do it well. while I might well be creative and drawing or designing isn't far from my reach it's really handy to know where and how to source images.
For example the mixing bowl on this cup. Yes I came up with the style of writing to use, the colours and sprinkles etc. The image I sourced through canva. There are many sites you can use for a paid subscription too, it lessens the fear of yes I want to create but I cant draw scenario.
Theres plenty of ready made designs you can purchased off Etsy too which I also do, some you will see shortly in our shop. It's about picking whats right for you and rolling with it.
I mentioned embroidery before and its seems to be another little craft thats stuck with me. Unfortunetly I won't be making custom orders like the blanket above. Instead it will be more generic wording like little brother or Little Sis and so on.
I will have samples of each blanket design on show in the shop, made to order hopefully with a 7-10 day turn around.
There is so much more yet to come, like motel keyrings, cups, glass can cups, tumblers, tote bags, wristlets, make up bags and boxy bags all hand made by me at home.
While I will try to stick to a 7-10 day turn around on made to order items. With products like the scrunchies, wristlets, cups and totes they can be made up and dispatched a lot sooner. I will state this in the item description.
I'll finish of with one more product that will be available soon.
I think this little item is one of my favourites. Kids aprons. Whether thats because it's still linked to the baker inside of me or what, I do not know but how cute is this? I have a few more different designs in the "Its me range" which I'm excited to share too. I'm not sure yet but I may lauch the scrunchies, cups and wrislets first and then do a launch for the kids aprons and recipes cards a few weekss after.. so we shall see. I'm excited, I hope you are too.
There is so much more I want to show you but I will have to wait and not get ahead of myself. The main thing is I'm getting there and soon enough the shop will be filled with products that can be shipped to the UK and hopefully around the world.
Side note I will also be adding products to my Etsy page which might make it easy for those to shop from around the world through the etsy platform.
I wont be doing a count down or a big launch. We don't like to much preasure around here :O) but I will update the blog and send out a emails to those subscribed.
Byeeee for now x
