It's Not Shopping If You Buy 10 Items Or Less -or- Honest I Don't Have A Problem

Confessions Of A Yarnoholic:

OK so I might have a slight problem with purchasing yarn. On my most recent yarn purchasing excursion I visited both A.C. Moore and Michael’s.  I bought yarn at both stores and came home with a grand total of 17 new skeins of yarn and a few other goodies from Michael’s I couldn’t resist. You see this is such a problem because I already have in my possession enough yarn to open my own store! I have at least 6 rather good sized boxes of yarn that I do not want. I would donate these boxes except for the fact that there is nowhere local to donate them and they would cost me $20 a piece to ship which I simply cannot afford. I also have one large overflowing plastic bin, a large basket, various bags full and 2 – 3 drawer bins full. Wow – That sounds worse as I type it out than it did in my head!! 

The thing is I’m a VERY thrifty and sneaky shopper. 95% of the yarn I buy is what I like to call “generic” yarn (costing no more than $9 a skein) and the other 5% is the good stuff – the stuff I have to save up for ($22 a hank and up) and only buy every few months. My 17 skein trip the other day only cost me a smidge over $50 – I think I did pretty good!! By sneaky shopper I mean just that – sneaky. I only shop during the day on weekdays so I have plenty of time to come home and hide my purchases before anyone else gets home. So yeah, the more I go back and reread this the more I realize how crazy I must sound! Although if you were to ask me I could justify each and every yarn purchase I have ever made. I think that just the fact that I feel the need to be able to justify it in the first place is a pretty clear indicator that yes my yarn habit is becoming a problem! Although I could think of worse things to become addicted to and I think this actually keeps me out of trouble! My purchases as of late are for the sole purpose of “monster” making which not only keeps me busy but is generating a little extra income for me. OK am I convincing anyone that it has not become a problem cause I don’t think I’ve yet convinced myself! As far as my habits go “it’s not shopping if you buy 10 items or less” which is exactly what I did the other day…I did only buy 10 items in each store! Maybe it’s time for an intervention J

Hello and Welcome :)

Hello and welcome to all things Lil BoogeyMen! What are lil boogeymen, you ask? Well, they are hand crocheted “monsters” made by myself, Wendi B., each one with its own “personality” and unique name. I made the first of the boogeymen collection back in November 2010, after learning to crochet the month prior, and was hooked (no pun intended!) right away. The more I made the more I fell in love and before I knew it everyone was either asking for one or asking me why I wasn’t selling these little guys. Well, as much as I would love to just give them away I did realize that in order to pay for my ever growing yarn habit as well as to afford to continue making my little monsters I was going to have to sell them. So in February I opened the Lil BoogeyMen Etsy shop. Etsy, for me, has been slow going, time consuming, and rather expensive. I was also finding that many of my potential customers didn’t want to open an Etsy account just to make one purchase. So after much research and a lot of going back and forth in my head I finally decided to open up an ArtFire Studio where, for one,  you don’t need an account to make a purchase. The Lil BoogeyMen studio has been up less than a week now and while I have had no sales as of yet my lil guys are getting more views than they were on Etsy. I have decided, for now, to keep both shops open although I will gradually pull everything from Etsy and move it to ArtFire and as such all new inventory will go on ArtFire. Don’t get me wrong here; Etsy is great for a lot of people, just not for me. I will however continue to buy from Etsy as I believe wholeheartedly in supporting those who produce handcrafted items, plus it’s where I purchase the safety eyes for my monsters in bulk and for a lot less money than my local chain craft store!