Mastodawn

tinker｡✧𓃦˚☽wolf Jul 26, 2023

@ASF

1. Both are beautiful.
2. The one on the right in the first photo -- I wonder if someone waffled over this pattern or... ? 😂 /j

ASF Jul 26, 2023

@ishe Oh yes, I often hear about the squares being waffles.

I literally made a jacket and dedicated it to name it "waffle"
(I sold it 2 weeks after I finished it XD)

tinker｡✧𓃦˚☽wolf Jul 26, 2023

@ASF that is so cute!!! No wonder it sold so fast.

ASF Jul 26, 2023

@ishe It was quite a lot of luck. I have a sort of similar one but then purple, and it doesn't sell 😅

tinker｡✧𓃦˚☽wolf Jul 26, 2023

@ASF I end up wondering how long is too long to maintain it in my storefront... Asking myself if it's damaging reputation that this item isn't selling... That's tough.

@ishe
It is normal for me not to sell things.
I have about 40 things
and in the 5 years I sell. I sold 6 things in total.

The reason I don't sell is poor marketing and "too expensive"
even while my price is fair and I often just get out of my costs.

@ASF This is important for all creatives to realize. I think it's information many of us miss when we first start out.

@ishe Oh yes, really.
It doesn't help that when entering a selling website most people are excited about also say "I sell every week a few things on Vinted" or something, that puts expectations way too high.

I do think I would sell better if I was better at marketing. But I'm inconsistent and often forget to do it, as well lack the energy to do it and get overwhelmed to do it.
I have the 'wonderful' sense of "YES IT IS JULY, I MADE A BEANIE, LETS PUT IT IN MY SHOPS" it won't sell mid-summer

@ASF I'm terrible at marketing. Sometimes it's emotions. Sometimes time got away from me. Sometimes I just literally have no idea what to post next. And sometimes, personal life, or I'm just tired.

@ishe That's so valid and recogniseable

@ASF Friends and I are working together to create a collective of creatives who want to work together -- collaborate, have extra minds to put to the big questions, like business taxes or how to run it legally. We're just getting started, but are hoping it'll grow.

It's really started to give me more confidence in my own future with my work. Highly recommend finding like minds to share the burden and journey with.

@ishe That's a very great idea!
I'll keep it in mind

tinker｡✧𓃦˚☽wolf

@ASF I'd love to hear about it if you get a group together too.

perhaps we could all connect over a tea

@ishe I'll keep you updated if I find a group ✨
I think i'll look for fellow Dutch people, I think lawwise that makes it most practical(???)

@ASF definitely more practical. I actually know some people in Belgium -- I've met most via Discord. It's been such fun getting to know them.
If you get a group together, I'd love to share it with one of them who is a crocheter & artist, though I'm not sure if their planning to become an entrepreneur in those fields or not.

@ishe
Belgian people are great people.
One of my neighbours migrated from belgium to here, he is a satisfying neighbour but also very Belgian.

I'll keep you updated. I think it will take a while though 😅

@ASF Thanks so much. And they truly are wonderful people. One friend and I have been sharing snacks over video chats.

Turns out some of the same snacks are in both countries.

@ishe
Oooh which snacks???

@ASF here are 2 of them. We also learned both countries have Pringles chips, though Belgium doesn't have access to the same variety of flavors.

@ishe
Oh these, their taste and structure are very different from each other. Both taste good!

Also ✨stroopwafels✨ are the best

@ASF I love both of these!! Do you have a favorite snack or food?

@ishe my favourite food would be "schnitzel with cheese and pineapple"
and favourite snack is a difficult one.... I don't know at the moment(??)

@ASF I've never had schnitzel. Always wondered what it was ever since the"Sound of Music" movie with Julie Andrews (it was popular when I was growing up). There was a song about "My Favorite Things" and one of the lyrics was "... schnitzel with noodles".

@ishe Schnitzel is .... I don't know how to describe it in ze English?

It's meat but flat as pancake. and there is a sort of thingy a bit around it???
it tastes GOOD

@ASF I'll have to try it sometime

@ishe You should!!

@ASF Honestly, I just need to take a food tour of Europe. Everything looks and sounds delicious. Oh!! We also have Aldi's here.

@ishe ALDI!! my fave shop when it comes to food. It has straight forward food and no strange combinations of "modern hype food" but just straightforward food. My autistic brain is happy with Aldi's

@ASF I went there for the first time ever this past Thursday.

Here in the US, most of our grocery prices have gone WAY up. Aldi provides them inexpensively. Produce -- I was actually able to afford fresh produce for the first time in months. I can't find everything I like for groceries here, but produce & cheeses & beef, definitely.

@ishe Aldi is a grocery store that is in base exactly what grocery stores are supposed to be.
Other grocery stores aren't really "keying" into it. they are more suited for modern people with very strange desires.
But that's just my weird opinion 😅

@ASF I see what you're saying. I agree -- though perhaps it's my age or the time I was raised in -- I like some of the modern "niceties" [quotations because I understand that some of those niceties are actually fakes] and became pretty attached to them or used to them to where some are hard to do without...

@ishe Understandable.

For me it was discovered on accident when I was 16 (by now 9 years ago) and I had biology class and somehow I got with my teacher in a conversation and they shared that they suspected me having autism.
And due to my curiousity I actually met up with a doctor and such.

@ASF I think it's so fascinating that people outside of us can see the things we can't see as clearly about ourselves.

@ASF Oh, and I've not been diagnosed, but believe I'm autistic as well. Late-discovery. It's been a journey.

@ishe Oh fair!
Just in case, if you suspect it because of social media posts. Don't take them too literally.

For example Autism and ADHD have literally the same symptoms, the reason why one is different from the other is the "why" we do things a certain way.
Like, according to social media I should have ADHD, but I know it's just my Autism.

I just want to warn in case. 😅

@ASF I appreciate the warning. It's actually kind of odd and interesting to me how I came to suspect.

My best friend of 27 years and I talk practically every day. In early 2022, I was a relatively new TikTok spectator. I would occasionally come across posts which seemed adequately educational when it came to learning a little more about different people groups [auto-immune, autism, ADHD communities]. My bestie suffers from FMS, so I'm always trying to learn more so I can be the best support possible...

I never liked or saved any of the posts I saw because I wanted to steer clear of that side of the algorithm since I believed those videos didn't apply to me beyond an education which may or may not be correct... [1]

https://neurodivergentinsights.com/autismandadhdscreeners

@ASF Well, then one day, I noticed that there was a definite uptick in the numbers of those videos I was seeing, though I still hadn't liked, saved, or followed any of those posts. I asked my best friend about it, and she got all kinds of odd with me. To the point that I was like, "Does she think these do apply to me somehow??" I asked her. She basically said she didn't want to influence my thinking one way or another... So I started researching some of the "symptoms" that actually seemed like they related to me...

I later found a list of neurodivergent screeners which a lot of people were recommending for folks who weren't sure... [2]

Screeners — Insights of a Neurodivergent Clinician

Insights of a Neurodivergent Clinician