What's in a name

I’ve been neglecting this blog a bit these past few weeks. I regret it isn’t all work related. A lot of it is personal reasons. And it’s not sad personal personal reasons; it’s just that I’m getting side-tracked and SO excited about his whole new venture. It’s been a slow process, and I still have a long way to go, but it looks like it is picking up steam.

I’m talking about me selling my craft creations and goodies that I simply love to make.

The whole bid-or-buy thing didn’t work out. I had a few views, but no offers to buy. All of the items I’ve sold have been to friends and colleagues… the same ones actually, who keep buying my bookmarks and key rings as birthday gifts, thank you gifts, for themselves, etc.

But now something else has come along. I live in a small town. The sad part is that it’s actually The Big Town for many even smaller towns in this area. But the people who live here don’t feel that way and would rather take a 3-hour drive to buy an item on sale, or to be able to boast where they got it from. So I am all for supporting the local market be it for produce, clothing, decor, toys – you name it.

Now some very ambitious people have tried to start a ‘Farmer’s Market’ – they really need to find a better title… you’ll see why. They plan to host a market every first week of the month; the only criteria are that it must be hand made goods or fresh produce. What more could I ask for! It’s like a crafter’s flea market! That’s what they should have called it, because you would expect to see some fresh-from -the-earth potatoes and dewy-crisp lettuce at a Farmer’s Market. Apparently there were a lot of jewellery stalls. But I won’t be selling jewellery – I call my schtuff accessories.

I missed the first Farmer’s Market Day, because we had to shop for our house – it needed floors you know. Also I didn’t have nearly enough stock to put on a proper display. But Today I put on my big girl knickers and registered for a table. Oooh, I didn’t mention the best part: You pay R10 for a spot at the market; you bring your own table, chair, umbrella, foot rest, munchies; and you pocket the profit – ALL of the profit. The organisers don’t take a cut. They DO however charge an entrance fee. This helps with crowd control too.

So now I’m committed to this market. I won’t be selling items out of hand before that. I made my last sale yesterday, matching bookmark and key ring for a lady from 2 of her friends. Hope she likes yellow; no-one gave me a colour scheme.

And it gets even better. I’ve been nagging to make lemon syrup for a while now. A few years actually. And the house we’re in now has 2 lemon trees. On Sunday I googled a recipe – super easy – and made my first batch. With some crushed ice and fresh mint leaves it is tastes divine, and so refreshing. I’m visiting with a friend this weekend at the Other end of Cape Town; so I wanted to give her some of this syrup as a Thank You gift. I searched the net for label ideas and sort of settled on a colour scheme; got some pretty ribbon from the shop and spent a few hours designing a label for this bottle. That’s when it hit me. The name for my range of (shall I call them products?) products/items was staring me in the face: “Tracy’s Homemade” whatever. I googled Tracy’s Homemade and that exact name isn’t popping up as a brand anywhere. So DIBS! And then the gets replaced by whatever product the label is attached to, e.g. Lemonade, Bookmark, Key ring… you get the idea?

I’m still fine-tuning the design so won’t be sharing if quite just yet. But will have a whole separate post dedicated to the launch of the site and all the icons and graphics that go with it.

But a little more on the name. Tracy’s Topics as a brand didn’t feel right – ok, listen, to me the word brand refers to something BIG like Levi, or Kellogg’s. But what else can I call it. I am trying to create a uniform image for all my goods, even if the items themselves are all different. So, Tracy’s Topics wasn’t working for me. I also decided to step away from the pastel-type colours. I think the hardest to step away from was Orange. It just doesn’t work with the new logo. Those who know me will think it ironic that the only other colour that will actually work… is … pink. Go figure.

In the mean time I’m keeping you all in suspense until I tweaked the final tweakable tweakers. Only THEN will I show off the new logo, site, packaging, everything!

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