But if we were in the EU it would not be a problem.

It's going to go under the radar in the same way that the EU packaging reforms did. It's disappointing because somewhere along the line as the new rules settle into systems lots of people are suddenly going to find that they either can't get products or find the ones they have sold being sent back to them. :/

I would be out of the loop on ebay. I occasionally sell there but only when I am having a clear out and only to the UK. So I wouldn't have got this information. Nothing was flagged up on Etsy on their dashboard although I think people have been talking about it in the forums, but I don't use them any more. I sell on Shopify and I've not heard anything there because it's not for them to enforce.

The problem with buying something new, to make something else cheaper, is I have to work out how long it will take me to absorb that £20 into the energy bills I'm already spending on. Electric is more expensive than gas, even incrementally, so heating the water for a regular hot water bottle on my gas top, still works out cheaper because it doesn't impact the more expensive electricity usage, and I don't have to factor in that initial purchase either. At least, that's how my mind works. Besides, the water hot water bottle works just fine. It's why I wouldn't buy an electric blanket. Everyone says they're really cheap but if it's on for at least 5 hours a day in colder months, that's going to put my bill up.

Don't apologise. I never want anyone to feel obliged to buy from me and especially if they are struggling financially. I know how you feel. It's tough right now. Focus on your finances and look after yourself!

@falcieridesigns bless you I luv both your channels. Admire all your tips for frugality too - I wish I'd been more frugal myself over the decades 🐬🌅

I do pop some mentions in there. I hope it will drive some traffic and sales. :)

Thank you! 😊

Thank you so much. I love knowing that those little things I made are in someone else's home being appreciated. It's not often I find out what happened to the things I sold so this is an amazing comment. Thank you!!!! :)

It's about finding the people you gel with from a personality perspective and also very difficult if you only see them on line. That said, price points are a factor for most people. I only know a couple of people who don't worry about price tags when they are shopping and just buy it if they see it but I don't know anyone who only buys handcrafted because it is handcrafted. The handcrafted tag gets used a lot and by a lot of people who aren't really handcrafted so it's hard to find genuine handcrafted.

It really is! :)

I will do a few more when I am making them. They make very therapeutic videos!

Hiya. This one was £79 after currency exchange rates and US postage. It also depends on the fabric you want as it's priced per meter. The fabric for this dress came to £30. If you have ideas for fabrics and want to talk further drop me a line via my Shopify store contact form and I can fill you in on what we need to do. :)

Love the fabric choice.

Thank you so much! :)

Thank you! Will do!

Thank you! 😊

I'm glad you are finding different uses for them and they are being appreciated. I often wonder where some of my creations end up, so it's great to have some information. Thank you so much for the support. Everything is appreciated!

@@falcieridesigns absolutely 🐬🌞🌅

Thank you! Sorry for the delay on the comments. It seems YT decided all my incoming comments belonged in the 'held for review' folder for no particular reason.

@@falcieridesigns gosh don't worry at all in fact it's a huge thing to have to reply to everyone - but well done for your YT channel growing too - best wishes 🌤️🐬🌅

I like to make these because I can forget about everything around me and just concentrate. I am often easily distracted!

It's very confusing. When using Etsy it's all done for you. When you use Shopify it is impossible to add for the US. I am told that for the prices of my items I don't need to worry. However I haven't yet sold to the US or Canada to know if this is true. When I get a sale I will let you know. I have allowed for sales to Canada and the US but I haven't had a chance to try out the advice.

I completely agree. There is nothing sustainable about most 'sustainably' made fabrics. They all use resources. Any natural fabric needs to be grown, harvested and made. The only sustainable thing is the thing you already own.

Hi, sorry it's not up to standard. I did recheck it and I couldn't find a black screen. This channel is currently zero budget so until I can afford to invest in things like lighting it's the best I can do. I try to be transparent about the way I work, this is life for a small business right now!

We're all used to hearing about the bad treatment of workers abroad. It's even worse that they are getting away with it here in the UK when we're supposed to have laws and rules against this sort of thing. So sad.

It's such a headache isn't it? I have found the new packaging rules to be really difficult as well. Like you I have had to stop selling to certain EU countries, and I know there will be more to follow once they enforce their rules. Selling via an ecommerce channel helps with the IOSS problems but as soon as I launched my own website it took ages to be able to work out the legalities of being able to sell just to the EU. And I hear mixed information about what I can ship to the US etc so I've just added those countries and I'm hoping for the best. It feels like the whole system is just designed to put small businesses out of business because the rules and the legislation are insurmountable when you are small. I hope you manage to figure things out. It's an absolute minefield at the moment, as if the cost of living crisis wasn't challenging enough!

@@falcieridesigns That is it exactly! They don't even try and cater to small businesses. I'm in Northern Ireland and we were meant to be able to ship to the EU without customs forms because of the protocol etc. And the number of orders from Germany that were bounced back to me - I even ended up contacting Germany's customs department directly to discuss and they admitted that those orders should not have been returned to me - but they couldn't promise it wouldn't happen again. cost me so much in extra postage or refunding my customers who were annoyed their order was late.

It's been a nightmare. We recently had emails saying they are taking away the NI IOSS numbers we got when we got the GB IOSS numbers a while back and that if we wanted to keep them we had to apply. But it wasn't clear if we even still needed them. And so the discussion on Etsy was, well, just apply for it again anyway because literally NOONE seems to know if we actually need them as small sellers or not. The incompetence of the people who put these systems into place is unbelievable. If they don't know, how on earth are we supposed to be able to keep on selling. Selling into the EU and the US has been really important for me over the years but it's slowly becoming impossible. France and Spain amongst others in the EU will be on my list of no send zones soon because their packaging licenses are so expensive for what they are. I really want to be able to focus on improving my UK sales to be rid of the problem but that's near impossible in a cost of living crisis. Have you stopped shipping to Germany now? I stopped a while back because of the packaging license and it sounds like it was good job I gave up! It sounds like an impossible situation for you there. :/

@@falcieridesigns It's crazy, how can no one know what is happening? The IOSS thing was such a pain when I first got mine as I struggled to get the GB one and I couldn't get the NI one without the GB one. It just shocks me how much these services don't know their own systems - like Drop and Go. You were supposed to get a receipt when you did Drop and Go to say how many items you had dropped off but 3 different post offices didn't know this and then twice when I got my paperwork back, it was missing 2 receipts and they claimed they only got that many items despite me obsessively checking numerous times before taking it in. I barely ship to the EU now. I have removed "EU" from my shipping profile and just added the specific European countries that I can ship to that (currently) don't have this packaging thing. Yeah, I stopped sending to Germany after that fiasco continued despite confirmations with the customs department. It was just costing me a fortune in refunds or resends. My customers were not happy. UK sales used to be really good, not they have tanked, not just with the cost of living but all my stats on Etsy have tanked too - like I'm no longer getting found in searches. I've been on Etsy for 12 years, I've worked so hard with the algorithms and SEO systems over that time but since I removed shipping to the US it's like they have blacklisted me to everyone on search.

Because all the beads etc were found and rescued by me in junk shops and from broken things that people gave me when they had a clear out. The findings are bought from a haberdashery because people tend not to want to wear used earring wires although sometimes if I get good ones I will clean and reuse them. Usually I just end up with a bag of broken jewellery parts though which I sort through and grade. Then I attach the beads to the wires and trim them to size with pliers, and then I attach them to the main part of the earring. It varies depending on what design I have made, but everything follows the same principle. I try to run a circular economy business where I rescue deadstock and destined for landfill broken items and materials and make them into other things. Most of the beads on this pair of earrings items came from broken necklaces although I couldn't identify some of them because they were loose. Thank you for asking!

Thank you!! :)

It depends on the size of the coaster, but it can take up to a day to make a large sized one.

Thanks for that. It's on my list. Unfortunately I don't have the funds to buy a domain at the moment but it is top of my list for when I do!

After your last message, I went and had a look for domains and they were a lot cheaper than I realised so I've sorted it. Many thanks for the reminder!

Thank you for inspiring me!!!! :)