500 Items in the Shop

Hello friends! Wow, it has been a super long time since I wrote here on the blog!

Not to worry, though; the main reason is that I've been using Instagram a lot more for my updates & behind-the-scenes pics. :) It's just so much quicker, and for some reason Instagram takes away the pressure to write a lot with each post. I plan to keep the blog, of course, but please feel free to come join up with @houseofmossshop on Instagram!

Aside from that, I've been keeping busy building up my inventory and adding new brick-and-mortar stockists and building up inventory before the holidays hit!

Speaking of inventory, I'm proud to announce that my Etsy shop currently has its highest total number of listings! There are a full 500 items available in the shop. So stop by and check out the largest selection I've ever had, from classic bestsellers like felted wool acorns + hearts, to newer things like color sorting sets in wooden bowls, terrarium necklaces, and macrame plant ornaments in the photo above! HouseOfMoss.etsy.com

2014 In Review + End-of-the-Year Gratitude

I saw another blog where the author used the word "memorable" to describe 2014. I am going to use it, too. It seems like the mildest way to describe a year that was nearly too much for me. So much change (moving twice, Erik's new job) and a few legitimately tough life things (unexpected expenses, chronic health issues, my parents and cat moving 3 hours away). Of course, 2014 was also full of joy– I got engaged in March and married in August, as well as paid off the last of my student loans– but as a whole it seemed entirely too overwhelming.

[The tattoo in the photo above is my present to myself for surviving the year– a reminder and a mark, because things will never be the same. Side note: it seems that since college, every three years I have a traumatic year. 2008, 2011... 2014. :/ I have a tattoo from each of those years.]

But enough about the circumstances swirling around in my personal life. And I'm not just saying that because this is my business blog– it's because House of Moss has been a rock for me this year. It truly brings me so much light in life: it's something I can turn to for distraction, success, and a sense of control. My business is like a safe little corner of the world where things make sense, where the energy and care I put in grows into something worthwhile. In many ways, 2014 has been House of Moss's best year yet.


Here are some notable highlights of 2014 for House of Moss (in no particular order):

• I introduced heart garlands, seedlings in gold pots, chicken ornaments, and new colors of cottage ornaments and pebbles in the shop.

• I interviewed 8 local makers for my blog series, We Make Portland Awesome.

• I finally joined Instagram.

• My work showed up on the Etsy Front Page 5 times, including twice in one day!

• I made it to my gross sales goal for the year– my highest ever– as well as my goal of having 400 active listings in my Etsy shop, and 1000 sales in my Etsy shop!

• I opened other online storefronts at Storenvy and The Scoutmob Shoppe, and on the wholesale site Self to Shelf.

• My work was featured in a Scoutmob email blast, a promo video for The Happy Cabin in Australia, in Presents of Mind's Valentine gift guide, on The Frosted Petticoat Blog, on Faerie Magazine's website, on SpoccaDeals, as Scoutmob Shoppe's holiday section header, in Alpine Lily's holiday gift guide for hikers, and in Retailing Insight Magazine. My website was featured as part of a promotion for a SnapPages/SquareMarket integration campaign.

• I was interviewed as a featured brand on Storenvy, in a Storenvy email, on the OPB website, on Tender Loving Empire's artist page, and on the Anna Attard blog, and some of the business tips I submitted were included in an advice post on Create & Thrive and in an article for the Etsy Seller Handbook.

• I cultivated relationships with quite a few wonderful new stockists across the country.

• UncommonGoods picked up my acorn ornaments for the second year in a row.

• I participated in Crafty Wonderland's Spring Sale and Holiday Sale, as well as 6 other holiday shows around the Portland area.

• I celebrated my anniversaries of 1 year self-employed, and 4 years in business.

• I finally launched my official website, HouseOfMoss.com!

...So, as you can see, I channeled all my frustration and angst from 2014 into my business, ha.


But I also want to emphasize that, while I am a one-woman business, I am so grateful for the support and opportunities extended to me by my network of awesome family, friends, and fellow handmade business owners (alliteration!). And my wonderful customers and stockists! You guys are so positive and encouraging. There are many reasons why I love running my own creative business, and the support of this community is definitely one of the biggest. Thank you for following along with me and House of Moss.

Much love and smooth sailing to everyone in 2015! <3 <3 <3 <3

House of Moss on the Scoutmob Shoppe

I've admired Scoutmob for a long time for its role as a promoter of local handmade goods, so I'm very happy to announce that selected House of Moss items are now in the Scoutmob Shoppe!

You can check out my Scoutmob Shoppe HERE. You'll find hearts, acorns, and ornaments in color combinations & quantities different from my other online venues!

HouseOfMoss.com is finally launched!

I have some big news & I can't hold back any longer from telling you! House of Moss finally has its own real website!

HouseOfMoss.com is now the central hub for shopping, blog posts, and general info about House of Moss.

This has been a long time in coming, and I am so happy to finally have a legit online presence to unite my different online venues like this blog, my business Facebook page, and my online shops.

Click this link to be one of the first people ever to see my new website!
----> www.HouseOfMoss.com <----

New in the Shop: Rainbow Pebbles

I finally decided to make my felted pebbles in all the rich jewel tones of the rainbow! You can visit them in my Etsy shop to see all the new ones, plus the natural-colored pebble sets.

New in the Shop: New Cottage Ornament Colors

As I've written here before, the rhythm of my year is such that I end up making Christmas ornaments in the Spring and Summer. It always makes me feel kind of silly at the time, but every holiday season I thank myself every day for preparing early!

The good thing about this weird schedule is that it allows me to get new inspiration. I've been playing around with different color combinations for my popular cottage ornaments, and I've made a bunch of them in cheerful brights and pastels! I think they will mix well with the classic reds, yellows, greens, and whites of my normal Christmas items.

There are more cottage ornaments in my Etsy shop than ever before! You can see them HERE if you'd like.

New in the shop: Chicken Ornaments!

Back by popular demand (they sold out during holiday shows before I could even post them on Etsy), my chicken ornaments are up in the shop! I can hear you thinking, "Um, ornaments? Aren't you a bit early posting Christmas decor in April?" Well, in that sense you are right. But a lot of people decorate Easter trees with ornaments, and these little hens are perfect for mini-trees or for hanging in windows to celebrate spring!

And since I was on that track of thinking, I went ahead and expanded my color offerings for my amanita mushroom ornaments as well. For the previous holiday seasons, I only offered them in classic Red. But now there are also Black Cherry Red, Saffron Yellow, and Mint Green, which would all look good on your spring Easter tree too. ;) Stay tuned for even more colors as the year rolls along!

New in the Shop: Seedlings in Gold Pots!

Brand-new for 2014: Felted wool seedlings in GOLD pots! The same sweet little 1-inch-tall terracotta pots I've been making for a while are now available with a fresh coat of gold paint, a cheery update on a sweet springtime staple. I can't help but smile seeing these sitting in a row on my windowsill in the sun!

Chickens Are Back in the Shop!

Chickens are available in my Etsy shop again, just in time for Spring! Available in Rhode Island Red, Barred Rock, and White Leghorn, which are all types my family used to keep when I was growing up!

House of Moss on Storenvy

House of Moss is now on Storenvy! Storenvy is an e-commerce platform for "emerging brands and designer goods." It has a well-designed interface and is very friendly to use.

You can visit House of Moss's shop at http://houseofmoss.storenvy.com/

And while I haven't listed all the items I currently sell on Etsy, the classics are there now! Feel free to stop by and look around.

New In The Shop: Mushrooms in Every Color!

Things may have been quiet around here on the blog, but they sure haven't been in my Etsy shop! I've been hiding away creating brand-new items for the shop.

Longtime House of Moss followers will probably be interested to check out the new colors of mushrooms I've added! There used to be about 5 main colors for mushrooms, but I've recently expanded the line to include quite a rainbow of options. It makes me feel like I'm working in a candy shop, not doing fiber art! You can see the full variety HERE.

New in the shop: Heart Garlands

Just in time for Valentine's Day! Heart garlands! They're 6 feet long and perfect for your Valentine's parties (or anti-Valentine's!), children's rooms, or just natural decor.

They're fresh in the shop now, and if you order before the end of the week (domestic orders only), they will still arrive before the 14th! They will arrive in the packaging pictured above: compostable/biodegradable cellophane! You can find them HERE.

New in the Shop: Heart Ornaments

I've just listed a brand-new item in the shop: heart ornaments! I've also listed some other favorite items in new colors, so check those out while you're at it. :) Acorns and acorn ornaments in golden green, cottage ornaments in fox brown and brick red, and new tiny jar terrariums with mushrooms! All available fresh now!

New in the shop: Macrame Plant Ornaments!

I'm hard at work stocking up for my holiday shows. [Schedule to be finalized/posted soon!] This generally involves me sitting there making hundreds of one item in one go. But last week I carved out a little snippet of time to create a new product I'd been thinking about, and the macrame plant ornament was born!

It's just been posted in my Etsy shop for the first time this morning. Go check it out!

New in the Shop: Snowman Terrariums

Now that it's nearly November, I've begun hoping for snow! In that spirit, I just listed a brand-new item in my Etsy shop. It's a tiny felted wool snowman inside a small glass canning jar! You can see more photos HERE.

What's new? The outgoing mail will tell...

Today's mail run (well, walk) reflected so many things that have been keeping me busy! Here we have Etsy orders, an international order (to Israel! the first House of Moss piece to travel there!), wholesale samples, and applications for shows.

My days have been full and varied lately.

Wholesale Linesheet Prep Work

This year, I decided I should take steps to get into selling wholesale. I've been doing some light/unofficial wholesaling through Etsy, with larger quantities of certain items going for smaller per-item costs. But it's a rather loose system and not really built for ongoing account relationships.

I've been preparing to make an extensive line sheet with all of my wholesale items. Case packs! Color options! SKUs! Actually I'm really enjoying the process, as it reminds me of the satisfaction I would get when I was in school from doing some sort of really straightforward homework assignment. It may be time-consuming, but it's kind of enjoyably repetitive in a meditative way.

Stay tuned to find out when House of Moss officially rolls out its wholesale offerings. But in the meantime, or if you want to get a large-quantity discount even without reselling the items, check out the wholesale section of my Etsy shop.

What's New: House of Moss on Square Market

If you're part of the handmade community (maker, seller, buyer, or all three!), you're probably pretty familiar with Square. What most people know of is the Square Reader, that little white –well, square-shaped– attachment that fits on smartphones to let mobile vendors accept credit cards. But did you know that they also have an online marketplace?

It's brand-new, and already filling with wonderful small businesses! It's a clean, pleasing interface, and it's built on the trusted Square platform. House of Moss just joined, and you can check out my shop HERE.

Lately (because you deserve to know why I have been so quiet)

It's because I am drowning in acorns. And spending entire days watching Arrested Development. Let me explain...

Last week, I was surprised by the biggest order in House of Moss's history so far. An order of 2600 acorns, destined for the display windows of a chain of 20 clothing stores in Tennessee. Hooray!

This order came with a very tight deadline, one in which I must spend over 2 weeks straight making more per day, every day, than I've ever counted as a full day's work. But I do love a challenge, and having my items as window displays has been a dream for me. And since over the years I've acquired decent hand-eye coordination with my sharp felting needle, I can at least spend the time entertained by one family's hilarious shenanigans.

So please understand my absenteeism from the internet world. I'm just over here wearing out the tendons in my hands and dreaming of piles and piles of acorns.

New in the shop: Acorn Garlands!

I've listed a brand-new item in the shop today: acorn garlands! These are 6ft garlands of felted wool acorns in natural acorn caps, strung across a length of high-quality baker's twine. I know it's been a while since I hinted at them here, but I wanted to perfect their packaging before rolling them out. You can also see them in action in my show displays here and here.

So far, I have four colors in the shop: red, black cherry red, earth tones rainbow, and white.

This batch is on classic red-and-white baker's twine, but soon there will be grey-and-white and tan-and-white twine options also, as well as a multitude of acorn color options, so keep an eye on the shop in the coming weeks!