Welcome To The Blog
A big hello and a massive thank you for taking the time to come here to have a nosey through my blog. It's something I've wanted to do for a while so I've decided to finally commit to the idea and go for it. What's the worst that could happen?
What's The Plan?
I'm planning to use it to show a bit more about my small business, Connect The Dots Design, and me, Úna Méabh. Writing as a creative outlet is something I've always enjoyed but never really explored. I've always been more into art and drama so I suppose it's a good way to practice as I'm committing to publishing one piece every week. Don't be expecting fancy writing though; I leave that type of writing to my husband, https://www.davidohanlon.com/articles. He's a phenomenal writer.
I sat down last week and roughly planned content for the first 3 months and I think the blog will go in the direction of things I like see and watch and read myself. I love behind the scenes things - I've always been interested in how things happen. Did you ever watch the TV show Airport? I loved it for the insights into how the airport functioned and seeing what happened once cases were checked and how they got to the plane. MTV Making the Video was another favourite as teenager. I was glued to the screen when it came on. I vividly remember an episode with 'Nsync and the Bye Bye Bye video. It was super interesting to see the process of making the video and all of the tricks they used to create the final product. Or what about How do they do it? or Breaking The Magician's Code? Other shows that I loved to watch for the behind the scenes insights. So I'm hoping that the blog will give you a little insight into behind the scenes, or at least a little more than what I share on social media.
Behind The Scenes
So behind the scenes at the minute is looking a lot like Christmas. To be honest it's been Christmas since August. This is the first year that I've been able to devote all my time to the business so I've finally had what I think is a proper go at Christmas. Every other year Christmas has almost been an after thought, sometimes only getting round to designing a Christmas range in November and sure by that time shops don't want to know and lots of people have already bought cards and gifts. I started designing in the summer and had my first Christmas wholesale order back in August. There's been a steady little stream of Christmas orders going out since I added the Christmas section to the website in September and then earlier this month I went full blown Christmas and added the Christmas Shop.
Aside from Christmas, I launched a brand new print range back in September - the Ceol Collection - and they've been doing really well, better than I anticipated actually. The new dialann is currently en route and due to arrive next week which should be fun as I really don't know where I'm going to put them. I think the courier said the pallets weigh 250kg each! I have another new print range that's about 80% ready and I'm hoping to launch that next month. And I completely revamped my studio space to make it more functional (I'll have a blog post on that soon).
Christmas Plans
Being much more strategic about Christmas planning and marketing has been a big focus this year and I actually have a plan! This is a big first for me because, to be honest, I've just been winging it every other year. That had a lot to do with being a full time teacher but it feels good to at least have something to follow now.
What's the plan then? Well it all starts in November. I'm going to have a very special Christmas offer on the website throughout the whole month of November. I'm not going to share what that is just yet though; you'll have to stay tuned. Black Friday has well and truly made its mark and while I won't be officially marking Black Friday, I will have a Green Friday promotion for that weekend running from Friday 26th November to midnight on Sunday 28th November. If you're not sure what Green Friday is, check out Green Friday Ireland on Instagram. And then once we hit December I'll be launching my Christmas advent calendar with a little surprise offer behind every digital door for the first 12 days of the month. Each day will have a different surprise which will only last until midnight.
That's the basic plan anyway and it's exciting to see it start to fall in to place. I'll be sending updates via my email mailing list so if you'd like to receive updates and some extra special mailing list only discounts scroll down the bottom of the page and subscribe, if you haven't already.
Until Next Time
Big thanks for joining me on this little blogging journey. Let's see where it goes from here. Next week is Halloween themed so I'll see ya back here next Friday for some spooky doodles.
Grá mór,
UM