If you’ve been paying attention recently, you may have noticed a sneaky new feature on the blog. A few weeks ago, I added a page to showcase my new shop on Etsy, which has actually been up and running for a couple of months now. There, that’s two secrets I’ve been keeping from you. But I’m not without my reasons. I’ve been holding off on making an official announcement until I had grown my inventory into a slightly more respectable size. After all, it’s hard to open a store if you have nothing to sell.
Since starting this blog two years ago, I have wanted to tie the creative side of the house – writing and sharing my photographs – with something a little more business-minded (read: income-generating), be that through interior design work, selling my art, or something else. But I have dedicated precious little time to art-making of late, and with no design or decorating experience save for the work in progress that is my own home, I can’t foresee that my services there would be in high demand. That’s where the “something else” comes in.
I have long had a love for old homes, antiques, and thrifting and have, from time to time, idly entertained the idea of one day opening up a little shop from where I could sell fine vintage and antique goods to the discerning passerby. In recent months, as I’ve scoured local estate sales, antique stores, and online marketplaces to furnish my house, I began thinking more about how I could simultaneously build a collection of items that I could one day sell.
Perhaps I could get a little stall at a local antique mall. Or I could start online, selling through eBay or something of its ilk. Or both? Maybe I’d even trademark my shop name and get a business license – how official! I spent some time debating what was the best way forward, fretting over this or that detail and second-guessing if it was even something that I should pursue at all. But at one point, and I don’t know if it was the mid-pandemic to-hell-with-it! ennui or perhaps the confidence that comes with knowing that I now had an entire house in which to store my inventory, I eventually stopped dragging my feet and just went for it.
As it stands, the online store is very much still in its early stages, currently with just 23 items and only three sales, one of which was a purchase made by my boyfriend and another by a friend. So no, The Forms of Beauty shop hasn’t exactly taken off. But we’ll give it some time. Maybe one day I still will open that little storefront. And while we wait for the dream of yet another peddler of secondhand items to make itself realized in the world, here’s a sneaky peak at what’s in store for all you discriminating ladies and gents.
*Ring is for illustrative purposes only and is not included.*
