Rise Up Designs

One of the things I genuinely love about doing markets is the people. I love meeting customers, talking about what I make, watching someone discover something they didn’t know they needed, and getting that immediate feedback you just don’t get from an online shop. The part I could live without? Packing. Loading the car. Unloading the car. Setting everything up. Breaking everything down. Loading it all again. Then getting home and realizing you still have to unload. 😂 After doing markets for a while, though, I’ve learned something that has made that process a little easier: You don’t have to take everything you own. Every market has its own personality. Something that flies off my table at one market might barely get looked at somewhere else. At another market, people may head straight for my Blind Date with a Book collection. Somewhere else, it’s gift sets, totes, bookmarks, or something completely different. So this year, I’ve started paying much closer attention. What are pe...

Yesterday was my first fall market, and honestly? It was a really good one. Sales were good. I was paying attention to what people were picking up, what I need to make more of, what was catching their attention—all those little things you learn when you’re actually standing in front of your customers. But I also learned something else. Take care of the person behind the booth. I live in Texas. I know it’s hot. And I thought I was prepared. One of my market rituals is packing a little cooler full of bottled water. Yesterday I brought about eight bottles, and I was drinking water throughout the day. The market organizers were wonderful about making sure vendors had water available, too. Hydration? Check. Or so I thought. Around 2:00, as I started packing up, I suddenly got really dizzy. Not “whoa, I stood up too fast” dizzy. Sit-down-right-now dizzy. Eventually I had to call in reinforcements—aka Dad and my cousin—to finish packing my booth and drive me home. And that was my ...

This one is going to be short because it’s Labor Day weekend. 😊 If you’re a small business owner, crafter, maker—or honestly just a person with a never-ending to-do list—you probably know how hard it is to completely turn it off. There’s always something. An order to finish. Inventory to check. Pictures to take. A listing to update. An idea you really should write down before you forget it. 😂 But here’s what I’m reminding myself this weekend: The to-do list will still be there tomorrow. Sometimes being productive means getting things done. And sometimes it means closing the laptop, putting down the craft supplies, spending time with people you love, and giving yourself permission to enjoy the day without mentally calculating everything you could be doing. So that’s it. No big business lesson today. Drink the coffee. ☕ Enjoy the extra day. Rest if you need it. The tumbler can wait. 😂 Happy Labor Day weekend, friends. ❤️ - Jecca

I use AI. A lot. I use it in my full-time job to help me work more efficiently. I use it in my small business to help write product listings, brainstorm ideas, organize my thoughts, and yes, even check my grammar on some of these blog posts. So this is definitely not an “AI is bad” post. I think AI is an incredible tool. But as a crafter and small business owner, I also think we have a responsibility to pay attention to how we use it. Especially when we’re showing customers our products. AI can take a basic product photo and put it into a beautiful setting. It can help create a cozy bookish scene, clean up a distracting background, or help you imagine how something might look displayed in a home. That can be incredibly helpful. But here’s where I think we have to be careful: If the AI-generated picture no longer looks like the product you’re actually selling, we have a problem. If my tumbler has one design but the AI changes the artwork, that’s not my product. If my gift se...

​ It may still be hot outside, but if you’re a small business owner, somewhere in your brain it is already November. At least that’s how it feels for me. The holidays may seem far away, but this is the time I start thinking about them. Not because I want to rush the season. Not because I’m ready for Christmas music in August. But because holiday prep takes time. I’m already thinking about what products make good gifts. What can be bundled together. What inventory I need to reorder. What packaging I want to use. What signage needs to be updated. What markets I want to participate in. What sold well last year. And maybe just as important…what I do not want to repeat. That part matters. Every season teaches you something. There are products you thought would fly off the table that barely moved. There are things you almost didn’t make that customers loved. There are packaging ideas that looked cute but took way too much time. There are products that were great individual...