Category Business: Behind the Scenes

2026…What’s Changing and What Isn’t

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So we made it. It’s 2026.

Last year was, a lot, wasn’t it.

Between the American Political System,  the tarriffs, Joann’s closing, and life in general.

This year, I’m actually hoping to improve my online presense as I will be reducing the number of in-person shows I will be doing do to IRL work obligations.

I’m in the process of re-organizing the menus for both the blog as shop. My hope is that this makes it easier to navigate the website.

I’m planning to add a lot my crochet content this year. I have tutorials in the works, as well as pattern collections, and reaserch I’ve been doing on the different crochet styles.

I’ve also been working on reviews on the various crochet books that I have, so I can get those listed.

The tea reviews will be an ongoing thing. I just have to get better at finiding time to drink the tea so I can actually do the reviews. I am going to add other tea brands beside Adaigo and Friday Afternoon, I promise.

I do plan on doing working on my personal crochet challenges. I’ll make posts about each of the creatures as I get them done. I have Lovecraftian, and Cryptid creatures in the works and I hope to have those posts up soon.

I have a few other side projects that i’m working on but I’m not ready to announce those just yet.

Is there anything that you’d like me to do this year?

 

BrittanyDinosaur

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BrittanyDinosaur is a small shop for many nerdy needs. It all started with a dinosaur jacket and has just grown from there as new hobbies and skills were gained. From hand sewn dice bags to cute frosted glass cups and shadow boxes, so there are gifts or items for everyone’s interests.

https://brittanydinosaur.etsy.com

She also, for those of you in the Virginia area runs D&D games with Rouge Game Masters.

She uses alot of different mediums in her work and does 3-D printing.

Her 3-D prints will be available on this site within the next few days.

If you run a small business or know someone who does, please send me an email at octojellycrochetstudio@outlook.com with the business name, any info you would like me to mention and any links you would like me to add.

Big things planned for 2026

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So it’s the start of Q4 of 2025.

The amount of things that have happened in the last 2 weeks means I’m making a lot of changes to my eaarly 2026 plans.

The show I had planned for the end of Febuary in 2026 has been postponed to Feb of 2027, due to the location being sold, and a new location not yet confirmed,  I’ll have more details on that next update.

The show I have planned in November is still a go. The will be Tournament at the Castle at Bacon’s Castle in Surry, Virginia. I’ll have a whole post on that in the coming weeks.

 

The blog series I have planned for this quarter will start in January of 2026. This will also give me time to plan out and record Youtube videos and a podcast that’s been in the works for a few months now.

Around December, I’ll announce what’s going to post and when.

There will be a shop update tomorrow of dice bags, 3d dinos (printed by BrittanyDino) and other finished products.

 

 

 

Planning in a Business

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So things have been a lot lately.

I have 19 days until the Isle of Wight County Fair, and a good chunk of inventory still to make.

I will be streaming tonight from 10pm until I either can’t physically crochet or until its time for me to get the kiddo ready for school tomorrow.  www.twitch.tv/octojellycrochet

All of of the blog series I have mentioned this year, will start in January of 2026. My plan between now and Decemeberr 31 is to get all the blog series posts (Cryptids, Lovecraft, Tea, Crochet Patterns) written and scheduled for January thu March.

Somewhere in the next 4 motnhs, I will also start recording YouTube videos and start recording podcast things.

 

I have a list, broken up by Quarter and Month, on what I want to get done and by when. I’m trying something new with business planning this coming year. I have hopes that it will help my stay on track better.

My list is on a note pad and in a paper planner. While I do make use of multiple google calenders, I find using a paper tracker helps me focus better.

I know there are people who swear by computer programs, but honestly, between the business, my day job and my child and his  school and scout schedules, I’ll stick to my white board/ gooogle calendar and paper agenda.

 

 

There will be a product update in the shop following the Isle of Wight County Fair.

 

 

Business Update

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So, the last couple of weeks have been a lot.

Streaming:

I took a step back from streaming, due to starting to process of fixing my teeth. The process will take a little longer than I first thought, but I know the end results will be worth it.

As a result, I will come back to streaming, I just won’t be showing my face, as I am missing a good majority of my teeth at the moment.

I’ve decided the next few streams will be making product and listening to audiobooks. Look for a poll on Facebook, Blusky and X to help me decide which book.

With Twitch’s Affiliate changes, I’ve decided to hold off building the newest lego set on stream for my first Affiliate stream.

 

Product

I am still working on getting product made. I have 2 fairly big (for me) shows coming up and I want to make sure I’m prepared.

I’m making a couple of large 1 off pieces and a good selection of my usual pieces. I do plan of adding some mini-Nessies and mini-Mothman back to the collection as well.

I’m also working on a large Cthulhu and a few Halloween inspired pieces, but more on those as it gets closer to October.

I actually have a few, large and wired pieces in the works, most of which probably won’t debut until after the holiday season.

 

Blog

Still working on various blog series, some of which will coincide with the offer product, some that won’t.

My day job has been extra chaotic, which is why I haven’t been about to get any of the planned series off the ground like I want to.

 

August….Already?

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July certainly flew by didn’t it?

Between Quality Control’s summer school and the ramped up chaos at work, I barely had time to follow through with the social media and website plans I made at the beginning on July.

If you follow me on any of the socials, you’ll probably have seen an influx of posts. I’ve been updating the shop with new categories and products. More on that in a minute though.

I’m planning on adding more crochet patterns this month, quite a few of them from the Victorian/Edwardian era. I just have to get them written out in a way that make sense to those who’ve only learned how to read modern patterns.

I still don’t know how to design my own patterns..though it is something I am working on.

So, one of the new sections in both the blog and the shop is H.P. Lovecraft. For the few who have never heard of H.P. Lovecraft, he is widely considered the Grandfather of Horror. I’m planning on a 3-part blog series about him before I launch the blog series on his creations, a good portion of which will appear in the shop. The series will have a broad overview of the man, his life and his ugly side. While his ugly side it horrid, it does explain why his creatures have the draw that they do.

I have gotten 10 blogs (including this one) written, proofread and scheduled for this month, and I’m hoping to stay ahead of the posts to get myself back on track with that.

I’ve started recording videos for YouTube and TikTok since I won’t be streaming this month, due to extensive dental surgery. I’ve also been working on scripts for a podcast I’d like to attempt. The podcast will be about crochet, tea, running and small business and the lore behind the products I have available.

I don’t have a platform picked yet, but if you have a suggestion, please, let me know.

 

Weekly Check-In

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Happy Friday.

 

So, if you’ve been on the site before, you may have noticed the new addition to the header .

I’ve decided to open Commissions back up. There’s more info on the landing page, but for the moment Commissions are just for select creatures and dice bags. The landing page

Part of the reason I decided to do that is because I don’t have another event until September 11-14. I will be returning to the Isle of Wight County Fair. There might be another event in November, but I’m still waiting to hear from that event.

The Tea Collection Reviews will start be up on Tuesday, as I have some reviews to finalize this weekend when I get back from the Cub Scout Family Campout and Rank Advancement.

I’ve also started finalizing all the plans for the next product update-at the end of the month- so that will start popping up on the socials next weekend.

Friday Check-In

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So hi hi,

Sorry it’s been a minute since I’ve done a business update.

I’m going to try to do these every other Friday now.

If you’ve been on the site in the last week or so and gone to the Tea Category, you’ll now see that I have separated the Teas by brand to make finding particular Teas a little easier.

I do plan on restarting the Tea series soon, it’s just been on the back burner since the kiddo is out of school for the summer so various schedules have to be re-thought.

There will also be new crochet-realted posts soon, I just need to finish adding pictures and then those will get scheduled

The picture will be elaborated on after I do a little more research on the temu/aliexpress crochet at events topic.

At the end of this month, I will be doing a big product update, with some older creatures in new colors and some new creatures.

The March Brain Dump

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was Hi hi.

I apologize for the unexpected hiatus I took this month. There has been so much going on that I haven’t had time/the mental energy to stop and write anything down.

So March is National Crochet Month. I had intended to make a post about it, but with having an Event, my 40th, and a wedding all within the first 3 weeks of the month, a lot of things relating to the business got put on the backburner.

Convivial 2025

I had my first event for the 2025 season at the end of February/beginning of March. It was Convivial Williamsburg, Va. This was its second year. While the crowd was not as big as last years, I did enjoy myself and I did make a good profit. I saw some existing vendor friends and I made some new ones. I’ve been busy making new product since the show because I sold out more that I thought I would and I have another event in just under a month.

Also, as Convivial, I got to see a gentleman who was actually my first customer when I started selling in person back in 2022. He has an acknowledged octopus obsession and has bought close to 15 of them from me in the last 3 years. He took great pride in showing me the first one he ever bought from me mounted on the dash of his car.   It honestly made the convention so much more memorable for me.

My 40th

The weekend after Convivial, I turned 40. I am officially halfway through my expected life expectancy here in the US. The evening was spent going out with a couple of good friends for a quiet dinner and than I wandered around Barnes and Noble for a bit. I got 2 new business related books, that I’m hoping will help with my organization and being able to reach out to people about possible collaborations or creating relationships to grow the company.

 

Wedding

The weekend after that, my youngest sibling got married. My son and I had a lot of fun, he got to meet a good chunk of our relatives for the first time and I got to see relatives I honestly haven’t seen in a long time. I’m finishing up the blanket I am making for the happy couple. It’s a CAL from 2015. I’ve decided to do a whole separate post about it as it is truly a test of my crochet skills. The amazing BrittanyDino came with me as my plus 1. I truly appreciate the mental support I needed to get through that.

The weekend after that was spent working the day job. Tomorrow though Monday I’ll actually have quite a bit of free time, so I’m hoping to get all of Aprils blogs written up and scheduled.

Plans for the Tea Collection

I did carve out about an hour to catalogue my tea collection. There’s quite a bit more than I originally thought there was. I’ve decided that instead of release 1 or 2 reviews a week, I’m going to group them up flavor theme, i.e. ‘alcoholic’ drinks, food flavors. and release a different grouping each week. The first one will come out April 7.

 

There’s more, but I don’t want to dump to much on everyone at once.

 

 

 

It’s still February…

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Hi hi,

So this is just going to be a quick update or sorts. I’ll post a more updated one after Convivial.

I’ve had not 1, but 3 events confirm me as a vendor. That makes 5 for this year, 4 less than 2024, but I have a better feeling about these shows, compared to the events I did last year.

2 of the events will be held at Bird Girl Bottle Shop, located in Hilton Village, Newport News, Virginia. Its a beer garden meets pizzaria. They have a lot of great non-alcoholic options too and are very family friendly. If you’re in the area, and want to check them out, I highly recommend that you do. The pizza menu and beer menus do change on a somewhat regular basis.

Here is the full list of the confirmed events.

I have a lot of prep to do, not just for Convivial in roughly 10 days, but also for the other upcoming events. I’ll be doing a lot more streaming now that my work-life is starting to balance itself out.

I don’t have a set schedule for streaming..yet, but I am working on it.