my etsy shop

So I have officially started my Etsy.com shop!  It's called Kairos Paper Designs. Let me back up and explain:

A couple of years ago I stumbled upon a handmade/vintage goods shopping website called Etsy.  Since then I have fallen in love with it.  They have so many amazing finds ... and most of the time you are supporting stay-at-home moms or small business owners, trying to get their handmade or vintage products to make them millions.  Not really.  But for many of the sellers on Etsy, it's a way for them to design and create and to possibly make money doing it.  I first thought of opening up my own shop on Etsy last year about this time when I had just moved to Mountain View, was unemployed and searching for a job, and in the early stages of my pregnancy and often too ill to be much good to society.  I have always loved graphic design (if I could go back to Sac State and do it all over again I would have majored in graphic design instead of interior ... but I am still so over school that I don't want to think about going back for a long while).  So I thought I could design some birth announcements, wedding invitations, new address cards, etc. and sell my designs on Etsy.  But as time went on, I lost my zeal for that (and perhaps I was a little discouraged by the huge amount of competition I would have on Etsy alone, not to mention the huge professional companies outside of Etsy).  But I still had some burning desire to create and sell.  Hmmmmm ...

So as my heart was searching and my mind churning over the possibilities, I decided to come up with a shop/business name.  Why not?  I have no products to sell, but I have to have a name anyway when I do, so why not come up with that first?  A little backward, but whatever.  So I went to search for a name.  I strongly dislike business names with the owners name in it ... like:

Sylvia's Designs

SRO Creations

Crafts by Sylvia

Yuck.  So unoriginal.  I also don't like business names that tell you exactly what they do ... like:

Modern Birth Announcements, Inc.

New Day Invitations

Or even worse ... the combination of the two:

Sylvia's Custom Announcements

Ewwwwww!  I feel sick just at the thought of that being my business name.  So all of those ideas were not even options for my hypothetical business.  What I am into are names with meaning, so I went to one of the most descriptive and beautiful languages: Greek.  I can't remember exactly how I stumbled upon "kairos", but I used Blue Letter Bible (blueletterbible.com) and probably went to one of my favorite verses in the New Testament seeing what each word meant in it's original Greek language.  So what does kairos mean?

kairos (καιρός)

1) due measure

2) a measure of time, a larger or smaller portion of time, hence:

a) a fixed and definite time, the time when things are brought to crisis, the decisive epoch waited for

b) opportune or seasonable time

c) the right time

d) a limited period of time

e) to what time brings, the state of the times, the things and events of time

It just clicked with me.  Kairos.  The perfect time (...hence the name of this blog as well.  Ok, ok, I'm on a kairos craze at the moment.  I just think it's a really neat word!).  The time that was meant to be.  The awaited time.  And being okay with that time and it's outcome.  I didn't know when or how or what my Etsy shop/business would be, but in the right time I knew it would come.  And now it has!  (Maybe.  Possibly.)  Just like how God so perfectly orchestrates our lives (imagine what'd they would be like if we didn't screw them up all the time);  How He designed this world we live in ... everything at it's perfect time.

So anyway, back to my shop.  I've started making boxes.  Yes, boxes.  Gift boxes.  I love giving gifts.  I love making gifts beautiful.  Wrapping paper, bows, gift tags.  To me, that is just as much a part of the gift as the gift itself.  I feel like I am a thoughtful gift giver ... as in I don't just give something that's on sale or popular at the moment ... but I really desire to give good gifts, perhaps unexpected, something that matches the receiver's personality and needs.  But even more so I love to wrap it all up in something special.  I'd rather take the time to pull out the wrapping paper and ribbon than stuff everything in a gift bag.  That's just how I am.  But as I'm getting busier with a little life so dependent upon me and raising this family God's given me, I'm finding it hard to have the time to be that creatively thoughtful with gifts too.  That's where I came up with the idea of making gift boxes ... just as easy as gift bags (stuff your present in, cover with tissue paper, done.), yet much more cute and they can be kept and used in every day life after the gift-giving has finished.  So I have spent the past couple of weeks making some sample boxes and posted them this morning on Etsy.  I want to see if I get any nibbles before I continue flooding my home office with tissue paper and craft supplies.  Check out the link to my shop -here- ... let me know what you think.  Give me ideas, comments or encouragement.  I'd love to hear your opinions!