Here is a sneak peak at the owl bags I'm hoping to finish up in the next week.  I used the cool owl trim that Marci sent me in our swap.

I'm sewing the "handmade by futuregirl" labels by hand.  It's kinda fun.  Since each one is unique, I can choose colors to match the bags or even change what they say. I've thought about getting labels made, but I don't even know what I'd want.

I love making these bags.  It's so much fun for me.  The part that's a little sketchy is the selling part.  But I'm thinking of ways to make that fun for me, too.

The main issue I have is setting pricing.  How in the world do people set prices for their handmade stuff?  This is driving me nuts.  I've spent days concocting pricing schemes for my bags.  Each scheme makes sense, but they are all different.

Alicia Paulson's Whip up articles on selling are great and have given me a starting point, but I'm still struggling with pricing.  Here are my issues:

- I want to make enough money to cover the cost of the materials in the piece, and have enough left over to buy more materials, tools, and supplies.

- I want to make extra money to buy from other crafters.  I have a huge list of blogs and esty stores that I would love to buy things from.

- It would be super-cool to make enough to pay someone to clean our apartment once in a while.  That would give me more time to craft, and it would give us a cleaner apartment, since I can be a slacker sometimes.

-I'm afraid to price the bags too high and not sell any of them.  I absolutely want to sell them.

- I'm afraid to price the bags too low and give the perception that they aren't very well made - they are very well made, if I say so myself.

- I'm afraid to price the bags too low and undercut other crafters.  I don't want to give the impression that hand crafted items *shouldn't* be price high.  I totally appreciate that other crafters are putting a lot of effort and time into their crafts, too.

I don't have any dreams of making a living at crafting.  My goals are pretty simple;  I have fun doing this and I'd like to make it a self-sustainable system. If you have any guidance or advice, I would really appreciate it.