Revamping My Shop

Bye, bye, Native Sky!
When I first opened our Etsy shop, I had no clue what to choose for a user name and shop name.  Impatience was prevalent as I merely tried to come up with a name that

1. Wasn't too girly, since it's my husband's shop too
2. Gave some hint to the Native American items in our shop
3. Was available on Etsy

I really should have done some Internet searches to see where the name popped up, but I didn't.  Native Sky is all over the place and there's no way I could use it as a business name.  It didn't take me long to dislike the name.  It kind of grated on me and felt like wearing hot pink tourist moccasins to a powwow...eww!   Figuring out a shop banner left me completely uninspired.  It's posted here as a final farewell.  You'll notice that I tried to incorporate the "sky" thing.  The thing on the left of the banner is from a beadwork design.  The thing on the right is some tatting.  The shop name is filled with a beadwork design.  I'm kind of embarrassed that I stuck with it for this long, but there was no sense in doing anything until I came up with a new name.

Hello, Native & Pilgrim!
After a lot more research and deep thought, I am excited to launch my new shop name.  Unfortunately, Etsy doesn't allow you to just change your user name.  I don't think it will hurt me too much to keep using the NativeSky user name but change the shop name.  Here is how I figured things out this time:

1. Considered using my last name, but my brother-in-law uses the last name as part of his graphic design business and I don't want to confuse things.
2. Decided not to reference any specific products since our shop is such a mixture.  This has often been debated in Etsy's forums and some people establish separate shops for separate lines of products.  What's in our shop is what we decide to make next and we prefer that to having to meet the demands of a particular product line.
3. Searched for a way to incorporate my heritage as well.  We may have a Native American household, but I am descended from Pilgrims.  This actually makes my kids absolutely All-American - descended from Native Americans, Pilgrims, Immigrants, and Pioneers.
4. When I decided on the name, I researched it online.  Once I was satisfied that the name wasn't being used, I started working on designing the banner and avatar.

I'd be happy to explain how I came up with the new banner if anyone's interested.  I'm very happy with the results and feel like it really represents our shop well. Only time will tell if this was the right choice.  I only hope Etsy will decide to allow for name changes in the near future.

If you intend to start a shop on Etsy, make sure you do some careful thinking before picking a name.  Just because it's available doesn't mean it's right for you.