Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Flikr and Advertising

Though I haven't added any new pics to Flikr I've been pretty fortunate to have some of my pieces included in 3rd party advertising. You'll have to bare with me on these photos as the whole "screen capture" thing is still fairly new to me.

My first free advertising adventure came from a request from Citibank. It was for a flyer that went out to their international agencies, and share holders. In both of the pictures, my jewelry is in the upper left hand corner. All of their employees that I conversed with by phone and email were professional, helpful and extremely nice.
Today I had a request from a writer on Now Public to add a picture of earrings (sorry they've been sold) for a story about an 850 Pound Emerald

The story's pretty interesting and granted I'm one of many photos within the story but you won't find me complaining :)

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Back to this...


I'm back to making my handmade boxes for orders that are going out this next week. I ordered my kraft boxes back on the 15th and haven't heard hide nor hair of them since. I tried contacting Nile Corp today to no avail, so I sent them an email in hopes that I hear from them soon! It's frustrating when you think you've ordered your supplies in time to find that for some reason or another things get all snafu'd and don't go the way you had planned...such is life :)

Don't get me wrong...I love making these boxes because of that little extra touch of handmade. BUT, there's definitely something to be said when you've found a way of packaging your handmade goodies that represents both you and your business. It took me awhile to do just that, and I found it in all aspects including the design, natural colors and textures.

Who would've thought that I would be so concerned about packaging when I started this business? Let me tell you though, the packaging is like meeting someone for the first time....it's all about making a good first impression. At least that's the way I look at it. Many would probably argue that they bought the product not the packaging....true....but just imagine how you would feel if you just spent your hard earned money on a spendy piece of jewelry only to have it come in an envelope wrapped in paper. That tells me that the seller doesn't care enough about their items to either protect it or present it well. Think of it (packaging) as just another way of marketing your business. You never know who may end up with it...word of mouth can be very lucrative :)

Friday, December 26, 2008

Winter Damage


Here's a few pictures of what I came home to late last night :( The roof over my deck caved in from the weight of the snow...nice. It looks like it took the gutters from the back of the house with it, so I'll be spending the day on the phone with the insurance company. So here goes my first homeowners claim in the 10 years that I've lived here...wish me luck!






Sunday, December 21, 2008

Wishing Everyone A.....


A Milestone Reached!

I reached and exceeded 200 sales the next day after my previous post! What a fabulous feeling coming in to the Holidays reaching a much unexpected goal. I couldn't be happier!!

The mail is running slower than usual, unfortunately. I'm tracking all of my packages in hopes that they reach their destinations in time for Christmas. Even priority mail is taking about 5 days when it states that it'll be delivered in 2-3 days. I mail everything first class (unless a customer requests priority) with delivery confirmation. Normally it only takes 3 days tops to get there... so it has me a bit concerned.

If I notice that they haven't reached their destinations in time, I'm going to contact my customers. I have my fingers crossed that they'll make it though.

I'm off to finish up some Christmas gifts! For those of you living in the Northwest...drive safe if you're out in this weather doing some last minute shopping!

Friday, December 19, 2008

WOW!

Really there aren't a lot of words to describe it. You're probably wondering what I'm talking about right? Well I'm talking about my sales on Etsy. The day before my 1 year Etsy anniversary on September 1st, I reached 100 sales. I was so ecstatic because I had reached my goal. So I set up the same goal for 2009 to reach 200 sales. Low and behold, I'm 1 sale away from that goal just 3 months into my 2nd year *Happy Dance!!*

So I'm now thinking of what I will give as a gift for this milestone....I may give an initial pendant (pictured in my previous post), along with tea, and a 15% coupon for future purchases. I'll have to put more thought into it though as it takes 2 days to create the pendants.

I'm just so very thankful...it has been a crazy busy month so far, but I wouldn't want it any other way! So I'm sending a big shout out to my fabulous customers....You all have been so wonderful, I couldn't be more blessed, thank you so much!!

Have a Merry Christmas!

If you would like to receive a nice celebratory 200th sale gift, visit my store at http://shijewels.etsy.com

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Busy Creating


Here's what I've been creating lately as gifts for the girls at work and for the women in my family for Christmas. The pearls are larger than what I wanted them to be...it gives the pendant more of a peekaboo effect with the initial stamping. I had a great time oxidizing them then using steel wool to give them a slight patina.



I'll try to post more about the oxidation technique later...super easy and I'm sure for those of you that read the how to's it's not going to be anything new, but I created a little trick that I'd like to share with you in a later post.



This will probably be my last post until after the holidays so I wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas and a Safe and Happy New Year!!

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Holiday Rush

I will probably only be posting a couple of times a week until after the Holiday Season. It's been crazy busy around here between my day job, Etsy, Christmas parties, shopping, making gifts and cooking a lot of goodies. I haven't even had time to post anything new on Shophandmade.com, but hopefully after Christmas I'll be able to focus a bit more on my shop there.

EAST, the Etsy Street team that I'm a member of, all signed up on Elfster to do a Secret Santa Gift Exchange. I had never heard of this site, but it's the bomb! Once you've signed up, send the link to a group of friends, family or coworkers so they can sign up. Fill in your wishlist and all the other requirements like spending limit etc. Then it automatically matches people up. Everything is anonymous, so you can ask all the questions you want of the person that you drew and they don't have a clue who their Secret Santa is. We're doing all handmade items, and set a date where all of us will join in a chatroom and open our presents. Of course there may be some of us that might peek a little early....oohhh nooo...not me :) No really any packages that I get that I'm not expecting my son is going to hide from me until it's time to open them! Yes, I was one of those kids that shook the package with my name on it, and sometimes even tried to unwrap the gift to get a peek. I was such a bad girl! It should be fun, and it's definitely a site I'm going to recommend to others including my day job.

Well I'm off to get the last of my weekend purchases packaged and ready to be shipped out tomorrow. This last month on Etsy has been phenomenal for me! Love...love....love it!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Sales...Sales...and More Sales

These are just a few of the items submitted by my fellow team members for EAST's 2nd Annual Winter Wonderland Event Special.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Holidays, Sales and Shopping

I hope everyone survived Thanksgiving. Though I enjoyed spending all of that time with family, after 3 turkey dinners, I'm thankful it's over!

I was not one of the brave ones who shopped during the wee hours on Black Friday, but I heard that it was pretty crowded....I'll leave that day of shopping for the die hards! I don't shop the day after Christmas either. Don't get me wrong, I love shopping, but I don't like the large crowds, plus with my back I can't stand in lines for hours either.

The Etsy Street Team that I'm on is having our 2nd Annual Winter Wonderland Event Sale. With each of our members offering discounts in one way or another in their shops. So if you have any last minute holiday shopping to do then be sure to search on Etsy for items with the WWEE tag.

I'm offering a free pair of earrings plus 10% off all of my items with the WWEE tag and an additional 10% off all items in my Sale Section for a total of 25% off.

Here are just a few of my items that are included in EAST's 2nd Annual Winter Wonderland Event: