Christmas shopping with me

Here are a few recent pictures of people doing their Christmas shopping with me right after Thanksgiving.  The first one is at a lunch with some old family friends.  Two of their girls and one of their friends were looking through my boxes.  I really do keep my jewelry stored in those little Tupperware containers.  It works wonderfully.  I apologize for the blurriness.

At my co-workers' insistence, I brought my jewelry in this week.  It was fun doing a set up without any booth restrictions (or a booth fee).

I wanted to get a shot that showed more of the table and the counter at the same time but the white walls washed everything out.  The set up worked pretty well, though.  I didn't have a ton of people come into my room to check it out, but half of the people who did come in bought from me.

Believe it or not, those 7 leafy bracelets on the white jewelry display are all that I have in stock right now for my leafy series.  I'm so happy that it's continued to do so well.  Now I just need to keep making more.  My button magnet stash is pretty depleted, too.  So many projects and not enough time.

and the blog giveaway winner is...

Thanks to all 14 people who entered my blog giveaway for my 2nd Etsy anniversary!  I used a random number generator to select the winner.

Number 7 is Grace from Hugz Before You Go!  Congrats Grace. :) I contacted her tonight.  She can choose a peyote triangle pendant or pair of earrings in whatever color or color combination she'd like.  I'll be sure to post a picture of her finished piece.  I will most likely make a second version to sell as well.  Thanks again for playing everyone!

I did not have any sales during my free shipping promotion, but I switched some holiday items into my sale section early this morning.  One of them sold today along with another bangle!  I also have a custom order in the works from one of my eBay customers (which is why it pays to give out business cards to everyone!).  She wants some sea glass pieces she inherited from her grandmother wire wrapped into simple pendants.  I'm still so over wire wrapping after my pearl project, but this will be very different and hopefully more fun.  I got the sea glass pieces today.  I'm still waiting for the wire.  I'll keep everyone updated.

great Etsy day, treasury feature

Do you remember how I finished my custom cuff last week?  The woman who bought it is actually the bride.  She got the cuff today and loved it so much that she decided to order the jewelry for all of her bridesmaids and flower girls (6 girls/women total) from me!  I came back from work to find the order completed.  Two of the bracelets are made to order which works out perfectly because I can custom fit them for the flower girls.

That's the surprise coordinated piece that I created for the bride.  Now that she's seen it, you can all see it, too. :) I'll post more details about that order as I finish the made to order items and get everything ready.  I am even more pysched about her color scheme than I was before.

Also, thanks to Edi's post a while back about Alchemy, I've been bidding on items here and there over the last month.  I won two of my bids from this past week and committed to them today!  I think I've worked out most of the details for both of them now.  I'm waiting for their payments to go through before I do anything else.  Those of you who are bead weavers, if you haven't already seen my posts about pearls in the EBW forums and have any experience with them in relation to bead weaving (particularly RAW), please let me know.  I can complete the bead weaving without any problem.  I just want some advice about my materials before I get started because this is a little bit of a new territory for me.  Thanks!  I'll post more details on those projects, too, as they continue to develop.

Finally, my fellow EBW member Jane-Michael (JaneMichel) included my Beadwoven Bracelet - Button Embellished - Rainbow in her Rainbows treasury.

What an amazing start to the week!  I hope that everyone's week has started off well, too. :)

new listing, new goodies

I sold and re-listed my Beaded Bracelet - Purple Shell design today.  It will be made to order (until I make another one at some point) and will still be 15% off for the rest of month.

I love this design!  I'm glad that it continues to do well.  I'm also still planning to make one in green.  For now, though, you can get coordinating Sterling Silver Dangle Earrings - Purple Shell, which I just listed tonight.

I know that the bracelet and earring shades of purple don't look perfectly matched, but they are very close in color in person.

I had several in person sales while I was in Chicago, too, as well as another Etsy sale.  I have really had a fabulous summer for sales, and I'm so excited that Etsy is finally picking up.  Hopefully this will continue!  While I was in Chicago, I got some new goodies, too.  I got lots of vintage buttons in bulk for $2.00 at Vogue Fabrics.  I will take a picture of them at some point.  I did not make it to Caravan in the city because Jake's test ended earlier than we originally thought so I made a short trip to Briolette instead.  Instead of splurging on lots of new Czech pressed glass (like leaves), I got a few glass pieces and some filler seed beads, which is just fine.  As I'm sure you can imagine, I'm far from out of Czech glass. :)

The first day of work went pretty well today.  It's nice to have one day of work and then a weekend to ease back into the regular routine.  Have a great weekend everyone!

redo, back in stock, treasury feature

I had to redo the clasp on one of the bracelets that my grandma purchased from me earlier this summer.  I used cube beads for the clasp originally, and it didn't hold very well.  So I took it out and put in a button and seed bead loop instead.

I played around with the white balance in the light box today.  The tripod photos have considerably less blue tint than the ones that I've shot thus far.  I'm still struggling to get close up shots on custom settings that don't blur.  It's a work in progress.  My shots are still improving.  Hopefully this button clasp will work better for her.  Trial and error!  My other cube cuffs with cube clasps are wider so I think they'll hold better, but I'm not planning to use that design again.  If anyone is interested in the above design, you can purchase it as made to order in my Etsy shop here (or click on the photo of it).

I made a new version of my Two-Hole Button Explosion Earrings and updated the listing today.

I have one more multicolored explosion version planned as well as an all blue version.  After that, I'm not sure yet, but as always, I'm open to suggestions.

Patch (patchfirstshop) included my Beadwoven Bracelet - The Leafy Series - Winter in her EtsyBloggers weekly treasury: Favorite BLUE!!  Patch is the one who came up with the weekly treasury idea for the team.  It's been a big hit so far.

You can view this treasury by CLICKING HERE.

I finished the first draft of my next beading PDF pattern tonight.  Having completed one pattern already, I feel much more confident about this second one.  I think that my photos are better for it, too.  I used all white backgrounds (except for a couple of the completed bracelet shots) and black thread so the clarity is good.  I'll proofread it and make the final edits in Word tomorrow.  I should have it for sale within the next week.

Thank you to everyone who promoted my Christmas Button Charm Bracelet during the Christmas in July sale, especially through the Christmas treasuries, because it sold today!

I'm participating in my first SNS tonight.  My sale will hold through 6AM EST Sunday so there's still plenty of time to check it out if you haven't already.

Thanksgiving week happenings

I hope that everyone had a good Thanksgiving! I finished my December EBW Challenge Peace Piece this week. Today was the first sunny day all week, and I got some pictures of it. I still need to take pictures of the matching triangle pendant, but I'm planning to list the peace cuff tomorrow.

I had a sale on Etsy this week, which is always exciting. I then sold the same bracelet to my brother (for his girlfriend for Christmas) yesterday. I made one up for him while he was in town so he could take it with him. I should have made two of them while I had everything out so I'd have another one to list right away, but I didn't. It won't be hard to work up again in the future, though. Also this week, I traded with Yvonne (yjja123) who is trading for as many of her Christmas presents as possible this year. We traded successfully this time last year, and I was excited to hear from her again. I can't wait to see my pendant. Finally, I selected my smoke fired pendant from Kristie (artisanclay) that I won in her blog giveaway. It's in transit now with a couple ceramic buttons that I ordered from her. I'm excited to see those items as well. :)

I got my latest Blogging for Beaders' Art Beads stash on Friday. Here's a picture of my goodies, minus one set of hearts that are backordered. They are all from the new Cubic Zirconia section of Art Beads, which is a departure from the Swarovski section that I've visited for my previous blogging goodies.


I started a cuff tonight that will have a similar base to that of my Peace Piece, but it will be red. I'm attempting to work from the containers instead of mixing everything like I normally do.

I'm back!

I got back to Iowa this evening. I sold 15 pieces off Etsy while I was out of town! As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was hoping to sell a few, but 15 was WAY more than I ever expected. Three of them were from the new leafy series, including this pink and purple one that I hadn't listed on Etsy yet.


I am still updating all of the sold listings on Etsy so that they are now made to order items. I am really glad that I bought so many leaf beads at Caravan. I thought that it was a little crazy at the time, but now I am thankful that I replenished my stash so I can create new leafy pieces. I only have 2 in stock currently!

I did do a little bead work while I was on the road. I am looking forward to getting back into a normal creative routine now that I'm back at home. Things will be crazy this next week with school starting up again, but when things settle down a little, there will be time for some jewelry making.

The deadline for both the next EBW Challenge and the Awesome Chicks of Etsy Midsummer Challenge is Sept. 5. I'm pretty committed to entering both so if nothing else, I will be working on both of those projects the remainder of August.

Thank you so much to everyone who continued to drop Entrecards and visit my Etsy site and blog while I was on vacation! I did approve new ads as I could while traveling and will be back in that regular routine now. I still have a few new items that I did not sell on my trip and will be listing over the next week or so.

all sorts of fun randomness - made to order, sales, recent purchase, EBW

I forgot to mention that my last post was my 100th post on this journal. :)

I listed a new made to order item today. This is one of the items that I made for my trade with Jo of Dogmaw Glass last month.

I have already had two sales in July! I cannot tell you how exciting that is. I shipped one on Thursday. I'm sure that the holiday delayed it a little bit, but hopefully it will be arriving at its destination soon. I just had the second sale come in today. I'm waiting for the buyer's eCheck to clear on PayPal and then I'll put it in the mail.

I don't post about all of my bead/beading supply purchases, but I wanted to mention one recent one here. After springbeads featured me in her Beautiful Bead Works treasury last month, I checked out her shop. She had several sets of leaf and tear drop beads at a great price with free shipping so I went ahead and purchased a few things. They arrived in the mail today along with a set of these beads. Thanks for the great deal, Sherry! Please check out her shop if you get a chance.

The August EBWC theme was announced today! Check it out at the EBW blog. The July voting for Here Comes the Bride will be coming up shortly. Make sure you check back for details in the next week or so!

April Top Droppers, non-Etsy sales

Thank you as always to those of you who drop on my blog regularly, especially those of you who have continued to do so over the last week or so even though I've been dropping infrequently due to being out of town. Your support means so much to me!

This has been another month with a lot of flux in the Top 10. Here's the current line up:
1) Silver Sachet
2) my review
3) BeadedTail
4) My Gypsygoods
5) A Rose By Name
6) Split Rock Ranch
7) Betty Mae Artistry
8) Zero
9) Unique You
10) I Learn Online Marketing

Even without any more traveling for a couple more weeks, things are still more crazy than usual with the end of the school year in sight. I did get my leafy spring bracelet remade for the third time. It certainly is more sturdy than the first two versions. Hopefully it will hold and I can finally start making some other variations of it!

When I was back in Chicago this past weekend, I brought my jewelry with me to my mom's sewing group at their request. I ended up selling six pieces and getting an order from one woman for five more! I'm hoping to get the order put together before I head back that way over Memorial Day weekend so I can deliver it in person then.

The five pieces that I'll be making for her are variations or duplicates of pre-existing designs so new listings will continue to be limited over the next couple weeks. I am VERY excited for all this business, though, and will continue to jot down new ideas as they come to me, as summer is quickly approaching which means lots more time for jewelry making. :)

Finally, check out some awesomeness from the Top Droppers who are also Etsy sellers:
Green Jewel Tone Bead Bracelet by Silver Sachet

Panther Silver Necklace by BeadedTail

Elemental Summer Cuff by arosebyname

Save Our Soap eco bags by gypsygoods

Peaches and Cream -bead woven necklace by beaderjojo

(this is actually on ArtFire...Betty Mae isn't selling anything on Etsy right now) Marionberry Spiral C by bmae514