Busy, busy girl…

I’ve been so busy with business stuff it’s incredible!  I’m on a roll and having fun though   Last night I spent some time organizing a bit of the mess that’s accumulated while I haven’t been feeling well.  Today I went through and cought up on all that boring book keeping that goes along with running a business.  BUT, while that was boring, I did have fun chatting all day with the ladies on our etsybloggers forum thread! They kept me sane – and meant it took much longer than I thought to do the bookwork   But it’s done and I’m only a $1 from having done $500 in sales since this started!  Unfortunately my investment numbers are still pretty high in comparison, but it’s a start and it has me excited!

I’m doing my first Saturday Night Special in my store!  Apparently a lot of buyers look at this thread in the forums every week, so I’m really hoping it works to get me some more sales!  Gotta work on gaining back my investment you know!  Especially since I’m SUCH a sucker for buying beads…  Oh yes, and I’ll try and remember to update you tomorrow on how all that goes

I was saddened today to read about a tragedy that a member of our dear etsy community was involved in.  My heart goes out to their family and to all the people currently dealing with the tragedy being wrought by the hurricanes.

I was excited to read today about Etsy’s Holiday Marketing plans, but immediately my mind started racing out of control on all the stuff I should be figuring out and how little prepared I am!  Then I reminded myself to calm down, it’s not even October yet, and tackle this all one day at a time.  What does that mean?  It means stop worrying to far ahead silly Ruthie!  I have plenty of big projects to worry about right here, right now.

Speaking of projects…

I’ve started organizing the first ever EtsyBloggers Trunk show!  I’m really excited about this sale that we’ll be holding in the Virtual Labs probably in November.  It’s a lot of work – but it’s also a TON of fun!  And, hopefully the work will pay off with some big $$$ for our team members!  (and me too please!)

And another project…

I’m making some samplers right now and I created these lovely’s last night!

They won’t be appearing in my shop (all but two are definately one of a kind), but it got me excited to pursue starting a line of charms that can be used on your cell phone, purse, bag, wallet, zipper, wherever!  I want to get a different attachment thingy though.  Something more versatile.  I know what I want just not what it’s called   I figured I’d use these up though while I have them   Their from a project about, oh, 5 years ago?  So this line probably won’t come out until I have that one little piece purchased in the most cost effective manner possible – but it should be out with plenty of time for Christmas!

A day of fun and shopping!

Today’s been a productive day jewelry-wise.  I haven’t done much creating (although I’m all set up to start a project when I’m done writing this), but I did gather information and do some shopping!

The boring information and shopping is that Wal-Mart has padded mailer bags for way cheaper than anything I’d found here in my little small town!  That’s going to help as I review my shipping costs so I can make them as accurate and low as possible for my etsy customers.  I also found a little make-up pouch thing that has 3 pouches that will fit easily in my backpack so I can take my weaving projects with me on the go!

Now to the fun stuff

I make a variety of styles of jewelry…as you can see from visiting my shop at etsy.com…but the last day or two has been very focused on my woven projects.  I have one commission that I’m almost done with for my friend Stephanie’s Mom:

It’s kinda hard to see the pattern on this one because it doesn’t really photograph well.  It’s a basic diagonal pattern using a really dark grey for two rows and light green for one row…and so on and so on.  This is officially my most created bracelet!  I have one for sale up on etsy, made one just for Stephanie so that it was the perfect size, and now I’m making one for her mother!  I’ve repeated patterns before, but never this many times in the same color!  I’m still starting out in my jewelry business, so before now I’ve usually made them for myself and friends, which meant very little repeating.  It’s been a challenge to teach myself to remake the same item again and again.  I’m sure it’s good for me though.

I have another woven bracelet that I started while waiting for Stephanie to get back to me on what exact size her mother needed.  The idea was one of those that came to me while I was falling asleep one night.  It’s amazing how active my mind is during that time!  Fortunately I remembered it easily the next day and was able to sketch it.  Then I went out and found these beads:

I’m not much of a pink person myself, but these caught my eye and I thought they’d be perfect for the design I’d sketched!  What do you think?

I’m having a lot of fun with that one, but I’m putting it aside to start working on my newest commission which is a green and blue woven bracelet based off of this design.

I bought the beads for the newly commissioned bracelet today, some findings (ready made things like clasps), and for several other projects, I had a lot of fun!  Can you tell?