More Jewelry Questions

First I want to say Thank You to everyone who gave great input and feedback about my earring photos I posted a couple weeks ago. I still haven't gotten any of my jewelry listed as I'm still stumped on a few things.

*I'm debating whether to sell things in earring/necklace sets or separately.

*And I'm rethinking the chains I've been using for my pendants.

Here are two current pendants I have in stock. One has a colored cord and the other has a suede-like brown cord. They're very basic (and kind of cheap) cords. They allow me to keep my prices affordable, but I also don't want to sell cheap crap!

When I wear one of my own butterfly pendants, I usually put it on a silver chain like this. I really like how the butterfly looks on here and am thinking about selling all of my pendants this way. This would raise the cost, but probably not too much.

I'd love your thoughts on this. Do you think the colored and brown cords look okay, or would I be better off to list them with the nicer silver cords? I know I could offer both, but I'd rather have a consistent look.

I don't want to take a bunch of photos with the cheaper cords and change my mind and have to redo them all!

Thanks again for your help :)

What a Weekend!

 The past few days have been a little crazy around here! As some of you might have noticed, I missed my Friday Features post last week. On Wednesday night, the software I use for my laser quit working. First some of the functions quit working, then when I tried to fix it, it completely quit! The program wouldn't even open...yikes!

This was totally me!

Thursday morning I went about the task of installing all my software on my desktop (I usually run off my laptop) and getting things set up for my laser there. This meant not only finding my software CD, but also a cable to run from my computer to the laser (my laptop ran wirelessly) and then figuring out how to install the print driver again as well! By mid morning I was back in business...thank goodness! I was in nervous breakdown mode for sure!

Jesse also had last Friday and today off work because things are slow at his job right now. It's good he got some time off...he does need it. But this always throws my schedule off and by Friday morning, I realized I didn't have my blog post ready...and I didn't even have a theme in mind!

I tried a new display idea for my jewelry, but I'm not sure I like this either.

Saturday I had one of my biggest shows of the year. I'm happy to report that the show went really well! It's my best show so far this fall! I sold a lot of beer mugs and key chains as well as took several custom orders. I always find it funny to see what sells and what doesn't. I didn't sell a single piece of jewelry...not one! And I only sold one of my premade word albums! I did have a boutique owner ask about selling my jewelry, key chains and magnets at wholesale though, so that could be a great opportunity. She would like to get an order in before Christmas too!

I can always find PINK wherever I go :)

Sundays are usually our slow days as Jesse usually works that night (his Monday's start at 11pm Sunday night). But with him not working, we had another full day. We got our passport photos taken, went to a car show and spent time with his dad.

Now today I can finally get back into my routine and start getting caught up on orders from my show and Etsy.

How was your weekend? Any nervous breakdowns about happen...lol?

Treasury Thanks

Welcome to another edition of my Treasury Thanks! Each week I like to thank my treasury curators from the past week by featuring their treasuries as well as an item from their shop. Please help me in thanking them by clicking on their treasuries and checking out their shops :)

Debbie of ThePhotoImpression featured my Carved Tree Guest Book in her Sittin' in a tree, K_I_S_S_I_N_G Treasury!  Their stunning Fall Foliage photo is great for fall decorating and would fit in this treasury very well :)

Eugenie of MulberryWhisper featured my Etched Champagne Flutes in her A Village Wedding Treasury! Eugenie's Bobbin Lace Collar would be a beautiful addition to a wedding wardrobe!

MizCreatrix featured my Ideas Notebook in her Fall Creative Inspiration Treasury!

Mel of BloombyMelV featured my Peacock Guest Book in her To Everything, There is a Season ~ The Byrds Treasury! Mel's Peacock Locket would look so great in this treasury!

Jenny of ABirdInTheHandArt featured my Woodland Photo Album in her Pumpkin Spice Treasury! Jenny's Brown Patterned Bracelet would look great with your wardrobe during the fall season!

 

Mirian of WickedlyBeautifulArt featured my Drink Me Wine Bottle Stopper in her Drink Me Treasury! Mirian's Pink Cupcake Ornament Set is adorable!

Thanks again to my curators! You've made my week!

Wooden Photo Albums - Point of Purchase Sales

With craft show season fully upon us, I've been coming up with more ideas for point of purchase items. Online I make most of my sales on personalized items. People know they will have to wait for their item to arrive, so why not wait a couple extra days and have it personalized! But at shows, people want to take their item with them. They want it now and they don't want to wait on shipping.

Knowing this, I've starting adding new items to my show inventory and started adding them to my shop as well. I blogged about my new recipe book designs last month and these have done well. I've sold a few online and I hope to sell more at my shows as well.

My most recent line of  point of purchase items are my Wooden Photo Albums. I've added three new designs so far and, as always, have ideas for so many more! My Woodland themed books have done very well, so I thought a photo album would be a good next step. I've sold these mainly as baby albums, but I think they'd also be good for camping photos or just fun photos.

I'm really excited about the Grandma's Brag Book. It's an item I've wanted to make for a while, but hadn't come up with all the pieces yet. I love that the wood covers make it ideal for grandma's with grandsons and daughters. No pink or blue to choose from...it's perfect for everyone :) I'm thinking I need a Grandpa's brag book next.

I also added a Holiday Memories book as well. Christmas is one season where we always take a lot of photos, so this book would be great! I might need one for each year!

 Some other ideas I'm throwing around are Disney photo albums with autograph pages as well. And wedding photo albums that can be bought as a point of purchase item or personalized as well. I love that the ideas are endless with these!

Wordless Wednesday - My View of Fall

Custom Albums in All Shapes & Sizes

I've been having a lot of fun with my Custom Name Albums lately! I love how each one is so unique and special :) I realized the other day that I haven't shown any of my new albums and I've made quite a few lately!

I recently had a friend ask me about using my name albums for a fundraiser. Her son is in a karate school and the tournaments they participate in can be expensive. They are always looking for new and different ideas for fundraising and she thought my albums would be great for parents as well as other family members! The book is made in the colors of the school and I create each embellishment for the book myself (as finding karate stickers was harder than I thought it would be!)

I also got to create a fun puppy book! This book was for one of my mom's coworkers. She chose lots of fun colors that I paired with puppy print papers. She has bought several of my books for gifts and was so happy she got to keep one for herself :)

I also got to create a Double Name Album. As I've mentioned before, these are a lot of work, but the final result is worth every minute of work put into them! I love to see them completed as they make such a statement with their large size!

 I have one more custom album to finish for a local order...and then it's time to stock back up on Premade Word Albums!

August & September Goals Review

Well, it was half way through September before I realized that I hadn't done an August Review yet! So I decided to wait and group the two months together. Both were great months and I was surprised by some of the data.

Shop Goals:

August was my most successful month in selling on Etsy to date! I had 116 Sales! I still can't believe it myself! And this really seems strange to me as August is typically a lower selling month in terms of historical data. I credit this to my wedding items :)

September wasn't quite as spectacular, but still a great month with 87 sales.

My goal had been 2 sales per day average and with my current trend, I'm going to raise the bar and up my goal to 3 sales per day average. With the holiday season upon us, I don't see any trouble meeting this goal :)

While September Etsy sales might have been down, I did two shows last month, so it was actually nice to have things a little slower...though it sure didn't seem any slower!

I have my two biggest shows of the year in October, so it will be a very busy month at Memories for Life!

Another shop goal I set for myself is to have 1,000 admirers for my shop. Right now I'm at 866, so I have a lot of ground to cover to meet my goal by year end. I'll need about 45 new admirers each month. This is a pretty big stretch since I'm averaging in the low 30s right now.

Blog Goals:

I'm still happy with my posting on the blog. Having a mix of scheduled themes and open days helps keep me on track. I've started reading new blogs and that's helped get me new readers as well. I love finding blogs that are just plain fun to read :)

Personal Goals:

 As per my usual, my exercise routine has taken a back seat to life again...ugh. I just can't find my groove and get into a good routine. I just don't think I've found something I enjoy yet. Now that it's colder in the mornings and not light out until after 7, I'm not motivated to jog outside anymore and the treadmill just doesn't sounds like any fun at all. I need to check our Netflix account and see if there are any good workouts to follow on there. Anyone have recommendations?

I'm really excited about October and the start of the holiday sales season! I wish all my fellow artisans a great selling season :)