I'm in an Etsy Treasury!

One of my ornaments is in a lovely Treasury called Snow Showers - A Gift Guide. Check it out!

Special Treat for Blog Readers

OOO! I just figured out how to do a coupon code on ArtFire. SO that means that whether you shop on Etsy or ArtFire, you can enter the code 10BLOG to get 10% off your entire purchase! And just for you loyal readers, I made the code active starting NOW on both my Etsy Shop and my ArtFire Studio. Free shipping will kick in sometime during the day on Thursday (Turkey Day for many of you) so if you want the Black Friday deal early, you can get it Thursday evening. :) Happy Holidays and Happy Shopping!

More of a good thing

Here's another lovely treasury on Etsy featuring members of the Sac Etsy Team. One of my beaded ornaments is included - YAY! Bring on the Holidays!
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4ce80b2e3f516d9135c9bd2d/sac-etsy-team-holidays?show_panel=true

The Upcoming Holiday Shopping Weekend

I'm having a holiday special at both my Etsy and Artfire shops. Starting Black Friday and running through Cyber Monday, I will offer free shipping on ALL items. Anywhere. In addition, I am offering my blog readers 10% off everything. On Etsy, put 10BLOG in the "coupon code" box when you check out and the 10% off will be applied automatically. On ArtFire, just leave a message to me when you check out "Hey, I saw your blog, may I have the 10% off deal?", and I'll refund the 10% to you promptly, or if you prefer, I'll send you a revised invoice.

One little important detail in all this - on SATURDAY the 27th I will be at the Sacramento Midtown Bazaar (come out and see me in person! And if you mention my blog, I'll STILL give you the 10% off) selling from 10am til 4pm and both my shops will be on vacation mode for that time period. As soon as I'm back, both my ArtFire and Etsy shops will reopen. I'll spend Sunday making more things to restock and list new for Cyber Monday, so check back often!

If you've been reading my blog you know our house got broken into on Nov 1st and my digital camera and card reader were both stolen. I will be borrowing my mom's digital camera (not as nice as mine was, but hey, beggars can't be choosers) and taking pictures and listing as much as I can before Black Friday, and again for Cyber Monday. So there will be new items and specials!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Sac Etsy Christmas

Yippee! One of my ornaments is featured in another treasury! Please click the link, leave a comment, click on some of the items and in general give it some attention - that's what gets treasuries to the front page of Etsy - where every handmade crafter wants their item to be!
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4ce6cdbf0ba36d913d7b92bd/a-sac-etsy-christmas

ArtFire Collection

Yay! One of my ornaments is featured in an ArtFire collection! Check it out:
Everything Christmas
http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=collections&op=details&cid=8033

YIPPEE! A SALE!

Hooray! I sold my first item on ArtFire to someone I don't know! A lovely lady in New York has purchased one of my Knotty Silk Anklets. I'll get that in the mail before we drive to Mendocino today. :)
I had my first Etsy sale to someone I don't know in September - a pair of my labradorite drop earrings are now being worn somewhere in London. So it was just about a year on Etsy before I made my first unknown sale and only a month and a half til I made my first unknown sale on ArtFire! Hopefully this is the beginning of more good things. YAY!

Naughty or Nice: A Holiday Gift Treasury

One of my items is in another Treasury on Etsy! YAY! Please check it out:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4cd9fe72eeea8eef64b1e568/naughtyor-nice-a-holiday-gift-treasury

Buy Handmade, Buy Local

So this year I'm trying to make as many holiday gifts as I can for friends and family. What I can't make, I will try to buy from others selling handmade, and I will try to buy those locally. Sacramento has a great handmade scene with LOTS of talented folk. My first idea is already featured in my ArtFire Studio and Etsy Shop
http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&sc_id=100684&seller_id=92783&op=new
I just love making these beaded drapes for glass ball ornaments. It's been giving me a chance to expand my color palette too, which is ALWAYS good for an artist or crafter.
My second idea is cotton crochet dishcloths. I figured out my own pattern that has lots of good bumps and ridges that are great for scrubbing. I have quite a few made, and have sold some at local craft fairs, but I don't have photos of any of them yet, so I haven't listed them in my shop. If the insurance company is timely in responding, I may be able to replace my digital camera soon. If not, I'll either be in a hiatus from listing, or be begging my good friend to trade photo skills for handmade items. :) Beyond that, I'm still getting my gifting list together. Good thing my current class is over on Dec 15th - I'll sure need those 10 days for crafty time!

Homework versus Crafting

I am behind on my homework. I have a very good reason. Monday is usually my first serious homework day, and I try to turn everything in on Tuesday. All my weekly assignments are due on Wednesdays, so I have a buffer there for anything I didn't finish on Tuesday. This week, when I got home from pilates on Monday night, I discovered our house had been broken in to. They took some electronics, left my computer (which I do ALL my homework on, since I'm in an online, distance learning Master's degree program), left my husband's laptop, left most of my jewelry (got some of it) and left ALL of my crafting supplies and created items. But they did get my digital camera. I have this bizaare blend of exceedingly grateful (that so many things were NOT taken, that we weren't home, that our cats are ok and didn't run off with the house open for hours, that we have great homeowner's insurance) and furious/violated (for what was taken, for the broken window, for the unpleasant shift that created in our household energy) and just utterly mystified (by what wasn't taken - TV and Xbox taken, blu ray player and blu ray/dvd discs left; Jewelry on display and on top of my dresser left, jewelry in my drawer taken; digital camera taken, ipod speakers left). As the days pass, gratitude is becoming the dominant emotion: it could have been so much worse, my family is ok, most of what was stolen is just things that can be replaced or done without.

So, even though I have a number of new items created that I would just love to get listed on Etsy and Artfire, I'm stuck for the moment, not being able to photograph them. And, because of waiting for the police and getting things cleaned up and trying to inventory what's missing, I didn't get any homework done at all this week. Today I am just sitting down to the assignments that were due Wednesday. And here I am blogging instead! I've been reminded once again that my need to create runs deep. Crochet is meditative, soothing, even at times a form of prayer for me. The joy my creative process brings when I'm laying out a new necklace around a special pendant, challenging myself to create a new style of earrings, is a very specific kind of joy that I've discovered I need. It's totally different from the joy of snuggling my cats, or seeing the love in my husband's eyes, or laughing with good friends and family. But it is still something I need. So I find myself wanting to be crafty, to create, to crochet as a means to set myself back to rights after a crazy and long week.

A dear friend of mine is a talented photographer and has offered her assistance with photographing my items. Part of me didn't really register the offer in the past because I have an "I can do it myself" streak a MILE wide and because I've only seen her portrait and candid photo work (I have no idea what her macro photography skills are like, but she most certainly knows her way around a camera). I think, if I can get my homework done and get caught up before Wednesday of the coming week, I will take her up on her offer and try to get some of my many new items photographed. And the balance of crafting versus homework will continue. :)

I'm in an Etsy Treasury!

Please check out these treasuries on Etsy, each featuring an item I crafted

Happy Holidays from the Sac Etsy Team
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4cd1b54261376d914bbe0b51/happy-holidays-from-the-sac-etsy-team

Midtown Bazaar Here We Come
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4cc847318fb86d91abd5dc59/midtown-bazaar-here-we-come?index=1

Winter Whites
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4cc0824a12b58eef48ec6977/winter-whites-from-the-sac-etsy-team?index=8

Purple Passion
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c99260c94f06d91d6f393ff/purple-passion-from-the-sac-etsy-team?index=9

Black Raspberry
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4cac7b8206b26d917f81c8a8/black-raspberry?index=14

Sacramento in a Purple Haze
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c4dd192a9bc8eefa0639ba7/sacramento-in-a-purple-haze?index=17

Sac Etsy Blues
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4ca53d3a088a8eefc31544ee/sac-etsy-blues?index=19

This Ain't No FOOLS Gold
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4cb86657d6726d91911f4475/this-aint-no-fools-gold?index=2

Jewelry Picks
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c702503f84a8eefd6f29973/jewelry-picks-x-82110?index=5

White Christmas
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c9f8d87eefa8eef8df98102/white-christmas?index=7

1000, and 300

Yippee! My ArtFire studio has been fully up for just about a month now, and today, I passed 1000 item views, and 300 studio views. That means over 300 people have looked at my ArtFire studio page, and those people (or others linking directly from Google, The Find, etc.) have looked at some combination of my items over 1000 times! YAY! When I started ArtFire, I added up the stats on my Etsy shop, and after a year on etsy I had 2765 item views (I'm not sure how to track shop views on Etsy, but I do have 68 "hearts" for my shop). So in a month on ArtFire, I've gotten over 1/3 of the traffic to my studio that it took me a year to get in Etsy! Now, to be fair, I didn't have very many items listed at first on Etsy, and started with over 40 at once on ArtFire (I love their tool to import your Etsy items). I also got, just a couple days ago, my very first "market" add on ArtFire, which is equivalent to someone "heart"ing my shop on Etsy. Now if all that traffic turns into sales this holiday season, I'll be even more delighted. :D

YAY! and another one!

And as I was typing up my last blog, I got an email that my red crochet hat has been featured in a collection!
"Gift Guide to Men"
http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=collections&op=details&cid=6676

Halloween Weekend

On Saturday, I joined the Sac Etsy Team at Midtown Bazaar. I sold a few hats and some dishcloths, even a custom hat order (and she paid in advance! So sweet!) which I made last night and will get pics up as soon as possible. And while I'm on the subject, here's the logo for the Sac Etsy Team - please do check out all our talented members! I got approached about hosting a trunk show at a new local gift shop for my ornaments. I don't know anything about trunk shows, so I'll have to do some research and first see if it's something I want to do, and second see if it's something I CAN do while I'm still in school this fall. :)

I also got good news that another of my ornaments has been featured in a collection on ArtFire!
http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=collections&op=details&cid=6563
Funny, the Collection is named "Welcome to the Rainforest" and it's curated by an Australian jewelry artist... and I didn't even realize there are Rainforests in Australia! I really would love to go visit that continent some day.