Friday, March 28, 2008

Progress

Well it's Friday, generally always a happy day for me on some level. Paul generally has Friday and Saturday off, so my spirits are usually somewhat higher on Friday :)

I have made a few pairs of earrings the past few days. Here they are:








I have also made a few sales on my spring clearance items, which I am very relieved of. I just want to clean out my inventory. I'm selling some drop earrings on ebay for only .98!!

We finally purchased the domain www.simplyraevyn.com !! Paul has been doing a lot of research on the internet to see how to do the things we want to on the site. I think it is going to be great. Besides my catalog of items we will also have tutorials, patterns, and hopefully quite a few other things. We are also going to list my friend Jen's art, maybe she can get some sales. For now though we just have the domain redirecting to my etsy.

Well I am gonna take my fat butt back to the couch. I am really trying to increase my inventory.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Wednesday blahs

Today has been an odd day for me. My mood has been changing about every 5 minutes. One minute I am in tears, and the next minute I am bouncing off the walls, talking loudly and laughing. I really hate days like this. I feel so completely not in control. I guess this means I am having a completely bipolar day, or something. I have managed to get a necklace and a pair of chandelier earrings done. The pics aren't all that great, so I will rephotograph them tomorrow to post here. I had a sale this morning and that made me pretty happy :) I have been doing a lot online to promote my jewelry. I know that there is a lot available online, but I really like what I make. Especially the brick stitch earrings.

Well I was going to spend time on my blog and myspace today, but to be honest I don't have it in me. Gonna head to the couch and try to create a little :) :w

Monday, March 24, 2008

Monday

Howdy everyone!!

Well it's Monday. Paul had Friday, Saturday and Sunday off. We got to spend a lot of time together and that was wonderful. He hadn't really had a day off in weeks. We watched Rome, and also started the work on my website. We are going to build a really nice website to sell my jewelry on. It is actually our dream to eventually be able to build websites, promote, etc. as a job. We want to start our own company. But we are going to use my jewelry business as sort of a jumping off point. We found a good hosting company, and will purchase the domain from Go Daddy. Our friend Elmin has been helping with some advice because he has some great dream of creating a website that will make him rich, without him having to do much :p So he has researched good hosting companies and stuff. It has been a lot of years since I built a web page, but I think Paul and I will be able to build a really great site.

I guess I haven't done too much beading in the last two days. I did make these ones yesterday


I have also started a new pair today. What I did accomplish was rephotographing the rest of my drop earrings and chandelier earrings. I am holding a Spring Cleaning Sale on etsy and ebay to sell most of them, so I wanted better pictures of them. Hopefully these sales can clean out a lot of my older inventory. I want a "fresh" start, and to be able to stop looking at the earrings I have had for a few months. I am also trying to participate in all of the groups I joined today. So I think today will be a beading break day. But I will work on promotion and stuff on the internet.

I am really liking this google group that I am part of called etsyBEAD. They seem to be a very active and dedicated group. They have a weekly promotion called EBTW, which means etsyBead Theme of the Week. Basically they discuss and decide on a certain theme. Then the members that want to participate list items within that theme, and offer a special on these items. I decided to try it out this week. This weeks theme is stormy weather.

SO basically, things are looking good. I made about 10 sales last week. While that number isn't huge, it is pretty great for me. Steady too, as I had at least one sale almost every day. I am excited about how things are going. I have always had a hard time sticking with things, but I think I have finally overcome that with this "project". Wish me luck!!!

Friday, March 21, 2008

Happy Friday

Well of course I managed to miss a blog day, no surprise on my end though!

I received a ton of the stuff I ordered from ebay and etsy today! I'm so happy. I have a lot of plans now for things to make. I also marked all of my drop earrings way down on my sites. I want to do a sort of spring cleaning. Get rid of the older stuff and make room for the new things I want to try.

I did manage to make two pairs of brick stitch earrings yesterday. Here they are:





I'm trying to make some sort of spring themed earrings, hence the bumblebee patterns :)

I must say, I just ripped my fingernail, and oh dear lord does it hurt! Blah nothing worse than that. Well I'm sure there is, but that isn't relevant at the moment :p

Okay time to go and spend some time with Paul :) He has today, Saturday and Sunday off! I am so excited.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Day 3 - Etsy Sales \o/ \o/ \o/

Well today's entry will be short. I'm pretty tired. I wanted to write earlier but I got busy. I decided to rephotograph pretty much my entire inventory! I also did some shopping.

I had my first Etsy sales today \o/ I actually sold to two different customers, for a total of 4 pairs of earrings. It really made my day. Of course that caused me to go on a shopping spree. I ordered from ebay, etsy and I went to Michael's. So tomorrow I should have a bunch of new chandelier earrings to post. I also decided I am going to try and sell mainly from etsy. I really like their community, and the prices they charge for selling are so much better than ebay's prices. That is one of the reason I did so much photography today. I decided to take better pictures before I listed things on Etsy.

Okay I am off to bed. Tomorrow I will actually get some beading done, and perhaps my blog entry will be a bit more interesting.

Monday, March 17, 2008

2nd Verse, Same as the...oh nevermind :p

Well day two. That's right, I have stuck with something for two whole days, not bad ;) I am feeling sort of defeated today. I know it's just one of my moods kicking in, but of course that doesn't make me feel any better.

I did manage to bead a little today. I made a necklace and earring set.


I like it. Listed it both on ebay and etsy, see what the response is. I hope to get more accomplished later on today too. I made my first etsy order today. I ordered some Swarovski Crystals. It was a pretty good deal, and I figured I could get more immersed in the etsy community by being on the buying end as well as the selling end.

I guess I will go to my station on the couch and try to get some creating done. I may write more later, not sure yet.

:w

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Day one...

Well this is my first attempt at a blog. To be honest I have been spending a lot of time online lately working on my jewelry store, and so many people mentioned blogs to me that I have decided to give it a whirl. I don't promise any deep revelations, and certainly nothing quotable. Basically, I am starting in on a whole new part of my life and I want to write about it, even if I am the only reader. I wrote a lot as a teenager, and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

First off, I have recently started selling my handmade jewelry online under the name "Simply Raevyn". Mostly I have been working on brick stitch, long, hand beaded earrings. I really want to learn some new patterns and techniques. I have also become quite fond of making chandelier earrings with crystals. I just ordered quite a lot of crystals from ebay. I can't wait to get them and start working on the new earrings!

For the past two months I have been selling on ebay. Today I found the etsy site, and started there. I sell on both sites with the name raevyn77 and Simply Raevyn. So far, sales have been okay. I must admit I have sold a lot more then I thought I would have. Of course, this makes me hungry for more. So I am striking out to promote more, and Paul and I will set up our own store site this weekend.

This first entry will be short. It's late, and I am pretty tired. Plus I have been sitting in this chair all day, working on promotion.