Ring Day!

With only a couple days left of my "Engagment Sale" (read about it here) I've decided to ring crazy and make 7 more ring designs to add to the sale. Unfortunately 'Ring Day' was supposed to be almost a week ago, but my photography depends on the natural light coming in from my south facing window, and it's been raining every day between then and now. It was actually raining today, but the sun came out for about 5 minutes and I took all my pictures then.

Because of this inconvenience I'm designing a small studio like set up to take my pictures indoors and with artificial lighting so I can take pictures of my items regardless of the weather conditions and if it's 3:00 in the morning :) I'll be sure to list pictures of the contraption once I've finished making it, and report on whether or not it works well. I'm hoping to get all my supplies and have it finished this weekend.

Until then I will continue to use sunlight - whenever the sun decides to shine. This is a sneak peak at the rings I will be listing tonight. Enjoy! :)

925 sterling silver, peridot, amethyst

925 sterling silver and peridot

925 sterling silver and garnet

925 sterling silver and freshwater pearls

925 sterling silver and amethyst

925 sterling silver and citrine

925 sterling silver, citrine, and garnet

Dealing with a Picky Eater

My boyfriend's birthday is coming up in about a month - which is good, I have his present all picked out and everything. My only issue is that he doesn't like cake. I'd really like to make him a birthday cake, but I've tried - I can't find ANY kind of cake that he will eat.

People who know me - or have read some of my previous posts, know that I like to bake, and so NOT being able to make him a cake on his birthday kinda saddens me. I was going to settle for a rice crispy cake with sprinkles on it and candles (he like rice crispy cake) but I found something today that I like even better.



Brownies are stepping up in the world. They seem to no longer be the simple;

1. open mix
   
2. stir in eggs and water
   
3. pour in pan
   
4. bake for 10 minutes
   
5. cool and serve
   

that they once were.

They even make these silicone "pans" now for making individual brownie squares so you don't have to cut up the brownie - they're already baked in their own separate pieces, and other very useful tools to help you make better brownies like different icing tools, and 'cookie cutters' that are specifically made for brownies.

my favorite though is this new way I found to make brownies more fancy looking with these new 'stencils' they make for brownies, and colored dusting sugar.



You take these special stencils that are specifically made for brownies (and I'm sure you could make your own) and lay them over your brownie cake (I don't know if you need to ice it first or not) and take their 'dusting sugar' and sprinkle it over top to get an image on your cake. I thought it was a really cute idea.



This is an example of the finished product. I think I may do something like this for my boyfriend, or maybe I'll just make a regular brownie and put sprinkles and candles on it :P either way.

Wedding Cake Designs

Today I've decided to go through wilton.com and look at all the different wedding cake styles. their website is so helpful. they even have a page that shows you a list of example cakes - what sizes the tiers are and how many people they feed. so helpful.

They also have about six pages of wedding cake design ideas - which is nice for me because I'm not only helping my sister pick out her wedding cake, but I'm helping her make it! This is pretty terrifying as the only cake I've ever decorated was an ugly mother's day cake I made for my mom one year. I do a lot of baking though, and I make chocolate and have made fondant once before... so I think she and I can pull this off if we make about a hundred practice cakes ahead of time. Here are some of my favorite designs.

I love this one. it's simple and cute and it doesn't look too hard to do.


very elegant and elaborate (yes, that's a fountain!)


I love the flowers and fondant bead work on this one

And they also have a variety of toppers and books (to teach you how to do all this fancy stuff!) that you can order on the website. Very exciting :) Also she's asked me to make her jewelry for the big day, so I'm going to try my hand at wedding jewelry. wish me luck! ^-^

Engagement Sale!

Just a short post today because today is a very exciting day. Today is the day my sister got engaged to her boyfriend (I guess now he's her fiance. that's going to take forever to get used to!). She was very surprised. He took her out to a garden she had wanted to go to so she got to take all the pictures she wanted and he got to ask her in the middle of all the flowers. it was a beautiful surprise. To add my Etsy shop to the celebration I've decided to have a sale on rings specifically :) Every ring in my shop is 25% off from now until July 31st! ^-^

My friend got back from vacation the other day, and brought me back - not something she bought while she was out and about, but something she made <3.

I have been a fanatic of Little Big Planet since before it came out. I saw a commercial and was hooked, and for everyone who knows me they know this is completely uncharacteristic of me because I don't play video games. I don't see the thrill in them. The last game I really played was "Harvest Moon" for game cube, and that wasn't even mine, and only lasted a couple weeks. The only game I really loved was "Star Wars Pod Racer" for "Nintendo64" in 1998 :P

When my friend (sunnyshinecreations) started talking about making a 'Sackboy' amigurumi for her shop on etsy I sketched her a rough picture of what my sackboy in the game looked like and asked her to make me something close. I didn't think it'd be this close!

For anyone who plays the game - my sackboy has the white sacking with the paint splatter over the right eye, and is wearing the blue and orange sari and has the blue pig tail hair.


This was the actual terrible sketch I had given her when I asked her to make it. I can't really draw, but I couldn't figure out how to take a picture of my actual sackboy from the game, so this was the best I could do. She talked me through all the specifics like color and how to make the sari in a way that would look right but also in a way that she'd be able to do with crochet.

I think it turned out really well and I'm super excited about it. I'll probably get her to make me another one when I change my character and have a whole clan of them :P

Most Stylish Business Cards Ever

I got back from camping last night at around 5:00, but because I got heatstroke I was in bed by 8:00 and slept from then until 9:30 this morning. What a waste of a night :( heatstroke is a terrible thing and I hope I never get it again.

Today - feeling much better - I decided I should be productive and waited hopefully for the mail man. Unfortunately he didn't bring me my wire and chain I ordered a week and a half ago (it usually takes 2 weeks for anything to get to me, so it was a fleeting wish anyway) but he did bring me my moo cards! ^-^

For those of you who don't know what moo cards are you should check them out at http://www.moo.com. They make the best business cards I've ever seen because they're not printed on ordinary card stock, they're so thick they feel almost like plastic, they're really durable, and they feature any picture you'd like on the front of the card, and all your info. on the back - as opposed to a random simple design with your name and information - which is what I was going to order before I found out about moo.

And If you've never ordered from moo before they've given me a coupon code I'm allowed to share with only three people that will give you free shipping (which is pretty nice considering I paid 7.00 for my shipping) on any order over $15.00 US. I can only share with 3 people who have never ordered from moo before though, so please send me a message if you would like the code, either by leaving me a comment on this post with some sort of contact information, or you can message me on etsy, or send me an e-mail at lizziebelle13@gmail.com

Because this was my first order I got my mini cards, and I also ordered a mini card holder. The one I got was only a few dollars, and the cards fit great inside. They come in a few colors (I chose hot pink ^-^) and even has a slide-up end to make it easier to get the cards out and comes with a key ring - which I thought was a cool idea.

This is a picture of the cute little plastic box my mini moo cards came in (after I took off the blue card band that says "your mini moo cards are inside")



An 'artsy' picture of my mini cards inside their box



my hot pink mini moo card holder <3



My mini moo card holder displaying it's cards inside

Now I'm going to put my card holder on my key ring to not only serve as my largest and brightest key chain ever but also to ensure I always have my business cards on me :)

I Hope Coffee Comes Out of Jeans

I had quite the morning. Probably got 4 hours of sleep in total last night, and no more than 20 minutes at a time because for whatever reason I just kept waking up. Somehow managed to wake up late - so exhausted and incoherent I ran around trying to get myself ready for work on time.

Got ready with only a few minutes to spare and ran to my favorite coffee shop(Second Cup). I say it's my favorite coffee shop - but in reality I don't like coffee. They're my favorite tea, hot chocolate, Italian soda, frozen fruit drink and little snacks shop. Today, because I was so tired I actually did get a coffee - because everyone else says how much it wakes them up, I figured I'd give it a try.

Unsure how much cream and sugar I would want in my coffee - and with very little time left, I just filled it up as much as possible with cream, grabbed a handful of sugar packages and ran to work.

So here I am at work - just in time, I open up my now VERY full coffee to put the sugars in, and spill it everywhere. Including all over my favorite jeans. (That's right - I can wear jeans to work :P) so now I'm sitting here, hoping no one notices my coffee colored jeans ('cause they were a very light blue to begin with - so there's no hiding the coffee) and here I will sit until the end of my shift when I'm hoping my washing machine can work a miracle and get this out.

Sonic Gets a Bath

Yesterday was a busy day. I made a new twitter layout, and a new Etsy shop banner, finally ordered all of my supplies that I've been working on doing for days, and bathed my hedgehog.

He was not very happy with me, but he needed it. Every time a hedgehog smells something they like they insist on licking it and spitting it all over themselves so that they too will smell like whatever it was they found pleasant. Yesterday it was a new lotion of mine.

After all that I didn't have too much time before I had to work the evening shift at work, so today will be dedicated instead to learning HTML and to finish designing my new jewelry pieces for when my supplies come in. Hopefully I will be able to make that new blog layout I have designed in my head soon, and design some website pages because as soon as I'm done learning all this html stuff I'm going to get my own domain name and start a website of my own, while still continuing with etsy ofcourse.

New Supplies For a New Line!

Supply ordering day is usually a headache, and today is no exception. I've been designing my new line of jewelry (due out in a few weeks now! very exciting) for a couple months now, and I'm finally getting the supplies I need to put out that line - so this time I can't just fall into the rut of supplies I usually get, and things I'm running out of. I've actually had to shop around and pull out my measuring tape to make sure the beads I'm getting match the sizes of the beads I'm thinking of in my head and in my designs.

Also today I actually went out and bought my new HTML book, so now I can learn how to make myself a beautiful blogger template that I'll love forever and ever (or at least hopefully longer than a week :P) and design the website of my dreams. Here's hoping my money wasn't put to waste and I can actually learn this thing!

Sales Where you Least Expect Them

As a crafter - an entrepreneur, one must believe in what they do with all of their heart. I recently went to a large family function and was pressed to bring my jewelry with me. I was extremely hesitant, because I DO NOT in any way believe in pushing my jewelry on relatives, but it actually went really well! They had never heard that I made jewelry before, and were all really excited about it I made quite a few sales! It just goes to show that sales are made in all sorts of ways. Now I have big plans on new products I want to make. Many with a romantic theme - and that's all the hints you get for now!

Artfire or Website, and Doing my own HTML

I've been kinda experimentally using artfire to sell my jewelry since July 4th 2009 (3 days ago) to see if it would be worth it to sell on artfire as well as etsy, or if I really liked it maybe switch to artfire from etsy. There's a lot about the site I really like. Like they're 'sale' feature. you just enable it and tell it how many percent off you want on all your items, and bam! Canada Day / 4th of July sale 20% off was in effect in about 6 seconds. lovely. Much faster than on etsy. I like the layout of etsy more, but that wasn't a big issue for me. The only thing I really didn't like is that I don't seem to be getting very many views... at all. I bought an add space in their necklace sub-catagory, which only cost me $2.50 for the week (they're on sale right now - half off) which I thought was awesome, but in 36 hours it has been seen 1944 times (that is that 1944 people have viewed the necklace page - not necessarily that they saw my add) and has been clicked a grand total of twice. woo.

So I decided I'd probably get more views if I became a 'verified seller'. Right now I have a "basic seller" account of artfire, which means that I don't pay I thing for listing or selling, and no monthly fees. the only draw backs are that I can only list 12 things, and can't customize the look of my shop as much as a verified seller. Verified sellers pay something around 12.00 a month, and that's it. they don't pay a thing for listing, or making a sale (etsy takes 3.5% or something) and they can list as much as they want.

My only issue with that was that I wasn't sure if I'd get any more views even if I was verified, and the the idea of having my own website came into my head and wouldn't leave. my only issue though is that I've never known anyone to buy jewelry off a private website, and I was pretty sure no one had ever made sales off a private website for jewelry, so I posted a topic on the etsy business forums, and everyone was so helpful <3.

My general consensus was not to leave etsy, because it's hard to advertise for a personal website, and it's so alone in the big internet that I might get totally lost in it all, but having a website as well as an etsy is great because then you have your own domain name to put on your business cards, and to tell people about, which makes you seem so much more creditable. That was an idea I was really excited about, and a few jewelry etsians told me that they actually make MORE money from their website than they do on their etsy's after like 3 years, but that's ok. and one girl refered me to her web host http://www.pappashop.com which I haven't tried yet, but I think I will be going with. $10.99/month for a year for a website with paypal and everything. very exciting.

I was going to sign up last night, but I found out you have to pay for the whole year at once, and as it turns out I didn't have 150.00 kicking around (it becomes 150 something after it's changed to Canadian) so I decided to wait a couple paydays :P

Until then I've decided to learn HTML so that when I do get the site I can make awesome layouts and things for it so it looks as professional as I want it too. and then I can make myself a blogger layout too and stop changing mine all the time :P

Pancakes

Yesterday I went out for lunch with my sister and my friend for my friend's birthday. We were supposed to go out for breakfast, but it got a little postponed due to the fact that no one was ready to go on time.

We went to "Pancake House" which was awesome because I am in love with pancakes <3. I ordered banana chocolate chip pancakes, which were delicious. The menu just said 'Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes' and described the pancakes, but I couldn't find how many it came with. They were 6.99 so I figured maybe three, or even just one really big one would be reasonable, because I've decided that all restaurants are really expensive. I got six pancakes! They weren't like, the size of the plate or anything, they were like the size of my hand, but it was still so much food. It was incredible. I was just sad I couldn't finish them all. If I ever go back though I'm definitely getting these veggie crepes my sister got. She let me have a bite, and they were the best things I've ever tasted. It was like an omelet, but less "eggy".I'm not much of a fan of eggs.

Art Fire

I just signed up with art fire. I haven't listed anything yet - I'm still figuring everything out. It's hard thinking of it as my shop too, I've become so used to using Etsy I feel like I'm 'cheating' on etsy by using artfire too :P. A lot of people sell on a number of websites, as well as selling at places in real life, so I don't feel too too bad. One thing I'm happy about is that the name "Lizzibelle" hadn't been taken, so I get to keep my name consistant throughout my shops :)

one thing that kinda sucks is that I ordered my mini moo cards this morning, and it doesn't have my artfire on them, because it didn't exist this morning :P That's ok though because I'm not even sure if I'll be sticking with artfire, as I have barely even had a chance to look around the website. and I don't think I'll have much opertunity to do so tonight. It's my grandparent's 50th annaversary tonight so we're all getting together for cake, and I don't think I'll have much computer time after that, but I'll be sure to check out the site tomorow and let you know how it goes! ^-^

Big Plans

I read this post last night and it really inspired me. I've been putting new items in my shop, and renewing items, without getting a significant amount more views or sales. I was starting to get discouraged, but now I've decided that if you have a plan, (a good plan) and stick to it, you can make these things happen. Even jewelry sales on etsy.

So I decided to re-vamp everything. I stayed up until almost 3:00am trying to find the perfect blogger template. This one was my favorite, and I think I'm going to stick with it, until I learn how to use HTML (if ever) and make my own personalized banner ^-^

This morning I woke up and made a new banner for my shop which I'm really happy with, and a new avatar, which wasn't anything special, but a long time coming.

I also re-did my candy apple ring :). I had originally made it with 3 apple quartz rondelle beads, but I decided today that I like it better with four. So I remade it and re-listed it :)

Now I'm working on an idea for a contest. I'm not quite sure how I want to to go, but I have always thought contests online, in magazines, and in stores were fun and good spirited, so I'd really like to have one! I'll keep you posted as to the contest details, and hopefully have it all planned out soon.

Canada Day

Yesterday was Canada Day. I had so many plans for the day, that I went to sleep the night before with a list taped to my wall to ensure myself that I wouldn't forget any of the things that I was supposed to do the next morning. Sleeping in was not on that list, but did add a little craziness to my morning as I scrambled around trying to get everything done before supper.

I decided to make my pie first so the oven wouldn't been on all day when it was so hot outside, and just incase we needed it for supper (which in the end we did)
My pie shell was rolling out fine, until I tried to get it off the table and into the pie pan >< it stuck to the table like no pie shell I'd ever seen before, so I balled it all up and decided to try again, throwing twice as much flour down before trying to roll it out this time.

Well the pastry already had more than enough flour in it from the last time I tried to roll it, and now there was a thick layer of flour on the table, so instead of rolling, the pastry decided sliding around the table would be fine.

Eventually I got the pie in the oven and the kitchen (and myself :P) cleaned up and my hair curled. Supper was great, everyone loved it, and after supper my fabulous boyfriend agreed to take me to the fireworks! ^-^

It was totally packed, but we met up with our friends and spend an hour and a half trying to find the "perfect" spot to watch them from. I thought it was all a little excessive, (especially because we didn't know exactly where they were going to be setting them off) and would have rathered spend that time getting mini doughnuts and checking out all of the little shops. In the end though it paid off because we found the best spot ever, and I got to see fireworks closer than I'd ever seen them in my life :)

Canada Day / 4th of July Sale

Living in Canada I wanted to have a Canada Day sale to spread the celebration from my home to my shop. I was conflicted to though because I know that the majority of the people on Etsy are from the US and how big of a deal the 4th of July is to them there. I wanted to have a sale for each of the holidays, however I didn't want to have a sale that only lasted 24 hours, so I decided to have a week long sale for the two holidays together :)

I spent an hour last night going through my listings and editing them to get them ready for the sale, because I'd rather mark everything down than have to do paypal returns. I'm just glad I don't have 6 pages of stock in my shop or it would've taken me all night :P

Now my shop's all ready to go, and I'm going to go curl my hair and make a cherry pie! ^-^ Happy Canada Day Everyone! (and 4th of July in a matter of days :))