In my last post, I mentioned I would be getting an ad put into the school newspaper. Well, here it is!

I decided to promote my Folksy shop in the ad, since Folksy is actually based in the UK and people are more likely to buy when the prices are in the correct currency (I wish Etsy would hurry up with the currency conversion thing!). Anyway, it was very exciting to see the ad in the paper – I think it turned out very well! What’s amusing is that it appears right beneath the big sex survey they did at my school. Nice… lol.

It’s been a stressful week, due to various exams, essays and demonstrations – and I’ve been quite busy with my shop, too. It’s been a lot to juggle! I made it more stressful for myself than it needed to be by writing an essay which I thought had to be done by yesterday, when in fact it’s not due until next Thursday. But at least I’ve got that over and done with, and I have most of the next week off. So I can relax and chill out now – hooray! I’ve got some new supplies, and I’ve made a little list of things I’d like to make over the weekend, so you should be seeing some new things soon! One thing I’m particularly pleased with is a necklace I made – it’s adorable – although I don’t think my photos do it justice. Might try and take some more photos over the weekend. Here it is, the ‘Aurora Sky Necklace’ – made with a very shimmery labradorite briolette and little tourmaline and iolite rondelles.

Anyway, that’s all for now. I’ll leave you with Snuffle’s paws.

The print below can be found at gemmabear’s Etsy shop. The neat thing is that she actually lives in Norwich, just like me!

Valentine Print – You Are My Favourite

I love all her illustrations – the characters she creates are always are so endearing, quirky and sweet. Check out her shop for lots more awesomeness.

Anyway, I’ve been working hard on creating some new items for my shop, which will be listed tomorrow. Also, I’m doing free worldwide shipping in my shop right now (until Monday) – so feel free to take a look! Hope you’re all having a great weekend!

I’m always happy when someone picks an item from my shop to be in their treasury, but I was ecstatic to find that the lovely lunalove had not only featured a necklace of mine, but named the whole treasury after my shop! Even better, the treasury was a gorgeous one, and even better than that, it made the front page of Etsy last night! I was SO pleased about that. It had been weeks and weeks since I’d been on the front page, it’s a very rare occurrence for me. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be picked several times a week for the front page! Anyway, I was lucky enough to get a some sales from it, and so it’s turned into a pretty good week for me on Etsy. Here’s the treasury!

Not much has been going on here, really (apart from school). I’ve been trying to add more items to my shop in the last week – but it’s been difficult to fit the time in. But I have less than a week of school left, so I’m really looking forward to being able to chill out and make some new things. Sometimes I look at my cat, Snuffle, and I’m envious. For example:

She just lays around. It’s so unfair.

I’ve been very busy lately. It dawned on me a couple of days ago that I’ve become somewhat obsessed about my shop, and wanting to make a success out of it. I’m not sure how possible that is, but I know I definitely want to do everything I can to get it off the ground. All I know is that I used to sit around just wasting time, playing computer games, reading Perez Hilton, feeling incredibly bored – and now every spare moment is spent working towards somehow improving my shop in the hope that I can make something good out of it.

So, I’ve been making a lot of new jewelry, and working hard on my photos. I’m in the process of redoing all my previous photos too, to make everything a little more consistent. It’s funny, because I remember taking photos just a couple of weeks ago, and thinking I’d taken some great shots – and now I’m getting rid of those and replacing them! They weren’t really that great to start with. I guess that’s the thing with photos, you can probably almost always take a better photo than the one you’ve got.

Anyway, that’s what I’ll be doing all tomorrow, making the most of the daylight and taking as many photos as I can. And then I’ll be making more new jewelry, and then writing more descriptions. It’s a never ending cycle of events!

I’ve been feeling good today because I managed to make a couple of sales over the weekend, which was a first for me. I love waking up in the morning, checking my email, and finding that someone bought something in the middle of the night. It’s always a great start to the day! I even felt a little more confident when I was out and about today. I was feeling like… “hey, look at me! I sell stuff online!”… lol. Well, I mean I was amusing myself by pretending to think like that, I didn’t actually say that out loud to anyone, heh. But it certainly has boosted my confidence to have had so many nice compliments recently. I’ve always wanted to be able to do something creative, which other people could appreciate – and this could be it!

I first signed up on Etsy back in 2007, and was blown away by the awesomeness of it all. I desperately wanted to be a part of it, to be a seller, to have my own little shop. I knew how to make jewelry, but for some unknown reason, I never thought I could try and sell it there. I wish I’d started selling back then, but better late than never! I used to hang out in the Etsy chat room back then, being one of those people who just had an empty profile instead of a shop on their page. People would ask me if I was going to open a shop, but I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, or thought I could do.

It’s strange to think of me back then, and now – I feel like I have actually achieved something. And I love making jewelry, I feel like it’s something permanent. In a odd sort of way, I think that if I leave nothing else behind during my life, there will at least maybe still be some of my jewelry somewhere… lol. And I don’t mean for that to sound morbid or depressing, I just mean that it’s a very satisfying thought to think that something I’ve made with my hands might be around for years and years to come.

Anyway, this has turned into quite the late night ramble. I had only intended to post a few of my latest additions! I do tend to get carried away with blogging sometimes. I guess I just find it comfortable to blog, after all, I’ve been blogging since 2002 so I’ve had plenty of practice! Without further ado, here are some of my latest pieces of jewelry from my shop. Hope you like them!

October Lantern Earrings – made with carnelian and oxidized sterling silver

Hot Pink and Violet Pendant – made with chalcedony and oxidized sterling silver

Sapphire Blue Drop Earrings – made with kyanite and sterling silver

Golden Leaf Raindrop Earrings – made with chalcedony, vermeil and 14k gold wire

There. Hope that wasn’t too much of a picture overload, but like I said, I’ve been busy! There are more new things on my shop – and there’ll be a whole bunch more tomorrow! Anyway, it’s really time for me to go to bed. Night!

Here’s my latest attempt at a treasury. It’s somewhat more colorful than usual for me, but I just love this combination of colors. Feel free to visit the real thing by clicking on the image below!

I’ve been busy making prototypes of iPhone cases. (Using the word ‘prototype’ makes me feel as though I have been incredibly industrious). Anyway, I recently got an iPhone, and naturally wanted something to keep it in to protect it. So – in a day or two, you should see some new items popping up in my shop. I’m just trying to make simple fabric cases, snug enough so your iPhone won’t slide out (we wouldn’t want that to happen!), and perhaps with a little pocket or two for your earphones or cards or whatever you might want to put in there. Might also do a couple with a flap with velcro on it, for extra security.

Anyway, they’ll be made with lovely funky fabrics as usual – I might even make some to match the bags in my shop, so if you’re thinking of buying a bag, you’ll have no excuse not to get the matching iPhone case! Well, unless you don’t have an iPhone. But if you get the opportunity, I highly recommend getting one. I absolutely adore my new phone, this is the first phone I’ve had where I can do almost anything I can do at my computer. Ah, technology is wonderful!

Just a quick reminder before I go – the giveaway is very almost over! I can’t believe how close I am to announcing the winner, I only need 17 more followers on my blog! Seventeen! You can win some gorgeous earrings just be becoming a follower, that’s all you have to do! All the details (and pictures of the prize) are here. Take a look! I’m hoping I’ll be announcing the winner this week, perhaps even tomorrow! How exciting!

Yesterday I had to go buy some fabric from my nearest city, Norwich. It’s a medium-sized city in Norfolk, which is in the east of England and about 18 miles from where I live. To get to the fabric shop, you have to walk across the oldest part of the city. It was a beautiful sunny day, so I took my camera with me.

Scarlet Drop Earrings – made with garnet, tourmaline and oxidized sterling silver. These earrings match the Scarlet Pendant I made the other day, but would look amazing just on their own. I love the color of the garnet, it’s so intense!

Midnight Pendant – made with labradorite, iolite, tourmaline and oxidized sterling silver. I’ve made a couple of these already, both of which have sold. They’re not identical though, of course – and I particularly like how this one came out!

Anyway, that’s about all for now. Watch out tomorrow for details on the giveaway prize, and how to enter! Enjoy your Saturday night!

Last night I got two sales, and which meant I hit the big 2-0! Twenty sales, it was wonderful! I’ve had a great week on Etsy, I hope it continues! I’m going to do everything exactly the same tonight in the hope that it’ll bring more sales. I’ll sit here with a bottle of Belgian beer, wearing my purple knitted headband, listening to the Fleet Foxes. Nothing wrong with a little superstition!

Anyway, this post isn’t about much. I just wanted to write a little and post a couple of pictures. The first picture is of an origami cat that Mike made and put on my desk. I drew a little face on him.

The second picture is of a new bag – I’m going to keep it for myself… because I need a bag and it’s about time I kept one! Needs to be ironed because it’s a little crinkly, but I just wanted to show it off here. If you like it, then stay tuned because I’ll be making another one soon and listing it on my Etsy shop.

I have to get to the post office, but before I do, I’ll leave you with my latest addition to the shop. It’s a frosty moonstone pendant, made with – well, moonstone, and also iolite, blue topaz and sterling silver. It matches the Midnight Frost earrings I made last week, so I decided to unimaginatively called it the Midnight Frost Pendant.

Check out this persuasive bit of writing, taken from the item description I did yesterday: “Forget the summer heat and wear this – it’ll help you remember the cooler, frostier times. Brr!” Haha! Oh, man. I never cease to amaze myself. But anyway, it is very pretty. Moonstone has to be one of my favorite gemstones. Hope you like it, here are the pictures!

Scarlet Pendant – made with garnet, tourmaline and oxidized sterling silver

Today I finally got round to setting up my other Etsy shop, for all my crocheted toys and patterns. Admittedly, there are only a few things available right now, but I’ll be working on listing more items in the next week. Anyway, feel free to have a look at my new shop, Owl on the Sill – toys! I know, the name isn’t very original, but I didn’t want to create a whole new ‘brand’ (I suppose that’s what you’d call it) – meaning that I’ve spent a lot of time attempting to promote Owl on the Sill, and I really don’t have the energy to promote two entirely different shops, so I can at least give it a similar name.

Here’s Birdy, available on in my new shop.

I’ve had people asking me occasionally about my crocheted toys and patterns (usually after seeing it in my avatar on Twitter or Etsy), so I thought I should really make them available somewhere. I’ll still be focusing on bags and jewelry, but it can’t hurt to have some of my crocheted things in their own little place.

I wonder if people are really bothered if you have all sorts of stuff in your shop, or do they prefer to buy things from someone who appears to have specialized in a particular craft? If so, I’m doomed – I do too many things. Maybe I’ll be able to master one of them some day, just not sure which yet… lol.

Today has been hard. Not only has there been a shipping delay with my latest supplies, but it’s been a pretty slow week, sales-wise. Not having any supplies to work with has been the hardest thing – I’ve just been twiddling my thumbs all day, desperate to make something new.

I’ve got some ideas for some new pieces which I think will look absolutely gorgeous. However, lately I’ve been thinking about what I should have in my shop. Should I stick to only making things that I personally love, or should I try to appeal to more people by making other things which might sell better, but I don’t love as much? My instinct tells me to stick with what I love, but there are definitely some other styles of jewelry I want to incorporate into my shop – I just haven’t had the chance to experiment yet, which is partly why I’ve been driving myself crazy waiting for my new supplies to arrive.

Ah well, maybe they’ll be here tomorrow!

Anyway, like I mentioned at the beginning of the post, today has been a bit of a downer for me. But I’ve been feeling a little more cheerful this evening. I got some wonderful feedback from someone who bought my Midnight Pendant last week. I particularly loved that necklace, and as I was packaging it up, I was terrified about sending it off. What if she didn’t like it? But she loved it, and I’m so thrilled about it. (You can check out her own words on my feedback page!)

It’s difficult to start selling out of the blue, not knowing if you’re making things that people will like or appreciate. I’ve only been selling for a few months, so I confess that I’m not starting out with a huge amount of confidence. I have confidence in that I love what I make, but I guess not as much confidence with regard to what other people will think about my efforts! But getting wonderful feedback really does wonders, and I feel like I know what I’m doing. Just need more stuff in my shop, more variety and of course I need to keep on promoting… *yawn*

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, my ‘in anticipation of autumn’ treasury made the front page of Etsy on Sunday night! It was there for quite a while too (considering they change the front page so often), and it was so exciting to see my name up there at the top! Shame they replaced my item in the treasury with one of the alternates, but hey, those are the rules. Hopefully it generated a lot of hearts and views for the people I featured, and maybe even a few sales!

I spent a decent chunk of the day re-photographing my jewelry. The background I’ve settled on is a piece of walnut wood that my husband carved out for me (it actually says ‘Steph’ on the other side!) – I love the colour and the texture of it. I never did manage to find that lovely smooth piece of Californian driftwood that I was looking for the other day, but I’m happy with this piece of walnut. A few people advised me against the white wicker background for my jewelry, and I had to agree with them – the earrings were lost on that background. But I’m happy, the wood looks good. It would be nice to have some more props to make my backgrounds look more impressive, but I just don’t have anything like that. At least now my shots are all consistent and in clear focus, so that’s good enough for me right now.

Tomorrow I’ll be working on a custom order for one of my Yellow Bird Bags (they have been the most popular of all my bags so far!) and a little matching zipper pouch. I’ve been thinking about stocking little zipper pouches in my shop as a cheaper alternative to my bags. They’d be relatively quick and easy to make and I could perhaps sell them around $8 – $10? Not sure yet.

I just know that I need to keep experimenting and not give up. It’s hard work opening an online shop from nothing. Sometimes I feel like I’m never going to be able to compete with the big established Etsy sellers, and I’ll feel like giving up – and then I’ll get a random sale for something and I’ll go back to thinking that I can take them all on and RAWR, they’d better watch out!

Including my sales on Folksy, on average I’ve had one or two sales a week. It’s been exactly two months since I started Owl on the Sill, and I know you can’t just expect to be making lots of sales immediately when you have a limited number of items to start out with. Since last weekend, I’ve been selling jewelry too, and have sold a pair of lovely prehnite earrings already. I think I’m doing okay. It hasn’t been a I’m-taking-over-Etsy sort of start, but I never thought it would be. (Although you do see people who started not long ago, already with hundreds of sales – how does that happen?). I’m trying my best to promote my shop and not be pushy.

In particular, I’ve had a great time on Twitter and also in the Etsy chat rooms. I’ve met a lot of talented people, and it’s been nice getting to know people who are pretty much in the same boat as I am. One thing to note is that you just can’t expect people to want to follow you on Twitter if all you do is post links to your items! Most of my tweets are just my own personal nonsense, although I suppose I have been banging on about my treasuries lately, but that was just my own silly excitement. I’ll calm down soon, I promise!

I’ve been finding out about all these other social networks aside from Twitter that I should be signing up for to spread the word. It’s so much effort though – so many usernames and passwords! But I’ve realised that if it’s a pain in the arse, it’s probably worth it. So I suppose I’ll try and tackle that stuff tomorrow.

It seems as though patience is the most important thing. I’m not good at being patient, so this is difficult for me. But I’m hoping that if I stick with it, sales will improve. I look at my items and I love them, and I think they look good, I think my shop looks good – so it gives me confidence. Not everyone is going to like your things, but that’s okay. I know someone will eventually come along and just love something of mine, and will just have to have it! I just need to get those sort of people looking at my shop!

Anyway, you can see the new photography of my jewelry at my Etsy shop – any feedback would be appreciated! Also, I’ll be listing at least three more pairs of earrings, a bag and maybe some zipper pouches this week, so stay tuned! One final thing – if you made it to this point and haven’t fallen asleep yet, maybe you should consider following my blog by clicking on the little Google Friend Connect box in the sidebar! :p And now, bed time. Night all!