Friday, August 17, 2007

Catch-up

I haven't posted in the last couple of days, but it hasn't been because I've been lounging around. Yesterday on ETSY, my shop had 2 items listed in the treasuries. The items didn't sell, but the treasuries did give my items and the shop some exposure. So much exposure that I made my 1st sale on ETSY late last night!!! I didn't even realize until I had packed away my supplies and took a last look at the ETSY and noticed I was one item short in my shop. I spent a few minutes looking to see if I'd inactivated an item accidently, but everything was there... except for my newest entry to the store. It was gone, already bought and paid for!! So very cool!!
Today I received a treasury on ETSY and I'm featuring new sellers with zero sales, it's been a lot of work and my honey has been helping with the computer stuff (under my direction, of course) Quite a few sellers are getting some free exposure for their items and who knows, one day they may include me in their treasury.
The one thing I'm learning quickly, when you're new and don't have the "next hot item" you need to promote, promote and promote some more. And try to build up your inventory for future shows and the ETSY shop.

Til tomorrow or the next day if tomorrow's a beach day...
Robin

Thursday, August 16, 2007


So...I'm up to 10 items listed in my ETSY shop. 2 of the items have received "hearts" from other members and as a seller, I've received "hearts" from 6 members. I also have items in 2 treasuries... so the items and the shop are getting noticed and that is very cool!!!


I spent last night organizing my beads and jewelry supplies. I also put together 8 more sets of earrings, some will get into my ETSY shop at some point and others will be put away for upcoming craft shows. The grafic designer I used to create my ETSY shop banner and avatar is busy working on creating my business cards, hang tags etc and hopefully I'll have those printed and in hand by the end of next week.


Looks like a cloudy day at the Jersey shore, so no beach this morning... I'm off to work and hope to get a chance to go to Michael's on my lunch-break and pick up some more supplies. Hopefully they sell a product that'll give me some incentive to sit down and knit... I need to build up my scarf inventory for the holidays (and hope for a colder than usual winter)
The above photo is one I took while out in Arizona and it's part of the collection I hope to add to my ETSY shop in the near future. I just love the BLUE sky!!!
Have a great day!
Robin

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

One step forward... two steps back....

I entered a couple more scarves last night, one is a very nice Harvest scarf. I'm still experimenting with my photos of the scarves and I'm trying to come up with the best backgrounds/lighting to show off the scarve's colors and textures.
The Harvest scarf was a tough one. I originally took a shot of it on white posterboard and the combo of the white and the lighting washed out the deep orange & brown colors a bit. I took a closer shot w/ a black posterboard background and the colors are much bolder. I suppose I shoud edit the photos at some point today... Harvest themes have been popping up alot recently on ETSY and I'd like to get my 1st sale and build up my feedback.

After yesterday's little rant about so much to do-so little time, I sat down to continue building up inventory for the ETSY shop and upcoming craft shows. No, I didn't knit. Nope, not much with the photography (unless you count downloading a few photos onto the computer) I didn't do any ink-drawing either.
I made some jewelry... or tried to. I put together a few simple, but very cute pieces before the phone started ringing off the hook (It's very tough to make jewelry while trying to balance a little cell phone on your shoulder.... note to self- don't answer the cell phone when creating!!)

So I missed the sunset last night, begun yet another work-in-progress and I'm not a step closer to having my other shop catagories ready to debut on ETSY. One step forward... two steps back. At least I'm having fun doing it : ) !!!
See ya manana!
R

Monday, August 13, 2007

So many projects....

... so little time!! I haven't really had much time to sit and knit scarves recently. I know there's a few local craft shows in the next few months (and scarves are big sellers for me around the holidays) but I've been caught up with my photography and now I just started a few ink drawings. It almost feels like I'm spinning my wheels and getting very little accomplished.
I guess opening and filling a shop on ETSY, while trying to prepare for upcoming craft shows, working my "daily-grind" job, while making time for my family is much more time consuming than I first thought.

The photography section of my ETSY shop is very close to getting started and I'll probably enter a few select photos shortly after taking a few short family vacations (just before the boys go back to school... my little man starts Pre-school this Sept).

The beach is calling my name, but there's work to be done. I can always catch the sunset at the bay this evening ; )

R

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Beach day today!

All the Sunday morning activities are done and it's a beautiful morning in NJ... that means I must head back to the beach (yes, I was there early this am to snap a few photos, look for beach glass, have a moment or 3 to myself before my sweety and our 2 boys wake up) I absolutely love finding beach glass and I've been tempted to buy some of the beach/sea glass jewelry on Etsy, but I couldn't bring myself to turn my finds into jewelry to sell.
Actually, it's been hard to sell some of the scarves I've made, LOL! About half way thru making a scarf, I WANT IT!!!! And then I end up making a 2nd one for my own collection
Hmmm, I wonder if the other crafters on Etsy "fall in love" with their creations??

This past weekend, I've taken a short break from knitting and I started some ink-drawings... just another creation that may find it's way to Etsy and I've been working on putting together a bunch of photos, mostly of sunrises at the beach (of course!) and some landscape photos that will probably also find their way into my Etsy shop.

Off to the beach...