Falling in Love with a Creation

For those that have read my blog before, you already know of my love for Beach Glass and more specifically Cobalt Blue beach glass. I had a cobalt blue necklace in my shop for about a month and it had a bunch of views and even a few hearts, but no takers. I really wanted to keep it, but since the cobalt gem wasn't one of my personal finds (purchased from a co-founder of the North American Sea Glass Association) I promised myself I'd try to sell it.

I even bought a new camera (finally) and took new pictures of the piece and re-listed it on ETSY and again, lots of views, a few more hearts, but no one looking to pull the trigger and buy it. Craft show after craft show, lots of compliments and lots of beach glass lovers ooh-ing andahh-ing but no takers.

Until this past Friday night's craft show. I marked it down a bit because this show was a Santa's Secret Workshop and it was really a lot of 12 yo and unders looking to buy Christmas presents for teachers, parents, family members, etc. So about half way through the night this young boy, maybe 8 or 9 years old comes up to the table with his Mom and while I'm chatting with her, her son is looking at some of my jewelry, beach glass pieces included. After a few minutes they stroll on to the next table.

About 10 or 15 minutes later, back he comes with his Mom and strides right up to the beach glass, points out the Cobalt piece and says she'll love it. This sweet little boy is buying the necklace for his older sister (says the Mom, who looked so very proud of her son) who loves the color blue and enjoys walking on the beach looking for beach glass... and she has never found a piece of blue.

As sad as I was to see the necklace leave, I wish I could be a fly on the wall on Christmas morning when his older sister opens this treasure and knowing it was picked out by her brother, makes the story all the better.

I hope she thinks of him every time she wears the necklace with her 1st piece of blue beach glass and I'm so happy to know the sweet story that went along with the purchase. Just seeing the looks on both the little boy's face and the proud look on his Mom's face, I know this creation has gone to a good home.

Now if I can just falling in love with my beach glass creations....

til next time...

R

When a favorite item sells....

For those that have read my blog before, you already know of my love for Beach Glass and more specifically Cobalt Blue beach glass. I had a cobalt blue necklace in my shop for about a month and it had a bunch of views and even a few hearts, but no takers. I really wanted to keep it, but since the cobalt gem wasn't one of my personal finds (purchased from a co-founder of the North American Sea Glass Association) I promised myself I'd try to sell it.
I even bought a new camera (finally) and took new pictures of the piece and re-listed it on ETSY and again, lots of views, a few more hearts, but no one looking to pull the trigger and buy it. Craft show after craft show, lots of compliments and lots of beach glass lovers ooh-ing and
ahh-ing but no takers.
Until this past Friday night's craft show. I marked it down a bit because this show was a Santa's Secret Workshop and it was really a lot of 12 yo and unders looking to buy Christmas presents for teachers, parents, family members, etc.
So about half way through the night this young boy, maybe 8 or 9 years old comes up to the table with his Mom and while I'm chatting with her, her son is looking at some of my jewelry, beach glass pieces included. After a few minutes they stroll on to the next table. About 10 or 15 minutes later, back he comes with his Mom and strides right up to the beach glass, points out the Cobalt piece and says she'll love it.
This sweet little boy is buying the necklace for his older sister (says the Mom, who looked so very proud of her son) who loves the color blue and enjoys walking on the beach looking for beach glass... and she has never found a piece of blue.
As sad as I was to see the necklace leave, I wish I could be a fly on the wall on Christmas morning when his older sister opens this treasure and knowing it was picked out by her brother, makes the story all the better.
I hope she thinks of him every time she wears the necklace with her 1st piece of blue beach glass and I'm so happy that the story that goes with it is so sweet. Just seeing the looks on both the little boy's face and the proud look on his Mom's face, I know this creation has gone to a good home.
Now if I can just falling in love with my beach glass creations....

til next time...
R

16 Shopping days until Christmas.... craft shows, etsy, etc

Wow, the holiday season is seriously upon and I'm only about 50% finished with my holiday shopping. I know that some people still have a ways to go before they're finished, but at this time of the year, I'm usually just looking for 1 or 2 presents and my boys are always finished (with the exception of some of their stocking stuffer gifts)

Well, my craft show schedule for the holiday season has come to a close. The 2-day show was pretty good, with Friday night being the better of the 2 days. The Saturday show was a bit over-shadowed by a bigger show at the Seaport and a smaller Church Bazaar only 2 or 3 blocks away.
I had originally picked the Seaport show as my final show of the season, but their website was vague on table info and it's an outdoor show, under tents. At $100 for a spot, adverse weather would've drove the people to the other shows in town and I didn't want to risk that kind of money on the chance of bad weather.
But no complaints. Next year if everything is scheduled on the same days, I may only do the Friday night show and take my creations to another local show for Saturday ( or maybe I'll tell my hubby, he's going to run one show on Saturday and I'll do a different show!)

Knock on wood (as I knock on hubby's head) but Etsy continues to remain somewhat busy. I picked up another custom order tonight from my shop and every couple days, I've received a small order or 2, so we've made a few trips to the PO this month (and hopefully we need to make a bunch more before the end of the month)
I continue to ship internationally, this past week saw packages to both the United Kingdom and Australia ship from the post office. My sons are very interested in the international shipping and I think we're going to buy them a decent-sized world map and let them mark off with push pins, where Mommy's packages are going.

Okay, it's off to bed. I have a small knit showing tomorrow and a couple small jewelry showings this week. In both cases I have to travel 25+ miles, so I hope I'm not wasting a lot of time... time I could be spending finishing my holiday shopping.

til next time...
R

PS- This coming week, if I have the time, I plan on featuring a yarn shop, Catalina Yarns and hopefully a seller the following week.
Tomorrow's blog--- my Cobalt pendant/necklace is around someone's neck & it's not mine : (

Blog Love 12/4 Money Fairy, Craft Show Nov recap

It's been a few days since my last post. I'll start with the November recap. After a pretty good October, I thought November was going to get very hectic, but instead it started off barely crawling. My 1st sale for the month was on 11/12. I can probably attribute the slow sales to concentrating on a late Oct show and multiple November shows. I wasn't listing a lot of new items on Etsy, so my shop became a bit stale.

Despite listing and promoting heavily near the end of the month, the shop didn't do much until a handful of orders at the end of the month. My shop lost it's momentum from October and was lost in a sea of new shops, so many new items and extremely heavy promoting on ETSY.

The momentum from the end of the month has carried over into early December and hopefully there's many more trips to the Post Office in the next couple of weeks.

Money Fairies- This was a little contest on Etsy, where a group of members decided to list and post their Money Fairy creations. I made both an ornament and a pendant/necklace and placed them on Etsy very early Sunday morning. By noon on Sunday they had both sold (to the same buyer) and I bought a little one for myself and if she makes to me in time, I'll bring her to my craft show with me this weekend.

P.S. -there wasn't a winner for this contest, but I guess anyone who sold their Money fairy and everyone who purchased one will be winners when she starts bringing the money to their shops!

The pictures of the Money Fairies I created are at the top of my blog.

Craft Show- I have what appears to be my final craft show of 2007 this weekend in Little Egg Harbor. The show is sponsored by the PTA and is a Santa's Secret Workshop. It will be held at the Intermediate School on Frog Pond Rd and has been heavily attended in past years. Many students come to the show (with their parents) to look for gifts for teachers & parents along with the public that also attend looking for gifts and decorative items. The show begins on Friday at 4:30pm - 8:30 pm and again Saturday morning from 10:00am - 2:00pm.

If you're in the area, stop in and look for my table. I'd love meeting Etsy members and anyone who follows my blog!

til next time...

R