Once Again it's time for...

An Item roundup! Here's the 9 most recent listings in my shops :) 

A Treasury and Giving Credit :)

Lots of goodness going on lately! First I want to say thanks again to Peacox Creations for featuring me again in a treasury! It's already expired (took my time getting to it) but it's still pretty! I'm in the middle of the third row.

I also want to say thanks to my entrecard top droppers for the month!

Click on any of the pictures below to check out their blogs :)

I also wanted to announce I'm going to start a "top commentator" contest this next month!

I'll give you the details in the next few days :)

Craft It Forward

I'm so excited about this! A few days ago my friend Beaded Tail posted on her blog that she was participating in a Craft it Forward. I was one of her first five commentators, so I'm now participating as well! Here's how it works:

*There are no guarantees you will like what I make although I sure hope you do!
*What I create will be just for you
*You'll receive it this year (2009)
*The item will be a surprise to you and can be ANYTHING handmade

*And in return, all you need to do is post this text into your blog and make 5 things for 5 people.*There are no guarantees you will like what I make although I sure hope you do!
*What I create will be just for you

So leave some comments! If your one of the first five, and want to participate - your in! Make sure there's some way I can contact you ok?
*You'll receive it this year (2009)
*The item will be a surprise to you and can be ANYTHING handmade
*And in return, all you need to do is post this text into your blog and make 5 things for 5 people.

Tuesdays Tips #1

I'm going to start a new weekly feature on my blog called Tuesdays Tips! Over the last half a year, as I've managed this blog, one thing I've noticed is that I've gotten the biggest response when I've posted advice or reviews for my fellow artisans. The one tutorial I've posted was really popular, as were the series's I did on Time Management and Promotion Techniques. I really enjoyed the feedback I got from these posts, but I was a little overwhelmed trying to fit these different series's into my schedule! I've decided the best solution is to do a once a week post (on Tuesday's!) dedicated to helping and encouraging my fellow artisans. In these posts I'll share tips, tutorials, and site reviews of places that I think you'll find helpful. I hope you enjoy them! 

Tuesdays Tips #1

Measuring Success and Setting Goals

One thing I've heard people say over and over is that it gets very depressing to look around you, see the people who've quit their day jobs and sold thousands of items on-line, and wonder why you haven't reached that level of success? While it's true that we can often look to these people and learn from their success, you should NOT be measuring your own success by them or anyone else! Measure your success by your ability to reach your own goals.

Be careful in setting your goals though, or you'll find your self just as frustrated as if you were comparing yourself to other artists. Here's a few tips for setting goals that can bring you success.

1. Start by sitting down and writing a list of all the things you want to achieve with your business and your art. Include the big fancy dreams, the small dreams, things you want to learn, things you want to make, anything you can think of! 

2. Break your list up into smaller lists. Put your big dreams on one list, craft projects on another, business goals on another, and so on.

3. Make SURE that not all your goals are sales related! 

4. Evaluate your goals in terms of what it will take to get them accomplished, and what is most important.

5. Create a plan for achieving those goals.

6. Start working on them!

7. After a certain period of time (a week, month, quarter) go back to your goals and re-evaluate. What goals we're unrealistic? What goals weren't reaching far enough? Where did you succeed? Where did you fail? WHY did you fail? That why is a really important question. Sometimes you don't reach your goals because of things completely outside of your control. That's OK. Don't let it get you down.

8. Reset your goals and plans. Either continuing with the current plans, or setting up new one's based on what you've learned.

Here's an important key: Do not measure your success by whether or not you achieved all your goals, but on the amount of progress that you made, and what you did within what was in your control.

On a personal note, I've had to learn the hard way the value of measuring your success by progress, and keeping in mind outside factors that affected your progress. I have severe health problems (as you know if you read this regularly) and that often prevented me in the past from even trying to set goals. In the last few months, since I've started setting these types of goals, not only have I achieved a lot, but I've learned a lot about what is and isn't attainable at this point in my life! 

Good luck :)

Sale Item of the Week - Rain Drop Earrings!

These earrings were inspired by the rain that surrounds me so many days out of the years! Thats what happens when you live in the North West :) I took a bunch of small blue beads that have little "shiny spots" of light blue, and hung them from chain to look like little rain drops! I hope they bring a smile to your face during a rainy day!

These earrings are approximately 2 1/4 inches long. Normally $15 plus shipping and handling, today you can get them for only $14 INCLUDING shipping and handling! I'll send them any where in the world :) 

Guild Crazy

Now, I am not always what most people would call sane. Yesterday I think I proved that. *guilty grin* What else was I supposed to do the market I was supposed to be selling in was cancelled, and I had just upgraded to a paid artfire acocunt...

I've been on artfire for a couple of weeks now. Originally I signed up as a free member. I figured I'd start loading my shop and getting comfortable before I went paid. Unfortunately I have so much inventory to put on-line that I quickly ran through my free listings! So this weekend I bit the bullet and signed up for a paid account. Now I'm having way to much fun because there's so much I can explore! 

I knew one of the first things I wanted to do when I went to a full account was to sign up for the Artfire version of my dear Etsy Bloggers - Blog Fire. So I went searching through the guilds to find it. Um, yeah, I might have gotten carried away. >_> I made myself stop when I found the Blogfire group, but they damage had already been done! In addition to my 3 etsy teams I'm now in 4 Artfire Guilds! But seriously, they all look like they are worth it. So here are my new Guilds:

Honestly - as a BHR host - how could I NOT be a Stalker?

Pacific Northwest Artfire - because I live in a GREAT part of the country!

Blog Fire - because Blogging is what I do.

ArtFire Beadweavers' - because weaving is my passion!

I still have a lot to learn and need to get to know my new team mates - but I'm excited! If your one of my dear Etsy friends who's ALSO on Artfire, put your shop address on here so I can add your shop to my market. If your someone who'd like to be a new friend- all friends are welcome! Introduce your self and leave me your shop addy :) 

Most recent listings! 4/25

Check out my newest listings in all three shops! 

Two Zany Zebras

This month's Etsy Blogger is Two Zany Zebras! I love her little monsters. If I ever have any kids I'd love to buy her stuff! I love monsters :) 

Dreaming and Scheming

This weeks Etsy Bloggers Carnival had two choices:

1. Now that spring has sprung, it's planting time. If you're into gardening, what would your dream garden look like? What flowers/bulbs/herbs would you plant? What about garden doodads or statues?
2. Your Own Space: describe your dream studio (or if you already have one, give details!). Decorating, supplies you wish you had, size, etc.

Let me just say I do NOT have a green thumb. It's more like a black thumb! Ok, I did manage to keep the plants alive at the last two places I house sat, but the fact remains that I'm not really a plant person! Besides, I've been dreaming for a long time about my crafty space. 

Now some of my awesome bloggy pals found pictures to go with their descriptions. I thought about that, but I'm not feeling well today, so you'll just have to make your own mental pictures. Deal? Good. 

I have two separate dreams for craft rooms. One is more practical and obtainable, and one is truly dreaming! You see, right now, just about anything would be better than what I have! Because my hubby is a full time student, and I have limited resources because of my health problems (not to mention the bills the health problems cause), we have to live as frugally as we can right now. So we live in a one bedroom apartment.  

We manage the space by taking the living room (which is relatively big) and splitting it in two. We have a futon that my evil twin loaned us and that splits the space giving us a small living room space, and the other half is computers and my crafty stuff. 

Because of this my very first dream is simply to move to a bigger apartment! I would love to have a two bedroom apartment with our bed and stuff in the smaller bedroom, and all our computers and crafty stuff in the master bedroom! I'd keep the computers in with the crafty stuff because my hubby spends a lot of time on the computer and this means we'd still sort of spend time together, which is pretty much what we do now in our small space! 

Now for my ultimate dream. Well, I've been dreaming of my dream house for a long time.  The one feature that is KEY is having a full library room! Can't have my dream house without that. If you know me, you know I love books! 

Now I'm thinking that the entire second floor of my dream house would need to be a studio. Oh we could have our computers in there, and a tv would be could because I like to watch things while I craft, but the majority of the space would be for crafty stuff! I'd have a big work desk that would be in a V shape in one corner. This would allow me to easily rotate between the computer and my current project. One side of the desk would extend far enough to give my hubby his own computer space so he'd still be up there with me! 

There would be a full set of shelves (or two!) for beads. I already have 21 different organizational boxes piled up on my table - give me time and I can't even begin to imagine how many I'll have in a few years! Then of course I'd have to have some storage space for the finished products and display items for when I go to craft fairs :)

Now I'm not just a beady woman, I like other crafts and have many things I want to learn! So there would a table for a sewing machine, shelves for fabric, shelves for yarn, and shelves for whatever else I want! Plus of course a book case (yes I know I have a library, shhhh!), for books and magazines to use for resources! 

No I'm not obsessed with creating things and books! What ever made you say that?

I'm in a lovely Treasury!

Look at this lovely treasury that I'm in! You can see the original bracelet here. It's the third one down on the right. 

I'd like to give a big THANK YOU to Peacox Creations for including my bracelet :) Check out some of her work in this spotlight I just made :)

New or Relisted in my Shops as of 4/22!!!

Byhand.me

I promised in a previous post to tell you more about the site byhand.me - and that's what I'm going to do today!

Many of us have multiple web-sites, and it can be a lot of work to advertise all of them right? I know personally I have three shops in two on-line venues, two blogs, and I'm a radio host BHR. Oh yes, and I'm currently part of 3 teams on etsy. Think that's a lot? Hah! I mean, I feel like that's a lot, but some of my friends have a LOT more sites that they keep up with! Take my friend Amy of Mama's Little Monkeys. She does WAY more than I do!

So how do you manage all of that with out going crazy? Well time managment is obviously key, but an important part of that is managing your advertising time effectively. That's exactly what byhand.me was created to do!

I'm still exploring all the incredible features at byhand.me, but I love what I have learned to do so far! You can link ALL of your web-sites onto your profile page at byhand, then when you go to print business cards or otherwise advertise yourself, all you have to do is give them your byhand address! I'm getting ready to design new business cards and I'm really excited about being able to just put the ONE address on my card! http://roseworksjewelry.byhand.me/

The people over at byhand.me are really awesome too! Adam of Infinivision and Rebecca of SoapDeli have poured their heart and souls into the creation of this site. They don't do it for the money, they don't accept any money for this and have day jobs, nope, they do this just to help out their fellow artisans! The web-sites still pretty new, but it's exploding like crazy! Their putting up new features as fast as they can and, most importantly, LISTENING to the needs of their users! What more could you ask for?

One of my favorite features to play with so far is the Spotlight feature. Do you like the etsy treasuries? This is way better! You can take your favorite items off of number of different sites and display them all together. No waiting for an opening, and it doesn't get deleated unless YOU decide to deleate it! I also love that you can easily post it to your blog, like I did with this spotlight on some of my new teammates over at the Etsy Bead Weavers (Search EBW).



There are lots of other fantastic features over on byhand.me, but like I said, I'm still exploring! So why don't you head over and explore some for yourself?

And the First Market Was....

As many of you have already heard from me chit-chatting in the forums, or responding to your comments, the market was a bust. Financially at least. I sold one charm! To a sweet little girl :) We think that the reason it was such a bust is related to a number of factors. One, it the first realy nice weekend around here and we think that most people wanted to work in their yards. Two, we think that this might not be the best market for my stuff. Oh well. I am going back on Saturday because they already have my booth fee, and my current sales goal is to make back my two weeks of booth fees! I'd love to make more than that, but breaking even is goal #1.

Using my time to weave...

Mom used her time to crochet...

As you can see, we didn't totally lose the time, we got things done! Mom crocheted most of a dioly, I finished a bracelet I was weaving, and I wove two pairs of earrings! I always bring a project along. On the slow shows I get lots done. On the busy shows I don't! But I always plan for it to be slow as far as the projects I bring because I'd go CRAZY with out something to do with my hands if we have a slow day and I wasn't expecting it!

Earrings and all non-woven bracelets...

My main table...

Cl0se up of table w/ sign (made by my friend Kat)

The other good thing about this weekend was that it gave us a practice run at setting up our tables. This was my Mom's first show, and I've done some different things with my displays since last Christmas. I still have some work to do on them, but my displays will have to evolve slowly over the summer as I have the money to work on them!

New in my shops as of April 19th!

I am now the crazy proprietor of three shops! Yes, you heard me correctly THREE shops on TWO VENUES! Two of these you've known about, Rose Works Jewelry and Kindred Spirit Treasures. This last week I opened up a second RWJ account, this one on Artfire! I'm really excited about getting my work out there in a new venue, and because I have enough items in my inventory to keep two entirely seperate inventories in the shops! Woohoo!

So now I'm faced with a problem. It's already a lot of work to promote two shops, but now I have three! I want to give each new item I put out a fair amount of promotion. After all, I love each one! (ok, some more than others, but don't tell them that, they'd get jealous).

There's a solution! I recently found a site called byhand.me though BHR. I LoVE this site and will be writting extensively about it in the near future! For now, the feature that's of key importance is they're spotlight feature. Basically it provides you with an easy way to assemble a gallery of items. You can use this to show off your own work, or the work of others. There are 9 spots in each spotlight and I will post one up each time I have 9 new items between my 3 shops! So here's the first one :) Click on any picture to be taken to the listing.

The latest items in my 3 shops!

The First of the Season :)

First of all - sorry I haven't been around on EC or anywhere else much the last few days! I found out on Monday that I was going to get to do my first market this weekend, and I was soooo not prepared! So I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off all week long. 

The market is today! I'm really excited! If you live in the Portland Vancouver Area, come check out the market at 4148 NE Hancock St, Portland, Or 97212. I'll post more about it after I get back! Well, maybe not tonight, but in the next day or so :)

Since I'll be at the market today I'll be putting my shops on vacation mode. Don't want to accidently double sell anything! I'll reopen them tonight if it all possible. Just need time to take off any items that sold. :) Can you tell how optimistic I'm being about making sales? Wish me luck!

Thursday Spotlight on DeDe Sorensen

Last night was a great show with DeDe Sorenson. DeDe creates fine art in a variety of styles. You can find her work at: http://dedesorensen.googlepages.com/ andhttp://dedesorensen.byhand.me When you check out her google pages you'll see that she sells on a variety of sites!

In fact, one of the things we talked about last night was how she manages all of the different sites she has her stuff on. I was quite impressed because this is something I struggle with! She told us that every morning she checks her blogs and social sites. Then, she has a schedule for when she updates her selling sites. A different place every day, that way there's always new things going up, but she's not overwhelmed on any particular day.

As well as her incredible art work, DeDe loves to write. She has several different blogs, but her main one is: http://paintnpen.blogspot.com/ She also writes for The Art Network, doing two columns monthly, and the next magazine will be coming out at the end of May.  The Art Network is an international magazine, and I think you'll find some wonderful advice in her columns!

Speaking  of DeDe's great advice, she's going to be starting up her own show on BHR! I'm really excited about it! It is going to be called Outside the Frame and will begin on the 29th at 1PM EST. Many artists struggle with the business side of things, because it's never really taught in art schools. It can be a vicious world out there! So DeDe is going to share her years of experience with us. The first week she'll be talking about Gallery shows. I'm really excited to learn more about them! I definitely have plenty to learn.

So Many Pretties!

I have so many new things right now! It's like Christmas in April :) I know, I know, not your normal time for Christmas, but it all came at once therefore it feels like Christmas!

The first thing I got was a present from my brother in Nepal. This was supposed to be our Christmas box, but it got here just in time for April! Got to love transporting things from third world countries. Mom and I got similar shawls (mine's a little more purple) and we're pretty sure that they are cashmire! So incredibly soft. Mom and I both wore our shawls for Easter. With the peasants blouse I wore underneath it my dear hubby told me I should be out milking the yaks or something...

The next thing I got was PACKED box that's been awhile in the making! I was contacted awhile ago by Bird of KittyHawke to see if I wanted to do a trade. I loved the idea! So we started negotiating and I'm in LOVE with what I got! She even gave me presents in the box :)  Here's what I got :)

A bag full of glass stones.

Some funky fiber beads.

A box of totally random beds (a bunch of them wooden).

4 Cabochons - which I'm really excited about!

I've got lots of ideas and I've been wanting to learn to use them in beadweaving.

Funky Peace Charms.

14 strands of beads! (I've already used some).

A special pendant - just for me :D

And as if THAT wasn't enough...I won a bloggy contest from Mama's Little Monkey's, and the package came in the mail yesterday! I didn't get a shot of my own of the crayons I got for my neice, because I was out running errands I took them over as a present right away!

She also included several soap bars that I gave to Becca - because it was her birthday was on Easter! Becca is my nieces mom - an adopted sister :P

The below is some bath salts that are just for me!

I tried them out last night and they smell heavenly :)

Insane!!!

Sane/Insane

Ok, seriously? I only need the Insane button right now... This week is turning out totally crazy! I promised myself I re-price my woven items this week (getting close to being able to do that), I found out Friday that I have a second shop I'm going to be selling consignment in and told her I'd have the stuff in this week, and then yesterday I found out that I'm doing my first craft fair of the season on Saturday!

Can you say running around like a chicken with my head cut off? 

Today was spent running and getting display supplies. I knew I needed to buy some tables and dsiplay things, but I thought I had a few more weeks! Plus I had some "real life" errands to run. My brother went with me since hubby had our car, and the two of us drove around for 5 hours! I kid you not! We literally made 15 different stops. Yes, it was sheer insanity.

Tonight I have one more trip to make (unbelievable no?) and my evil twin is coming over to go with me. I need some more feltboard and fabric for displays, so we're going to go pick that up, and then I'll put her to work assembling while I work on pricing or one of the other million things I need to do before the week is done. 

Don't worry, I'll get you more info about my consignment deal when it's set up! Then I'll have pictures :) 

Oh! I also got some awesome eye-candy in the mail yesterday and I'm going to try and take photos and show off tomorrow :) I'll be taking photos of other things anyway so it should work... *crosses fingers*

Weekly Special and the Artisans Challenge!

Have you heard of the Artisan's Challenge? I love it! Each week artists get to go head to head in 12 different categories. It's a great chance for exposure and a plain ole a TON of fun! Then, the winners of those 12 challenges, get to be in a weekly contest, and the winner of THAT contest is advertising on BlockHead Radio! Woot! And what's so special this week? I'm IN the challenge! Woohoo! Please go vote for my piece - Swiftly Changing Waters. The picture is listed below, fortunately/unfortunately it's already sold, but if your interested in doing a custom order (in these colors or others) let me know! jedimarri@gmail.com

Now it's time for my weekly special! This week I chose to feature one of my spiral earrings. I love making these earrings! I have a couple pairs in my personal collection, and these are some of the most popular earrings when I go out to fairs in markets! 

I thought these would be a great pair of earrings for this week beause the weather is warming up, and we all love the sun that's coming with the summer! They make me smile because they are so cheery, I hope they make you smile too :)

The Details: Normally these earrings end up being $7 after shipping has been added in, today, with your 20% off - you can get them for just $6, which includes shipping to anywhere in the world! Earrings are approximately 1 1/2 inches long, so they do dangle, but their not overly large. I hope you enjoy them! 

Thursdays Spotlight on Kamila's Dolls

First, just let me say, I know it's not Thursday! Sorry, I usually try to get this post out the day after the show and life got in the way this week. When I had such a great artist too! 

Thursday night we met Kamila. Kamila is an art dolls artist and you can find her work and all her links at www.woodedwoods.com. She told us that her husband is very supportive of her art, and he not only does all the web-site building, he also helps her take the stories that form in her head and put them down on paper to publish with the dolls! That sounds like a wonderful partnership. 

Now Kamila's art dolls are not what you might typically imagine when you think of an art 

doll. Through away all your previous concepts, these are NOT your mother's dolls! Which is probably why I love them so much. 

Kamila has an eye for the strange and the creepy. One of her inspirations (and it shows!) is Tim Burton. We were all telling her on Thursday that we look forward to the day when we can say "I know her before she went to work on Tim Burton's movies!" Her works so incredible that I can see that as a real possibility. 

When asked about her prior art experience Kamila told us that she's always loved to draw, and that's still an important component in her work today. She often sketches out a piece before she begins work. One thing that amazed me was that she had never really worked with polymer clay before she began making dolls! That floored me considering how detailed her work is. I also enjoyed hearing about how she searches in thrift stores for the right fabrics and components to complete her work. 

Kamila works full time as well as devoting time to her art work. This means she often works late into the night when the inspiration strikes her because there is simply no other time to do it! Lately production has been slowed a bit because she's pregnant (congratulations!) but she does have one piece up on eBayright now that you can purchase.

I hope you can join us for next weeks interview Thursday night at 9pm EST - it will be a lot of fun!

~Ruthie~

http://roseworksjewelry.byhand.me