On/around June 1st I'm going to be completely re-vamping the shop. I've got some more jewelry made up that I would like to post, I just haven't gotten around to it quite yet. I'm also going to edit all the listing that I have up -- better pictures, better descriptions, etc.
I FINALLY have my promotional box put together, and I'll send that out to octarine tomorrow so my name can get out there. I included 15 pairs of earrings, and 15 business cards with a 10% off coupon on the back.

In other recent news, I got featured in a blog by Pistol & Stigma -- check it out and read the good things she had to say about my cute little owl earrings!

Things are still going fairly well for me. My bedroom is sort of a disaster with bead stuff and shipping supplies all over, but I'm slowly cleaning that up and organizing it :)

I have had a few more sales, and am keeping up with shipping. The new shipping rates are a bit of a pain, as some of my packages are costing nearly twice as much as they used to. I haven't raised my rates yet on Etsy, because I know people hate to pay really high shipping costs. I think I may just start "eating" the costs of my shipping materials, or maybe just cut down to the bare essentials. I do like having things nicely and cutely packaged though...

Other news... I am trying to clear out my current inventory so I can sort of "start fresh" and fill up my inventory with all sorts of new stuff. I am having a big sale today where all customers get tons of random free stuff when they buy things from my shop -- you can read my forum post about it here.

I'm also trying to get some sample packs/promotions put together to send out to various sellers. Some of them will include them with their orders (like the All Things Etsy sample packs) and/or put them out on their tables at craft shows. My big thing now is that I need to do a bit more promoting/marketing so I can get more business to my shop...

That's it for now... I'm trying to figure out stuff with actually registering my business name and such, but I will put together a post about that later this week.

MN Street Team, and grants!

Well, I discovered the MN Etsy Street Team today. I joined the yahoo group, and I've read the blog and the thread on Etsy forums. I sent a few messages to people, so I'll see what I hear back from people. I would love to get involved with some other MN area Etsyians. I'd also like to try my luck at a craft show, and it seems like they know a bit about all of that stuff.

Related to the craft shows... I found out that I can get art grants from the state for stuff... I'd love to go to a craft show, but as of right now I can't really afford one, and I don't think I would make enough at one to pay for the cost of being there. But if I got a grant to cover the costs, THAT would be pretty amazing... The one I found though, had a deadline of May 15... today. And since it's already midnight, there's no way that I could get it filled out and postmarked by today... That sort of sucks, but I can look for other opportunities...

Anyway, that's everything for now. I'm working on some random jewelry projects, but I'm still adjusting to my new work schedule so I haven't had a chance to post pictures in my shop. I have some stuff that I need to ship out tomorrow though, and I'm currently features in 3 Etsy treasuries, so I hope I sell some more stuff :)

I added a nifty little "Etsy Mini" so visitors to the site can see some of my favorites and/or the newest additions to my shop. Enjoy!

A little pick-up

Sales have been going pretty well the past 2 weeks or so -- I think I've made about 5 sales in the past two weeks, which is quite a few considering I had two in the entire first month I was on Etsy.... I've also been spending a small chunk of change on more beads, more organizers, shipping supplies, all that fun stuff. I made a banner for my esty site, check it out if you have the time.... I've also been making quite a bit of new stuff. My goal for this week is to post at least 2 new things on my etsy store each day. With classes almost over (it's finals week!) I'm going to have a lot more free time for making jewelry :)

I've been really in to pendants lately, so I think I'm going to learn how to make pendants. I'm not really sure how, but it will be a fun venture, right?