time for jet holidays!

time for peppermints
Originally uploaded by cassowaryjewelry

Got my jet holiday sale section up! My theme is red for this year! You search jhsjetteam in etsy search to bring up all jet holiday sale items.

There's a fake Hey Michelle now! Pissed off employee on forums? puss daddy lolz

The oldest mint farm in the USA wants you to buy a dram of mint oil for $5 to save it from foreclosure.

I think it's important to support our farms.

Hey, check me out on the side here!

[So not my pic! all credit to antb!]

Arrange your nativity scene the way you want! I like the fact that there are so many choices. I like the traditional scene too, but some variety is also good. This reminds me of a woman my dad works with. Every year, she gives us a nativity scene for Christmas. They are very nice nativity scenes, although for some reason this strikes me as odd. I understand the religious part of Christmas, but explicitly religious gifts? I guess maybe it's a culture clash. I thought of that because now nativity scenes make me think of that woman.

Although it'd be a nice scene to put up at a college too- I saw a nativity scene made of straw or something at the theology library in undergrad once.

[Update! This post was written a day ago- but oddly, there's controversy. and crazy people. all because some lady wanted to share the joy of Christmas with everybody!* It may have sold already, but I still love it- maybe one day I'll be able to afford a really nice nativity scene]

*is aware that antb isn't a christian, but neither am I, and I share the joy of Christmas to people all the time!

Help support Saint Jude by buying from their gift catalog. Fight cancer!

Today's etsian guide to life, the internet and everything is "Will blogging/flickr/twitter/etc bring me sales?" The answer is it depends. Now if you update your blog once a month, you probably won't get any sales from it. And I have to admit I don't follow twitterers that have nothing interesting in their feed. Social networking- that is blogs, flickr, twitter, the promos forum- is more about soft marketing than the hard sell. Basically, you're building a relationship with others, which takes time and technique.

The technique is different on every site as well- for flickr, it's important to get in, add your photos to groups and comment on other people's photos. Tag your photos with tags that people will search for. Be a part of other people's fanbase and therefore build up your own.

On twitter, twitter feed is a god send. I have two feeds set up on twitter- this blog and my etsy shop, and so whenever they update, they are sent to twitter. On etsy, it's easy to find your feed. RSS this shop is beneath email this to a friend in your public shop. That page address is the address of your shop feed. And don't just feed me your shop on twitter. Give me something to chew on. Funny links, interesting observations- I don't want to see only ads on my page, ladies!

The main gist is that yea, social networking won't bring you instant sales, but it can help you cultivate a fanbase and some buzz, and that never hurts.

I'm doing an update of my website.

Today's Update

hearts
Originally uploaded by cassowaryjewelry

I did a nice photo shoot today. The background has changed because my dad took down the old deck and built a new one with his brother. I'm hoping to get a lot of work done today because my fatigue isn't as bad as it usually is.

The JET Holiday treasure hunt will start at 12 EST today. Need to get my Jet Holiday Sale items in order.

There will be an ebay update today, so look forward to it!

Our deck is being dismantled, so photo progress may be slow. I created a new bracelet today.

On my mailing list, we have a winner for my postcard contest! It's a random drawing of my postcard list- the lucky winner won the pictured pair of earrings!

You can convo me on etsy to be added to my mailing list and get the scoop on sales and contests!

Hey, I won a contest. I have ridiculous luck. Once I went to a mini con and won two games. And horribly lucky things happen to me all the time. I get through life on my luck, I guess.

Forum drama is fun! But I need to retag my etsy bead theme of the two weeks section.

I learn I don't work hard as I've never been on the front page.

I started a flickr group for cell phone charm lovers.

Today's photo shoot yielded 30 photos. The light is weaker now as it's becoming more fall like, and even though it's 70 degrees, I wore a sweater because of superstitions about cold and health.

I may update my website and supply shop today.

Calling in sick for the weekend. Also, JPAT learns that all her items will be on page 104 after she lists them.

[so not my picture, credit goes to Galactic Stone]
An etisian is selling a rare 1940s era calculator. That's the advantage of offering vintage on etsy- we get the advantage of people sharing their knowledge and their items with us. The lucky buyer gets a piece of history, and the rest of us get to enjoy looking at amazing items.

I sell a little vintage in my supply shop, and I like having contact with things that were made before I was born, sometimes long before...

A new group about shopping handmade for the holidays.

Jewelry subcategories are slow to load on etsy.

I should stock my ebay. Maybe tomorrow.

My new series is the etsian guide to the internet and life- basically, the basics you need to know!

My first post will be "why are there cuss words on the internet". You may notice that on the etsy forums or in some listings, there are curse words. Why, you may wonder, isn't that against etsy rules? No.[There's a bit on mature items in there, saying that they must be tagged mature and have the first thumbnail be safe for work].

Is this because etsy doesn't care about children and families? No, it's because they are a worldwide shopping site. In some places, a painting of a naked lady isn't a big deal, but violence is. In some cities, a well placed fuck or shit isn't a cause for soul searching, but part of the daily noise of life. Millions of people live in those areas, and accommodating them and their artwork is useful in terms of both profit and an artistic community.

But what if you live in a cow town where the mere thought of the word crap causes your head to explode? Well, there are many things you can do to help. First, in etsy search, put NOT mature on the end, and that will filter out mature items. In etsy search, I rarely ever run across anything very spicy, and this is because of how I search. I don't type in any synonyms for sexual body parts or the words nude, naked, pin up, into my search bar unless I want to see what sort of them. Same for curse words.

If I accidentally stumble upon something I think is too spicy, I use the back button, located on the top left of my browser window to go back to what I was looking at before. In the forums, I check the titles of the posts to see which ones I want to go into. If the title is something like "Our yucky girl part problems" I scroll to something I like such as "Complaining about Shows We Don't Like" or "Let's Argue About Politics". I know from experience that on "Let's Argue About Politics" people may be rude or use bad words. I will either join in or not read the thread if I don't want to see the bad words and rudeness. I certainly don't scold people for having fun on the internet! That just invites mockery.

If you have children that are too young to see bad words, always supervise them on the internet! If you think etsy is bad, the wide wide world of the internet will just kill you! Google rule 34 if you want to know what I mean.

Today, I'm going to roll my ebay money into getting new moo cards. I may do a beading derby during the daily show today. I also put my etsy shop feed into my twitterfeed so that if you follow me, you can see when I've renewed or listed something new.

Surrender Dorothy posts and she is pissed.

I've got a supply shop on etsy, but only one vintage item, so I guess I've got a dog's tail in the fight, but not the whole dog.

Always Amy wants more Dawanda talk in business, and I want more energy so that I can work the whole day through without a nap.

My big plan for today

jasper
Originally uploaded by cassowaryjewelry

is to have a big update in my supply shop

Why do people ever buy new clothes? I think that because I just walked out of my door, nabbed two shirts, one from Banana Republic and one from New York and Company, for 50 cents each, and then returned here to my computer and my blog. Yard sales- in spring and summer and fall, they are constant, and in winter, you can just go to the thrift store, which is more expensive- the shirts are $4- but also more convenient.

My personal credit crunch-

I'm having a personal credit freeze because last week, I couldn't find my purse, and so I had my debit card canceled and shredded it. Last Thursday, I realized my purse was missing. Saturday, I applied for a replacement. Tuesday, I found that I had left my purse behind in class and my teacher had been keeping it in his closet the whole week.

Now, on Friday, I don't have a debit card, so my working capital is comprised of what I have in my paypal account. So I guess I'm echoing the global credit crunch. I should get my new card by next Friday, and I can use paypal shipping for the time being.

Etsy Bitch crunches the numbers.

Tired shannon is tired.

Oh more wank about art/craft.

It's not the weekend, and we have pricing wank.

I like low cost earrings, BTW. There's room for all price ranges.

I need to make more stud earrings for me, because all of the ones I've kept for myself are dangles and I'm not allowed to wear those in the ward.

Lampworking wank starts over shop policies.

Friday night will be an exciting bead derby.

Etsians want smaller batch loading categories! i.e. when new items load into categories, 5 pages at a time[so at worst, you're on page 5] rather than 15 at a time[end up on page 15]

I need to stock my shops like mad, but I've been falling asleep at my normal daily show watching craft hour, and sleeping or promoting on my 'lunch hour'.

Etsy publishes stats for September.

Thanks to simplysophia for featuring my 900 hearts sale on her blog!

Oh my god, this shop is cute!

I've added some stuff to my ebay.


I also added some stuff to etsy.

Stock, stock, stock!

Handmademovement is sponsoring a sneak attack today at 2 pm est.

Magic Jelly gives etsy an open letter about its customer base- the sellers.

Etsian creates first yarn community supported agriculture, joins contest to get tech makeover. Found on sailorjenny's twitter feed.

Oh, and I changed my theme of the two weeks section to the current theme.

There's wank on flickr!?


A seller reviews Ruby Lane

I made 5 items today, of which I have taken 24 photos. I may have a posting marathon soon, but my fatigue level has gone up from mild to moderate. Today's photo shoot was good, with bright sun. I wanted to do it a little earlier, but got sidetracked by an idea for a new item.

Soap is love.

Yet another thread against us assemblers. I *like* assembling. I like being able to put two things that someone else might not have thought of putting together and making it into a coherent whole! Also, for me, maybe I don't *want* to handforge metal. Maybe I don't want to invest in lampwork glass lessons. Maybe I just want to make some jewelry, darn it!

Etsy artist ripped off by Delta Creative.

I took photos of a new necklace, and some old beads today. I've already posted the necklace.