Our Dogs!

This post is completely devoid of any business lol! Dedicated to my three favorite canines, Black Jack (he's not really black by the way, and has beautiful pale blue eyes.), Liberty (also known as Libby, and Moo Cow) and Ella( who also has those baby blue eyes), the baby of the bunch. Black Jack and Libby are Ella's parents. All of Libby's first litter of pups died except for Ella. I nursed this puppy like it was my own child. Up every 4 hours so Libby could nurse her, I took her to work with me and bottle fed her in between, heck I took her to Walmart in a box lol! She slept at the top of my husbands pillow for a long time. Anyway by the time she was 10 weeks old we were so attached that we couldn't give her up. Crazy to have three Australian Shepherds in a house in the city but hey who wants normal anyway! So Black Jack is almost 11, Liberty will be 5 and Ella will be 4. And I am happy to say that her other two litters survived and thrived and have gone on to good homes. The whole point of this long drawn out post is to just say how much these dogs mean to us. Such good and faithful companions, such personality and love lol! So much mud in the house, stolen food off the counters, loud barking in the middle of the night. I wouldn't miss a single muddy paw print, these dogs have brightened and lightened our life simply by being themselves.

<--(Black Jack wishing hard for a piece of steak)




(Libby and Ella having a piece of steak)->



<--(Ella's favorite TV watching spot, just ignore the feet lol) The utter exhaustian of opening presents! --->









<---the sleep of the righteous dog lol!

Thank you Black Jack, Libby and Ella for keeping us sane, for loving us no matter how bad a mood we are in, for making us laugh at the most unexpected times, for gaurding our house (and sidewalk and block against the many squirrels and cats and birds that go by our front window lol), for making us excersize no matter how badly we don't want to go to the park and walk, for the complete and utter joy you bring to our lives on a daily basis. We love you!

1000Markets

So I have been away from my blog for awhile. It has been super busy at my house between my day job and the new venues that I am currently exploring. It takes a long time to list all of my items in new venues (over 230 plus new stuff that I am trying to list at the same time). Not to mention that I need time to actually make the new stuff lol, since that is the fun part. So I have mentioned before that I am pairing down on my venues and will be letting some of them die a natural death when my items there expire. One of the venues I will be keeping is 1000Markets. This venue is extremely classy and elegant looking. The concept is different from many of the other online market places. (the main concept, that of selling your items is obviously the same lol).

There are no listing fees, they only take their cut at the end. I like this part since it means that I am not out any cash unless something sells. This also is a great motivation for the owners of the site to make sure that the site is the best that it can be for its sellers.

It is a juried site, if you photos or your items are really bad, you will have to work to improve them in order to be accepted. This is great for everyone accepted on this site since there are NO resellers, no shoddy workmanship and you can see clearly what an item is in every picture. The fact that the pictures need to maintain a certain standard gives the whole site a very professional look and feel. This can only be good for business lol!

They also have markets and arcades. Specific markets for specific items. For instance, the Wear It Out market has a variety of items, a shopper could easily put together a complete outfit from clothing to jewelry to hair and outerwear. There is a market just for metal craft, a market for kids, several markets based on location, a market devoted to food, I could go on but there is something for everyone. It's kind of like walking into a virtual market place, kind of like the mall only better and bigger. The possiblities are endless. This will be one of the venues that will get a lareger portion of my time and advertising budget in the new year.

Anyway, sellers you should check it out, I think that this is one of the new venues that will succeed in the next couple of years. Buyers, you should check it out just because the site is so beautiful lol! No really, there are a huge group of extremely talented people on this site.

Wow I can't believe it!

Not too long ago I mentioned that I was going to be broadening my horizons and listing items on a several new venues. I specifically did a post on Shop Handmade, and how it was eco friendly and helping the rainforest.

Well I just got an email from them that said they were going to feature one of my items in an ad spot in the January edition of Beads Unique magazine! How exciting is that! Truly I am doing the happy dance lol! Needless to say I will continue to list my products on this site and come the New Year, when I need to make decisions on which venues to cull, Shop Handmade will be a keeper. And to confirm what I said in my previous post, this listing is free (can't beat that) you can choose to donate to the save the rainforest or not and it does not get billed til you sell that item. I choose to donate but that's just me. Please take a closer look at this website and if you are looking to help the environment this is the place to shop.

Cyber Monday Madness!

Check out this event at http://www.fashionsensei.wordpress.com . She has the most amazing fashion blog and will be having some excellent, one of a kind offers from many online shops. If you are shopping on Cyber Monday you need to make this your first stop!

Come celebrate the official kick off to the online holiday shopping season with Fashion Sensei's "Cyber Monday Madness!" Enjoy Exclusive Discounts, ONE HOUR Web Busters and amazing ONE HOUR Giveaways. You won't want to miss it!

New Venues

I know in a previous post I mentioned that I was going to expand the venues that I was selling on. I have done this, sort of a grand experiment lol and have decided to give each venue until after Christmas, through the four month period most of these venues give you for listing times. Sooo say til the end of February. I have just recently signed up with four new venues, 1000Markets, Shop Handmade Handmade Fuzion and Artfire. So far I am very very happy with 1000Markets, the site looks awesome, it's juried (ya I know but I really like it, it is very profressional looking and the concept is completely awesome) and the admins are fabulous. Plus they already offer most of what that other site seems to think is not important, like stats, being able to move your items around and put them in any order you want. And there is no listing fee, they don't plan on making there money from listing AND they are going to be doing advertising for the site, as in for buyers. Also lots of other stuff that I won't mention now.
I like Shop Handmade simply because it is very proactive as far as the environment goes. Not hard to list on once you get used to the interface either. And its free to list. I may keep this one simply because its free to list and free to sell, plus I can donate a quarter for each item I sell and help save the rainforest. Doesn't get better than that.
I was pretty excited about Handmade Fuzion at first, the site is very clean looking and it has some good stats also. However the listing fee is .15 (which I really don't have a problem with) but if you want to get any hits at all you have to also pay .50 for front page exposure. So now its .65 to list instead of .15 or no one looks are your items. That is a bit steep for me and could rapidly become a fairly large bill. If I don't get some sales from this venue fairly regularly by February it will most likely be taken down.
Artfire is free to list and free to sell but I am not sure how buyers find your products. I am currently paying $7 a month for the upgraded shop which does have awesome stats. I was told that this would also give me additional exposure. We will see how it goes.
I am not closing my etsy shop, I have invested way too much time in it at this point but I will not be listing new items as often as I am being completely buried. I am adding all of my new product to my 1000Markets shop at this point and will most likely spend a good bit of my energy on that. More to come on how that site works later. I have several more that I am aslo using that are also under review but I won't go into that now.

Thanksgiving is Coming!

Wow time flies! I can't believe how close Thanksgiving is! I have nothing done and have barely started gathering all of the supplies I need much less cleaning the house. If you haven't guessed yet Thanksgiving is at my house lol! We usually have 10-12 people depending, and even though everyone brings food it is still a lot of work. This is usually how it breaks down. I get the turkey (the biggest one I can find, preferably over 25 lbs., everyone wants to take home leftovers), I make two kinds of stuffing, one with bread, onions, celery, and meat, and one with apples, onions, celery and bread. I also make home made mashed potatos, corn, and home made gravy. I also usually do two pumpkin pies, two apple crumb pies and a pecan pie. My sister makes green beans, a pecan pie and rolls and red cabbage. My mother in law makes cucumber salad, and sweet potatos. Needless to say no one can move after dinner for about 3 hours. I am very thankful that my 15 year old daughter really likes to cook so she comes home from school on Wednsday and starts helping with the stuffing. I usually get up and start on the pies on Wednsday and just do two at a time. That way all I have to do on Turkey day is stuff the bird, peel potatos and make gravy. We usually invite the neighbors over for dessert (let's face it there is plenty to around lol!).

So I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving with their loved ones. I for one am now exhausted and hungry lol and I still have a week to go.

Sale Reminder

Just a quick reminder to anyone thinking of purchasing for the holidays. I am having a 10% off sale until December first in my etsy shop silverriverjewelry.etsy.com. If you mention my blog in the notes to sellers I will include free shipping.

I am also having a $1.00 off any stitch marker set in my silverriverstitches.etsy.com shop. If you know any knitters this is an excellant, affordable gift. Everything in this shop is $10 or less already so with the $1.00 off nothing is more than $9.


Happy Holidays and have fun shopping!

More on Shop Handmade

Quick update this is awesome!

A ShopHandmade-sponsored forest fills yet another patch of scorched earth... ShopHandmade has just donated enough money to the Trees for the Future foundation to plant a total of 10,000 trees. One tree for each product listed on the site. You are doing your part by shopping at our environmentally-aware handmade stores. Continue to support the Earth and support handmade crafts. Heck, forget all the good stuff and just come and window-shop. It's an entertaining visit and you just might fall in love with something!

I will continue to list some of my jewelry on this site so if you would like to purchase something and do something good for the environment please check out my shop there. I am slowly adding inventory. Just click on the link --> Silver River Jewelry

Saving the Rainforest

There is a fairly new selling venue out there that is focusing is on saving the rain forest. I thought this was really cool since if we continue to cut down our rain forests eventually we will manage to cause our extinction through greed and lack of managing our natural resources well. I recycle and try and do all I can to support our environment but I always feel I could do more. ShopHandmade allows me to list my items for free and also to sell them for free as long as I allow one of two sponsors to have a spot on my listing. Addicted to scrap booking and Addicted to rubber stamping are the two sponsors. The spot is very inconspicuous and does not in any way detract from my listing. You have the choice of donating a percentage of your price, or 10 cents or 25 cents when you sell an item. Donations are not required though. I just really liked this idea a lot. The site takes a couple of run through to get the whole listing process down as it is a bit different but once you figure it out is really quite easy to do. Go check it out and decide if you want to save a little piece of the rain forest today!

This is my shop url and you can check out the rest of the site from there. http://www.shophandmade.com/Store/Silverriver

I Was Featured!

WooHoo! One of my items in my Silver River Metal shop was featured on Friago's blog in her top 7 at 7 pics! How cool is that! Thanks Friago! Here is the link to the post if you want to check it out.

http://blog.friago.com/post/My-what-pretty-jewelry-you-have.aspx

Do you Twitter?

So apparently this is the new thing to do online nowadays. I finally broke down and checked it out after hearing about it for several weeks. I was surprised really at how much fun it is! It's amazing to me how tiny little snippets of peoples lives (140 characters at a time) can be so darn interesting lol! So I decided to give it a try. I can post as little or as often as I want. I am going to try and not make it completely a marketing tool and just try to blend it with life in general. Go check it out and let me know if you like it or not! My twitter address is http://twitter.com/SilverRiverJ

Both of my names are too long to fit entirely and silver river was already taken. Oh well

Don't forget I am currently offering 10% off in my SILVERRIVERJEWELRY.ETSY.COM store and if you mention my blog in the notes to seller I will also ship your items free, worldwide.

Also recieve $1.00 off any set of stitch markers in my SILVERRIVERSTITCHES.ETSY.COM store. Sorry no free shipping on these.

SALE! SALE! SALE!

Okay so I feel a little bit foolish about shouting it from the roof tops but I am having a sale in two of my etsy shops. I am having a 10% off sale in my SilverRiverJewelry shop. This includes all of my inventory. I am also having a $1.00 off any set of stitch markers in my SilverRiverStitches shop. Mention that you saw these saleson my blog in the notes to seller and I will give you free shipping also. I will refund the price before I ship your items. I have a wide variety of price points in my jewelry shop from about $10 to over $100 so there is probably something for everyone. The $1.00 off on the stitch markers is 10% off the $10 sets and and a little bit over that for the $8 and $9 dollar sets.

Jewelry Design Competition

Check this out! JewelryInTheNet is having a major jewelry design contest. It started on October 15th and voting starts on November 30th. They have an amateur and a professional category. You can submit up to 5 entries. I have submitted one so far but would like to submit another four. I am not sure which pieces though! If anyone wants to take a quick peak at my shop and give me some suggestions on what I should enter PLEASE comment lol! You can find most of my work here silverriverjewelry.etsy.com. I would really appreciate some votes come the 30th also lol! Although you should check out all of the competition I am sure there will be some awesome stuff!

New Shop

So I have opened a new shop on etsy named Silver River Metal (silverrivermetal.etsy.com). I struggled with this a little bit since I already have two shops on etsy, silverriverjewelry.etsy.com and silverriverstitches.etsy.com. I am expanding my skills in the metal smithing area and truth be told I love it! It meshes better with my addiction to lapidary (rocks) than the wire wrapping does and broadens my horizans by leaps and bounds. The lapidary addiction comes from taking and ugly rock out of the ground and turning it into something gorgeous and wearable. It's like a treasure hunt and you never know what you are going to get when you open that rock up, slab it, trim, grind it and polish it. Plus I find the whole process very relaxing. Weird I know lol! The metal work just compliments the stone work. I don't have to stress about finding the perfect setting, I can make my own. (I haven't achieved perfection yet lol, in fact I am perfecting melting bezels into small balls of silver more than I am anything but it is improving.) Plus I really like playing with fire, at least this way I am using that for a useful purpose! While I am not giving up the wire wrapping and beading, I will be shifting my purpose more toward the metal work at this point. As you can see there is a big difference in the two styles. Should be interesting to see where it will go.

William's Gift Shop On Etsy

I have to tell you I spend wayyyyy too much time in the forums on etsy. Hours that may be better spent creating stuff but then again I have to say that they are probably one of the most helpful and nice forums to be found on the web. They have certainly provided me with a fount of information that has shortened my learning curve about online selling probably by years. And I have also made some great friends, found some fabulous artists and some people who are just consistanly kind, honest and down to earth.

Having said that this shop pretty much embodies what the etsy community is all about but the reason I really noticed this shop (other than the above mentioned accolades) is the fact that she make some seriously cool asthma inhalor carriers. My son has asthma and is constantly looking for a better way to carry his. So of course my interest was immediately piqued when I ran across BeaG in the forums. Check out the great variety of inhaler carriers that she makes! Something for everyone in a huge variety of colors. She also make lip balm holders, wine bottle covers, cell phone holders and more, many of which come with a key chain so they are easy to access and keep track off. Mind you this is just a tiny sampling of the items in her shop and she not only does wonderful crochet and knit items but also has some other items for sale including some eclectic jewelry. But if you want a glimpse of those you will just have to go to her shop here and check it. Hint, Hint, PERFECT for gift giving this holiday season.

Trip to Put in Bay Ohio

We decided to do a spur of the moment trip to Put In Bay as the last of summer is slowly moving out. This was of course a last minute decision and since it is a two to two and half hour drive to get to the ferry and a half an hour to get to the island we left it a bit late (we left our house at 1 pm lol). So we get there (the ferry was just pulling out as we parked, they run every half an hour.) and it is now three thirty. I'm asking when the last ferry comes back! They said 8:30 which was fine that is plenty of time to go to dinner and drive the golf cart around the important parts of the island. Off to the island we go. It really is a pretty trip over and it was a beautiful day. Not to hot and not too cold. Until you get on the ferry and get out on Lake Erie. Brrrrrrrrrrr! I was wishing for a jacket the whole way over lol! Fortunately the scenery was lovely and it is always nice to be out on the water. We get to the island and rent a golf cart for the remainder of the day. (got there about four so we got a discount on the cart Yay!) Headed over to the tourist side of the island to get some food at the boardwalk. (They are famous for their lobster bisque, which they make on premise). We then left the touristy parts of the island and just took a slow cruise through the residential areas (very slow, those golf carts are painful, I wanted to get out and push a couple of times lol) and checked out some of the great bed and breakfasts that are available on the island. We made a quick stop and Dairy Queen (gotta love it lol) and then decided that if we wanted to make the fairy we should at least head in the direction of the dock (since the golf carts are soooo slow lol). All in all it was a very relaxing and low stress day, and since it was my husband, me, my mother in law and my 18 year old son that ranks as an excellent day in my book! If you are ever in Ohio and close to Marblehead you should plan at least a day trip to this island.

Another Great Esty Artist Find

Yes I know I have been on it this week lol! Hope I can keep up the momentum. Here is an awesome etsy artist who as far as I can tell has totally unique items for people who sew. Her shop is LoveLaurie and you can find her here. These
needle threaders, pin cushions and seem rippers are so fun and funky even if you don't sew you may want to start just so you have an excuse to have one lol! And by the way these would make excellent gifts for friends and family. And in case you don't think about it, needle threaders are useful for people who make beaded jewerly since a lot of that involves needle and thread. All of her designs are original and can you believe they are made from polymer clay!?! So cool.

Looks Good Enough To Eat!!----->

Here is what Laurie has to say about why she started this whole thing.

How The Sewl Mates were born:
One night while my husband and I were out with friends, I happened to mention that I love to sew and craft. They all looked very surprised, and one of them said, “Really? You don’t seem like the type.” This started me thinking, is there really a”type?” If so, I couldn’t put my finger on it. My family, for example, consists of stay at home moms and women with various careers who sew, craft, and scrapbook. An RN and a PHD who are very talented quilters, a businessman who is a woodworker, an engineer who loves to needlepoint…… I could go on and on. I was thinking about this while putting pins into the dress form pincushion that I had recently made, and the Idea for The Sewl Mates was born. Each one is inspired by a special person in my life, and I hope you will cherish her as much as I do. Can't find your SewlMate? Not to worry, just convo me and together we will create one just for you!

As you can see by the photos these are definitely a unique product. I think this is a must have for anyone who is looking to make sewing a little bit more fun. I know that I smile everytime I see the items in her shop.

Another Treasury

So I finally had the time to catch another treasury over on etsy. Check it out and let me know what you think. It kind of caught me by surprise since I wasn't really trying for it. Not too bad for an on the fly attempt. If you want a really good look at just click on the picture and it will take you to the original. Which looks way better than the screen shot lol!

Mini Scrap Book Challenge On Etsy

So I ran across this thread in the forums and as soon as I saw the word challenge I just had to click on it. As you know Designed by Lucinda, Santiam Design, and I hosted two beading challenges so of course my interest was immediately peaked lol! And sometimes I'm just nosy. So here is the original post by Designed by Lucinda. As you can see all of the basics were provided by Sewphisticate.

Ever wonder what Scrappers will do with the same basic material? This is a Challenge to see how YOU can turn a mini-scrapbook into a Showcase item! Sewphisticate (http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5318640) has extra mini scrapbooks she is willing to mail to you FREE of charge just to see what you can make of it! No rules, no guidelines, just a free mini scrapbook to decorate and then send her the pictures to feature on her blog (HOW COOL IS THAT? Free book, free mail, free blog publicity - - AND you can sell the finished product here on Etsy to recoup your labor costs!)

I am going to show you one photo of one of the entries (sorry to be such a tease lol) and then I am going to give you the link to sewphisticate's blog since she has all of the pictures and BONUS she has also interviewed each person who entered. It's a great read and wonderful way to get to know some of the people behind the shops at etsy. It's also just fun to see what they came up with. So here is one sample by Coffee Monkey. To see the rest you will have to go to Sewphisticate's blog. How cool is that! The creativity and diversity that people continue to show is just amazing! So go look, what are you waiting for!

Featured Etsy Store

So I am hoping to be a little more active with posting since school is now back in session and things are "hopefully" settling down a little bit. Although my daughter has decide to go back to ballet (she is 15) so that is one night a week from 8:30 to 9:00pm and I am taking a twelve week metal smithing class one night a week from 6:30 to 9:30 pm. Life never does seem to slow down as much as I would like. Next year she can drive herself YAY!

Anyhow I have been meaning to do this feature for 2 and half months so here it is. I ran into Little Bugs Boutique in the forums and while she does jewelry it is a much different style than the jewelry that I make. She has a bright, cheery shop with great prices and lots to choose from. She has an excellent eye for color.Her polymer clay bracelets are bright, colorful and really adorable. And each one is unique since the polymer clay figures are made by hand for each bracelet. Her pendants are awesome and she has a great selection to choose from. Her stuff is way cute for the younger kids and tweens and she has awesome custom photo pendants. Definitely a shop that you will want to check out for your holiday shopping. Her custom photo pendants would make a great gift for grand parents or moms. So go check her out and get some of your Christmas shopping done ahead of time. You will be glad you did!

Check out this website!

For those of you who are fans of etsy here is a website to check out every day. Sharon has devoted this website as a giant etsy show case of her favorite picks of the the day. Each day features a different theme with different items from all over etsy. She featured red the other day and was kind enough to put my stich markers, shown in the picture, in her showcase. What a a nice thing to do for us! Thanks Sharon! http://www.redladyart.com

So for all of you who are looking for cool place to shop for Christmas, birthdays, weddings, baby showers and everything in between go check it out every day. You are sure to find something for everyone on your list and you won't even have to leave the house.

Expanding my selling horizons

So I have been gone for a bit figuratively speaking anyway. Nothing as exciting as a vacation or leaving town or anything lol, I have just been really busy. I have started several new avenues for selling and am pretty excited about it. I have always known that etsy was not the only area I needed to pursue to be successful although it will always hold a special place in my business heart. The direction at etsy seems to be changing and not for the better as far as hand made is concerned and while I took this into consideration it is not the only reason that I am expanding my market. The old adage to not put all of your eggs in one basket is a good one for many reasons.

So for those of you who don't know I also sell stitch markers for knitters and crocheters. That started out as a way to use left over beads and has morphed into into a line of business that is a lot of fun. I find that when I bead shop now some beads say jewelry and some say stitch markers. Some of them say both lol! Anyway my shop on etsy silverriverstitches
is doing quite well. I was approached by a wonderful lady with and offer to sell my stitch markers on line in her shop that caters solely to people who use yarn to craft. Yarny-Goodness
She offered me a great deal, and excellent contract and with the extra advertising she is doing my product will hopefully become more well known. This is one of the ways I have expanded a bit as far as going beyond etsy as a source for customers. I feel this can only be a good thing and I did some serious research before I jumped in. I made sure that the contract that was offered had what I wanted in it before I committed or sent any product. Pam has been wonderful to work with and quite frankly if this works out as well as I hope I may end up sending them all to her since she is the one doing the hard stuff like photographing the pictures, and doing all of the packaging and shipping.

So I am doing several other things with the jewelry including a local farmers market (which has turned out to be surprisingly successful), I have place a good portion of my higher end items in a fabulous gallery and I am building my own website from scratch with a web building program that will allow me to sell directly off my own site. (this is turning out to not be as difficult as I thought it would be, just very time consuming). Considering the amount of money I am saving building it myself, it will be worth the time it takes. And I like to do as much as I can myself anyway. I have designed a logo and applied it to my business cards, earring cards, price tags etc so that I have a "brand" that people will recognize. I will be showing those off in another post. I am also looking to possibly do several craft shows before Christmas.

Hopefully I will be posting a little more regularly in the future as summer winds down and we all spend more time indoors. For those of you who knit, crochet, and felt make sure you check out the artists on Yarny-Goodness for some great yarn and yarn accessories.