YAY!

I'm terribly excited. I just opened the mailbox and I'm so happy that my package from Barefoot Bath and Body just came! I had usually only bought lip balms from Barefoot Bath, but I went for soap this time, too, and I can't wait! I had used one of her sample sized soaps that she sent me the last time I ordered, and I have never felt cleaner. I'm now off to search for some Aloo yard to make myself a soap-saver.

I'm terribly excited about my lip balms and soap!

Infatuation.

Yep, that's right. I've finally snagged myself another treasury. I'm so excited! Take a look:


Clicking the picture will open the treasury in a new tab or window.

I'm hoping for it to get a bit of notice so that it has a chance of reaching the front page. I would definitely love that kind of publicity.

Update: I got another treasury on Treasury West! Take a look:


Clicking the picture will open the treasury in a new tab or window.

Only you can save us now.

Forgive me if I start to ramble, I really had no intent behind this post when I started it. It's just what's on my mind right now, with no real cohesiveness to it.

I'm still waiting for this "holiday rush" I keep hearing about on Etsy. Everyone else seems to be pretty busy, especially the soap sellers. Everyone wants soap for the holidays. I wish I had the money to buy all my presents on Etsy, or to make them all myself. Mostly what I need is money to pay my bills, that's the most important thing right now. Not to get any more into debt than I already am. But, that's a side-effect of investing in your own handmade capitalist venture. You need to spend money in order to make money. And I have made money selling on Etsy. A lot, in fact. In the last 8 months that I've been selling I've had 52 sales, one of those being a wholesale order for 28 pieces. All those profits though, went to buying more supplies to improve my business or tools or paying off credit cards that I used to start up my business in the first place. And there's still so much more that I need to make to "get out of the red".

Etsy just seems so slow for me lately. I was hoping that will the sudden drop in gas prices, people would start spending a little bit more. Especially now that it's the holiday season, people are doing a lot of shopping online for their Christmas and other holiday gifts. Trickle-down theory, I suppose. But I guess it's working the other way and people are tightening their belts even more, because of the recession we're in, because of the Bailout Plan. It makes it so much harder for all of us on Etsy, and anyone else who sells handmade.

Now that I've broached the subject of economics, I might as well touch on politics as well. Usually I stay clear of political topics when I'm talking about my business. I don't like to mix the two. But I will say this. To all those people out there who are bashing either candidate - use that energy to CHANGE it. Your vote CAN and WILL make a difference. But not if you don't use that right to vote. Don't just sit there and whinge about it when you can DO SOMETHING. I want to encourage everyone to get out there and make a difference. Please, for the sake of this country, help us.

How to upload your Etsy items to Google Base

Another tutorial, folks.

I've heard a lot of talk about Google Base. If you're not familiar with it, it's a way to upload your item data to Google's search engine that makes it easier for people to find your items in Google Search. Your items may not come up in the regular Google Search, but in the shopping links on the top of the normal search page. There are two ways you can add your items to Google Base. One at a time or through a data feed. What I am going to cover today is how to add your Etsy items to Google Base via Data Feed.

First off, go to Let's Ets (http://letsets.com).
This is where you will produce your data feed.

Type your Etsy username into the box, and click Fetch My Items.



Make sure all of your listings appear correctly.


Click Download Bulk File to download your XML file. Your Etsy name will be the file name. Mine is "paysonwinters.xml"


Now, go to Google Base. (http://base.google.com)

Sign in to your Google account if you haven't already done so.

Click Data Feed on the right hand side. This will bring you to the My Items section. CLick on the Data Feeds tab.


In the upper left hand corner, click the button that says New Data Feed.


You will now need to register your data feed. Choose your target country and your item type. Then you will need to type the XML filename with the extension included. Mine is "paysonwinters.xml". After you are done click Register Data Feed.


You will be taken back to the Data Feeds section where you will be able to manually upload your XML file. Remember, the file name must match the name that you have just registered.

After you upload your file, Google Base will process your items and make them searchable.

Another point I'd like to make (I know I had mentioned it above), is that your items will still show up in the normal Google Search, but Google Base is designed to input them into the "Shopping Results".

For example, I searched Google for "Pebble Stacking Rings" WITH the quotes and this is what I got:



Last Updated: 10/13/08: I realized that some of my screen captures were wrong, so I moved them about a bit, made everything flow a bit more cohesively. I also added a screen cap of my own Google results.

Inspiring people inspiring inspiring people.

A few days ago, on Etsy I came across CoffeePotPeople who had mentioned that my avatar was an inspiration to her. So I sent her a message with the details of the organization to which she replied that she was going to write a blog post about. I figured she would just mention it in passing or something, like "Oh hey check this out blah blah blah" but when she messaged me this morning with the link to her blog post I was blown away. This woman is truly amazing, and I'm so glad that such a simple thing as a forum avatar has inspired her to write a truly beautiful blog entry.

You can read her entry here.

Top Secret Mailers!

Eee, I found a tutorial for making your own bubble mailers! 27things has this wonderful tutorial on how to make your own bubble mailers. I finally have a use for all this cardstock and bubble wrap that is just sitting around. Anyways, my first few weren't that successful, but here are the really pretty ones that I made:





Oh, and the best part: The back is SILVER. Yay for shiny things!

I can't wait to get an Etsy order so I can send someone one of these mailers.

Busy Busy Busy!

Wow, today was a busy day! I sold 4 items in a matter of hours. Busy busy busy getting those packages ready to send. I also want to thank Rebecca from SoapDeli for featuring my Matchbook Note tutorial on her blog.

I don't really have much else to add tonight, this is just a quick update before I go to bed. Goodnight everyone!

The Launch of Luxe

There are going to be 2 posts today, my normal update entry and also following this one is going to be a tutorial on how to make Matchbook Notebooks.

I am excited. I need to pick a different emotion other than excited because it's what I choose all the time, but that's what I happen to be right now. Anyways, my jewelry boxes came in the mail the other day from TheCraftDragonfly and they are even more gorgeous than I thought they would be. I spruced them up with my signature Payson tag (the LUXE version, of course) and some pretty awesome ribbon.



I think they look absolutely fabulous.

I've been working on more product for PaysonToo but I still don't feel that I have enough product to open up the shop with. So for now it will just stay a buyer-only account.

And now I need to go get my fix of fall junk foods. Curse you candy corn, Malomars and Cranberry Splash Sierra Mist!

Stay tuned, I'll be posting that tutorial later.

Stacking rings!

I think that stacking rings are the perfect accessory. They're so much fun, so versatile, and they go with just about everything. I've finally got mine up and listed in my Etsy shop, go check them out!





I'm also working hard on my new Luxe line, and I've had this idea floating around to make yet another collection. The new one would be for all of my recycled jewelry, an eco-chic collection called PaysonToo. I have the idea in the works right now, I'm just doing too much at once to really give it my all.

My darling mother has spoken with her jeweler about my foray into metalsmithing and he's offered to teach me some of his tips and tricks. I'm so excited, I can't wait!

All my hard work with my Etsy shop is finally paying off, I've been so busy this month. I love it. I love when I have things to do, pieces to make, orders to be filled and shipped. I have so many more items to list and supplies to buy; sometimes I feel like it'll never get done. It just make me feel all the more accomplished when I finally do get everything finished. It really makes me proud.

Okay, I need to go tend to my Etsy addiction.

Excitement!

Today was exciting! The Boy and I were stuck in traffic most of the way, both times it was because of congestion around the Newburgh-Beacon bridge. So a 15 minute trip turned into a 45 minute trip. Luckily, I had the sound notion to bring my iPod with me today. I always knew it would come in handy. Anyway, today's adventures consisted of going to Fishkill to pick up The Boy's check, and then snailing our way over to Middletown, getting COMPLETELY LOST and spending $500 on a remote control car. For my part in being a supportive girlfriend, he took me to A C Moore, where I picked up a few things for myself. I got myself some leather, a stamp, some beads that were on clearance, and a picture frame for the gorgeous drawing I bought from fineartist on Etsy.

Today was also exciting, because I got my ring from markaplan from Etsy today! It is absolutely gorgeous! I lurves it. Now I have to lose 10 more lbs so I can get something else from my favourites.

I meant to go on about my new leather cuffs that I'm currently working on, but I got sidetracked by my shiny new ring. I've cut pieces of leather 1.5 inches wide and stamped them with an oil based paint. They're hanging up to dry right now, but here are some pictures of the progress:


I can't wait until they're dry so I can finish them! I've never worked with leather before, but it's something I've always wanted to do. I'm a big fan of cuffs, and I think this could be a pretty interesting project.

And remember my free gift with purchase in my Etsy shop from now until June 10th!

What's this? Free gift?

That's right. Now through June 10th I'll be giving away a free (surprise) gift with each purchase made from my Etsy store!

http://paysonwinters.etsy.com

I've been busy lately, promoting my shop and working on new items. I really want to take a metalsmithing class, but I don't know of anyone in the area who does them. My college doesn't offer one either, which makes me angry. I want to be able to make my own jewelry, instead of just assembling it like what I'm doing now. Anyone can do that. Not everyone can forge their own rings and pendants. That's what I want to be able to do. I want to add some unique items as well as some staple items such as hoops and rings and bangle bracelets. There's only so much you can do with beads, charms, and chains.

So as some of you may or may not know, I've started to diet again. I want to lose my weight slowly though, so my skin has time to shrink. There's nothing more disgusting than a person who's lost a tremendous amount of weight in a very short amount of time and has all that loose skin hanging off. No, that's just wrong. Anyways, I've been setting little goals for myself. I've just lost my first 10lbs so I bought myself this gorgeous ring from markaplan on Etsy. I'm going to do this for every 10lbs or so... Pick one item in my favourites on Etsy to reward myself for doing a good job. I think next I might get three of Gemma's Delicato stacking rings... I've been eyeing them for quite some time...

Aaaand I'm off. G'night.

Wholesale Informaion

This is a list of my wholesale rates. To inquire about wholesale orders please contact me via the Convo feature on Etsy.

My discount rates are as follows:

10-19 items: 25% discount off of retail price
20-29 items: 30% discount off of retail price
30-39 items: 35% discount off of retail price
40-49 items: 40% discount off of retail price
50+ items: 45% discount off of retail price

Payment is expected up front.

Turnaround time will be between 7-14 days, depending on the size of the order. Larger orders may require additional time to complete.

I ship wholesale orders via USPS Priority Mail to ensure that your package arrives to you quickly and safely.

I reserve the right to amend these rates at any time.

Last Updated 10.03.08