The first weekend of holiday shopping is almost over, and we are quite pleased! Although I think Rachel may be a little overwhelmed with all of the packaging and mailing. We were really excited about Black Friday, but we expected sales to go down instead of up for the rest of the weekend. I'm thinking that Sunday really deserves its own shopping name because we got a surprising number of orders.
Also, we passed 100 sales this weekend, I wanted to have some kind of celebration, but it's already the big shopping weekend. Oh well, maybe at 200!
Here are some cake and cookies though,
All that being said, it's Cyber Monday today, so our sale continues on. We're hoping for some more great buyers today. All of our jewelry ships free and comes with a free lip balm. http://www.etsy.com/shop/ajoeynamedroo
Two sales so far today. I was a little afraid that despite all of the hype we wouldn't have any, so we're quite relieved. Both items were also black, so obviously the sale has been effective.
Here's hoping that the rest of the weekend matches Black Friday's success!!
For tomorrow's black friday extravaganza we thought it would be fun to have a sale on everything that's black in our store. That means plenty of lip balm, necklaces and earrings as well as a soap and bracelet. Stay tuned all weekend for more new and interesting discounts.
Free shipping on any black item, and a free lip balm of your choice!
So, Rachel and I went to our first craft show a few weeks ago. We started out a little late, unorganized and stressed, but we got our act together pretty quickly. For a good (or not so good) hour we had literally sold to one person, and she is my boyfriend's mother! We totally appreciated her purchase, but then after a while, we started to worry about our inability to attract customers.
Finally some strangers showed up at our table, the key however, was the samples. Once we started giving out samples people stopped and looked, and we ended up with a pretty good amount of sales.
One of the best things about the show was that I got a better idea of what real life people are attracted to, even if they didn't decide to purchase. I think that knowledge gained will be uber beneficial.
It was actually really funny because we were set up beside another set of sisters, who had awesome stuff and were pretty awesome themselves. The woman behind us also had beautiful stuff and Rachel got a purse from her.
This body butter is scrumptious. It's super thick, so it's perfect for the coming winter months.
I LOVE the scent too. I was afraid that it would be too sweet. The kind of thing where the smell of your own skin can give you a headache. It is not that way at all though.
Instead of being that really high almost shallow smell of icing, this birthday cake smells like the entire cake. There's also a slight scent of cocoa butter which is what gives the smell its depth. Because of the warm deep smell of cocoa butter it makes me think of a chocolate birthday cake, then the sugar and vanilla combine to smell just like the vanilla icing.
And there you have it. I made you a birthday cake out of words. Enjoy!
I have to give this little craft advertising site some credit, and some business (a little self gratifying as well since I have my link there, hehe).
Anyway, I totally feel invested with the site, since I was one of the first 25, and therefore get free advertising for life. Jackpot! Also, I gave them a few tips on link referral, and they're kind of local, about an hour away from where I live. What's not to love!
I had my doubts about the site at first (it has cartoon moving graphics), but they have really deliverer. I am always excited to see them as one of my top referring sites on google analytics. I am very impressed!
Here is the first of the lip scrubs that I described yesterday. REMEMBER: Do not eat, simply taste! Hehe, or I guess you could eat them, but they wouldn't last nearly as long!
They're made with organic and fair trade sugar, but you don't have to pay out the wazoo for them! (apparently that's how you spell wazoo, I didn't know, but for some reason spell check did)
This flavor is sweet peppermint, stay tuned for chocolate and dark brown sugar
While I was home for the craft fair Rachel and I made some great scrubs, for your lips AND your body. I had never heard of a lip scrub, but they feel really nice, and let me tell you a secret...they also taste really good! Rachel kept accusing me of eating them, I wasn't though, you can't help but get a little in your mouth!
Right now we just have the body scrubs up on etsy though, but the others are soon to make an appearance. We have cotton candy sugar scrub, which is really sweet and wonderful, and mint and ivy salt scrub, which has a nice clean scent, and finer crystals. The cotton candy is pink. I had to stop Rachel from trying to make it look like a highlighter! I said "everyone doesn't want to put super bright colors on their skin!" So now it's a pale pink as you can see. The salt scrub has no color, which I also had to insist on, so it's a nice pure white, LOVELY.
It's been a while since I posted. I promised a picture of my Halloween costume, and I'm going to kind of deliver. My camera was dead, so there's only one picture and it does not actually show my costume.
It kind of stinks, I worked pretty hard on my black widow spider costume and now I have no documentation. Oh well. I'm with Wayne and Garth from Wayne's world if you didn't know.
I'll post some pictures and such of the craft show soon. They're on my mom's camera, so I'll get them over Thanksgiving break.
I made another new treasury! Once I make one, I always just get really excited and want to make more.
My increased crafting focus could also have to do with the fact that I have a 20 page paper due at the end of the semester, and it's beginning to look even more overwhelming.
I just keep having to remind myself that first- I will finish it because I have to, and I've never just not written a final paper, and second- ignoring it does not make it go away, a little at a time will make me way less stressed!
Anyway, I promised a treasury, and then I bored you with school talk. How rude!
This treasury is inspired by my mom, since I'm trying to figure out what to give her for Christmas. These are her favorite colors!
I'm so excited! We're featured in two treasuries! This has never happened! Here they are, so go and do some clicking!
Aren't treasuries wonderful!
I love looking through them, and making them!
Treasuries really are such a treat! Can you believe it?
On one of the treasury guides, it says not to contact the
people you feature, etsy considers that spam. If that's
spam, then I love spam---Bring it on!
Bright Pink and Electric Blue Mosaic Necklace
recently listed this pretty and interesting necklace. I made each bead have progressively more color as you reach the middle. It's hard to do something new and interesting sometimes with polymer clay, but I think this design adds some interest! I'm trying to step up production in time for a holiday fair that the sis and I are going to in Asheville.
In case you're in the area, it's at TC Roberson on Saturday, the 14th. I'll try to make sure I take lots of pictures. It'll be my first craft show, so I'm pretty excited!
I grabbed the moment and created a treasury to finish up my gift guide series. The new items are food, drink, home decor, and an awesome journal. It was easier than I thought to find classy and whimsical handmade stuff for guys. So, for the holidays, etsy has some great stuff for everyone! Sorry etsy, I promise never to doubt you again.
Monday, November 2, 2009
This belt is really clever. It's called a wikipedia belt, and the words are sized by how many times they appear on the "belt" page. How very self-referential! I think it's an awesome idea, and who doesn't love wiki. It's only $15, so it's quite a steal. This makes a great gift because, as I think most guys would agree, you can't have too many belts. I know Mitchell needs a brown one because he wears his green one with everything!
Sunday, November 1, 2009
I love the simple color and shape of this soap. There are also a wide variety of choices, with many scents that sound great for manly men: Stroke me, Blue, Velvet Pleasures, and Romp through the woods look especially yummy.
I love masculine smells, so this present would be a perfect present for me too, since I'm the one who would get to smell it every day!
