Prettiest Ever

Here is the link to my prettiest treasury EVER!
I love it! I was inspired by my Christmas at home. I just started decorating yesterday. :) More soon to come!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4ccf9db42c218eef437517c2/red-christmas

I can't believe it!

I only have a month and a half left of school before I finally get my Bachelor's Degree. After I am done with school, I'll start looking for a more full-time job, but until then, I will (hopefully) have even more time to dedicate to my beloved Etsy shop. Meanwhile, I am going to try something that is supposed to be trendy this fall-- Military stuff! I have a few ideas and some supplies already that I am pleased to announce are UPCYCLED! I love using upcycled stuff, it's just a rarity for me. My father in law gave me a bunch of his old army stuff-- blank dog tags and the stay-brite buttons with the Army Seal on them. I have some ideas for the dog tags, and some ideas for the buttons, but I am still waiting on my sewing machine. Hopefully it will be fixed soon and I can start practicing.

My fanpage has grown about 10 members lately, and my twitter following has exploded! (Well... relatively, anyway. Everything is relative, right?) Now, I just need the sales in my shop to follow the same trend. I have been working on refreshing listings (not renewing, but giving them makeovers). Hopefully, it works.

As far as the home front, things have been a roller coaster with sick family members, car wrecks, and a death, not to mention that graduation in the fairly near future. Child care has been a nightmare lately because of everything that has been happening. I just have to keep telling myself "One more month! One MORE MONTH!"

We No Speak Americano ft. Cleary & Harding

Frankenstein

So, I made a new treasury today!
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4cb5fa74c3a68eef625b34db/frankenstein-fever

And, Frankenstein has inspired my next line of stuff, so sit tight! I am going to launch a line of Frankenstein necklaces and hair clips, so I will post when that is about to be released! For now, they're still in the works!

For now, though, I am about to list another set of clips in... GREEN!

Fall Break To-Do List

Well, since I am on Fall Break, and ideally, I've got some "extra" time on my hands, I'm going to try to work on some things.
1. Take better pictures of my bat clips, and probably the other clips that are waiting to be listed
2. List the other clips!
3. See if any other items need to be rephotographed.
4. Go to the stores and shop for new supplies. My supplies need a makeover!
5. Figure out a sale that will be effective. Any suggestions?
6. Promote promote promote.

Any other things to put on my to-do list?

Once Again, It has been a while...

I don't know why I have been so bad at keeping up with this blog, but I have been! I just introduced a new line of hair clips today in my shop. They are so cute!

As far as what's "in" for winter, I have no idea! I am curious if military-style stuff will carry on through the cold season. I would imagine that shiny, sparkly stuff will be in, as always it seems. I went to a wholesale decor store today, and as far as Christmas decor goes, polar bears and white seem to be really "in", but I suspect that there won't be too much polar-bear-inspired jewelry...

I guess I should get on the "What's in"... I hope everyone is having an amazing autumn!

Poison + Apples = My Newest Addition to the Shop!

So, today I unveiled my newest project: Hair Accessories! Woohoo! I listed Sweet n' Punky Poison Apple Hair Pins, in sets of 2 for $5.00 a pair. Here's the listing: http://www.etsy.com/listing/52555046/sweet-n-punky-poison-apple-hair-pins

Next, I'll be working on some Kawaii hair clips, which I am super excited for. I just wish I was getting some sales this month! Good golly! I even mentioned a Sale #10 Sale on my fanpage (http://www.facebook.com/kissvamps) but still no sales, and my fanpage is very inactive on my fans' parts, which is a bummer! I would love to be able to interact with them!

But, it's already looking like I need to order more cabochons for my clips, which is a good thing!

I am not sure what else is coming soon, but I'll be sure to keep in touch! In the meantime, please check out my shop! http://kissvamps.etsy.com

Can you say, "Kawaii"?

So, I am taking another leap of faith that will hopefully produce better results than my last one. I am venturing into the world of hair accessories. Soon, I'll be introducing two new clips: poison apples and kawaii baby deer.

I am hoping that even though these items won't cost much, they will help bring in other sales, and sales=profit.

I'm also working on a business plan so I can get real with kissvamps on Etsy.

Keep an eye on my shop for the newest additions! http://kissvamps.etsy.com

Ok, so...

I picked up 4 more followers! Thanks for following guys!

Business was good last month. This month, I have only had one sale. Part of it is my fault, though, because I haven't been on Etsy as much because I went on vacation.

I am considering having a Sale # 10 sale but I'm only at 7 on Etsy... hmmm... What do you think?

I have some supplies I need to list and a necklace to make. I just need to find the time! I have been so busy lately! I think I am also going to look for a new job so that I am getting paid more than once a month. We shall see how that goes. I need more income!

Well, I just have time for a quick update! Take care!

http://kissvamps.etsy.com

Good Golly It's Been a While

So... it has been a month and 2 days since my last post! OUCH!

Well, the month of June was bittersweet. I had 4 sales (including 1 non-Etsy sale) and that was great. This month, I have been featured in two treasuries:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c29f760dc1a6d914f039c95/team-edward-vs-team-jacob-twilight

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c3152ba55036d917cd0d29d/late-for-tea

And I have had one sale! It was my fastest sale EVER!

I made 4 items the other night, one of them was the button bracelet I sold yesterday, one is the Pretty in Pink Lariat: http://www.etsy.com/listing/50795750/pretty-in-pink-giant-ring-lariat and the other two are coming soon, along with my newest adventure- SUPPLIES!

Another record: My shop is the fullest it has ever been! My plan is to keep expanding it until I can't handle another single item. We shall see.

Now that I have my own office space, I am loving it. I have the computer desk, two rubbermaid drawer bins, a box for ready-to-ship stuff, some tackle boxes and a couple bead boxes. I think that Etsy is the most organized part of my life.

So, it would seem that Etsy is really starting to pay off for me. I hope my success continues!

Thanks for reading! I'll try to get back on again soon!

-Ashley
http://kissvamps.etsy.com

Number Four

I got my fourth sale today! Yay! One more to my goal of 5. Next goal? Ten. Baby steps.

Speaking of babies, my daughter is getting really good at not having accidents. She didn't have even one today! WooHoo! Hopefully it won't be much longer til she is potty trained.

I got my office space set up *finally*! It looks pretty good, except I need to clear the clutter off. Hubby likes it so much he even does his homework there. :) I just want to get a bulletin board now to hang my current projects on. That would be awesome. I need to earn some more money, first though. It's so easy to get carried away with this "business"... Baby steps.

I'm nearly done with my evil eye necklace. Hooray! I'll probably list it Saturday, if I can get it finished tomorrow night and photograph it Saturday day. I'm so excited! It's going to be very funky!

Also, there are 4 more days to enter in the giveaway for my Twilight So the Lion fell in love with the Lamb earrings! http://www.joyfulreviewsandgiveaways.com and then click on my name (kissvamps) under giveaways on the right side of her page. :)

I may teach myself how to sew a little bit and make some bows to put in my shop. We shall see!

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

But Of Course!

What a busy day today was! Remember the list I made yesterday about all the things I needed/wanted to do today? Guess how many I got to?




None.



Surprise!

We ended up going to the in-laws' for the day and BBQing. My daughter got worn out, so she's asleep. I am so tired that my vision is cloudy, so I don't think that creating at this point in time is a good idea, and it's too late to start shuffling things around for my desk.

On another non-business related note, I SO hope that my school gets my student loan $$$ tomorrow. If not, then I am so screwed!!!!!!!!! So, hopefully, things turn out alright. I may have to go up there in the afternoon to sort some things out. I am praying that things go okay.

I am really not a religious person, but I find myself praying inside a lot lately. It's interesting.

I am craving a Coke so bad. And Red Vines. WTH?! We have Coke, but no licorice. Not that I need any more junk this weekend.

We just started buying stuff for my daughter's birthday party in a couple months. I know it seems kinda far out, but we aren't the type to just drop a bunch of cash on something all at once. We got some party lanterns and a couple of favors. We also got stuff for her "Potty Treat Bag" because we are trying really hard to get that girl potty-trained. I am ready to tear my hair out. I know she's not even 2, but she is so ready. I just feel like I'm the only one on board, along with my mom. Nobody else is like... willing to help out. And my mom is willing to lecture me about DD's readiness, but not willing to put the kid on the pot if I am in the middle of making dinner. Hubby rolls his eyes like I have no idea what I'm talking about and my dad and sister ignore it unless DD is pissing on the floor. Hubby's parents are... lazy about it. Even though I have asked them time and again to put her on the potty every 45 min or so, they don't. I know they don't. FRUSTRATING.

Anyway, this is supposed to be mainly business, so I'll get back to that in my next post. Good night.

Production Assistance

I have finally got so many ideas for creating (well, a few, anyway) but... I can't escape my toddler! So tomorrow, I am hoping I will have a chance to kick my daughter and hubby out for a bit so I can get *something* Etsy-related created, and maybe set up my office space I blogged about. We'll see how lucky I actually end up being.

How is everyone's Memorial Weekend going? Mine's going alright, it's a pretty typical weekend for me, nothing terribly exciting. I am going out to my grandfather's grave tomorrow. I feel bad, I haven't been out to it for a while.

My free shipping sale ended. Guess how many sales that resulted in?!

That's right. 0

Hopefully I will be able to start establishing myself and build a following or some kind of customer base. BAH! It's so frustrating sometimes.

I am really hoping all of my Twilight bracelets will sell. I know I blog about them all the time, but I put a lot of love and time and work into them. It would be a tragedy if nothing ever came of them. And it would also burn a huge hole in my pocket. I guess in the end, the lesson learned would be that I was never meant to be a gambler,seeing the risk I took in making them.

Tomorrow, I am hoping to do:
Evil Eye Necklace
Twilight Earrings
Office Space
Pass out some business cards
...And as always, get a sale. The above 4 are probably a lot easier to do, even combined, than it is to get a sale at the moment.

OH the other thing I want to do within the next week or so is get a planter ready for a tomato plant to keep at my parents' house since we get no sun at our apartment. Yay!

I am getting tired of our apartment. In the last month or 2, it seems like the quality of people, at least in our stairwell, has really gone to crap... that's all I'm gonna say. But seriously, it makes me wonder if I need to like... load a gun at night. Ok, maybe not quite that bad, but it's not such a stretch, either. Ahh... the joys of communal living. <3

I'm being featured in a giveaway!

Attn: All TWILIGHT Fans!!! I am being featured in a giveaway! Here is the link:

www.joyfulreviewsandgiveaways.com

So enter to win! My item is being featured June 1-7 for a giveaway, so hurry!

My item is a pair of "So the Lion fell in love with the Lamb" earrings, a perfect compliment to my Twilight-themed charm bracelets for sale in my shop: http://kissvamps.etsy.com

I picked to have my giveaway at the beginning of June so recipients could get the earrings in time to wear to the Twilight: Eclipse premier June 30! So, make sure if you want a charm bracelet, you have it before then, too!

Have a great day!!!

Sell the Old, in With the New

Trying to come up with something new...

I think my next project is going to be an Evil Eye necklace. It's gonna be cool.

The best news this week: I am getting my own office space. We sold a computer to my sister, so now I get both sides of our desk to keep my Etsy and school stuff at. Now, I just need to start organizing it all. I am super stoked. I will have to put photos up after I get everything set up.

And... as soon as I figure out how to attach plastic to ribbon for the necklace, that will be up, too :)

Free Shipping!

To those of you who just may happen upon my blog, I am doing...


FREE SHIPPING

until Friday, May 28, 2010.

Sooooo... now you just need to happen upon my shop: http://kissvamps.etsy.com and buy something! Thank you, thank you.


:)

Sales

So, naturally, sales for me are slow, since I am still fairly new at this whole Etsy thing, but I keep feeling like a sale is near. I should really just stop thinking about it because it's really sad to log on to Etsy and... I *still* have 13 items for sale in my shop. I am especially surprised none of my Twilight bracelets have sold, especially because one of them got so many views so much faster than virtually any of my other listings. Bummer.

I got an idea from another Etsian on the Forums yesterday: Make matching earrings for people who have more than one whole in each ear. How cool is that?! I'm so used to making dangling earrings, so making matching posts will be interesting and fun.

It was really neat going through my mother-in-law's jewelry the other day- she had a door knocker pendant with an amethyst stone in it. She gave it to me. It's so neat! I'm deciding if I want to try my luck with it on Etsy or keep it for myself. She also had some gold rose screw earrings (the way old fashioned kind that you don't need pierced ears for and they screw to tighten to your ears). I am holding on to those for my daughter because my grandma gave me my great grandma's yellow rose earrings that had the screw backs for our wedding. It would be a fun tradition.

Well, that's all for tonight. Thanks for reading! Have a great week!

What a week!

This has been such a crazy week! School just started again Monday. I am really hoping to get stuff moving out of my shop. I am very excited to announce that I am going to be featured in a couple of blogs soon! One of them is http://orangeblossom.blogspot.com
The other, I will get back to you on, because I don't know the name off the top of my head.

If you're interested in buying something from the shop, mention my blog (and follow it) for a 10% discount!!!

Coming up, I'm going to be creating and, ideally, improving my photos. I think I've already come leaps and bounds from my first photos, but you'll never see them! I change my photos out often as I improve.

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to check out my shop! http://kissvamps.etsy.com, and don't forget to check out orangeblossom's shop: http://orangeblossom.etsy.com

Twilight Inspired Charm Bracelets are IN!!!

After many hours of hard work and lots of love, the Twilight charm bracelets have *finally* been listed in my shop, http://kissvamps.etsy.com ! I have hand picked and hand assembled every charm, every detail!


Bracelets have the following charms!
*I <3 Edward, with an added red crystal for the heart
*A king chess piece
*A queen chess piece (chess pieces are from the cover of Breaking Dawn)
*Forks (for Forks, Washington)
*An opalite moonstone heart (resembling vampire skin) adorned with a black crystal
*A lamb
*A lion
*An apple (from the cover of Twilight)
*A bow (in place of the ribbon on the cover of Eclipse)
*A red flower with a pearl center (cover of New Moon)
*A "Vampire Groupie" tag.

A wire-wrapped pearl is incorporated into the chain for added beauty and detail.

Thank you to my sister for modeling! Check out her shop at http://kisszombies.etsy.com

Here are some photos of these awesome bracelets! And, sorry if there are any repeats!!!

Again, these bracelets are available in my shop: http://kissvamps.etsy.com

Third Sale

I got my third sale tonight!!! Woo hoo! I feel like jumping for joy!

Also, one of my students told me I was the best teacher ever. I feel so fortunate today. :)

http://kissvamps.etsy.com
http://twitter.com/kissvamps

Find me on Facebook!

Sometimes, there just aren't enough hours in a day...

Today has been so busy, I feel like I've had hardly any time for Etsy. I started my day taking my daughter to a reading circle at a library. She had fun, and I trampled a little kid. His mommy was... mean. Then, my friend and I took our girls to their swimming lesson, and then we went to lunch. When we got home, I got on Etsy to catch up on the latest, and I was so tired that I couldn't see straight. It was so strange. So, I napped, then got ready for work and went to work. Work was crazy- so many kids were disappearing today! Luckily we were able to get all of them out the door safely. Then, I photographed my newest listing in the shop: http://www.etsy.com/listing/46795237/summer-blooms-charm-bracelet

I'm going to have to photograph the bracelet again because the lighting isn't quite the way I Like it, but it will work for now. Then, (obviously) I listed it. It got several views pretty fast! I just hope it sells soon! My stuff has got to get moving!!!

Hopefully the rest of the week won't be as crazy as today has been. I can't wait for things to settle back down again.

Thanks for dropping by!

Blog Day One

Hello all! Welcome to my blog! I can promise you several things:

1. I will try to blog at least once a week;

2. I will try to blog about *interesting* things, like what my current inspiration is, what I'm working on, how I choose what to buy and how I put things together;

3. I will answer your questions;

4. I will try to get you guys involved!

I think that the most important thing a business could do is involve its patrons/potential patrons. It's how you get to know me, and how I get to know you.

Factoid: Kissvamps is my identity for a few reasons: my sister has a shop on Etsy, too, called Kisszombies, so I played off her name. I picked Vampires because I love them- I think they are fascinating and wonderful and horrible-- not that I like horrible things, but I'm sure some of you get what I am saying.

Have a great day!