Bead on a Wire Blog

I have bought a lot of soap on Etsy over the past couple of years. The one word that continually comes to mind as I lather up in the shower every time is delicious. I love, love, love handmade soap and I will never go back to buying soap from large commercial companies again.

My most recent soap purchase was for this Pumpkin Marshmallow bar from Swan Mountain Soaps. The bar is huge and smelled heavenly when I took it out the paper wrap. But then it got even better, because it lathers up so well and feels soft on my skin. I have another bar waiting for use under my bathroom sink, Bourbon de Vanille, that I’m looking forward to using next.

Other soaps I have enjoyed include the Peach Magnolia from Kreated by Karina. This one smelled warm and soothing.

Cherry Blossom by Mountain Mama Chic. Smelled lovely and of spring.

Blackberry Sage by Shine Your Hiney Soap Co. I love the shop name - so clever. I liked the crispness of the sage with the berry aroma.

No words can describe the pleasure of Chocolate Cardamom from Savor. The name says it all, right? This one didn’t last long enough to suit me. (But that’s not to say it wasn’t long lasting - I just wanted more!)

I should also mention the non-soap items that I have bought, used, and loved…

The Milk and Honey Lotion Bar from 4th Avenue Soap Co. I have had this for a couple of years and I keep it in my purse. The tops of my hands get super dry in winter - this bar is perfect for applying lotion only to the dry areas and it feels soft and non-greasy. I plan to buy another one, if she still carries them, when she reopens her shop.

Bathing in Luxury’s OCV Whipt Pudding is my all-time winter favorite. OCV stands for orange, clove, vanilla - these three scents smell divine, like Grandma’s kitchen at Christmas. And the silkly soft warmth of the cream as it gets smoothed into my skin is wonderful. I use this on my dry legs in the winter - it’s my bedtime and post-shaving treat.

There are plenty of other wonderful soap-makers on Etsy, too. I plan to buy from more sellers, but I’ll go back for more of these favorites, too.

I have been busy creating in the past couple of months as I gear up for the annual Tea For All Reasons Open House. Sadly, this is the last TFAR Open House since my parents are moving away from this area sometime next spring. I know that my mother’s loyal customers are deeply disappointed to hear that news as much as I am.

Anyhow, I’ve been busy. Here are a few of the new items that have already sold in my Etsy shop:

The Agate and Jasper Necklace

… and matching earrings

Vintage Rhinestone Shoe Clips

Vintage Thai Princess Ring

Recycled Hand in Time 2 Necklace

There are other items sold, too. More than I remembered!

It’s been a pretty good fall for sales so far, considering the many months that I let things languish at the end of my pregnancy and soon after my daughter was born in late March.

… And I wish you and yours a very happy new year.

Big changes coming in 2009 for me.

1. First off, I’ve decided to take the “move the shop” plunge at Etsy. Beginning Jan 1 (actually, I’ve already got stuff listed and had one sale), my shop will be found at BeadWire.etsy.com. It’s way more professional than jenspeaks and there are personal reasons for doing away with that handle in my business anyway.

Related to the move is a rebranding. I’m very excited about my new look! It’ll be the same basic color scheme, but with a lovely, more elegant touch.

2. Second, more personal than business is the coming of our second child in the spring. I’m heading into the third trimester, which is hard to believe really. Just about 90 days go to until this baby arrives. We won’t know the sex until birth because the baby didn’t cooperate at the final ultrasound. So we’re working on two names to have ready on the big birthday.

3. Third, there’s the possibility of a job change in my future with my full time job. I’m excited about the possibility, but wondering how it will affect my business. Considering the guy I’d be working for, I don’t think it will have much impact - he’s a great guy.

I’m excited about 2009 and all of the potential for expanding and learning new things.

My happy bride’s mother bought jewelry for the wedding as well. I’ll be doing a necklace and earrings to match her dress. We have discussed ideas and I’m just waiting for my supply order to arrive to begin work.

In other news, three items sold in the shop this weekend, which was a nice surprise.

My latest bridal customer sent the following yesterday, after she received her custom bridal jewelry set:

O MY GOODNESS JEN!!!!!!

I just got the package today and could not wait to open it. Once I saw it I almost started crying because it was just so perfect and beautiful! It looks so much more beautiful in person and I could never thank you enough for making something that was so beautiful and perfect for my wedding. It truly means the world to me that you put that much time and effort into helping me and make my jewelry. Thank you so much and I will be telling EVERYONE about your awesome work and helpful manner.

I love a happy customer.

When I got married I did a lot of the printing myself. I printed our invitation envelopes and the maps/directions inside. I printed our wedding program, which turned into a little booklet since we sang 4 old hymns and I included the lyrics to them inside as well as the program/people information. I printed the rehearsal reminder notes to our bridal party to let them know of the date/time/location/other specifics. And I printed the tags for our wedding favors and for the gifts that I gave to the women in our bridal party. (The link is to my mother’s shop, she did our wedding favors and the ones pictured in the listing are from my wedding.)

Since Mom offers wedding favors in her shop, I get recruited to do the tags. So she has a new bridal client for 150 favors needed for an August wedding and I’ve been put into service. The colors are brown (mocha) and teal. The bride’s invitations were on cream cardstock. So I’ll be doing a few tag samples to include with the ribbon samples that Mom will send to the bride for final approval. I’ve ordered sample sheets of cardstock from the vendor I used for my wedding. Once I get those in, I’ll start designing and printing and cutting.

It’s a nice side job for my creative self. I have no plans to get into graphic design or printing. I don’t have the skills or capability for making that a full craft in my repertoire. But it’s fun to do anyway.

For my 2 regular readers, I am alive and working. Just not working on my business lately - still in vacation mode.

That said I have been working on it some:

1. I bought new storage containers for my beads. I bought two, but I think I need at least 3-4 more. Crazy! I definitely like how they look lined up on my craft table. It’s much cleaner and easier to find the beads that I want. And because the drawers come out completely, I can rearrange them easily.

Next up: a label maker so that I can mark the drawers and really get the beads organized.

2. I’m still waiting for the supplies I ordered for the new bridal set. I’m excited about this one because it’s a different style from the others that I have made.

3. My good friend’s youngest daughter is graduating from high school next week. What’s crazy is that when I first met them, this child was 9 months old and amazingly cute with white hair that stood straight up like a baby chick’s. She is now a very lovely young lady and still light blonde. Where does the time go?

Anyway, I was trying to come up with a creative gift idea and then it hit me - jewelry! She’s a girly girl who loved every second of helping to plan her older sister’s wedding (I helped as coordinator). As her sister made decisions, she would whisper into my ear the things she would like for her wedding when she gets married - all were much more formal and traditional. Since I know this about her, I think I’ll do something in pearls for her - a bracelet and earrings. Although I think her ears are not pierced, so I need to check on that with her Mom.

4. My mother is still selling well with her Etsy shop. I spend more time on her shop these days than my own. New teas have been added and she has some teas newly discounted as well, including some she is closing out. So go check them out and buy now because when those teas are gone, they’re gone.

5. The PayPerPosts have dried up. While I was on vacation my Google PageRank sank from 3 to 0. So now I don’t qualify for most opportunities that get listed which makes it hard for me to increase my chances for better opps. So you’re spared from blatant advertising for a while.

6. It stinks because I was really hoping to earn more side money to pay for our trip to California. At least we didn’t spend as much at Disney, so we have that leftover money available. And we found a hotel for half of what I had been seeing, so that’s a huge money saver. My husband is now planning our touristy things for that week, one of which is a trip to Monterey (one of the places I lived when in high school - it’s one of my favorite places, too) where I want to go to Cannery Row and the Aquarium.

7. I still want to feature other Etsians here, so I’ll get to working on that…

I received the following feedback from the bride who received her custom bridal set on Monday.

Oh, Jen! The set arrived earlier this afternoon (the 19th), and it is ABSOLUTELY gorgeous! My fiancé picked up the delivery from my doorstep and said he thought it was gorgeous, brought it to me when he fetched me from work, and then I put it on later because we both wanted to see how it was! I will DEFINITELY send you pictures after the wedding, but I have to thank you over and over again for the lovely set!

It doesn’t get better than that.

*happy sigh*

First, I finished and shipped the Elizabeth bridal set this week. I really hope the bride is pleased with her custom bridal jewelry. Here’s the finished necklace.

Second, remember the key fob bracelet that I made for my sister a few weeks ago? She likes it so much that she sent an email to all of the ladies that she works with and generated four orders for me. One has since canceled her order (no reason given - no worries, that’s her prerogative), but three custom orders is still pretty good! I am waiting for supplies to arrive and then I will make and ship them to my sister to hand deliver at her office.

Third, my mother and I are working on a cross-promotional package to be listed in both of our shops. I have made a beaded tea infuser for breast cancer awareness (I have one made, still need to photograph it. And I need to get more of the pink ribbon charms to make more so that we each have one in stock for our individual listings). She has a tea for the same. So we’re going to each create a listing for a combo of the tea and infuser and we will donate 10% of the profits to the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute. We think it will make a great gift for a woman who is dealing with yucky treatments for breast cancer.

I’m so glad I logged on to Etsy early this morning. I know that they’re changing the front page Treasury selections more often now, so I may have missed seeing my mother’s shop featured on the front page if I had waited to get on the computer for another hour or so.

Congrats, Mom! It’s nice to see that you get featured that way. I have no doubt you’ll appear on the front page again.

And you have the potential to become a Top Seller. We have long known that you have a great product. We just needed to get the word out to others. Now they’ll spread the word as well…