august '11 round up

time for a monthly post :)

August was expected to be a busy time for me locally, with the festive season at the end of the month, I worked on more custom pieces than usual. Many of them ordered to match with their new clothes, just like what happens during chinese new year come every January ;)

Over at the Etsy front, I worked hard as well, 15 pieces plus reworked listing details for a couple of expired ones.
Am satisfied :)

As I'm reflecting on the past month's activities, my mind's is actually filled with the new goodies my best friend is bringing home for me, especially the half kilo (about a pound) of colouful heart shaped beads, simply can't wait to get my hands on them!
 

july round up

July has been hectic...

Days just flew by with cleaning up my new home, packing then unpacking and busying about with all the stuff related to house moving, very very tiring!

Which meant my jewellery business was neglected quite a bit, but proud that I still managed to have 10 new pieces up in my etsy store, mostly done during the first half of the month. 

August will be interesting, I have splurged (ouch! temptation got the better of me) on gemstones, very pretty ones in the most awesome colours :)))

(I never knew gemstones can come in such myriad of colours until I did some research)

Also, 3 whole container full of new charms arrived a week ago! I have been so busy the past few days that I haven't really looked into my parcel, anyway, expect lots of new goodies posted up the second half of this month!

(got to catch up on the local orders on hand first)

june round up

clockwise from top: 

convertible chain

thea

blitz- camera

kaleidoscope

 red rose

I have been hardworking! :)

A (can I say whopping?) total of 14 items listed in my etsy store during the 30 days of June.

 Would have been 15 if I did not spend hours editing bracelet length details on friday, reworking on all bracelets one by one, must say that was tiring!

Let me know if you think any parts of it needs to be clearer for potential buyers, thanks for your suggestion!

  

 Sales wise was alright but I heard views are generally lower during summertime in the northern hemisphere?

:(

Anyway, for July I do hope I'll be able to continue listing new items at this same rate, considering I'll be busy moving to my new home (YAY!) and a new shipment of supplies are arriving end of the month (double yay!)

Off to finalize my new bead stock now, ciao ;)

may round up

a post that is way too late, almost irrelevant now, oops!

I don't have the habit of blogging regularly (yet!), maintaining this blog is always one of the last things on my mind, which explains why this place is so sorely neglected, sorry!

anyway, back to talking about May, the first 3 weeks were really great, I thought it would be my best month yet, but sales abruptly stopped at the last week, both etsy & local stores.

Locally I guess it was due to exam time but internationally I'm still inexperienced to notice any trends. I have read enough 'business articles' to know sales come in waves so during the quiet period I took the chance to brainstorm new styles and ended up creating many new pieces :))

Some are already listed on my etsy store, more coming soon! 

  

april round up

Hibiscus

April was great! I have been more focused on my online businesses after the opening of the boutique (where I had rented a table for my jewellery). So far that has been doing alright, taking into consideration the shop is still very new, I'm quite optimistic sales will pick up very soon! :)

fingers crossed.

11 new items were listed in my etsy store over the past month, not bad I would say. But since I have been eyeing some new beading materials lately (intricately designed Cloisonne beads in the most amazing colours!) & am planning for a huge splurge in July, so I better be working hard these coming 2 months if I were to shop without guilt by then! :)

march round up

Springtime Butterflies

In short, march just flew past me...

I worked extremely hard, making jewellery round the clock for my retail debut on April 15.

I rented a 1 meter table (3 feet) from a boutique located in a shopping mall, this will mark my first foray offline!

Very excited, I'm almost ready with a couple more simple 1 charm bracelets to complete and admin work left to do.

Sorry that this blog has been neglected while my etsy store was updated with 5 new items only throughout the month, I promise to make it up by listing more designs sometime late April, right after I get my retail spot done :)

 Lots of new designs were made last month, do give me some time to take photos & you will see them available really soon!

february round up

Happy things happened in February, for that alone I'm grateful ;)

I didn't have much beading time last month (occupied with Chinese New Year celebrations taking up a whole week), and I mostly spent the little time that I had on local orders, which is an excuse why only 9 new pieces up over at Etsy!

New supplies are due to arrive anytime now, (think lightbulb charms, mirror pendants.... absolutely adorable stuff!) so I predict March is a month I'll be spending my day having fun at working on new designs!

Time to brainstorm some ideas before the parcel arrives, as (happy) chaos is almost guaranteed!

♥

 I'm in the midst of securing a small booth at a major mall in the city, if I decided to take it up I would most probably be holed up working on it for the rest of the month, which means neglecting this blog & my etsy quite a bit.....

decisions, decisions to make!!

 ♥

january round up

Magical bracelet

Say hello to February, woot!

January was a hardworking month, updated my etsy store with 18 new pieces and working a lot more on local orders. For the first time in my 2 year old local store I had a waiting list! Not exactly a good thing, because I was feeling rather terrible that my buyers have to wait, I used to ship orders out within 2 days, or 3 days max. During the busy period last month, it stretched up to 2 weeks... Oh my! On the other hand, I'm absolutely thrilled that they would be so sweet to wait for me, some even told me to 'take your time, it's alright'.

Aww..... :))

January was busy partly due to the Chinese New Year celebrations in early February. The Chinese all dress up in their new clothes so I was rushing to get all orders completed by then. How relieved I was when they were all done!

I'm taking a week off too this Spring Festival (as it is known in China), I think it's almost 6 days already since I last played with my pliers, definitely one of the longest periods I have gone without working at my bead table!

My fingers are itching, ideas are spinning around in mind, I guess it's a signal for me to lodge myself at my favourite spot at home ;)

Pretty sure I will having a blast beading away this noon!

(before relatives start dropping by my home & the dinner tonight, chinese new year is my most cherished time of the year)

december round up

With just 7 new pieces listed in December, I slacked a little (yes, just a bit!). I created at my own sweet pace and did not push myself at all to take photos, edit them, list new items and all the works related, it was truly relaxing & refreshing! I'm a one woman show, so it's always tough to pull myself away from the business as how many sales I make each month is relative to how hard I had worked. As with everyone else in this dog-eat-dog world, it's natural to keep pushing our limits. In December I decided to slow down this vicious cycle and had the pleasure of 'comfort crafting'!
 

Now that I'm all recharged & raring to go, definitely expect more new pieces this month, in fact I have made a couple of new necklaces, here's a sneak peek:
 

Here's to a blessed new year! ♥♥

november round up

November's been great, on the local front I had a big order that had me working harder than usual, coupled with a few etsy purchases in time for christmas, that was the icing on the cake! =)

13 new pieces and now my store has page 4, i take every step as an achievement.

Thank you for an amazing month, I am grateful!
 

october round up

Hello november, october sure has passed us by fast!

Cloud vector credits: http://all-silhouettes.com

  Here are the jewellery made in october, a total of 12 pieces. My target has always been 3 pieces a week so having 12 last month was just nice. (of course I wouldn't resent if I made more!)

My other more lofty target was to have my etsy store reaching 4 pages of items, failed...

I have completed the local bulk order (will be posting the photos here soon) so right now I'm free to concentrate on creating more pieces, first piece for november:

up in store tonight!

Feel free to share with me whether october has been kind to you :)