Blog Features!

It's been a wonderful week for blog features!

First, DirtygirlSoaps of the Indie Style blog featured my Oxidized Attraction necklace in her Indie Style Picks section of her blog. You can see her Rock Candy handmade soap below, and I must say, it looks delicious!



Next, Studio618 of Etsy, whom I met on Twitter, featured my Bond Brooch in her Friday Finds section on her blog. Studio618 makes jewelry like these bold rainbow wrapped hoops that are made with sterling silver and crystals.


Thanks to the both of you!

So, apparently I was on the front page of Etsy last week.

Etsy Front Page 6/19/09 Admin
Originally uploaded by Etsy Front Pagers

I was looking through my shop's Google Analytics, and I noticed I had a huge spike of 358 views on one day. 319 of those views were on a particular item.

Trying to figure out why, I checked the Etsy Front Pager's group on Flickr and searched for my etsy name and found a screenshot for the 19th. Awesome! I actually found 4 screenshots for me, only one of which I'd previously known about.

The treasury was admin-selected, for the search term 'science'

Checking the Heartomatic I found that I received 24 shop hearts and 27 hearts on that particular item.

I'd relisted that particular item 2 days before, and relisted 2 different items that day. I also had one sale from that day, but for a different item.

So there's the breakdown for ya, hope it is both interesting and helpful to everyone.

YART SALE!

Yard sale + art = Yart!

June 10th through the 14th will be the second annual Yart Sale on Etsy. This will be my first year participating, but I hope it will be lots of fun for everyone!

I'll be making post earrings 1/2 off for the second pair purchased, and any order over $50 will get free shipping! I'll also be extending this sale to my shop on FunkyFinds as well. You can either go ahead and pay for your items, at which point I''ll refund the discounts back to you, or you can send me a message and I'll send you a revised invoice.

I hope to be releasing a few new items during this time too, in particular some reticulated rings and some new hoop earrings! Keep track of the updates in real-time on Twitter.

The Devil wears Etsy

Thanks to Capitolagirl for featuring my mushroom earrings in her blog this week! Apparently, when the Devil wears Etsy, he wears mushrooms in his pierced ears.
I've been eyeballing this ctrl-alt-delete fridge magnet from her shop for awhile now. I guess being a closet nerd means these thing appeal to me.

Baby-Friendly

I gotta say, after hearing some of my mother's horror stories, I bet she wishes she'd had one of these baby-friendly nursing necklaces from bfbeads. Designed to be durable and flexible, they'll distract your little one with shine and sliding beads and keep them close. Plus, they're made with wonderful materials, such as crystal quartz, that will make you look good too!

Veteran's Day

Well, Veteran's Day is coming up, shortly after the election, and I have to say that I am one of the unlucky ones who will not have the holiday off. However, if I did have the day off, I'd use it to catch up on some holiday gift shopping, or as my boyfriend likes to call it, Yuletide Swag. I've been making my list, and you can be sure that these lovely photo pendants from blackdrop are a top contender.

Thievery!

So you're an office supply snitch, eh? Wear your spoils of the inner-office war proudly upon your ears, and let the rest of the office see your wealth!
Just don't tell your coworkers that you really got them from BlinkingMouse.

Green

Green happens to be one of my favorite colors, which is why I'm always delighted when I can get that perfect metallic green color in the process of oxidizing my jewelry. Try as I might, I can never get the silver to turn those colors on purpose, only by accident. As an added bonus, the blues and greens in the oxidation perfectly compliment the green of the Chrysoprase stone I used in this ring.

Rainbows

I'm a big fan of piggy banks. I've kept one for years, and recently when it was full used it to buy tools to start my business. They're pretty useful critters, I just wish they'd fill up faster. Pig-ment - a rainbow colored piggy bank created by Starless, is just the kind of piggy bank I'd like to have. Vibrant color to brighten up a room, and you won't have to worry about breaking him because the bottom is removable!

Math is Elegant

Etsy Front Page 8/4/08
Originally uploaded by freeforged

I was on the front page earlier tonight! Thanks to Jobojury for selecting the Math is Elegant treasury.

Review - AmyEsther

I just completed a trade with the awesome Etsy seller AmyEsther. I sent her a pair of my Nuclear earrings and she sent me a pair of her red square cups.


Because of a problem with one of the cups, she ended up having to send me a replacement. However, not only did she replace the cup, she sent me two of her adorable dip trays as well!


All of this was instigated because of a give-away that she had on her blog, In the Night Kitchen. Needless to say, I'm very happy with the results of our trade, even despite the slight problem with the one cup.
I'm in the slow and drawn out process of transferring my kitchen to handmade ceramics. Right now I have an assortment of cups (AmyEsther's pair is the only matching set) and several large and medium sized serving bowls. I'm hoping someday to get a set of matching plates or shallow bowls, and after that a full set of matching cups.
While I took a ceramics class in college, I determined that clay hates me even though I love it, and didn't come up with anything I'd trust to eat off of or want to look at while eating. Thus, I welcome the cups Amy sent me as another addition to my growing collection!

Moleculeology

Big thanks to Anandi of etsy for including me in her lovely molecule themed treasury this week! My Nuclear earrings are featured on the second row, far right. The treasuries are only live for a limited amount of time, so make sure you check it out before tomorrow night! If you miss it, you can still see the screenshot I took on my flickr page. It's a little hard to read in this picture, but if you click on it it will show you an enlarged version.

Mossy Fun

I have to say, I find moss to be a very attractive plant. It's always fuzzy and soft, and I wish they could make pillows out of it.
Since they can't, I guess I'll have to go for one of these moss terrariums by MadebyMavis instead. They look like they're just the right amounts of soft and fuzzy, and by 'the right amount' I mean 'a lot.'

Plus, if the moss ever started overgrowing my jar, I could use it for some natural pranking. Try out some moss graffiti using either a dairy mixture or a beer/sugar mixture.

Natural Blues

Right now I'm totally loving the blues in this necklace from AKeepersJackpot. The matching iridescent beads compliment the blues, teals, and pinks of the pendant perfectly, and these cool colors are the perfect thing to contrast the heat of summer. And, at just $16 dollars, it's pretty affordable too.

The Masked Bandit

Why should a masked bandit settle for boring old black? This leafy green mask by MythicalDesigns could be perfect for a champion of nature, or a wood elf sorceress. Just use your imagination.

Robots = Binary Love

I admit it. I'm a nerd.

That's why this robot shirt from Chopshopstore totally rocks to me. I love trying to guess which robot is which and what they're from. It's like a test of my nerd-dom. Unfortunately, I need to be studying harder because I can only recognize about 13 or 14 of these. My boyfriend on the other hand? Almost 50.

How many can you name?

Twitter and Design Contests

So today I saw an article in the Storque about Twitter - a new program that is basically the Facebook status update function, but that's all it is.
You post little messages about what you're doing, thinking about, planning, etc and then the people that 'follow' you can see them and read whats going on with you. You can actually post links too.

Apparently this is getting pretty popular with Etsians, so I thought I'd sign up and check it out just to see what the deal is. It's actually pretty cool, you can post your updates via text message or Google chat - which is my preferred method.
You can see in the side bar to the right that I now have a little feed going of my updates, or you could go to my Twitter page and check them out on person, and follow me if you have your own account.

But while I was checking this stuff out, Make happened to make a post about a design contest in their blog. This contest is by Modofly - a group that laser etches designs onto the surface of moleskine notebooks. Check out the blog entry about the contest here, then send Modofly an e-mail to info@modofly.net for details.

Now since I've been seeing several design contests and such things around lately, and mostly just posting them on Facebook (where I think no one actually sees them) I figured I might as well start posting them here for people to see. Most of these are for screenprinting or graphic design or illustrators - stuff that's way outside my skill set. So if I can't enter, at least I can possibly tell someone who can about them.

Expect to see a few more updates about design contests and call for entries when I find them, and good luck to any who enter!

Freeforged is featured!

Ok, so it's not a major magazine or fashion blog that's doing the feature, but I'm still excited!

JJMFinance featured my Etsy Shop in his blog! JJMFinance has an Etsy shop in which he sells custom built spreadsheets for Etsy shops. It's pretty cool, actually, and he has a huge variety of topics his spreadsheets cover.

The feature is a simple survey in which you can learn a bit more about myself and how my shop is run. So make sure to take a look at the survey and to scroll down and see some previous features as well! It's interesting to compare different people's answers to the same questions. Also, stop by the Etsy forums to say hi and let JJMFinance know what you thought of his survey!

Mounted

Maybe it's just the fact that I just moved into a new apartment, but for some reason I really want one of these:

It's a Unicorn. Mounted. Trophy Style. And it makes me laugh every time I look at it.

Perhaps it's the sullen gaze that just seems to radiate the thought 'I hate you...'
Perhaps it's the foot long horn.
I don't know, but with a whole new apartment to decorate, I feel a strong urge that says 'I need this...'

Thank you PaperStampede, for giving me one more thing to add to my favorites list.


Aside from oogling various things on etsy, I've also been busy selling off all the stuff that's been in the back of my closet for the past 2 years. Consider it a destash in progress.