Things have been busy!  20% of my Etsy store sold out in one order, plus I finished another wedding and a large custom order as well.  I’ll post pictures of the wedding jewelry after the date.

Some of you have been wondering about when to bring up the subject of holiday/Christmas custom orders.  The answer is asap!  I appreciate the notice as far in advance as possible, because we all know how hectic November and December are.  The mail is slow, I’ve got exams, normal order flow is increased, and of course I need plenty of time to eat cookies and drink egg nog.

Also, if you’ve been eyeing something in the store, now is the time to grab it!  I’m letting a number of listings expire, and once many designs sell out, I will not be making another.  The shift to custom orders makes this necessary, plus there are a few items that I’m sorely tempted to keep for myself.

Glad to be back,
Sara

Tags: etsy, christmas, custom, orders, jewelry, shopping, accessories, fashion, design, wordpress

I can say that school and my new internship in wealth management have been going great. I’m going to soon start studying for my Series 7 over the summer, before I start another year of school (finally, my last for a while).

Etsy-wise, I founded, designed, and maintain etsynews.com. This site is the “Unofficial Etsy News,” which contains frequently updated bits of news about Etsy. We (the fantastic editorial team and myself) search the Etsy blogs, forums, and any relevant external sites for the things that buyers and sellers need to know. So, check us out there.

That’s it for now!  Thanks for reading.

I also sent out the first invitations to my mailing list. More info on that was already posted, but I’d like to clarify and say that the monthly drawing for a prize will be out of the FB group membership and list membership. The email list is still quite small. Perhaps after it reaches some critical mass I’ll have a second, list-only drawing. But at the moment, the same info is going to the list and the FB group, so it makes sense to combine them.

To those who are in the middle of a custom order: I have a large shipment that is taking much longer than expected. I expected it last Thursday, and here we are almost to Tuesday. I will stay in touch and try to track it down. It is the one thing that is holding me back at this point.

I will keep trying to list things in the store, but this is an insanely busy time of life in school (finals) and life (internship applications), and just filling orders does take a while. Hopefully over Thanksgiving I’ll be able to make a bunch more things, but I also have literally weeks worth of homework to tackle. So we shall see.

Thanks so much to everyone who has shown their support, and welcome to the new customers!

Tags: etsy, shopping, jewelry, fashion, accessories, gifts, sales, promos, news

I’m happy to say that I have issued the first update! The news was shared first with those customers who have both purchased the sheets in the past and have requested to be emailed about updates. The following email was sent out this afternoon. If you didn’t opt-in to updates, but have bought an earlier version of the sheets, send me an email so I can get you the latest one.

For more info on these sheets, Etsy’s 6th top item, you can visit the Etsy listing (available again Monday morning) or the info page here at purplepapaya.net. I’m always willing to answer questions about them–just let me know!

Dear Customer,

Maybe, with Etsy going down for a few days, you need a little something to keep you busy?

This is the first announcement of an update to my seller spreadsheets. In this new version, I have made the following changes:

Analysis:
In Inflows, I changed order of a few columns so that it is more logical. I added columns for tracking carriers and delivery confirmation numbers.

Purchasing:
In the Log, I also added columns for tracking carriers and delivery confirmation numbers.

Inventory:
I changed the treatment of added value so that the factor now represents “the number you multiply materials by” (rather than “the additional number of times materials costs are added in”). This should be more intuitive.
I changed Etsy fees to $0.20 instead of $0.10.
Also, I cleaned up the colors of column headers to that they better follow the “lighter color = automatically filled in” pattern.

Packaging:
This is all new! It’s a simple way to figure out what packaging costs you. The workbook uses a lookup formula, so read the cell comments before you begin, follow the example, and let me know if you have questions. More documentation will be available on this soon.

All updates are free to those who have previous purchased sheets. The new versions are attached!

As always, you can check the dedicated thread (here, once Etsy is back up) or the info page at purplepapaya.net (here) for help/info.

I’d like to thank you again for purchasing my Etsy Seller Spreadsheets. I hope they have been serving you well!

Best wishes,
Sara

Tags: etsy, seller, spreadsheets, pricing, accounting, management, update

After listing a bunch of new jewelry, I changed modes a bit with some old supplies. These are things that I bought literally on the first day I decided to give jewelry making a try again (about one year ago). I’ve since decided to work exclusively with silver and gold, so my base metal selection is up for grabs at give-away prices. Over the next few weeks, I may list more supplies, so do keep an eye out if that’s your thing.

I’ve also been handling a record amount of custom orders, so yay! I think the count was up to five simultaneous orders last week. I go in order by commission date with the exception of explicit earring orders (orders for which I know exactly what to make), because those can be turned around very quickly. A few pictures of current orders completed (the first three) and orders in progress (the last three are drafts):

Tags: etsy, shopping, fashion, design

As you know, my old camera is no longer functional. It is impossible for me to get a non-blurry jewelry photo without a five foot focal length, at which point the resolution of the camera doesn’t permit the kind of cropping and zooming that would be necessary to get a close shot.

Thus, I ordered a camera (Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30) at a great price online over a month ago. Turns out that the shop, despite repeated assurances at the time of purchase, did not have the camera in stock. They also had no plans to get it in stock any time soon. This made me angry, because we were under a verbal and written contract, but there was nothing I could do.

I mulled over the loss for a week, at which point a newer version of that camera was announced (DMC-FZ50), due out a week ago. I decided to wait for the new one. I waited and waited, bemoaning how neglected my shop was, until I realized that maybe, brilliantly, I wanted a different camera. After all, the Lumix was nearly as expensive as an entry-level dSLR, I love Canon cameras, and with all this waiting my bank account had grown a bit.

So I started researching the second new camera, a Canon Digital Rebel XT. Sifting through lenses, etc. It’s a long process. Then, lo and behold, a new version of the XT gets announced (the XTi), due out in September or October (no clear word yet). I would have to be really dumb to buy the XT now, so it looks like I must wait another month (at the most) before I can get my shop back in order!

In the mean time, I hope to borrow a friend’s camera. I’ve had a very kind offer that I think I must take up, and I’ll probably give the lender a set of earrings for his girl as a thank you (but don’t tell!). So the shop may soon have new items, but it may not. This is bad, I know, but I can’t reasonably do too much else about it.  I’m very sorry for the delays!!