what did i do to deserve this?

nothing, really :). i just decided to indulge in one of my favourite treats: chocolate cream pie and a vanilla frappucino. are you drooling yet?

today has been productive so far. i packaged a few orders (including my first sale to australia!) and brought them to the post office, and i'm finishing up a custom order and that wholesale order. also, i took care of some school stuff, and even squeezed in a little etsy shopping (not for me! for my friend's birthday, i swear!).

the day is only half over, and there's still so much more to do! now that i've enjoyed my tasty treat, it's time to get back to work :).

♥,
melissa

busy bee me

yes, i'm busy with another wholesale reorder from my first wholesale account :). along with the usual reorder, this order includes 20 pairs of 'yoko', a new addition to my client's store! i still feel super honoured to be selling to such a popular venue.

also, my sales have magically picked up in my own store! looks like my dry spell is quite possibly over :). yay, i can pay bills again, haha!

and how do you like my new store banner ^ and avatar > ? if you're in the market for a really cool banner/avatar set for your etsy store, i strongly suggest henryrabbit . amanda is awesome!

oh, and here's one of those martinelli's sparkling apple cider bottles we bought for the wedding:



so cute! it's got little red sakura blossoms on the sides of the label, too! these little bottles are the perfect size for each person to toast with at the reception. i'm so excited; i'm getting married in just 2 months! :D

well, time to prepare some bagel sandwiches for brandon and myself :).

♥,
melissa

6 month etsyversary!

it's already been 6 months since i started selling on etsy! i can't believe it :).

i've got my "buy 2 get 1 free - any pendant necklace" sale going on right now in celebration!

also, i decided it was high time i created a wholesale catalogue to hand out to people who are interested, and here's how they turned out:

the front of my catalogue (don't mind the blue hue - it's just my camera being crazy). i bought thicker paper so the text on the other side of the paper wouldn't show through, but i guess i need even thicker paper :p. oh well, not bad for a first try!

a sample shot from inside my catalogue. it was such a pain (i hate microsoft word!), but it was worth it :).

the back of my catalogue. the little grey box in the corner is where postage goes, and the bigger grey box is for an address label. so if i need to mail a catalogue to someone, all i need to do is seal it shut on the side and mail it! i blurred my address in this picture because, well, you never know what weirdos are on the internet ;p.

although they were a pain to make, i really had fun putting the catalogues together. they are getting put to the test tomorrow when i meet with a woman who's interested in stocking her boutique with my items here in the small town i live in. i'm excited!

this is just an example of what i've been up to while etsy is sloooooow. i've been working on wedding planning a lot, also. brandon and i took an engagement photo, and i'm in the process of printing out a ton of those to disperse at the wedding. i also took care of ordering the individual bottles of martinelli's sparkling apple cider that we are going to toast with, and i even managed to find a promotional code to save 10% on those!

i hope everyone's hanging in there and being productive this slow july!

♥,

melissa

now THAT's a lot of earrings! part 2

these are for another wholesale order i received; half-finished earrings! i just think the paper-on-wood coins look so cute for some reason :).

here's the whole spread of what this order consists of:



i love wholesale orders!

♥,
melissa

now THAT's a lot of earrings!

all 'the dawn is still dark', too! whew! wholesale reorder: filled :).

onto the next wholesale order!

♥,
melissa

sweet tweets!

i call them 'sweet tweets', and they're now available in my shop, with more to come! aren't they darling?

today has been busy for me so far. i received an email from my first wholesale customer asking for a reorder on my 'the dawn is still dark' earrings (except she wants 30 pairs now instead of 20), so that was awesome! this time, i have all my materials handy, so i can make her order super fast. she informed me that she's sold 29 (out of 40) pairs of my earrings (two styles; the other is 'green day') since she put them in her shop a month and a half ago. i wish my earrings sold that well in MY shop, haha! but i love doing wholesale, so i think it's great :).

also, i figure now is as good of a time as any to start thinking "christmas", so i've been deciding how much of everything to order from my suppliers so i'm prepared for the (hopeful) rush starting around october!

and good news from my college (texas tech university) came: not only am i being provided with a bunch of financial aid this coming academic year, most of it is in the form of grants! why? i made the president's list! this on top of my dean's list honours a few semesters ago... wow. i guess i didn't really realize how well i was doing in college! my gpa is around 3.95, woohoo!

well that's about all for now. i've got a LOT of stuff to do this weekend, so i'd better get crackin'!

♥,
melissa

oh noz! teh internets is failed!

you might have noticed, the internet, that i have not been adding to my blog the last few days. let me explain: i live in a very small town, and when 70mph winds come through (with rain, hail, and a vortex that became a tornado a few miles away), the radio signal that connects me to the internet via a huge tower nearby goes bye-bye! well, just such a scenario took place a week and a half ago, and while i was able to connect to the net for 5-minute spurts, i certainly couldn't type out a blog these past few days. we had a technician come out and fix everything (finally...), so now i can resume my blogging (and running my business properly)!

things that are going on:

• i listed some new pendant necklaces in my shop! here's an example:

• there are these two birds that keep perching next to our windows and peering in at us. one we named harvey, and the other crestor. like the heart medication. this is because he has a crest of feathers on top of his head, and i though 'crest-or' would be a funny name :p. i couldn't get the best picture of him (he flies away when i pull out my camera, the sneaky bugger), but here:

see him up there? sorry for the crappy-quality photo, it truly was the best i could do in a split-second!

this is the archway in front of our house. there are eggs in the birdhouse, but no birds seem to be using the bird feeder yet for some reason.

there's harvey on the electrical pole's guidewire, watching me carefully :p.

• i'm having a clearance sale! grab what you want a.s.a.p. because i'm unlisting all that stuff friday morning (maybe saturday if i forget, haha). there are tons of pendant necklaces in there for just $5!
  
• i am so looking forward to seeing my favourite author, chuck palahniuk, in just a few weeks! i just got done reading his nonfiction fugitives and refugees and i've started on his other nonfiction stranger than fiction.
  
• i am a big fan of quentin tarantino and robert rodriguez (whose house i drive past whenever i drive to austin), so it's amazing that i never got around to seeing the grindhouse double feature of planet terror and death proof. well, i bought them and watched them with brandon this weekend, and let me just say that i am in love with death proof. what an awesome flick (other than all the drug use, but it does sort of serve a purpose). the music is really cool for the most part, too.
  
• my wholesale order made it safely to its owner, and she loved the earrings! i am so happy! if they sell well, she's going to order more :).

well, believe it or not, that's all i've got to say right now. i hope everyone's having a great week, and don't forget to check out my clearance!

♥,
melissa

done one

this 6x6x6 box holds the 40 pairs of earrings i made for my first wholesale order! yes, i am done! it only took about 3 days to do everything that was needed, plus i threw in a magnet set as a sample :). here's to hoping these sell out super-fast and she needs MORE! :D

let's see, what else is going on today? i'm mailing that box ^, plus some pendant necklaces that didn't sell in my shop (and were about to expire) to a friend of mine (yay freebies!). i have a custom order for solid gold-accented pendant necklaces and/or earrings that i need to concentrate on, plus i need to design/order more moo cards, start making my newest line of washi cuties, remake some pieces that i sold recently, and mop the floors (friends are coming over tomorrow night!). plus, i'm really into my book that came in the mail yesterday, so i'll probably read a bit more of that.

oh, something i forgot to mention several days ago: my favourite author, chuck palahniuk (fight club, survivor, etc.), is going to be in austin for a book signing on june 5th! yes, i am totally going! wow, this summer keeps getting better and better :). the plan is to meet up with my friend jason (who was my history professor at one time) and go to bookpeople, where the signing is. jason's met chuck in the past, so maybe i can get a picture taken with him? brandon hasn't decided if he's going or not.

one more notable thing: gift sets in my shop are now just $25! i realized that i wasn't offering any kind of discount for essentially buying a pendant necklace plus a set of earrings, so that's why i reduced the price. now you save $1 by buying the gift set :). just a few months ago, i had the gift sets priced at $30, and while they were selling, i started buying supplies in bulk at a discount, so i passed it along to the customer, like any good etsian would! here's one of my favourites:



you can find all my gift sets here, in my shop :).

have a great day, everyone! i sure am going to be busy, but that's how i like it :).

♥,
melissa

busy me

i've started working on my wholesale order, and it's been fun so far! i had to make 40 of these ^ and 40 of a different design to make 20 pairs of earrings in each style. my fingers are stained black from painting the wood pieces for this batch ^ :p. i feel like a real artist!

while taking a short break from that project, i bought this from a chick on etsy. i'm planning to wear it to the nine inch nails concert in august :D.



and i forgot to mention this the other day, but i bought this super cute purse (see below) from etsy seller bagsbymelanie, and i LOVE it. it's absolutely perfect in every way. thanks, melanie! :D



i've already managed to stuff it full of melissaness, as you can see.

i should mention that the purse i bought for my wedding day that i mentioned a while back arrived, and it is gorgeous! if you want a pretty bag from some awesome aussie etsians, check out aishii, where i bought the wedding purse.

okay, i've got to get back to jewelry-making! have a great weekend, everyone :).

♥,
melissa

wholesale happiness!

i am still jumping up and down in excitement from some big news i received yesterday: i landed my first wholesale account! :D

i've got to whip up 20 'green day' earring sets and 20 'the dawn is still dark' earring sets for starters. if those sell really well, then i anticipate a larger second order with maybe some magnet sets and pendant necklaces added on :).



omg omg omg. okay, calm down, melissa! but seriously, after feeling discouraged for several weeks, this was the best news i could hope to get. now maybe i'll have the courage to ask a few shops in downtown marble falls (where there are several cute boutiques) if they're interested in doing wholesale with me, as well :). putting together this first order will be a good indicator on how long making a wholesale order will take me, so i can know how many wholesale accounts i can take on at once.

i'm so excited :D.

in other news, something small, cute, and sad came in the mail the other day:

my etsy friend kieu held a contest on her blog recently, and i ended up winning this little robot charm! isn't he the cutest? kieu is putting the final touches on these, i think, before she lists them in her shop, but after that, you'll be able to have one, too :). thanks, kieu! he's my 'product (red)' ipod nano's new best friend, haha.

speaking of contests, i will be launching one tomorrow, so be sure to check back here for the details! i can tell you right now that the winner will receive a $15 gift certificate towards anything in my shop. depending on how many people participate, there might be runner-up prizes, too ;).

have a happy tuesday, everyone! i'm off to read a whole bunch of 17th century english poetry (not for fun, let me assure you: i have class tonight).

♥,
melissa