Front Page Tags/Themes Jan23-28

The month is just flying by and for the last week of the month we saw a variety of tags/themes grace the front pages of Etsy and Artfire. Here are just afew:

Etsy:

• Le Macaron Violette (lilac, sage, macaroon, elegance, gift for her, decadence, purple, green)
• Moody Valentine (red, pink, grey, gray, black, antique, vintage, romance, romantic, love, white)
• The pull of the tides (sea, ocean, beach, sand, blue, teal, green, coral, tide, surf)
• Green with Envy (green, spring)
• a life in black & white
• Ready to Grow? (indoor garden, outdoor garden, vintage, watering can, garden tools, organic, mushrooms, bugs, butterflies, fruit, herbs, veggies, botanical print, orchard baskets, sun hat, turquoise, yellow, earth tones)
• Up, up and away (balloon, airplane, fly, bird, birds, rocket, paper, clouds, pilot)
• Nature Girl (nature, girl, tree, bird, fruit, green, woods, forest, rainbow, colorful, flora, fauna, plants, animals, seasons, peaceful, environment)
• Put de Lime in de Coconut (lime, coconut, green, brown, tropical, bright colours, avocado)
• The sun and the sky- an Australian Day Collection (blue, yellow, aqua, teal, mustard, celebration, outdoors, summer, sun, sand, beach, sky)
• Mapping Things Out (maps, travel, exotic locations, home decor, accent pieces, wall decor, jewelry, birds, boat, globe, italy, hawaii, los angeles, australia, turquoise, aqua, neutrals)
• Forever Young (for her, fashion, home, forever young, beautiful, light, fresh, white, natural, decor, soft, plya, pastel, floral)

Artfire:

• Baby Girl Shower Gifts
• Happy Birthday February Babies
• The Fire of Life
• Tritons Treasures
• I've Got All the Time in the World for You, Love
• Copper and Bronze Beauties
• Red Love
• Lilac makes me feel all warm and cozy inside
• Life is Like a Rainbow
• Just Add Milk
• Earthtones
• Mod About Retro
• Rustic Charm
• You are my Sunshine
• Knot Good
• Beach Beauty
• Coffee Lovers Unite

Some New Goodies!

A bit of a progress report:
This has been a busy month with our bead supplies shop Rouge River Beads with customers stocking up after their holiday rushes and taking advantage of our sale that runs until Jan.31st. Aside from keeping up with that I must admit I haven't had much energy/ambition. I'm not sure if its the weather (it's been FREEZING here this month), the pregnancy or just a need for some rest but I haven't gotten through even half of my To Do List for the month. Yikes! I have, however, finally gotten to the key rings I have been planning on adding to my shop, a cute, fun and affordable gift for you or someone you love! Here's a sampling of some of the new goodies:

Be sure to stop by my Artfire, Etsy or Zibbet shops to check out the rest of my new additions!

Artfire Top Sellers List

This may be a hot topic but I am fascinated by the top sellers on a site. It gives me inspiration to know that people are making a living at what they are doing, that businesses are growing and I have found many new shop fav's by browsing through Etsy's Top Sellers on Craftcount. As far as I can tell, aside from this forum thread, Artfire doesn't currently have a Top Sellers list so I thought I would put one together as a starting point and we can see how it grows from here. This is by no means an official list, it is merely put together by yours truly through browsing the wonderful shops of Artfire and with some starter help from the AF forums. I will try and update it once a week and would love to eventually have the top sellers for each handmade category. If you would like to have your Artfire shop added please contact me through my Artfire Studio. You may have your name removed from the list at any time if you so wish, just let me know.

HANDMADE:
1) mayleesgarden (1483)
2) soapsmith (1064)
3) spoiledbratzwear (918)
4) libertydoll (547)
5) thyme2dream (510)
6) normasbathandbody (429)
7) bakidagain (305)
8) auntfranni (292)
9) paperstreet (235)
10) katsallthat (212)
11) kibbles (190)
12) sandrahealy (115)
13) LAjewelrydesigns (99)

Supplies
1) lululalaland (14385)
2) miabellacollection (5538)
3) susansscrapbookshack (5006)
4) cupcakesocial (4334) 
5) bobbibeads (1330) 
6) tantalizingstitches (1040)
7) bopper (1010)
8) rougeriverbeads (794)
9) beadcomber (718)
10) susansheehan (553)
11) bakidagain2 (428)
12) beadsbytlc (171)

New Treasury! Once upon a time...

'Once upon a time...' by kawarthabeads

A dreamy and romantic collection fit for a fairytale princess!

Kianda $159.00	Hammermann $48.00	katescottage2 $24.00
LuxeAdornments $12.00	Raceytay $30.00	RiverOfRomansk $44.80
bijouxdesignsf... $10.00	ChelseaVictori... $30.00	frenchcountry $5.25
lapomme $45.00	polkyanddot $9.50	chanyeevon $8.50
riskybeads $44.95	sophinegiam $6.00	BragginRightsB... $4.95

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com.

Front Page Tags/Themes for the week of Jan8-14th

I'm so excited for Valentine's Day! My little guy and I have already started making cards and he is having a blast. It's so wonderful to see how his little mind puts everything together! Both Etsy and Artfire also have begun to introduce Valentine's themed front pages. Here are just some of the themes/tags that made it to their front pages over the past week:

Etsy:

• Sweeter than Honeycomb (honey, bee, honeybee, worker bee, edibles, vanilla, yellow, silver, jewellery, vintage, warm, honeycomb, beehive, warm tones, amber)
• Love Doubt in Peach (peach, salmon, pink, love, romance, doubt, heart, valentine)
• Wedding at the Big Top (wedding, circus, big top, love, mustard, pinwheels, blue, pink, orange, yellow, circus theme wedding, romance, fun, cotton candy, carnival, spring, destination wedding)
• Old School Style (vintage, school, schoolhouse, librarian, library, book, student, office, mad men, mid century modern, nerd, geek chic, black white, turquoise)
• New Years Resolutions No.3 (lemon, cherry, kitchen, decorate, aqua, red, yellow)
• Strawberry Bubblegum (cotton candy, romance, valentine, pastel, flowers, love, necklace, valentines)
• Blush (blush, peach, pink, valentine's day, love, romance, bows, ruffles, lace, sparkle, jewelry)
• Dark Romance (garnet, valentine, hearts, gray, fashion, jewelry, art, romance, romantic, necklace, black, flower, accessories, candy, love, red, valentine's day)
• Almost Monochrome (retro, vintage, ecru, gray, grey, mid century, cream, rustic, mediterranean, dazzling, old, rusty, dry leaves, taste test, luster, bird, wheels, beige,swing)
• Reds and Yellows (valentines, honeybees, honey, red, brick, mustard, yellow, spring, celebrations)
• Warm and Rustic (warm, rustic, country, primitive, neutral, brown, beige, winter)
• Cozy Valentine (love, jewelry, valentine, red, pink, white, warm, handmade, knit, art, romantic, heart)
• Love is All Around Us (love, Valentine's Day, valentine, romantic, red, kiss, romance, elegant, art)
• Lovely Turquoise
• Denim, Sunshine and Cherry Red (denim, blue, red, cherry, apple, yellow, sunshine, canary, warm, spring, light, triad, playful)
• Forbidden Love (love, romance, red, contrast, forbidden, valentine, dream, apple, blood red)
• A Taste of Honey (honey, amber, taste of honey, beeswax candles, honeybees)

Artfire

• Artfire Red Hot and Full Steam Ahead
• Taupe is on the Move
• Reds and Pinks for Your Valentine
• Valentine's Goodies For the One You Love
• The Freshness of Salmon in Our Lives
• African Safari on Artfire
• Richness
• Caramel and Apples- a Luxe Collection
• Silver with Mellow Yellow
• Spice Market- Saffron
• It's Winter but Dreaming of Spring
• They Call me Mellow Yellow
• Aqua Shades
• Turquoise and Copper
• My Pink Romance
• Only Hearts
• Excuse Me, Do You Have the Time?

2011 Game Plan...Progress Report

I can hardly believe how the month is flying by...just wish I could say the same for this pregnancy! I must have been fighting a bug this month because I have had several days where all I could do is rest. Thank you thank you to my little dude for being such a wonderful Mommy's helper and keeping himself busy and giving me lots of hugs and kisses to make me feel better. He has also started to refer to the baby as "MY baby" which I think might be a good sign of things to come and hopefully he won't feel too jealous.

On the business end of things despite almost four lost days of work I actually feel quite productive. Having a list of goals/tasks definatley helps me to stay on track and I was able to look at each day (including the ones I missed when I wasn't feeling well) and prioritize what needed to be done. Over at Rouge River Beads, the supplies shop I run with my mom, our January Winter Warm Up Sale continues. I put relisting, listing and making packages top on the list there and we seem to have had a steady flow of visitors looking to replenish their beads and findings after the holiday rush. As for Kawartha Beads, I also have been busy stocking up on supplies and looking for some new, cute charms to add to my collection. They should be here any day and I can't wait to add some new treasures to my shops. I also stocked up on some new paper goodies and can't wait to try out the ideas I have swimming around in my head! I have made several shops additions to my Artfire, Etsy and Zibbet shops. My goal by month's end was to have 100 listing in my Artfire studio and I almost there! There is always much discussion in the forums as to the "magic" 100 but I feel that is a good number to try and maintain and will give me a lot of stock to get rolling again once baby #2 arrives. Should be interesting to see how the later part of the month turns out!

Front Page Tags/Themes for January 1st-7th

It has been awhile since I took a look at the front page themes/tags on Etsy and Artfire and I thought this would be a great week to see if there were any trends emerging. I definately noticed the trend towards neutrals,which was mentioned in Etsy's January Merchandising Desk article, although I am looking forward to seeing some of the other colours mentioned as well (Cozy neutrals, taupe, oatmeal, turquoise, aqua, saffron, deep red, metallics). On Artfire the front pages were much brighter with a mixture of colours emerging, although I did notice several pink or red ones. Here are some of the front page themes/tags for the week of January 1st-7th:

Etsy:

• Kiss Me At Midnight 2011 (new, undiscovered, lessthan20, new years eve, midnight, kiss, january, 2011, garnet, resolution, treats, warm, love, heart)
• Blue Tones (emerald green, blue, tuquoise, white, holidays)
• Something Special (winter, new years eve, january, gifts, white, beige, brown)
• It's FREEZING OUTSIDE, Natural fashion gifts that will warm her (gift guide, her, holiday fashion, neutral, beige, cream, fur, knit hat, mittens, sheepskin)
• neutralized (clean slate, clean, cream, white, cocoa, beige, new years, january, rest, relax, calm, relaxed, neutrals)
• Wintertime Love (white, winter, snow, romance, romantic, beautiful, lavender, blue, lace, french, feminine, dreamy, wintery, trees, cool, cold)
• Nantucket (resort, blue, water, ocean, nantucket, vacation, crab, sailboat, clam, lobster, navy, chic, seahorse, breezy, breeze, cottage, natural)
• Brownie Taste (brown, champagne, taste, winter, mustard, holiday fashion, party, gift guide)
• Getaway...Vacation Time (exotic, tropic, vacation, memories, luggage, packing, resort wear, seashell, beach sea, essentials, ocean map, bikini sunglasses, maps, dreamy vintage)

Artfire

• Beautiful Rose Shades
• Used and Reused
• Wonderfully Creative Collection
• The Magnificent Black Cat
• For the Ones I Love
• I Heart You
• Champagne Wishes
• Marvelous Maple
• Down to Earth Turquoise
• Simply Silver
• Chocolate Chips with a Tad of Caramel
• New Years Eve Party Girl
• Set the Mood for a Festive Affair
• Abstract
• Desert Dreams
• Rocking Horses
• Woolens
• Wishlist of a Gardener
• Roses are Red
• Jaded
• Honeysuckle Pink with a Splash of Yellow

2011 Game Plan

I can hardly believe that 2011 has arrived! I hope that everyone had a safe and wonderful holiday season and now...back to the grind! With only a few months left before baby #2 arrives I'm trying to get organized and make a game plan for 2011.

I started first by reviewing my 2010 year. I was actually pretty happy with how things turned out. In total I made 66 online sales between my Artfire, Etsy, and Zibbet shops. I'm hoping by the end of 2011 to be able to say that I doubled my online sales. By far my best seller was this adorable Crafty Gal Scissor Charm Necklace which sold well both online and off. I have been scouring suppliers the past few days looking for some new cute charms to add to my collection. I would also like to add earrings and keychains in the next couple of months. Instead of making one necklace at a time (if I know they are a good seller) I am now making multiples and packaging them up so they are ready to ship right away. Since I am planning on putting my shop in vacation mode in the middle of April and hoping to reopen in June I'm trying to get as many of my "ducks in a row" before then (here's hoping at least).

I also have made a day to day list for product creation, photography, listing, twittering and blogging to try and keep myself on track and organized. So far I completed almost everything on yesterdays list and the couple of remaining items I moved to the next day. I had "scheduled" myself a couple of days off or catch up days in case I don't complete items and if I do then I get to reward myself with a day of rest and relaxation (well as much as is possible with an energetic toddler at home).

Last but not least my mom and I have been making a plan for Rouge River Beads for 2011 as well. We have some great plans for new shop additions, have set up a bit of a marketing plan and with her living so close by now things are definately progressing well.

What are your plans for 2011? How do you handle business and multiple children? I would love to hear any advice/tips! Wishing everyone a fabulous year ahead!