Busy Busy and Contest Winners! (Updated)

Things have been much busier than a usual January, mostly because of shop orders, 5 this month! I've also been spending time sketching out new ideas, can't wait to do more of that in a few weeks. I'm very excited to finally pull together an idea I've been waiting to try... charm bangle bracelets! Many of my smaller pendants are a perfect size to adorn simple forged bangles. I made some in brass with a sterling rivet and some in sterling with a brass rivet. I love the way these came out and they'll soon be in my Etsy shop and available for stores to buy. The Chakra Bangle is in my shop now on brass or silver.

Restocked Trinket with this large order. They will be all set for Valentine's day!

Just finished this order for The Shoe Horn, love the mix of shapes and colors!

Got this sweet, small order together for Common Deer.

I sent out an earring order to Pure.Original last week, love how they're displaying them. 

I've had 17 lovely entries for my Instagram contest! (Blog post has been updated) The 3 winners each won $75 credit for my Etsy shop. Winner of most Instagram likes from Lyn: 

It was tough for me to pick my two favorite entries. So many kind words! Ultimately I decided that if the image was of someone wearing my work, I wanted to be able to see the jewelry. I chose Lea's, I really loved the Bohemian vibe of this one too.

If the photo was an image of just jewelry, I wanted it to be a strong photo of the jewelry. Also from a graphic design standpoint, I wanted to be able to read the words. So in thinking of those criteria and also the words used, I chose Sara's. Thanks so much to all who participated! The rest of the entries follow below.

New Instagram Contest!

I've been meaning to do another contest and I wanted to come up with one that didn't require owning any of my work to enter. I've also been trying to come up with some new words to say about my work. These two things have formed together to create this Instagram contest.

It could be a photo of you in my jewelry with the quote written in the negative space or a photo of a piece or pieces you own with the quote overlaid. It could also be as easy as writing something on a post it (good penmanship helps!) or creating an image with funky fonts in Photoshop or an app... 

I'd love to know how my jewelry makes you feel. I'd love to hear a snippet of a story. That's all. The image with the most likes will win (so tell your friends!) as well as 2 of my top favorite images. Each winner will win $75 in credit for my Etsy shop. 

So excited to see and hear what people come up with!

Back in the Swing of Things

It's always hard to get back into the swing of things and to get into the new year. Especially cause I savor the time to reset, regroup, rest and recoup. But it's slowly happening...
I've cleaned and organized my studio and now I'm figuring out my next steps. 

One thing that's helping me with that is my new Passion Planner. Check out this video...

I love the idea of implementing the bigger ideas/goals into everyday life and reflecting on the progress all within a day planner. 
I'm currently geeking out on excel spread sheets. I've pulled all of my data from wholesaling to shops last year and now I'm using it to figure out what sold best and how to use this info for the future. I will be tightening up my wholesale line while planning on adding to it and making a new catalog. 
I'm also taking an online course on wholesaling and loving it, it's just what I was looking for!
There's not much time now to really delve into all of this since Valentines day is right around the corner so I'm looking forward to more fully pursuing this in a month from now. 
Meanwhile I have 4 store orders to work on and mail out for Pure.Original, Trinket, The Shoe Horn and Common Deer. So I've been busy making orders and getting back to production.
I'm also getting ready for a private Valentine's Day trunk show.
Whew. It's been good to catch up on reading and seeing friends and taking things a bit slower. 
Hope your 2015 has gotten off to a great start!