Wow! How time flies...

I've been laying low this week. With all the work I've been putting in for my Etsy business, promoting myself in other forums and visiting the interesting blogs I've come across I haven't had the inclination to do much of anything else. Which is not good because there is still so much that I need to do:

Open a business bank account. Update my books - I have all the information - I just need to consolidate for tax purposes. I haven't done much business - the silver lining behind the dark cloud - so it won't take long.

• Take more photos of my jewelry to add to both of my on-line shops (Etsy and iCraft.ca).

• List more jewelry on both of my on-line shops.

• Clean my house (it's a mess and I hate it when it's a mess)
  

• Do laundry.

• Pay attention to my husband.

• Pay attention to my dog - letting him lay on the couch beside just isn't doing it for him any more.
  

However, last week wasn't a total loss - I found some great blogs that I would like to share with you:

Butterfly Chic Boutique:

http://www.butterflychicboutique.net

This blog is a great resource for on-line business owners. The writer of this blog has great articles on using PayPal, your personal behavior in the Etsy forums (the Face of Your Business), tips for selling on line. Plus, she features sellers on Etsy. It's a very well written blog and her advice has become invaluable to me.

Urban Fashion Network

http://www.urbanfashionnetwork.com/jewelry.html
http://urbanfashionnetwork.blogspot.com/

After my last show at "I Heart Rummage" - I got an email from the Urban Fashion Network. They are a site devoted to up and coming designers, boutiques and events in Seattle (and the West Coast). I was told that they would love to add me to their site as a designer. Of course, I took them up on their offer. I'd be a fool not to, right?

And finally, I will be taking a silver working class tomorrow with a group of artist who are members of my Etsy street team (Seattle's EtsyRain). Tomorrow we'll be learning to make cool wire links and clasps. It should be fun - I'll be learning and/or perfecting a skill and I'll be meeting more members of my street team. I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

Two really nice things happened to me this week that were totally unexpected.

Thing number one: I was supposed to attend my last "HTML" class on Wednesday - when I got to the class I found it had been rescheduled. Not having received prior notice I wasn't very happy. When I called my boss to let her know that my class was rescheduled, and that I would be coming into work and that I was wearing jeans (in violation of the "Professional Image Policy") she suggested that I take the rest of the day off because by the time I got to work my day would be half over. Well, you don't have to tell me twice to take a day off from work. It was a glorious day (a warm, sunny winter day with strong hints of spring in the air) and I spent a good part of the day in downtown Seattle, sightseeing, visiting favorite haunts, eating and taking pictures. It was the perfect day. Thank you, Brenda.

Thing number two: Last night I had a surprise visitor arrive on my doorstep - My dad. He lives int he Tri-Cities (Eastern Washington) and he came over for the annual amateur radio "Ham Fest" in Puyallup today. He says he's not in the market for new radio and/or their parts - but we all know those are "famous last words".

Now, I'm going to see about doing something about those items on my "To Do" list. Enough loafing around!

Jewelry and photography...

Just don't mix as far as I'm concerned. So, I've spent most of the weekend taking photos, and deleting photos and taking the photos again. Now I'm going through and editing the photos that survived my first round of edits. This is the part that I dislike the most - the editing. Then once I've got that part done I get to download the photos to my Etsy shop. Then the part that I really hate is describing my jewelry. It takes all my skills, talents, creativity that I can muster to come up with somewhat adequate descriptions of my jewelry. Shopping for jewelry is a tactile experience for most people. Great photos and good descriptions of your jewelry (or product) is very important - it's the only way to build a connection with your customer. These are skills I need to improve on. It's becoming clear to me that jewelry design is becoming a small part of my business.

On an entirely different topic, it's 11:25pm (PST), I've got to go to bed as I need to get up and go to work tomorrow. I'm sitting on my couch, using my husband's computer and I just looked out the dining room windows and there's the moon in all it's glory. I can see it shining through the branches of the cherry tree. It's not quite full but shining bright, as I write this it's has risen so that I have to crane my neck to get a glimpse of it. It's so lovely. What is it about the moon that draws us to it?

With that, I'm heading off to bed - 4:30am is going to come too soon. Sorry - no pictures to show you - maybe tomorrow.

It's official...

My new business has taken over my life. My dreams are now featuring Flickr, Etsy, Site Meter and Blogger (Home of the Dancing Monkey Jewelry Chronicles). Yep, you read it right. To make matters worse, nothing exciting is happening in my dreams - such as out of control sales, demand for more blogging articles, seeing my jewelry on the "Rich and Famous". Nope, nothing like that at all. What I was dreaming about was "maintenance". I was actually dreaming about maintaining my blog. I don't know what I was writing about but I got a sense it was interesting and scintillating - at least that was the sense I had when I finally woke up. However, try as I might, I can't recall because it's locked in my subconscious forever. Maybe I should try to incorporate "reading" into my dreams next time. I'll let you know if I'm successful.

Today...

I am sick. I've got a respiratory thing - so I'm not feeling so hot. I'm glad today was a holiday so I didn't have to go into work. Tomorrow should be interesting. I work for a university and tomorrow is the beginning of our Clerkship Lecture series and I conduct the orientation. Which should be really interesting as I have no voice - I can just barely manage a croak. I will be in charge of the whole orientation - talking about the course, the expectations, the assignments they will need to complete and most importantly, I will be assigning them their cases for the big project they need to complete in order to get a passing grade. Just to make it more interesting in the past it was the director (a medical doctor) who assigned the cases. I'm not the best public speaker - and I get to do this will no voice

At least with my business, at this point I can conduct all business without even speaking. I wish I could blog for a living.


P.S.
Hey! guess what??!! I just discovered the spell check button on this screen! I'm so happy - now I can use that instead of depending upon my proof reading. I'm usually writing this on the fly and I can type faster than I can think (I'm a fast typist - not a slow thinker, thank you very much)

My web-site...

As part of my business plan I will be selling my jewelry at arts and crafts fairs in the Puget Sound Region and on my Etsy.com web-site. The plan is that within 5 years my studio will be generating enough income so that I will be able to quit my day job.

My web-site is set up and ready to go - all I need is to post pictures of my jewelry. Because my budget for photography is $0.00 - I'll be the photographer. My deadline is to get my website up an running 2/1/08. If your curious, why don't you take a look at my web-site: www.dancingmonkeyjewelry.etsy.com

I have a few arts and crafts fairs that I'm applying to - hopefully - they'll attract a crowd that has money to spend.