Garden of Jewelry

I found the cutest things on another blog. The blog is called Catching Fireflies. The writer makes all kinds of whimsical handcrafted items. She is featuring jewelry holders for bracelets and earrings with a whimsical garden theme. I must confess I just ordered a couple of them from their online site. Check them out. They are delightful!
Now, what can I hang on these jewelry holder? Hmm, how about this ~my Pink Flower-Violet Leaf Earrings for sale at my online store, Plum Beadacious!

Filigree Romance Collection

I am creating a new collection of jewelry called Filigree Romance Collection. It will feature brass filigree and silver filigree pieces that are decorated with crystals and other beads. These all have a delicate romatic feel.

As part of this, I designed new jewelry tags and earring cards to display these pieces when I take them to my craft fair. I decided that each tag and card will provide a little of what inspired me. They will say -

Dreams of long ago bring thoughts of lace, flowers, intricate scrollwork ~ lots of lovely things. Dream away with this vintage inspired jewelry!
I hope this helps my business to develop more of a niche, and personality. From what I have read on marketing your jewelry, it is important to have a story or something to draw the customer to the design. What kinds of things do you do to bring your personality to the forefront in your online or in person marketing?

Tax Time ~ My Head Hurts

This is my first year to file income tax on my business, Plum Beadacious. My tiny business that provides so much enjoyment has become quite the headache for my husband and me. Thank goodness my husband used to work for H&R Block part time several years ago. He is quite good at doing our taxes with the help of Turbo Tax sofware.

However, he can't do the work without the figures. I have learned the hard way to become much better at keeping meticulous records when I buy my beads and findings, pay my Etsy, eBay and other website fees, and when I sell my jewelry both online and at craft shows. I have all that information, but in all kinds of different places. I gathered the data (over the last few weeks), and gave it to my husband to put into schedule C on our taxes. Whew, what a job!

Now, I started an inventory spreadsheet in Excel for all my purchases and created the formulas to decriment beads as I use them. If I am faithful in using this, my inventory of beads should be all ready on January 1, 2009.

Beaders - Do you have any hints to share on tracking everything for tax day?

I must say that the discipline of pulling all this together has certainly opened my eyes to some of my poor business practices. I surely have not been wise in my purchasing and my pricing. Pricing is another difficult process. I am not going to think about that yet tonight. Figuring out the tax was enough math for one day.

By the way, Etsy has some Storque articles on taxes and on inventory. One is Tax Time Considerations for the Independent. Another is Etsy Seller Inventory Worksheet.

Time to Relax

It's Friday, and I am so glad. There are no special plans for the weekend, so I can relax, work on my blog and my jewelry. I've been showing lots of my bright spring/summer jewelry, but I am in a more mellow mood today. Take a look at this necklace that is for sale at my Etsy shop, LeAllyson's Creations. I think it is just perfect to wear over a weekend like this with jeans and a sweater or teeshirt.

I need to apologize to everyone who wants to use the links to the "Bead Artists Who Blog" and the "Etsy Sellers Who Blog" webrings. I was trying to make something a little bit more creative with my blog template and lost all my Widgets. That is the code that creates the links to all the other sellers in the webring. I've emailed the webring administrators and hope to get all fixed within the next day or so. Also, I decided to try again on the creative template at a later time. I didn't want to lose everything. I had saved my original template, but I lost everything in the right hand column. Someday I will be more proficient. It is a slow process for me at this point.

Papaya Passion Earrings

Here are my latest earrings. In keeping with the Crimson Passion earrings I posted yesterday. I now have Papaya Passion earrings. Hope you like them!

This is a short post tonight. I am one tired puppy!

Crimson Passion

Longing for summer and carefree times is what inspired this design. I call these earrings Crimson Passion and describe them as sassy and a little bit naughty. Makes me feel young and daring! LOL! Hope you like these and my other designs.

I have posted these at my Etsy shop, Plum Beadacious.

For those of you who create handcrafted jewelry and sell it online, how many places do you list your items for sale? I've been thinking the more the merrier, but sometimes I have trouble tracking what is for sale where. I need to get better with lists.

I have items listed at:

• My website - Plum Beadacious
• My Etsy shop - Plum Beadacious
• My other Etsy shop - LeAllyson's Creations

Then I talk about and show my jewelry at:

• My other website - LeAllyson's Creations
• Flickr
• Here on my blog - Beadaciously Yours

Please comment and let me know where you list your items!

Snowy Tuesday

We are just not used to all this snow in St. Louis. The last 5 winters or so were very mild. Today is what I would call a blizzard. I had to drive in it because my husband was scheduled for a test at the hospital. All went well, but I am ready for spring. Here is a picture of the snow on our deck rail today.


Thankfully, I am home now and can think about and work on my spring jewelry. Here is one of my newest designs for spring. I am making lots of earrings for my new Cottage Garden collection. These are made from acrylic iris beads, sweet glass pearls, tiny seed beads, and antique brass earwires. Bring on the sunny days!