Valentine's Day Jewelry Live Event

I am so pleased that I have been invited to submit photos of some of my Filigree Romance jewelry to Mona Hair for her Live Event broadcast on NowLive. This is an internet based video broadcast, and you can listen to it at http://www.nowlive.com/showid/63074. Please join her on January 18 at 12 pm PST, 2 pm CST or 3 pm EST. She will be featuring a number of jewelry designers on this show. You will need a userid to join the broadcast. Go to www.nowlive.com/support to sign up. You can also call into the show to comment by clicking on the Call Show button and following the system instructions.

Mona may be featuring some of the following pieces from my Filigree Romance shop.

Jewelry Marketing Successes

Sometimes I have trouble seeing how far I've come because I can see how far I still have to go to meet my goals. Does that ever happen to you? If you are creating handcrafted jewelry and selling it, do you feel like you are succeeding at what you want to accomplish?

When I look at the numbers and all the time I put into trying to sell my jewelry, I sometimes get discouraged. So I decided to stop and look back over 2008 to see what I did in the last year. I was pretty surprised!

• I doubled my overall jewelry sales last year from the year before. This was combined online, craft show and word of mouth sales.
• I started this blog.
• I redesigned my website, www.plumbeadacious.com and now publish it via a different web host.
• I redesigned one of my Etsy shops, www.leallyson.etsy.com to focus on Filigree Romance jewelry
• I joined ShowMeEtsy, an Etsy street team, and participated in one of their craft sales.
• I've tried a little bit of social networking.

What are your successes? Please leave comments to share them. Celebrate your successes!

A few items I sold this last year:

We're Walking for Health this New Year

It's that time of year when we all resolve to eat right and exercise to lose weight and get fit. I am finding that I enjoy walking. My daughter gave me an IPod Shuffle for Christmas, and what a fabulous gift that is for me. Now I walk down the road or on the tread mill and listen to my favorite music. It's great!

I'm looking forwards to the spring when the landscape starts to get green. That is when I really enjoy taking my walks outdoors. I designed these earrings with the colors of the grass and trees in mind. They are called Down the Road.

Big Ball Earrings and Times Square on New Years Eve

They will be dropping the big ball in Times Square in New York City tonight to celebrate the start of 2009. For some reason we always tune into that event on the TV, and I invariably think about how thankful I am that I am here in my nice warm home and not out in the huge crowds of people in the cold waiting for that ball to drop.

No ball in Times Square for me ~ I like the crystal balls in these earrings.

These are called Green on Green and are available for purchase at my Etsy shop, Filigree Romance.

I am enthused about the new year. It is always good to have the opportunity to start over. I don't get hung up on resolutions, but I do ponder what the new year will bring and what I can do to improve myself. My jewelry business did better in 2008 than in 2007. That being said, I have miles to go before I will feel successful. The best thing is that I am learning so much about making jewelry, how to market, and how to use the various internet resources to sell my jewelry. I am thankful for the many people who create blogs and websites with helpful information that they are willing to share. I hope to find things to share with all of you that will help you as you create and market your designs.

Filigree Romance - Vintage Inspired Jewelry

I decided to update my Etsy shop that I called LeAllyson's Creations. It is now called Filigree Romance. I really enjoy the feminine look of Victorian vintage inspired pieces made with gorgeous Czech glass and Swaroski crystals, and then decorated with antique brass, antique silver or copper filigree beadcaps and beads. Have a look at the designs I posted at Filigree Romance. Several of my favorite pieces of jewelry are pictured here.

Blue Porcelain Earrings

Here is my newest earring creation posted on my Plumbeadacious Etsy site. These are made from porcelain and display lovely small flowers. They are a good size earring, and will look great with jeans. I have these beads in several other colors, white, yellow,and green. If you are interested in another color, contact me.

Fasten Your Shawl with a Brooch Pin!

I have been making some brooch pins that can be used to fasten shawls or scarves, or perhaps worn as a decorative accessory on a coat or jacket. I was inspired by a scarf pin in the December 2008 edition of Simply Beads. After searching online for awhile, I found a source for the pins and bought some in silver plate and some in gold plate. It is fun and easy to place about 2 1/2" of beads on the pins, and after some practice I was able to bend the pins to form them into a pin that looks like a kilt pin. I sold several at a recent craft show. Here are some pictures. See the fuschia pink and cobalt blue pin at my Etsy shop, Plum Beadacious!