Black Friday/Cyber Monday Plans

I know many of the shops on Etsy are planning to have Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales. I am actually not doing so on Eternal Stardust Jewelry or Eternal Stardust Baby, but we will be doing one on Candlelight Boutique.

The reason I am not doing any sales for Black Friday/Cyber Monday on the ESD shops is because I simply don't have the stock to handle it. Well, I do have a *lot* of jewelry, but at this point, I don't want to raise my Etsy bill too high and not be able to pay it. Besides, I would need to photograph a lot of the jewelry to ensure that the photos were good enough to make people want to buy the items, and right now my classes are a bit more intense with things due on odd days of the week. This makes it a bit more difficult to handle my shops.

By the way, the Christmas Light Earrings are back in the shop! :) The winner of the pair of earrings from my Facebook giveaway never contacted me with her shipping information and never responded to any of my attempts to contact her via Facebook or e-mail. I have decided that I probably won't use that giveaway application on Facebook anymore - it seems most people only liked the page to enter the contest. I don't want to deal with that anymore. 

I did re-list a few of my clearance items just to see if maybe during the holiday season they might actually sell at their discounted prices - they are still marked as being clearance. :) 

If you have a shop, are you doing anything for Black Friday/Cyber Monday??

Autumn & Winter Wear

So Autumn is here and Winter approaches. Time to start thinking of cool items for keeping warm. When I think of cool items to keep warm I think of cool scarves & awesome looking hats. Any hat that is stylish and can keep your head warm at the same time is a great idea in my book.

For instance this newsboy cap I made:

This cap can keep your head warm while allowing you to stay stylish at the same time. I think it's a really cute hat anyways. :)

Scarves can be cool as well. You can have pockets on them to allow you to warm your hands or stash stuff if you want, or they can be plain. You can have them in stripes or solids. I love a good scarf in Winter. I don't have any pictures of cool scarves right now, but I plan to make some soon! :)

The above pictured cap comes in 3 sizes - 22" head circumference, 24" head circumference, or 26" head circumference. If you happen to be larger than that, I can make it bigger as well. You can have your choice of colors too - the hat is only $15.00 - it is not currently available in any of my shops, but you can convo me to order one if you like! :) Just let me know your head size & what color you want! :)

Pricing Amazement

One of the things I have never been good at is pricing my items. However, I noticed something this past weekend during Art in the Park. People will pay what I think is an outrageous price for one titem, but won't pay what I think is a reasonable price for another item.

I'll give you an example. I had several crocheted cotton washcloths for sale. I priced them at $5 each. That is, $5 for one washcloth. I sold two of them. Now mind you, I can make 2 2/3 of these washcloths from a single ball of cotton yarn that cost me about $1.89 after tax. That's a pretty hefty profit for 2 washcloths if you ask me. I'm just saying. :P But yet people didn't even flinch at seeing that the washcloths were $5 each.

Now we have one of my favorite bracelets that I've made. (Go on, click it, you know you want to. I'll wait.) Now that bracelet right there is $20. The materials alone make up half of the price of that bracelet. Yet when people asked me how much that bracelet was, they were shocked to hear that I wanted $20 for it. They would quickly put it down and leave our booth. Yet when I talked to another jewelry artist who was selling at the next booth over from ours, she said that she had bracelets she'd made with beads she bought for $3 at Walmart, that she had maybe $5 worth of materials total in these bracelets, that she had priced at $35 or more, and the same people who refused to buy my $20 bracelet were more than willing to go to her booth and pay what she asked for a bracelet that she said herself, was worth less than the one I had made. She was in shock as well.

Now I will say that maybe, just maybe, $10 for my time to make that bracelet isn't quite fair. After all, I don't think the bracelet took me more than 10 minutes to string together. But when I attempted to price it less than $20, I was told that I wasn't charging nearly enough. And another bracelet that I had made (this one which I sold to a friend of mine) had beads from the same company, same store, but were $2 less in price, and my friend refused to pay less than $20 for that bracelet. I know, because I tried to knock it down to $15 since she is my friend, and she refused.

But yet people weren't willing to pay $20 for the playing cards bracelet. How can it be that people will pay $5 for a single crocheted washcloth with less than $2 worth of yarn in it, but won't play $20 for a bracelet with $10 worth of beads in it? I just don't get it.

No More ArtFire Shop

I am not particularly fond of the fact that ArtFire decided to do away with their free seller accounts. Yes, I realize that they are a business and that it is their prerogative to do away with the free seller accounts, but I think it was poor judgement on their part.

Allow me to explain myself on this bit of thinking. You see, some shops used the free version because they could not afford to put a lot of money into their shop. The $9.95 price for the pro version of ArtFire if you signed up before 8/16/11 or the $11.95 price for the pro version of ArtFire if you signed up after 8/16/11 may not seem like much, considering the pro version used to be $15.95, but when you are struggling to make ends meet, you might not have that much money. Especially if you are not making sales to help recoup that expense.

I learned that I have to limit myself on how much I post on Etsy because I can easily get myself to a point where I can't afford to pay my Etsy fees for the month. So you can imagine that I would not want an ArtFire account with a monthly fee! I did have a sale there on ArtFire, but I just can't see one sale being enough to make me want to go pro and stay pro when I have other things that $12 a month could be paying for.

Several of the shops I used to visit sadly had to close down their businesses because they didn't have any other resources - and ArtFire even took away access to our listed items so we could get our descriptions and the like from them so we could list them somewhere else! They want us to pay just to get our descriptions and the like back. :( My best friend is searching for a good alternative to ArtFire right now and has yet to find one.

So now I have no ArtFire shop. I am trying Addoway to see how that goes, but I may have to open a second Etsy shop for the baby stuff. I'll just have to see.

Taking the Etsy Holiday Boot Camp Pledge!!!!

I, Eternal Stardust Designs, pledge to participate in the Etsy Success Holiday Boot Camp to the best of my abilities. I vow to check in every week, do my homework and support my fellow Holiday Boot Campers. I will read the weekly newsletters and blog posts, check in on the weekly forum thread, read the weekly blog post, check off the checklists and salute the mascot. I promise to share what I've learned with those who need it, support my fellow Etsy indiepreneurs and, most of all, have a positive and persistent attitude. I understand that together we can spread the word about our handmade and vintage goods, making this holiday season a more unique and meaningful one to gift givers and give-ees everywhere!

Taking the Plunge Into Etsy Showcase

Being that my current sources of income are the non-existent sales from my Etsy, Artfire, and US Trendy shops, and some freelance writing work that I do, I have been a bit lax on advertising my shop and my items. This is mostly because all of the really good ways to advertise are, well, costly.

That being said, last night I decided to go ahead and click the "Promote" link next to one of the baby blankets I posted a week ago or so. What I ended up with is an Etsy showcase on 8/25 in the crochet category. The Etsy showcase is not as expensive as some methods of advertising - it's $7 per day that you choose to participate and they just add it to your Etsy bill as opposed to charging a credit or debit card for it immediately.

Yet in the past it was the fee that stopped me. Like I said - my current sources of income are not exactly bringing in the money like crazy and extra fees just seemed like a bad idea. But I decided to take the plunge and see what happens. Wish me luck!

EtsyBloggers Anniversary Sale Event

And now a word from the awesome EtsyBloggers Team about their 3rd Anniversary Sale Event (of which Eternal Stardust Designs is taking part).

Have you heard?? Approximately 50 Etsy shops are participating in this wonderful event...we're all celebrating the 3rd Anniversary of the rockin' EtsyBloggers team...and we're all having a SALE!!! Look at all the beautiful items just waiting for you to take a closer look:

More New Designs

Well, I posted 2 new designs although one ended up being switched to a custom listing for a friend as she wanted it. LOL I can make more of the bracelet though as soon as I get more of the heart beads for it, so no worries there if you like it and want it.

This is the bracelet I am going to be calling "Annie":



The above bracelet is the one that my friend wanted to buy, so it's now in a custom listing. I can make more later if someone else wants one. :)

This is the bracelet I am calling "Royalty in Purple":



This one is a double-row flat spiral weave - and off-loom woven bracelet. It's absolutely gorgeous and I wish there was a way to capture the sparkle and shine of this bracelet in a photo.

More new designs are coming, just as soon as I get the materials I am looking for.

Four New Items In the Shop

Here are the listings for our four newest designs/items. The Pink Firestorm bracelet is one-of-a-kind due to some of the beads used in the bracelet no longer being available for me to purchase. The Autumn Fire earrings are also one-of-a-kind as I can no longer purchase the amber glass leaves used to make them, so these items are definitely unique looks!


Pink Firestorm Bracelet



Autumn Fire Earrings



Thank You For The Cross Earrings



Rosalie Earrings

Coming Soon To The Shop

These are just "rudimentary" photos of some items I'll be listing once "proper" photos have been taken. :)


Rosalie Earrings


Autumn Fire Earrings


Thank You For The Cross Earrings


Pink Firestorm Bracelet

2 New Earrings In The Shop

Well, we have 2 new pairs of earrings for you to view in our shop - Carnelian & Glass Leaf earrings, which can be viewed HERE and Blue Aventurine earrings, which can be viewed HERE.

I've had both pairs of earrings for a while now, but for some reason never took pictures of them or listed them in the shop until now. Truth be told, the Carnelian & Glass Leaf earrings are my favorite of the two pairs. I just love the way they look together. The sad thing is that the glass leaves are extremely fragile and unfortunately, they were a clearance item when I purchased them, so I cannot get any more of them. Once the earrings are gone, they're gone.

I have a few more of the leaves and plan to make a couple more pairs of those earrings as well as possibly making a necklace out of them, but we'll see what happens with that. :)

Big Things Coming

Well, I finally got the information I needed and I filled out the necessary forms in order to receive my Iowa State Sales tax permit. Now when I sell items whether it be through Etsy or if I sell at a craft show/fair, I will need to collect Iowa State Sales Tax.

Iowa is a flat-rate state, so I set up my PayPal account to automatically charge the sales tax on the items if the package is being shipped to Iowa. Fun times. :D Plus I upgraded my PayPal to a business account so as to make sure that credit card statements show some form of Eternal Stardust Designs on them when they're viewed after making a purchase.

And finally, I ordered my business cards. Although Etsy has a partnership with MOO, I used VistaPrint to order my cards instead - 250 FREE business cards (shipping & handling was the only cost) - plus I can get a few other items for nothing but shipping if I want to. I'm not sure where I'm going to hand out my business cards other than putting them in the packages when I send out orders, but we'll see. I do know I'm going to make sure to carry some with me all the time!

New Earrings in the Shop

There is a new set of earrings in the Eternal Stardust shop - Pink and Purple spiral rope earrings. :)

I picked up a bag of "amethyst mix" seed beads the other day - they just screamed at me to spiral rope weave them into something. So the first something they've been woven into is a pair of earrings. :)

You can view the listing HERE. :)

Oh My

I have gone over a month without posting to this blog and I sincerely apologize for that. Allow me a moment to explain.

I do not have a full time job. I do some blogging that allows me to get paid for writing articles and I write, freelance, for a website that allows me to more or less be a ghost writer for other blogs. The work is easy, although the pay isn't the greatest. So I have been trying to find a full time job to allow me to pay the bills - and then continue to filter my freelance writing money into Eternal Stardust.

Over the next few months, there will be some changes. Eternal Stardust will have 2 new partner shops - ESD Baby (Eternal Stardust Baby) & ESD Home (Eternal Stardust Home). ESD Baby will feature crocheted and knitted baby blankets, layette sets, etc. ESD Home will feature things such as crocheted towel toppers, crocheted and knitted dish cloths, placemats, coasters, and pot holders.

Also coming soon to Eternal Stardust Jewelry will be a line of jewelry that is inspired by NASCAR. What I would like to do is make it so that you can convo me on Etsy, tell me your favorite driver and what your favorite paint scheme for their car is, and I will weave a bracelet in peyote stitch for you. This could also be done with football, baseball, and basketball teams - anything that would have team colors could have this done.

I am working on getting the main website up and running so that I can have a place that will show off all three of the shops.

Please, don't forget to add us on Facebook and MySpace. We're also on Twitter.

Another New Item Listed

This item is actually new. I finished one of the 4 scarves I was crocheting and posted it on Etsy tonight. I did miss the February 3rd Etsy listing, so I didn't manage my goal of one per day for February, but at least I remembered tonight's and have 3 new items in my shop. :)

This item is a pink & dusty rose scarf. Right now I have only one in stock, and since the dusty rose I used is no longer available, any subsequent pink & dusty rose scarves will have a slightly different dusty rose used on them.

This scarf does not have fringe on it, and can be made in any colors you want, so feel free to Convo me on Etsy or email me at eternalstardustdesigns@ymail.com for custom color information.

New Item Listed

Another new, but not new, item has been listed over at Eternal Stardust Jewelry & Accesories. :) This time it is the Golden Sun & New Moon with Tiger Eye necklace. This gorgeous necklace features glass pearls in Gold & Black with square Tiger Eye beads. The Tiger Eye beads can easily be changed for other stones, although they may not be square, and if preferred, the Tiger Eye beads can be exchanged for round ones instead. Take a look!

New Item Listed

I've listed a new pair of earrings. Actually they are not new, they are a re-listing of some earrings that I had previously posted but had then given away in a contest. :) I have the materials to make another pair, and so I put them back up for sale in the shop. You can view the listing for the Red & Black Dot Earrings by clicking the link.

Our shop's public profile has also been updated to reflect the fact that there are, in fact, two of us who are selling items in the shop. It is a possibility in the future that we may separate the shops, but for the time being, the shop will be a collective shop.

Two New Items Listed!!

We are proud to announce that our Etsy shop now has 2 new items listed for your viewing/purchasing pleasure!

Up first is this beautiful hooded scarf. The hooded scarf is crocheted by one of my business partners and is able to be customized to the colors you want. The one in the photo was a gift to someone, but the scarf only takes a day or two to complete, so you won't have to wait long for a scarf to make its way to you!

The second item is this adorable scarf. This scarf is also crocheted by one of my business partners and is also available in custom colors. Just simply convo us to let us know what colors to make your scarf in!

We will have more earrings, bracelets, and necklaces in soon, as well as some other crocheted accessory items as well! Check back often, you never know what you will find!