My Keychain is Featured

on Found Handmade blog! Thank you so much! And Found Handmade is running a promotion, all their sellers are getting 10 blocks for FREE! Yes! FREE! What a great opportunity! I just registered, and uploaded 10 of my lovely necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and keychains! If you are a crafter and selling your handmade items online, you must not miss this great advertisement chance!

More Blooming Orchids

The weather is getting cold, but our orchids are doing great. Some of AK and EG's orchids are blooming so well, I just had to take some pics and share with you guys. I will post their names once I talk to AK and EG again. So, enjoy.

And I finally brought in the 4 sets of necklace and bracelet AD ordered. He wanted 4 sets of matching ones for himself, his little grandson and two daughters. They are very much alike, I just put the beads at different locations, and used different closures for the bracelets. I discussed the design with AD first, and then show him the sample, so I know they will love them.
And here is the first necklace I made for AD. The name of this knot is "phenix's tail", very pretty name.

Jewelry Organizing Tips

Today I want to talk about jewelry display and organizing. We all ran into or will run into this problem, which is how to properly store our jewelry, and organize them in a way that it's tasteful and everything is easy to find. I have been searching for smart ideas online for a while, and found some amazing solutions.
One article I found was all about jewelry mannequins. Never heard of that? Take a look at this. I found this image on google, and it linked me to Jeri Dansky's blog. She featured several different style of jewelry mannequins, they all look great, but this one is my favorite. If you are interested of buying it, it's on sale at Amazon.co.uk. And you can find more jewelry organizing ideas from Jeri's blog.

Here is a great earring holder design I found on Etsy. It can hold lots of earrings and display them like art. This also solves the problem with earrings with posts. I mean you can literally hang those french wires/fish hooks, lever backs or clips on anything, but not the ones with posts. This will be a great helf for lots of us. And the frame can be hang on the wall or sit on a table. Very versatile! You can find all these great frames in anneball's Etsy shop Serendipity.

And here is a very simple DIY project every girl can handle. You basically go get a nice frame from thrift shop or even yard sale. If you are not a big fan of vintage frames, you can use the modern ones, which can be easily found at art and crafts supply stores. This is so easy to make, and you will have all your pretty earrings at plain sight, no more digging for a matching earring and untangle it from all other earrings. Here is the tutorial for that.

If you are a more classy lady, and want some furniture looking displays, you probably will like this one. Great part of this one is that you can also hang your necklaces and bracelets too. You can find it here. You also can find this more modern one on their website, great for many bracelets and necklaces.
Here is another nice handmade one I found on Etsy. Its simply design and all the twisted branches and curves and spirals make it great for younger generation. And it holds tons of stuffs as well. You can find this one at Claudine's Closet.

And I love these ideas too. Found the images a while ago, but unfortunately don't remember where I found them, and they are just not showing up on my google search.

Finally May

It's finally May, but my deck looked like in early March! All the saucers I left outside with water in them are frozen overnight! Glad I took all my plants in, otherwise I might suffer a great lost. Oh, I was really careful this morning, checking the bird nest and the eggs from second floor window. And there she was, the mother was sitting right in the nest and protecting her babies. I ran downstairs, grabbed the camera, and very carefully walk towards the sliding door, and snapped a couple of pictures. Her eyes are so beautiful, with white circle around her eyes, she looked very alert. She was staring at me the whole time, so when I finally got too close, she flew away. That is not very protective of her. I thought she would fight me and cover her babies. Whatever, she will come back later. Since she left, I got chance to put all my plants out and arrange them around the bird nest. Now I just checked the forecast, and realized that I might have to move them back in again tonight! Sucks! They keep changing the forecast, and how am I suppose to keep up. It's quite a work out to move 50+ plants, two at a time. Guess I cannot fight mother nature.

I also checked the other nest on the porch. It was still empty, but I did see a bird sitting on my oak tree nearby. She is probably the mother. Hopefully when I get home tonight, there will be a tiny egg in that nest as well.
Oh, just sold two more items on Etsy. I chatted with that customer a while ago, and really enjoyed it. She is definitely my kind of gal. So, I put a pair of matching earrings in her package to surprise her.

So tired of this

I am so tired of this cold thing! It has been more than 3 weeks and this on and off fever lasted total 2 weeks. I am tired all the time, and no motivation or energy to do anything. Couldn't even take care of my little shop. I didn't promote my shop in any way ever since I am sick, which was 3 or 4 wks ago, and to tired to upload any new items in my shop. So, everything is very slow now. But I managed to mail out a custom order on Sat, at least some activities. Cannot wait for this down period to be over. I really need to start planting now, so I will have healthy seedlings for spring. And I have to do more to attract traffic to my shop. Anyway, here is the custom order I just sent out, and they are everyone's favorite too.

Two more!

Someone just bought two of my items! Very happy!
She bought one of my favorites, the red button knot earrings, I wear the same one myself occasionally. I don't wear it all the time since I have more than 60 pairs of earrings, but I really like its simplicity. It adds just a hint of color and Asian taste to my outfits.

And she also bought one of the friendship bracelet. I came up with that design several weeks ago. I wanted to make something for two birthday girls in my office, nothing too fancy, but colorful and cute enough to go with all kinds of casual clothes. I found some friendship beads in my boxes, and worked them into this design. They absolutely loved them. So, I decided to make more and use different color cords and beads. Love the results. And they are adjustable, fit everyone, doesn't matter how big or small your wrist is.

This reminded me that I have to make a custom ordered keychain. I got the order several days ago, but since I am still very sick, I told the customer that it will take a while. I will probably make it tonight and post the picture tomorrow. This PanChang knot keychain is a huge success, plus this order (one red, one green), I have sold 5 already! And my friend, Tracy, wanted me to make this into her company's promotion gift! But since I only have a hand full of those cute copper bells left, lots of people will be disappointed later.

Cute Earrings

I posted some new items in my shop yesterday. Here are some of the cute earrings. I love the colors, and they casual, but some of them can be very dressy too.

See what I found tonight

After uploading some new pieces to my shop, I went to read the Etsy forums. Love to chat with other people there, always something new and learned a lot about running Etsy business. And take a look at what I found. This shop called BeautifulJewels (at http://beautifuljewels.etsy.com), and the pieces are so gorgeous, and the pictures are very professional. See how the crystal sparkles, yet you can still see all the details. Wonderful pictures. Just want to share this with you. I am a big fan of things that sparkles. =) It's a girl thing!

Cute choker necklaces

Here are some choker necklaces I made recently. If you want to see more pictures of them, you have to go to my store. I just love them. They are very cute, and look great with casual clothes. And any age group can wear them. The one with a matching bracelet was customly made for a 5-year-old little girl. And the dark green one will look fine on a girl or guy's neck. I have to make more of them since there are still lots of cute designs in my mind.

Two more sales!

A girl just bought two pairs of earrings from my shop. Good morning to me! Here are the pictures.

And I got lots of responses on the Etsy forum about tax issue. These people are so helpful, and knowledgable. I am glad that I can get help from these experienced people. Thanks to germandolls and knitwit4ever.