I was on twitter the other day and ran across a good article with ideas for what to write about on a blog.

If one of your resolutions this year was to blog regularly, read that article. Then, if you feel inspired, write a bunch of posts using those ideas, and schedule them to publish at regular intervals over the next few weeks, or save as drafts so you have something to publish when you aren’t feeling as inspired.

Also, try blog memes. You may have noticed a few posts on this blog with titles like “Thursday 13″ and “Mondays Muse”. These are blog memes that people started, so that you have a theme to write about on a given day of the week. One very popular meme is “Wordless Wednesday”, where you just post a photo. (And speaking of Monday’s Muse, I think an article on finding blogging inspiration is quite appropriate!)

If you participate in memes, it’s a good idea to link to the site that created the meme, add a link to your post in the comments there, and then check out a few other people’s posts. This helps everyone get more blog traffic and comments.

I just discovered etsyhacks, a website where you can get add-on scripts for firefox that let you do all kinds of neat things while on the etsy website.

I really wish I knew some javascript so I could make up cool stuff like that…but I don’t, and anyway it only took me a minute to get the etsyhacks script I wanted up and running. Now I can see topics I’ve posted on in the etsy forums and jump to the last page I read! Yay!

If you don’t shop or sell on etsy, you probably won’t care about this, but….

Etsy has been adding a bunch of new features lately, and my favorite is the new bookmark/share feature. When you are looking at a shop or item, you can click on the bookmark/share link to post it to a bunch of social networking sites, including facebook, myspace, twitter, and others.

It works great! I posted a pair of earrings to the three sites listed above in about a minute.

You can also post to stumbleupon, a site I hear people are using with great results but haven’t used my myself, and a whole bunch of others.

Each site will post in a different way - on myspace you can choose where you want to post the info (I chose a new blog post) while on facebook, it just posts it without asking you where you want it to go. And obviously, on twitter, you just get a tweet. I’ll have to try posting to some of the other networking sites too, to see what happens!

Here’s a preview of a few new pearl earring styles, soon to be for sale here and on etsy.

Actually, this pair is already up for sale on etsy:

($10.00 per pair)

And this pair I did up as a custom order, but decided they turned out so pretty I decided I’d add them to my regular line:

($14.50 per pair)

These last two are brand new:

These lovely silver/gray pearl earrings are $14.50 per pair, limited quantity available.

And these smaller (5mm) black pearl earrings are $11.00 per pair.

If you’ve never shopped with me before, shipping within the US is $2.00, regardless of whether you order one item or several. International shipping is $5.00.

I’m working on some very cool stuff to send to Exhibit One in Stillwater, Oklahoma at the moment - earrings with a steampunk vibe, silver rings, some copper and silver mixed metal pieces, and of course a few silver and pearl pieces. Preview coming soon…..

Here’s to a great 2009!

Now, I know most people seem to want to forget that 2008 ever happened, and I can understand that. A lot of bad things happened last year.

But I’d like to focus on the positive things, and work on improving the things that weren’t so good.

I know that I can have little to no effect on the major issues my country is facing, like a health care crisis and a recession, but I can do all kinds of things to make 2009 a great year for me and my family.

I’ll be writing more about my goals and plans for the coming year in the next few weeks. If you need inspiration for your own resolutions, feel free to copy some of mine. I hope that they will help me build a more profitable business, create some gorgeous jewelry, explore other creative outlets, be a better mom, wife, and friend, and look fabulous in my pre-pregnancy jeans.

I may not accomplish EVERYTHING I set out to, but I think it’s good to dream big. And then break down the big dreams into smaller and smaller steps until you know what you can do right now, for the next five minutes, to bring yourself closer to reaching a goal.

So - now I’ve blogged, which is one of the things on my list, and I’m off to do just a few minutes of yoga. I would like to say I’m going 30 minutes on the stairmaster, but the baby is teething and I’m short on sleep - so a little relaxing yoga while my husband distracts him is about what I can handle today. It still counts as exercise, and “me” time!

So - here’s to 2009, hopefully our best year yet!

I’ve found my jewelry in a couple of treasuries recently, and even curated one myself yesterday!

This first one is from over a week ago - it is lovely, and a big thank you to Sending Love Gallery for including a pair of my earrings:

And this one was made yesterday by Adroit Jewelers - I’m so flattered that my earrings remind her of spring:

Finally, here’s my latest, all black and white items:

I’m working on making it possible to shop right here, on my blog and my main website, in addition to etsy.

Just because I want to try using a paypal button, now you can buy my best selling earrings (offwhite oval freshwater pearl drops) right here by clicking the “add to cart” button.

freshwater pearl drop earrings

One of my goals for 2009 is to get my etsy shop fully stocked, as well as a shop right here on my own website.

By fully stocked, I mean every item I can make multiples of should be listed on my website and my etsy shop.

This way, it will be easy for people to purchase my most popular items online, using the method they feel most comfortable with.

I think this will increase my online sales - my etsy sales have certainly increased since I started listing the series of freshwater pearl drop earrings and the silver and copper studs that I make. That may not be the reason my sales have increased, but I think that it can’t hurt. It’s definitely less work to relist an item on etsy than it is to list a new one of a kind, so this streamlines my business a bit: galleries get the one of a kinds, and limited editions go online.

I’m working on my new years resolutions - both personal and for my jewelry business.

What are you resolving to do in 2009? Lose weight? Increase business profits?

I’ve found that very specific goals. ie, “sell three pairs of earrings this week,” or “check out four craft shows” work better for me than non-specific goals like “lose weight” or “make more money.”

I do hope to do both of those things next year - specifically, lose enough weight to fit into my favorite skirt and still breathe (probably about five pounds) and earn $200 more per month than in 2008.

I’d love to hear your resolutions and any strategies you plan to use to help you achieve them.

My friend Victoria over at Designs by Victoria (a recent featured artist!) wrote a great post on her blog that explains why handmade artisan products are more expensive than mass-produced or even fair trade handmade items produced overseas.

So why buy handmade? There are many reasons, but here are a few I like.

• support your local economy by buying from an artist or crafter in your community
• get something truly unique, that none of your friends can go buy at the mall
• are you vegan? is the environment your number one concern? are you religious? do you want to help support starving children? chances are you can find handmade goods made by someone who cares about the same issues you do.
• while not all handmade goods are the best quality, it is often the case that they are better quality than what you find at the chain stores. for example, my jewelry is made with precious metals, freshwater pearls, and gemstones. the jewelry at target, claires, and other chain stores is cute, but a lot of it is made with materials that are not of as high quality.
• a lot of artists/crafters would be happy to make you a custom item. do you like a wallet in someone’s etsy shop, but want it in black instead of red? they can probably do that for you! get exactly what you want this way.
• you are an individual. you are special. handmade items are individually made to be extra special just like you