The Waiting Game.

I've done it.
I've finally applied to a market.
Now I'm playing the waiting game.
Waiting for them to let me know if I can go. Though I'm not going on my own. I don't have enough goodies. So I am going to be sharing a stall with my Mother In Law, who makes handbags. This market isn't anything out of the ordinary. It's a Farmers/Craft market. But I just wanted to get my work out before Christmas, to test the waters. (And to hopefully sell a few pieces!! of course)

So, I have a whole lot to get organised. First off I have these I want to get finished:

 I am totally loving my disc cutter!! It has made my crafting life that little bit easier. All the other shapes I have sawn and dapped and pierced. The flowers have been waiting a while for me to choose their colours (hence the patinas). They're now going to need a super clean up before I can start. The circles are just going to simple pieces, they will help to plump up my stock. I might even dap some of them to give them a little bit more something. Then I need to make all the ear wires to go with them. Not sure yet what I'll do with the small circles, but I have a few ideas.

Below is the animal I have been working on:

I had a hard time experimenting with bails. I didn't want to just pop on a jump ring and leave it at that. It wasn't going to do him justice and it didn't look right. So the bail in the picture is what I finally came up with and I'm happy with it.

Typically today is really humid and so not much fun at the bench. I'm supposed to be finishing up a custom order, will see how that goes. Will probably get to it late in the afternoon. That now seems to be when I spend time at my bench most, between 4pm and 6pm. Whilst making dinner and feeding the baby and so on. It just seems to be the time that I feel like being there the most. No idea why. Clearly I don't get much done, when I'm doing all those other things. But it's working for me right now.

Most likely I will post again when I hear about the market application. Pretty sure it'll be accepted. But there is no point in working like a mad woman, until I know for sure.

♥ Em ♥

SPRING.

Well it was officially Spring 9 days ago.
Below is what we (or rather my other half) did on the first day of Spring:

We painted out our feature wall with a fresh new burst of Aqua. It was originally Chartreuse and we loved it, but I was getting bored and it didn't seem as bright and fresh as it once did. At first when we painted this colour, we were all like 'ohnoes!', but fast forward 8 days later and we pretty much don't even notice it anymore! lol

I finally joined InstaGram - you can find me under littlecherryhill ... of course :)

Poppy giggled for the first time last week, I so wish I'd of had my camera or phone ready, but alas, as I started to film her on my phone, she stopped :(

I now have 2 lovely display cases for the markets. If I ever get there. One I purchased off my mother, that she was going to use in her Antique store and the other I won off eBay from an old guy who used it for collectables. On Saturday coming, I hope to check out some Markets held once a month in a big old renovated building in the city. They're very steep to sell at, but they do advertise and supply you with a table and chair and it's indoors. So no having to deal with tents and the weather elements etc... so that's a plus.

Bench wise, I've been playing around getting a few things half made, actually I have almost finished a pair of simple dangle earrings, but as it is for all of us, there just isn't enough time in the day to get everything I want done. Or started. Or even attempted - sewing, furniture resto, selling off stuff blah blah blah.

Sounds like Poppy is starting to wake up for lunch....

Have a good week all.
Em ♥

A beautiful day.

The sun is shining and the air is cool. 

It's a beautiful day. 

I am spending it cleaning and washing. Blogging and finishing off some jewellery.

We went to some Farmer's Markets yesterday. I was contemplating selling at those particular markets, but since visiting yesterday, I have changed my mind. I just didn't like the vibe and there were others selling jewellery there - though we were pretty certain they were resellers. So we decided on some other markets, they're called 'Creative Markets' and they are held in a 'trendy' suburb near the water. You don't have to book for these particular markets. So I guess that means if it rains you don't really have to worry about losing stall fees etc. 

Anyway there is lots to do before I can go - besides making plenty of stock. I honestly don't know where to start. But I like that challenge. It gives me something to work towards and to look forward to.

I haven't been able to make much lately.

Summer only attended 1 day at Kindy last week, but this week she has 3 days. So I'm hoping that will give me a chance to work at the bench and get some new bigger pieces made.

I have a couple of pairs of earrings to finish off

And below are a couple of pairs I've finished.

 

The pair below are earrings that I changed up a little - I made the hooks from Gold filled wire to match the wrapped wire on the body. 

 

And here is another little ceramic bird that I bought from a sweet little boutique yesterday. 

I would have missed it, if it wasn't for my hubby who pointed it out. 

Well it's time for Summers morning tea, so I should probably leave it here.

Buh Bye for now

Em ♥

Blah....

I have just spent the best part of an hour reading in the forums on Etsy about this whole Relevancy vs Renewing saga and how it's affecting high selling stores big time.

I am going to be honest and admit I'm confused with it all. I have made my titles and listings and tags all relevant with what I sell. I haven't really been the type to look at shop stats, in fact today was the first time I have bothered.

I feel for those shops who are being hurt by this change, spesh when I read that half of the things at the top of the list of searched items aren't even relevant to that particular search at all. I felt that the renewing/relisting thing was pretty good myself. Some on the forums have stated that it made it hard for those who don't relist/renew and so the change is a good thing. But I feel that generally spending money, makes money. So relisting & renewing seemed fair and good to me. After all we're all on Etsy to make money are we not?!

I want to get somewhere with this hobby....one day....I cannot commit the time that it would take though, at least not right now. Basically all my energy goes into being a mummy and I barely get a break from it, so I cannot commit my brain space fully to making something. I'm always interrupted and am always needed and I only have one child....lord knows how you other women folk do it when you have more than 1 child?!

I am so full of inspiration/ideas/dreams. One of those is to get my ass and my jewellery to a market! I know which one I want to go to (visited another creative market yesterday and it was pretty lame - though maybe my style of work would be welcomed there, as I've not seen any like mine at any markets anywhere in the greater area) and I know where I can get my set up from and how much stock I would need and blah blah. But I can't get to that damned bench and make anything new. I don't think I would be a success with only 22 items, do you? Nope.

So how are you going with the new Etsy search stuff??

I haven't been one to relist heavily...just a couple of things a couple of times a week. Since looking at my stats I have noticed a big spike in faves to both shop and items when I've listed a new item....I will have to just keep an eye on the stats to see how I go.

Any tips? Advice?

yawn....dead tired....and it's cold today? it's Spring?!

Em.

Silver Smells....

Well the price of it does at least! I don't regularly check the price of silver, but every now and again I do and I couldn't believe it was at $40 again last night. I don't want to get all flustered again and go and buy a whole heap, for the 'just in case it rises' situation, but I can feel the pressure mounting again...as I am sure every other person who works with this metal feels.

Enough of that depressing chatter ....

So I went with the hubby and child to the Markets I wrote about in my last post. And to be honest and to the point....they STANK. Really. Yes they were very large markets, but they were not what I am looking for. They were great if you like inexpensive jewellery or knick knacks, clothes and so on. But it wasn't a 'craft/handmade' type market. I had to go and see, as you never know and it gave us a reason to get out of the house and go somewhere new. I was terribly disappointed.

Anyway, it has helped me make up my mind what I want to do. There are some actual craft markets about 10 minutes from where I live. They are held on Sundays only and I think I am going to give them a shot. Right now I don't have anywhere near enough inventory, so I am going to have to work on that first and foremost. I contacted the market people last night and they said you basically have to supply everything yourself and you just pay for the space allocated, which was about $33...not too bad. This of course means now I have to buy a tent/marquee, table, display stuff, a sign, table cloth and you get the idea :) Gotta spend money to make it huh.

I can't, unfortunately, get away without a tent as the sun here can get too hot and I don't want my jewellery to get really hot and burn someone and I don't fancy sitting out in it either (even though it's Winter still). So I have a lot to sort out if I want to go to these markets. There are some other markets about 15 minutes away from here too...so they are always another option if this place doesn't work out :)

So I have lots to plan for.

My custom order was received this morning and the lady was very happy, which has made me happy in return. She now wants to commission me for 2 more pieces!! I've also finished a few new things for my shop, will have to wait for the sale to be over before I list them.

That's all folks....

Em

Beautiful Day.

It's a beautiful day, shame the same can't be said about my mood.
Summer is driving me crazy today. I've got my first custom order for an older lady in Brisbane and I just can't see me getting a chance to get it started till Summer goes to bed....but by then I'll be too tired. Woe is me. lol.

My sale is going okay. I hardly get to the bench anymore now though so I barely am able to add any new work to my shop. Everytime I see someones blog post/fb post about how much jewellery they have in the works I get kinda envious. I would give anything to have a regular day once a week just to work selfishly at the bench without any issues/interruptions.

Below is our latest antique we are going to restore to put under our new mirror in the dining area. We are having troubles deciding the finish we want on it though, we both have different ideas.

I have a busy busy week ahead of me, but on Saturday I am hoping to go and visit some markets, as a potential place for me to have a stall there. They're the biggest markets around, having approx 25000 visitors per weekend (it's near a big tourist area/beach). They apparently supply you a table and tent and the prices are pretty reasonable considering. So hopefully the weather holds out and I can give it a look see. Hubs and I have an idea of how I can display my works without anyone being able to pocket anything, so if all goes well, that will be our next project.

I am going to attempt to make my first ever batch of Cheese & Onion Scones soon. A recipe that my mother used to use when I was a kiddo, from my grandmothers recipe book that must be over 50 years old.
And I am going to attempt my first ever meat pie on Friday...yep you heard right...I've never made a meat pie before lol.

Well I am going to prob do another post on Thursday as I have some nice bits n pieces to blog about. So take care all till then :)

Old Hobbies Die Hard.....

I want to sew again. I don't have a whole lot of time to do jewellery, let alone sewing...but I am sure I will fit it in somewhere.

I have possibly thousands of dollars worth of material and a whole load of boutique patterns and I just bought more material last night.
I am only going to be making small things for now, I'd like to make a handbag or a market bag and the material I just purchased is to make Summer some nice twirl skirts.

Summer and I went to the park this morning and she had fun on the swings for ages and then we went for a little walk along the path by the seaside. It was super windy, but it was nice still.

Now we are going to go out and get our weekly lunch treat together....

Here are a couple of pictures of my latest work:




A nice lapis ring and a jasper pendant.

I finally have reopened my Etsy store. I am going to slowly work on new pieces to put in there and in another months time, I will have my old work back and I will be able to relist on Etsy.

We went on Sunday morning to see if those markets were on...but they weren't. Then the other night whilst out for fish and chips, I spotted a sign saying that the markets will be on this coming Sunday. So I am looking forward to that! There are some Arts n Crafts markets on about 15 minutes drive away from where we live, on Sunday morning too. So I am going to go there as well to scope it out. I really need to get selling some of my pieces so I can invest in more materials....you know how it goes.

Anywho...that's all there is to write about for now. Will probably do a post again, once I have been to those Markets on Sunday morning :)