~ Don't Use Default Blogger Backgrounds! ~

As great as blogger is, their basic backgrounds...suck. If you have 5 minutes and you know how to copy and paste, you can have an awesome background, for free!! I love picking new backgrounds for my blog. There are a few sites out there that have really good choices.

HotBliggityBlog
This site has a good layout and it's super easy to navigate! It just shows you thumbnails of all the backgrounds. The code is right on the page, so all you have to do is find one you like, copy the code and put it in your blog. Awesome. Want to see a bigger picture before you pick? Just click on it and it'll show you a bigger version right away. No going to a separate page. Looks like they have about 120 backgrounds and have backgrounds for both 2 columns and 3 columns. Here are my favorites:



Shabby Blogs
Shabby Blogs has a definite vintage, feminine, soft feel to it. Not only do they have backgrounds, they also have buttons for Twitter and other extras. They also have 2 and 3 column backgrounds. The one I have right now is from Shabby Blogs. Also, very easy to install. You click on the install button and it shows you the instruction and code. It's so hard to pick favorites but here are a couple that are really festive.



The Cutest Blog on the Block
Again, lots of free backgrounds for 2 column and 3 columns to pick from. This site also has Twitter backgrounds, buttons, and banners. To me, who is a quite snobby when it comes to sites, it is not as easy to use as the other sites. Here are some I like at the moment:



So, don't let me catch you with the default backgrounds!! You put a lot of effort to write the content, so compliment that with a great, FREE, background!

~ Fun Tools from Gmail Lab ~

I am sure most of you have a GMail account. Did you know that there are a lot of beta features for Gmail? They range from fun to necessities. To explore these features, click on "Settings" in the upper right hand corner and then click on "Labs".


All you have to do is click on "Enable" for the features that you like. Don't forget to click on "Save Changes" when you are done.

Here's my list of "must-haves":

• Offline: Use your GMail in your browser even when you are offline!
  
• Signature Tweaks: Places your signature before the quoted text in a reply, and removes the "--" line that appears before signatures.
• Canned Responses: Email for the truly lazy. Save and then send your common messages using a button next to the compose form. Also automatically send emails using filters.
• Forgotten Attachment Detector: I do this all the time!!! I have done it at work, and even when I was sending resumes to recruiters! This feature prevents you from accidentally sending messages without the relevant attachments. Prompts you if you mention attaching a file, but forgot to do so.
• Undo Send: Ok. I do this sometimes too. Just hit send when I wanted to save, so this is really good for me. Stop messages from being sent for a few seconds after hitting the send button.

There are some fun ones like Mail Goggle that makes you do some simple math before it allows you to send an email. So, no more "omg I can't believe I just confessed my undying love to my hot TA while I was drunk!!!".

There's one that puts a random quote as your signature for you. There are features to let you preview YouTube videos, Flickr pictures, and more right in your email. There's also language translation tools, google docs and google calendar gadgets.

Just go explore :)

~ Impromptu Swarovski Crystal Jewelry Party ~

On the last Chicago trip, I held an impromptu jewelry party at my friend's mom's office. Well, it was more like I brought jewelry for my friend's mom and everyone came in to look and started buying stuff and ordering stuff. There was a little bit of bargaining and it was the first time I was on the selling side. I just had no idea what I was doing. I definitely gave some really good deals that day. But, I sold a lot and I got a huge custom order. Here are some of the pieces I just finished. I am thinking about listing some of them in my shop.

Ariel's bracelet and necklace set...




They really liked my Sunshine in Provo necklace...except they all wanted different colors. One color scheme is derived from my Nadia's Earrings in Violet Velvet and the other is from Stranded Necklace. I also made one in just golden shadow.




One of my all time favorites: Princess Mori's Necklace...


Earrings to match the Old World's Necklace....


I just sent everything out this morning. I am a little bit nervous. This is the biggest order I have mailed out. I got insurance on it, but I am still scared that something is going to happen to my precious creations.

Next time, I am going to prepare better and mark everything with price. I didn't do that and it was a mess to try to remember how much everything was. And I just wrote down on scrap paper what people ordered and it just wasn't very clean. With everyone talking and asking questions, it was just so hectic! Fun though...I definitely look forward to next time :)

~ Facebook Fan Page Widget ~

I was just taking a peek at my Facebook fan page today and saw something new!

So of course I had to click on it and see what new fun awaits me. It turns out to be a widget that you can add to any website! I just added it to this blog. Check it out on the left side and, of course, please feel free to become a fan!

It's pretty cool! You can customize it to only show the button and/or a stream of your page and/or your fans using their user interface.

The default settings make the widget too wide for my blog, so I went in and tweeked it a little. Originally, it was:

<script src="http://static.ak.facebook.com/js/api_lib/v0.4/FeatureLoader.js.php/en_US" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">FB.init("3bcba26752579364322c73188e0fac77");</script><fb:fan profile_id="44465104723" stream="1" connections="10" width="300"></fb:fan><div style="font-size:8px; padding-left:10px"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Germantown-MD/Happy-Cloud-Moments/44465104723">Happy Cloud Moments</a> on Facebook</div>

I had to change the width, height and connection to make it fit perfectly into the left column. I decreased the width. I had to take out a connection (fan picture) because it could only show 3 per row and the default 10 makes one picture stick out near the bottom. I also made the height bigger to compensate for the decreased height.

<script src="http://static.ak.facebook.com/js/api_lib/v0.4/FeatureLoader.js.php/en_US" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">FB.init("3bcba26752579364322c73188e0fac77");</script><fb:fan profile_id="44465104723" stream="1" connections="9" width="200" height="625"></fb:fan><div style="font-size:8px; padding-left:10px"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Germantown-MD/Happy-Cloud-Moments/44465104723">Happy Cloud Moments</a> on Facebook</div>

I know all that code looks scary, but it's very easy to change. You can get more info on the Facebook wiki page. I hope this is helpful. Let me know if you have issues customizing it for your blog/site and I'll look at it for you.

~Customer Service Lessons~

I went on a shopping spree on Etsy and got some nice supplies, earrings and logo. I also won a blog giveaway and I got all the items in last week. At first, I was just going to post about the items, but I realized that I learned a lot from these sellers.

LiciaBeads
First, my purchases from Licia of LiciaBeads. These are all custom orders. I love stars and she has these cute and o-so-affordable little star earrings. I meant to order 1 pair to fulfill my yellow star obsession. But she was so nice and showed me all the different colors she can do and I couldn't help myself. I got 2 pairs and ordered some earwires from her too.

The earrings and the boxes and the little envelop with the card and receipt.


These boxes look so cute. Doesn't take much, but it makes everything looks so much better.


The lovely earrings.


Viva la Violette
Next is the prize from Viva la Violette's blog. I was so excited to receive it and she included an extra card that I commented on with the prize.

The whole package is just wonderful. Her business card is very pretty and the cards are just so cute! Everything ties together so well.


This is the extra card that she included for me. Just love it!



OceanFrontStudio
I decided I need a logo so I went searching for a graphics artist and found Neil from OceanFrontStudio. He's having a 20% off sale and has the best prices from what I can see. Also, his past work and feedback are really good. So, I went ahead with the purchase and got very prompt responses. He worked with me for about a week and came up with a few revision of the logos and it turned out great! He also included an avatar and banner for free.

I actually liked both versions of the logo, so I purchased both. One you can see as the banner here and this is the other one.



I just had wonderful experiences with these sellers. They were very clear and professional throughout all the convos. The packaging is clean and simple and the products are great!
I used to just put a handwritten note on a small sheet of cute stationery, put it in the white cotton-filled box with the earrings, put a sticker on it and that's it. Now, I am going to add a little extra because that little extra makes a big difference.

I have had ok experiences and not so ok experiences before. So, now I know what's good and what's bad (I won't elaborate on the bad here). Buying has made me a better seller!

~Business Plan~

After selling on Etsy for about 2 months, I am feeling pretty overwhelmed. At first, I thought, I just have to make some things, take some pictures, post them on Etsy and Voila! I have a business. But, of course, I was just being naive. After I started reading in the forums, I realized that, duh! It's going to take a lot more than that to be successful! How can people buy your stuff if they don't know you exist? Why would they buy your stuff with so many other stores? Did you know that jewelry is "oversaturated" on Etsy?

Then, I see all these posts about advertising: participate in forums, chat, blog, flickr, twitter, myspace, facebook, stumbleupon, thenext, project wonderful, teams, business cards in library books, giveaways, blah blah blah! Oh yeah, don't spam! How am I going to have time to make anything when I have to do so much advertising. What's too much? What's too little?

I started signing up for everything, but.....I am stopping now. Time to take a step back. I decided, I am going to have a plan. And I'll try to stick to it and try not to get distracted by every new marketing idea that comes along. So here it is, with all of you as witness, my plan:

Off-line promo:

• Business cards, moo cards, stickers for packaging
• Design and make little gifts for customers
• Send business cards and some products to my best friends to get the word out
  

On-line promo:

• Flickr
• Facebook (update page)
• Blog
  
• Forum
• Chat

Shop Appearance:

• Settle on a consistent theme for pictures
  
• Write better descriptions and tags
  
• List at least 5 days a week, target everyday
• Update banner with new logo
  

Products:

• Start a bridal line
• Start making hairpins
• branch out to other materials to mix with Swarovski crystals

Business:

• Organize inventory and bills

Goals (setting it low for now):

• 1 sale a week for the till June
• 6 sales a month by September
• 2 sales a week by December

I am going to be looking at this every now and then to remind me of my goals and plans. This picture here is also going to remind me why I started to do this in the first place: Because I love it!

This is the first bracelet I made and this is why I picked up jewelry making again :)